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Challenge #11 (Feb/Mar 2013): Tasks & Questions
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5.1 Laissez les bons temps rouler!: In honor of Mardi Gras (and my hometown), read a book that has a green, gold and/or purple. At least 50% of the cover must one or more of these colors.
5.2 The big game: Read a book that features a sporting event or some type of competition in its plot.
5.3 Young at heart: In honor of Youth Day in Britain (March 29), read a young adult novel.
10.1 What’s in the middle? In honor of “Middle Name Pride Day” (Mar 10th), read a book where the author or a main character have the same name (first or last) as your middle name. If you do not have a middle name, then use one of your parents.
10.2 In case of emergency: In honor of Red Cross month (March), read a book featuring a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, volcano eruption)
10.3 Happy (Chinese) New Year: Read a book first published a year of the snake: 1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
15.1 The sun never sets on the british empire In honor of Commonwealth Day (March 11): Read a book set in one of the commonwealth countries (see Commonwealth Countries for full listing)
15.2. Is the book always better than the movie? Read a book that has been made into a movie.
15.3 Renaissance Man: In honor of Michelangelo's birthday (March 6), read a book which either features an artist as a main character or features an artwork in the plot.
20.1 Beware of the Ides of March: Read a HF book set during the time of the Roman Empire.
20.2Supporting our own: Read a HF book by an author who qualified for our Featured Author Group Read. Go to Featured Authors - 2012 and look at posts: 31,49, and 57. You can read any of the authors who qualified. You may also read the March Featured Author Group Read: The Golden Lynx
20.3 Sweet on you: In honor of International Flirting day and Valentine’s day, read a HF book featuring a couple where each person comes from a different country.
25.1 Spring cleaning those shelves Read 2 HF from your TBR (books you already own) list.
25.2 Big Books: Read a 500 page HF book or over book which has gotten a 5 star rating from another member of Historical Fictionistas.
25.3 Celebrating History: For this task you will read two books:
In honor of Black History month (February), read a book from Black History Month Listopia
In honor of Woman’s History month (March), read a book from Woman in Historical Fiction Listopea
50.1 Ultimate Historical Reads: Read three HF books from the HF Ultimate Reading List
50.2 New Year, New Reads: For this task, you will use some of the features of GR to discover new reads; no re-reads are allowed. All tasks must be completed to get points, but you may want to plan all the books at the same time.
Book 1: Read a HF book from the GR recommendations from the Historical Fiction genre. To do this, select Recommendations from the menu and then scroll to genres and pick Historical Fiction. (NOTE: please validate that the book also meets our group’s definition of historical fiction).
Book 2: Read a HF book by a “new to you author” by looking at the “Readers also enjoyed similar books” section of the main page. You will need to scroll down and look on the right-hand side of the page.
Book 3: Go to the author page for Book 2’s author. If you scroll down to the author’s book section on the right, the first line of this section will have a link to similar authors.. Click on this link to pick another “new to you” author and read a book by them.
100.1 Best of the 2012: Read 4 books from the GR Reader Choice Awards. One book must be from the historical fiction genre, and all books can be nominees or winners.
Post questions below in this thread.The Golden Lynx
I've never done one of these challenges and I'm excited to try it! Quick question about scoring, is the number of the challenge the amount of points? (ie 5.1 is 5 points). And is that the total for the whole task, or is that the point value per book? (ie 5.1-5.3 would be 15 points total)Thanks!
Mod
Thanks!I'm also having trouble finding this one
"Book 3: Go to the author page for Book 2’s author. If you scroll down to the author’s book section on the right, the first line of this section will have a link to similar authors.. Click on this link to pick another “new to you” author and read a book by them."
I'm looking at Julie Otsuka 's page, but I don't see anything that says similar authors.
Question about 25.1 - I have a TBR on GR, which is all the books I want to read whether I own them or not, and a subshelf called "I own", which are books from my GR TBR that are physically sitting on my home shelf. Would I pick from "I own" or the whole TBR?
Mod
I'm also having trouble finding this one
"Book 3: Go to the author page for Book 2’s author. If you scroll down to the author’s book section on the right, the first line of this section wi..."
The link is right under the header for "Julie Otsuka's Books":
Average rating: 3.59 · 15,399 ratings · 3,242 reviews · 5 distinct works · Similar authors
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In task 100.1, I am not able to follow the link to the Goodreads Choice Awards. Could you please "relink" this? Thank you!
Hi, JoLene,Regarding 15.1 will you accept Burma (formerly occupied by Britain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma#Br...
as a Commonwealth country?
for The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Mod
@Holly -- no, I won't accept Burma as the commonwealth of nations is meant to where they recognize the sovereignty of the British monarchy --- in Burma, they were not happy to be occupied by the British. (however, it is a good book so you should read it anyway ;-))
Yay! That worked! Thank you for all the work you do with the challenges! They are great fun!
Mod
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show_b...
