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Read any book by an author born in December, January or February. See Winter Birthdays for ideas. For authors not listed there, please post in the task thread with an appropriate link before claiming your book. **A Jan 1 birthday on GoodReads may need further documentation.**This is the place to include new author birthdays for our Winter Challenge.
Celebrating authors born in December, January and February!20.1 Winter Birthdays
Read any book by an author born in December, January or February. See Winter Birthdays for ideas. For authors not listed there, please post in the task thread with an appropriate link before claiming your book. **A Jan 1 birthday on GoodReads may need further documentation.**
20.2 T. Coraghessan Boyle
T. Coraghessan Boyle (Dec 2, 1948) is an alum of the Iowa's Writers Workshop. Read any book by an author found on the list of Iowa Writer's Workshop People.
20.3 Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was a prolific author. While well-known as a novelist, "he has works published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (lacking only an entry in the 100s category of Philosophy)." Read a novelist's not-a-novel. Author must have published at least 5 novels.
20.4 Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins (Jan 8, 1824): Read a book in the top 300 of the list Best Crime Mystery Books.
20.5 Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute (b. Jan 7, 1899)'s A Town Like Alice: Read a book shelved at least 600 times as historical fiction.
20.6 Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862): Edith Newbold Jones was born into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." Read a book about the super wealthy, leisure class. Examples can be found here and here.
20.7 Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin (b.Feb 12, 1809): Read a work that involves a grand adventure, such as his Voyage of the Beagle, Moby-Dick or, The Whale, or Robinson Crusoe. The book must involve travel.
20.8 Appalachia (Rebekah's Task)
Dolly Parton, the famous singer, musician, songwriter and actor was born 19 January 1946 in the Appalachian Mountain Region of Tennessee. Her Dollywood Foundation promotes literacy and has established a program known as Imagination Library. The purpose is to get books into the lives of underserved children early on. Enrolled children receive a book a month which is mailed to them from birth until they begin kindergarten. Currently there are about 850,000 children receiving books monthly across the USA, Canada, UK and Australia through her charity. This year she was honored by the Library of Congress.
In honor of her work and her beloved Smoky Mountain homeland, read a book based in Appalachia. This is the area considered Appalachia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appal.... Note it is not by state but designated by the Appalachian Mountain Range in which there is a common culture and heritage. ie the Eastern part of Tennessee ( about 1/3 of the state ) is considered Appalachia but not the entire state. Here are some lists to help,
Best Books Set in Appalachia
Appalachian Fiction
Best Appalachian Trail Books
* be careful. Sometimes books set in the Ozarks are mistaken for Appalachia
20.9 Long Nights, Long Books (Kate S's Task)
Read a book of at least 700 pages.
20.10 Over and Under (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)
Read any book with an average rating over 3.74 AND under 1001 ratings. (3.75/1000)
Please ask general questions about the Winter 2018-19 Challenge in this thread.
10.1 Square PegRead a book which does not qualify for any other 10- or 20-point task. This task may only be completed once during the Winter Challenge.
10.2 Goodreads Authorized
Read a book written by a goodreads author. Hint: on your My Books page, goodreads authors have an asterisk* after their name.
10.3 Gerald Durrell
Read a book first published during Gerald Durrell's lifetime (1925-1995).
10.4 New Year's Day
Read an author's debut novel. An author may have previously published non-fiction and/or short fiction. To qualify for this task, the book in question must be the author's first long-form, published work of fiction.
10.5 2018 Amazon
Read any book on the Amazon Editor's Choice Best 100 Books of 2018.
10.6 MLK
Martin Luther King Jr was a champion of Social Justice. Read one of the top 250 books from this list.
10.7 Conjunctions (Beth's Task)
Pick a book with a title including a coordinating conjunctions. The coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, buy, or, yet, so.
10.8 New Authors (Coralie's Task)
Read a book by an author who is not on the RwS authors list as updated in November 2018.
10.9 State Your Name (Anika's Task)
Read a book by an author whose initials in any order can be either the two-letter postal abbreviation for a U.S. State/Territory or Canadian Province. Examples: O. Henry=OH (Ohio); Ayelet Waldman=WA (Washington); Carol Rifka Blunt=BC (British Columbia); Anna Katherine Green=AK (Alaska). All initials can be used. Note: both "NB" and "NE" will be accepted for Nebraska.
10.10 Group Reads
Read a book recommended by an RwS reader from the following list:
Elizabeth (Alaska): A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot
Kate S: Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks
Rosemary: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Karen Michele: There There by Tommy Orange
Ann: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Tien: The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino
Owlette: Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life by Harold S. Kushner
Joanna:
Valerie: Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
June: The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
Heather: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Megan: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Lagullande: From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
Karin:
Style Categories1. Combo (5 points): Read a book for one task that could have applied to another task as well. If a book applies to one other task, you will receive 5 style points. If it applies to two other tasks, you will receive 10 points...and so on.
2. Prizeworthy Prize-Worthy (5 to 15 points): Reward yourself for reading award-winning books. If a book has won a Literary award, you will receive 5 style points. If the book has won two awards, you will receive 10 points. If the book has won three or more awards, you will receive 15 points. No nominees, silver/bronze, finalist, short or longlist etc. status will earn this style. An award will appear on the GR book page.
