Pick-a-Shelf discussion

It's a little early, to make up for my being tardy the last couple of months

1. Mini SAT: 50 points when you have read off the following 12 shelves (with 5 books or less):

childhood
childhood-favorites
2010
2008
21st-century
animals
historical
historical-fiction
historical-romance
lit
literature
crime

2. Banned Book Week: For 30 points read “banned” books

3. Talk like a Pirate Day: For 20 points per book, read books with each of the following

1 = The word PIRATE in the Title
1 = With a picture of a ship / boat / jolly roger / parrot on the cover
1 = About Pirates or a character who is a pirate
1 = A picture of the ocean / a Beach / an island / treasure chest on the cover
1 = About an oceanic journey (plane ride across ocean does not count but we'll count survival stories, ie. an accident happen then they are floating in ocean etc)

4. Peace Day: For 20 points, read books with either picture on cover or word in title related to peace symbolism.
To assist, here is a list of peace symbols on Wikipedia which includes the peace sign itself, dove & olive branch (which can be separated for this task), paper cranes, Shalom / Salaam, etc. If you know of others that aren’t on this list, as long as you can explain it, you can use it for this task.

5. Branching out: This task is worth 25 points per book.
Firstly, go to your read shelf, scroll down and sort it by ‘Random’ (20 books per page). Choose the book that is highest rated (if there is more than one, you have the privilege to choose one) and take note of the author. Go to this site: http://literature-map.com/, type in your chosen author and enter. From the results, choose an author to read one of this author’s books.
For subsequent books, use the previous author.

For example,
Author from my shelf (ie. ‘search’ author): Charles Dickens
1st author to read from: Ian McEwan
For my second book, I’d use ‘Ian McEwan’ as my ‘search’ author… 2nd author to read from: Sarah Waters, and so on…

For 30 points:

**NEW GR FEATURES** ;)

Go to your Home Page, look to your right and click on ‘your recommendation’.

Read a book shown on this page.

These recommendations are based on your books, shelves, & ratings so hopefully you would actually found a book you’d love ;)

Couple of questions, Karen:

For the banned books, is there a specific list you want us to work from, or are we free to search on our own? I was online yesterday looking for banned graphic novels so I can read a few for the September shelf, but don't want to move forward unless I'm operating within the guidelines.

Am I correct in assuming the word "Peace" in a book title will work for category 4?

Thanks!

There isn't a specific list as I believe different countries have different ones, even different states! So, feel free :)

and yes for "peace"

Are pirates and swashbucklers the same thing? I did a listopia search for "pirates" and a list for swashbuckler books came up. The Scarlet Pimpernel came up as #4 on the list. Would that count as a book with a pirate charcter? Having not read the book I don't know what kinds of "piracy" or "swashbuckling" are involved.

interesting! I would say swashbucklers and pirates aren't necessarily the same. swashbucklers merely refer to man carrying swords (with negative implication, of course) and not necessarily on ships / water as pirates. Most pirates would probably swashbucklers but not all swasbucklers are pirates.

As it happens, I know The Scarlet Pimpernel very well - one of my FAVE! and I'd say that it's not within the spirit of this task, unfortunately.

Obviously I'm not an expert on pirates or swashbucklers. (or scalawags for that matter.) so thanks for the clarification.

random question - for the pirate task - do privateers fit in as pirates? becasue they were considered pirates by some governments and legal by others?

I'd say that privateer isn't fitting with the spirit of the task, unfortunately. We're strictly gonna do pirates --> think Captain Jack Sparrow ;)

s'ok - they travel on the ocean - i'll fit in in there

Sorry, I'm lost. Who is Captain Jack Sparrow? When I think pirates, I think Henry Morgan who considered himself a privateer.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Jack Sparrow was the character played by Johnny Depp

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I have not seen the film, but I assumed the characters in Pirates of the Carribean were based on privateers like Henry Morgan. I am getting very confused.

that I don't know... vaguely remember readng about henry morgan, so maybe - but there is an old ride at Disney World that is the pirates of the caribbean

Err, I dont' really know about Henry Morgan but from what I read on (uh-hum) Wikipedia, he was both privateer & pirate (at different times?).

Privateer basically acts like pirates but with a letter of marque (they are, sort of, recognise by certain government as part of defence force).

However, we are look at pirates only (not sure if this is a good description but: purely criminal - gosh, that sounds bad)

so no somali pirates ;)

For those of you having trouble finding pirate books you like, I highly recommend the young-adult series Bloody Jack, by L.A. Meyer. The first one, Bloody Jack introduces Mary/Jack, the young female protagonist. I read the first one, but have since seen reviews that say it's even better to listen to the recorded version, so that's what I'm going to try for the 2nd and beyond.

Kazza wrote: "For 30 points:

**NEW GR FEATURES** ;)

Go to your Home Page, look to your right and click on ‘your recommendation’.

Read a book shown on this page.

These recommendations are based on your books,..."

Wow, Kazza! I'd just explored the recommendations section yesterday, and love it. Thrilled to see it on the mid-month challenge!

Would Lord of the Flies be acceptable for the last item in Task 3? It is a survival tale, but it seems to have begun with a plane crash rather than a boat ride across the ocean.

I interpreted survival tale to be survival at sea. Not just any survival story. So I'll beinterested to see the verdict.

I'd have to agree with Lahni, Amy. Sorry. If I remember correctly, the setting of the book is pretty much on the island - ie. not once were they actually on the ocean as the story itself began with the aftermath of the crash and I won't tell you the ending ;)

No problem, Karen. I finished Lord of the Flies this morning, so no spoiler alert necessary... :-)

Am I just not seeing it or has the reporting thread for September not been posted yet?

It hasn't!! But I will do so now...

Sorry, been busy looking for a new job!! My company is restructuring my department and I so do NOT want to stay so trying to get a new job before December (a month where no one is hiring) and slightly stressing out... I've just had one interview today though so **fingers crossed**

Best wishes for success, Kazza!

Good luck Kazza, fingers and toes are crossed!

Good Luck Kazza!

Thanks, everyone :)