You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

TOP TEN

It’s nearly the end of the year, and I don’t know about you guys (actually, I do and that’s why we’re doing this, but don’t let facts get in the way of a good story) but my TBR is getting longer and longer. Of course all our fellow members are helping us with this, showing us the wonderful world of books we could be reading. But I know some of my books are just not getting to the top of the pile.

So, this month’s challenge is to read one of these books. I want you to go to your To Read shelf.

I want you to click on the # field on the left hand side of the screen so the books are sorted numerically from 1. Like this:


Then I want you to look at your Top Ten. You are going to read one of these books in the next month.

I don’t care if you are meticulously sorting your books every time you add a book to put them in a to read order. I don’t care if those books are the ones that Goodreads threw at you when you signed up so it could work out your tastes. I don’t care if you are like me and one day Goodreads cleared half your TBR and then now all your books are in a random order.

As of today, do not sort these books again until you complete the challenge (I’m trusting you all) and choose one from your Top Ten to read for November.

General rules:

1. The book may be in any format - paperback, ebook, audiobook.
2. The book may be in any genre.
3. The book may NOT be combined with the Year Long Alphabet Challenge.
4. The book must be read between November 1 and November 30, 2013.
5. The challenge is for one book. You may read more books if you chose, but only the highest scoring book will apply.


Scoring: (All that apply)

Genre:
5 pts - Autobiography
4 pts – Western
3 pts – Non-fiction
2 pts - Romance
1 pts – Sci Fi

Author:
5 pts - Was born in November
4 pts – Surname begins with the letter E
3 pts – Is currently under 30 (as of the 30 November 2013).
2 pts – Was born in Scotland
1 pts – Is male

Title: (sub-titles do not count)
5 pts - Has an instrument in it
4 pts – Has a number in it
3 pts – Starts with the letter J
2 pts – Has a food in it
1 pts – Is 5 words long

Cover: (based on the issue you read)
5 pts - Has fireworks or an explosion on it
4 pts - Has a flower on it (+1 bonus point if it’s a poppy)
3 pts - Has a turkey on it
2 pts - Has a lantern on it.
1 pts – Has a moustached man on it (no beards and moustache)

Pages:
6 pts – 600+ pages
5 pts - 500 - 599 pages
4 pts - 400 - 499 pages
3 pts - 300 - 399 pages
2 pts - 200 - 299 pages

Bonus Points - Once per book
3 pts - If your book has a meteor shower in it (in honour of the Leonids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonids)
3pts - If one of the main characters in your book is a writer (in honour of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month))

For those who are looking for the # field, go to edit bookshelves and check "sortable".
Ironically I am reading one on my top ten right now. :)

Well, at first glace, I might have to go for that glue stick award... :)

OMG!!!!!

I could not have planned this so well if I had tried!!!!

Guess who the author is...of all ten. :(


What's So Funny? (Dortmunder, #14)
Donald E. Westlake

What's The Worst That Could Happen? (Dortmunder, #9)
Donald E. Westlake

Bank Shot (Dortmunder, #2)
Donald E. Westlake

Don't Ask (Dortmunder, #8)
Donald E. Westlake

Watch Your Back! (Dortmunder, #13)
Donald E. Westlake

Bad News (Dortmunder, #10)
Donald E. Westlake

The Road To Ruin (Dortmunder, #11)
Donald E. Westlake

Get Real (Dortmunder, #15)
Donald E. Westlake

Somebody Owes Me Money
Donald E. Westlake

361
Donald E. Westlake

Almeta wrote: "OMG!!!!!

I could not have planned this so well if I had tried!!!!

Guess who the author is...of all ten. :(


What's So Funny? (Dortmunder, #14)
Westlake, Donald E.

What's The Worst That Could H..."

Something tells me you are going to read a book by Westlake,,,,

Thanks Esther! I just realised it was the 30th and I hadn't put this up yet. I knew I missed a step.

Lol Almeta. From memory you at least quite liked him?

This is such a great idea. I am picking up a the thinnest book.

Haha Almeta :D At least the choice will be easy?


My top 10 consists of 6 books I added a long time ago (2010) when I just joined Goodreads. The other 4 (and the 200 following that) were added since May of this year, when I became more active. I have several (auto)biographies on the list (Life, Love, Janis, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix), and I haven't read biographies for a while. Might go for one of those, or else The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Or I could read travel-books, also fun! I can choose between Long Way Down, Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World, or Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist. Hm, this decision might turn out to be harder than I thought..

