Take It or Leave It Challenge - June 2011 - Page 2

Continued from here.

For those new to this challenge: More info and monthly index can be found in post #1 of this thread or this TIOLI FAQS wiki.

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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Your challenge for the month of June (get ready, as this is a weird one…) is to Read a Low Book.

What does that mean? Look through your house, and see if there are any books on a bottom bookshelf. See if there are books on other low furniture. Check for books lying on the floor.

Don’t put them there yourself, but if anyone else in the house puts a book within 12 inches of the floor, you may select that book. Don’t cheat, however, by telling someone to put a book on or near the floor!

If you can’t find such a book at home, try the library or a used book store and check out those bottom shelves. Take a ruler with you! Twelve inches (12.0”) is okay. Twelve and a half inches (12.5”) is not. That’s too high for this challenge.

I feel that books that are placed or found at such a low place are often neglected. Let's discover them and read them. Measure from the floor to the bottom of your book. If anyone asks you what you’re doing, don’t tell them this was *my* idea, though. Ha!

Your entry should look something like this:
Comedy in a Minor Key (8.5 inches/bookcase) – Hans Keilson – SqueakyChu
Matches (0.0 inches/floor) – Alan Kaufman – bookoholic13

You may match a book at any time that is not within 12 inches of the floor.

For the sake of this challenge, be aware that 12 inches equals 30.48 centimeters. So, if you measure in cm, any measurement of 30.48 cm or less is acceptable (No, you may not use 30.5 cm!). If you post your measurement in centimeters, I’ll convert it to inches for you so that all of our measurements for different books correspond.

With your measurement, be sure to add where you found your book. Now - look down, choose your book, and have fun!

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Other Fun Stuff (not part of the TIOLI challenge):

1. The June 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!

Wiki Index:

Challenges #1-7
1. Read a low book - thread
2. Read a book that has a foreign language title - thread
3. Read a book for National Caribbean American Heritage Month - thread
4. Read a book set in your locale - thread
5. Read a book or play that was the basis for a film nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar
6. Read a new-to-you author who has 2+ books on your TBR list
7. Read a book with a specific flower only in the cover art - thread

Challenges #8-14
8. Read a book that has a your father or grandfather's name in one of the words of the title or one of the author's names
9. Read a book about food: cooking, eating or critiquing it
10. Read a book that has a single letter or number in the title
11. Read a book - fiction or non-fiction - about work/set in the workplace
12. Read a non-fiction book if you read mostly fiction (or vice-versa) - thread
13. Read a book that you have swapped with some other person via a bookswap site - thread
14. Read a book with an exclamation mark in the title or subtitle

Challenges #15-21
15. Read a book with word "this" or the word "that" in the title
16. Read a book about tennis, fiction or non-fiction
17. Read a book with an unseemly occupation in the title
18. Read a book with equal number of letters in MAIN words of the title
19. Read a book with a day of the week in the title
20. Read a book with awful cover art - thread
21. Read a short work

Challenges #22-24
22. Read a book with a name (first or last) starting with the letter 'Z' in the title
23. Read a book that has a dog or a cat on the cover - thread
24. Read a book that has won the Lambda Literary Award

There's a problem with being a slow reader and listing so many books for the month and wanting to read all the threads on LibraryThing. LibraryThing is getting in the way of my reading. Who would have expected that?

I don't know how all of you do that "listing thing". That's the last thing I'd want to do as I can never even decide what my very next book should be even as I bring one book to a close.

Plannng reads ahead of time takes all of the fun and spontaneity out of it for me, but I see that others like the planning part - hence the extensive lists. Phew! They exhaust me just reading them! :)

I rarely stick to my intentions if I do list them. I've done pretty well managing to get through TIOLI challenges if I sign up ahead of time, but sometimes I feel that it prevents me from reading something I really want to do. This time I signed up for a few TIOLI challenges and know there are others I might add, but I want to leave room for spontaneity, and I want to finish my categories over at the 11 in 11 challenge this month so I can create some new ones that will help me get through the books I have in my house, on my Kindle, borrowed books, and the other challenges (50 states, Canada, Europe Endless) that I've committed to completing.

Note to TIOLI newbies:

Books are listed on the wiki in alphabetical order (unless a particular challenge states to do otherwise). Your entries on the wiki have not disappeared. They simply alphabetized themselves! :D

Oh my! I just finished one of the books for #6 - new-to-me author with 2 books on my TBR. I could hardly put it down these last two days, because it's that engaging and good. Strings Attached by Judy Blundell. I'm going to have to look for the other book I had listed, because that one won an award, and if it's as good/better than this one? !!!

Here's my review, if you'd like to hear more of my thoughts. :)

5> I think I agree with you, except even I made a list - albeit a small one of only 5 books. But it's not so much "this book next" except "These are the ones I'm planning if anyone also has them on the TBR, for a shared read?" and they're also "hopefully, if I can get to it, the ones I'll try to complete for TIOLI this month" - but I could do it in any order, according to what strikes my fancy. Except that one of them, this month, is 17th on the Hold Request list, and only 8 copies are circulating. :( I'm gonna have to buy a copy, aren't I?

I've never been a book list-er. I buy books. I check books out of the library. I read whatever grabs me next. For June, I'm trying a list of books I intend to read (the challenges this month are more appealing than some other months have been - no idea why). I'm also a slow reader, Joyce, so we'll see how this goes.

I'm glad to read I'm not the only one feeling pressured . . . purely self-imposed because I love the challenge of matching books on my TBR list to the TIOLI challenges offered. By the time I get to the end of the month, I grow impatient and feel the need to hurry through to the next book on my planned reads list! This is not at all how I want to feel about the books I'm reading and have vowed (you can see how effective that was this month!) to let more of the TIOLI challenges go by the wayside and to be more spontaneous is my choices. This compulsion to find books for the challenges may be a new-to-TIOLI issue . . . is it? for all of you who have been participating for years . . .

#3 I agree that LT does sometimes get in the way of reading . . . weird!?

bren, I feel exactly the same way. I keep my list on my desktop matching up books to TIOLIs. I'm loving that exercise! But, I'm new as well; joined 75 about the same time you did.

I really love to make lists in general, and one of my favorite things to do after I make a list is to completely ignore it. I get so excited when I see the TIOLI challenges and it always prompts me to make a list of all the books that I want to read that might fit the challenges. However, my lists are crazy long and in no way resemble a reading plan. I think the monthly list helps me narrow my TBR stacks into something smaller. I read the books in whatever order I want, and if I'm not in the mood for something I manage not to get to it. And if I want to read something that I haven't put on the list I just read it. I do sometimes get a little panicky at the end of the month--but I think that's TIOLI mania rather than list mania. Maybe it will die down after a while...

I'm like Madeline; no lists, no plan. I try to read something to fit a challenge (which isn't working so well this year - I think my record is last month's 6), or I read whatever I'm in the mood for when I go looking for my next book. At the moment, I haven't even managed a third of my 75, so I'm trying to avoid anything too long.

Hi, I'm Morphy. I'm a list addict.

That being said, first, I get all my books from the library. I HAVE to plan ahead at least a little bit.

Second, my TIOLI list is more of an idea than a requirement. If I request them from the library, what order I read them in and how many I actually read are all dependent on my mood.

Third, 90% of the books I read for TIOLI are already on my massive TBR list. It mostly helps me decide what to read next from 9,000+ choices.

#15: , my TIOLI list is more of an idea than a requirement. If I request them from the library, what order I read them in and how many I actually read are all dependent on my mood.

That is pretty much how I use the TIOLI list I begin the month with too, Morphy. I am not going to guilt myself if I do not read all of the books on the list because I know that if I am not in the mood for a particular book I will not read it, period. My list is very flexible - it just gives me a place to start.

I'm enjoying this discussion about how TIOLI has impacted our reading lives.

>11 brenpike:: Brenda, I've been excited about this group since Madeline started it in January of 2010. It started slowly with just a few categories. I'm not sure when it "exploded" into the current profusion of choices. At first I was overwhelmed but quickly picked up on the "leave it" choice and now read only what I'm in the mood for... with the exception of Category #1. For some reason, I feel compelled to find a book that fits Madeline's challenge to keep my streak going!

I usually don't make a list. I go one step further and create a stack of choices. If I don't get to the bottom of it they just go quietly back to their places on the shelf with no remorse on my part.

Here is a list of my stack... LOL...

#1. Low book - Brooklyn*
2. Foreign Title - Fatu-Hiva
3. Caribbean Heritage - Waiting for Snow in Havana* (started)
4. Locale - The Shepherd of the Hills
5. Best Adapted Screenplay - Anatomy of A Murder*
6. New Author, 2+ books - Trespass*
15. This or That - This House of Sky
18. Even letters -Dark Fire* - on way from library
21. Short work - Hospital Sketches* - borrowed (starting today)

*on wiki... I'm committed to these books! ;-)

> 17

I go one step further and create a stack of choices.

Haha! Okay, Donna. I'll admit to stacking some book choices at times! More likely than not, though, books in those stacks go unread.

I would not, of course, admit to what books I put in the stack! That would be too much commitment. :D

I have been part of TIOLI in some way since the beginning, and I would say that for at least the past 12 months, TIOLI has completely "dictated" my reading choices - I have not read a single book outside of my TIOLI reads. And it's been a lot of fun! Like many, I have dozens of books on my shelves I've meant to read, and through these groups I always find more. But I don't have anything I "need" to read, so I'll just begin the month with the new list of challenges and I'll go through what I already have available, and pick titles that fit. Because I like the fun of the actual challenge, I tend not to participate in the really general ones because that's too easy, but that's just me. I know I can read about 10 a month (although I've been slower lately), so I'll pick 10 or 11, stack them up on my desk, and then pick from the stack as I need another read. I don't choose the order in advance. If I still have books left on that stack when the new month starts, they go back onto their shelves, and I start from scratch.

I've also noticed a lot of people do what I do - and spread the wealth. It's a personal challenge to participate in as many "different" challenges that I can. So if I have three books which fit into one challenge, I will try to split them up and apply them to the most restrictive challenge I can in each case and read those three books and get "credit" for doing three different challenges.

My challenge each month is that if I don't finish a read for one month, I want to get it to fit for the next month. But I have been known to abandon a book for a month or more if I couldn't get it to "fit" and just read something else, cycling back to the abandoned read once another challenge allows it.

And I agree with Donna, although I "leave" a lot of challenges, I have never missed a read for Madeline's challenge. I feel I owe her that respect for creating TIOLI.

Question for those making the lists - do you add all of those titles onto the wiki for each challenge? Just looking at some who have listed books for my current challenge, I don't see your books on the wiki. It is nice to have as many books listed on the wiki as possible so that it can motivate shared reads. I hate deleting things at the end of the month, but I do find myself choosing a shared read before a non-shared read if I can. Without them listed on the wiki, it's hard to know what could be a shared read.

No, I don't put my books on the wiki until I read them. I list my tentative books on the thread instead. It's too much work to add much less add then delete books.

> 19

I have never missed a read for Madeline's challenge. I feel I owe her that respect for creating TIOLI.

LOL!!

> 19

I don't put my books on the wiki until I decide I'm pretty likely to read them. For, as soon as I list one book as a possibility (rather than a probability), I'll most likely not want to read it! :D Hey, that's just me.

What I do, however, is look at the listed books before picking a successive book. If I don't find one I want to match, I'll then pick a different book for my next challenge.

Hey, I prefer to do one challenge at a time. It's when I try to read two or more books at the same time that I often tire of the less interesting book and "leave it".

Interesting that only one person has matched a book on the main challenge. That's not typical.

Madeline, I believe that a person can match a book for that challenge even if it's not a low book for the matcher. Correct?

