Challenge and Monthly Themed Read Suggestions

[Sarah]

And plants! It could be a natural world extravaganza!

[Peggy]

I see a year long challenge in the making Sarah! ;-)

I really like the idea!

[Sandra, Moderator]

I like that. Spring is in the air...

[Janice, Moderator]

Hmmm... might have to add that to my list of possibilities! I'm already playing with an idea for 2021, but 2022 is open. LOL!

I was thinking the other day that it might be kind of fun to revisit the geocache challenge since I practically missed out Russia. But we could maybe do it with birds or animals, or a combination of the two.

[Jayme, Moderator]

I love the bird idea. That could be a great year challenge.

[Jayme, Moderator]

I was listening to a podcast this morning on my morning walk and an idea came to me for a challenge, but I'm not sure if we have done it.

Have we ever done a challenge based on the periodic element chart?

And just wondering...Is there a list somewhere on past challenges?

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Jayme, no. But that is not a bad idea...

Loving the nature and the periodic table ideas by the way.

[Sarah]

Ooh love the periodic table idea too.

Something linked to the solar system could also work nicely.

[Janice, Moderator]

Jayme wrote: "I was listening to a podcast this morning on my morning walk and an idea came to me for a challenge, but I'm not sure if we have done it.

Have we ever done a challenge based on the periodic eleme..."

Too funny. I was going to comment on that in my message #642. Someone made that suggestion a couple of years ago and I had tucked it away for future consideration.

[Peggy]

I suddenly thought of a masterchef challenge or toppler, with books linked to the challenges and activities in masterchef (mystery box, pressure test, masterclass, invention test etc).

For a mystery box, it could be read a mystery, have someone else select something for you (you don't know what you'll be reading) or you get 6 'ingredients' (like theme, genre, cover colour etc) and you have to use at least one).

[Kristie, Moderator]

Oh, that could be really interesting, Peggy!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Peggy wrote: "I suddenly thought of a masterchef challenge or toppler, with books linked to the challenges and activities in masterchef (mystery box, pressure test, masterclass, invention test etc).

For a myste..."

Ooo I like

Maybe though when you use all "ingredients" in the mystery box though you get extra points. Instead of the show where they go "That's brave and it's delicious" when you've made a good dish with black pudding, duran, vegemite, oranges, langosteens, and warrigal greens. And old mate down the bench makes a delicious dish with oranges and the pantry staples (milk, butter, flour, eggs, sugar, etc) and you're assessed the same.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

P.S. May have watched far too much Masterchef

[Peggy]

Totally agree Rus! They should consider that in the show. Was thinking about more points the more ingredients you use too.

My favourite masterchef is the australian version. Season 12 (I think.. with all previous contestants) is broadcasted here now.

[Janice, Moderator]

I love watching shows like Masterchef. I recently watched The Great Canadian Bakeoff (a spin off of Great British Backoff). There's lots of possibilities with those types of shows.

[Sarah]

Sounds great!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Peggy wrote: "My favourite masterchef is the australian version. Season 12 (I think.. with all previous contestants) is broadcasted here now."

Nice! Enjoy! Po, Khan, and Rhys are my favourites.

[Jayme, Moderator]

I was thinking about an idea for a challenge. What if you read a book where in the title is a person's name and it must match the first letter in your first or last name? example My name is Jayme so I could read Jack by Marilynne Robinson. OR to make it a little harder you could put all of the letters in a randomizer and come up with a letter different from your name.

I don't know why I think about challenge ideas on my morning walks :)

[Kristie, Moderator]

That's a good idea too, Jayme!

[Renee]

I have not seen MasterChef. i have to check it out

[Janice, Moderator]

I like that idea too, Jayme.

[Cherie]

Along the one that Jayme indicated above, how about one where the author has the same name as your first name.
My name is Cherie. I could read something by Cherie Priest.

[Vicki]

I had an idea this morning for a team toppler or challenge that had a Noah's Ark theme where we'd have to read books with animals on the cover/title/mc *but* you'd have to make a pair of the same type of animal with your teammates or partner to score the points.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Vicki wrote: "I had an idea this morning for a team toppler or challenge that had a Noah's Ark theme where we'd have to read books with animals on the cover/title/mc *but* you'd have to make a pair of the same t..."

Hah. I like it!

Is it raining where you are too? I've been debating building an ark here.

[Vicki]

Rusalka wrote: "Is it raining where you are too? I've been debating building an ark here...."

Actually it is raining here.. but it's nice normal amounts of autumn rain.

Have we ever split into two teams and went vs.? Like one side is reading animal books trying to save the pairs and the other team reads storms and lighting and oceans trying to umm drown the other team. My idea is not very friendly :(

[Janice, Moderator]

We did a cage match challenge. It was based on a website that had characters from different fantasy novels facing off. We paired up and worked in pairs.

