Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Our Purpose
To destroy the FORT by firing (reading) canons (books) at the 4 Towers of the Fortress: Pages Tower, Shelves Tower, Scripts Tower, and Freedom Tower.

Before you get really worried, please note this is a Collaborative effort (as opposed to individual) so all the books read individually counts towards the total count

Pages Tower
To read a total of 100,000 pages to knock this tower off.
There is no pages limitation per book so you can claim picture books however the page number has to be unique per reader. That is each book you read will have different page numbers; you can only claim the number 251 (pages) once per reader.
The number of pages to be claimed will be determined by the edition that you read so please link the book to your specific edition. However, if you have read large print / audiobook / ebook, we will use the number of pages listed on the most popular edition of the book on GR (ie. the book on the top of the ‘Other Edition’ list). If your book is only in digital edition and does not include page numbers, then we will not allow it for this tower (this is just to make it easier for us to keep score).

Shelves Tower
To read off 100 top shelves to knock this tower off.
There will be a list of 130 shelves (taken from the first page of Top Shelves) of which 100 will have been randomly selected to be the “blocks” of this Tower. You will not, however, know which shelf is a block and which is not. Therefore, some of the cannons you threw will be off the mark.
There is no limitation to page numbers / editions as long as the book is shelved under the correct shelf name (ie. exact spelling of shelf).

Scripts Tower
To read a total of 104 books with the following categories:
a. First name of author starting with the letter… (A-Z)
b. Last name of author starting with the letter … (A-Z)
c. First word in title starting with the letter… (A-Z) (ignoring the, a, & an)
d. Name (of a person / character) in title starting with the letter… (A-Z)

For the hard letters (Q, X, Z) an exception is being made for the word / name to contain the letter (rather than starting with).

Clarification on 'd' - Given Name (of a main character*) in title (No subtitle / series name) starting with the letter… A-Z

*For the purpose of this game, Main Character will be 'defined' as follows:
1. a person (have a human form or to at least hold a human form for at least 50% of the book); AND
2. at least 90% of the book is on this character; OR
3. the book being told from his / her perspective (first person) for part of the book.

There is no limitation to page numbers / editions.

Freedom Tower
To read a total of 130 books of unique first published years.
There will be a list of 164 years (1850-2013 inclusive) of which 130 will have been randomly selected to be the “blocks” of this Tower. You will not, however, know which ‘year’ is a block and which is not. Therefore, some of the cannons you threw will be off the mark.

One book can only knock off one block of one Tower.

Example:
I've read The Grey King by Susan Cooper. I can nominate ONLY ONE of the following:
1. Pages Tower: 192 pages then I'll just confirm 192 of 100,000 pages have been knocked off
2. Shelves Tower: Young Adult then if Young Adult is one of the randomly chosen shelf for this tower, I can confirmed it's been knocked off. IF not, then I'll have to say they're OFF the mark and no chips to the Tower
3. Scripts Tower: S for Susan then I can confirm S for author's first name have been knocked off
4. Freedom Tower: 1975 then if 1975 is one of the randomly chosen publication year for this tower, I can confirmed a block has been knocked off. IF not, then I'll have to say they're OFF the mark and no chips to the Tower

BEWARE of reprisals. The Others will not take your attacks lying down, there will be some defensive responses to your cannons.
Some blocks have been chosen randomly to trigger this defensive response and you may be injured by the defence which will require some recovery time. If you have aimed at these blocks, you will be directed to specific task which will be required to be completed before you can fire any more cannons.

There will be threads set up where:
1. You can plan your reads with each other so you don’t double up as this is a collaborative effort – to be moderated by your Captains (mods). There will be 3 discussion threads set up for Shelves, Scripts, and Freedom Towers.
2. You are to report your successful attack on a block. That is, when you have finished reading, post on the relevant thread to nominate the block you have aimed at. There will be 4 discussion threads (one per Tower).

