2025 Reading Challenge discussion

2025 Through The Decades Team Thread
Team: 1

This thread is for members of TEAM 1 to use however you wish in relation to the readathon. Your team: Leader(s): TerryJane & Jaida
Teammates: Sahiary, Carrie, Jennifer S., Aide, Ju, Alina

Here is the link to your team’s spreadsheet, where you’ll be tracking your progress as you go.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

If you have any questions about the readathon, how to interpret the prompts, how to use the spreadsheet, and so on, ask your Captain or Assistant first. If they don’t know, they can post the question(s) on the Readathon Central thread.

Happy reading! Let’s have a blast during this 10-day readathon!

—--------------------------------
YOUR PROMPTS

Singles

Read a historical fiction novel.
Read a historical nonfiction novel.
Read a memoir by someone born in a different decade than you.
Read a book containing time travel.
Read a book with a timepiece on the cover.
Read a book you haven’t read since you were younger.
Read a book set in two or more time periods.
Read a book published in the year or decade you were born.

Doubles

Read 2 books set in a future decade.
Read 2 books with an older adult main character.
Read 2 books with a day of the week or month in the title.
Read 2 books with a unit of time in the title.
Read 2 books with a year or date in the title.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1900s.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1910s.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1920s.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1930s.

Triples

Read 3 books published or set in the 1940s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1950s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1960s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1970s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1980s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1990s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 2000s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 2010s.

Bonus category:

Read books published or set in the 2020s.

RESOURCES

Points
Singles: 50 Points
Doubles: 150 Points
Triples: 300 Points
Pages Read: 1 Point per page
Audio: Enter the page count from your language's top hardcover print edition. (If not available in hardcover, use the top paperback page count for your language.)

Guidelines
- begin and end at midnight in your personal time zone
- books must be at least 100 pages long, or you must have 100 pages left at the start of the Readathon
- no graphic novels or comics for this one

Suggestions
- try to choose shorter books (three 200-pg books will net more team points than one 600-pg book)
- try to find books that fit multiple prompts
- complete Triples and Doubles first, where possible, since they have higher point value
- books started before the readathon may be counted if you read the last 100+ pages after the event begins (page count should only include pages read AFTER the readathon begins)
- bonus opens only IF we complete all the prompts

List & Shelf Links
The lists below are not comprehensive since a book's presence requires it be added by readers, but it's a start. If you find a good list you want to share here, let me know and I'll add it.

Singles
Read a historical fiction novel.
Read a historical nonfiction novel.
Read a memoir by someone born in a different decade than you.
Read a book containing time travel.
Read a book with a timepiece on the cover.
Clocks on the Cover
Read a book you haven’t read since you were younger.
Read a book set in two or more time periods.
Read a book published in the year or decade you were born. (See decade lists below.)

Doubles
Read 2 books set in a future decade.
Read 2 books with an older adult main character.
Amazing Older Heroines
Read 2 books with a day of the week or month in the title.
Months or Days in the Book Title
Months of the Year
Read 2 books with a unit of time in the title.
Read 2 books with a year or date in the title.
Books with Dates in the Title
A Date in the Title
Read 2 books published or set in the 1900s.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1910s.
Read 2 books published or set in the 1920s.
Set in the 1920s
Read 2 books published or set in the 1930s.

Triples
Read 3 books published or set in the 1940s.
Best 1940's Historical Fiction
YA Fiction Set in the 1940s
Read 3 books published or set in the 1950s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1960s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1970s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1980s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 1990s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 2000s.
Read 3 books published or set in the 2010s.

Bonus category:
Read books published or set in the 2020s.

ROSTER

Aide (3)
Books: 3
Pages: 680

Alina (1-2)
Books: 1
Pages: 288

Carrie (2-4)
Books: 5
Pages: 1,792 (+ 83 non-prompt) = 1,875

Jaida (5-6)
Books: 15
Pages: 4,075

Jennifer S. (3-4)
Books: 8
Pages: 2,033 (+ 40 non-prompt) = 2,073

Ju (3)
Books: 2
Pages: 368 (+ 104 non-prompt) = 472

Sahiary (5)
Books: 9
Pages: 2,317

TerryJane (7)
Books: 25
Pages: 5,416

Welcome, fellow readers!

I will be one of your leaders as we travel through the decades, co-leading this adventure with Jaida. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or problems. If we don't know the answer, we will escalate it to the Readathon mod.

I created a RESOURCES post above where I will add helpful links and such. Let me know if you find something you'd like me to add. I also saved a ROSTER spot for tracking, just in case we need it.

