Take It or Leave It Challenge - December 2010 - Page 1

Continued from here.

For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread.
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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Hi Challengers!

It’s getting tougher and tougher to come up with some new ideas about what books to challenge you to read. Here’s one that should get you pulling some books off your bookshelf, though.

My challenge to you for December, 2010, is to Read a book with an Animal pictured on the Front Cover. The story inside the book may or may not have anything to do with animals. Your edition of the book *must* have a picture of an animal on its front cover even if you’re only trying to match a book already posted. The kind of animal pictured on the cover of the same book title need not match a book already posted, but it must be noted. For example, if more than one animal is pictured on the book cover, you and another challenger might choose to mention a different animal for the same book. Ha!

Some books only have half an animal on the front cover. Go figure! I'd say that would be okay for this challenge as long as you can pretty much identify what animal it is.

The animal may also be miniscule. Let's say there's a bird flying in the distant sky at sunset. You can see those black wings. That's okay for this challenge.

To get you started, here are some ideas:
The Halo Effect (butterfly) – M.J. Rose
A Complicated Kindness (chicken) – Miriam Toews
Dance Dance Dance (ram) – Haruki Murakami
The Painted Bird (dove) – Jerzy Kosinski
Scribbling the Cat (lion) – Alexander Fuller

I, of course, am starting out this challenge with a book that has a frog on its front cover. :)

Now hop to it! Run and check your bookshelves. Then let the fun begin…

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Wiki Page 1 - Challenges # 1-8
1. Read a book with an animal on its front cover - thread
2. Read a book of a previous favorite TIOLI challenge with fewer than 50 books listed on that challenge - thread
3: Read a book with a Christmas connection - thread
4. Read a book on your bookshelf for over a year written by a singleton new-to-you author
5. Re-read a book which is a sentimental favorite with fewer than 100 books on LT
6. Read a book which is an Early Reviewer or Advance Readers Copy
7. Read a book with a three word title which has “and” as the second word.
8. Read a book of 140 or less pages.

Wiki Page 2 - Challenges #9-16
9. Read a book about religion - thread
10. Read a book that was on your TBR all of 2010
11. Read a book received from another LT member
12. Read a book with a time of day or night in the title
13. Read a book with a word related to sky or earth in the title
14. Read a Book Written by a Nobel Laureate
15. Read a book with a family term in the title
16. Read a new book in an existing series

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):
1. The December 2010 TIOLI Meter - Some challengers use this page to track which challenges they're doing.
2. I Know I'm a TIOLI Addict When... - Frog Logo is on this page!

My challenge for the month is: The Ghost of TIOLI Past: Read a book for a favourite TIOLI challenge from a previous month.

Restriction: Must be a challenge that had fewer than 50 books in the month it was posted

We're coming to the end of the year, so I think it will be nice to look back on all the great challenges we've had so far.

I'm still adding all the links, but the link to Wiki # 1 is up, so go ahead and add your challenge now, Zoe.

Okay, I'll post the obvious one this month:

Read a book with a connection to Christmas

What the connection is, is up to you. Christmastime setting, religious book about Advent/Christmas, characters called Holly and Ivy, stocking on the front cover... be inventive.

I'm going to be reading On the Incarnation by St Athanasius, and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.

ETA: Thread for this challenge is here.

Eek! Is it that time of the month already? I've been so focused on the books I want to finish in November that I have been ignoring the non-TIOLI books on my bedside table...

My challenge is to - Read a book you've been meaning to read all year. That means it has to have been on the TBR list at least since January 1, 2010. I will start a thread for it later where we can compare notes on the reasons for our procrastination. ;)

Thanks! Sorry for being a bit over-eager. It was lucky that I happened to be on LT at exactly the moment you were posting the challenges.

Here's the discussion thread for the Ghost of TIOLI Past challenge.

I added a challenge too (#4) and I hope I didn't mistype this month! Challenge #4: Old and Only: Read a book that has been on your shelf for a year or longer, the only one that you own by that author who is a writer you've never read. Include a guess as to how long the book has been sitting there.

> 6

I was a bit over-eager myself. I went live before all the links were set up. They still haven't been, but I can do them as I go along.

This season tends to be so crazy that I figured I'd sneak in this one early (but it didn't turn out to be early after all). Ha!

You discovered it first again, Zoe. :)

Challenge #5: Sentimental Favorites

Thinking about the holiday season, and the fact that a lot of the books I've discovered this year have been relatively obscure ones suggested by other LTers who adore them, I'm going to challenge you all to RE-READ a sentimental favorite of your own. Nope, not Alice in Wonderland or something that the rest of us might well find by ourselves, or that lots of people are likely to recommend. But something that hasn't come up in a discussion, except in passing (which might exclude books that I'd otherwise put on there, like China Court and Miss Buncle's Book). Look for your five-star books that have only 100 or so owners -- and that you want to re-read.

The idea isn't to necessarily share a group read at first, but perhaps in the latter half of the month, some of the rest of us will decide we have to read that book too, and jump in. And that's the whole idea...

I was going to put up a challenge regarding Christmas-time books so I'm glad someone beat me to it.

Instead, my challenge:

Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Read an ER or ARC book.

Two requests:

1. Keep your challenges simple and explicit enough for others to understand for what you're asking. This will prevent back-and-forth questions after challengers start adding books to your challenges.

2. If you create a separate thread, have a link in message #1 of that thread linking it back to the main TIOLI thread. That simply helps navigation and keeps us all from going off on a tangent.

#11 a link in message #1 of that thread linking it back to the main TIOLI thread Done. (Now, why didn't I think of that? D'oh.)

#10 I did wonder whether anyone else might be planning it - or rather, I thought there was a significant possibility that someone was planning it - so I hope no-one minds me posting it first.

I have an ER book that I was hoping to read this month for the war challenge, but won't have time to get to - so I shall carry it over to your challenge. *rubs hands gleefully* I do like it when that happens.

ETA Or, looking at the wiki, possibly put it in teelgee's challenge. Decisions, decisions.

#12 I would like to start out the new year with a clean slate regarding ER books (unless I get one from the current batch) so I don't mind posting the ER challenge instead of the Christmas one.

I'm not at home but will think about fitting something into the other challenges later.

Looks like some good challenges, yet again.

Challenge #7: So and So -- three word title with AND as the middle word. And no 'The' or 'An' beginning the title. So (and so) War and Peace would fit, but not The Master and Margarita.

Oh, oh. I posted Challenge 9 Read a Book About Religion, but it wouldn't go on the challenge 9 - 16 page. Help, please.

Oops...that's what I get for posting from work and not checking back. I made my challenge #10.

#5 "Eek! Is it that time of the month already?" It can't be nearly December...

#7 Peggy, your challenge is going to require some serious thought! On the other hand, it feels like half my library could count for Mary's challenge (#10) :-)

#9> Suzanne - you've added Snared Nightingale to your challenge #5 Sentimental Re-read. I have this out from the library at present as Farah Mendlesohn reviewed it recently on her Trease Project blog. So I'm now waiting for your thoughts on the book, did you first read it when you were young or more recently.

I think I first read it when I was in my teens -- i found a copy in the library somewhere in Ottawa or Toronto. Then I found a copy online about 7 or 8 years ago, and re-read it then. I may add Trease's other book for adults.

Hoping more people will jump into this one! It struck me that a lot of the recommendations for great reads I've had this year have been books that other LTers chime in and say, oh, I loved that too. Or books like China Court by Rumer Godden and In This House of Brede, that are certainly sentimental faves and that several LTers read and discussed this year. Would love to throw a few more out there for consideration... the kind that it would be hard for someone to stumble over by chance.

May I add Read a book with a time of day (or night) in the title? e.g. morning, afternoon, dawn, evening, etc.

ETA: OK, I've added it to the Wiki. Challenge #12

#20> I'm looking forward to reading it. I'll have to have a think about what I could reread, I have been thinking lately about rereading Philip Gibbs' No Price for Freedom which was one of my father's favourites and I loved as a young teen, I was talking about it recently with my mother. I'll try to track down a copy.

edit to add: Also Below the Salt which I know I've recently got a copy of in order to reread.

Mine is: The Spirit of the Season: Read a book you received from another LT member (LT secret santa, member giveaway, etc. do count)

Re Challenge #5 Sentimental Favs -- Suzanne: would you consider a book that has ~700 people to have "few owners?"

