Friday, December 31, 2010

Rebooting the Stream of Suggestions Challenge

Stream of Suggestions Reading Challenge button
June 1, 2010, to December 30, 2011

Since I not only failed to review any of the books I read for my Stream of Suggestions Reading Challenge, but also never posted a linky for reviews, I thought I’d “reboot” this challenge by extending the deadline until the end of next year (in the hopes that this will also inspire a few more of you to join me!).

Here’s how I introduced the challenge the first time around (with slight modifications this time):

I often read nonfiction books in which the author mentions other books that sound interesting, but I rarely seek out those books. So the idea behind the Stream of Suggestions Reading Challenge is to read books based on author suggestions, starting with one book and following the “stream of suggestions” to see where it will take you...

Rules
  1. Pick a book to start with (it can be any book, but nonfiction is probably easiest). This can be a book you’ve read in the last half of 2010.

  2. The author of the next book must be mentioned in the previous book, either in the text itself or in the bibliography. (You don’t have to read the book mentioned; you can pick another book by the same author if you want.)

  3. If you get stuck (no authors are mentioned or you can’t find their books easily or none of the ones mentioned is of any interest to you), you can go back one or two books and start again with a different author.

  4. You can read as many books as you want (and you don’t need to decide in advance how many books you will read), but you need to read and review at least three books to qualify for the giveaway.

  5. You don’t have to have a blog to participate, but you do need to post your reviews somewhere public (LibraryThing, Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) to qualify for the giveaway.

  6. You don’t need to review all the books you read (but again you must review at least three to qualify for the giveaway).
Everyone who reads and reviews at least three books will qualify for the giveaway (each book reviewed will count as one entry). The prize will be the next book on your list, as long as it is available from the Book Depository and costs no more than $20 CAN. (The giveaway is therefore open internationally, as long as the Book Depository will ship to where you live.)

I’m awarding Abigailann at The Story Factory Reading Zone a bonus entry (in addition to the two she’s already entitled to), as she was the only person to do this challenge in 2010!

If you decide to join me in this challenge, feel free to grab the button and please sign up below!

The image used in the button is a picture of a stream near the Gabes Mountain trailhead in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. This picture was taken by Brian Stansberry and is under Creative Commons license.

7 comments:

  1. Have fun with this one and here's to better luck in 2011 !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like this idea but I read almost no non-fiction now and would have to hope a character mentioned an author or book. I can think of one instance where that happened recently. I'll look through my notes and let you know if I can join.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Staci!

    Sandra, I hope you'll join! Have you read Belong to Me? Seems to me it mentions lots of book titles (although if I remember correctly, most of them are children's classics). Note that I've added a couple more rules to make the challenge open to non-bloggers, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't signs up for challenges anymore because they seem to doom me to failure. However, I will look forward to all of the great non-fiction reads I will learn about as you participate!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I haven't committed to all my challenges yet. This one may have to be added.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OK, I'm going to try this. I've got some books checked out from the library, so I'll see if I manage to read them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This seems a very interesting challenge. Can one still join it? Eagerly awaiting your reply.

    ReplyDelete