Take It or Leave It Challenge - March 2011 - Page 1

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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For the month of March, I’m going to challenge you to read a book that has the name of a city (or town) on page 17 of your chosen book! The name must be a real city on planet earth that you (or I) can link to a Wikipedia page. If you don’t know how to do a link, simply place the city name in parentheses and someone else will add the link.

For a match, you *must* have a city name on page 17 of the book you are reading, but it does not need to be the same city as someone else’s book since there are different editions of the same book. Alternatively, if there are many city names on page 17, choose the one you want. It’s the book that has to match – not the city name.

Why page 17? Because March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day! For more TIOLI fun, try to find the name of a city in Ireland.

On a sadder note, I guess this challenge this would be impossible to do with e-readers since there are no page numbers in them. Sorry! Addendum (on 3/5/11): If you have a Nook with page numbers, you may use that page 17 as long as you keep the font size constant so as not to change the page numbering system.

This may sound like a difficult challenge, but it really is not. You’d be surprised how many city names are on page 17 of books! You just have to look for them. : )

Please list your books as follows:
1. Strange Pilgrims (Geneva) – Gabriel Garcia Marquez - SqueakyChu

Are you ready? Are you set? Then…go!!!

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):
1. The March 2011 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!

Index of Wikis for March 2011:

Challenges 1-7
1. Read a book with a city (or town) named on page 17.
2. Read a book that's not primarily meant for reading
3. Read a book about the Middle East - thread
4. Read a book in which the main title words (not a, an, etc.) increase or decrease by 1 letter count
5. Read a book with the word "ides" embedded in the title
6. Read a book whose title includes an individual letter repeated exactly 13 times
7. Read a Book from the LibraryThing's top 50 wishlisted books - thread

Challenges 8-14
8. Read a book of short stories
9. Read a book with a title containing a word that can be broken down into multiple words
10. Read a book with a style of dancing in the title
11. Read a little known book by a favorite author who deserves wider recognition
12. Read a book about philosophy - thread
13. Read a book by an author to whom you've previously given less than 3 stars
14. Read a book with the word "diary" or "journal" in the title

Challenges 15-18
15. Read a book with exactly 17 letters in the title (including a, an, etc.)
16. Read a book that was on the New York Times bestseller list, fiction or nonfiction, on your 21st birthday
17. Read a book which has the word "tale" or "story" or a reference to water in its title
18. Read a young adult fantasy or science fiction book
---------------More challenges coming next month!-------------

Yay!

I can't believe that I'm the first to find it!

Here's mine

The UP/DOWN Challenge

Read a book where the main words in the title (a,an, the, with, in, of, etc. - do not count)increase or decrease in order by (1), but not both. Examples : Naked Heat - 5 letters,4 letters or The True Darcy Spirit 4,5,6 - 4 letters, 5 letters, six letters - these qualify while Lord Caren's Bride - 4 letters ,6 letters ,5 letters wouldn't.

On to the wiki!

My challenge for this month is to read a book about the Middle East. There's so much going on there right now, and I feel woefully uninformed....

Plus my January ER book will fit in this challenge ;). I think a bunch of other people in this group also received I Shall Not Hate, but they may be prompter readers than I am.

I know this is a pretty broad challenge, but hopefully the strong thematic focus makes up for that.

Off to look for a city name!

I think some ebooks do have page numbers, so there's some hope.

Oooh! Whoever received I Shall Not Hate, I striongly encourage you to share this read with Zoe. It's an eye-opener and a terrific book (one of the best I've received from the ER program).

>4 cyderry: So any two-word title where the words are different lengths would qualify?

(Sorry for writing many separate posts....)

Madeline, do embedded words count for your challenge? So "Babylonians" includes "Babylon"?

The book I want to list also includes a bunch of modern city names in the footnotes on p. 17, but those cities aren't actually related to the content of the book.

My challenge to you is to read one of the 50 LT's Top Wishlished Books that you haven't read before. The list can be found on the Home page and I'll put up a list as of 3/1 on a thread.

Got it! ...A book with a city name on page 17, that is. I've already started this book but won't finish it until next week. At 597 pages, The Invisible Bridge is a real chunkster. From page 17:

"It seems selfish going off to school in Paris, and at someone else's expense." and *bonus* further down on the page, "Once he moves to Budapest, someone's got to look after him." *One more*..."His father had gone to the Jewish theological seminary in Prague..."

This book is a gold mine of city names, although none are in Ireland. I'll take a look at my Irish books to see if I can score an Irish city.

The first book on my reading stack had a city on the 17 page!

> 4

Cheli!! How about making your challenge even more difficult to figure out?! ;)

> 12

The first book on my reading stack had a city on the 17 page!

See!! I told you this would be an easy challenge. :)

> 5

Zoe, I sincerely hope you're planning a separate thread for your subject!!

*heavy nudge*

I also hope that, in the future, we can narrow this (personally) fascinating subject down into more specific topics of interest. I love it!! The current challenge will be a nice introduction to the Middle East. Then individual challengers can see where they want to take it in future challenges.

Here's the dedicated thread for the Middle East challenge.

>13 SqueakyChu:, 4 If you wanted to make it easier to understand (but harder to accomplish), you could always include the little words as well.

Hehe, I was creating the thread even as you spoke!

I like the idea of doing more specific challenges after broader general challenges. That could be interesting for a lot of the other thematic challenges we've had in the past as well.

> 9

Embedded words *always* count in TIOLI challenges. Even those words that stretch across two or more words.

The cities do not need to be related to the book. They just need to be printed on page 17...so take your pick of whichever city you want to use. I take it that none are in Ireland?! :)

> 17

I like the idea of doing more specific challenges after broader general challenges

I think that's a good idea because the idea is to pull readers into a subject about which they usually don't read. Then, once we've drawn them in, we see where we want to go with it.

That reminds me of your reading/discussion about the Mormon religion which had been running concurrently with Joyce's challenge to read a book about religion. The way I envision this working with TIOLI is that we'll get ideas from discussions on the general challenge and then branch off into more focused readings in future challenges based on what topics caused the most interesting or heated (in a nice way, of course) discussions.

Okay, I have an idea for next month's challenge already :)

Madeline - do have a suggestion on how to make it more difficult?

> 21

Cheli, I was just *teasing* you!!!!!! Go back and look at the wink on the my post.

It's just fine as it is now.

ETA: Teasing doesn't work well on the computer, does it? *sigh*

If you thought finding a book with 12 words was tough, just get a load of this one…(I almost didn't list it, but then I say Madeline's challenge for the month - and know that I will have to open every book I own just to find something to fit - and feel this is worthy)

Lucky 13 – Pick a book title which has an individual letter repeated EXACTLY 13 times.

When listing your book on the wiki, please indicate the full book title AND which letter meets the challenge.

This is tough – I went through all of my wishlist and TBR titles and only 2 titles matched out of over 500.

So I’m adding an incentive – I will issue my own TIOLI frog award (I don’t know what it will be yet) to the member who finds (and completes) the SHORTEST title which matches this. A Tie (and/or shared reads of the winning title) will trigger multiple awards. My book for this challenge has 29 words and 151 characters – I’m sure someone can do better. “N” is the lucky letter:

The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food--Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food Was Seasonal

8112531::The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food--Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food was Seasonal by Mark Kurlansky

Let's see what else we can find

(I can't get the touchstone to work)

> 23

Oh, Patrick!!!!!! I love it!! I do hope you get some other takers beside yourself, though. I'd say that is definitely our most difficult challenge to date.

A prize, yet!! Woohooo!!!!!

Things to remember:
1. For those proposing challenges: challenges are not valid until they are listed by you on the wiki. Please remember to do so. If you need help doing this, just ask.
2. To those posting entries to the challenges: all books must include the author's name as well. Please fill those in.

Thanks!

I guess Madeline's main challenge also knocks out audiobooks...bummer. Half of my "reading" is done through audio. Guess I'll have to get traditional.

Hot diggity - the book I'll never finish for my current February challenge lists Frederick, Maryland on page 17!!!

I've added challenge #5 to the wiki - Beware the "ides" of March: Read a book with ides imbedded in the title, like in The Prince of Tides.

Hot diggity - the book I'll never finish for my current February challenge lists Frederick, Maryland on page 17!!!

Hooray!!

Madeline, there is a glitch in the wiki. The edit button next to my challenge #6 is trying to edit a different challenge. And there is no edit next to CHallenge #5 because it looks like it has become a subset of Challenge 4. I think it's tied to the listing at the top, but I'm not sure how to fix it

nevermind, someone was busy fixing it while I was typing about it

> 29

Whatever the issue was, it's gone. I edited your challenge without a problem.

