Part 3: 12 Days of LibraryThing Holiday scavenger hunt

Hey everyone. Continued the 12 Days of LibraryThing scavenger hunt here. Three threads deep! I'm impressed.

Clue 10 is up, hopefully a respite from yesterday's clue. I see lots of people were helped with our friend The Google. If you're still having issues finding #9, try the many hints in the previous thread!

See all the clues here:

» Go see today’s clue!

This scavenger hunt is a bit different from others we’ve done in that you don’t get to see all the clues right away. It’s the 12 Days of LibraryThing, so a new clue will be launched each day (at midnight EST), starting with today, and continuing through Dec. 24th.

This time, you’re looking for pears. Tomorrow (and each day after that), we’ll pick one random member who found the previous day’s pear to receive a free set of LibraryThing/TinyCat coasters. Everyone who finds a given day’s pear will get a profile badge, after the 12 Days are over.

If you miss a day, that’s okay! You can still find the pear(s) on subsequent days—everyone has until Dec. 31st to find as many pears as they can. On the 31st, we’ll award one lucky winner who’s found all 12 pears with a LibraryThing tote bag!

Got it. Infinitely easier than yesterday.

I got it pretty easily, and while I was sure I wasn't looking for a book it took me a couple minutes to realize I wasn't looking for a tag either. I was actually looking for a feature of LT that I don't use all that often. I've got six Helper Badges, five of them gold, and this is my only category of Helper Badge that's just silver.

>3 mont1ms: it's a character page

Great clue! And I am sad there are only two left.

5amanda4242
Yes - I worked that out finally. Duh. Thank you!

Since I've never read a book in which this character features or seen the corresponding movies #10 required a moment of search engine work ( on "split seven times"). The fourth or fifth hit gave me what I needed to see it through.

I was led astray and despite not finding a pear, I stayed on that wrong road and wasted time. Finally I changed tactics and found the elusive pear almost immediately. Now I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Knew the answer right away, but with my phone, it took me forever to type in the correct answer to search the page. Wrong gadget, definately! Grrrr. Got the pear finally. Thanks♪

I haven't even read the series - or as >8 paradoxosalpha: mentions, seen the movies - but I got it right away. General cultural knowledge, for me...

I think this counts as general cultural information by now, whether or not you have read the books or seen the movies. Wasn't sure of the name, but I knew how to get there.

I agree, I'm going to miss this. Got the clue right away, but had to hunt for the character page!

Bump

Like others, I knew what to look for immediately but it took some clicking to get to the right page.

Really stuck on this one.

I know who it is but can't find the pear so will have to look at some spoilers.

>16 tina1969: Think of the most popular children's book franchise from the last 20 years and it is the main bad character.

oh, got it. Had to click around a bit.

>16 tina1969: You don't have the books, so it might be harder for you. What sort of page are you looking for? (line 7) What is the day's general word? (from the song. It's not in the clue.) From that you could use site search, CK, the specific page and start going down the list. It's not at the very top, but not that far down either. However it's faster to guess the 'lad' in line 3 and to go to CK from one of the books in that series.

Double decker The books involved are the most popular on LT (see Zeitgeist)

Thanks all. Now got it. Think it's an age thing. I had my head in the stars for a while then I was thinking somewhere in the middle.

I've gotten all of the pears , relatively easily except for Pear Number 6, I finally found it due to a clue provided by >20 MarthaJeanne: on a previous talk page. Thanks MarthaJeanne! It was driving me crazy.

>22 vancouverdeb: Glad that helped. See, you knew the answer. But it's easy to get caught in just looking for a work page.

Anyone else who didn't get their badges? I should have three for #6, #9, and today #10, but there is nothing on my badge page :-(

I got the character right away, but I had to click on various parts of the main entry, which I had never done before. This will encourage me to more fully use LT.

>24 rowdybug: There is no badge yet. You should be able to see your pears on the clue page.

"Everyone who finds a given day’s pear will get a profile badge, after the 12 Days are over."

Never read the series or watched the movies but doing a web search with three key words from the clue gave me enough info to find the pear in about four clicks.

Finally got it. I had the name but could not find the pear.

>26MarthaJeanne
Ok, thanks. I was reading this on the first page:
"Any member who finds a pear on the day it was posted will be awarded a Pear badge".
Where you click on "badge", it takes you to the badge page and there was nothing there.

I had it immediately ... though I never took French, all those years of Latin helps a lot with root words. Did take a few clicks to find the right page but that's because I don't typically use all the features of LT

Got it in one. But it ain't a pretty picture!

>27 fuzzi: Same here. While I know some basic stuff, how could I not with all the talk about the books and movies as each came out. I didn't know enough details to be able to head right to the answer.

"lacking nasally" LOL!

Huh, that was a pretty easy one. Of course, I did sorta also get exactly what I was looking for and where right away, so... most of the others have been much more head scratchy...

I'm loving this. :))

I know who it is but I have no idea how to get to the right page?

Ahhh, nevermind. I figured out how to use the proper features

This was the easiest one for me so far, one LT search, one click - boom!

Once I remembered what day 10 is in the song, my brain kicked in and I realized who it was.

Gosh, even the spoilers aren't helping me with this one!

>40 lilithcat: You're another one without these books entered. See my second spoiler at >20 MarthaJeanne:. Once you know the series involved you just need to figure out which type of page is being referenced. Then add in the day in the song.

I spent two fruitless minutes on the Darth Vader track before coming to my senses.

I really needed help with yesterday’s clue but not today’s!
Only two clues left. Sad face.

