Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Navigating the NBRC group
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Jenn
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May 23, 2013 09:42AM
I'm feeling a little lost, too- I'm new to this group, and can't get a grasp on what's expected or how to even dive in... Do we join a team? Just start reading? Wait for the next challenge and start there? I'd love some direction, and I'm in the same boat- very limited time to read (as a single mother of 3, and an elementary school teacher.... but summer's coming!), but also eager for a challenge to keep me motivated and focused. Any help would be appreciated!
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Most challenges allow you to decide how many books you want to read a month. There are also yearly challenges that may work for you. There are open challenges too. I am a fairly fast reader so right now I have 15 challenges going, some monthly where I am only reading three books for the month, some open challenges and some yearly challenges.
Mod
There is a Reading Challenge Index that is alphabetical and tells you the duration.
There is also a Monthly/Seasonal Index.
If you would like to join the "Tower Teams Reading Challenge," we are still forming Teams. Here are the New Rules for Round II and here is the Sign-up thread.
Mod
I think the least amount anyone has signed up for so far is ten books for the entire year. We will gladly find a Team for you.
We just ask that you "check in" at least once every two weeks so we know you are still participating. Of course, posting a book will tell us you are still with us. ☺
Cornelia wrote: "I'm really confused. I feel really slow. I want to take part in some of the challenges but am having problems figuring out to take part. Does each challenge have its own rules and requirements? ..."Never feel silly for asking a question. We're slowly trying to construct our Navigating NBRC (Nothing but Reading Challenges) area and will be adding more to it in the near future. Questions are always welcome because they help us know what we need to address in this section of the group. In the near future, we'll have a post devoted solely to challenges and how they work as well one dealing with what our Tower Team Challenges are and how they work as well as sections devoted to everything else you may have a question on. We've been with the group for a long time, we're actually one of the older groups on Goodreads, so fresh thoughts and concerns are always welcome. It helps us know what items we need to address.
Jenn wrote: "I'm feeling a little lost, too- I'm new to this group, and can't get a grasp on what's expected or how to even dive in... Do we join a team? Just start reading? Wait for the next challenge and st..."At the beginning of the year, a member suggested we do some sort of challenge associated with members working in teams. The Tower Team challenges are what Lisa Kay came up with. You do not need to join a team to be in the group, but if you want to you can do so. It's a side option.
Cornelia wrote: "I'm really confused. I feel really slow. I want to take part in some of the challenges but am having problems figuring out to take part. Does each challenge have its own rules and requirements? ..."As Anna said earlier, we have some challenges under our "Monthly Challenges" section that are devoted to a one or two months time fame (ie a July challenge, an August challenge, etc). We additionally have some devoted to a month's time frame onward and upwards to a year's time frame. We usually give you different 'levels of play' which combined with time frames can be used as a gauge, but if you need more time to finish a challenge than is allotted, then please feel free to customize it to whatever time frame you feel comfortable with. Just set yourself a start and end date. We hope you will find at least one or two challenges that you like. I believe we have more challenges than any other group on Goodreads.
Can we do challenges that may have closed already if we're new to the group?
Yes, sometimes I do feel slow, too. I´m dyslexic (that´s why I edit so many times almost every post) and I´ve taken some time to work on my reading but I´m still slow. I need more than an hour for 50-80 pages.Still, challenges here are quite okay for me (except Team reads) so you could choose a yearly challenge (like me) and fullfill it slowly (there´re levels).
Montly challenges are good, as well. You can read two books per month (or even one) and you´ll still be able to complete it.
And there´s always a Freestyle Challenge where you read whatever and however you want. It´s free!
Holly wrote: "Can we do challenges that may have closed already if we're new to the group?"Yes, no challenges were ever supposed to be closed except the ones associated with a particular year. Eventually they'll find their way back out of the archives and back where they should be. A previous moderator moved them to the archives, but we recently discussed it and decided they shouldn't be retired. We still like them and hopefully everyone else does too. That is also the reason why you'll note we've started including links to them in our Newsletters hoping to drum up interest in them.
If you have limited reading time, you might find doing a team challenge to be kind of stressful. There are some delightful individual challenges that have no end date, like the "Disney Princesses" challenge. (I think that's in this group... I'm in so many!) And you can pick your level of participation.
There are so many good open-ended challenges here! I still haven't even discovered them all or participated in as many as I want to. Every few weeks I take the time to seek out a new one and see if I can play along. I love that we can open older challenges back up, too. I recently discovered the "Spring Cleaning" one where you clean up your GR shelves. It got me to work on something I'd been meaning to get to for so long.
I'm not a fast reader either but there are challenges that work for slow readers. I join the challenges that last for a year and try to see what I can fill in the best I can knowing I won't finished but it is fun to see just how far I can get. Then you could find a "Pick It For Me" type of challenge. In that type of challenge you just need to pick books for someone else and someone else picks books for you but you only have to complete one book per month. It's a great starting point. I don't think this group has one but I would be willing to moderate one if there is enough interest in it. Perhaps I will set one one up for July. Anybody interested?
