Take It or Leave It Challenge - February 2013 - Page 2

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

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's your challenge for February 2013...

This challenge should have you scurrying off to your book shelves. It’s to read book with its last numbered page to include a "7"

Any book with 700 to 799 pages will work. Ha! Seriously though, so will books with 173 or 207 pages.

1. Don’t pay attention to the contents of the page. Only pay attention to the numbered sequence of the pages.
2. Disregard Roman numerals or any different or separate numbering system attached to the end of the book.
3. Use the last consecutive number that you see at the end of your book.
4. Don't make up numbers if they're not there!
5. Matching books can be used at any time.
6. E-books may be used *only* if page numbers do not change when changing font size.

List your books like this:
*Title (217) – Author - Userid

Quick! Now run off to your bookshelves to see which ones qualify for this challenge.

Most of all, have fun!

-----------------------------------

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

1. The February 2013 TIOLI Meter - Optional page on which you may track your TIOLI reading. FYI: This is not meant to be competitive - only fun!
2. 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 01/22/13)

Wiki Index

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose last numbered page includes a "7" - msg #1
2. Read a historical-fiction or non-fiction book about American History - msg #3
3. Read a book with a school subject in the title - msg #6
4. Read a book with a common SFF title word in the title - msg #4
5. Read a book whose title has only 4 of the regular 5 vowels (Y excluded) - msg #8
6. Read and review an unread book you received through ER or MG - msg #7 - thread

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book with an arthropod in the title or the author's name - msg #12
8. Read a book whose title that starts with the next letter available in the word "Washington" - msg #11
9. Read a book whose author shares their last name with a movie star/entertainer - msg #14
10. Read a book whose author shares a country of origin with a friend of yours (not your own) - msg #15
11. Read a book that contains recipes or has the word "Recipe" in the title - msg #18
12. Read a book whose subject, title or author's name is tied to the great classical civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome - msg #21

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a non-fiction book about a U.S. President that only deals with events that happened before or after his time in office - msg #19
14. Read a book with a vacation type of structure in the title - msg #22
15. Read a book wherein one of the major characters has the same first name as you - msg #36
16. Read a work of 20th/21st century Central or Eastern European literature - msg #28
17. Read a book that either won, or was nominated for, the Dilys Award - msg #29
18. Read a Family Saga - msg #35

Challenge #19-24
19. Read a book mentioned in a book you read in January - msg #44
20. Read a book whose author is called "of" somewhere or something - msg #56
21. Read a book with a Valentine's Day related cover - msg #62
22. Read a book mentioned in the LT "Top 5 of 2012" thread - msg #73
23. Read a book about a female monarch whose right to rule came from birth, not marriage - msg # 77
24. Read a book about music or musicians - msg #80

Challenge #25
25. Read a book where an animal figures prominently in the plot

Please hold all new challenges until the March, 2013, wiki goes up. Thank you!

Stats for the January, 2012, TIOLI Challenges:

In January, 2012, together we read 730 books (a nice number!), with 150 of those (22%) being shared reads. I hope each of you is taking the time to visit threads of others who share your reads to say hi and discuss the books you are reading together. Among our group, we reached 84 TIOLI points (not bad, but we can do better).

Our most popular book was When Christ and His Saints Slept which was shared by 7 readers.

Our most popular challenge was cyderry's challenge to read a book with the letter "B" somewhere n the title or author's name. That challenge had 127 books listed.

The challenge with the highest number of TIOLI points was lyzard's challenge to read a book by an author you hadn't heard of before you joined LibraryThing. That challenge got us 13 TIOLI points.

Coming soon...the Awards for January, 2012.

For Challenge 5 - missing vowel, I'm entering Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (missing O).

I'm hoping to put The Honour of the Queen by David Weber into Challenge 23 - queen regnant, if Samantha_kathy is alright with that?

>5 Samantha_kathy:: Hmm; to be honest, we never actually meet the queen, though she's in the title. Okay - I shall hunt for another home. Thanks for getting back so quickly!

