Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Roll the dice and see where you land in this team challenge!

EARN ROLLS
For each book completed, the team must have at least 500 pages read OR 10 hours of audio listened in order to claim the prompt as completed. Your spreadsheet will keep track of rolls earned and used.

CLUE
- A book set in large house or mansion
- A book that includes a murder
- A book with a weapon of any kind on cover
- A book whose cover is predominantly white, green, mustard yellow, plum, peacock blue, or scarlet
- A book with a character that makes some kind of mistake

PARCHEESI
- A book set in India
- A book that contains a royal character
- A book whose page count contains any combination of 2, 3, and 4
- A book that has circle, square, cube, or cross shape on cover
- A book with a two-word title

RISK
- A book that takes place in at least 2 countries
- A book where war is involved
- A book with 2 or more authors
- A book with a character that takes a risk of any kind
- A book with a character who is military or ex-military

GAME OF LIFE
- A book that centers on a family
- A book that's set in school or college
- A book with a character gets or changes job
- A book featuring a wedding or childbirth
- A book with a character of retirement age

TRIVIAL PURSUIT
- A book relating to Science & Nature
- A book relating to History
- A book relating to Sports & Leisure
- A book relating to Entertainment & Arts
- Any nonfiction book

THE TEAM
CAPTAIN: Traci
CAPTAIN: Nancy
Catsalive
Rachel
Jenn H
Sarah
Brittany
Robin HR

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

Hi team! I'm excited to read with you all this week! I'm hoping this will help me spend more time with books and less time with screens this week. I have a slew of audiobooks checked out and a couple of physical books too.

The pages/hours reading requirement seems tougher this time than for some past team challenges, so make sure you're filling those in this week (though maybe I'll be proved wrong).

Off to work on the spreadsheet!

If the shoe fits!!

A couple of things lined up to make this Read-a-thon work for me... 1. my husband is out of town next week so I'll have more time to read in the evenings 2. A good handful of books came available to me on Libby all at once (why does that always seem to happen lol!)

This will be my first time participating so I'm trying to read all of the instructions carefully but please let me know if I'm not tracking correctly. I'm excited to read with this group!

Hi Team Shoe! Glad to be part of the team. I'm always excited for the readathons! Such a fun theme! Actually played Monopoly tonight. :)

I'm off to check out the spreadsheet!

Brittany - you can put books you're reading or plan to read on the plans tab of the spreadsheet. As we finish books, we'll move them to the Completed tab and also slot them into a cell in one of the game tabs if it fits. I feel like teams I've been on have usually picked the prompt with the fewest options (given by the count on the plans tab)unless someone is going to finish one that only fits in one place. We can also juggle books later if we need. Also add pages and hours to the tracking sheet.

If you want someone else to do any of this or have any questions, just post here. I usually cross check the finished books and make sure they get moved from the plans tab when they're done too.

I watched a movie tonight, resting up before the readathon starts 😂

Good morning team Shoe! Excited to read with you all this week! I have 5 books going right now (don't ask!) and once I get my butt off the computer and start my chores, the audios will get rolling. Other than work and two weeknights with commitments I'm fairly free to read read read!

Morning, Team! I spent last night going through my TBR and looking for books that fit prompts. I even found a book, If the Shoe Fits! 😂 I'm a bit confused on how we earn rolls... it seems different from readathons past, but I'm sure/hope it'll make more sense once we start adding pages and hours.

I'm in the middle of reading A Killer Stitch and have started listening to Patina which isn't very long.

Happy reading everyone!

I've added my books to the planning tab on the spread sheet. Question- I'm trying to find a category that The Silent Patient fits. I've already filled book that includes a murder, but I might be able to move some stuff around. But I was wondering if it would work for a cover that is white and scarlet?

The Silent Patient

Looks white and scarlet to me. Feel free to mark all the spots it might work on the plans sheet. We might end up finishing some games more than once, so fine to have more options. I anticipate figuring out more prompts some books work for while I'm reading them.

Good Morning, Team Shoe!

This is my first read-a-thon too! I'm a bit confused about the scoring, rolls, page count, so I'll be needing some guidance. I'm currently reading
Dillinger

Looks like it will fit in several prompts, but I think
- A book with 2 or more authors works best.

Also, I started it before the read-a-thon. Do I count the pages all the pages, or just those from now on?

Let the games begin!

Robin wrote: "Good Morning, Team Shoe!

This is my first read-a-thon too! I'm a bit confused about the scoring, rolls, page count, so I'll be needing some guidance. I'm currently reading
[bookcover:Dillinger|39..."

