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Ann aka Iftcan
(last edited Nov 19, 2014 07:06PM)
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Nov 19, 2014 07:05PM
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I think you do a great job, Ann!! I appreciate all you do to keep me reading. I did enjoy the challenge a few years ago, when you picked 10 books from 10 different friends. That's how I got all my friends.
How about a challenge reading the books we have and haven't gotten a chance to get too. Like the books most group members have in their "To Read' folders but haven't gotten too yet? I know I have a lot of books marked 'want to read' for a very long time because I get caught up in the reading challenge and never get to them.
These are fun and it's a way to clear off a shelf.
I agree with Dee you do a great job Ann. I love the challenges that revolve around the paranormal themes.
This sounds like fun! I have a pile, no, a stack, okay a mountain of 'want to reads' sitting in my kindle and by the side of my bed... Will I ever get through it?
If anyone is reading the Outlander Series, The 2nd book, Dragonflies In Amber is on sale today for 99 cent at Amazon.
You are doing a great job! I really liked the October challenge where we read a certain number of books with certain types of characters. Angels, Weres, Vamps..etc.I like the challenge this month as well to get old books off of our TBR list.
Dee wrote: "I think you do a great job, Ann!! I appreciate all you do to keep me reading. I did enjoy the challenge a few years ago, when you picked 10 books from 10 different friends. That's how I got all m..."
i like that ideal to
Mod
January Challenge
1 Read 3 books by a new to you author or a new to you series.
2 Because Martin Luther King Day is this month, read 3 books that involve a struggle—between species (human/vampire, human/zombie, vampire/werewolf) or between caste/caste, nation/nation etc.
3 January’s birthstone is the Garnet, read 2 books with a red cover or with the word “Red” or “Garnet” in the title or with a MAIN character named Garnet or with an author named Garnet.
4 And because January in the Northern Hemisphere is usually cold….Read 2 books where cold weather plays an important part in the setting—for example, the book is set in Alaska/Canada/Detroit/Colorado etc.
February Challenge
And, because I loved the work that Belkis did on this one last year (and because it’s just so different) we are repeating the November challenge, but setting it in February where it belongs. Plus it will make you all flex those “search the TBR pile” muscles to find books to fit.
1. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the story of the Trojan War, the Trojan Paris awarded Aphrodite the Apple of Discord after judging her to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. She then sided with the Trojans throughout the war: Read a book where a war or battle takes place, or a book where main characters fight over a love interest.
2. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, procreation, and war. When the love of her life, the farm god Tammuz, died, she followed him to the Underworld: Read a book involving demons or a book where at least part of the story takes place in an underground realm.
3. Inanna was the oldest of the love goddess of the Mesopotamian region. She was a Sumerian goddess of love and war. Although she is regarded as a virgin, Inanna is a goddess responsible for sexual love, procreation, and fertility: Read a book where a wedding takes place, or where someone is having a baby, or a book where one of the characters is a virgin.
4. Ashtart or Astarte is a Semitic goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility. She is also a war goddess and is associated with leopards or lions. Sometimes she is two-horned: Read a book about shifters.
5. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was originally an Italic goddess of vegetation and patron of gardens: Read a book involving any woodland creatures, Fairies, Elves, Fae, Dryads, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, etc.
6. Hathor is an Egyptian goddess who sometimes wears a sun disk with horns on her head: Read a book where a main character has powers similar to the sun, some sort of fire power or pyrokinetics, dragon shifter, fire demon, etc.
7. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic: Read a book where a main character is some kind of magic user, spellcaster, sorcerer, or mage.
8. Freya was a beautiful Vanir Norse goddess of love, magic, and divination, who was called upon for help in matters of love: Read a book where a character has the power of divination or foretelling the future or a book where at least part of the story involves time traveling to another time or place.
