Take It or Leave It Challenge - December 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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Challengers, you all know that you had too easy of a time of adding books to the past month’s main challenge so I’m going to make it a bit harder for you this month. Please read through this entire message carefully so that you correctly follow the “rules” of this month’s challenge.

Your challenge for December is to read a book whose author’s first and last initials are “stepped”. Let me explain.

You take the first letter of the previous author’s last name and make that the first letter of your author’s first name.

Clear as mud? Here’s an example:

Beach Music - Pat Conroy (P/C) – lyzard
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (C/D) – avatiakh
Truman - David McCullough (D/M) – pbadeer
The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart (M/S) – SqueakyChu
(Your book goes here by an author whose first name starts with "S")

Do you see a pattern starting to emerge? That’s the challenge. Here are the rules:

1. No books are to be removed from this challenge once they are placed there. I will remove them when I do the monthly stats.
2. IMPORTANT: You may NOT use an author with the same initial for both first and last name.
3. You may ask for help to get a book you want to read onto this challenge by posting a message on the main thread. However, no books should be listed as “place holders”. All books listed should be books that you really hope to read this month. If you can’t get to them or later decide to “leave” them, that’s okay. You know in your heart what you really would like to read in December. Note: there is no such thing as TIOLI police! :)
4. IMPORTANT: You may NOT post two books of your own back-to-back. Someone else’s book must always be listed between two of your own.
5. Use capital letters of the first and last name in parenthesis (example: F/L) after the author’s name when listing your book so it’s clear what the next letter should be. It might get confusing otherwise. If a listing is done wrong, the progression of this challenge gets a bit messed up (as we already know!).
6. Matching books (shared reads) can be entered at any time withour regard to the "rules".

Have fun!

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

1. The December 2011 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. I Know I'm a TIOLI Addict When... - Frog Logo is on this page!
3. Morphidae's List of Previous TIOLI Challenges - You may use this reference (Do a control-F scan) to avoid repeating a previous challenge. If your idea is similar to a previous challenge, just make it unique by adding a new "twist" to it. (Updated 12/9/11)

Wiki Index:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose author’s first and last initials are “stepped” alphabetically.
2. Read a book with gods, deity, or celestial beings in the title
3. Read a book by Anne McCaffrey
4. Read one of the oldest books on your TBR - thread
5. Read a book with Christmas or a word that can be formed using letters in Christmas
6. Read a book that has the exact same title as another book on LT - thread

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book with "last" or "final" in the title
8. Read a book whose title includes a person, place, or thing mentioned in the Nativity story in Luke 2:1-20
9. Read a book about books - thread
10. Read a book about a human-animal bond - thread
11. Read a book about a holiday "character" who is NOT Santa Claus
12. Read a book with a family member in the title BUT different from the previous entry

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book by an author with a surname of four syllables
14. Read a book (fiction or non-fiction) which includes letters/correspondence
15. Read a book with 5 or fewer reviews
16. Read a book published after 1900 about authors, works or characters in 19th century literature
17. Read a book (fiction or non-fiction) in which alcohol or alcoholism is one of the major themes
18. Read a book for your 11 in 11 challenge (name the category)

Challenges #19-24
19. Read an Early Reviewers Book that You Did NOT Win - thread
20. Read a book with the word 'time' or a description of time in the title
21. Read, as your last book, the first author you read on TIOLI this year

No more new challenges until January - please and thanks!

Thanks for moving us. It's too cold out there to be thrown out of our tents.

I've just finished Disobedience and am so impressed with this author's first novel. I hadn't known what it was about except Jews in London. My, this is a deeply contemplative book about Judaism in general the nature of obedience, creation, words, silence, sexuality, community and how to live in the world. I have to check to see what Naomi Alderman has written since. I was surprised to see that she still lives in Hendon which is the London neighborhood of which she writes. Hm, I wonder how that works.

Now I'm going to make one last try at The Art of Racing in the Rain. I think the dog needed to read Alderman's book. He so discontented with his station in life.

My star didn't carry over from the other thread. Glad I found this one! Is this a bug that we need to report or did you not do the "continue" thing?

*guilty*

Er, I didn't do the "continue" thing. Does the "continue" thing carry over the star?

Yes it does, Madeline. Very useful:)

I just added Whistlejacket to challenge 15, to read a book with fewer than 5 reviews. It had none until I put my two cents in. I almost put it in the human-animal bond challenge, but the bonds are not quite the center of the book, and are talked about from a distance. I think this fits better in 15.

