75 Books Challenge for 2012 : Take It Or Leave It Challenge - February 2012 - Page 1

For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread or this TIOLI FAQS wiki.

Simple directions for posting to the wiki can be found at the bottom of each month's wiki page.


...logo by cyderry

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Okay. You guys thought that my embedded animal challenge was too easy. You *laughed* when I said I might have a challenge “asking for an animal that's drinking a beverage” on a particular page. Are you ready for what’s coming…?

Your challenge is to read a book with an animal mentioned on the left hand page AND a beverage mentioned on the right hand page AND both page numbers must include the number three. These can be any pair of pages that face each other and meet the parameters. However, the animal must be on the left hand page, and the beverage must be on the right hand page. Not vice versa. List your book as follows:

A Handbook of American Prayer (136/bee – 137/tequila) – Lucius Sheppard – alcottacre
Gun With Occasional Music (34/ass – 35/wine) – Jonathan Lethem – pbadeer
The Lacuna (34/horse – 35/water) – Barbara Kingsolver - _Zoe_
Rash (136/bear - 137/Pepsi) – Pete Hautman – norabelle414
Sam the Cat (232/horse – 233/wine) – Matthew Klam – SqueakyChu
Sister Teresa – (130/clam – 131/water) - Barbara Mujica - katiekrug

To find a book to fit this challenge is actually easier than you might think at first. Begin your search with pages in the 30’s, 130’s, 230’s, etc. Then I’d recommend starting with a search for a beverage on the right hand page. Remember, you may (and are encouraged to) use embedded words, even those which stretch across more than one printed word. Look for water (easy to spot) or small words such as tea, rum, or gin (all really good embedded words). Then, on the left hand page, look for words such as pen, sow, ewe, cat, dog, pig, fly, bee etc. The animal word can also be embedded. You *can* do this.

…and, yeah, blood can be a beverage, but only if your book is about vampires. :O

Good luck…and have fun choosing a book! :D

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):

1. The February 2012 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. I Know I'm a TIOLI Addict When... - Frog Logo is on this page!
3. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it. (Updated 02/04/12)

Wiki Index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book with an animal on the left hand page, a beverage on the right hand page, and the number 3 in both page numbers.
2. Read a book by an author that you know
3. Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another 5 letter word
4. Read a book that someone else has added to a list you created - thread
5. Read a book with an ungulate in the title or on the cover
6. Read a book whose author's surname has a "Scrabble value" of 12 or more

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book published by a University or College
8. Read a book by an author who has a blurb on a book in your home or in your LT catalog
9. Read a book with a title that includes a particular person or people (by name or designation) AND a specific place or region.
10 .Read a Book with a Title written in the FIRST PERSON
11. Read a 2 Word Titled Book BUT the First Letter of the First Word Must Come After the First Letter of the Second Word (in the alphabet)
12. Read a book with a cover that depicts love

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book set on an island
14. Read a work of *NONFICTION* from the NY Times notable books of 2011
15. Read a book that has the Letters in TIOLI (T,I,O,L) as doubles in the title or Author's Name
16. Read a book about economics
17. Read a book by or about Charles Dickens
18. Read a book originally written in a language that you do NOT speak and read

Challenges #19-22
19. Read a book that won or was nominated for the Nebula Award
20. Read a that can be categorised in at least two genres and is narrated in the first person
21. Read a book from the Over the Rainbow list, current or previous year
22. Read a book you started before Dec 25, 2011

No more new challenges until next month. Thanks!

:)

gotcha!

LOL! Have you both been following me?!

OMG, Madeleine, that challenge is INSANE! I envision many 75ers pulling their hair out over it :)

little ole us - LOL

I never thought your challenge was easy Madeline. Now I must go check my books...

Found it!

I have a question--does the '3' have to be in the page number or could it be part of the text?

>6 katiekrug: - But I've found one that fits! I checked the ONE book I know I will read in February!

I think the only way I'm going to meet your challenge is to read a cookbook!

Earliest find EVER. Which is what happens when I spend my entire weekend hovering at my computer in case someone asks a question about The Castle Of Otranto. :)

This month I invite people to participate in the Someone Of Somewhere Challenge - read a book with a title that includes a particular person or people (by name or designation) AND a specific place or region.

To illustrate, John Of Gaunt would qualify, and so would The Hemingses Of Monticello and The Widow Of The South; but The Castle Of Otranto would not (no person) and nor would Sanders Of The River, as "the river" does not specify a particular body of water (even though it is specified in the text).

The title should include either "of" or "from".

Complicated enough?? :)

By the way - I've read 10 books so far this month and NOT ONE has mentioned a beverage on page 10!!

One of them mentioned "spirits", as in high spirits, but I figured that was cheating. :)

Here's my challenge: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram of another word.

You must use ALL the letters. For example: Tender is the Night (tender/rented) - F. Scott Fitzgerald - katiekrug

ETA: This is challenge #3 on the wiki

> 9

I have a question--does the '3' have to be in the page number or could it be part of the text?

It must be in the page number.

OMG, Madeleine, that challenge is INSANE! I envision many 75ers pulling their hair out over it

*smiles smugly*

> 12

Earliest find EVER. Which is what happens when I spend my entire weekend hovering at my computer in case someone asks a question about The Castle Of Otranto.

ROFL!!

Read a book by an author that you know

I'll start a thread tomorrow for questions but basically this includes an author that you have met in person, have had a conversation with or been in correspondence with. This includes face to face, email, message boards and snail mail. This does not include random posts you make to their blog or Facebook page or Twitter. You need to have had an actual conversation with the person.

