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Archived Threads > Fall Pre-Readathon Reading Challenge Oct2022

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message 1: by Jamie (new)

Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) (ravenmount) | 950 comments Mod
Fall Pre-Readathon Reading Challenge
1. A non-fiction book.
2. A book with more than one poem in it.
3. A play written by a woman.
4. 5 books with autumn colored spines or covers.
5. A short story collection by an author who did not publish a full-length novel.

6. A book by Stephen King, John Grisham, Clive Cussler, Louis L'Amour, James Michener, Michael Crichton, or Robert Ludlum.
7. A book by Anita Shreve, Jane Smiley, Barbara Kingsolver, Jan Karon, Pearl S. Buck, Jane Austen, or Edith Wharton.
8. A book set on each continent (7 total- North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica/Oceania)
9. A book about the future, published before 1960.
10. A book from a series of more than 3 books.

This list would have us reading 20 books to finish all the prompts, though if you wish you can of course combine some of them to read fewer books. If you run out of books to read before the readathon and need a few more prompts...
A. A book that was mentioned by, or being read by a character from one of the books you read for the first 10 prompts.
B. A non-fiction book about a place or subject that featured in one of the books you read for the first 10 prompts.
C. 5 books by one of these authors- Georgette Heyer, Arthur B. Upfield, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Alexander McCall Smith, Susan Wittig Albert, Boris Akunin
D. 3-5 books by one of these authors- Andre Norton, Julian May, Joan D. Vinge, Michael Moorcock, Ben Bova, J.D. Robb, Larry Niven, Robin Hobb, Jack McDevitt, Mercedes Lackey, Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler.

In addition to this challenge, your challenge during this pre-readathon interval is to perfect your TBR. Some of us have perfected the art of building the perfect TBR stack, but for the rest of us this is our chance to improve our TBR building talents.
Check out our website for more... https://deweysreadathon.wordpress.com...


message 2: by Lynnette (new)

Lynnette | 324 comments Love all of this here. Great thinking Jaime and moderators. Can’t wait to dig in


message 3: by Rosalind (new)

Rosalind | 53 comments was just looking for a challenge to take me to October. This is great.

Am just a little confused about the continents though - why is Australia separated from the rest of Oceania? Should the seventh continent not just be Antarctica?


message 4: by Jamie (new)

Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) (ravenmount) | 950 comments Mod
Rosalind wrote: "was just looking for a challenge to take me to October. This is great.

Am just a little confused about the continents though - why is Australia separated from the rest of Oceania? Should the seven..."


I suppose based on physical geography/plate techtonics that makes more sense, but finding books set in Antarctica is a bit tricky. I've seen several successful reading challenges though where Oceania was treated as a sort of extra continent. It is actually a geographical region, not a continent, of course, but culturally it is distinct from Australia enough to make it a useful fudge for book selection. If it really bothers you, you can of course stick to the official geographical continents for your own TBR.


message 5: by Rosalind (new)

Rosalind | 53 comments fair enough, thanks for responding. It's always tricky with regions

If going for books from the actual place, rather than set there by a foreigner, the lack of indigenous antarctic people make your categories much more useful.


message 6: by Lena (new)

Lena | 364 comments Nice...I hope I can participate in this one!


message 7: by Newly (new)

Newly Wardell | 154 comments I tend to pick 2 or three prompts and just dig in. This usually gives me the best results. Oh and no one asked for female playwright suggestions but here's a couple anyway Annie Baker is magical. She creates these brilliantly quiet profound plays. I also suggest I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard: A Play and Dead Man's Cell Phone


message 8: by Leni (new)

Leni Iversen (leniverse) | 566 comments This is pretty awesome. Not sure how well it will combine with the TBR building from the wordpress page, but I'm feeling very tempted!


message 9: by Leni (new)

Leni Iversen (leniverse) | 566 comments Just to clarify, or nit-pick, when you say "3-5 books by one of these authors" you mean "a total of 3-5 books by (one or more of) these authors", right? Not, "pick one of these authors and read 3-5 of their books"?


message 10: by Jamie (new)

Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) (ravenmount) | 950 comments Mod
Leni wrote: "Just to clarify, or nit-pick, when you say "3-5 books by one of these authors" you mean "a total of 3-5 books by (one or more of) these authors", right? Not, "pick one of these authors and read 3-5..."

