Bev at My Reader’s Block — wrangler of and participant in enough annual book challenges to make my head spin — is again running several next year and, having enjoyed the Vintage Golden Age Cover Bingo this year, I’m signing up for two.
The first is the Vintage Cover Scavenger Hunt again, tracking down the above items on the covers of books published between 1920 and 1959. I haven’t exactly excelled in this at my first attempt this year, but it’s good fun and I look forward to a more successful 2017. Which, no, does not necessarily mean that 2017 will be more successful…
The second is the Follow the Clues Mystery Challenge, in which you string together a line of reasoning that takes you from one book to the next. Bev explains it thus:
Evidence Trail Example: if the first book I read is by Agatha Christie, then my next book could be Arrow Pointing Nowhere by Elizabeth Daly who has often been referred to as “Agatha Christie’s favorite author.” Using “Arrow” from the Daly book’s title, then House of the Arrow by A.E.W. Mason (published in 1924) could be next and it might lead me to another book published in 1924…and so on.
The Invisible Event 
Good luck JJ
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Cheers, Sergio — I’ve had a half-decent ‘warm up’ year this time around, so the plan is to go a few better in 2017…
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Are you on Goodreads?
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I am not. I know it’s book-related and people post reviews there, but that’s the limit of my awareness. Are there advantages for being so, or specific reason you ask?
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Bev is a friend on Goodreads. I noticed the phenomenal number of crime books she read and sent her a friend request. I like Goodreads a lot as the site really helps me keep track of my reading. Interested?
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I’ll certainly give it a look; I used to kep quite hilariously obsessive lists of my reading, and it reached a point where the classifying and recording of everything I’d read sorta started taking the fun out of the reading (part of the same reason I read stuff that I don’t blog about — it’s nice to just read a book sometimes, without feeling an obligation to write about it, too).
But, hey, that’s not the say it’ll be like that. I’ll investigate over the festive season and get back to you…
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I gave up on Goodreads. The interface is absolutely terrible.
I keep track of all my reading using a spreadsheet. Much much easier.
Goodreads is a time sink, like Facebook.
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Good to have an alternative perspective, many thanks!
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Good luck with your challenges! I often choose my reading materials based on the “Follow the Clues”-manner, actually. ‘This writer was mentioned so now I’m going to read one of those books, and this was set in this place, now I’m going to look for another set there…’ etc. My friends and I call following up on perceived links between seemingly random things “Velma-ing” though, after a slightly obscure Cartoon Network commercial about Scooby Doo!’s Velma (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mxig4W0AL0).
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I’ve had a similar experience, but more through stumbled into an accidental linking at times — minor characters with the same name, same false solution, etc — which is part of the appeal here. I’m curious to see what I can come up with when I’m actually trying…bring on the Velma-ing!
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JJ, I’m so glad you’re joining me again for the Scavenger Hunt and willing to be one of my guinea pi— er, good blogging friends helping me try out a new challenge. I wouldn’t call my challenge ways professional….it’s more like an obsessive disorder, I think. 🙂
I keep telling myself I’m going to limit the challenges I do to only those that will allow me to use books I already have on my personal TBR shelves. It’s incredible how many I can still sign up for….
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