Lots of good ideas already, I'm still dithering between a few of the ideas I've had and not used in the last few months.

23: Presumably books you've got off bookmooch from other LT members also count.

Another question -- #12 Amanda -- would "afternoon" or "midnight" be acceptable for time of day/night? or were you going for the o'clocks?

26: Amanda specifically mentions "afternoon"

I think I'm going to save my themed challenges until the New Year, as December is probably going to be a three week month - I will take books up to my mum's at Christmas but I don't expect to read at the pace I have been doing here while I'm away.

My challenge will be about Sky and Earth - the title should include

a) the word "sky" or "earth"; OR

b) a word with a similar meaning, for example, "heavens", "ground"

c) something that can be seen in the sky or - sun, moon, star, planet (or name of a planet)

>25 elkiedee: Of course! :)

As I promised last month, I have extended my Read a book by a Nobel laureate challenge into December (#14).

#22: Oh my heavens! I absolutely loved Below the Salt and read it twice (it seems like) a hundred years ago. Re-read it last year and enjoyed it tremendously, although not *quite* as much as the first time around.

#31> Gail - As Suzanne said, lets share the love of these favourites! I read it too many years ago as a teen, if I remember rightly, it did the rounds of the family one summer and we all loved it. It probably fed my passion for historical fiction, I'm not sure how it will hold up for a reread. The other historical writer I loved from those days was Nigel Tranter, though I wouldn't even know which of his I've read it's been so long.

>27 elkiedee: Oh yeah. Duh.

#26 -- I'm not going to be doctrinaire about the # of copies in LT-land, really. Just think back to the discussions we've had over the last year, or doing a quick search in discussion groups. A sentimental fave isn't a new book; in this case, it isn't a book that is already going viral. It's a book that you love, that you haven't picked up for a while but that you cherish and would happily re-read, and one where you want to share the love because you never hear anyone mention it. Harry Potter books may be sentimental faves, but it's going to hard for the rest of us to miss out on the existence of those! In contrast, Below the Salt is a great example. I can't remember either the book or Costain coming up in discussion, but there could well be some people for whom this would be a great book to read over the holidays, or to line up for next year. Indeed, a follow-up challenge to this might be to read one of these sentimental faves, assuming we get a wide enough list!

Also, while I've suggested that group reads in the same month aren't really the purpose here, don't let that stop you from jumping in if you see someone post a book that intrigues you or that is an old fave of yours, too.

The whole idea behind this is to make some of these sentimental faves go viral in their own right, one way or another!

OK, I'm picking The River Why. Thanks Suzanne!

I had a feeling the December thread and Wiki were up!

I've added Challenge 15: All in the Family Challenge: Read a book whose title contains a term of family (e.g., mother, father, sister, aunt).

I'm going to start off with The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Here are some other ideas:

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Mother by Maxim Gorky
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Doestoevsky
The Charwoman's Daughter by James Stephens
S**t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Madeline, silly question, but do insects count? I would have said no, but your first example is a book with a butterfly, so maybe bugs are OK.

I started a place for the Books About Religion discussion, 'tis the season.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/103326&newpost=1#lastmsg

Love, love, love the challenges this month!! I think I've got at least one book listed for each challenge. This is probably overambitious since I usually end up reading about 12 or 13 TIOLI books per month but I do have a lot of time off in December.

>37 pbadeer:: Patrick, Bugs ARE animals.

Elkie - what about Air? would that qualify?

> 37

Bugs are A-OK! I'm going with the "biological definition of the word" animal (which) "refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures ranging from insects to humans." (wikipedia). :D

creatures ranging from insects to humans

Aha! I spot a loophole to exploit when I want to squeeze some extra books in. :)

> 43

Aha! I spot a loophole

No humans!!! (please?)

For Christina's Challenge #11 (Read a book you received from another LT member), I think it would be fun if you also listed from whom you obtained the book.

>45 SqueakyChu:: great idea ... I especially liked Christina's challenge because I plan to read a book she sent me !! I'll go update the wiki straight away.

I also found 3 others I wanted to do. I'm a relative latecomer to TIOLI -- I think December is my 3rd month doing it -- but each month I do at least one more ... I think I'm starting to understand the madness here.

I think I'm starting to understand the madness here.

LOL!

Bwwwaaahahahah Laura!!! You know, you can check out of TIOLI but you can never leave.

46> I think I'm starting to understand the madness here

Ah, explain it to me! Or something. I've read the info at the top of this thread, the wiki, and the info thread (#80417), but I'm not quite sure how the TIOLI participation works, still. I'd like to do a challenge in December, perhaps. (I just received the NCE of Sister Carrie in the mail yesterday, so I could definitely do challenge #15. I think?)

(I just received the NCE of Sister Carrie in the mail yesterday, so I could definitely do challenge #15. I think?)

Yes! Sister Carrie would be perfect for Challenge 15 (All in the Family).

Just ask away here if you have questions. I would say the first thing you can do is to put your book out on the appropriate wiki (challenge 15 is in the second one, for challenges 9-16).

Karen O.

Madeleine, help!

My challenge 15 has disappeared, and there were several books listed already. I added the challenge last night, and now there's no trace of it.

Karen O.

Well, I put challenge 15 back out there, but it's lost the titles that others had added last night. Sorry--I still don't know what I did wrong the first time. Is that the nature of wiki--that things can get inadvertently "zapped"?

Once we determine what I did wrong, please put your titles back out there! I think this will be a fun challenge (and there are a lot of fun challenges again this month).

Karen O.

Taking the easy way out in December as I will only concentrate on Challenge #6 - 3 ER's to read and I'll be able to start with a clean ER slate for 2011!

Karen - it's usually possible to get old versions of wiki pages from the history. If no one gets to it before I get home, I'll take a look and see if I can't add the titles back. (I'm fixing to leave work in about 4 minutes, so no time right now!)

Thank you!

Karen O.

Well I hope I'm duly overcommitted once again. I'm planning these reads for December:

Read a book with an animal on its front cover - The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny

Challenge #4: Old and Only: Read a book that has been on your shelf for a year or longer, the only one that you own by that author who is a writer you've never read. Include a guess as to how long the book has been sitting there. - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Challenge #5: Sentimental Favorites: As a gift for other LTers, RE-READ a little-known, unfamiliar (few owners, only mentioned in passing chez LT 75) sentimental favorite and recommend it -- or not -- to the rest of us!
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr

Challenge #6: Coming soon to a bookstore near you: Read an Early Reviewers (ER) or Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) book - A Widow's Story - Joyce Carol Oates

Read a book you received from another LT member - Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Here we go again!

#44 Rats! Er, that is, "drat!"

But I'm pretty sure I do have a book with rats on the cover.

I found a list of reads for challenge 15 open in another browser window so have put them back in. People may have listed others which have been lost between when I opened that page and just now, and you will probably need to redo the links.

Karen, it looks as if Challenge #15 was inadvertently erased when Cheli (cyderry) saved Challenge #16. It was nothing that *you* did wrong. No, things don't usually get "zapped". The best way to check for any issues is to press the "show preview" button first, look to see if all looks correct, and *after that* press the "save page".

I added Cheli's challenge #16 and book selection back. Everyone please check challenges #15 and #16 to see if there are any further errors.

If anyone wants to add a challenge #17, please post your request to this thread, and I'll create a third wiki. Please allow *me* the honors of doing that. Thanks!

Thanks, elkiedee, for updating Challenge #15. It looks as if you captured all the entries that had been mistakenly deleted.

#46 Laura: I see you will be reading The Man Who Loved Children. PLEASE when you find the line about "skunk cabbage" will you quote it here??? I love it, but can't remember where it was in the book.

>60 amandameale:: I'll do my best Amanda!

I will be adding books to the wiki once I am back from Joplin and Longview. I have 4 ER books that I definitely want to get read before year end.

