The Book Monsters discussion

Rules
1. All challenges must be completed in the month it is for.
2. This Challenge is just for fun, so make sure you enjoy yourself and all the books you will be reading!
3. All books must be at least 100 pages long to count for any of the tasks, unless otherwise noted in the task.
4. Re-reads count, unless otherwise noted in the task.
5. Audio books and electronic books (unabridged), such as Kindle, all count for this Challenge. Page counts will be according to the Good Reads page count.
6. The member with the most points will win a prize from a stack of giveaway books. If there is a tie in points, it will be defined by most pages read next.

Tasks:
1. Read the monthly read and add to the discussion. (10 points)
2. Read a book in the monthly genre: Dystopian is August's genre. (5 points)
3. Read a book in the monthly theme: August is National Runaway Prevention Month - read a book where the main character runs away from home. (5 points)
4. Winner's choice task - since there hasn't been a winner yet so, I will choose a task: Read two books in the same series. (10 points)

Extra points:
After you have completed a task, you may complete it again with a different book that fits the same task for 1 point per book read for the task.

Also, if you start or contribute to a discussion under the genre boards for task 2-4, you can claim 5 points.

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Leave any questions below and when you post points please include the task, title, author, and page count. Thanks!

Sounds like fun!

Love love love this idea. Dystopian is not normally my thing, but I might just need to pick one up for this.

There are some good ones out there. :) If you can find a dystopian themed graphic novel or manga I would count that as well Alyssa. :)

Yeah, I need to get out of my book comfort zone (lol). My brother has been bugging me to read Uglies and Hunger Games for years now, so perhaps it's time for me to give in and pick one up.

Though if you have any recommendations for a dystopian graphic novel/manga I'm totally open for suggestions. You know my weakness for GNs.

Alyssa (The Shady Glade) wrote: "Yeah, I need to get out of my book comfort zone (lol). My brother has been bugging me to read Uglies and Hunger Games for years now, so perhaps it's time for me to give in and pick one up. Th..."

You have to read Uglies NOW!!!

Alyssa (The Shady Glade) wrote: "Yeah, I need to get out of my book comfort zone (lol). My brother has been bugging me to read Uglies and Hunger Games for years now, so perhaps it's time for me to give in and pick one up.

Th..."

You really should try both. Even if you don't like dystopian, they are both so much more than that- real pieces of literature filled with adventure, treachery, romance, suspense- great stuff!

Alyssa, I would say try out Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned. It's really more post-apocolyptic but I'd count it under dystopian. Basically all the men die but one and his pet monkey and it follows his adventures. tons of fun.

You need to read UGLIES NOW!!!!!! Seriously. :)

Now, I have to go find something Dystopian in my stash of books. I'm not sure if I have anything. (I've already read Hunger Games and Uglies series.)

I also need to look and see if I have a runaway book.

I'm really going to have to think about this. With all the books on my floor, surely I can find some things for this challenge. :)

@Lady Ozma you should read Unwind for the runaway book! It is super fantastic and YOU ABSOLUTELY need to read it!!

Is there anywhere we need to list our challenges? Or do we just list there here?

@Dee Is this the reproductive rights book? I don't know that i can read that. Just the synopsis infuriates me!!!!! Especially that "tithe" kid thing. I don't know if you are familiar with donor siblings/savior siblings but it is disgusting and horrifying. My oldest child had cancer and I was actually asked if I would consider having another child as an option to donate organs for my oldest. *SHUDDER* *note my son is 9 years cancer free yay but he lost a kidney and part of a lung and had to have a lot of blood transfusions. Also noted, I was not asked to do this by any one in the medical profession handling my sons case, thank goodness*

You can just list them here Dee. I've been meaning to read Unwind for a while now, maybe I will use that one in the runaway challenge. :)

Kristen wrote: "You can just list them here Dee. I've been meaning to read Unwind for a while now, maybe I will use that one in the runaway challenge. :)"

Unwind is amazing- you should pick it up.

I will be starting off with Ahsfall a new dytopian novel coming out soon. I am anxious to read it. Unwind is an awesome book Kristen and was on our Book Battle list a coupe of years ago. I have heard that a sequel was coming out too.

