2025 Reading Challenge discussion

2024 I Spy Readathon
Team: Better Off Read

This thread is for members of Team 4 to use however you wish in relation to the readathon. Feel free to come up with your own team name during the planning phase! our teammates are: Betty, JennH, Ciara, Nichole, Jaida, D.L, Denise

Here is the link to your team’s spreadsheet, where you’ll be tracking your progress as you go. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

While awaiting the start of our reading please discuss a team name amongst yourselves and let the mods know of your choice so your thread can be re-titled accordingly.

If you have any questions about the readathon, how to interpret the prompts, how to use the spreadsheet, and so on, ask your Captain or Assistant first. If they don’t know, they can post the question(s) on the Readathon Central thread.

Happy reading! Let’s have a blast during this 10-day readathon!

YOUR 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 Prompts:

Singles

Nationality
A made up word
Tools
Temperature
Famous landmarks

Doubles

Something you find in an office
Books (library, page, ink)
Things found in the ocean

Triples

Farm
Restaurant
School

Hi Team 4!!!! 🎉

I’m Betty & I’m so excited to join with you in this readathon as Team Leader.

Any team name suggestions? Being an I Spy challenge I’m thinking maybe something detective or investigative themed.

This is my 3rd Goodreads Readathon and 2nd as Team Leader, so let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try to answer them. 🙂

The link for our spreadsheet is in the top post here and prompts are in the second. I’ll get our names into the spreadsheet and you can fill in what you’re planning on reading as you start thinking about it.

Betty's Planning & Tracking

Here's where I'll keep my list of books I'm planning or have completed for this Readathon.

Book 1 - On Hidden Wings: A Middle Grade Fantasy Book (Possible Fits: Mythical Creature, Something You Find in the Garden, Flowers)

Book 2 - Journey Across the Hidden Islands (Possible Fits: Mythical Creature, Things in the Sky)

Book 3 - Safiyyah's War (Possible Fit: Buildings)

Book 4 - The Secret Library (Possible Fit: Buildings)

Book 5 - The Shelterlings (Possible Fit: Things in the Sky)

Hello, All. Glad to be here. I am looking at books I could use for the prompts right now.

As for team names, based on the investigative/spy idea, all I could come up with was:

Undercover Readers
Shaken Not Stirred (which is a James Bond reference)
Bond Girls

Prompts I can work with:

-- 11th Hour (possible fits: number, type of crime, units of time)
-- Spring Break (possible fits: Season)
-- Goodbye, Dolly (possible fits: type of crime, Children's toys)
-- Champagne and Lemon Drops (possible fits: Fruits and veggies)
-- A Christmas to Die For (possible fits: Family member - sister)

etc...

Hi all, so excited for this readathon!

From a quick peruse of the prompts, these are some books and the prompts they might fit.

1. Never Let Me Go (The colour blue)
2. Chain of Gold (Elements, Weapon)
3. Daddy (Vehicle, Family Member)
4. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (The colour blue, Flowers)

My tbr is open for 1-2 more books realistically, so I can choose books to help with the double/triple prompts.

Hi team! So excited for my first readathon with the group! I’m away for the weekend but I just wanted to jump in to say hi. I’ll chime in on Monday once I look over the prompts and what books I can read.

Hi team. I've never done a read-a thon before. I committed to two books but I may be able to pull off three. I will let you know in couple of days what books/prompts I'm thinking about

At the risk off sounding dumb...is the idea to cover as many prompts as possible so i should avoid using the same prompt someone else is using?

I'm thinking of:
If Cats Disappeared From the World (animals, possibly body part as a man is on the cover, blue)
The Catcher in the Rye (animal, occupation {baseball catcher})
The Beekeeper of Aleppo (biome, occupation, bugs)

Denise wrote: "At the risk off sounding dumb...is the idea to cover as many prompts as possible so i should avoid using the same prompt someone else is using?

I'm thinking of:
If Cats Disappeared From the World..."

i'm sure Betty can clarify but from my recollection, the only prompts 1 person can do are the singular ones. for the doubles and triples you need 2 or 3 books to fulfil that prompt. right now it doesn't seem like anything is set in stone, so having books that can fulfil a few prompts is good. your question isn't dumb at all!

Denise - that was a great question. Jaida's explanation was perfect. Our goal as a team is to complete as many of the prompts as possible. Each single prompt can only be filled once. But the double and triple prompts require 2 or 3 books (read by the same or different team members) to fill the prompt. Denise - thanks for putting your planned books into the spreadsheet. Filling in all the possible prompt fits is so helpful, because as we get started I can look it over and see what prompt will work best for the team goals. You don't need to enter in planned on the sheet with a number, there's just the one auto-calculated planned number.

Everyone - please take a look at the Planning sheet on the team spreadsheet. Fill in the books you're likely to read with all the possible prompt fits. Let me know if you have any questions at all about the spreadsheet or any other aspects of the readathon.

