Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion
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Suggestions for Future Categories/Challenges
I could read the first Amelia Peabody ;)
And I could read the second book in Elisabeth Naughton's Stolen trilogy. ;P
I know I mentioned a random number generator before - but here is one that another group used...http://www.random.org/ - you simply plug in the two numbers (aka, how many on the TBR pile) and it gives you a number...maybe something like that!I do like the archeology idea too
Could also do a - I've always wanted to visit and pick a book set in a country you would love to visit, but haven't
I think it would be neat to have some type of challenge that ties to music somehow. It may have already been mentioned. I did try to check before I posted. I do know that someone (I believe Valorie) suggested reading a book that has the same title as a song. I think that is a great idea.Also, maybe the way you do the read your name challenge...choose a song, "What's Going On" for example...and read a book that starts with each letter. Or maybe choose a book that has "What" in the title, "Going" in the title, "On" in the title, etc. Also, I think it would be great to make sure the artist of the song (Marvin Gaye in this instance) is mentioned so that others can check out the music. The reason I mention this is, I find many interesting books to read by looking at the different threads here. If someone sees the title of a song, they may want to check it out; knowing the artist would make it easier for them to find. Sorry, I'm not trying to ramble here.
Another idea is maybe doing a "Top 10", where you list your Top 10 favorite songs and read a book that ties to that song somehow. For example: the song "Run" (by Leona Lewis - although Snow Patrol was the original artist I think) - read a book where one of the main characters is on the run... Don't Tell by Karen Rose comes to mind.
Another idea, is maybe read a book and then try to come up with a song that "fits" or "goes with" the book.
Maybe someone else can take these ideas and make them better. I just think it would be fun to do a challenge that somehow connects to music.
Love that idea too Southpaw! Specially the one for the Top 10...but what do you think of using songs from different music genres?Alternative
Classical
Country
Electronic
Hip Hop
Jazz
Latin
Pop
R&B
Rock
D.G. wrote: "Love that idea too Southpaw! Specially the one for the Top 10...but what do you think of using songs from different music genres?Alternative
Classical
Country
Electronic
Hip Hop
Jazz
Latin
Pop
R&..."
Oh yes, DG...that is a fantastic idea. I never even thought of genres. That would be excellent!
I had iTunes opened when I saw your post so that gave me the idea. :)And I used some of the broader genres in my own music list...I'm sure if we do this, people can suggest others genres. :)
I like the song idea a lot. Although it might be hard for me to narrow my song selection down. Don't now about a genre one. I have pretty eclectic music tastes but I don't really listen to Jazz or hiphop or electronic.
I confess to not reading all the pages so sorry if this has been asked before:I was thinking as I made a list of all my 1st in a series books and it passed the 100 mark. I would love to do a 1st in a series type challenge. Do we need permission to put up a challenge? Or can we just put one up?
I was thinking sort of a genre related challenge but where we kind of pick our own from maybe a list. Like read 10 1st in a series book in 30-90 days selecting 1 from at least 5 of the following genre categories: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Historical Romance, NR-Historical Fiction, Erotica, Cozy etc.., And then maybe add: 1 book must be from a favorite author and one must be from a new to you author. Maybe a dead series requirement-this one might be optional because if it's a "dead" series book 1 might be hard to find. The categories can be overlapped. Like the favorite author can also count for the genre it fits for the 5 different genres.
OK now I guess I should go look to see if this has been done before because I didn't think to do that until I started.
You have some great ideas, Mary. I don't know if you've seen the "Serial Reader Challenge" we have here. It's a really neat challenge, but I think it involves more than just reading the first book in a series. If you've not seen it, you might want to check it out. It's a fun challenge.Also, not to change the subject, but there is a really neat series tracking website that Yz found. It is www.fictfact.com. You can easily track all of your series there...it sounds like you have alot and I just thought it may be of interest to you. I actually stumbled across the website in one of Yz's posts.
southpaw285 wrote: "You have some great ideas, Mary. I don't know if you've seen the "Serial Reader Challenge" we have here. It's a really neat challenge, but I think it involves more than just reading the first boo..."There is also a challenge in the S.O.S. Group that is called "Firsts" and that is the first book in a series. One book a month for a year. It starts this month. I joined that one. I don't know if this group has anything similar? I hope that mentioning a challenge in another group is okay. If not I am SO sorry! I am just trying to help out. As for the Serial Reader Challenge it is VERY interesting. It is flexible with the number of books but expect about 30 give or take a few. One of them IS the first book/new author and many of the categories could be used with a first book in a series. Oh and southpaw I LOVE FICTFACT! :)
Awesomevegan, isn't that website great? I love it! I found it while I was "snooping" thru Yz's reading list. I was stumped on a challenge and was going thru her reading list...and there it was. I was so excited, I've still yet to solve my challenge problem...lol. Got a "little sideways" lol**high 5** to Yz!
