Thread for ideas, comments, suggestions

If there's this idea that just popped into your head, if you would like to see the group do more of this, less of that, if you would like to completely change directions...
OR
If you have a great idea for a common challenge, combined with the general goal of this group, want to share a very positive or not so positive result so far with your challenge...

Please make this the place to share. Although the group is not large, it may be convenient to have a general thread to post messages that concern all members.

Have you posted an invitation to your group anywhere on BookCrossing yet? If not, before the first of the year (like right now!) would be the right time to do it. You may be able to draw a few more BookCrossers here - which could be fun.

I've posted a link in one of the FB-forums for BookCrossing / BookCrossers. I will make a new post in one of the fora on BC in a minute :-) Thanks for the reminder!

ETA: here's the link http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/33/515121

I'll be waiting here with a warm welcome for any new members your notice attracts!:)

I was pleased with how the 2014 group had been run, so no big changes are necessary. However, if we end up getting a good number of members, we could consider optional challenges to match the theme and goals of this group.

Unless something more structured is set up, I will, for the moment, challenge my fellow members to do the following, if only to give myself the incentive to follow through with it. :)

Read the oldest book on your TBR list before April 30, 2015!

>5 mathgirl40:

Read the oldest book on your TBR list before April 30, 2015!

Haha! Great challenge!! I challenge each of you to post that link here. Then we all have to find those books. That will be the greatest challenge of all! :)

Here's mine: It's White Apples. BC link :D

*searches for it*

ETA: I'll have until April to find it, though. Right now it's nowhere to be found. :(

My oldest TBR book is Lovesick by Alex Wellen (BC link), obtained in January of 2012. At least I know where it is on the shelf. I should probably adjust the challenge to say, "Find and read the oldest book on your TBR list before April 30, 2015." Even if you just find it, that's progress! :)

Even if you just find it, that's progress! :)

LOL! I have to agree with that!!

I'm afraid to even peek, to see what my oldest TBR book is.....

My oldest ist The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (link to the book: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7526144/ ) *blush*
I've found it and will probably get it read before your deadline. IF nothing else gets in between, which seems te have been the case with this book a LOT. (Second on MTBR from the JE I originally made....) *more blusing*

My oldest is Going Inland by Pat Jacobs - I got it for Christmas in 2006.

Edit: whoops, I had a Douglas Adams boxed set filed under RES instead of TBR. My two equally-oldest ABC TBRs are actually Life, the Universe, and Everything, along with So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - from June 2005.

I'll read all three of these before April 30! Maybe by then I'll figure out how to link on my Fire.

My oldest is The Short Forever by Stuart Woods. It was a "Welcome to BookCrossing RABCK" from booklady331. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8524577/

And my oldest book is:
The Stone Diaries BC: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6237583/

My very first RABCK from waterfalling in 2009...and it's languished on what became Mt TBR ever since. I dug it out - it will be started in late Jan/early Feb. Need to do schoolwork first!

The oldest book on my TBR list is Aftermath: Travels in a Postwar World BC link:http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5539251/

I bought this in October 2007 and I had already decided to read it before the end of March of this year. In fact, one of my reading goals for this year is to read all the books that I registered in 2007 that are still unread. That's only 6 books but it will be good to clean them off the list.

>14 gypsysmom:

Good luck with your 2007 books. I always seem to not want to read any book I put on a "to do" list. I'm guessing you'll do better with your goals than I will. :)

>14 gypsysmom: Good luck with your goal. I'm also trying to target my very oldest books. I'm hoping to start my oldest one sometime this month.

Good Luck!I wouldn't even know my oldest book! I only started being active on bookcrossing last July and I dont register books now until I'm about to read them. I just put them away! So my oldest on BC is probably from July 2014.

I had to discipline myself. Now a book doesn't go anywhere until it's registered. It's too easy to disappear.

Thankfully, courtesy of some lovely bookcrossers, I have templates for the Avery labels 30/sheet to make it easy to get them assigned a # before they're added anywhere.

If I think a book may move along as something other than a wild release, I put a "real" label in it.

