SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

Any Questions about any of the challenges?

A question regarding 'About Time You Read That': some of the books from my 50 oldest tbr books are not books that are intended to be read from cover to cover. For example, a book of writing exercises.

I don't want to remove these because I either own them and putting them back on will be time-consuming, or because I want to some day get to a copy and I need some kind of reference.

Can I just not count them among the 50?

Edit: can I also count out books that are under 150 pages?

As some people like to plan their challenges in advance, while others progress very quickly, can we review the One Thing Leads to Another challenge before it starts? Some of the steps won't apply to all books and might be too impractical to work with. We can either tweak the steps or create new ones.

Hi Lauren

For the ones under 150 pages ignore them. The others remove from your to-read list and then add again. They won't be in the top 50 then :) You can do the same with the under 150 pages :)

For the One thing leads to another. I have gotten to step 17 so far without much problem.

So far I have been fine. Give it a shot first so we can see where problems lie.

Hmm, taking books off and putting them back on are exactly what I didn't want to have to do, which is why I asked if I could just ignore them in the count :( I already deleted quite a few.
Will think about it; I might just leave them there and do what I can with my other options.

Nah just ignore them :)

Oh awesome, yay! Thanks :)
The thought of sitting with a pile of books and carefully typing in all their ISBNs again did not exactly fill me with joy.

You know what I did, open the book in a new tab, remove the book of my to-read list, go back to the book tab, refresh and add to books :)

Having so much fun with the One thing leads to another challenge, any questions or suggestions needed by anyone please ask! I'm a good googler!

I could do that...

Lol, I don't think I'm going to get very far with One Thing. Even if I plan it perfectly, I seldom stick to my plans and doing reviews makes that kind of reading pattern very impractical.

I need a plan to read, otherwise I flounder lol

I just like making the plans :)

MY To-Read list turned out to be a place holder for all the epic fantasy books I thought looked interesting. 2012 is going to be the year of epic fantasy! Oh dear ...

Lol Epic Fantasy here Kahlan comes :)

Hello! I have a Kindle, and when I uploaded the Calibre cvs file to Goodreads (woot, instant adding of all the books I had at the time) it messed up the dates, using metadata instead of the date I really added. Lame. Anyway, is it ok for me to use the date I added them to Calibre instead?

I assume this is for the About Time You Read That challenge? Sounds ok to me :)

Yep, sorry - should have been more specific. Thanks :)

Hi, not sure where this question should be. Can anyone tell me if you have to pay custom duty when you buy books from overseas. Thanks

It depends, and I don't think any of us really know exactly what it depends on. For years I received many second hand books through an international book-swapping service, and I only ever had to pay customs fees on one parcel, which was unusually large. I've bought quite a few books from Book Depository as well, and never had to pay.

A few of the other members by from BD too, and experiences are mixed. So far Crusader, who buys more books than any of us by far, has had to pay quite a lot in customs fees, so it might depend on the amount you buy (and consequently, how much attention you draw to yourself). Buying a few books shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks

I need some help please!
I am very sure this is YA, just need a nod of approval or disapproval from someone:

The Next Door Boys

It's sort of on the border since Leigh is 20 already, but it has some YA themes - wanting to go to college and be independent, first love. University stories could go either way, but this one certainly feels more YA than adult.

So you have a nod of approval from me :)

Thanks :) She is 19 in the book. I honestly felt like it was a YA with a christian theme (that I did not know btw before I read it lol)

Ah, ok. One of the reviewers said she was 20.
I see from the reviews that it's actually Mormon.

Nah I remember she was definitely 19. But it doesn't make a difference lol

Yea it's Mormon, so I was a bit lost with the acronyms and things

Acronyms? I only know of LDS - Latter-Day Saints. They should really explain those things.

Yea it was very confusing, they had these meeting and went to temple for things, just went right over my head. Will have to add it in my review that somewhere in the description they should state its a very religious book

Yeah, it sounds like its written specifically for Mormons, so that should definitely have a heads-up, especially if they don't explain everything.

I'm trying to get somewhere in One Thing Leads to Another. Would 'America' or 'the Discworld' count as a location or is it too broad?

I think Discworld is fine, not America tho :(

Ok, cool thanks!

For the YA challenge:
Would you say Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver has a love triangle? If not would you say it's a YA mystery?

If your answer is no to both, is there any task in that challenge that would fit the novel?

My two cents are as follows:
No, it is not a love triangle. I think you are thinking of Sam, Rob and Kent. She is never in a relationship with both guys at once, it also doesn't influence what happens and it certainly not the main focus of the book.

A mystery is more a murder or other crime that needs to be solved ans she tries to safe someone frome dying.

I did check on what you still need for the challenge and I do believe you can use it depending on how you interpret certain things. Sam is dead most of the book. In fact she dies for the first time in the prologue. That means she is a ghost or spirit telling her story of dying. You still need a ghost book.
Also depending on how you define paranormal you can use it for that one. I know paranormal is normally vampires and werewolves and special powers etc., but strictly speaking paranormal is everything not explainable by science. Dying and telling your story is not explainable by science.

Lauren why don't you move Variant to Sci-Fi and then Before I fall to the school one?

@Barbara - I thought about the ghost one, but she's not a ghost in any traditional understanding of the word, and she doesn't think of herself as a ghost. Also, she only dies at the end of the day, and the time that she relives is (mostly) a time when she was alive.
Considered Paranormal, but also not sure.

@Lu: Is Before I Fall ok for the school one? It's only partially set at school, whereas Variant takes place almost entirely on school grounds.

I would consider it a school novel. It doesn't mean they have to be at the school for the whole book. Most of what happens is with people she goes to school with so I think it counts.

From what I remember it should be ok? Barbara what do you think?

There you have it :)

Cool, thanks!

Is Black Beauty a children's book or can it be used as YA

I've never really thought of it as either, although it's not quite adult literature because adults don't generally read stories from an animal's point of view.

Ummm...

I don't have any real objection to you using it, since it's a story about growing up, albeit from a horse's perspective. There are some very sad/harsh parts, so I'd give it to older readers anyway. Also, I think when we started the YA challenge we decided to use a loose definition of YA, since some things are difficult to categorise.

I say yea go for YA :)

Thanks :)

For the YA challenge:

Title containing a person's name - does a surname count?
Last book in series - can you read the first book of a series if it's the only one that's been published so far?

Title containing a person's name - does a surname count?

-- I wouldn't say so no.

Last book in series - can you read the first book of a series if it's the only one that's been published so far?

-- I also want to know

It does say last and not latest. So I would say no, but it is not my challenge or task.

Ah yes the "last" makes me want to say no too.

Well, the task says "last or latest", but both words leave me uncertain.

Who nominated it?

Went to check the nomination thread - Claudia.

Claudia any ideas?