Wow, definitely a good bunch of challenges, with a lot of variety. For the main challenge, the book that immediately came to mind for me was Life of Pi so I've gone ahead and added that. I've also joined in for Pride and Prejudice on the blank and blank challenge (mostly on account of having read The Jane Austen Book Club in November, without actually having read any Jane Austen (yes, I am properly ashamed). And finally, I added Late Night on Air for a book with a time of day (or night) in the title, because as I was going through my book covers looking for what would fit in the main challenge, I was drawn to that one and had an urge to read it. (Well, not that it was the only one or anything -- there are so many books I want to read!)
Currently reading The Girl Who Played with Fire (actually La fille qui rêvait d'un bidon d'essence et d'une allumette) and finding it absolutely enthralling. Don't think it will fit into any challenges (I'll check again though). I am finding the French translation of Larsson much more satisfying than the English (I read The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo in English).

Can you not fit The Girl Who Played with Fire the challenge revisited challenge? Or you could create a challenge for it - have we had a Scandinavian challenge?

I think a lot of people read the Larsson books for the "I'd Like to Be..." challenge over the summer. I don't remember exactly what month it was.

Thanks elkiedee and norabelle414 -- I think you may be right. I do remember The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo featuring within TIOLI this year; I don't remember the other two Millennium books in particular but I will take a look.

I glimpsed at my bookshelves and found quite a few animal covers that would fit for the main challenge. I doubt I'll have time to get time to get to them but I would love to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (both featuring birds on the cover) in December (in addition to everything else I want to read!)

41: No, I don't think air does qualify for my challenge. However, any title including "air" could qualify for the challenge revisited challenge - the elements of earth, water, air and fire was challenge 5 back in February - there's a Wiki summary which would help in finding books for this challenge, or seeing if you can fit in books you want to read somewhere!

>17 souloftherose: Well, exactly! The year just flew by...

>46 lauralkeet: Here's the wiki summary for folks interested in seeing past challenges with less than 50 books read. I found it incredibly useful for planning mine. :)

I'm going to Dublin at the end of December and to prepare I've decided to read In the Woods by Tana French, but it doesn't fit a challenge! Does someone want to make a challenge to fit it? I could just find some previous challenge but that feels like cheating...

Oh norabelle, I think it's more cheating to create a challenge to fit a book than to find an old challenge to fit the challenge that asks you to find an old challenge... wha? Does that even make sense?

I know there have been some detective, mystery and police procedural challenges recently.

> 69

Huh?!

The challenge is to find a book to fit a challenge, not to create a challenge to fit a book (...although I know that does happen)!

ETA: ;)

Leave poor norabelle alone :) at least she was asking for someone else to create the challenge and wasn't stacking the deck on her own behalf.

I did a little digging for you norabelle - way back in January there was a challenge to read "the first successful work by an author". Since In the Woods was her first work and won an Edgar award, I think that counts. And only ONE book was read for that challenge (my, those were the days) so it meets the 50 max requirement (initially I thought of the polysyllable prohibited challenge, but that had more than 50 books)

I applaud your dedication to TIOLI. I ended up with a non-TIOLI book this month, and every time I updated my leap frog I felt guilty about it.

Just thinking... Would Cloud Atlas be suitable for challenge 13?

Yes, Cloud Atlas would fit - I hadn't thought of Cloud but it's definitely something you can look up and see in the sky.

Thanks for that! It will hopefully provide some good holiday reading!

And Cloud Atlas is such a good book!

> 69, 72

*backs off and cheers for norabelle's dedication to TIOLI*

Yay for Nora!! I was just kidding above. What you asked for is actually perfectly legitimate within the TIOLI "rules".

I create all my challenges around what I want to read, it's just choosing what I want to read most that's the problem....

Now I'm torn between all the other lovely challenges this month and revisiting my own challenges for more PI novels, police procedurals, books about education, world war I and II writing and Modern Classics editions.

I've put these on the wiki:

Challenge 4: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Challenge 5: Deadly Spin
Challenge 9: Under the Banner of Heaven
Challenge 10: Anna Karenina
Challenge 12: A Dark and Stormy Night
Challenge 13: Lost on Planet China

elkiedee, let me recommend The Sex Club. I'm not that knowledgeable about police procedurals, but I think it would fit right in there, and it's such a good book. All L. J. Sellers' books look great to me and like they'd fit your taste.

Zoe, is your challenge to read any book that fits a challenge from earlier this year, or to read one of the books that was actually read for an earlier challenge? (Keeping in mind the under-50 rule in either case.)

>81 madhatter22: A book that fits.

Good god from Gulfport! I found this just now, and I'm HOW many challenges behind already?!

I have added First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher, the sixth and I think maybe final book in the Codex Alera series. I've slowly read the series with the first five books making up 5 of the 13 books I read in October. Book has been added to first challenge as it contains crows on the cover.

The second book I added, Three Bedrooms, Two Bathrooms, and One Very Dead Corpse by David James, is in challenge 6: Coming soon, though it could also be in challenge one. Raven on cover. Third book is also in challenge 6 Thrilled to Death by LJ Sellers. I have three early review books left to read and review, above two and Blind Man's . . something or other. Blind Man's has apparently not been received by anyone. I received Three, Two, One today.

Since January will be the next month coming up, I thought I'd point others to this newly formed group:

Orange January/July

It might be fun for some of you to incorporate this challenge into a future TIOLI challenge. Just food for thought...

Is there a problem with the TIOLI meter? I went to look at it and it's just a blank. No topic number.

>86 lindapanzo: I don't think the link at the top of this thread is working. If I go to Wiki Page 1 from here, and then to the TIOLI meter, I get the page.

Re Challenge #16: Maybe I missed the explanation somewhere, but I'm confused about what "new" means. Does it mean the most recently released book in a series? Or within a year or so (some series have more than 1 book a year)? Or the next (that is, new to me) book in a series I've been reading? Or even the first book in a new to me series that is already existing?

#87 Ivy, you're absolutely correct. It's the link to the TIOLI meter at the top of this page that isn't working. I don't use the ones on the wiki pages, though I guess I could.

I've got several December TIOLI books going right now, most notably An Irish Country Christmas.

I just added four books to the wiki:

Challenge 1: Animal on Cover
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa and A Three Dog Life - I was a good girl and played along, adding that my books were about birds and dogs, respectively; although that is obvious from the titles. Not always the case.

Ch. 2: Christmas book
Mr. Ives' Christmas

Ch. 14: Nobel Laureate
Love in the Time of Cholera - carried over from last month's alphabet challenge. I will finish it by tomorrow night's book group. Yes I will!

> 86

Is there a problem with the TIOLI meter?

Oops! I forgot to add the link. It's now fixed.

Yeah - finished my first book. But I think I need to explain. Every year, my family does a Christmas Book Advent Calendar. We choose 25 holiday themed books, make tags for each, and then each night, we pull a tag and read the matching book. So every night this month (at least those when I'm in town), I'll have a holiday book for Challenge #3. Maybe I'll be able to climb higher up the meter this month.

Since we pick randomly, that explains why tonight, the first night of the advent calendar, we got 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

#90 Thanks!!

#91 What a great idea!!

Explanation of Challenge #16 New book it can be the latest book or just a new book for you. I'm not stressing that it has to be the latest.

I finished my first book for the Christmas challenge, I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas by Lewis Black. I read the first half last night and almost stopped, thinking it was not only the worst book ever written but one that Black was going to regret writing the rest of his life. He's intelligent and hilarious when doing political humor but embarrassingly angry and pathetic when talking about relationships. Plus he pretty much hates children, for the first half of the book. However, forcing myself to finish, I ended up liking the last half, especially his account of doing shows for service people in Afghanistan. He's pretty much the epitome of the angst ridden Jew with a heart of gold. Quite the complex man. Now to go into a completely alternate universe, I'm starting Little Women. Maybe Black was the right lead in antidote to Alcott.

Unbelievable. I've actually completed a book for one of December's challenges! Big Jack by J.D. Robb was not the most scintillating of the '...in Death' offshoots, but it has a crow on the cover. Hooray!

>93 cyderry: Thanks, Cheli! That will give me a TIOLI for the next Lumby book, which I hope to get to this month.

I'm doing the last Lumby one ... was going to put it in the elements challenge but maybe I'll put it in my own!

I Have finished Christmas is Murder and I am now on to An Irish Country Christmas

I just finished a book for December challenges, (animal on cover) Deadhouse Gates

#93/96 Thanks Cheli. I didn't realize that something other than the most recent one would count.

I think Ivy and I are at the same place in Lumby so I'll aim to read that one, too, possibly instead of the one I listed.