For Challenge 18 - Family Saga, I'm adding Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time by Lisa Tracy

cammykitty--Is your challenge #25 with an animal in the plot only for fiction? Does plot=fiction? I'm hoping to be done with the nonfiction Spillover soon.

>4 humouress:: Suzanne, I see you've listed King's Man as an example for Challenge 12 (classical civilisations). Would you accept The Honour of the Queen too?

Finished another SFF title book: Der letzte Wunsch = the last wish, a Polish fantasy

and one for the recipe challenge: Schweinskopf al dente = Porc head al dente, the title IS a recipe, but there are also a few recipes at the of the book

Added:

Challenge #1 (Last page with 7)
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Challenge #4 (Common SFF Word)
Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey
Knights of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey
By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey

Challenge #9 (Last Name Entertainer)
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Challenge #10 (Country of Origin/Friend)
The Chronicles of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes

Challenge #20 (Author "of")
Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Challenge #21 (Valentine's Cover)
The Inconvenient Duchess by Christine Merrill

I spent the last week mostly in bed with a nasty virus, but was able to read three books. The Armada Boy, The Scorpio Races and The Help are being added to the wiki today as completed.

Morphy, By the Sword is one of my favorite Mercedes Lackey books!

hmm. In for my semi-weekly addition of my reads. Apparently John Grisham's The Confession meets no challenges. mmphs. I worked hard (not really) to see if I could make some form of arthropod in the title or author name. No other challenges seemed to work. And, sadly as far as I know, neither does arthropod.

Just finished No One Was Killed by John Schultz about the 1968 DNC in Chicago. I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet.

Ugh, I did so well last month, but I'm going to be lucky if I get one read in this month. First it was grad school application and now my body has betrayed me by turning into a germ factory, too sick to even read. And there were so many challenges I wanted to join. Sigh, next month I guess.

Just noticed that An Elegy For Easterly appears under two different challenges!

I know - I saw that, too. I would move mine, but I don't want to mess up the pattern in spelling out Washington.

> 17

too sick to even read

:(

Feel better soon, Michelle. The healthier you become, the more challenges you'll be able to complete next month. :D

I was thinking of sneaking Anna and the French Kiss into Challenge 19, because it mentions Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince ;0) - but that's a bit backwards.

I'll put it into Challenge 3 (school subject) instead.

Does this title: Engadiner Landschaften qualify for the vacation challenge (14. Read a book with a vacation type of structure in the title)? Landscapes of the Engadin. Steiner was a photographer and this books contains his photographs from the this holiday-wise interesting part of the Alps.

I finished and REVIEWED Guy Gavriel Kay's wonderful historical fantasy. That was for the Missing Vowel Challenge: Read a book whose title has only 4 of the regular 5 vowels.

Aaarrggghhh! The end of the month is coming up so quickly! (Read, read, read...)

Karen O.

I'm not sure if I put down here that I finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was for challenge #22.

Yesterday, I finished The Alloy of Law, which was for challenge #3.

I'm excited for next month's batch :)

I've added a Dutch novel to challenge #6, Komt een Vrouw bij de Dokter; it contains the word 'bij', which means 'bee', I hope this is ok for the challenge :)

Quickie Reads Day!

Let's hear your suggestions for any books already COMPLETED by someone and are quick, good reads to make matches before month's end!

I reread the Swiss German version of Der chly Prinz by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for challenge 20

>27 SqueakyChu:: A good, quick read for me, which I read for challenge 3, was The Alloy of Law. I think it took me about two days even though it was around 400 pages.

Etiquette and Espionage and The Hour of the Star are both quick reads, though very different from each other (personally, I liked the former best).

Well, I just finished Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman which meets Challenge # 5 - Read a book whose title has only 4 of the regular 5 vowels (Y excluded)

...and I repeat my comment after reading Death: the High Cost of Living...I don't get it. I really don't get it!

Review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/9347622/reviews/93236622

and, also for Challenge # 5

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling which I really enjoyed
Review will be up soon.

