You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

The mods were approached with a proposal for a special event. She was so excited about the idea that we decided to let her run with it. She calls it "Speed Dating".

But where could we put this? We don't have a section for Special Events. It's not a challenge. It's not a toppler... a buddy read... a group read. But, we will be chit chatting about books (our dates) so we thought this folder would be the best.

It's my pleasure to introduce our Master of Ceremonies, Thing Two! Tell us all about Speed Dating!

*this is the brainchild of Goodreads member Jenny (Reading Envy)

SPEED DATING? Yup, it’s just what you’re thinking. You don’t have to actually commit to the book(s) for this game, and are free to move on when you come across a real dud.



Look through your house and collect a stack of books you have been meaning to read; the ones collecting dust on your shelves; the ones your grandmother said “Honey, you’ll just love this one!” way back in 1984. We’re going to help you get them off of your shelves!

Any book is eligible, providing you own a copy of the book, audio, or e-book. Sorry, library books will not work this time. We’re looking for books lying around the house. The ones under your bed, inside the closet, leveling out the Christmas tree stand every year. (Wait, people do that with books?!?!)

Read fifty pages of each book you select. If you hate it, discard it. If you like it, save it for later (it might show up as a bonus part in next month’s challenge if the stars align properly). If you read fifty pages of four bad books, you’ll make room for four new books! Of course, you may read as many or as few fifty-page segments as you’d like, but you must read fifty pages of at least one book to participate.

For E-books: use the actual page number, not the location or percent finished to calculate.

For audio books: listen for fifty minutes, or – if you can figure it out – until you reach page fifty in the actual book.

We’re on an honor system here, friends. Make sure you’re clearing books off of your own shelves, not someone else’s.

General Rules:

1. The book(s) may be in any format - paperback, e-book, audiobook, etc.
2. The book(s) may be in any genre.
3. The book(s) may be combined with any challenge or group read. (of course, if you don’t like the book, it makes it hard to finish the challenge …)
4. The book(s) must be read between September 1 and September 30 12:00 midnight September 7 and 11:59 pm September 27 (based on your own time zone).
5. Book pre-selection is not a requirement.

How you rack up points:



Your post in the reporting thread should have your scores from below.

Length of time the book(s) languished on your Goodreads shelf (count for each book):
5 pts. – before September 2010 (four years)
4 pts. – before September 2011 (three years)
3 pts. – before September 2013 (one year)
2 pts. – before August 2014 (one month)
1 pt. – I listed it on Goodreads just for this challenge.

Pages (total number of 50-page segments read for this challenge. Include of the books you liked and the ones you disliked):
5 pts. – 500 or more
4 pts. - 400 - 499 pages
3 pts. - 300 - 399 pages
2 pts. - 200 - 299 pages
1 pt. - 100 – 199 pages

Book Destination (or where are the duds going next?):
5 pts. – I donated my book(s) to a retirement home, nursing home, or someplace similar*
4 pts. – I sold my book(s) at a yard sale*
3 pts. – I dropped my book(s) off at a used book store*
2 pts. – I gave my book(s) to a friend or family member*
1 pt. – I threw my book(s) in the garbage (It was/They were really bad!)
0 pt. – I returned it to the library (We told you library books wouldn’t work!)

*10 point bonus for photographic evidence of any one option. You and your books must be in the photo, and the photo must be posted by end of challenge.



Bonus Points:
1 pt. – Pull out your measuring tape. You earn a point for every centimeter of actual space you cleared off of your book shelf. (E-books will not help you here. Sorry!)

Hah! I got this! Guess Who I've been dating?☻


Tomorrow's Crimes 14 May 2012
Put A Lid On It 14 May 2012
What's The Worst That Could Happen? 6 Jan 2011
Don't Ask (Dortmunder, #8) 6 Jan 2011
The Hook 6 Jan 2011
A Likely Story 4 May 2012
Kahawa 6 Jan 2011
Humans 6 Jan 2011
High Adventure 14 May 2012

All pulled from one dusty spot!

Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!

You said, Guess Who I've been dating? Don't Ask.

Sure, Almeta, that's A Likely Story. Sheesh, Humans!!! Well, enjoy your High Adventure, and don't dare tell me to Put A Lid On It.

What's the Worst That Could Happen?, you ask? Well that's The Hook. It will be Tomorrow's Crimes.

Love, Kahawa aka Donald E. Westlake.

I think Travis told me that at normal speed, listening to a book for an hour is about 30 pages, so you may need 1.5 hrs for 50 pages. I have found it to be pretty accurate.

Janice wrote: "Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!

..."

You got all nine titles in. Hey, that worked out well!

