Welcome to our 2018 challenge group!

Welcome to our new 2018 group!

For those of you who have participated in this challenge the past few years, you'll notice I've made a few changes. First, I renamed the group to reflect the fact that some of us are tracking other types of BookCrossing challenges, and not just trying to reduce ABC (already BookCrossed) books. That was the original purpose of the group and still highly encouraged, of course!

If you are new to the group, please browse through earlier threads if you'd like some ideas on how to structure your challenge. This is the link to the 2017 group:
http://www.librarything.com/groups/forbookcrossersredu2

Please introduce yourself here and tell us about your goals for 2018!

You'll see on the group's main page my feeble attempt at showing Ballycumber conquering (a modest) MTBR. If any of you have better ideas for a logo, please feel free to suggest one. I've set this group up so that members can submit photos.

Thanks for keeping this going mathgirl40. And I wouldn't even try to do a logo so yours looks great to me.

>3 gypsysmom: Thanks. Glad to have you back for next year's challenge!

I'm Madeline, BookCrosser SqueakyChu, a long-time BookCrossing member (since 2003, in fact). I am a member of BCinDC, the local Maryland/DC/Virginia area BookCrossing meetup group. I was fortunate to have attended a Bookcrossing meetup in Toronto, Canada, this past year. I am also known for having the Little Free Library of Twinbrook (#7720), which is also an OBCZ (official BookCrossing Zone).

I am a former registered nurse, now retired (for four years already?!). My husband and I have three grown children, one grandson, and a granddaughter due in January, 2018. I babysit for my grandson part time, a job which is more tiring than any "real" job I ever had. :D

My simple goal for 2018 will be to read more books than I read in 2017...which is now only 33 for this year to date. I find lots of things with which to distract myself from reading...including playing Pokemon GO. Well, I kind of have to because my Little Free Library is a Pokemoon GO gym. At age 70, am I the oldest Pokémon GO player ever? It sure seems that way! :D

I'm Nancy, a lapsed bookcrosser. Like Madeline, I have a Little Free Library in front of my house.
I'm a retired librarian. I have an adult son and a little 1-year-old granddaughter.
My goal is always to read 100 books and that half of those (50) be from my own shelves, and then, hopefully, out of the house!

I think I've read 46 off the TBR shelves so far in 2017.

Hi! I am a teacher in the east of England and a big reader. I am also a bit of a book magpie - I can't help gathering up books that catch my eye! I worked abroad for a few years, and so books piled up at my parents' house. These last few years I have tried to read off shelves and not buy so many!
My first goal is to read all books from 2016 and I'd like to read all from the first half of this year. I also want to keep on registering books I have had for ages.

>5 SqueakyChu: >6 nrmay: >7 soffitta1: Thanks for introducing yourselves, and I'm very happy to see you all back for the 2018 challenge!

I just realized that I did not introduce myself. I'm Paulina, a Canadian who lives in Southern Ontario, not too far from Toronto. I read all kinds of books but especially like mystery, science-fiction and fantasy. I also enjoy classics and literature. I try very hard to read the books from my shelves but I get easily distracted by yearly awards lists (Hugo, Booker, Evergreen, Tournament of Books). I have the same userid on BookCrossing but I'm kwmg40 on Litsy.

I don't keep a thread on this group because I don't want more than one thread to keep up so feel free to stop by my thread on the 75 books challenge group. I'm in and out of there pretty frequently. I will peek in here to take a look at your threads as well. Happy holidays, everyone!

Likewise, feel free to join my TIOLI (Take It or Leave It) Challenges. This is a semi-hidden challenge group (simply to keep it small), but it's wide open to all BookCrossers.

More about the TIOLI challenges can be found here.

After reading all the lovely introductions I realized I should do my own. I'm Wendy; I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada; I'm retired as of 2014 from an 18 year career with the Grain Research Lab of the Canadian Grain Commission; before that I practised law and then went back to school when I realized I could not do that career any more. I read a lot but I thought I would have more time to read when I retired but it doesn't seem to work out that way. I read for a little just after breakfast and then quite often I don't get another chance until I'm snuggled in bed. I have worked in a little more reading time by listening to audiobooks while doing other things like knitting, walking or cooking. I read fiction and nonfiction with a preference for mysteries and science fiction. I also try to read Canadian literature especially prize winners (Giller, Governor General's Award and Canada Reads) and classics. This is a good challenge for me to do because it keeps me reading those books that have sat around longer than I intended when I first acquired them.

>9 SqueakyChu: We're happy to have you here participating, in any kind of way! Will you be posting a 2018 thread for your number-of-books-registered competition? This is a BC-related challenge so definitely fits into this forum. :)

>10 gypsysmom: Thanks for your introduction! I too have been listening to audiobooks more these days. I rely heavily on my library's digital collection.

>11 mathgirl40: I keep track of the number of books I read per year on my personal thread so I don't want to duplicate it here.

I don't want to keep track of any more things...especially the number of books registered because it's way too many.

>12 SqueakyChu: No problem. I was just asking about this thread, in case you misunderstood. :)

Hi all. I am Shelley, originally from Montreal but living in Toronto since 1980. I've been a bookcrosser since 2004 and, thanks to Madeline, an LTer for a few years! (hi, Madeline!) Just as an aside, Madeline and I have been bookcrossing friends for probably 10 years or so, but finally met in person when she came to visit me last summer with her husband and friend. I have met quite a few bookcrossers over the years (including mathgirl40!) and this one actually felt more like a reunion than a first-time meeting.

