You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Chain Game Toppler Rules
Chain Game Toppler Rules Thread

⛓ links must be made using words with 3 or more letters, excluding the words "the" and "and"
⛓ work together as a team
⛓ books must be linked to another book to count towards chain - 2 book minimum
⛓ can not have three books linked to the same book - splitting one chain into two or more chains (ask if you need clarification of this rule)
⛓ can have as may chains as you want going at one time
⛓ can link to beginning or end of chain
⛓ linked words must be exactly the same (no root words, imbedding, plurals, etc)
⛓ subtitles and series names do not count

1st 4 books in the chain = 5 points per book
books # 5-8 in chain = 10 points each
book # 9 and beyond in chain = 15 points each

1. Books must be started and finished in the specified time period to qualify.
2. You may read any format - paperback, hardcover, ebook, or audiobook.
3. Each book must be at least 175 pages, based on the version you are reading. For audiobooks & ebooks use the page numbers for the first physical edition that comes up on the GR page. If there is no physical edition to confirm page length, audiobooks over 6 hours will qualify as will ebooks over 200 pages.
4. Graphic novels do not count.
5. Words must be in the title. Subtitles or series names do not count.

Team Info - LinkedIn 2 Books

Team Members
Lynn - 7
Pragya - 2
Marnie - 4
Amanda (Lily) - 2
Anna's Reading Life - 2
Carrie - 1
Lanelle - 7
Rusalka - 2

Team Spreadsheet

Team Reporting Thread

Hello everyone!

Please check in and let me know you've seen the toppler details and understand (or any questions you need clarifying)

Let me know if you have any ideas on the team name.

I'm going to need from you all:
1. How many books you want to commit to during the week
2. A list of possible books you want to read. Please list more than the amount you are prepared to read .... as the more choices we have to link the better :)
(You are more than welcome to give me your priority reads which I will try to include in the books we end up using)

Hey Lynn. Thanks for getting us started!

1. I will commit to two books. (will try for three but let's keep it at 2 for now).
2. Possible Books-
The Mask Falling
So Big
The Pumpkin Eater
Summer in Baden-Baden

Checking in :)

I thought of a team name: LinkedIn 2 Books (includes our team number, which I like)

And I have a couple of questions:
Does "the word" have to change with each book, or can we use the same word a few times in a row? For example:

The Lightning Thief
The Book Thief
The Time Thief
A Wrinkle in Time
How to Stop Time
How (Not) to Kiss a Toad

And a second question: Can we make our own chain or do we have to include someone from our team in the chain?

I like LinkedIn 2 Books

These are the books I have from the library ( on hand) that have more than one word titles.

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder
The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the Worlds
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I will commit to 4 books but will probably be able to read extra.

Once we start the chains it will be easier to gopher. I’d like to read at least one of above 3 and I’ll gopher around once we have our links started.

From my TBR : Bury Your Dead
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Lanelle wrote: "And a second question: Can we make our own chain or do we have to include someone from our team in the chain?"

I see you've already asked the first question. As for the second, my instinct would be there needs to be at least one other person see as Kristie put "⛓ work together as a team"

I'll check with her though.

I can commit to 2 books.

Here are some books I'm planning to read this month:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Swan for the Money (can't link it right now)
Well Met
Song of the Sparrow
Nowhere Near First

I can read about 7 or 8 books.

Possible Books to Chain to Others: (will add to this list as more folks add theirs :)
(view spoiler)[
Prayga
The Mask Falling - Falling for Jack, Falling for Chloe
So Big - none
The Pumpkin Eater - none
Summer in Baden-Baden - Summer Rose, The Summer I Learned to Dive, Once Upon a Summer

Marnie
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder - Midnight on the River Grey, Witch Way to Murder, This Side of Murder
The Lion in the Living Room - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Girl from Red Lion Square
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - none
Bury Your Dead - Dead Heat (2 separate books with the same title), Bubba and the Dead Woman, Dead Over Heels

Amanda
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - none
Swan for the Money - Murder on Black Swan Lane
Well Met - none
Song of the Sparrow - Winter Song
Nowhere Near First - none

Books I Can Read That Have Workable Words:
When You Reach Me
The Thing from the Lake
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
Aunt Dimity's Death (hide spoiler)]

Morning teamies! What a lovely thing to wake up to!

I am pretty flexible with what I read, but will have a look at my toppler sized reads and come back to you all.

I can commit to 2 reads, but like others if the week goes well, I could get up to 3-4.