I added Bury Your Dead to the New In Series challenge, An Irish Country Christmas to the Christmas challenge and Fall to Grace by Jay Bakker to the Religion challenge. I sprinted to try to finish the Penny book for November's challenge but just could not stay awake long enough and ended up finishing it yesterday.

I was just about to add Stones Into Schools to the Animal challenge when I discovered that the challenge specifies front cover. The photograph with a horse is on the back cover. I'm crushed (but likely to find another book to meet the challenge).

Tonight's Advent Book - Santa Claustrophobia our family's absolute favorite Christmas book. Santa develops claustrophobia, so Labor Day Amos, the Easter Bunny, the April Fool, Christopher Columbus, Cupid and the other holiday figures offer to help deliver christmas gifts.

>102 pbadeer: Patrick, that is *priceless*! And the Advent book idea is also priceless. You know you've made a convert, don't you? Member Luxx is doing this with her young boys starting this year!

If anyone wants to jump on the TIOLI points bandwagon, *the* book to read now is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a book which is currently being shared by 7 challengers. This book is part of norabelle414's "Thinster" challenge #8.

I read and enjoyed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon for the something in the sky challenge. Unfortunately I was a couple of days late for a point last month, but I'm glad it fit somewhere this time too.

After taking last month off, I am dipping my toe back in the water with two challenges.

I am currently rereading A Little Ray Of Sunshine by Lani Diane Rich for the sentimental book challenge. It's only in 42 libraries here on LT and I read it for the first time this year and loved it so much that I'm diving back in again already. I never do that.

To celebrate recently finishing the Death series (albeit in my particular order at all), I am going to try and reread Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather. I'm hoping to emerge far less confused this time around.

nancywhite, let us know what you think about Fall To Grace. I'm hoping that apple fell far from the tree.

Question - Does the second in the three pines mysteries count for the "new to a series" challenge as long as it's new to me??

Terri, I want to offer you a hearty "Thank you!" for the nudge you gave me to finally read a book I owned called Gotz and Meyer. Each time I picked it up before, I put it down because it had no paragraphs! Now that it fit a challenge, however, I *had to* read it. :)

Without a doubt, this was my best read of the year. I posted a review of it should anyone else want to explore it. I must caution you, though, that this is a novel about the Holocaust and how it affected the city of Beograd (now in Serbia). It is quick, but not light, reading.

Excerpt:

"She compared history to a big crossword puzzle. For every little square you fill, there are three more empty, she said, and even if you manage to fill them, new ones open up immediately, even emptier. Knowledge can never catch up with the power of ignorance."

That is a great quote, Madeline, and it piqued my interest in a book I've never heard of.

I finally finished my leftover book from last month which I moved to a leftover challenge for this month -- No. 14 Read a book written by a Nobel Laureate. My contribution was the wonderful (to me) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

#109 Knowledge can never catch up with the power of ignorance

That's a sobering thought. The book sounds good. I'm off to WL it. Great review!

I'll be happy to pass along my copy of Gotz and Meyer on Bookmooch. If anyone in the US is interested, please leave a (public) message on my profile page.

>110 Donna828:, 111

That is a great quote

Funny thing about that quote, Donna and Pat. I went to post it to LT's Common Knowledge, but someone else (Fledermaus?) had already posted it!

> 110

Ah!! Love in the Time of Cholera ... I adored that book! It's perhaps my favorite love story of all time.

#109: Great review, it really sounds like a must-read. I'll put Gotz and Meyer on my watchlist (unfortunately it seems not to be available yet in the UK or Germany and hasn't been published as Kindle version either).

> 114

Perhaps this book was published in a different form or with a different title in Europe.

From the information page of my own edition, I see that it was originally published with the title Gotz i Majer by Stubovi kulture, Belgrade, 1998, and that it was first published in English in Great Britain in 2004 by Harvill Press, Random House.

Though the author lived in Belgrade (Serbia), he now lives in Calgary, Canada.

Hi Madeline - I'll take you up on your BookMooch offer if it's still available. Based on your review I just added it to my wishlist.

#115: Thank you - it's also called Gotz and Meyer in the UK/ Götz und Meyer in Germany, but both titles don't turn up as first results on the amazons or maybe I misspelt something. Searching for the author helped though - I moved it from watchlist to wishlist, soon to be ordered.

Gotz and Meyer is going on my tbr list too. I've finished Jonty and Choc for the so and so challenge, it's a children's book about how changing interests at school can affect your friendship with your best friend. Vince Ford pitches perfectly towards his target age group and I learnt about an unusual sport played in New Zealand schools based on Maori traditional games called ki-o-rahi.
I had to stop typing here to get a bird out of my kitchen, he's so cheeky, he comes in the house all the time!
I also read The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes for the previous TIOLI challenge, I chose the Culinary Arts July one. This was a collection of amusing newspaper columns around the subject of cooking, dinner parties, reliability and vagueness in various cookbooks, necessary cooking utensils etc etc. An easy entertaining read.
And School Blues by Daniel Pennac also for the previous TIOLI challenge (translated from French Nov). This was one that Lucy (elkiedee) recommended and I enjoyed it as well. Pennac writes about his own experiences as both a student and a teacher in the French education system. His focus is on the disengaged student, the one who struggles to learn anything. Labelled dunces they can be anything but.

#110> I also want to take a moment to express my love for Love in the time of cholera.

> 116

Patrick, I'll post and reserve the book for you on BookMooch.

I am not going crazy and listing tons ahead of time this month, because last month I had to remove lots. But I've finished 2 so far. The first was Running the Books: Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg, which was very good (and sad, and funny). That fitted into July's Read a Book about Books Challenge, because it's about the prison library (and inmates) in Boston's South Bay prison.

And today I picked up The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, which fits the short book challenge. I couldn't put it down, gave it 4 stars, and found it very disturbing. It was a LT rec and I'm glad I read it, but it squished everything bad about being a woman in Kaubul into 136 pages, so it's not light reading! It won the Prix Goncourt in 2008.

> 118

I had to stop typing here to get a bird out of my kitchen, he's so cheeky, he comes in the house all the time!

Does he like to read? Perhaps he wanted to land on a book of yours and make it eligible for TIOLI challenge #1 (a book with an animal (in this case - a bird) on the front cover? :)

School Blues sounds good but very familiar. Wasn't that a movie? I saw a French movie last year that fits the description of your book. The movie was The Class, and it was really good.

#122> Bird: he was looking for the dry cat food, he's always eating from the cat's dish as I feed the cat outside. We noticed a few weeks ago that he'd started flying into the house for a look around.

I'll have to look out for The Class, Pennac does mention a film, Games of Love and Chance (L'Esquive), which is about students from housing estates. This is one book that I'll probably have to get my own copy, I'd like to refer back to it from time to time. He also wrote The Rights of the Reader.

Madeline, I'm happy to have played a very small role in your reading of Gotz and Meyer! It sounds excellent.

Cushla, I felt the same about The Patience Stone when I read it. I'm still not sure I grasped the ending completely either. But that was OK with me.

I'm not going to get much reading done in the next few days -- we have our annual Hanukah party here tonight, so Laurie will have me on KP duty this afternoon, peeling lots of potatoes for latkes. Then Saturday and Sunday are all day choir rehearsals (weekend "retreat," though it doesn't fit my definition of retreat, which is resting and relaxing). I'll be too exhausted to read by the end of the weekend! I'll see how far I can get with Jacob de Zoet this afternoon. I'm about 3/4 done, it's a fantastic book.

118 Kerry: what kind of bird is it?? It sounds awfully tame.

> 124

Happy Chanukah, Terri! Remember to eat lotsa latkes... :)

> 25

what kind of bird is it??

Probably some exotic Australian species... :D

*waits to hear*

It's a common blackbird and there's a poem here that describes its behaviour to a 't'. We've enjoyed watching the blackbird and sometimes a thrush go for the cat biscuits, alerted by the 'thunk thunk' of beak hitting the cat bowl, but coming into the house for a look around is not my idea of fun. My dog likes everything to be in order, and finding a bird fluttering in the house, or the cat sneaking into the pantry, is just one step too far. Chaos, a frenzy of wings and falling feathers, group panic till it flies out.