For instance, I've had email correspondence with Spider Robinson and Ralph Keyes, have had LT conversations with Janny Wurts and Brandon Sanderson, snail mail correspondence with Piers Anthony and have spoke with R. T. Kaelin on LT via private message and he sent me an autographed copy of his book. I'm related to the author Vincent Donovan. Any of those authors would qualify.

I've posted to Wil Wheaton's blog but he has not responded directly to me. He would not qualify.

> 11

I think the only way I'm going to meet your challenge is to read a cookbook!

Look in the poultry section. You'll be sure to find the word "chicken" on the left hand page! :D

> 13

I would accept spirits as a beverage. To me that means any form of alcohol.

Since animal or beverage words can be embedded, the word "spirits" in that context is not cheating.

Liz, I've been planning to read The Hemingses of Monticello in February. It's about a family rather than a single person. Would this be acceptable for your challenge?

>>#20 Yay!!

>>#21 Yes, that's acceptable. I will amend the explanation to "person or people".

For your challenge to read a book with an Ungulate in the title or on the cover, Dejah_Thoris, are you going to explain to us what an "ungulate" is?! :)

I *adore* all of our challenges so far! They are really making me laugh.

My challenge is to read a book that someone else has added to a List you created.

LibraryThing has a new Lists feature, and now is your chance to try it out!

First, go to the main Lists page and browse around a bit to get a sense of how it works. Look at what lists other people have created, and maybe make contributions to some of them.

When you're ready, create your own list! The "create new list" button is at the top right of the main list page.

Then you just have to wait and see... what books will other people add to your list? You can pick any of those to read for this challenge.

Hint: The more lists you create, the more choices you'll have.... ;)

Madeline! I love your challenge! Definitely worth the wait. Oh what fun to find a book that fits all your criteria!

Sorry! I'm a little slow tonight. I just drove home from Savannah and turned on the computer because I hadn't been on LT for a while. What's the first thing I see? TIOLI February! I rushed to the wiki first, before posting here.

Here it is:

Ungulates! Ungulates!

Challenge #5: Read a book with an Ungulate in the title or on the cover.

The term Ungulates is usually used to refer to hooved animals, so it includes: horses, sheep, goats, cattle / bison, elk, deer, llamas, alpacas, giraffes, camels, rhinos, hippos, etc. There are also a couple of sub categories that add in elephants and manatees, oddly enough.

With a match, you can read any edition of a book, even with a different cover image.

My challenge is Read a book published by a University or College. So pull out those Oxford University Press, Duke Press, Yale University books.

Challenge # 8 : Read a Blurber

Read a book by an author who has a blurb on a book:

(a) In your home (any time during the time of the challenge) or
(b) In your LT catalog (to find blurbers in your catalog, add CK: Blurbers to one of your catalog views using the edit cog on the Style section at the top of your catalog.)

Name the book where you saw the blurb.

Note 1: It does not have to be a new-to-you author.
Note 2: Matching a title already listed on the wiki is fine, whether you have that blurber on one of your own books or not.

What is a blurb?
http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2008/09/quotations-epigraphs-and-...

If anyone is interested, I've also created a List called Books I may read for February TIOLI ;)

Now I just need to start digging for some books....

OK, here we go!

It's Scrabble challenge time!!!

Challenge #6: Read a book by an author whose surname has a "Scrabble value" of 12 or more.

Scrabble value is my way of describing the sum total of the letters in the author's surname, using the values ascribed to the letters in the game of Scrabble. (This refers to tiles only, not to the board -- no doubles or triples!!)

For those who don't have the values of letters in Scrabble at the top of their minds, here's the list:

# 1 point: E,A,I,O,N,R,T,L,S,U
# 2 points: D,G
# 3 points: B,C,M,P
# 4 points: F,H,V,W,Y
# 5 points: K
# 8 points: J,X
# 10 points: Q,Z

So, William Boyd would be B (3) + O (1) + Y (4) + D (2) = 10 and therefore wouldn't qualify.

To make this slightly more tricky, I'm throwing a catch into it. If your first book read for this challenge has a Scrabble value of 13, say, and you want to read another book for this challenge, the second one MUST have a different qualifying Scrabble value, of 12, 14, 15, etc. This rule is waived for shared reads -- in other words, if you want to join someone else in reading their 13-count book, you can still read a 13-count book of your own.

To clarify one point: Some surnames include more than one word. If they are hyphenated, you can count the letters in both words toward your Scrabble count. If not (eg, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Richard North Patterson), then you can only use the second surname. I realize that authors from Spanish speaking countries might use their middle name rather than their actual surname, but for the sake of consistency, Mario Vargas Llosa's Scrabble count would be 5, not 10.

ETA: If you've got more than one author, you get to pick which author you want to use for the challenge.

If you've got any questions, holler -- if I don't respond quickly enough here, shoot me a PM...

Edit conflict...edit conflict...edit conflict...

So much for being early. :)

In fact, I'm Challenge #9 for the third month in a row - weird.

>31 Chatterbox: Can we read a book with multiple authors as long as one of them qualifies, or would they all need to qualify?

Yes, multiple authors are fine -- You get to pick one of them. They don't all need to qualify.

countrylife, I have no idea what your challenge means. Could you further explain it?

"Read a book by an author who has a blurb on a book in your home"

ETA: Never mind. I figured it out. I find a book with a blurb. Then I read a different book than the book on which the blurb was written. Gotcha!

>34 Chatterbox: Thanks!

Here's a link to the dedicated discussion thread for the Lists challenge.

I also have a question on the blurb challenge - does the book have to be in the house NOW, or can it come into the house over the next month (i.e. bought books, library books)?

#19: Madeline - the first book that I picked up met your challenge and I want to read it for a Reading Globally challenge so all ends up well.

The other challenges all look good too.