9. Nügua was primarily a Chinese creator goddess, but after she populated the earth, she taught mankind how to procreate, so she wouldn't have to do it for them: Read a book where at least one character is of Asian descent, or a book where there’s some sort of Asian martial arts fighting, or a book where part of the story takes place in an Asian named place or city.
10. Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess of fertility, sex, childbirth and love. She appears in four forms that correspond to the phases of the moon: Read a book where at least one main character is a werewolf.
And again, thanks for all your hard work Belkis
March
1) This is a month with upsets in it, so….Read 3 books where the weather plays a significant role in the story—a hurricane is happening, snowstorm, tornadoes etc.
2) Beware the Ides of March—3 books where a character is Italian, a killer, or is set in Italy
3) In honour of the Vernal Equinox (or the Autumnal Equinox, depending on where you live) read 2 books where one of the main characters has a tie to the Ocean/water—a sailor, Selkie, mermaid, fisherman etc.
4) And, finally, to honour Mars, the God of War---read 2 books where one of the characters is in the Army, Air Force or Marines. (No sailors for this one, since we have them listed above in #3)
April
A golden oldie for this month all…
Everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers—so, to celebrate all the colours we are looking forward to—Colour Challenge. One book per colour.
Red
Green
Blue
Purple
Yellow
Black
White
Orange
Grey/Silver
May
In honour of Mom’s and Grads….
3 books with a Mother as a character
3 books with a recent Grad as a character
2 books with a teacher as a character
2 books with siblings as characters
June
The power of Three and weddings are the 2 themes for this month.
1) 3 books by an author who uses 3 names (ex. Jayne Ann Krentz)—or uses a single initial in their name (ex. Laurell K. Hamilton)
2) 3 books where you are reading the third book in a series—or a series that is ONLY a trilogy.
3) 2 books with a design element having to do with weddings on the cover—a wedding cake, someone in a wedding gown, a veil, wedding rings etc
4) 2 books with someone who works in the wedding industry as a character
July
July’s Alphabet Challenge Character’s first or last name must start with one of the letters given
AB
CD
EFG
HIJ
KLM
NOP
QR
STU
VW
XYZ
This is an oldie but goodie, and is fairly easy to find books to fit.
August
Because August is just too hot to do anything strenuous (you know, like search the bookshelves or even visit a bookstore), we are going for a nice simple oldie here.
Read a book from 10 different series. Include the books title and author as well as the name of the series and what position it has in the series. Ex. Dragon Actually by A. G. Aikens, (Dragon Kin #1)
September
Several of you mentioned liking the “Read with Friends” challenge, and I enjoyed it too. So, here it is….
Read 10 books you have chosen from the libraries of 10 different friends. Be sure to name the friend that you get the book from.
And, for those of you who have few friends—we are all open to friend invites, not just for this challenge, but generally.
October
November
December
Every December that I’ve done this challenge, we’ve done the tried and true “Clear off the TBR pile and dust those books.” So, again, that is what we are doing for the end of the year here.
Books must be preselected and posted to the thread. You are allowed 5 alternates in case you find that you can’t get hold of one of your books (it’s disappeared, someone borrowed it and didn’t return it, your books are still packed up after moving—opps, that’s MY problem, sorry about that.) SO, 10 books from your TBR mounta—er pile, plus 5 back-ups. Try to pick books that have been lurking on the bottom of the pile and feeling lonely and unloved. (Unless you have library books that must be read and returned. Everyone knows that library books always feel unloved, since people are always returning them to the library rather than keeping them.)
Sounds awesome, Ann!!Maybe October could be paranormal creatures since its the monster month??
These all sound great! I like the October challenge from this year. :)
They sound like fun. Looking back over challenges from past years I liked.From February 2013
Have I Read This One Before?
Have you noticed that a lot of PNR and UF books have similar titles? Read a book that has one of the words in each list in it's title.
