The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
SPRING CHALLENGE 2010
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Jump-Start
I have two books started; mainly because they are due at the library on Monday, which means I have to get them read Monday and in the book drop by 8 a.m. Tuesday. I'm on page 50 on one and page 75 on the other.
I wonder when Roseann will post her challenge. She was the first finisher.
I started one today, but it is so good that I am going to have to stop because I might finish it! At least it is 340 pages and I am no where near that half-way point.
I was on page 122 of The Memory Keeper's Daughter a week ago when I realized it would work for 5.7, so I've been reading other stuff that didn't fit when I started. Katherine Swynford works for Leora's Spring Clean task, but I'm more than half-way.
pjreads, I read on both those books for the winter challenge. I read The Memory Keepers Daughter. It was just okay. I read "Katherine' by Anya Seton which is about Katherine Swynford. I like to know what you think of them. I started "The Princess Bride" I am on page 45. I am using it for part of the 10.4 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle task.
We can read before the challenge starts? Really??? Where the heck have I been?So that solves the mystery as how some people read 4 books in the first day...
I have an audiobook going (The Clan of the Cave Bear) that I wanted to finish before March, but I'm not even half way through and there's no way. I'm going to use it for half of DLM Rose's task.Other than that, nothing. I have The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart all ready to go, I'll either start it at midnight or tomorrow.
I've started The Bell Jar, When My Name was Keoko (at school the other day; I'll probably check it out tomorrow and read it during my breaks), The Handmaid's Tale, Snow White and the Seven Samurai (for the 3/4/5 task, so I could lock the rating), and Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. It's almost impossible to stop reading The Bell Jar and The Handmaid's Tale. I finally put them on top of my bookcase, which I can't reach without a stool, just so they'd be too much of a pain to get down until tomorrow.
Diane wrote: "We can read before the challenge starts? Really??? Where the heck have I been?So that solves the mystery as how some people read 4 books in the first day..." The rule is that you can count a book if you've only read less than half of it before midnight on the first day of the challenge. So you can't have finished the book, but can read up to 49.9%.
I would guess that the original idea is to make sure that no one would get "caught" with a book that didn't count in any challenge (not finished by midnight on the last day of a challenge, but already started). It seems to have turned into a strategy point ;)
I did start The Historian which I know, from experience, is tough for me to read (I only got to page 79 last time!). And, sure enough, my read pace on it is REALLY slow. I did reach close to the half-way point this morning, though (after a week!), so then I picked up Fantasy in Death which is due back at the library soon. I have no idea where I'll fit that in, but I've mostly given up planning at this point because there are so many challenges yet to be posted.
Diane, we can start reading any book for the next challenge up to the halfway point.
Wow! I so missed that! Well at this late in the game I guess it wouldn't really matter if I started tonight or just waited until tomorrow. I finished so late this time that I needed a day of non-reading, anyway. :)
a day of non reading? What's that? :)
I only started yesterday. I cannot be in the middle of so many books at once and not become confused. I am just under halfway through with This Charming Man (dying to know what happens next), Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (much drier than I had hoped, so dying to just finish it and be done with it) and Special Topics in Calamity Physics (stopping after one more chapter, regretfully).
Mod
I'll be glad to get back to the challenge- as many others have stated once the challenge is over it is back to household chores. When there's a challenge afoot, I don't mind dusty baseboards.
Nicole wrote: "I only started yesterday. I cannot be in the middle of so many books at once and not become confused. I am just under halfway through with This Charming Man (dying to know what happe..."Same. If I have too many started at once I get really overwhelmed and stop reading. I've just dropped around 10 books, and now I'm limiting myself to two.
My performance for winter was awwwwwful so I'm determined to blow myself out of the water this time around and finish in the top 1/4 of the Readerboard.I am the farthest thing possible from being a speedreader so I have to admit that I've been using the past week as a means for setting myself up for the beginning of the challenge. So I'm halfway through 5 books.
