The Bookworm Challenge discussion

Hi Bookworms!

What the heck happened to 2019? I know I certainly had a crazy, busy year and still managed to get in some reading! And now it's time to start thinking about categories for the 2020 Bookworm Challenge.

For all who would like to participate next year, please start sending your suggestions for themes, genres, etc. for both the year-long challenges and monthly specials to this thread. I will collect your responses and create another survey as we have done in the past and we'll all vote on the ones we'd like to see for 2020. Don't be afraid to mix it up a little bit and step outside your comfort zones. I know many of you have found books that you loved that you never would have read without these challenges!

And as always, feel free to send in suggestions about other fun ideas we can consider adding to the group. I really appreciate all of you who participate and feedback to the group! As for the rest of you, please join us in the coming year!

Stephanie

I do confess I've been waiting for this. :) Here are some of my ideas.

1. same word (4+ letters) in titles (can be different for each person)
2. main character with disability - physical or mental
3. author is person of color
4. book that takes place outside of your country (where you live)
5. main character is a POC
6. retellings - classics, fairy tales, etc.
7. books with movie/tv adaptation
8. song lyrics in titles
9. book of poetry or novel written in verse

I liked the author A-Z challenge. Could we do something similar with titles? (I have X by Sue Grafton waiting in the wings. :) )

How about buddy reads based on the challenges? One challenge each month? Vote on the book?

Wow Rhonda, you were prepared! Some great ideas. Would the same word in titles need to be different authors? A lot of series use the same word in all titles.
I really liked the 2018 Goodreads Choice Nominees so I propose:
1. 2019 Goodreads Choice Nominees
2. Time Travel
3. Vintage Mysteries (written before 1950)
4. Books told from an animal's viewpoint
5. Award winners -(maybe Pulitzer or Hugo or Man Booker?)
6. Books written in the decade you were born

I like the idea of a group read.

I love the suggestions so far. Many of them were on my list as well. I was also going to suggest the ABC challenge with book titles!

Here are a few more suggestions:
~books written by more than one author
~books written under an outhor's pen name
~author's debut book
~part of a series
~author new to you
~favourite rereads
~humour
~previously banned book
~translations
~books from Time's all time 💯 list

So many choices!!! Hard to narrow it down. Can't wait!

There are some BINGO challenges that look like fun. It is just a 5x5 grid with a different challenge in each square. You need 1 book in each challenge to mark off the square.
I love this group because there is a lot of leeway in which books we read but also pushes me to read books that I might otherwise not choose.

Wanda wrote: "Wow Rhonda, you were prepared! Some great ideas. Would the same word in titles need to be different authors? A lot of series use the same word in all titles.
I really liked the 2018 Goodreads Choic..."

I don't think it has to be different authors. I thought of series, but it could also be standalones. Some people might choose to use a word like "what" or "from" or "antidisestablishmentarianism" (okay I strongly doubt that last one). It would be interesting to see what people choose.

I love the idea of time travel and vintage mysteries. Definitely some of my favorites! :)

Connie wrote: "I love the suggestions so far. Many of them were on my list as well. I was also going to suggest the ABC challenge with book titles!

Here are a few more suggestions:
~books written by more than o..."

I love the idea of the bingo cards! I've done a few challenges like that and they are a lot of fun. Maybe some of the challenges that don't make it into the main 12 could be put in bingo cards.

Rhonda wrote: "Connie wrote: "I love the suggestions so far. Many of them were on my list as well. I was also going to suggest the ABC challenge with book titles!

Here are a few more suggestions:
~books written..."

Some of the more difficult challenges that would be hard to find five books for would work well for bingo because you only need one book for each category.

This bingo card idea is intriguing.... Trying to determine how we would "show" the card in this forum. Thoughts? Examples?

Stephanie wrote: "This bingo card idea is intriguing.... Trying to determine how we would "show" the card in this forum. Thoughts? Examples?"

I entered reading challenge bingo in a search and came up with a few sites. One is from another GR group and it has a link to a bingo card generator but I'm not sure how it works as far as sharing it to our challenges.

https://images.gr-assets.com/photos/1...
This should be a link to a photo of a bingo card. However, I would rather do one with different challenges.

http://osric.com/bingo-card-generator

This link should work to generate the card but I am not sure how you share it or how people would mark off their reads. As far as categories, I think it might be good to use some of the ones that don't make the main list. The link seems to just make a card that is printable so I don't know how that would work. Is there a way to copy and paste it into our challenge area?

- banned books
- non-fiction
- fantasy fiction
- obscure authors - that never made it to mainstream but have occult appeal?
- Science fiction
- books in another language? like not translations but read in the original french, spanish, etc? this one would be tough... i just thought it would be interesting and might help learn a new language
- critics haven? books that you read out of curiosity but whose subject matter you disagree with so you're like discussing/reviewing it scathingly afterwords? i dunno if that's a good category if the objective is to read for pleasure though.

Connie wrote: "https://images.gr-assets.com/photos/1...
This should be a link to a photo of a bingo card. However, I would rather do one with different challenges.

http://osric.com/bingo-card..."

