2018 SFFBC Owned Books Challenge!

[Sarah]

Absolutely, but you have to try to read a word or two around him ;)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I just have Ellis read out loud. His enunciation isn't the best, but I think it's good for his self confidence to practice.

[Lost Planet Airman]

I don't see that the rules say the books have to be unread…
Is that an unspoken assumption, or are rereads eligible?

[Sarah]

No, I don't think they do. The goal is to read books that have been sitting around waiting to be read.

[Cheryl]

I'm going to do some rereads of books that I want to read one more time before 'setting them free'.

[Richard]

17 Dec 2017 - the 114th Anniversary of Powered, Manned Flight

Richard's Challenge # 2 for 2018 -- SFFBC Owned Books Challenge

This is even a more intriguing challenge as it has a lot to do with my TBR which I desperately need to get cleaned up.

Length of Ownership (best guess)
1 year - 10 points
3 years - 50 points
5 years - 75 points
10 years - 150 points

Length of Book
300 pages/10 hours - 15 points -- Ninefox Gambit in work
500 pages/17 hours - 75 points
750 pages/25 hours - 150 points
1000 pages/33 hours - 300 points

Total Owned Books Read
0-10 - 25 points
11-30 - 50 points
31-50 - 75 points
51-75 - 100 points
76-100 - 150 points
100+ - 200 points

Series
First book in a series - 5 points
Any subsequent book in a series - 10 points
Fifth book in a series - 20 points
Tenth book in a series - 30 points
Finish a series - 15 points

Other
Forced on you by a friend - 20 points
Received as a gift - 10 points
A book that any group you're a member of reads as a monthly selection - 25 points
Embarrassing cover - 20 points (30 if you read some of it in public without hiding the cover)
Won/Nominated for any kind of award - 10 points
An author you've never read - 10 points
A buddy read - 5 points (20 if you both/all own it)
A 2018 release, but pre-ordered in 2017 - 5 points
Turned into a movie - 10 points
A 2017 Holiday gift - 10 points
A self-pub - 5 points
Oops! Bought it twice - 25 points
Read at least one book in all three formats: print, ebook, audio - 25 points
A genre/subgenre you usually avoid - 15 points
Read with a cup of tea or coffee - 5 points/book
Read with a cat or dog on your lap - 5 points

BONUS: If you have fewer unread books on your shelves on 1/1/19 - 500 points.

My other challenges include:

[AndrewP]

Sarah Anne wrote: "You finally get to read them!"

That's what I have been telling myself for the last 30 years :)

[Melanie, the neutral party]

I can definitely get behind this challenge. My goal will be 500 points.

Length of Ownership/ Length of Book

Series

Other
Forced on me by a friend- The Phantom of the Opera
A 2017 Holiday gift- The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic
A 2018 release, but pre-ordered in 2017- The Burning Maze

[AndrewP]

Am I correct in assuming that a book can score points in more than one category? I hope so, my 20 year old copy of Shogun will score me 465 points :)
10 years - 150 points +
1000 pages/33 hours - 300 points +
First book in a series - 5 points
An author you've never read - 10 points

I better set my goal at several thousand.

[Sarah]

AndrewP wrote: "Am I correct in assuming that a book can score points in more than one category? I hope so, my 20 year old copy of Shogun will score me 465 points :)
10 years - 150 points +
1000 pages/33 hours - ..."

Exactly, you lucky bastard. ;)

[CBRetriever]

oooo, that might actually make me read a few of my DTBs as they're all over 30 years old and a lot are close to that page count or at least 500+ pages....

dunno though, they might be too much for my poor fingers and wrists to hold up

[Rachel]

So - question : many of my older SF books especially old Hugo winners I liberated from my Parents’ library. So how do I determine how life my it’s been owned? Technically I never bought them I inherited them. And alive no clue how long they’ve been “mine” versus “theirs” (I first moved out so long ago I’m clueless- but I kept liberating until recently )

[Cheryl]

In your situation, Rachel, this is how I'd think: Ever since you knew that you'd be rescuing/ liberating them from your parents, they've been yours. Your parents were just storing them for you.

[Esther]

CBRetriever wrote: "not me - it took too long to train them not to get on the couch and i do not want a 78 pound Chesapeake Bay Retriever sitting on me"

Sit on the floor next to him?