1 – Dark or Darkness or Darker
2 – Heat or Hot or Fire
3 – Passion or Kiss or Desire
4 – Magic or Spell or Witch
5 – Night or Midnight or Wolf
6 – Vampire or Blood or Bite
7 – Shadow or Deadly or Hunger
8 – Seduction or Lover or Mate
9 – Hunter or Eternal or Heart
10 – Angel or Demon or Dragon
You can pluralise the word but it has to be a seperate word, eg. Angel or Angels could be used but not Archangel.
And
From May 2013
Using one of the lists in GR's listopia feature, we are going to read 10 books from the Best Paranormal Romance Series.
Read ONE book from EACH page of the first 10 pages of the list. You can read the exact book shown on the page or any book that belongs in that
Mod
January Challenge
1 Read 3 books by a new to you author or a new to you series.
2 Because Martin Luther King Day is this month, read 3 books that involve a struggle—between species (human/vampire, human/zombie, vampire/werewolf, caste/caste, nation/nation)
3 January’s birthstone is the Garnet, read 2 books with a red cover or with the word “Red” or “Garnet” in the title
4 And because January in the Northern Hemisphere is usually cold….Read 2 books where cold weather plays an important part in the setting—for example, the book is set in Alaska/Canada/Detroit/Colorado etc.
February Challenge
And, because I loved the work that Belkis did on this one last year (and because it’s just so different) we are repeating the November challenge, but setting it in February where it belongs. Plus it will make you all flex those “search the TBR pile” muscles to find books to fit.
1. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the story of the Trojan War, the Trojan Paris awarded Aphrodite the Apple of Discord after judging her to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. She then sided with the Trojans throughout the war: Read a book where a war or battle takes place, or a book where main characters fight over a love interest.
2. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, procreation, and war. When the love of her life, the farm god Tammuz, died, she followed him to the Underworld: Read a book involving demons or a book where at least part of the story takes place in an underground realm.
3. Inanna was the oldest of the love goddess of the Mesopotamian region. She was a Sumerian goddess of love and war. Although she is regarded as a virgin, Inanna is a goddess responsible for sexual love, procreation, and fertility: Read a book where a wedding takes place, or where someone is having a baby, or a book where one of the characters is a virgin.
4. Ashtart or Astarte is a Semitic goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility. She is also a war goddess and is associated with leopards or lions. Sometimes she is two-horned: Read a book about shifters.
5. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was originally an Italic goddess of vegetation and patron of gardens: Read a book involving any woodland creatures, Fairies, Elves, Fae, Dryads, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, etc.
6. Hathor is an Egyptian goddess who sometimes wears a sun disk with horns on her head: Read a book where a main character has powers similar to the sun, some sort of fire power or pyrokinetics, dragon shifter, fire demon, etc.
7. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic: Read a book where a main character is some kind of magic user, spellcaster, sorcerer, or mage.
8. Freya was a beautiful Vanir Norse goddess of love, magic, and divination, who was called upon for help in matters of love: Read a book where a character has the power of divination or foretelling the future or a book where at least part of the story involves time traveling to another time or place.
9. Nügua was primarily a Chinese creator goddess, but after she populated the earth, she taught mankind how to procreate, so she wouldn't have to do it for them: Read a book where at least one character is of Asian descent, or a book where there’s some sort of Asian martial arts fighting, or a book where part of the story takes place in an Asian named place or city.
10. Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess of fertility, sex, childbirth and love. She appears in four forms that correspond to the phases of the moon: Read a book where at least one main character is a werewolf.
And again, thanks for all your hard work Belkis
March
1) This is a month with upsets in it, so….Read 3 books where the weather plays a significant role in the story—a hurricane is happening, snowstorm, tornadoes etc.
2) Beware the Ides of March—3 books where a character is Italian, a killer, or is set in Italy
3) In honour of the Vernal Equinox (or the Autumnal Equinox, depending on where you live) read 2 books where one of the main characters has a tie to the Ocean/water—a sailor, Selkie, mermaid, fisherman etc.
