2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2024
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TEAM Caught Read-Handed: I Spy
YOUR PROMPTS:Singles:
Units of time (hour, minute)
Planet (Mars, Jupiter)
Season (Fall, Spring)
Article of clothing (shirt, hat, sock)
Biome (desert, rainforest)
Children’s toys (dolls, trucks)
Rooms/Parts of a House (attic, hallway, basement)
Elements (iron, carbon, oxygen)
Deities/Gods (Hecate, Buddha, Aphrodite)
Fruits and veggies (carrot, lemon)
Doubles:
Vehicles (tractor, limousine)
Family member (sister , mother)
Mythical creature (dragon, unicorn)
Something you find in the garden (dirt, shovel, grass)
Occupation (lawyer, nurse)
Body part (arm, foot)
Accessory (ring, purse)
Bugs (beetle, grasshopper)
Things in the sky (cloud, airplane)
Triples:
Flowers (Lily, sunflower)
Buildings (church, bank, barn)
Animals (cat, horse)
A proper title (prince, viscount)
Type of crime (arson, theft, murder)
The color blue (any shade)
Number
Weapon (scythe, poison, gun)
Bonus Prompts:
*unlocked after completing all of the above prompts*
Bonus categories:
Singles
Nationality
A made up word
Tools
Temperature
Famous landmarks
Doubles
Something you find in an office
Books (library, page, ink)
Things found in the ocean
Triples
Farm
Restaurant
School
Welcome to the I Spy readathon, Team 2! I'm looking forward to reading these terrific prompts with you all. First, though, let's lay a little groundwork. Please share your ideas and comments.✔ fun team name
✔ intros
✔ resources
✔ tracking posts
Notes:
- Our pledged books add up to fewer than the books required to complete all prompts, so I recommend we focus on the triples and doubles first. They have higher point values than the singles.
- If possible, try to select books that will satisfy more than one prompt. While a completed book can only count for one prompt, versatility is good just in case someone else finishes a prompt first. For example, The Mother-in-Law fits: family member, parts of a house (window, wall), something you find in the garden (pool, shrubs), or the color blue.
TRACKING POSTS
TerryJane (co-leader): 12 Message #12
Mansi V (co-leader): 2-4
L Y N N: 5-6
Carrie: 5+ Message #82
Billie-Jade: 3-4
Lina: 3 Message #79
Norine: 3
Alina: 2-3
RESOURCESTeam Spreadsheet: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...)
General info
FAQ including how to determine audiobook pages
July 26 - Aug 1 - Teams check in to plan and collaborate
Aug 2 - Aug 11 - Read (starting and ending at midnight in your time zone
Point System
🔎 Singles: 50 points each
🔎 Doubles: 150 points after both are complete
🔎 Triples: 300 points after all three are complete
🔎 Pages Read: 1 point per page
🔎**New this year** Audiobook Hours: Please use the Goodreads most popular hardcover edition of your book in the language you read it in to calculate page points.
Prompt Helps: If you find a good listopia or offsite resource, share it in a comment and I'll add it here.
I'm TerryJane and I will be co-leading our team along with Mansi V. If you are new to our readathons or need any guidance on using our spreadsheet (there are three tabs), please reach out and let us know. We can write up some instructions if they're needed, or we can help enter the data if you have trouble with it.I have been a member here since 2014, I think, and have been a challenge moderator for about three years. If my name seems familiar, it may be because I lead the Bibliopoly, Finish Line, and Magical Mystery Tour yearly challenges.
I live in the mountains of north Georgia, USA, in Eastern Time zone. We currently have a dozen or so white-tail does bringing their tiny spotted babies through our yard and woods, as well as several young bucks. Songbirds are feeding their babies just outside the window, and teaching them how to find their own food at the feeders. I just love witnessing all this new life! When I'm not being distracted by the wildlife, and sometimes when I am, you can almost always find me reading. I mostly read via audio due to binocular vision dysfunction. I can read print in small doses, but it takes me so stinking long that print books are a last resort.
Happy reading!
Hi, I am Carrie and this is my first Readathon! I am very excited because it combines three of my loves: 1) Reading - of course! 2) turning everything into a game or competition! 3)tracking something with a spreadsheet! I am a wife, mother, accounting manager, and community volunteer. I live in Oklahoma and also enjoy traveling, sports, and long weekends at the lake.I have always had a love for reading and in my earlier years could always be found with a book in hand but over the years I just lost interest as I stayed so busy with raising a very active family and juggling a demanding career. Last fall, my youngest daughter left home for college and I suddenly had extra time, and even better, an appetite to once again spend so much of that extra time reading.