I've not made any progress towards finding Clue #1 - no matter what clues I've followed, or members' hints I've seen, (I've not looked at spoilers). Then far down in the message list, there is one about a tech glitch on the first clue, and finding clues without knowing why, so its' put me off altogether. The fact that it is adding a new clue per day to win a daily prize is just showing me that since I just came in to this yesterday and there are already 10 clues on the page, I missed that many days of clues? It takes the fun out of it and makes me feel like I'm behind it all from the very start, no fun, just stressful to have to "catch up" without having any chance of getting the 'daily' pear.
I'm sorry, but two days of searching the site, and searching 3 pages of the message thread on Talk is not very fun for me, so I'm quite happy to leave this hunt to the rest of you and save stressing myself further. I have no need to add any more "Christmas-themed" stress to my life. Good Luck, and have fun all, enjoy the game.

just saw that the thread was continued, so I have a question, the rules state that you will be entered into the coasters if you find a pear on that specific day the pear is posted. But the rule for the tote says only if members find all 12 pears, it does not state only on the posted days. so does that mean if I go back and find previous days pears totally all 12 at the end that I will be entered into the drawing for the free tote?

To the question asked in part 2:

In the original post it says
"If you miss a day, that’s okay! You can still find the pear(s) on subsequent days—everyone has until Dec. 31st to find as many pears as they can. On the 31st, we’ll award one lucky winner who’s found all 12 pears with a LibraryThing tote bag!

thank you!

I. Just. Can. Not. Find. Number. Five.

>48 BarbaraMcI:

Do you mean you don't know what it is, or that you can't find the right page?

It is a work page, and the work is often considered a "prequel" to a larger, multi-volume saga

I had read the clue and I thought to myself wouldn't it be funny if it had to deal with my favorite series Harry Potter I tried to avoid looking at any of the clues but I saw the one in the previous thread about dark lords a leaping I am a happy girl!

>48 BarbaraMcI: The book is one of the top 25 on LT, but I assume you haven't read it, because the quote is very obvious. If you search the tag page for the important word of the day from the song you will see it.

Today's was very difficult for me, but I finally found it.

>1 kjgormley:

Could you change the link to the hint thread in the “Come and discuss your pear hunting and exchange hints on Talk.” sentence? People keep posting on the old thread by following the link. It seems that two threads are racing each other on the Talk reader board right now. Thanks.

Well, none of the hints here helped, but I finally got it by searching for a phrase in the first line, which led me to a crossword puzzle clue, and the answer to that gave me the answer to this.

I still don't understand the clue, though!

>42 anglemark: Exactly what I did! (Though in my defence it was my husband's suggestion.) I'm not literate in either world.

I figured it out, but did not get the “split in seven”... finally the penny dropped...

>48 BarbaraMcI: Do you know what it is but don't know what to click on? This is what I did. Warning! I'm including the answer! Thought it was Lord of the Rings but not exactly. That just left one thing. So in the LT "Search site" box : The Hobbit. I clicked on the first copy of the book that came up. Not the author, just the book. It's the one that says it is owned by 68,000+ members.

Got it right off the bat with no help (for once;) Great clue!

>53 Yamanekotei: Hey! Yeah, I've asked for it to be updated but also we're all technically on a weekend... Learning lots about multi-day rollouts for what is usually a one time post!

That was it. I just couldn’t find it. Thank you. I’m caught up now.

>31 BookConcierge: I think these hunts are a good way for people to learn more of the different LT features!

>34 Carmenere: That's the phrase that brought the answer into my head!

>53 Yamanekotei: I just posted over there for a couple of reasons. I didn't see that a new thread had been started until I had gotten through reading most of (and replying to a couple of) the unread posts that were there. And, because I was replying to a couple of posts over there, so it makes more sense to reply there, anyway, I think. So, I would guess there may be just a few more replies trickling in over there.

I wouldn't have gotten #10 if someone hadn't mentioned the character page. That is what helped me. I never knew there was such a thing.

>64 krazy4katz: But the clue itself mentioned that.

>64 krazy4katz: >65 MarthaJeanne: Well, yeah, "the clue itself mentioned that," but if you don't even know it existed.... I've got a silver Helper Badge for CK, but that's because of all the work I've done consolidating series (like the Edinburgh Companions to Scottish Literature series and the like.) I've never used character pages.

>65 MarthaJeanne:

But "Go find this character’s page" could also refer to a tag page.

>65 MarthaJeanne: True, but I wasn't smart enough to take it literally since I didn't know it existed.

Okay, I give up. I knew EXACTLY who the #10 clue was, but finding the character page required scrolling through every character in the English language and clicking on it got me nowhere.

ETA: I finally got it, but I have no idea how as I was in the same place I was before. Only now it's too late and it's telling me it was from a "previous day". ;(

>69 dhove: For #10 search for the character's name, click on the Common Knowledge link on the left-hand side of the page and the link to the page you need will come up.

Hooray! I never heard of #11, but I found it.

>69 dhove: search for the character name on Library thing, and then click on the common knowledge page, then the character page (there is a link on the left). You should find it that way.

>69 dhove: Are you doing a site search for the name and then clicking 'common knowledge' ? That is where the character option is.

Eta - or what amanda4242 said :)

I got 11 easily enough, though it was the second book on the search page when I searched for that title.

Can‘t believe I can‘t find #11. Quite sure about the two words, and I know there‘s a book which I even read, a very. Christmassy one?
But no pear yet.

I got befuddled by the wrong type of rodent

Finally found pear #11. Took me a minute though.

I thought I knew what it was, but they don't rhyme - and don't produce pears. So I'm still struggling with it.

Got it. I got the two words but at first was looking for more. There was an easier way of finding this than the route I took.

>75 rodneyvc: Me, too!

