Book Thoughts discussion

We welcome your ideas and suggestions here. Share your thoughts and let's talk about it.

Pam, as a big reader of Arcs and one who has always been drawn to new releases , I find that there are so many books on my tbr and many that I own that I haven’t gotten too. What do you think about a thread for books that have been on our tbr lists for say at least five years ? I’m not much of a challenge reader, but a thread like this could give me the nudge to get to some of those . I have one in mind for my next read .
Thanks !

Great idea, Angela! Thanks for the suggestion.

Here is the link.

PamG wrote: "Great idea, Angela! Thanks for the suggestion.

Here is the link."

Thanks, Pam !

If you have suggestions or feedback, you can post your comments here.

We're a new group and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on what could be done better. Is there something missing that you wish was here?

I love this idea too!!!

YES!

I'd like to join in the challenge too. I have 12 NetGalley arcs from 2017 that I never got around to reading. 🤭 I was new to NetGalley back then and acted like a kid in a candy store, requesting more than I could ever possibly read. Maybe I can finally clean up some of that mess.

Here is the link to the challenge.

I would love to join this challenge! I have so many and not sure where I am going to start! But Include me!!

Here is the link to the challenge.

So what do we do? Just list the books and reviews as we complete them, keep track of the number?

All, it's like any other challenge. Go to the link above for the challenge. (message/comment 11).

You can look in that thread at my message 3 for how I set up mine. I've listed three books that I will be reading in June that have been on my TBR for more than 5 years. When I finish reading a book, I will put a check mark ✅in front of the book and also add the date I finished reading it.

Hi Pam,

First of all, thank you for creating this group and inviting me to join it. It looks interesting and well-organised. I'm looking forward to participating in it, and I've invited all my GR friends to join it too :-)

If you like then you can also share about it here:

HEA Group: Mods, please provide information about your Goodreads groups. Thanks!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And now, may I please offer a suggestion? :-)

How about a group read for series?

For example:

Members could nominate series they wish to read in the upcoming quarter—July to September—and everyone could then vote on them.

You could then set up a thread for the series that gets the most votes.

It would then be up to the members however many books of that series they read during the quarter. That is, some members could read as little as one book while others could complete the whole series if they wish to.

Everyone could share their thoughts on the book(s) they read, using the spoiler function when needed.

This process could be repeated for each quarter of the year.

Well, this is it. I hope you consider my suggestion.

Thanks :-)

Ramla Zareen wrote: "Hi Pam,

First of all, thank you for creating this group and inviting me to join it. It looks interesting and well-organised. I'm looking forward to participating in it, and I've invited all my GR ..."

You're welcome, Ramla. Thanks for joining. A series group read sounds good. I'll get a thread set up for nominations soon. Thanks for the suggestion.

The 3Q2026 Series Group Read Nomination thread has been set up. Nominate the the series you would like to read one or more books in the quarter. Here is the link.

Thanks, Pam, I'm thrilled you implemented my suggestion! I'll nominate my preferred series soon :-)

Hi Pam,

I have one more suggestion :-)

How about "Author of the Quarter" Group Read?

It would work pretty much the same way as the Quarterly Series Group Read but with authors instead of series.

Members could nominate authors they wish to read in the upcoming quarter—July to September—and everyone could then vote on them.

You could then set up a thread for the author that gets the most votes.

It would then be up to the members however many books by that author they read during the quarter.

Everyone could share their thoughts on the book(s) they read, using the spoiler function when needed.

This process could be repeated for each quarter of the year.

Well, this is it. I hope you consider my suggestion.

Thanks :-)

This one sounds good, Ramla. I'm currently thinking it could be started for the 4th quarter and see how it goes.

PamG wrote: "This one sounds good, Ramla. I'm currently thinking it could be started for the 4th quarter and see how it goes."

Thank you, Pam. I'm glad you liked my suggestion. Starting it in the 4th quarter sounds good. It will be something to look forward to :-)

Hi Pam,

I have an idea for a new reading challenge. I initially planned to post it in my own group, but there are already far too many challenges there, lol. So, I thought I'd share it with you in case you'd like to add it here :-)

The challenge is called:

Recommended Book Challenge

Here's how it works:

1) Each participant should create a new topic in the challenge folder to request specific book recommendations.

For example:

New Topic: Sophie's Request

Message 1: Please recommend a romantic comedy set in the UK and written in the first person.

2) Each member may recommend up to ten books per request.

3) Recommendations can be offered from 1st July to 30th September 2026.

4) On 1st October 2026, participants can start the challenge by pasting the following template onto the main challenge page.