As for TIOLI, at the start of the month, I list everything I'd love to read that matches. In an ideal world, where I had more time to read, I'd get to all or at least most of these but I never do so I spend the month withdrawing books.

Occasionally, I'll see others reading a book and join in.

I do not list everything I might read on the wiki, but I add things as I come across them, mostly so I can remember them. I used to keep potentials on my own wiki but I stopped doing that when it went from 2010 to 2011.

> 23

Madeline, I believe that a person can match a book for that challenge even if it's not a low book for the matcher. Correct?

That is correct.

This is very interesting.

I think I approach the challenges a lot like you do, pbadeer. I like to cover as many challenges as I possibly can (though it is getting harder and harder). In theory, I now put my "possible" books up on the wiki as soon as I think of them, although I sometimes overlook a category or two. I don't feel like I'm making a commitment to those books, just indicating that I might read them. I always have to delete like crazy at the end of the month, but I've noticed I'm not the only one!

I started doing this mainly because I found it so interesting to see what other people were planning to read, and I found myself getting so many ideas from the wiki, so it felt right to contribute to that process. I also like to see what might end up as a shared read, and sometimes I do let whether a book is a shared read sway my choice of what to read next.

I am however trying not to let TIOLI completely dictate my reading choices. It seems a little crazy that if there is a book I really want to read, to rule it out because it doesn't fit in a category. But I confess, it has happened! (That's why I appreciate those general categories so much) And then there is the matter of my daughter's bed-time reading. Conveniently, 3 of our 4 bedtime books in May counted--but what we read is in theory up to her, and I don't want to find myself begging for Lassie because it has a picture of a dog on the cover.

One of the reasons I do so little shared reading is because others pull the book from wiki. So it ends up nonshared. Ok, of course :) good way to get idea and or finally read books I'd been putting off.

I wonder whether we should have a general rule that matches are allowed unless the challenger states otherwise?

I am a complusive lister, I love to sift through my books at the beginning of each month and find books that will fit the challenges. I usually add an assortment to the wiki, but I also keep some in reserve to add to the wiki if I complete the ones already listed. I keep my list of current TIOLI challenges on my Profile Page.

I have found while searching through my TBR for books to fit the challenge, I often come across a long forgotten volume that although it doesn't fit, I pull out anyway and add to my "soon-to-read" pile. All in all, the TIOLI challenge has been very good for my TBR shelves.

I try to add as many books as I think that I can finish, but I don't think I have ever had a month where I have not removed a title or two from the wiki. I prioritize shared reads and almost always finish those, or at least make an attempt to read them. Occasionally, I find that a book is just not to my taste, and I don't finish it even though it is a shared read. I have taken to heart Madeline's reassurances that there is no guilt involved in removing titles from the wiki.

I also try to spread about my planned reads amongst as many challenges as I can find books to fit. I would guesstimate that I read a book in about two-thirds of the challenges. Some months I scale back because I know that I am going to busy and not able to read much. I have challenged myself to try and have at least 4 shared reads per month, so I am frequently watching the wiki to see what everyone else is reading and checking out titles that are unfamiliar to me.

These monthly TIOLI challenges have been great for expanding my reading and increasing how much I read. I have read so many wonderful books that I don't ever think I would have read otherwise. My local branch library is starting a monthly reading challenge program, and I could swear that they got the whole concept from here. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery afterall.

I love the fact that lists can help me organize my readings for the month but they aren't meant to be restrictive. The best part of the TIOLI challenges is the LI part - meaning you can choose to not finish the challenge and not feel any guilt from it. For the most part, any guilt that we feel comes from ourselves which seems silly but I suffer from that silliness as much as the next person. :)

I just finished my first book for June, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for Challenge #7 and this one has really made me reflective of my own Asian heritage and the traditions that I've grown up with.

Will be starting The Alchemist for Challenge #1. This one has been sitting patiently for years on my shelves and now will finally get its long awaited turn to be read. :)

I'm extremely happy that I was pushed by Challenge #6 to read a book by a writer with 2 or more books on my tbr list. I finally read Lips Touch: three times by Laini Taylor, a writer I've been neglecting to read for several years even though I've followed her blog since her first book was published. This was a real treat: a romantic swirl of myth and fairytale all based around the enchantment of first kisses, but Taylor manages to bring a dark side to each one that makes this book totally engaging. The icing on the cake has to be her husband, Jim de Bartolo's beautiful illustrations which precede each story giving a hint of the story to come.
I'm looking forward to her next book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone which will be published later this year.

All the talk above about listing - I list more than I know I can read on the wiki, firstly from sheer enthusiasm and secondly in the possibility of having others join me for a shared read. I usually list from my tbr and whatever library books I currently have at home or are already on request.

> 29I posted this poll just for you, Zoe!

I have always been a very anti-list sort of person, and still am, except when it comes to TIOLI. I love having a theme to my month's reading. I like having my bag of books by my chair so when I finish one I can just reach in to find the next without thinking of what it will be. I usually list more books than I'll get around to and don't mind deleting them if I don't have time or just don't feel like reading them, and I really like looking around at all my books when the challenges first come out to see what will fit.

I've just finished the yummy, yummy Garlic and Sapphires and am ready to get a blond wig and hit the French restaurants. Next up is Cartoon History of the Universe 1 Vol. 1-7 because I can take just so much reading about food before I go crazy with hunger.

My name is Karen and I am a listmaker (there, I said it)! 8>) Each month I make a work document that lists the challenges, and I try to fit the books that I am going to read in to those challenges; if they don't fit, I don't care, I'll read them anyway.

I look through the wiki throughout the month, and if a book someone else is reading strikes my mood, I'll add it to the list. I LOVE participating in shared reads. I usually finish about half of the books on my list.

What I read is pretty much dependent on what I've gotten from the library, so a good month is when most of my reading will work on TIOLI, too.

I've got some good leads for this month--now, to the library website to request the books I don't have already. Happy TIOLI!

Karen O.

> 34

The poll above shows that challengers overwhelming approve of your proposal, Zoe.

The following statement has been incorporated into the TIOLI FAQs:

"A book shared by more than one person is known as a 'match'. Matches are allowed on all challenges even if the parameters are not met unless otherwise specified by the person who started the challenge."

Any discussion about this?

Reading about how everyone uses TIOLI to guide their reading is fascinating. I can’t imagine making a definitive list of books to read in the month; what I read depends largely on the whim of the moment. However, like Karen, I make a list of the challenges and add a bunch of ‘possibles’ from which I pick and choose (ok, so that’s what I did last month and this month – I haven’t been at this long).

However, I do understand the argument for putting more of my possible reads in the Wiki – last month I tried very hard to find shared reads and obviously that’s going to be easier if more people post ahead of their reading. So, I think I’ll try to post a few more, keeping in mind that later removal is ‘guilt free’!

I'll list, but only as a guideline, to remind myself of what is possible. So when I finish a book, I may look at that list and see what appeals -- and if nothing grabs me, I'll look elsewhere. Last month and going forward -- with the exception of any challenges I create, or those that require us to list something sequentially, as some of Madeline's have -- I won't be putting anything onto the wiki until it has been marked completed. Just because that is one of the things I was getting flamed offline about.

Fully approve of the statement on matches.

I love making lists, but that doesn't mean I feel obligated to stick to them, which in turn doesn't mean that I manage to feel guilt-free when I don't, but hey, it's a process! I usually list those books that are "must-reads" on the wiki right away, such as books that I'll be participating in group reads for and books borrowed from the library. Then I often go nuts and list a dozen or more books from my own shelves that I'd really LIKE to read, but more often than not, don't get a chance to because of all the unlisted books that I pick up on a whim instead.

This month, there is only one book on my list that is from my shelves, all others being library books or recently acquired, but if I were to only choose books off the shelf, I'd have 13 entries for challenge #5 (adapted screenplay) alone! I've only added those books to the wiki that are on my planned reads list so far, because I went a little bit nuts last month trying to match as many challenges as possible and then had to remove a dozen or more by month's end.

Those currently on the wiki are:

#1 (low book): L'apprentissage amoureux by Laetitia Bourget
#1: The Old Child by Jenny Erpenbeck
#1: Le bois de Klara/(Visitation) by Jenny Erpenbeck
#1: Le Chat du Rabbin: La Bar-Mitsva (The Rabbi's Cat, Book 1/5)
#1: Monstres Malades by Emmanuelle Houdart
#6 (new-to-you author who has 2+ books): Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
#12 (fiction/non-fiction): The Tiger : A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
#18 (equal number of letters): La Conquête de Plassans/(The Conquest of Plassans) by Émile Zola
#22 (name with 'z'): The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
#23 (cat on cover): Le Chat du Rabbin: Le Malka des Lions (The Rabbi's Cat, Book 2/5)
#23: Le Chat du Rabbin: L'Exode (The Rabbi's Cat, Book 3/5)

Out of those, I've now completed The Rabbi's Cat, which I'm reading in the the French edition, and as such, is book 1 of 5. Loved it and currently reading book 2/5.

I finished Strong Poison and still think it's the best Lord Peter Wimsey yet. With the introduction of the Wimsey "Cattery" we meet a new group of sleuths - invisible women: older, spinster working women. Sayers at her best so far. I so hope the rest of the Harriet Vane novels will be as good. With that hope in mind I start the audiobook of Gaudy Night.

I'm more spontaneous. Not really a list maker but I see my TIOLI list each month more as a goal or an aspiration. After reading two TIOLIs, I picked up a non-TIOLI because I felt like it. Some months, I follow along pretty well on my TIOLI list. Other months, I barely get to them at all.

It is interesting reading about others' views and reading habits.

Since lists seem to be the way to go here's mine so far.

1. Read a low book - The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson

6. Read a new-to-you author who has 2+ books on your TBR list - The Birth Of Venus by Sarah Dunant (I also have Sacred Hearts)

10. Read a book that has a single letter or number in the title - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff for a shared read

17. Read a book with an unseemly occupation in the title - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (shared read)
River Thieves by Michael Crummey

20. Read a book with awful cover art - The Dark World by Henry Kuttner

23. Read a book that has a dog or a cat on the cover - The Cats of Seroster by Robert Westall

and I also found a book for Lorax's challenge

Challenge #24:

In honor of Gay Pride Month, read a book that has won the Lambda Literary Award. There are a number of categories (which seem to change yearly). The site is nearly unnavigable, so the best places to find lists of winners are here on LT (http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Lambda+Literary+Award ) or Wikipedia (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_Lambda_Literary_Award_winners ) which is sadly only current through 2007.

but as it hasn't been listed on the wiki I can't post but the book does have equal letters in the title so it might end up there.

I do have other possibilities but I also have a few library books that don't fit any challenges and I don't want to delete too many from the wiki at the end of the month

I have not been consistent with the TIOLI challenges so I don't really make lists. One I haven't been able to find the thread all the time and if I also don't find anything that I feel I can do I don't participate. I love seeing how some of you look organized and choose your books ahead of time. I can never commit to a lot of books because I am afraid of not finishing them or rushing through them just to get them to count. I may try just making a list in word of the challenges each month and then add books when I see one that could count towards it. You guys are so good at this. Still just learning.

> 43

I did private message lorax to set up the proposed challenge on the wiki. I'd like each person running a challenge to set up and maintain his/her own challenge on the wiki.

