Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

There will be a proper announcement later, but just to let you guys know we’ve decided we will have an autumn/fall seasonal challenge too. And, there will be a shiny new badge to earn if you complete it! The new challenge will be posted later this month so you have chance to start planning before September. :-)

THIS IS THE BEST NEWS.

Great news and thanks for taking on the extra work!!

So excited!

yippiee!

Woooooo!!!

Awesome!!

I just noticed that the list of bestselling books of all time mentioned in the June tasks includes "The Shadowhunter Chronicles" by Cassandra Clare. Does that mean any of her Shadowhunter books would count? I'm planning to start the Infernal Devices and I'm looking ahead to where they might count.

I noticed a few series mentioned as a whole in these kind of lists, like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, so I'd say yes you could read any of them.

Sophie wrote: "I noticed a few series mentioned as a whole in these kind of lists, like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, so I'd say yes you could read any of them."

Awesome! I was struggling to find something to finish off my second round for June.

If you want a second entry, you have to finish off another set of prompt (not the same option you used the first time) for all three months.

Nari--Atlantisgirl wrote: "For june i finished all 12 prompts"

If you already did all 12 prompts for June, I would guess the moderators would count 4 toward your first round finish of June and 4 toward your second round finish of all the months (with the last 4 just being extras).

Same for the other months--4 count toward your first finish, and extras count toward your second finish, and now you just fill in whatever you need to complete the second round with different prompts.

Nari--Atlantisgirl wrote: "I am sorry, I don't understand. So like the four first prompts of June is counted and the 8 other i finished is not, so i can do 4 of the 8 ones?"

You pick one option for each of the four tasks for June, July and August. That's 12 books total, 4 for each month. You get one entry for each month you complete.

If you want to keep going you have to read a book for a different prompt to the first time round. You'll get an additional entry if you do the whole thing again (another 12 books). That's 24 books total for 4 entries to the competition.

If you want to read something for every single prompt then the last time round would just be for fun :)

It's explained a lot better here: /topic/show/...

If you really want your books you've already read to count maybe try rearranging them into the other months' prompts?

Nari--Atlantisgirl wrote: "I am sorry, I don't understand. So like the four first prompts of June is counted and the 8 other i finished is not, so i can do 4 of the 8 ones?"

Let me see if I can say this differently so it makes more sense... I think it would work like this:

You need to do 8 prompts total from each month to complete two rounds. If you've already done at least 8 prompts for the month, it should count for both rounds. To finish a second round, you just need to read enough prompts you haven't done yet for each month, so that you have 8 all together for that month.

If you've already read for at least 8 prompts for all three months, you've already finished both rounds. (That is unless a moderator disagrees with my understand of how this works?)

If you really want to read more, of course, you could do it the way you said in your most recent post, and only count 4 prompts for each month as officially done, and read 4 more you've already done to officially count them. I don't think you *have* to do it that way though.

Sorry Nari, I haven’t been online much over the weekend so I’ve just seen your question. I think Sarah and Raquel explained it really well (thank you both!) but if there’s anything else you’d like to check please just post another message and I’ll try to help. :-)

Hi. When were the completed challenges for July updated? I am not sure if mine has been accepted.

Mine either I finished July to !

Sorry guys, I’ve been a bit slow recording the latest challenges but it should all be up to date by the end of today.

Bryony, you rock! I know this is a ton of work for you.

Any idea when/if we will have fall prompts up? I want to start planning my September books, and I definitely want to earn a badge for the fall to go next to my summer badge!

Thanks Emily! It’s a lot of fun as well as work! :-)

We’re definitely having an autumn / fall challenge. It’s all written and should be online very soon, possibly even today (though I don’t want to promise today just in case of any last minute delays!).

The Autumn / Fall challenge has just been posted. Check out the new tasks and start your planning now!

As always, any feedback or suggestions about either the summer or autumn challenges are very welcome. :-)

If you want a second entry into the drawing, you have to complete the whole challenge (June, July and August) again using different prompts from the first round.