I picked up Wishful Drinking today for challenge #17.

Oh, come on!

After re-starting Madeline's challenge, now I see we've circled back to exactly the same point: stalled on an author of first initial 'F."!

I'm really not sure how much Faith Baldwin I can get through this month... :)

Madeline, I've been proselytizing on so many people's threads about the 'continue thread' thing, and obviously hadn't visited yours recently. This feature was invented for us 75ers basically, with Zoe heading the movement. It'll really really really simplify all our lives greatly if everyone who keeps needing to start new threads uses it from now on, so please please please consider doing in future too, I BEG you!

Phew. Ok. Now that's done, I'd like to say I finished The Haunted Bookshop and since I was inspired to read it and Parnassus on Wheels by Donna, have to say that I generally agree with her about both books. The first book was loads of fun, and the second book... was kind of a slog, actually. Through I am glad I downloaded it on Project Gutenberg and gave my iPhone yet a new role in my life as an eReader, and discovered in the process that I can stop shopping around for other electronic devices for such purposes.

I've started on The Ghost Road by Pat Barker (#6) and Silesian Station by David Downing (#15) and will soon be joining other for A Christmas Carol as soon as I'm done with the former, which I'm listening to on audio. I've also gotten the audio version of the Dickens classic, read by Tim Curry, which should be a nice treat.

Also started on The Chronicles of Harris Burdick, which I'll be listing in challenge #15 (3 reviews at present), and am making progress on Seymour Chwast's The Canterbury Tales which I'll be adding to challenge #5.

I BEG you!

Okay. Now that you've *begged*. :)

I finished The Art of Racing in the Rain and think I liked it even less than I did the first time. Why in the world is this book so popular? I guess I have to give Garth Stein his due, he's great at manipulating emotions. Now, I'm back to Hark! A Vagrant.

Phew! When is anyone finding time to read this month? Just keeping up with a couple of threads on LT is all I have for!

I just finished Parnassus on Wheels today and I LOVED it. I've got Haunted Bookshop requested, but I had to go through ILL for this one, too, as my library doesn't have either of them. Thanks, once again, to TIOLI!

Karen O.

I finished Silesian Station today and started on A Christmas Carol, my first time! Am listening to the audio version performed by Tim Curry, who managed to make me laugh out loud a couple of times just with the first chapter!

I plan on starting on North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell after and join the group read... but I'm suddenly wondering whether it's even been listed or actually fits a TIOLI challenge this month? Oh please let it be so!

eta: Ok *big sigh of relief*, just saw it listed under challenge #18!

#15 Yup, North and South fits one of my 11 in 11 categories, so by all means join in with a match.

I have just finished Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock (a book with under five reviews.) It was fascinating and I couldn't put it down.

Somewhere in my travels around LT, someone was wondering if the ER book The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi would fit any of the TIOLI challenges. I've put it in Challenge Six - Duplicate Title Listing.

Quick Reads Day* - December 20th - Which books do you suggest?

My suggestion is:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - It's short, weird, and a fun read.

*books that are short, good, and have already been COMPLETED by at least 1 person

For quick read completed by at least 1 person I'd recommend:
completed by 3 people: No One Noticed the Cat - Anne McCaffrey

Well, I guess that's all I can recommend for short quick reads. Short quick reads can mean different things to different people.

No One Noticed the Cat is only 144 pages and I read it in one sitting. Compared with Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer which took me a whole day to complete, and is 320 pages (Devil's Cub is in challenge 2). I'd also recommend Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer, which I completed and will add to Challenge 6 tomorrow night. That one is only 288 pages, but took me 3 days to complete (mostly because it ran into a weekend and I tend to not read on the weekend as much as I do during the week). So, short quick reads depends on reading speed. Because of that I'd leave it as recommending No One Noticed the Cat.

Madeline, it looks like the book I planned to read for your Challenge isn't going to arrive before Christmas. Since I am going away on the day after Christmas, I won't be able to fit it in. Should I leave it on the Wiki or remove it?

Recommended Quick Read is A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.

If you want to listen to it read by Dylan Thomas himself this is the online link that I used - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfpf66_dylan-thomas-a-child-s-christmas-in-wale.... just under 20 minutes, can't get much quicker than that:)

and here is the online text http://www.bfsmedia.com/MAS/Dylan/Christmas.html

> 20

Should I leave it on the Wiki or remove it?

