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This is our group reading challenge for 2019!

1) To participate, create a non-exclusive custom bookshelf and call it "2019 VF Reading Challenge" or something similar. This is the bookshelf you use to sign up along with the number of books you expect to read this year. For each book you begin and end in this calendar year, make sure that you add it to this bookshelf, and that it is marked as "read" with a date in 2019.

Qualifying books should have the following features:

•They must be novels or novellas of at least 100 pages length per their Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ page. You can consume them in any format. (Short story anthologies will count as one book. Sorry, no graphic novels.)

•The main protagonists are not all cisgender heterosexual men.

•The books should be in the following genres: Contemporary Romance, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, or anything similar. (For definitions of these genres as used here see the The Vaginal Fantasy Genre Guide.)

•Any books should also have a romantic plot line, although this is not a requirement.

We're not going to audit your choices, so just use your best judgement.

2) Go here to sign up.

Start Date: January 01, 2019
End Date: December 31, 2019

The goal is 5000 books for the year.
Please leave any comments or questions below.
Happy reading!

Quick question : should they also be written by women ?

It's not a requirement, as we have done a few male authors in the past. While I expect most of the books will be by women and about women, I don't want to exclude male authors based solely on their sex. I'm trying to be as inclusive as possible while trying to maintain the original focus of the club.

Thank you!! :)

hmm... so you are only counting book with "The main protagonists are not all cisgender heterosexual men" meaning any m/f romances would be excluded if not transgender? So this is a LGBTQ+ list this year? I read quite a bit of m/m but it'll limit the additions greatly.

Sorry if I was confusing. I was trying to be as concise as possible. Eligible books are science fiction, fantasy, and historical novels with main protagonists who are not straight cis men. This would include women and anyone identifying as LGBTQIA. It was worded this way to specifically include M/M couples, who are popular among some of our readers. Any M/F couples, including those with male POVs, are fine as long as the female characters are given equal weight. The description is only meant to exclude books which focus on men while leaving the women as nothing more than two dimensional love interests.
It was the original intent of this book club to give voices to women and minorities who do not always receive the same recognition in the mainstream. This reading challenge is an extension of that. For anyone who is not familiar, please see our bookshelf for examples of the kinds of books we read.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I think I get it but I don't think I followed it completely last time. There aren't that maybe male centric hetero cis that don't have a major kick butt female character to keep them in line in my reading but... some of the contemporary R that I have been pushed to have that alpha/doormat quality to them. Don't usually like them much. I'll leave those off.

Just to let folks know...you might have to re-enter your goal and shelf to get GR to give an accurate count. I've been having a problem with GR not keeping an accurate count for me in other communities that have group reading challenges.

So, it might be worth sending out an extra line item in whatever email is sent out near the end of the year/early 2020 to get people to check if their count is correct.

Thanks for the heads up. Challenges have been kind of glitchy.

How many books read is your goal. I know last year it was 5000 of any book over 100 pages, so what do you think this time? Of course with this, they could be repeated books.

Look like there is a 2000 goal more or less and 576 already read. I just signed up but I'm ahead for the year on qualifying books, but only by a little.

Well... I just hit my goal.
I guess I should increase it?

Crystal wrote: "Well... I just hit my goal.
I guess I should increase it?"

I think it helps get the final goal up.

Have to remember to update.

You can either increase it, and increase the total goal, or you can leave it and keep going over. One makes the goal more impressive looking, the other balances out the people who set a goal and then never mark a single book towards it. Whichever way you're happiest with! :)

Okay, just added and updated my shelf. I think I left out the right books. Most of the heterosexual romances are with a female protagonists focus and generally written by women or meet a separate qualification, regardless of the romantic factor.

I forgot to label my books from July on. Just updated and slightly over my goal.

Does romantic suspense count? I've been leaving those off, but it seems like it would fit in with contemporary romance.

Would horror and/or dystopian works fall into the acceptable genres for this challenge? I'm reading Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant and it seems like a VF title :)

Sure go ahead and add it. VF never did a lot of horror, but that was mostly because Veronica wouldn’t read it.

One assumes then if women are the focus that reverse harem books are acceptable? Also, what if we don't have a goal or don't remember all of the books. :) (typing with a cat laying on the hands isn't easy hence the edit). :)

Reverse harems are fine. And just add any you can remember. I probably forgot a few myself.

Will a new challenge be created for 2020? Thanks, regardless!

I wasn't if there was enough of a demand, but since several people have now asked, I'll set one up shortly.

Yay, thank you!