Joyce wrote: "I'm not a fast reader either but there are challenges that work for slow readers. I join the challenges that last for a year and try to see what I can fill in the best I can knowing I won't finishe..."We did a 'Not So Secret Santa' book exchange suggestion in December and have talked of doing another in July because of the Christmas in July theme.
I was confused a little too. It can be a little overwhelming for a newbie and discouraging. I am still trying to find my way around.
I'm a fast reader and I still find most of the team related challenges stressful and have decided to skip most of them at this point. The only team ones I'm going to do now are ones like the Tower Teams, where if I don't feel like reading for a week or get on a non-fiction kick or something, it's not a big deal. But I am no longer going to do the challenges, mostly from other groups, that require a certain genre, theme or what not book to be read within a week. I also only join challenges now that work with my other challenges, meaning where I can use basically the same books for them all.
Nika **~OhMyShelves~** wrote: "I was confused a little too. It can be a little overwhelming for a newbie and discouraging. I am still trying to find my way around."It took me a little while to work my way around but it is worth it. Ask questions most people here are very helpful to newbees
I'm a slow reader also. I work, and have a young family and read around 1-2 books a week. I like the idea of a team read challenge to help keep me motivated, I'm just worried that I would let the team down if I can't keep up. I will also look at some of the other challenges that have a longer time frame.
~Meadow~ wrote: "I'm a slow reader also. I work, and have a young family and read around 1-2 books a week. I like the idea of a team read challenge to help keep me motivated, I'm just worried that I would let the t..."I only read about 40 books a year and still participate in just about everything. It's a matter of having fun with it and trying your best. If you don't finish a challenge, try again later or stretch the challenge out to fit what you need (most of our challenges have flexible end dates unless it's a specific month challenge). And the tower teams challenge is evened out so that teams have fast and slow readers, so don't feel bad if you don't read as much as everyone else.
Thank you Jex :) I just didn't want to let a team down, but if they are mixed then I'll give it ago. In fact, I've just signed up for my very first challenge, the Tower Team challenge if members are still being accepted.
@Meadow: I'm glad to hear you signed up for the challenge! I know it can be tough when someone is posting a book a day and you're lucky if you finished a chapter (that's me at least) but some people are just speed demons with books. We can't all be expected to be at that level.
I can do Team Spirit :) I'm excited to get started and meet a team now I've looked around. I think it is also a great way of looking at what everyone else is reading !!
I'm in the same boat. I work long hours in a professional role two days a week, run my own business from home the rest of the week and in between all this keep a two year old amused during the day as much as I can. Reading only gets to happen during my little man's nap time in the middle of the day if I have a break from work or at night when he finally goes to bed (hubby gets a bit neglected sometimes unfortunately :-))Even though I read slow though I try to participate in my group discussions as much as I can and try to tailor the few books I can read to meet any of the challenges if I can manage it.
It's all about having fun and meeting like-minded people for me as discussing books with a two year old isn't all that stimulating most of the time..... I'm not all the fussed if I can't meet all the challenge requirements in a timeframe, it's just as much fun to me to just give it a go!
I continue to be confused and while I marvel at how the mods set up this group, I find that while I am really intelligent, I still can't get a handle on the boards overall. Last night I thought that I am trying to stick to this and as soon as I figure out one thing with the help of others maybe I should just drop out. I know that sounds childish but I feel such anxiety when I sign on to these groups and that's not my thing when it comes to books. Maybe I just don't belong here but since I read well over 100 books, I imagine I would be an asset.OK here is my dilemma- I am a member of Pewter Blue and a sister group. I don't quite understand what the sister group is and how I find it. I signed up for a challenge with the word camp in it. I selected several different books for the challenge but now I can't find the folder to post the book I did finish. Also is there any place where I can set up an overall challenge post so that everything is in one place? Also, can I partake in challenges from other groups?
Mod
Nancy, the main reason we moved the Tower Team Reading Challenge to the "sister group" was due to too many people signing up to different Teams' Home Page Challenges who had not signed-up through the sign-up thread. This caused the numbers on the Teams to be unbalanced.
Two challenges that started recently that have the word "camp" in them are Camp Gottaread Summer Reading Challenge, the other one is Summer Camping Reading Challenge.
If not either of these, you might refer to these two indexes, which are always located at the top of their folders:
Reading Challenges IndexSomething that might help you is...
Monthly-Seasonal Challenges Index
FYI: There are now Two Ways to Search!If you are asking if there a place/folder where other members of NBRCs are posting and keeping track of their challenges, not just for Pewter Blue? Then I believe you want this one . Another link that will help you with the set-up of this is Add a New Topic to a Folder.
By a word or name within a post (blue arrow), or by topic (red arrow)!
If you are trying to keep track of what is going on in Pewter Blue, their main thread here is your best bet.
I did see you ask why Captains have two threads set up for challenges in the "sister group"; that is so they don't miss when someone finishes a book. Things like that need to be double-checked and scanning through a long thread can be hard.