[CBRetriever]

Esther wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "not me - it took too long to train them not to get on the couch and i do not want a 78 pound Chesapeake Bay Retriever sitting on me"

Sit on the floor next to him?"

I'll settle for the cat

[Sarah]

I finally got around to creating a spreadsheet to add up all these points. I do have a couple of questions:

1.) Books that were turned into movies: are we allowed to count movies in the making? For example, I own both Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (expected 2019) and Old Man's War (in development)?

Follow up: What about books that weren't made into movies but into TV shows or miniseries (e.g. A Game of Thrones?)

2.) Single book that contains multiple books in a series: Theft of Swords is listed as The Riyria Revelations #1-2. Should I count them individually? Or as one book?

3.) Is the "Other" category something we should only award once to one book? Like every book you received as a gift gets the 10 points? Or just the first one you read that was a gift gets the 10?

Lastly- I'm curious to see if any of you have tallied some points for your books yet, what's your highest scoring book?

Mine is It: 1000+ pages for 300 points, owned for more than 10 years for 150 points, turned into a movie for 10 points, won/nominated for an award for 10 points for a total of 470 points.

[Sarah]

1 = yes and yes

2 = I think that I would personally go with the format, but I know I sometimes rate these separate so it could go either way.

3 = You can count these on any book, there's no limit. The only limit is that the cup of tea/coffee and the pet on the lap is one time per book.

It = Awesome! I bet that one is getting read this year!

[Sarah]

Sarah Anne wrote: "1 = yes and yes

2 = I think that I would personally go with the format, but I know I sometimes rate these separate so it could go either way.

3 = You can count these on any book, there's no limi..."

Thanks for the speedy response as always Sarah Anne! I'm actually dreading It. I've started it so many times, if this isn't the year there will never be a year.

[Sarah]

Also, I wanted to post this for the award category: https://www.fictiondb.com

For any fiction books you can type in the name, author or ISBN of the book and it will tell you in a section at the bottom what awards, if any, the book has been nominated for or won. Just be careful because it will tell you about "starred reviews" too.

[CBRetriever]

Vietnam: A History (1983)

basis for a PBS series "Vietnam:_A_Television_History" in 1983 for which the author was an adviser who took part in developing the series. Not a movie, does TV count?

[Sarah]

Sarah wrote: "Also, I wanted to post this for the award category: https://www.fictiondb.com

For any fiction books you can type in the name, author or ISBN of the book and it will tell you in a section at the bo..."

Cool!

CBRetriever wrote: "Vietnam: A History (1983)

basis for a PBS series "Vietnam:_A_Television_History" in 1983 for which the author was an adviser who took part in developing the series. Not a movie, does TV count?"

I would count it.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

You get points! And YOU get points! We all get points!!!

[CBRetriever]

excellent - unfortunately (I was hoping otherwise), it's only 750+ pages so I don't get 300 points,...just 150. Maybe I'll finally read the book (I did watch the series back then)

[Trike]

Going through my office I found an original paperback edition of Assignment in Eternity by Heinlein, which I think my uncle gave to me in 1977. That is probably the longest denizen of my TBR purgatory,

40 years. That one gets bonus points for being physically older than most of us, and went on my shelf before most of you were born.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Trike wrote: "Going through my office I found an original paperback edition of Assignment in Eternity by Heinlein, which I think my uncle gave to me in 1977. That is probably the longest denizen of ..."

It's not even in most of our generation anymore! It's a gen x book. And X is 10, so I think it gets 10 monopoly money points.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

I'm totally in.

Acck!

So, in looking at my current stats in BC:

Total Books: 1118 (This number is incorrect, lol)
Total Books read: 484 (43.3%) (This number is incorrect, lol)

I need to spend some quality time in my library with a notepad.

[Trike]

Allison wrote: "It's not even in most of our generation anymore! It's a gen x book. And X is 10, so I think it gets 10 monopoly money points. "

That’s just how long I’ve had it, too. It was published in 1954. At 63 it looks pretty good.

[Sam]

I'm not entirely clear on the "Read at least one book in all three formats: print, ebook, audio - 25 points". Do you read it 3 times, read parts of it on all 3, or own a book in all 3 . . . .?

[Sarah]

You read one book of any kind of each format. If you read one print, one ebook, and listen to one audio over the course of the year then you get that 25 point bonus.

[Cheryl]

Oh! That makes it easier for sure. I was assuming one favorite book, three reads.