I was confused with my first readathon too. Our captains and everyone else will help with however we can.

If a book fits several prompts, you can mark them all off for now. And then when you're done and you're ready to move it to the completed tab, you mark it for the one you think works best.

As long as you still have at least one hundred pages left, you can use the book for the challenge/prompts. As far as pages, you only count what you started reading today. Hope that helps!

JennH wrote: "Morning, Team! I spent last night going through my TBR and looking for books that fit prompts. I even found a book, If the Shoe Fits! 😂 I'm a bit confused on how we earn rolls... it..."

So it looks like for each roll we earn, that goes in a game. The game isn't considered finished until we have read one book and earned 1 roll for each prompt. Does that make sense? And Emily please correct me if I'm wrong!

Yes, that's my understanding too. Each roll goes with a single prompt instead of with the game (which is how we've usually seen it in the past).

I finished We Are the Brennans and put it under "centers on a family."

Other teams I've been on have highlighted when a prompt is complete on the Plan tab, so I've done that as well. I think it helps to have a visual indicator that a prompt has been done.

Hi Team! I don’t have access to my computer today so I can’t add to the spreadsheet until tomorrow but I’ve completed 2 books today (Hidden Valley Road and Thornhedge) that I’ll plug in tomorrow morning!

I don't know why I keep thinking read-a-thons start on Sundays! Good thing I checked. I'm just about to start reading for the night, and I'm currently reading It's One of Us. I started it last night but didn't get very far in.

I will do my best to use the spreadsheet, but I'm really bad with understanding spreadsheets generally so please feel free to fill my books in wherever needed!

Mod Note: Pages read and hours listened are working a bit differently this Read-a-Thon. You must accrue "rolls" in order to officially fill prompts - which means each prompt read needs one book and one roll in order to mark it as completed. You earn rolls by reading 500 pages or 10 audio hours as a team. You assign rolls by marking a "1" in the Rolls Used column next to the prompt. This will tally on the Rolls tab on your spreadsheet, so you can keep track of how many rolls you have available and how many you have used. If you have any questions, please post on the Team Challenge Intro and FAQs thread!

Thanks, Traci, Nancy, and Emily for the clarification about the rolls. Whew, that's a lot of reading we're going to have to do. I'm so used to everyone planning short books for the readathons and obviously that's not going to work here. Our books are going to have to average 500 pages or 10 hours of audio. I better get cracking!

I've finished Patina. I thought that sport would be a harder one to fill which is why I went for this one first. Lo and behold we had several books for this prompt, so I put in the school prompt since mine was the only book marked for it.

I just started Private India as that looked to be a harder to fill prompt too.

Emily wrote: "Mod Note: Pages read and hours listened are working a bit differently this Read-a-Thon. You must accrue "rolls" in order to officially fill prompts - which means each prompt read needs one book and..."

Hi Rachel! I've put in It's One of Us on the spreadsheet for you and marked off a few possible prompts based on the summary. Mark off anything else you think it might fit.

JennH, now would also be a good time to read shorter books or novellas that may not be 100 pages (so it wouldn't count for the challenge) but could earn some points. Same thing with graphic novels that are not 200 pages, or children's books.

Emily wrote: "JennH, now would also be a good time to read shorter books or novellas that may not be 100 pages (so it wouldn't count for the challenge) but could earn some points. Same thing with graphic novels ..."

Oh wow, that totally did not occur to me. This I could do. Here I was thinking I needed to read longer books. Thanks for the tip, Emily!

I've finished 2 audiobooks today and will make some more progress still tonight.

I put two books on hold that have royalty in them and both are "available soon", so I should be able to get one this week.

Robin wrote: "Good Morning, Team Shoe!

This is my first read-a-thon too! I'm a bit confused about the scoring, rolls, page count, so I'll be needing some guidance. I'm currently reading
Dillinger

I finished. 242 pages read. Prompt: Risk - - A book that takes place in at least 2 countries (USA and Mexico)

I still don't understand the "rolls" so I'll leave that to the captains to deal with. Please check my spreadsheet entries to see if I'm on the right track.

I just started 20 Minutes Before The Wedding. I took a long nap today, so should be up reading until late.

Hi team, I'll have a look at the options.

Sarah - I finished Hidden Valley Road earlier this week and found it so interesting. Reading books dealing with disease and medicine make me happy that the field has evolved, but also curious where it will go.

