April, The Month of ROOB

Earlier this month or late last month, I was fortunate to be on Twitter at just the  right time to insinuate myself in a conversation about a really fun challenge that was being figured out: ROOB, or Reading Our Own Books.  I was so happy to  have been at the right place at the right time for this.

What is so fun and so timely about this challenge is that the goal is to read as many of your own books that have been sitting on your shelf as possible.  Although review and library copies count, you get the most credit for reading books that you own, so long as they’ve been in your possession before March 15th.  What a great way to force some deliberate reading!

Scoring the Game

Here is the points/penalty break down for ROOB:

• ?5 points for reading a book from your TBR stack (owned before 3/15)
• ?3 points for reading a review copy (review promised in April)
• ?2 points for reading a library copy
• +6 points for reading a new book (owned or borrowed after 3/15)

We count books started no earlier than April 1 and finished no later than April 30. Books started in March but finished in April and books started in April but finished in May do not count for the ROOB game.

At the end of the month we add up our points. The ROOB winner is the person with the lowest score. If I read 5 books from my TBR stack, 3 review copies, and 1 new book, here’s how I’d figure my score:

(5 × ?5) + (3 × ?3) + (1 × 6) = ?25 + ?9 + 6 = ?28

In order to level the playing field so that reading speed and book size isn’t a factor in who wins, we’re going to divide our final points by the number of books read.

So for our example, my final score would be ?28 ÷ 9 = ?3.11

The best strategy for winning is to read books you’ve owned for a while and that are not specifically for an April review or blog tour. There is a big penalty for reading new books.  I’m not in this to win it, per se.  I am more interested in challenging myself to power through my TBR and enjoy my reading.  No matter what, reading books “older” than a month old for an entire month will be a victory for me.

The ROOB Contestants

• Vasilly (Natasha) from 1330v
• Carrie from Books and Movies
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads
• Sarah from Puss Reboots
• Michelle from GalleySmith
• Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Honorary member: Jen from Devourer of Books

The ROOB Champion

The winner is the person with the lowest score at the end of the month. Highly coveted bragging rights go to the ROOB champion – until we play again (and I hope this continues). Each of the losers will each pick a book from her stacks and send it the winner. In that way, the losers give the winner a (back-handed) pat on the back for a job well done by filling up their TBR. LOL!

Interested In Playing?

In order to keep things simple, we decided to keep our group to 8 people.  If you would like to play along with us on your own, please do!  I’d love to hear how your challenge goes.  You can also start your own group.  No matter what, have fun with your reading in April!