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May Mini-Thon: Challenge Introduction
Mod
COVER OR TITLE
A book with girl, boy, man or woman in the title
A book with a hidden object on the cover
A book with a lock and/or a key on the cover
A book where something on the cover is tilted or upside down
A book with a body part in the title
A book with a color in the title or author’s name
A book with orange on the cover
A book with a purple cover
A book with a door on the cover
A book with an animal on the cover
CHARACTER OR SETTING
A book set in Paris
A book where a main character is a writer, a librarian or a bookseller
A book with a ranch or farm setting
A book set in a different hemisphere than where you live
A book with a character who is neurodiverse
A book told from multiple character POVs
A book that features a child character
A work of fiction based on a real person or real event
A book set in a group living situation
A book set during the Roaring Twenties (1920's)
GENRE, AUTHOR, & PAGE LENGTH
A biography, autobiography, or memoir
A sci-fi novel
A book over 500 pages
A book that’s a collection of short stories or essays
A historical fiction book that takes place before the 20th Century
A book that includes a love story
A book shelved as literary fiction
A science fiction or fantasy novel written by a woman
A book whose the author goes by three names
A dark academia book
AWARDS, LISTS, & RECOMMENDATIONS
A book nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award
A book you meant to read in 2023
A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
A book from the Canada Reads Book list
An Audie award winner (in any format)
A book featured on a list for a media or celebrity book club
A book connected to something you read in 2023
A book that can be found on Project Gutenberg
A book that’s mentioned in the Rory Gilmore Book Challenge
A book from one of the Millions Most Anticipated lists
OTHER
A book that features a hobby
A book involving pirates, maps, or treasure
A book related to masks or a masquerade
A book involving a STEM topic
A book related to an invention or a discovery
A book related to summertime blues
A book that involves art, music, dancing or acting
A book that includes a ritual or ceremony
A book related to the Harlem Renaissance
A book with a secret passage
SPREADSHEET : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Mod
How do I vote?
You read a book, then you place that book on the spreadsheet next to a prompt it fits and that you want to vote for. The prompts with the most "votes" will get on our pre-poll.
What's the page length requirements?
Books must be at least 100 pages long to count. If it is a graphic or illustrated novel, it must be at least 200 pages. If you started a book before the read-a-thon, it must have at least 100 pages (200 for graphic novels) remaining when you wake up on Sunday.
Can we read more than one book for a prompt?
Yes! So the idea is that you read as many books as you want, and you use those books as votes. So if you really want the purple cover prompt to make it, you can read 5 books that all have purple covers, and "vote" for that prompt 5 times. You can, of course, place different books on different prompts, but you can also "vote" for the same prompt twice.
What a fabulous idea! I love it.Can we read more than one book for a prompt?
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How fun! It is nice to have a little change up in the process makes it feel fresh :)
I love this idea! Now, deciding what to read…
I like this, but it's going to be heavily influenced by a reading challenge I'm in since I already have my May books picked, However, I many rearrange when I read certain ones to go with the themes I prefer. Fun!
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Ohh what a fun idea. Not sure how I’ll go as I have quite a few ARCs I need to read in May and the readathon dates include both Mother’s Day and my birthday so probably less reading! But I’ll check out the prompts when I get home from interstate and see if I can make it work.
I love the idea! I don't read fast enough to knock off more than one book during a read-a-thon, but it's still fun. Oddly enough, the 2 books I'm closest to finishing now would work for rejected prompts, but none of the ones up there! (disembodied hand and civil rights)Also, we have a prompt this year to read a book connected to something you read in 2023, so that's not a reject??
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And some of my first choices have waiting lists at the library too long to get them in time for this.
I've not picked up a book since February. Maybe a readathon will get me reading again? 🤷
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I printed the list on paper and have figured out which books I have here could go for things I would like to vote for--it turns out it's very heavily weighted in favour of one, but I have some for others as well, but it's not likely I'll be able to read all of those during that one week :)
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I love the concept of this readathon so much! It's so creative and fun. The timing is also great for me since I only read 1 book in April. (And happy early birthday Bec!)
