A challenge of relative ease and merriment 2017 discussion

Hey, you! Yes you. Who are you?

Tell us a bit about yourself. Were you a part of the 2016 challenge? How did that go for you?
What do you like to read? Is there something you hate to read?
Which category this year do you look most forward to, and which scares you a little bit?

Hi, My name is Sharon and I live in Souther California.
I wasn/t a part of the 2016 challenge but look forward to participating this year. I love Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Women's Murder Club by James Patterson, and mysteries set in England. Also books like Girl on The Train.
Looking forward to trying new series and authors.
"The Games Afoot".

Hi Sharon! Welcome! I'm glad you found us :D

I guess I should introduce myself as well. My name is Rebecka, but you can call me Pocki if you want. I live in southern Sweden, I'm an osteoarchaeologist and a massive geek. I'm the creator and moderator of this group and challenge, and was obviously also part of the 2016 challenge. With 6 days left of the year I am scrambling to finish.

Last year or two I've bene listening to a lot of audiobooks, and prefer non fiction for those. I like fantastical fiction and I read a decent amount of YA. I love me a romance or a cozy mystery sometimes, but not often. And I'm not a big fan of contemporary fiction (but that's not a category for 2017, yay!).

For the challenge this year it will be interesting to find a book mostly set in the desert I think, a movie adaption, and a before 1900 book. Really easy ones for me will of course be non-fiction and fantastical.

The books I look most forward to being released in 2017 are Within the Sanctuary of Wings, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and Venturess. They can all fit at least three categories (2017, sequel/prequel, and fantastical) so I guess I have those covered haha.

Let's get ready for this!

Hi, all! I'm Marissa, and I live in Louisville, KY. I'll admit to lapsing a little in the 2016 challenge, but I will absolutely try harder this year to keep up with it. :)

I like reading most genres, honestly. The only genre that I absolutely cannot stand is "New Adult". My favorites are probably mysteries, fantasy, young adult, humor, and sci-fi.

Actually looking forward to trying something in all of these categories! May have to work a little harder to find "animal on the cover", though, since I read 90% of my stuff on a kindle, but I can figure it out. ;)

Welcome Jo! And welcome back Marissa (sort of welcome back haha)!

Well good thing I didn't make New Adult a category ;)
And hey, for covers - that's what you have Goodreads for! Just read, and add it, and then suddenly you can go "wow, this book has a butterfly on the cover. Fancy that!"

I wonder.... do dragons count as animals? And what about a mechanical flying horse?

Ooh, good question. Can the animals be mythical/fictional/robotic?

I mean... I guess that's up to you yourself? I think I'm personally going to hold off and see if I can make it a normal animal. It can't be that hard. And then I know I can fall back on a robot pegasus or a dragon if need be.

Hello! I am Laura, and I am slow to introduce myself. XD I was a part of the 2016 challenge, and I think it went great; I have a lot of fun with the strategy of such things, and got around to some reads that have been on my list for awhile with the nudge toward specific genres and categories of books.

I like to read a lot of different things, including trashy memoirs and exposés, and literary fiction that makes me think! There are a number of things I hate to read. . . YA and romance are not my favorites, though I still sometimes read from them. (I always hope YA will get better; I loved "old school YA," like Lois Lowry and Robert Cormier!)

This year, I'm looking forward to the Not The First In A Series category, because I started several series in the 2016 challenge (and I think I was part of the conversation that got that category added)! I'm also looking forward to the kids' book, because I don't allow myself to read enough of those.
I'm a little afraid of the book about food. I don't want to just read a cookbook, and I'm afraid I'm going to start books that seem like they're about food, and discover that they are not. I guess I could read one of my "bread porn" books, about artisanal bread baking! It will make me hungry, but maybe I can make bread first to satiate myself. ^_^
I'm also a little afraid of the cozy mystery, because those really don't appeal to me at all, but I'm also pretty determined to actually read one and find out if I'm judging them unfairly!

I'm an over-planner, and hard at work on my possibilities list already. . . are you guys using a certain method to find books written when the author was under 30, or books that take place in deserts? I have tried just googling it, and looking at the lists here on GoodReads, but it's a little more difficult than something like "Historical Fiction," where books are commonly categorized that way!

Welcome back Laura! (even if it's not actually back)
Didn't you finish the 2016 challenge in like the first half of the year? xD

I'm really glad you're looking forward to this and to challenge yourself! I will probably end up reading a cozy mystery about food, with an animal on the cover haha. But yes, that is what this challenge is all about: force you to read at least something that you otherwise wouldn't!

