Fall 2024 Read-a-Thon: Team Cardinal

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

We've reached the fall, and that means it's time to go back to school!

For this team challenge, you will be tackling all the major school subjects, with the goal of making all As!

Completing one prompt in each category will increase your grade by one letter. Here's how the grades are given:
Completing one prompt for the subject: F
Completing two prompts for the subject: D
Completing three prompts for the subject: C
Completing four prompts for the subject: B
Completing five prompts for the subject (plus required pencils): A

Pencils can be earned by reading 1500 pages or listening to 25 hours of audiobooks as a team.

Literature
Two Pencils
A book about books
A book featuring a student, teacher, writer or librarian
A book that is a retelling
A book that has been translated into English
A book with a title of 5 words or more

Math
Three Pencils
A book with a geometric shape on the cover
A book with more than one author
A book with over 500 pages
A book with under 200 pages
A book with multiple points of view

Science
One Pencil
A book involving nature
A book involving a person in a STEM field
A science fiction book
A book with an animal on the cover
A book with a plant on the cover

History
Two Pencils
A historical fiction book
A book published at least 50 years ago
A book featuring a real historical figure
A memoir, biography or autobiography
A book taking place during a war

Geography
One Pencil
A book set on an island
A book written by an Asian author
A book set in the southern hemisphere
A book involving travel
A book containing a weather event (storm, quake, blizzard, etc.)

The Arts
One Pencil
A play, screenplay, or book of poetry
A book featuring a protagonist who has a career in the arts
A book with all three primary colors on the cover (red, blue, yellow)
A book whose title starts with a letter in EGOT
A book containing a map or illustrations

Recess
A book featuring sports
A book featuring a hobby
A children's book (can be less than 100 pages)
A young adult book
A humorous book

THE TEAM
Captain: Emily B
Captain: Katherine
Elizabeth
Edie
Andrea
Samantha
Denise

THE SPREADSHEET
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Happy read-a-thon, Cardinals! I hope to be pretty present and around for the week, though I don't know how many books I'll finish (didn't plan my audiobooks well and now I'm only 5 hours in to a 28 hour book!).

Looking forward to hanging out with y'all!

[Denise]

I'm not sure how to use the spreadsheet yet, but I am reading a play tomorrow (A Doll's House) for a book club.

NVM I see the planning page, i assume I type it there

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, you can add all of the books you plan on reading to the spreadsheet and mark which prompts it fits. That's the easiest way for us to find holes in our reading and make sure we hit every category.

Once you finish a book, you'll add it to the correct tab. And don't forget to update your pages read and hours listened so we can earn pencils!

As of now, I'm the only person in the central time zone - everyone else is Pacific time. So we should all be starting and ending the challenge around the same time.

[Samantha]

Howdy Cardinals! I look forward to doing some reading with you this week. I have a bunch of random books I got from the library and kindle unlimited. I will add them to the spreadsheet to see how they line up with the prompts.

Oooff Emily sounds like you got a chucky one on your hands, hopefully its one you can listen too on a higher speed.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes! It's a reread of the third in a series, so I've been listening all day while I'm working. I will definitely finish this week, but I don't know if I'll get to squeeze another audiobook in before the read-a-thon is over.

[Katherine]

Hi Cardinals,

Looking forward to reading with you all this week and trying out my first time as co-captain! I have a bunch of books checked out to read this week including a very long one I have about 300 more pages in. I'll see which ones fit in the spreadsheet the best and go from there. Go Cardinals!

[Katherine]

Huh... not sure what happened to our spreadsheet?? Our math isn't "mathing" anymore on the Planning Sheet. I only notice because last night when I was adding my four books it looked like we only had 1-2 prompts with 0s and now there are a lot more, even though those prompts clearly have Xs in them. I did add a few columns after my 4 books so others would have a space to add their books, but I don't think that would change the math. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Oops that's on me. I moved all the currently reading books to the front and it messed with the formula. It's fixed now!

[Samantha]

Emily even if it takes all week, it great to have the hours read.