Challenge #10 - Read a book with a TITLE written in the FIRST PERSON

The title can be either first person singular or plural, and it’s fine to include 2nd/3rd person in the title as well – as long as 1st person is part of it. All versions are acceptable (I, me, we, us, ours, my, mine, etc.).

My likely books for this challenge:

Deliver Us From Normal by Kate Klise
My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by Liz Jensen
Then We Set His Hair on Fire by Phil Dusenberry
We Interrupt This Broadcast by Joe Garner

> 30

If anyone is interested, I've also created a List called Books I may read for February TIOLI

LOL! Zoe, that's brilliant!!

> lyzard: yes, I'll change that. "A blurb on a book in your home during the time of the challenge" - works for me.

> 31

Suz, your challenge has me laughing as well. I can see everyone grabbing their calculators while trying to decide which book to read. That's certainly different! :)

> 32

So much for being early.

Oh, well. Better luck next month, Liz. :)

> 38

the first book that I picked up met your challenge

See, Kerry?! Now I hope you've convinced others as well how easy it is. :)

>44 SqueakyChu: I have to admit, I didn't have too much trouble either. The word "insTEAd" is a lifesaver ;)

I found my book for Challenge One, went to a western - those cowboys like their animals and their drinks!

I have added Challenge #11 - Read A 2 Word Titled Book BUT the Letter that starts the first word must come after the Letter that starts the Second Word

example: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - G comes after E in the alphabet.

Please Note: For this challenge the words The, A And An all count as an actual word in the title.

DeltaQueen, it took me a few reads to understand your challenge, but I finally "got" it. Terrific!

"Read a 2 Word Titled Book BUT the First Letter of the First Word Must Come After the First Letter of the Second Word"

Ha!

Okay, I've now found places for the five books that I was already planning to read this month :D

# 46 - I know it sounds confusing. I wasn't sure how to word it so it sounded simplier, hope it makes sense.

Some more examples:

White Nights by Ann Cleeves - W comes after N
Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers - U comes after D

Oh, note that if you're starting lists there's a bug where the description doesn't stick the first time :(

This is probably theoretical but for challenge 2, does the author need to still be alive?

GREAT challenges this month... I thought I might help out headache-stricken TIOLI fans by offering one a little less twisty! This is to read a book set on an island - can be any size, from Australia to an island in a river.

My challenge, number 12- read a book with a cover scene that depicts love. I'll start a thread for us to post all our charming or sickeningly sweet covers :)

> 53

I'll start a thread for us to post all our charming or sickeningly sweet covers :)

Contest! Contest!

The book with the sweetest cover...or something to that effect? I'd be willing to toss in a very small prize.

I'm proposing a follow-up to my January challenge: Read a NONFICTION book that appeared on the 2011 New York Times list of notable books.

The list can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html?_r...

This is challenge #14.

For challenge #1: I have no vampires in The Dovekeepers but I do have nomads that were forced to killl their camels and drink the hot blood in order to survive?

> 56

If they drank the blood, I can't argue with that. It's a beverage, gruesome as it may seem! :)

I love these sorts of questions :D

:) I couldn't resist asking

Madeline, absolutely! I can kick in something too.

> 60

I think we only need one very small prize. It's just for fun. You or me. You decide.

For the academic press challenge, what about imprints of academic presses that don't explicitly have "University" or "College" in the name?

ETA: I'm very excited about these challenges. I'm reading nine Jasper Fforde books for the 12 in 12-ers "Fforde Ffebruary" and I think I can make them all fit here as well.

I just knew if I went out, Madeline would post the February TIOLI. I left at 8:15 and she posted at 8:32PM.

Here's my Challenge...
Challenge #15 Read a book that has the Letters in TIOLI (T,I,O,L) as doubles in the title or Author's Name.

So if you've got a book with book in the title -- Double Os
For all those mystery fans - Killer, Killing, Kill -- Double Ls
get the idea...

I've got a few

A Fountain Filled with Blood
Killer Weekend
Forgotten Garden
Books Can be Deceiving
Book of Lost Fragrances

and anyone with Hawaii or Hawaiian -- Double I

Perfect - just found 'crabs' and 'beer' on qualifying facing pages of Oscar Wao which I brought with me on my work trip, so I can start reading that. Sounds like a good combination too!

casvelyn - yep any academic press is just fine

Sheesh, see what happens when you go out of town for a little league tournament. Not only do you have to sit in the stands watching little boys play baseball in 35 degree weather (some of whom seemed perfectly content in short sleeved t-shirts) but your planned challenge is all the way down to #16.

Challenge #16: Read a book about economics. My few planned reads are:
Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future by Robert B. Reich
Chasing Goldman Sachs: How the Masters of the Universe Melted Wall Street Down . . . And Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again by Suzanne McGee
The Modern Scholar: Waking Dragon: The Emerging Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the World by Professor Peter Navarro
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Richard Wilkinson
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Now I have to go looking for strange books to fit into the strange, weird, and contorted challenges. And, oh no, there's math involved.

Joyce -- would Sylvia Nasar's book work for this? Grand Pursuit is kind of economic history. Wow, you are ambitious... *grin* If you need a copy of CGS, let me know; I still have a box of author paperbacks littering up my office.

Thanks for the offer, Suzanne, I already have the book and have been yearning (dreading) to read it. I would think you know rather more about economics than I, so if you think Grand Pursuit fits, I'm going to think you're right. I'll reiterate something I've said before, we don't always know exactly what a book will be about before we start it. If it seems to be something that you think would fit into my challenge, I'm going to say it will.

Yes, the overlap between economics and finance is often dicey, too -- the latter is really applying the principles of economics to financial markets (now there's a broad sweeping statement....) I'm sure Cushla has some ideas for this challenge! Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed would probably be a good fit. Sadly, I suspect Sebastian Mallaby's book about hedge funds would not, although I've been intending to read that one for eons.

