2025 Reading Challenge discussion

READATHON CENTRAL
2024 Summer Readathon: I Spy Team Readathon
Duration: August 2 to August 11, 2024
Sign-ups: July 11 to July 25
Team and prompt announcements: July 26

Once our team readathon goes live, here’s the thread where you can find FAQs and where the team leaders/assistants can post questions on behalf of their teams.

I Spy Readathon

Welcome to 2024 Reading Challenge’s Summer Readathon! We are hosting a 10-day team readathon that we hope you will all enjoy just as much as last time! Didn’t participate in the last readathon? That’s totally cool! We will create teams with an even mix of seasoned and first-time “readathon-ers” as well as folks who read at different paces.

This readathon is based on a fan-favorite challenge… I Spy! Here’s how it works: Your team will work together to read one, two, or three books with cover art or title words representing the prompts, which will be posted below on July 26.
e.g., Prompt: Plants. Book Read: A Court of Thorns and Roses or
this edition of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare.

General Information

🔎Teams and prompts announced: July 26 in the comment below
🔎Check in with your teammates and decide on a team name: July 26-Aug 1
🔎Read, Read, Read!: August 2 to August 11
🔎Begin and end at midnight in your timezone

The Prompts

🔎Open to all teams
🔎Three types: singles, doubles, and triples. Singles require 1 book to receive points, doubles require 2 books to receive points, and triples require 3 books to receive points.
🔎Teammates collaborate on prompts to reach the amount of books required
🔎Bonus prompts available for teams who complete ALL regular prompts (reach out in this thread or personal message to bailey)
🔎Team members may read the same book
🔎Each book read counts for one prompt only
i.e. I read Romeo and Juliet for the Single prompt ‘A romance.’ I cannot also count Romeo and Juliet for the Double prompt ‘Works written by Shakespeare.’


We also encourage you to count books you read for the readathon towards your quarterly, monthly, and yearly challenges!

Point System

Books for double and triple prompts cannot be redeemed for points until all 2 or 3 books have been completed. The point breakdown is as follows:

🔎Singles: 50 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Doubles: 150 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Triples: 300 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Pages Read: 1 POINT PER PAGE
🔎**New this year** Audiobook Hours: Please use the Goodreads most popular hardcover edition of your book in the language you read it in to calculate page points.

FAQs

*I'm a Team Leader, what exactly are my responsibilities?
Double check that the team is updating your team spreadsheet correctly, move books that could fit other prompts if needed, and be the designated question-asker for your team in this thread.
Please create a post for your team in the Team Progress thread to report how your team’s doing.

*I’d planned to read a book for a specific prompt, but when I finished the book, that prompt was already filled by a teammate. What should I do?
Make sure that you’ve checked off all the prompts that your book will fill. As the readathon progresses, your team captain can look at which books can be moved around to optimize prompt coverage.

*I don’t feel like reading today. Will my team hate me?
No, of course not. Read what you want when you can and, most importantly, have fun.

*What if I DNF, read a book that’s too short, or one that doesn’t fit any of the prompts?
Fear not! You may count books that fit into any of these categories for page points only. There will be a separate section in your team’s spreadsheet to track these numbers, too. This section is particularly useful for those who finish their last prompt book on the last day of the readathon but still want to contribute to their team in other ways!

*How do we fill in our team’s spreadsheet?
Each team member is responsible for typing in their reading plans (not all of them, only what they're currently reading) as well as their daily progress in reading or listening.
Be sure to also report on the spreadsheet when a book you finish completes a prompt.

*Some of my teammates haven't shown up yet to discuss reading plans. What should I do?
Firstly, don’t panic! Send me a message letting me know which members you are missing from your discussion thread. I will work to contact them as quickly as possible to let them know they have been assigned to your team. Unfortunately, we cannot ensure that all group members will show up, however, in the event that the majority of your teammates are missing, we will work to relocate those of you who did to uphold fairness and allow everyone to have fun while participating.

*Why are the prompts not posted yet?
We post the prompts at the same time as team announcements to help encourage collaboration among teammates. This way, team members can see what their cohorts are planning on reading and adapt their readathon TBR for maximum prompt coverage.

*What do you mean I can’t “double count” a book?
A book you read for one prompt cannot be counted towards another prompt simultaneously. i.e. I read Romeo and Juliet for the Single prompt ‘A romance.’ I cannot also count Romeo and Juliet for the Double prompt ‘Works written by Shakespeare.’