4) And, finally, to honour Mars, the God of War---read 2 books where one of the characters is in the Army, Air Force or Marines. (No sailors for this one, since we have them listed above in #3)
April
A golden oldie for this month all…
Everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers—so, to celebrate all the colours we are looking forward to—Colour Challenge. One book per colour.
Red
Green
Blue
Purple
Yellow
Black
White
Orange
Grey/Silver
May
In honour of Mom’s and Grads….
3 books with a Mother as a character
3 books with a recent Grad as a character
2 books with a teacher as a character
2 books with siblings as characters
June
The power of Three and weddings are the 2 themes for this month.
1) 3 books by an author who uses 3 names (ex. Jayne Ann Krentz)—or uses a single initial in their name (ex. Laurell K. Hamilton)
2) 3 books where you are reading the third book in a series—or a series that is ONLY a trilogy.
3) 2 books with a design element having to do with weddings on the cover—a wedding cake, someone in a wedding gown, a veil, wedding rings etc
4) 2 books with someone who works in the wedding industry as a character
July
July’s Alphabet Challenge Character’s first or last name must start with one of the letters given
AB
CD
EFG
HIJ
KLM
NOP
QR
STU
VW
XYZ
This is an oldie but goodie, and is fairly easy to find books to fit.
August
Because August is just too hot to do anything strenuous (you know, like search the bookshelves or even visit a bookstore), we are going for a nice simple oldie here.
Read a book from 10 different series. Include the book’s title and author as well as the name of the series and what position it has in the series. Ex. Dragon Actually by A. G. Aikens, (Dragon Kin #1)
September
Several of you mentioned liking the “Read with Friends” challenge, and I enjoyed it too. So, here it is….
Read 10 books you have chosen from the libraries of 10 different friends. Be sure to name the friend that you get the book from.
And, for those of you who have few friends—we are all open to friend invites, not just for this challenge, but generally.
October
Oct –
Because Halloween falls in October—we’ll go for another tried and true challenge. Paranormal Creatures October. This challenge will get you ready for when those little ghosties, and ghoulies, and long legged creatures start showing up at your door demanding that you bribe them so that they do not eat you (or your dog, cat or canary.)
Read 3 books featuring Vampires or vampire slayers as the main characters
Read 3 books with Were-wolves
Read 2 books with either Witches/sorceress or Warlocks/wizards/sorcerors
Read 2 books with a Fae character
November
Have I Read This One Before?
Have you noticed that a lot of PNR and UF books have similar titles? Read a book that has one of the words in each list in it's title.
1 – Dark or Darkness or Darker
2 – Heat or Hot or Fire
3 – Passion or Kiss or Desire
4 – Magic or Spell or Witch
5 – Night or Midnight or Wolf
6 – Vampire or Blood or Bite
7 – Shadow or Deadly or Hunger
8 – Seduction or Lover or Mate
9 – Hunter or Eternal or Heart
10 – Angel or Demon or Dragon
You can pluralise the word, but it has to be a seperate word, eg. Angel or Angels could be used but not Archangel.
December
Every December that I’ve done this challenge, we’ve done the tried and true “Clear off the TBR pile and dust those books.” So, again, that is what we are doing for the end of the year here.
Books must be preselected and posted to the thread. You cannot change your list after it is posted. However, you are allowed 5 alternates in case you find that you can’t get hold of one of your books (it’s disappeared, someone borrowed it and didn’t return it, your books are still packed up after moving—opps, that’s MY problem, sorry about that.) SO, 10 books from your TBR mounta—er pile, plus 5 back-ups. Try to pick books that have been lurking on the bottom of the pile and feeling lonely and unloved. (Unless you have library books that must be read and then returned. Everyone knows that library books always feel unloved, since people are always returning them to the library rather than keeping them.)
