Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Welcome, Team Green Car! The theme of this Read-a-Thon is the Game of Life! So let's get into our little car and start playing!



Each group will be asked a series of questions, which you will answer with the books you read. You can answer these questions using the title, cover, or plot of the book.

THE PROMPTS

Childhood
A book with a bright colored cover
A book with a child as a major character
A book whose title includes the letter A, B, and C
A book related to a fairy tale, myth or legend
A book featuring a game or sport
A book by a debut author
A book with a main page genre of Child or Children
A book by an author who was once a child (*wink wink*)

Adolescence
A coming of age book
A romance
A book featuring a group of friends
A book where someone leaves home
A book with scenes in a school or college
A book with a pink cover
A book by an author whose initials are found in HIGH SCHOOL
A book with a rebellion

Adulthood
A book set in a workplace
A book where someone gets married
A book where money is a concern
A book with a house on the cover
A book where a child is born
A book with a green cover
A book by an author who has written 5+ books
A book featuring a dinner party

Middle Age
A book where someone changes jobs
A book that includes family problems
A book featuring a professional (doctor, lawyer, scientist, etc.)
A book where a relationship ends
A book where a character achieves success
A book where a character travels
A book whose title starts with a letter in ADULT
A book with an orange or red cover

Older Age
A book featuring a character over 65 years old
A book where someone deals with a death
A book you have been wanting to read for a long time
A classic
A book with a gray or white cover
The most recent book an author has published
The first book a prolific author (10+ books) had published

*Note: Just because a prompt is under a specific stage of life does not mean the main character needs to be that age. For example, you can choose a book featuring elderly people leading a rebellion, or middle aged people falling in love


The Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Team Leaders: Jenn H and Pamela

Ailsa
Joanna
Mackenzie
Sherri
Sheyanne
Traci

Hey green! The great thing is I'm on this team- so I can just add people's names to the introduction thread as we finish them!

Hopefully everyone is doing chores and seeing friends and family before the reading starts tomorrow! I have a work event tomorrow morning and I will admit, I was the not nice coworker and didn't offer anyone a ride so I can listen to a book on the drive, It's a 45 minute drive-- that's almost 2 hours of progress!!!

I have 22 hours left to finish the new Cormorant Strike book so will be starting with that! Each team earns a Wild Card for every 30 hours of audio listened or 2000 pages of print book read! This darn book will get us halfway there!

Hellooo, Team Green Car! What a fun theme! I loved The Game of Life as a kid. I remember loving collecting kid pegs. lol

Welcome everyone! Excited to be reading with you all this coming week!

I love seeing the familiar names. 👋🏼 And to those I haven't met before, a big Hi! to you all!

@Mackenzie, I think I saw on the sign ups that you are new to the readathon. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Mostly importantly, this is supposed to be fun!

@Pamela - Yay for having such a great headstart. If I recall correctly, those Cormorant Strike books are chunkers! You are brave. I usually go for shorter books during a readathon.

JennH wrote: "@Pamela - Yay for having such a great headstart. If I recall correctly, those Cormorant Strike books are chunkers! You are brave. I usually go for shorter books during a readathon."

they are huge, but also addictive so I have them in my ears at every minute! My goal is to be done by Sunday evening. Then shorter books!

Remember the spinner for the game? When we started talking about the theme, I could feel and hear it! At this point all our pegs fit in the car. If we add more, we'll have people laying across!

Hi green,

Excited for this! Hoping it can help catch me up on my GR year-long challenge, as I've been falling behind there.

Tonight, I plan to finish one of my currently reading books as I only have about 80 pages to go so it wouldn't count for the challenge.

I'm also currently reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, but I'll make sure to leave at least 100 pages on that one as it could fit for a lot of prompts!

After that my reading will be pretty open, though I will also be trying to complete the individual challenge.

I'm with Joanna, I need to catch up on my numbers. Read Moby Dick over the summer and it took months.

In that spirit, I'm going to finish the audio book I have less of on my drive today-- The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960 only has 7 hours left- my house is going to love this week cause I can't sit and listen to audiobooks, I have to do something, like clean.

I've added the spreadsheet link-- I have to run out to work for a few hours so can't fill it in, but if anyone else wants to, have at it!

Hi Team Green Car,
I'm very excited about the read-a-thon. I'm listening to Finding Grace. I should finish today. It checks off a lot of prompts. After that I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm reading Familiaris but I'm only on page 138 of 978. I won't finish this week. It looks like I'll be doing only audio books.

It looks like the spreadsheet is for team blue. Or is that what you meant by fill it in, Pamela, switching it to our info?

Joanna G wrote: "It looks like the spreadsheet is for team blue. Or is that what you meant by fill it in, Pamela, switching it to our info?"

Just checking in now, Joanna. I'll update it.

