Urban Fantasy discussion

In another group that I participate in, we've recently started doing monthly or bi-monthly book challenges. I am having a lot of fun doing this and it got me thinking:

"Would anyone in the Urban Fantasy Group be interested in participating in a bi-monthly Book Reading Challenge?"

So... I'm throwing this out to you all, what do you think? Is this something that would interest you?

If so, any suggestions on guidelines? Such as:
-How many books to each challenge? 3, 4, 5, etc...
-A certain theme (vampires, werewolfs, fae, etc; or historical vs current vs futuristic; or...?) for each bi-monthly period?
-Only Urban Fantasy titles or all fantasy genres? Or no specific genre required?

In the meantime, I'm going to set up a poll to get a general idea of the overall opinion on this challenge idea. Feel free to add your vote to the poll as well as letting me know your thoughts in this topic.


(Note: IF it is decided that we should try a Book Challenge, it will be completely voluntary. No participation required if you aren't interested!)

I'm interested, although I suck at them. How about bi-monthly to start. I like the thematic ones. Maybe have the members read 5 books:
witch
vampire
Greek Mythology
atypical legend
Arthurian

Just examples.

I think it would be cool. I certainly need some encouragement to read all the uf titles I continually accumulate.

I would be interested. My only problem is I get books from the library for the most part. So if there is a longer time frame then it is easier for me to request ones that I want to read that would fit the parameters.

I like a longer time frame as well.

I'm interested too and I like a longer time frame also.

How about quarterly challenges? That gives everyone 3 months to read. Maybe have 7 categories and let everyone pick a level of participation - 3,5 or 7 depending on how fast they read and their schedule.

That sounds great to me.

I love that idea, Sandy.

I like Sandy's idea as well.

Danielle & Darcy, how long? More than 2 months?

I really like Sandy's idea, of doing challenges over three months with several categories.

I am good with 2 months or long if you have more categories and things to pick from. If it is just 1 I can usually find something within a month and read it. But a different group has 11 categories, but there are 6 months to finish it so no problem.

Ditto with Sandy...quarterly challenges with different levels of participation! Great idea!

I, too, like Sandy's idea... how about suggestions for more categories?

Would it be limited to UF and fantasy or any genre?

I think since this group is UF and fantasy it should be those genre's. As for categories, I am not sure. What are the most popular themes that run through this genre or if it was quarterly could be a tie in to the months or holidays.

Quarterly sounds good and the themes Danielle suggested sound good to me as well

Theresa wrote: "Danielle & Darcy, how long? More than 2 months?"

Three months sounds good.

I was just throwing out themes. I'm sure we could think of some other ones. Definitely werewolf. :)

Sure. Sounds good. I partisipate in the romantic one and sometimes it a big stretch catogorizing some of my book for example as romantic, but it is urban/rural fantasy or maybe dark fantasy or horror, if growing horns and hearing everyones evil dirty thoughts counts as urban fantasy.

How about if we did something like this:

Over the course of a 3 month period, read the following books-

Urban Fantasy: 2 books with a vampire, werewolf, witch, or fae character or set in a UF world with some other mythical character or skill set
Other Fantasy Genre (not UF): 1 book
Other: 1 book by an author you've never read before (expanding your horizons!) - preferably fantasy based

The only trick is that you have to already own the book, be able to get it at the library, or borrow it during those three months. Now, if you don't have any books on your TBR shelf at home or don't have access to a library, then I guess, pick up four new books if you wish.

I would think this would make the challenge VERY easy and it would have the additional benefit of helping clean out a couple of titles from your TBR list.

What do you think?

I think that sounds good. The categories are broad enough that most people should be able to fill them and still read something they'll enjoy. I've done a few challenges where the categories were so restrictive that I couldn't finish them because I couldn't find anything to fit that I wanted to read. And I definitely need to reduce my TBR piles.

Sounds good. Easy beans!

I like the idea, Theresa.

Ok, am I gonna sound silly if I ask what exactly goes into a book challange? I saw Theresa's post about 3 months to read 4 books (2 UFs, 1 non-UF fantasy, 1 new to you author). Is that all that goes into it? How do we join/post results? Sorry, this is the first group I really participate in here, and I've never done a challange before.

I think it sounds good Theresa!!

Lisa,

Usually there is a thread in the group for the challenge. You just post the list of what you're going to read and then update the list as you read the books. You just have to pick books that fit the categories of the challenge.

Sandy wrote: "Lisa,

Usually there is a thread in the group for the challenge. with the dates the challenge will run for. You just post the list of what you're going to read and then update the list as you rea..."

Thank you Sandy! This sounds fun. :)

4 books in 3 months? I'm in.

I'm with Charlotte, 4 books in 3 months, from my TBR shelf, what could be easier! If I tried I could do it in a week, but I'm not going to do that.

Let's see, two urban fantasy, one fantasy, one new to me writer. YEAH!

Are we going to start on April 1st? That would be the start of the next quater.

Sandy wrote: "Are we going to start on April 1st? That would be the start of the next quater."

Yep, I'll be setting up the topic shortly. :)