Wow! How cool!

I have questions already LOL!

Hey DG - I won't finish posting up everything today... but feel free to post your Qs anyway and hopefully I'll get to it sometime over the weekend (maybe!! It's a bit crazy with Christmas around the corner!)

This is crazy cool! This officially kicks off in January?

Tien - can I have your brain for challenges please? I promise to take good care of it

Dionisia wrote: "This is crazy cool! This officially kicks off in January?"

Thanks!
Yes, start reading 1 Jan :)

Dee wrote: "Tien - can I have your brain for challenges please? I promise to take good care of it"

Thank you, Dee - if you have any vague idea for a challenge, feel free to bounce it off me ;)

Tien, awesome challenge! I can't wait to start.

This looks pretty cool! I wish I could participate but I haven't had much opportunity to use a computer lately, and it's difficult to do this with my phone... That's why i didn't finish the snakes and ladders :/

Vi wrote: "Tien, awesome challenge! I can't wait to start."

Thanks, Vie :)

Erika wrote: "This looks pretty cool! I wish I could participate but I haven't had much opportunity to use a computer lately, and it's difficult to do this with my phone... That's why i didn't finish the snakes ..."

Aw, Erika, you could try the easier one where you don't really have to check out too many details like the Scripts Tower, if you happen to have read any book which may fit there, just post it, if it hasn't been knocked down yet :)

Love it!

so for the penalty tasks - are you going to tell us which Tower we have to read for? or is it going to be progressive?

The link to "Top Shelves" isn't working for me. I see it must've worked for lots of people already, since lots of years and shelves have been reserved.

Any hints how I can get there?
I get a Goodreads "page not found" message.

Susan wrote: "Love it!"

Thanks, Susan :) Enjoy!

Susan wrote: "The link to "Top Shelves" isn't working for me. I see it must've worked for lots of people already, since lots of years and shelves have been reserved.

Any hints how I can get there?
I get a Goodr..."

Susan, I just picked my favorite shelves. Never did try the link. But, I did just now and it isn't working for me either.

Dee wrote: "so for the penalty tasks - are you going to tell us which Tower we have to read for? or is it going to be progressive?"

If you mean the "recovery" tasks, I've randomly drawn from all 4 towers the "blocks" which will trigger the tasks. Of course, I'm not telling which ones they are until someone had reported that they've read for that "block" them I'd advised them that they've been hit and need to "recover". Then, they'd have to complete the task I've set before they can continue with the rest of the game.

I mean, that I saw there are 10 different recovery tasks - have those been randomly assigned to the blocks that if we hit them we do - i'm still drinking my first coffee for the day - so this might not make sense

For the Freedom Tower, do we go with the original date the book was published? Or the date of the edition? For example: The Warden, by Trollope, was published in 1855. But the copy I can get at the library was published in 1998.

For some of the books in the 1800's, we're not going to find an edition published then. On the other hand, if we go with first published date, we'll have to be very careful to read those pale letters in parentheses.

I have several questions:

Are re-reads allowed?
If I reserve 3 years for the Freedom tower, do I have to read those years before I tackle anything else?
If I aim for a Freedom tower and my hit is off the mark...does that mean that I cannot switch and use the book for another tower?

@Dee: yes, that's right

@Susan: yes, original published date. I certainly don't have a first edition Austen lying about the house ;) so please do pay closer attention to those pale numbers in parentheses

@DG: yes to re-reads. No, you can still tackle others even after reserving blocks. And yes, once the book is "thrown" you cannot use it again even if off the mark.

Sorry for short answers, am on the phone and finding it difficult to type plus I just woke up so it seems that the world did not end yesterday. Though I've not yet been outside nor seen anyone else but my family, what do I know? Lol

Thanks, Tien. :) Your short answers were perfectly understandable!

I'm not quite sure how this all works and, with my propensity for getting it wrong at the start, I think I will observe what you all are doing before I start in on this one. Maybe mid-January for me.

