The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion
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Personal Goals for the Challenge
Ann A wrote: "I love the planning part, so my favorite goal is just finding books to fit all the tasks - it's like solving a puzzle. I'll never be able to finish the challenge and I'm ok with that."I agree, I don't think I've ever had this much fun on GR before. I stayed up all night planning!
Goal for the summer 2015... Finish my plan and complete 10 tasks, ANY ten tasks. Just getting back onto Goodreads and I'm always getting started and never finishing, so I'm going to start my goal off small this season.
Since I am coming into this group late I will finish as many goals as possible, using my TBR pile and the library. And most of all just have fun reading.
For Summer and beyond:A) Finish the challenge (not so likely but ....)
B) Read 80,000 pages in one year (also not so likely...)
C) Catalog the books I have at home so I can find titles and authors for letter challenges through a pc search;
C) Read all of the books up for discussion (completed two of the three for Summer)
D) Read books from the ones at home, rather than buying more books (really hard when you have McKays in Chattanooga)
E) Find books that for a challenge that are on the 1001 book list
Susan wrote: "For Summer and beyond:A) Finish the challenge (not so likely but ....)
B) Read 80,000 pages in one year (also not so likely...)
C) Catalog the books I have at home so I can find titles and author..."
You are probably already aware of this but If you have the goodreads app and a smart phone you can just scan the barcodes of your books and goodreads does the rest. Its actually quite fun, you get to play librarian with your own library :)
I just read and then find a task to go with the book. I'll never finish the challenge, so I don't really need the points. At the same time it's very satisfying to find a task with a book, post it and receive points for reading it, which makes me grab a new book and thus I read more by participating in the challenge and that makes reading fun again.
My stats for the second round of the challenge (Summer 2015):Points: 705/1035 (5 points more than round 1)
Tasks completed: 37/61 (fewer than round 1)
Books read: 52
Used all the books that I read :0)
My goal for the fall challenge is to read all of the 5 and 10 point challenges and hopefully improve on my points.
My goals for this challenge are:1. Complete at least all of the 5 and 10 point tasks.
2. Use as many of my kindle books as possible.
3. Mostly just try to find tasks to fit every book I read.
This is my first time doing the challenge so I'll just see how it goes.
This is my first SRC Challenge, and I am at the tail end of another challenge in another group so I identified what I could fit into both challenges. So this is just a warm up for me, hope to come at it full force for the winter challenge.
I find it quite amazing that people actually complete the whole challenge!
It is alot of reading. You read like 70 books if you finish the challenge.
I read only 1 book off my tbr list last season.
Good luck with the challenge and your goals Delitealex and Heather!
Thanks Lauren Good luck with reaching your goals.
I would love to see if I could "fit" an entire series into the challenge...what a challenge that would be!A lot of times, just reading one book within a series will not give you the full picture since character arcs are developed across multiple volumes. So when I start a series...I want to dive in and not come out until I hit the end, or caught up with the author.
That's one thing, this challenge makes difficult. For the next challenge, I think I will see if I can fit the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I think I just might be able to pull it off!
I have not been able to fit an entire series into a challenge. I have been able to fit a few books of the series in the challenge.
My goal is to try to complete at least 10 tasks. Now that I have a serious ankle injury I have been reading like crazy (since I can't walk around). I think my biggest goal is just to remember that after I read something to post it. I always forget.