>122 SqueakyChu: Does he like to read? Perhaps he wanted to land on a book of yours and make it eligible for TIOLI challenge #1 (a book with an animal (in this case - a bird) on the front cover? :)

There she goes again, shamelessly promoting her challenge. Honestly;-)

I hope to get back in the challenge game next month if

A) I can get my act together; and
B) If I'm online at the right time:)

108 >>>
Jenn, if the book is the next one for you, that's okay. It just can't be the first in a series. I have enough stress on my own, I'm not going to cause anyonbe else stress.

Finished both of my "carryover" books from last month. The Imperfectionists and The Dragonfly Pool. For as much good press as The Imperfectionists got, I have to say I didn't really get it. If it hadn't been for the jacket description, I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to realize that all of these people worked for the same newspaper over a 50 year period. We were jumping around so much, I thought it was going to be about journalists at different papers in different times. There were some interesting characters developed, but many of them became unlikable, and for any pet lovers out there, the ending is unnecessarily disturbing. (It had been for the alphabetical challenge, but since that had too many entries, I couldn't use it for the TIOLI Past challenge this month. Luckily, doing a little digging (yes, I was trying to find a challenge to fit my book, slap my hand) I found an obscure note on someone's thread where Stasia told someone that she "liked that book too". Good enough for me, so it's part of the Stasia Recommends challenge, which is still in the TIOLI Past challenge!)

The Dragonfly Pool was wonderful. I love Eva Ibbotson, and there are very few of her books remaining that my daughter and I haven't read together. This one seemed to have more of a message to it, taking place on the eve of WWII, and the author's note at the end explains that - the school where the children are sent is based on the actual school she was sent to in England after she was forced to leave Vienna during WWII. Very enjoyable. (I ended up putting this in the main challenge - dragonflies on the cover)

> 137

yes, I was trying to find a challenge to fit my book, slap my hand

LOL!!

Finished Child 44 for the Ghost of TIOLI Past challenge.

If you want to sneak in another TIOLI book but aren't sure you have time, this one is good and reads fastfastfast. One of those books where you're thinking "I should get to bed now" and the next time you look up you've read another 100 pages.

>> #131: Don't worry - you should have heard the squeal of triumph I uttered when I realised that my current read, Love Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister, fit perfectly into Challenge #15: "Read a book with a family term in the title"! :)

134: Yay for the "All in the Family" challenge! (Of course, I may be biased).

I know what you mean about the synchronicity--I started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin on my antique e-reader, and then I realized--it's family!

Karen O.

#130 - THANK YOU - because as much as I am enjoying the Three Pines series, I am not sure I can get to the newest one all this month. I mean, I could but would I really want to?

I've just finished a lovely novella for Challenge #8 - Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi. Only 54 pages!

Tonight's advent book - Lemony Snicket's Lump of Coal. What a great Christmas book. It's typical Lemony Snicket, with snide comments, sly and intellectual humor, and just a tad disrespectful. Maybe not the best for little kids, but great for older kids - and adults tired of the sing-song poems of most Christmas books.

Last night I finished Desert by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio for my Nobel laureate challenge.

I don't think we've had a Scandinavian challenge, have we?

I'm tempted to join Deesirings in reading Late Nights on Air -- which would also qualify as a long-unread singleton TBR book -- but I'm wary of over over-committing myself yet again... Especially with all my 1010 books to read, and my leftover books for the off-the-shelf challenge...

So far, read Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis for this month's challenges. Jet lag and work have kept my reading rate down so far... and may continue to do so, as I still have the column to crank out, and another feature due before Christmas. Merde!

I finished Under the Banner of Heaven for the Religion challenge. It intertwines a modern true crime story with a history of LDS and more specifically LDS Fundamentalism. I almost wish I hadn't read it. A most disturbing, chilling, unsettling book. The author is no sensationalist, which makes this book just that much scarier.

And now for something completely different: The Tale of Despereaux for the Animal on the Cover challenge. Sweet but not cloying.

I finished listening to Remarkable Creatures which I've added to the 'Read a book that was on your TBR all of 2010' challenge as I've been wanting to read it since it first came out. I loved this one, it's now my favourite Chevalier and made a great listening experience. I do own the paperback, but I was trying out the library's e-Audio download and their selection isn't that great.

It's only the 6th and I have finished all my planned TIOLI reads. By far the best was A Christmas Carol (a reread) for the thinster challenge, the worst was Me Cheeta for challenge #4 (old and new). Time to return to my bookshelf to see what else I can fit in this month.

The Tale of Despereaux turned out to be the perfect antidote to sad uncertainty left by Under the Banner of Heaven. I highly recommend it to any who like fairty tales, elegant writing, or stories about mice. No, really.

Is it too late to post a challenge? If not, may I suggest (for anyone else like me who has to read 25 books this month (maybe I should transfer to the 50-challenge for this year)) a book of less than 250 pages?

For Challenge no.1, I happen to be in the middle of Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede, which has snakes on the front.

It's not to late to post a challenge for this month. Challenges may be posted through (but no later than) December 7th. I'll add a third wiki page. Give me a few minutes.

#145 Don't we already have that one.

Oh wait, that's for less than 140 pages. #8, I think.

Oh - I didn't see that one. I'm running a bit behind and I must have skimmed through the list too fast. I wondered why no-one else had done that challenge!

Well that's fine - we don't have to do mine, and that'll keep the wiki to a more manageable 2 pages.

We could have had it anyway, but there's no reason you can't pick short books for the other challenges. I'd be interested to hear of any book that someone's reading which can't be fitted into the challenge revisited challenge or any of the others!

> 145

a book of less than 250 pages?

Actually, I don't think that's too much of a challenge. A narrower challenge (such as the Thinster challenge already posted) makes more sense to me. My reasoning is that "less than 250 pages" simply includes too many options.

I'd be interested to hear of any book that someone's reading which can't be fitted into the challenge revisited challenge or any of the others!

Eeek! Stop!!!!!!!! (Please?)

I'd recommend not trying to make a challenge for every book that people want to read this month. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of the TIOLI, doesn't it?! :)

My thought is that a challenge should be narrow enough that it actually challenges a person to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out of one's own narrow field of reading.

Personally, I'm liking the "key term" ones - weather words, family members, etc. - probably because I have an insanely long wish list, and those ones give me an excuse to pull out a particular book I might otherwise never get around to.

Just finished two more challenges: A Fatal Grace for the "next in a series" and The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-ween for the "Christmas book" challenge. Enjoyed both.

The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-ween is a lovely little Irish folk tale by Ruth Sawyer and I highly recommend it.

Finished my first TIOLI book yesterday a biography, Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson by Wil Haygood for challenge #2. It finishes up my reading of the 2010 Hurston/Wright award books.

I was leary about the book as I really don't like boxing but it was quite readable. It probably wouldn't satisfy a boxing enthusiast though. My review is here

I don't suppose there's any hope that the TIOLI threads be their own group, so I don't have to wade through a zillion other 75 book challenges to follow it?

>155 majkia: I hope not. I think it's an important part of the 75 Book Challenge group, and keeping it somewhat hidden probably increases the overall engagement level of the participants--people who find TIOLI where it is now tend to be pretty regular LT users.

You could star it - unless you have lots of threads starred already and you'd still have to wade through.

155> The new search *does* make it a lot easier to find TIOLI threads, though.

Only just caught up with this month's thread - I'm always slow to remember to search for it. Now I need to sit down and work out which books I can fit in. I've just performed in a short pantomime version of A Christmas Carol but I guess that doesn't count as reading it again! - but I do have it as a downloaded audiobook so hope to find time to listen to it over the Christmas period...

#159 Sounds intriguing - who did you play?

I've added 3 Harry Potter books to the Ghost of TIOLI past challenge under the November World of Harry Potter challenge and also Packing for Mars by Mary Roach under the April read a book offered as an Early Reviewer book.

Heather, I'll join you in reading Packing for Mars. I started it last night and can't wait to get back to it. It's informative and funny at the same time.

ETA: I see you've completed it, Heather. I was tempted to add it to 'the things found in the sky' challenge, but this way we earn a point. Yay!

I have a question for TIOLI veterans. I chose a 533-page book for a challenge, read 140 pages, and decided I simply could not continue and keep my sanity. Does it count as read, or should I remove it from that challenge in the wiki ? Thanks!

