The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
SUMMER CHALLENGE 2013
>
Summer Challenge 2013: Task Ideas
Tortoises live a long life. Read a book with a long living or immortal creature.
book set in the Northern HempishereWinter - book with a winter scene on the cover (snow; ice) or in title
Read a book with a turtle and or a snake on the coverRead a book with the word summer or winter in the title
Read a book with a mostly black cover
Read a book set in China or a Chinese author
Christmas in July since we'll sort of be doing winter in summer.
Read a book with black (intact) in the title/sub-title or author name.
July 4th and Bastille Day - Read a book with the colors red, white, AND blue on the cover. Can include images and text.
Vive la Revolution! ~ book set in or about a famous figure from the French RevolutionLegend of Xuanwu ~ the Chinese name for "Black Tortoise," so read a book with an author whose initials can be found in Xuanwu
Resolutions Revisited ~ we're halfway through the year, so look back at the books you've put on your TBR since January and read one (or two) of those books
Summer Lovin' ~ read a book about a summer fling
Vacation ~ read a book related to a place you're going (or where you wish you could go) on vacation this summer
No More Pencils ~ read a book that has a computer or typewriter on the cover
No More Books ~ read a book about censorship
No More Teachers' Dirty Looks! ~ read a book featuring an under-18 main character that does NOT take place in a school at all
(sorry, I work in a school, and some of my kids have already checked out for the year even though we go until mid-June)
It's Our History ~ read a nonfiction book about a historic event that happened in the country you call home
Everyone's a Hero in Their Own Way ~ read a book featuring a superhero
Read a book with a sandy beach on the cover.Read a book with a star or stars on the cover.
(Love those summer nights)
Read a hardback book (for hardback turtles.)
Read a book that changes seasons in the book.
Read a book where someone is on vaction or
travels.
Read a book with a suitcase, paper bag, or
large travel bag on the cover.
Read a book that has shopping in the storyline or
the title---- "shop". (I love to go shopping
in the summer.)
Read a book with a picnic on the cover or
the title has 6 words like PICNIC.
Read a book that you consider a summer read.Because the days are longer and the nights shorter, read a book with 500+ pages.
Prince William + Kate welcome their baby in July. Read a book where the main character is under eighteen.
Summer Releases! Read a book that was released in the summer months, according to SRC rules.
Celebrate Mystery Ladies! Patricia Cornwell, V.C. Andrews, Sara Paretsky, Kate Wilhelm, Tess Gerritson, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Dorothy Gilman all have birthdays in June. Read a book, shelved as mystery on it's main page, and written by a female author.Dan Brown's birthday is June 22 and he will have just released a new book. Read a book shelved as suspense or thriller, OR read a book that's been made into a movie.
Sci Fi Summer: Mercedes Lackey, Robert A. Heinlein, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury all have summer birthdays. Read a book shelved as sci-fi on its main page.
Turtles have shells. Covers of books are "shells". Picture on cover should have something with a shell, turtles, clams, eggs, campers, shotguns, etc.The US celebrates Flag Day on June 14 and Independence Day on July 4. France has Bastille Day on July 14. Canada celebrates Dominion Day on July 1. These are just a few examples of national holidays during the summer. Read a non-fiction book about some aspect of the history of YOUR country.
Days are long, nights are short. Read a long book (over 500 pages--remember, it'll count as a Big Book.)
with Flag Day - a book with a flag on the cover
Read a book with a person on the cover who has their back to youRead a book with more than 2 people on the cover
Read a book with someone wearing a hat on the cover
(lets protect ourselves from the summer sun)
The summer months are the 6th, 7th and 8th months of the year. Read #6,7,or 8 in a series
LETS TIE THINGS UP FOR THE SUMMERRead a book with string, wire, rope etc on the cover
Read two books with an anagram in the titleseg: tea/eat
late/tale
mary/army
was/saw
dear/dare
should be a few more people come up with!!!
