Take It or Leave It Challenge - January 2014 - Page 1

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

Simple directions for posting to the wiki can be found at the bottom of each month's wiki page.


...logo by cyderry

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Your challenge for January 2014 is to read a book whose title names an object usually found in the kitchen.

If you’re not sure, take a vote…but don’t try to stretch things too far. For instance, your cat can certainly walk into your kitchen, but your cat will *not* be acceptable for this challenge. Ha!

Rules:
1. You can use embedded words or those words stretched across two or more title words.
2. You can match any book.

Here are some ideas…

1. All Because of a Cup of Coffee (cup, coffee, cup of coffee) – G. Stilton
2. The Mermaid Chair (chair) – Sue Monk Kidd
3. I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (pots) - Susan Straight
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (potato, potato peel, pie, potato peel pie) – Mary Jane Shaffer
5. The Devil’s Punchbowl (punch, bowl, punchbowl) – Greg Iles
6. The facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios : and other stories (sink) – Yann Martel
7. Spooner (spoon) – Pete Dexter

Meanwhile, I’m getting hungry…so I’m off to my own kitchen to find something to cook.

Have fun and have a fabulous 2014!

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

1. The January 2014 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 12/25/13)

WIKI index of Challenges:

Challenges #1-6
1. Read a book whose title names an object usually found in the kitchen - msg #1
2. Read a book from your 'average' year - msg #3
3. Read a book that has a connection with the number "14" - msg #6
4. Read a work of nonfiction from the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2013 - msg #7
5. Read a book set in France before the 21st Century - msg #16
6. Read a book by a Yorkshire Born writer - msg #18

Challenges #7-12
7. Read a book you received as a present - msg #19
8. Read a book that has a glossary - msg #24
9. Read a book by the author of one of your favourite books of 2013 - msg #35
10. Read a book that you discovered on an LT thread in 2013 - msg#36
11. Read a book that has two of something in the title - msg#40
12. Read a mystery book where the lead investigator is a professional sleuth, but not one employed by law enforcement - msg #57

Challenges #13-18
13. Read a book by an author who died in 2013 - msg # 48
14. Read a book that is about an athlete or athletes - msg #42
15. Read a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars" (1914-1918) - msg #76
16. Read a book with an ugly cover - msg #93 - thread & CONTEST!
17. Read a book about the city, state(province), or country in which you live - msg #122
18. Read a book by an author from Sub-Saharan Africa - msg #137

Challenge #19
19. Read a book with a walking or standing figure on the cover - msg #148 - thread
20. Read a book by an author called Elizabeth or a version of that name - msg #195

Hold your challenges until the February TIOLI challenges go up!

Ha! Gotcha!

Try to distract me from the new TIOLI with a Gothic novel, will you!? Hmmph!

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Challenge #2: Read a book from your 'average' year

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1. Go to your profile page
2. Click stats / memes
3. By the green bar graph to the right, the average date of the books in your collection will be found
4. List a book for this challenge either first published in your 'average' year, or released as a new edition
5. Include the date on the wiki.

You can add as many books as you like for this challenge, but if you are doing a lot of cataloguing, please check the date in between in case it changes.

Shared reads are allowed, even if it isn't 'your' date.

I suspect my date will be a little earlier than most people's... :)

Haha! I didn't think anyone was still awake, but, of course, you're on the other side of the world!

I suspect my date will be a little earlier than most people's

I would guess so! You're probably bringing my average year down!! :)

That's an interesting statistic. Mine turned out to be 2001. What's yours, Liz?

1894 - and I have 351 books on The Wishlist to choose from. :)

Ha! And you forgot that I'm a night hawk!!!

OK, here's mine...

***********************
CHALLENGE #3
INSTANCES OF THE NUMBER 14

With due acknowledgement to novelist Salley Vickers for the idea behind the title...

Read a book that has some connection to the number 14. It could be a book that will be published in 2014; a book or author that you first encountered when you were 14. It could have 114, 214, 314, 414 pages, or an ISBN that includes the number 14 (not just 1 and 4, but 14). The author's name can have 14 letters, or the title can have 14 letters (excluding "A Novel" or "A Mystery" or any similar meaningless subtitle!) It can have 14 reviews on LT, or be in 14 libraries at the time that you post it. It can be the 14th book in a series.

Be creative -- just note which "14" is the connection on the wiki, please!

CHALLENGE #4 Read a work of nonfiction from the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2013

The link is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2013.html?_r...

#3 That's an interesting one. I'm curious to see where other people's average date falls. Mine is 1999.

> 6

Suz, I thought you were too busy on the new 2014 75 Books Challenge threads!

> 6

Why'd you pick 14, Suz?

2014, of course, Madeline! :-)

Lyz -- published in that year, or acquired in that year??

To clarify -- books that pop up in LT as 2001 may simply be new editions published in that year, too?

> 10

Duh! :)

Either first published in that year (my preference), or an edition released in that year.

I can assure you I wasn't acquiring books in 1894!! :D

In a previous life, maybe? :)

Ah Madeline, you always find little tricks to keep us on our toes.
I'm going to have to check out my average year, but I'm pretty sure it's not 1894.
Challenge #5: Read a book set in France before the 21st century
You know Im not really into limitations, but I thought I'd start the year by imposing a little one.

ETA I just checked. My average date is so close to yours, lyzard, it's 1997.

I suspect you'll be closer than most, Joyce!

On a very rare occasion I get one of the first half-dozen challenges:

Challenge #6: Read a book written by a Yorkshire born writer

My home county has always punched above its weight in literary terms. Here are some of the writers to choose from:

Simon Armitage
Kate Atkinson
WH Auden
John Baker
Stan Barstow
Alan Bennett
John Braine
Anne Bronte
Charlotte Bronte
Emily Bronte
AS Byatt
Bruce Chatwin
Jeremy Clarkson
Margaret Drabble
George Gissing
Joanne Harris
Tony Harrison
Susan Hill
Barry Hines
Winifred Holtby
Ted Hughes
Michael Palin
Jeremy Paxman
David Peace
J.B. Priestley
Ross Raisin
Edith Sitwell
Stevie Smith
David Storey
G.P. Taylor
Keith Waterhouse

Traditional Yorkshire boundaries accepted so also includes Humberside and parts of Teeside (Hull and Middlesbrough basically).

Challenge #7 - Read a book you received as a present.

Pretty self explanatory, and topical. It doesn't have to be a present received for Christmas this year, it can have been gifted at any time, but you can't have bought it.

You can clearly have prodded, hinted and done all bar actually pay for the thing in order to get the book you wanted, but not the purchasing. >:-)

You may note (if you can remember), who bought it & when.

My average year is very surprisingly 2000 considering my fairly sizeable stock of "older" books. I did discover though that because I have bought so many new editions of books in the last couple of years, it is the date of the edition and not the books original release that often gets recorded.

That's an excellent list of authors to choose from, Paul. I reckon I could spend a month reading nothing but those.

>>#20

I always list the original publication date, then put the edition details in Publication; it's not what's encouraged but it suits my in-order tendencies.

Some more Yorkshire-born authors my research turned up:

Storm Jameson (born in Whitby)
Jane Gardam
Helen Dunmore (not sure where exactly, but def. Yorkshire and educated U of York)
Gervase Phinn
Peter Robinson was born in Yorkshire, although he emigrated to Canada
Gill Hornby (but not her brother, Nick)
Jenny Oldfield (chick lit, more obscure)
Arthur Ransome (the wonderful Swallows and Amazons author)
Barbara Taylor Bradford
and two golden oldies, poet Andrew Marvell and playwright William Congreve.

Challenge #8: Read a book that has a glossary

Or some type of list of definitions. It can be fiction or non-fiction.

For challenge #2 - read a book from your 'average' year - I went to pick a book, and find that my average date is 5665. I may need to "leave" that challenge!

edited to remove graphic (no longer needed)

Very strange but I just checked the date field in your catalogue and you have at least one ISBN in there so that has skewed the statistics.

whoa! like science fiction do you? :)

Suz - Thanks for those additions. Dunmore and Gardam at least I ought to have listed. I suppose there is also Helen Fielding of Bridget Jones fame who is from my hometown.

> 25

LOL!

See you here in a few millennia?!

Thanks, calm. You're a genius! Fixed. And find that the stats updated already, so I've a book chosen now.

Unbelievable but true -- I can't seem to find a book on my TBR list that has a glossary. Piffle. Not even the non-fiction ones. That rules out my hopes of a "full house" in January!

Fiction with a glossary: Not for Suz, because I know she's read it, but Hild is fantastic and has a glossary. Also The Bone People (fantastic too).

