Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Serpent
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Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Fri Dec 25, 2015 1:02 am

For members that want to join various external reading challenges, feel free to use this thread as your platform to post reviews, if your challenge allows that!

In your sign-up post, please link to the original challenge and indicate whether it has a book club, giveaway(s) etc. You may also add any custom note, for example what books you plan to read for the challenge. More than one challenge can be listed in the same post; note that the hosts might prefer if you keep different challenges separate. (you don't have to post each review several times!)

L1 books are allowed, although of course reading in L2 is encouraged. You can also choose to read only in a specific language. Your reviews can be in any language. It's encouraged but not required to include some language learning information, for example which level it's suitable for (including books in your native language, though it can be hard to judge), or what techniques you used while reading. Reviews can be of any length and format; informal, academic or anything in between. However, note that according to the rules of the forum, heavily political or religious content is not allowed. (Feel free to PM a mod to clarify whether something is acceptable)

Comments to reviews are allowed; for long conversations, book clubs or logs might be a more suitable place.

PS I honestly have no clue if that's going to be a big thing or no :D
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Serpent
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Fri Dec 25, 2015 1:06 am

Note: many challenges require you to link to individual posts. To do that, click the icon next to your username and date, above the post. Right-click and copy if available, otherwise just open the link and copy the URL of the new page. A correct direct link should end with #p12345 (different numbers, of course).

Please try to use the other thread for questions.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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Serpent
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Fri Dec 25, 2015 1:39 am

Image

Challenge: 2016 TBR Pile (Bookish Lifestyle blog)
Book club: yes (if you join, you can suggest books)
Giveaways: yes (may be USA-only)
Rules: books have to be published in 2015 or earlier. e-books, audiobooks, non-fiction are allowed, rereads aren't. (Parallel texts presumably count as one book) I love that finishing what you started before is allowed :D
Misc: I'm aiming for the 11-20 books range ("a friendly hug"). I probably won't read anything in Russian, unless I do listening-reading with an audiobook in a different language.

(note: these descriptions are optional, it's just to encourage more fellow members to join :) especially if someone else has already signed up for the same challenge, no need to describe the rules etc)
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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Serpent
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:20 am

Challenge: European reading challenge
Giveaway: yes
Rules: read 1-5 books by European authors or taking place in Europe. Each author/country can only be used once. All genres count, including guidebooks. All formats count and rereads also do.
Misc: I'm aiming for five, definitely. The countries I've "covered" in the recent years: Finland, Sweden, Italy, Belarus, Poland, Romania, France, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Czech Republic, Germany, England, Portugal, Spain... Russia :) I'd like to cover a couple of new countries, most notably Croatia.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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Anya
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=754&p=11667#p11667
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Anya » Fri Dec 25, 2015 6:23 pm

European Reading Challenge sounds interesting…Some times ago Dead Languages challenge was suggested but unfortunately never take place...
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Serpent
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:51 am

Challenge: New Year Resolutions
Book club: yes (book already chosen)
Rules: Read 1-4 books that will help with your New Year resolutions, from December 20 to January 31. Self-help or how-to books are common but not obligatory. Rereading or finishing what you started counts.
My goal: 4 books

Bucket list:
self-improvement
1) Miranda Gray - Red Moon (Italian, about the power of the menstrual cycle)
children's books in L2
2) Tolkien - The Letters from Father Christmas (Danish)
3) Jeff Kinney - Dog Days (Swedish)
4) Magnus Ljunggren - Stolpe in (Swedish, about football)
other
5) Slavenka Drakulić - A Guided Tour through the Museum of Communism (Italian, reading in translation in order to get familiar with the style and try her other books in the original)
6) Paulo Coelho - The Devil and Miss Prym (Spanish, to get over some personal stuff)

I already have the first four in progress. Would be nice not to focus on just children's books though.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Brun Ugle » Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:13 am

My brain is spinning trying to imagine what your New Year's resolutions might be, based on the titles of those books.
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Serpent
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Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Wed Dec 30, 2015 11:15 am

Brun Ugle wrote:My brain is spinning trying to imagine what your New Year's resolutions might be, based on the titles of those books.

Haha but I've explained them all :P the children's books are a preparation for reading adult literature in these languages, I'll read Drakulić in translation in order to be more familiar with her style; Coelho is basically spiritual self-help :mrgreen:
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

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Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5178
Contact:

Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby Serpent » Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:23 pm

Now that's one y'all will like :D 8-)

Image

Challenge: Books in translation
Rules: Any translated books count. Books you started before the challenge began count if you choose so. All formats are fine, like ebooks, audiobooks etc.
Levels:
Beginner: Read 1-3 books in translation
Conversationalist: 4-6
Bilingual: 7-9
Linguist: 10-12

I currently have 13 translated books in progress, in 7 languages :D Obviously I'm aiming for the linguist level.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

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river
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Studies: ES (rusty), DE (intermediate), EO (?)

Coming up next: ZH, FR, PT, or KO
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3057&p=40352#p40352
x 29

Re: Reading challenges: sign-up and reviews

Postby river » Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:48 am

I'll be doing Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge this year. The challenge was designed to diversify participants' choices of reading material. There are 24 tasks, such as "Read a collection of essays" or "Read a book by an author that is from Southeast Asia." I was just going to do the challenge in English, but now I'm going to attempt Spanish as well. 8-)

Read Harder Challenge 2016

Read Harder Challenge 2015
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: 14 / 100 SC: DE books …… : 108 / 200 SC: DE films


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