Take It or Leave It Challenge - July 2023 - 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.


...logo by cyderry

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Your TIOLI challenge for July 2023 is to

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Read a book whose author has a first name which is the same as that of someone in your family
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Rules:
1. Please list the relationship.
2. Yes, you can use your own first name.
3. The spelling must be identical in both names.
4. Use the first name only; not the middle name.
5. Use the legal name; not the nickname.
6. Shared reads are allowed--even if there is no such name in your family at all.

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):
1. FAMeulstee's 2023 TIOLI Sweeplette Meter
2. FAMeulstee's Our TIOLI Sweeps
3. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges (2010-2016) - A reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it.
4. The July 2023 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. Not competitive--- just fun!

Index of Challenges:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose author has a first name which is the same as that of someone in your family - msg #1
2. Read a book of prose (F or NF) by an author who has been a contributor to the New Yorker - msg #6
3. Read a book by one of the authors interviewed for The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager - msg #3
4. Read a book with an alphabetically ordered title or author - msg #9
5. Read a book by a Canadian author - msg #10
6. Read a book by an author who is an atheist - msg #12

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book for the White Elephant Book Award challenge - msg #19 - thread
8. Read a book by an author who is published in fiction and nonfiction (identify by F or NF and provide an example of the other genre) - msg #31
9. Read a book with an 8 in the total number of pages, or use all numbers of this total to get to 8 - msg #32
10. Read a 'time' book (time slip, time travel, multiple timelines etc) - msg #36
11. Read a book that is at least the 7th book in a series - msg #37
12. Read a book with a potentially offensive word or phrase in the title - msg #39

Challenges #13-15
13. Read a memoir or autobiography by someone still living - msg #47
14. Read a book with 3 three-letter words in the title - msg #57
15. Read a book with a possessive in the title - msg #62

Hold your challenge until the August TIOLI challenges are posted. Thank you.

Challenge #3: “The Writer’s Library Challenge:” Read a book by one of the authors interviewed for The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager

The authors in The Writer's Library are:

Jonathan Lethem
Laila Lalami
Luis Alberto Urrea
Jennifer Egan
T.C. Boyle
Susan Choi
Andrew Sean Greer
Madeline Miller
Michael Chabon
Ayelet Waldman
Maaza Mengiste
Amor Towles
Louise Erdrich
Dave Eggers
Laurie Frankel
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Jane Hirshfield
Richard Ford
Siri Husrvedt
Charles Johnson
Vendela Vida
Donna Tartt
Russell Banks

>2 SqueakyChu: Madeline, my daughters go by Beth and Catey, but their legal names are Nancy Elizabeth and Alice Catherine. Should I look for books by Nancy and Alice? Makes no difference to me, but I want to make sure that I am looking for the right names. . .

>4 alcottacre: Use their legal names. First name only; not middle name.

Ooooh, I scored challenge #2!

Challenge #2: Read a book of prose (fiction or non-fiction) written by a New Yorker contributor

Here's a quick list that seems to me to reasonably comprehensive, but if you know of others -- well, go ahead!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_New_Yorker_contributors

Please note that I have specified a work of prose. That means no poetry by New Yorker-published poets, for instance. But if a poet has written a work of prose, that's fine. Just as it would be fine if you're reading a work of non-fiction by a writer who has published short stories in the New Yorker.

I'm going to rule out graphic novels for this challenge, too -- sorry...

Otherwise -- any full-length (book-length) work of fiction or non-fiction published whenever... So, not a single short story, but an anthology. Or a work of non-fiction. Or a novel.

>5 SqueakyChu: Thank you for the clarification!

>7 alcottacre: Good question. I clarified it in the rules above,

#4: Read a book with an alphabetically ordered title or author

Articles count. You do not need to include subtitles.

If an author's initial(s) are on the cover or title page they must come alphabetically after the first letter of the immediately preceding name or initial before the first letter of following name(s).

Challenge #5: Read a book by a Canadian author

Canada is turning 156 years on July 1st. To honor my country’s birthday, my challenge is to read a book by a Canadian author during July.

OK, we have 4 challenges that strongly limit choices by author!

What the hey, how about another author challenge?
Challenge #6: Read a book by an author who is an atheist
Wikipedia has a very long list which for some reason doesn't include George R. R. Martin who should be there.
I'll be reading Contact by Carl Sagan.