> 29

er, me? :D

Keep an eye on Club Read's challenge thread. There is no reason we cannot overlap challenges. The members there are being pressed into thinking up some unique challenges at this time as well. Love it!!

>27 Carmenere: I love it!

I think I've found a book which qualifies for Patrick's challenge:

643571::The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Volume One - The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) by Jaroslav Pelikan which has 13 't's (I've counted several times and I think that's right).

Another possibility was
26628::Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The enchanted chocolate pot : being the correspondence of two Young Ladies of Quality regarding various Magical Scandals in London and the Country by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer which I was convinced had 13 'e's but actually has 14.

Back to counting...

ETA: Vanishing touchstones :-(

Sorcery and Cecilia has 13 'a's - adding to wiki!

Madeline - Do extinct cities count for your challenge? I have a book that mentions Xanadu on p. 17.

Wow, some great challenges already. Madeline, you were so right that none of us would have ever guessed your challenge!

Okay, got mine added to the wiki. Thanks for letting me know!

> 36

Extinct cities count if you can link to them on wikipedia, so Xanadu absolutely counts!

Morphidae - maybe we should have a link to that list?

> 40

I was going to try to add that now...

ETA: It seems to only be on the home page. However, throughout the month, it might change, so posting that list might not be an accurate reflection of wishlisted books rfom day to day. So what to do?

>39 SqueakyChu: Great! I'll add it to the wiki!

41> I was under the impression that the Top Wishlisted Books doesn't change ever. Unless Tim or someone gives it a nudge.

> 40

May be Morphidae would like to start a separate thread and post updates when there's a change to the list? Or at least, updates weekly? Does that sound like a solution?

> 43

I think it would change whenever those wishlisted statistics get updated to the Home Page, but I don't know how frequently that is done. Obvioulsy the top wishlisted books would be less subject to change than those at the bottom of the list.

>45 SqueakyChu: I figured to make a thread on 3/1 and that would be "the" list. Would that work?

ETA: I'd be willing to change it weekly, too.

ETA 2: I've sent an email to Tim asking how often it gets updated.

45> Yeah, it was a point of irritation a long while ago that the Top Wishlisted and Currently Reading books were never changing. Tim or a Chris did a Fonzie and they flipped, then remained static for a long, long time again. I stopped checking it, so I don't know if they're automatically changing or not (it's easier to tell with CR, since those numbers are smaller).

The list must change occasionally because there are fairly recently-published books on the list, like Room. I don't think it changes much, though.

No. 1 is a fun challenge - and will force me to actually pick books off the shelf to chose, not just look at my catalogue! Off to check page 17s...

Is it okay to start more than one challenge or should I restrict myself to one?

> 50

Only one challenge per challenger, please and thanks!

Oh, hey. I got NYC on page 17 of my copy of "The Power of Babel" by John McWhorter, which I've been reading off and on. It surprised me - the other two books in my bag didn't have place-names on page 17.

(I'm probably going to find a NEW book to read for the challenge, but if anyone else has a copy of that one and wants to have an excuse to read it...)

>>34 souloftherose: & 35 - you just discovered the enhanced frustration for finding a book for this challenge - you have to try more than one letter. I think I tried "O", "T" and "E" on mine until I discovered the "N" worked.

Now I'm trying to find the other book which I had which qualified. I wrote myself a note somewhere...but can't find it. It was a "wishlist" title for me, so I may have to go through them all again. Beaten by my own challenge :)

Challenge Number Nine!

Find a title that contains a word (yup, only one word is required) that can be broken down into multiple words. Eg, my book, Chasing Goldman Sachs would qualify as Gold + man. This isn't Scrabble, so don't get hyper creative with words that no one ever really uses like "xu" or whatever, and no rearranging of letters is permitted. But "brokenhearted" can become broken + hearted; "dressmaker" becomes dress + maker. Just post the title and then break it down in parentheses afterwards.

Was going to do this last month, but Madeline's challenge was too similar; hope you can have some fun with this one this month!!

> 46

Sounds good to me!

> 47

Hey! If they're really never changing it, that solves our problem. :)

56> Yup! That's why I mentioned it, so that we can rest assured that the list will probably remain the same throughout March.

For #9 can you do something like

Scones = cones + ones

Okay - my first ever challenge is the "Let's Dance" challenge: your book title must contain the name of a style of dancing. The relevant word might actually refer to dancing (ballet, waltz, polka) or it might be a word that came to mean a form of dance (twist, hustle, monkey) - but it has to be a real dance, and not something you made up when you were a little kid! Also, the word must be the dance style without variants (i.e. twist but not twisting). Note your style of dance in brackets after the book title, as follows:

Invitation To The Waltz (waltz) - Rosamond Lehmann - lyzard

I hope that's clear!

Now off to the wiki for the first time - eek!

Nice idea for a challenge, Madeline! I'll have to see what I have that fits.

I'll definitely participate in your challenge, Zoe, as I was already planning to read I Shall Not Hate and To the End of the Land by David Grossman next month. BTW, what countries are you including in your definition?

My challenge is to Read a little known book by a favorite author who deserves wider recognition. I assume that most if not all of us have favorite writers who are not well known or not widely read, and I thought that this would be a good way for the rest of us to learn about these writers. I define a "favorite author" as someone who you've given at least four star ratings for two or more books (I'll leave it for you to decide which authors deserve "wider recognition"), and a "little known" book as one that is owned by less than 100 LT members. Capiche?

I can think of at least three authors who have books that fit my definition:

The Journey of Little Gandhi by Elias Khoury (10 members)
Little Mountain by Elias Khoury (25 members)
Chopin's Move by Jean Echenoz (68 members)
Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah (90 members)
Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah (9 members)

Please indicate the number of copies of each book you read on the wiki.

I wasn't planning to be too strict on the definition, but since you asked.... Wikipedia lists the countries in both the "traditional Middle East" and the "greater Middle East". For the purposes of this challenge, I'll go with all the countries in the traditional list plus all the solely Arabic-speaking countries in the extended list (languages are also listed on the wikipedia page). If anyone wants to make a case for including a specific book set in a different country, they're welcome to add a poll :)

Thanks for the clarification, Zoe. I like your idea, as that would add Libya, Tunisia and Algeria to the list of countries. I've just started In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar, which is set in Tripoli, Libya, but I've only read six pages of it. I'll put it aside until later this week, and add it to your challenge.

ETA: Should we add the country's name to the wiki entries?

The middle east challenge is really a good one for now as the names of countries in turmoil top our headline stories in the world. It's always good to learn about these countries we read about in the paper. For me, i find fiction the best way to get to the heart of a country and its people. I'll be especially interested in see which novels challngers pick.

> 62

I've read In the Country of Men, liked it a lot, and hope you get other takers to join you reading this book, Darryl.

Well, Madeline, you wanted harder challenges and you certainly got them. I want to kind of finish up the direction I've been going over the last few months. I did sex, history, religion, psychology and I'm going to say my African American Challenge is about "the other" because that leads to the over all category of philosophy. Why are some people thought of as the other? I don't read philosophy normally, so here are some of the books I could think of:

Honor Code : How Moral Revolutions Happenby Kwame Anthony Appiah
Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries Alexander Mccall Smith
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Strange Seas by Suzy McKee Charnas
Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters (Library of America) by Thomas Paine
The Complete Writings of Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
I and Thou by Martin Buber
Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love by Andrew Shaffer
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Women, Culture and Politics by Angela Davis
Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis

I certainly won't be reading all of these but I hope to get to at least 5.

>61 _Zoe_: I guess that those of us who added A Cup of Friendship which is set in Afghanistan will need to remove that one from the challenge since you've added the definition you have. The languages listed are Persian and Pashto, not Arabic.

>65 thornton37814: Like I said, I'm happy to hear why a particular book should count, or even why a particular country should be included as well. I mainly just didn't want to get into all the former Soviet states, because I think that would make for a less cohesive discussion.

>62 kidzdoc: I like the idea of including the country name.

Conveniently, Wizard and Glass, which I have to read soon anyway since King ended The Waste Lands in the middle of everything, has New York on page 17. Thanks to Blaine for the way he talks :)

Also conveniently, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory has 13 E's. Especially since it also has 13 words in the title, which is oh-so-close to 12.

I was surprised to find that there's only one top wishlisted book that's both already on my shelves and unread. And it's the top one, too. So... looks like it's time to read The Book Thief.

Three long books, what a great start :) I'll probably find a few more too. I think I'll wait a few days and see what pops up on the list for the Middle East challenge.

...I went to add the country, and was happy to see that it's already done! I'm glad I didn't have to decide on the politically correct term for the country containing Gaza.

