SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

Have you made up a reading challenge? Post it here! We can chat about, tweak it if need be, and if there are enough willing participants we can make a challenge thread and start reading.

If you're not sure how this works, check out the introductory thread.

How about a Spring challenge?
Where the whole of September we have to read the word SPRING?

May I then read the word Fall or Autumn???
I am on the other side of the world and we are approaching that season. :)

Why not :)

What does everyone else think?

I am in for it. I am willing to read the word Spring. I was just kidding. With this kind of challenge there will always be some kind of difference with holidays or seasons. And reading about spring may make me forget all the rain we are no doubt going to get this fall.

Yay anyone else in?

Lol, I have "End of the Rainy Season" but I'd much rather read "SPRING". Why don't we make it a 3-month challenge and add some other stuff? Like a few Spring-related tasks?

How about this:

Read the word SPRING

Complete the following 3 tasks (1 for each month):
- Read a book where birth, new life or renewal is central to the plot.
- Read a book with an iconic Spring image on the cover - flowers, baby animals, bees, butterflies, etc.
- Clean out those tbr shelves! Start by reading something that's been on your tbr pile for at least a year.

Challenge lasts from 1 September to 30 November.

I don't want to make this too difficult, so I was thinking that we can allow the word and the tasks to cross over, ie. you can read a book for one of the tasks and use it for the word. But I wanted to add some tasks so it's a little bit different from the normal word challenge.

What do you guys think?

I like it!

I love it!

Cool, I'll make a thread :)

Awesome challenge :)

Very nice. So we'll finish this one just in time to start a Christmas one. We should probably toss some ideas around for that one soon as well.

How about a Summer challenge for December - February? I won't be able to go to the beach this year, but maybe I can read a book about people who do, lol.

It could have the same structure as the Spring challenge. I don't have any ideas for tasks yet, but anyone who has suggestions can submit them.

I like.
Can we use the Afrikaans "SOMER"?, because I don't like reading double letters like the two m's in summer. Hopefully I'm not the only one.

We could keep the Spring tasks but just adjust them a little. Or if that would be too boring, think up something new. :)

- A cover with a summer related image - a sun, people wearing summer clothes, a beach scene etc.
- A Summer release > read a book that was first released in Dec/Jan/Feb of any year.

I'm in!

I'm fine with SOMER :) I was just thinking, if we end up doing seasons on a regular basis, we can try use different languages each time.

That would be cool :)

Nice! I like the idea of different languages.

Book with a cover in a summer colour - red/yellow?

Current summer colours are more like coral, mint and neons, lol. (Sorry, I'm addicted to Pinterest...)

You've just made my day!

:D
We could do the Pinterest summer fashion challenge. Read a book with wedge heels on the cover. Read a book with a pop of neon on the cover. Read a book with a female protagonist who wears her hair in beach waves or a bun on the top of her head...

The difference between us is that I have a 3 and 5 year old, so my Pinterest tend to be "10 great crafts with an egg box" or "Best playdough ever"!

We could do a Pinterest challenge then. Everyone shares a favourite pin, and you have to find a book that matches the picture somehow. Although playdough might be a tough one... :)

Oooh a Pinterest challenge. Sounds interesting :))

I was joking, but I actually like the sound of it :)

Can't we turn this into some kind of version of the Choose Wisely challenge for next year? I think many of us enjoyed that challenge very much - thanks so much for your hard work, Lu! (You must be sick and tired of that spreadsheet by now, but it was fun for all of us!) Random idea, not sure how we'll do it.

Some idea - we create a board for SA Book Lovers. When you sign up for the challenge you can pin an idea on the board. You must then read a book that matches any other idea on the board excluding your own. When you finish a book, you indicate which idea you used and then get the opportunity to post a new idea. It becomes a fairly self sustaining challenge.

I was thinking of something similar :) for a start-up, we could each pin about 10 pins (or whatever number works best) to get us going. I wouldn't say that you have to pin an 'idea', but rather an interesting picture that you have to match to a book.

Every time you use a pin, you should comment on it to say who you are (especially for non-users), what you read, and how it relates to the picture.

Perhaps we could also have new rounds of free pinning (where everyone gets to pin a chosen number of pins), or the board will be dominated by pictures chosen by Lauren F and Barbara!

Really liking this idea now.

Lauren wrote: "or the board will be dominated by pictures chosen by Lauren F and Barbara!
"

He! I don't know if I should be offended or not. :)
Maybe you should take a speed reading course to keep up with us and then you can win a challenge too every now and then. :P

Why should you be offended? I just mean that you two read more than anyone else :)
I harbour no hopes of winning challenges, I'm happy just to finish them.

