2018 SFFBC Owned Books Challenge!

[Richard]

Updated 1-1-2018 Page 5 post 202, 2nd on the page noted . . .

Okay, this is the challenge that my sweet wife has wanted for me to commit to for at least, well the last 44 years of so, at least ever since we started dating serious and talking about making the friendship we shared into something a lot longer lasting and a lot more enjoyable, wonderful, etc. At any rate here are the challenge components, and I will match them up with the books I complete from the TBR Shelves I have running. The basics from Sarah Anne are:

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
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 each of the 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.

[Trike]

Richard wrote: "Updated 1-1-2018 Page 5 post 202, 2nd on the page noted . . .

Okay, this is the challenge that my sweet wife has wanted for me to commit to for at least, well the last 44 years of so, at least eve..."

Translation: “I love you but my god the books.”

[Silvana]

Dazrin wrote: "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 ..."

thank you!

[VickyK]

This challenge is perfect for 2018! When I started working 15 years ago, I spent a good part of my salary for books. And many of them are still sitting on my shelfes..unread. A few years ago I started to read ebooks (another huge TBR which needs to be cleaned out). Nowadays I barely buy books, mostly get them from the library, but there are still these old books that are bugging me!

I already cleaned out about 100 books in the last 2 years, but still another 100 left. I am going to sort out again tonight and create a separate shelf on GR. Still debating with myself if I should include my ebooks or not.

[CBRetriever]

why not? Most of my TBR books are e-books

[Rachel]

I do feel like treebooks take precedence in this one- since it’s the physical books that take up the most space!!

[CBRetriever]

Rachel wrote: "I do feel like treebooks take precedence in this one- since it’s the physical books that take up the most space!!"

I just don't have that many DTBs that are unread (12) compared to ebooks (359)

[Emma]

I’ve got about 150 books on kindle to read and about 30 in print that I want to read . I thought I had a problem with letting my stash get away with me, but having read this thread I feel I can give myself permission to continue acquiring (although not valid for this challenge)!

[Tom]

Made just for me I think HAHA

[Tom]

Can these books be from all genre? Some I know for sure is Orion Shall Rise, Redshirts, Station Eleven, Up Front, The Ayes of Texas, Boat of a Million Years, Off Amegeddon Reef, Console Wars, Corridors of Time, and a few others I'm sure.

[CBRetriever]

I didn't receive a no to: Vietnam: A History so I'm going with the all genres option

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Yep yep! Provided you owned it by 11:59 PM 12/31/17, you can count it :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I am curious. How many books have we all bought as a result of this challenge getting posted? I bought 4.

[Kristin B.]

Allison wrote: "I am curious. How many books have we all bought as a result of this challenge getting posted? I bought 4."

I thought I was at about four. But then I went and checked and I'm actually at 10. OOPS! The good news is that most of them were less than $2 because they were on sale on Kindle.

[CBRetriever]

I bought two as a result of noticing that I didn't have the last book in a series

[Cheryl]

I bought zero. I considered looking through my lists, but figured I could wait until 2019.

[Sarah]

4 for me.

[Beth]

Zero here.

That bonus 500 is going to be tricky to get if I don't unsubscribe from various e-book bargain mails, though. I need to get sterner about asking the tough questions before hitting that "buy now" button, "Do you stand a chance of getting to this book in 2018?" among them.

[Data]

I bought zero, but I added several already owned that were not recorded on GR before ... I don't consider that cheating ;)
And I unpacked a few more boxes that way.

[Rachel]

...I bought two short novels (forget delineation between novella..)...

I actually went and added 40 print books I own onto GR in December so I could more easily use them for this years challenge

[Meredith]

well..... I bought some books online in December but they won't arrive until January so I'm torn over whether to count them as "owned" in 2017.

[Sarah]

I bought 7...

But in my defense: One of them I didn't actually wait to read so it won't count here. None of them cost more than $4. I was given an Amazon Gift Card (therefore they count as gifts right?!). 4 books were books I had pre-planned for challenges, so I would have ended up buying them regardless. Of the remaining 2, only one was really an impulse buy. The other I'd been tracking and it just happened to go on sale in 2017.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I'm not sure how successful I'll be at this challenge, but it's worth it to me just to get to read about all the cleaning and justifications for buying of pretty books everyone's doing in search of points. Y'all just make me so happy. ^^

And I'm truly impressed with those who've found motivation, self-control, and/or great deals!

[Sarah]

After seeing some of the numbers here (thousands owned, owned for 40 years, etc.) I probably can't compete. Last tally I was at 120 books owned and half of them count for less than 50 points.

If I manage to read the first five books of Game of Thrones there's 1500 points in it, but I doubt I'll get through them all.

I will just be happy if I manage to get the bonus.

[Sarah]

Mjmahoney wrote: "well..... I bought some books online in December but they won't arrive until January so I'm torn over whether to count them as "owned" in 2017."

I count payment made as "owned."

[Sarah]

Sarah wrote: "I probably can't compete. .."

This is why we're doing a grand total and an average. I didn't want to give people who can read a ton an easy win.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Sarah wouldn't let me use my idea for an equalizer. She wanted to be "nice" and "fair" or something.

[Sarah]

Sarah Anne wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I probably can't compete. .."

This is why we're doing a grand total and an average. I didn't want to give people who can read a ton an easy win."

Ahh I see. So if I stick mostly to books owned prior to 2018 I have a shot? That's good news!

