Meggy | Chocolate'n'Waffles

Let The Games Begin

To spice up the new year, I decided to take on a few challenges instead of setting personal, bookish, or blogging goals…

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If you were around last year, you might have read me complain about the fact I am a layman when it comes to sci-fi, which always leads to me making a puzzled face and asking my old friend Google whenever someone mentions classics or theories I have never heard of. To avoid this problem, I decided to take part in both sci-fi challenges over at @ Sci-Fi and and Scary. They are fun, they seem pretty easy and if you’re a US resident you can win nice little gifts! If you’re like me, stuck in another country, you can just play for fun!

#1 Decades of Sci-Fi

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From 1900 to our days, one book a month to live or relive some of what sci-fi had to offer through the decades. I love the idea of witnessing the development of the genre. You can choose to work through the challenge chronologically or out of order, you’re the captain. Also, Lilyn gives you the right to DNF two books at the 33% mark if something is just not for you.

Here are the books that made it on the list:

  1. In the Days of the Comet by H.G. Wells
  2. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  3. The Clockwork Man by William Jablonsky
  4. Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
  5. What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown
  6. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
  7. Ubik by Philip K. Dick
  8. Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven
  9. Neuromancer by William Gibson
  10. Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
  11. Ready Player One by Earnest Cline
  12. Blindsight by Peter Watts

I’ve had Ready Player One for a year so I can’t wait for… November 😂

#2 Wired into Sci-Fi

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Find what suits you best between Dabbler, Dreamer, and Connoisseur and read as many stories as possible.

  1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
  2. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
  3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1 by Douglas Adams
  4. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  5. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
  6. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
  7. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
  8. Ringworld by Larry Niven
  9. Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
  10. 1984 by George Orwell
  11. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
  12. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
  13. Ring Around the Sun by Cliffard D. Simak
  14. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
  15. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
  16. When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie
  17. The Death of Grass by John Christopher
  18. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  19. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
  20. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
  21. The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
  22. Make Room! Make Room! by Henry Harrison
  23. Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan
  24. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  25. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
  26. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
  27. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
  28. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
  29. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  30. Life by Gwyneth Jones

As a Dabbler, I’m aiming to read 10 books out of the 30 available.

Find the complete rules and let Lilyn know if you want to take part in the challenge by visiting her challenges page

#3 Beat The Backlist

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I have already written a post about my participation in the Beat The Backlist Challenge here

I haven’t been able to make a list of all the books I really intend on reading because there are too many but I’m really excited about finally attacking my TBR to reduce it! I set the goal to 30 because my wish list keeps on growing no matter what I do, but if things go as planned, I might be able to double this number! (They say hope is the cure to everything…)

#4 Goodreads Challenge

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My first year back on the reading wagon saw me reach 76 books read so I thought there was no harm in setting my goal to 50 instead of the 30 I had hoped for in 2016.

What challenges are you taking part in? Do you like the idea or do challenge rise up your temperature and make your head hurt at the thought of putting pressure on your favorite hobby? Tell me everything!

50 comments

  2. The title of your post put the song Let the Games Begin by Ajr, so I was kinda jamming out to it the entire time I was reading your post. However I really do think it fits as you were talking about all the cool challenges you wished to complete in the new year. Anyways, good luck and as the title and song suggest, Let the games begin!

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    • Good luck with the Goodreads challenge 🙂 The hidden and most important goal is to have fun anyway! I love those sci-fi challenges, I’m hoping it will help me branch out more.

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    • They sound good, don’t they? I’m really excited about many of the titles on the reading lists. Diving into a new genre can feel daunting because I feel I never know where to start so these challenges are gonna help me get a better understanding of what sci-fi is 🙂

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    • HAHAHAHAHA I know!!! I heard there was an ARC available for a book I’ve been waiting for but I’m so close to 80% on NG that I’ve resisted… so far. Looking at all those books on my TBR waiting for me has helped too!

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  10. Your sci-fi challenges have some great books in there! The Martian Chronicles blew me away (warning – it starts kinda slow and gradually gets better and better) and I totally enjoyed A Princess of Mars, even though the “science” side of it is pretty much non-existent… Have fun! 🙂

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  11. Well this is surprising :-). I look forward seeing your discovery of the sci-fi genre. I haven’t read one single book of this list so can’t help you there but they must all be good reads or they wouldn’t be on there right? I’ve set my Goodreads goal on the same number of books as last year (60). This means reading one book a week and a few more during holidays. I’d hate it if I didn’t reach my goal so I’m playing it rather safe here ;-). I’m sure you’ll reach 50 too without any problems!

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    • I’m really excited about discovering sci-fi this way 🙂 The only book I’ve already read is 1984 and it’s an all-time favorite. I prefer to keep my GR goal low too, there’s no need adding more pressure to our lives, the blog is already taking all of the time the books don’t devour, I don’t need the guilt of not reaching my goal on top of it!

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  12. Good luck Donna. I tend to stay away from Sci-Fi although I haven’t read enough (1!!!) to decide if I like the genre enough. I’m taking part in a challenge with Jen from Jen Med’s Book Reviews in which we read our way around the UK with books set in each county lol xxx

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  15. I love your idea of taking on reading challenges instead of goals or resolutions. Hopefully these will be easier to keep and the two sci-fi ones you’ve picked out sound really interesting as well! I’ve never tried read-a-thons before simply because as a mood reader I don’t think they’d work for me. I am taking part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge though, I have every year since it was introduced and I’ve never once failed at it so hopefully 2017 will be the same story.
    Good luck with all your challenges Donna! 😀

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    • I thought challenges would be fun and without much pressure 🙂 I’m eager to see how well it goes this year! I love seeing the Goodreads challenge bar grow as I read so I couldn’t miss taking the challenge again. Thank you! ❤

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      • It definitely sounds like fun, and they may be easier to stick to then New Year’s Resolutions. You’ll have to let me know how you find them all.
        Yeah, and I love it when it says how many books, if any, you’re ahead as well on the GR Challenge! 😀

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  18. Next year I think I will participate in a genre challenge (most likely cozy mysteries). This year I am solely focused on my NetGalley challenge –a nd consequently, also winning at my Shelf Love challenge. I have decided to keep my Goodreads goal at 52 books (one per week) because in 2016 I read less than half of the books I read in 2015. Keep up the reading streak!

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  21. Ohhhh these are pretty cool. I like those sci-fi ones. I have at least half of those on my TBR. I’m definitely going to add a couple more now. I only have my Goodreads challenge for the year and leave my reading based on mood and I-can’t-let-you-pick-up-anymore-dust. Best of luck on your challenges though! 😀

    – Lashaan

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    • I love those lists of books I don’t know a thing about, it’s full of promises 🙂 The Goodreads challenge is already more than enough, especially when the site reminds you you’re late on schedule, haha! Thanks so much 🙂

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    • It is awesome, I’m currently reading both required sci-fi for the month and it feels good to read something different 🙂 Even if the earliest works are quite wordy and make me check the dictionary a bit too much!! I’ve been dying to read Ready Player One, it was actually on my January list but when I realized it was part of the challenge, I decided to wait. The wait is gonna be so long, haha!

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