2020 Group Challenge: The Colour Challenge

[Alannah]

Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue

For 2020, I wanted to make a different challenge from our successful name challenge. It works very similar to the name challenge.

The aim of the challenge is to look for colour within the books you choose to read during 2020. But you can be as creative as possible, you can keep your challenge very simple and choose the primary colours such as red, yellow or blue. Or you can decide to make it slightly tougher and use more specific colours such as lilac, rose, olive green or teal. There are no limits to the number of colours you can use. I would love to see how many you guys can come up with.

To give you an example I will use the colour blue. For this colour, I can use Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse, or I can choose a book which has a blue cover, such as The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert. You can even be more creative and use the colour of an item of clothing you’re wearing when you finish the book, such as your blue socks on your feet, but that is if you want to make the challenge easy for yourself. I have noticed that a lot of special editions have coloured edges on their pages, you can even use that if you like.

If you finish early on in the year, don’t forget you can come back and re-do your challenge. If you like, you can use two reds, three blues or four greens.

Members can use this thread to update their progress do the challenge in their personal challenge thread, I have already set it up if you want to get started.

[Joan]

Looks like fun - the wheels are turning as I think about this one.

[LauraT]

Tough!!!

[Alannah]

If you have any feedback, please let me know.

[Veronica ⭐️]

I love this. I think I will read the rainbow in book covers
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green,Blue,Indigo, Violet.
and
If I have time, try to find titles with colours in them. Such as Blue Moon

[Leslie]

Great challenge idea Alannah!

I think I might set myself a goal of trying to read 2 'color' books each month. Maybe I will pick a "color of the month" but am not sure about that yet...

[Alannah]

Leslie wrote: "Great challenge idea Alannah!

I think I might set myself a goal of trying to read 2 'color' books each month. Maybe I will pick a "color of the month" but am not sure about that yet..."

That sounds like a good idea.

[Annie]

I’m in. With an animal/vegetable/mineral theme (but no commitment as to how many ‘colour’ books I’ll manage).

Possibles ...

Alex Preston As KINGFISHERs Catch Fire: Birds & Books
Helena Attlee The Land Where LEMONs Grow: The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit
Ellen Meloy The Anthropology of TURQUOISE: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky
Vere Hodgson Few Eggs and No ORANGEs: The Diaries of Vere Hodgson 1940-45
Christine Toomey The SAFFRON Road: A Journey with Buddha's Daughters
Roger Deakin Notes From WALNUT Tree Farm
Lara Maiklam MUDlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames

[Alannah]

Annie wrote: "I’m in. With an animal/vegetable/mineral theme (but no commitment as to how many ‘colour’ books I’ll manage).

Possibles ...

Alex Preston As KINGFISHERs Catch Fire: Birds & Books
H..."

Sounds like a good challenge

[Rhonda]

I will try this challenge. Not sure how good I will do.

[Leslie]

Rhonda wrote: "I will try this challenge. Not sure how good I will do."

As long as you have fun with it, that is good enough!

[Tari]

I love most shades of the color blue. Can I just post covers that have all the shades of blue in them? Or does it need to be more specific? :) Thanks!

[Leslie]

Tari wrote: "I love most shades of the color blue. Can I just post covers that have all the shades of blue in them? Or does it need to be more specific? :) Thanks!"

The challenge is flexible so what you describe sounds fine to me.

[Tari]

Leslie wrote: "The challenge is flexible so what you describe sounds fine to me.."
Awesome, thank you!

[Kathleen]

Thanks for this flexible challenge! I think I'll try it, with the twist that the colors will stand for moods of the book.
Red: anger
Blue: sadness
Yellow: happiness
Green: jealousy
Purple: regal, royal
Grey: depression
Black: dark, noir

I don't know … something like that maybe. I'll see what I run into and track them here. :-)

[Leslie]

An interesting twist Kathleen!

[Tom]

I think I'm going to quite like this challenge. I choose to make my choices conform to the Emotional Spectrum found in DC comics. (Think Green Lantern). That is, the emotion listed will be a core theme in the book.

White/Life:
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon - such a sprawling novel must be about life, containing, as it does all the colors of the emotional spectrum. 4 Stars

Red/Rage:
Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan - Two opposing factions in an endless war. Starcrossed lovers. Not Romeo and Juliet. Something else. 5 Stars

Orange/Greed:
The Death of Stalin by Fabien Nury - A story of people coveting power and what they will do to get it. 5 Stars

Yellow/Fear:

Green/Will:
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce - This one is a toss up between Green and Blue, but I felt the scales tip ever so slightly to the former. 5 Stars

Blue/Hope:

Indigo/Compassion:
The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion - Simsion's Don Tillman trilogy concludes in fine fashion, reminding the reader to be respectful and compassionate for another's journey. 4 Stars

Violet/Love:

Black/Death:

[Leslie]

I am going to try to read GREEN books in January. Green covers, the word green in the title and/or authors named Green...