As one who was confused and is now beginning to see the light, I think if you are interested in joining with this group, one should first go to the beginning folders at the top and read each folder. There is some repetition and duplication and lots of folders and I wish I had read the folders that explain everything before rushing in and asking lots of questions. I am beginning to see the forest from the trees until they change something. LOL
Mod
We are revamping some of our old folders and moving things around. For example, after a few months of being posted, we started moving our BOMs to the alphabetical authors' listing.
Could you explain the Read your name challenge. Do I list my books now or after I read them? Is this a yearly challenge?
Mod
Valerie, you may plan your books or post as you read them. It is up to you. It is "open-ended" - so there is no set time to complete it, unless you want to set that yourself.
hello everyone,I am an avid reader but I am new to book groups and wuld appreciate any help I can recieve until i get the grasp of everything.
Mod
I pretty much have questions about everything. I would like to be very active in the group and contribute to the group but there is alot going on and not sure about everything.
Okay, so this was probably answered somewhere, but I'm kinda tired so I might have missed it. If you ended up being unable to finish a monthly challenge, can you move on to a different one (for that month or more open-ended), or do you have to stick it out on the one you didn't finish? I signed up for a September challenge before I discovered that I had to move, and so with all of the chaos of the last minute move I didn't get to read for the challenge like I had wanted. But now there's a year-long challenge for Halloween that I'm eyeing, and so I'm curious about the rules for that sort of thing.
Morgan wrote: "Okay, so this was probably answered somewhere, but I'm kinda tired so I might have missed it. If you ended up being unable to finish a monthly challenge, can you move on to a different one (for tha..."You are not required to finish one challenge before starting another. If you don't wish to continue or finish a challenge, you don't have to. If you start one that is supposed to only last a month that you wish to continue into the next month or two, that's fine as well. You should never feel pressured to finish or participate in any challenge. They're meant to be for fun and we try to cater them to you, so if you wish to move on from one challenge to another don't worry about it. Just do it. Our main mission is to inspire you to read. As long as we do that, we've accomplished what we set out to do. As long as you have fun, that's all we ever really ask.
Mod
Morgan, you don't *have* to "finish" any challenge in order to move onto another. Things happen, life happens, you can't always get a chance to read as much as you might have hoped, so I think everyone here understands if you are unable to complete a challenge goal. Most challenges allow you to choose your level so if you're afraid you may not be able to complete a big goal, aim for the conservative and go low. You can always do more than you anticipated.You're welcome to do as many challenges as you feel comfortable doing. You can start 25 challenges, even if you haven't completed one yet. If you don't finish a monthly challenge before the month is over, you are encouraged to move onto the next month's challenge, of course. You can even finish any challenges you started at a later date. There are "virtual gift cards" that allow you to extend any challenge by a month or so, too. Virtual Gift card info
As for the Halloween one you mentioned, feel free to participate! You can choose your comfort level, you do not have to do every single task. At the top of the description of the challenge, you'll see the Duration (one year from start), and below that, the level options. There are 5 levels, the lowest being "Zombie Herder", which is to read 5 to 6 books that fit the challenge tasks. And since the challenge is "one year from start", you can even designate your own starting period. If you want to sign up for the challenge today but you maybe won't get to start reading for it until next week, you can put a future starting date there.
Hope that helps and didn't confuse you. Welcome. :)
Lisarenee beat me to it and was less wordy. :)
I can't find the link to ..where we voted on when to read game of thrones... I'd like to participate, if someone could help me I'd be so thankful!
I am looking for a good clean book that is set in Rhode Island. I like Christian Fiction, Historical fiction, Mystery. Can any one help me?
Phyllis wrote: "I am looking for a good clean book that is set in Rhode Island. I like Christian Fiction, Historical fiction, Mystery. Can any one help me?"I haven't read these, Phyllis, so I'm not positive; however, they look safe enough. The second is 'tagged' Christian Fiction:
Just one thing do we vote on the upcoming books to read?
I've become kind of hooked on the challenges thing, but then there's one thing I'm wondering about... There are a number of challenges, both in this group and in other groups, which ask of you to read a big number of books, or read books with difficult requirements (eg. a book written by an author starting with Q, a book set in continent Y, and so on). Is it okay to plan the same book for several different challenges, whether it be several NBRC-challenges or a challenge from NBRC and a challenge from some other group? I can't seem to find any real information on this anywhere...
I've just joined the group and is really like to try one of the challenges. Which is the best for a novice? Also, will the BA requirements change for 2014 or will they stay the same as what's already posted? If really like to get a book list going so ANY and ALL information is helpful!
Mod
Exquisito wrote: "Just one thing do we vote on the upcoming books to read?"
Yes, Exquisito, polls are up:
Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Young Adult
Adult Anything Goes
Mod
Certainly.
Mod
Welcome, Christine! Personally, I'd start with an A-Z Challenge, or Spell-It-Out, or All About You. Also, Reading Challenges Index is available.
If, for "BA," you are referring to the Reading University Challenge, then no, we have no plans to change this challenge for 2014.
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