Play Book Tag discussion
Archives 2018 and beyond
>
Time to Vote for the 2026 Challenges
date
newest »
newest »
I voted!The options were all so good and exciting, but ultimately the vote was easy - I went with the ones that were going to be easiest for me given what 2026 is shaping up to be with work, my friend's estate settlement and a road trip plan. I'm even looking at the GR Reading Challenge - which I'm not going to hit this year - and lowering it.
VotedLots of good ideas. Interested to see which way the group goes
Theresa wrote: "I voted!The options were all so good and exciting, but ultimately the vote was easy - I went with the ones that were going to be easiest for me given what 2026 is shaping up to be with work, my f..."
Many of us choose a modest number for our GR challenge goal, and if we exceed it, great! One person even puts in 1 book. You can up your number at any time during the year.
Robin P wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I voted!The options were all so good and exciting, but ultimately the vote was easy - I went with the ones that were going to be easiest for me given what 2026 is shaping up to be..."
I know and there were prior years where I kept increasing it. Most of the time I exceed itby up to 20 books as I keep it my low average. This year I am just off - well below my low average.
I personally don't see the point of some artificially low goal.
For BnB’s group, I really like both rabbit hole and leap frog. I haven’t thought through all the details yet, so I’d love to hear pro’s, cons, questions, thoughts, etc from others to help me decide. I don’t have enough older books left in my library for time travel.
@Nancy, I think that Leapfrog is more flexible than Rabbit Hole. There's a spontaneity that appeals to me. You're not boxed in in any way. You can go in any direction you want with your reading, within the rules of the game.
I almost didn’t vote this year for a couple reasons: I’m never “in it to win it” with challenges but rather use them to shape my reading a bit, and I constantly drop them if the rules are time consuming. I also have fallen out of the reviewing habit, which makes my group engagement near zero. As such, I feel like the choosing should be left to those who will stick with it and engage after all the hard work by our mods.In 2025, I got stuck in the Arctic in January — no fault of Fran’s, it is quite literally the story of my life — and got fed up waiting for a rare lost book to find me while not wanting to burn a free hop to another location right at the beginning of the challenge. However, this year, I see a bit of a spiced up version of some of the simple challenges from years long gone; Deep Dive has become Rabbit Hole, Birth of a Reader (which I still do annually) has become Time Travel, and my local library does a simplified Blind Date. Then there are slightly more complex challenges and one that is much more complicated.
Anita and Fran, I can see how much time and effort you put into compiling a selection of challenges with something for everyone. Thank you for all your time and energy. Play Book Tag brought me back to Goodreads, consistently tracking every book read this year (except romances), my first year doing so since we made the jump from Shelfari. Next year, my goal is to do that plus write reviews for every book that I read that matches any challenge or monthly tag. At least one challenge will be from PBT. I look forward to more time spent with all of you.
Saorsa wrote: "I almost didn’t vote this year for a couple reasons: I’m never “in it to win it” with challenges but rather use them to shape my reading a bit, and I constantly drop them if the rules are time cons..."Your comment makes me curious - what is Birth of a Reader and what do you do with it annually? I was not on Shelfari and I always love challenges that stay with me from year-to-year.
Joy D wrote: "Saorsa wrote: "I almost didn’t vote this year for a couple reasons: I’m never “in it to win it” with challenges but rather use them to shape my reading a bit, and I constantly drop them if the rule..."Birth of a Reader is nicknamed the challenge that gets more difficult every year. It is very simple. Just try to read a book published in every year you have been alive, starting with your birth year and ending with the current one. I have a document with the years running in a column down the left-hand side; each year I add the new year at the bottom. I keep a “master” copy blank because making that list every year is onerous; I copy and paste it onto my challenge sheet at the beginning of the year and then use it to record my books read. I only record the first book I read published in each individual year, but some readers keep track of them all. I love the challenge because it is so open, no need to read the years in order (although you could), and it encourages me to explore books published decades ago (I was born in 1970). I have only completed it a few times (gotten very close a handful more), but I use all my challenges as more of a nudge. I know some people,, especially as they age or if they aren’t high volume readers, who read even year books if the current year is an even number and odd numbers if the current year is an odd number. You could easily carry your list over into a second year, but I tend to enjoy starting fresh and feeling free to read the newer books that are part of the conversation everyone is having. To help myself find books on my shelf, the very first tag I give a book is “Published 0000” (with the appropriate year in place of those zeros). This is probably excessive, but considering I do this one challenge every year, it saves me lots of time.
