Half Year Challenge - July to December 2012 - Updated Rules & Scoring

[Janice, Moderator]

Welcome to the 2012 - Half Year Challenge!

You asked for it; you got it! This challenge brings a little rainbow into everyone's life. You will read 7 books over the last 6 months of 2012, one for every colour in the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.

But wait, you say. There are seven colours and six months. You're right. You'll have to squeeze a MINIMUM of 7 books in. That should be pretty easy judging from the numbers of books read in the June Toppler.

There's a bit of a twist coming your way. The word 'rainbow' has 7 letters in it. Let me see what I can do to work that in. There will be points, too!

The rules:

1. The challenge will start July 1, 2012 and finish December 31, 2012. Books counted towards the challenge must be started and finished between those dates.

2. You may read any format - paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook unless otherwise indicated in the given task.

3. You may read any genre you chose unless otherwise indicated in the given task.

4. You may plan ahead and chose books for the entire challenge, but you are not restricted to those books. You may swap them out at will.

5. You will report your progress by starting your own thread in the "Year Long Challenge". Please indicate in the title of your thread that it is for the Rainbow Challenge.

6. In order to complete the challenge, you must read at least one book from each task.

7. If you are choosing a book based on the colour of the cover, any edition of the book you choose will qualify. It does not need to be the edition you are reading.

8. If you are choosing a book based on the word being in the title, any derivative of the colour will qualify. Eg. Red, Crimson, Scarlet for Red. Violet, Lavender, Purple for Violet. Etc.

9. Only one occurence of the word appearing in your title will be counted. (Eg - Green, Greener, Greenest will only count for one green.)

10. You may not count books read for the monthly challenge or for the group reads. However, TBR Topplers are exempted.

Scoring:

20 points for the first book in each task that is completed.
30 points for any additional books completed in each task.
10 points for any book over 800 pages in length (if you are listening to an audiobook, or reading an ebook, we will take the number of pages indicated on the first book that comes up in the Goodread's search function)
5 points for 500 - 799 pages
4 points for 400 - 499 pages
3 points for 300 - 399 pages
2 points for anything 299 pages and under
Additional points will be awarded in each task.

50 points awarded to EACH completion of the challenge.

The Tasks:

R Task: Read a book that has a predominantly RED cover, or the word red in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with R, as in Rainbow, the last name of the author must start with R.
- Count 1 point for every R in the title and author's name. You're guaranteed at least one point.

A Task: Read a book that has a predominantly ORANGE cover, or the word orange in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with A, your book must be read in AUGUST!
- Count 5 points if the author's last name starts with A.

I Task: Read a book that has a predominantly YELLOW cover, or the word yellow in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with I, your book must be set in a country, city, state, or area that begins with I (Ireland, Italy, India, Indiana, Idaho, etc.) We will accept an island setting as well (Hawaii, New Zealand, etc.)
- Count 1 point for every I in the title and author's name.

N Task: Read a book that has a predominantly GREEN cover, or the word green in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with N, your book must be non-fiction.
- Count 10 points if the book is about the environment.
- Count 5 points for a memoir.

B Task: Read a book that has a predominantly BLUE cover, or the word blue in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with B, your book must be a book (not audiobook or ebook).
- Count 5 points if the theme is betrayal.

O Task: Read a book that has a predominantly INDIGO cover, or the word indigo in the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with O, your book must be Old (published before 1980).
- Count 5 points if it was published 1960 - 1979.
- Count 10 points if it was published earlier than 1960.

W Task: Read a book that has a predominantly VIOLET cover, or the word violet the title.
- Count 5 points if your book has both the cover and title requirement.
- Keeping with W, your book must be from your wishlist or your TBR.
- Count 5 points if the theme is war.
- Count 10 points if the cover has purple flowers on it.

I will post the scorecard before July 1st.

Have fun picking your selections, and reading them of course.

[Janice, Moderator]

Scoring sample:

On your individual Rainbow thread:

List the task you have completed.
Link the book name AND the cover of the book you read.
Itemize the points you earned in reading the book.
Total the points earned for the task.
Calculate the total points to date.

EG:

Red: Last name of author begins with an R
Red Glass by Laura Resau


20 points for first book in task completed
5 points for cover and title requirement
3 points for every R in the title and author's name
2 points for 288 pages
---
30 points total for task
30 points total to date

Orange: Was read in August
Dragonfly in Amberby Diana Gabaldon


20 points for first book in task completed
0 points for author's last name starting with an A
5 points for 752 pages
---
25 points total for task
55 points to date.

For ease of tracking everyone's points, please put each book read in a separate message on your thread.

[Janice, Moderator]

I'm going to close this thread to keep it for reference. Please use the discussion thread to discuss the challenge.