Allison’s Comments (group member since Jan 02, 2015)

Allison’s comments from the The Reading Challenge Group group.

Genre Challenge Thread

Goal: 11/12
Finished: 8/12

January: Contemporary/Literary Merit - Home - dnf
✔ February: Romance/Chick Lit - As You Are
✔ March: Mysteries - Absolution by Murder
✔ April: Fantasy - The Awakened Mage
✔ May: Historical Fiction - Shaman
✔ June: Minority Studies/LGBT - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
✔ July: Science-Fiction/Dystopian - The Vor Game
✔ August: Poetry/Plays - King Lear
✔ September: Travel - The Travelers
October: Horror/Thriller - Jane Steele
November: Manga/Graphic Novels - Saga, Volume 1
December: Humour - The Wee Free Men

Allison's 2016 Genre Challenge

Goal: 9/12
Finished: 8/12

January: Contemporary/Literary Merit -
✔ February: Romance/Chick Lit - As You Are
✔ March: Mysteries - Absolution by Murder
✔ April: Fantasy - The Awakened Mage
✔ May: Historical Fiction - Shaman
✔ June: Minority Studies/LGBT - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
✔ July: Science-Fiction/Dystopian - The Vor Game
✔ August: Poetry/Plays - King Lear
✔ September: Travel - The Travelers
October: Horror/Thriller - Dracula, Jane Steele
November: Manga/Graphic Novels
December: Humour

** See Books of Chance - How to Play for the full rules. **

Books of Chance is based on the dice game, Yahtzee. This game will run from June - December, 2016.

There are 3 levels of participation:

1. Play Upper Half only (6 books)
2. Play Lower Half only (7 books)
3. Play the entire game (13 books)

➜ Click here for electronic Yahtzee dice

Template for your game thread:

Designated shelf (+ link) -

Upper Half

Ones -
Twos -
Threes -
Fours -
Fives -
Sixes -

Lower Half

3 of a Kind -
4 of a Kind -
Full House - 25 pts -
Small Straight - 30 pts -
Large Straight - 40 pts -
Yahtzee - 50 pts -
Chance -

Books of Chance

This game will run from June - December, 2016.

Books of Chance is based on the dice game, Yahtzee. The point is to give a random flavor to your reading, while helping you tackle your existing TBR. The quality of your game will depend completely on which books you have on your designated shelf, so you can tailor it to suit your goals.

Want to focus on books you own? Make a shelf full of those. You could choose a shelf focused on a genre, a time period, or a list of books that you've been wanting to get to. Then let the dice decide which one you'll read next!

You can use real or electronic dice, whatever works best for you. An easy electronic option can be found here: Online dice designed for Yahtzee.

There are 3 levels of participation:

1. Play Upper Half only (6 books)
2. Play Lower Half only (7 books)
3. Play the entire game (13 books)

Sign up to play in the Game Thread.

Basic Yahtzee Rules:

• The game uses 5 dice, up to 3 rolls per turn. Keep the dice you want from each roll and use the remaining dice to try to get the most points you can.

• If your score doesn't fit any open spaces, choose any remaining space to record a zero.

• Yahtzee Joker - If you roll an extra Yahtzee and all spaces are full where it might count, you can use it as a full house, low straight, or high straight, and score the normal points for that category.

(See original Yahtzee Rules if needed.)


Books of Chance Rules:

1. The number of points scored during your turn determines which book you read next. For example:

4, 4, 4, 1, 2 (Fours) = 12 ➜ read the 12th book on your shelf
Yahtzee = 50 ➜ read the 50th book on your shelf.

2. Designate a shelf that books will be selected from. There should be at least 50 books on the shelf, since it is possible to score up to 50 points.

3. Always sort the shelf by 'random' before choosing a book.

4. If you take a zero on a turn, ask in the game thread for someone to choose your next book for you. Include the link to your designated shelf so other players can find it easily.

5. Once you have finished reading the book, you may count that turn complete and roll again.


Other general info:

• If you are unable to read a book due to availability, you may remove it from your designated shelf and choose again using the same score as before.

• If you are unable to finish a book for some reason (e.g., you don't like it), you can take a zero in the space and request another book to be chosen for you in the game thread.

• A template is provided in the comment below that you can copy and paste to track your game in the game thread.

• You can also download a fillable PDF version of the score card here to help keep track of your game.


Scoring is as follows:

Upper Half
Ones: Count and add only Ones
Twos: Count and add only Twos
Threes: Count and add only Threes
Fours: Count and add only Fours
Fives: Count and add only Fives
Sixes: Count and add only Sixes

Lower Half
3 of a Kind: Three dice with the same number. Add total of all dice.
4 of a Kind: Four dice with the same number. Add total of all dice.
Full House: Three of one kind, and two of another. 25 pts.
Small Straight: Four in a row. 30 pts.
Large Straight: Five in a row. 40 pts.
Yahtzee: All five dice with the same number. 50 pts.
Chance: Add total of all dice.

Joker: A Yahtzee can be counted as a full house, small straight, or large straight if all other possibilities are used.

What a great string of books to read for this challenge! I'm glad you liked all of them - I really enjoyed them all, too.

