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Mishmash Challenge 2012 (Offical Thread)
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31/31
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And thanks Lauren S because with out challenge 25 Barbara would have definitely have won!
Lauren wrote: "Thanks!And thanks Lauren S because with out challenge 25 Barbara would have definitely have won!"
Oh god, Barbara is going to kill me...
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And thanks Lauren S because with out challenge 25 Barbara would have definitely have won!"
Oh god, Barbara is going to kill me..."
Haha I know, she should have won! Luckily she is too far away from both of us to take her vengeance out on us physically!
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It is not your fault, that Lauren S. nominated a task that gave some of the people participating in the challenge an advantage over the others and it is also not your fault that earlier Lauren S. refused to send me an ARC, so I might "win" this challenge. So Lauren F. you have nothing to fear from me. I knew I wasn't going to win, but just wanted to beat you to task 29. You won fair and square. :) Lauren S. on the other hand....
P.S: I am saving so I can come visit you guys at some point in the future! So Lauren S. you better sleep with one eye open. *evil laugh*
Damn, there goes my trip to the Netherlands too...Although, to be fair, I don't even have a 2013 ARC yet, and I didn't think this challenge would have a winner so soon!
Plus all the stuff about not giving you an ARC, Barbara, was totally just trash talk... And anyway, I'll probably be in Addis when you come to SA, so you can't get me :p
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Huh???
How could you not have suspected that this challenge would have a winner this soon? Last year both Lauren F. and I finished in August. So we only took 2 months to finish the challenge. Ok this year we were a little faster, but even if we kept last years schedule we would be almost done by now.
Don't worry. There are always tasks that are easier for some of the participants. Although I must say I do like tasks for which the book that we have to read is available in stores during the whole of that particular challenge, instead of just half of that challenge. Unless of course that is the intention of the whole challenge. Your task was accepted and Lauren F. won. As soon as I saw the task and we started talking about ARC's I knew it would be impossible for me to win. At that point it was my intention to beat everybody to task 29 and in the meantime scare the hell out of everybody by reading so fast and then when I had completed 29 tasks to admit "defeat". I did that and I had fun doing it. I will now wait untill January to complete the challenge. :)
I knew you and Lauren F could read fast enough to finish this as quickly as you did, but I didn't think anyone would get an ARC this early. Most of the really early releases are either lame or only available to long-lead publications. Those of us who review and get stuff from NetGalley, Angry Robot and other sources don't read as fast as the ones who don't so I figured it would just even the playing field a little. I assumed you or Lauren would probably win, I just didn't think it would happen in July.By they way, if you're willing to read an indie novel you could probably get an ARC before January, if you offer to review it on Goodreads and/or Amazon. Indie publishers and self-published authors generally want any publicity they can get, so if you ask around or email an indie publisher/author, you're bound to get something soon.
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I always try to keep my task nominations do-able. I mean no books with more than 1500 pages or a very specific genre or more than one book per task. The reading speeds, interests, genres and willingness to read non-fiction differ from one member to the other and I always try to keep it as broad as possible so anyone can find a book he/she likes or is able to read. And in that way I try to keep the playing field even. But that is hard when there are people in our group who read 30 books per year and I have already read 130 books this year. And don't forget we challenge ourselves in the challenges. They are not competitions. (Although I do like to beat Lauren F. :) ) I always think it a great achievement if someone completes a challenge.
Thanks for the tip, but it is too much trouble for one book for one task in one challenge. I rather spent my time reading instead of searching for an ARC. And also I would have to read it on my computer if I got an e-book, which I don't like to do. I will wait till January, no worries. I believe I already have some books pre-ordered that will be published in January 2013. So I will just wait till those arrive.
Ah, you are braver than me - I obviously end up reading some lame books for challenges, but I don't choose anything expecting it to be lame. Some of those really early releases would probably too boring for you too though, like motivational business books or random stuff about Christian prayer. I just saw a book about pets in the White House over the last 50 years.Your comment about those who only read 30 books a year made me think that maybe we need some shorter reading challenges - like 10 books long. I mean, I know we have LOADS of reading challenges, but we haven't really catered for this niche. All the challenges with a specific number of books are fairly long, except for Deserted Island where choices are limited.
