Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Please read the rules first and ask for clarifications/questions in this thread. :)

1. The 10-month season starts on January 1 and ends on October 31. The winner will be announced on November (TBA), so make sure to update the spreadsheet by (TBA).

2. Books started in the previous year may be counted if you finish them after January 1st. We trust that you will not take advantage of this and start a bunch of books in December so that you can add them right on January 1st.

3. When adding the page count, you may use any of the top 5 English versions* unless you're actually reading the non-English version. For the same reason, large print editions will also not be allowed. The rationale is there were some 300K-word books counting for less than a third of that size because of the edition posted first by Goodreads. It's imperfect, but there isn't a better way unless we have a word count for every book out there.

*For books listed on Goodreads with only Audio format (no page count available) - 30 pages/hr, or a page every 2 minutes, is the average book narration rate at 1x speed
Example: 8-hour book - 240 pages

4. Point system:

Audio: 1:1
Read: 1.25/1 = 5/4
Graphic 1/4

For example, an audiobook with 300 pages will be worth 3.0 points. A 300-page e/print book will be 3.8 points. A 300-page graphic novel will be 0.8 points.

BR: 1/3 bonus
For Buddy Reads points to count, you can start reading the book one week before the BR start date or join in within 2 weeks after the start date. These bonus points are to encourage discussion, so you may only get the BR bonus if you participate in the discussion, not just simply reading at the same time.

Challenge: 1/10 bonus
For challenge points to count, you can use any challenge that you have a tracker set up in this group.

A spreadsheet to input and track points will be posted after teams are announced.

5. New group members who wish to join need to have a minimum of 100 posts in this group. We want to welcome new people to the competition, but this is to ensure you will not disappear shortly after signing up.

6. For people signing up later than the initial draft, once you are added to the challenge, you may include points starting from the day you signed up for the challenge. If you started a book a few days before signing up for the challenge and are still reading when you sign up, you may also include those books.

Announcements will be posted whenever necessary.

I’ve been thinking we should add a rule to exclude editions that say they’re Large Print editions… sometimes you randomly luck into a book with basically double the pagecount for free… more often when you read as much as I do…

Usually it says it on the line that says Mass Market Paperback or Kindle edition…

Timelord Iain wrote: "I’ve been thinking we should add a rule to exclude editions that say they’re Large Print editions… sometimes you randomly luck into a book with basically double the pagecount for free… more often w..."

Good idea - I will add this to the rules in the first post.

And maybe also exclude Dwarsliggers? It's the same principle as Large Print editions, but printed on thinner paper and only one page.

Would that make the page count higher? Or cut it in half?

Since what would usually be a two-page spread becomes one page..? Not sure how dwarsliggers count pages since I've never read in that format. Haven't seen any of the top 5 editions using this format either.

I had to look it up... sounds like they hurt the page count... altho, yea, doesn't seem to be a common US printing thing to do... the English term is Flipback?...

Yes, I didn't know what the English term for it was. It would make the page count higher, but I don't think there are SciFi - books in that version. I've read a thriller that is 336 pages, but in the Flipback format it's 481 pages.
Maybe it's not something that is frequently in the top 5 editions.
I think it's more a Dutch - thing, when reading in my language. I don't think it exist in other languages. I don't know for sure, but in other challenges in other groups it's part of the rules.

Penguin / Random House tried making a few, but didn't really market them and only made 19 different books... seems like a pretty niche thing in general...

It was created by a publisher that specializes in Bibles & Christian literature, and then was licensed to a few other publishers, trying to make it a more global thing... hasn't really taken off, tho, probably because ebooks/etc provide other ways of creating books that require less than 2 hands to read...

Something that doesn't happen often, but I come across it sometimes. Books that are larger than standard formatting and have two columns per page.
My example is The Weird antyhology. It's 19x23.5cm compared to the standard 14.5x21cm. With the font size, I feel like each page is between 1.5-2X a standard book page (1.70X by my calculation based on a standard novel).

Are there any comment requirements for someone to be able to count something as a Buddy Read? Like, only saying "I'm reading" and "I finished" isn't really BR-worthy, is it? Hard to quantify though. I guess it's honor system?

It's definitely an honor system... we don't have time to be the competition police (and there's no prize other than bragging rights, so we're not interested in policing)...

It's definitely much preferred that you participate in the discussion, at least talk about what/why/how much you liked the story...

I've got a question about this rule:
2. Books started in the previous year may be counted if you finish them after January 1st. We trust that you will not take advantage of this and start a bunch of books in December so that you can add them right on January 1st.

I've got a couple of books (5 or so) that I still need to finish from the year before. Is it only the pages read in 2025 that counts or all the pages?

All pages

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've got a question about this rule:
2. Books started in the previous year may be counted if you finish them after January 1st. We trust that you will not take advantage of this and start a bunch ..."

All pages count, but the honor system hopes that people are not just reading most of the books in 2024 and waiting until to new year to finish up the last few pages. As long as you read a significant chunk of the book in 2025, it's all good. :)

You know a book is long (looking at you, Sanderson) when you are carrying over 8 1/2 hours of audio to finish and you're trying to decide if that is a "significant chunk".

Chris wrote: "You know a book is long (looking at you, Sanderson) when you are carrying over 8 1/2 hours of audio to finish and you're trying to decide if that is a "significant chunk"."

LOL

I had about 9 to 9.5 hours left of the audio on New Year's Eve, and we didn't finish until yesterday, so I counted it for 2025.