How I got there:
- Go to the group Bookshelf
- On the left, type the title in the "add" field at the top and click search
- On the results page, you should see the title, author, star rating, and then underneath there would be a link saying "View Group Reviews" which shows who has rated or reviewed the book in the group.
Can you try that and see if it will work?
Mod
I was actually wondering the same thing about finding out how others rated it from this group...will try it now.Update: Yep worked for me! Thanks!
I deleted it because I was looking through books that I am already planning to read in the next couple of months. One that is my next local club read came up as a five star for a friend of my in Historical Fictionistas so I did not need to look any further. But thanks for being so prompt. You were right on top of that one. This book, Wolf Hall, works for my local club, works as a monthly read for March for another group I am in, works for this challenge as a five star HF rated by a friend in the group and works for the HFU degree challenge - award winning book. Looks like a winner all around.
I tried it and that works and Galway Bay does have 5 stars from at least a couple of people in the group so either one will work. Thanks again.
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For 10.1 I don't have a middle name and neither do my parents (not sure if its a dutch thing or not). Could I use my husbands or one of my kids?
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For 50.2 - This generated HF recommendations based on books on my shelf. Is that what you intend or is there a general HF recommendations link?
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I don't get it- you choose one task, or as many as you want for those 2 months? I'm excited because my middle name is Kristin and it came from Kristin Lavransdatter, so I can read that (been wanting to for 50+ years) for task 10.1.The review bonus is for a review I write of the book?
I'm so confused, lol.
JoLene wrote: "@Nell -- use the genre recommendations -- it should be the section after your own bookshelves (vs using your own shelf --- I'm not sure that everyone has a historical fiction shelf)"I don't have a HF shelf. When I click on HF under genre, the recommendations are based on books on my shelf. Scrolling on each book says the recommendation is based on a specific book.
Mod
@Sandra: The challenge is to see how many tasks you can do during the two month period. We keep a running tally of points and publish a scoreboard for a little friendly competition. Yes, the review bonus is for you to write a review --- basically encouraging people to use GR. You may want to check out the Historical Fiction Challenge #10 to see how it works: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9... The tasks are different but that is how the scoring works.
Ok, thx. I am doing the HFU challenge too, so I hope to kill two birds with one stone. You people must do nothing but read, though. I thought I read a lot (145 books in 2012), with working full time, but I feel like I need to read this many books a month in this group!
Mod
Well --- I am nowhere near reading that much a month/year. Last year was my high of 83 --- but I found that I often went for shorter books due to challenges.
I also love finding books that check off multiple check-marks for various challenges --- that is part of the fun. Also getting exposed to new authors or genres. However, everyone needs to pick the their own goals for the challenges --- not everyone (including me) can usually finish, but we also want challenges that work for the speed-readers in the group. The important thing is to have fun!!!
I'm still learning about GR. Is the bookshelf tab on the top right MY books or books of the group? How did they get there if mine - are they books fom my to read or read lists and they're automatically sorted by genre and that's how only HF Books appear there?
Mod
At the top of all GoodReads pages is a "menu" which has a gray-ish background. It has Home, My Books, Groups, Recommendations, and Explore. If you click on "My Books", you are taken to your own set of bookshelves. Everyone starts out with the same: Read, Currently Reading, and To Read; these are exclusive shelves, meaning a book can only be on one of them at a time. You can also create additional shelves so that you can organize how you like. A book can be on multiple shelves of the ones that you create. As an example, I have a shelf called library, kindle and different genre categories because at the end of the year, I like to look at my stats by those categories.
When you are looking in a group, the group information is in the upper right corner (below the main menu bar). All the links in that section refer to the group, so the bookshelf that is located there is the bookshelf of the group. We place all the books that we have done group reads on the bookshelf.
If you are referring to another "bookshelf" tab, please paste a link of the page that you are looking at and I'd be happy to explain. GR is a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get used to it, it can be very powerful!
It was the group information tab, so they were the group's books. I found my books and have now started creating shelves; that's a lot of work organizing my read books. Therefore, I won't organize my to-read books until I've read them! But what a great tool!
Mod
Yes, it is a great tool. I actually use my to-read shelf to indicate books that I own but haven't read. I created a wishlist shelf (that I made exclusive) to indicate books that I'm interested in. The reason is that I was "double-buying books" (especially Kindle and paperback format) so now I use GR as my inventory. Since there is an iPhone app, I always have my library with me to look up when I'm shopping! It did take me a while to get this set-up. Good luck!
Ya know, at the beginning of this year, my plan was to scale back the number of challenges I was involved in...but darn it, JoLene, you just keep coming up with ones that I just can't resist! Looks great...off to start planning ;).
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Anyway --- I'm glad that you guys like them!
For 25.1, I own very few novels and the ones that would count as HF I've read. Can I use library books to fulfill this task (I'll be sure to use HF I've already shelved as to-read)?
