2017 Reading Challenge discussion
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Suggestion for 2017 challenge
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Regine wrote: "Hi,I joined this group in January so I don't know how the categories are chosen for next year's challenge.
In case anybody can suggest one
I'd have a suggestion for a category ..."
Last year everyone suggested categories, similar to you have done. We voted and chose the most popular ones.
I'm not sure what will happen in 2017 though.
I loved the categories in this challenge for 2016, and I hope it continues for 2017. Do you think we start collecting nominations for the 2017 categories? Last year the 2016 list was revealed on November 14th....so if we start nominations now maybe we can narrow down the categories and have the Reveal on December 15th. Any thoughts?
I have a couple of ideas for categories: A book about food or with recipes, a play, a book written from the point of view of a child, a book written from the point of view of an animal, book that has been on your TBR list the longest.
I think open categories are the best. "From the point of view of X" is too narrow, so instead of "from the point of view of an animal", make it "a book about animals". Then anyone doing the challenge can choose if it's POV or whatever.
I agree with Thomas and think there should be a lot of flexibility in each category. I personally really enjoyed the "continent" category because it really pushed me out of my comfort zone while still giving me tons of authors and topics to choose from.
I also agree with keeping it more broad so people can actually complete the categories. I was thinking maybe instead of repeating the "continent" categories we could do something like decades. A book published in 1950, 1960, 1970 etc for the first five that way it could still be challenging but easy for all types of readers to find interesting materials.
Decades or centuries is a fantastic idea!Perhaps different historical genres? Realism, renaissance, naturalism, romanticism, modernism... I think antiquity and medieval times have too few alternatives to read.
The categories I least enjoyed were the ones associated with a year. I had a hard time finding a book from the year I graduated HS and an author who shared the same birth year.
Mod
It seems that our volunteer for 2017 hasn't been able to get the new list going. I'll see what I can do...
Mod
Less complicated, and the organization of the threads could be simpler, too...
Thoughts?
Isn't that almost like having 50 wild card categories?
Regine wrote: "Isn't that almost like having 50 wild card categories?"Probably but I can also see the attraction of streamlining the voting/tallying.
Maybe some categories can just be reused for example the continents (maybe lose Antarctica), book published 2017 and the wildcards as they are broad enough for people to find something appealing that fits.
I like the idea of more of a variety. Anne, I posted a list of categories in your first thread about volunteers if you want to take a look at that??
Mod
If I don't hear from her in a couple of days, I'll put something together.
Mod
Not really - if you have 100 categories to choose from, but the goal is to read 52 books (or whatever number) from those categories you're still limiting yourself - but with more choice.
A wild card category can be absolutely anything, and doesn't have to be a category from the challenge.
Mod
Thanks!
It's funny to hear which categories some loved and others loathed. I personally hated the continent categories and only completed two. I loved the categories that had a year associated with them. Really interested in seeing the choices for 2017 categories!
2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the October Revolution. Considering current events, a work of russian history or classic russian literature might be apropos.
@ Amy Beth & I hated the specific year ones lolProbably a sign that we ended up with a pretty good balance last year :)
Frogli wrote: "@ Amy Beth & I hated the specific year ones lolProbably a sign that we ended up with a pretty good balance last year :)"
Yes! You are probably right, @Frogli! :)
J. wrote: "2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the October Revolution. Considering current events, a work of russian history or classic russian literature might be apr..."I like this one!
Frogli wrote: "@ Amy Beth & I hated the specific year ones lolProbably a sign that we ended up with a pretty good balance last year :)"
Yep. They were hard going...
Anne wrote: "I've sent Natalia a message and hope to hear from her soon. She did volunteer to take over, but something may have come up that is preventing her from taking action.If I don't hear from her in a ..."
Anne, if you would like to do a round of voting but haven't the time to do vote counting, let me know. I'm happy to tally votes.
I too posted a suggested list at the start of the topic. Mine were mostly books about xyz, such acting/actors, creativity/creators, inventors/inventing.
Books could be fiction or non-fiction.
Is there a due date by which we should have the suggestions submitted?
Mod
Not really - but expect some information soon!
There's a new Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2017 with some interesting categories.I especially like:
A book becoming a film in 2017
A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
A book by or about someone who has a disability
I totally agree with losing Antarctica, there just isn't enough to pick from. I had some difficulty with an author born the same year, for the same reason - possibly the year categories could be expanded to include the year before and after. I am not a fan of non-fiction other than biographies or memoirs, so self-help, how-to, etc. are pretty much non-starters for me. :-)
Personally, I'd rather see new categories rather than repeating the ones from last (uh, this) year. Except the wild cards, of course.
I am happy to go through comments and make a list of the all the suggestions, than we can have a vote or randomly select the 40-45 categories + additional wild cards (total: 52) - the ones that aren't used can be used the following year. Please let me know - because I really enjoyed the set up of this book club and would like to contribute to next year's group if possible.