Madeline, could you specify what you mean by legal name? Is it necessarily the first of your names or how exactly does it work?
First names in Sweden work differently than in the US: here, you have first names (plural) and last name(s). There aren’t middle names in the sense that there are in the US (middle names are technically extra last names that you don’t get alphabetised by). You can have as many first names as you want, but one of them has to be the “addressing name”, which I would guess is equivalent to your first names (but it doesn’t need to be the first of your names- you can be called Anna Maria Magdalena but Magdalena is your “addressing name”).

>12 Citizenjoyce: Nooooooooooo!

Such hard restrictions make it rather more of a challenge to find candidates in an existing TBR queue.

>14 quondame: No?

>15 Citizenjoyce: Scream of anguish, not a denial of your rights to set whatever challenge you like.

All 5 author challenges are what I consider narrow challenges. 3 out of 6 is one thing, but we now have 5 out of 6.

>16 quondame: It's a long, long list. I don't think it will be too narrow. But I know what you mean. I have a bunch of books on hold, and so far, none of them fit. Time for a nice catch-all challenge.

My planned reads of these author emphasized challenges:
Challenge #1: Read a book whose author has a first name which is the same as that of someone in your family - started by SqueakyChu
✔Lucky Dogs - Helen Schulman (4)
Smothered - Autumn Chiklis
Challenge #2: Read a book of prose (F or NF) by an author who has been a contributor to the New Yorker - started by Chatterbox
*✔Dark Places - Gillian Flynn (4)
Eleven - Patricia Highsmith
✔Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know - Malcolm Gladwell (4.5)
Challenge #3: “The Writer’s Library Challenge:” Read a book by one of the authors interviewed for The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager - started by AlcottAcre
*✔The Magic Kingdom - Russell Banks (3.5)
Rules of Civilitym- Amor Towles
*Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Letham abandoned
Challenge #4: Read a book with an alphabetically ordered title or author - started by quondame
✔American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird (5)
✔Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson (4)
*✔The Final Girl Support Group - Grady Hendrix (3.5)
Challenge #5: Read a book by a Canadian author - started by DeltaQueen
✔Half Spent Was the Night: A Witches' Yuletide- Ami McKay (3.5)
Challenge #6: Read a book by an author who is an atheist - started by Citizenjoyce
*✔Contact - Carl Sagan (4)
Challenge #7: Read a book for the White Elephant Book Award challenge - started by Morphidae
✔Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids - Cynthia Leitich Smith (4)
The Star That Always Stays - Anna Rose Johnson
Challenge #8: Read a book by an author who is published in fiction and nonfiction (identify by F or NF and provide an example of the other genre) - started by susanna.fraser
✔A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them - Timothy Egan (5)
Challenge #9: Read a book with an 8 in the total number of pages, or use all numbers of this total to get to 8 - started by FAMeulstee
✔Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros (4)
The Indigo Girl - Natasha Boyd
Challenge #10: Read a 'time' book (time slip, time travel, multiple timelines etc) - started by avatiakh
✔Cassandra in Reverse - Holly Smale (4)
✔Ink Blood Sister Scribe - Emma Törzs (4)
Challenge #11: Read a book that is at least the 7th book in a series - started by lindapanzo
✔A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold (4.5)
Challenge #12: Read a book with a potentially offensive word or phrase in the title - started by lyzard
✔Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (4)
*These Are the Plunderers - Gretchen Morgenson
✔Yellowface - R.F. Kuang (3.5)
Challenge #13: Read a memoir or autobiography by someone still living - started by wandering_star
✔Brave - Rose McGowan (3)
*✔The Forgotten Girls - Monica Potts (5)
This Is Not A Pity Memoir - Abi Morgan
Challenge #14: Read a book with 3 three-letter words in the title - Started by WhiteRaven.17
✔The Last Year of the War - Susan Meissner (4)
Challenge #15: Read a book with a possessive in the title - Started by bell7
The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau
✔Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer (4)
✔Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences - Joan Biskupic (5)
✔The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna (3.5)

Challenge #7: Read a book for the White Elephant Book Award challenge


Title: Morphy Discovers AI Images

Train of thought went => July => Christmas in July => White Elephant! (if it wasn't obvious.) And your "gift" will be to chose a book from an Award List that I pull out of a hat (so to speak.)