Kerri, how funny -- I was looking at Hild on my shelves and remembering that it did, indeed, have a glossary! Maybe some of my Amazon Vine ARCs will have one...

#33 - I got a lovely hardcover of Hild for Christmas and was thrilled to see it has a lovely map as well as the glossary! I definitely missed that with the ARC. :-(

Challenge #9: read a book by the same author as one of your favourite books of 2013

...because you want to start your reading year on a guaranteed good note, don't you?

Mine will be The Last Of The Vostyachs, by Diego Marani, who also wrote New Finnish Grammar, one of my top two books of last year. (The other one was My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante).

Challenge #10: Book Bullet: Read a book that you discovered on an LT thread in 2013

One of LibraryThing's greatest dangers is the book bullet - that book someone else reads or recommends on a thread that you suddenly must read now even though you have more than enough books waiting to be read as it is. You know you'll get hit with more in 2014, so let's clear some 2013 discoveries out of the way.

#36 by inge87> I'd bet 95% of my TBR mountain is due to BBs! What to choose, what to choose.... :)

36> There's more than I could read in a month, that's for sure...

I see you've listed my favourite book of 20013 in Paul's Yorkshire author Challenge. I read Simon Armitage's translation of the Death of king arthur in January last year and it remained the best book I read all year. I'm half tempted to read it again, just because.

>31 Chatterbox: Sorry, Suz. Didn't mean to make it a hard one!

Challenge #11: Read a book that has two of something in the title

January is named after the Greek god Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions. He is depicted as having two faces. So read a book that has two of something in the title. Two animals, two numbers, two letters the same, duality, etc.

Mine will be The Monkey & The Tiger by Robert Van Gulik

Morphy, I'm going to have to see if I have any matched reads. I even scanned the new non-fiction books at the library this afternoon, but nada! Where is a glossary when you need one??

ETA: Ha! I just remembered there is a glossary in The First Man in Rome, and I had planned to re-read that series this year!

Challenge #14: Read a book that is about an athlete or athletes

The Winter Olympics are coming up in February. Fiction or non-fiction is fine. Doesn't have to be about an Olympian or an Olympic sport even as long as it features an athlete.

I'm going to read The Boys in the Boat about rowers at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

^ Oh, that one is on my TBR pile and is supposed to be excellent. Lots of U-Dub references. :-)

> 43 Let's make it a shared read then :) I rowed a race at "U-Dub" once upon a time - atrocious weather & a broken oarlock are the things I remember most.

> 44 Cool! I will add myself to the challenge.

#42 JenMDB, I'm eager to add books to your challenge but, um, where is it? This one is right up my alley, in my wheelhouse, in my sweet spot.

> 42

jenMDB, please enter your challenge onto the wiki page and change your challenge number accordingly.

The wiki page is what determines the challenge number, not the page number assigned to it on this thread. I take the index of challenges directly from the wiki - not from this thread.

Challenge #13: Read a book by an author who died in 2013.

Quite a lot of authors died this year, and the best way to remember them is probably through their books.

Hi everybody! I'm new here and this challenge looks promising. After reading the introducton I still have some questions:
First, do I have to take part for every challenge or is it fine to do some of them?
Second, do I have to choose the books now or can I put them in, when I'm sure that I'll read them?
Third, do I have to create an own thread for this challenge and where do I create it?

I'm sure there will be some more questions, but for the moment those are the main ones.

Ameise, welcome. You can take or leave as many challenges as you want. Many of us like to list books we plan to read all month as soon as we find a challenge to fit them. You can always remove whatever books you didn't finish at the end of the month. Listing early allows someone else to share your read thus generating points. Alas points cannot be traded for gold, gems or frequent flyer miles, they just give one a warm fuzzy glow of satisfaction. That said, there are also many people who don't list a book until they read it. Your choice.
Are you asking if you have to create your own challenge? You don't, but you may until the 4th of the month. Go up to the top of this thread and see how Madeline has arranged the challenges 1-6, 7-12, etc. go to the area for the next challenge, click on edit next to that block of challenges and list it like this:
4 = signsChallenge #whatever: Read a book about - started by Ameise1 then end with 4 more =signs.
Be careful, this is an extremely addictive site.

Hi there! The name of the challenge -- take it or leave it -- kind of gives a hint of what's involved.

You can do as much or as little as you want -- a single challenge, or try to do every one! Every reader is different -- someone might read 15 books, but they're from only 3 challenges; someone else might read 15, with each coming from a different challenge.

You can add the books to the wiki whenever you want. I tend to add mine early, when the challenges are first posted, because it gives me a way to remember what it is that I hope to read. Of course, during the month, my plans change -- I'll decide I want to read a different book, or find that I'm reading more slowly than I thought, or find that a book I started is bad, and I don't want to finish it. In that case, I'll add or delete a book from the list whenever that happens. The upside of posting early in the month is that it's more likely that someone else will decide to read the same book and we have a "shared read".

The bottom line is that you can use this feature any way you want. Participate as much or as little as you want; post books whenever you want; finish them or don't finish them. It's just a way to have fun. For me, it's a way to prod me to read more in different directions, and it's fun to have the random element of whether a book fits a TIOLI challenge to push me to decide what to read.

You definitely do NOT have to create any threads. Obviously, if you want to chat about the books you're reading for TIOLI, it helps you have your own thread on the 75 books page, although you don't even need that, really, I suppose. You certainly don't need a specific TIOLI thread. A lot of people will post comments about what they're reading on this thread as we go through the month.

One idea is to go back to the 2013 Group and take a look at past TIOLI threads and lists. And I'm sure Madeline (when she's awake) can chip in with even more thoughts/ideas/suggestions and encouragement!

The only thing to remember, really, is to look at the details of each challenge, and read Madeline's rules for TIOLI as a whole. And if you're not certain, just ask!

Welcome aboard...

Citizenjoyce and Chatterbox: Thanks a lot for your very informative answers. One little question before I get started: My book for challenge #7 is one written in German. Will there be a problem?

#52 by Ameise1> not a problem at all!

> 52

Suz, how did you know I'd be asleep at 4:54 am? ;)

> 49

Welcome, Ameise1. I think that CitizenJoyce, Chatterbox, and majkia pretty much answered all of your questions. If you have any more questions, just post them to this thread. More general TIOLI questions are answered in this FAQ.

Glad to have you on board.

Thanks Jean and Madeline. I've just put my book in for the challenge #7. So I hope that I've done it correctly.
Have a nice weekend Barbara

> 55

It's perfect!

Happy New Year, Ameise1!

Challenge #12 Read a mystery book where the lead investigator is a professional sleuth, but not one employed by law enforcement

For all hose particpating in the Mystery CAT this is a cinch!

Cheli, this needs to be challenge 14. Challenge 12 is already spoken for, but not yet filled in.

>58 lindapanzo:

I'll keep Cheli's challenge at #12.

I *need* to keep the challenges in the order they are listed on the wiki. Otherwise everything gets too confused. We've gone through this before. JenMDB can later change her challenge number.

In addition, I need to know that all challengers who host a challenge (especially newbies) know how to use the wiki to present their challenge and know how to "care for" their challenge on the wiki.

I'll let JenMDB know per private message. Continue adding challenges in the order they are presented on the wiki.

#59 Okay, Madeline. Thanks for sorting things out.

I'm new to the TIOLI challenge and not so hot with the technology stuff. I added a book to Challenge #5, but it looks wrong so obviously I didn't do it right. Help!

Hooray, somewhere to add The Existential Detective!

That's fine, Marell. If you want to, you can add a link to the book, inside square brackets. Like this:

sq bracket + url + title + close square bracket

If you click on 'edit' you'll be able to see how this works a bit better, from the books that other people have listed.

>61 marell: I've fixed it for you, marell. Go take a look at it and you'll see I added the html code and the book ID.

Thanks so much. I hope as the year goes on I will get better at it.

Can't swear I'll sweep the categories but I've at least placed a book in every category so far.

Except the glossary challenge. I know have books with glossaries. Why can't I find any of them?

January is a good month to try. Not much else going on.

ETA: At the public library in the new releases section, I pulled every interesting-looking book off the shelves til I found one with a glossary. A book about Chicago bridges it is.

Anyone doing the Culture group read is good for challenge #13.

Sorry Madeline! Didn't mean to make more work for you by forgetting the challenge protocol. Wrists duly slapped and I won't make the same mistake next year! My athlete challenge is now #14.

> 68

My athlete challenge is now #14.

Hooray!! ...and thank you.

Everyone...go ahead now and add your books to JenMDB's challenge. It's up running!

I wish you could count one book towards multiple challenges – I have one that will count for at least three.