Okay, found it! >75 rodneyvc: This helped! Me too.
I knew that the 11 pipers fit the other, correct rodent better, so I tried the book with the piper from Hameln as well. But that rodent didn‘t have issues with the nutcracker, so it didn‘t fit the rhyme.

>75 rodneyvc: >80 Deern: Same with me!
Found it now! Thanks for the hint!

I've tried The Mouse King and the Pied Piper of Hamelin but I'm getting nowhere. Help??

>82 perennialreader: You are close! Look for adaptations, or, as mentioned above, a different, less cute, rodent.

I can't find it.

>82 perennialreader: Wrong critter...

"Put {the answers to} these two rhymes side by side". In the order they are asked.

Thank you! Got it.

No 11 has me chasing after more rodents in literature than I can think of to find; I'm struggling with this one - I've back-read all the clues and I'm still sitting here wondering what those two titles have to do with each other. I've also looked up adaptations. Clearly I'm missing something obvious. Hmm.

>87 joriestory: From the clues you get a title and a rodent. Switch the order, but replace the rodent with the one that comes to mind thinking of 11 pipers. Then search for a book title. And I almost forgot: it wasn‘t the first or second in the list of books that came up. I think in my case it was #3 or 4 with that exact title

>88 Deern: Thank you! Actually I was still confused beyond repair - except, when I did yet another search for adaptations your nudge of a hint helped me find the answer! I think all the reverse/not this/but maybe that clues were confusing which word(s) to leave, etc - anyway, I understand now but that one was beyond difficult!

> 73 yoyogod : for some reason, I THOUGHT it would be the first author. :/ hmmmm, oh well...

Does #11 have anything to do with Peter? I am totally lost. Heeelllppp!

I found it!

I'm totally stuck x

In the end I used the rodent, and just went down the search page until I found one that fit. Nope. Then another with the same title that actually fit the day.

Got it now x was over thinking it x

I read this last night, and I've clicked my way through the search page. No luck. Which version/page/edition am I looking for??

Okay, found it. I was way off track.

Thanks for the hint about rodent. That word sounds like a toothpaste. We have so many -dents here: Alldent, Pepsodent, Emmident, Swissdent, Kukident ... The scent first put me off the track. But after cleaning the royal teeth, I got it.

Wow, I got that in record time, in spite of never having read or heard of the book. Hunh.

I found it, but have no idea what this has to do with Chrismas.

A hint for the 11th pear: think of the Nutcracker ballet.

>99 EdwinKort: The book is a retelling of the pied piper. Not to do with Christmas, but with the 11 pipers piping.

>97 paulstalder: Kukident? That's not a name that would work very well in Sweden... :D

>102 anglemark: Oh, why not? I don't know Swedish. And Kukident is actually not a toothpaste but a cleaner for one's third teeth. I think All dent is also not a good name outside of German speaking countries.

>103 paulstalder:
The Swedish word kuk would translate to (and is etymologically related to) cock in English (originally they both meant "rooster"; these days it's mainly "penis"). Pair that with -dent, which is transparently a dental hygiene type product, and you'd get something like cock-in-teeth as the name of your teeth-cleanser. It wouldn't work.

>104 Petroglyph: Thanks for explaining. My sister-in-law's name is Kuki, so she should probably change her name when going to Sweden :)

>99 EdwinKort: All the answers have one word relevant to the day of the song but not necessarily to Christmas.

Spoiler words for earlier days 1 pear; 2 dove; 3 French; 4 call; 5 ring; 6 goose; 7 swan; etc.

I'm really stuck on pear #11. I've tried The Mouse King and The Rats of Hamelin : A Pipers Tale

Any more hints?

>107 vancouverdeb: There are two parts. You have both parts, but haven't put them together.

>107 vancouverdeb: You have both the words there - one from the first title and one from the second title. Put them together and you will have the book. It is a two word title. And not the first one on the list that comes up so try a few.

Okay, I'll try again. I just tried Rats! The Story of the Pied Piper No dice!

>110 vancouverdeb: Add in a word from your other guess.

>110 vancouverdeb: No subtitles. the two words combined give the title.

>109 JayneCM:

>111 MarthaJeanne:

>112 paulstalder: Got it! I tried a few combo's of two words and eventually happened upon it!

Thanks so much for your help, all of you!

Found the 11th - a book I read this year!
But I was barking up the wrong rodent for quite a while.

>110 vancouverdeb: go read the clue by >88 Deern:, that's what put the clues together for me!

Finally got it. I kept using the wrong rodent

Got it! One of my favorite authors. I had also read the other author’s book with the same title.

Wow. I had the page, I had the title... Just didn't click far enough down. Number 9 on my search page. Finally got it...

If not for that I stumbled into The Asian Saga trap by mistake, I'd have landed on the answer to #11 in just one click. I think anyone who had actually heard of the book in today's riddle would have gotten there even quicker.
Another masterful clue KJ. :)

>119 Sylak: Yes, I spent awhile in that trap myself. :=(

Oh. I have read the one by James Clavell but none of the others by the same name.

Thanks for everyone's help! This one was hard because I was not familiar with the work

Took me a long time but I found it. I was close but thanks to >121 perennialreader: I re-researched.

I thought of rat king from The Nutcracker even though everyone was thinking of a different rodent. I just didn't have them in the correct order

Thank you >75 rodneyvc: That's what went wrong with me as well. Found it now.

Clue #11 is the first time I had to come here for help. Glad you are all here! I had the wrong rodent, but was dancing all around it.

I had the right title right away but needed to get the right version.

I have them all but number one. And that seems just so obvious. I am searching all the key words and just not hitting the right page. What is right under my nose that I'm not seeing? help!

pears, partridges, trees

>127 DanaJean: try a singular version of one of your words, on a tag

>127 DanaJean:

You got one letter too many. Make it singular, and you will get it.