I didn't finish the winter challenge but I had 375 points and did like 28 tasks which is 5 and a half times more points than ui had in the Fall Challenge.
I finished my last winter challenge task this morning and then spent several hours here plotting which three books to read first that will will the most points in both the Seasonal challenge and the Style challenge. And while on the way to the library & bookstore to round them up, I got about 1/3 of the way through The Professor's House
I started reading The Help and The Reading Group. I couldn't wait to start The Help since I've heard such good things about it and I started The Reading Group early because I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it very much and so far that's true.
What is the Reading Group about Kim?
I locked in The Russian Concubine, for the task requiring a rating with only 3, 4 or 5 in it, by reading the first chapter. What with ratings changing so often, it seemed like the thing to do.I also started Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls (which I'm thoroughly enjoying so far) and am only about 1/4 way through.
*raises hand* I am half way through More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason and Coraline, and 100 pages into Inkspell. Also, I am in the middle of Ulysses, which I hope to incorporate into the new challenge.
I just started The Third Circle by Amanda Quick, I'm using it for the pen name task. I figured I should start it today...I need all the help I can get if I want to get anywhere near finishing a challenge!
I've started reading one book Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, and I'm in the early goings of two books that I was reading for the Winter Challenge. I'll think that I'll just save them for the Spring one. I need all the help that I can get.
I started Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story to lock in its rating of 3.45. But I'm a one, or at most two book, at a time reader. I also have no delusions about being able to finish a challenge anyway. My goal is 200 points for this spring.
Nancy, I'm another who won't finish the Challenge but sets a personal Challenge for myself. I haven't done so yet for the Spring Challenge but am thinking of a Task-based Goal instead of points this time round to see how that works.
Jayme wrote: "What is the Reading Group about Kim?"Jayme-The Reading Group is about a group of woman who meet up to discuss books, but that part is only a few pages a chapter. The rest is about each woman's life. I just can't stand some of the characters. The books they discuss are all pretty great though! I'm reading it for 25.6 since one of the books they read is I Capture the Castle and I've been wanting to read that for awhile.
I'm feeling very far behind! Perhaps I should get off this computer an get some reading done! What I really need to do is get the housework done that I have been neglecting for this last week!
So it is kinda like "The Jane Austen Book Club?
I started Our Mutual Friend for the Winter Challenge but it's 880 pages and I've only read 23%. I figure I'll just keep on reading and use it for the Spring Challenge.
Jayme wrote: "So it is kinda like "The Jane Austen Book Club?"Exactly. Less about the books and more about the people in the group/club. And the people in this group all have relationship issues (of various kinds).
okay well I liked that movie so maybe I will check out the Reading Group
WOW!!! I didn't realize that we could start books before the challenge... This is my first challenge and I am excited to get started!! Though I obviously won't get much of a head start, I am glad to get moving on this!!! :)
I don't think a few days head start would hurt. I read 9 books off my TBR list during this challenge.
I've got three on the go right now and I'm no where near half-way for any of them. I started The Double Bind in order to lock in the 3/4/5 task, and Brava, Valentine: A Novel since it came in off the hold list at my library (I still don't know where I'll put this one yet). I also have The Stone Diaries on the go, and this was one I started for the Winter Challenge. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time lately for reading, so I'll fit in into the Spring Challenge - possibly the Spring Cleaning task.
I was going to start reading, but I have already misplaced the first book! I can't believe there are still 11 tasks "at large". I am getting antsy...
I don't read books for the challenge before the challenge. I know it's allowed, but it sort of feels like cheating to me if you do it intentionally. I will start reading for the challenge at midnight. For me, it wouldn't work because I get books for review so I have to somehow fit those into tasks, lol.Please don't think I'm being judgemental, I just know jump-starting doesn't work for me! I can't wait to see what you all are reading.
