Read-a-Thon #3 - Team Battleship Wrap-Up

[Zaz]

After a successful team bingo, we did a battleship. As usual, some feedback is very welcome if you have some time to answer the questions :)

1. In which team were you?

2. How many books did you finish?

3. How many pages did you read?

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?

8. What was your favorite game?

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?

11. Anything you'd like to improve?

[Zaz]

1. In which team were you?
Sea horse :)

2. How many books did you finish?
7 novels (for one, I'd 25p left before the read-a-thon) and 5 short reads. I think it's my own record for a week.

3. How many pages did you read?
1482 pages and 8.5 hours listened.

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
I read an old poem. I survived but I didn't understand everything.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
3, nothing really unusual for me. I saved 2, that I bought the previous weeks, for the read-a-thon.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
Seeing the members of my team picking all the cases around the ships :D
Otherwise, the fact that even the small readers had a chance to do several guesses.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
Probably the battleship because it was easier to read what I wanted, but I found the collective work more useful for the bingo.

8. What was your favorite game?
Title scramble this time, guess the cover being too easy for me :)

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
Yes, I aimed for 5 tasks and completed 8.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Sure.

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
Maybe a lower number of tasks, it was difficult to keep track of all of them. Otherwise, it was fine.

[Silvia]

1. In which team were you? Sea Horse

2. How many books did you finish? 10
(1 book, 1 short story, 5 graphic novels and 3 picture books)

3. How many pages did you read? 1418 pages (+ 40 pages from another book that I didn't include in the read-a-thon because I didn't finish it)

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category? I don't usually read Picture books, it was not a challenge, but it was kind of strange looking for them in the library.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read? 3

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship? Trying to guess was really funny. It was fun, even when I fall into the water.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship? I didn't participate in the team Bingo.

8. What was your favorite game? Title Scramble and My Life in Books

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt? Just until the end, to see the match between my books and the tasks.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available? I'd really would like to do it.

11. Anything you'd like to improve? Nothing that I can think for the moment.

[J]

1. In which team were you?

Team Turtle. The Turtle moves!

2. How many books did you finish?

I finished 4 books and made decent progress into the 5th. I had hoped to finish this final book in time, but it is so shit that I could not manage to force myself to read on in a timely manner.

I also pulled off the 3X picture book and single poem read to help my team. Those were in addition to the four.

3. How many pages did you read?

853

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?

Not really. I wanted to get a goodly amount of reading done and finish a high number of books. So, I targeted books that I knew would be quick and enticing reads.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?

More than I can count. My daughter is 4 after all, but those are not part of the evaluation as we are maxed at 3.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?

Rooting each other on and seeing how much progress everyone else made. I think I made some new friends simply because I started to think of those other members who had been randomly teamed up with me as part of an 'us'.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?

I didn't participate in that.

8. What was your favorite game?

Well, my daughter has gotten into Uno and she's quite good at that, so I think it will get my vote for the best game I've played this last week. :)

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?

I did a bit. I ignored it at first, preferring to focus on helping the team. But then when I did look at it, I saw that I had hit quite few of the topics there just by what I had been doing. However, I then ditched it (after getting 5) because I didn't care enough about the topic options remaining. (I did make an attempt at the 'Read for 2 Hours straight' topic over the weekend, but it was readily thwarted by my daughter).

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?

If I am available, I would say certainly. It is fun and gives that added incentive to read. Oddly, though, they always seem to occur when I least have the time to participate.

11. Anything you'd like to improve?

Yeah, I need some sort of algorithm to evaluate my potential reads and find the ones that I will like the most. Then I won't have to waste any time on badreads(tm).

[Jennifer]

1. In which team were you?
Team Turtle

2. How many books did you finish?
4 + 3 picture books

3. How many pages did you read?
300+214+120+120+48= 812

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
Not really

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
Well honestly I read 8 this week, but only counted the 3 for the challenge.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
It was fun trying to find those darn ships and it was also fun trying to find books I want to read to fit the categories.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
Hmmm, I liked them both equally, but I think the Bingo game has more of an edge because you have to be more specific on what kinds of books you read.

8. What was your favorite game?
My life in books

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
Yes.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Of course! Just don't plan it around the time i'm due to have my baby, lol.

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
No, I think it went very smoothly and was a success for everyone just the way it is.

[SamZ]

1. In which team were you?
Team Turtle

2. How many books did you finish?
7 (2 novels, 2 short stories, 3 picture books)

3. How many pages did you read?
500+; I stopped counting when I hit 500 and I didn't count the picture books.

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
No, I mainly focused on finishing my AtY books and fit them in wherever they fit.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
3 that I counted. I read a lot of picture books between my 7 year old and the Caldecott group I'm in.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
I liked working together and getting to know other members more.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
I didn't do Bingo.

8. What was your favorite game?
I liked the My Life in Books one.

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
Coincidentally, but not on purpose.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Yes!

