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YOUR INPUT - What Activities should we add next
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I really enjoyed the themed tracking mixed with task challenges in the Olympics challenge, so I'm hopeful for something like that again because the bonus points really drove me to find new books and authors which would fit the requirements. Because of that, I've read so many diverse books from so many different authors.
About a month ago, I began participating in a book exchange. It does require buying or mailing one of my own books, but it was interesting because I had to mail one of my favorite books and a note to someone around the world. It turned out to be a kind of chain of people, so I don't know if this would be doable? I more of the information if it sounds good.
Mion wrote: "I really enjoyed the themed tracking mixed with task challenges in the Olympics challenge.."Thanks, Mion, glad to get the input! I too loved how the Olympic Challenge got us all to read books/genres/authors from so many different countries. So we just need to figure out another cool theme that can do that for us again!
Elie wrote: "About a month ago, I began participating in a book exchange. It does require buying or mailing one of my own books, but it was interesting because I had to mail one of my favorite books and a note ..."That sounds like a really neat idea, Elie. The only challenge is the cost of mailing a book outside of one's own country can be pretty high. Perhaps to send a note card/letter with a bookmark or something might work though.. good idea for the holidays ? :) Love the input, thanks!
Can we do monthly scavenger hunts? We can have a monthly theme and a list of words that go along with the theme and have people find those words in their books. :)
Ev wrote: "Can we do monthly scavenger hunts? We can have a monthly theme and a list of words that go along with the theme and have people find those words in their books. :)"Oooh, that sounds like a lot of fun, and easy to set-up / participate in :) We could even tie-in with our monthly themed genre (ie. Adventure in August) and generate list of words connected to that! Thanks for the input, great idea! :)
you guys all have such amazing ideas! I can see each of these ideas coming into fruition, definitely! Love hearing from you all
We could do an Around the World in Books, where we read books from as many different countries as possible and/or authors from as many different countries as possible perhaps. And I love the spreadsheets, I like being able to see all the progress I've made.
PS**I've just found a similar Literary Around the World challenge with the aim to read books from as many countries as possible - one person read 196 different books.
Choose from among the following reading goals:
1. Literary Hitchhiker – 25-40 countries
2. Literary Vagabond – 41-60 countries
3. Literary Explorer – 61-80 countries
4. Literary Adventurer – 81-99 countries
5. Literary Globetrotter – 100 countries and above
I think this would work well on a spreadsheet, perhaps?
Name /Book/ Author /Year /Country/ Pages read /Done
we could possibly have travelling buddies where people read the same books together or we read books someone else has read
We could also do a Favourites - where everyone says their favourites (hobbies, activities, animals, colours, etc.) and we find books with something they like in the title or the text.
We can also try some of these as well, take a deeks! http://www.girlxoxo.com/the-master-li...
This Back to the Classics sounds quite canny
https://karensbooksandchocolate.blogs...
1. A 19th century classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
2. A 20th century classic - any book published between 1900 and 1968. Just like last year, all books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify. The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later, such as posthumous publications.
3. A classic by a woman author.
4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. Feel free to read the book in your language or the original language. (You can also read books in translation for any of the other categories). Modern translations are acceptable as long as the original work fits the guidelines for publications as explained in the challenge rules.
5. A children's classic. Indulge your inner child and read that classic that you somehow missed years ago. Short stories are fine, but it must be a complete volume. Young adult and picture books don't count!
6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction. This can be a true crime story, mystery, detective novel, spy novel, etc., as long as a crime is an integral part of the story and it was published at least 50 years ago. Examples include The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train, In Cold Blood, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, etc. The Haycraft-Queen Cornerstones list is an excellent source for suggestions.
7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. The journey itself must be the major plot point -- not just the destination. Good examples include The Hobbit, Around the World in 80 Days, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Kon-Tiki, Travels with Charley, etc.
8. A classic with a single-word title. No articles please! Proper names are fine -- Emma, Germinal, Middlemarch, Kidnapped, etc.
9. A classic with a color in the title. The Woman in White; Anne of Green Gables; The Red and the Black, and so on. (Silver, gold, etc. are acceptable. Basically, if it's a color in a Crayola box of crayons, it's fine!)
10. A classic by an author that's new to you. Choose an author you've never read before.
11. A classic that scares you. Is there a classic you've been putting off forever? A really long book which intimidates you because of its sheer length? Now's the time to read it, and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised!
12. Re-read a favourite classic. Like me, you probably have a lot of favourites -- choose one and read it again, then tell us why you love it so much.
