How to do Multiple Challenges

[Pam]

2020 will be my second time doing the Pop Sugar challenge. I have found doing a challenge has increased my reading. I am interested in doing another challenge along side this one in 2020. For those that have done this in the past what is your plan of attack? I know there are multiple ways of doing so, but I was interested in what others are doing. Do you read whatever you want and then fill whatever prompt it fits in whatever challenge? Do you do one challenge at a time? Or do you alternated back and forth between challenges? Thanks!

[Chrissie]

This year I completed the Popsugar, Around The Year and Book riot Read Harder challenges together (I look at what prompts from all three can be covered for a book I've read). I am currently trying to finish the 2019 Modern Mrs Darcy challenge (this wasn't a planned challenge for me, I only discovered this late in the year so I'm doing this separately).
I am also trying to complete the prompts from TNBBC challenges...there's a Goodreads group for these challenges and four years out of the last five have had prompts based on music. Basically the entire catalogue of music for certain singers and bands are turned into prompts and you read what you can in the year.
I started these in the middle of last year, and am doing these separately from the other reading challenges I sign up for. I initially thought I'd read and read until I finished each challenge, but when one considers how many prompts can be made out of the entire of David Bowies back catalogue (as an example...He's one of the challenges)...I admit that I'm finding it to be a little bit of a chore now to get back into it.
I've started a journal for books I've read as part of a reading challenge. So I may just add the unfinished challenges into my journals, consider them complete and go for shorter challenges next year as otherwise I'd get too bogged down and it seems like too much of a chore.

[Karin]

Back when I used to to multiple challenges I worked at finding ways to combine reads so that one book could count for more than one challenge, although this isn't always possible. However, since most years I read over 100 books it wasn't as difficult to do as it sounds, although it did take some finagling. I keep a folder and print them on paper if I am doing ones that are complicated.

What I suggest is to find a second one that isn't going to be really difficult to follow or that lines up with things you want to do already if you find this one is already broadening your reading horizons enough.

Last year I only did one really easy challenge after a few years of doing tricky ones, and this year I am adding Popsugar again after a few years off from it. What I like about this group is some people's creative ways of interpreting some of the suggestions; if I get in a pinch, I might borrow some of these, depending on the number and how loosely it goes. I don't like to go too loose with this or it loses the challenge part of it :)

[Pam]

Thanks for your feedback! It really helped:)

[Brandon]

See how many books you generally read in a given year, and limit your challenges to less than that number.

I am going to try doing Pop Sugar and Read Harder in 2020, but I will freely double dip between or within challenges. I am mainly looking to read some books I otherwise would not have known about, even if I do not read them this year.

[Brandy]

This year I did (am doing) here ATY and Read Harder. That's 2.5 books per week and I liberally include graphic novels and YA books as they fit in. I don't count a book for mulitple challenges but if I do all three this year I might. The idea is to read a variety for me and to have fun and I might be at the point where bookriot has stopped being fun for me. Maybe I'll do it. maybe I won't. We'll see. I don't think their list is out, yet.

[Tanu]

I’m aiming to read 50-52 (adults’) books and see which categories they fit into. I’ll choose the book first and then tick off the categories it fits into on my spreadsheet.

[Lisa]

This year I did Popsugar, ATY, and Around the World. I Did PS in any order I wanted, ATY in order and ATW simply by Trying to choose books set in other countries. If a book fit all 3 challenges I counted them for all 3 (assuming the timing fit correctly for ATY). I did a lot of planning but also was fully willing to throw that planning out if I wanted to read something else. If I got into a reading slump I would read whatever I wanted and see if it fit a prompt in PS. About midway through the year I decided to do old PS challenges (this was my first year)so if I did some off plan reading I typically could find a prompt in a past year challenge if I couldn’t in this years. I also had both an ebook and an audiobook going most of the time so I was able to go through things pretty quickly.

[Karin]

Lisa wrote: "This year I did Popsugar, ATY, and Around the World. I Did PS in any order I wanted, ATY in order and ATW simply by Trying to choose books set in other countries. If a book fit all 3 challenges I c..."

Yes, not worrying about the order; I never worry about that unless it's a rule :).

[Terrie]

I've done Read Harder the last couple years but never finished (there's always a couple categories that don't appeal to me). Last year I added the Modern Mrs Darcy (MMD) challenge of 12 books. This year I'm doing those AND Popsugar. I'll definitely be double dipping between the various challenges though I try to not have one book fit two categories in the same challenge (though if it gets to the end of the year and I'm close to finishing I may fudge that).

For me, part of the fun is the planning and seeing if I can make a single book fit, for example, a 3-word title, a local author, and set in the 1920s. I started by going through my bookshelves and found about 25 books that fit a challenge. Then I went through my TBR and earmarked some that I think will work.

I don't want to totally plan a year of reading - that's not fun. There needs to be lots of room for serendipity, so there's still holes in the plan leaving room for books I pick up thru the year. I'm looking forward to a fun year of reading!

[Ruth]

Last year I did the POPSUGAR challenge as well as the OLUF challenge (from the Facebook group Orthodox Ladies United in Fandom.)

I personally read enough books that I don't double up- if a book fulfills more than one Popsugar challenge, I pick which one it fulfills, and don't use it for both. Others will allow the same book to fulfill 2 or 3 prompts, but no more.

I do allow a book to fulfill one prompt in both challenges. And I'll allow a book to fulfill more than one OLUF prompt if I don't have enough without it. That one's set up differently, with 5 different categories and 10 prompts per category, and you have to do at least 5 different prompts per category. A book can fulfill prompts in different categories but only one prompt per category. So you could do as few as 5 books if you choose them carefully or as many as 25.

I'd drive myself nuts if every book could only fulfill a prompt in only one of the challenges I was doing. That would turn reading into too much of a chore.

I don't like to figure out my whole list in advance. I generally start out the year by reading books I'd already selected that looked interesting, and then see what prompts they fit. Early in the year, it's usually very easy to fill slots with every book. Later in the year, I use the discusions about fulfilling each prompt to help me select books that look interesting. Sometimes I read books that dont fulfill any prompts I still have open. Sometimes I read a book that fulfills a prompt in only one reading challenge rather than both.

I typically finish the challenges around August, so I dont' worry about making EVERY book count. Sometimes I go back to the discussions of categories I've already filled to get ideas for new books to read.

Often, I get most of the challenges fairly easily but really struggle with one or two. I've had the challenge "mostly finished" for weeks before finally getting the last book. I'll also wait that long to use a book that feels a little bit like "cheating" if I really can't find a book that works. For example, I read a picture book about Hanukkah when I couldn't find anything novel-length that fulfilled the prompt "a book set at a holiday other than Christmas."

I've joked around about "finding a book that fulfills as many prompts as possible" but I wouldn't actually use such a book for the Popsugar challenge. I've found books that fulfill 10-15 prompts, if I stretch them enough.

[Nancy from NJ]

I am almost finished with one challenge and will start the next one when I finish the first one. I will also choose the books before I begin the challenge although I reserve the right to substitute titles.