>155 majkia: - majkia, I asked the same question awhile back and it was explained very thoroughly by SqueakyChu and others. I can't articulate it, but it made sense to me to leave it within the 75 group. You get really good at starring threads!

#160/161 I may join you in reading Packing for Mars. I have a whole bunch of Christmas books, fiction and nonfiction, this month.

However, once the holiday is over, I've got a week to read some other things.

Packing for Mars is a fabulous read. Mary Roach is in top form with that book.

#162 -- You can either remove it or (as I have done) declare publicly that it's unreadable. Madeline should prob weigh in on which she prefers, since she has to wade through the wiki next month!

#155 -- This has come up a few times, and I think people may have even voted on it recently? I think a lot of us don't want another group to follow, and because we're all on here anyway, it's just a matter of starring this thread as well as the others. It also may help to keep the size more manageable for Madeline.

#161 It didn't occur to me to list it under the things in the sky challenge - happy to move it if you like? It was a good read, I kept chuckling away and insisted on reading several bits out loud to whoever was nearby.

160: Point maximisation alert. I notice Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has also been added under Challenge 1 (presumably there's a phoenix on the cover?)

>166 Chatterbox:: thanks, I will defer to Madeline on this one ...

What book aren't you finishing Laura?? I didn't count one that I couldn't finish a couple of months ago, but I counted it for my 75 total, as I invested about 200 pages in it and could not continue and still maintain my sanity.

#160 I played Marley's ghost. It was a short humorous rhyming version full of bad jokes. I was rattling my paper chains to great comic effect :)

>170 teelgee:: Barchester Towers, Terri. I'm definitely counting it as book #76 but wasn't sure if it was legit for TIOLI.

I've decided to keep my TIOLI aims modest this month as I want to finish reading lots of library books and most of them do not seem to fit into any challenge. But I realised the one book I've already read this month - Ex LIbris by Anne Fadiman - is under 140 pages so counts under challenge 8, and I've joined the Christmas Carol growing list, and found one library book with an animal on the cover - Wolf Brother. Once I get some other library books read, I'll return to try to fit in a few more TIOLIs.

I personally wouldn't count an unfinished book for TIOLI.

I'm planning to read Ex Libris too this month - I can't find the copy I already own but found another copy in a charity shop for £1 the other day - when I find the other one I can pass on one copy.

I read A Christmas Carol cover to cover this evening. Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I really am starting to like Dickens quite a lot.

> 155

I don't suppose there's any hope that the TIOLI threads be their own group

There are no plans to make TIOLI its own group.

To not get lost, bookmark or favorite this thread. This index will always take you to the current thread and wiki. All threads for one month should be linked together. If not, tell the person whose thread it is to link back to the main thread of the month.

> 162

Laura, you've hit the wonderful "Leave It" part of the TIOLI challenge. If you don't like a book, don't finish it. Take it off of the wiki and be done with it. It doesn't matter if it's a "asterisked" book or not. There is to be NO GUILT in removing a book from the wiki at any time.

No, it will not count if it's not finished within the month for which it was listed.

> 166

You can either remove it or (as I have done) declare publicly that it's unreadable. Madeline should prob weigh in on which she prefers, since she has to wade through the wiki next month!

My preference would be for anyone who finds a book unreadable to simply remove it. I will remove that book anyway later. Your doing it will just save me some time.

>178 SqueakyChu:, 179: OK, great, will do. Thanks!

> 166

I just thought of another reason why I would not like to see the TIOLI be its own group. I always want it to be attached to the 75-ers because I like this group so much. I want it to be ours alone!

We did take a poll a while back and 75-ers overwhelmingly said they did not want itas its own group.

I agree. I fear that making it into a group of its own would make it too hard for me to manage manually. I'll leave the large group management up to Jim! :)

Another reason I want the TIOLI to stay here is that it is advertised nowhere (except by word of mouth, er, keyboard). It is somewhat hidden, yet open to all who join the 75-ers. It is a fun discovery for those people who take the time to learn about the various nooks and crannies of LibraryThing. I find that the people who end up joining the TIOLI challenges are the ones who are find the most fun in interaction which is what I believe makes for an entertaining time online.

> 170

Terri, why would you count a book that drove you insane toward your 75?! ;)

Ideas for TIOLI in the New Year?

Hey, gang! Any ideas for what to do with the TIOLI for the coming year? What shall we shelve? What shall we keep? What shall we change?

No promises here, but I'd like to hear what you think.

>182 SqueakyChu:: actually, she was already insane. But indulge her.

>183 SqueakyChu: It's great; keep everything the same!

Sorry, you'll find no criticism, constructive or otherwise, from me. I love TIOLI just the way it is, and I like all the changes you've made. Am I too easily pleased?

"Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine". (Robert C. Gallagher)

Seriously, though, I have no plans for any changes in TIOLI for the New Year unless you or I come up with something extraordinary. If you come up with something, be sure to tell me about it!

No changes please. It is perfect!

The only change I would like is having a set day of the month for the new month's challenge to be announced.

I actually like the serendipity of it just appearing, sometimes you catch it straightaway and other times not. I feel that that is part of the quirky charm of the challenge.

>184 lauralkeet:. Ahem, I'm right here, Laura, I can hear you. Sheesh.

Finished up the The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Good but very depressing.

> 189

The only change I would like is having a set day of the month for the new month's challenge to be announced.

That's not going to happen with the main reason being that it can only get done during the time I have to work on it. That varies from month to month. Believe it or not, other things take precedence in my life. :)

In addition, I don't want to announce the day ahead of time because of the "serendipity of it just appearing", as Kerri mentioned. I like that about it. It's a fun new discovery each month. I think that increases the anticipation. I also feel that way about the ER program. I love to find that the ER book offerings have suddenly been posted.

It's not that hard to figure out when the new month's TIOLI will be posted. You can usually tell how far ahead it will be posted by looking at past months' challenges. The postings have been posted from 2 to 5 days preceding the onset of each new month. Sometimes I tweet (on Twitter) the arrival of a new month's TIOLI; sometimes I just wait until challengers discover it for themselves!

>191 teelgee::

Madeline,
some of us don't tweet or twitter or whatever so we don't get the same heads up.

some of us don't tweet or twitter or whatever so we don't get the same heads up.

I don't always do it. Just if I feel like it. I usually do it if no one discovers the thread when it goes up (which is becoming more and more unlikely).

Truthfully, I'm more apt to stop tweeting it than I am to make an announcement here on LT of when the thread will be posted.

There should be no advantage to knowing ahead of time anyway. New challenges can be posted through the seventh day of the month. There is no limit to the number of challenges that can be posted (other than the limit of one per person per month).

I know you want to feel in control, Cheli. I'm denying you that. Sorry! ;)

Not looking for control, just tired of always being on page 2 of the wiki.

Quick question - I've only recently begun to participate in TIOLI, and am still learning my way around. It seems there has been some effort made to come up with new and different challenges each month - is that right? For the new year, will that continue or will everything start over and some of the fun and popular 2010 challenges be available to be posted again? If not, is there a central place where all of the 2010 challenges are listed so that we can know what has already been done and what to avoid when thinking of new challenges?

Since I'm still new here, I'm not going to make any suggestions for changes. I don't think I've earned that privlege yet and, besides, it seems to be working pretty well just as it is.

sjm: Check out this nifty summary

If I had any question, it would be the same as Sandy's. Can we repeat or would folks prefer not to? I know color repeated already...

On the subject of this month's TIOLI, I finished A Christmas Carol for the Thinster challenge. If you'd asked me, I'd have sworn to you that this was a re-read. While I was reading it, I realized I'd never read it before. I'm so glad I have now. It was much funnier than I would have guessed, and I teared up at the end completely unexpectedly.

I've begun The Imperfectionists which fits in the Prior Challenges challenge as a Stasia Recommends. It's for a point too.

I started reading Sister Carrie last night for the "It's All in the Family" challenge, and promptly fell asleep before finishing the second page. I'm sure it's just because I was incredibly tired, after work and with stress about my grandmother being in the hospital (she's on her last days), bu~t...

Anyone want to encourage me with why I shouldn't let my first ten minutes with this book stand as the example of the rest of it? (In other words: what do I get to look forward to?)