I prefer reading myself but have recently trained myself to also enjoy audio books so that I can actually get something else done (cleaning, cooking, driving) while getting a good book in. I am usually working on one of each, or better yet, I love books that have both in the same file so that I can switch back and forth depending on what I need to be doing.
I enjoy reading many different things so although I have already looked through my current tbr list to see which ones could fill prompts, I am happy to find a book to read and fill any of them when we have a specific prompt that needs someone to fill it. Feel free to give me an assignment in that regard.
**I have added a couple of titles to the planning sheet that can fill a double or triple prompt that I will probably be reading in that time frame even if we don't need them but have more to add once I get a better idea of what we need.
I lost my post before I was able to post it! Trying again! Thanks for the introductory posts, TerryJane!! Agree about emphasizing the double and triple prompts first. I’ll start entering books on the spreadsheet tomorrow when I have more time.
Just some suggestions for team names to get us started thinking:
Pink Panthers
Intelligent Investigators
Rambunctious Readers
Silly Spies
Super Spies
Super Scouts
Malicious Moles
Espionage Extraordinaire
Bubbling Bibliophiles
Bumbling Bibliophiles
Looking forward to planning and reading with you all!!
LYNN
L Y N N wrote: "I lost my post before I was able to post it! Trying again!"Ha! Someone else who loves alliteration. Some are quite a mouthful though. I like Pink Panthers and Super Spies best from this list. I also thought of Able Agents.
Carrie wrote: "Hi, I am Carrie and this is my first Readathon! I am very excited because it combines three of my loves: 1) Reading - of course! 2) turning everything into a game or competition! 3)tracking somethi..."Good to *meet* you, Carrie! Waiting to see what areas we need to fill is a great way to choose your books. I may end up swapping out some of mine as we go along, but wanted to put some in place as an example for other teammates to follow. Some books that I plan to read in August just aren't helpful for our readathon prompts, so Song of Solomon (1 prompt) will have to wait until the end of the month.
Hi everyone, I'm Mansi, a co-leader. Like TerryJane said, please reach out if you have any questions!! I'm so excited for my second readathon, I just recently moved back home (I'm from Wales!) and I'm looking forward to finally getting through my physical TBR that hasn't been touched since Christmas!! I'll look through my shelves and update the sheet tomorrow. I'm thinking of trying a mix of physical and audiobooks for this readathon. I've been in a HUGE reading slump since March (I had a bad flu for two weeks where I stopped reading and just never got back to my normal reading pace), so I'm hoping this readathon gets me back on my reading goal!
In a few days, after everyone has had a chance to add their books, we can look at prompts that need to be filled.
TerryJane wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Hi, I am Carrie and this is my first Readathon! I am very excited because it combines three of my loves: 1) Reading - of course! 2) turning everything into a game or competition! 3)t..."Ah what a coincidence, I was hoping to read Song of Solomon or Sula for this readathon which have both been on my shelf for a while. Maybe next month!
🔎 I SPY - Readathon (Team)Duration: August 2 - August 11, 2024
Progress: 25/12 Books | 6,151 Pages
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📗 The Paragraph Ranch - 268p
Note: Some page numbers for my audiobooks will be for paperback or mass market paperback editions, where no hardcover exists or the only hardcover is in large print.
August 2 - 4 Books | 483 Pages
🔎 The Cabin in the Woods - 120p
🔎 Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - 104p
🔎 Peach Blossom Spring - 108p left
🔎 The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany - 151p
August 3 - 3 Books | 803 Pages
🔎 Ghost Forest - 272p
🔎 Murder Most Frothy - 247p
🔎 Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph - 284p
August 4 - 1 Book | 258p
🔎 Pick Your Poison - 258p
August 5 - 2 Books | 583p
🔎 Homicide and Halo-Halo - 279p
🔎 Flipped for Murder - 304p
August 6 - 2 Books | 685p
🔎 Second Grave on the Left - 307p
🔎 Speaking from Among the Bones - 378p
August 7 - 2 Books | 648p
🔎 Freefall - 368p
🔎 Hooked on Murder - 280p
August 8 - 4 Books | 1,088p
🔎 The 17th Suspect - 353p
🔎 The House on Mango Street - 160p
🔎 The 18th Abduction - 383p
🔎 Orbiting Jupiter - 192p
August 9 - 4 Books | 775p
🔎 The Kite Fighters - 136p
🔎 A Murderous Macaron - 178p
🔎 O Pioneers! - 206p
🔎 Tales from the Café - 255p
August 10 - 1 Book | 272p
🔎 In Five Years - 272p
August 11 - 2 Books | 556p
🔎 Where There Was Fire - 288p
🔎 The Paragraph Ranch - 268p
Mansi V wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Mansi, a co-leader. Like TerryJane said, please reach out if you have any questions!! I'm so excited for my second readathon, I just recently moved back home (I'm from Wales!) and ..."Hi, Mansi! Looking forward to leading this team with you. I hope the readathon pulls you right out of your reading slump. 😊
I suppose I'll read Song of Solomon after the readathon, unless I stumble upon something else with a sound in the title that I can count toward the Smooth as Silk monthly challenge. We shall see.
