August 1, 2009 – July 31, 2010
Are you stuck in a rut? Do you always find yourself reading from set lists or feeling committed to reading one book while another book screams at you from your TBR mountain? Has your reading become completely scheduled? If so, the Random Reading Challenge may be just the thing to put the spontaneity back into your reading.
For this challenge, readers will be choosing books randomly from their TBR stacks. You may select one of three levels of participation:
Level I:
You are just a tad compulsive about your reading – you love your lists and schedules. Being spontaneous is not something that comes naturally to you. To complete the challenge, force yourself out of your rut and read just six books.
Level II:
You really want to break away from all those lists, but you do still have a responsibility to your reading groups, other challenges and all those review books. Six books is too little, but twelve is too much. Stretch a little and read nine books for the challenge.
Level III:
Throw away the lists, don’t look at your schedule, bring on the joy that comes with the freedom to chose books randomly. Read twelve books for the challenge.
Rules (come on, you didn’t think I would be THAT random did you?!?!?):
- NO lists allowed. Books for the challenge are chosen one at a time when the mood strikes.
- Sign up at any time during the challenge period using Mr. Linky below. Please give me a direct link to your blog post about the challenge. If you do not have a blog, no worries. Simply enter your name and leave the URL box on Mr. Linky blank.
- Book reviews are not required, but if you want to write a review I will be providing a review Mr. Linky after August 1st.
- Books are selected one at a time using the following procedure:
- Randomly select any number of books from either your physical OR your virtual TBR pile (I don’t care how you do this, but it must be random…no “cherry picking” allowed)
- Assign a number to each book based on how many books you selected (ie: if you selected 14 books, assign each book a number from 1 through 14; if you selected 28 books, assign each book a number from 1 through 28…you get the idea)
- Go to THIS SITE and use the TRUE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR located in the upper right hand corner of the page to randomly select the book you will read. NO CHEATING – whatever the random number generator generates is the book you must read!
- Each time you select a book for the challenge, you will use this procedure. You many select different books each time, choose a different amount of books each time, etc…have fun, mix it up, keep it random.
I have decided to draw names for at least one prize during the challenge period (I may do more, but I haven’t decided yet). I will be drawing names from the sign up Mr. Linky and I will announce it on my blog – so if you don’t have a blog link in Mr. Linky and are not subscribed to my blog and have no interest in checking back here…then leave me a comment with a way to contact you if I draw your name.
Ready to get random!??!? Challenge begins August 1st!
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
Here’s my link!
http://missysbooknook.blogspot.com/2009/07/random-reading-challenge.html
This is a fabulous idea! It takes the ease out of picking my next book. I can’t wait to what my list looks like in the end!
KT: Make sure you come back and sign into Mr. Linky (if he won’t take your name without a link to a site, give us the link to any site you’re associated with…otherwise, your name will not be entered for the prize drawing.
Avisannschild: As long as your procedure is truly random…you can select it however (I used the random.org as a guideline because that is truly random)…you know me, I’m pretty flexible!
Trish: Here’s the thing…if you want to randomly pick books which INCLUDE your challenge books, I don’t think that is a problem…BUT if you solely choose books just because they are being used for a challenge and you have to read them, then it defeats the purpose of this challenge. Make sense? Here’s what I am going to do: I’m going to ask my husband to select about 15 books from my various stacks which include review and challenge books as well as books just sitting patiently in my stacks…then I use Random.org. If random.org happens to pick a challenge or review book, well okay then
Sounds perfect Wendy.
I decided to start a public blog, so I did, about five seconds ago.
I’m excited for this challenge, should be lots of fun!
I’m in! My first challenge, I’m super-excited to begin!!!
Okay fine, I give! I actually have quite a few “when I have the time” books to read! This is a reason!!!!
Hi! I saw this over at Jamie’s site. I like this idea! But I have a couple of questions. I have my favorite authors on the bookshelf or in boxes alphabetically and chronologically (lists right?!). Then I have other misc books in boxes (also by alpha and year). So I would pick maybe a dozen or so from various shelves or boxes and then do the radom generator. When I pick from the shelves/boxes can I pick the first in series so I don’t read them out of order??
Also I have quite a number of eBooks that are not on review or challenge. I guess I could pick randomly from a list of pdfs and then include that for the random generator, right?
Thanks for walking me through! Martha
Oh – I had one other question – if I sign up for level II and am doing good with that can I upgrade to level III?
Thanks! Martha
MarthaE: *laughing* We are all so organized it is hard to be random, isn’t it?? Yes, it is okay to sub out a book which is farther down in a series so that you can read the first in the series first. I had thought of that myself in looking through my stacks. I’m going totally random…BUT if a book gets selected and it is a series and I haven’t yet read the first in the series, I’m going to sub it out. I’m beginning to think I need to post another post for all these great questions I did not think of when I put the challenge together! You can add in the eBooks whatever makes the most sense to you and include them by simply assigning them a number. Re: upgrading to the next level – sure, why not! Hope that helps!
Okay – I’m in! And I decided to go for the full Level III! THANKS for the encouragement! Martha
I’m excited to start reading more! (and randomly)
Oops, forgot to put up the link when I signed up. It’s here. I’m going to shoot for 12 because there were 51 on a recent TBR post and I thought I would just use that.
I’ve also completed my first one — Blameless in Abaddon by James Morrow, although I’m not going to do a review.
Two of the books selected randomly actually ended up in the used bookstore/donation box. I’d started both before and didn’t get into them and since the same thing happened the second time, I thought it best to simply concede and remove them entirely from my TBR list
I hope I signed up right. Since we have a year to complete this challenge I think I’ll go with Level III. Sounds like fun. I always have such a hard time figuring out the book to read next and this will solve the problem. Thanks for doing a great challenge.
