Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Hi all, firstly yay us for finishing the 7% challenge. It was fun and easily doable.

I'd like to participate in the August challenge but I'm not sure what other Mango Tango members like to read. I'm pretty much stuck in all types of romance and that mightn't suit others.

The series challenge or the different categories I would enjoy doing.

That said, I will leave it in Steven's most capable hands.

Instead of an 8x8 maybe we could look at fewer 'categories' and do 15 each from 5 things. Or 5 each from 15 categories would actually probably be tougher. Would a genre challenge be too easy? (1)5 mysteries, (1)5 horror, (1)5 romance, (1)5 science fiction, etc. I like the behind enemy lines idea but would like to use all of people's shelves instead of just what they have read since April.

We need to make it challenging enough to get the mods' approval, and I'm not sure 15 of any one thing would be hard enough to please them :) But that might be something we'd want to consider for our own team mini-challenge sometime.

Barb wrote: "Karla wrote: "Or a play off Behind Enemy Lines, where we each have to read one book from each team members' shelves that were not previously on our own."

Would it be ANY shelf? Or just the "Read" ..."

I was thinking one book from each Mango-Tango member. Choosing a book from ANY of their shelves. It could be books they read years ago, or haven't read yet.

The challenge would be to find a book from each member that you would want to read. I have over two thousand books on my list and I am sure you each have at least one thousand, out of all those books you don't think you could find one that sounded interesting?

If we each read one book from the other ten active members, we would have more than enough.

If people wanted to do the 8 x 8 we could have the Allies books (above) as a category

Karla wrote: "I was thinking one book from each Mango-Tango member. Choosing a book from ANY of their shelves. It could be books they read years ago, or haven't read yet.

The challenge would be to find a book from each member that you would want to read. I have over two thousand books on my list and I am sure you each have at least one thousand, out of all those books you don't think you could find one that sounded interesting?"

Actually, this is a really good idea. I already have a bunch of books all set up for the next months that I have it in mind to read and I can only get through about 5 books each month.

But, I'm sure that some of the ones I was already thinking of will show up in others' "Read" shelves. If I had that many to choose from from each of you, it wouldn't be a problem at all! I too have several hundred books on my "Read" shelf in many different genres.

I finally got around to reading -- because I "needed" it for several different challenges :) I liked it, but not as much as I'd hoped I would, probably because I've already seen the movie so I 'knew' what was going to happen.

And now ... off to see if I can finish before I go to work tomorrow morning :)

So I'm reading The Passage right now The Passage and am really enjoying it! Doing it buddy read style with the NBRC Book of the Month group. It's long, so it's taking up reading time and I'm posting less books... but I'm really enjoying it and FUN is what counts (especially since we're so far behind -- we might as well enjoy what we read and read what we want!!!)

Also doing a reread of Black by Ted Dekker Black: The Birth of Evil with Oo and some LJBers and Ashley Marie from WBY. I LOVES me some Ted Dekker!

I am enjoying the passage, for sure. It's also counting for my "Best of Horror Top Books" challenge... though why it's counted as horror, I dunno... nothing even remotely horror-like so far in storytelling. Maybe the creatures are a little bit creepy, but they also haven't factored in all that much yet.

Barb, I doubt I'll ever get to Memoirs of a Geisha!

If you enjoy a rather light-hearted historical fiction book filled with quirky humor and some LOL moments, be sure to check out Cinnamon and Gunpowder. I *had to stay up last night till I finished it, just to see how it all worked out :)

Daughter and I went to our FOL book sale this evening and found a LOT of books that we couldn't resist bringing home with us :) Some of the books I bought were on my TBR list already, some had covers or titles I just couldn't pass up, but when I saw , I *had to buy it! LOL

Mango!!!!

I can't go to used book stores or yard sales or the like... Because I spend too much moolah on books when I already have too many!!!

Ummm ... you notice I didn't say how many books we bought ... or how much we spent :)

I finished Insurgent, veronica roth...4*s 06.20.2013 525 pages....

I finished this afternoon and figured out the killer almost as soon as the character was introduced. Maybe I've been reading too many cozies lately? LOL

Haha Barb! Wait, you like mysteries???

I know, right? I've been so good at keeping that a secret :)

Hahahaha! :)

I am back and have just finished my first book since the 12th of June.

Okay getting ready for the movers to come was a bit more stressful than expected though I should have known this being our fourth move in 7 years.
Now sitting in a very empty house with nowhere to sit comfortably to read books I will use the library and a café to do some reading.

Hi everyone TGIF!!!! I finished The Mischief of the Mistletoe by lauren willig...06.21.2013 4*s, 365 pages....love this series

Yay for finishing the June challenge so fast, I know we weren't the fastest but we still did really well.

Welcome to Nicole and Thorn!

Nicole I see we read some of the same books. Patricia Briggs is one of my favourite authors. The books you have read doesn't show up on any of my shelves as I read them long before my GR days. Ship of Magic is on my Kindle and ready to read at some point this year.

Thorn you have just started the Dresden Files, great series. The only thing I am annoyed about is that I have caught up and have to wait for the next book to be published in December.

Whatever the challenges turn out to be for July and August I will take part.
July will be half running stressful around to look for car and a place to live and luckily the second half will be holiday.
August I will read as much as possible but it will be the month of moving in (if we found a place to live!), looking for a job and just getting used to be back home in Denmark.