My list of planned TIOLI reads for June:

Challenge #1: Read a low book:
The Education of the Stoic by Fernando Pessoa
Oh! A mystery of mono no aware by Todd Shimoda

Challenge #2: Read a book with a foreign language title
Nada by Carmen Lafloret
Potiki by Patricia Grace

Challenge #3: Read a book for National Caribbean American Heritage Month
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Elegguas by Kamau Brathwaite
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
The Three Suitors of Fred Belair by E.A. Markham

Challenge #6: Read a new-to-you author who has 2+ books on your TBR list
To the End of the Land by David Grossman

Challenge #10: Read a book that has a single letter or number in the title
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2011, edited by Laura Furman

Challenge #18 Read a book with equal number of letters in MAIN words of the title
Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie
Open City by Teju Cole

Challenge #21 Read a short work (I'm sure I'll have a lot of other short stories to add to this challenge)
Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley

Challenge #24? Read a book that has won the Lambda Literary Award
The Bill From My Father: A Memoir by Bernard Cooper
Source: Poems by Mark Doty

I'm not sure I understand the "match" adjustment we've implemented. I know there can be shared reads on particular challenges and those garner more points (although I have to say I pay no attention to the points thing). So, what would a "match" be? And how would a "match" be allowed that didn't otherwise meet the parameters? And what would be the implications of a "match"?

I suspect I'm going to be told to read the directions. I confess that I rarely read directions and it does sometimes get me into trouble......

A match is another word for a shared read.

Allowing a match that otherwise wouldn't meet the parameters: for one person, the book fits the parameters, which may be arbitrary or not (lyzard's author one last month, Madeline's location one this time, the Father's Name one), but for another person, it doesn't. However, that 2nd person would still like to read the book this month, and since the 1st person already listed it in that challenge, the 2nd person can create a match/shared read, though it doesn't fit for him/her.

>47 EBT1002: A match is simply reading the same book for the same challenge as somebody else. For most challenges, the question is just whether a book qualifies--and if it qualifies for one person it would qualify for any person--a book by a Caribbean author or with a one-word title, for example. Sometimes, as with this month's challenge #1 (read a low book) or the challenge to read something set in your own location, a book that is on the floor in my house is probably not on the floor in yours, and a book set in my city would not qualify for most other people.

As I understand it, the match rule now clarifies that you can read a book as a match even if it otherwise wouldn't be eligible, as long as the person posting the challenge hasn't said no. So, since someone else posted Annabel for challenge 1, I can go ahead and read it as a matching book, even though my copy of it is located 4 feet off the ground. Right?

Also, the purpose of extra points for shared reads/matches, if I understand it correctly, is to encourage people to read the same book, so buy allowing matches even if the match doesn't fit for the 2nd reader, you can get more shared reads.

I like shared reads because it means I know of at least one other person who has read the book and who might be willing to gab about it with me. :) It might be the same for others.

Okay, this all makes sense to me now and I am glad I voted "yes" (how's that for uneducated voting?). It provides more flexibility, encourages shared reads, and gives us more points! Thanks, everyone. Now, back to my nonfiction read for challenge #12.

> 49

As I understand it, the match rule now clarifies that you can read a book as a match even if it otherwise wouldn't be eligible, as long as the person posting the challenge hasn't said no. So, since someone else posted Annabel for challenge 1, I can go ahead and read it as a matching book, even though my copy of it is located 4 feet off the ground. Right?

Exactly right!

> 50

I like shared reads because it means I know of at least one other person who has read the book and who might be willing to gab about it with me.

...which was why I created the TIOLI challenges in the first place.

You mean it wasn't so you'd have an excuse to use the wiki and tally numbers for hours every month? ;)

Actually, I wasn't completely aware of the reason why you started doing it - I thought it might be more of a way to talk about thematic things, but either way, I love it :)

You mean it wasn't so you'd have an excuse to use the wiki and tally numbers for hours every month?

Haha! I don't think so.

Really, it was because I hate to plan my reads ahead of time. In the past, whenever I finished whatever book it was I was reading at the time, no one else had read the same book so I couldn't talk to anyone about what I'd just read.

That's also the reason that RL book clubs don't work for me. If a book is a planned read, then I no longer want to read it. Go figure! I'm having a hard enough time with ER books now. I just find it so much more fun to spontaneously pick up something to read.

I have a question about shared reads for challenge #23 (dog or cat on the cover). I saw someone listed The Rabbi's Cat, which I'm reading too, but in the original French editions, of which there are 5 books, to the two English omnibus editions. Do/could they qualify as shared reads?

I would consider each book of The Rabbi's Cat as a shared read if I were you. Each book came out as a separate edition when written. What I would not do is use one book (containing one volume) for one challenge and another book (containing 5 volumes) for another challenge - as this would mean listing the same work twice under two challenges.

I hope I understood your question correctly. In other words, a shared work is indeed a "match".

By the way, I love, love, love The Rabbi's Cat!

The version I am reading of The Rabbi's Cat has Volumes 1 thru 3 in it. I guess I can list it as three separate volumes.

I was thinking that thread reading should count as a 'short work', but I was mistaken!

> 59: epic novel?

>60 humouress: :some days it does seem like War and Peace! (and light on the peace!) :0)

Just finished The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips for Madeline's challenge (now I can recover after embarrassing myself by admitting I've had an audiobook sliding around the floor of my car for the past 4 months). I had started it in February for the African American Literature challenge - I can't remember who started that one - but I regret not having tried harder to finish it back then. It was an excellent book, but I think the down time was good. It was far more of a darkly emotional read than I am used to. After posting my review, I also discovered that it was the author's first book. Powerful stuff for a debut.

Here is my review of it: http://www.librarything.com/work/184443/reviews/69597031

(sorry touchstones aren't working for me on IE9)

That sounds like a difficult read, Patrick. I see so much truth in fiction. Often novels come alive for me more than nonfiction does. I guess that's because in fiction you feel the emotions that go along with a story.

Sometimes, after reading a novel, I just *know* that what was said to be "fiction" could not be without some factual basis. I know what you're trying to say in your review. Good review, by the way.

#59-60 LOL! Epic novel indeed! :-D

#57 Madeline, you understood my original question perfectly well, and I think I understood your reply but I'm not sure. I'll explain the situation as clearly as I can: I listed Volume 1 on your challenge, because that one had been on the floor. Then I listed volumes 2 and 3 on challenge #23.

So two questions:

1) Should I not have listed the first volume on your challenge and put it with the others instead? and
2) I will be reading the whole series in French, in 5 different volumes. Do I understand correctly that I can list each of these as a shared read?

I've never come up with a situation like this before, so find it a bit confusing.

By the way, one of the reasons I got into The Rabbi's Cat to begin with was because both you and Kerry highly recommended it.

Keep it the way you have it and described it, Ilana. That is, keep Volume #1 on my challenge and the other two volumes on the cat or dog on the cover challenge. I moved your books on that challenge to different positions so they "match" others in English (as they are the same work). Those volumes had been published individually so should easily be also counted individually as a work (unless you choose otherwise!).

You're so lucky to have read three of them. I've only read the first. I'll have to see if my library has them.

ETA: I can see where my answer above was confusing. What I meant was to divide the volumes, one for each challenge of your choice and not to use the same volume (for example, volume 2) for more than one challenge.

Yes, I will count them individually, since they are separate books. I haven't read the third one yet, keeping it to delay the pleasure. Of course there'll be two more to look forward to, after that, which reminds me I need to go reserve them from the library now!

Whew. Finally finished The Warmth of Other Suns for #12. It was a wonderful, but long, read.

Now onto behind the scenes at the museum for Challenge #1. It's been on the bottom shelf in the t.v. for a long time.

>65 SqueakyChu: I am moving Volume 1 of The Rabbi's Cat to your challenge, the Low Challenge, matching Ilana's French version. I have separated out the three volumes that are in the omnibus and treating them as three separate reads. Just let me know if there is a problem.

I just saw a preview today for Snowflower and the Secret Fan which is supposed to come out next month. First The Help and now Snowflower. Now I just have to hope both will be at least somewhat as good as the books.

I'm reading The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman for the workplace challenge, and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm late to the list-your-books party for June but I've done a list of books I might try to read this month for the other challenges... I'll add them to the wiki once I actually start them!

#1 Low book. Heartstone by C J Sansom (very bottom of the pile on the floor by the bed)
#2 Foreign language title - Potiki by Patricia Grace
or Die Heimsuchung by Jenny Erpenbeck (German)
#3 Caribbean heritage - Every Light in the House Burnin' by Andrea Levy
#4 Book set in your locale - the Basel mystery I bought and forgot to enter ... must find it!!
#7 Flower - The Postmistress - have to read this for RL book group
#10 Single letter - O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
#12 Non-fiction book (since I mostly read fiction) - A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr or The Globalisation Paradox by Dani Rodrik
#17 unseemly occupation: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

> 68

Just let me know if there is a problem.

No problem.

I've managed to finish Stark's war, Storm front and The iron hunt fairly quickly. Of all three, Storm front was easily the best. I see bomemima is reading The seven storey mountain for challenge #12 - it's been twenty years since I read that - I think I'll go for a shared read next!

ETA: spelling and trying to fix touchstones!

Suz left a note on the wiki that I cannot use Three Day Road for her challenge, so I moved it to the 'Father/Grandfather Name' challenge since my paternal grandfather's name was Joseph.

ETA: I also added to books to Challenge #18: Six of One by Rita Mae Brown and Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

Question: would a book about magicians and detailing their careers count for challenge #11: Read a book about work?

eta: I was really really hoping I could fit In Search of Klingsor into one of the challenges this month, since I had no hope in hell of finishing it on time for Darryl's Mexican writer challenge in May, but I guess it's not to be. All the same, for those interested, I posted my review of it today.

I finished A Tree Grows In Brooklyn for Challenge #5 - Best Screenplay Adaptation. What a wonderful book!

I also finished Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl this evening for Challenge #9 - Read a book about food. The memoirs of a former New York Times food critic - a great read and lots of recipes as well.

Judy - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my absolute favorite books. I am so glad you enjoyed it (and for "my" challenge)!

Sadly, I had to remove The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. This was for that Oscar challenge.

Boulle's Planet of the Apes was readable, and I really like the Kwai movie but the Kwai book was unreadable. Maybe it is an issue with the translator.

I've always felt translators had a much larger impact than generally assumed.

#76 - Thanks Katie. I am enjoying the challenges this month, as usual, lots of variety and lots of choices.

Well I am not one that does lists because I am not organized in my house just yet. Nor do I usually have time to do a list. Well I took the time this month to do one. Here is what I have so far:

1. Low Book: At Wit's End Attack on Pearl Harbor
2. Read a book that has a foreign language as a title: Nothing...
3. Read a book for National Caribbean American Heritage Month: Nothing...
4. Read a book set in your Locale(with in 50 miles): Maniac Magee
5. Read a book or Play that was the basis for a film nominated for Best Adapted Screen Play: Mystic River or To Kill A Mocking Bird
6. Read a new to you author who has 2+ books on TBR list: books by Lisa Gardner, John Irving, Marshall Karp
7. Read a book with a specific flower only on the cover art: I did find one but don't remember the name of it.
8. Read a book that has your father or grandfather's name in one of the words of the title or the author's names: Still looking I could use John Irving's from above since that is my dad's name
9. Read a book about food, cooking, eating or critiquing: ???

I am going to stop there. I have a whole list with all the challenges. I have a few books beside some of them but not all of them. I know I can't read 24 books in a month.

>77 MikeBriggs:

Mike, I thought about joining you with The Bridge Over the River Kwai, actually checking it out from the library. Unfortunately, I agree with you; it's terrible. I didn't get far before I gave up. It's already back on the library shelf.

I suppose by definition, winning a Best Adaptation Oscar often would involve turning a bad book into a good movie... :)

Finished I is for Innocent, a quite decent Sue Grafton crime novel, and The Seven Storey Mountain, the endless but interesting tale of Thomas Merton's journey from secular hedonist to Trappist monk. I picked this up because it was very popular the year I was born (I'm one of the ancient ones), and I've been lightly exploring things spiritual. Very heavily skewed, but nevertheless, quite a picture of life and attitudes of the time.

edited for typo

I am adding The 200 Superfoods That Will Save Your Life to Suzanne's challenge for this month.