We could also do a Favourites - where everyone says their favourites (hobbies, activities, animals, colours, etc.) and we find books with something they like in the title or the text. All great ideas, Jazzy! :) This one is great for the scavenger hunt idea Ev suggested! This would be so fun, and a great icebreaker for making PenPal connections!
Jazzy wrote: "We can also try some of these as well, take a deeks! http://www.girlxoxo.com/the-master-li...
This Back to the Classics sounds quite canny
https://karensbooksandchocol..."
Oooh, a classics challenge would be really good! That's a genre I always need to push myself to read more of, but there's so many wonderful books, and typically easily accessible as free download.
And the 'Around the World' challenge would definitely work well for a spreadsheet - and of course you'll be our creative spreadsheet guru again we hope!!!! I love the idea of travelling buddies too :) Definitely need to get this one going soon!
GREAT IDEAS! :) THANKS!
I do think we need a 3-month spreadsheet from Sept-Nov so we can keep track of all our books as we did the last two seasons, perhaps with different page or different column for different challenges?
I really liked the concept of the Summer Read More event. (Unfortunately I couldn’t participate)Is it perhaps an idea to have a fall or winter themed one? (Or a scavenge hunt appropriate for the coming seasons)
Femke wrote: "I really liked the concept of the Summer Read More event. (Unfortunately I couldn’t participate)Is it perhaps an idea to have a fall or winter themed one? (Or a scavenge hunt appropriate for the ..."
Thanks for the input Femke!
We do have a new spreadsheet tracking challenge coming for Sept 1 - the theme is 'World Wonders', and will be focused on reading books with authors/settings from other countries.
We also plan to have Scavenger Hunt activities, so glad that Ev and you have asked for that! They are fun! We'll have one scavenger hunt related to our monthly theme (Sept=banned books), but it's a great idea to have on with fall themed words. We can add that one in too!
Zoe and I are happy to add as many activities as members are interested in doing! We'll try to have an assortment of monthly, seasonal, and themed activities, and of course we'll keep focusing on activities that facilitate connecting as PenPals!
Great input, keep the feedback coming everyone :) I'm so excited to plan my fall/winter reading with all these exciting challenges in mind!
I was also thinking about doing a Bingo type challenge where you populate a bingo board with books from your TBR shelf. Is that something people would be interested in?
Jazzy wrote: "I do think we need a 3-month spreadsheet from Sept-Nov so we can keep track of all our books as we did the last two seasons, perhaps with different page or different column for different challenges?"I completely agree. The summer read more spreadsheet is awesome! I'm always so excited to finish a book so that I can write it in the spreadsheet. It's also fun to try to reach my flavor goal :)
And, as a bonus it would be cool to have different tabs for different challenges. So, one tab is for all the books in general and then you can organize all of the challenge-specific books easily.
Zoe wrote: "I was also thinking about doing a Bingo type challenge where you populate a bingo board with books from your TBR shelf. Is that something people would be interested in?"The bingo idea seems really fun and a great motivator to clear off the TBR shelf!
Elizabeth wrote: "Zoe wrote: "I was also thinking about doing a Bingo type challenge where you populate a bingo board with books from your TBR shelf. ..."I only have ONE book on my TBR shelf though :)
Jazzy wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Zoe wrote: "I was also thinking about doing a Bingo type challenge where you populate a bingo board with books from your TBR shelf. ..."I only have ONE book on my TBR shelf thou..."
Oh my gosh! Is that because you're a reading queen! Maybe for Bingo for your list we could use books you've had your eye on or everyone could recommend a book they think you'd enjoy? What do you think, Jazzy?
Zoe wrote: "Oh my gosh! Is that because you're a reading queen! ..."Bwaaahahaha. :)
No, I hated having that large list so I deleted it. The book still on there is called 'I LOVE' and if i take it off the list I'll never find it again. It's a very old book translated from the Russian. No one else on goodreads has it, I entered it myself. I do have a store of ebooks, and a few shelves of books, to read or not to read? It will depend on what challenges arise!
But I did actually give away more than 3/4s of my books, and delete a lot of my ebooks. I am not 20 anymore sadly, I cannot read all those books.
How about little threads where you read books that link to other books (but are not in the same series) so if you read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka then you could read Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir and from there you could read The Vile Villagebooks that have a word from the previous book. You could choose to read 3,6,9, or 12
OR we could buddy up, and our friend reads a book, and then we choose to read a book from there, and someone (or more) reads the next books.... and we can have threads going out every which way.
