24 Festive Tasks: 2020 Edition

One thing that survived the BL-pocolypse was the games, because they were designed and run by the members and thus could be moved along with us to the new venue. The games include Snakes and Ladders, BL-opoly, Halloween Bingo and 24 Festive Tasks.  I play everything except Halloween Bingo (horror, ghost, zombies, etc. all too scary for me). I like the games because they give me something to hang my reading on. They get me out of a rut and push me to explore new authors. Plus there is the social aspect.  I believe this will be my fourth year playing "24 Festive Tasks."

 

Here is how the game works. Think of an advent calendar, where each day of Advent you open a flap on the card to reveal what is behind. The play here is similar except that we begin on November 1 and end on New Year's Eve. The Games' Masters pick a number of holidays that fall during the months of November and December, some secular, some religious, some legitimate and some imaginary. For each of the 24 Doors, there is one book to read and some fun tasks to complete that some how relate to the holiday. Some of the holidays repeat every year; others don't. This year we voted on the floating holidays. We get one point for each book read or task completed.

 

We have some very clever and talented members who take care of all the various details of the games, including art work. Each year we get a different game card. Eventually the numbers are replaced by logos for each holiday.

 

 

 

As this year's game begins I am still not sure how I will be recording my progress. Will it be one short post for each Flap/Door or will it be on long post that I keep updating as new holidays are revealed and tasks and books are completed.  

 

The competition will be tough but no member will be announced the winner.  In the end, the winner of the game will be a bookish charitable organization chosen by the GMs. We each report our books and tasks completed. When the game ends, the grand total of books read and tasks completed is the amount of money that the GM will donate to the charity they have chosen. We aren't playing to win; we are playing to run up the tab.