It needs to stay on the wiki until at least the end of the month, so leave it there for now. I'll remove it in January when I do the monthly stats.

P.S. For any challenge whose list is not in alphabetical order, let me remove those books that are not COMPLETED when I do the monthly stats - as removing them early disturbs the unique way such challenges are set up. Thanks!

P.P.S. Lots for me to do this month will have the stats and awards running late this month. Sorry!

For an enjoyable, but quick read, I'd suggest Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast by Bill Richardson.

This is a delightful little novel about two 50-something brothers, fraternal twins, who own and operate a B&B, on an island near Vancouver, that's a book lover's paradise. After reading this, I want to go to a haven for book lovers, like this one.

I've completed a few TIOLI books so far this month including the ones needed to finish my 11in11 challenge.
I've had to return some library books as they had holds on them and so no chance to renew them, a shame as I was really enjoying Twelve minutes of love: a tango story by Kapka Kassabova. Still I'm happy that I can now listen to some tango music and watch Carlos Saura's 'Tango' again in prep for getting the book in the New Year.

No quick read suggestions apart from endorsing No one noticed the cat. This was quick, fun and reminded me of what a great storyteller McCaffrey was. On the strength of that read I requested another of her YA books from the library, Black horses for the king, an Arthurian tale.

I would like to echo the recommendation for A Child's Christmas in Wales and also recommend Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. It's a fun, light, quick read, but there's quite a bit to think about, too.

Karen O.

Seconding Parnassus on Wheels - that was a fast read, and quite enjoyable. Hogfather is also a pretty quick read, a good seasonal read if you don't mind a bit of cynicism/satire thrown in.

> 23

I second Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast. It's hard to believe that B&B doesn't really exist somewhere!

TIOLI stats for November:

In the month of November, there were 18 challenges (a lowish number) in which 582 books were read. Of these, 146 (25%) were shared reads. These reads accumulated 76 TIOLI points bringing us to a new YTD record of 928 TIOLI points. Can we make it to 1,000 by year's end? We shall see!

The most popular book in November was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by the absolutely hilarious author Sherman Alexie. This book was shared by 10 readers.

The most popular challenge was the one by me (SqueakyChu) to read a book with at least one animal mentioned on page 50. There were 124 books read for that challenge. How did so many of you find so many animals hiding on page 50 of that many books?!

The challenge with the highest number of TIOLI points (11) was the one by kidzdoc to read a book by a Native American author. Did you notice how many books by Sherman Alexie alone were read for his challenge?

Soon to come...the awards for November...

Some of us may just have to start our own equivalent of the bed & breakfast we love through Richardson's book! If anyone finds one, you'll have to let the rest of us know about it!

> 30

Wouldn't that be fun?! We could stop by to give our own book recommendations. We could even have an Official Bookcrossing Zone there. :D

I finished Merle's Door for the human-animal bond challenge. Not only does one but two dogs die; however the deaths are portrayed so accurately they were beautiful. Merle's reminded me much of the way we all interacted with my mother at the end of her life. There are great descriptions of the human animal bond and of the outdoors, just a little too macho for me to give it 5 stars. I also finished The Crystal Singer which was very heavy on science fiction. An enjoyable story. Now I'll start listening to Making the Rounds With Oscar which I've heard is about a real cat in a nursing home who snuggles up to people when they are dying. I'll also start reading, finally, Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs by Caroline Knapp.

I'll second the praise for A child's Christmas in Wales - I suspect that one will become a tradition in my house at Xmas - beautifully narrated by the author.

I've managed two Austen sequels - Mr Darcy's daughters by Elizabeth Ashton and Death comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. I should now be telling you how much better the P.D. James was - but, actually, they were pretty similar - both light and with an affectionate approach to their characters. I would never have guessed that P.D. James wrote the latter one, without her name on the spine! However, both were fun, entertaining reads.

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore was a piece of SF fluff, I thought. An OK read, but not much to it. It failed to reconcile the traumas of starting a new high-school with the whole "aliens about to destroy the earth" sub-plot.

I also finished My Antonia by Willa Cather - a lovely tale of pioneers in the Wild West - simple and charming. I perhaps preferred her Death comes for the Archbishop, but it was an engrossing read.

November TIOLI Awards

Here they are, folks!