Joyce - cool challenge and Suz, yes I do! Off the top of my head:

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
Globalization and its discontents by Joseph Stiglitz (or any of his others) - about trade regulation
The Globalization Paradox by Dani Rodrik
- both are pretty readable, the Dani Rodrik maybe a bit more technical.

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar (this is about John Nash and you'll learn plenty of game theory on the way through it)

I would definitely include Lords of Finance because it has lots of macroeconomics in the story. It's a fantastic book about the Great Depression and central banking's role in it. I might try to read Keynes' The Economic Consequences of the Peace for this challenge, if I can figure out which packing box it's in!

In honour of the bicentennial of his birth (and because I intend to join the "Dickens of a Read" in the February Readathon!):

Challenge #17: Read a book by or about Charles Dickens

#66: I have Chocolate Nations by Orla Ryan out from the library at present which I think fits this challenge.

-72 How to soften a difficult subject with the addition of chocolate. Chocolate (or melted butter) makes everything more palatable.

Madeline, you're killing me here. I was so excited to have purchased Shorty Rossi's memoir Four Feet Tall and Rising, and I was positive it would fit into your challenge. Shorty loves to drink wine and has devoted his life to rescuing pit bulls, easy as pie you'd think. Well, I had to go all the way to pages 238 and 239 to find everything in the right order. You're a very difficult woman.

Challenge #18: read a book originally written in a language that you do NOT speak and read (note which language)

With a language you don't speak I mean you don’t read it either, meaning if you got the untranslated version in your hands you would not be able to read the book. I can speak and read Dutch and English, but although I speak a smattering of French and German I cannot read a book in those languages. Dutch and English are out for this challenge, French and German aren’t.

>51 elkiedee: Dead is fine.

> 63

I just knew if I went out, Madeline would post the February TIOLI. I left at 8:15 and she posted at 8:32PM.

That's because I planned my posting time to coincide exactly with the time you left home, Cheli! ;)

> 66

the strange, weird, and contorted challenges

LOL!!

> 74

I had to go all the way to pages 238 and 239 to find everything in the right order.

Well, after all, this is a challenge, isn't it?! :)

Bit of silliness here--this one came up when I was searching the TBR collection for a book whose cover depicts love......

http://www.librarything.com/work/571603

gets my vote!

heehee

Gack! After a middle of the night mind-rambling thinking about LT features, I had planned to modify my prepared challenge before I posted it, but got so excited when February’s thread finally showed up, that I forgot all about it and just copied my prepared text. To fix my mistake, here is my amended challenge:

Challenge # 8 : Read a Blurber

Read a book by an author who has a blurb on a book:
(a) In your home (now or any time during the time of the challenge) or
(b) In your LT catalog (to find blurbers in your catalog, add CK: Blurbers to one of your catalog views using the edit cog on the Style section at the top of your catalog.)

Name the book where you saw the blurb.

Note 1: It does not have to be a new-to-you author.
Note 2: Matching a title already listed on the wiki is fine, whether you have that blurber on one of your own books or not.

What is a blurb?
http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2008/09/quotations-epigraphs-and-...

eta: Madeline, I hope amendments are ok.

> 82

Amendments are just fine. :)

Heh-heh. I note that my unusual Polish last name would count for 38 points in scrabble. Who knew?

The Poles def. have an edge here, thanks in part to their aversion to consonants... Ditto the Welsh, if this were just words. Sadly, Thomas, Evans, etc. aren't really high-value Scrabble words! Now, place names? Betws-y-Coed (about 21?) is just a start...

I really like the Scrabble Challenge. You wouldn't say it at first glance, but Jakes - author of North and South - has a fairly high rating: 16. While a name like Anderson is only worth 9, despite being much longer!

Madeline, In Challenge One, I don't suppose butterfly counts as an animal does it?

*asking hopefully but not optimistically*

> 87

Of course! A butterfly is definitely an animal.

87: Obviously Madeline is the authority on this as it's her challenge, but I'm sure butterfly would have counted for the previous challenge with an animal on page 50, as it was broadly defined and included insects such as "ant" so I don't see why not. And butterfly actually also contains another creature, "fly"

88: Yay!!!!!

Anyone taking part in the Virago group read of Palladian in February, may like to know that a Butterfly is mentioned on page 36 and a dry martini on page 37. Interestingly, there is also someone trying to revive an ill cat with a saucer of blood on page 37.

Soupdragon, Where's that saucer of blood when you need it?

Countrylife, very clever additions of the blurbers. Is there any way to search for specific authors without going through all our hundreds of pages of books?

>91 Citizenjoyce:: Unfortunately, CK fields are not sortable, but if you sort on Publication Date (sorting down), more recent books (which are more likely to show blurbers) float to the top, so they're easier to skim.

#90 Good spot Dee! I think a couple of us had already added Palladian to challenge #15 (Read a book that has the Letters in TIOLI (T,I,O,L) as doubles in the title) as Palladian has two Ls, although if we moved it to challenge #1 that would save me having to go through all my books to find another one to fit Madeline's challenge!

It's really not that hard to find books to fit Madeline's challenge - in some ways, although it sounds more complicated you actually have far more chance, as you're not limited to one page in the book - I have several with blank page 50s or which don't start until after page 10.

91: It does make you wonder, doesn't it?

93: Oh yes, I could have saved myself some trouble there! *Makes mental note to check all other challenges before searching books for animals and beverages*

94:You're right, I'd never realised how frequently animals and drinks are mentioned in novels!

Challenge 4: Lists: Can we do matched reads for this, for a book someone else has listed as a planned TIOLI read? I have a review copy of The Boy in the Suitcase so it would be cool if it was a potential shared read, as review copies so often aren't.

>97 elkiedee: Of course!

