You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Challenges: Year Long Main 2021
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Suzanne Geocaches the Globe
Re the Michael Crummey book - A romance that unfolds over decades and continents. Whew! I have not heard of nor read him either.I really loved the Joanne Harris book!
I want to read the Sebastian Junger book. Been on my TBR for a long time.
Cherie wrote: "Re the Michael Crummey book - A romance that unfolds over decades and continents. Whew! I have not heard of nor read him either.I really loved the Joanne Harris book!
I want to read the Sebasti..."
You will really enjoy The Perfect Storm. The author includes so much interesting information.
Fun fact: All three actually had Canadian connections even though it wasn't required for two of the three books. The Wreckage begins in a Newfoundland fishing village. The Perfect Storm also begins in a fishing town and the Andrea Gail goes down off the coast of Nova Scotia. In Four Quarters of the Orange, Framboise's daughter lives in Canada.
Suzanne wrote: Fun fact: All three actually had Canadian connections even though it wasn't required for two of the three books. The Wreckage begins in a Newfoundland fishing village. The Perfect Storm also begins in a fishing town and the Andrea Gail goes down off the coast of Nova Scotia. In Four Quarters of the Orange, Framboise's daughter lives in Canada..." Isn't it great when that kind of connection happens by accident?
Nice to see others working on the Geocache challenge too - I'm stealing The Wreckage! I've been plugging in the books as well although I have a long way to go....it's fun though.
Lilisa wrote: "Nice to see others working on the Geocache challenge too - I'm stealing The Wreckage! I've been plugging in the books as well although I have a long way to go....it's fun though."I'm glad you are still working on the Geocache Challenge, Lilisa! I'll have to look for your posts. I really love this challenge. I've been introduced to some wonderful books through it, and I've enjoyed the challenge of finding new books (that I'd be interested in) to match the challenge criteria. Enjoy The Wreckage, by the way!
Agree Suzanne. I haven't been posting although I add/edit my list as I go along. Here it is if you're interested - I have a long way to go! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I'm also finishing off the "all sites" task, but I'm tracking them under my left over stew challenge.
I am tracking my left over books on a paper spread sheet and updating it as I come across a book that fits a specific site or task and when I read a planned book that I never got to.
You are smart to wait until you the book finds you - so often, I read a book and it fit perfectly with one of the tasks, but I already selected (and purchased) a book for it, so too late!But still, I love finding the books. In Canada, there was a task to find a book with "bone" in the title. I thought that most books were likely to be mysteries or murder or something like that, which didn't really interest me, but then I came across Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, which is a foodie memoir. It was fantastic! I decided in the future I'm going to put together a big list of great foodie books and read them for my own challenge. I just love books like that!
Another go-to genre for this challenge is travel memoirs. If I can't find a book for a location that interests me, I'm always interested in a travel memoir. Right now I'm reading Driving Hungry: A Memoir, which starts out in Argentina. As it turns out, I could have used it for the Geocache Challenge (I'm reading it for my book club), but too late - I've already selected the books. Anyway, it's a travel AND a foodie book, and I'm loving it!
Janice wrote: "I'm also finishing off the "all sites" task, but I'm tracking them under my left over stew challenge."Do you have a specific thread for your "left over stew challenge"? I'd love to look it over...
Lilisa wrote: "Agree Suzanne. I haven't been posting although I add/edit my list as I go along. Here it is if you're interested - I have a long way to go! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"
It's great that your keeping up with this Challenge, Lilisa! It doesn't matter how long it takes - the fun is in the doing. You have some great books there, some I've read, some I plan to read, and some that I hadn't heard about!
I love foodie books, Suzanne, and travel memoirs too. I will have to look at my old Geo thread and see if I can update the books there too. I was looking at the book titles that are on my daughter's Kindle link that I share with her. I still have series books and several Geo books that I begged her to get for me that have not been read.
Suzanne wrote: "Janice wrote: "I'm also finishing off the "all sites" task, but I'm tracking them under my left over stew challenge."Do you have a specific thread for your "left over stew challenge"? I'd love to..."
I'm tracking it on a spreadsheet. I've read 9 of 24 books.
Janice recommmended I bookmark the thread so that it doesn't become lost with all the new challenge threads. That was really helpful!
I've completed the 12 books for the United States. Now, on to Mexico!
Awesome Suzanne - congrats! You post reminded me to check in on my challenge :-)
Thanks, Lilisa! I'm really enjoying this challenge. Especially some of the books that I would have never thought to have read. For instance, one of the books needed "bat" in the title and I chose Batboy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With The New York Yankees, which is a memoir of a young man who became a batboy for the New York Yankees. It was a great book and I probably never would have read it if not for the Geocache Challenge.
