Reading Challenge 2016 - what categories do YOU want

[Thomas]

A children's book/picture book?
A movie script?
A spinoff of something
A book with the same title as a song you like

[Annerlee]

Thomas wrote: "A book with the same title as a song you like"

I like that idea, could be interesting.

[Annerlee]

Tiffany wrote: "Categories to take away:
Books with your initials (TS was a challenge)
Books set in your hometown"

Yes and Yes

[Annerlee]

Vermicious Knids wrote: "Kaye wrote: "and oh, yeah...please not a business book..."

I second that!"

2nd second from me too!

[Clara]

A book set during the Holocaust?

[Thomas]

Clara wrote: "A book set during the Holocaust?"

Or any genocide perhaps? The killing fields come to mind. Gulags in Soviet Russia. The Rwanda massacre, etc. Damn, that's going to be a dark, heavy read.

[Clara]

Thomas wrote: "Clara wrote: "A book set during the Holocaust?"

Or any genocide perhaps? The killing fields come to mind. Gulags in Soviet Russia. The Rwanda massacre, etc. Damn, that's going to be a dark, heavy ..."
I was thinking of something like the Book Thief or Diary of Anne Frank. They are really inspirational and not a lot of people have read them

[Thomas]

Clara wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Clara wrote: "A book set during the Holocaust?"

Or any genocide perhaps? The killing fields come to mind. Gulags in Soviet Russia. The Rwanda massacre, etc. Damn, that's going to be..."

Yeah, but why limit it? I'm sure there are inspirational books about other horrific genocides as well. Or really dark ones, and it's never wrong to be reminded of how inhuman humanity can be. Besides, I thought The Diary of Anne Frank was one of the most widely read books in the western world, but I might be wrong. Regardless, I don't think it's a good idea to make a category THAT limited. Making the category about any genocide includes the Holocaust AND opens it up to other interesting books.

[Thomas]

A book with the name of a person in the title.

[Annerlee]

Tats wrote: "Wow, Thomas, you really have some fantastic ideas!!! Love your categories... Also what I would find interesting:

* The first book you see when entering your book store/library
or
* The book you see when entering your book store/library, going straight for 2 steps into the first aisle and look right "

Sounds interesting... a bit like following a treasure map!

Have we had the category 'a book about books' yet?

[Melissa]

"Have we had the category 'a book about books' yet? "

LOVE that idea!! I've read so many of these and would love to read more!!

[Annerlee]

Lcvanti wrote: "Maybe as get closer to the end, new categories will come up but so far I could think of:

A poetry book
A children's book
A book set in wartime
A book by an Asian author
A book by a Latin American ..."

Or 'A book by someone from a different continent or culture'

[Annerlee]

"Clara wrote: "A book set during the Holocaust?"

Or any genocide perhaps? The killing fields come to mind. Gulags in Soviet Russia. The Rwanda massacre, etc. Damn, that..."

That would definitely be out of my comfort zone..

[Valerie]

Thomas wrote: "A book with the name of a person in the title."

I like this one. You could have something sweet like Heidi, or a biography, or even a classic like Jane Eyre.

[Amanda]

A book with alliteration in the title would be a good one.

[Annerlee]

Amanda wrote: "A book with alliteration in the title would be a good one."

I'll second that!

[Shannan]

I would replace "book with bad reviews" with "a controversial book" and "book set in your hometown" to "book set in your home state".

Possible categories:
A sci-fi book
A noir thriller
Person of color protagonist
NYT bestseller
Classic novel
Book published the year you graduated high school
Reread of a favorite book
Biography
Young adult novel
Book of poetry (even though I don't like poetry, because it would stretch my reading range)

If you want to get ambitious, a book set in each continent and count for seven books.

[Thomas]

Home state? For those of us not in the US then? How about "book set in a place close to you"?

I like the reread thing as I've never read a book twice.

[Larissa]

Thomas wrote: "A children's book/picture book?
A movie script?
A spinoff of something
A book with the same title as a song you like"

A movie script! That is amazing!
And children't book most definitely.

[Zarandra]

Love the idea of the seven books for the continents!
'A place close to you' opens the hometown category - I like that!

[Larissa]

Zarandra wrote: "Love the idea of the seven books for the continents!
'A place close to you' opens the hometown category - I like that!"

we should stick with the continents with people and literature

[Erin]

How about a new take on a popular/classic book? There are so many to choose from in all kinds of genres- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wicked...

