Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

How about - the elements, ie. earth, wind/air, fire, water, etc?

Yes!

Ok I have a question for ALL of you guys who have suggested in this thread.

I would like to know if I could use some of these awesome ideas in my group? Its not a challenge group like this one so I dont have suggestions left and right like Yz does.
My group only does a couple challenges a month.

There are some cute ideas here that I wanted to use but I didn't want to offend Yz or any of you guys and use them before asking.

Tricia,

I don't mind if you ask me.

I promise you, Tricia, I won't be offended.

Won't bother me, Tricia, go for it :)

Thanks :) I will pull from this list and if someone is bothered please feel free to PM me :)

What about a series challenge? Maybe a yearly challenge - to see how many series we can read in a year....something like that?

We have a series challenge thread where you can post to keep track of what series you are currently reading, finished with, etc. Some series have only 2 or 3 books in them, and some like J.D. Robb's series has over 30 books in it.

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "We have a series challenge thread where you can post to keep track of what series you are currently reading, finished with, etc. Some series have only 2 or 3 books in them, and some like J.D. Robb'..."

I did see that one, Briansgirl, but I took it as more of a list rather than a challenge. Sorry, I just misunderstood. Thanks for your help.

It is a list but I don't know how to make this a challenge with different series being lengths (some small, some large). Another problem is alot of series are currently being written, so you can read up to what's been released but then you're waiting on the next book to come out, and maybe more after that. When folks started writing down which series they wanted to start, which ones they are currently reading, which ones they are current on waiting for new releases, and then which series they've finished completely some discovered they were reading 30 or 40 series with a large amount of them waiting for books to be released. In fact, once they had a challenge category on the monthly challenge to read a book that's a stand-alone (ie, not in a series) and many had trouble finding one. We have had a challenge category on the monthly challenge to read a book from a series, or to start reading a new series.

yep...I see what you are saying. it's probably better to just keep a list of the series as is done in the "series madness challenge". although, i think an A-Z series challenge would be fun. guidelines could be set for a minimum/maximum number of books, so that a series that has 20 or 30 books, say you would have to read a minimum of two and a maximum of 5 (or whatever seems reasonable) to count towards the series challenge.

i don't know....it's just a thought.

I'm actually planning for an update total by December(end of the year) for those who posted their lists on the series madness challenge.

Let me play around with your suggestions southpaw285, and see if we can come up with something workable. Thanks for pitching it in.

I'd be curious to see how everyone's progressed on their series lists. I know I've completed a few, added to a few, and started a few. lol

I wanna say that Jennifer Cruise (if that is her name), is actually a man writing (or maybe a husband/ wife combo)...

if anyone reads books from ellora's cave there are also several men who write - reese gabriel and j w mckenna being two that come to mind.

new_user wrote: "BriansGirl wrote: "read a romance novel written by a man!"

*gaspshockhorror* What?! LOL, JK. That might be a good idea, actually.

"

Some more ideas:


Read a book with a proper name in the title
Read a book about a queen or king
Read a book about Vampires
Read an ‘art’ themed book (music/painting/acting, etc)
Read a biography/autobiography
Read a book by an author born in the same year as you
Read a book just because you like the cover
Read a classic (Gone with the wind, Jane Eyre, etc)
Read a book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die List
Read a book by an author you've "given up" on (call it one more try)
Read a non-fiction book on an obscure topic (or something you don't usually read about)

Deanna wrote: "I wanna say that Jennifer Cruise (if that is her name), is actually a man writing (or maybe a husband/ wife combo)...

if anyone reads books from ellora's cave there are also several men who writ..."

I think you might be mistaken, Deanna, or perhaps thinking of someone else. I'm no expert on Jennifer Crusie, but I have some GR friends who are big fans, so I've absorbed a lot of info about her. According to her bio (http://www.jennycrusie.com/info/bio/), she is a woman writing solo except for her collaborations with Bob Mayer, but as far as I know his name is always on the book too. Her last name apparently is a pseudonym taken from a family name.

like i said, not sure - that's just something i heard on a men writing as women forum post...another man writing as a woman is Leigh Greenwood (real name harold lowry)

Mel W wrote: "How about - the elements, ie. earth, wind/air, fire, water, etc?"