I finished and reviewed Erich Maria Remarque's astonishing novel All Quiet on the Western Front. That was for the Adapted ScreenPlay Challenge.

Now I'm reading The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin for the Low Book Challenge.

elikiedee, I asked a question in #74 about your challenge but I see you haven't been back yet. Here it is again, in any case:

Would a book about magicians and detailing their careers count for challenge #11: Read a book about work?

Just finished The Book Thief - challenge 17 unseemly occupation. after a slow start, finished this book really quickly, enjoyed the narrative given by Death about the life and events of four or so years of Liesel a young Geman girl during WWII, favourite character was Rudy, at times he brought laughter and tears. will definitely re-read again 4*

Finished A Man for All Seasons for the adapted screenplay challenge (no. 5). This is a short but pithy work; it will repay the reader with some thought-provoking ideas about human fallibiltiy, loyalty, and oppressive government.

Also finished The Snows of Kilimanjaro for the short works challenge. This short story was a re-read for me, an excellent study of a man whose death is rapidly approaching.

Finished The seven storey mountain and I agree with bohemima - it is very much a product of its time. However, an uplifting read, if a bit dated in some of its ideas/prejudices.

74/85: Ilana, magicians or physicists? Reading your review, it seems like the "workplace" bit of the story is only the beginning, that the focus is some sort of weird thriller story.

Did you keep the book on your floor at all while you were reading it, or on a very low surface? (Challenge 1).

I am having a battle with my new computer and currently still playing around online on the old one, until it starts turning itself off again. I knew I shouldn't have bought the new one at PC World.

started View from Saturday for the Book of Days challenge - and hoping it will become my first shared read in more than 3 months. Each time I tried a shared read before, either I couldn't get to it before the end of the month, or the other(s) couldn't get to it, and my TIOLI meter has made me look selfishly un-sharing - but NO GUILT. Two others are on the list for the book for now (but not started yet). Always room for more...

Okay I finished Mister Monday by Garth Nix for Challenge #18 and I was going to start The Sugar Queen, but now I have decided to read The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg next.

I have also finished volumes 1 and 2 of the graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat. I liked volume 2 much better than volume 1.

> 89

Did you keep the book on your floor at all while you were reading it, or on a very low surface? (Challenge 1).

Nooooooooo! :O The book had to be found on the floor or in a low place. Moving it afterward does not count.

For anyone interested in Broadway musicals who didn't see The Tony's tonight, for 24 hours you can download the mp3 soundtrack to The Book of Mormon for 1.99 from Amazon.com.

92) Darn, all those books I read while being as flat on the floor as I could be ...

> 92

:)

I finished Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant a couple of days ago for the same number of letters challenge (#18).

Also finished volume #4 of The Rabbi's Cat in the French version, i.e. Le Chat du Rabbin, tome 4: Le Paradis terrestre.

Am also well on my way along The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey for challenge #6.

#89 magicians or physicists

Actually, those are two separate books. Both of them are mysteries, yes, but more than anything, they are about the professions of the protagonists.

In the case of The Prestige, about two rival magicians, the magic acts they devised and performed were important elements of the story throughout the novel.

In the case of In Search of Klingsor, I thought the mystery aspect would be the important, and it is, but the main character in search of the investigation was a physicists and as such, the book mostly focused on his work, which involved many interviews with physicists with much talk about their work. Also different periods in their careers were discussed by the narrator and were omnipresent throughout, much to my chagrin (since I've never been much of a fan of physics).

Your verdict, elkiedee?

Here's twist on the guilt issue: I'm feeling guilty because 3 of the 4 books I've finished so far this month do not fit TIOLI challenges. And neither do most of the rest of the books that I'd tentatively planned for June, though I think they all would have fit numerous previous challenges.

I've decided to take Ellana off challenge #2, as I'm off on holiday at the weekend, and it doesn't look like it will make it into my case. But I have been able to add Kings of the North to challenge #18. I also found Theodora at the library, so I'll take that on as a shared read. So no guilt here, either!

This may be the first month that I will have to take books off the wiki. I feel like I am just not getting enough reading time lately but I also think I was a little greedy with my listing. So far I have only completed 4 reads for the TIOLI Challenges but I hope to complete a couple more in a few days.

Don't worry about it Judy, that's been happening to me every month (i.e. being greedy with my listing and having to remove books). This month I was actually quite conservative, but I like to see lots of books on the wikis, which sometimes encourages me to share a read with someone.

Another greedy lister here, and I just added an new one, The Rabbi's Cat; what a beautiful, thoughtful book. My greed payed off this time.

> 97

Please, no guilt, ivyd! Not all of your reads need to be TIOLI books. Just read what you like. If it fits a challenge, that's great. If not, simply enjoy what you are reading. As a matter of fact, a non-TIOLI read might give you some interesting ideas for a future challenge to others.

Remember, we're all in this together simply to have fun, to dust off some of your older TBRs, and occasionally to share a book that someone else is reading. Don't take it too seriously.

>102 SqueakyChu: Ah, Madeline, I guess I sounded too serious with my comment! I'm not really sitting here consumed with guilt -- though I admit to a few twinges of it. More just disappointed that I'm not participating more this month and that I'm sitting at the bottom of the TIOLI meter!

And thanks for taking the time to reassure me!

For my "exclamation mark" challenge, I have just finished Joan!!! A Novel - which personally I think ought to count for three TIOLI reads.

I finished Gaudy Night and would have thought it would be my favorite Dorothy Sayers due to the subject matter: feminism with a touch of anti-Nazism; but it sure wasn't. I found it severely in need of editing and overly full of exposition. I also finished Swamplandia! and loved it. I see why it made the Orange Prize long list. The Mother's influence was felt throughout the story of children finding their strengths and weaknesses in a weird environment of alligators, satanic amusement parks, ghosts, love and evil. Now I start on the book that was the reason I started the food challenge: Blood, Bones and Butter.

I'm currently reading This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas. I read Wash This Blood From My Hands last week and couldn't wait to start another. This one is a break from the usual crime/ police procedural, I think, because it focuses so much more on the characters and is more cerebral.

I finished Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary by Walter Dean Myers.
This book fits many challenges but I think I will file it in the the Single leter/ Single Number challenge. I found Maniac Magee abandoned in a student's locker. It's definitely holding my attention.

For challenge 15, my "this or that" challenge, I finished The Band That Played on, an excellent book about the eight musicians who went down with the Titanic, playing until the end.

This is my 8th TIOLI book, already, which could make this one of my best TIOLI months ever.

I am struggling with Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach for Challenge #7 - Flower Cover Art. It's not the interesting historical fiction read I was expecting, instead so far it's a melodramatic love story. Why is it that the most beautiful covers often have the least interesting stories inside?

Why is it that the most beautiful covers often have the least interesting stories inside?

That often seems the case; however, The Rabbi's Cat, for one book just off the top of my head, has a beautiful cover and is a great read. I just finished the second part, though, and have to say, it's not as good as the first.

The Rabbi's Cat does look very interesting. I am just in the process of discovering graphic novels and I am amazed at the variety of subject matter that is available!

I finished reading the first three volumes of The Rabbi's Cat, but I preferred the second volume to the first. They were all funny though. And I am new to graphic novels also.

I think my next one will be The Stonekeeper.

…and here they are, folks:

Stats for the May 2011 TIOLI Challenges

For the month of May, 2011, challengers read a total of 632 books (a new record!) in 20 challenges with 159 (25%) of them being shared reads. The percentage of shared reads was on the lower side for May. However, together we garnered 86 TIOLI points in May, bringing our YTD points to 410 – much higher than at the same time last year. Last year’s total number of points, by the way, was 639, so we’re well on our way to beating that number this year.

The most popular book of the month was Mansfield Park by Jane Austen with 6 readers. The most books read for one challenge was 123 for Smiler69’s challenge to read a book with the same vowel in the main title words. This came close to beating a record, but not quite! The challenge with the most TIOLI points was the challenge by goddesspt2 to read a book that is a graphic novel, anime, manga, or comic book compilation. That challenge amassed 20 TIOLI points.

More to come… the awards for May’s challenges.

I just finished the last part of The Rabbi's Cat. How funny that chinquapin's favorite part was the 2nd, and that was my least favorite. I still have to go with 1, that was one smart cat. Now for a new to me author, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by by Barbara Comyns. The forward states that the book was banned in Ireland for being unpleasant. Too funny, though with a flood that kills not only the rosebushes but many of the farm animals, it does start out pretty wonderfully unpleasant.

# 109 I had a similar reaction to Tulip Fever. more feverish love story than detail about tulip trade.

> 109, 115

Read The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, then. It's nonfiction, but a great read.

It was so inspiring that I bought my first orchid plant after reading that book. Heh. Now I have three of them (orchid plants, not books). They are easier to care for than you would think...if you start with a phalaenopsis.

I have The Rabbi's Cat out from the library -- I will get to it this month!

>109 DeltaQueen50:, 115, 116

Anyone one interested in the tulip trade should give Tulipomania by Mike Dash a try. It's been a number of years since I read it, but I recall it being a very engaging account of the rise of the tulip and the economic insanity that ensued (nonfiction).

I also have to enthusiastically second SqueakyChu's suggestion of The Orchid Thief -- it's a great book. Actually, the bizarre film version, "Adaptation" is worth catching, too, if for the cast alone.

The Orchid Thief looks interesting, I am adding it, along with Tulipomania to the wishlist.

>113 SqueakyChu:: Love your number crunching results, Madeline!

Yesterday I finished my second Fred Vargas book for the month, This Night's Foul Work. I'll be working on the review later (or sooner, if netball is cancelled this morning due to rain).

Last night I started Away by Amy Bloom and read 3/4 of it before I could stay away no longer. My TBR list has little notes-to-self, like pulitzer or dagger. This one only said "Buy It!" Well, I got it from the library. Now, as I have sped through to find out what happens next to Lillian, I realize that I will need to purchase this at some point because I already want to read it again at a more leisurely pace and enjoy the writing.

"The two men move through the crowd like gardeners inspecting the flower beds of English estates, like plantation owners on market day. Whatever it is like, Lillian doesn't care. She will be the flower, the slave, the pretty thing or the despised and necessary thing, as long as she is the thing chosen from among the other things."

I am so having trouble with touchstones this week.

So far, this is my best TIOLI month:

TIOLI 1 (low) Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
TIOLI 3 (Caribbean) - The Long Song by Andrea Levy
TIOLI 3 (Caribbean) 2 - Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
TIOLI 3 (Caribbean) 3 - A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
TIOLI 12 (nonfiction/fiction) - The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
TIOLI 12 (nonfiction/fiction) 2 - The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
TIOLI 18 (same title) - The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
TIOLI 22 (Z) - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet -- currently reading
TIOLI 24 (Lambda) - Fresh Tracks by Georgia Beers
TIOLI 24 (Lambda) 2 - What We Remember by Michael Thomas Ford -- this one could also be for TIOLI 4 (locale) challenge......

Awards for the May 2011!

The Match to Remember Award goes to Donna828, katiekrug, wandering_star, and Chatterbox for matching (not one, but) three (!) title words in the challenge to Read a book matching a title word from the preceding title. You all did exceptionally well in that challenge. (ETA: See post # 131 below)

The I’m Glad You Did That Award goes to goddesspt2 for her challenge to Read a book that is a graphic novel, anime, manga or comic book compilation. That was a challenge that I myself hoped to present some day. I just never got around to it yet. I’m very pleased with the number of people who decided to dip into this genre for the first time as a result of that challenge. I see that many challengers are yet continuing to explore this genre. Very nice!

The How Does That Work Again Award goes to lyzard for figuring out how the challenge Read a book by the author whose picture appears in the top lefthand corner of your Authors' Gallery worked after the top left author kept changing for various challengers after they signed up for it. Quick thinking, lyzard, and a nice way to induce challengers to discover this lesser know LT feature.