Hmmm, can I count Buffy Season 8 Graphic novels as "Dystopian"? HAHAHA

I read the first two at the end of July and am sitting here with the rest and want to go ahead and read them. I'm enjoying them. And really, I'm just trying to stuff the library summer reading box so I can win the grand prize. Which I don't even know what is. But I have heavy competition. From my mother. ;)

Lady Ozma wrote: "@Dee Is this the reproductive rights book? I don't know that i can read that. Just the synopsis infuriates me!!!!! Especially that "tithe" kid thing. I don't know if you are familiar with donor si..."

I completely understand Lady Ozma. I myself have dealt with cancer and have a hard time understanding having a child to take care of another child. But from a literature standpoint it is a great read.

Just to clarify for Task 3 and 4, do the books used need also be in the monthly genre (i.e. dystopian this month)? Or can they be any genre? Working on my goals... :)

Kate wrote: "You have to read Uglies NOW!!!"

Yeah, the funny thing is that I actually own all 4 books, I just haven't read them yet.

Lady Ozma wrote: "@Dee Is this the reproductive rights book? I don't know that i can read that. Just the synopsis infuriates me!!!!! Especially that "tithe" kid thing. I don't know if you are familiar with donor si..."

Yea. Basically, a parent can decide to "unhave" their child. It is an emotional book that is for sure. But wonderful at the same time. I loved it.

Alyssa, that's not so funny. I've got books like that. :)

Kate, hmmm. I'm not sure I can deal with the "unhave" aspect either. Yikes. Throw away kids are on the rise due to the economy. :( I'm usually pretty tough but this sounds like a book that might make me all kinds of angry. I try to limit how many books I throw against walls. ;)

Kate, hmmm. I'm not sure I can deal with the "unhave" aspect either. Yikes. Throw away kids are on the rise due to the economy. :( I'm usu..."

Don't blame you for that. I think you might be able to handle it until the endish. There is just one chapter that BLEW my mind. I had to reread it because I was just dumbfounded.

Interesting. Maybe. I mean hunger games is that way. Off the base synop you have children muredering children. That is fairly vile in thought. But it is a really great series with plenty to think about and some mind blowing sections. :-)

I might try a sample if it is available in ebooks. I definitely don't want to spend money... and right now I'm banned from the library due to my fines. Hehehe I'm terrible abt returning in a timely fashion. Wish they did more ebooks!

@Lady Ozma, have you considered paying to use another library? I know here in Denton if you are not a resident and you want to use the library it is $40 a year, and they have a ton of ebooks! Something to consider...

Question! Do all of our books for the challenges need to be YA? Or can we answer one of our challenges with an adult novel?

I looked at my library and while they have unwind, it is all checked out so i can't look at it here. and since I have so many fines, I can't reserve. but I just pucked up a ticket to expunge one off my record. Woot! I also looked for nevermore, the monthly read and they don't have it! which is a shame since as a proper va girl and nerd, I love Poe! :-) I actually worked a convention here, Ravencon. :-) bummer.

as for libraries, we are not reciprical with any which is a shame. and instead of using overdrive, they use net library. it seems heavy on audio books but I can never find e-books. I never even try anymore. I mean I've tried nyt bestseller list books and no dice. laaaaaaaaame. I wish that I had options because I'd also like the perk of Rosetta stone which my library also does not offer. my library system is great, but they haven't kept up with population explosion we had or tech. but hey, we have self check out finally after years of me asking for it!

but you may have seen my librarians on YouTube singing "we will survive" hehehe

the problem is we take up such a large area that I have to drive 45 minutes to even find another system and then we aren't reciprical like the library systems even closer to DC.

Hmmm! Well that is a complete bummer! My only consolation would be that if you found a library that had an extensive eBook selection you wouldn't have to drive to it...like NYPL, you can pay to access their eBooks and let me tell you it is WAY worth it!