Hey Mel,
I really like the elements idea!! Good one!

Thanks, Valorie :) I noticed I had a few books with "fire" in the title, and my thoughts expanded from there.

This may have already been suggested--I didn't want to read through the 220 messages to find out :)

What about a challenge where each book's story takes place on a different continent--I chose continent instead of country in order to afford more flexibility when choosing books. I thought of this after reading Full Moon Rising--it takes place in Australia.

OR

where the majority of the story line takes place in different areas of the US like in the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-West, Northwest, etc...

OR maybe it is set at the beach, in the mountains, in the desert, in a forest, in the snow, in the swamp, on an island, in a city, on a farm, in a rainforest, etc...

OR

could also make it an author challenge where the author is of a certain nationality or from a particular region/country or continent.

We did do a quarterly challenge earlier this year that was in two parts. Part 1 was to read a book set on each continent. Part 2 was to read a book in 7 different European countries.

another possible challenge--which might have also been suggested is maybe a holiday challenge where the story, title or something in the title or on the cover revolves around a particular holiday.

EXAMPLE:

Presidents Day:
Sucker Bet--brother is Prez of Vampire Nation
Valentines Day:
Love Bites--valentines day is about love
St Patricks Day:
The Vampire's Revenge--set in Savannah on St Patty's day
4th of July:
Fireworks--takes place on the 4th of July and has fireworks in the name.
Memorial Day:
Bound By Sin--honors men/women who die in military service-main character's hubby dies in Civil War
Labor Day:
Undead and Unemployed
Halloween:
Full Moon Rising--full moon is associated with Halloween
Christmas:
The Magical Christmas Cat
New Years Eve:
A Red Hot New Year
MLK Jr Day:
Deadly Dreams "I have a Dream"--dream is in the title

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "We did do a quarterly challenge earlier this year that was in two parts. Part 1 was to read a book set on each continent. Part 2 was to read a book in 7 different European countries."

oh well! i figured someone had already thought of that...

Thanks for the suggestions, Cherra. I'm pretty sure I can work some of them in a challenge.

Yz wrote: "Thanks for the suggestions, Cherra. I'm pretty sure I can work some of them in a challenge."

if you can't, no biggie. I was just trying to contribute to the process because I have NO IDEA how you all come up with all these ideas for challenges in the first place. So, thanks for that!

LOL...It's pretty much what you guys drop in this thread...I just scour through them, take notes and allow it to inspire me.

So every little gem you guys scribble on this thread, I do take note of them. Sometimes you see them appear in the challenges or sometimes a variation of it.

How about an Author Recommended Challenge? Pick an author and read a book from each author they recommend. Example...
Gena Showalter recommends
1. Jenna Black
2. Candace Havens
3. Jennifer Armintrout
4. Jenna MacLaine
5. Julie Kagawa
I noticed that Fantastic Fiction's website shows recommendations from authors on their website.

Valorie wrote: "How about an Author Recommended Challenge? Pick an author and read a book from each author they recommend. Example...
Gena Showalter recommends
1. Jenna Black
2. Candace Havens
3. Jennifer Armintro..."

I thought I was the only one who does this! It was thanks to Keri Arthur I found Jenna Black and I also discovered Patricia Brigg's this way.

Valorie wrote: "How about an Author Recommended Challenge? Pick an author and read a book from each author they recommend. Example...
Gena Showalter recommends
1. Jenna Black
2. Candace Havens
3. Jennifer Armintro..."

This isn't a bad idea, but I wouldn't know how to find recommendations from authors I like. Even if an author has an official website, it doesn't mean recommendations are listed on it.

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "Valorie wrote: "How about an Author Recommended Challenge? Pick an author and read a book from each author they recommend. Example...
Gena Showalter recommends
1. Jenna Black
2. Candace Havens
..."

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk has a section at the bottom of each author's Bio page with recommendations from that author, usually with quotes. It's also a good site for finding out publication dates, series order etc. Try it out :)

I looked but I don't trust it to be accurate that the recommendations actually come from the authors themselves. I would believe it if it's on the author's own website. But that's just me.

