2021 Challenge Buffet & Menu

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

My goal is to have 2022 challenges ready for December 1. Any ideas?

[Luke]

Language of original publication? Page length? Author country of origin? Number of ratings? Average rating?

[Lynn, New School Classics]

I had fun with the 2nd place or worse. I do not believe I will finish it, just because the number of works I read this year won't be enough for everything. The hard part for me was trying to do a long read.

I love, love, love the short story challenges. I had fun doing a Century Challenge with short stories and also a Decade Challenge with short stories. There is such a wealth of short stories that I have not touched yet.

[Laurie]

A couple of variations on a decade challenge:

1. Pick a decade and read books from that decade in any century. Example - pick the 70s decade and read books published in the 1770s, 1870s, and 1970s
2. Pick a decade and read books by authors born in that decade.

Or a challenge for translated literature. Our members are from various countries, so any books not originally published in someone's native language.

[Kathleen]

These are all great ideas!

I've been inspired by a personal challenge in this group--Matt has one where he pairs a fiction with a related non-fiction. I wonder if we could turn that into a challenge somehow? Like read five classic fiction and five classic non-fiction that are connected in some way. That might be fun.

[Luke]

Kathleen wrote: "These are all great ideas!

I've been inspired by a personal challenge in this group--Matt has one where he pairs a fiction with a related non-fiction. I wonder if we could turn that into a challe..."

I like this fic/non-fic idea. Would be a good shelf clearer for me.

[Nike]

I like all the ideas mentioned so far! =) Especially the one with the decades from any century.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I also think the fiction/non-fiction is a great idea. I really need to get more non-fiction in there!

I loved the Second or Worse challenge, even though it didn't get the priority from me it deserved. I was amazed at the books that are on that list that I would have thought would surely be on our bookshelf. Definitely hoping we have another crack at that one.

[Angie]

I love the idea of a fiction/non-fiction challenge.

I like the challenges we have. I definitely like comparing eras, like in Does a Century Make a Difference, but I wonder if picking two decades (1780s vs 1880s instead of 1783 vs 1883) would make it a bit more doable for those of us who pick years with tons of out-of-print books, lol.

[Luke]

Angie wrote: "I love the idea of a fiction/non-fiction challenge.

I like the challenges we have. I definitely like comparing eras, like in Does a Century Make a Difference, but I wonder if picking two decades (..."

Maybe have various tiers for the 'Does a _____ Make a Difference': 100 years for the masochists, 25, 50, 75 for the rest of us.

[Carolien]

I enjoyed the Second Place or Worse challenge very much. I would argue there should be an option for previous winners as well. There are so many books on our bookshelves that I still want to read.

I agree with Aubrey on the tiers for the 'Does a _______ Make a Difference' one and Angie on the Decades option (or centuries if you want to go far into the past).

The short story challenge was an eye opener to me. I have never read so many short stories in a year and I found absolute gems along the way.

I'm sure you are going to come up with some interesting challenges for us, Bob!

[Marilyn]

I suggest a Self-Themed Challenge. Select five books from your TBR list that follow a certain theme, such as translated, nonfiction, series, longest time on the list, fewer than 500 ratings, has the word "the" in the title.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Marilyn wrote: "I suggest a Self-Themed Challenge. Select five books from your TBR list that follow a certain theme, such as translated, nonfiction, series, longest time on the list, fewer than 500 ratings, has th..."


This is interesting. Since one of the attractions of challenges is that they introduce me to new works. I could see a self-themed challenge providing me with many, many TBR books!

[George P.]

I would like to do the "Second or Worst" challenge next year. I think there are a lot of good books that are runners-up because they're on the long side, not written in English or by lesser-known authors.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I agree, George, and I am surprised, going through the lists, how many books you would expect to find on the Group Bookshelf have never made it there. I think that challenge has inspired some good nominations for group reads this year.

[Lynn, New School Classics]

George P. wrote: "I would like to do the "Second or Worst" challenge next year. I think there are a lot of good books that are runners-up because they're on the long side, not written in English or by lesser-known a..."

Because I am naturally nerdy, when I first started moderating I made a spreadsheet with the names of all the books and then looked at page length in each poll winner. There was a statistically significant finding that the shortest book nominated was more likely to win the poll in all categories except Short Stories. In the Short Story category the winners were more likely to be novella length - 100 pages or so - rather than the very short stories. Still it was by no means guaranteed that the shortest book would win the other categories. I think the shortest book won something like 57% of the time. I never repeated that inquiry, so I do not know if it still holds true.

I do think that nominating a 600+ page book in a monthly category rather than in Long Read is a futile effort, but you never know.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I'm not surprised at your stats, Lynn. I think most people will not tackle a 600 page book without knowing they have ample time to read it, and for most that would require more than a month. I do sometimes let the length of a novel cause me to push it off for later, despite the fact that some of the greatest novels I have read have been door-stoppers.

[Ann T]

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Finished Challenge #4 on 8/29/2021.
Finished Challenge #8 on 11/13/2021.
Finished Challenge #5 on 11/16/2021.
Finished Challenge #2 on 11/16/2021.
Finished Challenge #7 on 11/18/2021.