At 12/28/17 01:47 PM, Jackho wrote: being made to read specific books in school is what puts so many people off reading to begin with. We'd also have to pick books that are widely available and in multiple languages. Although one wouldn't necessarily need to finish the monthly book just to comment on it.

I wouldn't be able to afford too many books. Now if they were free, let's go ham.

I'm thinking we vote on something for month one, and after that a person is just selected at random to choose the next book, but perhaps you have to partake in one month's discussion to be included in next month's draw.

Sounds perfect.

Also, what would you think of themed months - let's say January was murder mystery month and you were encouraged to pick something in or related to the genre, would that encourage you or just put you off?

Would probably put me off since I don't like murder mysteries. :P

Finished Gold's Gym Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding some time back. Interesting book, probably needs an update since the pictures all cut off at the 90's, and so is most of the information.

At 12/28/17 01:47 PM, Jackho wrote: So if we start choosing books as a group like an actual book club, how many of you would be on board? How should the books be decided? I'm thinking we vote on something for month one, and after that a person is just selected at random to choose the next book, but perhaps you have to partake in one month's discussion to be included in next month's draw.

Also, what would you think of themed months - let's say January was murder mystery month and you were encouraged to pick something in or related to the genre, would that encourage you or just put you off? How should they be decided again?

I would definitely maybe participate. Obviously, I am not very active on the Newground so I can't make any promises, but it sounds interesting enough. The theme month idea sounds nice, but if a given month is a genre I don't usually partake in then I would probably be stuck in a loop of "I don't know what the fuck to look for." On the other hand, having someone pick the next book narrows it down completely and I would be more likely to participate. It could work something like:

1. Everyone who wants to be part of the NG Lit club says so in the thread
2. Jackho pulls someone's name out of a hat (or hat analogue)
3. That user picks two books (With very lenient guidelines e.g. both choices must be reasonably different)
4. Participants are @'d in a post asking them to vote, the winning book is decided democratically
5. Guideline milestones are set so that we all know what's safe to discuss without spoiling (e.g. 1/4 of the chapters per week)
6. Everybody has an okay time and everyone who participated in discussions have their names put into the hat

At least that's how I would do it.

@Dean @Asandir @Bit @TheQuietGamer @Alias @ADR3-N @Jackho

The common thing I see is the accessibility issue or cost for books, if you're located near a library they have just about everything we've read this year; 80% of what I've read came from a library (shout out to the Vancouver Public Library).

I'm partial to the idea of some of us reading a pre-selected book at least one of the months, or the idea of the book choice rotating user to user each time. If we start in February we could use January to vote on the book which would then give us some time to acquire it. Then when February is over the cycle repeats and March would be a vote/procure month and April would be the reading month.

The book genre or topic doesn't really matter to me and I won't subject you guys to 100 year old books 100 people on the planet have read besides myself (Franz Cumonts Mysteries of Mithra). I'm quite open to expanding my horizons as I'm starting to gear up to write a narrative and want as much source material as possible.

I'd suggest we start with a genre for February in the next 2 weeks then use the last 2 weeks of January to vote on the book and a system of selection moving forward.

Thoughts?

At 12/28/17 09:56 PM, Ganon-Dorf wrote: @Dean @Asandir @Bit @TheQuietGamer @Alias @ADR3-N @Jackho

if you're located near a library they have just about everything we've read this year; 80% of what I've read came from a library (shout out to the Vancouver Public Library)...

Thoughts?

Unfortunately although my town has a library, most of the time I'm trapped indoors without a ride. Suppose I could try and make it work though. Waiting on us to get an E-Library going.