L Y N N wrote: "I lost my post before I was able to post it! Trying again! Thanks for the introductory posts, TerryJane!! Agree about emphasizing the double and triple prompts first. I’ll start entering books on..."
Oooh I love these but I think the first two are my favourite! (Pink Panthers and Intelligent Investigators)
I was also thinking maybe something like The FBI (Fabulous Bookworms of investigation) but I think I've just been watching too much criminal minds haha
Yes! Acronyms are fun, too! I'll see your FBI and raise you one CRISP.CRISP = Calmly Reading I Spy Prompts
Or maybe a cool bookish word, like Bibliolaters (one overly devoted to books).
I used to love watching Criminal Minds, but hardly ever watch any television these days.
Hiya all! Nice to meet you all! Very excited to be doing this readathon with you all! This isn't my first readathon, but it is through this group! Didnt make my tbr just yet, but I will shortly. I'm also joining the Battleathon through discord. So in search of some good 4 or 5 star reads that cover as many prompts as possible!Are all prompts supposed to be fulfilled by just the cover/title or as long as it's within the book?
These are the names i came up with:
Bookish Bliss
Tome Time
Chuckling Chapters
Whimsical Word Wizards
Quirky Quotes Quarters
Looking forward reading with you all!!
TerryJane wrote: "L Y N N wrote: "I lost my post before I was able to post it! Trying again!"Ha! Someone else who loves alliteration. Some are quite a mouthful though. I like Pink Panthers and Super Spies best fro..."
I like Able Agents!!
Mansi V wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Mansi, a co-leader. Like TerryJane said, please reach out if you have any questions!! I'm so excited for my second readathon, I just recently moved back home (I'm from Wales!) and ..."Wow. That's awful, Mansi! I sure hope you get that reading mojo back!! And trust that you were able to fully recover without any lingering symptoms!
Mansi V wrote: "I was also thinking maybe something like The FBI (Fabulous Bookworms of investigation) but I think I've just been watching too much criminal minds haha"Ooohhh, yes! I really like that one!!
TerryJane wrote: "Yes! Acronyms are fun, too! I'll see your FBI and raise you one CRISP.CRISP = Calmly Reading I Spy Prompts"
LOVE IT!! You guys are so creative!
"Or maybe a cool bookish word, like Bibliolaters (one overly devoted to books)."
My husband would say my picture should appear as a definition for that word! LOL
"I used to love watching Criminal Minds, but hardly ever watch any television these days."
Ha! Tonight at the gym one of my students was bragging about not having had a TV for 20 years! I did her one better...it has been 25 years for me! 😋
Norine wrote: "These are the names i came up with:Bookish Bliss
Tome Time
Chuckling Chapters
Whimsical Word Wizards
Quirky Quotes Quarters"
Love them all!
I probably won't start listing books on the spreadsheet until tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning is busy...
Readathon wont start till the 2nd of august, so still have a few days!
Hi everyone!I'm Alina.
As I am currently kayaking on holiday I am not able to post a long introduction post about myself.
I am really excited for our readathon and will give you more information about me and my reading schedule on August 1st Latest (probably more the say before).
I read through the prompts though and I think I have a few books on my TBR that fit them! I'll update the spreadsheet as soon as I am able to!
For team names I liked FBI or Bibliolaters!
Happy Reading!
Hi everyone - finally some time to check in as well! I am very much looking forward to participating in this readathon with all of you! :) I have been reading through your messages, so first some replies:
TerryJane - your home sounds lovely - lots of inspiration for the nature prompts of this challenge! :)
Very nice to have you join us Carrie - I hope you will have fun with your first readathon! (Personally, I love doing the team readathons.) Its nice that now that you have more time for yourself again you have rediscovered your love for reading! I hope you will find lots of books you enjoy during the readathon.
To add onto the prioritizing doubles/triples part: for everyone who doesn't know, it is possible to start books early (as many as you want) - they do count towards the prompts as long as you still have at least 100 pages left once the readathon starts!