>127 DanaJean: Your first answer is correct but you need to go the tag page for it.

ETA: and it should be singular...

It's astonishing MAJORhow many books there are titled "King Rat"

>71 banjo123: Thank you - we clicked on this book title in all forms and got nowhere until chasing The Character.

>99 EdwinKort:

None of the answers do. It's simply that the clues are based on The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Finally got #11 with some help here. I had the right words, just needed to do a little googling.

This is the current topic.

Finally! I actually saw the title in a previous look and ignored it. Was lookng for something Christmassy...

Wow, today's was tough for me! I guess it would help if I knew The Nutcracker ballet better, but I couldn't even figure out where people were getting rodent from!

>127 DanaJean: Go to the tag page for the word "pear". If you don't know how to find a tag page, ask.

>137 LibraryCin: In the ballet, the rats, led by their king, battled the nutcracker.

>137 LibraryCin: The English name of these animals (rongeurs in French) reminded me of tooth paste and so I came up with such an animal with busy teeth ... :)

Is it bad that I'm happy people are actually having to work hard on some of these? Hmm...Congrats to all who have found today's thus far!

Small update: winners for several days' worth of daily pear coaster drawings will be announced some time this coming week, but not sure on exactly when, as we are only lightly staffed for those days. Everyone has until the 31st to gather all 12 pears for the final drawing.

(And now, back to my own frantic present wrapping.)

>141 kjgormley: I am really liking it. The clues must have been a lot of hard work. Thanks for the challenge.

>141 kjgormley: Yes, thanks! I really love it when the clues make me think. Hoping that the last day is suitably tricky.

Can someone please link the current part of the discussion to the hunt's main page?

https://www.librarything.com/hunt_december2018.php

Found it. Although if I hadn't read the spoilers a half dozen times it would have completely eluded me. I Googled it to find the correct book.

I am having no luck at all. Just came up with Comparative anatomy and histology : a mouse, rat and human atlas by Piper M. Treating

>146 krazy4katz: The book you're looking for shares a title with a James Clavell novel.

Last day! Thank you all for playing along.

Reminders: you can still find and gather all 12 pears. Anyone who has gathered all 12 by December 31st will be entered into a drawing for one of our tote bags. We will announce the last few daily coaster winners some time in the coming week.

I hope everyone has had fun finding clues, learning a bit more about the site, and exchanging hints in these threads.

And finally, happy gathering!

Needed lots of help yesterday but today's was easy. The author posts on this site

>148 kjgormley: Thank you so much for 12 days of fun! I totally appreciate all the hard work that goes into these things.

Got it!

Oh gosh; that was unusually easy - for me. Although I had been thinking about that series a couple of days ago.

Such fun! I am really quite sad that that was the last. Thank you so much!

>147 amanda4242: Thank you so much! I was close several times yet so far away.

This was fun and, somehow, I managed to get all 12 pears, even though I’m not usually very good at these things.

Thanks for putting this together for us.

Yay! The full fruit basket. A lot of 5.am fun for biblio-insomniacs...

Ah phooey, the final pear was an immediate find. I'm silly to be disappointed, I know.

The hunt came to an end ~ the whole time seemed to pass so quickly. It has been such a great set of clues and I love the one-clue-a-day aspect. I suspect the programming for this was darn tricky. Thank you LT staff and especially those who devoted some time on a very busy weekend.

Found the last one! That was lucky!
This was a lot of fun.
Thank you LT Staff!!

Found pear 11 so now I have them all - with a lot of help from this thread.

Thanks for the fun!

I got all the pears, on their days, and I needed hints for only 5 or 6. This was fun. I'm sure it's a lot of work to come up with the clues, but I hope we get to play this game again soon.

Took a while, as I am totally unfamiliar with this work. But I got there!

Yay! This is the first such contest where I got all of the treasure (well, pears anyway) without needing help from any hints and spoilers! It was such fun! Thank you, LT, for a good holiday brain teaser. I can’t wait for the next one.

Clearly a genre I don‘t read much (historical fiction?) and I avoid ongoing series, so no idea yet. But that‘s great for the last pear. I‘ll continue searching and just check in again later today when I‘m all desperate. :))

>148 kjgormley: Thank you SO much for this SH, it was such fun! I even set my alarm clock to 5:55 am the last 3 days. I will miss it.

Okay, found it. Finally remembered to check the poem for today, the drummers helped
Now wondering if I should start that series. Hm....

Forgot to say earlier: thank you all for the many clues over the last days, Happy Holidays!

Got the last one! That was fun, thanks >148 kjgormley:. It's officially The Eve here, Merry Christmas everyone.

>139 mamzel: Ah, thank you!

🍐 12 beautiful pears! Thank you so much for this fun event and all the hard work that went into it!

Thank you so much for doing this! It was really fun.

I'm stuck on this one.

OK, I got it! I should have got it immediately even though I'm not familiar with work or author.

Got them all. That last one had me Googling everything, although I could have avoided it if I looked more carefully down the list of the first searches I had done.

Got it after some googling and a digression into Wikipedia. Not a setting I am familiar with although I have come across the author (for some reason, Amazon thinks I’m interested).

Thanks to all involved! I enjoyed this scavenger hunt - I particularly liked the idea of releasing a clue a day.

#12 was easy even though I've never read anything at all of that sort, absolutely not something I'm interested in. But this stuff just seems to pop up all over the place. What caused me a moment's problem was that I didn't jump to the right book in the series, which I should have picked up on from the rhyme and also from the 12th day lyric.