I'm going to venture into challenge land, as I've never done it before and now is as good a time as any... my challenge for the month is:

Second Chances: Read a Book By an Author You've Previously Given Less Than 3 Stars To

The idea is to pick an author from whom you've only read one other book, but that you didn't really like that book and gave it under 3 stars in your review (or would have, if you weren't on LT at the time). Maybe you've heard of another book by the same author and were interested, but were hesitant to pick it up based on past experience? Well, everyone deserves a second chance!

List the book you didn't like and the rating you gave it next to the one you're reading, on the Wiki.

> 68

I was adding the middle eastern countries to your challenge, Zoe. I wasn't sure about Palestine, but since that was the first entry, I just copied it to the second entry for the same book. I like the way "Palestine" sounds better than "Israeli-occupied Gaza" (not that I don't love Israel with all my heart!).

In addition, for Dr. Abuelaish's book, the term "Israel" just doesn't make it because he refers to "Israel" as the country to which he traveled when he crossed the border from Gaza.

> 65

I'm all for keeping Afghanistan in the middle east challenge although it "technically" is not the middle east. It's Zoe's call, though. Read this first.

It's me again, Zoe. I've had a discussion with a friend here at home, and she thinks that Afghanistan should not be included. She also thinks that countries such as Libya and Tunesia should not be included. How about doing the following:

Go to your thread and list the countries you will accept and those you wll not accept. That will make it clear to everyone.

Alternatively, you could do polls! :D

Well, one person already decided independently to move their Afghanistan book to another category, so the issue isn't quite so pressing anymore. But I'll add something about allowed countries to the dedicated thread.

As I checked with my husband the History major, I removed A Cup of Friendship too. Now to find where the other one went.

Okay, I've added this clarification to the first post in the dedicated thread:

Clarification: There has been some question about what counts as "Middle East". My working definition for the purposes of this challenge is any country on the wikipedia list of traditionally-defined Middle Eastern countries, plus any Arabic-speaking countries from the extended list. But you're welcome to make a case for why a book based around a different country should be included.

>74 Carmenere: It's in the compound word challenge for friend+ship. I hope you'll still feel free to weigh in on the Middle East discussion if parts of your book seem relevant.

Thanks, I found it Zoe. Boy, did I learn something today!

Just a note to say that I'm eliminating the "identifiers" from the city names listed in challenge #1. By identifiers, I mean states, countries, etc. Whoever wants to learn more about the named city (its location, for example) can simply follow its wikipedia link.

I've added a discussion question to the dedicated thread about what exactly "Middle East" means. I'm glad we have something to think about even before we've started reading!

Re: your comment in message #1 about e-readers and page numbers, Madeline: there is an upgrade to the Kindle 3 operating system (version 3.1), which allows users to determine page numbers for at least some Kindle books (by clicking the "Menu" button). Using this new feature, I found out that my Kindle version of A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel) by Percival Everett has Washington, D.C. on page 17, so I'll add this book to your challenge.

ETA: My Kindle version of The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago also displays page numbers; no surprise, Lisbon is listed on page 17. I had planned to read this next month, so I've added that book, as well.

Apparently I won't be sleeping next month, with all of the TIOLI books I'm planning to read. I hope you're happy.

> 80

Nice to know that some Kindles have page numbers now. Nice to have Washington, DC on my own challenge as well!

Apparently I won't be sleeping next month, with all of the TIOLI books I'm planning to read.

LOL!!

Here's my first-ever challenge:

Dear Diary: Read a book with the word "diary" or "journal" in the title. Plurals are OK.

Example: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

I've got to stop looking at these challenges - I've listed 8 books already. Along with my other reading commitments, I won't be sleeping much in March either!

On the TIOLI challenge wiki, thank you to whoever fixed my Snow Goose link problem. Alas, I need to remove that book because I just got to this thread and discover that the city must be named on page 17 of the book. The wiki (where I started) does not specify that. Maybe a clarification should be attached?

#82 Yay, I've got the second in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series out from the library. Perfect for me, thanks!

Sor far I also have 8 books listed in various challenges:

Challenge #1:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Venice)
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson (Edinburgh)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Barcelona)
The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin (Edinburgh)

Challenge #4:
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (7:6)
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg (6:5:4)
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin (4:5)

Challenge #9:
Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin (flesh+market)

ETA: Madeline, I didn't quite get what you were saying about different editions in your challenge. For example, I added The Elegance of the Hedgehog to your challenge after seeing that someone else had put it there already, but I will be reading the French edition in which 'Venice' appears on page 18. Nu?

I'd like to propose a challenge also in honour of St-Paddy's day, which is:
Read a book with exactly 17 letters in the title, INCLUDING a, an, the, with, in, of, etc.

The whole truth is that I just came up with this challenge as wanted to fit in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as it will be part of a group read in March and it's a sure bet for lots of points! ;-)

#58 -- Nope, the words have to be printed in the same order that you'll use them. You must be able to break the word down into smaller words using all the letters, and using them all in the order they appear. Sourland, for instance, would be sour + land.

#86 --oh I like this one!!

> 84

Fixed. Sorry. I mistakenly left that part out when I redid the wiki this afternoon.

Madeline. I want to slap you for making me wait so long for this thread!!!!!!!

> 85

Ilana,

*Your* edition must have the city name on page 17. A city name in any language will NOT count if it's on page 18 and not on page 17. Sorry.

> 89

I want to slap you for making me wait so long for this thread!!!!!!!

Hey, Amanda! That's part of the TIOLI thrill. What can I say?!

#90 I don't mind since I've got more enough books on the March tbr as it is, so I have no problem removing it, but just curious about how that'll translate for shared reads... won't that limit the options, or is that not a concern?

Geez, I'm usually one of the first to spot the new TIOLI. Busy today though. Went to the funeral of a lifelong friend and then to my nephew's 8th birthday party.

My challenge for this month: Read a book on the New York Times bestseller list, either fiction or nonfiction, on your 21st birthday.

To figure out which books would qualify, I looked at: http://www.hawes.com/

At the bottom left, there's a NY Times link and then look at "Past Adult Listings"

If you're not yet 21, then read something from the NYT lists on your last birthday.

If you were born before 1929, then read a book from the NYT list for the year you turned 21.

I have learnt something new! From wikipedia:

A cran around 1796 was a measure used in the North Sea fishing industry for approximate number (~750) of herring of a standard box of about 37.5 imperial gallons. It also referred to the capacity of such boxes, which in metric units is about 170.5 liters.

It sounds like a who wants to be a millionaire question!

For challenge number #9: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Ok, so I've removed The Elegance of the Hedgehog and also One Good Turn after I double-checked and realized the mention of Edinburgh was NOT on page 17 as I had assumed. You can't be too vigilant for this challenge!

> 92

It will not limit the options as most of us will be reading books in English. Most editions will be pretty similar, I think.

> 93

Linda, I'm very sorry to hear about the funeral of your friend. That must have been so sad. At least you had some cheering up at a family birthday party.

I could not find the non-fiction. Can you lead me to it?

Thanks, Madeline. In all of the ones I've looked at, nonfiction is directly below fiction. See mine, for example, at: http://www.hawes.com/1982/1982-02-28.pdf

Another way to find these would be to look at:
http://www.biblioz.com/

If you use biblioz, click on birthday bestsellers but be sure to put day first, then month, then year. Today would be 26/02/2011.

#96 I only read French editions when the books were originally written in that language, which translates into a relatively small amount of books. But actually, when I checked One Good Turn, I was surprised to find that 'Edinburgh' was only mentioned on page 15 in my edition.

But actually, when I checked One Good Turn, I was surprised to find that 'Edinburgh' was only mentioned on page 15 in my edition

Not good enough. Too bad!

> 98

I found the NF now. Thanks, Linda.

Hello! I was lucky enough to find the wiki just before going to bed, but this thread wasn't yet up so I couldn't post an explanation of my challenge. I think (hope) it's fairly self-explanatory, and several other people have already added books to it, but here it is:

Read a book that's not primarily meant for reading - a cookbook, guidebook, photo book, exhibition catalogue, etc.

For anyone that's thinking about participating, I thoroughly recommend cookbooks by Claudia Roden or Nigel Slater.

I have impressed myself. When I checked the NY Times Best Selling List for my 21st brithday week, I had read all but two of the books. Of the two remaining ones, only one is available at my library - so I will be adding The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt to Linda's challenge.

#103 That is impressive. I graduated from college two months after my 21st birthday and then went on to law school that fall. I've got quite a few books I'd always meant to read but have never gotten around to doing so.

Of the 30 books shown for my 21st birthday week, I've read only two of them.

I only had twenty to choose from - 10 fiction and 10 non-fiction. I haven't read most of the non-fiction, but obviously we were obsessed by sex in the early 70's with titles like The Sensuous Man, and Any Woman Can. Of the non-fiction that would appeal to me, I have read.

Anyway, it's a fun challenge and one I couldn't resist.