Congratulations to our award winners for May!

Half the month is over. The spring/summer always seems to fly by. This Tuesday is our Quickie Reads day, so line up some suggestions to offer us then.

Here are some reminders going forward:

1. You may “match” (list a shared read) any book for any challenge without meeting other parameters for the challenge as long as this is not disallowed by the person hosting the challenge.

2. If the challenge you’re hosting needs further explanation or has “rules”, please list those in message #1 of a separate thread. This link will be pulled into the wiki index on the main thread. On the wiki, the challenge itself should only list the number of the challenge, the name of the challenge (make it self explanatory!) and the person who started it. We need to keep the wiki page simple and clean.

3. If you are offering a challenge, you must list it on the wiki yourself before it gets pulled into the index. Please do this before June 4th (note the change in the day of the month).

4. Remember to “CONTROL-F” your name on the last day of the month for all the wiki pages and update your reads to COMPLETED or delete them. If you do not know how to do this, please ask.

>>#122 Thank you, Madeline - that's very kind! I really should have called it the I Needed To Think This One Through A Bit More challenge. :)

>123 SqueakyChu:: "Control-F" my name?

>125 jeanned:

"Control-F" my name?

Yep. This is what to do...

1. Go to the wiki page on which you want to look for your name.
2. Hold in the "control" and the "F" buttons on your keyboard at the same time.
3. Type your name in the box called "find". For me, it's located at the top of the page. For you, it might be located somewhere else (the bottom, maybe?).
4. Click on "next" (to the right of where you typed your name).

You'll now find your name highlighted in yellow each time you press the "next" button (if your name is on the page at all). Try it with this page first to see how it works. It's a real time saver!

> 124

I really should have called it the I Needed To Think This One Through A Bit More challenge

:)

Ooh, I've never won a TIOLI award before - cool!

I was very pleased when I could match three words! (Unfortunately, I didn't manage to read the book itself, but, um, it's the thought that counts, right?)

Yeah, I didn't read my book, either. I tried, but it wasn't very good....

> 129, 130

Oops! My mistake. I guess that happened because I figured out the awards before the end of the month and never went back to check which books remained on the shelf (so to speak) after the books not COMPLETED were removed.

My resolution? Since the awards were already distributed to wandering_star and katiekrug (both of who did the hard work of looking for books with matching title words), I'm just going to change the name of the award that they won to the SqueakyChu Screws Up Award. :D

My congratulations still stand!

Ha -- managing this whole TIOLI challenge thing is an amazing accomplishment, Madeline. I think no awards are allowed to be named after a small mistake by SqueakyChu. ;-)

Today is the last day of my vacation, so we'll see how I do with getting through my last few books in June. I still hope to finish Thousand Autumns and still get to at least one of the Lambda Award books: Fresh Tracks and/or What We Remember.

I think no awards are allowed to be named after a small mistake by SqueakyChu

LOL!!

I've read a bunch for the challenges, but still need to get through The Thousand Autumns, A House for Mr. Biswas, and I hope to read Among Other Things I've Taken Up Smoking for the lambda challenge. Hmm...11 days left. Best get cracking!

>131 SqueakyChu:: That is so funny! I'm glad that I won the award fair and square as I actually read my book. ;-) Madeline, that challenge drove me crazy. It took me several days of checking frequently before I could find a book that fit. Very challenging.... I liked it after I found the book and could give it a rest.

Hi all, query over challenge 21, I've got a book of short stories to read, don't think I will get it all completed by the end of the month, so can I count each indivdual story that I manage to read (as they are all by different authors) or does it have to be the complete book of short stories and that only counts as one?? cheers Kerry

I've finished the very strange Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead and vow to read more Barbara Comyns. Now, since I've elsewhere compared Gabrielle Hamilton to Mary Poppins I've decided to read that book to see if I'm anywhere near target.

I just had to stop by and say how much I'm enjoying my first month of TIOLI. I can't remember the last time I managed to read 9 books in a single month--and I still have 10 more days! Thank you, Madeline, for your creativity and organization. And thanks to all my new LT friends for your lively banter and encouragement.

You're very welcome, Jeanne. I'm so glad you're enjoying these challenges.

I must say that you've done a lot of reading for just one month. Hope those books were good.

I've managed to complete two shared reads these past few days - Moon over Soho for challenge 18 and Just my type: a book about fonts for gennyt's fact/fiction challenge. Both were good reads.

>137 Citizenjoyce:- Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead is such a bizarrely entertaining little book, isn't it? It's very hard to describe, but highly recommended!

Bizarrely entertaining is right. She has a very strange style but it pulls you in right from the start.

136) Each individual short story counts on its own.

Simon Pegg's Nerd do Well read and reviewed for that nonfiction/fiction challenge.

Interesting book. More focused on his personal life growing up in England than his later career.

I finished Mary Poppins and definitely see a similarity between her and Gabrielle Hamilton. Mary Poppins is first cousin (once removed) to a king cobra (though the movie didn't show this). I'll bet there are many who would say the same thing about Hamilton. They're both vain extremely competent problem solvers who waste no time trying to be nice and who have little tolerance for laziness or ineptitude. They both leave people either smarting from an encounter with them or wishing with all their heart there could be more.

Now I'm on to Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente which won the 2010 Lambda prize for science fiction/fantasy. What a beautiful style she has. I can't believe I never heard of her before. Thank you, Lorax, for your challenge.

Coming midnight tonight: Quick Reads...

On June 21st, post your suggestions for any books marked COMPLETED by anyone on the wiki which are short, quick, and interesting reads. This is a last minute attempt to grab some TIOLI points for shared reads for reading something worthwhile.

Looking forward to hearing your nominations...

I haven't seen elkiedee in these parts for a while, but I sure would like to know if two of my books, mentioned in #96 are eligible for the workplace challenge...

I have two very quick reads to suggest. First is Mary Poppins, only 106 pages and both similar to and differing from the movie in interesting ways. It's a real delight.
Second, a little longer but still a quick read Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. Comyns has such a great style mixing the bizarre and the normal easily, somewhat as what happens in life. There's also a weird toad-like grandma with a forked tongue and a casually mentioned dark skinned daughter who is the favorite of all these very white skinned English villagers. I'll bet you'll find it different from anything else you've read.

#143, thanks for that, oo will have a few extra reads to add to my count then. he he

I just want to thank Countrylife for her Father/Grandfather Name Challenge. I just read The Serialist an excellent read that was on my library wishlist but, without this challenge, who knows when I would have gotten to it!

Two suggestions, both of which were quick reads and books I gave 5 stars, are The Final Solution by Michael Chabon and Away by Amy Bloom.

On another note, I haven't been able to get touchstones working for a week. Is there something iny settings that could be blocking this?

More quick reads to propose:

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. (Challenge #21: a short work) At just 121 pages, this novella recounts what happens when the Queen accidentally stumbles upon the Westminster traveling library van and acquires a new, and disruptive, interest.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Challenge #2: National Caribbean American Heritage Month) Not as quick a read, but still short at 180 pages (especially compared with Jane Eyre), imagines the story of Bertha Mason, the crazy madwoman in Jane Eyre.
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (read for Challenge #1, a low book) I had to give this back to the library, so I can't say how many pages it is, but it read very quickly and is pretty short--just under or just over 200 pages. From this year's Orange longlist.

Lorax, I once again have to thank you for adding your challenge, but now I'm thinking I could have used Palimpsest for my food challenge because Catherynne Valente's style is so sensual that reading her is almost like eating something warm and creamy spread on earthy spiciness. Look at this description of a sexual encounter:
Lyudmila kissed him then, and in her mouth was the void, and in his throat was the void, and in the dark of dead Manhattan he lifted her up against the pantry door, and the jars of jam rattled within, raspberry against currant against plum.
Oh my.

Oops, sorry, I got so involved in sex that I forgot to respond to jeanned's question. There seems to be a great deal of difficulty convincing Internet Explorer version 9 to work with touchstones. If that's the version you have, I don't know when you'll get to touchstone again.

The void?

#154: Thanks for that. Now that you say it, touchstones stopped working when I upgraded last week. Time to go back to Firefox.

#155 The locksmith's idea in that piece was that New York had been written about and photographed so much that it had ceased to exist. It was just a void and they were the real people within that void.

I second Anne's suggestion of The Uncommon Reader. It's delightful. I listened to the audio version last month (read by the author) and have since purchased a hard copy of it. The audio was excellent, but I wanted to have all those book references at my fingertips!

My nominations for "Quick Read" Day: The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar (Vol. 1 is listed in Challenge 1; Vols. 2-4 are listed under Challenge 23). These graphic novels are witty, beautiful, and quick to read.

I'd also like to suggest Eyes, Breath, Memory by Edwidge Danticat: I picked this up when I saw others reading it and read their comments; I'm only just starting it, but it looks great.

Karen O.

I second Karen's nomination of The Rabbi's Cat as a Quick read. It's such a delightful graphic novel.

I finished and reviewed Lola Shoneyin's debut novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. That was for the Low Book Challenge.

BTW that would also be a great quick read too.

Now I'm reading The Lost Gardenby Helen Humphreys for the Specific Flower for the Cover Art Challenge.

Yes, I also vote for The Rabbi's Cat. Which reminds me, I still have book 5 and the last in the series to read.

I've finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet today. Can't decide what I think about it at this point. It was very good, a lot to take in, and... that's about all I can say about it for now.

Have started The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin for Madeline's challenge, and I suppose I could count A Game of Thrones towards that challenge as well, but I'm not kidding myself; no way I'm finishing THAT book this month, unless I give up everything else for the next few days including eating and sleeping and... walking the dog, which I'm sure Coco would sorely disagree with. :-|

Yay! I just got word today that the copy of The Rabbi's Cat which I put on hold is available. I'll see if I can squeeze that in before June 30, along with a read for the Lambda Award challenge.

I'm almost through with The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and I love it. Certainly not a "quick read," though!! :-D

Um, for which challenge are people reading The Rabbi's Cat?

Challenge 1 is for the first part of The Rabbi's Cat and challenge 23 is for the other 2. In challenge 1 it's listed under the C's because the first listing is in French.

Thank you so much, Anne, for recommending An Uncommon Reader I've heard before that it was good but never got around to it. After your post I found I could download the audio version from the library. It really is a delightful little book.

147: Ilana, I'm sorry if I missed your further post. I've been trying to catch up with a huge backlog of reviews (writing - I've read most of the books concerned). I'm still working on it but I'd already expressed a view on the Klingsor book that it didn't sound like it fitted. I can't really judge the other from what you say. The "workplace" topic is meant to be books focused on a workplace and, say the people working in that one place, rather than following an individual's job/career trajectory. I'm conscious that I didn't explain it that well at the outset, but I do feel I'm repeatedly being asked the same question about different books.

Because I've been prioritising review books for the last few months, lots of books haven't fitted into TIOLI, especially in May when only about 60% of my reading did. I think spending too much time worrying about it (and I plead guilty here) takes the fun out of it. If your books fit a challenge because you chose them that way or due to luck, that's great, if you've chosen books that you want/need to read that don't fit, so be it.

I am going to have to read like a madwoman to make my TIOLI goals this month. I know it's acceptable to delete books from the wiki, but it's very hard for me to not fulfill my goal. I finished and reviewed the fascinating Anatomy Of A Murder for Katie's #5 Challenge for Best Adapted Screenplay. Thanks, Katie, for providing the impetus for me to finally get around to reading this one.

Next up will be my "low" book, Brooklyn. Thankfully, it's much shorter than the last two TIOLI books I read.

I picked up The Uncommon Reader at the library today and I have already started it, so I am off to add it to the wiki.