I like the anagram idea!~~~~~
Ooo! What Book? ~ read a book from the "What are you currently reading?" thread.
Scavenger Hunt 2.0 ~ I love the Scavenger Hunt thread, but it's gotten kinda bloated...what if we started a new one for a task? One of the mods posts a book, a second mod responds, and the third mod responds, and then it's open season for all of us :D And any book that is both posted and fits the challenge rules is fair game
Good Times ~ Book takes place in a time/era you wouldn't mind visiting (alternately, could be a time-travel book)
Read a book mentioned by a fellow SRC member in the Least Favorite Reads or Bottom 10 threads.
How about a few more word games to go along with the anagrams!These would all be 2 book tasks.
Books with homophone words in titles. Eg: tale/tail. Night/knight
For/four. Piece/peace. Etc
Books with words with opposites in title. Eg: Black/white. Up/down
In/out. Right/wrong. Etc
Books with a number in one title and the written number in the second title(not including series numbers!). Eg: 2/two. 8/eight. 19/nineteen
Can you tell I love word games!
I like the ones we have done in the past where you use words from songs - you could use a summer school (school's out for the summer) and word from the lyrics
book set in the northern hemisphere that isn't your home country (to make it slightly harder)
A title that has a comma, colon, or semicolonA book with a king, queen, princess, or prince on it or in the story line.
A book with a bird on the cover, or bird in the title like Lonesome Dove or Song of the Sparrow.
A title with a color word in the title like
Where the Red Fern Grows or The White Jade Fox.
June is wedding month, how about a challenge based around wedding ideas (bride, groom, cake, church, dress, veil, tux, something new/blue/old etc).July 4th is Independence Day in the US commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Read a book set in either the US or Great Britain, a book published in July or a book where someone gets their freedom.
August is National Catfish Month (read a book with a cat or fish on the cover, in the title or in the story itself) and Romance Awareness Month (read a romance novel)
2013 is the 500th anniversary of Machiavelli's The Prince. There are a number of potential challenge possibilities related to this work (potentially would be a two-book challenge):Option 1: read a book in which the main character is a hereditary prince or princess.
Option 2: read a book in which a ruler takes a kingdom by force.
Option 3: read a book featuring a prince or princess that acquires a kingdom through evil practices.
Option 4: read a fiction or non-fiction book about Alexander the Great and/or Darius III of Persia.
Option 5: read a book set in one or more Italian city-states in the 1500s.
Option 6: read a book either about a prince/princess who is loved or a prince/princess who is feared.
Option 7: read a book where barbarians are invading or about to invade Italy.
Option 8: read a book in which a kingdom is ruled by a religious figure.
Option 9: read a biography of Machiavelli or a book where he is a major character.
OR
Option 10: read The Prince (it's really really short), then choose one of the real life rulers/powerful individuals, other than Alexander and Darius, mentioned in the text , i.e. Francesco Sforza, Cesare Borgia, Philip of Macedonia, etc. and read a book in which they are a major character.
Just my suggestion! :)
My parents have a yard full of trees and in the summer, they have so many avocados and mangoes that they have to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.So in honor of avocados and mangoes, read a book with 3 Os in the title or whose author has the initials AM.
I always like looking back at previous seasons...maybe a 1 book task from the first season you participated...same name, different spelling - reading 2 authors who have the same name, but spell it different (karen/karin; laurie/lori)
There are so many of the older tasks Iloved. Good idea Dee-- going back and
choosing one. :-)
i think any task from more than 4 seasons ago should be fair game for a repeat ;)
Dee wrote: "I like the ones we have done in the past where you use words from songs - you could use a summer school (school's out for the summer) and word from the lyrics"Building on this idea, how about using the soundtrack from Grease since it takes place in summer and has characters who come from both northern and southern hemisphere?
Also, a book that has won a genre award like a Hugo, RITA, or Agatha.
