The Challenge Factory discussion

📜The Library of Forbidden and Sacred Texts

“Every scholar’s journey is recorded…”
“…but it begins here.”

Welcome to your Pair Thread.

This space is for you and your partner to track your progress, stay organized, and navigate your studies within the Library.

📅 Challenge Dates
August 16-November 7, 2026

🏛 Pair Designation
📜 Pair # 11 — Title: The Shadow Stacks

👥 Team Members
Keeper: Preeti
Seeker: Lori


🔗 Important Links
📜 The Hall of Records — Scoreboard
🗂 The Reference Desk — Q&A
📚 The Grand Curriculum The Grand Curriculum — Class Tasks

Important Dates
Month 1: Aug 16-Sept 12
Month 2: Sept 13 - Oct 10
Month 3: Oct 11 - Nov 7


🧭 Using This Thread
You may use this space to:
⭐Track completed prompts
⭐Plan your reads
⭐Keep notes for Trials
⭐Coordinate with your partner
(This thread is optional for tracking—use it in whatever way works best for you.)

🧭 Logging completed books
SS: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

🪶 Final Note

“Some scholars plan…”
“…others adapt.”

However you choose to approach your studies, remember:

The Library is always watching.

Begin your journey.

📚 How to Play: The Library of Forbidden and Sacred Texts

Welcome, scholars.

Within the Library, knowledge is not freely explored… it is earned, restricted, and ultimately tested.

🏛️ Your Role
At the start of the challenge, each pair is assigned:
✨ Keeper – Guardian of Sacred knowledge
🔥 Seeker – Pursuer of Forbidden truths
👉 Your role is your identity. It does not change.

📖 The Structure (3 Months)
Your journey unfolds in three phases:

📘 Month 1 – Study Your Major
You must focus on your assigned discipline:
✨ Keepers → Sacred Studies + Archive
🔥 Seekers → Forbidden Studies + Archive
🚫 You may NOT complete prompts from the opposing path.

📙 Month 2 – Cross the Threshold
The Library reveals what was once forbidden to you.
✨ Keepers may now study Forbidden Studies
🔥 Seekers may now study Sacred Studies
📜 Archive remains open to both

⚠️ Important:
Continuing to study only your original path may leave you unprepared.
👉 To succeed in what comes next, you will need knowledge of both disciplines.

📕 Month 3 – The Final Trials
Your understanding will be tested.
📖 The Hidden Truth
📖 The Power Within
📖 The Final Path
These Trials draw from both Sacred and Forbidden knowledge.

🏆 Those who have mastered both paths will have the greatest advantage.

🧾 How to Complete Tasks
Choose a prompt
Read a book that fulfills it
Assign it to:
⭐Sacred
⭐Forbidden
⭐Archive
Post your completion in your pair thread

📝 Points & Logging
Each completed prompt = 5 points
Trials award additional points
Only logged reads count toward your score

⚖️ Competition
You are competing only against your partner.
Earn more points than your partner to win your duel
Each pair stands on its own

📌 Final Notes
Respect monthly restrictions
Post all completions in your pair thread
Strategy matters — especially in Month 2

📚 Your Path Awaits
First, you will specialize.
Then, you will be tempted to expand.
Finally… you will be judged on what you chose to learn.

Choose wisely, scholar.

✨ SACRED STUDIES (KEEPERS)

✨ 1. Preservation of Form
“Not all things should be changed.”
Focus: maintaining identity, resisting alteration
✨ Read a book where something remains unchanged despite pressure
✨ Read a book with a character who resists transformation or disguise
✨ Read a book with the word TRUE or FORM in the title or text

✨ 2. Codes of Conduct
“Order is not weakness—it is discipline.”
Focus: rules, etiquette, structure
✨ Read a book where a character follows a strict code or set of rules
✨ Read a book where someone shows restraint instead of acting impulsively
✨ Read a book with the word RULE, ORDER, or DUTY in the text

✨ 3. Records of Sacrifice
“What is preserved often comes at a cost.”
Focus: protection, sacrifice, legacy
✨ Read a book where a character sacrifices something to protect others
✨ Read a book where a character chooses preservation over personal gain
✨ Read a book where something valuable is protected or hidden