>201 keristars: I read Sister Carrie and The Devil in the White City around the same time. Sometimes when Carrie was being particularly dull I would imagine the murderer from DITWC offing her.

But there's sex! Well, the late 1800s version of sex, where Carrie receives money from an unrelated man, so you just assume. It was really a very controversial book at the time.

Personally, I'd like to be able to repeat challenges -- perhaps not in the same year, but with maybe a 9 month lag or something? Not so often that it feels like the same three show up repeatedly, but it would mean that people didn't have to struggle as much. I like having quirky and offbeat challenges, but it's also nice to have the broader ones as well. (And of course, one person's broad challenge is another's quirky one!)

Basically, my thinking is change will happen organically. If there's something enough people are rattled about, you'll here of it. It doesn't have to take place on Jan. 1, but when it becomes important...

#201 -- So sorry about your grandmother... But the first ten minutes may have nothing to do with the rest of it. The first third of a novel, on the other hand... that's harder to shrug off. Unless I just loathe the book and the style, I'll try to give a novel that much time to prove itself or talk its way out of my library.

I have been reading Under the Banner of Heaven. It was not on my TBR list, and I wasn't really interested in it. Reading about creepy pedophiles who use a sort of self manufactured "religion" to justify their behavior is not my cup of tea, but after bohemima read it and commented on how disturbed she felt after reading it, I thought I would investigate. Not investigate because I like to feel disturbed, but rather to see what his premise was and how he treated his subject.

I am really disappointed, for several reasons. If you are interested, you can read about them here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/98572#2352858

203> I have tried several times to read Great Expectations but have never been able to get beyond the first chapter or so without wanting a nap! The last time I attempted it, I just gave up and read pages at random instead of starting from the beginning, and if a particular page had an interesting passage, I would continue reading until it got tedious again.

Likewise with Tolkien.

202> Awesome! The book I just finished (Charlotte Temple was a bit scandalous - implied sex between an unwed couple and no intention of marrying, back in 1794. (You know they had sex because the sequel is called "Lucy Temple" and is also known as "Charlotte's Orphan", so clearly Charlotte had a child.)

Charlotte Temple is in many ways a fantastic book. It's absolutely awful, but so much fun. :)

I don't see why we can't repeat an occasional TIOLI challenge. I just wouldn't want us to say "ok, it's January, let's do last year's January challenges again this year."

Also, about when I think the new TIOLI is due out, I tend to look at the 75ers menu of threads more often. The rest of the month, I tend to focus on my starred threads/already posted to threads. Usually, I find the new TIOLI fairly quickly.

Linda, great point. I would probably find it wearying to do books about love every February, or American history books every July, or... well, you get the point.

#198 Sandy, I would think that a new person's suggestions could be quite valuable, or at least thought-provoking.

Fresh set of eyes and all that.

I don't have any ideas of how to improve TIOLI because I love it just as it is. I think we should be able to repeat some of the challenges, again after a certain amount of time has passed. We're probably going to get to a point where new ideas for challenges are going to be hard to come by.

168 Thanks for the heads up Luci - I've moved HP and the Order of the Phoenix to the first challenge for points!

Keristars, I like your method of reading a book you don't care for. I need to get back to the dreaded Little Women but it's so hard to force myself. Having always been a cover to cover reader, I may try to do it your way, sacrilegious though it may be.

And my sympathies go out to you over the saddening time you're going through with your grandmother.

211> Having always been a cover to cover reader, I may try to do it your way, sacrilegious though it may be.

To be fair, I don't consider myself as having read Great Expectations, but I did get a good idea of the writing style, and I've read enough about the book that I don't feel a need any longer to read it cover-to-cover. Also, I'm pretty satisfied with not attempting any more Dickens. I've read several of the quicker ones (like The Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist), but life's too short to spend trying to force myself to read a book that just doesn't interest me!

I've tried a few other longer Dickens, and they're just not to my taste.

Also, thank you and Suzanne earlier for the sympathies. I appreciate it.

I'd like to be able to repeat challenges but agree that it shouldn't have to be the same ones because it's that month, kind of thing. Also, there's been a huge growth in participation through 2010. Many challenges for the first three months got single figures, and I've come across one zero, and it wasn't because it wasn't a good challenge. I'd only just come across the group in January I think. I joined Librarything at the end of November 2009, but mostly just catalogued for the first few months.

I agree with everyone else that challenges should be able to repeat. I don't think we need any rules about what challenges can repeat when; people can use their discretion.

#213 Blushing. That zero was mine. I was eager to read a few books in that area and then got so busy at work with legislation that I barely read anything at all that month (instead of my usual 10 to 15 books).

TIOLI did seem to take off at a certain point though, didn't it?

somehow I think legislation is probably more important than TIOLI. Unless you're not on my side, of course.

> 198, 200

There is nothing preventing anyone from posting a repeat challenge. However, I'd prefer to keep that to a minimum. I'd like most of the challenges to be new ones or at least ones we haven't done in a while so that they at least seem new. Repeat stuff gets boring pretty soon. If there's anything I don't want in TIOLI, it's boredom! :)

Hey! Instead of repeating the same old same old, why not try a *new twist* on an old challenge? For example, instead of a book with a color in its title, make that be a cool color (green, blue or violet) or have a word in the title that is something green (grass, leaves, lime, etc.). Well, you get my idea. Now...get creative!

> 197

Back to Cheli,

I would have only one long page for the wiki, but it doesn't work. I get a warning to cut the page in half. I try to set up the pages on the wiki to preclude me from getting that message. That's why we're down to eight challenges per page now. We might have to cut down the challenges per page even more as TIOLI grows.

For the month of January, I'll reserve challenge # 2 for you, Cheli, on page one. Then, it's back to whenever you discover it.

I hope that's a fair resolution.

Read my first Christmas book, Alex Haley's A Different Kind of Christmas.

While I agree with Cheli that it feels better to be on page one of the Wiki, psychologically, it doesn't seem to make much difference in terms of how man people participate. The challenges I've posted that drew the most attention (chunkster and no polysyllables) both wound up on page 2 of the wiki. I think it's more difficult when there is only a single challenge on a final page, but that has only happened once so far, I think.

Think I have good ideas lined up for the next two months, though I don't know which one I'll toss out there first. *chortle, chortle*

Repeat challenges shouldn't be an issue, since the group name (lest we forget since we all use the initials) is "Take It Or Leave It"! It's a self-selected group, and the challenges are self-selected too...I can join one, five, all; I can complete none, one, all; it's no one else's privilege to say "boo turkey" to me about it! It's the reason I think the group's gotten so huge.

And re: which wiki page one is on, whassa diff when we got Madeline's listings in the first post of each thread? That's where I go to pick out which ones I'll shop through. And Madeline, if I haven't said it before, I think you're the hostess with the mostest for running the group inclusively and caringly and responsively. It speaks very well of your character that you respond to all of the crotchets and whinges we bleat at you in here.

*standing O*

*stands and claps*

I tend to look at the wiki for multiple reads after the first week or so. I just ordered Under the Banner of Heaven (hearing criticisms about it actually made me more eager to read it), and I'm hoping to get to A Christmas Carol as well. That's in addition to the books I was already planning to read, of course. Too many books and too little time....

-->176 Eat_Read_Knit:: Gasp! Your secret is safe with us.

-->204 nittnut:: Your comment here made me laugh a bit; I'll go over and check out the link in a minute.

I finished The Cat Who Came for Christmas. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I think the reader has to love cats (I'm so sorry, Richard) or be a true cat person to appreciate it.

I also finished The Devil's Dictionary for the Thinster Challenge. Some mildly funny bits, but it just left me cold. Too bitter and, unfortunately for Bierce, now incredibly dated and stale. That can be a problem with satire.

-->206 lindapanzo: and 207, etc. Yes, the more ordinary challenges--not that this group really goes that way--could get to be less fun rather quickly. That's why I really liked that February one: Read a Book with a Red Spine. Very creative. Lots of others have been marvelous as well, but that one stands out in my memory for some reason.

ETA: Repeat of Richard's message, verbatim.

> 220

I think it's more difficult when there is only a single challenge on a final page, but that has only happened once so far, I think.

