The Reading Challenge Group discussion

It's November, and time to start looking forward to next year's challenges. We love to hear from you, so here's a chance to let us know what you'd like to see from the group in 2018.

1. Which challenges have you enjoyed the most?
2. Which would you like to see repeated?
3. Would you make any changes to existing challenges if you could?
4. Do you have any ideas for new challenges?
5. How did you like the monthly theme challenge? Should we do this again next year, or try something different?

I like the Anti-alphabet, Let's Have Pie, and the Chunkster challenges the best for Year Long.
For Maxi challenges, I really like the Seasonal Bingo.
And all the fun mini-challenges, too, of course.

And how could I have forgotten the TBR challenge? I need that one!

Totally agree with Rosemarie, I've thoroughly enjoyed all the challenges in which I've taken part. All the alphabets, monthly, yearly etc. Love them all! 📚😃✒

Dust the shelf was most helpful. I read all of my Goodreads TBR list from 2016. I really like the seasonal Bingo. Adding a board with pictures might add more fun. Maybe add some options to the Bingo square. I really liked the monthly theme challenge. It is fun to see what everyone is reading. This group is very helpful, everyone does an awesome job.

I love Bookopoly and the TBR Challenge. I would like to do them again next year.

Buyer’s remorse was my favorite!

Tbr challenge

I really enjoyed the challenges. New to Goodreads during January, the challenges helped me to get involved & also try a wider variety of books. But more recently I've realised I didn't plan the challenges properly so need to plan differently next year.

Really like the Bingos & some of the year-long challenges (bookopoly, popsugar, etc).

I’m not as much of a fan of the voting on the monthly theme - or at least would like it if we voted for all at the beginning of the year. For me, monthly voting makes planning my reading harder. Also because I use the theme to fill out most of my month’s reading, some of the themes were so narrow that it made it difficult to find something to fit. I also liked it better when the monthly challenge were genres versus themes (so romances or sci-fi or humor versus family or royalty or school ).

I see what you mean about the monthly themes, Cindy. It is hard to plan reading that way, sometimes. I did enjoy the fact that we chose our own books around the themes, though.
Maybe if we could have a different genre/type of book each month, but choose our own books, so that we could reduce our own TBR list.

I think that I'm much more likely to have something in a genre because I like so many - but might not have much in a particular theme. So I don't read much about royalty (maybe a few every now and then) but I read a lot of romances and thrillers and mysteries and nonfiction and history and...well, you get the idea. I might not be able to read on a particular subject...but I can go for a while on most genres (unless it's really, really niche).

I enjoyed most of the challenges I participated in and would like to see them again, maybe with a few new tossed in, but my favorites were definately the bingos, and bookopoly.

I've been thinking the same thing, Cindy. Maybe we should bring back the genre list so we don't need to do any voting, but keep the freedom to choose whichever books you want to read within those.

For Bookopoly, I would remove the 'set in the future' category and replace it by 'book borrowed from the library or someone else'.

Allison wrote: "It's November, and time to start looking forward to next year's challenges. We love to hear from you, so here's a chance to let us know what you'd like to see from the group in 2018.

1. Which cha..."

I did follow the monthly genre picks more than the theme choices. I find it hard to know the theme of a book before I read it. So I would like to see the genre challenge back.

Candy wrote: "I find it hard to know the theme of a book before I read it. ..."

I agree, unless it's a really obvious theme, it's hard to know ahead of time.

It was my first year reading with you all....I've enjoyed everything! I especially enjoy the challenges. I only wish I had more time available TO read!
Thank you all for what you do to make this group enjoyable!

I love the Bingos and I really enjoyed the anti alphabet challenge and the featherweight one and obviously the tbr goals for the year!

I finished already my challenge and ready to set new one
I am willing to read in german as I started learning it.. any recommendation (It should be good and easy please guys)

Hi, Loubna. Your question would be better in another thread. The "Chit Chat" thread might be a good place to ask for book recommendations. Thanks!