Alyssa - for Tasks 3 & 4 they can be any genre as long as it fits the challenge. :)

Dee - We left it open to adult novels too. We know not everyone reads just strictly YA. :)

Lady Ozma - That stinks about your library. I'm lucky to live in the suburbs of chicago where I can drive 20 minutes in any direction and find a good 15 different libraries. We normally just go to two libraries though, our home library and then one about 15 min away which has an awesome YA and video game section. I hope you have some better luck finding books at yours in the future!

Va is weird. I'm sure it has to do with the commnwealth aspect. But it just so happens my library is a regional one that takes up several areas. DC traffic being what it is, hauling myself to the next library system is a pain. And involves careful planning. Welcome to the DC metro area. :)

But I asked my librians and apparently my library realized how lame netlibrary was. She even complained about it. So they JUST picked up something I've never heard of and are getting overdrive in the fall. Yay.

She said, "we're getting there". And smiled. We actually have a fantastic library, just don't get me started but the state is ridiculous in embracing technology. Go figure with AOL up the road and blackberries pretty much getting their start here. I mean I had a cell phone in high school 20 years ago!

@Alyssa: I agree with Kristen. Y: The Last Man is an amazing GN series. I highly recommend it!

These tasks give me the perfect excuse to put down review books and finally read The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. Finding a runaway book will be a bit harder...

1. Read the monthly read and add to the discussion:
Nevermore

2. Read a book in the monthly genre: Dystopian

The Maze Runner +5 pts!

3. Read a book in the monthly theme: August is National Runaway Prevention Month

Unwind +5 pts!

4. Winner's choice task: Read two books in the same series

The Hollow

The Haunted

Have you already read all of those? Wow!

No! I will be editing the post by crossing them off as I complete them!! My goodness no! I wish!

HAHA OK. I was gonna make you my new hero. :) Though I finished my first book today. I'm still trying to figure out what to do for the challenge.

I read Nevermore and added discussion: 10 points
I read Blood Red Road: 5 points

Just finished Ashfall by Mike Mullen. Very realistic dystopian novel. Could use some suggestions for a runaway book.

Here's some runaway suggestions:

Museum of Thieves
Snow: A Retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
A True Princess
Lena
Maniac Magee
The Black Book of Secrets
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Ten Mile River
Alis
Solace of the Road
Absolutely Maybe
Little Grrl Lost (Newford Book 20)
Shattered
Troubadour
Nickel Plated

Kapri, did you read Nevermore this month?

So it pays to have a friend who works at the local high school in the library. :)

She gave me two great books to give a world for dystopian fun. Because dystopian is all kinds of fun!

I now have "Unwind" (she insists it's great. So great she got the library an autographed copy) and "Shipbreaker."

She also gave me Nevermore. :)

Yay go librarian friends! :)

Pretty much what I said. And I've been super swamped today so all I've read is the bill of rights in Unwind. Which appears to be the shortest of the books so I chose to read it first. Though I really want to read the Nevermore one. But it's really fat. And I'm swamped all weekend so I want to see progress in my reading. ;)

I read Unwind. It's Runaway/Dystopian. Take your pick. So I have 5 points! :) Yay! And yeah this book infuriated me. But it was good.

Alright I read Jack of Fables: The New Adventures of Jack and Jack (128 pages) and Jack of Fables: The Fulminate Blade (128 pages) for task #4.

Total points: 10
Pages read: 256

Here is the leaderboard so far:

Dee 10 points, 714 pages
Kristen 10 points, 256 pages
Jan 5 points, 466 pages
Kapri 5 points, 459 pages
Lady Ozma 5 points, 335 pages

Kristen, just curious, is there a reason you keep track of pages? I've got another friend that does that. I've been curious by the tracking of pages since I saw her doing that. (She did it when she made the goal to read 100 books in one year.)

For the challenge it's a tie-breaker is really the reason I'm doing it. :)

That makes sense. :)

I've got some more to add. Do you want me to edit my other comment or make a new one?

Easier for me if you update with new comments. :)

Oh and remember if you start a discussion thread for books you've read under the genre folder you get an extra 5 points. :)

So let's say I wanted five extra points, I could start a thread under Graphic Novels for Jack of Fables. :)

Then I'll make a new comment. :) Hmmm, NICE!!! I should go start a thread for that Unwind book. :)

Hey I had a question. What if you read three books in a series?