The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Hi Everyone,

The mods have been working on some exciting (we hope) developments for the second half of 2016, including some fun new challenges. Specifics coming soon!

For now, we'd like to get a sense of how you use the group and make it work for you. We'd like to know:

1. How do you use the group?
2. Would you be interested in a team challenge?
3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads?
4. Is there any other feedback you'd like to give?

I use the group to monitor my challenges. I'd like monthly buddy reads.team challenges would keep us accountable with our reading.

A little disappointed. The mini-challenges are not very exciting, some were recycled from last year. It still seems there is not many people doing the group reads. I quit reading books from monthly group reads because it seemed I was the only one reading the book. Other groups have a bigger participation. I use the group for a Decade and TBR challenge. I thought about leaving for a group that does more challenges.

I use the group to keep track of the reads I have been reading this year in the personal challenges section of the group and as I mod a group that focuses on reading for pleasure, I have been giving the rest of my time to it and this group with one other group I have just been keeping track of my reads there.

I use the group for the mini-challenges (some of them) which helps in my overall personal challenge. Some of those I don't do because I like to be more random and spontaneous in my reading selections. I can be moody with my reading. I don't like to be forced to read something just because it is a top seller, or very popular with a certain crowd. I try to avoid crowds they are too crowded.

For group reads like Cindy it seemed I was the only one reading the books. I used to be very involved with a Sci-Fi Reading club here on GR but either the books offered up I wasn't too thrilled with or I ended up being the only one who read the book. Or finished it the the designated time to read it. I tend to not like deadlines thus one of my favorite quotes that my profile has here by Douglas Adams the gist of which is "I like deadlines particularly the whooshing sound they make when they pass" (paraphrased). One of the group reads I did one time was a real chunkster and took a long time for me to read, and some of the other people who attempted it quit. One or two others completed it as I did, but we all finished at different times so not much discussion afterword.

I also like seeing other people's progression in their challenges. OK so I guess I'm part stalker. I have some more thoughts I might continue this some a bit later.

I have to admit I haven't been very active in this group. I prefer team challenges to individual ones as I like to chat so I tend to spend more of my time in groups with team challenges. I would definitely be interested in a team challenge in this group.

On the monthly reads I haven't seen much discussion and often the books chosen aren't the kind/genre I usually read. Maybe I should push myself to broaden my reading but it's not always that easy to get the books and I'd rather not buy something I'm not interested in reading.

I'm not sure how a team challenge would work.

I use the monthly challenges & mini challenges to work on my reading lists and Mt TBR. I sometimes feel that the monthly challenges are not getting a large amount of readers. I do usually try to read the genre challenges although I don't feel I have to if the book I voted for does not win. But if I vote for one and it does win, then I should / do read it and try to participate in the discussion. (For example this month I read "like water for chocolate " and I'm about halfway through "Innocent Trailor")

I guess I'm more of a stalker, as CaptKirk said, though I prefer to see myself as a lurker ;-) I like to see what the group is doing in general.

This year I'm only doing the TBR challenge, which however I am also doing in another group which is wholly dedicated to this kind of challenge, so I don't actually see much point in doing it in both groups, although I keep on for the moment. I also vote for group reads and participate if the book I voted wins. But I feel 3 group reads might be a bit too much, as I am also part of other groups which do group reads and I also like to pick my own books, regardless of challenges or group reads.

I would normally love team challenges, particularly as I am one of those who brought them up some months ago, but I'm afraid I wouldn't have the time to commit at the present moment.

As a whole, I have to say that I'm thinking of drastically reducing my participation in challenges for next year, and only take part maybe in TBR challenge or some games I like doing. Otherwise I'm probably going to quit most of them, as I don't have the time and energy to follow them any more.

I use the group to track my challenges and to connect to other people that are trying to read more or read differently by doing challenges. Everybody has different goals but I like to see what people are reading and how they’re progressing on their challenges (yes, I’m a lurker/stalker). It would be fun to hear more about other challenges people are working on and how they’re doing.

