Welcome!

Hey, I'm Katie. I thought this would be a fun idea for a challenge. Personally, it's to make my large challenge into mini-challenges, but I know some people find them daunting and want something smaller to start with.

This is a really open challenge. You get to pick any books that you want to read and use any criteria to connect them. I'm excited to see how creative they can get :)

I'm in! The best part about this challenge is that I can start with whatever book I happen to be reading right now - no waiting for a certain title or topic to rise to the top of the TBR stack.

I'm in. It seems as if all of my books are related anyway. What's another challlenge? I'll start it today!

sounds like marvelous fun. i'll give it a shot.

what an ingenious idea. thanks.

Yay! I'm glad people like the idea. Have fun with it! :)

Terrific idea, Katie! And thanks to SqueakyChu for posting a link in the 999 Challenge group.

I'm often amazed at the commonalities between books I choose to read in seeming random sequence. I just finished Border Songs, about the US/Canadian border between Washington and British Columbia, and started Into the Beautiful North, set at the US/Mexican border near Tijuana and San Diego.

More than that, I have a fondness for twists and am already loving everybody else's connections here. Can't wait to give it some thought and begin a thread!

You're welcome. I was hoping that more people would become interested in participating in this unique challenge.

I hope that, in doing this challenge, people will identify the links between the books read.

Wow, I'm really happy that people like this enough to recruit other members!

This sounds intriguing, but I don't quite get how it works. Do we pick any book to start and any to finish and then figure out how to get from one to the other? It seems hard to do if you haven't read the books yet, you know what I mean? It seems like it would be easier to start someplace and see where it takes you, like Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre to Bewick's History of Birds to Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick to ?

Oh, you can absolutely do it that way. In fact, I think that was the original idea. Some of us have targeted an ending point as a way of increasing the challenge. But, then, I've always done everything the hard way - just ask my mom.

Really, you can do this challenge anyway you would like to. The easier one is to see where it takes you. Since I'm doing other challenges, I'm going to just keep reading whatever books I end up reading and put them in here if I feel it fits or if it connects and is a completely weird connection :)

If you'd like to add re-reads to make connections, I'm totally fine with that. There aren't too many rules for this. I think I'd prefer if you re-read it instead of just making the connection though, otherwise it kind of kills part of the purpose of the challenge.

I've been tossing around the remaining books in my 999 challenge trying to make connections for the past hour. I think I've got a workable deal. So... I'm in!

Sounds fun! I'll do it!

Sounds interesting! Some of my recent reads are already linked to some degree, some by choice and some by chance.

SqueakyChu just mentioned this over on one of the bookcrossing forums, and I do have to say it piqued my interest!

I'll probably just think of the links as I read the books, I don't want to plan in advance. (And just how tenuous can the links get...?)

Oh, do they have to be read in a row? Or can I dip into other books that have no discernible link and then come back to this challenge?

Hi wookiebender!

I just read whatever I want and see how the books fit together. I do pick my first category and last category ahead of time, though.

Here are two. One I've finished, and the other is in progress.

One
Two

just how tenuous can the links get...?

VictoriaPL used "Phil rhymes with Bill" (the authors' first names). That's pretty tenuous!!

Oh, I'm not going to pick any category, I'm just going to see how it all flows. (And it better bloody well flow!!)

And thanks for your list - you've reminded me I've got The Yiddish Policeman's Union on Mt TBR somewhere, and that'll segue nicely from my current read, given it's also got a jewish community in it.

#17> Oh, I saw "Phil rhymes with Bill", and I did have to laugh. A great connection!

OMG! I'm still trying to get through that book!! I've been working on it for two weeks. Normally I'd have tossed it already, but others (whose recommendations I trust) tell me they *loved* this book. Okay, it's getting somewhat better, but I've already read over 300 pages. It's about time!!!

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is part of two other challenges plus (I probably shouldn't tell you about this other group, but I love it) Reading Globally. I'm reading it for the Polar theme of Reading Globally this month because the book is set in Alaska.

Er. Maybe I'll find another book set within the jewish community to read...

Shame, I've loved all his other books. But I suppose everyone's allowed a dud every now and then.

I'm browsing over at Reading Globally now. But I'm not going to join... Jeez, the bloody mouse just hovered over "Join This Group" and clicked. I swear it wasn't me, it was the *mouse*. Honest.

LOL!! It's time to get a new mouse. :)

Oh, please, please read The Yiddish Policemen's Union with me. I need someone to help me through this book. Most everyone else just *loved* it. I want to know why it's not hitting me that way. Is it just me?!

P.S. You, too, can use it for the Polar theme of Reading Globally this month!! :D

It's going to put me behind on the Orange July reads over in Girlybooks, but, okay. It's been gathering dust there for far too long.

Probably start it next week.

And I had no idea it was set in Alaska! I just bought it on the strength of Michael Chabon's earlier books.

I'm going to do Orange July as well. I'll be reading Sorry. Which book did you choose?

Oh, I liked Sorry, I hope you do too! I've read (so far) for Orange July Gilgamesh: A Novel by Joan London, What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, and Small Island by Andrea Levy. (And I ditched The Vintner's Luck after 50 pages.) I'm hoping to get to either Purple Hibiscus or Half a Yellow Sun and The Idea of Perfection and The Household Guide to Dying are also at the top of Mt TBR.

It's my first Orange July, I got a bit carried away.