It is a good place to find out what books are in a series and in what order.

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "I looked but I don't trust it to be accurate that the recommendations actually come from the authors themselves. I would believe it if it's on the author's own website. But that's just me.

It is..."

I know the Keri Arthur one's are accurate as they are the same as her website. As for the other's who know's?! However I mainly use it for confirming reading order's for book series.

I like fantasticfiction.com too.

I think its a pretty cool books site, especially when it come to checking authors and series orders of books.

I've used that site to verify books in order in a series. Not even all authors own websites list that data, and some authors don't have websites. Some series are obvious, others are not. I discovered last month Ransom was a sequel to The Secret by Julie Garwood. And Shadow Music is #3 in the Medieval series. The books were all written with nearly a decade between each book, so it was easy to miss that they aren't a series. Even the titles are so different. (And Shadow Dance is not related in any way to Shadow Music either.)

Read a book by your favorite author.

Revisit an author that you've loved but for some reason stopped reading long ago. Read one more of his/her books.

geography - read a book set in the state/province/ or ideally city that was your birthplace.

Okay, this idea appeals to someone like me who has *way* too many books on the to-be-read shelf and can never decide what to read next...

How about
1) Pick the xxx-th book off your to-be-read shelf and read it (unless it's in the middle of a series, in which case you can just read the first book in that series).
or
2) Put a bunch of your to-be-read books in a big box and close the lid. Randomly reach in and pull out the book to read. :)

I love a surprise! hehehe

Also, in honor of finding a book I recently really liked in a genre I thought I would hate:

3) Read a book in a genre you think you would hate
or
4) Read a book in a genre you have never read before

okay... one more suggestion :)

1) Read a book suggested by someone 20+ years older/younger than you
or
2) Read a book recommended by a family member (mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, aunt, uncle, etc)

Love your to-be-read ideas FlibBityFloob!

Had another idea over lunch...

Read a book inspired by a classic.

Examples:
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
An Assembly Such as This
Mr. Darcy's Diary
Mr. Darcy, Vampyre
etc.

Granted, most of the ones I can think of are based on Jane Austen books, but I'm sure there are probably others that I don't know about :)

FlibBityFLooB wrote: "Had another idea over lunch...

Read a book inspired by a classic."

There are alot of Sherlock Holmes stories based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original works.

Earlier in the year, one of our quarterly challenges was "men we love" - could we do a "women we love" sometime?
I know men are much more interesting - but the best hero needs a decent heroine - or, if you're like me, you want to throw the book...

I like the classic and the classic-inspired suggestion, Flib.

Great idea, Annie. I'll keep that in mind for the next quarterly challenge.

How do you "strike out" an item on your challenge lists?
I've been marking them as finished with the date I finished reading the item as I haven't figured out how to strike through the title that I have finished.

Use this HTML code: <s> </s> with the title in between

Title of Book

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to pose a poll of sorts to the group with questions on the books they have read this year.
For example-

1. Best new author you discovered this year?
2. Best series?
3. Best standalone?
4. Biggest disappointment?
5. What are you most looking forward to bookwise next year?
6. Which series has lost you as a reader?
7. Favourite challenge you participated in?

An end of year round up if you will? Give us an idea of what everyone reads, wants to read and is looking forward to reading next year.

Just an idea I had while chatting to a friend. I was looking for inspiration on what series to start once I'm more up to date with what I'm currently reading!

I was actually planning to do that, Michelle, but I was shooting for early January to include the December books.

Love the questions you came up with.

Yz wrote: "I was actually planning to do that, Michelle, but I was shooting for early January to include the December books.

Love the questions you came up with."

Thanks Yz. I'm really curious to see how different everyone's answers are.

Okay, this challenge might only appeal to me... I may have to just make it a personal challenge for 2010, but I thought I'd share it.

The idea is a version of a yearly challenge, with 1 book to be read every month -- so 12 books the entire year. The catch is that all the books have to be by the same author.

I was just thinking that I wanted to read Georgette Heyer's novels, but I never seem to be able to fit them into my challenges. I was going to make it a personal goal to read one of her novels a month next year, and I thought it could be a fun challenge.