Why should you be offended? I just mean that you two read more than anyone else :)
I harbour no hopes of winning challenges, I'm happy just to finish them.

I am just kidding and teasing you!
We do read a lot. Maybe if we do a challenge like the choose wisely or the Pininterest you are talking about we can put a maximum on it. Like you can only do 1 book a week or 3 a month or whatever. That way we can't dominate a challenge like this again and everyone gets to participate equally.

Well, personally I don't really mind much. Sometimes it's a bit discouraging, but as long as I'm enjoying the challenge itself, it's fine :)

I had a look at the Choose Wisely Challnge which seems to be the closest one to match. (You'll have to forgive me for this - I'm in finance and my husband's a statistician...I do my reading planning threads on an Excel spreadsheet).

It's been around since March and in total we have used 160 tasks - average of 28 per month.

We started of with 22 people, 9 of whom never completed the first task. 2 people (yes, that's you and Lauren F, Barbara!) accounts for 100 of the tasks. The next 5 people did 62 tasks (that's souls like me and Lauren).

So, I think if we start with 3-5 pins per person that will give us about 60-100 to start with - the lower number is probably better. So you have a big choice to start with, but it becomes more challenging as we go along since the choice narrows which means those who read lots can still steam ahead, but may have to put more effort into finding the books. Not a bad trade off, I think.

As a variation we can start off with the lower number of pins at the start and as you finish a task you can add. However after 3/4/6 months (depending on how it goes) everybody who has finished a task can do 2-3 additional pins. In total we'll end up with about 400 pins which is plenty.


PS Maybe we should do this next year for the group? http://www.goodreads.com/challenges/2.... Not sure how to set it up.

I must admit, challenges have really changed how I decide which book is next to be read and has widened my reading lists. (I discovered last night I seem to have completed the "Trying new things challenge" without quite realising it. Must check and post the books).

I love the idea of a Somer challenge! One of the bonuses of my job is that I get to spend every summer at the beach. We can't take time off during peak season, but the beach is across the road so I go swimming every morning before work.

I haven't got to the while pin thing yet, so a challenge might be am excuse to start.

I would personally not sign up for a romance challenge, if I followed that link right, but that's just me!

Varla Fiona wrote: "I love the idea of a Somer challenge! One of the bonuses of my job is that I get to spend every summer at the beach. We can't take time off during peak season, but the beach is across the road so I..."

It's a Romance site, but what they do is to count the number of books all their members use for challenges in the year. So we would create one for our site and just count the number of books we all use in challenges. I suspect it's a strange number!

Oh, that sounds like fun!

I don't know about you, but I mostly select boks these days based on how useful they will be for challenges. I walked into a bookstore this afternoon, pulled a book off the shelf and went "I can use that, I haven't read a book set in Florence yet and it will do for a place with F next year". Great selection criteria!

A couple of monts ago I bought a book that was on sale only because the author's name begins with an X so I can it next year in the Author A-Z challenge. The book had nothing else I found interesting, but the X is always a pain to find, so I bought it anyway.
So you're not alone. :)

I proposal a mini Doctor Who challenge :P

I am willing to design it and give motivation why it needs to happen :)

Oh, yes please Lu! I don't even need motivation as to why.

Yay that is 1, anyone else keen?

I've only just started watched Doctor Who (the 2005 series) but you know I'm up for almost any challenge :)

O you were waiting for participants. Sorry! I am up for anything. So go ahead provide the tasks and I will read!

Yay!
Maybe start it around the 15th?

Then the Spring one is almost over.

I've been meaning to watch Dr Who for ages! I'd participate in a challenge. :)

Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Yay!
Maybe start it around the 15th?

Then the Spring one is almost over."

Can we start on 1 December instead?

Guys, Pinterest now has Secret Boards, which are only accessible to the creator and anyone they invite. Those would be perfect for a Pinterest challenge, although non-members may have to join the site.

Carolien set out a great plan in message 35 (including some interesting stats) so I really think we could make this work. Not now - there's enough going on - but maybe at the start of the new year, or at the start of the second quarter (ie. April).

Lauren wrote: "Lu (Sugar & Snark) wrote: "Yay!
Maybe start it around the 15th?

Then the Spring one is almost over."

Can we start on 1 December instead?"

Yea I see it ends 30 Novembers, so 1 December is perfect. Or we can do the Pinterest one first? Either way :)