[Nancy]

Shannan's idea about replacing "book with bad reviews" with "a controversial book" is a good one. Another idea would be "book with a bad review". The trouble with books with multiple bad reviews is that you really don't want to spend time reading them. But a book with one bad review among other good ones makes a nice scavenger hunt type challenge to find, and a possibly enjoyable read.

[Thomas]

Nancy wrote: "Shannan's idea about replacing "book with bad reviews" with "a controversial book" is a good one. Another idea would be "book with a bad review". The trouble with books with multiple bad reviews ..."

Yeah, but what would be the point then? That category might as well be "read any book" at that point. Every book has bad reviews, even the masterpieces. I prefer the controversial thing then, because then it gets into more specific territory.

[Ashley]

A book with an alliterative title

A how-to book

A book having to do with food (recipes, a chef's biography, etc.)

A book of poetry

A nonfiction book about a historical event

A work of historical fiction

A celebrity's biography/autobiography

A book series (of three or more volumes)

[Tiffany]

A book with a child narrator

[Annerlee]

Tiffany wrote: "A book with a child narrator"

That's a really interesting one!

[Brenda]

- a book with activities
like in Ellen's book there are coloring pages and in Like Water For Chocolate has recipes.
- book about a trip (road trip, cruise, world)
- a book set in the summer;fall;winter;spring (4 differnt books)
- a book about or set in a themepark
- book you give a second chance to (didn't like or couldn't finish)
- book a stranger reccomends
- book written by someone of your ethnicity
-


didn't like
- hometown, i move around too much and either way there aren't books about small towns
- mom's favorite book, my mother doesn't read much so she didn't have anything to reccomend
-

[Erin]

Brenda wrote: "- a book with activities
like in Ellen's book there are coloring pages and in Like Water For Chocolate has recipes.
- book about a trip (road trip, cruise, world)
- a book set in the summer;fall;w..."

I like the one about giving a book a second chance- what about also giving an author a second chance?

[Annerlee]

Brenda wrote: "- a book with activities
... book a stranger recommends ..."

'Book a stranger recommends' - now that one appeals to my sense of adventure.

It could be a bit like judging a book by its cover; you could pick a stranger expecting a certain genre and get something completely different

[Elizabeth]

Hmm if I had it my way I do suppose there are some additional topics I would add and some I would omit.
The categories I like are the more broad ones I suppose such as: A non-fiction book, A memoir, A book with a color/number in the title...
Categories I would add (that come to mind for now) are: (instead of a book your mother loves) A book a close friend/family member loves and A book you would travel with/A book for a vacation

[Becky]

I dislike the categories that involve the age/sex of the author. Personally I don't care if the author's male or female. Trying to find a book written when an author was under/over a specific age also created more work than I was interested in doing (and took away reading time!)

I'd like to see broader categories, maybe some of these:
1) book about something you've always wanted to learn
2) book about a religion other than your own
3) memoir/autobiography/biography
4) recommended by bookstore (Amazon, local bookstore, librarian, etc)
5) A book from each continent (written/set/author from there)
6) About your favorite hobby
7) Award winner (any award)
8) bestseller (any list)

I'm having fun with this year's challenge, it will be interesting to see what next year's looks like!

[Cyndy]

Tats wrote: "Angela wrote: "i don`t like this topic because i still have not found a book i want to read... My Initials are A. V.. I would be really greatful is someone could recommend a book to me."

Many good..." That's (the Wikipedia link) where I started looking for a book in this category as well. Then to Goodreads for books by the author and reviews.

[Cyndy]

"a book set in your hometown i would change this one to a book set in your country because it is really hard or even impossible to find such a book if you live in a small city"
How about a book set in your region. This could be in your state, set in a large town that's near your area, or it could be in the mountains or plains, depending on where you live.

I would also not be specific about characters, for example someone suggested vampires, this as far as I know would fit in the "non-human" category. ;-)

[Annerlee]

I think my reading challenge for 2016 should be:
Read x% of the books added to your 'to read' category in 2014! (where x is a manageable number)

I only joined GoodReads at the end of 2014 and I already have 124 books on my 'to read' list!!