*What about audiobooks? Graphic novels/comics, screenplays?
Audiobook hours can be used for our readathon! Please use Goodreads' most popular hardcover edition in the same language you read the book to calculate page points. (more instructions below)
Unfortunately, graphic novels/comics and screenplays will not count for this readathon. In an effort to make things fair for everyone, we have decided that graphic novels/comics, screenplays, and books under 100 pages will not count. While we understand that some of these media have just as many words as a typical novel, it would be too difficult for the mod team to monitor which should be allowed and which shouldn’t. We hope you understand.

*How do I find the most popular edition of the audiobook I’m reading?
First, go to your book’s page and scroll down until you see this button:


Click on Show all [XX] editions.
Num Ratings as seen here in the red circles:
The yellow circle shows the number of pages for Goodreads’s most popular hardcover edition of The Hobbit as 277.


*I have a question that isn’t listed on this FAQ.
Please reach out to your Team Leader and/or Co-Leader in your team’s discussion thread. Your TL/CL can then post your question in this thread for a moderator to answer.

PROMPTS

Singles

Units of time (hour, minute)
Planet (Mars, Jupiter)
Season (Fall, Spring)
Article of clothing (shirt, hat, sock)
Biome (desert, rainforest)
Children’s toys (dolls, trucks)
Rooms/Parts of a House (attic, hallway, basement)
Elements (iron, carbon, oxygen)
Deities/Gods (Hecate, Buddha, Aphrodite)
Fruits and veggies (carrot, lemon)

Doubles

Vehicles (tractor, limousine)
Family member (sister , mother)
Mythical creature (dragon, unicorn)
Something you find in the garden (dirt, shovel, grass)
Occupation (lawyer, nurse)
Body part (arm, foot)
Accessory (ring, purse)
Bugs (beetle, grasshopper)
Things in the sky (cloud, airplane)

Triples

Flowers (Lily, sunflower)
Buildings (church, bank, barn)
Animals (cat, horse)
A proper title (prince, viscount)
Type of crime (arson, theft, murder)
The color blue (any shade)
Number
Weapon (scythe, poison, gun)

Bonus categories:
*unlocked by each team after you complete all of the above prompts*

How do I sign up to participate in the Team Readathon in August?

Lisa Marie, there will be a sign up post, posted July 11th.

With having a kid that's starting school for the first time around the same time, this could not be set at a worst time BUT no way will that stop me from participating in this. Sleep is overrated anyways! 😅

Lisa Marie wrote: "How do I sign up to participate in the Team Readathon in August?""

Lisa G. is correct. There will be a separate thread titled Introductions & Sign-Ups that will be posted on Thursday! This thread has been posted early for folks to familiarize themselves with the flow of things prior to signing up ☺️

Lisa wrote: "With having a kid that's starting school for the first time around the same time, this could not be set at a worst time BUT no way will that stop me from participating in this. Sleep is overrated a..."

Yay, Lisa! I’m so excited you’ll be joining us despite all the scheduling conflicts. Sleep is only a concept anyways, right? 😂

bailey wrote: "Sleep is only a concept anyways, right? 😂"

Precisely😂 I figure since I haven't known proper sleep in the past 6 years, one more week won't make a difference 😂

Lisa wrote: "Lisa Marie, there will be a sign up post, posted July 11th."

Thank You very much Lisa!! I will be looking for it on July 11th

bailey wrote: "Lisa Marie wrote: "How do I sign up to participate in the Team Readathon in August?""

Lisa G. is correct. There will be a separate thread titled Introductions & Sign-Ups that will be posted on Thu..."

Bailey Thank You very much!! I'm so excited to participate in this challenge!!

Sign-ups are now live here! They will remain open for two weeks so sign up now and set a reminder in your calendar to check in with your team in two weeks' time :)

Bailey, I think you forgot to give us access to the spreadsheets - They're on "view only" restrictions 😊

Lisa wrote: "Bailey, I think you forgot to give us access to the spreadsheets - They're on "view only" restrictions 😊"

I came here to ask about this very thing.

Oh dear.. I swear I updated that setting weeks ago. I’ll go in and fix it now!

bailey wrote: "Oh dear.. I swear I updated that setting weeks ago. I’ll go in and fix it now!"

Thank you, bailey 😊

Just to clarify, are books under 100 pages not allowed at all? Or only in relation to the prompts?