Great challenge Rusalka! It's fun to look through my almost forgotten to-read books. There are two on my list I'm not so interested in anymore, I'll delete them when the challenge is over ;-)

Luckily books #1 and #3 were the 2 books I was going to read when the alphabet was done. I don't know about anyone else but I was a little nervous I had a bunch of random crap in the top ten. Let's just say I'm not ambitious enough to tackle my #7 which was the entire Harry Potter Boxset that would have been some pages to get through.

My first added book is Anne of Green Gables. Yay. Now to get Norman back from the OH so I can read it.

Exciting challenge! When I first joined Goodreads, I never used to sort my TBR but over the last month or two I have to help me keep track of what I need to get done for alphabet and other challenges. Here is my top ten:
1 Vurt
2 Wool Omnibus
3 The Black Dahlia
4 Heart-Shaped Box
5 Doctor Sleep
6 Exit Strategy
7 Perdido Street Station
8 Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story
9 Seed
10 The Stand

Three of them are my alphabet books so I can scratch those (Vurt,Wool Omnibus and Exit Strategy). I have two group reads on there which I will definitely be reading this month - Heart-Shaped Box and The Black Dahlia. I hope to get a couple of the others done too.

I only had 2 authors to pick from and have ordered 2 books from the library. Neither of them will earn me many points, unfortunately.

I have to get to work, but must say this is a good one. I'm very happy with my top 10.

One question for now: will The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George qualify for autobiography? I probably know the answer, but had to ask. I am certain, though, that it fits for the moustached man (without beard) on the cover. It also has a number, VIII, in the title.

Yay, this is fun. Great challenge, Rusalka!!!
Most of my top 10 books are the ones I wanted to read for the around the world-challenge but then I neglected them (I´m already 6 books behind), so this way I might finally be able to catch up...

My books are
#1 The Book Thief (this I will read for the ABC-challenge, so it will not work out for this one)
#2 Infidel
#3 Out of Africa
#4 Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
#5 Eine unbeliebte Frau
#6 Like Water for Chocolate
#7 A Thousand Splendid Suns
#8 Hideous Kinky
#9 Our Man in Havana
#10 The Almond Tree

I've been a lurker here for a long time, but I've been wanting to read some books I added in '08 when I joined GR. I think this is a great idea!

Glad so many of you like the challenge. I will warn you that the point allocations have not been thought through at all (besides looking at random things that occur/ed in November), so I will be really interested to see how all our books turn out!

... I mean... I've been planning the points for months... *cough*

And sorry Theresa to be predictable but no. Unless our dear old king came back from the dead 500 years later and changed his name to Margaret George. And if so, I want proof! :P
But you are right, moustached and numbers!

I love this challenge Rusalka! I am off to check my TBR shelf.

Seems I am lucky. Infidel is my current #2. It´s an autobiography and the author´s birthday is in November.

Almeta wrote: "OMG!!!!!

I could not have planned this so well if I had tried!!!!

Guess who the author is...of all ten. :(


What's So Funny? (Dortmunder, #14)
Donald E. Westlake

What's The Worst That Could Ha..."

Too bad none of the Westlake choices aren't ANY of the numerous collection you have on your bookshelves at home! Once again, library books will have to fit the bill. But, yes, too funny you are finally getting a chance to read a Westlake as you have kept trying to plan to do!

I haven't looked at the books I put on my to-read list for a very long time. Some of them have been there since I joined the site.

1. Caribbean
2. Clapton
3. Crow Lake
4. Dreaming the Eagle
5. The House At Riverton
6. The Last of the Mohicans
7. The Mantra
8. The Tenth Chamber
9. Walk Gently This Good Earth
10. The Chosen Soul,
.

Interestingly enough, the last book was one I picked up for our very first challenge! That challenge was to read a book selected solely on the cover. I never did read it.

For this challenge, I'm leaning towards Clapton.

Clapton such a sad story not the usual drama but the added loss of his son over the balcony

I've Nev r read the book but watched documentary on Clapton

Travis of NNY wrote: "Clapton such a sad story not the usual drama but the added loss of his son over the balcony"

Someone brought a big box of books into work and I grabbed it then. I love his music. It is very sad about the death of his son.

I actually swapped my TBR order around a bit a few weeks ago so my current top ten are:

Tatiana and Alexander
NW
A Game of Thrones
Interview with the Vampire
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Clockwork Angel
Frankenstein
Possession: A Romance
Tipping the Velvet
All Quiet on the Western Front

I was planning on reading 2 of these books this month anyway so this challenge has worked out great! I may well be competing for the glue stick as I don't think any of these are high scoring books.

A couple of questions:
1) Can there be more than one flower on the cover or does it have to be a single flower?
2) In terms of the bonus points, are we counting poets as writers?