Post your random number between 1 and 110 on the thread here. I'll give you the name and a link to the Award/type of Award/"Best of" list you'll need to read a book from.

The list will have a minimum of 50 books but I'm going to lean toward lists with 100+ & they may include nominees/short lists so you'll have lots to choose from.

If you don't like the Award/type of Award/"Best of" list, post PASS and the next person can read from that Award list or roll for their own list.

🚨 ⚠️🛑 BUT! The Award list can only be passed on three (3) times before it "locks" the list and someone MUST read from that list before a new Award list is given.

NOTE: If an award winner is a book in a series, you are allowed to read any book in the series (not spin-offs.)

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Extra stuff - can skip if you need/want to:

For a random number you can use either Google "random number between 1 and 110" or go to https://www.random.org/ .

The success of the challenge is highly dependent on challengees checking regularly to accept/pass on your challenge and the challenger (moi) to manage the challenge.

*

The first week or so, I'll check very frequently. As things calm down, I'll drop to probably twice a day.

>13 PawsforThought: Go by the first name (or the first of all your names) your parents have given you (or that you know of). It should be the first name on your birth certificate. My friend Cheryl always thought her first name was Francesca until, as an adult, she saw it was Cheryl. Give this your best guess. My Hebrew name is Miriam. I won’t question which name you use because I don’t know everyone’s true first name here! :D. In your example, use Anna.

>20 SqueakyChu: Okay, so it’s the first appearing of the first names. That’s different than what I would do (I would automatically use the “addressing name”, as does everyone here, including state agencies, etc.)

>19 Morphidae: My random number is 7. Thanks, Morphy!

List of atheist authors I found for Joyce’s challenge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheist_authors

>19 Morphidae: mine is 17!

>19 Morphidae: I'll go for 58...

>16 quondame: I think a lot of us always find some challenges more narrow than others; it's just that this time they are clustered.

I'd note that the list of New Yorker authors is exceptionally wide/varied, and runs to literally hundreds of candidates...

>26 Chatterbox: I’m still thinking about mine. Hope to make it broader. Alas, I’m at the funeral home to make arrangements for my last surviving uncle (of the 8).

>27 lindapanzo: So sorry about your uncle, Linda.

>27 lindapanzo: I'm so sorry. My sympathies to you and your family.

>27 lindapanzo: My sympathies as well, Linda.

I post my challenge with some trepidation, since it IS an author challenge, but this is a rare-for-me case where I actually planned my challenge several days in advance! Hopefully it isn't too restrictive.

Challenge #8: Read a book by an author who is published in fiction and nonfiction (identify by F or NF and provide an example of the other genre)

This is more common than you think (I hope) because a good many novelists have also written memoirs or writing how-to guides, and then you have cases like CS Lewis and Dorothy Sayers, politicians who've dabbled in fiction like both Clintons, the far-rarer novelist turned politician like Stacey Abrams, etc.

Also, while I'm planning to read one work of fiction and one of nonfiction by the same author, that is NOT a requirement!

Challenge #9: Read a book with an 8 in the total number of pages, or use all numbers of this total to get to 8

For the second possibility of the challenge you can use any mathematical operation.

>19 Morphidae: 17, or since I see >24 bell7: maybe 42

>27 lindapanzo: So very sorry. Very tough thing to have to tackle...

Thanks for the good wishes/condolences. I've never been involved in planning a funeral like this. It took 2 hours+ and lots of discussions. My cousin who lived in the same household was the ultimate decisionmaker and she is old school so this'll be a very traditional Catholic funeral. A funeral home visitation one evening and then, the next day, prayers at the funeral home followed by a procession for a Mass at the family church in the city, then a procession to the cemetery and its chapel followed by luncheon. We were all for the more modern services at the funeral home option but the cousin in charge was really opposed to that.

Whew!! What a long, long day.

Thinking about a TIOLI challenge seems much preferable.

Challenge #10: Read a 'time' book (time slip, time travel, multiple timelines)

I'll also accept portal adventures where the time differences between the worlds differ.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish is a good example of a split timeline where the present day is as important as the story from the past.

Challenge #11: Read a book that is at least the 7th book in a series

I think it's pretty self explanatory. You don't need to have read the first six books in the series. If you'd like, you can start with the 7th book in the series. That's OK.