Actually, the book I'm reading now does too, I just finished a section talking about how women's brains were obviously smaller because they lived a life of leisure and weren't very intelligent (though the author notes they seemed to be trying to find evidence to support a belief rather than use all evidence in the best way to make a conclusion, since many of the women's brains were from smaller, older women while the men were taller and younger).

JennH wrote: "Emily wrote: "Mod Note: Pages read and hours listened are working a bit differently this Read-a-Thon. You must accrue "rolls" in order to officially fill prompts - which means each prompt read need..."

Thanks! I'll take a look tomorrow (it's currently past 2 am, lol)

Only managed to read 78 pages in total today, which is much lower than I was expecting. Hopefully will have some more time tomorrow!

Mod Note: (Hopefully this is the last one lol) I have lowered the requirements to earn rolls. It is now at 400 pages or 6 hours of audio. Your spreadsheets have already been updated!

I've put Hidden Valley Road in the slot for "Related to Science & Nature" and Thornhedge in for the royal character prompt. I'm currently reading Assistant to the Villain for weapon on the cover as that seemed to have the least amount of options at the moment.

So was I thinking we should wait to use rolls until we've finished all of the books for a game, but then saw that we have 14 rolls and have finished 8 books. I'm going to go ahead and put in the rolls for each finished book.

Wow, 14 rolls accrued and 8 prompts completed! Go Team Shoe, you are amazing!

I am going to have to change my game plan once I finish the books I'm reading now. I thought I'd read harder to fill prompts but they seem to be taken care of....

Nancy - do you have a typo in Sunday hours? The number IS possible if you listen at high speed and are time zones ahead of me...

I realized we're not organized by time zones this time. Where's everyone reading from? I'm in Seattle, Washington.

Ha. Oops. I used that to add up my pages and then forgot to delete it. That changes the rolls count. Sorry about that!

I am in Colorado, mountain daylight.

I’m reading from Arkansas. I hope to finished 2 books today!

Nancy- I was going to be very impressed at your ability to comprehend audiobooks at that speed! I usually listen at 1.5 speed. There have been a couple of times I tried faster for a slow narrator and noticed words sometimes got dropped.

Just finished
20 Minutes Before The Wedding

127 pages total; read 82 today, 45 yesterday
Fits the Game of Life prompt: - A book featuring a wedding or childbirth

And I'm in Prineville, Oregon...

Ah... we're doing great even with the updated rolls!

I finished A Killer Stitch and put in the retirement age prompt so we can have a completed Game of Life! Our first game! :)

Yeah I'm not that good! I do 1.5x minimum, sometimes I can do 1.75x or even 2x depending on the narrator. But typical is 1.5x. The 8.55 I did yesterday is definitely about the max you'll see from me!

Yay for our first game!

Finished
20 Minutes In Court

164 pages
Risk - A book with a character that takes a risk of any kind

I've completed the book The Getaway and added it to the completed tab on the spreadsheet. It fits 5 prompts. Do I need to assign it a prompt or is that something a team captain decides? I was looking and it seems like if we use it for A book that has circle, square, cube, or cross shape on cover, it would put us close to finishing that game. Thanks for the input as this is my first time participating

Brittany - feel free to choose a prompt! Always fine to ask here for preferences if you're unsure. Circle, etc. Looks good to me!

Unfortunately didn't start reading until quite late this evening, so I only managed another 70 pages today (which is low for me, I'm usually over 100 per day!)

I finished a book that works for sports, but since it was the only option for 2 authors, I put it there.

We're close on three more games! And have no prompts for clue, ha.

I’ll be starting Carrie Soto is Back tomorrow so that could fill the sports prompt unless someone gets to it first.

I have 60 pages left in The Last Letter so should finish that today. It works for one of the colors in Clue but so do a lot of other books. I'll probably use it for the war prompt and finish Risk.

Morning, Team!

I started our Clue game. It's funny... I thought it'd be the first one to have prompts completed since it had a lot of options marked for it. And I admit, I'm biased since I tend to read mysteries which the prompts lead towards.

Today I'm hoping to make decent progress on Steeped in Malice, and I just started Granny on Board which is a short audio.

Happy reading!

Oh, I hadn't realized that the teams tended to be sorted by time zones. I thought it was by reading speed and/or some sort of complicated algorithm that the mods same up with. I guess that explains why I tended to be with certain team members. lol I'm reading from the east coast, NJ.

My old stomping grounds! Where in NJ? I grew up near Hackensack and lived in Denville before I moved west.

I feel like the prompts with more options often get filled late, but it's still a bit weird every time!