Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion
2010 Challenge Archive
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December - Pick It For Me Challenge
RULES - Life is a game where everyone uses a different score sheet. But for this little segment we’ll be living together, I’d appreciate it if we all tried to use the same set of rules to make this run smoothly.1. Everything will be done in THIS thread. Please make your recommendations HERE.
2. Make sure to make your picks BEFORE the 2nd of December. If I do not hear from you in this thread or through a private message by 10pm EST, I will assume you will not be participating. I will grouse and grumble about doing work that I didn't need to do and then I will re-assign your partner to somebody else. In this particular case, earlier is definitely considered better.
3. When I was a little kid I remember staying up late to watch the 1951 black and white movie, A Christmas Carol. It scared the crap out of me. All those ghosts and death at the tombstone is pretty scary for a tyke. I may have gotten older and I’m no longer scared of the movie, but the story has stuck with me. Year after year I see some form of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Since that time of year is come to me again, we are going to be choosing based on the ghost of reading past, the ghost of reading present, and the ghost of reading future (with a bonus Tiny Tim thrown in for good measure). You can just consider me Marley’s Ghost.
4. You will be making a total of SIX (6) to EIGHT (8) picks for your pickee. Try to get as many of your picks from your pickee’s TBR list as you can. Your pickee has committed to reading ONE of the books you will recommend. If they go above and beyond and read several, we can all pat them on the head and tell them 'Good job!' If they read all of the recommended books, we can shake our heads and say, 'They need to get out more!' Picks are to be broken down along the following lines:
A. The Ghost of Reading Past -
1) list a book that you really liked that your pickee has not read (either 4 or 5 stars). Hopefully it was a book that started you down a new path or opened up a new author to you. Maybe it was the first historical romance novel that you read that caused you to lose all sense of good taste and only read HR from that point onward. ( Yeah, I’m making fun of HR. If you think this is wrong, you can volunteer next month and make fun of books I like.)
2) List a book that was recommended to you. You don’t even have to have read it. “People keep telling me I should read that but I just haven’t gotten around to it.” Or hopefully, “My neighbor gave me a Black Dagger Brotherhood book. I am so glad she did.”
B. The Ghost of Reading Present -
1) List whatever book you are currently reading, have finished in the past week, or are about to start. If your pickee has read everything that fits here, choose something from their TBR.
2) List a book that you received as a present or bought as a present. (I’m perfectly aware that is not the same meaning of ‘present’. After all one does not need to be present to present a present at present.)
C. The Ghost of Reading Future -
1 & 2) list two choices from your pickee’s TBR shelves. Many people take the time to list books here that they have purchased or are actually planning on reading. If you can help them get through this list then you have done your good deed for the day. Some of us don’t keep a TBR at all. For us, just pick something you think they would like – sorry no good deed token for this one.
D. The Tiny Tim factor (totally optional but a worthwhile challenge)
1) List a book that neither you nor your pickee has read. If the pickee chooses this book, you are also committed to reading the same book by the end of the month.
2) List a book that you have read but your pickee has not. If the pickee chooses this book, you are also committed to re-reading the same book by the end of the month.
Well, that's it!
Please set your profiles to PUBLIC until the 2nd of December. If the person does not have a public profile, it's probably because of a good reason. Send them a friend request and they should accept without a problem.
Any questions or problems, let me know!
Jim
The List: So far the challenge has been open about 24 hours and 43 people have their picks so far. Not bad. Let's shoot for 100% so I don't have to give anybody dirty looks for not posting pics.1. Annie A Mad Hamster /
2. Sue /
3. Dawn /
4. Melissa
5. Yz the Whyz /
6. Kerste /
7. Kami /
8. Sandy /
9. Amanda /
10. Valerie
11. Elke /
12. Annvelwis /
13. Delicious Dee Challenge Addict /
14. BJ Rose /
15. Polina /
16. Tatiana /
17. Corrupt
18. Caty /
19. KimKirt /
20. Debbie /
21. FlibBityFLooB /
22. Pollyanna /
23. Gigi /
24. Carolyn F /
25. Britta /
26. PhotoJim /
27. Katherine /
28. Macwolf 01
29. Cathy /
30. Nandar /
31. Allison /
32. Angelique X
33. Ari /
34. Sara /
35. Sheswitches /
36. Rachel /
37. Katie (NV - Joined Dec 09) /
38. Lady Leah
39. Regina /
40. Lili /
41. Dalmation29 /
42. Inga /
43. Penney /
44. Diane-Firefly /
45. Melanie X
46. Fran /
47. Jenny /
48. Ang the Saucy Aussie /
49. Sabrina-Fair /
50. Katie (CA - Joined Apr 10)
51. Joyce /
52. Jackie /
53. Pam /
54. AshleyAlexis /
55. Drq /
56. Rebecca /
57. Miss /
58. Courtney /
59. Denise S /
60. Becky /
61. CoffeeNTea /
62. Tricia /
63. Rachel
64. Freya
65. Gail /
66. Megan /
67. Tania /
68. Ann Munson /
69. Emily
70. Moondust
71. Jade Larios /
(/ indicates has picks
X indicates is done)
through #258
Pairings -As some of you probably noticed I've listed everyone in the order they joined Goodreads. Each person is assigned a user number when they sign up. The higher the number, the more recent the member. So look at the list. Everyone above you joined before you. Everyone below you joined after. (Don't worry Jade, many people have joined since you did. They just didn't sign up for this challenge.)