On the other hand, so far for this year I've been fitting books I've been reading into categories. I'm sure I'll soon get to the point where I will need to suss out specific ones. Batboy sounds interesting although I'm not a baseball fan. Reminds me of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - I didn't pick it up for a long time as I didn't think I would enjoy it - I loved it.
I had chosen a story about Mickey Mantel for the bat question because it had a baseball bat on the cover, but I threw it over to read Jo Nesbo's The Bat, because of a Buddy Read at the time. I am glad you enjoyed your baseball book. I am still reading some books from my Geo Challenge too. I finished Coal River, which was about children working in a coal mine in Pennsylvania in 1912. It was a very good story but brutal and so awful.
Coal River looks really good, Cherie! I remember finding a book for that particular challenge was difficult, so I'm doubly impressed:)
You gave me too much credit for the Coal River story. I think Deborah recommend it to me. I was grateful she posted it. I have several others of her recommend books on my list still to read.
Getting great book recommendations is one of the best parts about Goodreads, Cherie!
Cherie wrote: "Yay for you!"Thanks, Cherie!
Rusalka wrote: "Woot!!"Thanks, Rusalka! This is an awesome challenge, and I am determined to see it through to the end!
I am still updating my Geo challenge on my spreadsheet with the books that apply for this year.
Cherie wrote: "I am still updating my Geo challenge on my spreadsheet with the books that apply for this year."That's great, Cherie! How many books have you read so far? Are you planning on doing all the continents?
I have read 17 books, so far this year that I could apply to the list. Every book I finish, I review the criteria and see if it will fit one of the categories. Some were from the original list, like Coal River. I haven't really tried to finish a specific continent, yet.
Cherie wrote: "I have read 17 books, so far this year that I could apply to the list. Every book I finish, I review the criteria and see if it will fit one of the categories. Some were from the original list, lik..."That's great, Cherie! I have three lists that I'm working off of (book club, theme of the month, and Geocache). I'm that anal type that loves working off of lists, so 99% of the books I read each year are already determined beforehand. When I put together the Geocache list, I tried to make sure any books on those other lists that fit the criteria were added to the Geocache list. Theme of the month is just my way of reading books I already own by putting them together in a creative list (like books set in China for one month - or this month I'm reading travel memoirs). I think next year, I will deliberately make that "Theme" list out of Geocache books. Otherwise, I'll still be working on this list five years from now lol!
I still have 8 books left to read on the Geocache tasks. I call it my leftover stew challenge and I doubt I'll get it finished this year. In 2018, I'll be adding a bunch of books from the survey challenge... it's ongoing.
Janice wrote: "I still have 8 books left to read on the Geocache tasks. I call it my leftover stew challenge and I doubt I'll get it finished this year. In 2018, I'll be adding a bunch of books from the survey ch..."Were you taking up the challenge for all the continents? If so, I'm SUPER impressed. That would mean you've read 217 books for the Geocache challenge!
I know what you mean about ongoing challenges. I'm hanging on to my Serial Killers challenge. I keep dreaming about finishing all those series...
I was aiming for all sites. Whatever sites hadn't had a book read for it in 2016 went onto a spreadsheet. There were 24 and I've read 16 of them this year. Was it 217? There were 222 task in all. Okay, now I'm confused. I'm going to have to go back and revisit what I've read, because I think I've messed up. I read 18 last year + 24 designated as left over to read this year. That's only 42. Unless, after I determined I didn't have a hope in finishing the all site sweep, I marked them off my spread sheet but didn't put them on the right shelf.
Sorry - thinking to myself here as I try to work it out. I'll have to come back to this since my lunch break is over now.
A couple of the books left over from the Geo Challenge fit into this year's Question Challenge and others from it went the other way. I am still maintaining my series list but have had few opportunities to make any headway, except to add more. I keep a spreadsheet of my owned books (print, ebook and audio books) and those are always the ones I check first for monthly challenges and group reads. I don't seem to work myself up to making a monthly themed challenge for myself. I do try to read titles for "just because" though. I'm getting down to a lot of doorstops and I have a whole shelf of biographies and memoirs that I need to read some day. On the whole, I am pretty happy with my reading. I am going to have to scramble to get the rest of my Question Challenge books done though. Most of them are going to be library books.
Yay Suzanne - nice! Thanks for reviving this chat - it's jogged my memory - I need to dig into my list and see how I'm coming along on this challenge and the serial killing one. As long as I'm reading I I'm going to be always thinking of these two challenges the rest of my life - and slotting in books - lol!
Janice wrote: "I was aiming for all sites. Whatever sites hadn't had a book read for it in 2016 went onto a spreadsheet. There were 24 and I've read 16 of them this year. Was it 217? There were 222 task in all...."