Katherine good luck with co-captain duties. It sounds like you got a spreadsheet test and passed :)

I am reading an odd book about a synthetic women who is taking part in a bachelor type show in one timeline and apparently married to the bachelor with their baby in a future timeline and he has gone missing. I am only 40 pages in. It seems like with all that I should be more engaged but I keep wondering if I should start something else.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

What book is that, Samantha?

[Samantha]

Made for You. I am a little further in and starting to enjoy it more.

It has a fun cover too.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Oh I'll have to check it out!

[Samantha]

It is the authors debut novel and I think it shows but I am feeling more hopeful about being entertained.

Ok off to read some more, had to stop in to do my voting before I forgot again.

[Andrea]

Hi all! Excited to participate in my first read-a-thon! I just completed book 1 for the challenge on audio (Mixed Signals). It's a rom-com, so I think it could also be counted towards the humorous prompt if needed.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I didn't have high hopes for my reading this weekend, but my toddler woke up with a fever, so I spent most of the day on the couch, cuddling and reading. I should finish Somewhere Beyond the Sea before I go to bed tonight! I'm going to put it down for hobby (many of the children characters in the book talk about their hobbies) since that's one of the lower options one.

[Katherine]

Emily wrote: "I should finish Somewhere Beyond the Sea..."

How is Somewhere Beyond the Sea? I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm currently rereading The House in the Cerulean Sea - which is one of my favorites. Hoping it's just as good!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I'm really glad I reread Cerulean Sea before jumping into Somewhere Beyond - there was a lot I didn't remember.

Somewhere Beyond switches to Arthur's perspective, so there's a bit different tone to it (a little darker, more haunted), but still everything I loved about Cerulean is there. It felt like the perfect continuation. I'm going to give it 5 stars.

[Samantha]

One thing I enjoy with the team read a thons is the book related talk. I don’t do a lot of re-reading but have ponder re-reading Cerulean Sea prior to picking up Somewhere Beyond. You two have cemented the need for a re-read.

I should finish Made for You tonight or first thing in the morning. I will enter my reading info in the morning.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Cerulean Sea was excellent on audio. I'm glad I read it for the first time in print, but the audio was great for the reread.

That was my third book finished in September, and my third 5 star book of September. Excellent start to things!

[Denise]

I finished two today so I will be able to do more than I committed to...yeah!

I put A Doll's House and Other Plays under "Art": play, screenplay, poems

I put What You Are Looking For is in the Library under "literature", librarian character, but it fits 11 other categories so it can be moved if needed

I will focus on my book of baseball essays next so we can get "sports" , and then I'll try to finish my 2-author book

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Excellent Denise!

My toddler woke up with a fever again today, so I anticipate another big reading day. Starting One Dark Window, which I'll probably use for EGOT.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Don't forget to log your pages read and audio listened every day!

[Katherine]

Good morning--- I'm hoping to finish up House in the Cerulean Sea today after the conference I'm attending is over. Yesterday I had to spend time finishing a book that's due back today. Unfortunately it only counted for pencils, because I had less than 100 pages left in it (bad planning on my part) Enjoy your day!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Every page helps - we've earned our first pencil!

[Samantha]

Emily hope your wee one starts feeling better. I am sure that is stressful.

I think I will read Heartstopper: Volume Two since we need a YA book. I tried to find a nostalgic children's book but everything I could think of was checked out of the library. Nothing that I haven't read sounded palatable. I also think I am not really sure what a children's book would include. I was looking at Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume and Ronald Dahl. In the Night Kitchen and other short picture books seemed a little too easy.

[Samantha]

Opps now it looks like there is a YA in progress...

Are bugs animals?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes! I was going to count a phoenix as an animal lol so bugs are animals.

[Samantha]

Glad we are in agreement Emily - Bugs are Animals!

Although in the end I decided to read Remote Control to fill the Sci-Fi prompt. It was a novella so was easy to listen to in a day while puttering around getting other thing done. I get why it was listed as sci-fi but it felt like I was reading a fairytale/fakelore.