Woohoo! I actually knew today's answer right away. Anyone who struggles with this clue should think about the top voted novels in PBS' The Great American read tv series and/or the most popular Starz shows right now. Once you know the series, you can find the author easily on this site and then select the author's name to then see the author's works. From that point, you can easily find the book that aligns with the book title of the number in the series that is needed to find the pear.

Hint for #12: do a tagmash of Scotland and time travel.

Yay, 😃 I got them all! 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐 🍐

Thank you kjgormley for creating a great Holiday scavenger hunt for us! It was fun!

Got pear 12 quite quickly. Knew the series had to look up the correct book. Thank you Librarything and to all members for help when we have been stuck. Merry Christmas to you all xxxxxxx

>148 kjgormley: Thank you to you and other LT staff for organising this hunt - it was lots of fun and great to just have the one a day and stagger the excitement. Wishing you all a great Christmas.

I got all the pears too although the 12th was a real puzzle until it suddenly occurred to me.

Thank you @kjgormley and other LT staff for a wonderful Christmas treat!

yeah, found the 12th! feeling really chuffed to have sniffed out all the pears.

Thanks to the clue at >174 Kdmcwilley:, I was able to find today's pear. Thanks for the fun of the scavenger hunt. It's been great! :-)

Stuck on this one. At first I thought J K Rowling, but then some time traveling was I believe in book 3. . Then I thought of Jane Austen, who I believe was Scottish,

>182 EdwinKort: The whole (modern) series is time travelling.

What I don't understand is why the best search word gets you the book at the top of the list if you search books, but not there on the first page if you search works.

Found.

>182 EdwinKort:
Jane Austen, Scottish?. Not at all.

For those struggling, a tagmash of scotland and time travel should help, as >175 amanda4242: also suggested.

Edit: Ah, I see you've found it.

I know what it is today right away: but I've been in the book, first and second, been in the series, book and tv, been in the dvd pages, and I still don't have my pear :(

Edit: I should have continued clicking in the books, hehe - thanks for saying I had to look at the song lyric (duh!)

I am done. Yippee!

Found it right away.
Thanks for the challenge. I look forward to the next one.
Leona

Got all of them!

Yesterday's took some thought. I know about the ballet but wasn't catching the right words until I looked back at the actual clue and what it was specifically asking me to do.

Today's was the first time I actually followed the clue directly to the pear without just guessing the answer half way through. I haven't read that series, but my mother does so I have the titles in my head, up to about book 5.

Thanks LT Team, I got all of the pears and luckily for the last pear, I remembered a series that a friend had recommended to me earlier in the year.

Thanks LT team - have enjoyed this, as usual.
Merry Christmas to you all.

Thanks LT for a lot of fun and pears!

Yeah! 12 pears in my basket! Thanks LT team for this fun little diversion from the hectic holiday season and members who posted some much needed hints!

:):):):):) Yay!!! That was a lot of fun! I have been on LT for a very long time and yet this was my first scavenger hunt - duh!! I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next one!
Cheers and Happy Holidays to LT and one and all!!!

Having one a day made it a lot more fun.

Got today's on the first sentence of the clue.

This has been a of fun and I thank LT for making it happen.

Got today's in a flash. Have all 12 pears (though I started late, so missed out on a chance at coasters for days 1-5.) But the fun was in the hunt itself. Thanks to the creative team who came up with this.

This was tons of fun! Eventually got all of them, 11 on the proper day. I agree with >195 MarthaJeanne: that the one a day format was great.

Done and dusted! Thank you all you LT wizards and elves. This was fun. I hope there's a big bowl of eggnog for your efforts.

Well that's me done. Day 12 was the only one that I really had no idea about and had to use a few hints (My first idea was most definitely pre-Jacobean) It's been great fun - here's to the next time!

>144 aspirit: The "time" to change the link for this new thread fell on a weekend leading into a holiday. LT Staff is off work, though at least one of them appears to poke their head in occasionally to do quick minor stuff during their holiday break. I personally don't think me having to click one extra time (a link is at the top of the thread) is something worth a person taking time away from their loved ones during time where they are off work to fix.

>164 Deern:

Could you explain the spoiler? Not being familiar with this, I don't understand the connection.

>202 lilithcat: "Drums" is in the title

I just googled 'series set in Scotland'..had vaguely heard of this author but not familiar with their work...but realising the theme of the 12th day of Christmas, soon found it!

Thank you to all of you above who helped me with clue number one. Who knew how an s would mess me up.

You guys did! Thanks!

Got all 12 pears. This was fun! Thank you to the powers that be and all helpers for their time to put this together for the community.

Got them all. That was fun. I really enjoyed the one clue a day format. Thank you!

Yay, I found them all! Thanks everyone, for the hunt and the hints!

Hurray! Found them all, this was a fun thing to do each morning with just my coffee cup and I. And sometimes a cat or two. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Thanks so much for the 12 Days of LT pear hunt! Really enjoyed the 'clue a day' format. Happy holidays to everyone!

>183 MarthaJeanne: oh, how I wished I understood the difference between a work and a book! I thought the one with the most reads rises to the top, but the correct answer was on page 2 of search results. I must have searched on works.

This was loads of fun. Doing it daily made it far more enjoyable for me, even though I was impatient to get the next clue each day. Thank you LT guys for all the effort you put into these little extras for us! Happy Holidays!!

Done! This was fun. Thanks to the LT team for setting this up for us! Merry Christmas 🎄🎁

Found all 12 pears. Some without help but couldn't have found them all without the spoilers. Thanks everyone on LT. Great fun.
Happy holidays from Belgium.

This was fun, LT! Thanks for putting it all together.

I was able to get today’s clue pretty easily. It’s the book I need to read next in the series. :)

Thanks, LT gang, for this one-a-day pear search. It was great fun and challenging for me. I got all the pears with hints help. Thanks, everyone, for those as well. Wishing all here a safe and happy holiday!