Oddly enough, one of the titles on my NYTimes Bestseller list for my 21st birthday week is Gone With the Wind - and I turned 21 in 1991. I guess it's because the #1 book at that time was Scarlett, the "sequel" to GWTW by Alexandra Ripley.

I've always planned to read Gone With the Wind...just not sure I'll get it done by the end of the month. But I'll try.

Awhile back, quite a few of us looked up the books that were on the NYT list on our birthdays. Almost none of those appealed to me, except for the few I'd already read, such as To Kill a Mockingbird. I thought that looking at the titles from age 21 (though I nearly chose 18) might be interesting.

In March, I'm hoping to focus my reading on mysteries, baseball books, and books about Chicago but I suspect that the hefty At Dawn We Slept will keep me busy for quite some time.

#106 I love your challenge. It's challenging.

I'm getting a bit lost in my book stacks, searching for things to fit the challenges... o_O ...I have three of the books for the NYT/21st birthday challenge, but I've already read them! Ack! Looks like I'll have to track down a Clive Cussler or Robert Harris instead. Not really my preferred choice, but who knows, maybe I'll love them.

QUESTION ABOUT CHALLENGE #9

Is "com" a word?
The word is listed in my 2001 edition of the Oxford Dictionary as an abbreviation.
Wikipedia says this:
"The domain name com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet."

(I want to use the word "composer": com+poser.)

Funny. The definition uses the word "com" in a sentence (and not "dot-com", either) while calling it an abbreviation!

Definitions.com (Ha!) here on the web says that the definition of com is "the internet domain name for a commercial company" per the World English Dictionary.

My guess is that it's okay to use. What do you say, Suzanne?

I went into our local Maxway shortly after this thread appeared (looking for cheap wooden hangers, truth be told) and saw more books on display than usual. I picked up The Jester and the Kings by Marek Halter for the Middle East challenge; only fifty cents.

The city of Dublin was mentioned on page 17 of 1972 by Morgan Llywelyn, for those who are searching for an Irish city. I didn't buy that one because it was a mmp/chunkster and seniors don't cope with those too well (at least I don't)!

Pedant's note: We are still supposed to alphabetize our titles in the wiki, correct? If not, I just spent too much time shifting things around in #1 and #3!

ETA: Oh, yeah, I see it under "How to Add Point Value".

Would The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes count as a book of short stories? It's mostly short stories, but it also includes The Hound of the Baskervilles?

Though come to think of it, there are three collections of short stories, so I could read just one of them.... :) Hm, decisions.

> 112

Yeah. Still alphabetizing. Sometimes it takes newbies a few times to catch on. Thanks for your help!

I've had Pride and Prejudice as part of my 'currently reading' for quite some time now so it's fun to have it become a shared read in the 17-letter challenge, where I've inserted it. But upon looking at p.17 of my Edition, 'London' does appear so it could have fit into the main challenge as well.

SqueakyChu: I can certainly understand your toying with us to guess your challenge on the basis of Foreskin's Lament -- we could have played along for thousands or millions of guesses before coming up with a city mentioned on p. 17...

> 115

Yeah, I knew there was no way anyone could guess my March challenge. The title of my book was great, though. I thought it would bring out some rather unusual guesses! :)

FYI about Challenge #1:

Although the requirement for this challenge is a wikipedia city link, if you can prove through a link (such as Desiree did) that the named city is indeed a city on earth (an not a make believe city), I'll accept that without a wikipedia link. In that case, though, please put the city, state, and country in your link information. Otherwise, with just the wikipedia link, all that should be posted is the city name. You'll also note that, if the name of the city is one in Ireland, it will be surrounded by asterisks! :D

P.S. I hope others are having as much fun as I am following those city links to learn more about the places mentioned on various pages 17.

I'm going to give this whole challenge thing a try. Luckily the next book in my stack, The Sweet Far Thing, has a city on p. 17 (Rome).

So the definition of city is the American one, a place with a city administration, not the British one of either a big place with a large population (more than 6 figures, and probably 200,000 plus rather than) or a place which has its own cathedral (eg Canterbury would be a city by cathedral but not by population). One of the books I need to review soon mentions Ypres in Belgium, famous as a WWI battlefield. I wasn't too sure but it meets the wikipedia requirement.

> 118

Hi, Micky...and welcome!!

If you have any questions about how this works, just ask. We're happy to have you on board with us.

> 119

Lucy, Ypres would definitely count. If you check the wikipedia entry, you'll see that, even though it is a municipality of many cities, if you scroll further down, you'll also find out that "during the Middle Ages, Ypres was a prosperous city with a population of 40,000, renowned for its linen trade with England. So, there you go! Post it with no qualms!!!

ETA: If it had been only a municipality or just a battlefield, it would not have qualified.

As a note to others who are doing similar wikipedia searches, be sure to scan the entire article of the city you are researching. You might find something of great use to our TIOLI challenge within the article.

Remember that you also may use embedded words which can stretch across other words. Just consider those hidden cities! Can anyone find "Ypres" hidden on page 17 of one of your books? (Example: My president = Ypres!)

Some cities in Ireland to seek on page 17:
Dublin
Cork
Limerick
Waterford
Kilkenny
Derry
Belfast
Galway
Armagh
Newry
Lisburn

I never knew there was such a problem with the designation of the term cities in Ireland.

For the purpose of this challenge, "towns" are acceptable as well. Just add the wikipedia link (example: Rush) so we can identify where it is on the world map.

#110 Thanks Madeline, I'll press ahead with com+poser until I hear otherwise.
My reading:
Challenge #1 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens p.17 London. Wordsworth Classics, hardcover, 2003.
Challenge #9 The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge by Patricia Duncker (com+poser)
Challenge #11 Five Bells by Gail Jones
Challenge $12 Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction by Thomas R. Flynn

Madeline, after seeing your latest message I was a bit confused and went back and forth between that and #18 to be sure I had understood right. So at the risk of sounding mildly mentally retarded, we can look for city names that are embedded, which I guess also means that we can include words that weren't originally used as city names. Going back to hit the books and see if I can't re-enter those books I had to take out of your challenge after all! :-)

#117
Yea, my city was so small/unknown it wasn't even in Wikipedia - lol.

Well after a lot of shuffling around I finally came up with my books for the month. If it goes like every other month this is wishful thinking;-)

Challenge #1 - West with the Night by Beryl Markham (Ngong, Kenya)
Challenge #2 - The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid (Pakistan)
Challenge #4 - A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates (6:5)
Challenge #8 - It's Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun

Okay, I finished my first challange for the month, TIOLI 8. Read a book of short stories with
Knights, Beasts and Wonders by Margaret J. Miller

People! Newbies, especially!! Books finished in February *cannot* be counted towards the March TIOLI challenges.

FYI: I post the TIOLI challenge a few days early so that people can get their books for the coming month lined up. If this is going to cause problems, I'd be happy to post the challenge on the last day of the month instead of a few days early. We need to reach a consensus on this, though.

Those who want to read books quickly can certainly still work on February's chllanges. You have until 12 midnight on February 28 to COMPLETE those books!

In addition, the time between the TIOLI challenges (i.e. the end of one month and the beginning of the next month) should be a time to relax and maybe read some books that are not part of these challenges.

I've just added War and Peace to the Wiki... 4 cities on page 17 of my edition! Moscow, Milan, Genoa and Lucca. There are quite a few of us reading this at the moment, although we may be pushing it to finish in March.

#121, I suppose that editing the Wikipedia entry to add in the word 'city' would be discouraged...

> 129

I know you're just kidding but a "town" is 100% acceptable for this challenge as well.

SqueakyChu, you're so right! My brain was thinking we were already in March! Cool, I'll just try a different challange!

> 131

Phew! I didn't want you to be upset.

Just embarrassed. :(

Aw!!!!! Sorry. :(

You're just enthusiastic, jadebird. TIOLI will do that to you.

Speaking of enthusiasm, I've entered 12 books in Madeline's challenge alone. Now let's see how many of those I *actually* get around to reading...

I've created the thread for my wishlisted challenge.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/111132

Hello, everyone! I have been itching to give TIOLI a try for weeks now, it seems like such a great project and I am in!

Hope I’m not too late with offering a challenge (I’ll take it down if I am), and it’s a fairly easy one contrary to the request for which I apologize. I just discovered that spring equinox (March 20th) is World Storytelling Day and being hugely fascinated by the fact, I thought we could honor it in a challenge:

Read a book which has words "tale" or "story" or reference to water (topic of 2011 storytelling) in its title (plurals and embedded words included – tales, history, etc).

As I said the only difficulty of the challenge is to choose which books to read, simply because there’s so many of them.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and many, many others.

Heading out to try and learn wiki ropes, fingers crossed.