The good news is, I've discovered a few gems too ; )

[Erin]

a book with 2 Authors
the most obscure book you can find.
a popular book
an independently published author

[Thomas]

Really like indie/self-published book and a book with more than one author!

[Shannan]

A travel book would be fun.

[Kathy]

I am not even sure if I will do a challenge next year. This is the second year I have done an organized book challenge. I really love doing them, but I have gotten so many great recommendations from people and I really want to hit some of those books. I keep putting so many of them off because they don't fit in the challenge. Maybe next year I will just make a (long)list of all the books/series/authors and work my way through them.

[Annerlee]

Kathy wrote: "I am not even sure if I will do a challenge next year... I really love doing them, but I have gotten so many great recommendations..."

I'm wondering the same thing. The challenge has got me back into reading and widened my horizons which is fantastic! But there are so many books on my to read list now and I'd really like to get around to some of them !!

I thought I might start ticking off challenge categories in the Summer instead, mark up categories in retrospect, then see what remains. Not decided yet..

[Melissa]

Had a thought. What if next years challenge had 40 categories to fill which would still make you step out of your comfort zone and then had 12 open spaces for books that come along throughout the year that don't necessarily fit into a category but you want to read now.

[Kathy]

Melissa wrote: "Had a thought. What if next years challenge had 40 categories to fill which would still make you step out of your comfort zone and then had 12 open spaces for books that come along throughout the ..."

I think that is a pretty good idea. I am actually doing a second challenge this year. It is a 25 category bingo challenge. One of the categories is "wild card" for any book you want. I actually need about 10 wild cards!

[Raven]

Kathy wrote: "I think that is a pretty good idea. I am actually doing a second challenge this year. It is a 25 category bingo challenge. One of the categories is "wild card" for any book you want. I actually need about 10 wild cards!"

That sounds really interesting, where can I find the bingo challenge?

[Raven]

Melissa wrote: "Had a thought. What if next years challenge had 40 categories to fill which would still make you step out of your comfort zone and then had 12 open spaces for books that come along throughout the ..."

I see what you mean, but that implies people actually reading 52 books... When some of us may only manage 30 or so, but try to tick off all the categories anyway, because some books tick off more than one.

Either way, 10 would be too much, I think. 5 maybe?

[Jessie]

-First Person view
-Omniscient view
-A novel less than 100 pages (might be harder than you think to find one, but would also add a bit of ease into the challenge)
-A book from a "villain's" point of view
-A book/story over 500 years old (really classic!)
-A story someone has read you
-A book where you have seen the movie but not read the book
-A book related to your occupation or hobbies
-A book where the main character shares your first or last name (or initials)
-A book with an animal in the title or on the cover
-A book that elicits an intense emotional response (anger, sorrow, elation, frustration, hope, despair)
-A book set in BC times
-A book with NO human characters

As far as categories I didn't like, finding a book from where I was born (or even nearby was difficult, as were books where I shared initials with the author, a book that takes place during Christmas, a popular author's first book, and a book by someone under thirty. These aren't necessarily "bad" categories, I just found them particularly difficult.

[Melissa]

Historical romance or during the Tudor era

[Anne]

Melissa wrote: "Had a thought. What if next years challenge had 40 categories to fill which would still make you step out of your comfort zone and then had 12 open spaces for books that come along throughout the ..."

I just had a similar thought! I was thinking of ways to make the challenge more rewarding for everyone, and agree that having open slots for reading whatever you want is a great way to do so.

I'm planning to cull through this thread and put together a poll to choose next year's categories. Watch for it in the next few days!

[Patricia]

I like the idea of "free" spaces very much. I started this challenge with a lot of excitement but, unfortunately, that excitement turned to frustration when the books I wanted to read didn't fit the categories I needed to fill. End result: I'm reading more of what I want but feel discouraged about not be able to finish the challenge. With the inclusion of "free" spaces I could read what I want and still fill up categories in the challenge which would be a major win-win!!

[Melissa]

Anne wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Had a thought. What if next years challenge had 40 categories to fill which would still make you step out of your comfort zone and then had 12 open spaces for books that come along..."

That's great Anne!! Will be looking forward to your poll!!

[Anne]

Okay. I've just pulled everyone's suggestions for new categories, and categories people would like to keep. I'll put together a poll for new categories first. I have some other ideas about the challenge for next year - watch for a new post soon!