I really enjoyed this game. Having each clue on a day was very cool and tied in with the holiday. I couldn't have found all of them without spoiler help from other members, so thanks for that. Learned more about LT site and also more books to explore, which is always fun. Thanks LT staff and everyone who helped me out. It was great fun......!!!!!

I enjoyed the hunt, thank you all for your contributions.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one! While this is technically a competition for prizes, it is also a community effort. Some people may be able to solve each clue without any help from others, but I think most of us need a little help from our friends.

So, thanks for the help from staff and the LT community! Now to await the big pear on my profile (and a new transmission for my car).

Have a great holiday season to one and all!

This was fun, I only wished I had found out about it on Day 1! But I have now got all 12 pears, thanks to all the hints and encouragement here :) Thank you all and thank you LT.

>203 laytonwoman3rd:

So funny!

I got there via the series, and just looked for the "(4)", clicked on that, got the pear, and didn't pay any attention to the title!

>218 perennialreader: Hmm, I missed the part about getting a new transmission :-)

I found the last one with out any hints. I have not read this series but it is on my TBR pile. I am just glad that I figured out which series it was just from the the first line of the clue.

I too am sad to see this end and want to thank all the LT staff that helped put this all together! Merry Christmas to all!

I've got all 12 pears tucked into my basket. Thank you for such a fun hunt!

Merry Christmas everyone, especially kjgormley who organized all of this. It was great fun sharing this time with everyone. Congratulations to everyone who made it through to the twelfth day!

I am so very thankful No12 was one I knew very easily even though in effect I've not yet read the stories; it was a blessing because there were a few that were really nailbiters in difficulty! Nice to have an easier one to sort out!! I truly loved this trivia hunt and it was wonderful everyone gave such lovely clues & hints for those of us who were stuck!

Happy Christmas everyone!

>210 Micheller7: oh, how I wished I understood the difference between a work and a book!

A book is what is in your catalog on your Your Books tab. A work is a combination of all the books in people's individual catalogs that are of the same work. MarthaJeanne's comment confuses me since you cannot search for books on the site search page. It's only when you're searching your catalog on the Your Books page that you can search for books, and only your books.

In this case it is the type of work. Search for drums and you will not see this title on the first page. On the left, right under 'Works', you see 'Book', 'Sound Recording' ... Select 'Book'. Once you get a list of results, (may take a second try) the title is right there, first on the list.

Got #12 right away - even though I haven't read that series. It's so common, though - can't help knowing something :)

Thanks for a fun and challenging game, and all the best to clue developers, fellow sleuths, and hint sharers for a wonderful 2019!

Ooh, I liked #12. I've never read it, but, a lot of my co-workers are obsessed with it. Nice...

All of these were fun. Thank you LT Staff. This was cool!!

Great quiz, LibraryThing! I also enjoyed the one-per-day format. I got all 12 pears and only needed to come to the discussion for clues for #9. Tagmashs, series pages and author searches got me to answers I was unfamiliar with, others, like #5, were so familiar I was able to get them right away without even finishing the clue.

Thank you yet again LT for a very fun challenge! Got them all and had a blast doing it. A very Merry Christmas to all!!!

Thank you for all the fun, LT!

Loved this hunt. The day by day clues allowed more focus on each one. Hope you do it this way again

What fun! I’ll miss checking back for daily clues.

Thank you LT for another fun hunt. The last was easiest for me because I read the series.
Merry Christmas to all!

Thanks for the pear hunt. Well done

No idea how i get that idea.

This was so much fun! Thank you LibraryThing!

Yeah, I want to echo that this was really fun! Both solving the clues (with the help of the hints people posted here) and learning about different corners of the website (I honestly had never before encountered tagmashes). Thank you, LibraryThing!

My pear basket is full. 🤗🎄

Thank you everyone at LibraryThing! You bring joy to all of us all year long and definitely highlight the holidays with your special touches which are appreciated more than these few words could ever express!

Merry Christmas!
Happy New Reading Year 2019!

Thank you once again for another fantastic scavenger hunt. So much fun :)

Yay, got all twelve! Such fun!
Many thanks for this themed hunt, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

>148 kjgormley: Thanks so much for all the clues. It was lots of fun. Happy holidays to you and your family and all the hunters, too.

>221 bnielsen: I hope Santa has one on his sleigh!

Wait, I thought people had until the 31st, no?

Oh. You are correct and I caught that too, before reading this. :)

The good thing is that you couldn't collect pears in the minute and half that the solutions were available. Hah!

Ok. Sorry about that. I got trigger happy with my settings. I've just turned off the main banner. You CAN STILL COLLECT PEARS to complete the set for a chance to win a tote bag (and the adulation of your peers).

With the first line of clue 12, my immediate thought was Doomsday Book by Connie Willis but when I read "the fourth installment," I immediately knew what it was and went to the series and picked the fourth book which, of course, had the word "drum" in it.

I also had a LOT of fun with the challenge and I want to see more of these! Every day would be great. HA! I know the clues are a lot of work though. Just as an idea, what if clues were crowd sourced? People could be told a theme - like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's, Spring - then come up with clues to PM to whoever would go over them. They wouldn't have to be "official" LT challenges with prizes, but it would be nice to have the mechanics work with an icon awarded for each clue. Badges could be given for clues written and clues found. Daily clues (vs. special official LT holiday challenges) would be a lovely pony...

Did it! That was kind of fun -too bad I blew it right off the blocks by coming in a day late, but still fun. Is there a No-Prize like in the days of old Marvel comics?
Happy Holiday/Merry Xmas!