I'm new to TIOLI, but I decided it was perfect for me this year. One of my goals is to remember that reading is supposed to be FUN, and not get so overwhelmed with reader challenges that it all turns into homework. So Take It or Leave It allows me to use the challenge as a way to filter my giant TBR list while still being able to walk away without guilt if a book doesn't work out for me a chapter or two in or if I just don't have anything interesting that fits a challenge.

Anyway, I just added a book to #1, and I think I did it right...

Hitting *like* on #71. That's exactly how I use this.

Yep. Me, too.

Welcome to those all of those new to the TIOLI challenges! Sometimes they can be overwhelming so don't be afraid to ask if you have a question of how anything works.

Just remember this is for enjoyment and not for guilt. You may use them however you choose. I give stats and awards to make things interesting, but not to be a competition.

The same goes for the TIOLI meter. That's not a competition. It's just a place where you can see how your list of reads compares with those of others. I'm usually at the bottom!

The idea of the TIOLI challenges is simply to help you move through your TBR stack, talk to one another about what you read, suggest books, share reads, but mostly...just to have fun!

And once I got over my initial anxiety about keeping up and feeling like I had to read a certain number or certain challenges, this was the most fun thing to do all year. Welcome and happy to keep reading!

********Challenge #15: For the Centennial of the start of WWI, read a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars" (1914-1918)********

One hundred years ago, Europe erupted into what is now known as World War I. Read a book that takes place during that war, 1914-1918. It does not have to be about WWI.

I'll be joining in 2014, again. These challenges drove most of my reading since joining LT in September 2013.

Yippee, LoisB!

My average year is 1976, the year I graduated from high school. Okay, off to hunt down some books.

OK, folks, I know I said to be creative with the "14" challenge, but there's at least one book that has become too creative! Let's keep the "14s" to things that relate to the numbers -- published in 1914 or 2014, with 14 chapters or page numbers that end in "14", and ISBN, number of libraries, reviews, discussions, rankings, etc., or 14 letters in author/title. It could be one of 14 books on a prize shortlist or something like that. But I think -- sorry, Citizenjoyce! -- that the fact that the main character is a horse whisperer, and that horse whisperer has 14 letters, goes a little too far. I'd feel the same about a character having a 14 letter name, or the fact that the book begins on a page labelled 14. This is a pretty wide-open challenge as it is, but in the spirit of Madeline's suggestions over the months, I don't want to have it be so wide open that absolutely anything can be made to fit. Thanks!!

Speaking of Challenge #3, I went to share the read of So Big by Edna Ferber there and noticed that whoever listed it didn't include their name.

81> Does the justification for So Big by Edna Ferber add up? I count 15 letters, not 14.

Oh, you are so right - I didn't double check the math. I just saw it listed and added mine for a shared read, but I'll remove mine. Thanks for that.

> 80

in the spirit of Madeline's suggestions over the months, I don't want to have it be so wide open that absolutely anything can be made to fit. Thanks!!

Suz...you made me laugh!

>83 Crazymamie:

Well the number 15 is next to the number 14. Isn't that close enough*?

*Just kidding, of course!

LOL!

Bwahaha! I hadn't done the math on that -- just eyeballed it. Clearly 15 is NOT 14, not even in the "new math"!

Oh no, 2 books down. So much for being creative. And 15 is close to 14, so there.

(16) Citizenjoyce, would The Scarlet Pimpernel be acceptable for your challenge? It takes place in both France and England during the French Revolution.

Sounds good to me, Fuzzi.

Close -- but no cigar! :-)

Paul, does a Yorkshire author need to be born there or could it be someone who lived/worked/works there? Can we ignore the whole Humberside debacle?(for those who don't know, Humberside was a county/local government thing imposed from above which combined the old East Riding of Yorkshire (including Winifred Holtby country) with part of northern Lincolnshire - few of the residents appreciated being thrown together in this way - my ex boyfriend years ago was from 'ull.

ETA - have just seen your heading so I assume the answers to my first questions are yes and no.

I've also realised you've answered my other question already. Humberside was abolished a few years ago, I think - people there are back to being in their old counties again. My ex never accepted Humberside as being where he was from!

My average year is 1998. Seems like quite a few of us fall into the late 90s.

Onward.

Challenge #16- Read a book with an ugly cover

When I posted last month's cover challenge one challenger wrote that her cover was so ugly she felt bad posting it. Hence, the idea for the ugly cover challenge was born. This is purely a matter of taste. Whatever you consider ugly fits.

> 93

We've had that challenge before, but it's such a hoot that I think it will be fun to rerun it now. Be sure to set up a separate thread were everyone can submit the picture of his/her book cover. I'll be happy to send a (very small) prize to the winner of this year's ugliest book cover contest after the month is over.

Okay - there is something wrong with some of my date data apparently, the average year for me is 91692 (which is going to be impossible to find).

Madeline, how the heck did I miss the ugly book cover challenge?

I'll go set up another thread now.

I love the challenges for January. I'm going to have to plan my reads carefully to see how many of these challenges I can complete in the month.

I'll have to check my TBR Tower and head over to wikiThing to log my challenges.

#95

We had that problem up thread - ISBNs in the date column, perhaps?

If you sort your library by date and look at the "highest" numbers, you might be able to spot what the problem is.

>95 thornton37814: It looks like your average date will fall somewhere in the 2000 - 2009 range. Maybe you could use 2004 as your date.

> 96

how the heck did I miss the ugly book cover challenge?

How do I know? It was one of the funniest challenges we've ever had.

Okay - I got 1992 as an average after removing an ISBN. Carrie contacted me privately about the ISBN in the date field thing. I also wish that LibraryThing would figure out how to import the 264 fields in RDA records the same way they do the 260 fields in the old AACR2 records. It really shouldn't be that difficult for them to map that field. It's frustrating to have to edit every new book record now! I found a bunch of ? dates that I knew were 2013 books so I corrected those as I was sorting too.

> 96

I found it. Its TIOLI title was slightly different - The book with the most awful cover art.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/117082#2725576

I don't think I'll ever forget this cover of Stasia's book (which won the contest, by the way). I dare anyone to find a book cover uglier than this... LOL!



ETA: Are those purple eye wiggling...or it that just my imagination? Horrors!

This is what's on my January reading list:

Challenge #1, a book whose title names an object usually found in the kitchen: The Glass Rainbow, by James Lee Burke

Challenge #2, a book from my 'average' year (1976): Healer, by F. Paul Wilson

Challenge #3, a book that has some connection with the Number 14: A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

Challenge #6, a book by a Yorkshire Born writer: Occupied City, by David Peace

Challenge #11, a book that has two of something in the title: The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog (2 reptiles), by Elizabeth Peters

Challenge #12, a mystery book where the lead investigator is a professional sleuth, but not one employed by law enforcement: Defend and Betray, by Anne Perry

Challenge #13, a book by an author who died in 2013: Split Images, by Elmore Leonard

Challenge #15, a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars": A Test of Wills, by Charles Todd

Challenge #16, a book with an ugly cover: Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

Oh wait, it's all coming back to me! Apparently I participated and didn't remember :P

Hi. This is a great challenge and I love the creativeness of it! How do I find my book's URL so I can add it to the challenge properly with the blue print link thingy? If you look at Challenge 1, you'll see my Orange as Marmalade added incorrectly. Sorry.

Merryann, the only thing that was wrong was that you didn't have brackets around your URL. I fixed it.

Merryann, what I did was just copy someone else's entry into a text editor, then replaced the URL with my book's, changed the author name, my name, etc. but left all the formatting intact so I could just paste it back into the edit window.

I'm nominating my edition of Dead Souls for the ugly cover challenge. I can't post the pic, and for some reason, the LT image is tied to the wrong edition -- my edition is actually Vintage Classics, translated by Pevear and Volkonsky, but the correct image pulls up a Yale University Press version that is by a different translator. At any rate -- a hideous paper bag-colored cover with rows of abstract blocky black/charcoal figures silhouetted in rows. I suppose those are the souls of the title, but really, it's just ugly.

There are other covers that I simply find boring, if not actively ugly, although I suspect if I looked a bit harder I could dig up some that are at least seriously annoying to me. Headless women on the cover of historical novels and luridly-colored chick lit does the trick.

>106 lahochstetler:, 107 Thank you lahochstetler and susanna.fraser. I'm off to try again with my next TIOLI challenge book. :)

>>#108

Listings of the book at AbeBooks have small versions of what I think from your description is that cover, Suz.

Luci - hahaha asked and answered. Well done you were right. I have lots of friends from both Hull and Middlesbrough who would be offended to not be called Yorkshiremen and women.

>108 Chatterbox: This one?