Not sure what I am going to read next, maybe The Familiar (the reason for my bug question) or Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

Hope everyone had a great reading day!

[Andrea]

Yay team on our first pencil! We're off to a great start!

Question: Are we supposed to delete our completed books from the Plans sheet once we've finished them and then record them on the Completed sheet? If something doesn't look right on my end, feel free to fix it, I'm still learning this Spreadsheet works.

I finished my 2nd book for the challenge (Running) and counted it towards the YA prompt. Some of my holds came earlier than expected on Libby, so I'm trying to see how I can fit them in. Right now, I'm planning on using This Is How You Lose Her for either the geometric shapes or primary colors prompt. I'm more then halfway through All the Light We Cannot See and once I finish it I'll pick up Untouchable so we can cross off the southern hemisphere prompt.

[Denise]

I finished The Utility of Boredom, a collection of baseball essays and slotted it in contains a sport

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Yes, Andrea, you'd remove it from the Plans tab and move it over to Completed. Then highlight as appropriate (see the others we've done for example!)

We had a rough day yesterday and I ended up getting a lot of audio hours but not a lot of pages read. My 6 hours of audio did give us another pencil though!

[Samantha]

My pages read was minimal. I started a few things but nothing stuck. I did keep track of pages read so will add those to the spreadsheet when I can access on my computer.

[Denise]

Due to a virus keeping me home from work today I finished Last Chance to See for book worth more than one author, and on urgent care made progress on some longer books for our page count

[Katherine]

Congrats, everyone on getting our first A-- in recess! LOL!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Haha it's the easiest one!

Not much reading done yesterday at home with my (still sick) toddler. I'll keep chugging along, though I have a busy day ahead with work and a dinner tonight.

[Edie]

Yesterday was a slow day for pages read. The books I am reading are just going slowly... not a page turner among them. Today should be a better day, since I have few outside commitments. Glad the team is doing well.

[Samantha]

Edie, when I tried to start a new book on Sunday night I felt the same about the lack of page turning desire.

I am enjoying Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop but unfortunately the library book is not available on Kindle - epub and audio so that will slow things down.

I need to try again to find a page turner.

[Samantha]

Oh and congrats everyone on getting an a in recess, I love that we know how to play hard!

Emily hopefully your toddler is feeling better.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I've stolen the report card tracker from one of the other team's spreadsheets. Looks like failing grades across the board for us right now haha, but I'm hoping to bring up the averages.

[Samantha]

Good lord! That report card reminds me of high school!

Its a fun addition, thanks for adding :)

[Edie]

Well, at least we have an A in the only subject my grandson (a 1st grader) feels is worth talking about. Lots of room for improvement. I should finish up a book today or tomorrow.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

My goal is to finish both my audio (7 hours left) and my print book (250ish pages) by tomorrow! My daughter is finally feeling well enough to go to daycare today, so I'm hoping that bodes well for my reading.

[Katherine]

I finished my really long book and have a bunch of shorter books lined up!

[Samantha]

I am still working my way through the audiobook of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, Only got about min in today.

I have also been reading You're Always Welcome... At the Bloodridge Motel it pretty short and expect I will finish tonight.

[Denise]

I didn't finish any books but I made page progress, Should be able to finish Wide Sargasso Sea but not much else.

[Edie]

Finished Blessed Water. Put it in Geography - weather event. It rains copiously throughout the whole book (3 days).

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I've finished The Empire of Gold, and put it for Art - has a map! It was the only book on the plans that had that checked, so we are now at a D for Art lol

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Also, I've added pencils to our Math tab, as all that's standing between us and an A is a 200 page book!

[Andrea]

One of my audiobooks on hold became available, and I devoured it in less than a day! After realizing that India is NOT in fact in the southern hemisphere (lol), I was planning on using the audiobook for that prompt. However, the book ended up featuring a lot of historical figures in Chile, so I'll count it for that instead. I'll see if I can pick up another South American novel this week for the hemisphere prompt.