Oh, hey, I think I lied about my intentions. I see I'm on the Snakes & Ladders finish list, so I'm going to do that at least and ask lots of questions about what I'm doing :)
Please point out when I mess things up! I'll try to be good.

LynnB wrote: "Oh, hey, I think I lied about my intentions. I see I'm on the Snakes & Ladders finish list, so I'm going to do that at least and ask lots of questions about what I'm doing :)
Please point out when..."

Not to worry, LynnB. There isn't much to make a mess of with this game. Just don't start reading yet ;)

Brilliant game! My reading has slowed down a lot this year, but will try to join in next year for sure :)

Tien! I have questions about the Scripts Tower, category D: Name (of a person / character) in title starting with the letter… (A-Z)

Q1: Does that mean that the character's name has to be in the title of the book? (Like Dancing with Clara) Or does it mean that we could use a character's name that shows up in the book? Like let's say reading The Hunger Games and using Katniss because that's the first name of the main character?

Assuming that names have to be in the title...

Q2: Does it have to be the name of a character or just a word that happens to be a name? For instance in The Winter Rose, none of the characters are named Rose but Rose is a name. :)

Q3: Do last names count? For instance Mr. Darcy is usually referred by his last name as in Darcy's Story

Q4: Can the name be in the series name? As in Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1)

Good Questions, DG!

1. Name has to be on title so 'Dancing with Clara' works but not 'The Hunger Games'

2. Whilst it does not necessarily have to be a character's name, it has to be specifically a name of a person. 'The Winter Rose' refers to a flower rather than a person so that won't qualify. Basically, the intent is for a person's name in title.

3. No to last names

4. No to series name

Thanks for all these Qs, DG... I'll amend the rules to include :)

Question for Name in Title on Scripts Tower. Must the name be a person or can it be an animal? For example, Hannah's Dream is about an elephant named Hannah.

I'm already getting ready for the recovery tasks. For some reason, I want my first book to be one of the years I saved (not the safe one but one of the others.) So now of course I have the feeling that I'll end up with a block!

Hey Tien! Another question about the names in titles?

What about nicknames? I have this book called: Bear, Otter, and the Kid

Bear and Otter are the main characters (it says so in the description!) but I assume those are nicknames because really! ;)

Amy & DG, let's stick to person's real name only, ok? :)

Geez, somehow I didn't think of it this far. I thought it a simple challenge but I guess I wasn't quite right, lol.

haha - I can say for Bear, Otter and the Kid - you maybe hear their real names once in the entire books...

This looks fun and I'm finally ready to get back into reading after having my twins! So for the shelves, the book just has to be on the shelf somewhere right? Not like on the first page or two of the book's top shelves?

This looks brilliant Tien and happens to tie in with a high octane alphabet challenge I'm doing too!!

And I love that my fort building has spread! :-)

@Lahni: yes :)

@Sam: I've been wondering where you've gotten to? What's 'high octane alphabet challenge'?

I've also tried to built a fort the other day... gave up when I was about 5 books high -had a cold and just didn't look forward to taking all books off shelf and then back on shelf ;p

Tien wrote: "Amy & DG, let's stick to person's real name only, ok? :)"

Hi Tien - Can I appeal the ban on nicknames? It's just that I've seen people in the thread reserve letters for books that either have a nickname already or it's difficult to determine whether that's a nickname or not (Skippy Dies and Bitterblue)

Can we leave it that if the character is known in the book description/most of the book by that name then it's allowed?

D.G. ~Shameless Hussy~ wrote: "Tien wrote: "Amy & DG, let's stick to person's real name only, ok? :)"

Hi Tien - Can I appeal the ban on nicknames? It's just that I've seen people in the thread reserve letters for books that eit..."

After reading the description of Skippy Dies, I assumed the main character's real name was Skippy. When I glanced at some of the reviews, however, I see that his real name is Daniel. If that is the case, then this book won't qualify for the "S" for first name.