Oh, just discovered this thread, but I will give it a shot. The challenge can be interpreted two ways. The book on my Mt TBR that was registered the longest ago is James Mitchner's The World Is My Home: A Memoir, registered by nikel27 in April 2003. I received the book on January 14, 2004.

The book that has been in my hands the longest is Drawing on the Artist Within. It was registered by catharsisqueen in November 2003 and received by me in the same month.

Since the second book is a discovery process rather than a straight read, I think I will opt for the Mitchner.

Go ahead, SqueakyChu, I know you are ready to giggle at the age of my books!!

>19 wareagle78: Since my oldest ABC book is from 2004, I'm in no position to laugh. Nor was I able to find that book yet! :)

I've crossed The Five People You Meet in Heaven from my TBR-list, but I left it unfinished.... The other oldies on my living room TBR-first-shelf have to wait a bit: I first read some books to take with me to Oxford, then I'll get back to those again.
I have replaced the book (that counted for the Author Alphabet Challenge) with another A-author, but not an oldie.

Will call in again when I've really finished an oldie.

I have finished another oldie: Little Women it was sent to me in 2010 by motherof11, and for several reasons (I was judging it by the cover and the fact that is is OLD), I did not read it untill now. Shame on me!
Link: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7799276

>22 BoekenTrol71: Congratulations for finishing an oldie! I'd read Little Women several times as a child and teenager and loved it. I really should do a reread one day.

I finished my oldest book!
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8119832
I didn't like it all that much, but I'm glad I finally finished it, as I can now pass it onto someone else who might like it better. I think it was just not the type of book I normally prefer.

I still haven't read Aftermath: Travels in a Postwar World but I have read two other books that were registered in 2007: Blood is Dirt is a mystery set in western Africa and Escape from Kathmandu is an early book by Kim Stanley Robinson, one of my favourite sf authors. I took both of them on our road trip and released them but I wanted to keep Aftermath for the Canada Days release challenge so I decided not to read it until I was back home. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

I have finished my second oldie:-) and this is #3 to cross off the list. *Happy*
Also because it was a great read: Das kurze Leben der Sophie Scholl by Hermann Vinke.

>25 BoekenTrol71: Congratulations! It's nice getting those oldies off the TBR list, isn't it?

>26 mathgirl40: Yes it is!

I just finished Life, the Universe and Everything. Now I have three days to get through So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. I usually don't jump from one sci-fi right into another, but I'm determined to meet this challenge.

>28 Megi53: Great! We're rooting for you. :)

Thanks, mathgirl40. I just reread this thread and see the goal was to read the oldest TBR(s) *before* April 30. I finished mine just a few minutes ago, which is *on* April 30. Heh. Now I just need to journal them.

>30 Megi53: My mistake! Should have been "before May 1st", but we're not too particular about dates here. :)

I'm really pleased that so many of us dug up those dust collectors. Well done, everyone! If you're still working on the challenge, that's fine. I only suggested it to motivate people (including myself) to pay some attention to those oldies.

Anyone interested in another challenge for the next 4-month period?
- Most travelled book from your TBR?
- Most journalled book from your TBR?
- A random book using a random-number generator to select?
- Let another BC or LT member choose one from your list?
- The book with the highest LT rating or most LT members?
- Other ideas?

You call it, and I'll try to do it.

>31 mathgirl40: Too hard for me to pick one of them. I especially like the ones "let a member pick your next read " and "read the book with the most or highest ratings".

I will continue reading oldies too: it feels good to finally read them (and get them travelling again).

>32 SqueakyChu: >33 BoekenTrol71: OK, since no one else has offered a new challenge, I'll go ahead and propose one:

Challenge #2:

Pick the book from your TBR list that is most popular here on LT. The definition of "most popular" is flexible. It can be the book with the highest rating or the one with the most members, or it can be one of the ones featured under the "Zeitgeist" tab:
http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist
If you've not explored this part of LT, it's a lot of fun!

Complete your reading by Aug. 31!

