SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

This discussion is purely for signing up for this challenge. You sign up by giving your nominations.

Nominations must consist of 5 participating books that people can choose from and 2 reserve books. These reserve books are only for people who can proof they have already read the other 5.

All books must comply to the following rules:
1) The person who nominates them must have read the books
2) No other participant has already nominated them
3) They must be among the greatest books you have ever read.
4) You would them take with you to a deserted island. 5) You believe that other people should have read these books before they die.
6) All books must be fiction novels.
7) All books must have 150 pages or more. If a book has less pages you may plead for admittance but it is not certain it will be admitted.

Not allowed are:
Non-fiction
Omnibus books
Completed works
More than 1 book from any given series

We will start reading on 1 May 2012.
This is not a competition just a chance to read great books!

Nominations:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Reserve book:
6) 7)

Oooh here is mine:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Reserves

6. 7.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Reserves:
6. 7.

Are short story collections allowed?

@ Claudia: Yes, you have to pick someone else. The books cannot be the same. I will add that to the rules so that is clear for everyone.

@Lauren: I would say yes but then all the short stories would have to be of equal quality. So not one or two that are absolutely amazing and 10 that are so so. They all have to blow your mind.

I'll double check, but I'd say there are maybe one or two that I think are just ok, and the rest are brilliant. I don't read a lot of short stories or short story anthologies, so this one is a very rare exception

Ok one or two that are ok is acceptable. As long as most are brilliant.

Ok cool. The author is one of my favourites, but she mostly wrote short stories and I haven't read any of her novels.

Man, this is a tough list to make. Some of the books I'd take aren't books I think everyone should read. And I wish I'd re-read more of my books so I know they're really worth it.

Than just make it the best books you have ever read. Books you would recommend. Don't mind genre or anything just choose the ones you liked best for whatever reason. This should be fun not hard work :)

I know, but I'm hopelessly indecisive. And I think too much. I'm debating including one book because it's partly about a guy who is alone because all the humans are dead except him. It's a great book but I'm wondering if that's too depressing to take with to a deserted island.

And I'm thinking I should have one or two really long books as well, so they'll last longer.

You should see the deserted island thing as a metaphor for which books would you like to read over and over again. Some say deserted island to illustrate that concept, others say what if all the libraries were on fire and you could only save 5 books which would it be. Don't think about it too much, just pick some great reads!

That's the thing - if I've only read them once, how do I know I want to read them over and over again? What if it's lame the second or third time? I haven't re-read enough of my favourites. And maybe it's better to take some big, complex literary novel that was kind of boring the first time but will get better and better the more I read it... Then there's this one book I really like and I've read it at least twice, but I know most people would HATE it.

Anyway, I've got 5 books I should just stop doing this to myself.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to participate in the challenge and am under a deadline at the moment so I'll throw in my nominations as and when I'm able:

1. Ender's Game
2. Contact
3. The Lord of the Rings (I'm not sure how this is going to handled. The LoTR isn't actually a trilogy, but one large book separated into 3 parts.)
4. Red Mars
5. Blue Remembered Earth

Alternates:

I just chose the books I had a great time reading. I have re-read two of them before, but re-read value wasn't a consideration.

Also, it seems that as a general rule I never read amazingly brilliant books anyway, so the ones I picked were just very good - no reviews that hail them as the best ever must reads or the like. I hope this doesn't disqualify me or anything.

Reserves:

You guys this should be fun, don't overthink it. If I would really go to a deserted island and I could only bring 5 books I would bring the 5 thickest books I could find that I haven't read yet. So just pick 5 books you think were great or that you had much fun reading and don't mind anything else. Don't worry about genre or what other people might think of your picks. The point is getting to read books you wouldn't normally think of.

Lauren if you have 5 books where are they? :)

Crusader you can join in when you have time. LOTR is a good question. It was intended as 1 book but was cut up for publication reasons I believe. I guess we'll leave it up to people if they want to read all three or just the first one. Both can count.

Barbara wrote: "Lauren if you have 5 books where are they? :)"

Have posted them now. I was delayed by a power failure...

LOTR is a good question. It was intended as 1 book but was cut up for publication reasons I believe. I guess we'll leave it up to people if they want to read all three or just the first one. Both can count.
Doesn't really make much difference to me - there's no way I'm re-reading that! I loved it once, but I don't want to read it again.

Can we re-read a book that is on someones list that we have already read? Not sure if I missed this rule lol

Lu (The Muggle) wrote: "Can we re-read a book that is on someones list that we have already read? Not sure if I missed this rule lol"

I've been meaning to ask that question too. I could re-read Perfume for this challenge and Choose Wisely.

You can, but if you don't want to we have the reserve books and if you have read all 7 of them you have to reread one to finish the challenge.
Just to make it clear: the reserves are only for when you have read the primary 5 and don't want to reread them.

@ Lauren: it took you this long to come up with these books????