✨ 4. Acts of Stewardship
“To keep is not to hoard—it is to care.”
Focus: responsibility, guardianship, care
✨ Read a book where a character takes responsibility for something important
✨ Read a book where a character helps maintain or restore balance
✨ Read a book with a caretaker, guardian, or protector figure

🔥 FORBIDDEN STUDIES (SEEKERS)

🔥 1. Alteration & Disguise
“Truth is flexible… if you know how to shape it.”
Focus: transformation, identity shifts, deception
🔥 Read a book where a character changes identity, appearance, or role
🔥 Read a book where something is not what it seems
🔥 Read a book with the word MASK, SECRET, or HIDDEN in the title or text

🔥 2. Influence & Control
“Power is not given—it is taken… or persuaded.”
Focus: manipulation, persuasion, leverage
🔥 Read a book where a character manipulates or influences others
🔥 Read a book where someone gains power through strategy or cunning
🔥 Read a book with the word POWER, CONTROL, or COMMAND in the text

🔥 3. Dangerous Knowledge
“Some things are forbidden for a reason.”
Focus: uncovering secrets, forbidden magic, risky discovery
🔥 Read a book where hidden or forbidden knowledge is uncovered
🔥 Read a book where a character takes a risk to learn something new
🔥 Read a book with a secret, curse, or dangerous discovery

🔥 4. Unrestricted Outcomes
“The end is what matters… not the path taken.”
Focus: ambition, consequences, breaking limits
🔥 Read a book where a character pursues a goal at any cost
🔥 Read a book where actions lead to unintended or chaotic consequences
🔥 Read a book where a character breaks rules, laws, or expectations

📜 THE GRAND ARCHIVES (ALL PLAYERS)

“The Archives do not choose sides… they remember everything.”


📜 1. Creatures & Communication
“Not all knowledge is written.”
Focus: connection beyond language, creatures, understanding
📜 Read a book where a character communicates with an animal or non-human creature
📜 Read a book with a creature companion or sidekick (any type)
📜 Read a book where understanding something non-human is important

📜 2. Innate Talents
“Power begins within.”
Focus: skills, abilities, natural gifts
📜 Read a book with a character who has a notable or defining talent (your interpretation)
📜 Read a book where a character discovers or develops an ability
📜 Read a book where a character uses their talent to overcome a challenge

📜 3. Survival & Adaptation
“Stories are not about the strongest… but those who endure.”
Focus: survival, resilience, moral gray areas
📜 Read a book where survival is a key element
📜 Read a book where it is difficult to tell who is right or wrong
📜 Read a book where a character must adapt to a harsh or unfamiliar situation

📜 4. Forces of the World
“Magic, nature, and power exist beyond control.”
Focus: magic, nature, transformation
📜 Read a book where a character uses or encounters elemental magic (water, weather, etc.)
📜 Read a book where a character can transform (animal, plant, or otherwise)
📜 Read a book where natural or magical forces significantly impact the story

Hi, Lori! Looking forward to the start of the challenge.
I have added the tasks above so it is easier for us to refer to them. Please go ahead and add any other info you think we need as quick references.

Hi there Preeti! I am looking forward to this and to working with you. I think you are a great player so I am happy to be paired with you. You did a great job with the tasks. You are awesome!

I am ready to start whenever you are. Let me know how you would like to do our first month.

Hi, Lori. Thanks! I always get my challenges mixed up so find it easiest to have the tasks readily available.
This month, as a keeper, I have to read for tasks in Sacred Studies and Grand Archives, and you, as a seeker, will read for Forbidden Studies and Grand Archives.

Since I am more of a mood reader, I am going to read my books and then fit them to a task, if possible. I will be adding my read posts here as well as logging them on the spreadsheet.

I have finished my first book. Just have to figure out where it fits and add it to the spreadsheet.

Hi Preeti. I am so glad you do what I do. I read ARCs and then I fit them in. If I find myself left with a prompt then I can always read a book for that prompt and it will work for other challenges too.