There are so many fun challenges this month, it was difficult to narrow my choices down to a few. I'm starting small in the hopes that I'll be able to add a few more as the month progresses.

These are the books I'll add to the wiki and make my priority:

Ch. #1: Name of city on page 17...
The Invisible Bridge (Paris, Budapest, and Prague) and The Portrait Of A Lady (Florence)

Ch. #3: Book about the Middle East...
A Woman In Jerusalem

Ch. #8: Short Story Collection...
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (shared read)

Ch #9: Book with a Compound Word in Title...
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (script, writer) - (another shared read)

Ch. #16: On NYT Bestseller List on 21st Birthday...
Red Sky At Morning.

ETA the other cities listed on page 17 of The Invisible Bridge!

I see I've just won an ER edition of Between Heaven and Earth: A Story of 19th Century Jerusalem by Sue Kerman, which would be lovely for the Mid East challenge but 1. I don't know if I'll get it in time, and 2. I don't know if I'd get to it in time since this is March Mystery Month. It's nice to know, though, that I'll have something that fits if I get tired of murder, mayhem and philosophy.

It's too new to even have a touchstone.

I only wanted one city (or town) listed per Challenge #1 for each book. I took the liberty of eliminating the extra cities posted. Feel free to change the city if you don't like the one I picked of those you had listed.

>138 portnova: Nice, I just got The Secret History of the Pink Carnation out from the library today and it fits your challenge!

>141 SqueakyChu:: Darn it, Madeline, I was going for some bonus points! ;-)
Paris was the first city listed on the page so you chose the right one.

Oui! Oui! Paris!! Glad I got it right, Donna.

Don't you love those stranger ones? Take a look at some of Ilana's: Troy, Isabel, Martin, etc. (!!!)

Madeline, I must say I went all out with your challenge and had lots of fun putting in entry after entry into wikipedia to find towns or cities for a bunch of my planned reads. I know I know, not the originally intended way to go about TIOLI, and I do look forward to a month with NO, or very little planned reads so I can let the challenges guide me to books I might not have considered, but then again... I've always been one to love bending the rules! ;-)

ETA: Donna, what's this about The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes shared read? Is that here on LT? Looked it up on the group's wiki and didn't see it...

For the city-name challenge, do adjectival forms count, if they don't include the city name itself as an embedded word? "Venetian" for Venice, "Roman" for Rome, etc.?

I don't know about Venetian or adjectives in general, but "Roma" is the Latin (and Italian?) name for the city, so I'd definitely say that counts.

My page doesn't actually have "Roman" on it. Just "Venetian" and "Genoese".

#145 I think Donna means shared as in someone else has already listed it on the TIOLI wiki under that challenge. That person is me :)

I'm reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes in order of publication. I have just finished the first short novella A Study In Scarlet last night then I'm reading the next novella The Sign of Four then I will be on to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

So in challenge 17, would the book The Drift House be acceptable because of the word Drift? The definition of drift is to be carried along by or as if by currents of air or water, so I'm making sure if that's acceptable.

>149 kiwiflowa:: Thanks, Lisa, for clearing that up. Now you are making me feel a tiny bit guilty. I'm doing the same bit with SH and, like you, I've read A Study in Scarlet; unlike you, I'm going to (*gasp*) skip over The Sign of Four and move right into the Adventures. I'm so bad!

> 146, 147

If you use "Roma", you must use this wikipedia link. "Venetian" will not work as you cannot make that into "Venice".

By the way, Zoe, that was good thinking. I was getting ready to say no! :)

"Genoese" won't work eaither since that cannot be made into "Genoa".

Try for some other words, though, Lorax. Ilana came up with some brilliant city names simply by checking proper nouns!

>150 DragonFreak:: I'd say it's absolutely acceptable, and brownie points to you for such creative approach!

I just started reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics and page 17 has 9(!) names of cities and Geneva as the first name of the character! None of them are Irish though (sigh).

I just started reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Oh, I loved that book! So glad it fits into my "city on page 17 challenge"! Isn't this one of the easiest challenges ever?

Not one of the six books in my immediate TBR pile has a city mentioned on page 17.

Three of them have sixteen letters in their title.

I'm dying here...

Woo-hoo! I've just received To Say Nothing Of The Dog which I am desperate to read and it has a mention of both Coventry and Oxford on p17!! Thanks squeaky for the opportunity to get to it quickly.

(And, sorry lyzard, I realise this gloating is not making you feel any better).

> 155

:)

Oh, lucky. Two of my SantaThing books are numbered to include the introduction in the numbering, instead of using roman numerals and switching to the more usual kind at the beginning of chapter one - that means I can go with "Atlanta" (The Unfolding of Language) or "Gilead" (The Lexicographer's Dilemma).

I'm unlikely to read these this month, though, because I still need to finish my McWhorter linguistics book before I start a new one, and I keep putting it aside temporarily for fiction.

Both fiction books next on my TBR shelf lack cities on page seventeen - one is Pratchett and it doesn't take place in Ankh-Morpork, so I didn't expect it to, but the other one has only 3 sentences.

...

Wait! I've been wanting to reread Fantomina, so here's an excuse: on page 17, there is a footnote which cites Peterborough, ON. That's part of the introduction, though - starting from the beginning of the title work, the 17th page has Bristol and London (this one's also a note...). Does this count?

> 158

the other one has only 3 sentences.

You mean "Kalamazoo" is not in one of those three sentences? :)

Go by whichever city you see on page 17. It does not matter if it is an introduction. Your book should only have one page 17!! They should be Latin numerals, not Roman numerals.

159> If only!

The page is literally:

*     *     *
Addendum
After Takeda left, Tohko let out a little sob as she ate the improv story I had written for her.
"Oh, grooooss! A box of strawberry mochi fell on his first love and killed her! Blech, blech! It's like miso soup with jelly beans in it! Blech! Ppth! Soooo gross!"

Which, okay, is 3 sentences + fragments and sound effects, but I'm pretty sure that "Blech" and "Ppth" aren't cities anywhere. ;)

It sure does make the book look like it might be fun to read, though.

ETA: Unless "Ppth" is some city in Wales I'd previously not heard of.

Also, for anyone curious, the book is Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime. Apparently the Tohko person has to consume books to survive by literally eating the pages.

I'm pretty sure that "Blech" and "Ppth" aren't cities anywhere.

LOL!! If they are, I've never heard of them!

> 160

What?!!! You've never heard of Strawberry, Arkansas?!!!!

Or Grooooss, Mississippi? :)

(No offence, Mississippians - I just like saying "Mississippi".)

Seriously, folks!! I just tuned into the wikipedia city town entry back up there in message # 162. In 2000, Strawberry had a population of 283.

Keristars, you're good to go!!

I thought all the Strawberries were just...whatever it is that a community is that isn't actually a town but leeches off the county and local towns for their needs. I guess I missed one.

Awesome!

>160 keristars: - I think to be a city in Wales it would need to be Llppth.

it would need to be Llppth.

:D

>>164 SqueakyChu: Oh, I knew *you* weren't kidding - I just thought I should clarify that I *was*. :)

I knew you were kidding, lyzard!!

Madeline, Special Topics seems lovely, although I think I start to develop a slight sense of inadequacy while reading it :)

There's a couple of things I'd like to clarify and they probably has been asked a million times before, but I just want to be sure - a) is it ok to add books that I started reading in February but still haven't finished and b) is there a deadline or we can add books throughout the entire month? Thank you.

> 170

You may add books that you've started at any time. You just need to finish them in March.

You may add books at any time throughout March. If you don't finish them by midnight of March 31 and mark them COMPLETED, you should then delete them (or I will delete them in mid-April).

The thread to go with the Read a Book About Philosophy is here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/111293

So far I've started Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Davis, and I'm not much enjoying it. She seems determined to separate black feminists from white feminists. What's the point in that? This is going to be a hard book to finish.

I just finished reading Foreskin's Lament and posted a review. That was unlike any other book I've read before. As tough as it was to read (blasphemy, disagreeable parents, difficult childhood), I liked the book.

Believe it or not, it had the word "Charleston" on page 17 so I used it for challenge #1 (book with a city on page 17). This actually would have been a good book to read for Joyce's former challenge about religion, though. It's the story of a boy's rebellion against his Ultra-Orthodox upbringing. Although most reviewer's had classified this book as "hilarious", I thought it was rather sad.

Now I'm reading another book about a dysfunctional family. There are so many of those, most with biographies! Anyway, I found the word "teller" on page 17 and just learned there is a city in Alaska by that name. :) Over a period of 9 years, that city's population increased by just one person! To learn more about Teller, see the link on my wiki listing for the book Look Me in the Eye which is listed under Challenge #1.