The Darling Award goes to jolerie for finding the best inscription in the book she chose for wandering_star’s challenge to read a book in which someone has written. The message in the book, Saving Fish from Drowning, said “Enjoy My Love 12/27/07”. Isn’t that sweet?!

The Great Menagerie Award goes to calm for finding a total of seventeen (!) animals on page 50 of the book The Crystal Cave, a book completed for the challenge to read a book with at least one animal mentioned on page 50. That's quite a zoo!

The You Helped Me Out Award goes to elkiedee who found a book with a blank page 50. That was most likely the only book (in the world, maybe?) which didn’t fit into my challenge to read a book with an animal on page 50! So much for my “tight” challenges. Harumph!! I’ll have to do better in the future.

The Hundred Book Merit Award goes to cyderry for announcing that she read 100 TIOLI books this year. It’s not that others have not also done so, but it’s just that she was the first person to count them and announce it on our main thread! It certainly pays to advertise.

Congrats to our award winners!

I'd like to thank all the participants in my "mystery published before you were born" challenge for really getting into the spirit of it with some great old books. I also have a couple of awards:

The Person We Love To Hate Award goes to Laurie (lahochstetler) for being able to read a mystery published as late as 1976, Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder.

The A Lady Doesn't Tell Award goes to Heather (souloftherose) for best disguising her age by reading The Mysteries Of Udolpho, originally published in 1794. (And bonus points for enjoying it!)

Hooray for Liz!

I love the idea of ad hoc awards*. Other challengers, please feel free to add your own awards for November!!

*now making this a permanent part of TIOLI...*

ETA: New TIOLI rule:

"On the day that the Monthly Awards are announced, any other challenger may make similar awards to others. It's all in fun!"

Heh heh heh- 1976 was only one year before my birth! I'm always safe with counted Christie as before my time as she died in the same year I was born.

If it makes anyone feel better my students think I'm terribly old.

I finished Making Rounds With Oscar for my human-animal bond challenge, but it is more a book about dementia and end of life care than an animal book. There are 2 more animal books I want to get done before the end of the year, would someone volunteer to come over and cook and wrap presents for me, please?

I'll volunteer to come over and eat! :)

(...so that you won't have any leftovers!)

Thanks so much, Madeline, but I don't mind doing that part myself.

Just thought I'd offer...

As usual, Madeline, you're too kind. I'll eat a popcorn ball in your name, after I finish my eggplant lasagna.

I'd wrap your presents for you. I absolutely LOVE to wrap presents.

I finish my eggplant lasagna.

Okay. Don't share your eggplant Parmesan with me then. I'll just stay here at home and eat my kugel. (Really!)

Is anyone else having a hard time thinking up new challenges? It has taken me two weeks to finally come up with a challenge that I think will be fun for January.

Are we running out of them? Eeek!

For anyone who hasn't been following Jim's 75ers thread for 2012, let me point you to message # 52 on that thread where Cheli has come up with a new tee shirt design for the 2012 75-ers group. It's very cute!

It is cute!

I'm going out of town on December 26th and won't be back until after the New Year sometime. I'm going to miss the new 2012 Group reveal as well as the TIOLI Challenges. I am having withdrawal pains already!

I am having withdrawal pains already!

LOL!

>45 SqueakyChu: Nah. I have a list of about 2 dozen that I'm working from. But they are probably too basic for your challenges. I'll send you my list. See if any kick start an idea for you.

Also, check out http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/ - it might also help with coming up with ideas.

>45 SqueakyChu: I have one for January; I'll send you a PM shortly.

I have one ready to go.

>45 SqueakyChu: and others following - I also have one in mind for January. But like Judy, I'm going to be away for the end of this year and beginning of next, so January 2/3 is going to be soooo much catch up... :)

I just posted three books for Challenge #5 - books with Christmas in the title. I read A Christmas Carol, A Child's Christmas in Wales, and The Father Christmas Letters. Many thanks to Mary/bell7 for posting about The Father Christmas Letters. I had never heard of it and absolutely loved this collection of letters and drawings that Tolkien sent to his children when they were growing up.

>54 porch_reader: Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I thought it was a cute collection, one that would've been even more fun if I could have shared it with a child.