And this morning, reading Mistress of the Art of Death, I realised a re-read of Graham Swift's Waterland would have been a perfect next book, given they're both set around that fascinating wet part of England, the fens (and people keep on eating eel), and from there onto Last Orders (by Graham Swift again) which I just bought recently. Maybe there'll be some fens in The Yiddish Policemen's Union. ;)

Ugh! I hated Last Orders. It was so boring!!! The best thing about that book was that it had been my first BookCrossing (wild release) catch. I liked getting rid of it better than I did reading it. I see I gave it two out of ten stars on BC five years ago. :)

Oddly enough, I got to meet the "catcher". We're now both members of BC in DC, my local BookCrossing club.

I love the idea of this group and what do I find, fellow bookcrossers talking about Orange July AND books I am either reading, read or are on my wishlist :-)

That's all a bit less then 6 degrees of seperation, methinks.

I'm reading Purple Hibiscus at the moment and can hardly put it down but I'm not sure if I want that to be my first one in this challenge- I'm enjoying the book but there is too much unsettling domestic violence for me to really want to link it to anything else, but we'll see.....

For the record I loved Sorry and it would have linked really well to Purple Hibiscus as a coming of age story with abusive parents, eventhough one is set in Western Australia and the other is set in Nigeria. The abuse is also of a different type.

Squeaky, if I can find a copy of The Yiddish Policemens Union I'd read it with you, it's been on my wishlist for yonks.

Hi Kim! Good to see you here, too!

If you can't source a copy of The Yiddish Policemen's Union let me know and maybe I can pass my copy along (as a long-term loaner or on a permanent basis, depending on how much I like it or not!).

Oh, I had a good *potential* bounce last night, looking at Mt TBR. It does depend on whether any characters in the Michael Chabon are gay or not (there almost always is, but this time he might buck the trend), because then I can hop onto Affinity which I picked up at the library last weekend and have been looking forward to!

Hi WB, yep, this is fun to see you here.

Yes please, I'll take up your offer, I haven't forgotten that I'm going to send you The Women in Black. My Aunty is reading it at the moment, she is last on the list here.
Could make it a sort of a swap, or I can easily send yours back to you if it goes in your permanent collection. :-)

Oh man, my computer breaks and all of my threads that have minimal activity have found new members! Welcome to anyone that is new.... I hope you have fun! And I'm really glad that people are finding common books here, shrinking 6 degrees to 1 or 2 :)

>27 KimB: I want to read Purple Hibiscus. It sounds very interesting.

Miranda_Paige, Purple Hibiscus has been on my Mt TBR for so long. I shall read it, but I have no idea when. Too many books, so little time.

KimB, SqueakyChu: I'm about 80 pages into The Yiddish Policeman's Union and apart from some initial difficulty with it not being what I was expecting (I have no idea what I was expecting, I must admit!), I am now enjoying it. I like my police procedural crime novels hard-boiled, and there's a wonderful dry humour to it all. I think I need a Yiddish dictionary though.

Am disappointed in the lack of gay characters though, I may not be able to hop onto Affinity next. But I've got another good bounce in mind...

Oooh, is the fun in the reading, or in the planning of the bounces? :)

OMG, wookie, I absolutely hated that book!!! I finished it tonight. I'm not the detective mystery type. Perhaps that's why The Yiddish Policemen's Union has earned a 1 star rating from me and the nomination for the book I most intensely disliked in 2009.

I'm not sure that the Yiddish terms in the book are really Yiddish words at all. I know some Yiddish, and couldn't figure out some of the stuff for a long time. It was truly annoying. In the book, sholem means gun, shoyfer means cell phone, papiros are cigarettes.

Re the fun:
It's in the bounces and the reading.

Ouch! Although I gave up on The Vintner's Luck last week or so, gave it a (short) poor review, one star, and then clicked through to discover most people gave it five stars.

Ah, it's good to see we all have different tastes, makes the world far more interesting.

And gives me hope that I'll like Last Orders too, since you disliked that one so much as well. ;)

Yeah. Maybe we have opposite tastes in books. Those that I rate 1 star, you'll rate 5 stars. :)

G'day. Hope you don't mind me joining in at this late stage. I saw this challenge being discussed on the Bookcrossing! Australia group and Wookiebender told me the link. I thought it might be fun. Originally, I was just going to do it informally, but looking through the threads, I decided I might as well join officially.

I'm currently nearing the end of several books, but I'll start this challenge with the next book I begin. Not sure yet what that will be.

Welcome! It is a fun mini-challenge. I'm trying hard to stop planning my next one, especially since I haven't finished the first one yet! :)

Welcome! It's always fun for more people to join. It can be a pretty quick challenge, so no worries for late starters :)

Hola. I just wanted to let ya'll know that since I've started reading the threads on here, I keep trying to link each book I've read to the next one I start. It's a bit of an addicting mental game.

Hello! I just learned about this group, and it sounds too fun not to join. For now I'm just going to follow along, because my university term has started, and that's all the reading I'll be doing for the next few months. I could of course use those books, but obviously they're joined by a theme, since a prof picked them for the syllabus. I'd rather make my own connections.

I agree with Nickelini - too fun not to join! I can't start immediately, as I'm in a race to finish my 999 before the end of the year, but I'll get here eventually. :) I look forward to seeing everyone's book choices and connections!

I am definitely going to add this component to my 2010 challenge as a bonus exercise and see what happens. I already kind of set up one for 2010 in that I am reading Middlemarch, a biography of Foucault and a book about The Knights Templar in order to support my reading of Foucault's Pendulum. I can keep that chain going. For this year, I will wait and see if a book on the remainder of my 999 list grabs me the same way. I will certainly be looking to see what reading chains everybody else builds up. Great idea.