Here's a list of books from WWI:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162706#4431258

Working on my list of possible reads for January. Here are some that I am thinking of reading and the challenge that that will fit into:

Challenge #2: You Average Year (2001)

1. Quidditch Through the ages by Kennilworthy Whisp
2. Fantastic Beasts and where to find them by Newt Scamander

Challenge #9: Read a book by the author of one of your favourite books of 2013

1. books by Mary Janice Davidson
2. Charlaine Harris I have Dead in the Family to start. Plus a few others of her books

That is what I have so far. I may see where my other books might fit that I am reading right now:

Stranger in the room by Amanda Kyle Williams
Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Here are my January TIOLI plans:

Dynamite Fishermen Preston Fleming (Jan TIOLI #1)
Between Sisters Kristin Hannah (Jan TIOLI #2)
Little Failure: A Memoir Gary Shteyngart (Jan TIOLI #3)
Chocolat Joanne Harris (Jan TIOLI #6)
Killer Boobs, a memoir of how my breasts tried to kill me... Amy Valentine (Jan TIOLI #11)
Three Doors to Death Rex Stout (Jan TIOLI #12)
Fer de Lance Rex Stout (Jan TIOLI #12)
One Knee Equals Two Feet: And Everything Else You Need to Know About Football John Madden (Jan TIOLI #14)

Workling on plans for this- I have not looked seriously at TIOLI before- so am starting out modestly. These books I have in the TBR pile sem to fit.

January 2014 TIOLI
Challenge #1 The Swordfish Hunters: The History and Ecology of an Ancient American Sea People

Challenge #2 – year 1989 An acceptable time
Challenge #3 ISBN starts with 14 The Things We Cook: A Green Hope Farm Cookbook - I may not read it all, but if I browse heavily and try some recipes, does it count?

Challenge # 7 – Help, Thanks, Wow
Challenge # 8 - The Geology of New Hampshire's White Mountains

Challenge # 9 Wings of Fire
Challenge #11 Oryx and Crake by Audiobook

#116 by Helenoel> Oh, really tempted to try to join you in the wings of Fire read. Just not sure I'll have the time to do it!

Planned reads for January:
Once again I've bit off more than I can chew, yet I'm still whining about not having a place to put The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent
Challenge #1: Read a book whose title names an object usually found in the kitchen
Removed Basin and Range - John McPhee - Audiobook
Removed Bones Would Rain From the Sky: Deepening Our Relationship With Dogs- Suzanne Clothier
✔Coffee With Jesus - David Wilkie (3)
✔In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Michael Pollan - E-Audiobook (4)
Challenge #2: Read a book from your 'average' year
City of Darkness City of Light - Marge Piercy
Challenge #3: Instances of the Number 14: Read a book that has some connection with the number 14
✔The Chaperone - Laura Moriarty - E-Audiobook (4.5)
Removed Chihuahua of the Baskervilles - Seri Allbritten
✔The Light in the Ruins - Chris Bohjalian - Audiobook (4)
Challenge #4: Read a nonfiction work from the N.Y. Times 100 notable books of 2013
Removed Empress Dowager Cixi - Jung Chang
✔Five Days At Memorial - Sheri Fink (5)
Challenge #5: Read a book set in France before the 21st Century
✔Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay -Book club (4.5)
Challenge #6: Read a book by a Yorkshire Born writer
✔The Girl with No Shadow - Joanne Harris - E-Audiobook (3.75)
Removed Novel on Yellow Paper - Stevie Smith
Best Poems of Stevie Smith - Stevie Smith
Challenge #8: Read a book that has a glossary
Removed Hild - Nicola Griffith - Nook
Challenge #9: Read a book by the author of one of your favourite books of 2013
Removed Tiger Burning Bright - Marion Zimmer Bradley
✔Wild Life - Molly Gloss (3.75)
Challenge #10: Book Bullet: Read a book that you discovered on an LT thread in 2013
✔Dog Songs - Mary Oliver - E book (5)
✔The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt E-Audio (4.5)
✔Longbourn - Jo Baker -E-Audiobook (4.75)
✔Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline (4)
Challenge #11: Read a book that has two of something in the title
✔Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell (5)
✔The Outcasts: A Novel by Kathleen Kent - Audiobook (4.5)
✔Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin - Nook (4.5)
✔The Promise of Stardust - Priscille Sibley E-Audioback (3)
Challenge #12: Read a mystery book where the lead investigator is a professional sleuth, but not one employed by law enforcement
✔Birds of a Feather- Jacqueline Winspear - E-Audio (3.5)
Challenge #13: Read a book by an author who died in 2013
✔When the Women Come Out to Dance: Stories - Elmore Leonard - Audiobook (5)
Challenge #14: Read a book that is about an athlete or athletes
✔Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports by Mark Fainaru-Wada - E-Audiobook (4)
Removed One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season - Chris Ballard - Nook
Challenge #15: For the Centennial of the start of WWI, read a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars" (1914-1918)
✔Life Class - Pat Barker- E-book (4.5)
Removed The Sweetest Dark - Shana Abé - Audiobook
Challenge #18: Read a book by an author from Sub-Saharan Africa
The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Challenge #19. Read a book with a walking or standing figure on the cover
✔The Returned - Jason Mott E-Book (2.5)
✔The View From Castle Rock: Stories - Alice Munro - E-Audiobook (4)
✔Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell - Audiobook (4.75)

I tried to add a challenge (#17). It shows up in the Wiki, but I don't know how to get it to show up in the Index list in >2 SqueakyChu:. Help!

Lois - you don't. Madeline (aka SqueakyChu) - our great & glorious leader - will do that for you. You just need to post the challenge to the wiki, then post it here to announce it to the thread.

Edit to add - you can also add any additional requirements to the post here, so you might want people to include the location (if it's not obvious from the title).

nice to see you joining in.

Thank you, Helenliz! I will add a post to explain the challenge.

Challenge #17: Read a book about the city, state(province), or country in which you live.

I'm a transplant to Florida, so one of my 2014 Categories is for learning more about my adopted state. Please put the geographic location in parentheses before your name.

LoisB would a book on an amusement park in your state count for your Challenge?

>123 crazy4reading: Yes, if it deals with the history of its development in the state.

Oh great. Now I just need to find the book Kennywood.

>37 majkia:, That is the question, isn't it?

>38 Helenliz:, Good to see that The Death of King Arthur is good. I read Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 2013 and really enjoyed it.

Alas, there are few books about Rhode Island... Too bad I moved!

Morphy, yes, that is the hideous image.

Anyone looking for a WW1 reading list might want to mosey over to this thread, which is devoted to assembling a more or less comprehensive such list! http://www.librarything.com/topic/163004#

Suz - I don't think the Gogol cover is thaaat bad. I would swap it for mine.

Everyone - Please do go to Suz's WWI thread. Fascinating. My list was a typical starter list I dashed off without any prep, but Morphy is an angel for linking it and it does pick up most of the interesting ones. xx

For challenge #1, would "mouse" be acceptable? I've lived in a number of older homes that had mice in the kitchen!

My planned reads for January, though I promise not to feel guilty if I don't get through them all:

Challenge #1: Read a book whose title names an object usually found in the kitchen
The Sharing Spoon - Kathleen Eagle

Challenge #2: Read a book from your 'average' year
How the Scots Invented the Modern World - Arthur Herman

Challenge #5: Read a book set in France before the 21st Century
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Challenge #7: Read a book you received as a present
Hyperbole and a Half - Allie Brosh

Challenge #8: Read a book that has a glossary
Marathon: The Battle that Changed Western Civilization - Richard Billows

Challenge #9: Read a book by the author of one of your favourite books of 2013
Codex Born - Jim C. Hines

Challenge #10: Book Bullet: Read a book that you discovered on an LT thread in 2013
Letters of a Woman Homesteader - Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Challenge #11: Read a book that has two of something in the title
Rosemary and Rue - Seanan McGuire
(This one would've worked just as well for #1 and #9, incidentally.)

Challenge #15: For the Centennial of the start of WWI, read a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars" (1914-1918)
Rilla of Ingleside - LM Montgomery

A nice omnivorous list I'm looking forward to tackling.

> 129

For challenge #1, would "mouse" be acceptable? I've lived in a number of older homes that had mice in the kitchen!

I would say no because you *usually* do not find mice in the kitchen. Mice are the exception rather than the rule of what is commonly found in a kitchen. In other words, I wouldn't go to a person's kitchen specifically to look for a mouse. :D

The mouse in my house was seen in the living room, and two lived in the hall closet (unbeknownst to me). I'm sure they got into the kitchen, but I never actually saw them there. :)

Susanna, I see you're reading Hyperbole and a Half. It was one of my favorite reads of the year. I even gave 3 copies away for Christmas. My daughter read hers in one night, but she's kind of a mutant. She didn't get her speed reading abilities from either parent. I'd say they gave me the wrong baby in the hospital, but since she was born at home I guess I have to chalk it up to mutation or fairy interference.