I had a total of 225 books for the entire challenge, but I could be wrong. That's a lot of books to count!
Lilisa wrote: "Yay Suzanne - nice! Thanks for reviving this chat - it's jogged my memory - I need to dig into my list and see how I'm coming along on this challenge and the serial killing one. As long as I'm read..."Good challenges have a way of holding on to us, don't they Lilisa?
Cherie wrote: "A couple of the books left over from the Geo Challenge fit into this year's Question Challenge and others from it went the other way. I am still maintaining my series list but have had few opportun..."I like your idea of a spreadsheet! I may have to borrow that. My problem is I love to buy books, so I found I was buying books and some were sitting on my shelves for years (like 7-10 years!) and I hadn't read them yet. So I started a list called "Around my bookshelf" which included just the oldest books. Well, reading just the oldest books didn't appeal to me, so that was abandoned. (After all, the reason I hadn't read them yet was due to some lack of appeal). Then I decided on the "Theme of the Month." I purposefully included the oldest books first and then filled in from my shelves. That did the trick. I really enjoy the themes and it helps me to finally read those books that have been collecting dust on my shelves.
Suzanne wrote: "I had a total of 225 books for the entire challenge, but I could be wrong. That's a lot of books to count! ..."I figured it out.
Main challenge - 4 sites x 3 = 12 books
Continents challenge - 6 continents x 3 = 18
Sites - 74 (only needed one book per site)
That totals 104 books. But, there were overlaps, so likely it was around a total of 86 books to finish all three components of the challenge. That figure would depend on what you did for the main challenge and is based on the 4 sites in Part 1 being selected from 4 different continents. If you read 4 sites in one continent, you'd have 5 continents to read to get Part 2, and hence more books.
Janice wrote: "Suzanne wrote: "I had a total of 225 books for the entire challenge, but I could be wrong. That's a lot of books to count! ..."I figured it out.
Main challenge - 4 sites x 3 = 12 books
Continen..."
Oh....I get it! Thanks for refreshing my memory, Janice! It has been so long since I looked at the actual components of the challenge I forgot there were additional components! I am planning to read ALL the books, (because I really LOVE this list!). By my calculations, if you read all the books, you would be at 225 books. Your completions are still impressive, though. That's a lot of books read!
My tallies:
North America: 36 out of 36 read
South America: 4 out of 36 read
Europe: 17 out of 42 read
Africa: 11 out of 39 read
Asia: 10 out of 36 read
Australia: 16 out of 36 read
(Total of 94 books read)
I knew I had already met the Main Challenge, but it seems I've also met the other two Challenges (assuming overlap is acceptable). Good to know!
It took a bit for me to refresh my memory too. Double check, because there are 74 sites x 3 = 222.
Your accomplishment is much more ambitious. I'm being lazy and doing just what the challenge laid out.
My goal was to read all of the books on the list too. Last year I read 91 books and I have read 19 for this year, so far. I still have some great titles to look forward to reading!
Janice wrote: "It took a bit for me to refresh my memory too. Double check, because there are 74 sites x 3 = 222.
Your accomplishment is much more ambitious. I'm being lazy and doing just what the challenge l..."
You are right! I added an extra three books to Africa. 222 it is!
Not that 3 extra books is all that much when talking about 222. LOL!
I started the Geo challenge just reading books where they would fit and filling in the tasks with potential titles, so by the time I realized that I needed to decide which tasks I was going to apply to the different sites and continents, I had more books than I needed to read by the time I finished, hence the 91 vs 86 books read last year. The scramble to finish 1 book for all 74 sites took me right up to the last of the year. I still had library books on hold into January of this year when the new yearly change started. It has been fun going back and filling things in on my spread sheet. Now, I need to buckle down finish the rest of my books for THIS year's challenge.
South America completed!!!!My current tallies:
North America 36/36
South America 36/36
Europe 20/42
Africa 16/36
Asia 13/36
Australia 18/36
Total = 139 books read
I had to do a double take. I thought this was your zodiac challenge, but it's your geocache. LOL!
Janice wrote: "I had to do a double take. I thought this was your zodiac challenge, but it's your geocache. LOL!"Yes, I'm still plodding along with this one!
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
One Good Dog (other topics)Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm (other topics)
Coal River (other topics)
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (other topics)
Batboy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With The New York Yankees (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Colum McCann (other topics)Colum McCann (other topics)
Michael Crummey (other topics)
Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
The Wreckage by Michael Crummey
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
I was especially pleased to discover a new author (at least to me) - Michael Crummey. I had never heard of him before, but I absolutely loved The Wreckage. I'll definitely have to read more by this author.
Now I'm off to work on the United States portion of the Geocache list. I wonder what new discoveries await?