I also read Sandman! And it's definitely a quick read, and I loved it! Amazing, really...
Though I guess it's a certain taste, I know many people who don't like it at all...

>23 brenzi: How strange, Bonnie, you just raved about a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, and I just removed one, Tigana from the country of origin challenge because, after listening to less than one CD, I found absolutely nothing interesting about it. It always amazes me to find that the taste of other folk don't always agree with mine.

>33 Citizenjoyce: If I really love a book and then somebody else doesn't like it, I mentally always go like 'WHAT! How can you possibly not like that, that's a great book, how dare you say something negative about it!' and then of course I tell myself that different people have different tastes and that that's a good thing and that everybody has a right to their own opinion... But still, it almost feels like a personal insult when someone dislikes a novel that you really love... I guess I just get really involved with books that I love...

Read Orientexpress by Graham Green in honor his and a friend's home country.

AnneDC, I've joined you in challenge #8, the Washington challenge, to read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. I'm just half way through chapter 1, but I can see why you gave it 5 stars. It's full of fascinating information and connections.

The TIOLI Challenges proudly presents the Awards for January, 2013...

The It's The Quantity That Matters Award is shared by cbl_tn and Dejah_Thoris for reading Death in Cyprus, a book with a 13-letter title for my (SqueakyChu's) challenge to read a book with no duplicate letters in the title. That started out to be a tricky one, but we did end up with sufficient challengers finding books to read in that quest.

The You Do Euclid's Proof Award goes to Inge87 for reading Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873-1973 for elkiedee's challenge to read a book that has a prime number in the title. If you do want to prove these two are prime numbers, you can use this wikipedia article to find the theorem, or you can cheat (like I did) by looking them up on this prime number list.

The You're Not Old Enough Award goes to ccookie for reading Baby Animals for fuzzi's challenge to read a book that was originally published the year you were born. Cookie gets this award because she was born closest to the year in which I was born...but, alas, she's still not as old as I am yet! :)

The Much Obliged Award goes to countrylife for reading A Handbook of American Prayer for humouress's challenge to read a book by a new-to-you method or read a book obtained from a new-to-you source. The source of this book was Concord Free Press. If you're not familiar with this publishing concept, take some time to learn about it. I've also received books from this press, read them, and gave my donations. The works I've read from Concord Free Press were surprisingly good. I encourage others who've not tried this source yet to give it a go. Round Mountain, the last one I read, is excellent!

Congrats to our winners!

ooooh...I got an award!! Thanks, Madeline. Just a small error. I am ccookie who read Baby Animals. I only point it out because there is also a cookie. Wouldn't want people to get confused! ;-)

I also get you confused with crrcookie* who is my BookCrossing friend. Thanks for the correction!

*The more cookies in this world, the better, though. :)

I know it's too early to hope, but I'm ready for March TIOLI whenever Madeline posts. Wasn't sure how long it would take me with this new-fangled Operating System (Windows 8 - I hate it) but now I can breathe easier knowing that March TIOLI won't pass me by.

Our sympathies to you on Windows 8, Cheli. I'm seriously considering going Mac the next time I buy a computer. From what I hear about Windows 8, I may be onto something.

Thanks for the award! That was a fun challenge. It was pure coincidence that I was planning to read Death in Cyprus before you posted the January challenge.

Finished my "A" work for the Washington challenge - Alys, Always - it wasn't exactly what I expected, but I did find that I had to keep reading to figure out what was going to happen....

Completed Mary Queen of Scots by Susan Doran and Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. That completes my reading list for February! With a few days in the month left. 10 for the month, 20 for the year.

> 40

Glad someone else hates Windows 8 beside me. I don't think I'll ever figure out how to navigate through it. It is the most counter-intuitive computer predicament I've ever faced. :(

46> the absolutely perfect description.

Love your challenges. ;-)

Welcome, IrishHolger!

(PM sent)

Now I am just trying to figure out the nature of your rules so that I may dive in from next month on. Thanks for the info links.

My pleasure!

Haven't heard an answer to my question in post # 9 from cammykitty. Is she around? Will a nonfiction book revolving around animals work for challenge #25 or does it need to be fiction?