>34 mathgirl40:
You're on! My ABC book with the highest star rating is this one with 4.6 stars. Let's see if I can get it read by 8/31/15. :)

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8428660/

>34 mathgirl40: I'm on, but I have no idea how to find the book on my TBR-list that has the highest rating here on LT.
Could you please explain?

>35 SqueakyChu: That looks like a good one!

>36 BoekenTrol71: You can just look up the book here on LT. At the top of the book's page, it will show the number of members who have saved the book to one of their collections, as well as the rating. Further down, you can see the number of reviews, which is another indicator.

I have all my books listed on my thread, so it's easy to click on each one and check the rating. However, if you have a huge TBR list, it might be tedious to go through all of them. In that case, it would be fine to pick "a popular book" rather than "the most popular book". :)

My book with the highest rating is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian which has 6140 members and a rating of 4.34. This is a pretty short one, so if I get to it soon, I may also consider Middlesex. It has a lower rating at 4.12 but it has the highest number of members (20605).

Follow-up to >37 mathgirl40: ... another way you can limit the challenge, if you have a very large TBR list, is to pick the most popular among your 30 oldest, if you're concentrating on clearing off the oldies.

Oh dear, oh dear....
Now I've found out how it works (in the list of books TBR I have on the far right the number of people who have this book in their collections, as wel as a number of reviews). So.... I went through my TBR-list, eyeing these numbers and I was doing well, thinking I had an easy one here, since I am already reading a ROOT-book with lots of pages with 23,313 members... Het Spel der Tronen https://www.librarything.com/work/8366/book/95954565 or, in English The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

But, then, while I already thought there would never ever be more members with a book, I came across my Harry Potter books....
And they have SO MANY listings, that there's no way around it. Okay then, I'll have to finish the series before the end of August.
Which means:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 67,234 listings
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 67,783 listings
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 69,650 listings and
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 63,891 listings

If you can't find me, please try at Hogwart's!!

>40 BoekenTrol71: It sounds like it'll be a fun summer for you! I love the HP series and reread it in its entirety a couple of years ago.

Enjoy your Harry Potter fest! I've never read any of the books or seen any of the films. Oops!

>42 Nataliec7: So far, uptil and including book #3, the series is getting better by the book. If you are not totally against, I do recommend.
Junior (who read and re-read the entire series a thousand times, or so it seems) says the books keep getting more interesting. All characters have been introduced, good, bad and in between and then the actual battle gets going.
Well, of course he's preoccupied as a fan, but since 1-3 were quite good, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I've just never thought they would be particularly interesting if I'm honest. However I've enjoyed several new authors and books through BC so maybe one day in the distant future I may pick one up!
Knowing me ill probably get hooked and have to read them all!
Keep me posted!

For the new challenge I have decided to read Foucault's Pendulum based on the fact that 12,730 LT members have it on their lists. It only has a rating of 3.86 but 889 people have given it 5 out of 5 stars so it is obviously a hit with them. Also it is on the 1001 Books list and I am supposed to be reading 10 of them this year and I have only finished 1 so far.

>45 gypsysmom: Good luck with Foucault's Pendulum. I started reading it last year, got 2/3 through and then got distracted by other books and never got back to it. I do plan to finish it one day, hopefully soon. It's a very challenging read (for me, anyhow) but rewarding too.

>46 mathgirl40: mathgirl40: Thanks for the warning. I haven't started it yet. I think I might take it with me when I go camping in July. Lots of time to read with few distractions the way we camp. Last year I almost ran out of the books that I took with me.

>45 gypsysmom: It is on my list too... But other have more readers, so I skip it for this challenge.

Based on how things are going now, I don't think I'll finish the Harry Potter series I had as a challenge for the summer. I haven't even started book #4 yet...

Just wanted to check in and report that I finished Foucault's Pendulum. I enjoyed it but it sure stretched my brain.

>49 gypsysmom: Wow, well done! Congratulations :-)

>49 gypsysmom: Well done! Yes, it does stretch the brain, doesn't it? I need to get back to it and finish that last third, but it's a rather intimidating book.

I finished my challenge book also, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, which is substantially shorter and less challenging than Foucault's Pendulum. I loved it and can see why it has such a high rating.