Mansi, I haven't been to Wales yet but would love to go sometime! Where did you move back from? I hope the readathon manages to get you out of your reading slump!
I have also been struggling a bit lately to make time for reading - which I am hoping to change again during this readathon.
Norine - regarding your question: for the I Spy prompts I think cover and title are the things the prompts should be filled from (not the content of the book).
Alina - I hope you have fun kayaking and dont worry, there is still time left! :) During the last readathons my book list changed even in the last couple of days of the readathon itself - depending on what was needed to fill the last prompts.
So many good name suggestions as well! I like Able Agents, but am not that big of a fan of Bibliolaters (because it also means people who rever the bible, which I do not - but if many of you prefer that one I am fine with it as well). I also like the FBI one (or CRISP, I seem to be a fan of short forms)!
Another one I came across was Caught Read-Handed - which I think would fit the I Spy theme as well.
Regarding my introduction:
My name is Lina, I am from Germany, but really love travelling, so whenever I get the chance to can be found somewhere else (but always with some good books in my backpack).
I joined this group at the beginning of 2023 and have been pretty active since then. I love reading and discussing books with people - and have loved getting to do that here.
I started working as a doctor in the middle of last year and recently got moved to the emergency care department, so its been pretty stressful lately - which is why I only put myself down for 3 books for this readathon. Hopefully, I will get around to reading more though! (I will have to work night shifts for some of it, so am not sure yet.)
I am still working on sorting through my to-be-reads to find books that fit as many prompts as possible, but will probably add some to the sheet today or tomorrow.
I didn't think I had a very big opinion on a team name. All of the suggestions seemed perfectly fine to me, but I have to say that I love Caught Read-Handed.
Hi All, I’m Billie and I’m based in the UK, I’m a teacher so have a lot of time on my hands with the summer holidays. I like to read a mix of physical and audio books. I have done several readathons on here before and always thoroughly enjoy them so I can’t wait to get started. I will start collating my TBR now. With team names ultimately I don’t mind lots of really good ones have been said and I’m happy to go with the majority.
L Y N N wrote: "TerryJane wrote: "Yes! Acronyms are fun, too! I'll see your FBI and raise you one CRISP.CRISP = Calmly Reading I Spy Prompts"
LOVE IT!! You guys are so creative!
"Or maybe a cool bookish word, li..."
Ahh CRISP works so well!! So many names to chose from!
I realised recently, I can either binge watch a TV show, or binge read but I can't do both at the same time so I go through phases of both! Let's hope next week is a binge reading phase
Lina wrote: "Hi everyone - finally some time to check in as well! I am very much looking forward to participating in this readathon with all of you! :) I have been reading through your messages, so first some..."
Ahhhhhhh sorry for replying in bits, I'm just going through all the messages now and I LOVE caught read-handed!!!!!! I think that's definitely one of my favourites so far. Wales is a beautiful place, I just need to explore it a bit more. But Germany looks beautiful too, it's on my list! Just moved back from Scotland so not too far haha.
Work sounds so stressful, so honestly even 3 books in that time is amazing!
Glad I'm not the only one coming out of a reading slump, but we've got this 💪
Just thinking back, but not actually tallying all the comments, I think we have received the most positive responses for these:Pink Panthers
The FBI (Fabulous Bookworms of Investigation)
Caught Read-Handed
Of these choices, all of which are great, my very favorite is Caught Read-Handed. Lina, Carrie, Mansi and I like that one a lot; Billie is happy with whatever we choose, and Alina may not be able to come back and vote during her kayaking trip. So, Norine and L Y N N, are you two okay with Caught Read-Handed for our team name?
Lina wrote: "To add onto the prioritizing doubles/triples part: for everyone who doesn't know, it is possible to start books early (as many as you want) - they do count towards the prompts as long as you still have at least 100 pages left once the readathon starts!"Thanks for sharing that, Lina, especially since we do have some readathon rookies (at least for this group).
That said, page counts for any books you start early only include what you read after the readathon begins (midnight in your own time zone). So if you read half of a 300-page book on August 1 and finish it on August 2, you will enter the page count as 150 pages in your Page Tracking column at the top of the Tracking tab, as well as in column N (Page Points) for the applicable prompt.
Ohhh i like Caught Read-Handed! Great name
Norine wrote: "Ohhh i like Caught Read-Handed! Great name"Yay! The majority of us like that one, and I imagine the rest of us will, too. I'll send a message to bailey (Readathon Mod) about making it official.
