Something Old, Something New discussion

Here are our April Challenges:

1. April is Humor month
Read a book that makes you laugh +5 points
If said book has been shelved on GoodReads 10 or more times, give yourself 1 additional point.
If your book has been shelved on GoodReads 100 or more times, give yourself 3 additional points.
If your book has the word laugh, funny, or humor in the title, give yourself an additional 2 points
If your book was written by a comedian (probably want a definition of comedian ie stand-up, professional, etc), give yourself 3 additional points.


2. April is a colorful month regardless of which hemisphere you live.
A. Read a book with a cover which is predominately red/orange/gold/brown +3points
B. Read a book with a cover which is predominately a pastel color +3 points
C. Read a book with fall, spring, flower(s), or leave(s) in the title +3 points



3. This year, Easter is in April so
A. Read a book with eggs on the cover +3 points
B. Read a book with a rabbit on the cover +3 points
C. Read a book with food on the cover (for the last supper) +3 points
D. Read a work of Christian Fiction, Spirituality, Religion, etc +5 points

Michelle: 17
Elaine: 4

Please feel free to ask questions immediately and to start posting your claims for points as of April the first!

How Exciting! I don't know how well I'll go but I'm going to give it a good try :-)

Ohhh this one's hard!!! Will have to put my thinking cap on. Does The Last Temptation of Christ count as an Easter/Religious book? I've had that on my TBR for a while. Also do we need to do all the things set out in each category or just pick one? Just to clarify for No.3 do we have to do A,B,C & D?

Great questions, Elaine.

The Last Temptation of Christ will certainly work for Easter/Religious book, Religion is the top genre listed for that book.

You do not need to do all of any of the categories, just pick and choose the ones which fit into your reading tastes/preferences. You could even do task 3B (rabbit on the cover) four times if you want.

Task 1 is a little bit different, but the idea there was to be a point boost to those who are interested.

Oh, I just realised that two of our group reads for April fit nicely into Category 2(A) so that's nice and handy :-)

Thanks Kate that makes it clearer...not sure about easier though!!! Also how do we find out how many times a particular book has been shelved? I've got to say no.1 has me stumped. I don't think I've got many funny books on my TBR. What does that say about me, hey? I'll have a closer look. Still a great challenge though. I think I might be thinking of one of the books you're thinking of Michelle for 2A. Also one more question can the books cross over the 3 categories if they qualify? Eg. 1. Humour and 2. Red cover.

So, with #1, you can get points just for reading a book which you find funny (whether it's everyone's cup of tea or not). To figure out how often it is shelved as "humour" or "funny", etc look at the book's main page below the 'Readers Also Enjoyed' section at the 'genres' section. At the bottom of that list of about 10 or so you will see a link to "see top shelves" if you click that you will find something like this: Bossypants shelvings. There are frequently many pages of how people have shelved a book. I chose Bossypants as my example because I really enjoyed this book and found it funny along with thousands of other readers and it was written by a comedian.

As far as crossing over all three categories, I am going to say yes. For the month of April, these books can overlap in any way. This is an evolving challenge and we can evaluate what works and what doesn't over time. For now a funny book with a red cover and a rabbit on the cover will earn at least 11 points for all applicable criteria.

Thanks Kate...I can see that now. Gosh the one humourous book I was thinking of reading that is on my TBR hasn't got a huge shelf life!!! It is a fairly new release but I think I might need to look for another one if I want to earn some points!!!

Oh, I forgot to ask whether you would prefer us to copy & paste the above points criteria into a post that we constantly edit as we go or whether you are happy for everyone to just post each time they finish a book and collate the points from there?

I prefer to post as we go. Make a new post for each book you want to claim and a brief note regarding what points you are claiming. A running total at the end of each post will be very helpful. Thanks.

Kate S wrote: "I prefer to post as we go. Make a new post for each book you want to claim and a brief note regarding what points you are claiming. A running total at the end of each post will be very helpful. ..."

No worries :-)

I've got some points on the board finally!

1) A Clockwork Orange - Finished 11/4/14 - 3 points (orange on the cover)
2) The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead - finished 12/4/14 - 5+3+3 = 11 points (made me laugh plus has been shelved >100 times plus is pastel blue!)

Total points = 14

Go me!!

Wow!!! Well done Michelle. I haven't even started. I've read a few books but none that fit this challenge yet. Hope to start Lisey's Story soon and get a few points.

I've just started Lisey's Story and although the writing style is taking a bit of getting used to I'm really enjoying it. When I'm done this one should earn me 3 points.

Elaine wrote: "I've just started Lisey's Story and although the writing style is taking a bit of getting used to I'm really enjoying it. When I'm done this one should earn me 3 points."

At least it's not me that's just struggling a bit with the writing style of this book. It is definitely getting better though the more I get through it so that gives me a lot of hope :-)

No it's definitely different to the other two I've read. But I'm getting used to it now and quite enjoying it. Glad you're getting into it too now, Michelle.

Just finished The Uncommon Reader . It was an amusing read and the closest book to Humour that I had on my TBR. It was shelved as Humour/Comedy less than 100 times so 1 point but I can also get 3 points for it's red cover.

Total Points= 4.
Have a bit of catching up to do to reach Michelle!!!

Elaine wrote: "Just finished The Uncommon Reader. It was an amusing read and the closest book to Humour that I had on my TBR. It was shelved as Humour/Comedy ..."

Hahaha, I'm sure you will overtake me very soon Elaine with the amount you get to read. I've hit a bit of a reading slump at the moment as I've been too busy with work :-(

I don't think so Michelle. I don't think any of the other books I'm reading, except for Lisey's Story qualify for this challenge. That's okay I reckon you've earned the right to win this challenge.

I wonder if anyone else, other than Kate, will join in?

Elaine wrote: "I don't think so Michelle. I don't think any of the other books I'm reading, except for Lisey's Story qualify for this challenge. That's okay I reckon you've earned the right to win t..."

I just managed to fluke so many points with one of my books which was lucky and completely unintentional :-)

We were hoping for a bit more participation as it's always fun to be challenged a bit while reading. Oh well, maybe as the months go by more members will join in. I still think it's fun!

Just finished Lisey's Story which has a red cover so another 3 points for me.

That brings my total to 17 points!

I think that's as good as I'll get for this month :-)

I think you may be the winner Michelle.Well done that's a pretty good score. I don't think I'm going to get anything else finished in time for this challenge. So that a total of 4 points for me. Go me!!! Ha,ha!! :)