SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

Have any questions? Here we can discuss it.

Ok soooo my question for Book Hoarder's Challenge

"The only rule for this challenge is that you can only read books you acquired before the challenge started"

I ordered books that haven't arrived yet. Are they seen as part of my shelf lol?

Hmm, I guess so, but it only starts in November so your books will probably be there by then anyway.

Just had a mad vision of myself ordering a pile of books online on 31 October so I can use them for this challenge...

Oh that's true lol

Hahah don't! Order it on the 20th :) Its safer!

In the Ultimate To-Read List challenge, should we say whose to-read list the book comes from?

Yea, then others can use it as well if they want.

I'm sorry, its early in the morning and I might sound very stupid, but what counts as Sci fi?
Book hoarders.... so what about library books?

Elaberate more on the Ultimate to read list??? :)

Sci fi: for me, the simplest way of distinguishing between fantasy and sci fi is to say that sci fi gives scientific or rational reasons for why the world of the book differs from our world (a new technology has been built, it's set in the future, it's on another planet, it's a rational depiction of an alternative history). Fantasy on the other hand doesn't need these explanations - it's just another world, it's magic, etc.
For ideas, check out these pages on subgenres:
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/genre...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

For now, you don't have to worry about what books count as sci fi, we're just picking the tasks, so if you want to nominate, say, sci fi mystery/detective fiction, that's cool too.

Book Hoarders: no library books I'm afraid. This is about reading what you already have, instead of always getting new books or books from the library.

Ultimate to-read list: as I understand it, you must pick 25 books that are on the to-read lists of other members. If you like, you can go to their profile pages and click on 'compare books' to see if they have any to-read books that you already own or are on your to-read lists. Otherwise just browse.

By the way,should it be 25 different members?

Thanks Lauren!

Please not 25 different members!!!!

It's not that bad - we have just over 230 members I think, so given the collective number of books it shouldn't be hard to make a list of 25 books that you want to read anyway, and you can find some cool new stuff from people with similar tastes.

If you put it that way you're probably right :)

Here's a question. Can one book be used in multiple challenges?

Let's say I've got "Revelation Space" which goes for the book hoarder's challenge, but it would also fit for the Sci-Fi challenge.

Crusader wrote: "Here's a question. Can one book be used in multiple challenges?"

Yes, it can. You'll notice some slightly sneaky but perfectly acceptable co-ordination between challenge tasks/books specifically to allow for this.

In Mythology and Folklore, for the second task - any ancient folklore - what is the cut-off time for ancient? I gave it a quick Google, and where a cut-off period is given it seems to be either at the time of or just after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Is this fine?

I would say nothing after 500 AD.

Cool, thanks Lu :)

Ok so I have 1 book that will hopefully be here before November, one that is delayed that I ordered ages ago (some printing issue) and one that will be late.

Do i count these as book hoarder?

Yes, since technically you already own the books, they just haven't been given to you yet.

From November onwards, nothing that you buy or download will count though, and you can't borrow books (because it's time you read your own!)

kk thanks :)

lol will stop with the borrowing then :P

OK, this is isn't a serious question, but what are you planning to start with in November?

Me:
Ilium by Dan Simmons (sf and mythology, Greek mythology, weather conditions on cover, epic challenge, one-word title).

And I have to study too, so I need some short easy reads:
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (demons, trees on cover)
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (dragons)
and maybe Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (pre-1900 vampire novel, Victorian era novel).

I read the word of the month, and fill the in the books that fit with that and my challenges :) Also the Author of the month :) Oh and the book of the month!

Sooo

M - Margaret Atwood
I - I am Number Four
N - Neil Gaiman, Ned Vizzini

I sort of gave up on the word of the month - it's getting too hard to co-ordinate all the challenges and for me that one's the least interesting. Will only do it if my reads somehow fit in.

Hey everyone

Lauren I know what you mean, when I do too many challenges I just get confused about what I'm suppose to be reading again

Lu, so glad Margaret Atwood won!!!! All of you who havent read her work will be getting a great read from any of her books...

What's worse is when you spend too much time planning when you could be reading!
I've got more than enough to keep me going until the end of the year, I need to stop working on my reading lists for a while.

I've got exams to worry about to, so I dont really get to reading that much...
When the challenges have some of the same books to read then its fine, but I just cant be bothered with creating more reading work for myself right now :)

Yeah, I'm looking for multiple challenge books too. Most of the time it's impossible to bring mythology and sci fi together though.

How do we handle Omnibus editions?

The book I'm currently reading is an Omnibus edition consisting of Extinction & The Cloud.

The cover of my edition is the same as the one for The Cloud (which I used for #16 in the cover challenge). The cover for Extinction would work for #24 in the cover challenge. Am I able to use it, even though I don't have a physical copy with that cover?

The same goes for ebooks. Most of them don't include a cover, or you/their creator can easily insert a cover of thwir own choosing (using a cover image of physical editions). How do we handle them for the cover challenge?

I don't think this has actually been discussed before, but for eBooks I use whichever cover suits my purposes, although I avoid audio book and foreign-language versions.

For hardcopy, I usually use the given cover, but I will use another one if it means being able to complete a challenge task.

Oh, and for omnibus editions I use the individual books, not the whole.

Agreed, use the individual books of the omnibus
And which ever cover suites you. I do stay away from the audio book cover.

Ok, thanks. I don't listen to audio books, so that won't be a problem.

No, I just meant I don't use the audio book cover when choosing a cover to use for a challenge. I think Lu might have meant the same.

hehe yea

I know what you guys meant. My non-audio book usage should have implied that I don't even look at their covers as an option

Ja, but they're always included in the list of 'other editions', so you'd see them when you're picking a cover anyway.

Also true. Didn't think about that.

Does a Hugo-award winning biography about a science fiction writer (including discussions of her stories and sf in general) count for task 21 (Hugo or Nebula winner) in the sci fi challenge? The book itself is biography, not sci fi, but it's about a sci fi writer.

Sjoe how do you manage to find stuff like that lol

Not sure, anyone else have an opinion?

It's a biography about a sci-fi writer. Sooo, genre = biography. I'm going to be the mean one here and say no. But if anyone else says yes, then add it. =)

I'm going to agree. Hugo winner must be an actual novel that won a Hugo.

Well, it did actually win the Hugo, although it is not a novel. But Kahlan's point is the one I was most concerned about, since the book itself does not fall into the sci fi genre.

If it won a Hugo and has discussions of the stories than I'd say it counts.

Will this work in the cover challenge, for a cover with a banner/flag: The part with the title could be written on a kind of banner. Eh?
http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/4...

Isn't that more of a scroll type thing? :(

I'm reaching here. :P
I only need the flag/banner to complete the cover challenge. I'll search some more.

Flag/banner is driving me nuts too. While we're on the topic, does this count:


There's a little flag on the top of the ship.

What's the verdict on the Hugo-winning sci fi bio? Lu wasn't sure, Kahlan said no; Crusader agreed with Kahlan but said book must win a Hugo, which it did, although it's not a novel; Naz said yes.

Since all the rest of the books in the challenge require fiction I don't think a biography counts, despite it winning a Hugo.

Lauren wrote: "Flag/banner is driving me nuts too. While we're on the topic, does this count:
There's a little flag on the top of the ship."

I'd say yes. No one was specific as to the size of the flag were they?

That is a flag :)