I’m not particularly interested in the group reads. However, I do enjoy having a monthly genre to expand my reading and have been reading at least one book each month. It can be hard to get out of our comfort zones and this pushes me to try something new. More discussion about favorite books members have read in the genre, best-of lists, what we plan to read/actually read that month would be great. Maybe members who love or want to explore a particular genre could volunteer to lead the genre conversation that month.

The mix of monthly and longer challenges works for me. I’m doing challenges from a variety of sites and the mini and other challenges from this group add some nice variety. Not every month’s mini fits my reading schedule and that’s fine. I still follow along.

Love the badges and am looking forward to the read-a-thon. Not sure I’d be into team challenges.

Thanks to the mods for all you do!

This is all good feedback so far - thanks everyone!

I've only been a member of this group for a short time but it is one of my favourite (I pretty much follow 3, including this one). I like the diversity and the mini-challenges (TBR, Spring, Pie, Chunksters, etc.). I enjoy finding out books I hadn't heard of (or put at the back of my list) and discussing these. The game aspect is fun too and the badges are a great idea. I do understand however how the 'longer' ones (more than 1 month) might become a little static. I don't know if you have already tried to have a round up every 4 weeks or so? Or ask participants to give 5 words describing their read, which could incite more discussion?

I'm yet to participate in one of the group reads. Not sure why I haven't yet. I think I had already read some of the chosen books (I have voted this time for a book I nominated and should it win, I shall participate). The themes sound interesting and varied. Perhaps there should be a 'no spoilers'/'spoilers allowed' threads per book OR one of the book/conversation could be more 'directed' (read x chapters per week, questions, or beginning-middle-end of book) but I do appreciate this might not be possible since time consuming for moderators.

Haven't tried a team challenge yet (not sure either how it works exactly) and am having my first read-a-thon next week :O)

I would not do a team challenge, for the same reason I quit reading the group reads books. I don't want to be on a team and have everyone quit. Participation in this group seems to be going down. I was thinking about cutting down on the challenges and just lurking for awhile. I have done group reads in other groups and they promote the book before people start reading it. Usually they have a discussion leader that introduces themselves and asks for participation. This group does need to promote more discussion and new challenges, not recycled ideas from last year.

1. How do you use the group?
I use this group for the challenges mostly. This may sound silly but I do a few challenges in other groups almost identical to the challenges we have here so I can reuse books I've already used in minis here. I can only read a max of 40 books a year and if I can cross post them I want to. Doing as many challenges as I can with my 40 books is where I find my enjoyment.

2. Would you be interested in a team challenge?
I don't think I would. I tend to shy away from challenges that involve me being in teams I always feel like the two or three books I manage to get through in a month is hardly worth adding to a team challenge.
I was here for most of last year and I never did work out how the points thingy worked if things are too complicated I just won't take part.

3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads?
TBH I was only ever likely to join in on YA reads (i'd read the books selected for Feburary and May months ago and had no interest in re-reading them we'll have to see about August), and maybe 2 or 3 of the genre challenges this year if the right books were selected and easy enough for me to get hold of, the rest of the topics don't interest me at all.
If/when I take part it would be nice to have someone really taking charge of the discussions and posting a few discussion questions to start us off.
Also my love of challenges has stopped me joining in in the past because you weren't supposed to use these group reads in challenges I do see you've changed that rule now though.

4. Is there any other feedback you'd like to give?
I love the Accomplishment Badges I think they're a cute idea.
I like the quest for answers section too.

1. How do you use the group? I use this group as a way of keeping track of what I've read for the year, and for the mini-challenges to keep my reading interesting and more diverse.

2. Would you be interested in a team challenge? Probably not. A personal challenge has the luxury of participating when I want and at my own pace. With a team challenge, I would feel like I was letting my team down if I didnt read at the pace that the rest of my team is reading at.

3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads? I've participated in a few, but only when I have plans to read the book already. I have found that the last few times I've participated, I was either the first to read or the last, and nobody else was reading when I was.

4. Is there any other feedback you'd like to give? The accomplishment badges are a fun way of making the challenges meaningful. I also enjoy when there is some casual discussion, like the getting to know you questions.

