College Students! discussion

For best/worst subjects, my best subject was English/Creative Writing. I have Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead on my shelf waiting to be read. It's a book about being a writer...does this count?

Another idea for the pair of books one... Alice in Wonderland and a book called The Looking Glass Wars.

Kellie wrote: "For best/worst subjects, my best subject was English/Creative Writing. I have Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead on my shelf waiting to be read. It's a book about being a wri..."

Looks good to me!

Gail (ADDgirl) wrote: "I'm having the most trouble with 10.5 synonyms just seem to be giving me problems.

Does art count as a subject for school? Also can the school related books be fiction?"

Yep! You can definitely use art. You could read about a certain type of art, or an artist, or it could be a book where the main character is an artist. So yes..it can be fiction..but if it's fiction it needs to really be a main part of the book. Hope that helps. I'm going to take a look at your bookshelf to see if I can help with the synonyms task.

Gail (ADDgirl) wrote: "I'm having the most trouble with 10.5 synonyms just seem to be giving me problems.

Does art count as a subject for school? Also can the school related books be fiction?"

You could do :

Be Still My Vampire Heart with one of these (obviously there's alot of other options with these words..just giving a couple).

All Quiet on the Western Front (quiet)
Silent In The Grave (silent)


or it seems like you enjoy some fantasy/paranormal books so you could do:


Dark Lover and find a synonym of dark. When I looked real quick it said black was a synonym of dark..so you could do Black House

Hope that helps a tiny bit!

Does anyone else have to print off the challange list before they can start to tackle it?
Anyway here is what my ideas are so far
5 pts
3. The Winter of Our Discontent
4. The City of Falling Angels
5. Brave New World or 1984 or a few others
7. Most likely something from Kathy Reiches

10pts
2. Animal Dreams
7. The Outsiders- SE hinton
8.
The Indifferent Stars Above The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride
15 pts
2. Persepolis 1 The Story of a Childhood & ?
4. Alias Grace
5. Heirloom Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer
6. Peter Pan
8. My words were Wrap, Purchase, Place, and Lost Island of Lost Girls A Novel

25 Pts
1. Lost generation For Whom the Bell Tolls andThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
5. Atonement and The Blind Assassin
6. The Kite Runner & The House at Sugar Beach A Memoir

Also Modest Mouse has a song about Bukowski so I'm thinking about one of his books for 25.4

Haha I have to do that too! I have to have it physically in front of me so that I can tackle it and be more hands on with it. I'm always crossing stuff off and scribbling here and there and writing a few options for each lol

Jamie, thanks for answering my question about synonyms. I'll try to come up with something else =)

Up till now I was managing with several open windows and that was really annoying. So last night I decided to print my list. And it helps a lot I must say!

Annashu: Which Modest Mouse song is it?? I might do that too! I keep racking my brain trying to think which one it is.

Tenderine: No problem! Let me know if I can help think of some ideas for you! And it really is so much easier to print it! haha. I did the same thing..i would have my personal book collection list open, and then goodreads, and then the challenge, and then who knows what else!

Funny! I was on Barnes and Noble to see what they had listed for romances, and their top 5 of the week had Sookie Stackhouse on it! Okay, I haven't read any of them yet, but I never had any hint that they would be considered romance.

haha me either. But if they are listed..go for it! :)

I've never done this before because I just joined this group recently, but I'm so excited!


5 Points

1. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill and The Soloist by Steve Lopez
2. Social Justice in Islam by Sayyid Qutb
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
4. Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
5. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
6. Pill Head by Joshua Lyon
7. Carrie by Stephen King
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

10 Points

1. The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
2. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
3. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
4. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
5. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
6. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
7. The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict by Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin

15 Points

1. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
6. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account on Nazi Experiments on Humans by Vivien Spitz
8. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

20 Points

1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and Atonement by Ian McEwan

25 Points

1. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck and His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
3. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams ("Paranoid Android by Radiohead)
5. Native Son by Richard Wright and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
6. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
7. best (political science) - Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl
worst (math) - Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
8. Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo

The song is called Bukowski...here are the opening lyrics
"Woke up this morning and it seemed to me, that every night turns out to be a little bit more like Bukowski. And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read"

For the disaster one, I have been meaning to read a survival handbook with information on what to do in worst case scenarios after hearing an interesting bit on NPR about a few of those kinds of books. Would one of those count, or should I read an actual account of a disaster?

