You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Challenges: Monthly
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Challenge and Monthly Themed Read Suggestions
For those who don't buy books, we could specify last book put onto wishlist, or book recently borrowed but not read yet. Your chicks sound sweet while they sleep, Rusalka. :)
Sounds very cute and cozy Rusalka, those chickens!
Clive mentioned book bingo and I have no idea what it is, but I started thinking about what it could be on YLTO. I know we had a bingo challenge (I think) once, but this is a bit bigger, so maybe toppler or year-long challenge material?For a toppler: There could be a list of an X amount (needs to be a lot) of tasks to read, and all correspond to a number, but we don't know which number it is. Every team also gets a (or several) bingo sheet. Then everyone starts reading tasks, and when you finish one, you learn which number corresponds with it and you can cross it off the bingo card. Aim could be to get the full card crossed out (only a row or column would be a bit easy I guess) and every team that reaches BINGO has won. And of course you can try to get multiple bingo cards done.
And maybe to avoid cheating (like checking other teams reads and numbers to see which one is best for your team to read), for each team the tasks could be the same, but the corresponding numbers different. I do realize that this is all quite a lot of work for the mod who runs this ;-)
That sounds so great! I want to start right now!
We had a Bingo toppler, but without numbers involved. The cards had task in them instead of numbers. But the numbers is a good addend, Peggy. Makes it trickier. Also a year long challenge would also work fine, I think.
Ah yes Sandra, now I remember. With the numbers, you could also add that a team can read a max of X books (make it a challenging but doable number, and a certain percentage of the tasks available), and with those, you just have to be lucky enough to reach Bingo, just like in the real game. No strategy or planning or much competition, just luck.
We've actually had 2 bingo topplers now so it would definitely need to be different to mix it up. Addition of numbers could work making it more traditionally like bingo.
Yes, some "chance" or "good luck" added would do it different.
Also Yahtzee could work in a similar way. Each number is assigned a task and then each team has to get 3 of, 4 of, 5 of, 2 of one and 3 of another, then as many 1s, 2,s etc (upto 5) to get the most points.
That's also a nice idea. Or a Boggle challenge/toppler where you have to form words with random letters and read books with those words in the title. Although this sounds a bit familiar, have we done that before? I do remember a challenge with word search, but that's a bit different from boggle.
I don't think we've done boggle. We've done scrabble but that's quite different to boggle. Random letters are a good one though as each team can be given a set using the fruit machine.
I love the game topplers. I have a few on a list that I refer to, but never considered Boggle. That will be one to consider. I have Yahtzee on my list with an idea to go with it, but it might leave some people out so I was thinking about a way to include everyone. We play UNO in one of my other groups every year. It’s a bit complicated for one week, but I may steal it and simplify it.
Great ideas! I think the Boggle one could even work as a monthly challenge.I'd have to wrap my head around a Bingo Year Long. It would have to be modified somehow. I like the idea of adding numbers.
I was just looking through my books that I own for ideas of what to read for the challenge/YLTO party and spotted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. I thought it would be an ace idea to have a challenge based on Alice's Adventures somehow. I know Rusalka loves Alice so might be one for you! Could be an interesting one.
Sarah wrote: "I was just looking through my books that I own for ideas of what to read for the challenge/YLTO party and spotted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. I though..."Ooo nice. First few thoughts I've had would be more toppler suited.
Sounds interesting! Maybe based in the characters. I think a few different task can be related to each character. Something similar would fit The Wonderful Wizard of Oz too. And I agree, for some reason looks like something more topplerish. But you guys do marvels with the ideas for challenges, so I wouldn't been surprised...
I think you might be right Rusalka. Ooh, and Wizard of Oz theme would be cool too.
Where's the like button on this damn site?
Not sure if i've mentioned it before or not but also a "choose your own adventure" style challenge.
I will add Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz to my list of toppler ideas. I'm sure I could work with those, though I wouldn't complain if Rusalka wanted to help with Alice. ;)
Lots of great ideas. Need to put on my thinking cap. :)
I've just bought the card game exploding kittens. That could also make an interedting challenge idea.
Hmmmm... another great idea.