Ann the challenges look great. I can't wait to start. One quick thing April's only has nine colors. Just wanted to let you know.
The challenge lineup for 2015 looks great Ann! Thanks for putting so much time and effort into it for all of us :)
Mod
The missing colour is PINK, for those who are thinking that far ahead.
I always love the alphabet & color ones and of course the TBR clean up. It's the one that get to complex that I don't end up doing. But this year's line up looks pretty tasty.
Mod
PNR Monthly Reading Challenges for 2015
January Challenge
.1 Read 3 books by a new to you author or a new to you series.
2 Because Martin Luther King Day is this month, read 3 books that involve a struggle—between species (human/vampire, human/zombie, vampire/werewolf) or between caste/caste, nation/nation etc.
3 January’s birthstone is the Garnet, read 2 books with a red cover or with the word “Red” or “Garnet” in the title or with a MAIN character named Garnet or with an author named Garnet.
4 And because January in the Northern Hemisphere is usually cold….Read 2 books where cold weather plays an important part in the setting—for example, the book is set in Alaska/Canada/Detroit/Colorado etc.
February Challenge
And, because I loved the work that Belkis did on this one last year (and because it’s just so different) we are repeating the November challenge, but setting it in February where it belongs. Plus it will make you all flex those “search the TBR pile” muscles to find books to fit.
1. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the story of the Trojan War, the Trojan Paris awarded Aphrodite the Apple of Discord after judging her to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. She then sided with the Trojans throughout the war: Read a book where a war or battle takes place, or a book where main characters fight over a love interest.
2. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, procreation, and war. When the love of her life, the farm god Tammuz, died, she followed him to the Underworld: Read a book involving demons or a book where at least part of the story takes place in an underground realm.
3. Inanna was the oldest of the love goddess of the Mesopotamian region. She was a Sumerian goddess of love and war. Although she is regarded as a virgin, Inanna is a goddess responsible for sexual love, procreation, and fertility: Read a book where a wedding takes place, or where someone is having a baby, or a book where one of the characters is a virgin.
4. Ashtart or Astarte is a Semitic goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility. She is also a war goddess and is associated with leopards or lions. Sometimes she is two-horned: Read a book about shifters.
5. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was originally an Italic goddess of vegetation and patron of gardens: Read a book involving any woodland creatures, Fairies, Elves, Fae, Dryads, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, etc.
6. Hathor is an Egyptian goddess who sometimes wears a sun disk with horns on her head: Read a book where a main character has powers similar to the sun, some sort of fire power or pyrokinetics, dragon shifter, fire demon, etc.
7. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic: Read a book where a main character is some kind of magic user, spellcaster, sorcerer, or mage.
8. Freya was a beautiful Vanir Norse goddess of love, magic, and divination, who was called upon for help in matters of love: Read a book where a character has the power of divination or foretelling the future or a book where at least part of the story involves time traveling to another time or place.
9. Nügua was primarily a Chinese creator goddess, but after she populated the earth, she taught mankind how to procreate, so she wouldn't have to do it for them: Read a book where at least one character is of Asian descent, or a book where there’s some sort of Asian martial arts fighting, or a book where part of the story takes place in an Asian named place or city.
10. Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess of fertility, sex, childbirth and love. She appears in four forms that correspond to the phases of the moon: Read a book where at least one main character is a werewolf.
And again, thanks for all your hard work Belkis
March
1) This is a month with upsets in it, so….Read 3 books where the weather plays a significant role in the story—a hurricane is happening, snowstorm, tornadoes etc.
2) Beware the Ides of March—3 books where a character is Italian, a killer, or is set in Italy
3) In honour of the Vernal Equinox (or the Autumnal Equinox, depending on where you live) read 2 books where one of the main characters has a tie to the Ocean/water—a sailor, Selkie, mermaid, fisherman etc.
