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Favorite Tasks/Sub-Challenges
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UnderratedFrom the debut tasks
1. Reading Through Time sub challenge
2. Flashlight Worthy
3. What a Way to Make a Living
4. Hispanic Heritage
Other favorite sub challenges
Spring Cleaning - Spring 11
Back To School - Fall 11
Ten Degrees - Summer 12
Location, Location, Location - Winter 12
Author to Author - Summer 14
Other Favorite Tasks
1. Banned or Challenged Books
2. Highly rated - reading another member’s five star rated book
3. Reading from a list of classics or best books
4. Mysteries, Gothic or supernatural genre
5. Design your own task
6. Recycle - read a book that fits the previous season’s challenge
I like to read plays...many of which are less than 100p....so Summer 2019 -10.7 Summer Shorts (Mary's Task) or something similar works for me. I also like any of the tasks such asFall 2013's 10.4 - Prize-worthy: Read a book by an author that has won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize OR a book that has won the Prix Goncourt. .... that require one to read a book that has won or been nominated for a particular prize.
Being a traveller, I also enjoy any task that challenges one to read a travel journal or travelogue or a book from a location or culture that we don't usually encounter...such as Winter 2013/2014's 20.4 - Travel: In honor of A Moveable Feast, read one of one top 125 favorite travel books OR one of the top 90 traveling vicariously books .
My least favorite are fantasy , dystopia, sci-fi and the like.
Been here about two years; some thoughts: I enjoy tasks that encourage a non-fiction book, such as the creative non-fiction task in summer 2018 and the not-a-novel task in spring 2018 (Silent spring).I like tasks that take us to a list--it is fun to select. Summer 2018 had the Listopia tag subchallenge.
Other favorite tasks:
Winter 17-18: 10.1 Readers also enjoyed. A good way to find new things to read.
Spring 2018 20.10 My comfort zone (for 19th century France or Britain)
Summer 2018 20.10 Art world
Fall 2018 10.5 Pet Day
Winter 2018-19 20.6 Edith Wharton and 20.10 Over and under
Spring 2019 20.10 Asia
Summer 2019 10.1 Design your own task, 10.7 Summer shorts, 10.9 All star reads, 20.7 Shakespeare (I, too, like to read plays.)
I also like tasks about punctuation (apostrophes, special characters).
Thanks for asking. Looking forward to next season!
I like:Spring 2010 - Read a debut novel
Spring 2010 - What's In a Name? Read a novel published under a pseudonym (Louisa May Alcott's pulp fiction comes to mind.)
Fall 2010 The Literature Map https://www.literature-map.com/ This thing is really cool!!!! Did I mention how cool this is??
Summer 2013 Sub-Sandwich Read a book one of the members read in .... a previous challenge. For the 10th anniversary you could set the challenge as anything read in the last 10 years, or only read 10 years ago. For a sub-challenge it could be books read in the last 10 years, perhaps one per year.....There are a lot of possibilities.
Summer 2014 10.2 Highly Rated Read a book rated 5 stars by another RwS Member
Once we had a task about families in titles. I don’t remember if it was just brothers and sisters or if it included other family members as well. Anyway I have a bunch of family piling up on me seems like. Lots of daughters and sisters fore some reason and quite a few wives, I even have a husband and a couple of brothers and at least two “family”s. Many children and “child”s too. So I hope sometime n the future I can read them and farm them them out to either library or a book drive. (Smile)
Oh and I have a father, mothers, Daddys, a Mum, an aunt and two uncles! And could always read Eight Cousins. One of the few LMA books I’ve not read.
I've been on Goodreads since 2008 with main attraction being reading challenges! 11 years on and I find that I tend to steer away from tasks that are too restrictive (eg. reading from lists etc). I don't mind ones where a book needs to be shelved on such & such shelf a number of times but I don't particularly like lists.My preferences these days tend to be like the following selections from over the years for RwS:
Summer 2013: 10.1 Sub-Sandwich Read a book that one of our members read in last summer's sub-challenge, TDoS
Maybe we can alternate Sub-Sandwich with Square Peg now & again?
Fall 2013: 10.3 - Conjunction Junction: Read a book whose title contains one (and one only) of these conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet.
Summer 2014: 10.4 - Double Trouble: Read a book by an author whose surname has a double letter. Examples are Wilkie Collins, Kurt Vonnegut, Virginia Woolf.
Fall 2014: 10.4 - 9, 10, 11: This challenge includes the 9th, 10th and 11th months of the year. Read a book with a 9-, 10-, or 11-letter word in the title.
Fall 2015: 10.3 Dictionary-
October 16 is dictionary day. Read a book whose title is made up of words that are in alphabetical order, including articles and conjunctions. One word titles will not qualify for this task.
Spring 2017: 10.2 3, 4, or 5
Read a book whose title has exactly 3, 4, or 5 words. Sub-titles can be counted or ignored.
Summer 2017: 10.5 Always a Bridesmaid
Read any work which has been nominated for (short or longlisted, runnerup, etc.) at least one award, but has never won any award. Awards must appear in the awards section on the GR book page.