That's different. After posting her challenge on the wiki, she never posted a challenge description on either the first or second page of this thread. To me, it seems like you are left to try to interpret whether your book fits by what you can know from the challenge title. If you don't hear back from cammykitty, maybe Madeline can say.

> 52, 53

Try dropping her a private message. If you don't hear back from her, use your own judgment. If she doesn't exclude nonfiction in her challenge title, I would assume that nonfiction is okay.

We can take a vote! :)This is challenge #25:
Read a book where an animal figures prominently in the plot

Nonfiction works!!!

Thanks, cammykitty and all. I'm off to add it.

I have added some children's books to the following challenges:

5 - vowels: Pigs in the House by Steven Kroll and The Midsummer Banquet by John Patience

7 - arthropod: I Don't Want to Go by Justine Korman

Here is another for challenge #5:

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore
Review is here

Goodness - I'm off LT for the better part of a week and come back to find that I've won an award! Woohoo! I have to admit, though, that all the credit goes to Carrie - cbl_tn. If she hadn't posted Death in Cyprus, I never would have read it in January!

Today I am doing the sad task of removing a couple of books from the Wiki's that I can see I just won't get to this month. Overall though it's been a pretty successful reading month and I should end up with 15 books completed for the various challenges.

Madeline, thanks for mentioning the Concord Free Press. I've asked for the Vermont book. What a great idea!!

It *is* a terrific idea. You'll ove the Vermont book. The short stories are very well done. Let me know what you think of it when you finish.

You may also be interested in this LT thread which will enable LT members to pay it forward.

Is anyone else having trouble with the Wiki? I've been trying to access it much of the day -- can't get into it at all on my Mac; can get in (eventually, after very long delay) on my PC, but it won't let me change anything on that. ????

I haven't been able to get there this afternoon.

I can get to the wiki. It just takes a looooooooong time to load.

Added:

Challenge #1 (last page with 7)
Fifty Shades Freed by E. L. James

Challenge #5 (only 4 vowels)
Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey

Challenge #10 (Country of Origin)
Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough

Challenge #24 (music or musicians)
The Lark and the Wren by Mercedes Lackey

>37 SqueakyChu:, Somehow, in the midst of real life, I missed the awards too. But as a classics student in college, I will gladly accept my Euclid award for Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873-1973. My method was to figure out that 73 is prime and then check a chart to make sure that the larger numbers were also prime.

> 63, 64, 65

The tweet is out there about the wiki issue. It's being looked into now.

The wiki's back working now. Thanks for reporting the problem, folks!

i'm still locked out but will try in the a.m.

It now works for me, but, if you still have trouble in the morning, Suz, shoot an email to Tim or to Jeremy. Either of them should be able to work out whatever issue is keeping you from working on the wiki.

I'm definitely not going to be able to finish all the books I'd hoped to in February - of course, I don't think there's been a month during which I didn't have more planned than I could possibly read!

Challenge #4, (which I posted) was to read a book with one of 34 common SF&F title words in the title. As of tonight, there are books listed using 32 of the 34 words - the only ones missing are demon and wolf. I'm not too surprised about demon (although I can recommend Diana Rowland's Demon Summoner books) but I thought for sure there'd be a wolf title! Oh well.

In case anyone is interested in seeing the list again, here it is:
black, blood, blue, book, city, dark, dead, demon, dragon, dream, fire, gate, god, gold, heart, hunt, king, knight, light, last, lord, magic, man, moon, night, red, shadow, star, storm, sword, time, war, wolf, world

Well, this hardly happens for me, but at the end of the month I've found I finished the books I put on the wiki and am adding more! I just started the fairly short The Book That Changed My Life: INterviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists by Diane Osen for Challenge #4. (Sorry, Dejah, it's not a "wolf" or "demon" title! I have one of the former, but doubt I can finish it by Thursday)

I need your support and encouragement! I'm trying to finish Red Storm Rising by midnight Thursday (why did I pick a 700+ page book to read on the shortest month of the year????) and I'm at page 478 of 725 pages.