Except I'm sure Philip Levine is a very nice man (Don't Ask) but I need to be faithful with Don't Ask by Donald (er a.k.a. Richard Stark, er Alan Marshall or Alan Marsh, er James Blue, I mean Ben Christopher, or is it John Dexter, er Andrew Shaw, er Edwin West, um John B. Allan, no Don Holliday, Curt Clark, P.N. Castor, Timothy J. Culver, J. Morgan Cunningham, Samuel Holt, Judson Jack Carmichael, I mean Tucker Coe!!)

Janice wrote: "Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!

You said, Guess Who I've been dating? Don't Ask.

Sure, Almeta, that's A Likely Story. Sheesh, Humans!!! Well, enjoy your..."

Love it, Janice! What a great story!

Wow, I need to go through my lists for the ones I own. I will get back to you, Thing Two.

Hmmm... just looking at my GR's shelves, there are a few that I will probably never read:

Dreaming the Eagle
The Ninth Orphan
The Mantra
The Chosen Soul
What the Body Remembers
The Danger (??? this title/author looks unfamiliar, and it says it's an actual book, on my actual book shelf - must go hunting)

My issue is that I'm a slow poke and 50 pages is an investment.

Question - can I combine pages from 2 or more books to make up the 50?

Cherie wrote: "I think Travis told me that at normal speed, listening to a book for an hour is about 30 pages, so you may need 1.5 hrs for 50 pages. I have found it to be pretty accurate."

I use this formula also.

It especially helped me when planning the last week long Toppler. Basically telling me if I were to finish all of my grand plans, I would only get something like 4 hours of sleep! ;D

LOL! I love the response with all of Almeta's titles. Very creative! Too bad there aren't points for that.

Now, if as to your question about combining books the answer is ... NO! (Wow! Being a meanie is kinda fun!) You must read fifty pages of one book before you may move on to the next. Arbitrary, yes, but that's what I went with.

Almeta wrote: "Janice wrote: "Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!..."

Oops, I don't want to encourage any Infidelity.

Janice wrote: "Hmmm... just looking at my GR's shelves, there are a few that I will probably never read:
...
The Danger (??? this title/author looks unfamiliar, and it says it's an actual book, on my actual book shelf - must go hunting)..."

Never heard of the others. But I have a whole shelf full of Dick Francis. Learned a lot of useless (to me) stuff about horse racing.

Almeta wrote: "Janice wrote: "Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!

..."

You got all nine titles in. Hey, that worked out well!

Except I'm sure Philip Levine is a very nice man ([book:Don't Ask|320514..."

I want that dud! Planning a trip to Orlando next month? You know, September is the BEST time to visit Disney. :)

My stack includes:


Running To Paradise Jun, 2013 - 3pts,
18 Billion Nov, 2012 - 3 pts.
Luther: Biography of a Reformer Nov, 2012 - 3 pts.
MotherKind May, 2013 - 3 pts.
The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel Nov, 2011 - 3 pts.
The Blithedale Romance Oct, 2012 - 3 pts.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Dec, 2013 - 2 pts.
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman Feb, 2012 3 pts.
The Friday Night Knitting Club - Nov, 2012 3 pts.
Opportunity - May, 2012 3 pts.
Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq - May, 2012 3 pts.
Extravagance - Sept, 2012 3 pts.
A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living May, 2013 3 pts.
Bordeaux - Oct, 2013 2 pts.
The View from Stalin's Head - May, 2012 3pts.
The Bird of Night - May, 2013 3 pts.

Can you write a story with those titles Janice?

Janice wrote: "Almeta wrote: "Janice wrote: "Did you sneeze Almeta? LOL!..."

Oops, I don't want to encourage any Infidelity."

Get Real.

What's So Funny?.

This is a challenge that challenges my "crow" disposition. I hover over my books, I treasure them (all of them). *mean crow eyes*

Mariab wrote: "This is a challenge that challenges my "crow" disposition. I hover over my books, I treasure them (all of them). *mean crow eyes*"

LOL agree. Who on earth gets rid of books? I mean, they have to be god awful to not stay on my shelf! ... That may explain my current predicament.

I'm sure I can dig up one or two I'm iffy about for this though.

Question: do we have to commit ourselves to specific books before we begin, or are we allowed to just report them at the end of the month? The reason why I'm asking this is that I have tons of library books (I know, I know, they are not eligible) that I must read before I have to return them, so it's a bit difficult to know beforehand how many books I'm able to fit in (at least the buddy challenge book).

What a fun idea Thing Two!

Janice, you are so clever including all of Almeta's books in your post.

This is an interesting challenge. I have tons of books stacked up on my dresser in my bedroom I need to get to reading, or just get rid of.

I can think of one that is daunting: Infinite Jest.