Most of my possibilities for May fit the same tag (for another challenge) but some still fit multiple prompts. This is a great time to review my goals and pull in the books I haven’t gotten to yet this year. I was thinking I might skip the prompt planning process this year, but I realize that it helps me to explore other topics and think more broadly about what I want to read. So thank you Emily, Jackie, and Robin, for making it such a participative process!
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NancyJ, I hope you don't skip out! You're such a great voice in the process. But I wouldn't blame you if you skip out on the Wild Discussion lol. That can get a bit overwhelming sometimes.
Emily wrote: "Hooray! I wanted to post the prompts early so everyone can adjust and think about what books they want to read next week. I will probably end up going heavy on one prompt, rather than spreading my ..."Thanks Emily. I love to see the new prompt ideas and I get excited when one of my prompts gets voted in. I had a hard time keeping up with the wild discussion last year though. It literally hurt my head to try. I could swear the print was smaller lol.
Robin P wrote: "My method is the opposite, I already have things I plan to read this month and I'll try to fit them into categories I would like to "vote for"."Same here :)
Some of those ideas are ones I downvoted, some upvoted, some neutral, and I'm sure it's much like that for others.
Oooh, so tempting. I really wanted to start concentrating on books I own but haven't read yet, but maybe I'll see which of those fits prompts I want to vote for and whether I can participate some that way.
I love this idea, especially as several of the books I had planned for May fit some of my favourite prompts. Stopping reading my current book now so I can finish it during the readathon!
Just to check - can we do this just by filling in the spreadsheet, or do we need a personal tracking post too? Between my various challenges and the fact that I use both Goodreads and Storygraph, I feel like I have so many places to update when I finish a book!
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Emily - The Tales of Beedle the Bard - I was going to use this book as one. It's just over a 100 pages. I wouldn't say it is an illustrated novel so I just wanted to make sure I can use this one. Let me know what you think. If I can't use it I'll probably read it before the read-a-thon starts!!!Thanks!
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Emily wrote: "If it has illustrations (outside of just chapter headings or whatever), then it needs to be 200 pages. I'm not sure how many illustrations there are in the book!"Just on chapter headings I'm pretty sure. I'll double check.
Thank you!
Oh never mind! There are more illustrations than I thought!!!
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Just remembered to check in on this, very happy it includes tomorrow and next Saturday as I have a very busy week and won't get much reading done in the evenings. But I'm planning a relaxing day for myself tomorrow (Mother's Day in the US) and don't have much going on Saturday. Now to go figure out how the books I'm already reading fit in and what I will read next when those are done!
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Emily wrote: "I've just unlocked the spreadsheet so we can start tracking votes!"Oh - I was wondering why I couldn't add my completed book. I am in Australia, so many hours ahead of USA, and finished a book today that I had stopped with 102 pages to go. Off and running!
Was the list of prompts intended to include ALL the reject prompts, or just some? I know that at least the Mushroom and Disembodied Hands prompts are not on the list.This is a great idea!
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This is a great idea!"
The mods went through and chose 10 possible prompts for each category! If they were polarizing or in the bottom, I left them off, and if they were close calls, they (nearly always) made the list. The rest were at our discretion!
Makes sense - thanks for explaining Emily :)
I missed you all this year. I am off for the summer, and I have done nothing but read this week. This is a nice way to start the summer.
@Emily, is it too late to vote for prompts using books we finished last night? I finished my last mini-thon book before I went to bed last time and just got to a computer but the spreadsheet is now locked.
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Emily wrote: "I've removed the lock for you to update it!"I am having the same issue, I finished two books last night but could not enter them into the spreadsheet on my phone and I just got to my computer...but its locked 🙁
WHAT IS IT
Rather than having a full read-a-thon in the month of May, we are hosting a mini read-a-thon. It's shorter and has a more condensed challenge.
WHEN IS IT
It begins when you wake up on Sunday, May 12 and runs until when you go to sleep on Saturday, May 18.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT
This read-a-thon has a fun twist. We will be using this read-a-thon as a precursor to our 2025 list making process!
HOW IT WORKS
You have a list of possible prompts, pulled from our Suggestions That Didn't Make It In list from the last two years. You will read books for prompts you want to "vote" on. Each book counts for ONE vote for a prompt. The top 5 prompts that get "voted" for will go into our pre-poll to start our list making process.
This is an individual challenge - there will be no team challenge for this mini-thon!