Also, there are a lot of very common embedded 3 letter animal names - "hen" is in "then" and "when"

Thanks Luci. I'm just going through my Molly Keane books as I intend to read her for Author Monthly Reads and they are just full of animals and drinks. I haven't needed to use an embedded word for any of them yet. That's early twentieth century Anglo-Irish gentry for you!

And sometimes animals and drinks are mentioned, but as literal animals and drinks. In one of my books I'm using the "rams" from "battering rams" and in another the "coffee" from "coffee table."

The frustrating thing about that animals/drink challenge is that all the animals and drinks are on the left pages. I'll find an animal and several drinks on the left pages, but the right page, no matter how promising, ends up without a drink. It's really difficult to train your brain to only skim for words and not read so as to catch the spoilers when you start getting to page 360/361 of a book (which is where I finally found a match for the first book I checked)!

Hey, it could have been worse. Madeline could have devised a challenge involving cats slurping coffee from mugs on page 129...

LOL, don't be giving her any crazy ideas for March Tioli, Suz!

Lol. I am currently reading an book and I am not sure if I will finish it before February. The book is The Woman in Black. I started looking for animals and drinks on the 130 and I haven't read it yet. I was reading the pages instead of just skimming through it. I did find an animal and drink on page 32 & 33. I found Hen and tea, both embedded. Now if I don't finish it I will add it to the challenge.

It pays to read this threat! I had put Great Expectations in challenge 17 (the Dickens challenge, which sounds logical), but then realized in challenge 11 it would be a shared read, so I have moved my entry.

Now to see what else I shall be reading in Feb.

> 103, 104

Hey, it could have been worse. Madeline could have devised a challenge involving cats slurping coffee from mugs on page 129...

*considering this idea...*

Hmmm? Maybe milk instead...?

The first book I would check would be The Master and Margarita - LOL

The first book I would check would be The Master and Margarita

CLEVER! :-D

Challenge #19: Read a book that won or was nominated for the Nebula Award

I thought this would be great for those who are participating in Fantasy February or generally like to read Fantasy of Science Fiction.

This is the link to the Nebula Award Winners

This is the link to the Nebula Nominees

Challenge #20 Read a novel which can be categorised in at least two genres and is a first person narrative

I have listed a historical crime (historical fiction and crime fiction) novel from Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series but if you have one which is fantasy/crime, horror/fantasy or something else, list it. My copy is part of an omnibus edition so the page numbers aren't those of the novel on its own.

There may be just one or more than one first person narrator .

111> First person narrator as in it has to be written in first person (so, 'I went to work' instead of 'Samantha went to work')?

112: Yes, that's exactly right.

New challenge #21! Read a book from the Over the Rainbow List - they conveniently have them added to LT through last year's list: http://www.librarything.com/profile/GLBTRT

2012 list: http://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow/archives/342/2012-over-the-rainbow-book...

#114, hurrah! I wouldn't have thought that one of my impulse Kindle purchases would fit this category, but there it is on the 2012 list -- The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway, about opera and 9/11. Don't ask me how they are related; I haven't read it yet!

Another hurrah from me, Keristars I found The Blue Cotton Gown, looks right up my alley.

Yay! I'd never heard of the Over the Rainbow list before, but one of the ALA twitter accounts mentioned it during ALAMW11 and it looked like a great opportunity for a TIOLI challenge :D

I really like that it has a variety of types of books - non-fiction, fiction, memoirs, and so on.

oh yummy a Nebula challenge :)

Sorry...another question.

Do you have to fulfill the 1st challenge to qualify for any additional challenges...like with the MLK 1st challenge in January?

Kittenfish - you can try as many of the challenges as you want. You don't have to do the first one, but many of us do, as SqueakyChu comes up with some good 'uns

Only if the TIOLI specifically says so otherwise you are free to pick and choose.

> 119

You never *have* to do any of the challenges - even the first one. It's all up to you to choose to do the ones you like.

Now that's a challenge Madeleine! And of course you'd already found six books to get us started. Impressive. :o

#119 -- if you choose to do any challenge, the only "must" is whatever the person who designed that challenge specifies. So last month, you didn't have to do challenge #1 at all, but if you did, Madeline specified that you had to read a book from one of the southern states before reading one from the northern states. But you didn't have to do the challenge at all. The idea of challenges is to make it tough but not too tough -- and you never have to participate in any particular challenge. Do #18, and no others, or only odd-numbered challenges, or....

>123 madhatter22:

LOL!!

Ilana, you might like to move The Secret River from Challenge 3 to Challenge 13 where it's already a shared read.

My challenge, #22 (!): Read a book that you started reading before December 25, 2011

This has to be a book you still feel you're currently reading, not something you're going to have to start over again. And to make it just a little bit harder, it can't be a Christmas gift (unless, of course, it was an early gift...). :)

I might be able to throw in a small prize for the earliest start date....

>127 bell7:

Do matches count? I don't have anything that qualifies...at least not that I could honestly say I was 'currently reading'....

Yay bell7--I love your challenge. I have half a dozen partially read books sitting on my nightstand and I determined I was going to finish the most recent (which I started in November) before starting anything else, even though I couldn't work it into any of the TIOLI's.

127> Oh, my. I have one from 2009(?) that I might be able to force myself to finish...

But more recently (as in early 2011), I keep floating towards and away from finishing one of my favorite books, because it's sometimes a bit dense and I get distracted by shiny!new! books. (My Eliza Haywood.)

And then there's an ER I started mid-December and haven't finished because it's kind of boring, but probably should, so I don't get nasty comments about reviewing books I haven't finished. I hate when people do that.

lyzard -- question for challenge 9. Does Daughters of the Witching Hill count? I would guess that Witching Hill is not a proper name, but it does indicate a specific hill.

