We were planning on just hosting our usual summer reading challenge this year but then I received a very mysterious message written on the back of a receipt from 2143…
It turned out to be from the Agency of Literary Time Travelers asking for our assistance in their ongoing mission to explore and document as many years as possible. And I don’t know about you but I make it a habit not to argue with anyone who has access to a time machine!
The Challenge
So, how will this work? It starts with you posting a reply to this thread with the number of books that you’d like to read between Monday 12th July and Sunday 22nd August.
To prove you’ve read the right number of books during this period, you’ll need to post about them somewhere around the Book Club. This could be a review or a presenting author in The Bookshelf. It could also be a new discussion or contribution to an existing one in Between the Pages.
But where does the Agency of Literary Time Travelers come in? Glad you asked! You won’t just be reading these books, you’ll be using them as portals to travel back (or forward) in time. We’ll be working as a team to cover as many years as we possibly can and I’ll be recording it all on our Literary Timeline.
Beans/Awards
What’s in it for you? You mean aside from the thrill of bounding between the timestreams? Well, for every year you cover, you’ll earn 5 beans. And at the end, I’ll give everyone who takes part 1 bean for every year we manage to cover as a group. So, if we manage to cover 25 years, everyone who reads at least one book will get an extra 25 beans.
People who manage to read the number of books they pledged will receive the shiny Book to the Future award!
(graphic shows two books, stacked horizontally, surmounted by a time turner)The Rules
Yes, I’m afraid there are some. Time Travel is a risky business, you see.
Claiming a Year
There are a couple of ways to claim a year:
1. The book must have a good chunk (5 pages at least) of the story take place in the year you specify (it can’t just be a passing reference).
2. The actual year must be mentioned directly somewhere in the text of the book. Just because a story is set in the Victorian era generally doesn’t mean you can pick a random year during that period.
3. These need to be earth years (so Shire Years from the Lord of the Rings wouldn’t count)
4. If multiple years are featured in one book, you can choose any of them that you like.
5. You can also claim the year the book was originally published in (but not the year your particular edition was published in as some books have so many editions it wouldn’t be fair).
6. If someone has already claimed the year you were going to use and you don’t have an alternative year for that book that you'd like to use, you can still claim it and will get joint credit on the timeline.
Book and Pledging Criteria
1. You may not lower your original pledge. You can raise it though if you think you’ll be able to read more.
2. Audio books, E-books, short story collections, books of poetry, plays, graphic novels and rereading all count.
3. Unfortunately, online fanfiction and unpublished stories don’t count.
4. You may only count books that you read during the challenge period. If you started a book before the activity began on the 12th of July, then you may count it if you finished the bulk of it after the start date.
5. You must have posted about a book to be able to count it. You must also follow the posting guidelines in the overview threads for each forum.
6. Please remember that we have members of all ages on HOL and try to choose your books carefully. The later Harry Potter books are a good guide to the level of threat, adult content and bad language that we consider appropriate. If you think your book contains material that might be upsetting or inappropriate for a younger audience, please include a warning so that people can make an informed choice.
How to Claim a Book and a Year
Please edit your reply to this thread every time you finish a book. You should include a link to your post about that book and the year you want it to count for. You should also provide a brief explanation of why that book counts for that particular year. For instance:
Book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (link)
Year: 1997
Reason: Original Publication date
I’ll then verify that and update the timeline. You can also keep track of your progress in the dedicated spreadsheet. I’ll do my best to update as often as I can but it may take a few days. You’ll receive your beans and awards once the activity has finished.
You’ll need to post about all your books by 11:59 PM HOL-time on 22nd August.
I think that’s everything you need to know before embarking on your wibbly wobbly timey wimey adventure. Good luck out there! And whatever you do… Don’t step on any butterflies.
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