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We have catered for this niche, because there are several other challenges for the people who don't read much. I mean the two Books of the Month, the Author of the Month, The Series Madness Challenge, The Short Stories Challenge, the Epic challenge, the Choose Wisely Challenge. All these challenge require you to read only one book to finish it but you can read more if you want to. Even the Diabolical Reading Challenge, since there is no time limit for that one, so it doesn't matter if it takes you 5 years to complete. We also have the possibility for buddy reads.
White House pets get fanmail?! Who the hell even knows what pet the President has and why the f*ck would they write a letter to an animal? I know there are challenges where you can read any number of books to take part, but having a specific number of tasks to complete is different and has its own appeal (like a sense of completion when you finish). Most of our challenges like that have at least 25 books, except for Deserted Island and the Mzansi challenge. The choices there are limited, and Mzansi isn't very popular. I just remembered that we have the Word of the Month too, but some people might not be able to read enough in a month, and it uses letters, not tasks.
With group reads and buddy reads, only one book can. be read.
Anyway, I made a proposal in the Challenge Ideas thread; check it out and tell me what you think.
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Yeah, they do get fanmail. You know the Americans they are sometimes a bit weird. But then again I talk to my pets and is that so much weirder. A letter is just talking on paper. I know what pet the president has. Obama has Bo. Bo is very popular because Bo entered the White House as a puppy so eveyone thought that was cute and was chosen after a long selection procedure since one of the Obama kids is allergic and I believe Bo is a Portuguese water dog and they are hypoallergenic dogs. And Socks was also a beloved White House Pet. I can't remember which one but one of the pets even had a website.
I think writing a letter is way, way weirder than talking to your pets. At least when you talk to them, they're right there so they hear and respond to the sound of your voice. And unless you're nuts you know that they don't understand you and you're really just voicing your thoughts. But writing a letter and sending it to an animal is just so totally pointless.
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Yeah, but see, that makes sense. And you talk to pets because you have a bond with them. It's like talking to a baby, (they can't understand you either) and no one thinks that's weird.
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I love these challenges because without them telling me what to read I spend days on end reading the first three chapters of ten different books before I can settle on one. But it is also nice having some friendly competition so Barbara I'm glad you are around! Although I must say there are only so many shit books I am willing to read to complete a challenge! That's why I have up on the diabolical one.
But to be honest I'm feeling a bit out of the loop, what is the mzanzi challenge? And I totally forgot about the desert island one. I really should start reading the news letter :)
PS. I also think we should have a slow people challenge
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The competition this time was great. I got nervous in the end, because I hadn't read much and then you made that one big update, that brought you to 22 tasks, when I was on 25. I spent the next 2 days just reading the last 4 books and then 40 minutes before I was done, you updated again and came to 25 books. So in theory we were even, but I was just finishing the last book so I would be on 29 tasks. I loved it, even knowing you would win in the end.
Well, you still got time to read for the Deserted Island Challenge, so head over there and see which books were nominated.
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I just wish I hadn't lost those days while I was moving house and you had had access to ARC then we would have had a real competition on our hands! :)
Oh well there is always next year, I better start training ;)
I'm going to check out the deserted island challenge this evening after work. I'm just a little worried that most of the books will be ones I have read and I made a resolution a couple of years ago not to reread books unless they are my absolute favourite. But I am sure I can find something.
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I am looking forward to next year. Better start ordering books at random so I have a large pile to select from when the time comes ;)
I am sure there are lots of books nominated that you haven't read yet. And if you did read them all there are always the reserve books.
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So what I think I am going to do is not plan anything for now and just stick to the Choose Wisely Challenge and if any of the Deserted Island books happen to fit in I will read them. Because I really don't want to arrive late and cause an up set!
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We will be doing another Deserted Island next year, but then slightly different, maybe you will have more luck then!
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Yeah that's what I thought, if someone is willing to take those books onto a desert island they must be worth a read :)
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21/31
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11/30
completed task 19 : Prophet by Frank Peretti
sorry didn't mean to make that a comment on your list My apologies...
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23/31
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