>132 Citizenjoyce:

I've been a fan ever since someone pointed me to the "Clean ALL the Things!" post several years back. Let's just say I recognized myself...

My daughter is quite the speed reader (which she does get from me), but she's 9, so there's not a lot of overlap in our reading material yet. We've both read the Hunger Games trilogy because I read it myself before letting her have it (reluctantly), but she's mostly into middle grade and YA fantasy. Percy Jackson, the Warrior Cats, etc.

Good to hear about Hyperbole and a Half. Just got that book with some Christmas money. I read Brosh's blog post about depression, and I've wanted to read more of her stuff ever since.

I was drawn to all Brosh's dog stuff which is hilarious and true and pleasantly surprised to read her honest and perceptive descriptions of depression. I was surprised to see that one of the reviews also praised her psychological insights but couldn't figure out why she had so much about dogs. He must be from a canine free household.

I've finished my first read for the year, a thriller that I couldn't put down. Adding to challenge #2 as it was published in my average year, 1996.
The Big Killing by Robert Wilson

I'd really like to invite ***all*** TIOLI challengers to submit at least one entry to the Ugly Book Cover Contest...even if you have no intention of reading that book for the month. Of course only a COMPLETED book can win the (very small) prize, but do join the fun of this unusual competition.

Thanks to all...and have a great 2014!

For Challenge 18, I would recommend Infidel. I read it in December and rated it ****.

Can anyone suggest a niche for Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard? I'd like to squeeze it in as the next of the Cazalet chronicles for this month...

> 140

It has two Ns and two Os in the title. How about in Challenge #11 (i.e. Read a book that has two of something in the title).?

Ha! I hadn't even thought of that... Well spotted!!!

Just starting to look at the challenge and have yet to work my way down the thread. I was very assiduous in 2011-12, but fell away last year, as I did with most everything and everyone in this group. Will try to participate more in 2014.

First comment to Liz is I just checked my average date which is 2002. BUT it states under the graph that the dates are compiled by publication date, not date of original work... bummer. Maybe others have commented on this already? I'll find out as I work my way through this thread.

#141, aha! You just managed to help me put one of my books into my own challenge. Sometimes I don't think small enough. :-)

Little House in the Big Woods (two Ts and two Os) by Laura Ingalls Wilder - TIOLI #11. Read a book that has two of something in the title (Mysterious Box 36)

Sweet and simple. Laura lives in a home built by her father and extended family in the big woods. This is an account of what happens over the course of the year on a homestead in late 19th century America. So many things to think about. For instance, no electricity means sewing clothes by hand, every single little tiny stitch for yards and yards of cloth. Making butter is a full day process involving all manual labor. Everything gets used. Everything. This was a great reminder that the "good ol' days" were busy and hard.

>>#143

We did discuss this up above, Ilana. I would prefer to work off original publication date but I understand a lot of people have edition date recorded instead, so it's okay to use that. I guess it wouldn't be reasonable to ask everyone to overhaul their catalogue just to participate in this challenge...although THEY REALLY, REALLY SHOULD. :)

146: It's all very well saying that, but in the graph, that's not what LT has given us. They've graphed the edition dates. I would love a graph based on original publication date, but I'm not going to put the wrong information in fields as LT is set up currently. I spend enough time as it is adding covers to Kindle books and trying to make sure I have the right covers for others, and correcting other annoying details. When I looked, my date was 2001, and it's only likely to get later as using a Kindle means edition dates are later, and also I suspect that I acquire a lot of relatively recent books by original publication date. I still have to catalogue most of my Kindle acquisitions for the last 6 months, unless I've read them since purchase (or before purchase, if I borrowed from the library or replaced an ARC/hardback/paperback review copy). Also my review books are mostly very recent

Challenge #19: Read a book with a walking or standing figur on the cover

any figure on two legs who is walking or standing qualifies

publish your cover here, please: http://www.librarything.com/topic/163478

> 143

Hi Ilana,

So nice to see her back here. I have been so remiss at visiting the threads of others, it's kind of fun to have a gathering place here. Wishing you a fine 2014!

> 144

You just managed to help me put one of my books into my own challenge.

You just have to get creative (or at least take what the challenge states literally). That can be pushing it at times, I know, but it doesn't hurt to try! :)

I am trying to read some TIOLIs again this month. I've been absent for most of 2013, then managed a full set + 2 in November and 7 in December. Started "working" with an Excel now to better keep track of my TIOLI books.

This month the challenges are quite open, but I haven't found many possible books yet, so I am taking a slow start into the month:

9. Read a book by the author of one of your favourite books of 2013:
La Promesse de l'Aube by Romain Gary

11. Read a book that has two of something in the title
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

15. Read a book that takes place during "The War to End All Wars" (1914-1918)
"Erziehung vor Verdun" by Arnold Zweig

Does anyone have an idea where I could add Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather?
It's a book some people are going to read for the American Author Challenge this month.

I might place the 1,001 GR For Whom The Bell Tolls into the ugly cover challenge.

> 151

Does anyone have an idea where I could add Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather?

Death Comes For The Archbishop has two As, two Ts, two Cs, two Ss, two Rs in the title. Why not Challenge #11 (i.e. Read a book that has two of something in the title)?

#152: Thank you!! Will add it right now!

Anyone here want o join the 15,000 pages for 2014 group? I know many of you do like to track the number of pages read.

Oh, great, another group to follow...

...just kidding, I'll check it out, thanks for the recommendation. :)

#148 -- Paul, what if it's clear from the picture that someone is standing, but they are only shown down to the hips?? (i.e. no legs visible, although it's clear that they aren't sitting, or riding a horse, or....

Also, I would have to rely on someone else to post a pic of the cover; I have always had trouble with this over the years, regardless of what computer or connection I use.

>>#147

When I catalogue a book, I add it using the listing for the original publication, not for the edition I have; I then add the details of my edition manually when I read it.

For example, my listing for Can You Forgive Her? has the following:

Publication date: 1865
Publication: London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1987

I know that's not what we're "supposed" to do but I've never understood the LT privileging of edition date over original date. There are a few other people who do this although most just add by edition - and of course for people who accumulate new books yearly, the publication date and the edition date are often the same. I then sort my catalogue by date to generate a chronological listing.

Anal? Me? :)

I think the reason LT uses the edition date rather than the date of original publication is because LT encourages importation of library catalog records. The original date of publication is not usually part of a library catalog record for an item unless it's a record for a first edition or for a reprint of the original edition. The original publication date is in the common knowledge field on the work page but someone has to manually enter the date. Since you can customize the view of "your library" to include common knowledge fields, I think it might be possible to add original publication date to your library statistics. I'm not sure about that, though, because even though I can add the CK original publication date to my catalog view, I can't sort my catalog using this field.

No, and it's the sorting function that's really important to me. I do see your point about the library importation, though.

>156 Chatterbox: Chatterbox, I would accept a picture if, as you say, it is obvious that the figure is standing.

Point me to the title and the publisher (or ISBN) and I will try to post your book's picture.

Wonderful, I love this! Organized randomness, just what I need. I think I'll try three challenges my first time out.

2. Read a book from your "average year". Mine is 1994 and will take some thought. Will post that later.

4. Read a work of nonfiction from the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2013: This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral

16. Read a book with an Ugly Cover. Granted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but this novel Doctor Who: Mad Dogs and Englishmen is pretty repulsive.

Wish me luck!

>161 hairballsrus: welcome and good luck

> 161

Organized randomness

Haha! I never thought of it this way.

Welcome, hairballsrus!

#161, yikes! That is pretty ugly.

157: Yes, sorry, my post earlier sounded a bit cranky. I do understand what you're saying, but I spend too much time trying to get the covers right, trying to round up multiple entries for the same title, and on Goodreads, sometimes adding editions, especially Kindle - LT picks up the Amazon database so mostly gets them but without a cover picture. I'm almost 6 months behind on Kindle books, am up to date on print copies except today's purchases (or actually, yesterday - that was Thursday).

That's okay, I understand - we've all got our particular sore spots when it comes to our cataloguing. :)

Madeline, two questions about your challenge:

Breakfast isn't an object per se, but it is found in the kitchen usually, so would Breakfast at Tiffany's qualify?

Also, I don't know about most people, but I always have loads of bags in my kitchen, so would The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag fit for your challenge too? Come to think of it 'string' would probably qualify too, right?