Summer means no assigned books. Read a book of your choice
A very long time ago we did a task wherethe book you read was twice or three
times removed from another book---
Any connection would work as long as you
explain the connection---
Like:
1- Cassandra Clare - author of City of Bones
live in Massachusetts.
2-Sylvia Plath was from Massachusetts and
she wrote the Bell Jar
3- I'm reading For Whom the Bell Tolls
Something like that.
:-)
Samantha wrote: "Summer means no assigned books. Read a book of your choice"man. I had assigned summer reading EVERY summer in high school. How about read a book you used to read for assigned summer reading? or maybe something off of this list.
the tortoise and the hare: if you're a tortiose, read a book straight through, and if you're a hare read a book for a bit, then take a break and finish it later.
read a book with a cover that depicts a woman with a flower in her hair:
JenC. wrote: "the tortoise and the hare: if you're a tortiose, read a book straight through, and if you're a hare read a book for a bit, then take a break and finish it later."Along that same line, the tortoise reads a 400+ page book and the hare reads two books that must total 400+ pages.
Karen GHHS wrote: "JenC. wrote: "the tortoise and the hare: if you're a tortiose, read a book straight through, and if you're a hare read a book for a bit, then take a break and finish it later."Along that same lin..."
I like the 400pgs thing :D
That could work for a 25/30 pointer - flip a coin - heads/hare; tails/tortoise
Read a book that has summer/hot colours on the cover e.g. red, yellow, orangeDays are longer in summer. Read a big book (500 pages+).
It is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Read a book set in the Northern Hemisphere.
In honor of the tortoise' hard shell, read a book that was published in hardcover (give link to hardcover version.)
Look at this cute little thing!
In honor of this baby tortoise, read a book with a baby on the cover or one of the characters.
Read a book published in June, July or August.The summer season in the United States is commonly regarded as beginning on Memorial Day weekend (the last weekend in May). Read a book related to a war or armed forces.
The summer season in the United States is commonly regarded as ending on Labor Day weekend (the first weekend in September). Read a book related to your occupation or dream occupation.
Canadian tradition starts summer on Victoria Day. Read a book about a queen.Schools and universities typically have a summer break to take advantage of the warmer weather and longer days. Read a book set in a school, college or university.
The feast of the Assumption of Mary takes place on August 15 (or August 28 in the Orthodox Churches). Read a book with a character called Mary.
For reasons unknown to me, whenever a task requires a number, they exclude ordinals, so for this task, read a book with an ordinal in the title or subtitle (not series, can't make it too easy). 1st to Die, The Twentieth Wife, The Third Option etc.
Activities such as traveling to the beach and picnics occur during summer months.Read a book with a title beginning with B E A C H or P I C N I C.
I had a dream that I came up with a great idea for a task but now can't remember what it was.So read a book that relates to a dream you had...and explain the dream, LOL!
Series math - read 2 books in different series where the installments add up to 6,7 or 8
JenC. wrote: "the tortoise and the hare: if you're a tortiose, read a book straight through, and if you're a hare read a book for a bit, then take a break and finish it later."Jen, Then there's people like me that read the first few chapters, skips to the end and reads the last few, and then hops around through the middle, while rereading favorites bits previously read. I do get the whole book read, but it's like grasshopper reading.
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Killer Angels (other topics)Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (other topics)
Bitterblue (other topics)
Seduction (other topics)
There's Cake in My Future (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeff Shaara (other topics)Brenda Ashford (other topics)
Rodney Dangerfield (other topics)
Neil Gaiman (other topics)
V.C. Andrews (other topics)
More...
As in past challenges, some tasks may revolve around the seasonal theme of Summer. Others may reflect the bonus theme – and with the new bonus themes, each has several possibilities. Other tasks may have nothing to do with either of these themes (they’re just fun ideas for unique reading challenges).
Feel free to post as many ideas as you can come up with. Don't worry about repeating what another player might have already suggested. The more ideas, the better!
The moderators will draw from these ideas as well as their own to create the 5, 10, and 15 point tasks. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!