I think that personally, for the first few months of the year I will just read whatever I feel like and see if it fits a category. Look at the author and see how old they might be. And well, the desert will reveal itself! But that one can get really tricky yeah...
I'm also keeping the categories in mind whenever I look at lists of books within a certain genre or reason for recommendation. Be it new sci fi, or lesbians, or "my favourite books"...

I did!! LOL--I'm very driven with certain things! ^_^

A cozy mystery about food with an animal on the cover is an excellent strategy, because you can go for whichever category excites you most, out of the three, after that. . . that's how I finished so fast, with such seemingly joyless (but actually quite fun) overthinking strategies! XD

Once I get rolling, it will probably become pretty easy, because I had plenty of "possibilities" from the 2016 challenge leftover. . . and some of them fit into the 2017 challenge, too! It's more these four days, when I don't want to "waste" anything that could fit, that I'm not sure what to read. XD

I will be interested in what people choose for LGBTQIA, btw! If You Could Be Mine is my tentative pick, but I'd love to hear about more fiction in that space.

If you want exactly such a book, may I suggest Brownies and Broomsticks?

I am still trying to finish 2016's challenge XD I'm currently reading The Alchemist as my banned book. It's short and my internet was down all afternoon so I got almost halfway. Should be able to finish. It's my last category! And I know the book that will come after can fit the fantastical fiction category for 2017. If I don't end up finishing it before the year is over!

I am looking forward to Not Your Villain, the sequel to Not Your Sidekick which I read this year. The lead in it is trans so that will definitely work. I also don't really remember where the kids that will be the leads in Down Among the Sticks and Bones fall in the possible LGBTQIA* spectrum. Probably somewhere considering the book they were introduced in. If you haven't read Every Heart a Doorway, that's a really easy fit for the category. Very good, very queer, and quite short. And everyone should read it.

Hi! I'm (clearly :P) a slightly judgmental looking and possibly evil rabbit.

I was in last year but I didn't really pay much attention at the time. Looking over my books from last year, I think I did about 13 of the categories.
I'd like to bother with it more this year... I think a lot of the categories will be easy for me, (LGBT, fantastical, non-fiction, released in '17, series, food, etc.) but biography, YA, super old books, and award winners probably not so much. I don't really read mysteries, either, usually. But who knows!
I am planning on reading more in general this year, tho besides a few important new releases I want to, shall we say, shop in my own library as much as possible. I have heaps of unreads and some I may wish to reread.

Hi possibly evil rabbit! Welcome back!

I'm sure you can get a biography and a YA in there! And Good Reads Choice Awards shouldn't be too hard either since there are several non-fiction categories and a scifi and a fantasy (I adore last year's fantasy winner for example).

Very much good luck dear! And I know of at least one book in your own library that will be easy to fit in ^.~

Ta. :)

IDK with the biography, I need to check my library. I think the Ahsoka book I got for xmas might be YA, so perhaps that will work.
Yeah I know there's lots of winners, but I'd have to...check, like, who won stuff. I don't know these things! That's haaaard. Also, it feels a bit like letting popularity dictate my readings. IDK. I'm sure I have something.

Oh, you can count books the mod bought you for Christmas? :P I wasn't sure! Either way, I def plan to have more than one for the LGBTQIA* category, easy.

Hi I'm Fiona and I'm rubbish at the introduce yourself stuff but I'm making an effort here.

I wasn't part of the 2016 challenge but I saw the list you made Pocki and thought it looked like a fun challenge. I read quite a lot but admittedly stick to the same few genres so it will be good to step out of my comfort zone.

That's about it really.

That's why I picked Goodreads Choice Awards. Cause it's so easy to get an overview of each year: https://www.goodreads.com/choiceaward...

Hehe, it's almost too easy isn't it? :P
Yeah one would hope there will be more to fit into that category. And into fantastical (where is also falls).

Pocki, you have no idea how satisfying that multi-category suggestion is to me. . . definitely putting that on my list!!

Cheering you on for finishing your last 2016 category--you can do it; you're so close!! <3

Fiona: Hi and welcome! I hope you'll like it here and that you will read and love many books you might not have considered before!

Laura: I'm glad! If you like it and read several in the series you're all set xD

Thanks! I did it about an hour or two ago! So now I can go back to my precious galaxy far far away and cry onto my tablet.

Pocki wrote: "That's why I picked Goodreads Choice Awards. Cause it's so easy to get an overview of each year: https://www.goodreads.com/choiceaward...

Hehe, it's almost too easy isn't..."

