The LibraryThing Birthday Hunt is over. Check back next year.

LibraryThing Birthday Hunt

It's August 29th, and that means it's LibraryThing’s 18th Birthday! In addition to our annual LibraryThing Store Sale, we're hosting a special Birthday Treasure Hunt!

We've scattered a mint of birthday candles around the site. You'll solve the clues below to find the birthday candles and gather them all together.

  • Decipher the clues below and visit the corresponding LibraryThing pages to find a birthday candle. Each clue points to a specific page right here on LibraryThing. Remember, they are not necessarily work pages!
  • If there's a birthday candle on a page, you'll see a banner at the top of the page.
  • You have two weeks to find all the birthday candles (until 11:59pm EDT, Tuesday September 12th).
  • Come brag about your mint of birthday candles (and get hints) on Talk.

Win prizes:

Any member who finds at least two birthday candles will be awarded a birthday cake badge. Badge: .

Members who find all 12 birthday candles be entered into a drawing for one of five LibraryThing (or TinyCat) coaster sets and stickers. We'll announce winners at the end of the hunt.

You missed it

Birthday candle 1

In nought-five, discarding Tully,

Tim bought a book writ for dummies,

And we remain in '23,

MySQL and PHP. (Tim)

/work/142576

Birthday candle 2

Feline scanners and enamel pins,

Stamps, stickers and all sorts of things—

The treasures that you’ll find within,

On sale right now, so come jump in. (Abigail)

/more/store

Birthday candle 3

Sneeuwvlokje enjoys the fame,

Of victory within this game.

Three hundred eighty thousand times,

She saw a book and read your mind. (Tim)

/coverguess

Birthday candle 4

What’s new, what’s hot, what have we got?

On this page you’ll find the lot—

Each month a batch of books for free,

What will you win?—come enter and see. (Abigail)

/ner

Birthday candle 5

Another site would call it trends,

Or stats or even odds and ends,

But in oddness we determined,

It sounds better in the German. (Tim)

/zeitgeist

Birthday candle 6

These people, they have left their mark,

Leaders, writers, and the odd monarch.

What did they read, what books were theirs?

This program celebrates their bookish wares. (Abigail)

/legacylibraries

Birthday candle 7

Bronze is nice, but gold is best,

Gleaming from a helpful chest.

Tim loves to give, but must admit,

We'd be bankrupt if they weren't just bits! (Tim)

/zeitgeist/helpers

Birthday candle 8

The Eiffel Tower, the Rock of Gibraltar,

Come lay your library on the altar,

Of size and scope and measurement,

A bibliophile’s true testament. (Abigail)

/stats/MEMBERNAME/physical

Birthday candle 9

For taxonomies to overthrow,

Read LT's favorite man'festo:

How bookish lover, bookish hoarder,

Empowers digital disorder! (Tim)

/work/2275491

Birthday candle 10

If you liked this, you might like that,

For read-alikes, this is where it’s at.

Come see the titles you might add next,

Based upon your books—don’t be perplexed. (Abigail)

/recommendations

Birthday candle 11

Happy Birthday, LT!

18 years old…wowee!


So many ways one can celebrate,

Dance a dance or bake a cake,

see some friends and have a chat,

or sit and read a book with your cat.


I’ll take the latter, if you don’t mind.

But just what book shall I find?


I’ll give you a clue - or maybe a few.

This picture book rhymes; it’s also blue.

It takes place in a place called Katroo,

and it’s aptly named from a song that’s “…to you!” (Kristi)


/work/109436

Birthday candle 12

Of LT's works, it was the first,

A happening quite unrehearsed—

Trivia 'mid the terrabytes!

(It's aliased, so hack the site.) (Tim)

/work/14317786