Lori wrote: "Hi Preeti. I am so glad you do what I do. I read ARCs and then I fit them in. If I find myself left with a prompt then I can always read a book for that prompt and it will work for other challenges..."

And luckily, Donna said we can shuffle our books around as much as we want.

Month 1: Sacred Studies & Grand Archives (Aug 16-Sept 12)

Task: Read a book where a character helps maintain or restore balance
Book: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Date Read: Aug 18
How It Fits: (view spoiler)[Wargrave sees himself as restoring moral balance by punishing those who escaped the law; the island becomes a closed system in which guilt is finally “balanced” by death according to his judgment. (hide spoiler)]


Task: Read a book where someone shows restraint instead of acting impulsively
Book: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (Tommy & Tuppence #4) by Agatha Christie
Date Read: Aug 19
How It Fits: Tommy repeatedly shows caution and restraint while Tuppence is more impulsive in pursuing leads alone.


Task: Read a book where a character uses their talent to overcome a challenge
Book: Scandal of the Summer (Flirty Rotten Scoundrels #1) by Alexandra Vasti
Date Read: Aug 22
How It Fits: Ruby uses her perceptiveness and refusal to be intimidated to see through Archer’s scare tactics and navigate the dual deceptions. Archer uses his con-artist skills and crew leadership to maintain the house cover and later to help address the princess’s peril.


Task: Read a book where something valuable is protected or hidden
Book: The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth's Past #1) by Cixin Liu
Date Read: Aug 28
How It Fits: The Red Coast Base project, Ye’s contact with the Trisolarans, the existence of the ETO, and the nature of the sophons are all carefully hidden. Scientific knowledge and the truth about physics are “protected” (or suppressed) in different ways across the story.


Task: Read a book where it is difficult to tell who is right or wrong
Book: Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Date Read: Sep 2
How It Fits: (view spoiler)[The unreliable first-person narration deliberately blurs moral lines for much of the book. Michael presents himself sympathetically, the gypsy warnings create ambiguity about fate versus human agency, and the reader only confronts the full extent of his culpability toward the end of the story. Class tensions and Ellie’s isolation also complicate simple judgments. (hide spoiler)]


Task: Read a book where something remains unchanged despite pressure
Book: Woman 99 by Greer Macallister
Date Read: Sep 4
How It Fits: Charlotte’s loyalty to and determination to rescue her sister Phoebe remain constant despite the extreme pressures, dangers, and dehumanizing conditions of the asylum. Many of the women inside also retain their core identities and resistance even under institutional control.


Task: Read a book where a character communicates with an animal or non-human creature
Book: Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles #1) by Colin Meloy
Date Read: Sep 11
How It Fits: (view spoiler)[Talking animals are central (coyotes, birds including Owl Rex and eagles, a rat named Septimus, etc.). Mystics (and later Prue) communicate with plants/trees. Alexandra speaks with the ivy. (hide spoiler)]

Hi. I hope all is well with you.
I am tracking my read books here so that I can plan which tasks I want to assign to them at the end of the round. I just know that I will forget at least one book if I don't add them here. ☺️

Hi there:

I am well. Thanks. Hope you are too. I was out of town in Texas celebrating my grandson's 2nd birthday. I promise to start posting either today or tomorrow.

No problem. I hope you had a great time. Spending time with family is, in my opinion, one of the best things ever, particularly when one gets to celebrate happy occasions.
I am going on a holiday with my parents in the middle of the month and I am so looking forward to it.

Month 1 - Seeker - Forbidden
Task: 🔥 Read a book where a character changes identity, appearance, or role
Book/Author:
Date read: 09/06/2026
How it fits: Tank changes character completely. From Warren who comes from a well to do family to Tank who is tattooed biker and takes on dangerous and reckless tasks for his MC.

Month 1. Seeker - Forbidden
Task: 🔥 Read a book where a character manipulates or influences others
Book/Author:
Date read: 08/19/2026
How it fits: The stolen princess is manipulated by her mother to believe the world outside where she is being held is dangerous and scary. She uses false newspapers, televisions, etc., to persuade and influence Desta into thinking she is safe where she is but she is actually in more danger.

I have finished my first book. Just have to figure out where it fits and add it to the spreadsheet.