I just finished That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made by Eric James Stone . I enoyed it immmensely! It is a novellte that will be added to the TIOLI Challenge Short Works. It had a 8300 word count.
It vaguely reminded me of Dawn by Octavia E. Butler.

For anyone looking for a quick add-in, I can recommend E.F. Benson's Queen Lucia - not a short book, exactly, but a very breezy read. I read it for #18, "same number of letters".

#166 I understand what it's like trying to catch up with review backlogs. I get into that situation all the time. Thanks for getting back to me.

***

I started Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller yesterday for challenge #18. I was doubtful about whether I was going to enjoy this one, but I must be in the right frame of mind for it right now because I'm doing just fine with it!

For the low challenge, I've read and reviewed Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife, currently 5cm off the ground, in my library pile.

I finished Sea of Poppies for the cover with a flower on it challenge - loved it, can't believe I let it sit so long waiting to be read, but am pleased to discover that I've finished it just in time to read the second volume in what is projected to be a trilogy, as this was published just last week or so in the UK. It's waiting for me at the library!

Have you all played with the "What should you borrow?" feature? I have been having fun with it today, but it has led to more books in the TBR pile. You go to someone else's profile, and on the right hand side, under "Books You Share" is the blue highlighted question "what should you borrow?" It brings up a list of books that you should read from that library based on whatever preference algorithms LT uses, and a list of books from your library that the other person should read.

#174 I sense a future TIOLI challenge based on that new feature!

I was thinking that also :)

> 174, 175, 186

Well, we can't all make the same challenge! ;-)

It's a fun feature, but it took me so long to figure out where it was. I finally found it. Just in time for next month, too!

#173 I've had my own copy of Sea of Poppies sitting on my shelf for the past couple of years now, and I do plan on reading it this year, so your comments are encouraging. Part of the reason I bought this book was because of the cover art, quite honestly!

#174 That sounds like a lot of fun. Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like they've created an algorithm to simplify my own "method" of looking through a person's entire library in search of titles I might like. However, since the "Will I like this book" algorithm does not work AT ALL for me, something tells me the feature will be a new toy, but I'll probably keep doing it the way I have since I first joined LT.

Finished, at last, the excellent but slightly dragging The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Good, but not as good as Cloud Atlas.

I'm slowly chugging through the books. So far I've read 10 books and several short stories for various challenges, several shared reads. I can probably read a couple more books before the end of the month so I'm concentrating on my own challenge and reading Jean de Florette which has started off very well.
Short stories: I've listened to several of Mavis Gallant's stories in Paris Stories, one by Santiago Roncagliolo in Granta 113: the best of young Spanish novelists and I've also read several in Craig Cliff's A Man Melting which won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book.

That 'what should you borrow' feature brings up lots of books I've already read but haven't listed on LT, interesting though.

Going forward...

Hope everyone's having a delightful summer (er, or winter...depending where you are in the world!).

The end of the month is fast approaching, so here are your end-of-the month reminders and updates.

1. Take time now to mark your June Books COMPLETED or delete them from the wiki if you've no hope of finishing them by 12 midnight of June 30th. These books can be added to any July challenge - as long as they qualify.
2. Remember that we will only add counter challenges through the 4th day of the month (i.e. July 4). Oh...Happy Independence Day to all Americans!
3. Be sure to add a separate thread if your counter-challenge has "rules" that are not self-explanatory from the challenges title.
4. I am setting up three wiki pages for July, but please let me know via main thread or private message if you need more than those three. They are time-consuming to set up and link so I'll only set them up if needed. However, I'll do so gladly - so don't hesitate to ask.
5. Your challenges are have been great! Not too easy; not too hard. I'd say they were just right. Hooray!! Keep them unique, and keep them fun. Start thinking of one to offer for July...

Other thoughts:
1. How about me awarding a (small - and probably funny) prize for best TIOLI challenge of the year at the end of 2011? We could vote by private message. We would not count my challenges so the winner would be surprised. I think this would be fun.

I'd love to hear other suggestions from all of you, but, like timspalding, I won't agree to all of them or institute them promptly. Ha! ;-)

I do like that idea Madeline, especially about the p.m. voting. No hurt feelings that way. Although, gee, it would be really hard to choose the best one...

it would be really hard to choose the best one...

...that's what would make it fun.

If there were a tie, we could have a run-off vote. I think this might happen because there are so many entries.

On another note, having this contest would bring to the forefront which challenges have been most loved. This could help everyone plan future challenges.

hah, I like the note you've put on the first page of the wiki!

> 184

Are you snooping already?! ;-)

I think your idea of a small prize for the favorite challenge of the year is a great one. I also think it would be fun to repeat some of the top ten challenges next year.

I am trying to finish the two books I am working on now and then I still have one more that I would like to complete for the TIOLI Challenges this month. My choice for Madeline's challenge may not have been the best as I realize now that it was on the floor for a reason, I had pulled it from the shelves with the idea of discarding it.

> 186

I also think it would be fun to repeat some of the top ten challenges next year.

Nice idea! I usually don't like challenges repeated, but if they were among the most favored, then why not? It will also be fun to post the top ten TIOLI challenges of 2011!

How should the voting go? Should everyone be able to vote for three challenges? In that way, we're more likely to get better results. If so, I'll add my own challenges...only I won't award the prize to myself if I win! I'll move the prize down the line to the top challenge presented by the non-me! :D

I had pulled it from the shelves with the idea of discarding it.

LOL!! Sorry 'bout that!

It might be best if you set up a poll at one of those polling sites, with either radio buttons or a fill-in field or something, rather than using profile comments (you can ask for our LT id, I guess, to prevent double voting?).

It seems it'd be a lot easier to vote that way than to do comments, and you wouldn't (necessarily) be inundated with PMs for a week.

I often use Survey Monkey.

I like the idea of voting for the best challenges! I agree that you probably want to do it more efficiently than profile comments. Even if you can't verify that everyone has only voted once, I wouldn't worry about it--I just don't see why anyone would bother cheating at something like this.

I agree that repeating them next year would be fun, too. I suggest that you announce the top 12 and we repeat a different one each month.

In general, I don't mind repeating challenges if there's some reason for it. We had talked about doing a Newbery challenge next month to go along with the children's/YA theme, for example, and even though there was a Newbery challenge in February of last year, I don't think that should stop us from doing it again. We have so many more participants now, for one thing!

I suggest that you announce the top 12 and we repeat a different one each month.

What do others think of this idea?

I'm not sure if I like it or not.

If we have an "assigned" challenge, wouldn't that take the spontaneity and fun out of it? I know it's only one a month, but still...

> 188, 189

If I used Survey Monkey, wouldn't I literally have to list over 200 entries? We have at least 20 challenges each month (times 12 months). I know I wouldn't want to set up that survey!

I think I'd rather use PMs.

>191 SqueakyChu: Ah, but you don't have to do them in order! You can draw a random one from the 12 each month. I admit it would spoil the surprise for December, but we'd probably live.

Eh. I'm going to do a turn about here.

I'm pretty sure that I personally would not want to keep track of those challenges already done. They'd be old hat to me. I wouldn't object if someone else wanted to take that over as a project, though.

I'd like to see what the favorite challenges were (mostly out of curiosity) and then just move ahead with new ones (for myself). The favorite ones could be a guide, though, to the kinds of challenges we like. That would be helpful for anyone planning a challenge.

MHO only.

Since this is my first year doing TIOLI, I really have no idea what challenges there were in previous years. (I haven't gone back and read them all.)

>194 SqueakyChu: I don't think I understand what you're saying. By "keeping track of those challenges already done", you mean like on the summary page?

195> I think repeating challenges would be okay, but I don't think we should limit it, and I think it should be "at least 13 months since it was originally done".

>198 keristars: That sounds fair to me, though I'd make it only 12 months, since there are some things that are associated with particular months.

I think there are two different questions getting mingled here.

1. Can members post a challenge that's already been done? Under what conditions?
2. Should we deliberately repeat the favourites?

For the first, I'd just say Yes, but try not to do it too often; basically I think people can use their own judgement.

For the second, I think it might be interesting, but I don't feel very strongly either way (maybe I should wait until I see what the winners are! ;))

199> Oh, right! I was thinking "13 months will ensure that we have a nice, long gap" but the month-sensitive thing would be important to consider.

> 200

Members have always been able to post challenges that have already been done. However (and this is a *big* however), I have been trying to discourage this practice because former challenges that are repeated are no longer "fresh". I will not track challenges that have already been done, nor will I speak up about them once they've been posted.

What might be fun, though, is to take the 2011 winners and repost them in 2012 "with a twist". That way they will reflect the popularity of a former challenge but will not be the "same old same old".

I do not wish to do this myself so, if any of you challengers out there want to do this, the onus is on you. Speak up if you like this idea and you, personally, want to run with it.

I think I see what you mean, Madeline; e.g.: Challenge Eleventeen: Read a High Book (Read a book that is at least four feet from the floor).

Is that more or less what you're referring to?

Interesting. But I'm quite curious about which challenges will turn out to be on the top 10. Not that I'd particularly want to repeat them, just interested in the popularity. Also, it would be interesting to me to see if the popularity in the poll had any correspondence to the number of people who actually participated in the challenge. I mean, I wouldn't expect anyone to crucnch those numbers for me, but I can easily see myself doing it as a rainy winter day project, in a casual sort of way.

> 203

Challenge Eleventeen: Read a High Book (Read a book that is at least four feet from the floor).

Is that more or less what you're referring to?

Yeah. That would definitely be more interesting than repeating the low challenge again. Besides, who still has books lying on their floor at this late date? ;-)

But I'm quite curious about which challenges will turn out to be on the top 10. Not that I'd particularly want to repeat them, just interested in the popularity.

Me, too.

I can easily see myself doing it as a rainy winter day project, in a casual sort of way.

*prays for rain*

:)

On the one hand, I don't mind at all repeating challenges, if there's only one a month, since all the others will be new, or mostly new. Since there is no limit to number of challenges (only limit to time in which we can create them), it's not like it will be taking anything away from the rest. That being said, if what you mean Madeline is that you find this will create extra unwanted work for you, then that's not so cool.

#190 Zoe, I'm mentioned on the July: Children's & YA thread that maybe a Carnegie Award challenge (or combining both) would be nice too? I just think it would allow for a more international selection of books, albeit they are both Anglo-biased.

eta: I went through the "short works" list on the wiki today to see if anything there caught my fancy and saw Go the F**k to Sleep. So happens I had just gotten the audio for it FREE on Audible. I know it's a picture book, and I'll make sure to get my hands on it soon to see the illustrations, but it IS narrated by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, who does a excellent and hilariously convincing rendition of it. Had to listed to it again, and I get the feeling it'll be getting plenty more play in the future too. :-)

I am so on the fence about this. Repeating favorite challenges might be fun because it would motivate me to go back and read yet another book that qualifies for, say, National Caribbean Heritage Month, but I love that *new* challenges open new reading territories for me. Madeline, one thing that does matter is keeping your work-load reasonable. I love that you sometimes say "hey, sounds good, y'all want to do that - go for it." I really appreciate the time and energy you put into TIOLI. I don't want it to ever start feeling like a burden for you.

Meanwhile, I finished The Rabbi's Cat as a match for the Low Challenge and I'm starting Fresh Tracks for the Lambda Award winners challenge. Mediocre so far.

I finished Palimpsest and do believe it qualifies as the sexiest book I've ever read. Whew! Palimpsest is a fantastical city, maybe the city of the dead, full of surrealistic buildings, people who have had animal parts grafted onto themselves, a place where many people are unable to speak, where there is a river of cream, a tea house roofed with fingernail clippings and the trains are living creatures who breed with each other and must be caught if a passenger wants to ride. The only way to get to this fantastic city is to have sex with a person who has a black map tattooed somewhere on their body. Men who have never done so before have sex with men, women have sex with women much more readily, and men and women have sex with each other. Occasionally there is incest. After you have had sex with a tattooed stranger a black tattoo will appear somewhere on your body, but before that you sleep and dream your way into Palimpsest. Besides trains, houses and even the whole city are personified. Everything is so strange that it's hard for the reader to understand where she is, who is talking and exactly what is happening. As one man said, "You just have to open yourself and let it in." In the end, all the sex notwithstanding, virtue and constancy are emphasized. I'll be reading more of Catherynne Valente. I wonder if her other books are so poetic.

