Hooked on Books discussion

🚂 The Elsewhere Line

Individual • Open-Ended
📅 Start Date: Sept 15, 2026


There are trains that follow maps and timetables.

This isn't one of them.

The Elsewhere Line travels to places ordinary railways can't reach—across borders, through history, and occasionally somewhere that shouldn't exist at all.

Across 25 Stops, you'll step into a new place, time, or reality. You might witness a moment in history, explore somewhere lost to time, join in whatever is happening, or simply stay awhile before choosing one of several reading tasks to continue your journey.

And if curiosity gets the better of you, there may be an optional rabbit hole or two waiting along the way.

Where the Line goes next is never quite predictable.

🏅 For the badge hunters: Every Stop earns its own commemorative coin (badge).

You may Stay Aboard (SKIP) twice during your journey. The Stop still counts as visited, you'll receive its commemorative coin, and the Line will carry you onward.

Here's your ticket.

All aboard.



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📌 Challenge Rules
• Standard Challenge Rules apply for basic book qualifications.
• Cover tasks: Post the cover for the edition you read. The required item must be clearly visible on that cover.
• In-the-text tasks: Include the page, chapter, or location and the passage where the required word appears. (Context does not matter.)
• In-the-text tasks: No variations, except plurals and only when the original spelling remains unchanged. (Example: STAR → STARS counts; SHELF → SHELVES does not.)
• Letters-in-a-title tasks: When a task asks for all the letters in a word, the letters may appear in any order, but all letters—including repeats—must be present.
• Title tasks: The book's title and subtitle count unless otherwise stated.
• Series names: Do not count unless the individual task specifically allows the series name.


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🎟️ Stay Aboard

Two Stay Aboard passes have been tucked in with your ticket.

If a Stop isn't calling to you, use one and remain aboard. Find a comfortable seat, enjoy the amenities, and let the Line carry you onward.




📚 Completing a Stop

When you've finished your book, post your completion directly in this thread:

Book/Author:
Date Read:
Stop:
Task:
How it fits:

Then check in at the 🎟️ Ticket Booth with a direct link to your completion post.


Questions along the way? Visit the 🛎️ Concierge Desk (Q&A) .

🚂 STOP #1 — 🎡 Chicago
Summer 1893


The White City is glowing.

As evening falls over the World's Columbian Exposition, thousands of electric lights illuminate the grand white buildings, fountains, and lagoons surrounding you. Searchlights sweep across the fairgrounds while illuminated fountains change color against the night.

But we're not here just to admire the view.

Towering over the Midway is the world's first Ferris Wheel—George Ferris's enormous answer to the Eiffel Tower, carrying passengers high above the fairgrounds.

Before the train leaves, we're taking a ride.


📚 Choose ONE:

💡 1. Read a book with WHITE or CITY in the text.
💡 2. Read a book with a circle or wheel on the cover.
💡 3. Read a book with a page count ending in 1, 8, 9 or 3.
💡 4. Read a book where the author's last name begins with a letter in CHICAGO.
💡 5. Read a book where a character tries something they've never done before.

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🐇 Down the Rabbit Hole: See how electricity turned the White City into something visitors described as almost magical.
👉 https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/202...

Book/Author: Luna Trials by Heather K. Carson

Date Read: 09.18.2026

Stop: 🚂 STOP #1 — 🎡 Chicago
Summer 1893

Task: 📚 Choose ONE:

💡 3. Read a book with a page count ending in 1, 8, 9 or 3.


How it fits: The page count for Luna Trials is 343, which ends with a '3'.

Your commemorative coin from Chicago





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🚂 STOP #2 — 🔱 Atlantis
Before the Fall


Atlantis has one small problem.

It never existed.

Plato described a wealthy island kingdom built around concentric rings of land and water. Generations of Atlanteans bridged the rings, cut a canal to the sea, and opened passages wide enough for ships to travel from one ring to the next.

Thousands of years later, people are still looking for it.

Apparently, they should have tried the train.

Before the train leaves, we're taking a boat through the rings of Atlantis.


📚 Choose ONE:

🌊 1. Read a book with a one-word title.
🌊 2. Read a book with something gold, silver, or bronze on the cover.
🌊 3. Read a book where the author's first name starts with a letter in PLATO.
🌊 4. Read a book where something believed to be lost is found or rediscovered.
🌊 5. Read a book with a title/subtitle/series that contains all the letters in ATLANTIS.

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🐇 Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious what Plato actually said about Atlantis?

👉 The Cliff Notes: A reader-friendly look at the story, the city Plato described, and the theories that followed.
https://www.worldhistory.org/atlantis/

👉 The Original: Read Critias, where Plato takes us inside Atlantis itself.
https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critia...