4) And, finally, to honour Mars, the God of War---read 2 books where one of the characters is in the Army, Air Force or Marines. (No sailors for this one, since we have them listed above in #3)
April
A golden oldie for this month all…
Everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers—so, to celebrate all the colours we are looking forward to—Colour Challenge. One book per colour.
Red
Green
Blue
Purple
Yellow
Black
White
Orange
Grey/Silver
Pink
May
In honour of Mom’s and Grads….
3 books with a Mother as a character
3 books with a recent Grad as a character
2 books with a teacher as a character
2 books with siblings as characters
June
The power of Three and weddings are the 2 themes for this month.
1) 3 books by an author who uses 3 names (ex. Jayne Ann Krentz)—or uses a single initial in their name (ex. Laurell K. Hamilton)
2) 3 books where you are reading the third book in a series—or a series that is ONLY a trilogy.
3) 2 books with a design element having to do with weddings on the cover—a wedding cake, someone in a wedding gown, a veil, wedding rings etc
4) 2 books with someone who works in the wedding industry as a character
July
July’s Alphabet Challenge Character’s first or last name must start with one of the letters given
AB
CD
EFG
HIJ
KLM
NOP
QR
STU
VW
XYZ
This is an oldie but goodie, and is fairly easy to find books to fit.
August
Because August is just too hot to do anything strenuous (you know, like search the bookshelves or even visit a bookstore), we are going for a nice simple oldie here.
Read a book from 10 different series. Include the book’s title and author as well as the name of the series and what position it has in the series. Ex. Dragon Actually by A. G. Aikens, (Dragon Kin #1)
September
Several of you mentioned liking the “Read with Friends” challenge, and I enjoyed it too. So, here it is….
Read 10 books you have chosen from the libraries of 10 different friends. Be sure to name the friend that you get the book from.
And, for those of you who have few friends—we are all open to friend invites, not just for this challenge, but generally.
October
Because Halloween falls in October—we’ll go for another tried and true challenge. Paranormal Creatures October. This challenge will get you ready for when those little ghosties, and ghoulies, and long legged creatures start showing up at your door demanding that you bribe them so that they do not eat you (or your dog, cat or canary.)
Read 3 books featuring Vampires or vampire slayers as the main characters
Read 3 books with Were-wolves
Read 2 books with either Witches/sorceress or Warlocks/wizards/sorcerers
Read 2 books with a Fae character
November
Have I Read This One Before?
Have you noticed that a lot of PNR and UF books have similar titles? Read a book that has one of the words in each list in it's title.
1 – Dark or Darkness or Darker
2 – Heat or Hot or Fire
3 – Passion or Kiss or Desire
4 – Magic or Spell or Witch
5 – Night or Midnight or Wolf
6 – Vampire or Blood or Bite
7 – Shadow or Deadly or Hunger
8 – Seduction or Lover or Mate
9 – Hunter or Eternal or Heart
10 – Angel or Demon or Dragon
You can pluralise the word, but it has to be a seperate word, eg. Angel or Angels could be used but not Archangel.
December
Every December that I’ve done this challenge, we’ve done the tried and true “Clear off the TBR pile and dust those books.” So, again, that is what we are doing for the end of the year here.
Books must be preselected and posted to the thread. You cannot change your list after it is posted. However, you are allowed 5 alternates in case you find that you can’t get hold of one of your books (it’s disappeared, someone borrowed it and didn’t return it, your books are still packed up after moving—opps, that’s MY problem, sorry about that.) SO, 10 books from your TBR mounta—er pile, plus 5 back-ups. Try to pick books that have been lurking on the bottom of the pile and feeling lonely and unloved. (Unless you have library books that must be read and then returned. Everyone knows that library books always feel unloved, since people are always returning them to the library rather than keeping them.)
I joined this group today and was delighted to find this discussion on a reading challenge for 2015. I'm looking forward to participating and wanted to add my thanks to Ann for creating it.
If i say has anyone read it happy ending in the serise ?