I also don't mind tasks where books are required to be set location wise for 50-75%.
I think for RwS, I like the sub-challenges more than the tasks (these days anyway) and again, my preferences tend toward to ones that are rather flexible:
Eyes on the Prize (S2014)
A to Z (Winter 2014/15)
Book Dominoes (Winter 2015-16)
Page Count Winter 17/18
I loved those Bingo team challenges!
Well, that was fun. I started during the Winter 14/15 season. Possibly because I'm not finding Mrs Dalloway that compelling I reviewed both before and after my start. I found lots of interesting tasks!First these are tasks that appealed to me that seem to appear quite regularly:
square peg
Nobel winner
series
group read redux (**!)
read a task from last season
I also like the team games/challenges.
As well, I like tasks that tend to direct us to reading non-fiction.
As for sub-challenges:
I found "Spring Cleaning" in Sp 11 - that looks like a good sub-challenge!
I remember Book Dominoes (Winter 15/16) fondly - possibly because it is the first one I did well with.
I also liked Listopia tag, Awards by Country + Ratings game.
The long list of tasks is next.
The tasks that caught my attention last night:Winter 10/11
20.1 "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse"
Read a book about life after the end of the world. Choose one of the top 50 books from Goodreads' list of post-apocalyptic fiction.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Sp 11
10.6 Lab Lit: read a novel in which a scientist plays a major role
Fa 11
10.1 List lovers: are you trying to read all the Pulitzer Prize winning novels? Working your way through the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die? Use a random number generator to select a book you have not read before from a published book list
Sp 12
10.5 Rooting for the Bad Guy
Read a book featuring an anti-hero on the linked page
20.1 Banned books
Su 12
10.4 Hot Summer Nights
Read a a book from one of the "steampunk" lists linked below
20.1 Make Me Laugh
Read A Black Comedy Or Satirical Novel from one of the following lists
Sp 13
10.3 The '_____' title
20.10 Initially: Read a book by an author whose given names are usually published as initials only
Su 13
10.3 Vacation reading: Read a book that contains a type of body of water in the title (ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, creek, etc.).
Fa 13
10.2 - Celebrate Book Lover's Day (November 2nd) by reading a book from the top 200 Stories For Book Lovers.
Wi 13/14
10.1 Reading resolutions
20.4 Travel: In honor of A Moveable Feast, read one of one top 125 favorite travel books OR one of the top 90 traveling vicariously books .
20.5 Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .
Sp 14
20.4 Hamlet: philosophical lit
Su 14
20.6 Unfinished: Read one of the top 300 books from this list of Most Begun But Unfinished books.
Fa 15
20.4 Balance: In honor of A Fine Balance, read one of the top 100 from the list South Asian Fiction OR one of the top 125 books from the list Best Canadian Literature.
I like tasks where it is easy to tell whether or not a book fits before you start reading. I particularly dislike it when I have finished a book and I'm still not sure. Being lazy, I prefer not to have to search through the internet to find books that fit.The best challenges are those with a good mix of tasks where most of the books can be read in whatever genre you prefer and I think RwS usually gets that correct (thanks moderators).
I like sub-challenges that you can do more than once as there's always so many books to read!
I may not always finish the sub-challenges but I always love planning for them. I like the Pick 'n' Mix for this fall. I also enjoy the awards sub-challenges like Awards of the Decade Sp17, and Awards by Country Sp 19.
Sub-challenges where we visit states or countries are good like Around the World Sp12, Travel the Pacific Rim W14, Reading Globally Sp15, Travel the US Sp 16
I would like to compliment the moderators for coming up with great tasks for so many years. I like having some tasks that are not too specific (since I'm usually reading for another challenge and for book groups at the same time) mixed in with the "theme tasks". I found lots of tasks that I enjoyed, and probably wrote down too many of them.Square Peg, especially if it can be used several times
Road Trip Su12
We Read Epistolary Novels Su12
Go Visit the Neighbors Su13
Stories for Book Lovers F13
Goodreads Authorized W13/14
Nobel Prize W13/14
Julius Caesar Sp14
Lady Macbeth Sp14
Banned Su14
Dr Salk F14
Historical W14/15
Exiles and Emmigrants W14/15
Guardian 1000 W14/15
Penguin W14/15
Tried and True Sp15
Authors F15
Realistic Ratings W15/16
Single Word Sp16
Book Lovers Sp16
AutoBioMem Sp16
War Su16
Double Trouble W16/17
Obscure Awards W 16/17
For the Birds W 16/17
3,4, or 5 Sp 17
Gothic Authors F17
The House F17
I love Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Memoirs, and some Mystery/Thrillers. I don't read much Sci Fiction unless it's time travel or dystopia. I rarely read True Crime. When I read nonfiction, I like it to be written recently for most subjects so it's accurate (rather than a prize winner from years ago or books on a list). It's fun having occasional tasks so we can read short works like plays, poetry, novellas, etc. Thanks for all your hard work.
