Go the Distance

The main link for this challenge could be found here ..

Go the Distance, will begin on March 1st and run through April 30th. For this challenge you may read any book you choose and receive points for the distance (in miles) between the current residence of the author and the place where you currently live. If you plan to move during the length of the challenge (and the distance is quite large) please choose one location to use during the length of the challenge.

To start the challenge, please let us know where you live. If you don’t want to list exactly what you live in, that’s fine. We can use state and country capitals for your location. For instance, I live in the United States in Illinois. My location will be Springfield, IL.

With this challenge hopefully we can read outside of some of our normal reading tastes and aventure into authors who aren't from around our own area. Also, this will benefit you in the long run because you'll get more points for reading authors from areas far from you. For example, if you live in New York, New York and you read Paul Auster you'll only get a few points since this is a New York author. However, if the same New York reader read Dostoevski the reader would then be awarded a great deal of points for reading a Russian author.

After you finish a book please keep track of where the author currently lives. If you do not know where the author presently lives then you may use the place where the author was born.

If you're not sure where an author lives we do reserve the right to check and see if we can find a location for the author. If an author is dead we obviously can't use current location so in the case of authors who are no longer living we will use the location where they lived the longest.

There will be rest stops twice a month for you to post your travels and let us know where you traveled to and what author you chose to visit. At the first rest stop let us know where you currently reside.

Any book counts, but you’ll receive more points for books that are written by authors farther away from where you live. Books read for this challenge may be used in other challenges. Hardbacks, trade paper backs, mass market paperbacks, audiobooks, e-books, and kindle (or any other electronic reader) editions are all acceptable for this challenge. Feel free to keep a log of your ongoing books for this challenge. This is optional since some members find this helpful, but if you don’t want to keep track in a log in the group, that’s fine as well.

My List..
1. Tunnels Of Blood by Darren Shan
Distance: Limerick, Ireland = 3223.5 miles / 5187.8 kilometers

2. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
Distance: Magnolia, Arkansas = 7536.1 miles / 12128.1 kilometers

3. Copycats by Michael A. Arnzen
Distance: Greensburg, Pennsylvania = 6642.6 miles / 10690.3 kilometers

4. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Distance: Minneapolis, Minnesota = 6967.6 miles / 11213.2 kilometers

5. Speak No Evil by Allison Brennan
Distance: Sacramento, California = 8112.5 miles / 13055.8 kilometers

6. Burn by Anne Rainey (Linda Ingmanson)
Distance: Connecticut, USA = 6274.3 miles / 10097.4 kilometers

7. Sincerely Yours by Rebecca Goings
Distance: Hillsboro, Oregon = 7684.1 miles / 12366.4 kilometers

8. The Pumpkin Mashers by Linda Oness
Distance: Oakville, Ontario Canada = 6463.8 miles / 10402.5 kilometers

9. The Darkest Fire by Gena Showalter
Distance: Oklahoma School, Oklahoma = 7600.8 miles / 12232.2 kilometers

10. Unwanted Visitor by Lori Derby Bingley
Distance: Prince Edward Island, Canada = 5736.3 miles / 9231.7 kilometers

11. Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
Distance: Williamsburg, Virginia = 6632.4 miles / 10673.8 kilometers

12. See No Evil by Allison Brennan
Distance: Sacramento, California = 8112.5 miles / 13055.8 kilometers

13. Fear No Evil by Allison Brennan
Distance: Sacramento, California = 8112.5 miles / 13055.8 kilometers

14. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Distance: Rockville, Maryland = 6584.5 miles/ 10596.7 kilometers

15. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Distance: New York, New York = 6383.1 miles/ 10272.5 kilometers

16. Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione

Distance: Williamsburg, Virginia = 6632.4 miles / 10673.8 kilometers

Total: 27,712.5 miles

Grand Total: 110,200.5 miles

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The results are in!!

Finally, the results of the Distance Challenge!
We've read books from far-away authors, of all continents, with a translation here and there. I hope you all enjoyed counting miles, and maybe you've discovered a few new authors on the way.

Here are our top-travellers:

1. KwesiFriends (Phillippines) - 221,387 miles

2. Clockstein (Wisconsin, USA) - 124,087 miles

3. DesertRose (Saudi Arabia) - 110,201 miles

Fantastic results! You're all from very different places. If you'd all become authors, then I think we would get quite a few miles in a future distance challenge, just by reading your books.

The top -10 further consists of:

4. Jen M (California, USA) - 102,832 miles

5. Coyotemusic (California, USA) - 101,355 miles

6. KrisTJ (Nebraska, USA) - 93,711 miles

7. sweetpea78 (New Jersey, USA) - 85,016 miles

8. Ellen R (Texas, USA) - 79,646 miles

9. Nicole R (California, USA) - 67,383 miles

10. Mjacobs (Belgium) - 53,216

Congratulations to all!