OH yes a PBSer turned me on to fictfact last week and I wasted hours on that site. I had several series that weren't on there and since I was usually doing it late at night-I sent in my request some nights at like midnight and the next morning they'd already be added to the site. I have a TBR of 900 and there are a lot of series books in there. I looked at a couple of the series challenges-I need to instigate them more. I'll look for that S.O.S. Firsts one and see if I can fit into the 2 I'm doing now. One is really easy and it's only like 20 books over a 6month period and the guidelines are really loose. I can go through 20 in a month so that'll be easy for me.
OK well the 2 serial challenges I see: 1 doesn't seem active as no one as posted in almost 2monts and one seem to be almost over. I can't find this S.O.S. Firsts thing that was mentioned.
southpaw285 wrote: "Also, not to change the subject, but there is a really neat series tracking website that Yz found. It is www.fictfact.com."Oh, that is awesome! Thanks for posting that Southpaw! I know what I'm doing the rest of tonight... ;o).
Mary wrote: "I confess to not reading all the pages so sorry if this has been asked before:I was thinking as I made a list of all my 1st in a series books and it passed the 100 mark. I would love to do a 1..."
We have somewhat similar challenges that the other members already mentioned. To have this one specific, why don't you try a Dare? We have a Dare You to Read folder here, where you can make any combination you want.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...
Kristi (Passion for the Page) wrote: "southpaw285 wrote: "Also, not to change the subject, but there is a really neat series tracking website that Yz found. It is www.fictfact.com."Oh, that is awesome! Thanks for posting that Southpa..."
Kristi, it's an awesome sight isn't it? I really like it. I found it in Yz's reading list...which just goes to show there is some really good info in our member's reading lists.
Mary, the SOS group only started in late May and I'm in the "Firsts challenge" and "Color Me Read Challenge" and the "Challenge Challenge" they all only started in the last 2 weeks.Maybe you weren't looking in the right place try here or here or here
The SOS group is moderated by Steph who is a member here also.
Mary wrote: "Don't now about a genre one. I have pretty eclectic music tastes but I don't really listen to Jazz, Hip Hop..."Oh those are only suggestions for categories...but it shouldn't be too difficult to find a song in the 'Hip Hop' category that fits a book...let's say you use 'Stronger' by Kanye West for a book with a character that has to overcome some odds or 'Empire State of Mind' by Jay-Z for a book set in New York, etc.
And the Electronic genre has great titles for paranormal books (I have two songs on my iPod by a group called 'Die Form'...'Rain of Blood' and 'Masochist':)
Of course we can list all categories we can think of and just have people choose among them. ;)
Mary, if you want to start a "Dare" challenge using First Of Series as Rossy suggested (see message #571), I would be more than happy to join you in the challege. I absolutely love reading series...it's an addiction.
I didn't realize that it was a seperate group. I thought SOS was a sub section of this group. I joined it to check it out. Maybe I'll do the dare thing after I move and unpack my books.
southpaw285 wrote: "Mary, if you want to start a "Dare" challenge using First Of Series as Rossy suggested (see message #571), I would be more than happy to join you in the challege. I absolutely love reading series...."I would also be interested in first of series challenge.
I am sorry I confused some of you! S.O.S. is another group. It stands for Serious Overload of Series. It is a fun group for people who love to read series books like myself. You can find ideas to read and get yourself in more trouble LOL or knock some off the TBR. Fictfact is great for organizing what you want to read. I love the drag to reorder thing. It is amazing. My 2nd favorite site after goodreads. :)
I would love to do a re-read on some of my favorites. So, I'm thinking it would be a good idea for a challenge....re-reads! Then we could respond on things we noticed this time that we didn't notice the first time around.
Tina wrote: "I would love to do a re-read on some of my favorites. So, I'm thinking it would be a good idea for a challenge....re-reads! Then we could respond on things we noticed this time that we didn't notic..."That's a neat idea. Sounds fun.
All of you are amazingly creative! How on earth do you come up with all of these ideas? Impressive!When you choose the different categories, I'm assuming they are all romance novels with these particular aspects to them? I'm just learning here, so I'm trying to figure it all out!