So it's the word, rather than the reference to a city, that matters? Gotcha. (It's not that I don't understand that "Venetian" does not contain the string "Venice". It's that I didn't know whether it was the exact literal string that mattered.)

Try for some other words, though, Lorax. Ilana came up with some brilliant city names simply by checking proper nouns!

No thanks, I'll just try my next book, that approach seems like cheating to me. (No slight on Ilana, it's just not something I want to do!)

>153 portnova: Thanks! I'm going to read The Drift House after I get done with Physik.

I just finished Dexter is Delicious and was surprised to find that Dexter is the name of several towns and cities. I was hoping to go with Delicious. That sounds like a name in Pennsylvania, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. I'll go with Dexter, GA since that's closest to the Florida setting of the book.

I just finished The Colony and reviewed it here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/105934#2557172. I gave it 4 stars.

Yay! I just discovered that I'm reading a book that fits in with a challenge so I'm finally tip-toeing into TIOLI. The Postmistress fits in with challenge #9, post + mist + mistress.

I added it to the wiki, nothing smoked, and it looked ok to me. It probably won't take me as long the next time I do it. Let me know if I messed up. Happy to be finally joining in!

I finished The Secret History of the Pink Carnation yesterday and it just occurred to me that it fits Challenge #9 as well (car + nation). Yay! It's my first TIOLI of the month, and it was rather unplanned even if I didn't pick it up precisely for that challenge. :)

> 178

Welcome to the TIOLI challenges, Joanne!

Your " potentially smoking" entry is ... well ... perfect!! Enjoy the book.

>179 bell7: Good spotting! I have Pink Carnation on my possibles list for this month, but I didn't see the multiple words in it. Of course, now it's obvious to me...

Madeline, on Challenge #1 does "an unincorporated community" on an Indian Reservation, population 1019, count as a city? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission,_Oregon I was so excited when I found the word "mission" on page 17, since I know that place! If it doesn't qualify, though, I think Mission, Kansas (which I don't know) probably does.

Stick with Mission, Kansas, even though you "know" the other Mission.

Reasoning:
This is getting into murky waters, isn't it?! From what I could see, the former is really just a population count used for statistical purposes rather than a "real" place.

This is getting into murky waters, isn't it?!

Yes, I thought so. Which is why I asked. It is a real place, though -- as Wikipedia says, a "community" on the Reservation -- and there are even signs for it on the freeway. The large area (7.6 sq mi) is undoubtedly because there aren't any city limits and they include a few outlying homes (at quite a distance) in the population count.

I'll use Mission, Kansas, instead. I don't "know" it, but thanks to the challenge, I now know something about it!

>181 ivyd: Good spotting, maybe, but a poor memory. When I went through the wiki to make sure of which challenges I entered, I found that I'd already entered Pink Carnation in another....oops. (It is in just one now, Madeline, I was good. (: )

:)

>115 Deesirings: The copy of Pride and Prejudice I have only has Longbourn, Meryton and St James, but not London. I was banking on P&P for challenge #1, since I read mainly fantasy ...Longbourn is on Wikipedia, though it is fictional, but I don't suppose it counts?

> 186

"The name must be a real city on planet earth that you (or I) can link to a Wikipedia page."

I take it that you've never heard of St. James, Minnesota. That would work. :)

humouress - Lots of people have listed P&P in challenge 15 - read a book with exactly 17 letters in the title. So, if you're counting, that's where the points are:)

I think I'm finally signed up for all the TIOLI challenges I can possibly manage this month.

#1 - city on p. 17
Kissed a Sad Goodbye by Deborah Crombie (London)

#2 - book primarily not for reading
Remembering Knoxville by William E. Hardy (photography)
Memphis Cuisine by Christine Arpe Gang (cookbook)
Costa Rican Typical Foods by Carmen de Musmanni (cookbook)

#4 - up/down
Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle 8:9
The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins 3:4
Scones and Bones by Laura Childs 6:5

#6 - Lucky 13
The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky

#8 - Short stories
Thou Shalt Not Kill edited by Anne Perry

#9 - Break It Down
A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez (friend + ship)
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear (pardon + able)
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames (good + bye)

#15 - 17 letters in title
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Madeleine - I've added a book to your challenge which has Godthab on page 17. The only thing is that when you enter the name in Wikipedia it goes to the Nuuk page as it's the alternative Danish name for the city.

My question is - does it still fit the challenge?

That's a nice challenge for me, calm!

The answer is yes, and here's why. Go to this link (which you may use). It is the Danish wikipedia entry for Godthab. The translation of the first line (via Babylon) of that entry says "Godthåb lies in Himmerland and was until 2007 a self-employed city."

There you go. Post away!

ETA: Of course, if you want us to understand (in English) what's written about Godthab, you can use the link to Nuuk, if you'd rather, because it does also give the name of Godthab as the Danish translation of Nuuk.

Thanks:)

> 188

Lots of people have listed P&P in challenge 15

An excellent suggestion!

Of course I'm only 192 messages late with this question/comment: On my nook, there are page numbers in the lower right-hand corner. Thus, one could use that number for Challenge One, correct? If this has already been addressed, I apologize.

ETA: I added Gallows View, the first Inspector Alan Banks mystery by Peter Robinson. Mystery March is one of my goals this month, so I'm fitting them in as I can.

bohemima, that's one advantage of the Nook; however if you use a large font you have to turn more "pages" on the Nook to equal 1 page in a book.

> 194

Of course I'm only 192 messages late with this question/comment

You're not too late until April 1st. Ha!

If you have definite page numbers on the Nook, Gail, go ahead and use that for challenge one. Stick with the same size font while reading your book, though! :D

I'll go and amend message #1 to reflect ability to use the Nook.

I just finished my first TIOLI book of the month: In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar, which (as Madeline said) was very good.

Glad you liked the book, Darryl. I'm fascinated that Hisham Matar has another book coming out. Thanks for posting that heads-up message on Facebook. I'll be looking for the new book. I'll probably listen to the podcast later today.

With the sudden upheaval in the middle east, Zoe's challenge to read a book from that region is definitely a timely and useful challenge. In addition, Darryl's book choice, In the Country of Men, is about Libya which has been making the headlines a lot these days.

I finished the first of the Glynis Tryon Mystery Series, Seneca Falls Inheritance, by Miriam Grace Monfredo about a crime fighting feminist librarian in mid 19th century New York. This is a fun and informative series, just right for Women's History Month.

touchstones is being very bad to my book.

#193 Yes, especially since I created the 17-letter challenge precisely so I could fit Pride and Prejudice into the TIOLI in the first place! :-)

Yes, especially since I created the 17-letter challenge precisely so I could fit Pride and Prejudice into the TIOLI in the first place

Harumph!! :)

200> Ha, I thought of a challenge this month, because of a few books I've been wanting to read but haven't got around to, but realized I should totally wait until later in the year, because one of Austen's novels is one of my examples. How could I make the challenge now when I know that a lot of us will be wanting to read that very same book this summer during the group read? :P

(I'm spending the time in between searching for more examples. It's a lot more difficult than I thought to find modern books that fit! At least, from my library...)

#201 You could give me an award for the biggest bender of rules Madeline. Or... kick me out! But then again, although there are predictably quite a few listings of P&P since it's a group read this month, there are plenty of other titles as well!

#202 I'm totally confused by your message Keri. :-\

ETA: I've been reading Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan and will add it to the short stories challenge.

I've been getting lots of reading time accumulated during the MEGA readathon this weekend. I finished The Invisible Bridge for Ch. #1. I may (or may not) come up with a review for it tomorrow. I ended up rating it 4.5 stars -- it was so close to a 5-star book, but the weak ending just didn't do it for me.

I've started Shadow of the Wind and will list it under Ch. #7: Top 50 Wishlisted Books. Apparently I'm not the last one on LT to read this one!

ETA: I entered "Shadow" under Ch. 1 so I could share the read with Ilana and Terri.

203> I shall try to explain:

I was laughing because you made a challenge for P&P. I made a challenge that includes another Austen novel, so I'm delaying posting it until we get to it in the group read (sometime this summer...I can't remember when between May and September it's scheduled), because one of the easiest examples for the challenge is that Austen novel, and it'd suck to post it now but not actually read that book for it, since there's the group read.

So, basically, it's going to work out that I'm making a challenge to fit that book, later. :)

(Though it wasn't the Austen book that inspired the challenge, but Jane Eyre, in a roundabout way!)

> 203

I'd never kick you out, Ilana. I more often then not get a kick out of seeing how many ways the rules can be bent. You know this is all in fun, so I really don't take any of this stuff too seriously. I like to tease everyone, though. Sometimes I forget those smileys, but the TIOLI "rules" are just here to keep (some semblance of) order. :D

The award sounds good, but I don't really think you broke any rules. Yet!!! Ha!

