Literary Road Trip Across the U.S.

It’s officially summer time which means it’s the perfect time to take a road trip! This year we’re going on a road trip across the continental United States. Next year, we’ll backpack through Europe. Join the challenge and win cool bookish prizes. Keep reading to find out more…

Ready for our next reading challenge? Starting July 1, through September 30, we’ll be hosting a road trip reading challenge. Pack up the Winnebago and get ready to join us for the chance to win some cool bookish prizes.

Goal: To make your way from the East Coast United States to the West Coast in 3 months (July – September).

Instructions: Read your way across the continental U.S. using one book per state. To cross the country you must read and review a book that pertains to the state you select to travel through. In order to move onto the next state in your travels, you must complete the book for the state where you are currently located. The book must be either set in the state or written by an author from that state to qualify.

You must start in one of the following states: Maine, NH, MA, RI, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida.

You road trip will be over once you have completed arrived in and completed a book for one for the following: Washington, Oregon, or California

This is a road trip so the majority of your travels will be by car, meaning that you must pass through states in the order you would drive them. However, is an exception to this rule.

• Every Monday we randomly pick 5 states (using random.org) that will become flight hubs for that week (and that week only). If you arrive in this state any time in that next week, you will be able to take a short westbound flight. This will let you skip over one state or travel to any landmark (see below) that is located east of your current destination. You may fly one time each month.

Landmarks & Bonus points: Bonus points will be awarded for traveling to specific landmarks (list is posted on our challenge page).

Travel mishaps: Every Monday, we will randomly select two readers to experience a travel mishap and 2 states for a blackout. Maybe you run into a weather problem or get a flat tire. What does this mean? For the two players it means that for the rest of that week you will be stranded in your current state and will NOT be able to start a state/book until the following monday. If you are halfway through a state (e.g., in the midst of a book) you may keep reading that book but you will be unable to move on to the next book until the next monday. No one player will be selected more than once a month.

For the states selected, it means that that states will be unavailable for travel for the entire week. If you are in that state at the time, you can finish your book but you can’t start your next book until the blackout is over. If you were planning to travel through that state you must either wait until the following Monday to start that state/book OR you can change your travel plans and bypass the state.

More detailed instructions, point/scoring system, and list of prizes are posted on our challenge page (see pull down bar in the blog “challenge” menu) tomorrow. Starting July 1, you will want to make sure you check the challenge page every Monday to see the flight hubs and travel mishaps.

So who will be traveling with us? Let us know here and head over the challenge page to start your comment thread. See the example of the comment thread I started there.