For tallying votes , you could use a site like surveymonkey to streamline the process.Just make a survey with all the options for categories in one question and let people vote for all the ones they like.
I've never used the site before, but it gets used heaps by uni students gathering research, so it probably collates the results for you.
Or there would be other options out there on the web if anyone is familiar with something better :)
I just had a quick browse and it does collate the answers, so it would make it much easier.Let me know if you'd like me to make a survey for people to vote, I'm happy to help
Here's a few I like :)1. A book with a villain
2. A book with a hero
3. A crime book
4. A book that took place in the 19th century
5. A book you found in a thrift store
6. A book about a person that inspires you
7. A Manbooker prize winner
8. A classic romance
9. A book with a food in the title
10. A staff pick from a library or bookstore
11. Last book on your Goodreads TBR
12. A book about the outdoors
13. A book by a comedian
14. A time period book or historical fiction
15. A book cover that's your favorite color
16. A book with a character with a job similar to your own
17. A holiday book
18. A horror or creepy book
19. A young adult book
20. A book with a season in the title
21. A book with pictures
22. A book becoming a movie in 2017
23. A book by your favorite author
24. A book about a difficult topic
25. A book about a family
26. A book with an eccentric character
27. A bestseller from 2016
28. A book that covers a characters lifespan
29. A beach read
30. A book that is more than 10 years old
31. A book based on a true story
32. A book that is under 150 pages
33. A book told from a guys POV
34. A book you never read from your childhood
35. A book with an interesting title
36. A book that was free
Amanda wrote: "Here's a few I like :) ...."There are some good ones in there Amanda
I agree, those are some good categories, Amanda. I wish we could get a list together and vote. Is it too soon to start worrying that it is not going to come together for 2017? :)
I have also been worried that this challenge is not going to happen for 2017. I have made my PopSugar selections and wanted to work this challenge into my 2017 reading plan but I am worried that it may not happen. I am afraid that we may have lost the both the Moderators for this group.
I just looked at the Popsugar list and it looks like a broad enough list of categories.Maybe if no new reading challenge is created here we can just adopt it with the option of replacing 10 wild cards with any category we don't like.
Even though I don't know you guys personally I've really come to enjoy reading all your comments and I'd hate for this group to dissolve in 2017.
We started out with the Popsugar 2015 list after all.
Hello guys, sorry for not dropping by before now, but finals had been stressing the hell out of me and time was not on my side at all. Me and Ann have been talking about the challenge and we've come up with our 2017 Reading Challenge! Our idea was for 3 challenge levels - 25, 50 and 50+ books, you will choose which one is for you along with the categories you want from a list of 100 categories we will compile from the suggestions already made here, a mix of straightforward and more broad categories alike. You will make your own challenge, depending on either you want it to be easier or more difficult. You can move through the levels throught the year, if you think you can go higher or if you think you won't make it to your original goal. I'm going to organize the suggestions we have so far and a more organized description of how the group will work next year and post it on a new topic to make it easier for everyone to see it.
What do you guys think? I hope I explained it somewhat clearly hahaha Are there more categories you would like to suggest? You can keep posting them here and I'll put them on the list. If we have more suggestions than the original number we thought, we'll vote.
Can we have a thread where people report back when they finish a challenge level? They could briefly post what theyve read and mark / comment on favourites. That way it will be easier toshare other's successes, get some ideas and mark when we've finished a challenge level.
Natália wrote: "Hello guys, sorry for not dropping by before now, but finals had been stressing the hell out of me and time was not on my side at all...Good to hear from you again Natasha! Exam time is really stressful,
Your suggestions sound good to me
YEAH! i love the idea of the three levels!
Hi Natalia, thanks for checking in! Finals are always a rough time. I'm liking the sound of the challenge. I'm also going to look at the Popsugar list that Regine and Thomas mentioned up thread. I had forgotten about that.
I just had a look at the Popsugar challenge for 2017. I do like a lot of their categories and there is some overlap. These 4 set my mind to thinking and seem to be open to a broad range of genres:A book with a cat on the cover
A book with a red spine
A book involving a mythical creature
A book by an author who uses a pseudonym.
Mod
Whew! I'm so glad you've weighed in here. I was feeling bad for not doing so, things were busy. Now my husband is having health issues so I have even less time than before. THANK YOU!!!
Oh well, I'm thinking this challenge isn't going to happen for 2017. I'll just do the Popsugar challenge. It was a fun 2016! Thanks!
I joined this group in January so I don't know how the categories are chosen for next year's challenge.
In case anybody can suggest one
I'd have a suggestion for a category - after looking at my To Read list I noticed that I'm reading a lot of books that I added in recent weeks/months but tend to forget about the earlier additions.
Maybe a category could be something like "read one of the first 20 books you added to your TBR list"?