I mean 'pick one of these authors and read 3-5 of their books.


message 11: by Leni (new)

Leni Iversen (leniverse) | 566 comments Ok, glad I asked then. lol


message 12: by Katherine (last edited Oct 10, 2022 11:16AM) (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez  | 61 comments Do we have to pick books from all categories? What if we can't find or decide on a book from a category or a category is not the kind of book we usually pick? I noticed there isn't a post for prompt 1 (A non-fiction book) but I have a book I want to add there.


message 13: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth | 316 comments Katherine wrote: "Do we have to pick books from all categories? What if we can't find or decide on a book from a category or a category is not the kind of book we usually pick? I noticed there isn't a post for promp..."

You don't have to do anything! I think the idea is to prompt you to stretch a little, but its all in fun and nothing is ever actually required. The post for Prompt 1 has just fallen down the list so you can't see it at the top anymore. Click on the "Fall Pre-Readathon 2022" heading and you will be able to see all of the threads.


message 14: by Jamie (last edited Oct 14, 2022 09:36AM) (new)

Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount) (ravenmount) | 950 comments Mod
My Fall Pre-Readathon Reading Challenge Update
I hope that this challenge has provided some inspiration for other folks here. I designed this one to be a bit challenging, and sure enough, I am still a few books from done with a week to go til the fall readathon, I managed to finish a few books that I have had languising on my shelves, because they fit a prompt. I am still not a poetry fan, but the book I found for that one is a fiction memoir set in the Philippines with some sections in free verse.That was pretty good. I also read more short story collections than usual, all of them good. I'll be adding more short story collections to my stacks in future.
1. A non-fiction book. The Gift, by Lewis Hyde (in progress)
DONE 2. A book with more than one poem in it. The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, by Gina Apostal
3. A play written by a woman.
DONE 4. Five books with autumn colored spines or covers.
The Sentence Is Death (Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #2) by Anthony Horowitz The 13 1/2 Lives Of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers The King Is Always Above the People Stories by Daniel Alarcón Arcadia by Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam Minotaur's Head by Marek Krajewski
DONE 5. A short story collection by an author who did not publish a full-length novel. Land of Big Numbers, by Te-Ping Chen
DONE 6. A book by Stephen King, John Grisham, Clive Cussler, Louis L'Amour, James Michener, Michael Crichton, or Robert Ludlum. The Sky Liners, by Louis L'Amour
7. A book by Anita Shreve, Jane Smiley, Barbara Kingsolver, Jan Karon, Pearl S. Buck, Jane Austen, or Edith Wharton.
8. A book set on each continent (7 total- North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica/Oceania)
North America: Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead, by Emily Austin
South America: At Night We Walk in Circles, by Daniel Alarcon
Europe: The Big Needle, by Ken Follett
Africa: A Walk in the Night, and other stories, by Alex La Guma
Asia: The Chinese Gold Murders, by Robert van Gulik.
Australia:
Antarctica/Oceania: Stories of Hawaii, by Jack London
9. A book about the future, published before 1960.
DONE 10. A book from a series of more than 3 books. A Grave Mistake, by Ngaio Marsh

A. A book that was mentioned by, or being read by a character from one of the books you read for the first 10 prompts.
B. A non-fiction book about a place or subject that featured in one of the books you read for the first 10 prompts.
C. 5 books by one of these authors- Georgette Heyer, Arthur B. Upfield, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Alexander McCall Smith, Susan Wittig Albert, Boris Akunin Ngaio Marsh: False Scent, A Grave Mistake,
DONE D. 3-5 books by one of these authors- Andre Norton, Julian May, Joan D. Vinge, Michael Moorcock, Ben Bova, J.D. Robb, Larry Niven, Robin Hobb, Jack McDevitt, Mercedes Lackey, Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler. Jack McDevitt: The Long Sunset, Echo, Coming Home, Octavia Gone


message 15: by Elizabeth (last edited Oct 14, 2022 04:17PM) (new)

Elizabeth | 316 comments I've completed prompts 1-10 and A and B! I have two books to finish for each of C and D. Four books in 8 days? Not sure if I'm going to make it.... Eek!

Here's a link to my challenge log!


message 16: by Katherine (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez  | 61 comments Elizabeth wrote: "Katherine wrote: "Do we have to pick books from all categories? What if we can't find or decide on a book from a category or a category is not the kind of book we usually pick? I noticed there isn'..."

Thanks for the advice!


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