In order to know when your teammates have made new posts in this thread, please be sure to click this box at the bottom right of your browser:
⬜ Notify me when people comment

Lastly, let's open this up with introductions and team name discussion, and then we can spend the coming week planning for prompts and filling out our spreadsheet. Woohoo! 😀

I live in north Georgia with my family and a few pets. Our home is on a small mountain, where we see a large variety of wildlife. I especially enjoy this time of year watching mama deer with their fawns, and seeing bird parents bring their fledglings to the feeders.

I am a voracious reader of mostly audiobooks, but I happily put my books aside for a few hours here and there to enjoy musical theatre. In fact, I'll be seeing Les Misérables on the last day of the readathon, so I won't be able to contribute for the last few hours. Sorry about that... but it's Les Mis!

I've been a mod in this group since 2021, and recognize some of your names from our challenges and/or past readathons. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you as we work together for this readathon.

Team name ideas: Time Trekkers, Back in Time, Once Upon a Time

Hello! I am excited for the readathon; this is my second time participating.
I live in Utah. I'm an educator so I (kind of) have summers off, though I am working from home some. I have a lot of flexibility with that. I am also pretty active politically right now. Books and nature are my escapes. I will be camping this coming week and I may not have service during some of these planning days but I will be back before we start and I will try to pre-plan as much as possible before I leave Sunday.

TerryJane, I wouldn't pass up Les Mis either!

I really like Time Trekkers as a team name!

Hi! I have no business participating in this right now but I love team readathons so much that I cannot resist.

I live in Oklahoma with my husband. We have two daughters in college and both of them are currently planning a wedding. One will be in less than 30 days and the other next spring so they are keeping me hopping as I somehow have become their personal "free" wedding planner. I am the Manager of Accounting Services at a rural electric cooperative and that also keeps me pretty busy.

I will be out of town when the readathon begins and will be in catch up mode for both work and wedding planning as soon as I get back so I did not commit to as many books as I usually do but I will do my best.

I am looking forward to being on this team! I think all of Terry Jane's team name suggestions sound good, probably also like Time Trekkers the best so far but I am open to hearing more!

Jennifer wrote: "Hello! I am excited for the readathon; this is my second time participating.
I live in Utah. I'm an educator so I (kind of) have summers off, though I am working from home some. I have a lot of fle..."

Summer kind of off, nature, camping? Sounds great! I camped in Utah with my family once when visiting Zion and Bryce Canyons. Gorgeous area! I hope to get back out there sometime to see parks that didn't make it onto the previous itinerary. Enjoy your trip, and thanks for pre-planning your books.

Carrie wrote: "Hi! I have no business participating in this right now but I love team readathons so much that I cannot resist.

I live in Oklahoma with my husband. We have two daughters in college and both of th..."

Wow! That's so much busy-ness, Carrie! It was smart of you to set reasonable limits for this readathon. Many of us -- ahem, not looking at myself -- tend to go a little crazy on these team events, and I doubt you can afford to do that at this time. Your two to four books is a lofty goal this month!

Heey, I live in Spain so I think that I'll be the first one to start and finish reading during this challenge because of my time zone. I'm studying Medicine, but thankfully I'm now on my summer vacation.
I know I'll try my best when picking books to fit the prompts, but some of these are really out of what I usually read. It'll be fun, though, I found some amazing books that I otherwise wouldn't have read when I did another Readathon.
And I would also go to Les Mis, so no judgement here hahaha.
I like either *Time Trekkers* cause it sounds fun or *Once Upon a Time* cause I love a show with that same name. But yeah, Time Trekkers

Sahiary wrote: "Heey, I live in Spain so I think that I'll be the first one to start and finish reading during this challenge because of my time zone."

Hello from across the Atlantic! Being pushed out of my go-to genres is exactly why I love our challenges and readathons. Well, that and fact that they are like scavenger hunts for book nerds.

I like that we have Les Mis fans on our team. If the theme was days rather than decades, I would try to fit One Day More into our name. And we are Team One, after all. 😉

Hello everyone!

I´m from germany and I have participated in readathons before. I think I always set my goal a little too high - so for this readathon I only want to read 1-2 books. I´ve got 2 jobs and doing my masters degree, where I have to submit 4 papers until the end of september. So I´m quite busy and just try to get reading done whenever I´m not too tired haha.

I do like the prompts - I think I already have something in mind but I will have a closer look and prepare in the next few days as I´m currently on vacation for my boyfriends birthday.

I also liked TIME TREKKERS best - I think most of us said that so maybe this should be our team name?

Alina wrote: "Hello everyone!

I´m from germany and I have participated in readathons before..."