You all know I was trying to whittle down the number of TIOLI challenges a while back, but I was outvoted. Is page three of the wiki perhaps a psychological barrier to posting too many challenges? (rhetorical question...and evil laugh)

#224 -- Heavens, no, not a barrier. I think it was the fact that there was only a single orphan challenge on that page. Since it was one that interested me, I didn't mind too much, especially since you do list them all.

I just typed out a whole silly suggestion, only to find out that it's something you are already doing. Sigh. Obviously too much unused brain capacity this week, not to mention obliviousness to what is right before my eyes.

I just typed out a whole silly suggestion, only to find out that it's something you are already doing.

Oh, do tell! If great minds think alike, I want to know what it was.

Just that while each wiki page lists the challenges on that page, it might be nice to list all the challenges on EACH wiki page. Then I noticed that you do list all the challenges at the top of THIS page (even though I can't click on them to take me to the wiki challenge). That addressed my broader question -- finding a place where all the challenges can be listed -- although since the issue that led to this was wiki-related, maybe there is a way to kind of mimic the format in which challenges are listed on this page on the wikis? Did that make ANY sense at all?? *eyes roll*

That did make sense. The reason I don't list all the wiki challenges on each wiki page is because (1) the list is too long and (2) it makes more sense to list what is only on each page (that is done automatically by the wiki mark-up coding). I neither know (nor want to know) how to do the direct links to each challenge. That would take even longer to set up. Too much trouble.

I finished and reviewed the absolutely wonderful Jane Eyre for the "
Read a book on your bookshelf for over a year written by a singleton new-to-you author" challenge.

Now i'm moving on to The Tenderness of Wolves for the main challenge.

Oh, I love Jane Eyre. I'm so glad you liked it!

I finished Life of Pi for the main challenge. Loved it! I was afraid I wouldn't because I'd heard it described as "fantasy" and "allegory" and those tend to be not up my alley. But was I ever pleasantly surprised.

Madeline, thanks -- I figured that it might be something like that, and a one-stop listing already exists, albeit on a different page, that's why I withdrew the question before I put my foot (feet!) in my mouth. :-)

I finished If God Were a Space Alien for the religion challenge and am kind of scratching my head. Like you, Madeline, I have this book that I don't understand well, so am unsure how to rate it. First of all, I can't find out who James Hamilton is, maybe I just didn't look hard enough. Secondly, and most important, he offers lots of mathematically oriented logic to disprove the existence and/or relevance of god, much of which I simply couldn't follow. Some of what I understand I did find interesting, such as the fact that there's a particular part of the human brain that when stimulated causes one to have an "out of body" experience. Maybe I'm just in holiday meltdown and can't get my brain around it. At any rate, if anyone is interested, he has a blog here and you can also read the full book (mine was a free download on Nook). http://www.godspacealien.com/

I've started Religion, Myth, and Magic: The Anthropology of Religion (The Modern Scholar). It's a series of 14 lectures by Susan A. Johnston with an accompanying study guide. Now this one is pretty straight forward and comprehensible.

I'm falling very far behind on reading because of holiday preparations. I find I can listen to books while engaged in cooking, wrapping, decorating, etc. but I have little time left to read. It may get better next week.

That last book sounds rough, Joyce. Hope your next read is better. Are you going to go through the study guide as well with your current read? That sounds like fun.

Your topics and books are always so in depth and interesting. Quite a contrast to my frivolous reads! I think that's what make it fun for everyone, though.

Today I started reading Confession of a Buddhist Atheist. I got to the part where the author is seeing the Buddhas of Bunyan. He just mentions them in passing but the mention made me sad. And then angry. These are (were) the giant Buddha statues that were dynamited and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Still fuming...

I've finished my first for Madeline's animal on the cover challenge, Cleo: the cat who mended a family, you probably need to be a cat lover to enjoy this.
Also read Audrey Niffenegger's The Night Bookmobile for the thinster challenge. This is an illustrated story for adults, only 40 odd pages. I've also added Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl for the same challenge.

#233> Wow Joyce, you really read interesting books.

I finished and really liked The Imperfectionists. Not sure what's up next or whether it will fit into a TIOLI. I have an overabundance of riches to choose from.

Finished my first book for my first TIOLI! - Love Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister for the "family members" challenge. Oddly enough, my next TBR also fits that challenge - The Rebel's Daughter: A Story Of Love, Politics And War by J.G. Woerner - so I'm off again, but it's almost 800 pages so I don't know how far I'll get by the end of the month. Too many reading interferences in December!

Hi, lyzard!

Congrats on your first TIOLI success! Hope you find doing these challenges fun. It's nice to have you join us.

Hope you enjoy your interferences (family and friends for the holidays)!

Thanks - glad to be here!

December's Movers and Shakers:

Feeling seasonal stress? Relax with a shared book you can discuss with fellow TIOLI challengers. Try these shared books (for points, too!) in the upcoming December weeks:

A Christmas Carol (11 TIOLI readers to date*) - Charles Dickens - Challenge 8: Thinster
Hogfather - (5 readers) - Terry Pratchett - Challenge 3: Christmas
Under the Banner - John Krakauer (4 readers) - Challenge 9: Religion

If you have a copy any of those books, grab it and read it now! Be sure to post your thoughts about the book either on the main TIOLI thread, each other's threads, or on both. Do not let potential conversation (and potential TIOLI points) languish on your bookshelf! :)

*Wow! A new record, methinks. We'll have to see how many challengers are able to complete this book before the end of December.

About related threads:

There is no deadline for posting related threads to the main challenges. This month there are only four...so I have a question for you.What this would mean is that the originator would not get upset if someone usurps "his right" to start a thread related to his own challenge. It would also allow the challenge originator a full week to start his own related thread. In the even this is not done, anyone in the challenge would have the option to do so.

Pros:
1. More related threads would be started.
2. Conversation would be more concentrated to the topic at hand.
3. Less stress on the originator.
4. "No guilt" (a key point!) of the originator.

Cons:
1. Too much work for anyone!!
2. Main thread gets too diluted.
3. This could be construed as a quest for power (Please note: This is tongue-in-cheek, related to another topic in discussion here on LT, and directed at Zoe!).

P.S. Although Con #3 is in jest, the poll is not...so please vote about this topic in earnest. Thanks!

I really like the related threads. There are always several I'm not interested in and having the discussions off the main thread makes it so much easier to come here and read posts that I find relevant.

Does that sound completely snobbish?

eta: and it shouldn't matter who starts them after a certain point!

> 243

Does that sound completely snobbish?

No, it doesn't. It helps focus on those theads and interests you do have. It makes thread-reading more fun for you as an individual with your own reading taste. It also makes for more in depth discussion on the related topic (even "frivolous": Frivolous can be fun too!).

I have particularly enjoyed reading the related threads posted by Joyce who has chosen some "meaty" topics to intoduce as challenges.

I voted yes -- I've been too busy working and reading to create a thread for challenges. Feel vaguely guilty, but not enough to want to feel responsible for taking on a duty vis a vis something that should just be fun. So if someone else wants to venture in, all power to them...

I will NOT be the one to point out that this thread is reaching maximum capacity.

You just did! LOL!!

The (perhaps undercover?) assistant thread police, Sgt. Teelgee, just notified me that I should be posting in a new thread. It begins here. Come on over, everyone!

I did??? Boy nothing gets past you, Madeline.

>247 SqueakyChu:: I think she lies in wait for it, really I do. She was practically batting her eyes innocently in #246. Don't believe her for a minute.

I think we could post on the main thread AND a related thread.

TERRI/TEELGEE & CHRISTINA
We three are reading Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. While I find that is rich in descriptions of scenery, and an interesting source of information about American Indian and Mexican cultures c.1850, I am not loving it. It's very well-written but I'm not connecting on an emotional level. How about you guys?

FYI, December TIOLI Page 2 is here ...

Amanda, I'm feeling a bit the same way -- there's a lot of "and then this happened" and "then this happened" -- it doesn't seem cohesive. I thought it was because my reading is so truncated.

But I agree about the richness. It makes me want to visit the Southwest US.

Amanda, since I've just started it, I'm hesitant to make any judgments yet. I agree with you on the descriptive richness. I don't know if I'm going to be connected with it yet.

#254 & 255 Part of my problem is that I've recently read a novel with a similar, episodic structure. Perhaps I'm not in the mood for another one?