Know it’s late to weigh in.
I love the Personal Challenge, the Anti Alphabet. Anything Alphabet, really!
I’m already planning to do more challenges in 2018. Bring ‘em on!
How about a Bingo which is all Fiction ...Settings, Characters, Decades, Themes, Endings...but no genres?

I don’t always comment but I like reading others’ Personal Challenges for ideas.

Thanks Everybody, for making it fun!

Definitely not too late yet, Linda!

I enjoyed the Bookopoly challenge this year. I wanted to participate in the Chunkster, Pie, and Serial challenges but I signed up for so many Bingo challenges that I couldn't participate as much as I wanted. I am avoiding Bingo like the plague next year (I think) and hope to do challenges that encourage me to read my own books or use books that are on my TBR list.

By the way, this is my favorite challenge forum. The variety is wonderful.

Aww! Thank you, Martha! That was really nice to hear. :)

I really like the variations of the ABC challenges.

Ok, here's what I propose for the monthly genres. There's still time for feedback, but keep in mind that I tried to make the categories broad so that it'll be easy for everyone to find something to read.

January: Contemporary / Literary Fiction
February: Romance / Chick Lit
March: Mystery
April: Fantasy
May: Comedy / Tragedy
June: Travel / Survival / Adventure
July: Young Adult / Middle Grade
August: Science Fiction / Dystopia
September: Historical Fiction
October: Horror / Thriller / Paranormal
November: Classics
December: Children’s

That looks good to me.

Looks great!

I really like it.

I have an idea for a year-long challenge!
I came across this blog post about the 430 books found in Marilyn Monroe's personal library after her death. Apparently she was a closet bookworm!

So I was thinking maybe we could pick whatever number of books from the list and read them?

Camille wrote: "I have an idea for a year-long challenge!
I came across this blog post about the 430 books found in Marilyn Monroe's personal library after her death. Apparently she was a closet bookworm!"

Wow, I'll never think of her the same way again. Just seeing pictures of her with books changes her whole persona.

Camille wrote: "I have an idea for a year-long challenge!
I came across this blog post about the 430 books found in Marilyn Monroe's personal library after her death. Apparently she was a closet bookworm!

So I wa..."
Interesting The Monroe Challenge. Also interesting one of the books was a biography of her.

I would suggest a challenge like the Chunkster and Doorstopper for books over 1000 pages. I feel like they rate a special caragory, since they are as long as a doorstopper and chunkster put together.

Jenny wrote: "I would suggest a challenge like the Chunkster and Doorstopper for books over 1000 pages. I feel like they rate a special caragory, since they are as long as a doorstopper and chunkster put together."

I could go for that. I was thinking the same thing when I looked at my 1000 page books - need extra credit for those :)

What could be bigger than a doorstopper??

I called really big books Weighty Tomes, but that is not terribly catchy.

I kind of like that, Rosemarie.

I like that, too.

This is just me, playing with words for alternatives...

Backbreaker?
Bicep-Builder?
Flower-Flattener?
Shelf-Bender?
Table-Tipper?

I like Backbreaker, as Doorstopper and Chunky Chunkster are used in other groups.

Backbreaker sounds good.

This is not one to use, but I have to share it for fun.
Toecrusher, what happens when you drop it on your foot. 😩

Oh, I like Toecrusher too!

I like them all, but I am partial to Shelf Bender myself.

That sounds scary, Jenny, but very descriptive.

Shelf bender sounds great. I could see that as the next step after doorstopper.

Sonia, that one is macabre. (I love cats)

I vote for Shelf Bender!
Kitten Squisher is so horrible, wonder who comes up with those...

Shelf bender it is! I've set up a new challenge for it.

Kitten squisher... what a terrible name. I could maybe go for spider squisher though. :D

Literally laughing out loud. So very wrong.... and never leaving my mind. Especially since my kittys' favorite time to insist on pettings is when I've just picked up a book or ereader.

Kitten squisher! It's horrible (I adore cats) but it made me chuckle. Shelf bender is good. Or even shelf cracker!

Yes, definitely shelf bender, please - my cat will make me leave the group if we use the alternative!