A door-stopper is 800 plus pages. Well, at least that's my definition. :) I'd like to do it too... maybe we should keep it in mind for next year!

Well done! Maybe we should have a door-stopper challenge for you!

I'm also planning to join in on this one, as long as my library hold comes through in time!

I'm joining too, but not til after the readathon!!

Finished For the King's Favor. Now onto the book I've put off reading the next longest, Skinwalker.

Games work a little bit differently than the other challenges in the group. They often rely on a specific Goodreads shelf of your choosing. This means you can tailor the focus of a game depending on your personal goals and interests. It's a fun way to choose your next book!

Rules will be posted separately for each game, but here are the general rules that apply to all games:

Designated shelves

• You must designate a shelf for the game. Based on the result of your turn, you will choose books to read from this shelf. It can simply be your "To Read" shelf, or it can be one you created.

• If you are participating in more than one game, you can choose whether to designate just one shelf for all games or to have one shelf per game.

• Make sure you can access the books on your shelf fairly easily (at the library, purchase, etc.) or you could be delayed in completing your turn.

• You can modify your designated shelf between turns, but not during a play. Once you roll, you must select the next book without adding or removing any books.

Interactive Book Choices

• If your turn requires you to get a book chosen by another player, request a book in the game thread. Add a link to your designated shelf so members can find it easily.

• If a player requests a book in the game thread, anyone playing that game is eligible to choose their next book. The first person to reply gets to choose.

This section is for tracking your progress in the main monthly challenges for the group. If you're signed up to do the Genre, World Lit, or Alternate Challenges, this is where you state your goals, report on your progress, and interact with other members who are also doing them.

You can also join Book Tag here, a companion challenge that ties together everything else you're doing in the group.

Just like with the Mini-Challenges, post your goals in the threads and update as you go.

Allison's June Goal: 8 Books
Actually Read: 14

Base Points: 70
Bonus Points: 230
Personal Goal Achieved: 25
June Total: 325

Planned Books:
✔ Skinwalker - Readathon, Buyer's Remorse
✔ The Tea Rose - Readathon, Chunkster
✔ Waistcoats & Weaponry - Cereal Numbers
✔ Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Group Read, Genre Challenge
✔ All the Light We Cannot See - Group Read, World Lit (W. Europe)
Daughter of Dusk - Rainbow
✔ A Fatal Waltz - World Lit (W. Europe)
The Travelers - 2016 New Releases

Base Points (5 pts per book):
1. Skinwalker
2. The Tea Rose
3. Waistcoats & Weaponry
4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
5. The Sea King's Daughter
6. The Decoy Princess
7. Lost Among the Living
8. A Fatal Waltz
9. Cast In Secret
10. Cobweb Bride
11. All the Light We Cannot See
12. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
14. Wolf-Speaker

PLUS Bonus Points
Books Read for Challenges (5 pts each): 155

1. Skinwalker (Buyer's Remorse)
2. The Tea Rose (Bookopoly, Genre, Chunkster, World Lit)
3. Waistcoats & Weaponry (Cereal Numbers)
4. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Genre)
5. The Sea King's Daughter (Summer by the Shore, World Lit)
6. The Decoy Princess (Books of Chance, Buyer's Remorse, Alphabet Soup)
7. Lost Among the Living (2016 New Releases, Alphabet Soup, World Lit)
8. A Fatal Waltz (World Lit)
9. Cast In Secret (Buyer's Remorse, Chunkster, Rainbow)
10. Cobweb Bride (Buyer's Remorse, June Bride, World Lit)
11. All the Light We Cannot See (Chunkster, World Lit)
12. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Cereal Numbers, Feather Weight, Alphabet Soup, World Lit)
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Cereal Numbers, Feather Weight, World Lit)
14. Wolf-Speaker (Cereal Numbers)

Readathon (10 pts each):
1. Skinwalker

Group or Buddy Reads (10 pts each):
1. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
2. All the Light We Cannot See
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Challenge Levels Completed (10 pts each):
Chunkster Level 1 (Door Stopper)
Buyer's Remorse Level 1 (List Tickler)


Chased but not Caught:
Daughter of Dusk
The Travelers

Book Tag is a new group-wide challenge starting in June 2016. How many books can you tag this month?

To join, paste the following template into your comment, and state how many books you plan to read in June. This can be as detailed and planned out as you like, or you can just state a number. Check back in to tally your scores and see how much you've accomplished by the end of the month!

Template: (June only - see updated in July thread)

My Goal: # Books

Planned Books:

Actually Read:

Base Points
5 pts:

PLUS Bonus Points
5 pts: Challenge -
10 pts: Readathon -
10 pts: Group or Buddy Read -
10 pts: Challenge Levels Completed -
25 pts: Monthly Personal Goal Achieved!
100 pts: Annual Personal Goal Achieved!!!

Total Points:

Leftovers:
List any books you intended to read and didn’t.

Hi Everyone!