Although I just realised this is the week the Change Management process at work starts (ie Covid means we have no money so all our jobs & teams change), but this could mean more escapism is needed heh

I’m not sure if this is helpful but I just searched the most popular words in book titles. Here is a link to YA titles but I would think it would carry over.

What if we picked a few random popular words and see if we could make some additional links.



https://wordrevel.com/top-20-words-ya...

Just an idea

That's a pretty good idea, Marnie.

My other thought was if people have books they have to/want to read this month (Amanda for example sounds like she has a reading list) and we use them as a springboard.

I also like Linked In 2 Books. I agree having the team number in the title is really useful as I am forgetful ;)

Hi everyone!

I am only good for one book in a week's time - sorry. I'll need someone to let me join their chain!

here are some of the books I can offer:

Between Heaven and Here
An Artist of the Floating World
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
From Here to Eternity
Home Fire

Hello everyone!

I can read 2 books and very flexible. Some of the books I would like to get to are:-

Things in Jars
The Lost Ones
Beartown
The House at the Edge of NightThe Woman in the Window

Whoop! We're all checked in :)

As we didn't have any other suggestions, and quite a few said they liked it I went with the Linked In 2 Books idea for the team name. Thanks Lanelle for the idea.

Marnie, I too had the same idea about common words last night in bed. Thank you for the link. The words we can use from that list are:
Boy
Break
Dark
Day
Dream
End
Fall
Fire
Girl
Heart
King
Last
Lie
Life
Light
Love
Night
Other
Queen
Secret
Shadow
Star
Summer
Truth
World
You

Edit - I think Wife and Man might be good to add too?

Would you all be willing to do a bit of gophering on your tbr shelf and list the books with those words that you'd be willing to read next week?

Of course as Rusalka said, if there's a book that doesn't fit the above criteria that you still need to read we will take that into account and use that as one of the starting points.

Lynn wrote: "Lanelle wrote: "And a second question: Can we make our own chain or do we have to include someone from our team in the chain?"

I see you've already asked the first question. As for the second, my ..."

Lanelle - I don't know if you saw Kristie's response but she replied that technically yes one person can do a chain on their own but not really in keeping with the spirit of the game (and preferable not to do it)

Hi Carrie and Anna!

Sorry Marnie, missed you had books on hand from the library too.

Another way we can go is pick a whole heap of books with really long titles...

Oop, cross posted. On it!

Lynn wrote: "Would you all be willing to do a bit of gophering on your tbr shelf and list the books with those words that you'd be willing to read next week?"

I think it will much easier to make a chain of books using this method. I'll make a new list.

Lynn wrote: "Lanelle - I don't know if you saw Kristie's response but she replied that technically yes one person can do a chain on their own but not really in keeping with the spirit of the game (and preferable not to do it)"

I did see it. Thank you.

Right off to bed, but made a start at looking.
From that list, I have the following options on hand:

Boy - Boy, Snow, Bird
Day - The Remains of the Day, The All Saints' Day Lovers
Dream - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
End - Days Without End
Girl - The Girl Who Played Go
Life - My Life as a Fake, This Song Will Save Your Life
Night - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Other - The Five Orange Pips and Other Cases
Secret - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Secret Chord
World - World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Chaining off books mentioned earlier today (mentioner in brackets) I could do:

Lion - In the Skin of a Lion (Marnie, Lanelle)
Murder - Murder on the Orient Express (Marnie, Lanelle)
Heat - White Heat (Lanelle)
Dead - Club Dead (Marnie, Lanelle)
Black - Black Maria (Lanelle)
Corpse - The Laughing Corpse (Lanelle)

Lanelle wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Lanelle - I don't know if you saw Kristie's response but she replied that technically yes one person can do a chain on their own but not really in keeping with the spirit of the game (..."

Useful to know at the end of the week though when we're trying to tie up loose ends :)

I can link
Life The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Light Key of Light
Love The Food of Love
Night Endless Night
Secret The Secret Speech
You Don't Look Behind You! A Safari Guide's Encounters with Ravenous Lions, Stampeding Elephants, and Lovesick Rhinos

