Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Spring is springing, and that makes us all want to clean out our closets. But out with the old, and in with the new!

This read-a-thon, we are doing a closet refresh!

You, along with your team, will be building a closet from scratch. Maybe you like really casual clothes. Maybe you want an avant-garde look for every occasion. The choice is yours!

WHEN: The read-a-thon will run from when you wake up on Saturday, April 8th and end when you go to sleep on Sunday, April 16th.

THE CHALLENGE

UNDERGARMENTS
Get one undergarment for every 1000 pages read as a team.
Get one undergarment for every 15 hours of audio listened to.

CASUAL
Use two undergarments
Shirt: A book by an author you've read before
Pants: A book with a small town or rural setting
Socks: A short book (under 200 pages)
Shoes: A book featuring a main character works outdoors

BUSINESS
Use two undergarments
Shirt: A book set in an office workspace
Pants: A book with someone in business clothes on the cover
Tie: A book with a main character who is a white-collar professional (doctor, lawyer, architect, executive, etc.)
Jacket: A book that is 300-400 pages
Fancy Socks: A book with a pattern on the cover
Shoes: A book set in the city
Belt: A book that spans multiple decades

PARTY
Use two undergarments
Cocktail Dress: A book with food or drink on the cover
High Heels: A book that features a holiday
Hair Clip: A humorous book
Purse: A book with a cover that has at least 4 colors

FORMAL
Use two undergarments
Evening Gown: A book where a major character is royalty or nobility
High Heels: A book featuring a fancy event (wedding, funeral, coronation, graduation, etc.)
Necklace: A book that is over 400 pages
Earrings: A book with a cover that is black, white & gray only
Gloves: A book with handwriting or a fancy font on the cover

AVANT-GARDE
Use two undergarments
Fan: A cross-genre book (historical mystery, paranormal romance, etc.)
Hoop: A science fiction or horror book
Wig: A book by an author you've never read
Feathers: A book that is not totally chronological
Ruffles: A book set in imaginary world

THE TEAM
Captain: Emily B
Captain: Nancy
Elizabeth
Erica
Emma R
Katherine
Jackie
Catsalive

THE SPREADSHEET: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Hey everyone! Happy Read-a-Thon!

I've set up the spreadsheet for us to start tracking pages and hours. Feel free to start adding to the Plans tab!

Hey checking in. I'm excited for this one , here's some of my options:

✅Spy x Family, Vol. 9 manga
✅Mirror to Mirror poetry
✅Swing poetry
✅Belladonna *BOTM need to start
Blood Heir reread
✅A Prayer for the Crown-Shy novella
Wild Sign series ender
The Call of the Wild short classic
✅Conquer the Kingdom quick fantasy
✅Four Faces of the Moon graphic novel

100+ to finish
✅Fated Throne *Must finish by Tuesday
Strange the Dreamer *Previous BOTM I haven't finished yet.
The Paper Palace
House of Hunger

✅I said I could accomplish 6-7 books. I'm such a mood reader I have no idea what I'll accomplish until I do. Although none of my reading will be audio sorry, it just does not work for me.

Hi, Team De La Renta!
Happy to be reading with you this coming week. :-)

I have two books I have to finish because they are due back at the library on Monday -- both with well over 100 pages so they should count. Then I have a wide range of good books on my TBR that I'll read depending on my mood and what we might need for prompts.

Looking forward to it!

Ohhh Erica Strange the Dreamer is one of my favorite fantasy books, though it is super weird lol

I'm currently 47% through Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun on audio, but I should finish that one by Monday because I have lots of chores to do that involve listening to my audiobook.

I'm also just starting The Appeal and Anatomy: A Love Story. I hope to finish The Appeal today, since it's a quick read made up of emails. Anatomy is on my kindle so I pick it up less frequently, but it will definitely get finished before the read-a-thon is over!

Hi team! Looking forward to the read-a-ton

I'm reading a handful of books at the moment. I've added them all to the spreadsheet and I'm hoping to finish them by the end of the week

Emily, I'm loving Strange the Dreamer too but for whatever reason I only managed half of the book during my bookclub's chosen month.

Probably because it's ginormous lol

I've read 200 pages of The Appeal but paperbacks are so deceptive... I didn't realize this book was 416 pages! I'm traveling tomorrow so I'll have some audiobook hours logged, but I probably won't finish a book until Monday.

Emily wrote: "Probably because it's ginormous lol

I've read 200 pages of The Appeal but paperbacks are so deceptive... I didn't realize this book was 416 pages! I'm traveling tomorrow so I'll have some audioboo..."

Oh I loved The Appeal!

My entire book club has read it and given it 5 stars, so I've come in skeptical (like... how can 12 different people agree on 5 stars for this book?!). I'm about halfway through and it's just starting to really suck me in, but probably not enough to keep me up past my bedtime lol. The email format rather than chapters does make it a bit difficult to put down.

Late entry here :0)

I wasn't sure what the story is with the different tabs (esp, completed) so I've put my Completed reads in Plans for someone else to sort out 😊

No problem! I can move any books you finish over to completed. When you mark a book for a prompt, go ahead and put that book on whichever tab it fits. For example, you finished The Canterville Ghost, which counts for the royalty prompt. So you could go to the Formal tab and type the name of the book and your name under the royalty prompt.

When picking which prompt you want to use a book for, check out the counter on the side of the Plans tab that says how many books we have in progress or on our TBR that fit that prompt and go with the lowest numbered one.

Sorry for not checking in sooner! Busy Easter weekend. Won't get much reading in until tomorrow but I've been reading some manga so at least I'll have some pages to add sometime tonight!

