The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
SUMMER CHALLENGE 2010
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Task Ideas
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Anne Frank's birthday is June 12th and she started keeping her diary on June 14th, 1942. Read a book about anne frank, her diary (ex. Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife), or about Holocaust in general.Also I am very much looking forward to seeing the list! I keep checking the site every hour or so!!!
it should be posted by next week right?! Can't wait!!! While I never finish a task, it's fun to try!
Elizabeth wrote: "Get in touch with your inner child: Summer is the time for play, the season of vacations and lazy days doing nothing. Remember days gone by and read 5 of your favorite books from childhood."Oh I like this idea!
I also think the card shuffling one is neat too. I'm going to chime in with the folks who would prefer not to read Twilight, like some I'd have to choose one of the other books by a different author.
I'd also like to suggest we read this (not sure this suggestion belongs here..) Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling it looks fun and we can surely arrange a task around it somehow. (I understand it references many other books so it'd be ideal for something)
Read a book, which is about or whose title mentions the name of a well known author, i.e. The Jane Austen Book Club or The Last Dickens.or
Read a book by an author who shares a famous author's last name as either their first or last name i.e., Anita Shreve and Susan Richards Shreve or Dick Francis and Francis Ray.
The best part about tasks for the challenge is that people who get to make up a task can do whatever they want :)
I suspect this week or the middle of next week.
I hope the list comes up soon! I am so excited about it!I also have a fun idea for my task (yes I am DETERMINED to finish)!!!
Greatest Song of All Time - Read a book related in some way to your favorite song or one of the songs from this list:100 Greatest Songs of All Time
41st Annual NQA Quilt Show is June 17-19 - Read a book related in some way to the name of a quilt pattern:
http://www.blockcrazy.com/List%20of%20Quilt%20Block%20Names%20Arranged%20Alphabetically.htm
I love the quilt task. I have several quilt based novels I tried to fit in this time and only one worked.pjreads wrote: "Greatest Song of All Time - Read a book related in some way to your favorite song or one of the songs from this list:
100 Greatest Songs of All Time
41st Annual NQA Quilt Show is June 17-19 - R..."
Weather you like it or not. Read a book (either fiction or non-fiction), where the weather plays a central role, or a weather-related event (storm, hurricane, rain, blizzard, etc.) is contained in the title.
Boo. Hiss. Now we're stuck reading Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay by Stephen King. You're so cruel, Elizabeth! ;)That'll be a fun task! I imagine there's a bit of blizzard holiday tales, too! Like...A Christmas Blizzard
Dancing Under The Stars: read a book with a dance name in the title. (eg: Waltz, Tango, Salsa, Line)
Jay wrote: "Will Smith is known as the "King of 4th of July" at the box office - While he doesn't have a movie coming out this summer, choose a book that relates to one of his blockbuster hits release on that holiday weekend: Wild, Wild West (western); Independence Day (aliens/sci-fi), Hancock (superheroes), or Men in Black (spy/secret agent)The television series Wild, Wild West was proto-Steam Punk. One might call the movie a western, but one would be missing the point.
I love the Anne Frank idea! There are lots of Holocaust books I still want to read. My sister in law says I'm obsessed with that time period though!
Tweaking a couple of suggestions ...41st Annual NQA Quilt Show is June 17-19 - Use Random Sequence to generate three random letters. Read a book related in some way to the name of a quilt pattern that begins with one of the three letters.
http://www.blockcrazy.com/List%20of%20Quilt%20Block%20Names%20Arranged%20Alphabetically.htm
Major league baseball all-star game on July 13 - Use Random Sequence to generate three random letters. Read a book whose title includes a word from the wiki lists of baseball jargon that starts with one of the three random letters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_baseball_jargon
June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetables Day: read a book in which a character does something you would NEVER want to do. E.g. if you are not outdoorsy, read a book about climbing Mt. Everest like Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
Why wouldn't you want to eat your vegetables?
Elizabeth wrote: "Why wouldn't you want to eat your vegetables?"Exactly! Veggies get a bad name somehow. How about reading a book either with a vegetable in the title or on the cover? OR we could add fruit to the mix and use this list:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/37...
I've never heard of most of these holidays! I guess I'll have to make sure I eat more vegetables on June 17th! :) I love most of the suggestions, but I wouldn't participate in the Twilight task, either. I especially love the stars and baseball suggestions.
