Wrapping Up Cannonball Read III: Everybody Wins!

By Tamatha Uhmelmahaye | Books | January 27, 2012 |

By Tamatha Uhmelmahaye | Books | January 27, 2012 |

One of my main goals as coordinator of Cannonball Read III was to encourage as many Pajibans (and Pajiban associates) as possible to join in the fun. I was overjoyed (and more than a little overwhelmed) when 150 Cannonballers signed up. That was 50% more readers than the year before!

Another thing that was important to me from the beginning was to encourage the Cannonballers along the way. I took a zero guilt approach. Having crashed and burned myself in CBR-II, I simply wanted to encourage folks to feel that they were a part of this reading community.

One of the things that I think helped was the creation of different levels of Cannonball: The traditional Whole Cannonball of 52 books, but also a Half Cannonball (26 books) and a Quarter Cannonball (13 books). Not only did this new approach encourage folks who wouldn’t sign up for reading and reviewing 52 books to take the plunge, but it also meant that if someone didn’t make a higher goal, they still had an opportunity to reach one of the other levels. Win-win, if you ask me.

I absolutely and sincerely believe that all the folks who signed up for CBR-III and read at least one book during the year (whether a review came out of that or not) were part of the Cannonball community.

At the same time, I also believe that those Cannonballers who actually wrote at least thirteen reviews deserve some recognition. So here they are (for a few Cannonballers I was able to suss out how many books they read beyond their total reviews, so I’ve included that as well when I could, since the first CBR did not require reviews).

Whole Cannonball (or more)

Ashley − 156
Malin − 104
Clementine Bojangles − 100
Siege − 95
Jen K. − 76 reviewed (109 read)
caragwapa − 60
Janel − 56
Caitlin − 55
DeistBrawler − 53
Jelinas − 53
Krista − 53
Sara H − 53
akhirnya − 52
ambern − 52
Amy − 52
Captain Tuttle − 52
Carolyn − 52
crabtree − 52
effcubed − 52
leedock − 52
Samantha − 52
scootsa1000 − 52
sevenstories − 52
Tara − 52
xoxoxo e − 52

Half Cannonball (or more)

Even Stevens − 47
Raych − 46
Alli − 44
Figgy − 38 reviewed (55- read)
Captain Steve − 37
pyrajane − 37
Pinky McLadybits − 34
Diana − 33
mswas − 33
genericwhitegirl − 31
Fofo − 30 reviewed (52 read)
Mrs Smith − 29
KatSings − 26
llp − 26
The Scruffy Rube − 26
Tits McGee − 26
Trudi − 26

Quarter Cannonball (or more)

TheOutlawJosie − 25
amurph11 − 22
heathpie − 21
sonk − 21
denesteak − 18
Karo − 18
Sophia − 18
dsbs − 18 reviewed (31 read)
Dorothy Snarker − 17
Internet Magpie − 16
TWOP_fan − 15
Ana C − 15
Lizella − 14
MelBivDevoe − 14
kella − 13

Honorable Mentions

Cannonballers who may have reviewed less than a Quarter Cannonball’s worth of books, but who read at least that many:
jack − 10 reviewed, 52 read
Sandisan − 4 reviewed, 32 read
Jamiepants − 4 reviewed, 24 read
Mr. Vlach − 3 reviewed, 40 read
Lauri − 3 reviewed, 17 read
No Pithy Name − 1 review, 100 read
Tyburn Blossom − 1 reviewed, 28 read

Cannonballers who wrote between one and twelve reviews:
prairiegirl
Doctor Controversy
leuce7
Az
Nosio
Beletseri
coryo
Lennon
staceygarrett
D. P.
FyreHaar
Robert
jim of the lowercase
Kimchichi
Sinnh
The Mama
TylerDFC
idleprimate
Sleepy Lemur
A-schaef
Alyson McManus
JarekMatthews
Tereasa
bat
crapface
wronoj
penniless bastard
Beckells
cruzich
jasper
marya
Stupid Velociraptors
pattykhill
Angeleno Ewok
Chugga
commanderstrikeher
Jim Doggie
Patty O’Green
starryjo
Lonjanis
chaplain
Deck Officer
J.K. Barlow
SaBrina
Faythe Saxton

A sincere thank you to all the Cannonballers of CBR-III, because they are the ones who kept the tradition going. I also want to thank those who suggested a group blog. I think that was one of the best things to come out of CBR-III. It seemed to foster a larger sense of community among the Cannonballers.

It was an honor to keep Cannonball Read going for a third year. I’m glad I was able to do my part. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m two book reviews behind for CBR-IV.