Jessi: I was looking for more of an actual account of a disaster..but since I don't know much about it and it might actual include things that were actual disasters..(like I've heard there are some survival books pertaining to what to do if something like 9/11 every happened again, etc..) so I guess just use your best judgment and if it seems like it will fit..then definitely use it. I don't want to say no just because I really don't know much about books like that.

Thanks for the tips on the synonyms I'll work on it some more.

oh shoot, I just got one of the books that I was going to use for 15.7, the historical fiction/nonfiction pair (Those Who Save Us/ Kingdom of Auschwitz) and it's only 128 pages, 100 of which are the actual accounts :(

Does anyone know of any other really good nonfiction books that I can pair with Those Who Save Us?

Jacqueline wrote: "oh shoot, I just got one of the books that I was going to use for 15.7, the historical fiction/nonfiction pair (Those Who Save Us/ Kingdom of Auschwitz) and it's only 128 pages, 100 of which are th..."

You can go ahead and use that. I mean..it's not that much off of the requirement. We just don't want people to be reading really really short books for every challenge. Just trying to keep the playing field level. And I read Those Who Save Us and it was long (but amazing!) so I know you aren't skimping!

Jamie, thank you so much for the quick response!

No problem! Just doing my last minute GR checking before bed! :)

I really hope you enjoy that book! I loved it! Do you own it? I would definitely be willing to let you borrow it if you don't!

Thank you! That is so nice of you, but I am already waiting for it in the mail from bookmooch so hope fully it will be in the mail tomorrow! I have been wanting to read it for awhile and it finally came available so I snatched it up!

Oh, you guys, I have a few suggestions. For the pair of books, I think All Quiet on the Western Front and Not So Quiet... would be excellent. I had to read both of those for a history class, and I am so glad I did, so please consider those! Also, if anyone is looking for books on topics they don't know much about, some books I have read that you could use are:


The Accidental Guerrilla (on terrorism/counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan)

Dying To Win (the most comprehensive study of suicide terrorism campaigns that I know of)

Understanding Terror Networks (patterns among terrorists, shows a lot of stereotypes and assumptions about this to be completely wrong)

Bowling Alone (talks about American participation in clubs, how this has declined, and how this change correlates with political behavior)

Reefer Madness (about the black market, marijuana/drug laws)

Anything But Straight (about the programs that claim they can transform gay individuals and make them straight)

Unspeakable Love (about LGBT individuals/rights in the Middle East)


I guess the last two could also qualify as LGBT books. I would highly, highly recommend all of these.

Jessi, thanks for posting those! Some of those look really interesting and I might have to check them out!

Jacqueline: I'm glad that you got it on bookmooch! I waited so long for it on PBS that I finally just went out and bought it! lol

My boss just told me she finished Those Who Save Us and is loading it to me as soon as she remembers to bring it in and now I'm excieted.
I also just read The Zookeeper's Wife A War Story which was really good and non-fiction about WWII.

Ok, I haven't participated in one of the challenges before. Could someone explain how the points and all that works, or direct me to a thread that will explain it?

I'm so excited for this!

Another good book to read for something you may not know a lot about is A Piece of Blue Sky. It's all about Scientology and how messed up it is.

We can change our lists once we post them if we decide to read something else right?