Oh, and I LOVE the idea about the famers market, more veggies!
Karen wrote: "I love the Anne Frank idea! There are lots of Holocaust books I still want to read. My sister in law says I'm obsessed with that time period though!"I'm a little obsessed myself & always hope I can fit in books about that era.
I don't mind reading something from Stephenie Meyer's reading list (for example, I want to read "Wuthering Heights" again since it's been 11 years) but I absolutely refuse to read any of the Twilight books again. Once was more than enough. I also bet most of us have read them. Sure, some of wouldn't mind re-reading it, but the point of this is to branch out a little, isn't it?
I don't think we should pick on Twilight specifically, either, I don't think Cynthia would set a task requiring you to read a specific series or author. Genres, time periods, groupas of authors...that is more typical of tasks.
For the stats fans:Summer Task Ideas (so far) = 367** by my count which includes duplicate suggestions by different people and judgment calls for tasks that could be separate or could be part of one.
that's 124 more ideas than
Spring Task Ideas = 243*
Sounds like we need a longer summer PJ! I'll vote for that!
I submitted my task today! Hopefully it's as awesome as my Luck Be a Lady task...I tried, really, promise!I don't know if it's been suggested, but what if we were to read a parody of a popular book (not necessarily having to read the popular book). For example, one of the parodies of Twilight or Harry Potter. There are a number of big-name series that have gotten such treatment, and I think that would be an enjoyable task. *puts on a hat to hide her newly-emerging devil horns*
I really like the parody idea. There are a few I've been wanting to read.
With all these good ideas, it looks like we'll need a Summer Spillover Challenge.
Nicole wrote: "I hope the list comes up soon! I am so excited about it!I also have a fun idea for my task (yes I am DETERMINED to finish)!!!"
When I'm going to win, I'll make a task involving reading a nonfiction book on something really dull and random. Or Old Norse epic poetry.
Hey, Old Norse epic poetry is AMAZING. Vikings ftw! :P
Cynthia, These tasks are amazing. Some of them are downright devious.
Mod
Sheila wrote: "Sounds like we need a longer summer PJ! I'll vote for that!"Perhaps we should declare an Endless Summer - to get everything read? :D
Nicole wrote: "When I'm going to win, I'll make a task involving reading a nonfiction book on something really dull and random. Or Old Norse epic poetry. "
That would be the one I win!
Also in case it will help anyone I began using a spreadsheet to keep track of things (Spring) and I just created one for the Summer Challenge. the link (below) is to a blank copy of it. Feel free to use it. =)
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...
Mod
It really is. I've been having a wonderful afternoon, looking things up, making lists - these are going to be so much fun!
I love these ideas, especially the 5.6 Be seen reading, and 10.1 Hurricane Names list!
Agree with all....thanks to cynthia for sifting through so many wonderful ideas and bringing her own fun sensibilities to all of them! It takes a lot of work on her part to wrangle these together and it's much appreciated!!
Another fantastic challenge. Thanks Cynthia for all your hard work! Can't wait to get started!
I agree. This is my first challenge with the group and I'm incredibly impressed with the ideas you've all come up with and Cynthia's twist on them ;o). I'm thoroughly enjoying myself making lists of possibilities (when I really should be working...). Thanks to everyone (and especially to Cynthia)!
I am so excited for the Summer Challenge!!! It's making it harder to concentrate on finishing the Spring one! LOL.Thanks for everything, Cynthia!!!
I'm very glad that everyone seems to be enjoying the tasks for the next challenge...I really appreciate your appreciation!!!! As usual there were so many great ideas and I had a few of my own that I wanted to work in that it made it hard but I think it's going to be fun.
How about "Double Delight". In summer we like double scoops and double fudge on our sundaes. How about books that have more than one character point of view?
Am I too late for ideas? Sorry. I'm new. :-)
Kathy, the challenge is already up, so no more ideas. But keep thinking, there will be another challenge come September. ;-)
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (other topics)A Christmas Blizzard (other topics)
Storm of the Century (other topics)
The Jane Austen Book Club (other topics)
The Last Dickens (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Stephen King (other topics)Anita Shreve (other topics)
Francis Ray (other topics)
Susan Richards Shreve (other topics)
Dick Francis (other topics)
More...
also love the card shuffle task.