All good info, Connie. I will play with it a bit and see how do-able it is.... Thank you!

Fatima wrote: "- critics haven? books that you read out of curiosity but whose subject matter you disagree with so you're like discussing/reviewing it scathingly afterwords? i dunno if that's a good category if the objective is to read for pleasure though. ..."

Lol, Fatima, that one might make my blood pressure spike! :-)

I like:

Finger crushers: (because it makes the long books worth the extra time)
Non-fiction
Award winners (but all awards, not just one list)
Name in title: this is a favorite monthly challenge because I always have so many
Books with holidays

Everyone has such great ideas!

💜 Translations
💜 Award Winners
💜 Good Reads Choice Nominees/Winners
💜 Literary Horror
💜 Debut Books
💜 I always vote for Mystery, but I like the idea of vintage mystery that Wanda mentioned

Rhonda wrote: "I do confess I've been waiting for this. :) Here are some of my ideas.

1. same word (4+ letters) in titles (can be different for each person)
2. main character with disability - physical or mental..."

I really like your list! I couldn't come up with a thing to add :)

Lots of good ideas! Here's mine
- winter-snow-ice
- priests-nuns-clergy
- magical realism
- alternative history
- the ones you always wanted to re-read
- 2019 Goodreads choice nominees
- books on books or reading
- authors outside America/Europe

I like the idea of vintage mysteries and poetry

This group is so great! Love it!

A few more suggestions - I apologize if they are already here. Some are from previous years.
~YA fiction
~Literary classics
~Bios and memoirs
~graphic novels
~finger crunchers (a favourite of mine)
~cover love (didn't think I would like this one but as the year went on, I had fun browsing the covers of my shelves and the library)
~I also like having some of the various genres as challenges: sci fi, fantasy, dystopian, historical fiction etc.

Connie wrote: "A few more suggestions - I apologize if they are already here. Some are from previous years.
~YA fiction
~Literary classics
~Bios and memoirs
~graphic novels
~finger crunchers (a favourite of mine)..."

Or how about Cover Hate, books you read in spite of the cover.

I would like to also see a non-fiction category. I would also like a year long anthology category.
I like many of the other ideas out there too. But those were my two thoughts this year going through the challenges.

Rhonda wrote: "Connie wrote: "I love the suggestions so far. Many of them were on my list as well. I was also going to suggest the ABC challenge with book titles!

Here are a few more suggestions:
~books written..."

I like this idea as a bonus challenge through the year. As suggested above and using challenge ideas that do not make the list for the year.

Hi all! I will share a few of my favorites:
1. Color in title
2. Non fiction challenge - someone mentioned this but I second the idea.
3. Mystery
4. Finger Crushers
5. Bios and Memoirs
6. Science Fiction/Alternative History
7. Books in a series
8. Graphic Novels
9. I also like the A-Z Bonus challenge
10. Number in title
11. Books from your personal to read list (may help us lower our piles a bit)
12. Books you own
13. I like the idea of books set in a country different from the one you live it but what if we added that no two books in the challenge can involve the same country. i.e. five different countries.
14. Christmas
15. YA books
16. Books made into movies or tv shows
17. Sports stories
18. Favorite vacation activities

That is it for now. :-)

Suggestions

1. Author who died in the last 5 years
2. Golden Age Mystery
3. Indigenous author you have never read before
4. A book you keep putting off
5. A second chance - book you attempted but never finished, series that you started but want to continue

I like 4 and 5! That would be a challenge for me...

June wrote: "Suggestions

1. Author who died in the last 5 years
2. Golden Age Mystery
3. Indigenous author you have never read before
4. A book you keep putting off
5. A second chance - book you attempted but ..."

Ann-Marie wrote: "I like 4 and 5! That would be a challenge for me...

June wrote: "Suggestions

1. Author who died in the last 5 years
2. Golden Age Mystery
3. Indigenous author you have never read before
4. A book..."

4 and 5 would be good categories for the bingo card. Along with a book with over a 1000 pages, which could be the same as number 4, I guess.

Mythical creatures
westerns - ive never read any!
books made into tv shows/movies
books with trains
books with colours in the title, but to make it more challenging, you have to pick ONE colour and all five books need the same colour?
books written before or after a certain year
books that don't fit a category! i have a few that i skip over all the time because they dont fit lol
books you own - you know, you buy a stack of books even though you have a zillion to read already, but then the library books come in and you have to read those first because they have a due date... am i the only one with this problem? haha
horror
spy novels

Michelle wrote: "Mythical creatures
westerns - ive never read any!
books made into tv shows/movies
books with trains
books with colours in the title, but to make it more challenging, you have to pick ONE colour and..."

You are not the only one with the issue of books going unread while you choose library books. I recently purchased a large number of used books at a charity book sale, but I love my library and sometimes it's like those books have a mind of their own and cry for me to borrow them! Oh well! Soon it will be a new year.

I do like the alternative history as well, all the steampunk I’ve been wanting to read could fall there.