And how about musicians who write their own lyrics?

I love the expression 'competing for the glue stick', never heard it before :D None of my books will lead me to an impressive score either.

Great challenge, Rusalka!
All of my top 10 have been on my list since I joined GR in Sept. 2011 and must have been added because I started with Art as the first genre I searched through on the GR Recommendations list.
My #2 and #4, I really want to read someday, but are too long right now at over 600 pages. still on my list
My #6 Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock read and #10 Ways of Seeing by John Berger, do not qualify because they are under 200 pages. #6 is the book that I posted for the challenge reporting thread and #10 is still on my list but now #7
My #1 is The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards although I borrowed a copy from the library, I did not read it except for the introduction.
My #3 is Faeries by Brian Froud. read
My #5 is Wall and Piece by Banksy read
IF my library has a copy of any of these three, I will probably go with one of them. Otherwise, I will be sitting this one out to continue slogging through my ABC list.
I did have fun looking at my list and checking the point values for them, but now I better get back to work. 3 books were removed from my list for this challenge! Thank you!

Whoa. I'm not the meany who puts page limits on her monthly challenges. I have too many books at 180pp mark that would never be read otherwise, so go for it Cherie!

Peggy, the glue stick is a bit of a Rus thing, not a normal everyday person thing, which is why you wouldn't have heard it before. Context:

"When I ran my first challenge last year, we were talking about an Australian horse race, the Melbourne Cup, that is rather "important" apparently in Aus. When I had a team of staff we had a sweep on the race. Unfortunately one of the horses ummm... didn't make it to the finish line. The people were a little devastated their horse didn't finish so I bought them a glue stick as a special prize.

People asked for a glue stick on here, so it continues."

Melbourne Cup is actually on Tuesday. First Tuesday of November.

Lisa: can have multiple flowers, but only one lot of points.
Poets - yes.

Peggy:
Musicians... urgh. Good one. But not what I had in mind. No sorry.

Alexandra wrote: "Seems I am lucky. Infidel is my current #2. It´s an autobiography and the author´s birthday is in November."

Nice one!

Debra wrote: "Too bad none of the Westlake choices aren't ANY of the numerous collection you have on your bookshelves at home!"

This is just getting funnier!

Rusalka wrote: "Lisa: can have multiple flowers, but only one lot of points.
Poets - yes.

Peggy:
Musicians... urgh. Good one. But not what I had in mind. No sorry."

Great! Thanks for clearing that up Rusalka.

Rusalka wrote: "Whoa. I'm not the meany who puts page limits on her monthly challenges. I have too many books at 180pp mark that would never be read otherwise, so go for it Cherie!"

Oh - so if it is under 200 pgs, we just do not get to claim any points for pages. I guess that 200 is just built into my head. Thanks, Rusalka! That makes a new look at my books that may be available AND if I am going to participate.

Indeed. You can do the shorter reads, but just no extra points for them.

Rusalka wrote: "Whoa. I'm not the meany who puts page limits on her monthly challenges. I have too many books at 180pp mark that would never be read otherwise, so go for it Cherie!"

Who are you calling a meanie? ROFL!

HAHA!

Here's my top 10 with initial points calculated:
1. The Poisoned Pilgrim 8
2. The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers 17
3. Katherine 7
4. The Thirteenth Tale 10
5. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy 13
6. Washington: A Life 13
7. Swann's Way 9
8. North and South 9
9. Vanity Fair 12
10.The Gathering Storm 8

I have all these books and may read a couple in November. The only one I am sure I will not is #10, since it's #12 of the Wheel of Time series, and I've only read the first 8. Chances are that I'll use The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers for this challenge.

My options:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Sense and Sensibility and
Emma by Jane Austen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

All should be easy to get on audio, which is a win with my hellish commute.

Beth wrote: "My options:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Sense and ..."

Wow Beth you have a lot of Classics on there!

Rusalka wrote: "Peggy, the glue stick is a bit of a Rus thing, not a normal everyday person thing, which is why you wouldn't have heard it before. Context:

"When I ran my first challenge last year, we were talkin..."

I have a feeling that I could be in for a good chance of winning this.

Oh, what a cool idea!

Here are my top ten:

10. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 19 pts.
9. A Better Angel by Chris Adrian 7 pts.
8. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ABC challenge
7. The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote 15 pts.
6. Collected Stories by Carson McCullers 4 pts.
5. My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese 16 pts.
4. They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan by Benjamin Ajak 15 pts.
3. Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family by Charles Bowden 13 pts.
2. Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell 6 pts.
1. Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario 6 pts.