Shanna..yes..you can definitely change your list even after you post them. I always do! :)

Kimberly..I promise I'll get to your question at some point within the weekend. I just got home from work and my brain is a jumbled mess and I don't think I would make sense right now trying to explain because I'm exhausted and falling asleep. Either that or I'm sure someone will gladly explain during this lack of a brain I have right now! :)

But I did want you to know that I saw it and have every intention of responding!

Oh man here we go!! I skipped over the comments b/c there were too many so if I have a question I'm sorry if I repeat!

5 points
1.
2.
3. The Winter of Candy Canes- Debbie Viguie
4. The Spring of Candy Apples- Debbie Viguie
5.
6. Crystal Lies- Melody Carlson
7. The Graveyard Book- Neil Gaiman
8.


10 points
1.
2. Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
3.
4.
5.
6. Talk me down- Victoria Dahl
7.
8.


15 points
1.
2.
3.
4. The Fall of Candy Corn- Debbie Viguie
5.
6.
7.
8.


25 points
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

I tried reading through all the posts and I never seen where the "alternate universe" question was answered. Is it a different earth or is it suppose to be outer space? I dont understand.

Hey, guys, what's the html to make a book a link?

Jessi wrote: "Hey, guys, what's the html to make a book a link?"

See at the top of the comment box it says "add book/author"? Click on that and you can do a search and it willl bring your book up. Click on it and it will post the link.

Kimberly wrote: "See at the top of the comment box it says "add book/author"? Click on that and you can do a search and it willl bring your book up. Click on it and it will post the link."

Awesome. Thank you!

I'm going to just go ahead and say for the alternate universe one..it should be something totally different from the earth we know. So..it could be outer space or another planet..but it also could be "Earth" but totally and drastically different from what we know. Like for example, the Uglies series would work or Neverwhere A Novel (the majority of this novel takes place in an alternate reality). Twilight would not work..because it's basically just like earth but has vampires. Just feel free to ask questions for this one as it may not be too clear.

Some books for the alternate universe:

Neverwhere A Novel
Uglies
The Golden Compass
The Lord of the Rings books
The Hunger Games
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Also, I'm going to admit...I'm not too clear on the alternate universe thing..I think probably someone who knows alot more would refute some of those books I have listed. But I'm just making this one broad because I'm not an expert..

Thanks Jamie!

Please be on the look out for a special 20 point challenge that will be added to the task list since Kelly has finished the challenge. She will be picking a challenge of her choice and letting me know soon!

Would Pride and Prejudice count as the romance book?

I'm SO disappointed. I totally thought this started on the 1st haha..and I got my books all ready to read and then I realized it doesn't start until next week! ahh! What am I going to do with myself!!?

Lynn: Yeah, that will work. It seems like a "classic" romance.

Kimberly: Basically how the challenge works is this: There are different tasks worth different point values. You choose where you want to start. It doesn't have to be in order. When you finish reading you can claim points for that task being completed. Then you update your total points. So if you just finished a task for 5 points and one for 10 you would have a total of 15..and so on. You can only claim points when you have completed the WHOLE task..some of them may require 2 books or for you to watch a movie or something.

I'm not sure if that was what you were wondering about the points or not. Please let me know if you have a question about anything specific with the points. Also, I believe at the beginning of this thread I explain the challenge and also at the beginning of the points thread.

Hope that helps!

The link to the random word generator doesn't work? Or is it just me :(

http://watchout4snakes.com/creativity...

Hmm..it worked for me. If you can't get it to come up, you can just search for a random word generator and this one will probably come up. If not, you can use whichever one comes up.

Odd this link works :D Thanks so much

No problem!

A lot of the links on the list didn't work for me. Like the PBS one.

I think what happened is that they got messed up when I posted them in the task list. Someone pointed that out to me so (closer to the beginning of this thread) I just made a list of all the links. It was post # 7.

Sorry about that everyone! I'm not sure what happened the first time around with the links!

Any suggestions for the non fiction and historical fiction task? What is everyone else using?

Wow! I just might have to join in on this one!