> 205

So, basically, it's going to work out that I'm making a challenge to fit that book, later

...and make it a hard one!

I've started The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, which Suz lent me last year. I noticed that the title has 17 letters, so I've posted the book to challenge #15.

I've removed Desertion from my own challenge (#11: Read a little known book by a favorite author who deserves wider recognition), as I realized that I had already read it several years ago.

I finished Tough Without a Gun, a biography of Bogart, for the #9 challenge. The writing is a bit cliche-ridden, but if you're interested in Bogie or in movies of the 30's, 40's, and 50's, this is a quick, light, entertaining read. I'm still looking for ways to fit in other planned reads this month.

>188 calm:,193& 200

Challenge 15 it is, then!

I finished I Shall Not Hate and reviewed it briefly here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/105934#2562896

It was impressive and I think people should read it. That's all.

Jenn, I really liked that book as well and encourage others to read it - for this challenge or not.

I entered this challenge a week or so ago, then removed it immediately, and now I add it in again.

Challenge 18: Young Adult book in Science Fiction and/or Fantasy genre.

I had some vague connection in my mind that involved "spring starts in March, read young adult book".

Oh, and I took a while to add it, and I removed it originally, because all my books seem to fit elsewhere. Just like the book I just finished fits the first challenge.

Mike, I'll let you slip this one in but, from now on, please don't add any more challenges after day # 5 of the month.

Thanks, all.

215> Oh, I was sure it was the seventh day of the month that was the cut off. I even looked at the first post to make sure, but didn't see a cut off date listed.

It was originally 7 days. Then I posted 5 days ...along with the 7 days! :O

So, next month....it will be 5 days. I'm officially making your counter challenge the last challenge for March. Leave it listed because I had very confusing directions posted. No wonder you couldn't figure out what I wanted. I've subsequently fixed the confused statement. We'll be ready to roll with the 5-day limit for April. Your challenge should remain posted for March.

Mike - I have a few on my tbr that will fit that challenge, I'll add them as I read them.

#204 Guess I'll just HAVE to read Shadow of the Wind this month for SURE then. Just because it's you Donna. ;-)

#205 Ok, that last part, I got! lol

#206 I don't really think you broke any rules. Yet!!!

DANG! Guess I'll just have to try harder then. :-D

I finished another in the philosophy challenge The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen, and it went against everything I've complained about regarding philosophy: it was clear and easy to understand and inclusive rather than divisive. I have to read more of Kwame Anthony Appiah.

#220: I'm glad to hear that you liked The Honor Code. I'll probably read it next week.

Just an FYI to say that I Shall not Hate ( a current shared read here on the TIOLI challenges) is being offered as an Early Reviewer book again for this coming month. Try for it!

I finished The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje yesterday, for the 17 letter challenge, and I'm now reading Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss for Suz's 'word that can be broken down into multiple words' challenge (passion - pass + ion), and Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents by Ian Buruma for the philosophy book challenge.

#223 Or even base + ball.

I think I've got a copy of that Clemente bio but there are so many other baseball books vying for my attention...

I finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and reviewed it here. That was for the Top Fifty Wishlisted on LT Challenge.

Now I'm reading Beryl Markham's West With the Night for the Name of a City on Page 17 Challenge.

Finally got around to adding some books - Sarah Vowell's new Unfamiliar Fishes for city-on-page-17, Sue Miller's Family Pictures for NYT-bestseller-when-I-turned-21, The Help for "most wishlisted" and Pride and Prejudice for 17 letters. I'm also thinking the 'Read a book you gave less than 3 stars' challenge would be the perfect reason to read New Moon. I didn't like Twilight but still feel compelled to read the whole series!

I had finally gotten a copy of My Reading Life by Pat Conroy from the library and had dived into it (I've been waiting a while!) I had no idea that it would fit into a TIOLI challenge, but then I hit "Troy" on page 17. I wasn't sure if an ancient city would fit into the challenge, but in perusing the wiki, I saw that Smiler69 had already put it out there! Yay! So it counts for TIOLI and we'll earn a point!

I'm really enjoying the book so far. I haven't read enough Pat Conroy, I guess!

Karen O.

i've been away from tioli for awhile and holey schmoley are you getting fancy with the wiki sections and all - wow! I get to play only because I'm already reading a sherlock holmes story that has london on page 17... such a cheater-pie, I know, I really am...

I've finished Physik for challenge 18, reading Brave New World for challenge 7 (I could also do Lord of the Flies, but there was a person doing Brave New World, so I picked that one), and also reading The Drift House for challenge 17 in the part that has reference to water, get my DRIFT.

Also, how do you put them in alphabetical order. It doesn't seem to work for me.

> 229

There's nothing magic or automatic about alphabetical order on the wiki. You just create a slot by pressing the enter button (on your computer keyboard) for the line in which you want to make your entry. I moved your entry up to its proper position, but go move it again yourself so you see how it works.

> 228

Milda!! We missed you! Come back and play here again!

Oh I get it. Thanks so much!!

You're welcome. If you figure out how we can do this automagically, please let me know! :D

I'll look into that. There has to be someway to do it in the world of computer logic.

I finished A Drink Before the War for the combined word challenge. A warning to all, do not start reading a Dennis Lehane book unless it's the weekend, because you won't be able to put it down. I was up until 3:30 this morning because I couldn't stop until it was finished, then I had bad dreams the rest of the night. Very dark.

Now I'm reading I and Thou by Martin Buber in a translation by Walter Kaufmann who thinks his is the superior translation to that of Gregor Smith. I don't know from translations, but this book is striking.

232> There is a way to create a table that will automatically sort, but it's kind of a lot complicated compared to how we currently do it.

> 235

I'd just as soon keep it the way we're doing it.

I finished two books for Suz's 'word that can be broken down into multiple words' challenge today: Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss, and The Book of Proper Names by Amélie Nothomb (proper: pro + per), which were both very good.

I'll start The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories by Assia Djebar, for Zoe's Middle East challenge, which I should finish tomorrow.

I just finished my fourth challenge this month with The Shadow of the Lynx. This one was for Linda's Challenge to read a book that was on the NY Times Best Seller List on my 21st birthday.

#226 I finished listening to The Help a few days ago and forgot I could put it in the top wishlisted challenge (yay, a shared read!). It's a great book and the audiobook, with three different narrators is quite excellent!

#227 Yay, another shared read! I'm really enjoying My Reading Life and I hope you do too.

I've finished my first March TIOLI read for Zoe's Middle East challenge - Mornings in Jenin. It was harrowing but very good.

And I'm adding Major Pettigrew's Last Stand to the main challenge... nothing obvious jumped out at me on p 17, but then I saw 'split-level'. Split's a city in Croatia so I'm off to add it to the Wiki now!

> 240

Split's a city in Croatia

Indeed, it is! It's also the city in which my mom and her family used to vacation when she was a child growing up in the former republic of Yugoslavia.

I gave up reading Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer for challenge #1. Even though the writing was good, it was simply too long-winded for me, and I wanted to move along to something else.

I'm now in the middle of The Reluctant Fundamentalist which is a shared read with wandering_star for the challenge to rea a book about the middle east. The book is set in Pakistan which, although it's not my idea of "middle east", does qualify for this challenge by being listed in wikipedia as the "greater middle east".

I felt right at home as the opening pages had two characters sitting in a cafe, sharing a tea, and talking. I guess I'm in a sort of "literary middle east" after all. The book is good as well. Anyone else care to read it with us?

I'm reading Mornings in Jenin too after hearing about it on here. I also bought Palestinian Walks after reading a good Bookbag review of it when I was looking for further reading suggestions for a novel I didn't like that much. So I hope to get to that.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is in my library pile so I'm tempted - the author wrote the introduction to Pereira Investigates, one of my Early Reviewer books.

I'm still trying to fit in a load of review books, both reading and writing about them, and believe I have another 5 (!) on the way from various sources, so I'm not ready to commit yet but will let you know if I decide to pick it up.

Oh, and I'm also reading Dreamers of the Day - another I heard of both from the Bookbag and here and has been in my library pile for far too long. It's about an American woman visiting Cairo at the time of a historic conference with Western powers carving up the Middle East. She meets lots of real people like Winston Churchill and TE Lawrence. This makes it sound a bit serious, it's actually quite an easy and entertaining read, and I like coming across socialists in my fiction (the main character says she voted for Eugene Debs).

I just finished A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel) by Percival Everett & James Kincaid for Madeline's challenge (Washington, DC was mentioned on page 17), which was an interesting and unique multifaceted satire on the late southern U.S. senator and former staunch segregationist, race relations, the publishing industry and academia.

Today I'll read Little Mountain by Elias Khoury for my own challenge, and I've added A Murder of Crows: Poems by Larry D. Thomas for the UP/DOWN challenge.