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I'm sorry if the answer to my question is listed, but I can't find it...if we read a book that covers two tasks(ie: listed on Woman in Historical Fiction Listopea and another task) can I count it for both? Thanks - I'm excited about kicking off my 2013 reading list with some challenges!!
JoLene wrote: "Yes, that is fine Cassie --- it's nice to hear that there are people who are not hoarders like me."Thanks JoLene :). I'd probably be more of a book hoarder if my library wasn't so good here.
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@Jill --- no, you can only count a book once for each challenge. You can use one book to fulfill tasks in other challenges like the HFU challenge as well.
Will you take Outlander for task 25.2 (500+ pages that someone from this group rated 5 stars)?I know it has the time-travel element so I was thinking that might disqualify it based on the HF rules...?
GREAT book and series!!!!!!! The first 100 pages are somewhat difficult to get past, but if you can get past that point you'll be hooked. She's also written some spinoffs based on a popular and colorful character.
Jill wrote: "GREAT book and series!!!!!!! The first 100 pages are somewhat difficult to get past, but if you can get past that point you'll be hooked. She's also written some spinoffs based on a popular and c..."Good to know! I'll be reading it one way or another as it fits into my HFU plan as well as another challenge I'm doing. Since it's SUCH a big book, though, I'm trying to get it to fit in as many things as I can ;).
I don't understand Rule 6b) since I thought we were supposed to be reading HF?
You can read any genre you want unless it specifically states HF. If you read an HF book you get 1 bonus point but only if you report it in your post.
So I would say, for example, Katherine by Anya Seton, HF?
Mod
@Sandra --- many of the lower point books can be any genre, but you will get a bonus point if you read a HF fiction book for those tasks as well (and claim it).
JoLene wrote: "@CassieV -- it can't be a time-travel book for HF. (Sorry, just being consistent with rules that had been established earlier --- but I really enjoyed that book)@Sandra --- many of the lower poin..."
no worries, just asking :)
Historical Fictionistas
Books mentioned in this topic
Life After Life (other topics)Life After Life (other topics)
Jack & Jill (other topics)
The Historian (other topics)
Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
C.P. Lesley (other topics)Herman Wouk (other topics)
Ann-Marie MacDonald (other topics)
Julie Otsuka (other topics)
Participants may join at any time during the challenge. All points must be reported by 11:59pm EST on March 31, 2013 to be counted.
During February and March, we will return to our usual task-based challenge. You may do the tasks in any order, but task can only be scored once. Any books that you read can also be claimed for other challenges (like HFU).
RULES:
1) Books must be Historical Fiction if specified as HF. If no specification is made, the book can be ANY genre. The definition of historical fiction that our group uses is a work published at least 50 years after at least half of the events in the work. Historical fantasy, alternate history and magical realism books are not considered historical fiction for our group.
2) Books must be at least 200 pages long. Eligibility for this is determined by THE MOST POPULAR EDITION OF THE BOOK ON GOODREADS -- NOT the edition you actually read. If the most popular edition is 197 pages, it will not count, even if the edition read is 215 pages.
To determine the most popular edition on Goodreads, simply do a title/author search - the first result that matches your book is the most popular edition on GR. If the first book is an audio book or ebook without page numbers, then use the 2nd book shown in the editions.
3) The first book used for the challenge should be started on or after February 1st.
4) Re-reads and audiobooks are accepted unless specified otherwise in the task. (Audiobook page counts will be determined by the most popular edition on Goodreads.)
SCORING:
5) Task categories are assigned a point value, and points are awarded ONE TIME once all parts of the task are complete. When claiming a book, please link to the TITLE of the book (the most popular one) using the add book/author link above the comment box. If the task involves a cover, then also add the cover link (this is a radio button at the bottom of the dialog box to add a link for the book).
For multi-book tasks, please post only when ALL of the books are completed.
6) There are several opportunities to earn Bonus Points. Bonus points will be awarded PER BOOK READ when task points are awarded. Partial task points and/or bonus points (page count, HF point, etc) will NOT be awarded if the task is unfinished. Bonus points can only be claimed when task points are claimed (so make sure to check your postings)
6a) Book Length Bonus:
Bonus points will be awarded based on the length of each book read, as follows:
200 to 300 pages = 2 bonus points
301 to 500 pages = 4 bonus points
501 to 750 pages = 6 bonus points
751 to 1,000 pages = 8 bonus points
1,000+ = 10 bonus points
6b) Historical Fiction Bonus = 1 point
WE WILL NOT AWARD HF POINTS IF IT IS NOT REPORTED.
6c) Review Bonus = 5 points
In order to receive these points:
- You MUST link to the review in the scoring thread. If it is not directly linked, points will not be awarded. The review must be on GoodReads, not a blog post.
- It must be a legitimate review as determined by scorekeeper; Good book or liked it will not be considered as a legitimate review
- Review must be done when claiming task bonus points.
7) A separate scoring thread will be opened prior to February 1st.
8) HAVE FUN!!!