Sounds like a really busy time for you, Jane! We haven't moved in nearly 15 years, but when the kids were small, we moved every 2-3 years, and I haven't forgotten how chaotic that can be. Good luck getting everything settled :)

Sallie(Shuga) wrote: "Hi everyone TGIF!!!! I finished The Mischief of the Mistletoe by lauren willig...06.21.2013 4*s, 365 pages....love this series"

Love the Pink Carnation series, Sallie!

Jane, I'm happy that you're getting to live in Denmark again! I know everything will work out soon!

Glad to see you on here again...

We definitely need to do something else in July, before the August challenge!

Lisa Kay wrote: "Sallie(Shuga) wrote: "Hi everyone TGIF!!!! I finished The Mischief of the Mistletoe by lauren willig...06.21.2013 4*s, 365 pages....love this series"

Love the Pink Carnation series, Sallie!"

As do I :) I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment, due out in August:

Steven wrote: "We definitely need to do something else in July, before the August challenge! "

Maybe something as simple as summer themed books? Or books with "summer" in the title, a character named Summer, a summer-y cover or set in the summer?

But I have no summery books to read! :(

Well that's not good! LOL Other ideas?

I dunno. Maybe a spell it out. Or something where we each spell something out!

Jane wrote: "Yay for finishing the June challenge so fast, I know we weren't the fastest but we still did really well.

Welcome to Nicole and Thorn!

Nicole I see we read some of the same books. Patricia Briggs..."

She's amazing, isn't she? I'm absolutely loving The Mad Ship at the moment. Have just finished Ellen DeGeneres' book today too. Seems like everyone's finishing a book this week!

Thanks for the welcome, Jane. Hope that the housemoving goes as smoothly for you as it can go!

Steven wrote: "I dunno. Maybe a spell it out. Or something where we each spell something out!"

We could each choose our own word/phrase to spell out from now till the end of July? To make it less stressful than a lot of spell it outs, we could allow any major word in the title, the author's first or last initial and the first initial of a main character in the book? Perhaps the series name too?

That's a good plan Barb.

Thoughts, everyone?

Yep, works for me.

A phrase like M.A.N.G.O. T.A.N.G.O. J.U.L.Y C.H.A.L.L.E.N.G.E. or is that too many letters.

And only being able to use each letter once as per previous challenges?

That could work, but I was thinking we'd each choose our own phrase -- a longer one for those who read quickly, and something shorter for those who don't read quite so much. It might be more fun, though, to work on a phrase as a group :)

Barb, I just meant that as an example of a workable phrase. Is it like a competitive thing where the first person who uses up all the letters "wins"? Then a common phrase would work better. Or a totally individual just for fun thing.

Either works for me.

Yeah, I realized that's what you meant after I posted, sorry LOL I don't know whether it would be competitive or not, although we seem to do better when there's a bit of competition involved :)

Maybe we could come up with some generic, July-related words, and let everyone choose one (or more) of them to spell out?

I was going to suggest "Independence Day", but realized that doesn't really work since we have people from other countries on our team.

Finished at midnight last night/this morning. Read all of and started . Am really getting tired of all the sad books I have been reading!

Karla, I don't mind at all doing Independence Day as the letters...

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Karla, I don't mind at all doing Independence Day as the letters..."

Then that might be something we can do for July. Maybe people who read slower can team up?

Oh but all those Es and Ns *shuddering* LOL

Well, we could have a choice of either Independence Day or Mango Tango July Challenge?

I was thinking we would each pick out own summery phrase and spell it out... That way slow readers don't have a big phrase to spell out, and the tracking could be left up to each person on their own special post.

Plus that's more fun phrases being spelled out!

What if we just do a read-a-thon type challenge?

Take the books that you have read this year and divide it by six, if it is a fraction round down(even if it is above 5). Then that is the number of books you can read (on average) a month. The challenge would be to beat that goal. If you read ten books a month, go for eleven. Instead of reading a 500 page book, read two 250 page books.

It could be a competition, if people want. So, if I can normally read 8 books a month, but manage to read 9 and Nicole usually reads 5, but manages to read 7 books, she would "win" because she beat her average by 2, while I only beat mine by 1.

That way we get more books read and we don't have to worry about trying to fit them into another challenge. We can just read the books we had already planned out.

I finished A Summer in Sonoma by robyn carr...06.23.2013 4*s 408 pages. I really am starting to think I love RC better than Nora Roberts & I have been reading NR for years...but everytime I pick up RC its like I have stepped into a movie playing inside my head. I love the Virgin River series. A Summer in Sonoma was a stand alone book & I really wish RC would write another one just so we can see how the characters are getting along....great fast read

I've picked up a few Robyn Carr books at library book sales, but I keep reading other things instead. What's the first book in the Virgin River series, Sallie?

Funny u ask. Virgin river. It was great I've read only up to temptation ridge but have really liked them do far

Since we couldn't come up with a consensus, I created a just for fun challenge for us all to work on.

Starts TODAY (right now) and continues on through July 31.

Found HERE: Just for Fun July Mango Tango Challenge

Sounds like fun! This includes any book *finished from today on, right?

Yep!!!