A note on scoring: The points system for the readathon gives more weight to books that are read as part of a double or triple prompt (you end up getting 75 or 100 points per book rather than 50). So it's good to focus on those, but only if we can complete that double or triple with more books. That's why the spreadsheet is so helpful.
Here's the scoring:
🔎Singles: 50 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Doubles: 150 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Triples: 300 POINTS PER PROMPT COMPLETED
🔎Pages Read: 1 POINT PER PAGE

Hi 👋,

Had a quick look through my library and identified a few prompts I could tick off.

- [ ] Something You Find in The Garden (Double) - American Dirt
- [ ] Family Member (Double) - The Mothers
- [ ] Family Member (Double) - The Mother Code
- [ ] Animals (Triple) - Animal Farm
- [ ] Animals (Triple) - Nine Tailed
- [ ] Vehicle (Double) - People on Platform 5
- [ ] Vehicle (Double) - What happens in New York
- [ ] Article of Clothing (Single) - I Do Not Come To You by Chance
- [ ] Animal / Occupation - Butcher and Blackbird

I'll try filling in the spreadsheet :)

I do have one question. Do we put an X where we think our book fits in the prompt list? Sorry, I've never been good with spreadsheets lol

D.L. wrote: "I do have one question. Do we put an X where we think our book fits in the prompt list? Sorry, I've never been good with spreadsheets lol"

Yes - put an X for any prompts your book would fit. Thanks for entering your books in. 🙂

Definitely ask any questions you have. And I’ll be looking over the spreadsheet and making sure it looks right.

Okay, I *think* I filled it out right :)

I added a few TBRs to the spreadsheet, but I will be real with you: my TBR shelves are DEEP. You can pretty much assign me a prompt & I can find something that will fit (with the possible exception of planets & proper titles). I've also been polishing off a book a day recently, & I've blocked out the readathon week to feature as few distractions as possible. I am ready to read!

Team name: The Tougher Undercover Discoverer Supper Clubbers. I don't know, feel free to workshop. I was doing something with spies & books (undercover) & then wordplay got out of hand.

I agree some kind of team name with 'Undercover' in it would be great. :)

Team Name ideas - I definitely like “undercover” being included.

D.L. suggested “Undercover Readers”
Ciara suggested “ The Tougher Undercover Discoverer Supper Clubbers”

Any other suggestions?

Also "Undercover Book Lovers"

As Ciara said....I have a deep TBR and I own 1000 + physical books, so even though I typed in my planned books, I can fins a book for pretty much any prompt we need....but I need it ASAP after August 2 because I go back to work on 8/6 and will only be able to read 2-3 books total

Let me look at the spreadsheet and see where we can fill in some holes because I too have a book for every occasion except maybe fantasy and planet related ones lol

We’ve heard from everyone on the team - hooray!!

Most of you have added planned books to the spreadsheet - thanks!

Nichole - let me know if you want me to add the books you listed into the planning spreadsheet for you - I’m happy to help.

I’ve only put in 2 planned books for myself because I’m waiting to see what prompts need to be filled.

Betty wrote: "We’ve heard from everyone on the team - hooray!!

Most of you have added planned books to the spreadsheet - thanks!

Nichole - let me know if you want me to add the books you listed into the planni..."

I should have not filled in all of my 5 yet because I might need to change the books depending on where we need to fill in the gaps. Hmmm.

D.L. wrote: "Betty wrote: "We’ve heard from everyone on the team - hooray!!

Most of you have added planned books to the spreadsheet - thanks!

Nichole - let me know if you want me to add the books you listed i..."

That’s fine. We’ll figure it out and change the entries as needed.

So, the first book I am for sure going to read is God of the Woods because it has to be back at the library before the end of the readathon. That could cover biome, but the options for that prompt seem deep. Could we count it for deity?

Denise, right now we have zero books listed for the proper title prompt, & we're going to need three. Do you have anything that would fit? ETA: I just remembered, I have Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Is that too much of a stretch?

Let’s get our team name set.

I’m voting for Undercover Readers.

Chime in and let me know your vote!

I don't think our team name is the most important thing in the world, but I do think Undercover Readers is so boring that I'd be surprised if another team didn't come up with the same thing. Counter-proposal: Undercover...of Write. Sorry, I love puns! Alternate: Team Read-Handed.

So far the other teams that are named are
Caught Read-Handed
and
Biblio-Spies

I’m good with creative and like wordplay so I’m open to whatever the team wants for the name.

Betty wrote: "So far the other teams that are named are
Caught Read-Handed
and
Biblio-Spies

I’m good with creative and like wordplay so I’m open to whatever the team wants for the name."

For the record, I am good with whatever as well! Undercover of Write just makes me laugh so that's my top choice. But we could be Team Four & I'd be just as happy. Of course another team would make the read-handed pun!

Ciara wrote: "I don't think our team name is the most important thing in the world, but I do think Undercover Readers is so boring that I'd be surprised if another team didn't come up with the same thing. Counte..."

