Historical Romance Book Club discussion

2022 CHALLENGE FEEDBACK

Before we post 2022 challenge threads, we wanted to make sure we capture any feedback/suggested changes. We also want to make sure there's still interest in all the challenges or proposed new ones.

Here are the current challenges:

> The 2021 Romance Across The Ages , features different 24 different eras of Historical Romance for you to choose. Participants choose from 12 to 24 eras to read from. Two eras are chosen per month to help pace participants but it is not required to read those two eras in a month,

> The 2021 Mad About Series challenge is just what the name says -- all about reading Historical Romance books series. Participants can focus on one series or read as many as they can.

> The 2021 Mountain Climbing TBR Challenge is a quarterly challenge where participants post 5 books that they have been meaning to read based on the quarterly theme and then another participant picks two for them to read.


PROPOSED NEW CHALLENGE:

> BINGO (or something similar) - since the BOTM themes have been consolidated/broadened. We are planning to feature the some of the more specific tropes from the original trope list as well as mix some other fun themes. We discussed that this would be a quarterly challenge.


THOUGHTS / SUGGESTIONS / FEEDBACK?


If 4 is too many, we can also consider retiring one that we have been doing. Let us know if you have any questions! Thanks!

I would suggest doing a quarterly challenge other than the yearly. I tend to forget about those.

Love the series & Bingo idea.

I enjoy all the challenges. They make you read books you normally may not read.

I enjoy the Mad About Series challenge. I want to participate more in the Mountain Climbing challenge, but my series challenge always comes first. I haven't attempted the Romance Across the Ages challenge. The Bingo challenge sounds fun!

I enjoy the RATA and the BOTM and have not participated in the other 2 and don't plan on doing them next year. I think the BINGO idea would be fun and plan on joining it....once I figure out how to do it lol. As always my appreciation to the Mods is very sincere and thank you.

I like the mountain to climb. As it gets me to read books, I have had for some time. Which I have then enjoyed reading. But probably wouldn’t have read these books, if I hadn’t took part in the challenge.

I would join the bingo, if I could understand how it works, and if I already have the books.

I cannot join in, with book of the month at times. Unless I have the book or can purchase it at a cost I am willing to pay. So don’t join in the reads as much as I would like to.

Thank you mods for all your hard work 👏👏💐🥂

Thanks for the feedback all.

Any categories you’d like to see different on the RAA challenge?

I like the current categories for RAA. There's a good range, and it's good there are two different ones for each month. I choose to read only one book for this challenge each month, so out of the two categories I can always find something to read. It has made me tackle some books I wouldn't otherwise have read, and it's opening me up to different settings and time periods to try.

How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I should improve my classics read list

Something like 4 a year to not overcome the already existing challenges

If it helps, think of bingo this way: you could purposely seek out the books:
Examples: series title, book with a color in the title, author of 10 or more titles
Or you can luck into it by running across things you'd not necessarily know about: only one bed, hero smells like cedar, horse riding heroine


For my part, I plan to luck into any bingo spaces. It's just a fun way for me to think about reading mindfully to see how many spaces I can take up of the 25.

Joanna and I discussed having these start *not* at the quarter just to stagger our challenges, but then we can run them a bit longer too.

Many people seem to do two challenges, it seems. I like variety in them so I'm always interested in the quarterly and MAS. MAS was a flop for me this year bc my reading was way down in historical, but that's time saved planning for next year.

Since I cross reading genres, I can really only do 1-2 challenges in this group without feeling like it's intruding on the other genres I want to read. I know this won't work here in this genre-specific group, but in the past, I've enjoyed doing a yearly challenge (or something like bingo) that can potentially incorporate multiple genres.

This is actually a fun point, T. It could help with staying engaged in a challenge, and could be interpreted how the reader wants?

We'd want choose topics with histrom in mind, but I personally am intrigued by the idea. Let me think on it!

Yea, I think it could be anything that works. Some squares will likely force your hand in choosing an HR but others may not.

Sandra wrote: "How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I should improve my classics read list"

I think we’re talking about allowing the BINGO challenge to be more open in terms of type of book. Does that meet what you’re looking for? Buddy reads are also open if interested a specific book. And I would also note that there are a number of groups that focus on classic reads as well.

Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Sandra wrote: "How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I should improve my classics read list"

I think we’re talking about allo..."

Joanna, You are right, but I enjoy this group so much that I want to do everything here, eheh. Do you have some suggestion of a group focus on classic reads?

Sandra wrote: "Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Sandra wrote: "How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I should improve my classics read list"

I t..."

I know I have read some classics for Romance Across the Ages. Several of Heyers books work as well as Victorian authors

Personally, Romance Across The Ages is my least favorite, I only did it once and I found I spent more time finding books that fit the time period than reading them.
Bingo sounds fun.

I like the Bingo idea too

Merry Jewelhound wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Sandra wrote: "How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I should improve my classics ..."

Yea I think classics can fit into most of the challenges, and buddy read all you want.

In terms of other groups, I am not active in any at the moment. I have tried Catching Up With Classics, and was involved with Everyone Has Read the but Me. For the most part, you can poke around, see what groups are reading and whether or not you have friends in the group. You can also see how many members there are and how active the group is. My dedication to reading classics in recent years has waned so that’s why I stopped trying to be active in them. I read mostly classics in my youth.

Thanks, Joanna, I will see to it. Mainly, I've also read the classics in my youth but I think I should read them again and read some I haven't read.

Despite, being late in my readings on RATA I like that challenge a lot!

I've been participating in the Romance Across the Ages, and while there are some periods that are harder to find, I still have enjoyed it. The Mountain Challenge I have yet to do. That being said, I would definitely be up for a BINGO type challenge. I've seen some booktubers use that style recently and it looks fun.

Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Merry Jewelhound wrote: "Sandra wrote: "Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Sandra wrote: "How about some reading of the classics HR?! Austen's, Heyer... I don't know the type of challenge but I know I sh..."

Ive found this one: EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/..., it looks promising!

I just joined and have so many books I want to read and so many different kinds of books I want to find so these all sound great to me but particularly Romance Across the Ages and Bingo!!

Hi all - I just wanted to note that Sam and I have discussed starting a BINGO challenge a couple months into the year to give us time to prepare and to offset it with the other challenges. More details to come!

Sounds fun! Looking forward to it.

A bingo challenge sounds fun!

Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Hi all - I just wanted to note that Sam and I have discussed starting a BINGO challenge a couple months into the year to give us time to prepare and to offset it with the other challenges. More det..."

Looking forward to it!