>37 lindapanzo:

Lovely. :)

Very sorry to hear about your troubles, Linda, take care.

Challenge #12:

Read a book with a potentially offensive word or phrase in the title

While there are some humorous possibilities for this challenge, at the same time some genuinely nasty words might well crop up here---including my own intended book title, for which I will apologise in advance---so approach with caution.

If anyone prefers to substitute asterisks or dashes, feel free.

I'm not going to fuss over anyone's choices: while I rather hope people will get creative, a simple insult will do. :)

>36 avatiakh: Perfect! I have The Weight of Ink quite literally sitting on my desk staring me in the face.

>40 alcottacre: I really loved that book.

>41 avatiakh: Good to know! I hope I do too!

>35 lindapanzo: Condolences on your loss, Linda.

> 43 Thank you. I think I will use your challenge to honor him by reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Though we'd call him Uncle Ray, on his birth certificate today, I saw that his real name was Raymond.

When we lived downstairs in a Chicago two-flat from him, my grandmother, another uncle, and two cousins, I used to borrow some of his Westerns. I need to find a 7th or later in the series of a Western and read it next month. Just read that the longest running Westerns series is the Slocum books by Jake Logan.

UPDATE: They're not kidding!! Fantastic Fiction shows 430 Slocum books by Jake Logan between 1975 and 2014. I've never heard of these.

>44 lindapanzo: I'm so sorry about the loss of your uncle, Linda.

>19 Morphidae: My number is 34

Challenge #13: Read a memoir or autobiography by someone still living

In the interests of keeping the options broad but not too broad!

>39 lyzard: In my last read for June, there is an entry on books with Bulls**t in the title.

>48 quondame:

Perfect! :D

>32 FAMeulstee: any mathematical operation?
Me likey. Me likey lots.

I play a game with the mileage on my car, how close can I get to 0 from the digits in the mileage of my car. Multiplying by 0 is cheating, but that's about the only exclusion.

>44 lindapanzo: : I'm so sorry for the loss of your last uncle, Linda. It's heartbreaking when they're all gone, our previous generation. It's lovely how you're honoring his memory with your reads this month.

>50 Helenliz: Glad to know that I made you happy :-)
I am more observant for nice sequences in the mileage, like 1234567, or more recently 1313131. We have to plan those, as most of the time my husband uses the car on his own.

The challenge came on my mind when I reached 888,888 pages read last month. And having some books planned that would fit, of course.

Fun challenges this month so far! Happy July!!

>45 Citizenjoyce: >51 countrylife: Reading a Western, especially something like a Louis L'Amour or another long-running series seems appropos. When we lived in the city, he had a small basement apartment and he didn't mind if I'd look through his books or magazines, as long as I was tidy, so, of course, I browsed through all the Life and Look magazines, along with his Westerns.

Perhaps, more importantly, he was a big Cubs fan and taught me all about baseball, which, as you know, I remain a huge fan of, to this day.

Any idea what it's like for someone with ADHD whose special interests are books, lists, lists of books, and lists of books to READ to create a list of book (Award) lists for people to read?

Yeaaaah... Ooooh, pretty! *wanders off that way* OooOOOoooo, look at that one! *wanders off the other way*

I've been working on it all day. It's slow. (But Mount TBR has gotten bigger! LOL.)

Meanwhile, if folks could hold off on more numbers, that would be great! 🐘

>54 lindapanzo: Those memories are wonderful. So many families aren't close enough for people to have uncles, cousins, or even grandparents to enrich their lives, and you got both Westerns and baseball. Quite a gift.

Challenge #14: 3 & 3 - Read a book with 3 three-letter words in the title

I will allow words such as 'the' & 'and' to count for this challenge, but it has to be three words exact.

Examples from my TBR this month:
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Our Wives Under the Sea

>57 WhiteRaven.17: Would the word Mrs. count?

oh lordy whatswithallthenumberchallenges?

>59 streamsong: LOL! They’re trying to get away from all the author challenges!

>58 Citizenjoyce: I'm inclined to not count that as it's an abbreviation of a longer word.

Challenge #15: Read a book that has a possessive in the title

I had an idea for an author challenge, but decided to try to mix it up a little and give us a title one instead. Read a book that has a possessive in the title: examples would include Her Father's House, Everybody's Fool, or The Horse and His Boy.