Jenna wrote: "Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've got a question about this rule:
2. Books started in the previous year may be counted if you finish them after January 1st. We trust that you will not take advantage ..."

No worries, I still need to read heaps of every book from last year ;)

Chris wrote: "You know a book is long (looking at you, Sanderson) when you are carrying over 8 1/2 hours of audio to finish and you're trying to decide if that is a "significant chunk"."

Haha I think this was already discussed elsewhere, but since there are a lot of people who will probably be carrying over the Sanderson BR, it's fine to add the points for it ;)

Thanks, Jenna

Does the rule for starting a BR also applies to Spooktober, because it's read at any moment in this month?

Not really... or at least we haven't been treating them that way, since this became a thing 2 years ago... same way we don't retire them the same way...

If we were going to follow the 1 week early, 2 weeks late rule, we'd probably schedule all Spooktober BRs for October 8th to 17th, so they covered 21 days of October...

I think we allow any of these rare types of threads to be dealt with like Book Clubs, but haven't made an official addendum to the rules about them?... luckily, most fall outside of the competition...Spooktober, Cozy November/December, Goodreads Choice Awards, and one year we did Hugo Awards thread in August...

I'd second the Spooktober thread rule of "as long as you read it in October" (or within a week) it counts...

Ah, that's what I needed to know. Thanks!
@Nirkatze: that's the reason why I asked, because I wasn't sure and I've got a pile of books, but can't read them at the same time, haha.

LOL I don't think anyone could!

Hold my beer ;)

I'm still waiting on my clones to do my work, household and stuff, so I can relax and read on for hours :)

LOL I love you all.

Yay!

Unless Jenna shows up and contradicts me, everyone have their spreadsheets up to date through at least Halloween by November 6th, and the Winner of the Competition will be announced on the 7th of November...

Okay, I think I only need to do September and October.

I was checking on my team recently to see if we still have some upcoming bigger batch of points and someone stopped updating on March so yeah might need some time to catch up.

I see multiple people that haven't updated since May/July...

Soo is probably 1200 points behind...

When this happened 5 years ago she input everythign on Halloween, but then she also disappeared for a few years, until recently...

It's hard to say if silent people will update before the end of the year, if they don't update within a week of the end of the competition... which is why we set the deadline in the first place...

At least it's not like there's some prize, beyond bragging rights and them stats we collected last year about how often certain people have been on winning teams, over the years...

Hopefully everyone inputs their books, so the results are accurate...

I hope people do input or else they shouldn't bother joining up!

I love the spreadsheet just for tracking stats anyway 😁

Yea... it's a shame sometimes life gets in the way, and people disappear altogether...

Some of the missing data is from active members tho... lika Paula, who I've done a bunch of BRs with the past few months... so at least some/half the data should be incoming, I think...

Question: I started a book but didn’t finish it by yesterday, can I still claim half credit or I can’t claim the book?

Depending on if you use your spreadsheet year round or 10 months of the year, you could probably count the points using DNF rules... but you'd need to create a second listing for November to finish counting it for non-competition purposes...

Not sure it's worth the hassle, unless it would cause your team to switch positions...

@mods: I figure changing this rule in this way would lead to similar or less points than the rule change that allows people to get full points on books they finish after New Year starts, regardless of when they start the book...

Oh shoot, I've got some updating to do. Sorry been MIA for most of the year... How long do I have?

A week

I promise I haven't flaked out, forgotten, or abandoned this challenge. My health just isn't being very cooperative, so I've had to take it off my plate and reset. I plan to be here for Year 9.

No worries... unless any teams have 600-1000 points to add, I kinda stole the show, when I started reading more pages per day/week/month, back in June... exceeded expectations, compared to when Jenna was making the teams last December, based on previous year stats...

I'll just like having more active members again next year :D

Missed BRing with you, since we winded up our Julie Czerneda books in the Spring... I may be forgetting some others, but those were the most memorable...

Nyssa, you and I, girl! The health challenges in real life have been kicking my ass .. Let's hope we can get over them and be back with a vengeance next year!!!

I miss BRing with you all too; I really enjoy the commentary, community, and camaraderie. :D

Choko, I wish you (and anyone else dealing with chronic and/or serious illness) better days ahead!!

Same here!!!

I've been lucky that most of my medical stuff hasn't hindered my ability to read/enjoy books... been a few years since I remember opting to sleep and watch movies instead of read, to endure waiting for doctor solutions... I feel like I'm always dealing with something... when one thing passes, it just let's another problem take center stage...

Hugs to everyone!! @Choko--postcard hug in the mail!

Hahaha! Thank you, Nirkadze!

Iain, I fervently wish you continue the same way!:)

Hope you're all doing ok, so sorry you've been struggling ❤️
Sending love!

Thank you, TI, Choko, Nitkatze & Siobhan!

Timelord Iain wrote: "I've been lucky that most of my medical stuff hasn't hindered my ability to read/enjoy books... been a few years since I remember opting to sleep and watch movies instead of read, to endure waiting..."

The frustrating thing for me is the brain fog. It leaves me exhausted and unable to concentrate, which then leads to bouts of depression, which intensifies the brain fog like a vicious cycle.

So badly as I want to read, I can not focus. The words feel like sand through my fingers, and audiobooks are ten times worse. Its just background noise. The more I try to push through, the more frustrated I feel. SO, I had to make myself stop. (Oh, how my heart broke when the Reading Insights counter on my Kindle app went to "0"! *Sobs*)

I now spend my free time on my tablet, coloring and playing games.