bailey’s Comments (group member since Jan 17, 2020)

bailey’s comments from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.

This thread will remain locked until November 25th.

ADVENT CALENDAR CHALLENGE
Duration: December 1 - December 31, 2025

The Advent Calendar Challenge is back as a yearly tradition! Celebrate the magic of December one page at a time. Inspired by the excitement of advent calendars — a countdown filled with daily surprises — this challenge invites you to make reading a joyful part of your December routine. Whether you enjoy festive tales, cozy reads, or winter wonders, there’s a way for every reader to join the fun.

To join, post a message telling the challenge leader how many books you plan to read. If you are new to our group and/or our group challenges, take a moment to check out the Yearly, Quarterly, Monthly Challenges - Start Here thread for more information on how our challenges are run.

For this challenge, there are two options:

A) Starting on December 1 and ending on December 24, read a short story (or poem or essay) every day. Use stories or poems from collections, magazines, or the internet — there's plenty of good short fiction available for free from many publishers.

B) Starting on December 1: Split a novel into 24 chunks and portion your reading so that you read the last chunk on December 24. (Ideally, the novel has 24 chapters! But as long as you can divide it into fairly even sections, it'll work.)

If you'd rather keep reading past the 24th, you're welcome to continue through the end of the month!

We are seeking someone to lead this challenge. Please send a message if you would like to volunteer. Thanks!

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Progress: 50 / 50

JennH wrote: "I hope you've read a bunch more great reads, bailey!

What did you think of the Black Butler manga series? It was recommended to me. I'll be on the lookout for it when I go the library next."

I loved the anime on Netflix as a kid so the manga series holds a really special place in my heart <3 I of course love it just as much as the show and definitely recommend it to anyone else who loves dark, moody, gothic stories but with occasional comedic relief. Let me know what you think of it if you do pick it up!

Updated through Message #176 on Oct 01, 2025.

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Updated through Message #433 on Aug 10, 2025.

Hello again, Serial Readers! I apologize for my absence but everyone's challenges have been updated now and we should be getting back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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Progress: 21 / 15

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Progress: 44/ 50

Just After Sunset

Wow! Everyone did such a great job. I’m so proud of my team and everyone else that helped make this readathon so fun!

Congratulations to all the individual winners, too!!

All my books should be in the spreadsheet!

Thank you so much to Janine and Lisa Marie for leading our team and to everyone else for being such awesome teammates!! I had a ton of fun reading alongside you all, I hope to see you in future readathons! ☺️

Great job, Tome Travellers!!

I’m on track to finish The Great Gatsby today (about 1.5h listening time left) but I probably won’t finish anything else today. I’ve had such a great time reading with you all and getting caught back up on my reading challenges. This has been an incredible team to be a part of and I’m so grateful for all of you 🤗

Ended up starting Gatsby last night so I’m definitely on track to finish it by Sunday! Are there any other prompts we need help with? I can try and find a quick audiobook to squeeze in for the end of my weekend.

Janine wrote: "Thank you both!

Bailey if you are able to listen to the Great Gatsby for 1920s (swapped with Skeleton Crew for two or more time periods), and Mary if you read The Queen's Accomplice for 1940s (swa..."

This is fantastic! I’ve finished The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Carrot Cake Murder. I’ll go update the spreadsheet now. Almost done with I Was a Teenage Slasher so I’ll be starting The Great Gatsby hopefully tomorrow!

Jennifer wrote: "So with audiobooks, we go by the hardcover page count, but what about with e-books? Many e-books have more "pages" than the hardcover, but they contain the same content. I have been tracking the ha..."

Great question! I would say the kindle edition that you’re reading (with the same ISBN) would be the preferred edition for page count. So the page count according to goodreads rather than the number that your device calculates. I always encourage readathoners to use your best judgment and if the page count feels wildly off one way or another do what you think is the most fair.

This is just my answer while Theresa is temporarily unavailable. When she returns she may want to change things up. I hope you and your team are having fun reading regardless! 😄