Interesting discussion about edition dates v original publication dates. I am interested in both, but in cataloguing my copy of a work I always record the date of the edition, not the opd. Given that it is edition-date based, my average year is quite early (1988) compared to many who have so far commented or posted on the wiki - this reflects the large proportion of older used books in my collection. I was wondering if it was worth adding on the wiki (at least those of us who are interested) whether our average year is edition based or opd based; but I suspect there are not many besides lyzard who have used the publication field to record opd.

>167 Smiler69: I have string in my kitchen, and all kinds of bags - plastic grocery bags to recycle, clear storage bags for the fridge and freezer, and even a couple of paper bags!

>>#168

I suspect not, too! :)

Like I said, I get the point about library catalogue information; but still, unless it's an anniversary or something similar, I don't see that an edition date tells you much about the book itself - does it matter if something was reissued in 2002 rather than 2003?

Ah, I distinguish between edition date and printing date. My books are entered under the first date they were published in that edition, whether it is the first or any subsequent printings or reissues of that edition. In the case of some publisher's series which I collect - eg Penguin Classics or VMCs - where the same edition is reprinted many times sometimes over decades with different cover designs as the only varying factor, I tend to record the printing date as well as the edition date in the publication field, as this may be the only way of distinguishing between versions of the book which will be identical textually but look very different on the outside.

That's an interesting variant, Genny - I hadn't considered printing date, but can certainly see why you would go down that road.

> 167

Breakfast can be an an object (it's a noun - i.e. a meal). It sits right in front of you in the morning...so you eat it. Breakfast is not usually found in other rooms. You can use breakfast.

Most people do have bags in their kitchen: lunch bags, snack bags, Ziplock bags, grocery bags, plastic bags - so I'll accept "bag" but not "string" (which I don't think is necessarily associated with the kitchen).

Lyz -- sometimes it doesn't matter about 2002 vs 2003, but sometimes it can. For instance you may want to make it clear that that edition you own isn't the one by a small printing by a small press of a book that went on to win a literary award, but of its subsequent reprinting the next year in much larger quantities. It speaks to what is in your library vs someone else's. For instance, when I catalog my grandfather G.A. Henty books, I want to make sure the edition I log is the edition I own. It's less important to me when the original work is published -- if I need that info for some reason, I can pull the book off the shelf and check on the copyright data on the inside cover (as I just did for Be Shot for Sixpence because I wanted to know when it was published & thus what historical context the author was referring to) or otherwise Google it.

Something like that may be behind LT's strategy, since its focus is on our personal libraries rather the date on which those books were first published, and I understand that.

If anything, the LT solution might be to add an optional line that has date of first publication in it for those who find that info more valuable. But for my purposes, unless I own an edition published in that year, it's going to give me a distorted picture of the books I actually own. Edition date I'm less averse to, but I'd still prefer to use the printing date. For instance, if I own an OUP or Penguin classics edition of Portrait of a Lady, clearly it wasn't printed in 1881, and I probably have a rough idea of when it was originally published, but a less clear idea of when it was added to my library (if it was prior to my joining LT) and the edition-specific/book-specific data.

Anyway -- thanks for your flexibility on this!

Oh, no, quite the reverse - I thank everyone for putting up with my tunnel vision!

Good lord, I had forgotten that G. A. Henty was your grandfather!!!! Mea culpa, and I really need to get to some of his books (though I did read Winning His Spurs and St George for England when I was much, much younger).

Sometimes even editions of a book published by the same publisher have bigger differences than the cover - eg I own 3 Virago Modern Classics copies of Barbara Comyns' Our Spoons Came From Woolworths which I think have different intros - there are certainly 2 different introductions. Others that Virago alone have published in various different editions include South Riding, Their Eyes Were Watching God and one of Rebecca West's books. Penguin and Oxford World's Classics have also published editions of various novels with different intros. I haven't catalogued the duplicates separately but I keep thinking maybe I should.

Having recently fallen in love with Billy Collins (I thought someone was reading Aimless Love this month, but maybe it was in December), I've just discovered another "accessible" poet, Mary Oliver; and my heart is filling up again. This is from Dog Songs:

Luke's Junkyard Song

I was born in a junkyard,
not even on a bundle of rags
or the seat of an old wrecked car
but the dust below.
But when my eyes opened
I could crawl to the edge and see
the moving grass and the trees
and this I began to dream on,
though the worms were eating me.
And at night through the twists of metal
I could see a single star--one, not even two.
Its light was a thing of wonder,
and I learned something precious
that would also be good for you.
Though the worms kept biting and pinching
I fell in love with this star.
I stared at it every night--
that light so clear and far.
Listen, a junkyard puppy
learns quickly how to dream.
Listen, whatever you see and love--
that's where you are.

Not all the poems are this heart wrenching, some are just playful, but this one grabs me. In contrast, I'm reading Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports. Barry Bonds is as far from that junkyard dog as a person can be, preening, hateful, never satisfied - I prefer spending my time with Mary Oliver's pack.

dates of publications: I put the date of the actual edition I own into the cataloguing field and then fill in the Original publication date on the CK page. My average year is 1995 - and would be much older if I'd catalogued all my Bibles with 400 BC for the Old Testament - and the value of a book changes with the different editions.

Arriving a bit late to the party, having missed a large part of the end of last year in TIOLI. Wishing everyone a healthful and happy New Year!



And January's TIOLI is already up and running. So many challenges I'd like to do, but can I read all those books? I've finished my first book of the year, which should really go in Challenge 10, as I was hit by a book bullet, but if Madeline will accept that 'steel' is what is used to sharpen knives, I'm putting it into Challenge 1 (because I always try to - not always successfully - read a book in the first challenge of the month).

Challenge 1 - an object usually found in the kitchen
The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

> 179

Sorry, humouress. A "knife sharpener" is an object commonly found in the kitchen, but "steel" is not. Steel could just as easily be found in my backyard shed or in my son's garage.

Put your book in challenge #11 (Read a book that has two of something in the title). Your book title has two Hs, two Is, two Rs, two Ls, and two Ss.

180> ohh, that's mean. We have a steel in our kitchen, came as part of the presentation set with the carving knife & fork. There's no way that would be found in the shed or garage.

Happy to cause trouble, any time, any place.

>179 humouress:, 180 I keep steel wool under my kitchen sink for scrubbing hard-to-clean cookware and bakeware. Steel wool isn't really wool, but it is steel.

I would agree that 'a steel' is a specific type of knife sharpener that's different from steel in general.

I'm with the steel in the kitchen camp. My husband's favourite kitchen implement is a steel. He wields it with flare.

Dare I add a link to "How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives with a Steel for Dummies"?

> 179, 180, 183, 184

Okay you four win. You can use "steel" for challenge #1. I see from exploring the wonders of our cyber-world that one type of knife sharpener is sometimes indeed known as a "steel".

Live to learn. I've always known my own "steel" as simply a "knife sharpener".

:D

Source:
1. www.houseares.about.com: "A steel is an essential cutlery knife care tool."

P.S. Cheers for humouress' defense team!

> 182

I keep steel wool under my kitchen sink for scrubbing hard-to-clean cookware and bakeware. Steel wool isn't really wool, but it is steel.

I won't accept this argument, however. :P

Lyz -- Henty wasn't my grandfather! My grandfather collected his books and began sharing them with me when I was a kid...

>186 SqueakyChu: I have one of those steel knife sharpeners, too, so I'm covered if I find a book with "steel" in the title! :)

> 188

so I'm covered if I find a book with "steel" in the title!

LOL!! You are.

>>#187

Rats! I'm clearly misremembering a conversation we had on the subject before. Heh!

LOL, yes -- there's also the fact that Henty was born in 1832 and my grandfather in 1902 or 1903 (can't remember exackerly right now). Indeed, my grandfather's grandfather was born in the early 1830s... :-)

Eep! Okay, so just a little out in my computation!

Of course, *this* is why it's so important to record the original publication date... :D

(Of people, Lyz...)

Sad to have missed out on most the controversy, but I have a "steel" in my kitchen, and I can't live without it. As someone has already supplied the definition, I will only say that most of the cooking shows I watch call it that instead of knife sharpener.

Grrr, I just posted a challenge and accidentally closed down that tab and lost it.

Challenge 20: Read a book by an author called Elizabeth, or a variant of that name (this could be a variant in another language - Elzbieta - or an abbreviation - Liz, Beth, Eliza, Liza, Betty)

This is inspired by a comment made by Hilary Mantel on a radio obituary programme this afternoon, in respect of Elizabeth Jane Howard who died on Thursday 2 January, that there were 4 really good women writers whose work should be more read and more highly rated than is the case - Elizabeth Jane Howard, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabeth Jenkins and Elizabeth Bowen.