[Sarah]

I altered the wording to "read at least one book in each of the three formats." Does that make more sense?

[Cheryl]

Yes, thank you, that's more clear imo.

[Sarah]

Let me know if any others should be tweaked for clarification. Or because they suck and need immediate assistance.

[Karin]

This challenge is perfect for me. I am currently trying to read my way through the boxes and boxes of mysteries my mother read over the years. Quite a few of these are over 5 years old, and many over 10. Which brings up the question: Why no points for books less than 300 pages? Years ago the average page count for a book was 180 to 240 pages. Looking to maximize my point count any way possible. Off to create my spreadsheet now.

[Sarah]

Because longer books take more time. That's also why the points double even though the page counts don't. I tend to like incentive to push myself to read really long ones. If I can get 150 points for reading two 500 page books but 300 for a 1000 page book then it helps me push myself to read the 1000 page one. Plus, the longer books will allow fewer other points because it's only one book.

[CBRetriever]

question on long books:

the current version of The Way of Kings on Amazon shows 607 pages, but the Kindle version I have shows 1013 pages and the Goodreads Version shows 1007 pages. When I open the book and go to the last Page (excluding all addendums and promotional materials, it is page 1002. I'm presuming we go with the actual page count on our book?

[Rachel]

How the F is way of Kings 600 pages in any medium?! That’s what I want to know

[Sarah]

Yes, I would go with the edition you are reading.

[CBRetriever]

I have no idea - I figure it's a typo on Amazon maybe?

I was checking some of my books that are close to the page cutoffs since I purchased some of them when I lived in France and thus they have a UK publisher and possibly a different page count, when I found it.

[Trike]

Rachel wrote: "How the F is way of Kings 600 pages in any medium?! That’s what I want to know"

600 pages is the prologue.

[Alondra]

Uhm, not sure if this has been answered; but are we posting our own separate thread under this topic to keep track of this? OR, are we just posting here??

[Sarah]

Just here.

[HeyT]

Okay so I don't have any real experience with like excel or the google docs version is anyone willing to share like a template that I can use to keep track of my challenge? I mean if not I'll just make one on paper but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

[Sarah]

I wouldn’t mind sharing mine. But I use numbers (on a Mac) and I don’t know if all the formatting/formulas will carry over. I can try tomorrow if you want?

[Alondra]

Sarah Anne wrote: "Just here."

Okay. I think I will just post here at the end of 2018 with my totals then. Thanks

[Beth]

I love how spreadsheet-y this challenge is. There's really no way for me to know how many TBR I have, for a couple of reasons--there are a bunch--so I'll just track how many books I've bought this year vs. what I've read. I doubt that final bonus is happening, but maybe 2018 will be a miracle of self-control! And, of course, I'll tote up the rest of the points diligently.

[Sarah]

That's how I'm doing it, Beth. I have no way of counting my ebooks and no desire to try to count my audios. I was originally going to count the 100+ library audios that I've downloaded to my iPod as "owned" but then I realized that if I did that I'd have to count any that I download next year as purchases. I totally binge download, which is why I have 120 or whatever. That would make that bonus impossible.

We could always just donate the difference to the library at the end of the year ;)

[HeyT]

Sarah wrote: "I wouldn’t mind sharing mine. But I use numbers (on a Mac) and I don’t know if all the formatting/formulas will carry over. I can try tomorrow if you want?"

I'm willing to try. I'm really grateful for anything as a starting point.

[Sarah]

Sure! Do you want to PM me your email address? The biggest thing I can think of is Numbers let’s me add checkboxes to my spread sheet and I’m pretty sure excel doesn’t have a checkbox option. So for those columns, as long as the formulas carry over, you can just put true or false and I think it would still work.

[Dazrin]

MrsJoseph asked me to make a spreadsheet for this in a different group, here is a link if anyone is interested (you can use it as-is or just use it for a starting point.)

This is in Google Sheets and probably won't import directly into Excel. File > Make a copy... to save it to your Google Drive.

And for the last bonus points, I don't have a cat or dog to sit in my lap. Does a toddler count? :D WAY more distracting.

Edit: 2/6/18: Changed the "3 Formats" item to be 1/year per some rule clarifications. You can see the new formula in cell U8 on the sheet linked here if you want to fix this. (It only gives points after you have 3 books marked - one for e-book, one for audio, one for p-book - but you need to track which formats you have, it doesn't track that.)