Anybody have any good recommendations for books set in Africa or written by an African author? I'm also looking for a book that from the 1960's or set in the 60's. I'm slowly making my way through all these prompts. I hope to have two rounds complete but would love to knock out all three. I got a few days left. I think I can, I think I can.

Have you read Born a Crime already? It takes place in South Africa and is written by a South African, it's also really good, and pretty easy reading, if you're trying to get through a few books quickly.

Thanks, I haven’t read that one yet. Just placed a hold at the library so hopefully I won’t have to wait too long for it.

I really enjoyed Americanah.

Half of American Spy takes place in Burkina Faso. I would recommend the audiobook which really sucked me in and I finished it in less than a 24 hour period.

I can’t believe how quickly summer has gone, only one week of August left!

Now, I know some people are quite excited about the prize draw so I’m going to give some deadlines for the end of the challenge to make sure you’re not kept waiting too long!

Monday 2 September
This is the deadline to post your completed challenges. However many months you’ve completed, please make sure they’re added to the completed challenges thread by the end of the day on Monday 2 September.

Please also check that your name appears on all the completed challenges lists (ie June, July, August and second round) that you think it should. If you think your name is missing from a list please post a message in the completed challenges thread and I’ll look into it and work out what’s happened.

Friday 6 September
This is the deadline to resolve any issues or questions. This includes if you notice your name isn’t on a list of completed challenges and you think it should be, or if there were any questions about how the books you read counted for one of the challenge prompts.

At the end of the day on Friday 6 September the list of completed challenges will be “locked” and that will be used to determine how many draw entries each person has. The draw will take place shortly after this so I’m sorry but it won’t be possible to add any names to the list after this deadline.

Thanks everyone for joining the challenge, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and it’s helped you to find some great summer reading. And, if you’re ready for the next challenge, the Autumn/Fall challenge is now online.

I'm so looking forward to the autumn/fall challenge and I'm so planning my books better because I ran out of time this summer to complete the third round but I did just post my first and second rounds so I'm happy to complete 2/3 and aim to do all of them next challenge. Great challenge and so much fun!

bamaace83 wrote: "Anybody have any good recommendations for books set in Africa or written by an African author? I'm also looking for a book that from the 1960's or set in the 60's. I'm slowly making my way through ..."

I would also highly recommend Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, American Spy and anything by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Abyssinian Chronicles and The Poisonwood Bible are very good too, but not quick reads! Things Fall Apart and Small Country are short, excellent books, but deal with "heavy" issues.

There are still many really good authors living in countries where they are not recognized or appreciated. As a Canadian, I've been trying to read as many novels from as many local, (Ottawa) authors and Canadian authors from many different parts of Canada. My suggestion for the Around the Year in 52 books, is to read a book from a Canadian author.

Diane wrote: "There are still many really good authors living in countries where they are not recognized or appreciated. As a Canadian, I've been trying to read as many novels from as many local, (Ottawa) author..."

If you'd like to get involved in the creation of next year's list, head over to the 2020 threads. I think Canadian author has already been suggested (but hasn't made it in yet), but if you join in with voting, you can help get it in.

For the task to read a book by an author from a country I've never read from before, would Emily X.R. Pan count? She was born in America but of Taiwanese descent, and I've never read a book by a Taiwanese author.

I would say no, since she wasn’t born there. If she was living in the US and born elsewhere, I’d say she’d count for either country. But I personally wouldn’t count anything if she wasn’t at least born elsewhere.

Now, if she lives in Taiwan now after being born in the US, that would count for me too.

Rachel wrote: "For the task to read a book by an author from a country I've never read from before, would Emily X.R. Pan count? She was born in America but of Taiwanese descent, and I've never read a book by a Ta..."

I know it’s not perfect, but for this challenge we’re using country of birth as the definition of where an author is from so that doesn’t count I’m sorry. (also mentioned in the FAQ message).

I was two short for the challenge. I finished one book at 1am on September 1st and still am reading the last one I had set for the challenge.

So close!

Ah that’s so close Joan! I hope at least you enjoyed the books you read for the challenge. :-)