The History Book Club discussion

All, it is very easy to select some of your books in advance now and place them on the to be read shelf as well as on the shelf that you created for your challenge.

Let me show you how to do that.

First join the challenge.

a) You can do that by simple clicking on the title of the challenge which is in gold lettering. When you hover your cursor over the title of the challenge - it will appear to be underlined. Simply click on that title and it will take you to the next screen.

Second, select how many books you will read in the challenge- which you can do once you have joined the challenge - it is at the bottom of the second page.

Scroll to the bottom of the challenge page and enter the number of books you will do for the challenge. The sentence says - I will read ___ books for this challenge.

Just fill in the number.

Then you are asked to Enter a shelf name for this challenge.

You could enter any name for the challenge you would like - if it is the Japan challenge - enter Japan Challenge or whatever country challenge it happens to be.

Then click save at the bottom. This is very important otherwise the number of books you want to read will not show up, your percentages completed and books read will not calculate properly. So make sure to get this right and click save at the bottom.

Third, if you go into My Books, you should see the name of your shelf listed that you chose for your challenge. (if you saved it properly)

Fourth, you can get into your full challenge screen at any time and in a couple of ways.

In the main screen, click on the gold title of the challenge at the top and that will take you to the second challenge screen.

Scroll to the bottom and you will see your avatar with photo - below your avatar - there is a date or a time when you were there last - click on that.

Fifth, now you will be able to see your progress

Sixth, to add a book to your challenge (to be read) for planning purposes - all you have to do is to go to the To Be Read shelf in your My Books and add the book or books you would like to read for your challenge.

Make sure they are in your "to be read" list and they are listed on your challenge shelf as well for the challenge.

Make sure that you have also not only checked off the to be read shelf but you have made sure that the books are also checked off to be read on the challenge shelf. That is very important.

Once you see them on the correct shelves and the challenge shelf - it is critical that you save that work - everything must be saved once you have checked off the correct shelves.

If you have done the above correctly, when you come back to the second screen of the challenge, and you click on the time, date, hours, which will always be listed under your avatar or photo - when you click on that - you will be taken to your personal screen where you will see your to be read books shown. The book covers will be there.

Seventh, this change and update to the challenges is spectacular and important for planning purposes.

You can decide in advance all of the books that you would like to read for the challenge and you can line them up by simply placing them on your to be read list and at the same time checking them off to be added to your to be read challenge shelf too. Whatever you do - make sure you click and save all of your work and additions - all of the time.

Eighth, this is very important for your stats to be accurate and for you to be given ample credit for all of the work you will have done for the challenge.

None of the books that are on the to be read shelf or on your to be read shelf for your challenge are going to count unless you do the following.

When you finish reading each book on your challenge shelf, you must change your shelves from to be read - to read (meaning that you have completed the book). You must add the books to the "read shelf" and the "read shelf for your challenge". You do that by also adding the completion date for when you finished reading the book. So make sure that you have the book or books on the read shelf and your read challenge shelf and you have added the date that the books were completed. And then at the same time you have done all of the above - you must remember to save, save, save, all of this work.

This is important. You also will probably want to add the read books to your total read listing, to your read challenge list and also to the read list for your yearly challenge so make sure that all of these shelves have been checked off too and all of the work saved.

If you do the above, all of the books read for your challenge will show up and if you challenged yourself to read five books it will show your percentages as being 5 out of 5. If you do not see your tally increasing, you are doing or have done something wrong.

You are going to want your books to be finally listed on your read shelf, your read and completed challenge shelf, and your yearly total shelf. If you have done everything right your percentages will show up for your challenge as well as for the totals for everything else.

Good luck and have fun.

So if I join the India challenge, the four books of the Raj Quartet count?

Yes they do - we are actually doing the quartet plus one.

I am considering joining the Read Japan Challenge. I already read this book:

by Florent Chavouet (no photo).

Would it qualify?

I guess it would - if you wanted it to (smile).

We are trying to sample different Japanese authors and books about Japan itself or events, famous personages, or books on Japanese culture etc. The above looks like a travel book for exploring and that is OK too but it does not appear like a book you read from cover to cover but I could be wrong. Also the history of Japan or about its customs, places of interest, religion, icons, etc. Pretty much anything about Japan but mainly books that you read from cover to cover. Does the above book fit that criteria or did you just sample various write-ups selectively?

It really isn't the usual travel guide book that tells you where to go and what to do, it's one that Florent Chavouet drew to show you where he went. He's a French guy who was in Japan to accompany his girlfriend because she was working there.

It's a 208-page paperback filled with color pencil drawn observations on the places he went. There are interesting notes on the people and culture and his many little adventures.

That's all it is. If it doesn't quality, then no problem but it does fit in the culture part about Japan. Or Japan as it was in the 2000's.

Well then that sounds like it might be OK - but then again it is your challenge so you can add it if you like - it is about Japan.

Just remember it is a challenge so challenge yourself and see where that takes you. It is always fun.

ok. I will join!

Welcome - the challenges are good - it forces you to jump in to an area maybe you have not challenged yourself to do before.

The new challenge is on the Koreas. North and South Korea.

Bentley wrote: "The new challenge is on the Koreas. North and South Korea."

I am up for the Korea challenge. Been waiting since it was mentioned earlier in the year. I am in. Just signed up.

Wonderful Michael - I am trying to add books to the challenge thread to give people ideas; but there are a host of books out there on a variety of subjects about the political issues, the nuclear ones, the Korean War, the very interesting history of Korea itself and the very dynasties in the past and Kings!!

Fascinating country for so many reasons other than what is going on currently.

The above instructions are valid for all of the challenges including this new one on the Koreas.