2016 Group Activities - Questions & Suggestions

[Lesley]

With 2015 drawing to a close, I have been thinking of what activities we would like to participate in through 2016.

Would you like a year long challenge where participation would involve a book per month being read within a prescribed criteria that would be notified each month?

Do you want to continue with the Languishing Literature and Patient Bookcase Dwellers challenges? Or do you want them merged into one?

Do you want to continue with the twice yearly Book Pool? Provided that Sharlene is willing of course.

Would you like to return to the nominated/voted Book of the Month group read?

Do we want another round of How Many Pages? This question was asked in that thread, but only two or three indicated their preferences.
If enough members wanted to go another round, I also asked for a volunteer to run it. No offers have been made to date.

Maybe a BLK member could run your own group read activity/challenge. Perhaps is would be every other month with willing members assigned their month at the beginning of the year.
Would you be willing to take part?

Do you have any other ideas on what you would like to do with the group in 2016?

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I like the idea of a challenge similar to the read the rainbow one - a metals, jewel or colours like pink or brown that didn't appear in the rainbow challenge. :)

[Andrea]

I don't generally participate in the monthly reads just because I find it difficult to find the books in the first place in that time frame. Not to mention trying to finish it after finally getting my hands on it, Speed and Time aren't really on my side. That’s why I stick to the How Many Pages? and Seasonal challenges so I can read whatever I want to fulfil the criteria, (so you can sign me up for those!) over a longer time period. The Book Pools are usually fine too, as most folks get their book selections in several weeks before the challenge starts so I can find quite a few of them in advance.

Loving your gemstone idea Carol! Peridot for Light Green, Emerald for Dark Green. Opal for Rainbow…sounds like fun 

Though I didn't do Languishing Literature and Patient Bookcase Dwellers challenges last year I was intending on doing them in 2016....but I don't mind if they are merged if that is the consensus.

I don't think I'd be reliable enough with my schedule to volunteer to run anything, I’m a bit all over the place at the moment. That might change next year but right now it wouldn’t be fair on the readers.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I was thinking more ones that had gemstones in the title like Diamonds Are Forever but I guess Andrea's idea would work too! :)

[P.D.R.]

Court case over. Got my life back!!!

Will join the January read.

As I have to use the library to get books I can't always do the monthly reads but will try.

Am back to reading a book a day but finding time to log them all is difficult does anyone know a short cut method to get books onto one' s bookshelf?

And merry Christmas one and all. It's been a super sunny day and my grandson and I had a great afternoon at the beach boogie boarding. Then we sat and read the Beano annual! He's a reader haven't his parents done a great job. He read three books on the plane coming over!

[Lesley]

P.D.R. wrote: "Court case over. Got my life back!!!

Will join the January read.

As I have to use the library to get books I can't always do the monthly reads but will try.

Am back to reading a book a day but f..."

Pleased to see the court case is finally over - successfully I trust!

More pleased to hear you have family with you for Christmas, and that you are out enjoying the sunny weather with your Grandson. After the year you have had, you deserve to have some 'let your hair down' fun - just be careful!! :)

[Erica]

I'm cutting back on my challenges this year in a bid to get more freedom back in the books I read. But I always like the book pool group read and both the languishing literature and patient bookcase dweller challenges so I'd definitely do those if they were available.

[P.D.R.]

Will try the book a month, Lesley 'cos you've worked so hard to keep us reading and the group moving along.

I do like the read a NZ member of the group book.

I really hate the 'funny' challenges cos of time. I haven't time to chase books with red covers or pearl in the title.

However I am moving into town and hopefully time will ease up! Hah!

Jacob's Justice is half done and this new novel is having a spanking extra hard rewrite and addition of another 10, 000 words!! That comes first.

[Darkpool]

I'm a bit torn on the monthly reads - I have read some wonderful books that I doubt I would have found on my own thanks to the NZ author selection in the past, but I don't think I participated in a single one this year.

With the other challenges, I enjoy the ones that run for a longer period of time more than the single month ones. I don't read enough to be able to read a rainbow or spell out "Fantastic" in a month. I really enjoy the bookpool, but again for me that needs to run for more than a single month - especially with people submitting books for the pool right up to the last moment!