We're rolling out some changes and some new challenges for the second half of 2016. See How to Use this Group - June 2016 Edition for the full details. Some highlights are:

- New threads for keeping track of progress on the group-wide challenges.
- A couple of new group-wide challenges.
- A whole new category of challenges based on Games, so far including Bookopoly and Books of Chance (Yahtzee).
- Books can now count for more than one challenge, as long as it is not a mini-mini challenge.

The new features should become available throughout the next couple of days, so keep an eye out while you're not reading like mad for the readathon!

We are a supportive community of readers who love to spice up our reading with challenges while encouraging each other. Use the challenges to further your personal reading goals. You can set goals to match your own pace and time commitment.

To help you get the most out of this group, here's how it's organized:


★ The Basics ★

1. Introduce yourself! - We'd like to know who you are, what part of the world you're from, what kind of books you love, and anything else about yourself that you feel like sharing. We're a friendly group, and we love to chat and share our love of books with one another. Jump right in and join us!

2. Set up your personal challenge thread - This is your home in the group, a central place where you can log your progress on all of the challenges that you join. Collect your accomplishment badges here!

You can also use this space to keep track of other reading goals and challenges that you've set for yourself.

Feel free to check out other members' threads, and to jump in and encourage each other.

3. Join some challenges! - Check out the different challenges (see below for more details), and if you want to join one, add a comment with your goal in the challenge thread.

Many are set up so that you can participate at different levels, and the longer challenges have a template for tracking your progress that you can copy and paste into your post and edit as you go along.

4. Interact with other members - Challenges are always more fun together! Don’t forget to update us on your progress, even if it’s just to say what you read to fill a challenge requirement. Even better, add a short comment on why you liked or disliked the book.

If you’re participating in a group read or a buddy read, join in the discussions about the book. Even if you don't finish at the same time, it's a great opportunity for book talk.

(See below for more ways to interact.)


★ Types of Challenges ★

1. Group-Wide Challenges - Year-long challenges based on Genre exploration. These challenges are featured at the top of the Group's home page, and are related to the monthly group reads.

• We've added new discussion threads where you can report on your group-wide challenge goals and progress.

• Set monthly goals and report back on how you did with Book Tag - and earn points for every book you read and every challenge you participate in!


2. Mini Challenges - A variety of challenges that span from a single month to all year. There are two types of Mini Challenges:

Mini-Minis - These are month-long challenges. They're short and sweet, and are meant to promote spontaneity. For that reason, books used for these challenges cannot be cross-posted on any other challenges.

Maxi-Minis - These are the longer mini-challenges, ranging from 3 months to year-long. Books may be used across more than one challenge.


3. Games - Based on real-world games, these include some lightly interactive elements. This is a new category, so is still in development! We hope to add more games over time.


** Note ** Cross-posting books for more than one challenge is now allowed except for those used in the Mini-Mini Challenge category.


★ Member Interaction ★

There are several discussion folders on the home page that offer opportunities to interact with other members outside of the challenges. These include:

• Group Read Discussions - Talk about the group reads here!
• Books with Friends - Join our brand new challenge based on group and buddy reads.
• Monthly Threads - Layout your monthly plans (whether you stick to them or not!), and report on your monthly progress - what you actually read, accomplishments, etc.
• Readathons - We run readathons a few times per year. These are a special push to get on track with reading goals. Join in the reading mania!
• Buddy Reads - Want to do a buddy read? Here's where you can ask others to join you.
• A Quest for Answers - Featuring lots of reading-related questions to help members get to know each other a little bit.
• Book Chat - Join an existing discussion, or feel free to add a new topic.
• Specific book / author discussion - Join an existing discussion, or feel free to add a new topic.

The Alternate Challenge cycles through Non-Fiction, YA, and Classics. There is a monthly group read, but you can also count other books that fit the categories.

Use this thread to keep track of your progress, report to the group, and to give each other ideas of what to read for the challenge.

Alternate Challenge
January: Non-Fiction
February: YA
March: Classics
April: Non-Fiction
May: YA
June: Classics
July: Non-Fiction
August: YA
September: Classics
October: Non-Fiction
November: YA
December: Classics

This is the progress thread for the World Lit Challenge. We have a group read each month, but you can also count other books that fit. Books must be either written by an author from a country in the region, or set in a country in the region.

Use this thread to keep track of your World Lit Challenge, report back to the group on your progress, and also to give each other ideas of what to read.

World Lit Challenge
January: South America
February: Middle East
March: Sub-Sahara
April: Southeast Asia
May: Central America/Mexico & Caribbean
June: Western Europe
July: North Africa
August: South Asia/India Subcontinent
September: North America
October: Eastern Europe
November: Oceania/Australia
December: East Asia

One of our main group-wide challenges is to read a book every month from a different genre. We have a group read for the genre of the month, but you can also count other books that fit the category.

Use this thread to keep track of your Genre Challenge, report back to the group on your progress, and also to give each other ideas of what to read in upcoming genres.

Genre Challenge
January: Contemporary/Literary Merit
February: Romance/Chick Lit
March: Mysteries
April: Fantasy
May: Historical Fiction
June: Minority Studies/LGBT
July: Science-Fiction/Dystopian
August: Poetry/Plays
September: Travel
October: Horror/Thriller
November: Manga/Graphic Novels
December: Humour