January 2023 Read-a-Thon: Team Challenge Intro & FAQs

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

New Year, New You! Are you still sticking to your New Year's Resolutions? For this team challenge, you're going to be working together to check as many of those goal boxes as possible!

Each book read by an individual may only be used for one prompt per team challenge. Don't forget about your bookmarks! You get some for every 1000 pages read (or 15 hours of audio listed to).

Read Those Books
- Earn one bookmark for every 1000 pages read as a team.
- Earn one bookmark for every 15 hours of audio listened to.

Money
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book featuring a rich person
- A book where a financial event is important (inheritance, bank failure, depression)
- A book with a green cover
- A book with a number in the title
- A self-help book (financial or otherwise)

Health
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book with a character who has a physical illness/disability
- A book with a character who has a mental illness/disability
- A book with a birth or a death
- A book involving doctors, nurses, or a hospital
- A book featuring food on the cover

Career
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book set in a workplace
- A book where a character changes jobs
- A book with a retired character
- A book with a blue-collar/hands on worker
- A book with characters too young to work

Family
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book with a family gathering
- A book with a family secret
- A book with a large family
- A book with a family conflict
- A book whose title starts with a letter in the word FAMILY

Hobbies
- Earn 2 bookmarks
- A book featuring a hobby you might be interested in
- A book involving sport
- A book involving music
- A book involving reading and/or writing
- A book involving camping/hiking/hunting

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

TEAMS

Team January
Captain: Ana AZ
Captain: Trish
Bec
Tamara
Ira
Aimee
Joyce

Team Enero
Captain: Ellie
Captain: Amy
Kendra
Kat
Sarah Stewart
LYNN
Lynette

Team Janvier
Captain: Sheena
Captain: Sherri
Rachel
Jen K
Joan
JennH
Kelly
Edie

Team Leden
Captain: Sophia
Captain: Robin P
Kathy
Chrissie
Kellie Lyn
Shelley
Martha
Errlee

Team Tammikuu
Captain: Nancy
Captain: Emily B
Emma R
Laurel
Deborah (Message 40)
Katherine
Erica
Elizabeth

Team Styczen
Captain: Alicia
Captain: RachelG
Roxana
Irene
Traci
Deborah
Samantha

[°~Amy~°]

Emily, on the spreadsheets we are showing 75 bookmarks used and -75 available. I can't figure out how to fix it. Any ideas?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

°~Amy~° wrote: "Emily, on the spreadsheets we are showing 75 bookmarks used and -75 available. I can't figure out how to fix it. Any ideas?"

Fixing now! Sorry about that!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

A few notes:
- Although the prompts often say "character", feel free to apply it to nonfiction as well
- For the title starting with a letter, feel free to ignore or include A, An, or The.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Quick one. Can going to see a play, count towards audiobook times? I'm off to see Watch on the Rhine during the read-a-thon, so I wondered.

[L Y N N]

For the Individual Challenge can we only use the first letter of the FIRST word of the title, or the first letter of any of the words in the title? THANK YOU!!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Trish, I'm going to say no, just because we have to draw the line at something, so we will stick to just audiobooks that you listen to and books that you read.

Lynn, yes, it's the first letter of the first word of the title, or the first letter of the author's first or last name for the individual challenge.

[Sophia]

Just to double check, the "Sofia" on Team Leden is me, correct? I didn't see another Sophia on the sign up page but I wanted to make sure!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, sorry I misspelled your name!!

[Sophia]

No worries! Better safe than sorry, that's all <3 A small part of me does think it would be funny for two people with the same name to show up and claim to be team captain but we'll save that for another day :P

[L Y N N]

Emily wrote: "Lynn, yes, it's the first letter of the first word of the title, or the first letter of the author's first or last name for the individual challenge"
Thank you!! Just wanted to be sure!

[RachelG.]

For "A book with a large family" does this include extended family or just immediate family?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

However you would define it, Rachel. I think if it includes extended family as characters in the story, that would count.

[Irene]

Hi Emily, sorry if I missed this somewhere but what do the bookmarks do? I noticed there's a section on the spreadsheet that tell us how many we used and how many we have remaining, so I was wondering how to "use" a bookmark (and what it would do)?

[Alicia]

The bookmarks are like the acorns for the Fall challenge. We accrue them based on pages read or audiobook hours listened. We then use the bookmarks to complete categories. So for example, when we have a book in every Health category, we need 2 bookmarks to complete it.

[Irene]

Ahh *facepalm* that's right! I think I confused myself by thinking of how they were used in the December challenge (as wildcards), thanks Alicia!! xD

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Thanks for explaining, Alicia! That's correct -- and when you're ready to use them, just put an X in the box indicating that you have completed those two bookmarks, and it will automatically subtract them from your totals on the first page.

[Kendra]

Could we use series name for the individual challenge or only book title?

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Emily wrote: "Trish, I'm going to say no, just because we have to draw the line at something, so we will stick to just audiobooks that you listen to and books that you read."

No worries. Just thought I'd ask.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

The rules for the individual challenge say title or author only. However, if you want to stretch it to include series title, no one will call you out for it!

[Sherri]

Would the mods mind if we change locations of the tabs on the spreadsheet for our team? For example could we move the plans & complete tabs to the start? A team member feels it will be easier for her to plan her next read. Thank You.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Feel free to adjust as needed!

[Nancy]

I feel like I should know the answer to this but is there a minimum length for audiobooks?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Since the minimum length for print books is 100 pages, and we equate 1 page = 1 minute, I'd say minimum length for audiobooks would be 100 minutes (or 1 hour and 40 minutes).

[Sheena]

Speaking of audio ... what is the correct way to count time listening if you crank the speed up to 1.25? (ETA/clarify ... do you use book duration like you would page count or actual time listened?)

I've got one that is simple and slow, so I've sped it up. I just want to make sure I'm recording it fairly.

(PS Thanks Mods!! Readathons are so much fun! I just love them!)

[Nancy]

Emily wrote: "Since the minimum length for print books is 100 pages, and we equate 1 page = 1 minute, I'd say minimum length for audiobooks would be 100 minutes (or 1 hour and 40 minutes)."

Whew! 84, Charing Cross Road is 1:55, just makes it. :)

[Alicia]

Sheena, personally, I put down the length of the audiobook not how long it took me to listen. I compare it to reading speeds. A 300 page book can take 300 minutes for some people or 200 minutes or 450 minutes. Everyone’s speed is different, but it doesn’t change the length of the book.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, it's the length of the audio, not how long it takes you to read it!

[Sheena]

Great - thank you both. That's what I was doing but it struck me suddenly "Am I cheating??" LOL