I’ve never even heard of exploding kittens. 😳
Kristie wrote: "I’ve never even heard of exploding kittens. 😳"I'm going to play it properly for the first time tomorrow when my friends come over for mince pies and mulled wine. I'll be able to fill you in better on the intricacies of the game after that.
oh I love exploding kittens. We played on Christmas. We laughed so laughed so hard that my sides hurt the next day. My sister in law had voices for each action
I just saw a meme on facebook that reads: "pick up a book nearest to you and turn to page 45. The first complete sentence describes your life". I thought it could be a good challenge. We could base the book we read on the sentence or something along those lines.
I like that, Sarah.
I like that too, Sarah. From the book closest to me, "He has a gold watch-chain, so although rumpled and untended, he is not poor." (from Alias Grace) One could read a book about time, with a watch or chain on the cover, or about the poor. Lots of possibilities.
That does sound interesting, but oddly challenging for those of us who read ebooks . . . How to pick?
Good point, Jenn. I never thought of that.
I like it too!For ebooks, perhaps open your ereader and use the book you first notice? When I turn on my ereader, there are always several books on the homepage.
Or if you have any other books in the house (study books, cook books, books belonging to other people in your home) you could use one of those.
Yes, Peggy. Maybe the first book on the homepage. If the ebook doesn't have real page numbers, perhaps you could use 45%? It won't be the right page, but at least it's a reference point.You're only using that book to get a line anyway. Then you use the line to find a book to read.
Hopefully, no one runs into a spoiler. I suppose you could make it the first book you come to on the e-reader that you've already read. Do most people keep read books on their e-readers?
Good point about spoilers!You could also do 5th sentence on page 1, much less risk for spoilers that way. With my ereader I can also easily go to page 45 (which may not be similar to page 45 in a book, but also less risky for spoilers than further into the book). I don't think I can set it to go to 45%.
I always immediately delete finished books from my ereader by the way.
My Kindle never gives page numbers just a percentage, which is why I suggested that for an alternative for some people. But, I agree. We could change it to page 1 or another small quickly countable number so that everyone is doing the same thing.
I can choose whether I want to see percentages or page numbers. But if I want to go to a specific place in the book, there's an option where I can just enter page 45 and I go there at once, but I don't think that works for percentages. At least not on my kobo. I would have to click through all the pages for ages until I reach 45%.Lol, I love how we are already brainstorming about possible difficulties with a challenge like this, as if it is the April challenge ;-)
Oh, I have a slide bar at the bottom of mine, so I just slide to 45%. Clicking through all those pages would be annoying if you didn't have that feature. I know. We're funny like that. We need to solve every possible issue to see if it's a workable challenge. lol
Oh wait, a slider sounds familiar. I'm sure it used to be on there but not sure if it still is.
Good points ladies. I guess it wouldn't matter if its a book we've read or not that we get the line from. The line is what we need then we can choose books based on that. We could always tie it in with our first lines thread. Use the first line of the book we are currently reading to determine the one we read for the challenge. No risk of spoilers then.
@Sarah - how would that work with audio books? Maybe the first complete sentence of a given chapter number?
Do you not have any books on ebook or print? It doesn't even have to be yours! Just any book to get a line that you then choose to read another book on in any format.
Really it would matter, ebook, audiobook, print book - hard cover, paperback, everybody could use the 47 that works for them, page or percent, as it would just need to spark the idea. We would all be pulling the spark from different books, and would likely have some very different ideas (even if two of us did have the same spark). I was starting to bog in the details, but as a method to find spark, it’s an awesome idea.
We were just brainstorming, Jenn, but the idea is very doable. No need to get bogged down just yet.
Yes, it's a great idea. I guess we all have access to a few print books (even if it means looking at books on shop shelf). It would really have to be print books or ebooks with page numbers, else you would have endless questions as was proven here. That was really my point but Jenn said it better!
Not sure if I've mentioned this before or not so thought I'd just post it anyway. Renee reminded me of it when she commented in the what are you reading thread about catching up on old group reads. This would make a cool challenge - read a book from the group bookshelf. It's quite an extensive list of books now with plenty of options from different genres. It would also work for a toppler possibly with each team aiming to read the whole bookshelf between them?!
There are a lot of old group read books that I still have on my TBR shelf that I try to catch up on, when I am in the mood. I like looking back at the old discussion threads.
I really like that idea too, Sarah. Does anyone have a list of the books compiled already or are they just on the bookshelf?
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
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She says with two chicken puddles asleep on the corner of her desk with both of their heads under their wings, trilling happily like the little numpties they are.