Yayyyy it's official! Let's go Team Caught Read-Handed 🥳🥳🥳 Thanks TerryJane for sending it off
TerryJane wrote: "Just thinking back, but not actually tallying all the comments, I think we have received the most positive responses for these:Pink Panthers
The FBI (Fabulous Bookworms of Investigation)
Caught Re..."
Beautiful!!
I just entered books I want to finish and a few I really want to read next and some of them only fulfill one prompt! I can't remember that ever happening before. This appears to be a very distinctive set of prompts, at least when I enter the books I'd really like to read. Huh...Typically, books will fulfill at least 3-5 prompts with past readathons.
But I only have two books that I must read for book clubs, etc., so can easily adjust as we see what is most needed.
The remainder of this week I'll read some of those that fulfill only one prompt and that prompt has a ton of possibilities from others' books already listed.
Updated to add: I already switched out two books with ones that fit more than one prompt. I'll keep searching for better fits!
Prompt question - the examples used for elements are all chemical elements. Do we think that natural elements are also acceptable? examples: Earth, water, wind, fire?
Absolutely, Carrie! Likewise, things in a garden might differ. UK readers' gardens are what we in the USA would call our yards.
L Y N N, I've been doing the same thing, replacing some 3-prompt books with a 7 and two 9's... so far. Jackpot!
Does a surf board count as a vehicle? What about a bike?
Billie-Jade wrote: "Does a surf board count as a vehicle? What about a bike?"Billie, I marked a boat from the cover of one of my books, as well as the lunar landing vehicle from the Apollo missions on another, so I do think some unusual vehicles can count.
I'd say yes to bicycle, for sure. Bicycles and bicycle rickshaws are used for transportation in many places. They can even have their own traffic lane on roads.
Surfboards? I don't know. What do the rest of you think of that one?
Hmmm I agree with TerryJane, Yes to bike, but not sure about surfboard!
I would say yes to bike as well but probably no to surfboard - for me vehicle means some kind of thing that transports things (or people) places; I would say the fact that no one really uses surfboards to get to places (more like a stationary thing for fun) disqualifies them for me...
Billie-Jade, the good news is we have at least 7 other vehicles, maybe more once Alina gets back from her trip. 😊
Id definately would say no to surfboards.
I am so impressed with how this planning sheet is coming together. We have a place for all 48 books that are listed to fill a prompt with all triples taken care of and only missing one double. I would have thought that there would be at least one that ended up not fitting or only fitting prompts that were full. But I am the new girl, y'all obviously know what you are doing!
You're right, Carrie. We are pretty impressive! I didn't notice a missing double. Maybe when Alina returns from holiday and adds her books, all will be covered.Mansi, should we go through and "assign" the books/prompts? We can just highlight the cell for the prompt we want each book to count towards, then we can see where we're short. Actually, we could mark the X and the prompt? What do you think?
Lastly, I must say that I simply love how geographically diverse our team is! Some teams I've been on have been mostly North American, but Caught Read-Handed has five teammates from Europe (Germany, Netherlands, and UK) and three from the US. Yay! 😃
TerryJane wrote: "You're right, Carrie. We are pretty impressive! I didn't notice a missing double. Maybe when Alina returns from holiday and adds her books, all will be covered.Mansi, should we go through and "as..."
Sounds good! I'll start going through the triples now!
I'm just highlighting the cells for now so I can visually see it better, then will tidy it up later!!
I've also changed the other possible fits to a '-' instead of a 'x'. Sorry if it looks messy or confusing now!Also this is just provisional! If you decide not read a book you've put on the sheet or don't have time, we can always rearrange the prompts later so don't feel pressured to read a book if I've assigned a prompt to it!!
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (other topics)The Wishing Game (other topics)
The Paragraph Ranch (other topics)
The Guncle (other topics)
The Wishing Game (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeannette Walls (other topics)Elizabeth Catte (other topics)
Team: Caught Read-Handed
This thread is for members of Team 2 to use however you wish in relation to the readathon. Feel free to come up with your own team name during the planning phase! our teammates are: TerryJane, Mansi V, L Y N N, Carrie, Billie-Jade, Lina, Norine, Alina
Here is the link to your team’s spreadsheet, where you’ll be tracking your progress as you go. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
While awaiting the start of our reading please discuss a team name amongst yourselves and let the mods know of your choice so your thread can be re-titled accordingly.
If you have any questions about the readathon, how to interpret the prompts, how to use the spreadsheet, and so on, ask your Captain or Assistant first. If they don’t know, they can post the question(s) on the Readathon Central thread.
Happy reading! Let’s have a blast during this 10-day readathon!