Hello team! I'm just now sitting down at the computer after a mom's weekend away. As expected I didn't get much reading this weekend but plan to catch up tonight and should finish my first book. My goal is 4-6 for this week because my time is a little more limited.

I'm off to add my books to the plan now.

Question

Do the bricks count as a pattern?

Ehhh I probably wouldn't count it but it is your call!

Good morning friends, I finished Silver Bay and put it under Shirt for Casual, so we're one book away from finishing that category!

I finished both The Appeal and Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun! I could have slotted it in to finish Casual, but opted to put it on a less used category since we have plenty of time to slot in a book for author you've read before.

Emily wrote: "Ehhh I probably wouldn't count it but it is your call!"

Seeing how you're the mod that created these prompts that's a no. haha

I ended up slotting it into the royality/nobility prompt.
I moved my Four Faces of the Moon from small town setting to not chronological. I think I moved everything correctly in the spreadsheet.

I just finished . So good! There wasn't much left to put it under so I used the more than 4 colors prompt so we can finish up a Party outfit. :-)

I used two undergarments to complete the Party! We're close to finishing an Avant-Garde too.

I should finish The Mysterious Affair at Styles today.

I finished Ring Shout and True Love Bites today. I've added them to the completed section of the spreadsheet

Ooh I loved Ring Shout

Happy Birthday Emily!

Finished a few volumes of Kitchen Princess today! And a cozy mystery. Just started If You Ask Me which should be a super quick read.

Thanks Erica!

I finished The Family Game today, and even though it was only a 2 star book for me, it's done and counted lol

I finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I put it under Food/Drink on the cover, so we are close to having another PARTY outfit. :-)

And I put We Ride Upon Sticks under cover with 4 colors so we have finished a Party outfit!

We're not a very chatty group but I guess everyone is busy reading!

Katherine, what did you think of that one? I have it slotted in for book in translation but I've been putting it off!

Getting read to start Sourdough by Robin Sloan.. would we say this counts for office space since main character is a software engineer for a robotics company?

Hm. I would say no, since the book doesn't really take place in her office. But it's been a while since I read it.

got it! I think I miss read the prompt. I thought it said the main character needed to work in an office setting not that the story takes place there. whoops! haha

There is another one where the character is a white collar worker, I would think a software engineer would fit. However, I also think you need to read the book before deciding if it fits there. I'm being intentionally vague because I don't want to spoil it!

I finished a book! The Hermit of Eyton Forest. I slotted it in for the casual shoes - a main character who works outdoors. Brother Cadfael's jobs in the monastery are to work in the garden and use the herbs they grow to make into healing balms and the like.

Six outfits for eight people. I think we can manage two more!

Good morning! I HAD to finish Lessons in Chemistry this morning before it was taken back by Libby at 6am-ish. Woke up early to finish or else I would have to go on a 20 week hold! I wasn't sure where to place it. I didn't think we would complete a second business outfit so I tentatively placed it in avant-garde- an an author you haven't read before. Anyone can move it to a different spot that fits, though.

Emily wrote: "Katherine, what did you think of that one? I have it slotted in for book in translation but I've been putting it off!"

I liked Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I had heard a lot of good things about it, even from the guy who sold it to me. It was a solid 4 stars, and I'll probably read the sequels at some point.

I read all the books in that series and really enjoyed them. The first is the best one but the others are good too.

I finished The Cuban Heiress - super fast read. I put it under book with 4 colors on the cover since I think we have a better chance of getting another Party than finishing one Business outfit, let alone two.

I started and finished it last night. I put it under black and white cover.

Now onto something lighter! And I think I even see a business suit on that cover. I'll also probably finish my audiobook today or tomorrow.

Oof the week got away from me! I still plan on finishing Anatomy by the end of Sunday, but that will probably be my last contribution -- although I'm pretty proud of hitting four this week!

I can slot in Anatomy for our last prompt on the formal category (fancy event), if no one gets to it before me!

Hey I didn't get much reading done yesterday but today should be better. I found Heartbreak for Hire because there are people in business clothes on the front. It's too soon to tell if enough of it takes place in an office.

Good news. My book will knock off the set in an office prompt. 😁

Erica wrote: "Good news. My book will knock off the set in an office prompt. 😁"

That IS great news, because will fill the business suit prompt! If we have enough undergarments, we can finish the look!

We can always remove undergarments (hee hee) from Casual or Party and put them on the Business outfit, so we have at least one of each.

I finished Haven, and while I started my next audio and made good progress it's unlikely I'll finish it tomorrow. Possible, but not likely. So I'm now just reading for undergarments.

Happy last day of the Read-a-thon! I've been rotating between two books and will definitely finish both of them. One is short - only about 174 pages. The other counts for business clothes so we should finish at least one business outfit if we have enough undergarments! I also need to get off the couch and go for a walk. Seeing as I am near the end of my audio book that should be finished too, but I don't think it will count for anything we need - except for hours read.

I managed to finish another book: Dissolution; it's tudor england murder mystery in which cromwell sends one of his cronies to go investigate when one of his other cronies is murdered at a monastery. Very intricate plot with some solid character work, would recommend if you like historical mysteries.

I plopped it into the business tie position since the main character is a lawyer. We've done surprisingly well this week given how busy it seems to have been for everybody!

Well we managed to get 18 undergarments and use them but the spreadsheet isn't tracking that properly. I'm not familiar with googledocs enough to fix that.

Looks like someone manually entered a number in there. I took the formula from another spreadsheet and it's correct now.

Awesome I didn't know if the formulas were hidden or something, but that makes more sense. 😀