Question: An autobiography is also non-fiction, correct?

and, it looks like Infidel it is! I'll let you know if I find a meteor shower. :)

Mine are:
1. The Name of the Rose
2. Wuthering Heights
3. The Secret History
4. Across the Nightingale Floor
5. Shalimar the Clown
6. Foucault's Pendulum
7. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
8. Grave Dance
9. Acid Row
10. Eight Days of Luke

So many I want to read on there, but I worked out today, I have 9 books left for the alphabet, and 9 weeks left of the year. If I read one book a week i can do it. Adding in this book, that's 10 in 9 weeks. So this one should be a burner... Hmmm...

The windup bird chronicle will be up on my listen list in the next couple weeks

Thanks for the explanation Rusalka! Glue stick it will be for me, I think I'll only get points for pages read this time. Oh, and genre! I will definitely read something non-fiction. There's still hope (well, not for winning, but maybe for not finishing last ;-))

Debra wrote: "Too bad none of the Westlake choices aren't ANY of the numerous collection you have on your bookshelves at home! ..."

Rusalka wrote: "Lol Almeta. From memory you at least quite liked him?"

Well, this is partially true. The full joke is that I have collected Donald Westlake books for years, because I am a mystery lover and I heard that he wrote mysteries with a sense of humor. As of the start of my Goodreads membership, I had not read a single one.

When I thought that I might, I discovered that some of books are part of a series and that I did not have the earlier volumes...or that certain books are not mysteries at all and I am never in the mood for them. Donald E. Westlake has written 198 books...Humor, Crime Caper, Westerns, SciFi.

Sooo a mission was born, read them all and get them out of my house. This requires ordering books from the library to fill in the series sequence, so the Westlake TBR increases instead of decreases.

For every YLTO! challenge I have tried to insert a Westlake. They don't always fit, they are not indigo, historical, romantic, seafaring, ghostly, classical, family related, royal, scrabble fitting, banned, European, high scoring, etc. books!

In 2012 I manged to read three Westlakes. In the year 2013 I got ONE of his read for the Alphabet challenge.

In April Westlake was number ten out of sixtenn for the Toppler, but the Fruit Machine failed me.

I tried for the August Toppler, but my "Dog Period" won out over Westlake for the Happy Ending theme.

He was replaced by another "W" author on task 1 of the Alphabet Challenge, probably by an inferior, but I thought I Must Read book.

He is slotted for Task 3 of the Alphabet Challenge, to which I will never get.

He is slotted for Task 4 of the Alphabet Challenge for Uganda.

He is slotted for Task 5 of the Alphabet Challenge for my United States representative.

He is slotted for Task 6 of the Alphabet Challenge for Dortmunder as a character.

He is slotted for Task 7 of the Alphabet Challenge for Donald. Pfft!

Sooo, now having taken the Top Ten Challenge and finding that all ten of my books are by Donald E. Westlake is Rolling On The Floor, Laugh Out Loud, hysterical.

Almeta wrote: "Sooo, now having taken the challenge and finding that all ten of my books are by Donald E. Westlake is Rolling On The Floor, Laugh Our Loud, hysterical.."

I love this story, Almeta! Maybe we should place bets on which one you will read.

My choices:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Silent Wife
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
The Name of the Wind
Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys
Neverwhere
In the Woods
Shadow of Night
Dark Fire
Killing Floor

Off the top of my head I'm thinking the Billy Cryatal book for this challenge.
Might read The Scarlet Pimpernel for the group read / flower book.

Marnie wrote: "My choices:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Silent Wife
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
The Name of the Wind
Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Ar..."

Great books, Marnie. I think the Billy Crystal book would be fun.

My choices are

The Breaking Point: Short Stories
Zvejnieka dēls
Firefly
Falling Away
The Green Helmet and Other Poems
The Circle
The Adventures of the New Cut Gang
Fractured: Living Nine Lives To Escape My Own Abuse
Валькирия
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Anna wrote: "My choices are

The Breaking Point: Short Stories
Zvejnieka dēls
Firefly
Falling Away
The Green Helmet and Other Poems
The Circle
The Adventures of the New Cut Gang
Fractured: Living Nine Lives To ..."
The second to last book certainly has high ratings although I don't have the foggiest idea of what it is called or is about

Mine are (with the ones I want to read the most starred) -
*The Catcher in the Rye
*The Secret Life of Bees
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Knife of Never Letting Go
*The Grapes of Wrath
Brave New World
Midnight's Children
Atonement
And Then There Were None
Norwegian Wood

Is a memoir counted as an autobiography?