I usually don't do re-read much...but I'd love it as a challenge because I have a few books that I'd love to re-read. :)
That's exactly what I was thinking. I can name off the top of my head a few books I would love to re-read and this would be the perfect excuse.
Stefne wrote:When you choose the different categories, I'm assuming they are all romance novels with these particular aspects to them? I'm just learning here, so I'm trying to figure it all out! ."Not necessarily. They could be of any genre as long as the book meet the category.
What about a bad titles challenge? There are good books with horrible titles out there. :)I just don't know how to fit that with August. ;)
D.G. wrote: "What about a bad titles challenge? There are good books with horrible titles out there. :)I just don't know how to fit that with August. ;)"
Great idea, D. G.. That would finally force me to read The Bride Said, I Did? which is on my TBR shelf. It's not the worst title this author has, though. That would be The Virgin Bride Said, "Wow!". Seriously. Who thought that would be a good title??
LOLOLOL! Did she say that when he dropped his pants?
could always go for a title like the shiek's virgin's bride baby...or something like that...there is a standing joke that the title of Harlequin Presents are drawn out of a hat to make sure they include two or three elements of billionaire, millionaire, sheik, pregnant, bride etc...Kristi (Passion for the Page) wrote: "D.G. wrote: "What about a bad titles challenge? There are good books with horrible titles out there. :)
I just don't know how to fit that with August. ;)"
Great idea, D. G.. That would finally fo..."
I know Dee. I hosted a swap on PBS a year or so ago where players would disguise their books using Harlequin inspired titles. They could either use this random romance title generatorhttp://facstaff.unca.edu/pbahls/Title...
or make up the titles themselves with the following format:
The (Adjective indicating Nationality, Region, Town, etc) + (job title, title, noun indicating money) +’s + (Adjective(s)) + (Noun indicating relationship, job title, etc.)
that's funny!D.G. wrote: "I know Dee. I hosted a swap on PBS a year or so ago where players would disguise their books using Harlequin inspired titles. They could either use this random romance title generator
http://facsta..."
some ideas: Directional challenge: up, down, front, back, right, left, east, west, north, south
Preposition challenge: Read a book that has a preposition in the title, until you work through the whole list - definitely long-term.
Open for September ideas.
There's always "back to school" stuff. In my neck of the woods, there is "Respect for the Aged" national holiday...so perhaps a book with an "older" hero (For PNR readers, pretty easy, but we could also make it an "older" human...many heros/heroines are under 40, maybe above 40?)
I have a few ones:National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15-Oct 15): Book with a Hispanic character, written by a Hispanic writer, translated from Spanish or set in a Spanish speaking country.
Library Card Sign Up Month: Get a book from the library.
Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sep 19): Book with a pirate!
09 (because September is the 9th month): Books you've had in your shelf since 2009 or published in 2009.
The Last Night of the BBC Proms is September 11th. Maybe read something that has a musician in it??Or something "classical" (at the risk of upsetting Photojim - but at least I didn't use the term "historical" - doh!) - a romance classic!
September 2010 sees the 120th anniversary of the birth of Dame Agatha Christie - read a murder mystery
September is Read a New Book MonthSeptember 8 is International Literacy Day
Rough idea: Character is a writer in a foreign country.
September 21 is the International Day of Peace
Read a nice, happy book.
September is Classical Music month.
Character is based on a composer, artist, or writer?
September 22 is Dear Diary Day. Read a book that's based on a person's diary (fict. or non-fict.)
september is the 9th month and has 9 letters in the name...read a book that has 9 letters in the title
found couple of good ones....like D.G. said....
- Library Card sign up month - read a library book
- Women's Friendship month
- First Day of Autumn (Sept 23)
D.G. wrote: "I have a few ones:National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15-Oct 15): Book with a Hispanic character, written by a Hispanic writer, translated from Spanish or set in a Spanish speaking country.
Li..."
Love those ideas DG!!
BJ Rose wrote: "September 2010 sees the 120th anniversary of the birth of Dame Agatha Christie - read a murder mystery"I love reading a good mystery!!
Debbie wrote: "found couple of good ones....like D.G. said....
- Library Card sign up month - read a library book
- Women's Friendship month
- First Day of Autumn (Sept 23)"
Oh women's friendship month! I like.
Romance Readers Reading Challenges
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I'd love to have Archaeology Day - I would read the next Amelia Peabody!