January:
1. Go Ask Alice
2. The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events #5)

February:
3. You Are a Badass: How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life
4. Where the Wild Moms Are
5. Goodnight iPad: A Parody for the Next Generation
6. New Summer

March:
7. Playground - 50 Cent
8. Love That Dog - Sharon Creech
9. Classic American Love Poems
10. The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events #6)
11. Please Ignore Vera Deitz

April:
12. Such a Pretty Girl

May:
13. The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events #7)
14. Cameron and the Girls

June:
15. The Hostile Hospital (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #8)
16. Deenie
17. The Princess Saves Herself in this One

July:
18. 99 Days
19. The Carnivorous Carnival (A Series of Unfortunate Events #9)
20. 365 Favorite Brand Name Slow Cooker Recipes & More
21. The Solar System
22.The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events #10)
23. Freckle Juice
24. Suicide Notes from Beautiful GIrls

August:
25. The Grim Grotto (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #11)
26. Christmas Slow Cooking: Over 250 hassle-free holiday recipes for the Electric Slow Cooker
27. Bondage: An Anthology of Passionate Restraint
28. Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet
29. The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #12)
30. Milk and Honey

September:
31. Ramona The Brave (Ramona Quimby #3)
32. Quiet Thoughts
33. Stolen: A Letter to My Captor
34. Rumblefish
35. Beezus and Ramona (Ramona Quimby #1)
36. Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One (The Pain and the Great One #2)
37. 25 Love Poems for the NSA
38. What Dogs Do

October:
39. Waiting for Normal
40. Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby #2)
41. Chloe Doe
42. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (Ramona Quimby #6)
43. What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know (What My Mother Doesn't Know #2)
44. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13)

November:
45. I Was Here
46. Forever . . .
47. A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray (A Dog’s Life #1)
48. Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

December:
49. The Secret Currency of Love: The Unabashed Truth About Women, Money, and Relationships
50. Blind Sighted
51. Jay's Journal
52. Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
53. Turtles All The Way Down

At 12/28/17 09:56 PM, Ganon-Dorf wrote: @Dean @Asandir @Bit @TheQuietGamer @Alias @ADR3-N @Jackho

I'd suggest we start with a genre for February in the next 2 weeks then use the last 2 weeks of January to vote on the book and a system of selection moving forward.

Thoughts?

I think picking a common genre to read each month could be cool. I have 1,105 books on my to-read shelf, and I'm trying to work my way down those....haha. Or maybe split it up into 1 book every 3 months, totaling up to 4 common books read by anyone participating by the end of the year.

So it looks like there's a little more support for someone just choosing a monthly book outright & I think that would be the simpler way to go. We can attempt both that and the themes though and see what sticks.

At 12/28/17 04:35 PM, Asandir wrote: I didn't think about the problem of having a book available in multiple languages - this year I looked out for favorite books from other people, realising that many don't have a german version

It shouldn't be that much of an issue so long as people are mindful of the books they choose, but if it came down to it could you make do with an english version?

At 12/28/17 09:19 PM, Bit wrote: At least that's how I would do it.

This sounds good to me, I like the idea of choosing multiple books and then the group deciding which is more doable.

I like the milestone idea, it could break it down and make things more manageable for the less-voracious readers here. Spoilers can also just be marked and avoided by those who haven't read it yet though.

At 12/28/17 09:56 PM, Ganon-Dorf wrote: The common thing I see is the accessibility issue or cost for books, if you're located near a library they have just about everything we've read this year

A lot of older classics are widely available for free online as well. And I mean, if it came down to it, getting free copies of
almost any e-book or audiobook from certain online sources is easy to do. Sharing torrent links and the like in the thread would be against NG's rules, but you're all capable of doing it on your own if there's no other option. Don't ask, don't tell.

If we start in February we could use January to vote on the book which would then give us some time to acquire it. Then when February is over the cycle repeats and March would be a vote/procure month and April would be the reading month.

Holy heck, this is starting to sound complicated. But I think we're roughly on the right track. A whole month for voting every time sounds a bit much to me though, I think we could get by with a monthly book from February onward.

