Summer Challenge Update #5

It’s time for a Summer Challenge update!  In each update, we will give an honorable mention to the reader who posts our favorite book-location pairing since time of last update. Keep reading to find out who is in the lead and to get some ideas for your book locations.

We are moving into the final month of the challenge so time to up your game if you have fallen behind. We have several people who signed up but have yet to read a book. Remember that for some prizes all you need to do to be eligible is read at least one book. Don’t let the whole summer pass you by without traveling to at least one destination.

You will now notice that we have added page counts to the scoreboard. All page counts will be taken from the GoodReads primary edition of the book you have read (so may be slightly different than the edition you read). This will help determine one of the prizes (most well travelled) at the end of the challenge. Next week, we will be announcing the kinds of prizes that you can win.

As we move into our final month, we will be posting updates every Sunday until the end! And, we hope you stick around after the challenge because we will be announcing our fall challenge — much less involved but hopefully equally fun — at the end of September.

Here are the standings to date:

Frequent Flyers (a.k.a the scoreboard):
Nanny Ogg -24 (pages read: 6,610)
Anne Shirley – 19 (pages read: 5,986)
Tracy S – 19 (pages read: 4,982)
Ursula – 17 (pages read: 5,064)
Glo-worm – 17 (pages read: 3,721)
LibraryCin – 16 (pages read: 4,990)
Chili -15 (pages read: 5,888)
Rachel Morgan – 15 (pages read: 4,437)
Aarti -14 (pages read: tbd)
Maxibob-13 (pages read 3,553)
Jaenelle Angelline-11 (pages read: 3,074)
Luna – 11 (pages read: 1,892)
Sushicat – 9 (pages read: 3,675)
Nicole – 9 (pages read: 3,062)
Jean Paget – 8 (pages read: 1,638)
Second Honeymoon – 8 (pages read: 2,385)
Nia -7 (pages read: 2,387)
John -6 (pages read: 3,070)
Morgen -5 (pages read: 2,109)
Jo March -5 (pages read: 1,791)
Tiger Lily – 5 (pages read: 1,467)
Emily -5 (pages read: 1,308)
Becky -4 (pages read: 1,150)
Tanya -2 (pages read: 859)
Kate T – 2 (pages read: 479)
Missy Bee – 1 (pages read: 336)

If you see any errors, let us know! If you still haven’t read a book, you have lots of time and reading even one book will mean you are eligible to win a prize.

Honorable mentions: Jen’s favorite location-book pairing since last update was read by Chili with Homer’s The Iliad for Ancient Ruins. She’s read some impressive books thus far and this was no exception. BookWorm’s favorite location-pairing was read by Nanny Ogg with Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz for the location Bora-Bora.

Friendly Reminder to participants: If you end up needing to buy any books for this challenge, please do so through our Amazon link. If you go to the store first, you can then go to other Amazon pages by clicking the “powered by Amazon” logo at the top right of the store page (under “Browse by Category). This will enable you find your own books outside the store.

Need some ideas? Here are some links to help you come up with books for your destinations. We’ll be featuring a few of these links each time we do an update so look out for your location if you feel stuck. Needless to say, all these books would be approved.

World Heritage Site: Here you can go in a number of different directions. Here is a list of the world heritage sites. You can pick a book that takes place in or near one of the World Heritage site or by an author from one of the countries where the World Heritage Site is locate (which means almost any country). We’ll most leave this to your discretion to pick a place because there are hundreds. Here’s one book that multiple people recommended to me when I did the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Mexico: Lots of options here. You can go fiction or non-fiction, set in Mexico or written by Mexican author. Here’s the Guardian’s list of Best Books on Mexico. And here is Lithub’s Five Great Contemporary Mexican writers.

Historical Pilgrimage: Another destination where you can go off in many directions. You can pick a non-fiction history book or historical fiction. Here’s a list of recently published history books. Here is one of NPR’s lists of best historical fiction. A final list of 100 best historical fiction listed by era can be found here.

We want to hear from you, our participants! Which has been your favorite book so far? Have you read any books that you might not have read if not for the challenge? Share your thoughts on the challenge.