Root me on, please! :)

(Edit: the book has 725 pages, not 785!)

*** ROOT!! ROOT!! ***

Go, fuzzi! Go, fuzzi!

Yes!

I'm going to close the tab and READ...I'm proctoring examinations at work today, and just have to watch residents on computers until about 2pm... ;)

You can do it, fuzzi!

I am in the same boat--I have 300+ pages of A Clash of Kings left to finish, and I *really* would like to finish it for the February TIOLI. Good thing that the book is so plot-driven--I find it hard to put down, and the pages fly by.

Karen O.

Go, go, go, Fuzzi and Karen, I'm joining you in the boat. I'm determined to finish My Name is Red before the clock strikes midnight on the 28th. Read, read, read!

GO fuzzi , GO fuzzi!

Karen and Lynda -- you can do it!

The boat (or is that ship) for the 'I'm determined to finish ---' cruise is getting pretty full as I've hopped on board, too. I've got a non fiction book to finish which should be no problem; I've only got 70 or so pages to go. It's my ER book which I'm not all that crazy about for which I have another 300+ pages that I'm not all that certain I'll finish. I've already figured out what March TIOLI to put it in just in case....

I'm aboard the S/S I Need to Finish My Book, too. In my case it's The French Lieutenant's Woman (but it's not a TIOLI read).

Eek! March TIOLI? I didn't know.

That's what happens when you go on holiday.

For me the struggle is with The Orphan Master's Son. . . 200+ pages to go and having a hard time staying focused with the piles of TBR books staring me down!

Time to go and remove some books off the wiki :-(

Sadly two of the reads that I had to remove were shared... points lost for The Hobbit and Tigana both of which I am moving forward with but will definitely not finish by the end of the day tomorrow.

Oops, I shared The Hobbit with you, ccookie, and also Tigana, but I already removed that. I need to remove books also, alas one, Child 44 is a shared read. On a better note, I just finished The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness which was wonderful. I should also finish The Forgotten Garden today or tomorrow and also Ape House. Off to move what books I can to March TIOLI.

I finished and REVIEWED Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia for the Challenge to read an unread ER book.

Thanks for the encouragement! I read another 100 pages, have about 120 to go...that's TWO hours if I read quickly...

...and I'm really enjoying this Tom Clancy book!

> 36 Citizenjoyce I am so glad you decided to join me in The New Jim Crow, which was definitely one of the most powerful things I've read in a while--I'm glad you enjoyed it too.

I have four more books I'm hoping to finish by the end of the month--Heartless by Gail Carriger, which I'm listening to, The Snows of Kilimanjaro (two more stories to go), and Fateless and The Man in the Wooden Hat, both of which are relatively short and I've passed the halfway point. There are a bunch more that I will be removing.

>88 AnneDC: I actually just finished The Snows of the Kilimanjaro; did you add it to the wiki anywhere? I can't seem to find it. If not, I'll add it to challnge #10 :)

One of the books that I have already removed from the Wiki has come in from the library and since it doesn't fit any challenges for March, I am jumping on that Read, Read, Read cruise in the hopes of getting it done by midnight tomorrow.

Good luck to everyone with their reading!

>89 Britt84: Britt84 I don't think I've added it yet but I was planning to put it in Challenge 5, missing vowels (all but u)

I have 28 pages to go and I just can't keep my eyes open. It's almost like cramming for tests again! :-)

AnneDC I added Heartless to challenge #3 if you finish it in time we'll have a match :)

READ! READ!

Good luck with your reading! Myself, I've only got two hours to go; which is a shame, because with another 3 days (as in normal months) I could have finished more books, and kept up the reading rate I started in January. But I've finished Jhereg, which is a matched read for Fantasy February, so I'm satisfied.