I just finished my first book of the month (not to say I was late finishing last month's reading!), which I'll enter into Madeline's challenge. L'Assommoir (in the French text), pages 32-33 where I found quite a ménagerie on the left-hand page; many ants, a couple of bats, a robin, and an ape. On the right page, I've got water ('eau' in French) and ale.

>>#131 Yes, I would say so. Specific is what matters.

> #133 Great! Thanks

#127 -- wow, I've put down a lot of books after a few chapters, intending to pick them up later. I'll have to see which ones I can just pick up and keep reading. Does it matter how far we got -- i.e., if I read the first two chapters and then put it aside to read later, is that OK, or does it have to be a book I've been reading more or less consistently?

I was having challenger's remorse -- I just realized I should have created a "JanetinLondon memorial challenge" instead of my silly Scrabble challenge. Oh well, there is always next month, I suppose.

#127> I have one I started in September. I think I will be able to add that to your challenge. I keep picking it up and reading it but then get sidetracked with a new book or book club book or ER book.

>128 Dejah_Thoris: Matches definitely count

>135 Chatterbox: Suzanne, I decided to define it rather broadly as a book you wouldn't have to reread the beginning to get back into. (The book I'm reading, for example is a collection of interviews, so while I don't have to go back to the beginning, I haven't picked it up for several months.) Hope that helps clarify.

I've only added one book to the various challenges so far. I'll be perusing them this weekend to see what I can fit where. I'll be looking for someplace to put True Grit which I impulsively picked up off the library shelf and am currently enjoying!

> 138 Ellen, I think what you want is challenge #11

Anne, you are so right. Thank you!

>127 bell7:: Ooooh - I was going to give up on this library copy of One of Our Thursdays Is Missing that I checked out in October, but now maybe I'll have to push through.

I finished the book The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I will add it to the wiki. My first TIOLI for this month.

I see that several of the books on my to read pile fit the criteria for some of these, so I might as well join in the fun.

Welcome to the insanity, yoyogod! (btw, love the moniker...)

> 143

Hi, yoyogod, and welcome!

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Enjoy!

Reminder to vote!

You have between now and midnight February 6th to vote for three TIOLI books that have the most beautiful winter scene on the cover.

Take a look at this thread and send your choices by private message to me (SqueakyChu) here at LibraryThing. The winner will be announced in about a week.

Thanks so much!

#28 For the university or college challenge is it ok to add a book as a shared read if my edition is not published by a university press?

> 146

I need everyone's votes for this contest. There are many books running neck and neck for first place.

Only two more days to cast your votes!

I've been desperately trying to fit the audiobook of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier somewhere.

Help?

> 149 How about the SCRABBLE challenge , the author's last name looks as though it is more than 12 points.

re Rebecca: Britain is an island and someone has already listed a book for that challenge on that basis.

149/150: If you count du Maurier which I would it's 14 points, but Maurier alone is only 11. Suzanne, what do you think?

If it's not hyphenated, then you can't count the du and it wouldn't qualify. (I did make that rather arbitrary distinction, which has meant I can't include a book by someone with "de" as part of their surname; the reason was to make it a bit more difficult and prevent the argument that if we include du and de and des and de la, why not the Vargas in Vargas Llosa, etc. etc.)

But Rebecca would fit in the "island" challenge, since it's very definitely tied to a specific location in Britain; I've seen that someone else has a Britain book posted there.

I only had time to skim the challenges for this month, but I've at least managed to add one challenge for myself. When I have a bit more time, I'll go through the challenges again and see what I have in my TBR Tower that might fit the bill for another one or 2.

Reminder

The contest for the Most Beautiful Winter Book Cover ends 12 midnight tonight.

This is a very close contest with people choosing many different book covers. Each vote is important. You may cast up to three votes.

Thanks to all who have already cast their vote. If you haven't cast your vote yet, please do so now as a private message to me (SqueakyChu). Much appreciated!

...May the most beautiful bookcover win!

I voted! I also updated the wiki with my 3 reads thus far:

Ch. 1: Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age
Ch. 2: The Outlaw Album
#15: February - shared read

Hint: I know of some other TIOLI players who have read one or both of my first two books. ;-)
I'd like to share the reads with you!

Thanks, Donna! I've been waiting for you to post the "Rousing" book so we could share. And now I can just copy and paste -- much easier! ;-)

#151-153 Thank you Luci and Suz. I hadn't considered the island challenge, so that's great. I did first try to count towards the Scrabble challenge, but knew that the "du" part of her name didn't count, so of course couldn't enter it there. But all's well that ends well! :-)

I just finished The Big Over Easy, which fits in Challenge 1 with rams and water on pages 238 and 239, respectively.

159> ooh, that's on top of my TBR pile (by which I mean, when I last moved the pile around, that one got stuck on top). I might just see if i can't do a shared read this month!

I deleted The Inheritance of Loss from Challenge #1 (I just was not in the mood for that book at this time).

Happily, I was able to add Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin, which I'm already enjoying, to the same challenge. It has two animals on the left (p. 38) and two beverages on the right (p. 39)!

I am so glad I found the ALA LGBTRT's Over the Rainbow list and that a book I'd added to my TBR/wishlist so long ago I couldn't remember why (exactly) was on it. I got Gemini Bites from the library today and it's amazing so far, in different ways. Basically pretty much what I was itching to read?

Hooray TIOLI!