Did you figure out the spreadsheet? Gotta tell you I am really hopeless with spreadsheets

I find the spreadsheet pretty easy. But then, I have a great love for spreadsheets of all kinds. Comes from years of working first with Excel and now also with Google Sheets, I had to learn to love them! 😊

Aaaah. So can you give me a quick lesson? I have more books to post.

Lori wrote: "Aaaah. So can you give me a quick lesson? I have more books to post."

Sure, no problem.

1. Go to the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
You should be on the page marked "Book Log".
2. Go to the next empty row.
3. Click on the drop arrow in column A and select the task your book works for. If it is Red, it is a Sacred task, Green is Forbidden, and Blue is Archive.
4. Click on the drop arrow on the next column and select the type of task, so Sacred or Forbidden or Archive. (P.S. You should only be reading for tasks from Forbidden and Archive this month.)
5. Select your name in the next column
6. Enter the Book title, author, page count and date read in the next cells.
7. That is it! The points column will auto-populate on its own as soon as you enter the date read.
8. Repeat the same steps for the rest of your books.

If you have any doubts, leave me a message here and I will help sort it out.

Month 1 - Forbidden
🔥 Read a book where hidden or forbidden knowledge is uncovered
Book/Author:
Date read: 09/12/2026
How it fits: The main couple go on a search for a missing neighbor. During their research they find details of hidden treasure that is supposedly buried on the neighbor's land and they uncover all the details of the robbery that occurred where a train was robbed 100 years prior.

Month 1. - Forbidden
🔥 Read a book where a character breaks rules, laws, or expectations
Book/Author:
Date read: 08/22/2026
How it fits: Yak is a biker and belongs to a club that has no respect for laws or rules. They kill when necessary. They rob and steal when necessary but they really are like Robin Hood and his band of men...they take from the rich and corrupt and give back to those that need.

This is the last prompt for Seekers Forbidden Studies

Preeti wrote: "Lori wrote: "Aaaah. So can you give me a quick lesson? I have more books to post."

Sure, no problem.

1. Go to the spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/......"

Lori wrote: "Aaaah. So can you give me a quick lesson? I have more books to post."

Your instructions were awesome! If you want to go and look and make sure I did it correctly that would be great. I took an Excel class 4 or 5 times and knew nothing more by the end of the 5th.

Grand Archives
Innate Talents
📜 Read a book with a character who has a notable or defining talent (your interpretation)
Book/Author:
Date read: 09/10/26
How it fits: Lydia who owns the shop is an incredible knitter and has knowledge of yarns, stitched and anything to do with knitting. Lydia has overcome cancer twice and the shop is her way of giving life another chance. She feels that knitting defines who she is.

Grand Archives
Survival & Adaptation
📜 Read a book where a character must adapt to a harsh or unfamiliar situation
Book/Author:
Date read: 09/01/26
How it fits: The main characters are driving across Canada. They face blizzards, driving on a spare tire for more miles than it is supposed to be good for. They can't see because they are blinded by snow and grey skies. They are on the edge of the road and would drop into Lake Superior but somehow they survive and get to their destination.

Thanks, Lori! I checked your entries. They are perfect.

LOL! I know what you mean. I am convinced that everybody has at least one subject that their brain simply refuses to comprehend. I am the same with Physics. No matter how much I read about the subject, nothing quite sticks. Nevertheless, I continue my attempts to learn at least the basics! Hopefully, some day, I will have my Eureka moment.

It's time, folks! Update your month 1 books. I will be back tomorrow to wrap up the scores. You should be switching curriculums. Study the other role now.

Hi, Lori. This is to remind you that you have to read for tasks from Sacred Studies and the Grand Archives in Round 2.

Month 2: Forbidden Studies & Grand Archives (Sept 13 - Oct 10)

Task:
Book: Best in Snow (Andy Carpenter #24) by David Rosenfelt
Date Read: Sep 13
How It Fits:


Task:
Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Date Read: Sep 13
How It Fits:


Task:
Book: The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden
Date Read: Sep 14
How It Fits:

Lori, FYI, Donna says we can only read for those Grand Archives tasks we have not already used in the last round.