[Sarah]

It was very mean, Allison ;)

[Meredith]

Sarah Anne wrote: "Mjmahoney wrote: "well..... I bought some books online in December but they won't arrive until January so I'm torn over whether to count them as "owned" in 2017."

I count payment made as "owned.""

*adds 4 more books to the to-read-pile ..... also 2 pre-orders*
*slinks away*

[Sarah]

:)

[Becky]

I added 13 audiobooks. But technically I would have anyway since I needed to use the credits or lose them when I cancelled the subscription.

[Becky]

Sarah Anne wrote: "It was very mean, Allison ;)"

I kinda want to know what it was... Lol

[Amanda]

I spent the the last anxiously waiting for the New Year so I could start reading my Christmas books, and the first 2 books I'm going to finish are library books. :-( I'm not sure that's a good sign for this competition.

[Trike]

Allison wrote: "I am curious. How many books have we all bought as a result of this challenge getting posted? I bought 4."

I didn’t buy any specifically for this challenge, but I did buy a dozen books at Half Price Books with my Xmas gift card. Because, you know, the books were right there.

I had to mail them back to myself, though, so I hope they show up.

[Esther]

Sarah Anne wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I probably can't compete. .."

This is why we're doing a grand total and an average. I didn't want to give people who can read a ton an easy win."

This gives me a chance. I don't read a lot of books but I have hundreds of DTBs on my shelves and have owned some of them for decades.
For instance the Agatha Christies I inherited from my grandmother in 1992. There are at least 60 of those.

[Sarah]

Sarah wrote: " I was given an Amazon Gift Card (therefore they count as gifts right?!)...."

Makes sense to me :)

[CBRetriever]

I'm kinda torn between reading books with max points and reading short books that will reduce the number quickest...

[VickyK]

I cleaned out 40 books last night, so my current physical TBR is 52! But my ebook-TBR is much bigger and I am not sure if I really want to count them, eg I have a huge collection of almost all books by Wolfgang Hohlbein, which are probably more than 200 books, but I will never read all of them, but also can't get rid of them. They need way less space as physical books ;)

My goal for 2018: Cleaning out my ebooks and read as many of my physical and ebooks as possible.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Becky wrote: "Sarah Anne wrote: "It was very mean, Allison ;)"

I kinda want to know what it was... Lol"

I was of the opinion that at the very end, we tell people to subtract their current TBR total from their beginning of the year TBR total, and multiply points by that number.

*I* thought it was hilarious. ;-D

[CBRetriever]

VickyK wrote: "I cleaned out 40 books last night, so my current physical TBR is 52! But my ebook-TBR is much bigger and I am not sure if I really want to count them, eg I have a huge collection of almost all book..."

I imported all my Kindle books into GoodReads, so the count was pretty easy.

[Anna]

Allison that is so mean! :D

I haven't done anything about this challenge yet, but my goal is to get rid of all of my unwanted physical books by the end of 2018. I'm not really competing against anyone else, just against my shelves. I consider donating an unread book as valuable as reading it. I only want to have very few favorite books left when I'm done, maybe not even that.

[Becky]

Allison wrote: "I was of the opinion that at the very end, we tell people to subtract their current TBR total from their beginning of the year TBR total, and multiply points by that number.

*I* thought it was hilarious. ;-D"

Do you mean we'd multiply by the difference? Like, if I had 931 to start, and read 30, that I would multiply my end score by 30?

So... for example... If my score total for 30 books read is 500 pts

500 x 30 = 15,000

There could be some hefty final scores, for sure!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Becky wrote: "Allison wrote: "I was of the opinion that at the very end, we tell people to subtract their current TBR total from their beginning of the year TBR total, and multiply points by that number.

*I* th..."

If you added no new books, i.e. started at 931 and ended at 901, yes! If you added 29 books throughout the year, you'd multiply it by 1. If you added 50 books, you'd multiply by -20

Sarah (rightfully!) denied me my joke. ^^

[Becky]

Gotcha. I like your version! It's an incentive for willpower and motivation. :D

[Amanda]

Allison wrote: "Becky wrote: "Allison wrote: "I was of the opinion that at the very end, we tell people to subtract their current TBR total from their beginning of the year TBR total, and multiply points by that n..."

It would provide motivation to go through your TBR and determine if you are actually going to read some of those books. I get in the bad habit of adding boatloads of books at one time and then forgetting about them.

[Hank]

Becky wrote: "Gotcha. I like your version! It's an incentive for willpower and motivation. :D"

I know what one of those is but what is this thing called "willpower"?

[Cheryl]

Allison wrote: "Becky wrote: "Sarah Anne wrote: "It was very mean, Allison ;)"

I kinda want to know what it was... Lol"

I was of the opinion that at the very end, we tell people to subtract their current TBR tot..."

See, now this would help me, honestly. I don't read series or fat books, nor have a dog or cat. But since my favorite source of DTBs no longer exists, I know I'll be buying fewer. Oh well. I'm too old to feel competitive w/ y'all, anyway.

[Cheryl]

Should we be stating somewhere, for the record, our beginning-of-the-year TBR count? If I do wind up buying something, that shelf number will change...

So, I'm at 141 DTBs right now. Some of those I imagine I'll want to keep for a reread, but my goal is to get most of them out of the house. This year. Yes.

Edit. 142. I found another in my son's room.

[Becky]

You can do it, Cheryl! :D