Thanks for all the feedback!

We're still looking for feedback, so if anyone has any thoughts, don't hesistate to put them here!

A bit late, but I hope it's still okay to post this :)

1. How do you use the group?
At the moment I only use it to keep track of my personal records. I'm participating in the TBR challenge as this is my main goal this year. At the beginning of the year I planned to participate more and use the challenges to get into different genres etc., but I had to realize that I don't have the time to do both - finally getting ride of my physical TBR shelf AND diving into new genres - so I decided to focus on that one challenge and join in on other stuff later on this year or next year.

Like CaptKirk and Marina I'm also a bit of a 'stalker'/lurker. I enjoy looking at other peoples challenges and reading process if I have some spare minutes once in a while. Especially if we talked before.

2. Would you be interested in a team challenge?
At the moment I'm not interested as I wouldn't take part in them. I don't want to be the team member that signs up, but disappears all of a sudden, because work keeps me busy or something.

I don't think the group has enough activity for team challenges tbh.

3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads?
Sometimes I catch myself thinking "Wow, I'd love to join that", but time is a precious thing and once again I don't have much to offer so I'm focusing on books I own and haven't read yet instead of picking up new books or books I read before. I was discussion leader for 2 or 3 group reads now, but realized that it's very hard to get up a real discussion, because people wouldn't be interested. Sometimes I wouldn't even get a response at all which was demotivating as it's still time you spend thinking up topics/questions and nobody seems to care. Therefore I stopped participating in a any group reads aspects (Nomination, voting...).

4. Is there any other feedback you'd like to give?
I know it's mentioned a lot already, but the accomplishment badges are super cute and I sometimes catch myself being sad for not doing challenges, because I would love to "own" those badges :) Also a huge compliment to all you admins and mods for trying to improve this group and it's activity. This is a lot of work and you guys are doing a great job!
Maybe things like buddy reads would help improve the activities? I think the last 1 or 2 buddy reads were pretty active if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the feedback, Alessandra! It's all really helpful.

I wonder how we could promote buddy reads more. I like that idea.

Buddy reads are my favorite. I haven't seen anyone ask for one in a while here. I'm not sure why that is.

I think buddy reads didn't happen lately, because most people announce that they want to do one, but don't think of a book they actually want to buddy read. Instead they simply give you the link to their TBR shelf Whenever I see posts like this I immediately loose interested, because I don't want to scroll through endless lists searching for a book I might own or could be interested in. I'm currently thinking of possible buddy reads and actually thought about reviving the ASOIAF buddy read thread, because I saw a lot of people mentioning that they are starting on it again or have read them recently (I plan to start with the 2nd book in July). Maybe people would still be interested in joining discussions even though they aren't actively reading it now. I also just thought about buddy reads focusing on an author. Maybe that would be an idea, too? Or maybe it would be an idea for a group read "special" (limited to authors with not too many books, I guess).

That makes sense. I don't want to go through someone's Tbr list either. Tell me what you want to read. As far as ASOIAF goes, I am always ready for that. I started book 4 the other day.

1. How do you use the group?

I keep track of all my challenges in one place in the Personal Challenges folder. I occasionally join in mini-challenges and group reads.

2. Would you be interested in a team challenge?

I would need more information as to what would be involved. At this point I would say no, because I think people say they will participate in things and then they don't, which is no fun.

3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads?

I think there are too many and participation is too low. I was enthusiastic about Gift of Rain but as best I can tell, nobody else read it. I'd rather have one group read per month, widely voted on, heavily promoted, and then hopefully with better participation.

I totally agree, there are too many monthly group reads and participation is low. I get really frustrated when there is a good book and I am the only one reading it. People are busy and in more than one group. You could offer incentive, make it fun and heavily promote it. The current group reads is not working very well.