Duration =
Link to the requested recs =
Level =
Progress = 0/?
Status =

5) From 1st October to 31st December 2026, participants must read one or more of the recommended books, depending on the level they select.

Level 1: One to Three Recommended Books
Level 2: Four to Six Recommended Books
And so on.

Well, that's the basic concept. I set it up as a quarterly challenge in the example, but it could even be half-yearly or yearly.

If you like the idea, please feel free to add it in the group :-)

Thanks :-)

Thanks for the idea, Ramla. What does everyone think? Would you like another quarterly challenge?

I didn’t know where to post this. The 2026: The Book Chat Corner is closed.

I recently watched Tiffany respond to a “tag” on her YouTube channel (@BeachBumBookworm). It looked interesting and fun. She said she wasn’t sure where the tag originated, so I looked it up and found the following at earlgreybookscomDOTwordpressDOTcom/mid-year-book-freakout-tag/

MID-YEAR BOOK FREAKOUT TAG
The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag was co-created back in 2014 by Chami and me (Ely) on our shared book blog, A Book So Fathomless. You can still read that original post [at link], but since then, the tag has taken on a life of its own—especially on Booktube, where it’s become a beloved yearly tradition for readers to reflect on their reading progress and favourite books halfway through the year.

While the original post appear to include all genres, Tiffany labelled hers “ MID YEAR Freakout Tag 2026: COZY MYSTERY Edition—so, readers can adapt to specific genres should they prefer. Below are the prompts. Readers could answer as many as they want.

PROMPTS
*01 Best book you’ve read so far
*02 Best sequel you've read so far
*03 New release you haven't read yet, but want to
*04 Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.
*05 Biggest disappointment
*06 Biggest surprise
*07 Favorite new author (Debut or new to you)
*08 Newest fictional crush
*09 Newest favorite character
*10 Book that made you cry
*11 Book that made you happy
*12 Favorite book to film adaptation you saw this year
*13 Favorite review you've written or recorded this year
*14 Most beautiful book you've purchased 9or received)so far this year
*15 Books do you need to read by the end of the year

One could also complete a year-end version for comparison or as a yearly wrap-up.

Karen wrote: "I didn’t know where to post this. The 2026: The Book Chat Corner is closed..."


While this would fit under the "Other Book and Literary Chatter" thread, I set up a separate thread for it. You can find it here.

Hi there,

I know there are several challenges already going in this group, but I was wondering about a folder or something for tracking the goodreads quarterly challenges. GR seems to have taken away the ability to see your friends challenges and achievements and thought maybe we could track which books reading/read for those quarterly ones here. Share our progress, etc.

Right now they have the Summer Challenge which is for July 1 - September 14, 2026.

Thanks for considering!
Pamela

Pamela wrote: "Hi there,

I know there are several challenges already going in this group, but I was wondering about a folder or something for tracking the goodreads quarterly challenges. GR seems to have taken a..."

Pamela, Thanks for the suggestion. You can find the thread here.

Pamela wrote: "Right now they have the Summer Challenge which is for July 1 - September 14, 2026..."

Where does one find this challenge?

Karen, how I found it is a little tricky - but maybe this link works: https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal...

Pamela wrote: "Karen, how I found it is a little tricky - but maybe this link works: https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal..."

That link works. You can then click on Challenge details and see all 11.

I've started thinking about challenges for next year and have some ideas I hope everyone will enjoy.

However, if you have any suggestions or recommendations for something new or different that you would like us to try, then you can put your suggestions in this thread.

Additionally, does the group have an interest in doing Buddy Reads? I know a lot of groups have threads for that, but I've only done one Buddy Read since I've been on GR.

Are there other suggestions?

Pamela wrote: "Karen, how I found it is a little tricky - but maybe this link works: https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal..."

Totally works!

I did explore before I saw your response and found it, but will use this link to get back to it.

As I was perusing the challenge, I saw one of the books was One for the Money, book 01 of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. It's been on my TBR for years. I was in the middle of reading--via audio--the Savannah Reid series by G.A. McKevett. When I made it through all, I figured why not start the Plum series via audio as well, (I'm using audiobooks in place of TV and music when I'm working--or at least when the narration isn't distracting.)

This kills a couple of birds... When I work, my reading time is drastically cut, so if I can deal with the audio, I can "read" while working. It also allows me to knock the series off my TBR (and, maybe complete a challenge or two while doing it!).

Don't know how well I'll do with the GoodReads Summer Challenge because I know one thing I HAVE to do is enter my reads into the GR system. While I find time to post (at least now and then), I've only entered a few reads into the system, mainly things I've reviewed. Though, audio also allows me to "read" as I enter books, so win-win??