Connie wrote: "I would like to compliment the moderators for coming up with great tasks for so many years. I like having some tasks that are not too specific (since I'm usually reading for another challenge and f..."I notice in your list Connie the Penguin. That looks like a nice task. I found this link to a list of Penguin Classics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of....
This review/discussion is quite interesting to me. I was very(!) tempted to note what I don't like, but I realized upon reflection that sometimes tasks about subjects or genres I don't like often have led to really interesting books. For me that is the point of taking part in RwS - it keeps me out of reading ruts! ;)
Subchallenges:Fall 2011 - Back to School
Summer 2016 - Bingo (Team challenge)
Winter 2016/17 - Christmas in Vegas-Roulette
Tasks:
Any short story task -- I want to read more of these, but need a little push
The task that linked books mentioned in other books
Tasks that relate to books someone else read (group reads/group reads redux, 10.9 this season, sub-sandwich, 5* ratings, etc.)
This is such a hard question because I don't think I've yet met a task I *don't* like--even when they seem like they'll be uninteresting or difficult, due to that task I always end up reading the most fascinating books that I wouldn't meet otherwise. I guess the ones I like best are the ones that are broad enough to use as Combo points for many of the other books I'd be reading for the season (prizeworthy, Penguin, no "some random letter" in the author's name, etc.).As far as favorite sub-challenge: I loved when we did 10 Degrees of Separation/Summer 2012 and Know Your ABCs/Fall 2012 (even though I never finished that one...which I regret and would love a second chance at completing).
Valerie wrote: "This review/discussion is quite interesting to me. "As it is to us!
I love that you all have mentioned not just specific tasks you like, but also the types of tasks you like. Keep those thoughts coming!
I'm going to exclude tasks from Summer 2019 in my list. I've picked 11 and I am so tempted to go through and find one more to make an even dozen but I'll resist temptation. Here are my picks:I liked the tasks where we go looking through what other RwS group members have read:
FALL 2011
10.2– Highly-rated
Read a book that has been rated 5-stars by another RwS group member.
WINTER 2014-2015
20.10 - Goodreads Feature - Elizabeths' Task:
Read a book listed in the "Readers Also Enjoyed" section on the book page of any of the 2014 RwS Group reads: Winter 13/14 Group Reads, Spring 2014 Group Reads, Summer 2014 Group Reads, OR Fall 2014 Group Reads
[ Though I would update the years to be 2018 & 2019 ]
I also liked the ones that pushed me to pick up books I hadn't previously considered picking up:
WINTER 2014-2015
10.8 - Two for One - Karen Michele's Task:
Read a combination of 2 or more books, each under 100 pages, that total at least 100 pages when combined. To claim style points, all books in the set must meet the criteria. This task cannot be claimed as combo points.
WINTER 2012-2013
20.7 - Sara Grace's Task - Notable:
Read a book from the New York Times 100 notable books from 2010, 2011, OR 2012.
[ Again, I'd update the years to 2017, 2018, 2019 (if available) ]
SPRING 2015
20.8 - Spring Break! - Ed’s Task:
Read a book classified as a travelogue at BPL (Call number 910-919). Books not shelved at BPL will be considered on a case-by-case basis. OR read any book by one of these greatest travel book authors .
SUMMER 2012
20.7 - A Poet's Non-Poetry (Spring 2011, 20.4)
Read a book of non-poetry by a poet whom has published at least five books of poetry.
And then the random criteria tasks are always fun, like:
Fall 2015
10.3 Dictionary-
October 16 is dictionary day. Read a book whose title is made up of words that are in alphabetical order, including articles and conjunctions. One word titles will not qualify for this task.
SPRING 2017
10.6 Spring Equinox
Read a book written by an author with an equal number of letters in their first and last name. Names will be determined by the Brooklyn Public Library alphabetization. If the author is not available at the BPL, please ask in the appropriate help thread and the moderators will make a determination.
And the Author Demographics Tasks:
WINTER 2017-2018
20.3 Aged
Read a book written by any author who lived 75 years or longer.
And the Book Demographics Tasks:
WINTER 2017-2018
10.8 Fantasy! (Cat's Task)
The fact that Father Christmas (other names are used) can deliver all those presents: fantasy! Flying reindeer: fantasy! Identifying good & bad children: fantasy!
Read a book that has been shelved as FANTASY at least 25 times.
SUMMER 2018
10.7 Not Quite Jumbo (Coralie's Task)
Because books that don't quite earn jumbo points often get put aside, read a book that has between 400 and 499 pages. We will use the MPE to determine book page count.
My all-time favourite task is Underrated - read a book with less than 1000 ratings on Goodreads.I also like the tasks based around publication date, like reading a book published in somebody's lifetime. And there was once a task where we had to read a book by an author whose lifetime spanned more than one century - they were born in one century and died in the next. But I don't remember what that was called.
We'll be celebrating this milestone in the Winter 2019/2020 challenge. What have been your favorite 10- and 20-point tasks and sub-challenges over the years? If you haven't been participating long, feel free to peruse past challenges and let us know tasks that intrigue you. (Some tasks may be in the archive folder, but everything beginning in Fall 2010 is still here.)
Discussion welcome!