I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist in 2007, and liked it.

>242 SqueakyChu:: I have been thinking about picking up The Reluctant Fundamentalist for the Middle East challenge. I'll committ to reading it this month since (a) it looks good, (b) I've heard great reviews of it, and (c) it'll add to the TIOLI points total :-)

I have now finished my three declared TIOLI reads for the month.

Frustratingly, after searching through my TBR pile to find a book either with 17 letters in the title, and failing (three 16s, though!), or with a city on p17, and failing, it turned out that Madame Margot: A Grotesque Legend Of Old Charleston mentioned (of all places) Istakhr, an ancient Iranian city on its 17th page. However, since this book was one of the reasons I started the "dance" challenge in the first place, I didn't feel like I could move it. Drats!

I don't think I'll search for more options at this time, but rather hope to stumble over a 17-letter title, a city on p17, an 'ides' or a compound word by the end of the month.

(Hmm...touchy-stones.)

I finished The Shadow of the Wind which I placed in Ch. #1 for shared reads with Terri and Ilana, although I really picked it up with Ch. #7 (Top Wishlisted Books) in mind. No matter...it was a dark and dramatic mystery about books with lots of delectable quotes and bookish scenes.

> 243

Oh, Luci, do read The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It's really good. It's easy to read and very interesting. I've only got one more chapter. It's a Pakistani's take on life in the United States. It centers around the time of 9/11.

ETA: Yay for katiekrug! Come read The Reluctant Fundamentalist with us. I just wishlisted Mohsin Hamid's other book called Moth Smoke because I liked this book so much. He has a very gentle way of telling a story.

>248 SqueakyChu:: I've added it to the wiki and plan on getting to it this weekend. thanks for giving me a good reason to move it to the top of my Read This Now list!

OK. Let's see if I can keep up with this thread this month...

My plans are:

1) Read a book with a city (or town) named on page 17:
Galileo's Daughter - Dava Sobel (Florence) (Reading)
4) Main title words (not a, an, etc.) increase or decrease by 1 letter count:
South Riding - Winifred Holtby 5:6 (if I can find a copy)
7) From the LibraryThing's top 50 wishlisted books:
Either Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury, Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov or maybe The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (haven't decided yet - depends on how I'm feeling when I get to it!)
8) Read a book of short stories:
Firebirds Rising edited by Kara Dalkey (Reading)
12) Read a book about philosophy:
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder (because I got half way through years ago, before getting distracted by something else).

For anyone who received the February E.R. book Mothers and Daughters, it fits in TIOLI#9/word in title being a compound word (mot {witticism, quip} + hers).

I'm just learning about this. I went through one very short shelf of books this morning and was surprised to find TWO that have a city name on page 17. I'm choosing American Pastoral by Philip Roth for the challenge -- New York (and I checked to make sure it was the city, not the state). Will enter it onto the wiki this evening.
Fun!

Finished White is for Witching for Challenge #1 (Dover, England). Will finish up Life Studies for #8 (short stories) and Fingersmith for #9 (finger+smith) in the next few days.

Finished The Sweet Far Thing for Challenge #1.

So far I have finished I Love Knitting for the "not meant for reading" challenge, The Postman for the compound word challenge (post+man), and Water for Elephants for the top wishlisted challenge.

Next I will be reading Always Coming Home for the city challenge (Willow, Alaska), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for the short stories challenge, and Magic by the Lake for the story or water challenge.

If I have time I'm thinking about doing Sophie's World for the philosophy challenge too. We'll see- I have a number of books already on the wiki that I haven't started.

My very tentative plans:

Town on 17: The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Ides: The Virgin Suicides
Lucky 13: The Food of a Younger Land
Wishlist: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Short Stories: Women in their Beds
Word Combo: Elfland
Under 3 stars: The Shadow and the Star
Birthday NYT: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Lake Woebegon Days
YA Fantasy: The Hero and the Crown and Howl's Moving Castle
17 letters: This Book is Overdue and The Undead Next Door
World Storytelling: Wide Sargasso Sea

If lucky, I'll get half of them read.

Completed
Philosophy: Gift from the Sea
Word Combo: Blameless
Up or Down: Exile's Honor
World Storytelling: River Marked

Thanks to the above message, which reminded me that there's a YA Fantasy challenge, I decided to move Coraline over there from Madeline's challenge, in which I must have a dozen titles or so.

Almost finished with Coraline (I've been stretching it out to make it last) and look forward to watching the movie, which I've borrowed from the library, and will also get the audiobook, just for the pleasure of listening to Neil Gaiman again. I think I'm in love with his voice!

ETA: And his writing too of course!

I just realized that Pritchett's book The Tale Bearers qualifies for the break-it-down challenge: (Be + are). It's a curious set of essays that seem to be provoked by biographies of the writers to be discussed. More after I finish, but the one on Rider Haggard is a howl.

The Tale Bearers qualifies for the break-it-down challenge.

Not really. You must use all the letters of a word. I agree that "be" is a word, but what is "arers"?

The Tale Bearers fits challenge 17 though - it has tale in the title.

I'm halfway through several TIOLI books and have finished a couple, Bernard Beckett's novel August for the philosophy challenge was an interesting read, described in the blurb as a philosophical thriller. I also finished my first for the Books that are not meant to be read challenge - Living in Argentina is a design book with lots of beautiful photos of Argentine homes, and quite a bit of text, but on closer inspection I found it to be divided equally between English, French and German.

So, I have a question -
it seems that folks are signing up for the whole list of challenges, but I thought it was a month-by-month thing.... I guess as TIOLI, we can do whatever we want, but can we go back and do "closed" challenges?

can we go back and do "closed" challenges?

Nope. The challenge is to finish the books you've chosed to read in various categories by 12 midnight at the end of the month. No going back!

Should you particularly like one of the "closed " challenges, I'd suggest using it again (but try to make it somewhat different or "tighter") in a future month.

EBT/263: I'm new to the 75ers too, and I also found it a bit confusing at first. The threads get so long and are constantly broken off into new threads for continuance. So the title of this one:: Take It or Leave It Challenge - March 2011 - Page 1 :: could be confusing to us newbies and assumed to be just another continuance of a thread called "Take It or Leave It Challenge".

In the case of the threads with that prefix, "Take It or Leave It Challenge", they are specifically applicable to the month shown in the title. (Not, as I thought at one time, just broken into smaller chunks, and the month showing the continuance.) So, everything in the one labeled March is currently applicable.

When you see the list of challenges in message 2 above, those are all challenges available for choosing in the month of March. If your question about "the whole list of challenges" was the list in post 2 above, where it says "Index of Wikis", we can mentally read "Index of Wikis for March challenges." So even though message 1 specifically talks about challenge #1, all the challenges shown in message 2 apply. They are added by other 75ers for the current month. They are not challenges from previous months. (Was this what your question in 263 referred to?)

Please don't think that I'm assuming all newbies to 75 are as clueless as I was; this post just shows my thought processes of figuring out the group. If other newbies had similar problems, it makes me wonder if having more links in the group description might be helpful. Perhaps the very first link shown could be "Current Month's Challenges" (even though it would have to be changed each time).

edited for clarification.

Thanks, countrylife. Good suggestions!

ETA: See if my edits have helped clarify the confusion.

A little more clarification for newbies (I found this confusing at first, too):

At the end of the Wiki it says "THE CHALLENGES FOR MARCH ARE NOW CLOSED TO NEW ENTRIES. THANKS!"

This means that people cannot add NEW CHALLENGES this late in the month. However, you are still free to participate in and add new books to any March challenge that you would like, until 11:59:59PM on March 31.

> 260 and 261 - thanks for the clarification and the rescue!

> 267

Thanks for the clarification, Nora!

*wonders whom I scared away* :(

I edited that statement as well.

Squeaky/266: Yes - except for the time warp!

time warp?

Do you mean the "2009" thread? I really should move everything into a wiki...but that's sooooooooo much work. :(

No. In message 2, it says "Index of Wikis for March 2010. Otherwise, I think your changes will be helpful to newbies. Thank you so much!

*GASP* It's 2011?! When did THAT happen!?

I've finished and posted to the Wiki my fifth book for this month's challenges. Bad Bridesmaid was a rather silly book, a very short read of some 200 pages, but it fit the "Ides of March" challenge perfectly.

>270 countrylife:-274 It usually takes me awhile to get used to a new year. The switch from 2009 to 2010 was the worst. I always write the date as 20010. That's year twenty thousand and ten.

The Thread Police are coming...

This thread is continued here.

I know there's a new thread but norabelle's comment in 273 made me giggle. Helped make my migraine less bad for a minute, so it was worth noting. Thanks for that! :-)