Yeah, except almost every book on there I'm remotely interested in I've already read. But there are a couple of Gaiman books I should probably at least try. But I know there's a few categories I'll fail, so I'm not gonna worry too much about it...

And actually now that I think about it, a book by someone under the age of 30 might be the worst for me. I have no idea how old most of the people who've written books I've got are! (And most of the ones I do know they're def in or beyond their 30s.) There's one, I know, by a ten year old that I might still have...but I read it already.

Same worry about under-30! I'm really bad at math, so the whole publication-date-minus-birth-year thing is a little harder than it would be for a normal person. ^_^ I have a few possibilities on my list, but I plan to google it and look for GoodReads lists soon. I might even have a pertinent Buzzfeed list bookmarked somewhere. . .
That will probably be a good overlap category with Debut Novel. . .

Yeah I think under 30 will be the trickiest. Who was it that suggested that category? XD
I'm sure you guys will find something!

It's supposed to be a challenge, so it will add a different kind of challenge to that one! XD White Teeth, for me, could work for either that or debut novel. Can't believe I haven't read it yet.

Thanks for the invite! :-) I was invited last year but truthfully, I did poorly. I haven't read this few books in a year in a very long time. I work two jobs, one of which is full time, and this is usually my excuse. But I love reading so much and I was so sad not to make enough time for it last year. Hoping to change that this year.

My name is Jenny and I live in the capital city of California, Sacramento. I work in HR during the day, and I drive for lyft by night. I have one furbaby named Kyo, who is orange and pudgy. I love chocolate, sunsets, traveling, dreaming, beer, cheese, and movies!

I love to read thrillers and historical fiction. I hate to read anything boring, and I'm not a fan of most westerns.

I look forward to this year's scary/creepy category as well as the LGBTQ+ category, two genres I enjoy. None really scare me this year, but the more difficult to find just the right book categories might give me some trouble. The animal on the cover, or a book set in the desert, to name a few.

Thanks again for including me and good luck to everyone! :-)

Well, if anyone needs a quick and sure thing for under 30: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

Also, about debut novel--does it have to have come out recently/in '17? Does the author need to only have that novel out?--it can't just be anyone's first novel, right?

Welcome Jenny! I'm sure you'll do better this year :D
(I think you forgot something in that love list. Haha jk jk... or am I?)
I think animal on the cover will just show up randomly and be a happy surprise.

As for debut novel (which we should probably put in the questions thread as well): an author's first novel. They can have written 50 novels since then, it doesn't matter.

I've read I Am Nujood! ^_~ But here's another suggestion for very quick, under-30 debut. . .
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

I did find lists on under-30s . . .
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/randomhouseo...

Pocki--and, I presume, it's okay if they've written some short stories prior... That makes it easy, ta.

Laura--thanks for the lists! I have, unread, at least four at the top of the GR list, and I could definitely also consider rereading Lies of Locke Lamora. I got the 10th anniversary edition late last year...
I love the series; totally recommend it just as good adult fantasy. (I warn it's super violent and sad in places, but I hesitate to call it grimdark b/c it's also a rather swashbuckle-y and fun. It may be both grimdark and fun.) It also works for debut novel and fantastical, along with under 30. There's two more books out in the series, too, which I also love. I'm hoping I'll be able to do the fourth for my "released in 2017"--fingers crossed it comes out!

Darth Olive wrote: "Pocki--and, I presume, it's okay if they've written some short stories prior... That makes it easy, ta.

Oh yeah yeah. We're talking novel here. Which also means fictional I'd say. I mean someone who writes their memoirs and that's all they do feels like a bit of a cheat no?

Of course I have more to add to my love list. ;-) I'm having trouble finding my original comment to see what I even wrote though! Haha

Hello guys!
I'm Sofie and I participated in 2016's challenge and I finished it :O I think the goals for 2017 looks a bit more tricky, so we'll see how I fare.
I like most genres if the books are well written, but I do not often pick up a crime/thriller unless someone makes me.

So of the 2017's challenge goals I think that "set in a desert" and "about food" will be the two hardest ones to fill. Maybe. I already have a book in mind set in a desert, but if I don't like it I don't have a back-up plan, and I have no idea where to start to look for books about food. Cookbooks?

Hi Sofie! Welcome back! And congrats on finishing 2016's challenge :D

Books about food are easy! It can be anything! I read several non fiction books last year centred around food in a historical context for example (and can think of many more I'm interested in giving a go). But it can be fiction too of course. Maybe a comedy about a chef, a romance about a chocolatier (I've read like five of those haha)? Or simply read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory :P
There are so many lists on Goodreads for different kinda of books related to food: https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...
The top one, "Food-Related Non-Fiction" is definitely what interests me the most personally. Further down the line there's one for food related mysteries (fits two tricky categories!)