3. Canon (10 points): Distinguishing literature from popular fiction is an imperfect science, but we're trying anyway. This challenge, you'll receive 10 extra points when you read a work of literature in the Western canon to complete a task. We'll be using famous uber-critic Harold Bloom's Western Canon as the arbiter...Any work that is listed here will qualify.
4. Aged (10 points): Read a book by an experienced author. Collect 10 points for each book read by an author who has reached the age of 75. (For the purpose of this challenge, we will use only birth/death years; exact dates will not be considered.)
5. Jumbo (5 to 25 points): Receive extra points for reading big books according to the following scale:
500-699 Pages: 5 Points
700-799 Pages: 10 Points
800-899 Pages: 15 Points
900-999 Pages: 20 Points
1000+ Pages: 25 Points.
Anika wrote: "Mods: is that an acceptable combo, even though the "place" name isn't used as place in the title?"While several of the claims made for combos with task 10.3 this week do not fit the spirit of the original task, the wording of the task has left a wide interpretation. I can appreciate the creativity and research that has gone into these claims. I will be accepting these claims this season, but beware of more specifically worded tasks in the future. ;)
From Post 657Deedee wrote: "Task 20.7 A Month in the Country
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? (1976) by James Tiptree Jr. (Hardcover, Science Fiction Book Club, 150 pages)
This is the MPE version..."
+10 Prize-worthy
From Post 648Anika wrote: "20.8 Autumn
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When I was in college, I read this and Candide in the same week for two different ..."
+5 Prize-worthy
From Post 402Ann wrote: "10.1 Favorite List
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
#29 in the list from post 454 in summer challenge:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"
+5 Prize-worthy
From Post 631Jenifer wrote: "10.5 Pet Day
The Witch Elm by Tana French
published by Penguin Audiobooks
Task total: 10
Grand Total: 785"
+5 Jumbo (the MPE is the Hardcover listed at 509 pages)
Some of the rules/expectations have changed since first introduced to this group, but for those who are curious, here are a few links to the first round of Backpacking through Europe:How to Play
Itineraries
PortugalSpain
France
Italy
Austria
Germany
Poland
Ukraine
Russia
Sweden
res
Completely voluntary. If you would like a place to post/plan your trip, please use this thread.
A map for reference. Please not the territories and dependencies listed on this map are not valid for BtE2.
Please ask questions about the Winter sub-challenge in this thread.
A map for reference. Please not the territories and dependencies listed on this map are not valid for BtE2.
Reading with Style Cruise Line Routes: Denmark -> Sweden
France -> Ireland
France -> Portugal
France -> U.K.
Germany -> Sweden
Germany -> Russia
Germany -> U.K.
Greece -> Italy
Iceland -> Ireland
Iceland -> Norway
Iceland -> U.K.
Ireland -> France
Ireland -> Spain
Ireland -> Iceland
Ireland -> Portugal
Italy -> Spain
Italy -> Greece
Netherlands -> U.K.
Norway -> Iceland
Poland -> Russia
Portugal -> France
Portugal -> Ireland
Portugal -> U.K.
Romania -> Turkey
Russia -> Sweden
Russia -> Germany
Russia -> Poland
Spain -> Ireland
Spain -> Italy
Spain -> U.K.
Sweden -> Denmark
Sweden -> Germany
Sweden -> Russia
Turkey -> Ukraine
Turkey -> Romania
U.K. -> Iceland
U.K. -> France
U.K. -> Netherlands
U.K. -> Germany
U.K. -> Portugal
U.K. -> Spain
Ukraine -> Turkey
Backpacking through Europe Redux . . . 10 countries, 10 books. Your goal is to read 10 books by traveling to ten different European countries. There are two routes you can follow, one of which offers more challenge and reward.
A book qualifies for a specific country if two of the following criteria are met:
A) Author is born in the country
B) Author's nationality is of the country
C) Book takes place primarily in the country (at least 75%).
A few quick notes . . .
1) For the purposes of this challenge, Scotland, Wales, England, and Northern Ireland are all one stop, the United Kingdom.
2) Before starting on your journey, you must designate whether you are traveling by “Land and Sea” or by “Air”:
“Land and Sea” backpackers can only travel from country to country by crossing land borders or by traveling on Reading with Style Cruise Lines (see routes in message #2).
“Air” travelers need no set itinerary and can travel to any European country at any time.
3) Backpacking through Europe can only be completed once, choose your path wisely.
Scoring:
Land and Sea travelers:
15.1: 15 points
15.2 - 15.7: 25 points
15.8 - 15.10: 30 points
Finisher Bonus: 100 points
Air Travelers
15.1 - 15.5: 15 points
15.6 - 15.10: 25 points
Finisher Bonus: 50 points
(Scorekeeping Note: Each time you post in the Completed Tasks thread, please specify whether you are “Land & Sea” or “Air.”)
A few reminders:
I. You cannot claim regular style points for any book you read for Backpacking through Europe (nor do the Backpacking through Europe tasks count as Combo style points for regular Reading with Style tasks).
II. All books read for this sub-challenge must be at least 100 pages, based on the most popular English-language print edition.
III. Please be aware that cookbooks, illustrated guides, and graphic novels are not allowed for the sub-challenge. Also, books designated as "YA", "Assignment", or "Juv" by the Brooklyn Public Library with a Lexile score less than 800 are not allowed.
From Post 622Jenifer wrote: "20.5 Singled Out
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte by Kyra Davis
+20 task
Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 775"
+5 Combo 10.2