Common words list of short-ish books -
Boy - The Boy Who Fell From the Sky
Break
Dark - A Kiss in the Dark, Dark Before Dawn
Day - The Fifth Day of Christmas, At the End of the Day
Dream - The Dream Key
End - At the End of the Day
Fall - Taking the Fall, Fall for You, A Better Reason to Fall in Love
Fire
Girl - A Girl Named Rose, The Girl From Red Lion Square
Heart - Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold, A Heart in Jeopardy, A Season for the Heart, Heart Quest
King - The Cold King, Song of the Summer King
Last - The Last Lecture, Lord Sidley's Last Season, The Last Bookstore in America
Life - Past Life, Gifts of Life, Life Reader
Light - Morning Light
Love - Love By Accident, A Bid for Love, Love and Other Perishable Items, Tides of Love, To Love, Honour, and Obey, A Better Reason to Fall in Love
Man - The Man Who Lost Himself, The Man in the Brown Suit, The Baker's Man, The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories, The Other Slipper, A Lady By Any Other Name
Night - Those Who Hunt the Night, One Mixed-Up Night, A Touch of Night
Other - Love and Other Perishable Items, The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories
Queen - Stef Soto, Taco Queen, Mark of the Dragon Queen
Secret - Lord Stannington's Secret, The Secret Bluestocking, His Secret Heroine
Shadow - Ask a Shadow to Dance
Star - Lone Star Justice
Summer - Summer Rose, The Summer I Learned to Dive, Once Upon a Summer, Uncertain Summer
Truth - Shades of Truth
Wife - The Weaver Takes a Wife, Wife for Hire, The Automaton's Wife
World - Danger in Cat World, How Not to Save the World
You - When You Reach Me, As You Are, Bound to You

Lynn wrote: "Useful to know at the end of the week though when we're trying to tie up loose ends :)"

Good. I want to be as big of a help as I can.

Hi all,

Great idea for strategy. Again, I can only commit to one book, so please just put me wherever you need me in the chain! Here are my books that fit the word list:

Boy - The Boy Between
Day - Ether Day
Dream - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Fall - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Fire - Home Fire
Girl - The Girl in the Tree, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
Man - The Man Who Wasn't There, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
Wife - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Zookeeper's Wife
You - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Here's what I have that will fit those common words:

Day - A Song for a New Day
Life - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Love - Atomic Love, Love & Gelato
Man - A Woman Is No Man
Night - About the Night
Shadow - Gods of Jade and Shadow
You - Happy & You Know It, If Only I Could Tell You, All This I Will Give to You

I can also chain to:
When You Reach Me (Lanelle) - When We Were Vikings
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder (Marnie) - Murder in the Mystery Suite
Between Heaven and Here (Carrie) - Nothing to See Here
Home Fire (Carrie) - Walk Me Home, The Bridge Home
The Lost Ones (Anna) - The Lost Letter

Marnie wrote: "You Don't Look Behind You! A Safari Guide's Encounters with Ravenous Lions, Stampeding Elephants, and Lovesick Rhinos"

Man, what a title! If only subtitles counted :D

I've finally had a bit of time to gopher for books that fit the below.

Dark - Whistle in the Dark
Dream - Fever Dream
Fire - Home Fire
Girl - The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Heart - Cross Her Heart
King - She Would Be King
Last - The Last Time I Saw You
Life - The Secret Life of Bees
Light - All the Light We Cannot See
Night - The House at the Edge of Night
Other - The Other Black Girl
Queen - The Star-Touched Queen
Secret - How to Keep a Secret
Shadow - The Shadow of the Wind
Star - The Prettiest Star
Summer - The Summer Wives
World - The King at the Edge of the World
You - You Are Not Alone

Thanks everyone, just so you know I am working in the background to put all this together and working out which words would be the most successful :)

Here are mine-

Boy - The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook
Break - Unbreak My Heart
Dark - The Left Hand of Darkness (does "darkness" work?)
Day - House of Day, House of Night
Dream - The Dream Daughter
Fall - The Mask Falling
Fire - Spitfire Girl
Girl - Spitfire Girl, Chasing a Croatian Girl: A Survivor's Tale, Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl
Heart - Red Heart Tattoo
Last - The Last Lecture, His Last Bow
Lie - Art and Lies
Life - The Life of an Unknown Man
Light - The Light of the World
Love - On Love
Night - The Night Lives On
Other - Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything, The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other Stories
Queen - The Queen's Gambit
Secret - The Secret Keeper
Star The Pull of the Stars
Summer - Summer in Baden-Baden
Truth Truth and Beauty
World - The Light of the World, News of the World
You Before We Were Yours (can we use 'yours' or it has to be 'you'?), How Can I Ever Trust You Again?: Infidelity., If You Find Me

Lynn wrote: "Thanks everyone, just so you know I am working in the background to put all this together and working out which words would be the most successful :)"

Thanks, Lynn!