Hi, Alina! You and I were on a team together before, maybe last year. Good to see you again. 😊 Two jobs and working toward a Masters must keep you quite busy. I'm glad you'll be carving out a little time to spend with us.

Good morning from sunny Georgia! 🌞

Five of our eight team members have checked in and all five like the name Time Trekkers best from the suggestions. I suppose I'll go ahead and submit that as our name since a majority approves.

I will send a message today to our three teammates who have yet to check in. One is a first timer and may not have come back to Readathons to see team assignments. The others might just be crazy busy or on vacation, but I'll reach out just in case.

Jennifer and I have added our books to the Planning tab of the spreadsheet. As the rest of you seek books to add, look at the number of matches in column B so that you know where we need to focus.

If anyone has questions or problems with using the spreadsheet, let me know. Likewise, if accessibility is an issue (Google Sheets is a bit of a pain on a phone), or you just aren't spreadsheet savvy, I'm happy to add your books for you. Just post your list here and let me know.

Hi all, I’m Jaida. Usually I’m vigilantly awaiting the release of the teams and prompts, but I’ve had a bit of a hectic week so apologies for the late check-in. LOVE the team name though, very fitting for the challenge. I’m from Australia, so any late night/early comments will be because of that. I’ve done quite a few readathons, but this is my first time co-leading, with the very capable TerryJane, so I’m sure everything will go by smoothly! I’ll take a look through the prompts today and update the spreadsheet accordingly. So excited and hopefully we all read some great books this readathon!

I have messaged the teammates who haven't arrived yet.

Hi, Jaida! Glad you made it. Looking forward to reading with you and the rest of the team. 😁

hi everyone! i'm ju, from Argentina. Sorry for not answering, my computer broke but I already fixed it.

Ju wrote: "hi everyone! i'm ju, from Argentina. Sorry for not answering, my computer broke but I already fixed it."

Welcome, Ju! I'm glad that you fixed your computer quickly so that you could join us all the way from Argentina!

Your profile shows that you were last active in May. When that happens, members often don't get Goodreads notifications. The current "fix" is to sign out of Goodreads on all your devices, wait a while (maybe even overnight), then sign back in. This somehow resets your account so that you get notifications again, and show up as last active this month on your profile.

Hey team! I’m Aide from West Valley City, Utah. By day, I’m a lab manager at a food testing lab—basically a microbiologist who loves making sure our food is safe and sound. When I’m off the clock, I’m a total book lover. I can easily spend hours chatting about books, especially if they have interesting characters. I’m really excited to be part of Time Trekkers and dive into some great reads with you all. Looking forward to swapping recommendations, hitting those tricky prompts, and just having a blast on this readathon adventure!

Hi, Aide! What interesting work you do. I started out in a techie science major back in the day, but the premed chemistry and biology quickly convinced me to change my mind... and my major. 😉

You sound comfortable with the whole readathon idea despite it being your first one here. Have you done readathons elsewhere?

TerryJane wrote: "Hi, Aide! What interesting work you do. I started out in a techie science major back in the day, but the premed chemistry and biology quickly convinced me to change my mind... and my major. 😉

You ..."

Thanks! This is my first readathon and am looking forward to it! I am hoping to exceed my goal of 3 books but don't want to jinx myself since life tends to take turns once in a while that I don't anticipate. 😊

Nice to have you Aide and Ju, looks like everyone's checked in now! Don't forget to pop any books you plan on reading in the google sheets planning tab, it looks like we've already got some interesting reads planned!

I'm a mood reader, so I don't think that I'm gonna be able to decide which books I'm gonna want to read next week. But I'll make sure to find books that fill the prompts, especially to complete the doubles and triples

Hey y´all! I just had a look at our planning sheet and think it looks pretty good! I´m going to put my books into it.

I do have a question:
I´d like to read The Bright Years. Would it count as the double prompt "read a book with a year in the title"? I know it only has the word year in the title but yeah, Maybe someone could help me out here? It does fit a lot of the other prompts as it is set through the 1970´s, 80s, 90s, 00´s and 10´s so I´ll still read it - I just thought it would be great to count it toward that prompt as there is one book missing to fulfill this prompt.

Also I was wondering why the bonus prompt is already visible? I don´t think that´s supposed to be is it?

Can´t wait to start the readathon! I´ll be finishing up my current book for now.

Alina, I think your book would fit better for the Unit of Time rather than a Year or Date in the title. It sounds great for covering lots of decades!

I'm not sure why they decided to show the bonus already, but it gives us the opportunity to mark any books that would fit there just in case we finish all the prompts. Only one of mine so far was written in the 2020s.