If more time is needed we could also have the next month's chooser picked in advance. Like we announce for February that the book is William McGonagall's Greatest Hits and the next chooser is @Alias, so now Alias has that full month to choose a book and the rest of us to get it, but we've also got the current book to work on in the meantime.

my god why does this sound so convoluted I thought it was simpler aaa

At 12/29/17 02:53 PM, Jackho wrote: If more time is needed we could also have the next month's chooser picked in advance. Like we announce for February that the book is William McGonagall's Greatest Hits and the next chooser is @Alias

IM PICKING FOR FEBRUARY ITS MY BIRTHDAY MONTH YEEEEHAW

At 12/29/17 02:53 PM, Jackho wrote: So it looks like there's a little more support for someone just choosing a monthly book outright & I think that would be the simpler way to go. We can attempt both that and the themes though and see what sticks.

At 12/28/17 04:35 PM, Asandir wrote: I didn't think about the problem of having a book available in multiple languages - this year I looked out for favorite books from other people, realising that many don't have a german version

It shouldn't be that much of an issue so long as people are mindful of the books they choose, but if it came down to it could you make do with an english version?

Depends 100% on the book. I read the one short story by David Foster Wallace and that was no issue it all. I tried reading the third book of the Game of Thrones and the fifth of the Harry Potter series in english and that was impossible, starting from page 1. I'll give it a shot but when it's complicated or long books I might skip those.

Alright fam, get your last reading updates in because 2017 is about to QUIT. Final update will probably be up tomorrow, and the shiny new 2018 thread will be up on Jan 1st.

(& I guess the book club thing isn't starting till February so we still have time to discuss it.)

ALSO here's one last question, what should the 2018 thread be titled? I've started to think "challenge" is a bit of a misnomer so I might just call it the Newgrounds Book Club feat. the Super Literature Friends or something, any suggestions? (or shall we just stick with 'challenge' now that it's established?)

@ADR3-N @Alias @Asandir @Bit @BlackerTheBerry @Dean @Dr-Worm @FinaLee @Ganon-Dorf @Hoodie @Jurornumber3 @MistyWaterflower @DarkRoxy @Mrccbirdguy @RightTime @Sensationalism @Sciencefreako @TheQuietGamer @All-Hallows @YomToxic

At 12/30/17 08:34 PM, Jackho wrote: ALSO here's one last question, what should the 2018 thread be titled? I've started to think "challenge" is a bit of a misnomer so I might just call it the Newgrounds Book Club feat. the Super Literature Friends or something, any suggestions? (or shall we just stick with 'challenge' now that it's established?)

Well the original intent was to challenge ourselves to read the number of books we posted at the beginning. I like a challenge.

Actually I've just decided that regardless of the next thread's title, the group shall now be informally known as "The Newgrounds Literature Family," or The Lit Fam for short. The bold italics are part of the name. In fact they're the most important part.

@Ganon-Dorf I watched/listened to your Rick Strassman and Lydia Goehr vids, some interesting stuff. You just got a new subscriber. Invite me on and we can talk about game feel or how video games ruined our lives and are evil or something, I swear it'll be the most intellectual discussion you've ever had (nice Chrono Trigger poster (?) btw).

At 12/29/17 05:30 PM, Alias wrote: IM PICKING FOR FEBRUARY ITS MY BIRTHDAY MONTH YEEEEHAW

It's mine too (Feb 8th represent), we might have to fight over it.

At 12/30/17 01:54 AM, Asandir wrote: Depends 100% on the book. I read the one short story by David Foster Wallace and that was no issue it all. I tried reading the third book of the Game of Thrones and the fifth of the Harry Potter series in english and that was impossible, starting from page 1. I'll give it a shot but when it's complicated or long books I might skip those.

Huh, that's interesting. Going by your posts I would've thought something like Harry Potter would be ez pz. Although I just pulled Order of the Phoenix off my shelf and read through the first few pages, I guess I can see why it would cause some trouble. I also forgot how nicely written HP books are, though I don't particularly love the series.