Now I start The Mortal Groove my first Jane Lawless Mystery by Ellen Hart.

I voted no to your poll, Madeline. Simply because what brings me back to TIOLI month after month is its freshness. I'm not even interested in the top 10 but for those who are and want a redo of the best I like your idea of the best with a twist. Again, it's fresh.

>205 Smiler69: I'd be happy with a Carnegie Medal challenge as well/combined. I'm probably not going to post either of them myself, so I'll just wait and see what appears :D

> 208

I'm not even interested in the top 10

Well, fortunately, this cannot even take place until after the end of the year so we have a good 6 months to mull it over. Until then, "fresh" challenges only, please. Ha!

#210 Well, it is summertime and I suppose I just have fresh produce on my mind :}

If I have until next year, I'll volunteer to run the poll.

> 212 (and 203)

Hooray!! The poll is yours, Morphidae. (Is that good with you, Gail, or did you have your heart set on doing it?).

My suggestion is to pick the top dozen so that, if we decide to implement some type of "repeat" or "repeat with a twist" challenge next year, we'll have one challenge per month to use (Zoe's idea).

> 211

Well, it is summertime and I suppose I just have fresh produce on my mind

Me, too, actually. :)

ETA: See post #195. Clearly, the majority of challengers want favorite challenges repeated somehow next year.

If we do either repeat or repeat "with a twist" in 2012, I still have dibs on Challenge #1, and the Repeat challenge (or Repeat "with a twist" Challenge) host will have dibs on Challenge #2. :D

Question: Isn't repeating with a fresh twist always an option, even now?

I am somewhat on the fence about repeating challenges.

I like the idea of finding out what our favorite challenges have been, just for the fun of knowing.

I suspect the challenges I personally would vote for as my "favorites" aren't necessarily the ones I'd most want to repeat.

The ones I wouldn't mind repeating tend to be seasonal, or linked to a recurring event, like a literary prize or National Poetry Month or Canada Reads. I don't know if these kinds of challenges would end up on my favorites list, but I'd be perfectly fine with seeing them come back. Probably the idea of modifying a challenge before repeating it already makes this possible.

> 217

Isn't repeating with a fresh twist always an option, even now?

Yes!!

linked to a recurring event, like a literary prize or National Poetry Month or Canada Reads

If you think about it, these aren't *exactly* repeating challenges as each year new books are added to each list. I figure, that's the "twist".

Anyhow, I hear you saying that we repeat challenges anyway, in one form or another...and that we don't have to plan to repeat challenges. Just let the challenges take their own course. I'm fine with that.

I think that modifying a challenge should take place before a challenge is posted if the host thinks the challenge might be a bit too broad. The reverse of this could happen as well. I'm reluctant to post a challenge that is too "narrow" (i.e. hardly any books fit into the category).

I, too, am curious to find out which will be the favorite challenges of this year. Let's definitely do that at the end of the year then.

>213 SqueakyChu:: Snort. No problem with that at all o.O I like to look at lists and compare them with one another--not that I need to do them myself or use them in any substantive way. Hmm...does that mean that C.P.A. genes are in my blood?

Personally, I don't really even remember what challenges we've had so repeating is not a problem for me. I would hate to have to go back to make sure we haven't already done a challenge. I don't repeat challenges that I remember posting previously but I might forget and I certainly don't remember every challenge anyone's ever done.

yes really Linda. who the heck remembers all of them?

Also, I will now never ever post a challenge. I have zero desire to be accused of repeating something, and I'm far too lazy to go back and examine every one ever done.

#205, thanks for the info about the free download of Go the F**k to sleep, just completed and listen to the short story and found it very entertaining if short (only 6 mins long!!) but could easily relate to it when trying to get my little darlings to sleep many years ago. Very well read by Samuel L Jackson too.

on another note, I don't mind TIOLI challenges being repeated I've only been doing them for 2 months and don't always get round to completing the different challenges available so some repeats would mean than I would then be encouraged to try out those challenges that I had missed before. with or without the twist I don't mind.

I love this challenge. It looks like so much fun and it is so very different from any of the other challenges I have seen or been a part of. I can't take part until August but I will see you all then. I have you starred.
You are a ROCKSTAR Squeak!~!
slaps n hugs,
belva

#223 All too happy to share the good stuff! I don't have kids of my own, but I have taken care of kids and tried to read them to sleep at night, and boy, could I ever relate!

I wasn't willing to establish an Audible.com account in order to hear Samuel Jackson read Go the F**k to Sleep, and it's been taken down from the Huffington Post site, but I was able to hear Werner Herzog read Madeline here http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/14/go-the-fuck-to-sleep-1.html and it was great. Now on to listen to him read Curious George.

> 222

No need to go back and read all the challenges. Post what you'd like. No one is going to be "accused" of repeating something. Repeats happen sometimes. Period.

For those who remember previous challenges, my request was just to make new challenges slightly different, if at all possible.

Please. We have no need to escalate this into anything stressful. Thanks.

Oh, and for those of you who *do* want to go back and reread all of the challenges (which I do *not*), there are 245 of them! :/

>205 Smiler69:: I just listened to the Samuel L. Jackson reading of Go the F**k to Sleep yesterday. They couldn't have found a better narrator. If you don't want to create an Audible account to download the whole thing, you can hear a few verses of it here: http://www.avclub.com/articles/download-samuel-l-jacksons-audiobook-version-of-g...

>226 Citizenjoyce:: Werner Herzog reading Curious George was hilarious! I didn't realize there was a Madeleine too.

>207 Citizenjoyce:: Neither Palimpsest or Catherynne Valente were on my radar at all, but it sounds fascinating. Thx for the review.

Thank you, madhatter for that Samuel L. Jackson snippet. I guess I am a hopeless fuddy duddy. All the sex in Palimpsest, no problem. All the crazy stuff Mary Roach did in Bonk I found very interesting. Dennis Lehane's gritty urban mysteries captivate me; but I just can't mix that kind of language with a children's story. My wrongometer goes past the end point if I hear someone say, "f*** your stuffed bear, I'm not getting you s***, just go to sleep." After all, in the dear dead days beyond recall, I was a Mormon. In The Mortal Groove Ellen Hart starts the story telling about three fine men who love their mothers and would never swear in front of a child, but are involved in a murder. There are some boundaries one doesn't cross.

This morning I read a few more pages of Oonya Kempadoo's Tide Running for Darryl's Caribbean challenge but have decided after 50 pages to abandon it, the island patois is used too extensively to make this an easy read. I should be able to finish Levy's The Long Song by the end of the month and will remove a few other books off the wiki.

After only 18 pages I abandoned Insatiable:Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess by Gael Greene. I couldn't remain in her company any longer. Maybe I'll try again some other time.

I finished The Mortal Groove and was very pleasantly surprised to find a new author to feel at home with. This Jane Lawless mystery combines some of the themes I've been reading about lately: workaholic restaurateurs who are so ambitious they leave little time for romantic relationships (in spite of their conscious longing for them), the value placed on ambition over human sensitivity, the effects on a mother of surrendering a child for adoption, lost children, politics, the life changing effects of impersonal violence, the solace of friendship, the love of family. I like Ellen Hart's characters very much, except perhaps the wacky sidekick, Cordelia. Usually I love the lovable sidekick as I am supposed to, but Cordelia is perhaps a bit too close to Gael Greene for my tastes.

Now for a little needed grammatical instruction I start I Before E Except After C.

Wow, speaking of boundaries, I just finished Tropic of Cancer for challenge #18: equal # of letters, narrated by the excellent Campbell Scott. I think if it hadn't been for Scott's soft and agreeable voice lulling me through it, I might have given up somewhere after the twelfth "c*nt" and the sixth "fart" had been uttered. But I can see why it's considered such a brilliant novel. Just... whew, one really has to be in the right headspace for it and willing to put up with plenty of crassness.

Also just now finished my review for another book that couldn't be more different: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, which I read for challenge #12: Read a non-fiction book if you read mostly fiction (or vice-versa). I had fun searching for photos of these gorgeous creatures to give the whole thing some visual appeal.

eta: oh yes, and how can I forget, I finished The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec for the short works challenge too. Somehow, the first half was fun, and the second half was a bit... well, saying repetitive would be completely redundant (if you read the book you'll see what I mean). :-)

Finished Around the World in Eighty Days, kind of boring; I might have enjoyed it more in my youth, as it's a straightforward and simple adventure story.

Also finished A House for Mr. Biswas. This was my third read of the book. I love Naipaul's writing, even if I think he's simply an old crank on a personal level.

Removed a couple from the wiki, which just leaves me with L is for Lawless, a fun mystery with no strain to the overworked brain.

I finished Dead City which I read for Challenge #20: Ugly Cover Art. It was a quick reading zombie thriller that really had nothing new to add to the myth of zombies. I have one more to complete for the month, The White Brigand for Madeline's Challenge. It's quite short so I should be able to get through it quickly.

CONTEST!

Don't forget to vote in our end-of-the-month contest!

We're voting for the book with the WORST cover art!

Wait until the end of the month. Then please send me (SqueakyChu) a private message (and don't forget to mark it private) with your selections for the book covers you think are the three worst.

Here's the thread with the pictures:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/117082#2747074

Here are the contenders:
1.The Captive Mind - Czeslaw Milosz
2.The Dark World - Henry Kuttner
3.Dead City - Joe McKinney
4.Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
6.Hit List - Laurell K. Hamilton
7.Nathan's Run - John Gilstrap
8.We Can Build You - Philip K. Dick

I'm not going to vote since I'll be seeing everyone else's votes. I do think that one is the most horrid. I'll tell you which one I'd be voting for when the contest is over.

Take the rest of the week to mull over these dreadful book covers. :)

Insomnia last night, so I finished reading Fresh Tracks for the Lambda Award challenge. Ugh. Sort of enjoyable light reading, but the writing is so mediocre!

Still, I think that makes five six completed TIOLI reads for me in June. A PR for me.

Is anyone else obsessively watching for the July TIOLI thread to appear? I may need some sort of intervention...

Yes, obsessively watching here too.

The first time I'm being obsessive about it, but me, too.

#238 Yep, this time every month, I get anxious about it. Miss it for even just a couple of hours after it's gone up, and you IMMEDIATELY fall behind by 100 posts or more. Sheesh.

Which reminds me, I'd better go check for it again now...

Oh, good, I'm not alone.

I am so busy all the time that I never think to check for the new TIOLI thread. Now I need to start being obsessive like everyone else.. :)

The bad news is that it pained me to remove two planned reads from the wiki. One was a shared read with AnneDC. Sorry, Anne.

The good news is that I am adding two shorter books that I have checked out from the library and that happen to fit challenges. The first addition is the novella for Ch. 21, The Old Man and the Sea. It's a reread for me and I upgraded my opinion of it and wrote a short review. Next up: Radioactive which looks delightful.

And yes, I am eagerly watching to see the new thread for July to pop up!

Still obsessively checking. Had to remind myself that, being in New Zealand, we're a day ahead--it's Wednesday morning here. And that means I have an extra day to finish Two Lives by William Trevor. (Author who shares my father's name).

New Zealand has an extra day in June?

I have to admit, I'm not wandering too far from the computer just in case the July TIOLI challenges get posted. I think Madeline waits until we are in a frenzy, so hopefully it won't be too long now.