Interesting idea! I need to get through the real books on my book shelves as it would be great to be able to pass them on afterwards and make some space as we may have a house move in not the too distant future. The first five are actual books:
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Bellman & Black
- The Gargoyle
- The Invention of Wings
- A God in Every Stone
These are ebooks which have been on my kindle the longest and I keep putting off:
- Perfect People
- The Keeper of the Stones
- Dreams Unleashed
- Brave New World
- 1st to Die

I'm not expecting to read 50 pages from each of these 10 but I just wanted to list the ones that I'd like to sample before committing to!

The Secret Life of Bees is very good, Sarah. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Debra wrote: "The Secret Life of Bees is very good, Sarah. I'm sure you will enjoy it."

Many people have said that but I've also had people say it's a bit over hyped and nothing special which has put me off. Same with her other book I have on my list. Speed dating them will be good as 50 pages gives a good enough idea of what the book is going to be like. However, I'm hoping I don't end up with 10 books on the go at once!

This sounds like a fun idea! However, if I start a book I always finish it, no matter how bad it is, which probably defeats the object of this challenge.

Lisa wrote: "This sounds like a fun idea! However, if I start a book I always finish it, no matter how bad it is, which probably defeats the object of this challenge."

I'm mostly like this too. Only very few books get abandoned by me and those usually require only 20 pages max for me to decide if I will stop reading them. I think I've abandoned only one book this year (The Roar) and that was a library book, not my own. I think I read less than 10 pages before deciding it wasn't for me.

I'm a bit afraid - like Sarah - that I end up with half a dozen books started, since I will want to finish them anyway.

Camilla wrote: "I'm a bit afraid - like Sarah - that I end up with half a dozen books started, since I will want to finish them anyway."

That's it! If they all end up being keepers then I'll be snowed under (and indecisive about which one to read first to finish it).

I have a question. With the photo, is part of my body okay? Or you wanting a face?

I just don't put photos of me on goodreads (or even obviously my real name).

Rusalka wrote: "Mariab wrote: "This is a challenge that challenges my "crow" disposition. I hover over my books, I treasure them (all of them). *mean crow eyes*"

LOL agree. Who on earth gets rid of books? I mean,..."

I rarely, rarely, rarely don't finish the book I start. Consequently, I have a few I'm hesitant to even pick up because I'm fairly sure I'll hate them. I've selected the five lowest rated books from the ones I own. Maybe I'll love them all, but this gives me the motivation to pick them up, at least.

Camilla wrote: "Question: do we have to commit ourselves to specific books before we begin, or are we allowed to just report them at the end of the month? The reason why I'm asking this is that I have tons of libr..."

Absolutely no pre-selection required. (I'll add that to the rules.)

Also, I've adjusted the reading period, at the request of the moderators. They want this to run for a three week period.

Rusalka wrote: "I have a question. With the photo, is part of my body okay? Or you wanting a face?

I just don't put photos of me on goodreads (or even obviously my real name)."

Enough of your body for to identify it as you. Do you have "Rusalka" tattooed on your forearm, perhaps?

Rusalka, I went back and read the rule, and it doesn't specify anything other than "you", so I'm amending what I just said. "You" is pretty vague. However, if you do have a "Rusalka" tattoo, I expect to see it!

No, unfortunately don't have any dead maidens lying in ponds tattooed on me. I may have to have a hard think about that particular life choice ;)

I'm in! What a hoot! : ) I have so many actual books that will qualify for this challenge, but I need to dig them out of their hiding places. I shall return with a list. I love this idea!

Thing Two wrote: "Rusalka wrote: "Mariab wrote: "This is a challenge that challenges my "crow" disposition. I hover over my books, I treasure them (all of them). *mean crow eyes*"

LOL agree. Who on earth gets rid o..."


Now, that is the exact problem I have, too. I almost always finish a book no matter how terrible it is, but at least I'll know if I am engrossed enough to go back and continue the book after 50 pages or let it go.

Rusalka wrote: "Mariab wrote: "This is a challenge that challenges my "crow" disposition. I hover over my books, I treasure them (all of them). *mean crow eyes*"

LOL agree. Who on earth gets rid of books? I mean,..."

Rusalka, I have donated boxes full of books to Goodwill just this month because I have run out of room to keep all my books. I just could not see keeping books that someone else might enjoy when I had so many that I could not even shelve them all. What good would they do me in boxes? It broke my heart, but then I thought of all the joy other people would get from them and felt better.

Completely fair enough. And we do give away a lot of our books, either to charity or to secondhand shops.

I just agree with Mariab. An event that rewards me for getting rid of books does go against my normal programming a bit. Books to me are a relationship is my default, and as I said before, have to be pretty god awful for me to get rid of.

You should hear what I used to say about librarians!

But all this aside, I said I had a few books we could play around with for this event, which I am unsure about.