I think this is fun … and I like the generous time frame. I plan to use a variety of ways to generate my random lists of books — some times I’ll treat myself to something off my wish list, some times I’ll pick from classics I’ve been meaning to read, some times I’ll use it to pick a book off my TBR list. I like it!
This should be fun but a little scary. I’ve done it before where I pick, say, three books at random and then select one by choice, but never letting the random number have the final say. I’m using all the novels and short story collections in my entire library, e-books and all, as the selection base, so each pick will be a random selection out of almost 2000 books.
Hey! I’m into this! But my blog is in spanish but I made an exception for this challenge ^^ also I put the rules and everything else in english I just wrote a few lines in spanish explaining my writers what the hell I’m doing..
Hope there’s no problem.
You can also follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Abby_Colina
Abby
Tim, sounds good
I’ve updated your link.
Heather: I also updated your sign up link so that it links directly to your post about the challenge – thanks for joining us!
Jenners: Looks like you have a plan
Steven: Not so scary, but I hope a lot of fun!!!!
Abby: It doesn’t matter what language you blog in…I’m glad you’re joining us
Hey Caribousmom! WHen we pick our random books is there a post to announce them? Or just in our own reading sets at our blogs?? Just curious!
Thanks!
Martha: I haven’t set up a post to announce your random reads…but feel free to leave comments either on this post or on the post with the links to reviews if you wish!
I’ve finished my second random read: Grimm’s Grimmest.
I finished my first random read The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
I just posted my first random read Serena by Ron Rash. Thanks for organizing this challenge!
Love this challenge! Love that it forces me to read books I might be skipping over. I’ve signed up for level III.
My post for this is here.
http://owlforya.blogspot.com/2009/08/random-reading-challenge.html
Here is my second book for the Random Reading Challenge, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet .
Jill: I updated the link here for you
Gavin, Martha, Puss Reboots and Nicola: I now have a Mr. Linky set up for reviews HERE. I’ve gone ahead and put your links in for the reviews you have already done
I’m obsessive compulsive so this is going to be a real challege for me but I’m determined to tackle level III. Here’s hoping for the best
Welcome to the challenge, Rachael
Just signed up! Hope Im not too late, was poking around and found the challenge. Love the idea of it. I won’t technically be starting until my list for october is complete but Im looking forward to it.
Thanks! Faith
I’m in, a little late LOL but this sounds like a good one.
So, I think I am smart. I have a new blog home since signing up so I add myself again to Mr. Linky and am going to comment that my link (#58) is no longer valid. Well, the new link (#89) I left is incorrect (of course). So, I yet again entered as number 90 with the correct link. Are you able to delete the other 2? If not, I am so sorry for the confusion!
Faith: Never to late! Glad to see you joining the challenge!
Annette: Welcome to the challenge
Christine: LOL! No problem…I can delete the “bad” links
This is a great challenge. I haven’t been engaged in the whole “challenges” thing b/c I just discovered them by following some blogs on my RSS but this is a great way to clear off some TBR piles!
Amy: Glad you’ll be joining us!
Count me in!!! I love the idea of no lists. I know I am a little late but I think 12 books for this will be doable for me! Just one question……can the books overlap with other challenges? (the other challenge stipulates is that the books used come from your TBR shelf, and that’s it, so I figured some of the books from this one may work for that one too!)
Marilu: Welcome to the challenge! The only hard and fast rule is books must be chosen randomly…so if you happen to choose a book randomly and it happens to meet the criteria for another challenge, that is fine. Happy reading!
What a great idea I LOVE THIS and I love the avatar too that looks so much like one of our cats!!! I’m in this is gonna be fun!
Welcome to the challenge, Jenn!!
Thanks so much caribousmom!
I’m gonna enjoy this it’s my first challenge and actually inspired me to start my own challenge as well! 
Here is the link to my challenge post on my blog –
http://sapphireromance.blogspot.com/2009/11/random-reading-challenge.html
I’ll update it as I go along! Thanks again for making this fun challenge!!!
JennJ: Thanks for joining!!
Hi, sorry to be a bother, but the blog for original link I used for the challenge is going to be deleted, so I want to give you the new link. I’m currently at
67 – Bookworm Jules.
Here’s the new link: http://bkwrmjchallenges.blogspot.com/2009/12/random-reading-challenge.html
Thanks, sorry for the trouble.
A little late at entering, but I’m gonna give this a shot! I think I’ll go ahead into level 3 participation.
Here’s a link to my blog entry: http://hawkthebookworm.blogspot.com/2009/12/random-reading-challenge.html
Oh…I’m so super late for this challenge..I just learnt about it..
Hope I can still join in..aiming to complete 6 books…
While checking my different challenges, etc. I clicked on my link in Mr. Linky #34 and found that it was connected to the wrong link. The link below is the actual link. Thanks.
Sandra
http://www.musingsofabookaddict.com/2009/07/new-reading-challenge.html
Jules: I edited your sign up – thanks for the new link
Sandra: I’ve made the change in blog address for your link
I’m coming along really late, BUT! I tend to read this way anyway. Maybe that’s cheating.
Can I count retroactively? If so, I’m already well on my way, since I recently decided to start blogging about books that haven’t been out of the library in years. (You can see the origin of this at http://onthequest.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/disorder-of-longing/) They can’t have been recommended, and they can’t be something I’ve heard of.
Oh… maybe this is not going to work. I just went back and read the selection rules, and I don’t have a TBR pile to enter. You can disqualify me if you want to.
On the Quest: I sent you an email – I won’t disqualify you
welcome to the challenge!