I am in awe of people who finish the challenge-and really of anyone who gets more points and completes more tasks than I do, lol. I read a lot, but nowhere close to what I'd have to read to score much higher than I do. I only read from my TBR and find tasks to fit what I have on my list or already own or am reading for book clubs; that is a fun part of the challenge for me. I also strive to stay off the problem thread, but I failed miserably in that goal during the summer challenge :/ Embarrassing as since it was my third time playing, I really should have been off that thread completely!This will be my fourth SRC. My goal each time after the first, was to get a few more points than I did on the previous challenge. I have achieved that goal each season but not by much. I scored 300 points in my first challenge and read 21 books (I don't have the number of tasks handy to post). For the second challenge, I scored 305 points, did 15 tasks and read 22 books. For the last, it was 335 points, 25 books, 19 tasks. Unless the books I'm reading fulfill the higher point task requirements (which is where I always look first when trying to fit my books in the tasks), I imagine I will remain a 300-level player. As long as I have fun playing, I am ok with that. I do tend to get a wee bit obsessive/excessive, poring over the task list and reading the completed task thread and other postings for ideas about where to fit what where-I could probably read a book or two or three in the time I spend reading the group's posts, lol. My kids and husband razz me a bit about my SRC notebook (I'm a paper girl all the way-I'd love to do a pretty spreadsheet-with a pie chart even-but haven't figured those out yet ;)) but reading is my hobby-and the planning and record keeping I tell my husband is akin to his fantasy football. He doesn't really buy that...
Sharice, I hope you have a speedy recovery on the ankle. I have ankle issues in both legs and it's no picnic :(
This is my 20 something challenge and I still ended up on the problem thread board because I forgot to include a requirement in a task :(
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "This is my 20 something challenge and I still ended up on the problem thread board because I forgot to include a requirement in a task :("Well, that does make me feel a little better :) I'm sure you go over each task as you post, and yet...BOOM there you are on the board. Ugh, I hate when that happens.
I am also in great great awe of our moderators who manage to finish the challenge AND keep track of all of the players AND do everything else required to keep this running for so long and so smoothly. I can't even begin to imagine how they do that. Thanks mods!
Cynthia wrote: "I would love to see if I could "fit" an entire series into the challenge...what a challenge that would be!A lot of times, just reading one book within a series will not give you the full picture ..."
Out of interest, I wanted to see if I could fit all the Terry Pratchett books into this challenge.. and I managed! I've used myself as an example for the ones which require your own details (age and date of birth), and for some of them you need to track down the specific cover... but here we are!
5.2.The Sun and the Moon
Pyramids
5.3. What are We Made of?
Guards! Guards! (#8)
5.5.Esaugetuh Emissee.
Jingo
5.6.Four Cords
The Wee Free Men
5.7. Raven the Trickster
Men at Arms
5.9. Spider Grandmother
Feet of Clay
5.10. Create Your Own World!
Carpe Jugulum
10.2 - Happy Hour!
Sourcery #5
10.4 - Ten-Four Day
Thief of Time
10.8 - Yo Ho, Yo Ho!
The Last Continent (Last)
15.1 - The Twins
Night Watch (several with same title)
15.2 - Which Witch?
Equal Rites (Rites&Rights)
15.4 - The World Without End
Book 1: Raising Steam (2013)
15.5 - Act (on) Your Age!
4 word title
The Colour of Magic
15.6 - The Name Game
Thud! (Prat is UK slang for an idiot)
15.9 - Animal Guides
The Fifth Elephant
20.1 Most Improved Player - Wayne's Task: A Calgary Autumn
Option 3: Monstrous Regiment
20.2. Rookie at the Top - Puppitypup's Task: Picky, picky, picky!
Mort (Humor, romance, Binky the horse)
20.3. Best Review Contest - Catie's Task: Moving House
Option 1: I Shall Wear Midnight
20.5. Bigger is Better - Mary P's Task: Into the Wilderness
Option 4: Wintersmith
20.7 - Shorter is Sweeter: Camilla’s task: Judge the Book by its Cover
Option 1: Witches Abroad
20.8. Nickels and Dimes - Fandury's task: Happy Anniversary!
Option C: Eric
20.9. Moderator's Pet - Katy's Task: The Trip of a Lifetime!
Option B -The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Rats on most covers)
25.1 Andy P.'s task: The Fall Months
Book 1. Making Money (Pratchett=9 letters)
Book 2. The Light Fantastic (Fantastic=9 letters)
25.3 - Elizabeth B's Task: Grape Harvest Season
Option 3: Hogfather
25.5 - Sirena's Task: All About My Dad!
B. Small Gods (#57 on list)
C. Soul Music
25.6 - Dakimel’s Task: Wedding Traditions
Option 3: Borrow a copy of Unseen Academicals!
