Sam’s Comments (group member since Jul 23, 2010)

Sam’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Just wanted to let everyone who is excited about the Spring Challenge know that we haven't forgotten about you. We're still finalizing a few things, but we should be ready to go soon. Get ready to start taking a hard look at your TBR list...this season's sub-challenge is called "Spring Cleaning."

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Question re: 10.1

Would Olive Kitteridge work for this one? I see no other place it would fit and another club will be reading it for February. It is one of the few I'm interested..."

Good suggestion...it definietly works.

Rebekah wrote: "Can a book from Goodreads Book Swap count as a Given book for task 10.1?"

I don't think Bill Bryson works for the U.K.

However, a Book Swap book will be fine for 10.2.

Backpacking through Europe: Land & Sea
15.3 - France: Swann's Way - Marcel Proust
+25 Task Points

Reading with Style
10.2 - Special Gift - Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
+10 Task Points
+15 Combo Points (10.1, 10.9 - F/S, 20.9 - #25)
Task Total = 25 Points

20.8 - Time Travel: Flashforward - Robert J. Sawyer (#19 on GR Best Time Travel List)
+ 20 Task Points
+ 10 Combo Points (10.9, 20.3 - F/S)
Task Total = 30 Points

New Points: 80
Grand Total: 150

colleen wrote: "I'm requesting clarification about task 10.6 Noel, Noel. Last month Sam said the task would "most likely" be changed to limit it to using each author only once for this task. Since it has not bee..."

I've made a change to the task specifying that an author be used only once.

Karen GHHS wrote: "I decided to read the play The Golem by H. Leivick for the 100 best Jewish literature task. It wasn't listed on Goodreads, but I found a copy on abebooks.com and ordered it. It just arrived, but it..."

No problem...it's on the list, so it's fine.

Joanna wrote: +0 Combo (this dropped to 55 on the Romance list between the time I picked it and the time I finished it. Boo!)

Since you added it to your bookshelf on 12/1, I'm okay with giving you the combo points.

colleen wrote: "Since you are accepting the spouse of a monarch, are spouses of elected officials or candidates also okay?"

That would be okay.

colleen wrote: "Does Michel Faber count for The Netherlands? He was born there but later moved to Australia then Scotland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_F..."

Since he writes in English, I'm going to say that he would count for the U.K. (Scotland).

Backpacking through Europe: Land & Sea
15.1 - Italy: The Name of the Rose: Including Postscript - Umberto Eco
+15 Task Points

15.2 - Spain:The Flanders Panel - Arturo Perez-Reverte
+25 Task Points

Reading with Style
10.1 - Turkey Coma - Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
+10 Task Points
+5 Combo Points (10.6)
+5 Series Points (Dresden Files)
Task Total = 20 Points

10.4 - William & Kate: The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down - Andrew Young
+ 10 Task Points
Task Total = 10 Points

New Points: 70
Grand Total: 70

Joanna wrote: "A related question: If I get through my 10 countries on my current itinerary, can I start a new itinerary (with different countries)? Or starting from where I ended? Or do I start over with my co..."

You can work through the sub-challenge more than once. If you wanted to do make a new itinerary that would be fine, or you could do the "Air" option the second time and dispense with a set itinerary.

Rebekah wrote: "This might be awfully optimistic of me, but once you go through your backpacking trip, can you go again? If you can, would it be alright to hit some of the countries that you hit last time again?
..."

You can mix children/adult books if you need to.

Liz M wrote: "Melissa W wrote: "I wish to read Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History for 20.5, but I when trying to find the Lexile for the book, I got a NP (Non-Prose) designation for..."

I had a rule during the first RwS challenge that said YA and Graphic Novels both wouldn't count for style points. I thought the Lexile route was a better way to adjudicate the YA issue, but I'm still not sold on the idea that Graphic Novels should be eligible for style points (and I'm reading one right now as it happens). I'm going to stand by my original feeling that they're okay for task points but not for style points.

Dan wrote: "For 10.1, would a book of poetry -- e.g. Whitman's Leaves of Grass -- count as a collection of short fiction?"

A book of poetry won't count for this task. I do, however, currently have two poetry tasks in mind for the spring challenge.

Rachel Lee wrote: "I am struggling with 10.1. Since I don't read a lot of short stories/essays I am not sure what is considered a compilation of essays if they are all by one author.

For example, would any of t..."

It might be splitting hairs, but the examples you mentioned are non-original stories/discussions that are anthologized by one author. What we're looking for is more something along the lines of David Sedaris, Dave Barry, etc. I'm sure others can name plenty more examples.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Sorry, Sam, but I now need further clarification on 20.3 One Word Title. Does this mean you are not looking at whether there is a subtitle, or that the book cannot have a subtitle. I have a couple ..."

I'm not sure exactly what the proper name for things like "A Novel," "A Romance," or "Stories," is, but they're not technically subtitles. What Krista and I meant when we discussed amending the task were subtitles like these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle...

Both examples that you listed would work for the task.

Reading through Time - Constant Traveler
15.1: Night Walker - Donald Hamilton (1954)
+25 points

10.3 - Fall Birthday: Say It With Bullets - Richard Powell (11/28)
+ 10 Task Points
Task Points: 10

10.5 - City Lights: Jar City - Arnaldur Indridason
+ 10 Task Points
+ 10 Combo Points (10.7 Nordic Noir, 20.9)
+ 10 LiT Points (Icelandic)
+ 5 Series Points (Erlendur #3)
Task Points: 35

10.7 - Under the Covers: The Princess of Burundi - Kjell Eriksson (Nordic Noir)
+ 10 Task Points
+ 5 Combo Points (20.9)
+ 10 LiT (Swedish)
Task Points: 25

20.3 - Shorter Days:
Pulp Fiction: The Crimefighters - Otto Penzler, ed.
+ 20 Task Points
+ 5 Jumbo Points (528)
Task Points: 25

20.7 - Unification Season: Grifter's Game - Lawrence Block (published as "Mona" in 1961)
+ 20 Task Points
Task Points: 20

+100 - Well-Traveled
+100 - RwS Finish
+200 - Mega Finish

New Points: 540
Grand Total: 1150

Rebekah wrote: "I hate to belabor the point, but this multi-national writers confuse me too. If the parents were ex-pats and just happened to give birth at their duty station, do we count the parents' nationality...."

That's the easiest way to proceed.

Lessing would qualify as British. Based on other decisions I've made so far, Conrad will go to the Polish.

Joanna wrote: "Will Czeslaw Milosz count for Poland?
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%...

He was born in what is now Lithuania, but ..."

Yes.

Joanna wrote: "For 20.3 (the one word title task), are books with a one-word title followed by a subtitle allowed? E.g., Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages or [book:Inside: Life Behind Bars in ..."

I'm going to clarify the task, but the answer is that subtitles aren't allowed.