The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

30.10 - Coralie's task: Half and Half
Choose a book with a 2 word title that was read in the Spring 2011 Challenge and:
A. Read a book with the first word in the title, but not the second
AND
B. Read a book with the second word in the title but not the first.

For example - If you chose Midnight's Daughter, you could read Midnight's Children for book A and The Memory Keeper's Daughter for book B.
If you chose Mrs. Bridge, you could read Mrs. Dalloway for book A and Bridge of Sighs for book B.
If you chose The Prince, you could read any book with the word "The" in it for book A and Dark Prince for the book B. But you could NOT read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for either book (because the title includes both the words "the" and "prince".)

Sub-titles don't count and the words must be exactly the same. If the title you pick from the Spring 2011 Challenge is First Degree, you could read At First Sight for book A but 1st to Die would not work.

Required: State the title of the book you chose from the Spring 2011 Challenge when you post.

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This thread is now open for questions.

This is a fun challenge! Just wanted to check about possessives. You gave the example of Midnight's Daughter and Midnight's Children, so does it have to be Midnight's or would Midnight be OK? i.e. is the apostrophe+s considered part of the word?

ohh this is a good one...scampers off to check shelves...echos above on plural's i.e. angel and angels

Rosemary wrote: "This is a fun challenge! Just wanted to check about possessives. You gave the example of Midnight's Daughter and Midnight's Children, so does it have to be Midnight's or would Midnight be OK? i.e. ..."

Yes, it has to be midnight's if the original was midnight's and midnight if the original was midnight.

But it can be two words with an additional subtitle but just use the two words correct? And can the carry-over word be found in a subtitle of the new book being read?

I didn't realize how many two word titles I'd read this spring. If new people who didn't read for spring need titles, can they borrow one of mine? I'd be glad to list them.

Just to clarify: ANYONE's 2-word title is ok, not just our own? I read zero 2-word title books so far (although I have 2 in progress).

I believe the list above is a total list of the books read, so you can pick from them...

I think I might choose Winter's Bone and read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and City of Bones. Is it okay that bone is plural ("bones") in the second title since the singular "bone" is found within it in its entirety? Thanks!

Subtitles don't count for either the two word title or the books you read.

You can choose any two words title on the list of books that we all read for the last challenge.

Contained in a word doesn't count. It has to be the exact same word.

Thanks for the clarifications.

How about hyphenated words? For example, is All-American Girl two words or three?

just want to try this out and see if i'm thinking correctly.

i'm choosing to go with Little, Big as the original book (it's on that huge list that you linked us to.)

so i could read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress for part A, and Big Fish for part B?

yes? no? thanks for your help! :)

Coralie wrote: "Subtitles don't count for either the two word title or the books you read.

You can choose any two words title on the list of books that we all read for the last challenge.

Contained in a word doe..."

Oh, damn. Okay, I will come up with something else! Thanks for clarifying.

You can count hyphenated words as one word, remembering that you have to match it exactly.

kiki wrote: "just want to try this out and see if i'm thinking correctly.

i'm choosing to go with Little, Big as the original book (it's on that huge list that you linked us to.)

so i could re..."

That words fine.

great, thanks! :)

ok here's a hypothetical. Say the book we choose is called The Winter. (just making stuff up). We would need to read one book with winter in the title and another book with the in the title. So words like the, and, an, ect count as a word. So a book called Face the Winter wouldn't work because it has three words in the title.

I started making a list of the 2 word titles from Spring for my own reference, and I figured I'd share. I only made it about halfway through the list and I didn't realize subtitles didn't count so it's not a full list, but it has over 300 options and is easier to search than the list generated by Goodreads!

As a disclaimer, I would double check that the title does appear in the Spring 2011 Completed Tasks thread, because I'm not guaranteeing I didn't typo something. :)

Thanks so much Vicky! That's so helpful :)

Amanda Pearl wrote: "ok here's a hypothetical. Say the book we choose is called The Winter. (just making stuff up). We would need to read one book with winter in the title and another book with the in the title. So ..."

That is correct. Choosing a title like The Winter makes it easy for the first book but harder for the second book.

Vicky wrote: "I started making a list of the 2 word titles from Spring for my own reference, and I figured I'd share. I only made it about halfway through the list and I didn't realize subtitles didn't count so ..."

Thanks for sharing!

I think I've found one! There was a book listed as Between Sisters, so I think I'm going to read Between Shades of Gray and Sisters Red...will that work? (funny how they both also have colors in the titles...didn't plan that!)

I'm loving this one! It's letting me read two books that I was wanting to fit into the challenge!

Amanda Pearl wrote: "I think I've found one! There was a book listed as Between Sisters, so I think I'm going to read Between Shades of Gray and Sisters Red...will that work..."
That will work.