Just kidding. Although I wouldn't reread Adam Douglas for anything

Yes you could reread Perfume. But we only start reading on 1 May and you need a book for the Choose Wisely now. But maybe you don't mind waiting!?

It seems unlikely that someone will have read all the books on another person's list.

Anyone finding overlaps yet? So far I've read:
Barbara: Perfume and house of Leaves
Lu: Pillars of the Earth, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones
Crusader: Ender's Game and Lord of the Rings

Nothing from Claudia's list though.

I've read Red Mars, Contact and LOTR from Crusader's list. (Red Mars and Contact was a long time ago though.)
Game of Thrones from Lu's and The Mists of Avalon from Barbara's reserves.

Barbara wrote: "@ Lauren: it took you this long to come up with these books????

Just kidding. Although I wouldn't reread Adam Douglas for anything

Yes you could reread Perfume. But we only start reading on 1..."

Hey!

Douglas Adams (it's the other way around :) had to be on the list. I've read that multiple times and it never gets old.

Perfume - it's ok, I can wait. Review books take priority over reading challenges, so Choose Wisely will have to wait.

You see how much I disliked it :) I can't even get the name right. That was a typical case of reading the books to see what everyone was raving about and just not getting it. Ah well, fortunately there are loads of other books out there to read and like, you can't like them all.

From Lu I have read the Host, the Hobbit, The pillars of the earth and Game of thrones.
From Claudia I have read Wizards first rule
From Crusader I have read LOTR
From Lauren I have read The hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy.

Barbara - Nothing
Claudia - Nothing
Crusader - LOTR
Lauren - The hitch hiker's guide

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. (i prefer the afrikaans version "Kennis van die aand" but that is for whoever wants to read it to decide wich one they would like to read!)
2.
3.
4.
5.

Reserve:
1.
2.

Oh I LOVE Flowers in the Attic! It was the first "adult" series that I was obsessed with. Come to think of it was probably a little too "adult" for a 12 year old!

Here is my favouritez, yes Stephen king is big on my list.
in no particular order,




if u dont mind, in place of
Alternatives,

Barbara, can we have the main thread for the challenge so that we can start planning our reading lists? I'm already picking books from people's lists and I want somewhere to put them :)

Yeah, if anyone has any good ideas about keeping track of scores and who read what in a sort of points thread let me know.

We could do it like the year-long themed challenges - a planning thread, and a score thread where we post every time we finish something.

Alternatively, you can have one thread where we plan and update, and you keep a record of points in the first post.

Ok and instead of listing the challenges we list the participants who nominated the books and under them the people who have read one of their books. Might work!

Wouldn't it be better to list the participants, and then names of those whose books they've read?

I have no idea. That is why I asked. I like to keep these kind of things in spreadsheets. That is also how I keep track of the TP challenge. BUt I can't get a spreadsheet on Goodreads. At least not that I know of. That is why I asked for ideas.

Crusader wrote: "I'm not sure if I'll be able to participate in the challenge and am under a deadline at the moment so I'll throw in my nominations as and when I'm able:

1. Ender's Game
2. Contact
3. The Lord of t..."

When I was choosing my book from your list I saw that you haven't read your number two book Contact yet. It is on your to read list. Rule 1 of this challenge is that you must have read the book to be able to nominate it. Is it still on your to read list by mistake? If not please choose another book. Thank you!

I have read it pre-2009 before joining Goodreads. It's on my To-read shelf because I want to re-read it soonish.

Ok, I know you don't add the books you have read before you joined goodreads, so I'll accept it. Maybe I am generous because I want to read but who cares :)

Ok My Nominations are:

1.

2.

3.


4.

5.


RESERVES:

Lauren wrote: "Oh I LOVE Flowers in the Attic! It was the first "adult" series that I was obsessed with. Come to think of it was probably a little too "adult" for a 12 year old!"

Haha yes based on the disturbing story line I believe it is a bit to much for a twelve year old! But what other choice did 12 year olds have? Sweet Valley High and Baby Sitters club could only entertain me for so long! My first adult books was Steven King, I was like also round about 11 or 12. I started with "It" and I thought I will never ever get a book better than that!

Just a note that I changed my list slightly. I put Foxfire as a reserve and added The Language of Flowers. Sorry for being so indecisive when everyone else just stuck to their choices. It annoys me too.

As long as you change it before 1 May I don't have a problem with it. I won't order any books I need before that date and after that date changes aren't allowed!

Wait i'm confused, are we not allowed to change what we want to read after 1 May?

No, you're just not allowed to change your 5 books and 2 alternatives.

ah ok :)

Thanks Lauren :) Yeah if you want to change your nominations you can only do that before 1 May. If you want to change what you read you can do that anytime you want!

Hi guys,

Just so everyone knows, I have so many review books and things going on right now, that I might not be able to read all the books :(
I really want to read and finish them all, but I don't think it will be possible :(