I don't care one way or the other about the pages challenge. I've enjoyed participating this year, as it's the first time I've done anything like that, but I wouldn't miss it particularly.

[Lesley]

Thank you to those who responded to the questions.

From those responses (5 of 415 members) it would seem you want less organised activity/discussion in your group, so on that basis -

I will continue to put up two randomly drawn author member reads every two months.

The Book Pool will continue to be run by Sharlene in June and December - for two months - if she is agreeable to that.

The Languishing Literature and Patient Bookcase Dwellers, will be made available as personal challenges.

Readers, do make use of the Book Talk, General, and Playground folders. Share with your fellow members what you are currently reading, what you have just finished, and any other gems you think will be of interest.

Author members let us know what is new or of interest to us readers, and keep us updated with any of your new books.

Interest has waned in the How Many Pages challenge, and there was nobody willing to run it. Therefore that has been disbanded.

I will continue to look in from time to time to chat and see if anything requires my attention. If at any time you want something more added to your group, or you need to contact me just send me a message.

[Lesley]

P.D.R. wrote: "Will try the book a month, Lesley 'cos you've worked so hard to keep us reading and the group moving along.

I do like the read a NZ member of the group book.

I really hate the 'funny' challenges ..."

Thanks for your support p.d.r., but with so little interest indicated for a return to a selected book of the month, I'm not going to do that, unless there is a change of mind in the future. You are right, it is a lot of work to run book reads, challenges, discussions when there is so little activity from the group.

Is that Jacob's Ladder you are re-vamping?

[[deleted user]]

Perfect and well done EG. I'm 11 hours behind NZ time and about to write my suggestions when I read your summary and hey: fits like a glove.

The NZ author monthly reads introduced me to books I would not otherwise have read. Through this I discovered 3 brilliant NZ authors which I now follow with a passion. Overall reading from this list, even when not finishing, kept me up to date with NZ writing especially when I knew other BLK were also reading the same books. I did fall behind during a prolong stint of life interfering with art so two months is a grand option. ( More added to read)

I follow Sharlene's book pool as often I've read or am reading the same books and I like reading other comments. Always planning to join but seems too many for one month so ,once again your suggestion suits me fine.

So nothing new to add except a hearty thumbs up to a great mod. Gran!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

I forgot to mention how much I enjoy Sharlene's book pool!

& I loved the rainbow one where the books looked so pretty.

Specific books are harder for me when I have so many books unread at home. & a workmate pressed four of Diana Gabaldon's books on me - that must be 2000 pages! Gulp.

Thanks for all your hard work Lesley - it is appreciated! :)

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

S.K.Fischer wrote: "Perfect and well done EG. I'm 11 hours behind NZ time and about to write my suggestions when I read your summary and hey: fits like a glove.
"

Hi there SK!

Yes 2 months would suit me better for a lot of the challenges as I do reads for other groups & I'm wanting to do a lot of non fiction reading about SE Asia.

I usually read 6-8 books a month, which seemed a lot until I joined GR. Now it seems a bit paltry! :D

[Lesley]

☆ Ｃａｒｏｌ ☆ wrote: "I forgot to mention how much I enjoy Sharlene's book pool!

& I loved the rainbow one where the books looked so pretty.

Specific books are harder for me when I have so many books unread at home. &..."

Thank you Carol. As you are aware I have joined a couple of other groups lately that I intend being more active in, so I would rather put my time into reading and discussing. Also my work has been undergoing a restructure, and while I have been one of the fortunate three to retain my job, others have not so the work load has just grown, and I'm now mentoring those who have to apply for the new/modified positions - not an easy task when you have worked with these people for up to ten years. I used to get a bit of time here and there to do some mod tasks from work, but that will no longer be viable. That leaves me just time at home after a days work, and I don't consider it worth sacrificing my reading time when the participation is low. I'll do enough to keep the group going though.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

That's cool Lesley. I am very excited about The Reading the Detectives group which covers my favourite genre.

My focus for here may change to recommending NZ books both new & old that are a 4 or 5* read for me. & also taking in the NZ reads that other people are excited about.