Madeline, is it alright if my December reads aren't updated 'til January 2nd or 3rd? I'm going to be on vacation, and promise I will only add books or add COMPLETED to books actually finished before midnight on December 31st! :)

> 5

Madeline, is it alright if my December reads aren't updated 'til January 2nd or 3rd? I'm going to be on vacation,

That's perfectly fine, Mary. Enjoy the holiday season and your vacation!

Lahochstetler, thanks for the offer. I can't believe anyone actually likes wrapping presents, but then I like tofu. People can be weird.
Madeline, I not only have one for January but several more after that. There's always a topic I want to read about. I do love TIOLI.

Actually, Joyce, I do like wrapping presents as well. This year, I have very few presents to wrap because my husband's family decided (finally!!) to do away with presents for all except the youngest kids. We bring food instead! I'm doing the cookies...

I'm a little surprised I'm the only person who has read (or admitted to reading) How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Night Before Christmas for challenge #5. Good short reads which practically define the Christmas holiday.

Can't wait for the new challenge to post - I've got plenty of new ideas for the new year!

Oh, and I think I see a book-shaped gift under the tree with my name on it...

59> I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other evening; I wonder if I could count that as an audio(video)-read? ;-)

59> We usually read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve so I may be joining you. And the Grinch, too, if we have time, though we did already watch the movie earlier this month.

To all my fellow TIOLI addicts, wishing you all the very best!

I'll have to add Mog's Christmas to Challenge 5, though I haven't persuaded Danny to read Harry and the Dinosaurs Make a Christmas Wish!

I have my challenge ready for January 2012.

> 60

I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other evening; I wonder if I could count that as an audio(video)-read? ;-)

I see your wink so I know you're kidding, but, just so others don't get confused, the answer is no.

By the way, have you heard of Morphidae's TIOLI movie challenges thread? If not, take a look.

January TIOLI is up on the 2012 group!

:)

> 65 I was, indeed, kidding but if you'd said yes, I'd have done it. :-)

> 69

if you'd said yes, I'd have done it

LOL!!

I finished Petals of Blood for December challenge #15 --- it's a really remarkable novel of post-Independence Kenya written by a Kenyan

---- and now I'm trying to find the new 2012 group!

Oh, and I'm still going to try to complete Half of a Yellow Sun for the December challenge, but if I can't get it completed, I think it can count for Orange January.

I finished Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert for the 11/11 challenge. Other than that, I may finish one or two more books, but as I'm trying to finish A Clash of Kings before the new year, it doesn't leave room for much else. I'm sad to report that I won't have read L'Assomoir for my own challenge. Booooo!

I'd like to thank bell7 for the challenge to read books with less than 5 reviews, which allowed me read the Canadian books that came in to the library for me in December, like Tide Road and The Canterbury Trail, or for other assorted obscure Canadian reads, like Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields and Extreme Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean.

I just finished Pack of Two. After a slow start, for me, Caroline Knapp hits her stride and again can talk about the world and our place in it by concentrating on one topic, this time the love of her dog Lucille. What a wonderful writer she was. Now on to my last animal book for the month, A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life by Steven Kotler.

Dear TIOLI challengers,

As this year comes to an end, I hope all of you have been enjoying a happy and safe holiday season. I would also like to extend my good wishes for the coming year 2012 (already?!).

Starting in January, the TIOLI challenges begin what will be the third year of what has become my very enjoyable hobby - that of surprising everyone with a new monthly TIOLI challenge and taking care of TIOLI maintenance throughout each month. What I especially like about the TIOLI challenges is that they are different from other challenges which stress people out by setting a target number of books. The TIOLI challenges also encourage challengers to talk to each other about books they're reading and even encourage reading the same ones at the same time. These challenges are all in fun.

I'm happy to report that, as veteran challengers drop out to try new territory on LT, new challengers join in. This makes for a very stable number of challengers and results in my ability to handle the updates that these challenges need during the year with little problem.

Of course, thise would never be possible without all of your participation and your creative ideas. I want to extend my sincere thanks to all who participate in the TIOLI challanges regardless of how few or how many books you read. It's fun from hearing from all of you (and sharing your reads!).

Best wishes to all as we move forth now into the eclectic TIOLI challenges of 2012!

Madeline

Reminders...

Today and tomorrow are TIOLI "clean-up days". Remember to COMPLETE the books you've finsihed reading in December and delete the books you will not have finished by tomorrow night (except for books in those challenges that are not in alphabetical order as I'll do those deletions when I do the monthly stats).