Petra wrote: "Nancy, I'm another who won't finish the Challenge but sets a personal Challenge for myself. I haven't done so yet for the Spring Challenge but am thinking of a Task-based Goal instead of points thi..."Winter was my first challenge and I was happy to break 100 points, so reaching for 200 points this time sounds reasonable to me. At some point I'll probably max out on how many points I can earn (still shy of completion), but I'm not there yet. What kind of a task-based goal are you considering?
Oh just kidding, I found out one of the books I'm currently struggling through counts for task 10. 8 - You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe by Christopher Potter, so I guess I do have a jump start, ha ha. Not that it's much since I had to force myself through one of the chapters on numbers.
As much as I enjoyed the Winter Challenge, and as proud as I am of myself for finishing, I do not think I am going to attempt finishing the Spring challenge. The pace I had to keep up was absolutely exhausting and I let way too many things slide to keep up. And especially in the last month I found myself choosing books based more on page count and readability than on potential enjoyability. Not that I didn't enjoy what I read, but that I didn't necessarily read what I wanted.This time around I am going to choose the tasks that most appeal to me and try to finish them first; then if I have time I will wrestle with some of the less appealing/more obscure tasks. I haven't decided if I will set a point goal for myself or not.
Having said all that, I was away on a retreat this weekend and already started the 'in bed' task with Must've Done Something Good.
Jayme wrote: "pjreads, I read on both those books for the winter challenge. I read The Memory Keepers Daughter. It was just okay. I read "Katherine' by Anya Seton which is about Katherine Swynford. I like to kno..."Hi Jayme, I haven't decided about The Memory Keeper's Daughter yet, but it wasn't hard for me to put it aside.
Alison Weir's book about Katherine Swynford is a meticulous examination of what's known and guessed from the contemporary source documents. It's not novelized like Anya Seton's book. I read it for background on Shakespeare's history plays -- it didn't give me much more than Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama. I did learn that John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford are ancestors of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Q Adams, Franklin D Roosevelt, George W Bush, George H W Bush, Sir Winston Churchill, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertrand Russell as well as most of western Europe's monarchs. Two stars because it would half been have as long if the repetitions had been edited out.
Melissa wrote: "As much as I enjoyed the Winter Challenge, and as proud as I am of myself for finishing, I do not think I am going to attempt finishing the Spring challenge. The pace I had to keep up was absolutel..."Ditto. Of course, that's what I said last time, too. This time I mean it ;)
You know what, I'm going to start a book right now. No way I'll finish half of it by midnight, and sleep isn't important anyway.
Laura wrote: "You know what, I'm going to start a book right now. No way I'll finish half of it by midnight, and sleep isn't important anyway."Lol. I was just thinking I need to go to bed. I teach, so sleeping is extremely important. But instead I am making my ticker. Here it is in it's debut:
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Nancy wrote: "What kind of a task-based goal are you considering?..."Nancy, I'm thinking of setting a goal for a certain number of tasks, like say 25, instead of points. That way, if I feel like starting a book that I've slotted for a 5-point task, I would, as points aren't important.
Over the past few Challenges, I've found that when points are involved, I tend to read the books for the higher point tasks and never get to the others, which are good books I'd like to read.
I still haven't decided yet if that would make it harder for Cynthia to follow as I put my Ticker into my posts.
for the spring challenge, i'm only going to be reading books for 2 tasks within each point level. i might go beyond that, but i doubt it. even though i didn't finish the winter challenge, i spent way too much time doing it! this last stretch of the school year is super hectic in 1st grade, and i want to spend some quality time with my sewing machine. but i went ahead and planned books for every task anyway! :)
I finished a book that didn't fit any of the Winter or Spring Tasks this morning. Now I am starting my first Spring Task. I'm not much of an early starter!
I just started ahead of time this time because I did the worst ever this past reading challenge (60). I went through a reading slump... I am determined to do better this time. I will never finish so I just decided to start some of the tasks early to I could have a hope of reaching my goal(which I haven't decided yet). Maybe half the points.
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (other topics)Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama (other topics)
Must've Done Something Good (other topics)
You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe (other topics)
The Stone Diaries (other topics)
More...
Just curious!