There are lots and lots of books I'd like to read in this category, and in fact I've just finished one and listed it in another challenge (by Liz Fenwick), but I intend to try and fit in Howard's Marking Time, #2 of the Cazalet series.

>181 Helenliz:, 182, 183, 184, 190 : Thanks for the support, ladies! Much appreciated. :0)

>179 humouress:: My fault, I suppose; I should have been clearer and said 'a steel' rather than just 'steel'.

>185 SqueakyChu:: Thanks Madeline.

See 195 - my first attempt at this post reappeared, and I thought I hadn't posted it a second time.....

I just read my first challenge of the year, A Man of the People by Achebe. I had intended to read it for the challenge to commemorate a writer who passed last year but I've decided to put it into Challenge #18 for the Sub-Saharan challenge.

Like Joyce's poem by Mary Oliver. I don't know why she seems a bit overlooked these days, but a comeback is always nice! I will certainly get around to reading an anthology of hers this year.

Also enjoying the cataloguing discussion led by two doyennes of the art, Liz and Luci with 37,000+ books between them catalogued.
I will go back through my own catalogue at some stage and try to get them sorted on publication dates too but it won't be in time for this month's challenge so I'll go with what I've got for now.

Wow, I hadn't heard that Elizabeth Jane Howard had died... I'm re-reading the Cazalet novels, so #3 can slot nicely and neatly in there. Tks, Luci...

About what lyzard said...

After I add a book to my collection, I choose "Edit" so I can tweak the book and make it match my actual physical book.

Under "Publication Date", I have been adding the original date it was published, and then in the next box, I put the publishing company and the date of my particular edition...is this wrong or right?

That's what I do, too, though it is not what is broadly encouraged across LT - but if it suits you, I'd say that makes it right. :)

It's what I saw others had done. It made sense, so I followed their lead. :)

TIOLI #11: Read a book that has two of something in the title Cinderella by Ed McBain (two ls)

Good grief, what a convoluted plot about several factions going after what turns out to be the same woman for different reasons. When I read something this convoluted but am nonetheless enjoying it, I will just go with it and try not to keep up with who is doing what to whom and why.

Matt Hope is a lawyer whose friend Otto is killed while on a case. Otto has done work for Matt and Matt feels obligated to try to find out why Otto was killed. Enter the two factions of drug dealers, the boat owner from whom the young woman stole an $8K Rolex, the clean up guy for the cubano mob in Calusa, FL from whom she steals 4kilos of 90% pure cocaine ... and just for fun, throw in the philandering husband Otto was following for a client (but not for the reason you might suspect) and Matt's ex-wife who decides after two years they should be having sex again. Convoluted and crazy. And a lot of fun.

Question for the cataloguers - what do you do with the books BCE. If it is the Tao Ching for example which is about 650 BCE do you type in -650 into the Publication date?

When using the Original publication date on the Ck you put in 650 BCE (as it says there '1952-12-30, 1933-10, 1902, or 120 BCE').

The 'Edit your book' is for your book in front of you (or my English is so weak :)) and so there should be the date of the actual edition. I think LT didn't consider anyone having such an old book. (The same applies to my Old Testaments.)

I think there should be a feature in LT calculating the average of one's books from the CK data. That would give you two dates: One the average of your actual editions (taking from your book) and one of a fictitious 'first edition' (taken from the CK page).

For me it hasn't come up: I catalogue the details of my edition when I read a book and there's nothing on the wishlist before Don Quixote. Both a good and a fair question, though, that others certainly must deal with.

I agree with Paul (#205) that there should be a way of calculating / sorting by OPD, even more so if they want edition date as "the" signifier. OPD is too important a piece of data to be left as just an add-on.

I dreamed about cataloguing last night... :)

I dreamed about cataloguing last night...

Is it sick that I will almost always choose cataloguing over socializing if given the option? ;-)

#207: No! I'm sure many of us at LT would make the same choice.

Arriving rather late to the party as I just got home from visiting my family but I see there are lots of interesting challenges so I am going to have a very fun evening of matching my planned reading to the challenges!

I am very happy to report that I was able to fit just about all my planned January reading into the challenges. Just missing adding one book which I have on order from the library. It's a non-fiction so I am hoping it will have a glossary.

205> There was a long discussion with Tim about OPD and deriving it if it hadn't been entered, but I think it fizzled out. Pity. I do consider my edition important information, but so is OPD - both equally important, overall. Sometimes, for some questions, OPD is the info I need; for other questions, what I want is the edition (or printing, which is what I usually enter) date.

My date is 1964, a few years before I was born. I'm not sure I'll be doing any challenges - haven't had a chance to look at my books and the challenges. But I may...if things slow down enough to get started!

I don't want to be all challenge policey but would those of you who have listed something under #11. Read a book that has two of something in the title, show your work please? The two of somethings aren't jumping right out at me in all of them. Thanks! I like watching how our minds work in these challenges :-)

TIOLI #8: Read a book that has a glossary (naval terms) - The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

This was intense, and really entertaining. I have quibbles with the love story and am not quite sure how that was supposed to fit in with the story of a rust bucket minesweeper, its crew and the eventual decision to relieve Captain Queeg from duty by his Executive Office.

The story follows Willie Keith from training to eventual posting on the Caine, a minesweeping ship which should have been retired long before World War II began. As an eager young Princeton graduate with a degree in Literature and very gung ho ensign, Keith views the grungy crew and ship with disdain, as he does Captain De Vriess.

Ensign Keith only things he has it bad until Captain Queeg comes on board. Queeg is an emotional bully; paranoid, uneven, illogical and often downright incomprehensible. Things come to a head after months of Queeg's shenanigans, in which has proved himself inept and incapable of managing the Caine and her crew. In the middle of a typhoon, which has caught the ship in its record winds, Queeg's XO Maryk relieves the captain of duty and keeps the ship upright and gets her out of the worst of the storm.

Maryk has kept a log of all the incidents caused by Queeg's irrational behavior, and has been talked into seeing him as crazy by another college graduate and published author, Tom Harding who has read books about psychology. But when the going gets tough, Harding steps back from his conviction that Queeg is/was crazy and should have been relieved of duty. It is Willie Keith who steps up and backs Maryk's decision to mutiny against their captain.

I think this book holds up well and many of the characters and situations are believable. As I said at the beginning, I mostly had trouble figuring out how the love story was supposed to fit into all this.

Since a couple of other people have listed Pride And Prejudice along with Ilana for Challenge #11, I thought I would mention that Ilana and I will be doing a tutored read of Austen's novel, and that the thread has just gone up. All welcome!

The thread is here.

>215 lyzard: Hm, maybe I should read it again. I'm reading Longbourn now (for Challenge 10) and am completely in love with it. It would be interesting to go back to the Bennets after having spent such an enjoyable time with their servants.

215> That I will pop along & follow. P&P is this months book group book & I've never liked it. read it a load of times and just can't get my head around it.

(216) Citizenjoyce, I thoroughly enjoyed Longbourn! Glad you are too. :)

I keep hoping that I'll find someone to tutor me in Canterbury Tales.

>215 lyzard:: I was just saying it might soon be time for me to re-read P&P! I'll pop along to the tutored read thread soon.

>217 Helenliz:: Never liked it? Sacrilege!!

220> yup, I know. Throw me out now. I suspect i read it too young - as a self absorbed young teen I was never really going to get it. Only downside of that theory being I still don't get it.

LoisB, for your challenge, does the book need to be nonfiction? I just read a novel with a very snarky look at life here in Seattle.

>222 labfs39: Fiction is fine! Your novel sounds very appropriate.

TIOLI #11: Read a book that has two of something in the title The Monkey and the Tiger by Robert Van Gulik (two animals)

I do not understand the fascination with scantily clad women and drawings of them in these books. Not knowing enough about 9th century Chinese culture or Judge Dee puts me at a disadvantage. Is it cultural or is it Van Gulik?

Be that as it may, I actually found these two novellas nicer to read than the two longer books I read last year.

In "The Monkey" Judge Dee is watching the gibbons swing through the trees from his balcony when one drops an emerald ring. Dee retrieves the ring, discovers blood on it and goes off to solve the murder, sending Tao Gan through the city to discover what the gossip of the underclass is.

In a convoluted way, we discover that the murder of the owner of the emerald ring and the smuggling ring Judge Dee has been asked to discover are entwined, leading to a neat solution of both mysteries.

"The Tiger" features Judge Dee getting separated from his retinue during a flood and taking cover in a large country house replete with watchtower and a secret room, and about to be set upon by a gang of marauders called "The Flying Tigers."