Option 4: Reaper Man
overalls25.8 - Amanda A's Task: Happy Fall!
A. Going Postal (Sky TV miniseries)
D. Moving Pictures (#10)
25.10 - M1nks's Task: Let a Little Light and Colour In!
Option 2. The Shepherd’s Crown
cat by girl's feetOption 4. Interesting Times
30.1: Schatzie's TASK: DNA
OPTION 4: Maskerade
(large woman’s dress)30.3 Ava Catherine’s task: Perspectives Over Time
Book 1: Wyrd Sisters (1988)
Book 2: Snuff (2011)
30.4 - Jonquil’s task: Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
Book 1: The Truth
Book 2: The Last Hero
30.9 Morgan Faeriesfolly's Task: Players 3 & 4 Have Joined the Game
3. If you rolled a SIX: Good things come in pairs...
(Book A) Lords and Ladies
(Book B) A Hat Full of Sky
The upcoming Winter challenge will be my first time participating, and doing the math it will be highly unlikely that I will finish the entire challenge (I average 3-4 books a week). So I'm going to focus on getting through the 5. and 10. tasks, and then whatever else I can fit in. I already have books lined up for all of the 5s/10s, and I'm excited to get started!
eta: went through all the posted tasks and realized I had library books that fulfilled higher point tasks woot! So I've updated my list and I'm going to tackle some big point ones first and then work my way back, towards the 5pointers (time permitting).
It was so much fun going through the tasks and getting my reading list planned-can't wait to start!
eta: went through all the posted tasks and realized I had library books that fulfilled higher point tasks woot! So I've updated my list and I'm going to tackle some big point ones first and then work my way back, towards the 5pointers (time permitting).
It was so much fun going through the tasks and getting my reading list planned-can't wait to start!
I have been doing this challenge for a long time and I have never finished the challenge.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "I have been doing this challenge for a long time and I have never finished the challenge."
Yeah, realistically the time frame just doesn't work for me to actually complete the whole thing, but I'll try my best this round and then next round I'll try to surpass my previous score :)
Yeah, realistically the time frame just doesn't work for me to actually complete the whole thing, but I'll try my best this round and then next round I'll try to surpass my previous score :)
My goal for Winter SRC? In the past it has been to better my own score or, at times, to just have fun. One season, I almost finished!I have been doing SRC since Winter 2010. That is 20 seasons through Fall 2015. Because of that length of time, my interest wanes at times. I have accepted that I will never complete this challenge, so my goal has to be something smaller - more do-able.
Perhaps I can try to read more of my own books that library books. I will need to think about this a bit more, I see...Just counted my planned books. So far the count is running 25 owned and 19 library. This might be a do-able goal.
It's nice to see you over here Sara! I can't ever seem to finish, but it's fun and people come up with so many clever ideas. My goal this time is not to over-plan so that I stay excited about my books for the whole three months.
I just try to get through as many books as I can. Working full time puts a damper on my reading. I read very slowly and can't stand to speed read. I love language so much, I don't want to miss anything. This go around I'm going to read the non-fiction books first, because I don't like non-fiction as much. Then, I'll just go through my list picking books I'm in the mood for. And I have to do better than the last challenge. I was in a slump. :-)
Bea wrote: "My goal for Winter SRC? In the past it has been to better my own score or, at times, to just have fun. One season, I almost finished!I have been doing SRC since Winter 2010. That is 20 seasons th..."
I joined Fall of 2009.
Catie wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "I would love to see if I could "fit" an entire series into the challenge...what a challenge that would be!A lot of times, just reading one book within a series will not give you t..."
What a great challenge :-)
I love Terry Pratchett (but I think 3 months of reading nothing but him would be too much for me) and an original goal. Pretty easy reading too, his novels are in my 'relax and enjoy' pile.
Catie wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "I would love to see if I could "fit" an entire series into the challenge...what a challenge that would be!A lot of times, just reading one book within a series will not give you t..."