>251 Morphidae:

Just as an idea, what if clues were crowd sourced?

I could have sworn they did that for a prior hunt, but I can't find it.

Yes, they did have crowd-sourced clues once. It makes it a bit harder, I thought. Some were pretty tricky!

Well got 11 of 12, nothing popped up for the 12th so I have no idea what it was. I guess it is too late even though things said you had a few day buffer?

>255 melsmarsh: The pear for day 12 is still there.
See also >250 conceptDawg:

Well every comment is leading to completely blank and nothing popping up including the banner not coming up

The banner is not coming up for me either. I finished my pears earlier, but the banner should still be there.

>257 melsmarsh: The only way to get there that I can see is to go to the home page and click on the image on the right side of the page advertising the "12 days of LibraryThing". That still works.

Zoes_Human, I asked because of continuing confusion in Part 2.

Thanks to the LT powers that be for the hunt. I learn more about the site during each one of these events.

>257 melsmarsh:, >258 krazy4katz: The link in >1 kjgormley: above that says "Go see today's clue" takes you to all the clues.

Thank you for the tip!!! The hint about popular series on Starz really helped me out!

Maybe try a different browser?

>250 conceptDawg: he says he turned off the main banner. You will still get a pear banner if you hit the right page, though - I did.

I found the one-a-day a little annoying, because my time around Christmas is so insane I missed getting on LT on several days during the period. If it were really over the 12 Days of Christmas, it would be much easier for me... But I found all the pears, for a chance at the tote bag, and found the majority of them on the proper day for a chance at a coaster set. Good enough.

It was fun in any case - the clues ranged from me knowing the answer halfway through the poem to reading every single spoiler on the thread that related and finally figuring it out. And a nice distribution of difficulty, too - some that had me stumped were easy for several people, some I got instantly were stumpers. Nicely done.

I didn't chance upon this until day 2 so I missed the first pear, and couldn't spend the time on day 4 to search, so I only got 10 pears. I do prefer the scavenger hunts to be available all at once because I may not have time every consecutive day to be on LT, but the theme of 12 Days was interesting and fun. Happy Holidays!

>251 Morphidae:, >253 lilithcat:

It was the Spring-themed one held earlier this year.

>265 masterdeski: You do still have a few days to find the other two, and have a chance at the final prize.

>265 masterdeski: Since they remain open you still get a chance at all of them. But having them all open at once can be a bit overwhelming. This way we really had time to concentrate on each one.

Thanks so much for this! I loved being able to concentrate on one each day and only needed a little help on two of them.

Ok. All over now. Happy New Years to everybody and thanks for playing this year's hunt!

Check back soon for a new hunt. I'm sure it won't be too long before KJ churns out a new set of remarkable hints.

Can't wait ;)

Congratulations to whomever were the prize winners!

Do we know the winners? I'd like that bag :D

>273 SandraArdnas: We're still doing a little catch-up after the holiday yesterday—hope to announce the grand prize winner no later than tomorrow morning!

"Bah Humbug! The 2018 Holiday Hunt is over. Check back next year."

Love it! :D

>273 SandraArdnas: Wouldn't everyone? {heh-heh}

>274 lorannen: Hmmm ... take your time! :D

All righty! Thanks for your patience folks—we've finally got our grand prize winner. A big congratulations to LT member valkyrdeath! They'll soon be hauling their books around in style in their very own LibraryThing tote bag!

Many thanks to everyone who joined in the 12 Days of LibraryThing scavenger hunt! This was a bit of an experiment for us, having never done the clue-a-day type hunt before, but we hope you had fun. Feel free to share any feedback you might have for further treasure hunts here. KJ will return shortly with some fun stats to share.

Hello all! Here's my final missive with The Numbers.

1681 members found at least ONE pear. Go you!

840 members found ALL of the pears. That's about half of everyone involved! I'm very impressed. I admire everyone's dedication and willingness to let us experiment, as well as putting up with my sometimes rough interpretations of "a rhyme scheme" or "adhering to meter."

Thanks again, all, for playing along, and happy belated new year.

I really enjoyed this one. I have tried to participate in other ones but felt, for lack of a better word 'stupid' at times. Not sure if it was because I enjoyed the theme or if I just understood it more this time around.

When do we get our pears?

And who won the coasters? Did I miss the winners for days 8 to 12?

>282 Yamanekotei: We posted earlier in the thread about the coasters for those days and reached out individually to message those who won those drawings.

>283 kjgormley: I don't think you posted the winners in this thread; at least I couldn't find it.

>281 MarthaJeanne: It might be a while since there were 1681 participants. I wish the LT staff good luck in handing them all out.

I liked the way this worked. I wasn't sure at first, but I think it worked well. Someone else mentioned that it was easier to find the clues for the days you needed help with in thread because they weren't as mixed up a usual.

Congrts to Valkyrdeath

I don't like pears. Can I have a partridge then, pretty please

Congrats to valkyrdeath and all winners of the coasters.

>282 Yamanekotei: & >284 jjwilson61:

• For Day 1, see http://www.librarything.com/topic/300178#6656390;
• Days 2, 3 & 4, http://www.librarything.com/topic/300474#6659443;
• Day 5, http://www.librarything.com/topic/300474#6660522;
• Day 6, http://www.librarything.com/topic/300474#6661432;
• Day 7, http://www.librarything.com/topic/300474#6662581

I don't see that we yet have coaster winners posted for Days 8 through 12.

Congratulations to valkyrdeath and all the coaster winners anyway, and Happy New Year!

When do we get our participation pears? 🍐🍐🍐

neverstopreading (#291):

When do we get our participation pears?

It'll take a while. As with many things on LT, it's a manual process, not something that was coded as an automatic part of the hunt.