(PS: the summary from the first few pages and the cover synopsis makes me think "vampire 3-way romance involving fraternal (girl/boy) twins, one of whom is (fake) Born Again", which is kind of like the author just pinned a bunch of ideas to a dart board and went at it? So far, the narrative voices of the twins (they take turns with first-person pov) is very suited to a bizarre concept like that, but they're still distinct people. and the light-hearted nature keeps me amused, rather than hating the teenagerisms, like with Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. which i hated so much it's something i fear all future YA novels will be like)

#162: I forgot to mention that I went to the bookstore yesterday specifically to find one of the books on the ALA LGBTRT's Over the Rainbow List (meaning, one that someone had already added to your challenge). I purchased Fair Play and The Metropolis Case. They didn't have a copy of Gemini Bites on the shelves....

The winner of the contest for the Book with the Most Beautiful Winter Scene on its Cover will be announced tonight on this thread. Stay tuned.

Oooooo!

How exciting! :)

I've finished two books and was able to fit The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett to #15 the TIOLI challenge, and the other, Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds to #6 the scrabble challenge.

I had been trying to figure out where I could fit in the book I'd just read called Maphead when I realized that Ken Jennings' last name began with a J which was 8 points. With all those one point letters and the two point letter, it was more than enough to push it over the amount for the Scrabble challenge (#6).

163> oooh, I think i might get Fair Play this month, too - or later if I don't have time. It looks like I might enjoy it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Gemini Bites is a YA copyrighted 2011, so might not be as easy to find. Sometimes it's awfully difficult to find things in the YA sections, depending on the size. :/

I finished The Difference Engine for the Nebula challenge, and started Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier for the island challenge.

eta: also finished The Castle of Otranto for the anagram challenge (#3).

I finished Destiny of the Republic which taught me a great deal about American history, I'd had no idea James Garfield was such a great person; but I thought it needed editing. To me there was way to much about the assassin, Charles Guiteau, who was basically a user and a loser and completely uninteresting. He was paranoid but he made one good point at his trial. He said he was guilty of shooting the president, but it was his doctors who killed him. Despite knowing about the existence of bacteria for hundreds of years, despite Lister's demonstration of the benefits of asepsis, mainstream American doctors were determined to be "above" science. The first doctor on the scene stuck his bare unwashed finger in Garfield's bullet wound, and that was just followed by many more probes by fingers and unsterile instruments over the next weeks. Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, was responsible for bringing in the worst possible doctor to care for the president, Dr. Bliss. Dr. Bliss's parents had been so determined that he would enter the medical profession that they named him Doctor, so he was Dr. Doctor Bliss, and he was far more interested in grabbing and holding on to power than he was in helping the president. In fact, the author said had President Garfield been a lower class man with the same wound and no medical care, he probably would have recovered. So, with the wealth of information that Candice Millard was able to obtain, with all the fascinating medical and other scientific tid bits, Alexander Graham Bell played a large part in the story, I don't know how she made at least a third of it so uninteresting. I'm beginning to think maybe Times Notable Books are not my cup of tea, though I've started another one as an audiobook: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson. Let's hope third time is the charm.

Now I'm finally on to my first book on economics, Chasing Goldman Sachs. Wish me luck.

I finished Great Expectations finally. I started this book on January 29 and for me, over a week on the same book is a long time. it's also the first shared read of the month for me.

>170 Citizenjoyce: Even though Guiteau was the bizarre, disturbed individual he obviously was, I found it interesting how close he was able to get to the president and other significant leaders. The lack of security afforded the officials is as appalling as the medical treatment of the day.

True. That was one of the most interesting things in the book, the fact that America wasn't willing to accept security for its president until 20 years later when yet one more president was shot, and that Robert Todd Lincoln was there for that one too. I don't think that idea would ever be accepted in a novel. Much too bizarre.

>173 Citizenjoyce: I could see an interesting novel in that, though: Robert Todd Lincoln, bitter and grieving over his father's assassination, pushes for greater security for presidents. People think it's unnecessary, so he gets together with some other guys and they plot to attack presidents periodically until people take him seriously.

If a book with this plot ever comes out, I claim copyright.

Casvelyn, thus a new conspiracy theory is born. Go with it. I'll be one of your first readers.

I can think up great plots, but I can't write dialogue to save my life. Want to coauthor?

I finished and REVIEWED Dickens' Bleak House which I can't recommend highly enough. That was for the Dickens Challenge. Now I'm reading The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys for the island challenge.

Casvelyn, my whole famility thinks I can write because I love to read. It kind of makes sense, it just doesn't work out that way.

Mine thinks I'd be a good writer in any genre because I'm a good writer in my chosen genre (public history). Just because I can write decent museum text panels and National Register nominations and do a bit of academic work on the side doesn't mean I can write good fiction.

I just finished The Warmth of Other Suns which I had intended to read for a Januarychallenge--if anyone else also needed to carry it over to February, I've listed it in #6 the Scrabble challenge. I really enjoyed it, though it is long, and recommend it.

>170 Citizenjoyce: I hope you enjoy Chasing Goldman Sachs Joyce--I liked it a lot when I read it last year. You've got some great economics books lined up. I am also starting In the Garden of Beasts, probably later today.

I've been having a fairly successful TIOLI month so far..

#1 Magic on the hunt by Devon Monk - a great wee urban fantasy series that is a lot of fun to read.
#3 Deadly desire by Keri Arthur - this was OK - I don't think this series is moving on much - it seems to have much the same issues as the earliest books.
#6 The Iron King by Julie Kagawa - the first of a fresh, fun new teenage series - feys and goblins and Midsummer Night's Dream references abound.
#8 A trick of the light by Louise Penny - another great Armand Gamache mystery - this is an amazing series that just gets better and better.
#10 My soul to take by Rachel Vincent - another cool teen series, this time with bann sidhes and grim reapers. Light fluff.