Catie, that's amazing! What a challenge! I'm sorely tempted to copy you and do a Terry Pratchett challenge (I do love him but I still have so many of his books to read) but since this is my first SRC I'm quite looking forward to seeking out and trying new writers and book genres for the challenge :)
Kathy G. wrote: "I just try to get through as many books as I can. Working full time puts a damper on my reading. I read very slowly and can't stand to speed read. I love language so much, I don't want to miss anyt..."I have the same issue re work. The only time I can read is at night before bed or on the weekends, if I don't have other things I need to work on. I'm just hoping to get past 130 points (my total for the Fall Challenge). I only made it on the Wall of Shame once this time, so would like to see if I can stay off altogether this time around.
My goal for the Winter 2015 challenge is just to participate! I joined the group today so this will be my first challenge and will give me a nice baseline score to improve upon next time. So I'm just trying to participate and meet some great new friends!
Meg wrote: "My goal for the Winter 2015 challenge is just to participate! I joined the group today so this will be my first challenge and will give me a nice baseline score to improve upon next time. So I'm ju..."Many welcomes to you Meg!
Ok, now that the challenge has been going for a few days I've tweaked my goals (this is my first time participating).
First goal was to set up a system for actually working on the challenge. I think that turned out to be a bigger challenge than the challenge lol. I ended up setting up a private group and then spent some time going through the tasks and finding books for the ones that interested me [DONE]
Second goal-scale back on my participation in other groups/challenges. I just don't have the time or energy to be involved in many things here on GR. I REALLY love the idea of this challenge though, because it's pushing me to explore new books (I'm contemplating totally deleting my TBR list right now and just finding all my future books based on tasks!). I've cut some things out already and will continue to do this as other challenges/obligations end [work in progress]
Third goal-instead of focusing on points this round, I've decided to focus on the number of tasks I complete. I think this will be a good way to ease into the challenge, without getting overwhelmed with the more intricate, higher point challenges. I'm aiming to complete 35 tasks this season and will work on mostly 5 and 10 point tasks, but with a few from higher levels as well. [work in progress]
First goal was to set up a system for actually working on the challenge. I think that turned out to be a bigger challenge than the challenge lol. I ended up setting up a private group and then spent some time going through the tasks and finding books for the ones that interested me [DONE]
Second goal-scale back on my participation in other groups/challenges. I just don't have the time or energy to be involved in many things here on GR. I REALLY love the idea of this challenge though, because it's pushing me to explore new books (I'm contemplating totally deleting my TBR list right now and just finding all my future books based on tasks!). I've cut some things out already and will continue to do this as other challenges/obligations end [work in progress]
Third goal-instead of focusing on points this round, I've decided to focus on the number of tasks I complete. I think this will be a good way to ease into the challenge, without getting overwhelmed with the more intricate, higher point challenges. I'm aiming to complete 35 tasks this season and will work on mostly 5 and 10 point tasks, but with a few from higher levels as well. [work in progress]
This is my first time participating so I'm just hoping to get at least 100 points.
Enjoy Natasha and Jayne. This is a fun challenge to work on.
With the Spring 2016 challenge just a day or two away, does anyone have new personal goals to achieve?Although I did make it through and finish Winter 2015, it was a challenge. Reading the books wasn't so much my problem.
Real life got in my way.....my job,my dad passed away, moving, and a few other misc speed bumps prevented me from keeping up with getting my books posted on my read shelf, placed in the correct tasks and then posting/claiming them for my points. I did manage to keep track of everything with pencil & paper in a little notebook but it sure took me a long time to get everything updated in my secret group and then posted here in SRC.
With that being said, this season my goals are:
1. Post books to my read shelf ASAP.
2. Plan more of my books ahead of time and go ahead and slot them into tasks, instead of trying to fit them in later.(During winter 2015 I had several books that fit in multiple tasks so I didn't immediately assign them to a task. I waited which was the wrong thing to do LOL)
3. When I am done with a task go ahead and get it posted and claimed for points ASAP.
4. Get some type of organization going as far as order that I read my books--ex do all 5 point tasks first, 20 point tasks second etc etc.