I love Undercover of Write! That's perfect :)

Ciara wrote: "So, the first book I am for sure going to read is God of the Woods because it has to be back at the library before the end of the readathon. That could cover biome, but the options for that prompt ..."

Ciara - it seems to me that The God of the Woods should count for deity/God. I think Queenie is probably too much of a stretch for proper title, since it's her name, not a title, and the actual term would be queen, not queenie.

JennH & Nichole - Please let me know if you need need help entering your planned readathon books into the spreadsheet. We'll be assessing our progress on the prompts as we go, but it would be good to have the best picture possible of what we expect to accomplish.

Ciara wrote: "So, the first book I am for sure going to read is God of the Woods because it has to be back at the library before the end of the readathon. That could cover biome, but the options for that prompt ..."

I have 250 pages left of the Iliad, which has Achilles (a prince) on the cover, I could easily finish it. I also have The Prince (Niccolo Macchiavelli); Shakespeare's Henry 4 and 5 which have pictures of the Kings; I also have Queenie which I think counts; and I have Kaikeyi which has a picture of Kaikeyi who is a princess

I've added a few books that I plan to read for now. However, the numbers for the possible fits column/row don't seem to be changing. Am I supposed to add or change them myself? Sorry, I'm not quite spreadsheet savvy.

JennH wrote: "I've added a few books that I plan to read for now. However, the numbers for the possible fits column/row don't seem to be changing. Am I supposed to add or change them myself? Sorry, I'm not quite..."

Sorry - that was totally my fault and my rusty spreadsheet skills! I had added more columns but the formulas hadn't updated. I think I've got it all fixed now, but let me know if you notice anything that isn't working the way it should.

Thanks for adding those books!

Thanks, Betty!

We've already gotten some good team names. But I was poking around and found a few more (I'm not creative enough to come up with them on my own!) Feel free to ignore if we're going with one from above.

Better off Read
Sleuths on the Loose
Plot Twisters
Clueless Readers

I revised my proposed reading a little to cover the planet prompt (The Mars Room) & the fruit/veggie prompt (Ripe), since we had zeroes for those.

Hi,

Yes can you add my planned books to the spreadsheet. Thank You

Nichole wrote: "Hi,

Yes can you add my planned books to the spreadsheet. Thank You"

I added them with the prompts you said they would fit. 🙂

I would like to change some of my books to fit the spots that really need filling. How do I do that without messing up the whole spreadsheet? lol

D.L. wrote: "I would like to change some of my books to fit the spots that really need filling. How do I do that without messing up the whole spreadsheet? lol"

Just go to the column with the book that you're not planning on reading anymore and change the info there including which prompts have an X. I changed one of my yesterday and just entered in the new book title instead of the other one and changed the possible fits.

Betty wrote: "D.L. wrote: "I would like to change some of my books to fit the spots that really need filling. How do I do that without messing up the whole spreadsheet? lol"

Just go to the column with the book ..."

K I'll work on that right now.

I think I did it right lol The spreadsheet is filling out nicely :)

I've added a book I'm currently reading to the spreadsheet since I've realized that I won't finish before the readathon starts and there will definitely be more than 100 pages left.

The readathon starts very soon! Excited to get reading.

For a team name - I like JennH's suggestion of Better Off Read. So let's choose between that and Undercover of Write. Let me know your choice.

The spreadsheet looks very good. The only prompt with zero is "Proper Title" and from the discussion here it looks like we'll be able to fill those in.

Here are the things to do once the readathon officially begins at midnight on 8/2/24.

1. On the planning sheet that we've been using, change the status of books to "currently reading" or "completed" as you read them.

2. On the tracking sheet (2nd sheet), fill in the pages read each day in your column at the top of the sheet.

3. When you complete a book:
-On the bottom part of the "tracking" sheet, enter the book title in the column for your name and row of the prompt you're using it for. Type "YES" in column L of that row. And enter the total number of pages in the book (or pages read in the book during the readathon period if you had started it before 8/2).
- On the "completed" sheet, enter your book title and your name as you did on the "planning" sheet, with a status of completed. Put an X in the prompt you've chosen to count the book toward.

Notes - Each single prompt can only be filled one time. So only one of the four books that could fit for "article of clothing" can be counted for that prompt. The others will need to go for a different prompt that they could fit. We can work through it as a team as we start completing books.

Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

Excited to begin!!

Oh and I like Better Off Read and Undercover of Write but I saw another team thread where they said they're planning to use the Undercover theme (yes I spied lol) so maybe we'd better go with Better Off Read.

Happy start of the readathon, at least for me! I agree with D.L., 'better off read' is a good team name.

Also, a book I started earlier that I plan on finishing today, Pirate Girls, has an incredibly boring cover so I can't really find a prompt for it except maybe occupation? But that already has quite a few books to that prompt. I might just count it towards pages for now? I still have just over 200 pages to go, so it's eligible to go towards a prompt if need be.