>292 lorax:

Ah, OK. I assumed it was automatic. Thanks :)

>290 jasbro:

Ah, so I remembered correctly! I knew for days 1 to 7 the winner names were posted, but quite didn’t remember after that.

>290 jasbro: I notified winners individually for days 8-12, but since I was on vacation (technically) at the time, I didn't get around to posting them here. For the record, all winners for coasters, in order:

Amberfly, Nova_Mortem, PhaedraB, jekcddvd, Krither, Birlinn, andejons, dot.zen, lycomayflower, plaugher, LilTexasLibrary, and wjhira.

And as mentioned earlier, valkyrdeath was our grand prize winner.

I have received my coasters and am enjoying them!

>296 PhaedraB: Teacher's pet!

Let's field test them. I'll be right over with my new favorite mixer...

>297 SomeGuyInVirginia: I prefer Irish or Scotch over bourbon, but I am open to new experiences. :-)

>295 lorannen: I was on vacation (technically) at the time. Wow! And you still took time to think of us, at least occasionally. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

>297 SomeGuyInVirginia: I'll be right there!

Congratulations to the prize winners and Thank you to the LT team for organising the Holiday Hunt. I thoroughly enjoyed solving the puzzles. Looking forward to your next one!

>299 jasbro: I appreciate the thanks! All in a day's work! Holidays are a busy time for everyone, so I do my best to make sure it's as happy as possible for all involved. :)

>300 Carole888: Very glad to hear folks enjoyed this one! It was very new for us in terms of mechanics—we've never done the clue-a-day style hunt before, which meant a new set of challenges and adventures.

Weren’t all participants who found a pear on the day supposed to get a pear badge, or did I msunderstand the instructions?

From the post:

“Any member who finds a pear on the day it was posted will be awarded a pear badge”

If so, mine haven’t materialised yet.

>302 amberwitch: No one has got a pear badge yet. It usually takes a while to set it up, but they'll get there.

amberwitch (#302):

Nobody has received their pear badge yet. You haven't been forgotten, it's just (as I said a few days ago) another of those surprisingly manual corners of LT that they haven't gotten around to yet.

Will we get our badges before or after the Valentine's Day hunt?

>305 amanda4242: I was wondering the same thing .

Really still not there. It's been a month now. Halloween badges were out after a week. http://www.librarything.com/topic/298103#6623316

>304 lorax: I am not worried. I appreciate the challenges.

Badges....we don't need no stinkin' badges.....just bring on the challenges.

>309 laytonwoman3rd: roger that!

>305 amanda4242: If you're asking about the pear badges, with any luck, before! This is on Tim's plate, and I'll keep reminding him—he's been very busy lately, and it's not something I can do myself. If you're asking about the Valentine's Day hunt badges, I think I can safely say those will be after. ;)

I'm excited about the Valentine's hunt already...!

Thanks for all the work it takes to arrange these activities :)

I'd just like to add my two penn'orth (not aimed at any one member) by saying that although I am always thrilled to find one of the LT treasure hunts waiting for me. It is never expected. If it happens then I am grateful.
It is also my understanding that badges are generally handed out periodically and not automatically or on demand.
My worry is that if staff members are continuously harassed over the treasure hunts that they will eventually cease to occur, and that would be sad.

>313 Sylak: I got a different badge today, but still no pear.

MarthaJeanne (#314):

I got a different badge today, but still no pear.


Many of the other badges are automatically awarded by the system. Hunt badges apparently require manual intervention - by Tim, no less, according to lorannen in #311. So it's not terribly surprising that the "regular" helper badges would be continuing to be awarded, since that's just a script chugging along.

>315 lorax: Ding ding ding! That's exactly the case. I'm hoping that we can automate treasure hunt badges in the future, but for this one, that's not where we're at.

Sorry we've been busy, folks. I'll keep the "pears pears pears pears pears" chant going until we get them out.

>316 lorannen: As much as I love my little badges, and would adore seeing a pear there, I love this site more, so keep up the good efforts and we will be patient. :)

yes! The fun of the hunt is much more important than the badges.

Hey Morph, how the heck are ya'?

GOT MY PEAR BADGE!

Thank you for the badge! Yay!

I got the notice with a pear, but when i actually go to my profile page, it was only a blank square as >323 SandyAMcPherson: and >324 rosalita: mentioned. JWTLYK.

#321, I just have a blank square. Is yours actually a pear?

>321 laytonwoman3rd: Is it actually showing up for you? Mine just shows the words Golden Pear when I view my profile, and if I click through to the badges page it's a blank square. I'm on Windows 10 using Firefox 65.0, for troubleshooting purposes.

I have a blank square on FF65.0 and just the words Golden Pear on Chrome.

#321 and following:

Badge area on my profile shows a broken-image icon and the text "Golden Pear". (It's there in the comment notification).

Poking around with "Inspect" shows that the pear badge (in the badge area) has "img src(unknown) rather than actually pointing to an image. The image location from the comment notification is http://pics.cdn.librarything.com/pics/pear_icon@2x.png

Sorry for the trouble, folks. We're on it!

>326 lorax: That's some good sleuthing! Thanks for the information.

Thank you, got my pear badge! A lovely reminder of twelve days of fun.

Mine now shows on both FF and Chrome!

Should be all fixed up now!

Pear badges have finally been awarded! You can see your badge on your profile, or on your Helper badges page.

If you think you should have been awarded a pear badge, but haven't received it yet, let me know!

Mine was showing when I posted.

It looks exquisite sitting alongside my books. Thank you. :)

loves my pear. It's my fruitiest badge.

>336 Sylak: Aww.

>336 Sylak: Made me briefly consider if any of the books contained pear-reviewed articles :-)