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
I wish there was a computer generated board that we could go to and put in our hits/misses, so we could get instant feedback and the mods could guess as well.

[Kelly]

1. In which team were you?
Team Dolphin!

2. How many books did you finish?
3 picture books and 3 adult books (one almost done before read a thon)

3. How many pages did you read?
406

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
Nope!

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
3...I read them all the time with my girls and was very excited to be able to count them!

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
I felt I was able to participate right from the start and it was fun. There were many categories to cover both together and individually.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
I felt that even though I was one of the slower readers, I still had opportunities to make guesses and help the team, where with bingo I felt I didn't get that opportunity as much.

8. What was your favorite game?
I am not much of a game player, but I did like the If I Could Turn Back Time game. I got some new reads too.

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
No

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Yes!

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
Just to have either a non fiction or biography category next time.

[Melanie]

1. In which team were you?

Team Turtle.

2. How many books did you finish?

3

3. How many pages did you read?

972 :-)

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?

Short stories.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?

0

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?

The teams unity, the help within teams.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?

-

8. What was your favorite game?

Character scramble.

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?

Yes, I enjoyed this challenge also.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?

Most definitely.

11. Anything you'd like to improve?

-

[Debra]

1. In which team were you? Team Dolphin

2. How many books did you finish? I'm not really sure but I did complete my 2016 challenge but I believe I read around 10 or more books

3. How many pages did you read?
well over 800 but quit counting once I reached the limit per member

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
not really read for the challenge as well as for the battleship list

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read? none

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship? the team work to sink the ships

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship? both were fun but with the bingo the reading was more detailed as to what you had to read

8. What was your favorite game? my life in books

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt? yes I believe I finished 8 of them

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available? yes I like the push to read more the competitive side comes out in me lol

11. Anything you'd like to improve? just wish there was a way to get some prizes donated to the cause but other than that nothing

[Lois]

1. Team Turtle
2. 5 and am halfway through book 6
3. Quite counting, but I hit over 500
4. No
5. None
6. Reading about what other members were doing/reading
7. Didn't participate in bingo
8. My life in books
9. Yes. Finished 6 categories there, I think
10. Yes. I really enjoyed this!
11. Nothing I can think of.

[Marta]

1. In which team were you?
Turtle

2. How many books did you finish?
4
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
The Paul Street Boys
We Should All Be Feminists
Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age Story
Made progress on:
Anna Karenina
The Canterbury Tales

3. How many pages did you read?
Total: 627 pages, 5 hrs of audio

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
No

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
None

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
The cooperation

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
They were both fun but the bingo needed closer cooperation and I enjoyed it a bit more.

8. What was your favorite game?
I liked them all!

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
Nope but I might check if I got it.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Absolutely!

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
It was superbly planned and run, congrats to the mods and thanks for all the hard work!
Just some nitpicking - I second Zaz in that there were too many categories, and Kelly on including nonfiction. Three of my books were nonfiction!

[Rachel]

1. In which team were you?
Team Sea Horse!

2. How many books did you finish?
As usual, I overestimated how much time I would have. I finished 4 books total, including 1 graphic novel, 1 short story, and one book that I'd read 25% of before the readathon started.

3. How many pages did you read?
897 pages by the last day

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
Not really, since I didn't go out of my way to read anything that I wasn't otherwise planning on reading. I'm still reading for three challenges, so I just fit those books in where I could.

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
None, unless a graphic novel counts.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
I thought it was fun, but also a bit confusing. I liked trying to have luck finding the ships.

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
I personally preferred the Bingo because I thought it was a bit more organized. With the battleship, I found it confusing keeping track of which categories had already been covered. With the Bingo, it was a lot more straightforward since once that category was done, it was done. I never really had any idea of what the rest of my team was doing.

8. What was your favorite game?
I liked the book tags best, especially the New York Times one. I also really liked My Life in Books.

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
I did what I could, but I was mostly focused on reading for my challenges so I didn't go out of my way to include anything that I wasn't otherwise going to read anyway.

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Yes

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
I don't have any specific suggestion, but I would love a little more organization about keeping track of which categories have already been completed. I also like the suggestion above of a computer generated game board.

[Aidan]

1. In which team were you?
Sea Turtle

2. How many books did you finish?
6

3. How many pages did you read?
1206

4. Did you challenge yourself with a category?
Tried to do many different tasks

5. Ok, tell the truth: how many picture books did you read?
none, unless you count the graphic novels.

6. What did you enjoy the most with the team battleship?
working together and competing

7. If you also participated to the team bingo, what did you prefer between the bingo and the battleship?
didn't get to do bingo

8. What was your favorite game?
Book tags

9. Did you also do the individual scavenger hunt?
Yes I did!

10. Will you participate in the next team read-a-thon if you're available?
Absolutely

11. Anything you'd like to improve?
I had so much fun. I enjoyed everything. I just wish it was longer!