My final tally is:

1- Challenge 9 (author shares last name with star) : Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
2- Challenge 18 (family saga) : Lady Susan by Jane Austen
3- Challenge 25 (animal is prominent in plot) : Piratica by Tanith Lee
4- Challenge 20 (author is 'of' / 'de') : *The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
5- Challenge 5 (only 4 vowels) : Alcatraz versus The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
6- Challenge 8 (Washington) : The Honor of the Queen by David Webber
7- Challenge 3 (school subject) : Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
8- Challenge 10 (author shares country of origin with friend) : *Jhereg by Steven Brust

Would you believe none of my books fell into challenge 4 (the SF/F one) (*sub-vocal grumble* doesn't even have 'queen').

Or challenge 1, for that matter - but I'm getting used to that. What's with the number 7 this year? I seem to be missing something.

>133 humouress:: ETA : one more.

9- Challenge 14 (vacation structure) : Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown

I've two books I was hoping to finish this month, but I may only manage one of them at this rate: Lovely Green Eyes for the Eastern European Challenge I have only about 50 pages left, but A Buyer's Market I have more like 125 left and I don't find it quick reading, plus I am working during the day and going out for a concert tonight...

*glub, glub, glub* I'm going underrrrr. There is no way I can complete another 145 pages today so I'm plucking my book from February TIOLI and planting it in March. No reason to rush through a book I'm enjoying simply to have it done this month.

Almost done with my February challenge book, Red Storm Rising: page 662 of 725!

I think I'm gonna make it!!!

Thanks to all for the encouragement!

Well I've managed to finish the non fiction book - For All the Tea in China - but my ER fiction book The Shadow Wars: Book Two of the Demi-Monde Saga (what a title) is languishing on my bedside table. Like Lynda, I think my last book of February is going to get bumped to March!

BTW, Nina, hooray for finishing Jhereg - woohoo!

Go genny, go fuzzi!

I'm glad I'm not the only one trying to cram a bit more reading into this short month. I'll finish River of Doubt without any problem but I refuse to rush through Barchester Towers because it is too fine a book for that! It will fit nicely into March's Challenge #21.

Good luck to Anne, fuzzi, Judy, Brenda, Genny, and all the others trying to read right up to the midnight hour!

To folks who need to do their TIOLI "housekeeping":

Remember to remove all books you don't finish by midnight tonight from the wikis. Thanks!

I removed one of my intended reads as there's not way in h*ll I'll be able to read it before midnight but I'm still holding onto hope that I'll get through the last 120 pages of The French Lieutenant's Woman for the school subjects challenge.

I'm not rushing the book, the deadline is just helping me to "get 'er done"!

>98 Dejah_Thoris:: Thanks, Dejah.

Fingers crossed for everyone else.

ETA: >100 SqueakyChu:: housekeeping already done.

All Wiki pages have been edited to remove unread books!

> 100, 105

For the Washington challenge (a rolling challenge), just remove the author name and your user ID (to keep the "Washington" name intact).

fuzzi, yours is fine for the Washington challenge. I just added back your book's name.

HA! Finally got At Grave's End snuck into the Washington challenge.

> 107

Those rolling challenges can sometimes be tough! Nothing like a last-minute entry, though. :)

I agree....nothing like a last-minute entry! I only had one book this month that I couldn't fit into a challenge -- Sovereign. I'd been checking the Washington challenge daily and finally gave up several days ago. Then I saw Morphy's post and checked one last time -- and got it in! Thanks, Morphy!! :-)

#106 Madeline, I never knew that. Thanks for the info. I've always kept my unread items in, for the rolling challenges, for fear of ruining the continuity. I'll go back.

While I read some very good books in February, there weren't very many so I had a lot of deletions. It just hasn't been a good month, at least in terms of quantity.

> 110

Linda, if you don't take out the (excess) information, I take it out when I finish doing the stats for the month. Either way, it gets done. :)

Thanks to an extremely unproductive Day 5 of jury service, I finished two of four of my books-in-progress for February. I only have about two hours of audio to go in Heartless, so I hope to join you for the shared read, fairywings.

I love those last-minute rolling challenge entries! H, anyone? My big regret about the WASHINGTON challenge is that I created it primarily in order to finish my Washington biography, but I will definitely still be plugging away at this in March. It's interesting but so long.