Lynn wrote: "Thanks everyone, just so you know I am working in the background to put all this together and working out which words would be the most successful :)"

Good luck, Lynn. Let us know if there are specific words we need to gopher for to chain books together.

I'm currently just going through my own shelves with the words, and it's come to my attention that we might have better luck with the word Stars rather than Star.

I seem to have a LOT of stars. Might be worth looking again for that word?

I could do The Fault in Our Stars...on my phone so can’t link. My only other stars book has 800 pages which is way too long for a Toppler lol

Marnie wrote: "My only other stars book has 800 pages which is way too long for a Toppler lol"

Erm yes lol

Lynn wrote: "I seem to have a LOT of stars. Might be worth looking again for that word?"

I have the same amount of each word. I'm willing to look for stars though :)

I have Agent to the Stars. It's a little longer than I aim for my Toppler reads just so I can squeeze more reads, but if needed it is there :D

Thanks Lynn for all that work. I agree with Lanelle, let us know if there are any places we get stuck or need to gopher for specific words. My list is no way exhaustive of what I have at hand

Can I just check ..... out of all the books you've all listed am I right in thinking that most of us don't have need to make sure anything is included?

With the exception of:

Marnie - Wants one of these to be included
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder
The Lion in the Living Room
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Anna - I was unsure if your original list was a must read?
Things in Jars
The Lost Ones
The House at the Edge of Night
The Woman in the Window
(I realise Beartown was in that list too, but we wouldn't be able to link that)


I have all the books listed now and will be able to compare once I now if the above books need to be included or not.

Lynn wrote: "Can I just check ..... out of all the books you've all listed am I right in thinking that most of us don't have need to make sure anything is included?

Yep, feel free to put me in wherever you need me. Any of my books will do. Thank you so much for taking on the organizational challenge!

Hi Lynn! No need to fit in any of the books on my first list. I am very flexible and can read any of the books in my second list or, if you have a word you want me to find a book to link to, I can do that too!

Thanks for all your hard work!!

Lynn wrote: "Can I just check ..... out of all the books you've all listed am I right in thinking that most of us don't have need to make sure anything is included?

With the exception of:

Marnie - Wants one..."

Hey Lynn. I would love to read at least one of the following to keep up with my reading goals this month, probably Summer in Baden-Baden since it has 'summer' and won't be too difficult to get in?

Summer in Baden-Baden
The Pumpkin Eater
So Big
The Mask Falling

Thanks for all your hard work!

<-- Easy.

Well... in a reading sense :P

Lynn, I’d like to include at least one of the three books...I will read the other ones once we have our chain(s) made and know they aren’t needed for the Toppler.

I just re read your message ( sorry- need coffee)
You are correct about me. Only one ( if at all possible) needs to be included.

I have a long TBR and access to 3 different library systems so once the chains are started I can add to them my other 3 ( ish) committed books. Any of the books I listed as possible links I can get easily.

Spreadsheet

Ok, the possible combinations has made my brain mush! :)
Take note, there are two tabs to the spreadsheet. First tab is the provisional plan, the second tab has all the possible books that have been listed.

I've managed to sort two chains that have reached the reached the magic number of 9+ books in order to get the maximum points.

And I've used everyone's minimum (and sometimes max) number of books with the exception of myself and Lanelle.

Lanelle - I thought as we both read quicker than the rest and had a lot of options, I would leave some room for us to manoeuvre.

I will say to everyone, that when we start adding more books, please think about what would be the next book after you. We don't want to end up with a dead link because no one can find another book to link to yours.
It might be useful to first see if you have books that can be put in between other books that have already been scheduled / read.

Great job Lynn!!! I have my books all set.

Also any extra books now have a direction to look as well. Wouldn’t it be great if one of the extra books linked both threads...I’ll gopher with that in mind once I get my first four completed.

Lynn wrote: "Spreadsheet

Ok, the possible combinations has made my brain mush! :)
Take note, there are two tabs to the spreadsheet. First tab is the provisional plan, the second tab has all the possible books ..."

Wow, Lynn. This looks amazing!

Marnie wrote: "Great job Lynn!!! I have my books all set.

Also any extra books now have a direction to look as well. Wouldn’t it be great if one of the extra books linked both threads...I’ll gopher with that in ..."

Brilliant idea, Marnie!

If would be fine if we did that, but it's not necessary. The only goal we really need to do is keep it to two chains (or if we have to start a 3rd, we need it to be 9 books min)