Luckily for me, Amazon's free Kindle classics have green covers so my current book Wings of the Dove counts!

[Alannah]

Your ideas all sound really good. I went simple for mine and used the rainbow song to start off with. I hope to add to it throughout the year if I ever get books with unique colours.

[Alannah]

I always find it easier to have my own thread in the personal challenges and it's something everyone is welcome to do.

My challenge is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Joan]

I’m combining this with my goal to finish Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh
color,, light & Van Gogh are all related in my mind, and to read more poetry.
So my first 3:

Leaves of Grass
Blue Horses
The rest I’ll record in my own challenge thread.

[LauraT]

I don't think I can really grasp the gist of the challenge; I'll see if I can sort something out from the books I read

[Leslie]

Well, it turns out that my Kindle edition of The Wings of the Dove wasn't green after all -


Sigh... but I reread This Gun for Hire by Graham Greene so that will work for me.

Now I am starting Living by Henry Green. I am slightly surprised that I didn't have any books already owned but unread with the word green in the title.

[Leslie]

I am now listening to the audiobook of Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh:

[Leslie]

I have finished a Kindle book that has long been languishing unread - The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katherine Green. Nice to accomplish 2 goals with a single book :)

[Leslie]

I have finished Sam the Sudden, an early stand alone novel by one of my favorite authors - P.G. Wodehouse. It qualifies for this challenge since it has a green cover (I am concentrating on green during January):

[Leslie]

It's a new month and time for me to pick a new color. I did well in Jan. with GREEN ending up with 8 books that had a mainly green cover, the word 'green' in the title or in the author's name. (list available in my 2020 challenge thread)

In February, I will be focusing on ROSE or other pink/red shades.

[Tweedledum]

An interesting challenge!

A book I am planning to read this year is Chromatopia by David Coles which is actually a history of colour and is a book that makes me smile just thinking about it. I also want to read my way through the Andrew Lang fairy books which I first read aged 10 from the classroom library and acquired my own set a couple of years ago. That leads me to make use of a rainbow theme.

So some possibilities:

The whole spectrum -
Chromatopia: An Illustrated History of Color finished April 2020)

100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names
The Private Life of Plants: A Natural History of Plant Behaviour




Red -
The Rosie Result (annoyingly this seems to have a yellow cover)
The Crimson Fairy Book
The Red Fairy Book
Crimson Joy by Robert B. Parker
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries and Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention by Cathy Newman
The Red Room byNicci French yes I finished this some time ago
Tonight The Moon is Red by Virginia McKenna
Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose by Sandy Balfour
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Written in My Own Heart's Blood
Death of a Red Heroine
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory



Orange -
The Orange Fairy Book
The Dust Diaries by Owen Sheers
Sahara by Michael Palin
In The Gold Of Flesh: Poems Of Birth And Motherhood edit by Rosemary Palmeira
Goldfish by Raymond Chandler( read April 2020)
Goldfinger (finished book April 2020)
The Goldfinch
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit


Yellow
The Yellow Fairy Book
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine
Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Green
The Green Fairy Book
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
Girl in a Green Gown: The History and Mystery of the Arnolfini Portrait by Carola Hicks
Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning
Anne of Green Gables
Green Dolphin Country
Tree and Leaf
Wildwood: A Journey through Trees

Blue
The Blue Fairy Book
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond by Ava Wong Davies
Downstream: A History and Celebration of Swimming the River Thames by Caitlin Davies
The Faber Book Of The Sea: An Anthology edit by John Coote
The Sea Journal: Seafarers' Sketchbooks
Sentinels of the Sea: A Miscellany of Lighthouses Past by R.G. Grant
Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves


Indigo ... a little license here ... I will allow browns, blacks and greys for indigo
The Brown Fairy Book
Notes From Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin
Stars In A Dark Night: The Letters Of Ivor Gurney To The Chapman Family
What the Raven Brings by John Owen Theobald
The Grey Fairy Book

Violet
The Violet Fairy Book
Taking Detective Stories Seriously: The Collected Crime Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers - a book with a lovely purple cover !
Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World by Simon Garfield
The Lilac Fairy Book
Lavender a history by Yardley


Oh dear oh dear, a challenge more honoured in the breach than the observance . Looks like I completed just 3 or 4 on this ambitious list. I blame COVID of course ... all reading plans dropped out of my head.

[Leslie]

My plan to pick a color each month hasn't worked out too well. I guess I will just count books with any color in the title or author & not count covers as of March...

Now I need to go back to my personal challenge thread and see what books count - I know there are several!

[Tweedledum]

Leslie wrote: "My plan to pick a color each month hasn't worked out too well. I guess I will just count books with any color in the title or author & not count covers as of March...

Now I need to go back to my p..."

Me too Laura!