#246: No, we don't have an extra day in June. We're just a day ahead. So for us, July's challenge won't start until the 2nd. The extra day is just in my head. It's just nerves. The weekend is coming. I need to order books from the library and they won't start arriving until at least the 4th. And I've got appointments today until well after noon. Clearly, I've worked myself into an odd headspace.

I've been wondering myself. I'll probably be AFK when she does get around to posting.

Thank you, fellow obsessives! I thought I was really, really losing it...at least, if we are, we have company.

There's so much information in i before e except after c, but this one little tid bit is worth the read even if there were nothing else. StalaCtites come down from the Ceiling, and stalaGmites come up from the Ground. I'm 65 years old and had never devised a mnemonic to tell them apart. I can die happy now.

Jeanne - the July challenge starts on the 1st for us as we all adhere to our own timezones. We'll just have less leadup time than those in the Americas.
I'm also champing at the bit for the July challenge to appear.

#215 Thanks so much for mentioning that book! I was really hoping they would have that at the municipal library system, but no. I may just have to buy it, because with my terrible memory, mnemonics really come in handy. I just checked it out on BookDepository and see there's a whole series of these books. Do you reckon i before e is worth purchasing?

I think i before e is worth purchasing just for those little bits of info you have on the tip of your tongue but can't get out and they drive you crazy. What are the 5 Great Lakes from west to east: Sally Made Henry Eat Onions - Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. East to west it's Old Elephants Have Much Skin. What do you put on a sting? Use Ammonia for a Bee sting and Vinegar for a Wasp sting. B follows A and W follows V. ( I had no idea they were different bases of venom). Some of the information wasn't interesting to me, but some of it is priceless, well, priceless if the book doesn't cost too much.

#252: Thanks for clearing that up for me, Kerry. Of course, now I'm totally unlikely to finish Two Lives in time.

I was at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game this afternoon and thought that, for sure, I'd return home to a July TIOLI thread but no such luck. It has to be soon, doesn't it?

>256 lindapanzo: One would think so. I was sure it would be posted while I was out this afternoon too. I returned to the same disappointment.

I've been watching this thread for so long my eyes are like this o.0

#232 Glad to hear that you liked the Ellen Hart book. I love this series, too.

July TIOLI has to be soon. We're running out of days. Just 51 hours left this month, here.

I wonder if Madeleine is sitting at her computer right now, laughing her a$$ off.... :)

...drunk on her own sense of power. :)

Or maybe she has a real life? Less than 45 hours of June left here in London.

I am resigned to falling asleep in front of my PC waiting....

I vote for a set time for opening the next month...I need my sleep!

Sometimes Madeline doesn't post the new thread here right away. Sometimes ,egads, she makes you look for it. Just saying.

#264 - Yup. Trust me - I'm looking :)

I found the first page of the wiki, but it just says: DO *NOT* START POSTING YOUR CHALLENGE ON THE WIKI UNTIL SQUEAKYCHU POSTS THE FIRST CHALLENGE. HAVE PATIENCE. IT WILL BE HERE SOON!

I could be catching up on other threads, but I know as soon as I turn my eyes away, it will get posted.

***sigh*** As soon as I close my eyes, I know that Madeline will slip in and post.

Okay, I'm so glad to hear that others are skimming, skimming, skimming for the July TIOLI thread. Poor Madeline, so much pressure! I can't wait for a new set of challenges.

... to think I spent all my childhood feeling ashamed about being a nerd. Where were all you guys back then when I needed you, eh? :-P

eta: ok, no new thread yet. I've stayed up as long as I could, and I just know next time I log in, the new thread will already be filled wall-to-wall with new challenges, but so be it. See you all on the other side!

Ilana, we were also hunkered down, hiding out (literally or figuratively) from our peers and hoping it would get better.
Thank goodness it did.

Yes - I, too, am going to join my cat in taking a nap!

This is sad . . . We're all hopeless!

*no sign of it yet*

We are sad. We are hopeless, but I think I'm going to call it a night, at least on the TIOLI lookout front. Maybe read instead and hope that there aren't hundreds of posts by the time I discover the July TIOLI on Wednesday.

Insomnia. Again. Almost 4am here on the west coast. Did some work email and thought "why not check to see if the July thread is up?"

Pathetic bunch of need-to-get-a-life souls we are.

I guess I will go and finish one of my June books while I wait.

Amazing! I didn't sleep through it! Still waiting....

Just had another look - still not there, unless I missed it...

I can't believe it's still not posted.

We're all in a fever pitch waiting for Madeline....
I'm ready to tell what my Challenge is for July so people can be looking at their shelves while we wait. Anybody want a peek?

I've got one this time too. I guess we'd better wait on Madeline or we'll all be in trouble!

I haven't seen Madeleine on LT in the last two or three days ... has anybody?

I hope she's alright.

281 I had the same thought, but she was just posting on this thread last night about the ugly covers contest--before we all went into an obsessive frenzy.

I really should look at those time stamps:)

Ah well back to waiting.

281> I had the same thought last night. Here we are all being impatient addicts, and I hope she's okay.

I also hope I'm looking in the right place for the July thread. I figure "Hot Topics" under "Talk" is pretty safe.....

Last night, I thought she was messing with us, and giving another time zone a chance to get in with their challenges. But this morning, I'm worried about her.

#285 I hope everything's ok, too.

My plan for the afternoon is to sit in the shade with a cold bottle of water and the latest Women's Murder Club mystery so this should ensure something.

No more checking for me.

I'm sure (I hope) Madeline is fine. She just likes posting the new thread in her own good time. Plus, she, unlike people like me, actually has a job and a family that keep her busy. I think not knowing when she'll post the new thread makes the whole thing that much more exciting.

Ok. I've just checked for it for what I promised myself is the *last* time. Meanwhile, I'll try to finish another book for June.

#285, 286, 287: I guess all of us have begun to wonder if something has happened in Madeline's life. I hope all is well.

Something is up with our water pump, and I'm sure that will be occupying my day...We have plenty of water in the tanks but it's not coming into the house. I'm glad that when I woke up at 4am I resisted the urge to check the July wiki and went back to sleep instead.

Into the last day of June here in NZ and I'm hoping still (deluded) to be able to finish The Long Song for Darryl's Caribbean challenge. At least it will fit Orange July if I don't get it done.

Well, I'm hoping Madeline is OK, and just decided she would go off on holiday and let the rest of us stew...

We may have to find the detectives on here to locate Madeline if she doesn't turn up soon.

I know that she lives in the same area I do, but I don't know her last name, so I can't check on her.

Guys, there's still another day left in June, and she may just be taken up with other things at the moment, so I wouldn't start worrying too much at this point.

You're right, Ilana. I know when my job gets busy & stressful, it's really hard to check in on LT very much. I'm sure she's just busy. I guess we aren't her top priority. Hard to believe, but there you have it.

I've never posted a challenge before and I want to post one in honor of my cat Edgar, so I'm particularly focused on it this month.

To allay my own worries, I just went back and peeked to see when Squeaky posted her past new monthly threads for 2011.

Jan - 12/27
Feb - 2/1
Mar - 3/5
Apr - 3/28
May - 4/28

So, even though we've come to expect the 28th, she marches to her own schedule. I think I may live through this after all!

I finished i before e except after c a delightful book that, alas, has no index. Now I'll start my last book for the month 84 Charing Cross Road.

#294: Oooh, Edgar. I'm liking the sound of that, Ellen!

I finally finished I Hotel this morning for the single letter or number in the title challenge, and am wrapping up Kitchen Confidential for the workplace challenge, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim for the Lambda Awards challenge, and Tennis Shoes for the books about tennis challenge. (If I hadn't spent today checking for a new thread every five minutes or so, I might have finished at least one by now.)

But I removed A Distant Mirror A House for Mr. Biswas and Annabel because I clearly wasn't going to finish either one in June, and All Quiet on the Western Front, Sea of Poppies, and Brooklyn, none of which I even managed to start. Can't wait to see whether any of them fit into July challenges!

So very sorry, gang! We had a very rough rainstorm last night that took my computer access down for 24 hours. It just now came back up.

I'm not quite ready to post the newest TIOLI challenge yet, but I promise it will be up very, very soon. I just have to get it organized.

I, thankfully, am okay. I appreciate your concern.

Very glad you're OK, Madeline. For some reason, I never thought about computer problems being the issue but then I tend to be a worst case scenario kind of person.

Glad to hear that you're ok, Madeline. Now we can rest easy.

As long as YOU are OK, the challenges can wait -- until the 2nd, if need be! (It will teach us all a lesson about patience -- maybe.)

We're just glad to hear from you. We may be "chomping at the bit," but we were concerned about you! Glad to know you are okay, and we'll just keep waiting.

I saw the new thread!!

Glad to hear from you too Madeline. But my past experience with the blogging world has taught me that lots of things can go funny sometimes, which is usually not cause for alarm. No computer access for 24 hours must have been maddening though!

eta: eeeeek! just saw the above message. *zips away*

So glad that you are ok Madeline, I'm surprised you didn't feel all the thought waves that we were directing at you. Isn't it amazing how much we anticipate the TIOLI Challenges!

Holy Moly! I just checked and there's 43 messages on the July thread already - I better get over there .....

Holy Moly! I just checked and there's 43 messages on the July thread already

LOL!! I was just imagining all of you wondering where I was...and there was nothing I could do but wait patiently until the computer access was back on.

We're glad you showed up when you did, Madeline. We were about to put out a missing persons report on you!

I finished and reviewed my last June TIOLI book for Challenge 12. I don't read much NF and I hardly ever touch a graphic book so Radioactive was way out of my comfort zone. I liked it!

I ended up reading 7 TIOLI books for June. Now I have some decisions to make for July.

I finished Jacob de Zoet last night, and am hoping to finish another work in progress - Just my Type - by the end of today, if I can fit it in around an evening meeting.

Genny - Suzanne has a typography challenge for the July TIOLI if you don't get it done in time.

For the Caribbean Challenge, I managed to squeeze in The Long Song with 2 hours to spare last night, I didn't really like it too much though. Please to have this off my tbr pile as I got a copy soon after it first came out.

Here's my suggestion for what to do if my computer ever goes out on me again at the end of the month:

If there is no new TIOLI challenge posted by midnight of the last day of the month, anyone please start a temporary thread in the new month to talk about your challenges. Then when I appear (from wherever I might be), I can make it all legitimate.

I hope this situation never happens again, but one never knows. I know that your TIOLI passion cannot be controlled past the end of the month!

:D

There was definitely a lot of passion around seeing the July thread . . . How fun is that?

Yeah...haha I think we were all a couple hours shy of showing up at your house and knocking on your door Madeline and asking what was happening to the challenges this month. :D

> 313

LOL!!

July's new challenges are great, aren't they? If they come out this good every month, I'll probably disappear again... ;-)

What a cruel threat! :D

Hehe!

I am not going to get Cereus Blooms at Night or 1633 read for this month's TIOLI challenge, so I have already taken them off the wiki.

I finished the delightful 84 Charing Cross Road with a couple of hours to spare, then I had to immediately watch Winter's Bone (somewhat less uplifting) before I could post. So, that's it for June.

So, that's it for June.

...and, with no time to spare, you're off into the wild blue yonder of July's challenges. Have fun, Joyce!

I missed! I finished my book at 2 am. Fortunately, it will fit a July challenge, so I'm off to a good start for July...

Happy July, Ivy!

I'm going to have to pull sooooo many books off the June wiki- it was not a good TIOLI month for me.

So I had to take down "only" two books, but I've found challenges for them in July, so all is good. I say "only" because usually I end up having to take down lots more than that, but I was conservative about listings in June. July is a whole different story. I think I may have to grow an extra set of eyes to get even half of what I've listed already completed, but that's half the fun! :-)