It can be a word with an apostrophe or his/her/their/its, but the word has to be used as a possessive in the title itself. (So something like "I dream about her" would NOT count). Subtitles can count.

I plan on reading Eden's Outcasts.

>19 Morphidae: Alright, alright, alright!

Everything is set! Go take your chance - will you get an award that you can live with or will you get...



... a white elephant?

>22 alcottacre: And you're up on the thread!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/351968#8179279

>24 bell7: You're up!

>64 Morphidae: Just to check, Morphy - we are allowed to do shared reads for this challenge, correct?

>62 bell7: Would this count? Is a subtitle ok?
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

>66 Citizenjoyce: yes! Subtitles are fine, I'll add that to the directions.

>67 bell7: Thanks.

>65 alcottacre: Oh, absolutely!

>69 Morphidae: Great! I was not sure since individual challenges were being assigned to specific individuals. Thanks, Morphy!

There's plenty of room for more sign-ups. No one has passed on one yet!

Just post a random number on the thread in >19 Morphidae:!

>33 quondame: You're next! Just pop over to the thread.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/351968#8179279

And that's the last person who.signed up here who I haven't heard from on the other thread!

TIOLI Stats for June, 2023!

For the month of June, 2023, we read a total of 388 books of which 57 (or 15%) were shared reads. We accumulated 30 TIOLI points for a June YTD total of 197 TIOLI points. Our stats are holding steady!

The most popular book, read by 5 challengers, was Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

The most popular challenge, with 46 books read, was the one by DeltaQueen50 to read the “Next in a Series” book.

The challenge with the most TIOLI points (four) was the one by Chatterbox to read a book (F or NF) about the experiences of indigenous/First Nations peoples in the Americas or Australia/NZ.

Hope you're having fun with the TIOLI challenges...as they march right along! :D

>73 SqueakyChu: I do not know about anyone else, but I continue to have fun with the TIOLI challenges and love seeing the monthly stats! Thank you for those, Madeline!

Even when I not actively participating, I love reading about the challenges and looking over the stats.

TIOLI Question of the Month

When the time comes for you to sit down and actually COMPLETE that book for a TIOLI challenge, what keeps you from doing that the most? :D

>76 SqueakyChu: Pretty much anything and everything. A lot of times when I sit down to read, I suddenly think of a hundred things that I need to be doing right now and that book will still be there when I am done, right? I frustrate myself a lot, lol.

>76 SqueakyChu: I listed it to complete a challenge and not because I particularly wanted to read it, and now I'm not so sure I want to go through with it.

The June, 2023, TIOLI Awards!

The Double Bubble Award goes to Citizenjoyce for reading The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant for the challenge by lindapanzo to read a book whose title includes at least three words beginning with the same letter. This challenger found a book title that does that very thing twice!

The Reading Exhaustion Award goes to dallenbaugh for reading A Game of Fear for the challenge by DeltaQueen to read the “Next in a Series” book. The book read by this challenger was #24 in the series. I get tired just thinking of all the books that preceded that one!

The Unusual Bad Deed Award goes to antqueen for reading A Murder of Manatees for the challenge by Citizenjoyce to read a book about something a nice person wouldn't do or one indicating such a thing in the title. This is truly something I would never think of to even be done...by anyone...ever!

The Best Happy Occasion Award goes to AlcottAcre for the challenge to read a book with the number 35 in either in the title or the ISBN - started by AlcottAcre. Happy 35th anniversary, Stasia and Kerry!

The Learn About Diversity Award goes to Chatterbox for the challenge to read a book (F or NF) about the experiences of indigenous/First Nations peoples in the Americas or Australia/NZ. In this day and age, we should be compelled to learn more about indigenous peoples throughout our world.

Congrats to our award winners. Feel free to add other awards of your own at this time.

>78 Citizenjoyce: This makes me laugh, Joyce. There is nothing better to stop me from reading a book than to put it on a list of books for me to read!

In addition, I inevitably stop reading a book I want to COMPLETE because I simply find another more interesting book and never get back to that first one! LOL!

>79 SqueakyChu: Thank you for the anniversary congratulations - and the award - Madeline!