As for Bitterblue, that isn't a nickname. I've read the first couple in this series of fantasy novels, and Bitterblue is the character's actual name.

Just joined this group and first thing I see is this absolutely amazing challenge !!! Great idea Tien :)


D.G. I saw this group in your groups :) :)

A question Tien,

I have 3 shelves reserved. If a read a book like The Speed of Dark which could knock off any of those three (and is on my LOST list), could I throw it at a different shelf? My three reserved shelves I could use for almost anything that I read, but I might not get another chance to knock off a shelf like psychology.

Karen wrote: "Just joined this group and first thing I see is this absolutely amazing challenge !!! Great idea Tien :)

D.G. I saw this group in your groups :) :)"

LOL, Karen welcome!

My apologies to all as it seems I have not been able to explain coherently what I'm looking for with the 'name in title' issue. As I said previously, the intention is for a person's name however I'll provide you all with a rule of thumb instead (which may prompt some of you to review your choices) and that is...

"Is it a name which you would name your child by? If yes, then by all means..."

Karen wrote: "Just joined this group and first thing I see is this absolutely amazing challenge !!! Great idea Tien :)"

Welcome to the group, Karen & thanks :D
I do hope you're going to join in the Fun!!

Coralie wrote: "A question Tien,

I have 3 shelves reserved. If a read a book like The Speed of Dark which could knock off any of those three (and is on my LOST list), could I throw it at a different shelf? My thr..."

You can nominate whichever Tower / block you'd like to throw it to regardless of your reservation. The reservation method is only to help you guys out so you don't double up etc...

Yes I definitely will :)

@Tien, glad to hear you're trying your hand at fort building :-)

The high octane challenge involves reading through the alphabet in order, first by author surname, then title, author first name, setting, author's country of birth and finally character name with a bonus based on your fav genre and mixing and matching criteria. So by the end I should read the alphabet 7 times (in theory anyway)!

Sam wrote: "@Tien, glad to hear you're trying your hand at fort building :-)

The high octane challenge involves reading through the alphabet in order, first by author surname, then title, author first name, s..."

In order? Geez, reckon that'd be the toughest bit of that challenge LOL

Tien wrote: "My apologies to all as it seems I have not been able to explain coherently what I'm looking for with the 'name in title' issue. As I said previously, the intention is for a person's name however I..."

This seems a much stricter interpretation, and way too open to different interpretation among different people. I thought what you said before was clear, and fairer. If it is the actual given name of a character in the book, then it counts. There are so many names I wouldn't use. And for this new interpretation to make someone rule out Bitterblue, as I saw in the scripts thread, seems counter to what you originally intended. Or Thursday Next, for example. NOT names I'd use.

I think your original statement was clear, but people were just unhappy about not using nicknames. In my opinion, that's your call, as the originator of the game. Hold fast to no-nicknames if you want to. But don't rule out unusual names. I wouldn't use Ysabel or Zachariah, either. But someone did.

Let's see... if we go back to what actually inspired me to A-Z of names in title is doing A-Z of author first names so that really was my original intention. I am looking for the names you would find of yourself, your family, your friends, and people you'd meet -everyday "normal-ish" sort of names.

Whilst, I wouldn't necessarily named my daughter Thursday -Nicole Kidman did name her daughter Sunday! So that's not far fetched at all LOL. I wouldn't call Ysabel or Zachariah unusual either - there are quite a few of them around...

Err, not sure it that help at all?

Karen wrote: "Just joined this group and first thing I see is this absolutely amazing challenge !!! Great idea Tien :)


D.G. I saw this group in your groups :) :)"

Welcome to the group Karen. I called you Karen2 in the shelf planning for scripts and shelves so that I could keep the Karen's straight. Hope that is okay.

And just so you know, Tien is the most creative, imaginative, challenge deviser ever!