Ok, turns out I cannot just change the info. I ended up messing up Team Blue Car's spreadsheet. I think I fixed it back up for them. I think we're going to have to wait until Pamela or someone else sends us the proper spreadsheet.

eta: I'm going to post in the FAQs for help.

Just remembered that it is National Read a Book Day! How perfect we are starting our readathon today!

Pamela wrote: "JennH wrote: "@Pamela - Yay for having such a great headstart. If I recall correctly, those Cormorant Strike books are chunkers! You are brave. I usually go for shorter books during a readathon."

..."

I do remember the spinner! Ours kept popping out bc we spun too hard! Makes me want to break out The Game of Life game now. Hmmmm.... I wonder if I can get anyone to play with me....

Joanna G wrote: "Hi green,

Excited for this! Hoping it can help catch me up on my GR year-long challenge, as I've been falling behind there.

Tonight, I plan to finish one of my currently reading books as I only h..."

Readathons always spur me to read a lot! I hope it does for you, too! Are you going for the raffle with the individual challenge? I always try to complete the individual challenge, too. But I don't go for the raffle.

Joanna G wrote: "It looks like the spreadsheet is for team blue. Or is that what you meant by fill it in, Pamela, switching it to our info?"

Wow... not even my error!

Here, I made a copy of the blur for us

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

JennH wrote: "Ok, turns out I cannot just change the info. I ended up messing up Team Blue Car's spreadsheet. I think I fixed it back up for them. I think we're going to have to wait until Pamela or someone else..."

Sorry- I went in search of fried clams after our tour! Got an extra hour of driving... and listening!

Hello, everyone! I'm in the middle of listening to the audio version of All the Colors of the Dark, which will cover a few different prompts: (child character, the freebie, relationship ends, and someone deals with death. I'm also reading Stay Close, which will work for the freebie, someone leaving home, family problems, relationship ending, and someone deals with death.

I'll check in as much as I can this time around, and update when I start/finish a book and what prompt I chose.

Pamela wrote: "Joanna G wrote: "It looks like the spreadsheet is for team blue. Or is that what you meant by fill it in, Pamela, switching it to our info?"

Wow... not even my error!

Here, I made a copy of the b..."

Thanks, Pamela! I just felt bad for messing things up for Team Blue Car. Fried clams sound yummy!

Off to check out the spreadsheet!

Sheyanne wrote: "Hello, everyone! I'm in the middle of listening to the audio version of All the Colors of the Dark, which will cover a few different prompts: (child character, the freebie, relatio..."

Welcome Sheyanne! Isn't it awesome when books can cover so many prompts!

I finished Finding Grace. It was really good. I put it under debut author.

I finished The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960-- I put it under rebellion since it's about artists on Cape Cod in the early 20th C- not only Socialists/Communists/Trotskyists/etc but also creating new styles of literature, painting, etc.

But such a long day just sitting and listening so much! I might not do the Cormorant Strike

Like others of you, this is my first read-a-thon, so if someone who knows what they're doing can say-- did I do the spreadsheet the right way? Seems like I had to put things in lots of places...

Sherri wrote: "I finished Finding Grace. It was really good. I put it under debut author."

Sherri, just confirming did you want to put Finding Grace under debut author or child as a main page genre as you indicated on the spreadsheet?

Pamela wrote: "I finished The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960-- I put it under rebellion since it's about artists on Cape Cod in the early 20th C- not only Socialists/Communists/Tro..."

Oh that's great! I couldn't easily find a book with a rebellion.

I can help with the spreadsheet. I did label the header rows. Hope that helps. To reduce the repeated entering of info, you can copy and paste your completed book from the Planning tab to the Completed Plans tab. Then it's just adding to the Stage of Life page.

I'd like to color coordinate and streamline the spreadsheet tomorrow, if that's okay with you. I think there are some miscellaneous columns and info that may have been copied over from the other spreadsheet.

Good Morning. Yes I wanted Finding Grace under debut author. I cleaned that up this morning. I'm listening to Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun. I'll start reading A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour later today.

JennH wrote: "Pamela wrote: "I finished The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910-1960-- I put it under rebellion since it's about artists on Cape Cod in the early 20th C- not only Socialists..."

Go wild! You're experience captain!

Looking at it-- I see what you did!!!

I just got up.. I stayed up till 2 finishing Three Apples Fell from the Sky. This read-a-thon is making me focus (I also know I need to focus now, it won't last!)

So today starting a new audio The Names (10 hours) and a new eye-read The Heavens which Kindle says will take me 8 hours. We'll see if I can get them both done by the end of tomorrow!

I just finished All the Colors of the Dark for a coming of age book. I'll finish Stay Closesoon for another prompt. I have a few other books queued up to go after that.

JennH--
Should I be updating the list at the beginning?