I doubt having only one group read would change much on participation matters. If you have a selection of genres the chance to find a book you're interested in is higher and participation should be more active (in theory - I think the problem this group has is that there are a lot of inactive or silent members you never see posting in any thread except maybe the personal challenge folder). If the group reads will be limited to one book/genre chances are even higher that nobody is going to take part in it. I wouldn't pick up a book or genre I'm not interested in at all, because I simply don't have the time to read books just for the group reads aspect... I'm not sure, but having only one group read probably would be contra productive...

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for this discussion in this thread, it's been very illuminating and useful to see people's attitudes and opinions towards this.

For the buddy reads aspect, I've just updated the first post in the request thread highlighting that people should request a specific book rather than just posting their tbr read list. I hope this helps fix that aspect!

As for the Group Reads, it is one of our main focus as mods to try and figure out how to get more participation and interest. For this year, we did drop our number from 5 to 3, in the hope that it would get a bit more participation throughout the year. For moving it down to 1, it is an idea for next year, but we are aware that many of our readers have a big variety in tastes, so limiting it to just one book for such a large, multi-focused group may go against what we want to do here.

And we do have a lot of silent and inactive members. I think this is probably common in big groups, and the way we are set up with a yearly focus, so we have a lot of turn around that more casual people may not keep up with. That being said, there is not a lot we can do to change that, it is a part of our group.

1. How do you use the group?

I use the group to keep keep tract of all of the mini-challenges. I love having different challenges each month and throughout the year. I'm in another group that does something similar though organized through monthly, quarterly & yearly folders so it's easier to find each challenge. They also have someone keep track of how many books each person commits to reading for each challenging - this gives the challenge a more competitive feel. It's not necessary as we keep track ourselves here, but it's nice to have a summary of how accomplished everyone is.

2. Would you be interested in a team challenge?

I like team challenges, but participating always depends on what else is happening in my life at the time. I don't often participate in buddy reads as I find I have a hard time keeping the same pace as someone else. It is nice to be able to discuss a book and using the 'spoilers' tag helps as not everyone is on the same page. I prefer the group reads though, as then one person isn't dependent on me to read and discuss - theoretically, more are then involved.

3. How do you feel about the monthly group reads?

I do like the group reads idea as it allows me to read something I might not otherwise have chosen, but often I am not able to participate if I don't have access to the book. Sometimes I've already read the book and I am not up for a re-read. I am fairly dedicated to getting rid of the many books on my TBR pile so I try not to buy any new ones. If I can get a book from the library in time, that's great, but they are not always available when needed for the group read. An interesting future challenge might be to 'catch up' on some of the past group reads - different levels for however many you finish.

I really like the 3 group-wide challenges with a different focus each month - it allows me to participate in the 'group read' even if I don't have access to a particular book. I like how the monthly topics help to focus what I choose to read for that month. For whatever reason, the shelf widget has stopped working, but it does't matter - I do like the new folders where we can list all of the books we've chosen as it is nice to see what others are reading in the same genre. It gives great recommendations for future reads!

I like your idea for a "catch up" challenge, Sam. Thanks for your feedback.

I would think since this is a challenge group, members would be more adventurous in their reading. If we are just going to read what we know we like and/or what everybody else is reading, that defeats the purpose. But I haven't been here that long so maybe my perspective on what reading challenges are is way off.

Mindy

That's why there are different kinds of challenges, Mindy. Some are long term and can involve more preplanning. Others are single month/title and are geared toward finding something new. Also, the genre-of-the-month is an opportunity to stretch our own comfort zone. But ultimately each member has to decide what it is they want from the group.... Another reason why there are many options.

I was only talking about the group reads, the idea that just one read a month is no good because people might not like the genre.

Gotcha. I agree. I rather like that there are three options. Yet it's obvious we need to address the lack of participation. Each year the group grows and changes, and we experiment with options to keep things interesting. Sometimes there are growing pains but overall it's exciting.

I have found on GR in general the bigger a group gets the less people participate and the more lurkers there are. I am not sure if that's what is going on here. As far as the monthly list of genres goes, is it ok if I say I liked the original list the best? Was that 2014? I love this group but sometimes life gets in the way of reading and that is why I have been less active. I expect things to go back to normal by the end of the year.