Also, are we counting things found in titles and covers?

Lisa wrote: "Just to clarify, are books under 100 pages not allowed at all? Or only in relation to the prompts?

Also, are we counting things found in titles and covers?"

Books under 100 pages can be counted for non-prompt points yes. If you want to count a book towards a prompt though it does have to be 100 pages or more.

Yes! Both titles and/or covers can be used to ‘spy’ your prompts. It doesn’t have to be found in both but you’re more than welcome to use books that have it in both.

Fabulous. Thanks! 😊

I can’t find my name in the teams list. :(

Jennifer wrote: "I can’t find my name in the teams list. :("

I see a Jennifer in Team 5 in this post.

@Bailey, if I've got it wrong, please let us know.

Jennifer wrote: "I can’t find my name in the teams list. :("

TerryJane is correct, you’re on Team 5, Jennifer!

Hello.....I am just wondering who the Team Leader is for Team 1? I am asking because someone made a comment that I was the Team Leader and I haven't heard about this at all. I am willing to be the Team Leader but I am not sure how well I could perform that duty and this is my first time participating in a Readathon.
Thank you in advance for any input/information :)

Are re-reads ok to use for the prompts or is this not allowed?
Thanks!

Re-reads are perfectly acceptable!

Creed wrote: "And, please sort me into a team, because I don't know how to go about that."

I will have you join Team 3 since they have one missing member still. You can find their thread here.

For future reference, our team readathons have a two week sign-up period where you will need to sign up. Please see the first post in this thread to stay up to date on when the readathons are held so you don’t miss future sign-ups!

Bailey,
Regarding audiobook hours and the new calculating method:

What do we do if there's no available hardcover edition for the audiobook? Like for instance, if someone is listening to a translation and the book in question hasn't had a hardback edition published in that language. But also, what if the book e.g. a Swedish book, simply hasn't been published as an hardback, but is available only in Kindle and audiobook.
Thanks in advance! 😊

If possible, default to the most popular paperback edition. If that is not an option, the kindle page could should give a more accurate page number than the audiobook (I think those typically say 1 page). If worst comes to wort and neither of these options work, just have your team members use the old method 15h = 1,000 for the books they can’t find a page count for.

I have an instance where the only hardcover in my language is Large Print. That doesn't feel right , so I'm using the paperback pages for that one.

And, bailey, you're right about how Goodreads describes audiobooks. They typically show one page per disc.

TerryJane wrote: "... They typically show one page per disc."

Oh, wow. #themoreyouknow 😂
I always wondered why some audiobooks were 9 pages.

Lisa wrote: "TerryJane wrote: "... They typically show one page per disc."

Oh, wow. #themoreyouknow 😂
I always wondered why some audiobooks were 9 pages."

Goodreads works in mysterious ways… 😂

On the Team 4 spreadsheet, on the "tracking" sheet, our total prompt points is not calculating correctly. The formula looks right but it's showing a 0 even though we have earned some prompt points.

hi Betty are they Single, Double or Triple Prompts?

We had the same issue, and so did team 2.

They are single prompts so we have earned the points but they aren’t totaling properly at the bottom.

Lisa - how did you fix it?

Betty wrote: "They are single prompts so we have earned the points but they aren’t totaling properly at the bottom.

Lisa - how did you fix it?"

Lina very graciously fixed it for us by turning it into a sum formula. I can do it for you and the other teams in like 10 minutes 😊

Lisa wrote: "Betty wrote: "They are single prompts so we have earned the points but they aren’t totaling properly at the bottom.

Lisa - how did you fix it?"

Lina very graciously fixed it for us by turning it ..."

If you would do that on ours that would be amazing - thanks!!!

I would wait on bailey as this is her readathon to run.

Betty wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Betty wrote: "They are single prompts so we have earned the points but they aren’t totaling properly at the bottom.

Lisa - how did you fix it?"

Lina very graciously fixed it for us b..."

Done 😊

Hmm, I'm not sure why that formula didn't work. Either way, all spreadsheets should be updated now to reflect all prompts and bonus prompts. Please let me know if there are any more issues with the spreadsheet!

Do we know who won? :)

Not yet since some teams are still tallying up their results. Bailey will certainly post an update when everyone's numbers are in.

Exactly right! Teams typically need a few days to finalize their scores before their leader can post their results. So we’re in a sort of limbo right now while we wait for that. Results will be up this weekend at the latest :)