Heyo! I'm Bunny. I'm from a little town in California - about a half hour east of the capital and 2 hours east of San Francisco (hi Jenny! I'm in Auburn, if you know where that is!) - and I just found this challenge by random and accident - but it looks like fun! I used to be a big reader (worked in little bookshops, read 300 books a year, that sort of thing) but have sort of slowed down in the past decade or so - real life and fanfic both diverted my attention away from books :(.

I did manage to complete my 2016 challenges though! I managed 136 books with several subchallenges just to push my reading habits, and yes, I totally finished my last book with just hours on the countdown clock! That said, I also apparently read 17 or so of the challenges set *here* for 2016 and am taking that as a sign that this is a place i should be!

I mostly read YA, mystery, and fantasy, but I do dearly love a micro-history. I also read a LOT of books about food (like, 6 or 7 of the 12 nonfiction books I read last year were about food!) and man, I'll probably read more than required in that category this year. :D If anyone wants reccomendations there, I'm super happy to help!

I did learn this last year that i don't much like ~space opera~ style science fiction and i tend to not like classics or contemporary literature very much either, which is kind of funny to me since I read a lot of sci-fi as a teenager. Hey, I guess if our tastes were static our whole lives it would get a bit boring. :P

Hi. I'm Thomas from southern Sweden.
I didn't take part last year as I've only been on Goodreads for a handful of months.
I'm mostly worried about the Choice Awards category. The first two are a bit scary too.
The rest are gonna be fun on a bun. Dune for desert, the new Jenny Lawson for biography, something Star Wars for tie in. And finally a reason to read my Mort - play version. :)

Welcome Bunny! I’m so glad you found us by accident :D And it sure sounds like you belong! Now you just have to read those categories this year too!
Sounds like we have very similar taste in books! (except for your dislike of space opera. I love me a good space opera! But that’s where my heart is for movies/tv too) We had micro histories as a category last year and I read so many of those, and some not so micro non-fiction. Favourite non-fiction about food?

And Thomas, welcome to you too! You did not find us by accident I gather ;D
That’s two of you worrying about the Awards category. I thought that one would be easy with several years and many (and changing) categories! Granted, one might’ve already read several of the winners when they came out. I’m sure you’ll find the perfect one though!
Oooh, there’s a play version of Mort? That sounds delightful! I love that book.

Good luck to both of you! (and to the rest of you I might've forgotten to say that to!)

Actually, I had a look at some old award winners and I am sure I can muster through the latest Serenity graphic novel :)

There's a bunch of discworld plays: https://www.goodreads.com/series/9930...
Apparently I already read the Mort one thou... So I have to do something else. You are welcome to borrow it if you want Pocki
:)

Why hello, hi, lovely to be here. Thanks for the invite. :D You can call me Yas, I'm from Sweden, turning Earp-heir age this year *grins* (Uhm, that's 27 for anyone wondering; I'm a dork and a geek, what can I say xD) (also, squint on lj; I have a different username on here. *waves* hi)

I will try my best to see if I can complete the challenge. I've already made it my goal that the majority of the books I read this year will have lgbtq+ characters, preferably main characters, so that category should be a breeze at least. ^^

Apologies if a reply from me sometimes takes a while; I have not consistently been on Goodreads for a loooong time and I may forget to check back in. xD (Not doing the goodreads reading challenge anymore, because it got too stressful. I just read as much as I read now. Much more relaxed.)

Thomas: I completely forgot that one won for graphic novel one year! I should read that too, even without categories.
And I might take you up on that offer! Also, I recommend the Shakespeare Star Wars plays too. So much fun!


Yas: Hi and welcome! :D Reading loads of lgbtq+ books sounds like an excellent plan! I really should read more of those. Good luck with the challenge this year!

Cathrin: Also hi and welcome! And congrats on finishing both this and the overall GR challenge for 2016! Well done :D Good luck this year!

Oh gosh! Books about food are so great. Here's five non-fiction recommendations! :D

1. American Pie is about a French-American woman journalist who roadtrips across the United States twice in search of Pie. Along the way she meets a really wide sampling of Americans who have strong feelings about pie, which happens to be my favorite dessert. This book is fun and an easy read, and if you happen to be interested in baking pie it also has some great recipes! (I tend to reread this book once a year or so, just before Thanksgiving.)

2. Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America is a look into the frankly kind of bizarre world of competitive amateur cooking contests in the United States. It's a little bit dated now, but it's highly entertaining and has a cast of real characters.