The original publication date can be used, whatever edition you read.

Enjoy the readathon!

We are road tripping and have had very little opportunity to have both time and good service line up so I have not figured my books out yet to put into the spreadsheet but I will try to look at today. If I don't/can't, don't worry I am still participating and will find books for where we need them.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I will be away a lot tomorrow, so I'm matching up books and prompts today. Working with the 29 planned books, we can cover 2 Singles, 3 Doubles, and 7 Triples. That leaves us with 6 Singles, 6 Doubles, and 1 Triple that aren't covered yet. Hopefully, this will be helpful for Carrie and Sahiary when choosing books. 😊

Starting with books that fit only 1 or 2 prompts, I filled in triples first, then doubles, as I was able. Of course, things can potentially be shuffled to cover other prompts as new books are added.

=================================================

PLANNED
Singles
- Read a historical fiction novel
- Read a book you haven’t read since you were younger.

Doubles
- Read 2 books set in a future decade.
- Read 2 books with a day of the week or month in the title.
- Read 2 books with a unit of time in the title.

Triples
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1940s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1950s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1960s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1970s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1980s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 1990s.
- Read 3 books published or set in the 2010s.

=================================================

OPEN
Singles
- Read a historical nonfiction novel.
- Read a memoir by someone born in a different decade than you.
- Read a book containing time travel.
- Read a book with a timepiece on the cover.
- Read a book set in two or more time periods.
- Read a book published in the year or decade you were born.

Doubles
- Read 2 books with an older adult main character.
- Read 2 books with a year or date in the title.
- Read 2 books published or set in the 1900s.
- Read 2 books published or set in the 1910s.
- Read 2 books published or set in the 1920s.
- Read 2 books published or set in the 1930s.

Triples
- Read 3 books published or set in the 2000s.

I love that our team is from all over the world! Time Trekkers through four continents!
(And kind of crazy that despite that, two of us are only an hour's drive or so *waves at Aide from the other side of the mountains to the west*)
Great to "meet" you all!

Where do you all think a book with "tomorrow" in the title would fit? Day of the week? Unit of time? "Date" in the title?
Or none of these? I am thinking about a different book instead of Freak the Mighty, or in addition to, if I can get through the rest.

TerryJane wrote: "Thanks for the input, everyone!

I will be away a lot tomorrow, so I'm matching up books and prompts today. Working with the 29 planned books, we can cover 2 Singles, 3 Doubles, and 7 Triples. That..."

Oooh this is really helpful, thanks TerryJane. Since Picnic at Hanging Rock hasn't fit within a prompt, I may switch it out for another book to complete a prompt.

Jennifer - I've asked for clarification on your question, but I'm under the assumption that 'tomorrow' would fit best for 'unit of time'. We'll update you once there's an answer, though we should definitely be able to fit it if you get around to it!

Jennifer - seems your book would fit within ‘a day of the week or month’ best.

Also, happy start of readathon everyone!

Hi everyone!
Yesterday I had a long work day so I was able to read the first few pages after midnight. I started The Bright Years and managed to read 32 pages before falling too tired. I´ll continue reading through out the day and since the book doesn´t have too many pages I think I´ll be able to finish it by the end of the weekend.

I hope you all had or have a great start! I´d love to hear your thoughts about the books you are reading.

Hi all! I got my library card updated today and was able to check out two of my books. Another I should be able to get online now. I am listening to March on Spotify so as I am driving places or have some "quiet" time at home I should get that one done. I am also finishing up the book I was already reading, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, since there are more than 100 pages left. It's short though, so I should finish it today.
My weekends are actually slightly harder for me to read because my disabled daughter is home and needs my attention, but she usually heads to her host home on Saturday afternoon so I will pick up speed after that. :)

I finished two excellent books today that were already in progress before the readathon began.

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People is a Reese's book club pick. It's a nonfiction account of colonization and exploitation of the author's Waorani tribe and other indigenous peoples in the Amazon forest of Ecuador. Very good!

Moloka'i is a historical fiction novel about people with Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy) who were placed in isolation on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. The novel covers 1890s to 1970, but the "leper" colony was established decades before the events of the novel unfold. This was also very good!

I've been shuffling books around a bit as new ones are added. We still need a couple of books set or published in the 2000's to complete that triple.

Sahiary, have you found any books that fit the prompts and your mood? If so, please add them to the spreadsheet in the planning tab. Thanks!

I'll probably be able to fit in a few more books than what I've already added, however I'll wait until next week to see how things are going with the prompts. Triple prompts get us more points, so if there's still gaps I'll try and prioritise those!