At work I so wanted to grab the Nalini Singh, Alix Bosco & Deborah Challinor that came in but I have grabbed so many books already. The first two barely touched the shelf - the Deborah Challinor only was on the shelf for a week!

[Lesley]

Have you ever read any of the Alix Bosco books? I saw a couple on the library shelf yesterday and was torn between trying one of those or snaffling the three Heyer ones that were there too. The GH ones one out! :) I already had an armfull of books so figured it best not to be too greedy.

I too will look to this group for the NZ reads that others may, or may not, talk about. Of course there will also be the NZ Author Member group reads, some of which have been pretty good in the past. What will govern my reading of those will depend on their availability. I find if they are only available as an ebook or Kindle that tends to make their audience for this group pretty restrictive. Can't afford to keep buying books!

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Ella's Gran wrote: "Have you ever read any of the Alix Bosco books? I saw a couple on the library shelf yesterday and was torn between trying one of those or snaffling the three Heyer ones that were there too. The GH ..."

I hope one of the Heyer's was The Toll-gate !

I haven't read anything under the Bosco pseudonym but won The Antipodeans earlier this year & saw McGee speak at the Writers Festival this year. While The Antipodeans wasn't really me, it showed enough to make me want to try more of his work. & he held his own in a talk with Peter Fitzsimons. Anyone who can get a word in edgewise against Fitzsimons is alright by me! :p

[Lesley]

☆ Ｃａｒｏｌ ☆ wrote: "Ella's Gran wrote: "Have you ever read any of the Alix Bosco books? I saw a couple on the library shelf yesterday and was torn between trying one of those or snaffling the three Heyer ones that wer..."

Sadly The Toll-Gate is not one of the books. That seems to be hard to get. I managed to grab Behold, Here's Poison, Duplicate Death, and Frederica. Having got them home I discovered that Duplicate Death is #3 in the Inspector Hemingway series, and being a bot OCD on reading series in order, I'm going to have to leave that one until I've got the other two before it.
I've had a look at the consortium catalogue to see who has The Toll-Gate, but it's out on loan so not sure if I'll get it in time for the group read.

I think I've reached that time in life - turning the clock back, re-living those comfy times. Reading with my Grandmother Heyer, Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt in all her pseudonyms, is part of those comfy times. I have decided, beginning with Heyer, to relive those times this year. I am going to struggle getting the Mary Stewart ones though, so might have to browse the used online, shops, and various charity book sales.

For Greg McGee to hold is own against Peter Fitzsimons is certainly an achievement. I don't think I've ever seen him lost for words, nor take a breath during an interview! :)

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Alison Mau was the compere - she holds her own against Paul Henry! She made sure the third person on the panel spoke as well. But McGee didn't need any help!

Victoria Holt (but not Jean Plaidy) Stewart, & Heyer romances easy to get hold of second hand- the mystery & historicals are harder. Also in our area the op shops are getting pickier about condition. This is good for me - as I get given the books, not so good for others with retro tastes.

[Sharlene]

Ella's Gran wrote: "Thank you to those who responded to the questions.

From those responses (5 of 415 members) it would seem you want less organised activity/discussion in your group, so on that basis -

I will cont..."

Happy to run the book pools :)

I would really like to get back into the monthly kiwi reads, that's something I missed this year. I'm reducing my book count to 75 for 2016.

Like others, I'm reducing my reading challenges. I have a 101 Bookish Things in 1001 Days to tackle before 2018, with lots of series that need reading.

[Sharlene]

I've started a random game called 20,000 Questions!
Come Play!

[P.D.R.]

Hey,Lesley, I have the complete set of Georgette Heyer Regency novels plus a few duplicates. Do you want to borrow Toll Gate! It's a goody. What else do you need, I might have a spare for you to keep.

Yes, Jacob's Ladder is being pulled, rewritten to tighten and improve and is coming back as Jacob's Justice. It is after all ten years old as far as first writing and then all the submitting to agents and publishers and the unpublished novel comps. I have improved my writing skills and my ability to make a tight plot which is my great failing. I always have the characters to work with but their story often is painfully difficult to unfold in a way that please both me and a reader!

You have a bit of a rest and enjoy reading and commenting in other groups. You've earned it.