>78 Citizenjoyce: This is probably the number 1 reason that I try, if I can, to find multiple books to read for each challenge category. If one does not suit, maybe another one will. . .

>76 SqueakyChu: I'm not sure that I have started a book for a TIOLI challenge that I haven't completed, but there have been some books that I thought I might read for challenges that I didn't start. Oh, maybe I did read a few pages of The Good Soldier Svejk and just gave up.

>79 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the award. That was a title I just couldn't pass up.

>79 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the award, Madeline. At least this long series is split between a mother and son writing team, although I understand Caroline Todd has recently passed away.

Congratulations to the winners!

>79 SqueakyChu: Unfortunately I liked the title better than the book, but it was still the perfect one for the challenge!

>76 SqueakyChu: A tried and true method to ensure that I don't read a book is for me to put it in my own TIOLI challenge. Too many other books I read call my name, especially those I've planned for other challenges or for no challenges at all.

There are always exceptions such as for this month, where THE book that was an absolute must-read for me was in my own challenge.

>88 lindapanzo: Exactly!! LOL!

>76 SqueakyChu: >83 quondame: Did I speak too soon? I spoke too soon. Two at the End has found me out. Corpses for scenery, really bad grammar (you're for your isn't the usual blunder, but blunder it is) and mischosen words that make lighting bug for lightning seem minor.

>88 lindapanzo: hahaha, I thought it was just me!

I am really struggling with finishing books this month - I have a large textbook I need to read for an assignment so that's been my evening reading, mostly.

>91 wandering_star: Finishing books this month will be a real struggle since I started reading a book with 767 pages! I just started browsing through it which is something I should NOT do with books this size. I have no idea if I’ll finish it or not. That remains to be seen. However, I do feel compelled to read other books at the same time, or I’ll never finish any TIOLI challenge (much less a sweeplette)! Haha!

>88 lindapanzo: I have a specific order that I try to read books for the challenges in: 1) I always try to get to Madeline's challenge early because, well, it is Madeline's challenge, 2) I try to get to shared reads early on as well, 3) I try to get to the challenges in which I have had to check out library books so that I can get those back. Hopefully, eventually, I will get to my own challenge - if there are no shared or library books involved :)

>93 alcottacre: I aim to try to do at least one book for my own and one for Madeline's challenge, too. I was embarrassed when, early on, I created a challenge and didn't read a book for my own.

>94 lindapanzo: I wonder how many times that happens to us? We read for everyone else's challenge except our own, lol.

>94 lindapanzo: I have also sometimes not completed a book for my own challenge…so all of you are off the hook for skipping my challenge as well. LOL!

I am having the most ridiculous trouble finding an '8' book...!?

>97 lyzard: Have you read Agatha Christie's An Autobiography? It doesn't appear in your library.

I don't read much nonfiction, even less autobiography, but I did make my way through this hefty book (500+) and enjoyed it. While slow (and a bit dry for me but looking at your library is probably right up your alley), it's a fascinating look into the author's story as well as daily life growing up in Victorian England.

>98 Morphidae:

No, I haven't; thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep that in mind. :)

>97 lyzard: and anybody else...

One I wasn't going to mention because I figured "everybody" knows it. But just in case...

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King - considered one of the best books on writing and it's also a memoir from his childhood through the horrific accident that near killed him.

Highly rated on LT (4.21), Amazon (4.3) and Goodreads (4.3.) I've read it a few times and my husband has read it.

"Books are a uniquely portable magic.” (Love this one. )

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”

"There's an old rule of theater that goes, 'If there's a gun on the mantel in Act I, it must go off in Act III.' The reverse is also true."

It's an easy, engaging read and only 288 pages.

It's about 1/3 memoir, 1/3 writing advice, and 1/3 "behind the scenes" or "back stories" about his novels such as where he got the idea for Carrie and how/why it almost never got completed/published.

The later are interesting even if you haven't read his books as they give a perspective of an author's writing life.

I was going to do a different shared read for Challenge #8 but it's thicker and I don't think I'll get it done in time.

But I'll read On Writing again as a shared read as it's been a long time since I've picked it up

Any one interested?

Housekeeping Day!

It's that day again...the time for you to remove from the July wiki any book you do not finish by midnight tonight. The books in rolling challenges can simply be marked DNF (did not finish).

Thank you!