Hii, sorry I haven't responded!! I'll add some of my books today

I have a question, because I think all but the double prompt "Read 2 books with a year or date in the title" are already covered. Is that righ? I'm not totally sure, I need some help.

Sahiary wrote: "I have a question, because I think all but the double prompt "Read 2 books with a year or date in the title" are already covered. Is that righ? I'm not totally sure, I need some help."

I think we can fulfill prompts more than once. We can also shift books around because they can only count for one prompt, even if they qualify for more.
I would suggest choosing books you want to read that fulfill as many prompts as possible, even if they are already "taken," and we can shift things around as needed.

Sahiary wrote: "I have a question, because I think all but the double prompt "Read 2 books with a year or date in the title" are already covered. Is that righ? I'm not totally sure, I need some help."

It would take 50 books for us to complete all the prompts -- 3 for each triple, 2 for each double, and 1 for each single. Since we have added 33 34 books to the plan, we definitely have not got everything covered.

A few days ago, I posted a list of what prompts we had books planned for, and which were still open, in this thread. Five more have been added since that post. When I finish my current book later today, I will re-visit the planning tab and try to update the list.

Meanwhile, look at column B in the planning tab. When we have all 1, 2, or 3 books allocated to a prompt, I have highlighted it in green. The white/gray ones don't have enough books to fill them yet.

Perfect, thanks!

Here is an updated list. We may still end up switching books to different prompts to earn the most points.

Singles
Read a historical fiction novel. (Need 1)
Read a historical nonfiction novel. (Need 1)
Read a book with a timepiece on the cover. (Need 1)
Read a book set in two or more time periods. (Need 1)
Read a book published in the year or decade you were born. (Need 1)

Doubles
Read 2 books with an older adult main character. (Need 2)
Read 2 books with a year or date in the title. (Need 1)
Read 2 books published or set in the 1900s. (Need 2)
Read 2 books published or set in the 1910s. (Need 2)

I've added two more books to our google sheet that I will definitely get to. Paper Towns which will fulfil the decade born prompt, and 1984 for the year/date prompt. They don't fit many other prompts, so if anyone has a book they'd like to read for those prompts, feel free to add it and I'll tackle other prompts.

Jaida, I don't see 1984 on the spreadsheet yet. I will add it on your behalf, so we can mark off the Double for year in title. If we need to remove it later, we can. Yay, us!

===

EDIT: Carrie, Shelterwood hasn't been assigned to a prompt yet. It would be most valuable for the 1900s double, if we can find a second 1900s book to put with it. Otherwise, the single for two or more time periods will work.

TerryJane wrote: "Jaida, I don't see 1984 on the spreadsheet yet. I will add it on your behalf, so we can mark off the Double for year in title. If we need to remove it later, we can. Yay, us!

===

EDIT: Carrie, Sh..."

The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and is currently available at my library. Since it's just over 100 pages, I should be able to get to it this weekend. I've added it to the spreadsheet and marked 1900s prompt off.

Updated List

Singles
Read a historical fiction novel. (Need 1)
Read a historical nonfiction novel. (Need 1)
Read a book with a timepiece on the cover. (Need 1)
Read a book set in two or more time periods. (Need 1)

Doubles
Read 2 books with an older adult main character. (Need 1)
Read 2 books published or set in the 1910s. (Need 2)

I really struggled with the book I just finished. The Phoenix Pencil Company was a fit for 12 prompts, and it is a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, so when it came off hold at the library, I thought it would be perfect. It was the author's debut, and I will give her another chance despite this one being a bit of a slog for me. 🥱

The other three books I had planned are longer and I just can't face them at the moment. I'm going to substitute some shorter books to fit the prompts to which my remaining books are currently assigned.

It's the 4th day of the readathon for most of us, but it's the 5th day for Jaida, and almost the 5th day for Sahiary and Alina, so how about an almost midway check-in?

Time Trekkers have added 43 books to the Planning tab so far, and we've completed 18 books! Yay! 🤸‍♀️
- Have you added any books that you don't expect to start/finish?
- Do you have other books to add?
- Will you be able to read the number of books you pledged during sign up?
- Have you started or finished any of your books, but have not marked them as such?
- Do you need any help with the spreadsheet?

We all understand that life happens, but if life is going to affect which prompts are filled or not filled, please let us know as soon as possible. If we don't find out until Sunday, it may be too late to do anything about missing books/prompts.

Hope you are enjoying your books and the camaraderie! Go, team! 😁

Hi team, I just finished Fahrenheit 451 and have less than 100 pages left to finish my other book. I hope you're enjoying the readathon.