If you have ideas for any changes you'd like to see here, please drop a note about your ideas on this thread or next month's thread. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you have any complaints, please voice those as well. Hearing about such things may help us improve what we do.

One of the highlights of this year for me personally was having had the chance to meet up in real life with LTers. Please, if you have the chance, try to participate in some of these. This is not just a TIOLI "thing", but rather a celebration of the fantastic group of which we are a part (i.e. Jim's 75 Books Challenge). Of course, if you are a TIOLI challenger, that makes meeting you in person even better! :) Norabelle414 (who I'm hoping will be "leaping" into the TIOLI challenges in 2012) is planning another LT meet-up for sometime in the spring of 2012. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about this.

In the meantime, keep hoppin'!

Madeline, as I'm sure I've told you before, TIOLI is one of the highlights of the 75ers group for me. Aside from all the wonderful members to be found here of course!
Thanks so much for making TIOLI a part of our lives. I can't imagine going without it, as am quite the addict.

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Wishing you a Happy New Year, Madeline. I want to thank you for one of the high points of my year. I love TIOLI.

I'm with Ilana and Joyce:

((((((((((TIOLI)))))))))

I'll fourth that! My reading now revolves around TIOLI - out of more than 120 books last year, only two were not part of TIOLI. I am grateful to you and the rest of the TIOLI members for encouraging me to stretch into new areas, and I look forward to a great TIOLI 2012.

My reading also revolves around TIOLI . . . I'm currently at 172 for 2011, 168 of those fit into TIOLI challenges! Soooo much fun to match new challenges with potential reads and to see how creatively everyone else has done the same . . . I'm hopelessly addicted!

> 77, 78, 79, 80, 81

Thank you all, my fellow addicts! :)

Just throwing another big THANK YOU onto the pile, Madeline!

Much appreciated, Liz.

Happy New Year, Madeline! And thanks so much for everything you do! TIOLI rocks!!!

My pleasure, Nancy. Have a great 2012!

I finished what I thought was going to be my last animal book and my last book of the year A Small Furry Prayer and loved it so much I thought I'd try to fit one more in, Alex & Me. I'll see if I can finish with the help of the year end readathon.

I finished Black horses for the King, my 2nd Anne McCaffrey tribute read and have removed my unread listings that I so optimistically added at the beginning of the month.

Happy New Year to everyone

Happy new year, Madeline, and everyone doing the TIOLI thing! I've finished what will probably be my last book this year (A Discovery of Witches) and I just loved it! My reading has been so enriched and broadened by TIOLI and the 75-bookers. Here's to many more good reads in 2012!

Karen O.

Happy New Year to all my fellow TIOLI addicts. My last TIOLI book for the year was probably The Elephant's Journey, unless I finish Lassie Come-Home today, which is still a possibility.

I've only read a couple of books this year that were not TIOLI books--and I've read 235 books. Eagerly anticipating 2012.

Thank you Madeline and everyone else for making this so much fun. See you on the January thread.

I'm not quite going to finish Half of a Yellow Sun by midnight, so I'm moving it to a January challenge. It was another good month in a very good year of reading. Thanks, y'all!

I am NOT giving up on finishing my last TIOLI book of 2011. I'd much rather stay up late reading rather than partying!

Happy New Year to all the other TIOLI junkies out there! Thanks again for making this such a fun way to clear the shelves, Madeline.

Just finished my last book of the year. Happy New Year everyone and thanks so much for all your work Madeline.

I'm working to finish two final books- I'm on the west coast, so I still have four hours until January begins!

Yay! I FINISHED The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva for Challenge #21 with an hour to spare - I'm in the Central U.S. Time Zone. I think it is so cool to read books by the same author for the first and last books of the year that I may do it annually!

> 92, 93, 94

Best wishes for the New Year, Donna, Deseree, and Laurie!

Since I'm on Pacific Time I finished my last 2 books of the year with an hour to spare: Alex & Me and Parnassus on Wheels (a truly lovely little book). What a great way to end the year. Now I'll spend the rest of New Year's Eve drinking a decaf Almond Roca latte and trying to comfort my biggest dog who is terrified of the neighborhood fire works.

97> Neighborhood fireworks --> I worry about all the poor canines (and a few felines) for whom July 4 and December 31 are so scary. I hope your biggest dog is soothed by your presence.

Happy New Year to all.

Please follow me to the challenges for 2012. Enjoy!