5. Read all the non-fiction books first because I don't really care for them as much as I do the fiction.
For Spring 2016 my goal is to simply earn more points than I did for Winter 2016 (165 points). I can do this either by reading more books or by completing tasks in a more efficient way (more points for less books). Either way, the goal is an increase in total points. I really can't believe I read 12 books during the Winter challenge. This group is so incredibly motivating!
Meg wrote: "For Spring 2016 my goal is to simply earn more points than I did for Winter 2016 (165 points). I can do this either by reading more books or by completing tasks in a more efficient way (more points..."Yes, very motivating. I also like the different tasks as it provides a way to read a variety genres,learn about new authors,catch up on series........just all kinds of stuff :)
You can do it!!!! I don't watch tv so that is one way I am able to read so much. A lot of times I listen to an audiobook on my commute to and from work and then when I get in the house I have the same book in hard copy LOL. I know sounds crazy :)
Good luck to you this season.
Wayne wrote: "My goal? Finish! This might be my only chance! I only need 300 more points than I got in the Winter challenge . . . that's not so many, is it?"You may be in luck this season Wayne :) There are less points to earn! Enjoy your reading and good luck to ya!!!
I think this is the lowest point total for the challenge since I started so I'm going to shoot for completing the SRC for the first time. I've never scored higher than 535 (I think) so it will be a challenge for me, but I am going to try to be more efficient in how I read. I often start the two book tasks and am left with multiple unfinished books with a week left in the challenge so I have to spend a lot of time re-assigning books to different tasks. I am going to try to read the two books from these tasks at the same time, if possible.I also read way too many books at once. Since I don't buy many books, I usually am at the whim of my library and my digital library for when books are available. In the end, I end up scrambling to read all of my library books at once (especially ones that I've been on hold for for months) and then finish none of them! My goal this challenge is to read no more than one ebook, one actual book, and one or two audiobooks at a time. I will also be trying to finish up books I started for the Winter Challenge so that I can finish them for other challenges and get them out of my "currently reading" stack. I got too far into them to start them over and use them for the Spring Challenge, unfortunately.
I think I may try to finish the 5's and 10's this time. Since joining the challenge in 2011, I've gone from reading around 50 books a year to 100+! My formerly clean house is suffering, but I'm too busy reading to notice much :)
cleaning is overrated. As long as you clean enough to keep the crawling things out, that is good enough.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "cleaning is overrated. As long as you clean enough to keep the crawling things out, that is good enough."I agree.
Anyone else already thinking about their goals for the Summer 2016 challenge? I'm trying to decide if I'm going to stick with the same goal as the one I'm currently using for Spring 2016 (earn more points than I earned for the last challenge, which I have accomplished) or do something different such as:-complete more tasks than previous challenge
-read more books than previous challenge
-Keep to a book budget of $30-Still trying to read as many as I can (not trying to finish the challenge completely) but books would need to be mainly found for free (library, borrow from a friend, Amazon Prime member free options, free classics) or cheap (used). Or I guess I could just read two brand new books and call it a day on the challenge LOL.
I think the last one would be the most fun but also the most challenging and I would probably have to "go without" a lot of books I want to read I'm sure. I don't know if I have that much discipline! Good news is that I have a great local library.
Meg wrote: "Anyone else already thinking about their goals for the Summer 2016 challenge? I'm trying to decide if I'm going to stick with the same goal as the one I'm currently using for Spring 2016 (earn more..."Libraries are great sources. Around here the Goodwill and Habitat stores have lots of books for $1 each and many are fairly new. Also Bookbub lists many books that are usually 1.99 or free with new ones being added weekly.
There is no way I could do this challenge without the library.
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (other topics)Sea of Poppies (other topics)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (other topics)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (other topics)
The Overstory (other topics)
More...
Every season while hunting down books I TRY to use just my tbr books but always end up 1)reading a book someone else read for a task or 2)adding more books to my tbr because someone else read them and enjoyed them. I really enjoy this challenge because it does help me get books read from my tbr as well as find new books and authors. The participants,task creators and mods are great enablers :)