We have a small but active and dedicated Toronto bookcrossing meetup group and we meet at a favourite local pub every other month. We usually number around 8 to 10 but sometimes more, sometimes fewer. When someone visits from out of town and can give us even a tiny bit of notice, we are always happy to cobble together a meetup, and have done so several times, with visitors from Germany, Australia, Norway, the States, and even Winnipeg (Pooker3).

I am a recently retired primary school teacher (2 years) and am enjoying this new chapter very much. I am active in the 75ers group and participate in a few challenges there. I can see that it shouldn't be difficult to overlap some of my reading for challenges in this group (such as reading more of my own books, languishing on the shelves). I love fiction and non-fiction, bios, nature, etc.

>14 jessibud2: Thanks for the introduction! I really enjoyed meeting you and some of the other Toronto BookCrossers and hope that I can manage to get to one of your regular meetings one day. It's great that you've been able to meet so many BookCrossers from around the world.

>13 mathgirl40:

I did misunderstand. I updated that thread...and now the only person I know I real life (who agrees to be chased by my numbers is KateKintail.

>14 jessibud2: Hi, Shelley! Fancy meeting you here! :D

this one actually felt more like a reunion than a first-time meeting.

Really! For me, too. :)

>15 mathgirl40: I LOVED meeting the Harboard House Bookcrossers at that meeting I attended in Toronto. I just wish Toronto were a little bit closer to Maryland (USA). I would love to be in Toronto now to celebrate the winning of the Major League Soccer championship by Toronto's team. My local team (DC United) ended in last place, but I've also grown to love the new soccer franchise, Atlanta United (from Atalanta, Georgoe, USA).

Maybe one day, I'll get to make another trip to Toronto. I've been there three times and have always loved visiting that city.

I'd love to join for 2018. I'm Lamilla on BC

>17 Amaryllys: Welcome to LibraryThing! It's always fun to see new Bookcrossers here.

>1 mathgirl40: You know what might be fun to do on this thread after our introductions are complete?

What about sharing our BookCrossing activities throughout the year? I'd love to tell you about what my own BookCrossing group does (with pictures!) and would love to hear about other BookCrossing meetup groups. For those without Bookcrossing meetup groups, I'd love to hear what keeps you interested in BookCrossing. Is it wild releases, BookCrossing release challenges, friends who share your hobby, surprise journal entries?

I'm saying this because I really don't want to do any more lists either here on LT or on BC, but I'd love to be a more active participant in this group. :D

What do you think, mathgirl40?

>17 Amaryllys: Great to have you here!

>19 SqueakyChu: How about starting a new thread for general BC chatter/news? Feel free to start one if you like, or I can do that.

Paulina, is the 2018 thread up yet? Please remind me how to start a thread there? I'm good once I'm into it but I apparently have an annual memory lapse, when it comes to the beginning of each year and how to actually get started!

>21 jessibud2: You are in the 2018 group right now! :)

To start your own thread, go to the group's main page here:
http://www.librarything.com/groups/bookcrossing2018redu

Then, click on "Post a new topic", shown just above the list of threads.

You can put anything you want on the subject line, but it would be helpful for the rest of us to include your username in the title (e.g. "jessibud2's 2018 challenge") so we can easily identify it as yours.

Then, add a description of your challenge in the first message. If you've not figured out your challenge yet, you can add a line (as I've done in my thread) to say, "details to be added", and then edit the message later.

>22 mathgirl40: - But of course! lol! Thanks

>20 mathgirl40: Would you start the chatter thread? If so, I'd love to go there for BookCrossing chatter. :D

21 jessibud2: You are in the 2018 group right now! :)

Shelley, you are my entertainment! I mean that in the dearest sort of way! :)

>24 SqueakyChu: Here you go!
http://www.librarything.com/topic/278253

>24 SqueakyChu: - Of course you do. Glad to be of service, lol! :-)

Hello--

I am Pok Pok aka Lisa... was a very active BCer, but haven't been on the site actively in years. I still read and release, and love LT for the review/ tracking capabilities. The past 5-8 years I've struggled with only reading ~15 books or so a year. Some are very heavy, but it's much because "life" and "online life" have stolen too much time from me.

So I'm going to join a challenge. I just decided this 5 minutes ago so my goal may change.... but for now I'm thinking 20 books, since the past few years I've done ~12-15. When I commuted by train I did 50, but I know I'm not there...and I'm ok with that. :)

My other challenge of course, will be to not live here vs. reading... so I'm hoping to balance, getting a little bit of motivation but also being offline doing things like reading!

Lisa aka PokPok

>27 PokPok: Welcome to the group! The challenge is flexible. It's completely up to you, so it's not a problem to change it as the year progresses. We're here to give you encouragement, whatever you decide to set as your goals. :)

>27 PokPok: Hi PokPok! I remember you from my bookrays and when I used to be much more active on the BookCrossing forums! Now I live on LT much more than BC although I’ve been an active BookCrosser in real life. It’s nice that you decided to join us here.

Hi Folks. I'm Luke. I've been bookcrossing for about nine years. I live in Norfolk, UK these days. Background in the Civil Service and Charity sector.

>30 Lukerik: Welcome, Luke! We're always happy to have more BookCrossers join us!

Happy to be here :)

>30 Lukerik: Welcome!

Thanks :)

Jumped in this year, thanks to mathgirl's cross post. hopefully will be successful in whittling Mt Toobie down!

>35 nancynova: good like with bringing down your MtBR!

>35 nancynova: Good to have you back!