#147 shared reads are okay for academic press even if they aren't published by one

I'm about 1/4 of the way through the audiobook of In the Garden of Beasts, and it's so infuriating. Visitors, journalists, even diplomats in Hitler's early years of power completely ignored the insanity and horror of his regime. If they themselves weren't being assaulted they downplayed the experiences of anyone who had been. It seems there was a generalized opinion, here in America as well as in Germany, that if the Jews were having some problems, well, they probably brought it on themselves. I know that was the case, but having it stated so clearly, I'm afraid may not be good for my blood pressure.

I finished and REVIEWED Helen Humphrey's lovely brief novel The Frozen Thames. That was for the island challenge. Now I'm reading Inferno: the World at War 1939-1945 for the NYT Non-fiction challenge.

Another tid bit from In the Garden of Beasts, Goebbles was charming with a fine sense of humor, Goering was likable, and Hitler was not.

For my own challenge (#1), I read an extremely good book called Sister Teresa, a novel based on the life of Teresa of Avila who became Saint Teresa after her death. I highly recommend this book which I have reviewed here.

I finished The Eyre Affair for Challenge 6. Absolutely loved it! Fforde Ffebruary continues on... should I read The Fourth Bear or Lost in a Good Book?

Suzanne, what is ROE? I know you explained, but I can't find it.
Things are getting crazy in 20066 in Chasing Goldman Sachs. I'm thinking something bad might happen.

So far so good for me in Feb

Challenges completed:

6: Read a book whose author's surname has a "Scrabble value" of 12 or more Damned - Chuck Palahniuk (18)
10 .Read a Book with a Title written in the FIRST PERSON While I'm Falling
15. Read a book that has the Letters in TIOLI (T,I,O,L) as doubles in the title or Author's Name Little Earthquakes
13: Read a book set on an island The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
8: Read a book by an author who has a blurb on a book in your home or catalog. The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman (on cover of TGWCFIASOHOM)

I'm new to the group and new to the TIOLI challenge. I thought I was doing good with 5 done this month (so far). Then I looked at last month's TIOLI Meter page, and Wow! I am in awe of Chatterbox and elkiedee!

There are some stars whose tails we cannot even touch. 5 books is great.

> 190

Five to six books is my average...for an entire month! You're WAY ahead of me! :)

It's not the quantity of books you read, though. It's the enjoyment you derive from challenging others and then reading along with them.

With that said, I know it's fun to track quantity. It was precisely for that reason that I created the Frog-meter as a chart and not as part of the TIOLI challenges. I wanted the TIOLI challenges to be a method of reading rather than a contest (...although we do have some fun mini-contests, but they're not about quantity).

I just finished reading Across the Nightingale Floor for Morphy's Magical Monthly read and added it to challenge 13: book set on an island. It can fit several places, so if I need to move it, I'll be happy to. I found it slow to start, but ended up really enjoying it --enough so that I'll look for the sequel.

I also found a place for God's Philosophers/ Genesis of Science in catagory 1 if anyone else is doing that group read. Yay for an ass and drinking hemlock!

I just saw that you'd added God's Philosophers, but I've so far hesitated to follow because I'm not at all convinced that I'll be finishing the book this month. March seems much more likely.

I'm not sure I'll get it done, either, _Zoe_. So far what I've read is all philosophy, (which I have no background in and so read slowly) and little science (which I could read faster). But it gives me something to aim for!

I've been convinced to pick up Northanger Abbey again, so Madeline has a shared read in the alphabetical challenge on page 2 of the wiki. I was planning to share on the first Fforde Nursery Crimes book, but that's going to have to wait a few days (likewise that other Over the Rainbow book that looked interesting).

I've been convinced to pick up Northanger Abbey again, so Madeline has a shared read in the alphabetical challenge on page 2 of the wiki.

Gulp! I'm not sure I'm going to finish it this month as I'm reading it very slowly just because it's a tutored read. If I can't finish it this month, I'll try to slip it into one of next month's challenges, though.

Keri -- I'll add Northanger Abbey to the wiki, too. I should finish it this month.

Ha! Well, if you do finish it this month, Madeline, it'll be a shared read! A double shared with Dejah_Thoris, too, for that matter!

Though I just looked at the wiki and apparently I misread the statement that someone was going to read The Big Over Easy so I'll feel less bad about not getting to it yet. I see a few other Fforde books, but not that one.

> 198

Dejah_Thoris (and other lurkers), please come join us on my tutored read. Liz has created INTERMISSIONS whereby lurkers can then ask their own questions without interrupting the flow of my own reading. It's brilliant!

I completed Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, which I added to the island challenge, #13. Very good. Excellent narration on the audio version by Anna Massey, now one of my all-time favourite narrators, possibly detroning Juliet Lewis even.

Making progress on The Secret River, also for the island challenge.

Sorry Madeline that I won't be joining you this month for Northanger Abbey. I'm grossly overbooked this month, even on the audiobook front—that is, I have NA on audio, which I can usually fit in any time, but with Fantasy February I'm trying to fit in a lot of stuff which I got in that format over the past year...

I'm thinking that I'll create a JanetinLondon memorial TIOLI challenge for next month, so anyone who doesn't finish God's Philosophers this month can bump it over.

Meanwhile, if anyone is looking for a short book that can be a matched read, Fair Play by Tove Jansson would qualify for #21.

Joyce, ROE is return on equity. It's basically a measure of how well a company deploys the capital entrusted to it by shareholders; it's a more or less pure way to gauge whether the company is earning enough for an investor to stick around. In finance, which is a volatile part of the market (as we all know to our cost!!), an ROE below 10 is simply unacceptably low; something that is above 20 is seen as good to very good. But the battle for an impressive ROE without paying attention to risk... well, you'll see what that gets you as you read on!! (If you are reading the paperback, there is a glossary in the back.)

> 201

I truly understand, Ilana. I really should be lying aside my TIOLI reads and studying my ICD9 medical coding book with at least a little bit more enthusiasm! :)