SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
SciFi and Fantasy Book Challenge
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What's your favorite SFFBC challenge?
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I prefer reading challenges with prompts, so TBR cleanup would be my preferred kind of challenge. Yet I must admit that in the last years I found the prompts more and more difficult to understand ^^'. It's my fault, because I don't get deeper meanings or sayings in English ^^'.
Allison and I have gone a bit deep down the rabbit hole with some of the TBR prompts, I fully admit it! :D We just have so much fun making them as ambiguous as possible, to allow for more inventive ways for people to interpret them. But noted, we could add "explanations" for those who just want a straightforward prompt. In spoiler tags perhaps, so it doesn't take away the fun :)
Gabi wrote: "I prefer reading challenges with prompts, so TBR cleanup would be my preferred kind of challenge. Yet I must admit that in the last years I found the prompts more and more difficult to understand ^..."Same! Prompts based on sayings, songs, puns, etc. are the hardest for me. 😅
My favorite kinds of prompts are about book covers (colors, item featured, creature, foiled, words in the title) because this allows me to quickly go through my kindle library or GR to find which books on my TBR qualify (no need to read endless synopses), while still leaving me with enough options. But not too many options: if the prompts are too vague (e.g. "a fantasy novel") that's no fun for me, it needs to be more complicated.
My favorite SFFBC challenge was Seven Kingdoms vs. Heptarchate. I hope we can reprise that one again soon with new factions.
Eva wrote: "My favorite SFFBC challenge was Seven Kingdoms vs. Heptarchate. I hope we can reprise that one again soon with new factions."🤫🤓🦊
I'm still doing the short story challenge on the second (or is it the third) year it's been thereCircadian and Alphabet were good one year challenges, but I'd like more of this kind. i didn't do most of the specific year challenges except for Time Traveler and Owned Books which I did enjoy. The others had criteria that I didn't like or were too complex to figure out
I like the series unofficial challenge here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
and I do like researching to find books that fit a challenge but i don't like having to acquire books to read for a challenge (Dozen Roses)
I like challenges that are games, like the Amazing Eights or Book Bingo. I didn't play Monopoly with this group, but have enjoyed it with other book groups.
I greatly prefer challenges that allow much room for mood reading. Indeed, open to interpretation prompts, and something as universally applicable as 'initial letters of the titles'. (Last year, I didn't bother pursuing filling a read to all the letters, but it was fun to observe which were popular).Always fun when a single book fits several challenges (if perhaps counter effective to maximizing any possible 'clearing of shelves' purpose).
In short: minimal effort challenges, which may aid, but do not impede with my choice of reads, are nice to dabble with.
Jemppu wrote: "I greatly prefer challenges that allow much room for mood reading. Indeed, open to interpretation prompts, and something as universally applicable as 'initial letters of the titles'. (Last year, I ..."expressed much better than my post. I did the Alphabet one and it was fun
I just joined the group this year, and I was already working on a different reading challenge, so I haven't participated in any SFFBC challenges yet - though some have been tempting me! I prefer challenges with prompts that are open enough that I can slot in books that I already want to read, but I'm also spurred to read outside my normal comfort zone (like the TBR prompts). The Seven Kingdoms vs. Heptarchate challenge looked like it was a lot fun, too, and also the unofficial "finish more series" challenges, which have more game elements to them.
Something that I feel I can achieve in a reasonable time frame is nice, as well. Challenges like the Circadian Challenge and Alphabet Challenge are appealing, but they also feel overwhelming to me, which makes me hesitant to try them.
This is great! ^_^ I love that almost everyone (dis)likes different things.
I also love the TBR challenge even though I almost never finish. (I set out with good intentions though).I also loved Inclusive Book Bingo. It was really helpful making me aware of authors rom marginalized groups I might not have been aware of before even though I don’t think I got to read all the books.
I like the TBR Cleanup challenge, because it’s an incentive to tackle the TBR shelves, and the prompts are fun.
I like the TBR Cleanup challenge because I'm kind of a packrat when it comes to my TBR list. With this challenge I feel like I'm doing at least a bit about it. I love the vague prompts.I've also been enjoying the Short Fiction challenge. I read short fiction partly to explore new writers without making a big up-front commitment and partly to try new writing styles and topics that I'm not sure will appeal to me. The challenge gives me more focus there.
My favorites have been the TBR and Read All the Books Challenge with Amazin’ Eights a close 3rd. I imagine I would’ve enjoyed the Inclusive Book Bingo. Have to have a look at the Seven Kingdoms one to be sure. I have been doing a Monopoly type where I determined what type of book is represented by which spaces. Roll 2 dice and discover which genre (or other challenge) gets chosen. I’m bad at reading them in strict order, because I roll a couple of times, so that I can still account for mood reading a bit and also because I read several books contemporaneously.
I haven't tried the challenges here but I enjoy this one at another club.https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I am on the TBR bandwagon and the "challenge" of reading all the bookshelf books for the year
I think my favorite challenges are Read All the Books and Buried Alive. I still have a modified spreadsheet of the version that a member made for Buried Alive that I redo every year.
Mod
I appreciate the TBR, but sometimes the challenge labels are not accessible. Only bc it is TBR, not find a book, the categories should be more broad, imo.
Every year I participate (and fail at) read-all-the-books.
My absolute favs were IBB and Amazing Eights, but I do participate in TBR and RAB every year since I joined, I prefer TBR, it actually helps me read some books I've had there forever. I really liked 7 Kingdoms and Time Travel. I too am in my third time/year of doing Short Story challenge. I just love the challenges in general, I always end up reading something I wasn't planning on and loving it, of course the opposite is true as well but more than not, its good. So I want to thank the mods for doing this year after year for us. I can't praise it enough!
HeyT wrote: "I think my favorite challenges are Read All the Books and Buried Alive. I still have a modified spreadsheet of the version that a member made for Buried Alive that I redo every year."These are my two favorites as well. (I also have my own version of a "Buried Alive" worksheet that I use each year.) I've also been enjoying Dozen Roses, and am sorry I skipped Amazing Eights. I hope that "read diversely" type challenges continue to be part of the group's menu.
The Time Travel challenge looks like fun. The Seven Kingdoms one made me glaze over before I got through all the instructions and rules.
Sarah’s Monopoly board is awesome. and I didn’t know anything about Google Slides, so I may just steal her board and follow her directions for Google Slides for my own Monopoly game.
What type of challenges would you like to see in this group?
Have you participated in any SFFBC challenges, which ones?
Is there one* you liked especially? Why?
How many challenges is too many? :D
Here are some of the challenges we've had over the years, to remind you.
These happen every year:
Read All The Books
TBR Cleanup
These were designed so that you can participate any year:
Circadian Reading Challenge
Alphabet Book Challenge
Short Fiction Challenge
These were designed for a specific year, but most of them you can still do on your own if you want to:
A Dozen Roses Game (2022)
Get to Know You Challenge (2022)
Amazin' Eights Challenge (2021)
Literary Idol Challenge (2020)
Time Traveler (2019)
Seven Kingdoms vs. Heptarchate (2019)
Inclusive Book Bingo (2018)
Owned Books (2018)
Monopoly (2017)
* I'm mainly interested in SFFBC challenges, but I can't stop you talking about other reading challenges :)