Hi all, I didn't realize this was happening, and joined late. I'll take a look at what's going on so far and add in my books.

Sorry for not checking in sooner. The internet’s been down. Kind a frustrating. I’ll work on the spreadsheet as soon as I’m back online. I should have taken care of it before I left home. 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Pamela - Which list are you referring to?

@Traci - Welcome! No worries. We’re only a day in.

I played the game of life with my neighbor's kids about a month ago. I just kept landing on the new baby squares and they said it was no big deal, there's nothing different about having kids or not. Then I proceeded to land on all the squares you had to pay per kid (I had 4) to prove them wrong! I lost!

JennH wrote: "@Pamela - Which list are you referring to?."

The one in post 1

Wow, no internet! I would get so much reading done!

Traci wrote: "I played the game of life with my neighbor's kids about a month ago. I just kept landing on the new baby squares and they said it was no big deal, there's nothing different about having kids or not..."

Sounds like fun! Sorry you lost. Kids are indeed expensive. But that's it, I am going to play The Game of Life next weekend!

Pamela wrote: "JennH wrote: "@Pamela - Which list are you referring to?."

The one in post 1

Wow, no internet! I would get so much reading done!"

No, you don't have to worry about that.

I did get some audiobook listening in between trying to figure out the internet problem. Thankfully, it's finally back! I'm off to look at the spreadsheet.

Ok, I've cleaned up the spreadsheet some. Deleted extra columns. Highlighted some of the completed books in dark green where needed.

We're looking good and off to a great start! We have 8 completed books and have already earned our first Wild Card! Go, Team Green Car!

I'll be out all day tomorrow and won't be able to check in until tomorrow night - crossing fingers no more internet problems! Happy reading, everyone!

I just finished Stay Close for the house on the cover prompt.

Good Morning Team Green,
I will continue reading Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun & A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour. I might finish Finlay Donovan. If not today tomorrow for sure.

I'm with Sherri-- continuing. I did take today off from work to read but the day is filling up with other things! I'll try to finish one of these two books-- they both have 4 hours left (or so kindle says on one- I read slower than it thinks though)

Also Sherri, lemme know how the golf book is. Always looking for Christmas ideas!

Hey gang, I think we have something wonky on our spreadsheet.
On the childhood and completed page, three children's prompts are highlighted - Bright cover, A, B and C and debut author. But on the tracking page, it's bright cover, debut and children's genre.

Also, the book that's indicated for A, B and C doesn't fit - it's Three Apples Fell From the Sky. The way I read that prompt we need all three of those letters. Wonder if that got 'misfiled'?

Also, Pamela, I also just requested Friday off. In part for a break, but also more time for reading!

Joanna - Hmmm… I’m seeing it’s Bright cover, ABC, and Debut highlighted on both. But you’re right. I misread the prompt and thought it was ‘or’ and not ‘and.’ Thanks for catching that. I’m on my phone and cannot fix it at the moment. I’ll care of it tonight if it hasn’t been.

Sorry, it's on the Plans page, not Tracking that children's genre is highlighted.

Just requested The Black Moth, Georgette Heyer's first novel of 32, from the library. I figure we can use that for first book of a prolific author.

Then, other ones that don't have any options yet are:
- related to a fairy tale, myth or legend
- pink cover
- book you have been wanting to read for a long time

Joanna G wrote: "Just requested The Black Moth, Georgette Heyer's first novel of 32, from the library. I figure we can use that for first book of a prolific author.

Then, other ones that don't have a..."

Ooo! So many prompts we don't have!

I wonder if the Three Apples could count of fairy tales-- the title comes from :

"The Armenian saying is "And three apples fell from heaven: one for the storyteller, one for the listener, and one for the eavesdropper". This proverb serves as a traditional conclusion to Armenian tales, acknowledging everyone who participates in the story's telling and reception"

Joanna G wrote: "Hey gang, I think we have something wonky on our spreadsheet.
On the childhood and completed page, three children's prompts are highlighted - Bright cover, A, B and C and debut author. But on the ..."

Oops! I missed the and!! Changing! Good catch!

eta-- I think I cleaned it up!!!

We have two wild cards-- how do we use them? Will they take care of those tough prompts?

Pamela wrote: "Joanna G wrote: "Hey gang, I think we have something wonky on our spreadsheet.
On the childhood and completed page, three children's prompts are highlighted - Bright cover, A, B and C and debut au..."

Sorry to be a nudge about this but on the Plans page (as opposed to Completed Plans) children's as main page genre is still highlighted. I just don't want someone looking there to think the prompt is fulfilled when, as fair as I can see elsewhere, it's not.

I've been struggling with reading this year, and mostly listening to lighter audiobooks. I can look for a fairy tale retelling or pink cover if we need it.