>51 mathgirl40: Do try to finish it. I absolutely had to know what happened in the museum at midnight and that doesn't happen until the last few chapters.

Congratulations on finishing your challenge book. That's one I will have to keep in mind.

As I think you have noticed, I have been absent from this group quite a bit this year. I have been reading, but due to sad personal circumstances (our two fathers passed away) and work-related issues I have not been able to give this group the attention and care that it deserves.

I will not continue this group for 2016. Not because it is not fun and because it is not working (for it is), but because I still don't feel very well and because my studies (that I abandoned for 2015 for the above mentioned reasons) are starting again from January and will take lots of time untill July (if all goes according to plan).

If members want this small group to be continued, maybe there's someone in this group that wants to take over from me for 2016?

If you could reply here with (a version of) continue/not continue this group and interested/not interested to host the group, I think we'll see what preferences exist and what will be the fate of this group.

So sorry to hear about your sad family situation. I can understand the lack of time and also feel the same way. I decline the opportunity to take over the group, but if anyone else does, I will continue to participate next year.

>53 BoekenTrol71: First, thank you for all you've done. I'm sorry to hear about your 2015 troubles but hope that 2016 will be a much better year for you. Good luck with your studies!

I personally find this challenge very helpful, even if the group is not very active and I don't post as much as I'd like to. Having my goals laid out has definitely helped me keep my TBR list under control this year. Also, it's a nice friendly group here. :)

I'd be willing to take over, though if there were someone else willing, I'd gladly step aside as I might not have as much time to devote as this group deserves.

I guess whether the group is viable for 2016 or not depends on whether we have enough interest. Are there others who would like to continue?

>54 SqueakyChu: I'll continue with you, but you might also want to recruit others from the BookCrossing website to join us here for 2016.

I don't post here much but I do pop in to read the posts. I would continue to participate in this thread next year, if that helps. And I may even up my challenge number next year (it was embarrassingly low this year - but I achieved it! haha)

>57 jessibud2: Heh! I might have to lower my number.

>55 mathgirl40: I like keeping track here. It encourages me to read my BC books, & to try to read the ones I've had the longest first. I'll be happy to take part again. :-)

It sounds like there's enough interest to continue. Even if there are just a handful of regulars, it'll be worth it to create the group. However, we definitely should try harder to recruit in the BookCrossing forums.

Shall I set up a new 2016 forum at the beginning of December? Again, if anyone else would like to volunteer to do this, please feel free to do so! Otherwise, I'll go ahead with it in a week or so.

I was thinking that setting up a list of (completely optional) monthly challenges might be fun, with topics like:
- A book that has been on your TBR more than 2 years
- A book that has more than 3 journallers
- A book that has been on a different continent
- A book by one of your favourite authors
- A book by a new-to-you author
- A book from your favourite genre
- A book from a genre you don't normally read
- A book with a very appealing cover
- A book with an interesting journal entry
- A book that has a long BC wishlist

What do you think? Would this be of interest? Other ideas (for monthly topics or other types of challenges) would be welcome.

>60 mathgirl40: - Ooo, I like that list. I will think and see if I can add to it but even if not, this is a good challenge. Sadly, I have quite *a few* tbr books that are *older* but I get so easily distracted by books at our meetups. I am always determined not to take any home and inevitably, break that promise by the time we leave the pub!

>60 mathgirl40:

Shall I set up a new 2016 forum at the beginning of December? Yes! Please do so. I'll be ready to jump on board...even if I don't do so well on these challenges. ;)

I like your ideas for monthly challenges. I think that would be fun.

>60 mathgirl40: Thanks for continuing this. It has kept me honest about reading my already BCd books this year. I will certainly take part. I like your ideas for monthly challenges. I will try to think if there are any others I can add.

>55 mathgirl40: I will join the group next year with my goals. When there is time, I'll show my face and say hi.

It's a friendly group indeed, that made me look at MTBR from a different angle. And, although lots of books came in, I managed to read & release a lot to. Feeling more balanced this year, in terms of books that is 😇