The ever observant Dee learns that the daughter of the land owner had been killed and a large amount of gold has been stolen. So now, not only does Dee have to contend with extremely foul weather and flooding and bandits, but the mystery of how the daughter died and where the gold went.

Of course Judge Dee figures out that things are not what they appear to be and finds the culprits. So too, are they rescued by the fort across the river from the bandits just in the nick of time.

This will probably be the last Van Gulik/Judge Dee I read, unless I find more in the stacks. Sometimes it seems like there's too much going on at the same time nothing is going on, and too much Sherlockian hoodoo used, but not with much delicacy or nuance. These are okay ... meh.

TIOLI #9: read a book by the same author as one of your favourite books of 2013

I didn't notice this one originally, but my first book of the year actually qualifies: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein To say you enjoyed a book about a German concentration camp sounds odd, but it really was good and very interesting. Not as gripping as its companion novel Code Name Verity, but Rose at least ends on a note of hope, instead of leaving you in tears like the first one. I highly recommend both novels.

You cannot use one book for two challenges, correct? Otherwise this would qualify for #20 as well.

TIOLI # 11: Read a book that has two of something in the title

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo Two Nouns? Two Verbs? Two S's?

Sequel to Shadow and Bone, a YA fantasy series with a Russian flavor, not as good as the first, suffers from being the middle child, but now I'm ready for the final chapter to be published this June. Fingers crossed they finally give Mal something to do.

And on another note, my heat is out. I live in part of the country that isn't currently below zero, but I can definitely sympathize since I'm wearing a coat while eating my breakfast. Waiting on the repair man....

#224 - I don't know all that much about Tang China, either, although I suppose it's reasonable to assume that they had their share of erotic art, as has been the case from ancient Greece and Rome on to the floating world of Japan in the shogunate era. So that could be it. Of course, van Gulik was also writing in the 40s/50s and early 1960s, when if you look at movie posters (especially those for B movies), you see a fair number of scantily-dressed women posed provocatively, and when women like Monroe and Loren were screen icons. So I suppose it could be either, really.

> 225

You cannot use one book for two challenges, correct?

No, you cannot. You can, however, move it from one challenge to another.

>226 hairballsrus:

Hoping the repairman arrives speedily!

>226 hairballsrus: Yikes. Snuggle up to those cats and hope for a speedy repair person.

I finally found a place for An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland - he's the 14th US President whose last name starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet.

***I knew it had to fit somewhere.***

Wowza, cyderry. Full points for creativity on that one, so although it pushes the envelope a bit (14th US president would normally be OK, this is a kind of derivative of that), I'll let it stand just for the desperation reflected in the quest to find a way to get a "14" out of it! Too bad there weren't four more words in the title...

>231 cyderry:: How about Challenge 11 - two presidencies?

#233, humouress,
How many presidencies isn't reflected in the title.

:0( I wondered if that would be a hiccup. ;0)

i've just added The Salt Road to the glossary challenge and have to say it is a really enjoyable read.

231. "Grover" and "Cleveland" are both names of town/cities if I'm not misremembering. So it could work in that challenge too.

Hurrah - I've finally finished a book! Serves me right for starting with 3 chunkies, I suppose...

Finished In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden for challenge 7. I've had the book for 2 years (not just the 1 year I thought) and really should have read it before now. It was a wonderful read. My Santa from the 2011 SantaThing did a great job picking this one for me!

I have finished the 3 books that fit into the TIOLI Challenge. I think that is the most I have read in a month for TIOLI. The books I read were:

Kennywood: Roller Coaster Capital of the World Challenge #17)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them (Challenge #2)
Quidditch Through the ages (Challenge #2)

I am now reading Time Keeper by Mitch Albom, now I just need to see if it will fit into any challenge.

241> That is one of my favorite books of all time.

I've finally finished my second book for the year (it's all this navigating through the prolific number of posts on LT that's slowing me down).

Challenge 19 - a walking or standing figure
Shards of Honour

Challenge 1 - an object usually found in the kitchen
The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

So just read my 4th book of the year for Challenge 10 - a book I discovered on an LT Thread in 2013. Actually, what I discovered just after Christmas was the Maisie Dobbs series on Suz/Chatterbox's WWI titles thread . I just picked up the only title my local library had. Must say, I wasn't overwhelmed but I got my borrowed book for the month read so it's all good.

If anyone's interested in joining in, I have added Georgette Heyer's The Talisman Ring to Challenge #9.

#246 - That is so tempting, Liz. I love Georgette Heyer and haven't read anything by her in quite some time. But, no, I must remain strong and try to get through all the books I am already committed to!

I've added more books in more challenges than I'm ever likely to manage this month and am well prepared to delete many from the list by the end of the month, but I HAVE managed to finish Bleak House and am close to finishing The Weed the Strings the Hangman's Bag which I will add forthwith to Madeline's challenge on the wiki.

Congratulations on finishing Bleak House!!

>249 lauranav: Thank you, it was quite an undertaking, but I managed it in good time by alternating between the book and the audio version. My secret for getting through epic tomes!

TIOLI #19. Read a book with a walking or standing figure on the cover - The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

But for the murder of his nephews, Richard III might have been a successful king, despite his acts of tyranny and his ruthless seizure of the throne. It was the nurder of the Princes that gave Henry Tudor his opportunity and which brought down the House of Plantagenet. Thus the murder may be viewed in its wider context as a single event that dramatically changed the course of history. (p. 218)

As with Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley, Alison Weir goes to the primary sources, and the histories of the 15th century to attempt to answer the question, "Who killed Edward V and his brother, Duke of York?"

While admitting there is no way to answer that question definitively, she provides enough evidence to convince the reader that it was their power-hungry uncle, Richard III, who had them killed. Providing enough fodder for Shakespeare's drama, Richard III, King Richard was tyrannous and convinced that the crown belonged to him, doing whatever it took to hold onto it.

In a dizzying array of names and convoluted genealogy, the story basically boils down to the last heir of the Plantagenet branch trying to keep the Tudor branch from gaining power and the crown in England, after the War of the Roses.

Two young boys lost their lives because of this madness for power. And this book reads like the great drama that the life of Richard III and his attempt at retaining the crown of England was.

AuntieClio, if you enjoy reading about that period of history, then I would HIGHLY recommend Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour, which is all about Richard III. It's interesting, gripping, and not a dry or difficult read. :)

>251 AuntieClio: And for another look at the Richard III story, you have to read The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. A great yarn that raises all sorts of questions.

Hah, Smiler, I am doing exactly the same thing with Bleak House. Was your audiobook read by Sean Barrett? He is doing an excellent job so far of making it comprehensible and enjoyable, but I do need to re-read what I've listened to every evening to make sure it's all made sense...

#252 fuzzi & #253 JenMDB
ooooh, thanks for your recommendations.

Today is Share-A-Quote Day!

Post one or more good ones from your current reads(s).

From Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

"When you consider that twenty-seven minutes is less time than it takes to watch a single episode of Top Chef or The Next Food Network Star, you realize that there are now millions of people who spend more time watching food being cooked on television than they spend actually cooking it themselves."

>254 wandering_star: I listened to the version narrated by Hugh Dickson, which was very good, but I wish I'd gotten the Sean Barrett/Teresa Gallagher version, if only because listening to Esther's first person narrative told by a man's voice trying to sound female was making it hard to suspend disbelief!

From The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

“People in general," he said, "only ask advice not to follow it; or if they do follow it, it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it.”

> 259

Heh! I like that one. I ask advice only to get people to reinforce my opinion!

"Well, I say, we all have to start somewhere if us want to do better, and our own self is what us have to hand. (p. 230)

TIOLI #3. Read a book that has a connection with the number "14" - The Color Purple (title has 14 letters in it) - by Alice Walker

I don't know where I was the first two times I read The Color Purple, it seems that a lot of the stuff going on just flew right over my head. Maybe I wasn't ready to read Celie's life story. So horrifying what people can do to each other. And uplifting that we all manage to survive and even find a way to thrive.

Celie's letters to God, and then her sister Nettie and Nettie's letters to Celie (which are hidden from her by Mr.) tell of a harsh lifetime of rape, incest, misogyny, racism and bullying. Celie thinks that's all she deserves because it's been made clear to her she's not pretty and she better do what the men tell her.

It isn't until she meets Shug Avery, the blues singer Mr. is gaga over, that Celie begins to understand that life doesn't have to be that way. Over the years, she begins to understand what love can be, what good sex can be, and eventually, independence and happiness.

Nettie's letters from Africa are heartbreaking in so many ways, mostly because we (the readers) know that Celie isn't getting them in a timely fashion. Nettie, too finds love, independence and happiness.

In the end, I wept a little to see the end of their struggles and the happiness they find in each other.