At 12/29/17 02:53 PM, Jackho wrote: A lot of older classics are widely available for free online as well. And I mean, if it came down to it, getting free copies of
almost any e-book or audiobook from certain online sources is easy to do. Sharing torrent links and the like in the thread would be against NG's rules, but you're all capable of doing it on your own if there's no other option. Don't ask, don't tell.

I don't think there'd be a problem if it was direct download links to public-domain property.

Also, finishing off the year, I read The Chancellor Manuscript by Robert Ludlum.

@Jackho

Question. I stumbled on a pretty expansive library of free books on archive.org and Project Gutenberg. Is it cool to count these as books if they're Kindle format? What's the stance on audiobooks as well? I listen to a substantial amount of these. I can't remember if I've already asked this.

54. The Last Book in the Universe

@Jackho mine is February 21st, closer to March. So you can have February and I’ll take March. I GUESS.

At 12/30/17 09:00 PM, Jackho wrote: Actually I've just decided that regardless of the next thread's title, the group shall now be informally known as "The Newgrounds Literature Family," or The Lit Fam for short. The bold italics are part of the name. In fact they're the most important part.

Should this be moved to the clubs / crews for 2018? Personally I like it in General as we get more traffic and can find more people that might be interested as this is technically a challenge, although a club might be emerging. @Dean can probably clarify this.

I watched/listened to your Rick Strassman and Lydia Goehr vids, some interesting stuff. You just got a new subscriber. Invite me on and we can talk about game feel or how video games ruined our lives and are evil or something, I swear it'll be the most intellectual discussion you've ever had (nice Chrono Trigger poster (?) btw).

Thanks for the subscription, the Chrono Trigger is a wall scroll that unfortunately isn't coming back with me to Vancouver as I was at my dads for the holidays and it doesn't fit in my luggage. DM me and we can talk about coming on the show.

At 12/30/17 09:30 PM, ADR3-N wrote: Question. I stumbled on a pretty expansive library of free books on archive.org and Project Gutenberg. Is it cool to count these as books if they're Kindle format? What's the stance on audiobooks as well? I listen to a substantial amount of these. I can't remember if I've already asked this.

I have no issue with people counting any format of e-books, audio books, graphic novels etc., it's up to the individual reader if they want to put those kinds of restrictions on themselves or just count everything.

Amazon has a decent amount of free books too. Many old classics will have a free kindle edition on there, although the formatting can occasionally be pretty wack.

At 12/30/17 08:34 PM, Jackho wrote: Alright fam, get your last reading updates in because 2017 is about to QUIT. Final update will probably be up tomorrow, and the shiny new 2018 thread will be up on Jan 1st.

(& I guess the book club thing isn't starting till February so we still have time to discuss it.)

ALSO here's one last question, what should the 2018 thread be titled? I've started to think "challenge" is a bit of a misnomer so I might just call it the Newgrounds Book Club feat. the Super Literature Friends or something, any suggestions? (or shall we just stick with 'challenge' now that it's established?)

I already posted my last update. It looks like I just barely completed my challenge.

Also, for the title... uhh... how about the [OFFICIAL] 2th Annual Newgrounds Reading Challenge?

This was a great thread. I have read a few books over the last weeks but with my hectic schedule and stuff going on in my life I haven't been able to post on here lately.

LITFAM UPDATE - DECEMBER

Username - Progress for Month - Total Progress Toward Goal
@ADR3-N - 1 read this month - 2 out of 10 |
@Alias - 6 read this month - 54 total [30/30] |
@Asandir - 13 read this month - 190 total [25/25] |
@Bit - ? read this month - 21 total [20/20] |
@BlackerTheBerry - 0 read this month - 8 out of 25 |
@Dean - 0 read this month - 5 out of 10 |
@Dr-Worm - 0 read this month - 5 our of 25 |
@FinaLee - 0 this month - 3 out of 25 |
@Ganon-Dorf - 4 read this month - 24 out of 24 |
@Hoodie - 0 read this month - 1 out of 1 |
@Jackho - 0 read this month - 5 out of 25 |
@Mrccbirdguy - 0 read this month - 11 out of 20 |
@RightTime - 0 read this month - 2 out of 26 |
@Sensationalism - 2 read this month - 9 out of 12 |
@Sciencefreako - 0 read this month - 55 total [50/50] |
@TheQuietGamer - 3 read this month - 30 total [No Goal] |
@Yomtoxic - 2 read this month - 9 out of 10 |
17 Readers - 30 read this month - 443 Total Books | 338 Total Goal |