People are being paired by your closest neighbor. Every odd number picks for the even number below them. Every even number picks for the odd number above them. Simple right? You don't really want me to type out the list do you?
So for further explanation:
1. Annie a Mad Hampster picks for 2. Sue
2. Sue picks for 1. Annie a Mad Hampster
and so on and so forth through
69. Emily picks for 70. Moondust
70. Moondust picks for 69. Emily.
(Jade, I'm having someone pick for you and you don't even have to go through and pick for anybody yet. If someone doesn't come through, you'll be first in line to make recs to somebody.)
Yeah! I'm in for December.
I'm in for December! You might want to check the dates on December post...10/29 and 11/2
Dates? I have no idea of what you people are talking about *whistles innocently*
I'm in!
Photojim wrote: "Dates? I have no idea of what you people are talking about *whistles innocently*"Isn't cut and paste a wonderful thing? Like spell check :)
i'm in! this will be my first one over here:) i'm rather excited!
So glad you are here Katie, great group of readers do this challenge, Welcome!Katie wrote: "i'm in! this will be my first one over here:) i'm rather excited!"
Debbie wrote: "So glad you are here Katie, great group of readers do this challenge, Welcome!Katie wrote: "i'm in! this will be my first one over here:) i'm rather excited!""
thanks debbie!
I'll get caught up on the list tomorrow night when I get home from work. In the meantime, it's good to see so many sign up so quickly. And here I was worried because everyone always seems so rushed during the holiday season.And yes there will be a new set of rules for this month too. Don't worry, you'll still get something new and something from your TBR shelf.
For those of you who are new to this, there will be a set of rules for choosing a selection of books for the person you are paired with on the 30th of this month (maybe late on the 29th). You will pick a selection of books for your prospective pickee. Someone will also have a selection for you. You are then charged with the task of reading ONE of the books from the list by the end of December. Make sure you stop back and tell us what you thought once you are done.
That's it. Pretty easy. But the best part is you often find yourself reading something that you would not normally pick up. Opening yourself to a new author or even a new genre is one of the true rewards of this challenge.
Jim! In! Couldn't you have assumed? I'll let it slide. ;-)
As always...I am in again Jim!! Sorry I am a little late to respond!!
Excited for another month! Almost January.=O
I'll update tonight. Just got home from work and will get everyone on the list.I'm feeling a bit Dickensian right now. Maybe the rules will be changed to follow this through. Don't worry, I'm not thinking Ms. Havisham plotting her revenge against everybody and then going out in a blaze. I'm actually thinking more holiday inspired.
I'm in even though I have not quite finished my last month yet. It's a good thing I don't do anything for Thanksgiving. I'm rewarding myself with some reading time. I'm limiting my challenges this month. I signed up for too many last month. I think this is my favorite one though. You gals...and guys rock!!!!
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Yeah, I am so excited to be hosting this challenge again !! (And yes, I'm stealing Debbie's opening word for word. If it's done right, why bother re-doing it?)
What's a Pick-It-For-Me Challenge?
It's a group recommend a book thing - works just like a Secret Santa or Xmas Exchange, except that the gift is replaced by a book recommendation. Just like in Secret Santa, the givee-giver pairings are randomly assigned (unless noted, during sign up). So whomever you get, you recommend a book for them. In return, you'll have a book recommended to you (some options are given, to choose from). After you're done reading your Pick-It-For-Me book, a short post with some feedback - a mini-review of sorts would be appreciated.
For this challenge, you need either HAVE YOUR PROFILE SET TO PUBLIC (preferable) or make the person who'd be doing the recommending to you, your friend. On top of that, I strongly advise keeping your bookshelves updated, otherwise you might end up with a recommendation for something that you have already read.
Signing up period will remain open until the 29th of November. You'll have time until ~ the 2nd of December to make your recommendations. Everything will be done in this thread so check it often. Also, please be sure you really want to participate. Once I pair up people, it makes it difficult to re-pair when someone decides not to participate.