Wow, that sounds like a very interesting challenge! I may consider something similar.
Saorsa wrote: "I almost didn’t vote this year for a couple reasons: I’m never “in it to win it” with challenges but rather use them to shape my reading a bit, and I constantly drop them if the rules are time cons..."Thank you so much for your very kind words! We always try, but I feel like there are so many more reading challenges out there than when we first started this group. It's hard to be original and to try to also incorporate tags somehow into the mix!
Saorsa wrote: "Joy D wrote: "Saorsa wrote: "I almost didn’t vote this year for a couple reasons: I’m never “in it to win it” with challenges but rather use them to shape my reading a bit, and I constantly drop th..."That sounds like an interesting challenge. However since I will be 70 next year that would be a lot of books. LOL. Maybe I could just keep a running list for forever and see if I can fill it all in.
I tried it a few years back. It was called Book a Year, and I dont' remember what group is was from. I was doing pretty well but I was also doing other challenges and suddenly got fed up and quit all of them. I think I didn't even keep my list of what I read, but I could figure it out by looking at publication date of books read on GR. I was definitely not planning to do it every year, just once, and then add a new book published each year, which is of course easy.**update**I didn't delete it after all. I see it was 2021. I can add the more recent years, and maybe I have randomly read something since 2021 that fits in the missing years. I didn't realize I was only missing 3!
**another update, I foundi I had read from 2 of the 3 years recently, just by chance, only missing 1960. I'll put the list in spoiler so it doesn't take up the whole thread.
(view spoiler)
Robin P wrote: "I tried it a few years back. It was called Book a Year, and I dont' remember what group is was from. I was doing pretty well but I was also doing other challenges and suddenly got fed up and quit a..."Now you have me interested, Robin. I'm wondering how many books I could already fill in for my existing read shelf. Then I'd only have to fill in the gaps. Might even be realistically do-able.
I first started with a "challenge" of reading a book a week on a homeschool forum--when my kids were the ages they were then, that was a challenge! I didn't make it to online book forums/sites until 2013 with Shelfari being first.
Robin P wrote: "Theresa wrote: "I voted!The options were all so good and exciting, but ultimately the vote was easy - I went with the ones that were going to be easiest for me given what 2026 is shaping up to be..."
I lowered mine this year based off the last few years of hell but still won't make it because life kicked me in the head again. I won't change the number because that is cheating, but I know why I haven't made it. Hopefully next year will be kinder and I'll only have the 1 surgery on schedule, not brought forward because the scans show I can't wait.
I voted. What fun it is to be involved in a vote that doesn't involve campaign commercials or signs...
I almost didn't vote this year because my participation is scattered but I ended up voting anyway.
Jgrace wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I tried it a few years back. It was called Book a Year, and I dont' remember what group is was from. I was doing pretty well but I was also doing other challenges and suddenly got f..."Jgrace wrote: "Robin P wrote: "I tried it a few years back. It was called Book a Year, and I dont' remember what group is was from. I was doing pretty well but I was also doing other challenges and suddenly got f..."
I just did that and I ended up only needing two years. That is doable.
Janelle wrote: "I voted. What fun it is to be involved in a vote that doesn't involve campaign commercials or signs..."I love this sentiment!!!
If you haven't, you can read descriptions of the challenges in the following thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
If you have had a chance to consider the options, please help us decide which challenges we will be running by casting your vote at the link below:
https://forms.gle/TWaTaanRnFj2trbW6
We look forward to seeing what you select!!
Please cast your votes by the end of November!