Apologies if this is something we've already got and I can't find it, but it's something I picked up from another group! They have a 'Reading Sprints' board where you can start your own reading sprints with other people in the group. It's not managed, people just hop in and out if they want to get some serious reading done. I think this would especially help with the amount of challenges we have going! Just an idea I wanted to throw out there :)
Jazzy wrote: "How about little threads where you read books that link to other books (but are not in the same series) so if you read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka then you could read [book:Kafka Was the Rage:..."This sounds like so much fun.. I think I've come across that once before in another group and thought it was very clever.. For sure we should add an activity that like.. I'm thinking it could run all year, and participants could work away at their growing connect lists at whatever pace they want.. fun!
Chloe wrote: "Apologies if this is something we've already got and I can't find it, but it's something I picked up from another group! They have a 'Reading Sprints' board where you can start your own reading spr..."Sounds great Chloe! You're right, we've been increasing our activities now, so lots happening :)
I found one post that had this.. is this the idea?
How to Sprint:
1. Find someone to sprint with
2. Designate a start time (Use :10 for 10 past the hour, :30 for half past, and so on to account for time zone differences)
3. Decide how long you want to sprint for (10 minutes, 15, 30, etc.)
4. Read as much as you can in that time
5. Come back here when you're done and tell us your progress!
Anne ✨ wrote: "Chloe wrote: "Apologies if this is something we've already got and I can't find it, but it's something I picked up from another group! They have a 'Reading Sprints' board where you can start your o..."Sorry Anne I've only just seen your reply!
Yes that's exactly the idea! So on the group I've seen you just drop a message onto a thread saying ":30 for 20?" which would mean, to anyone who's around on the post (making it more flexible for people around the world) that at half past the hour you'll read for 20 minutes. Then when you've read for 20 minutes you drop another message in saying how many pages you read in that time!
Chloe wrote: "Anne ✨ wrote: "Chloe wrote: "Apologies if this is something we've already got and I can't find it, but it's something I picked up from another group! They have a 'Reading Sprints' board where you c..."And oops I've just noticed you made a thread!
It might be fun to start a holiday postcard/card tradition in the group. I can't claim credit for the idea; it's one of my favorite traditions on LibraryThing & I thought it could be a great icebreaker activity in here as well. It's pretty straightforward, everyone that is interested signs up in a thread by the second week in December and they include how many cards/postcards they'd be up for sending & if they're up for sending cards internationally or no. LT usually mentions that the goal isn't to spend a lot of money on the cards but to make them unique & creative. I've had people make them from scratch, sent paper ornaments inside them, share their favorite quote & what it means to them, etc.
Ariel wrote: "It might be fun to start a holiday postcard/card tradition in the group. I can't claim credit for the idea; it's one of my favorite traditions on LibraryThing & I thought it could be a great icebre..."This sounds like a wonderful idea! I'd love to do this in January to Bring in the New Year! (December always seems so busy for everybody, and post offices crowded)...
Anne ✨ wrote: "Ariel wrote: "It might be fun to start a holiday postcard/card tradition in the group. I can't claim credit for the idea; it's one of my favorite traditions on LibraryThing & I thought it could be ..."And not just crowded! Post also tends to get lost during holiday season more than during the rest of the year.
I really like that idea - setting it for the New Year rather than Christmas. :)
I like the idea of exchanging cards, I've done it with a few different facebook groups with varying degrees of success. Alot of people didn't send any out.I've also participated in
themed handmade bookmark exchanges that were fun.
Eg, we all made 14 bookmarks, mailed them all to one person, along with a self addressed and stamped envelope, then they divided them all, put one of each from every person in the envelope and mailed them back out
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 110 times to 114 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2017.I would like to read a book by every one of the 110 winners.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Winn...
PenPal Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir (other topics)The Vile Village (other topics)
We're planning for the next few months and into 2019, and really want to hear from you about what activities and challenges you'd be most interested in participating in.
We know that many of you participate in multiple groups, and each group has its own unique offerings. Our group's focus is on finding and connecting with PenPals who are all ages and all over the world ;)
Our current activities consist of:
- Monthly CopyCat Challenge
- Monthly Themed Genre Read + Write
- PenPal Matching Challenge
- Themed tracking (spreadsheet) challenges (ie. Summer Read More)
- Themed task challenges (ie. Summer Reading Tasks)
- Icebreaker/Book Recommendations Challenge
What can we add? What can we improve? We want your feedback! Let us know in the comments below what kinds of activities you'd like to see for the rest of this year and into 2019. How can we help you connect with PenPals easier? How can we keep you connecting with PenPals you've already made?
-Mods