[Peggy]

I like the Noah's ark idea!

That could also work as a year long challenge where you always have to read books in pairs, matched on some characteristic.

[Peggy]

Or make it so you have to reach a certain number of points for a badge, and the more books you match, the more points.

So if you have to read books with a matching animal in the title, reading 2 books with Tiger in it gives you 4 points. But if you read 3, you get 8 points.

If the goal is to reach 20 points, it would be better to read 3 books for 8 points, compared to 2 books that match on one theme and 2 other books that match on another theme (which would mean reading 4 books for 8 points).

This could work for a team toppler too, make it a team effort to read as many matching books as you can.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Oh... a toppler could be two competing teams... hmmm Maybe tug-o-war???

[Sarah]

I like the idea. Many years ago there was a february valentine's toppler where one team read nice romance stuff and the other team read more romance stuff like with vampires etc. I might have it totally wrong but i know the two teams had different requirements.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Sarah wrote: "I like the idea. Many years ago there was a february valentine's toppler where one team read nice romance stuff and the other team read more romance stuff like with vampires etc. I might have it to..."

Interesting. The only problem is if people end up on a team where they don't like the overall genre. There would need to be some options.

[Janice, Moderator]

One of our first annual challenges was the chunkster challenge, and you had to connect each book by something in the title or author. I think it was the last challenge that required you read your books in order.

It could be reworked with Noah's Ark theme. There's something appealing about connecting books by a common theme.

[Sarah]

From what I remember Kristie, people chose which team they wanted to be on. I think 2 people volunteered to be captain and then teams were arranged once they knew what the themes would be.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Sarah wrote: "From what I remember Kristie, people chose which team they wanted to be on. I think 2 people volunteered to be captain and then teams were arranged once they knew what the themes would be."

I was thinking that they would do that too, as long as you don't end up with significantly more people on one team than the other. I'm sure we could easily come up with two themes that don't require a specific genre of book. First thing that comes to mind is dark vs light.

[Jenn]

If that were to happen Kristie, you could weight the points so still make it competitive?

[Kristie, Moderator]

Jenn wrote: "If that were to happen Kristie, you could weight the points so still make it competitive?"

Maybe, but I tend to like things a little more clean cut than having different points for different teams. Plus, we often have late sign ups which would change the math. Actually, I'd probably have to not allow late sign ups once the competition began for something with only two teams.

[Jenn]

That is true Kristie, it could definitely get messy in a hurry

[Kristie, Moderator]

I do like the idea though and I could definitely work with it.

[Sarah]

Gonna put this here. It's a flow chart to follow to determine what books to read. It mentions a readathon. Thought it could make a good race, would work for a team toppler for sure. https://bookriot.com/readathon-board-...

[Janice, Moderator]

That looks interesting, Sarah. I can envision different ways to amend it and make it uniquely YLTO's.

[Sarah]

Definitely. I like the dice roll aspect of it. It could make a good challenge too. I see that to roll again, you only have to read half the book unless the square states otherwise.

[Janice, Moderator]

You're right, it would make a good monthly challenge. I was thinking along the lines of a toppler. Let me think on that a bit.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Interesting. I don't think we have done anything with dice before.

[Kristie, Moderator]

That looks fun, Sarah. I just saved the puzzle board to my personal challenges and I'm playing along for the fun of it.

[Sarah]

Janice wrote: "You're right, it would make a good monthly challenge. I was thinking along the lines of a toppler. Let me think on that a bit."

I guess if you read some pages of one book then some pages of another as per the squares, you'd still end up reading over the minimum page allowance for a monthly challenge. You could also use the random generator to roll a dice and just read something that fits with the square you on. Doesn't necessarily need to be a 6 sided dice either, could go D&D with it. Ooh, a D&D style challenge would also be pretty cool!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Hah I was just thinking about my new dice set I got in the mail today reading the above, Sarah. I had been thinking about how to incorporate a DnD style in to a challenge, but think it's prob more topplery than monthly.

Even just rolling different dice for different tasks or choices would work. To be honest, the dice rolling is one of the funnest things about the game.

[Katrisa]

I found this site in the group that I joined to fill my challenge void for the remainder of the year :) I thought it might be fun for a monthly challenge
https://www.literature-map.com/

you put an author in and it gives you a map of other authors that people also read

[Kristie, Moderator]

Oh, that's fun, Katrisa. Thanks for sharing.

edit: That could definitely come in handy for a challenge/toppler. Hmmm...

[Katrisa]

ya you can click on each name and it will make a new map and then you can just go down the rabbit hole!!!

[Kristie, Moderator]

I did that! It was fun. I was interested in several authors that showed up on multiple maps.