Can I use Mr. Peanut and The Invisible Bridge since the book Mr. Bridge was on the list?

Heather in KS

Heather KS wrote: "Can I use Mr. Peanut and The Invisible Bridge since the book Mr. Bridge was on the list?

Heather in KS"

Yes, that works.

what about punctuation...

I read Angels' Blood in the last challenge - which has the apostrophe at the end of the word...does the plural angels work - with no apostophe?

Sorry Dee, but I am being very strict here - spelling includes punctuation. If you want to read a book with angels in the title, you could use another book such as Snow Angels. There are also lots of other possible books on the list with blood in the title.

that's what I thought...I just wanted to check...that is like the only book in the database that i can find, which has the stupid apostrophe there...lol!

So to clarify, (sorry if you feel like you already answered...the brain is little foggy this am) if a title on the books read list is a two word plus a colon plus a subtitle it would count?

Hypothetical example: "The Winter: A story of cold" this would count as a title I could pick--"The Winter" part only as my two word title?

Bad Move - Linwood Barclay & Blood Memory - Greg Iles (in exchange for BAD BLOOD)

Michelle - yes that is correct.

Fiona - that works.

This is a fun one! I'm using "Spy Glass", so I can fit in "The Spy Who Loved Me" from my James Bond series read. I could use a good "Glass" book, though, if anyone has a suggestion.

Stacey wrote: "This is a fun one! I'm using "Spy Glass", so I can fit in "The Spy Who Loved Me" from my James Bond series read. I could use a good "Glass" book, though, if anyone has a suggestion."

City of Glass is good but in a series, so probably not as good without the others!

So If I choose Angel Time I could read Angel Falls and The Time Traveler's Wife correct?

Stacey wrote: "This is a fun one! I'm using "Spy Glass", so I can fit in "The Spy Who Loved Me" from my James Bond series read. I could use a good "Glass" book, though, if anyone has a suggestion."

Another one is Glass Houses it is the first in the series. I haven't read it yet but I know a few people who have and liked it.

Stacey, if you put "glass" in the search field in GR, you will find a list of books with "glass" in the title, such as The Glass Menagerie, The Glass Castle, Sea Glass, and The Glass Lake.

★Meghan★ wrote: "So If I choose Angel Time I could read Angel Falls and The Time Traveler's Wife correct?"

Yes, that is correct.

Is there a way to sort the 59 pages of books on that list to find the 2-word titles?

I made a spreadsheet by copying and pasting, then I found some way to sort it but I cannot remember how. It was just before the end of the last challenge so it only goes up to page 51. You could add the last pages if you want, but there are 847 two-word titles on my list, and that was enough for me :-)
It is here: halfandhalf

If I knew a way to sort them, I would have. Vicky also has a link to a list on post 22. I went through and scribbled down some titles that I thought looked promising - here is my short list:-
Raven Black
Storm Front
Mother Night
Garden Spells
Sea Glass
Wolf Hall
Little Big
Ghost Shadow
One Day
Spy Glass
Moon Called
Rainbow Road
Sea Witch
Ghost Night
Shadow Dance
Black Ice
First Light
Night Road
Pearl Moon
True Blue
Last Dance
Blood Game

Rosemary wrote: "I made a spreadsheet by copying and pasting, then I found some way to sort it but I cannot remember how. It was just before the end of the last challenge so it only goes up to page 51. You could ad..."

Wow, you are my hero! Thank you!

to sort in an excel file (if the titles are in two columns) - I have 2007, but if words the same on 2003 - go Data and there should be an sort button (2007 will have a AtoZ with an Arrow down which will do it alphabetically) - if you want to search by the second column you have to do a custom sort - but its really hard to explain...let me see if I can do it on rosemary's excel

Rosemary wrote: "I made a spreadsheet by copying and pasting, then I found some way to sort it but I cannot remember how. It was just before the end of the last challenge so it only goes up to page 51. You could ad..."

I don't think you will be able to edit it Dee unless you download and upload a new version. The first sheet of my spreadsheet is all two word titles, so it would only be if somebody wants to add the last 8 pages that they would need to sort those. I think I may have just gone through and deleted all that were not two words. You can automatically delete duplicates in Excel which is good because some titles came up several times.

yeah - that requires too much effort right now, but if i find myself bored - since i'm on a break from school for a couple of weeks, i might...

Dee wrote: "if i find myself bored..."

I just got bored, haha. List of 2-Word Titles

I took Rosemary's list, added the last few pages and split all the titles into two columns so that it could be sorted by the first or second word. The first sheet in the file sorts it by first word, the second sheet sorts it by the second word. :)