Okay, I'm giving up. There's no way I'll be able to get through the last 80 pages of The French Lieutenant's Woman in the remaining 1 3/4 hours of February.

Got all my unread books cleaned up.

Good luck to all pushing to finish their books :)

Managed to squeak in The Sisters Brothers for Challenge number 20 (Read a book whose author is called "of" somewhere or something - Patrick deWitt) which I thoroughly enjoyed until the very end. I did not like the end.

Review to follow

Wiki all tidied!

I have a question, what is a shared read?

>94 humouress:, 112: I've moved The Honour of the Queen into the WASHINGTON challenge, but if anyone needs the H, I can move it back to challenge 10. I like to try to have my books in different challenges, rather than repeat.

>117 AuntieClio:: A shared read is a book that someone else has also read this month for TIOLI. Their book might meet the criterion, but yours might not, but you can still put it into that TIOLI challenge (provided the challenger allows shared reads).

For instance, for Challenge 10, where the author shares country of origin with a friend, but not you, I could put Jhereg - Stephen Brust (USA) in, but Roni wouldn't have been able to. Once I (or actually, souloftherose) entered it, she could enter it as a matched read.

Similarly for the WASHINGTON rolling challenge, once a letter has been used, you have to wait for it to come around again; but if someone has already entered your book under that letter, you can enter as a shared read (which is why there are a lot of dashes).

Sufficiently confusing?

I've gone through and cleaned up my Wiki entries. I was able to finish my last book and get it entered, which gave me a very successful TIOLI month with 16 books completed.

Now I'm off to choose which book to kick March off with!

#119: more than sufficient, thank you :-)

I managed to squeeze one last February book in by midnight here in Pennsylvania, USA Eastern Standard Time. White Lines by Jennifer Banash was an ER book, so it fulfills challenge #6. I can't believe I did it, but I finished it just as February was closing.

I finished my last 2 very good novels: Ape House and The Forgotten Garden with time enough to spare to see Westside Story. On to March.

Finished my last Febraury book: The world encyclopedia of calligraphy : the ultimate compendium on the art of fine writing history, craft, technique by Christopher Calderhead

Finished my last Feb book, Lovely Green Eyes by Czech author Arnost Lustig. I'm glad the Eastern European challenge made me get round to reading this which has been on my shelves for three years, though it is not an easy read.

Whew! I sneaked The Book That Changed My Life under the wire last night for a total of a dozen TIOLI reads in February. :)

You "under the wire" people are amazing! I couldn't put myself through such stress. :)

>127 SqueakyChu: Actually, before I started reading last night I mentally gave myself permission not to finish it if I was getting too tired. But by the time my eyes were drooping at 11 p.m., I only had two pages left and just had to finish. haha

I really enjoyed all of the "Read, read, read" banter, and I think it helped me to focus and get A Clash of Kings done in time. The pages just flew by (Martin is a master!) and I am so looking forward to the the third book in the series (A Song of Ice and Fire).

In the spirit of A Song of Ice and Fire, I'm thinking of adopting "Read, Read, Read" as my motto. On to March!

Karen O.

All the encouragement helped me, @klobrien2!

Thanks to all!

fuzzi, I'm so glad!

Karen O.

Just going to add one more : Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown. My 4 year old was captivated by it, so we read it over and over again (in February).

(will work out which challenge it fits into later)

Lynda - would you accept a train as a vacation structure for challenge 14? These days, people stay on luxury trains, like the Ghan or the Orient Express, for their holidays.

Back on Feb 19 I finished listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling for challenge #5 - Read a book whose title has only 4 of the regular 5 vowels (Y excluded). and here is my review, such as it is.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2742161/reviews/89097190

And it fits my own category to read something just for the fun of it.

End of Feb I finished listening to The Sisters Brothers and thoroughly enjoyed it. I finally posted my review today.

http://www.librarything.com/work/10895978/reviews/84186967

Based on your review, The Sisters Brothers just made my 'To Read' list, thanks!