I just need to make sure I can fit this in what with a buddy read,a group read and a challenge read. Then there's the chunksters! Can we combine? Although, for the challenges etc. I will be wanting to finish the book and not just read 50 pages.

Sometimes I find myself furiously scrounging through my books trying to find a book I know I have, only to realize that I have just donated it to charity. Then I have the insufferable dilemma of having to buy another copy of the book!
That is when I want to bang my head against the wall!

Thing Two wrote: "LOL! I love the response with all of Almeta's titles. Very creative! Too bad there aren't points for that.

Now, if as to your question about combining books the answer is ... NO! (Wow! Being a me..."

I must have missed your response. Dang! This is going to be a tough one for me. I'll see what I can do, and how I'll fit this in.

Almeta wrote: "Never heard of the others. But I have a whole shelf full of Dick Francis. Learned a lot of useless (to me) stuff about horse racing...."

Now I remember. My dad gave me this when I was visiting in the spring.

Connie wrote: "Sometimes I find myself furiously scrounging through my books trying to find a book I know I have, only to realize that I have just donated it to charity. Then I have the insufferable dilemma of ha..."

HAH! At least you have given it away! I have found out after sorting our books, that Lexx has a horrible habit of buying books he already owns as he is confused about what he needs. We have 3, yes THREE, copies of Obernewtyn just as an example. He can't choose which one (I started with one) he wants to give away/sell.

Yes. I always want to combine. It drives me nuts that the year-long challenges and the monthly challenges are so exclusionary (there's my plug to eliminate the exclusions!), so I have no problem if you want to combine anything and everything!

After clearing out boxes and boxes of books from my grandmother's house, and being the beneficiary of some very musty old books from my parent's bookshelves (they seem to forget that I'm allergic to mold and dust!) I changed my book storing policy. I rarely - if ever - go back and re-read a book, so my new-this-generation rule is that I'm only keeping my five-star books. If I'm done with a book, I pass it on. I figure once I loose my mind, I'll appreciate all of the good books I've forgotten I've already read. Who wants to re-read an average book?

Thing Two wrote: "Can you write a story with those titles Janice? "

Not at 8:00 in the morning, with a short amount of time and no coffee in me. LOL! Maybe later.

Oh I agree on re-reading. I don't really re-read. Our bookshelves are revolving doors though for friends and family. I tend to keep most of my owned books, as 95% of the time, we'll know someone who will love it, even if I didn't. Then it gets lent or gifted. And if not, when we feel we need, we do a larger purge at once.

That reminds me. I need a book back off my mother in law. But I remember that means she wants to borrow 5 more... dammit.

Sarah wrote: "I just need to make sure I can fit this in what with a buddy read,a group read and a challenge read. Then there's the chunksters! Can we combine? Although, for the challenges etc. I will be wantin..."

Yes, with a condition If you want to finish the read for next month's challenge, you will need to re-start the book, because of the way challenges are structured. I already have next month's challenge figured out. Topplers too have finite dates, so you may end up re-starting a book for that too. But group reads, chunkster challenges - have at em.

Thanks for clarifying Janice - that makes sense! I don't want to have to re-read so I will keep that in mind when choosing a book. I might only choose one for this event as I don't want to end up with loads of books started.

Thing Two wrote: "I rarely, rarely, rarely don't finish the book I start. Consequently, I have a few I'm hesitant to even pick up..."

Like you, I usually finish my books so this challenge makes me a bit nervous. I do like your idea of selecting the lowest rated books. I looked at my own shelf and selected a few of the books that I own where the average rating is under 3.5. My potential duds are

The Mathematics Of Love - added Jan 2011, which is when I first joined GR
Mr. Darcy's Daughters - added Jan 2011
The Dante Club - added Jan 2011
The Pilot's Wife - added Jan 2011
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - added Jun 2013
A Day No Pigs Would Die - added Jan 2011 (although at 50 pages I'll be 1/3 of the way)
The City of Falling Angels - added Jan 2011

I think that I've had some of these for at least 10 years. Sadly, I think that most of these were gifts where I didn't select the book.

I think I'll try some of the books that are under 300 pages. That way, since I most likely will end up reading them, I will not have too much to complete after the dating period.

Emily - I am interested in what you have to say about The City of Falling Angels. I really liked his first book. Did you readMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil?

Sarah wrote: "Debra wrote: "The Secret Life of Bees is very good, Sarah. I'm sure you will enjoy it."

Many people have said that but I've also had people say it's a bit over hyped and nothing special which has ..."

I have not read The Invention of Wings, but I did read The Secret Life of Bees and liked it. I also read The Mermaid Chair. Of the two, I liked TSLoBs better. She is a little "wordy" but she writes interesting stories - not really mysteries, but things with a twist and a kind of magical symbolism.