Top Readers (7 Active readers this month)
@Asandir - 13 books
@Alias - 6 books
@Ganon-Dorf - 4 books
@TheQuietGamer - 3 books

Drive-by Readers
@Haggard with Under the Dome

Unlisted Readers
@BraydogNG - 0 read this month - 1 total [No Goal] |
@DarkRoxy - 0 read this month - 1 out of 50 |

Good progress this month. @Ganon-Dorf achieved his goal (I think), and @Bit came back like the prodigal son having achieved his too.

So a grand total of seven readers have successfully completed the challenge, and another four got at least half way. RIP to the rest of us. On average we have a 63.25% average progress toward goal.

Happy New Year, Lit Fam! I hope to see you all in the next thread (probably up tomorrow). Here's to a year well read.

All mistakes are purposeful callbacks or something.

At 12/30/17 10:17 PM, Alias wrote: 54. The Last Book in the Universe

Certainly an apropos choice for the final book of the thread.

At 12/30/17 10:27 PM, Ganon-Dorf wrote: Should this be moved to the clubs / crews for 2018? Personally I like it in General as we get more traffic and can find more people that might be interested as this is technically a challenge, although a club might be emerging. @Dean can probably clarify this.

It arguably does fit into C&C moreso than general and I considered placing it there to begin with, but honestly the C&C forum gets so little traction and no new threads are able to take off. It would be a death sentence for the thread. If I placed it there at the start it would've been a graveyard by March.

Ideally it would be able to get by in C&C, but just looking at it pragmatically I think it has to be in general for it to be worth doing. I don't think anyone's gonna bother cracking down on us over a technicality anyway. Not to speak for him but I think @Dean would feel the same way based on things he's said before.

===

Anyway, here's a .gif compilation of all the monthly update pics, to show progress over time and I guess to highlight how bad I am at being consistent. Enjoy.

At 1/1/18 12:00 AM, Jackho wrote: Not to speak for him but I think @Dean would feel the same way based on things he's said before.

@Ganon-Dorf - I'm happy for this to remain in General. The thread has done pretty well this past year and I think a move to C&C would just mean less visitors and less people participating. You could argue either way as to whether or not this is a club, but I see no harm in leaving things here.

At 1/1/18 04:55 AM, Dean wrote:

At 1/1/18 12:00 AM, Jackho wrote: Not to speak for him but I think @Dean would feel the same way based on things he's said before.

@Ganon-Dorf - I'm happy for this to remain in General. The thread has done pretty well this past year and I think a move to C&C would just mean less visitors and less people participating.

Also less drive by readers. I would never have found this thread in C&C as I don't browse this forum that often.

Jackho, you should @ post a bunch of us when you make the new thread, I've already started reading two books this month and want to get started posting soon!

And here's the new thread! Happy New Year everyone!

★ Crave Books 2018 ★

this one is OLD NEWS, everyone get out quick go go go

@ADR3-N @Alias @Asandir @Bit @BlackerTheBerry @BraydogNG @DarkRoxy @Dean @Dr-Worm @FinaLee @Ganon-Dorf @Haggard @Hoodie @Mrccbirdguy @RightTime @Sensationalism @Sciencefreako @TheQuietGamer @All-Hallows @YomToxic

At 1/1/18 03:29 AM, Hoodie wrote: proud member of lit fam going for 25 this year

Ambitious!

At 1/1/18 11:48 AM, Ganon-Dorf wrote: Jackho, you should @ post a bunch of us when you make the new thread, I've already started reading two books this month and want to get started posting soon!

Post away!