3. The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater Now I don't know who Nigel Slater is (other than kind of pretentious) but he has a real gift for writing about food. This book is straight up what it says on the tin: a diary about the food he ate over a year. It's certainly not going to be for everyone, but some of the descriptions of the food and the environment it's made and eaten in are honestly beautiful. I read this book in 10 to fifteen minute nibbles just before bed and it was so soothing and delicious.

4. Ruth Reichel's memoirs about growing up with food (Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples) were some of the first books I read in the genre and they made me hungry for more. They're sort of melancholy, sort of slow, but man, she loves food and she'll make you love food too. Garlic and Sapphires is a very very fun read about her time as the food critic for the New York Times and the disguises she came up with to do her job.

5. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food is allllmost a microhistory of American Chinese Food, but it throws some curves at you - for example, the author decides to try and find the best Chinese food restaurant in the world. It could have used a tighter edit, I won't lie, but I found the book fascinating from the first page. "Chinese" food is my second favorite variety of food (after Indian) and I really loved learning about how it evolved from actual Chinese cuisine!

Hi all! My name is Sandra and I live in Sweden, in a small village called Hovmantorp, with my family, consisting of three children and a "sambo". I work in a nearby city as a teacher for children in special needs, age 13-16.

Reading is part of my lifestyle, but the more stressed I get, the less time I spend on reading (and working out). I am a slow reader, so I tend to start more books than I finish. I don´t see the point in putting all that time in something I don´t enjoy.

As a teatcher, I read a lot of YA-books, but I do like to read most of everything. I am at the moment "done" with new Swedish crime-novels, but have found my peace in Agatha Christie and Maria Lang.

Is it ok to read more than one YA-book? Or is all the other categories adult novels?

This is all new to me, so if I am doing this all wrong, feel free to correct me, and I´ll try to do better :) And writing in English, will be a new challenge! I´m really looking forward to this challenge!

Great recs Bunny, thanks!

Hi and welcome Sandra! :D
You can read however much YA you want! The only category where you can't is "kids", as that is for an even younger audience. If you have any questions as you go along, just throw them into the Questions thread and someone (probably me to be honest) will happily answer! And don't worry, this is all for fun! I'm glad you found us, and good luck!

Hi!

I'm Carly and this is the first challenge I have been a part of. l'm also doing a personal challenge in which I read (at least) one biography a month during 2017. I have already finished "Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout" so that's one down! :)

I like to read novels with a strong sense of place, science fiction that makes me think, and nonfiction about a range of topics. I'm most concerned with finding a book written in 2017, just because those are hard to get in my library. The rest will be fun challenges.

Also, I will have fun combining this challenge with my personal biography challenge. I think I will read Julia Child's "My Life in France" for the food book, for example.

Thanks for the fun idea!

Hi Carly! Very much welcome to your first challenge :D
Sounds like a great personal challenge too! I look forward to see how many (and which) you can fit into our categories. And I'm sure your library has to get some new books! At least come fall you might get some released from spring?

Good luck!

Hey all!
I am Amanda and one of my challenges for 2017 is to do a reading challenge (along with completed 50 books, going a read-a-thon and reading more series)

This sounds prefect. I cant wait t check some things off this list! I read kids books to my daughters every night so that is already done. :)

Happy reading!

Hey Amanda. Welcome! Sounds like two challenges that combine really well :D
Good luck and have fun!

Thomas wrote: "Actually, I had a look at some old award winners and I am sure I can muster through the latest Serenity graphic novel :)

Just throwing this out there, but there's another one coming out this year, too: Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse. I read the first issue as a single; pretty good, even though I'm not a big fan of the art (same guy who does the Buffy book I basically try to ignore, for a lot of reasons including the art).

Darth Olive wrote: "Just throwing this out there, but there's another one coming..."

Nice, thanks! I just binged the show, movie and all the comics in chronological order. Will try to get a hold of the issues of this one, don't wanna wait for the tpb :)

My name is Andreas and lives in small city in the middle of Sweden . Love reading ,writing , cooking and travel . This challenge sounds like fun . And a way to get more involved in the goodreads forums .

Welcome Andreas! Glad you found us :D
I hope you'll enjoy the experience, and good luck!

My name is Jill and I live in New Mexico. I'm a children's librarian & read lots of children's books but sort of fall into the same old genres when reading adult books. It will make me a better librarian to read more widely, but I need some structure to push me along. This will be really helpful!

Hi Jill, and welcome!
I hope you'll have a great time and that the challenge will help to push you to read something you might not have otherwise! :D