Su 2015 General Questions & Answers

[Liz M]

Post your questions about the Summer RwS challenge here.

[Beth]

The style points say:
read a book by author born and citizen of/residing in a non-Western

So do they have be born and living in a non-Western country?

Or was that supposed to be and/or where the author could be either born in a non-Western country OR residing in a non-Western country?

[Liz M]

Beth wrote: "The style points say:
read a book by author born and citizen of/residing in a non-Western

So do they have be born and living in a non-Western country?..."

Yes - born and citizen OR born and resident.

Marjane Satrapi qualifies as non-Western becasue she was born in Iran and according to wiki has French and Iranian citizenship.

Kazuo Ishiguro does NOT qualify as non-Western. He was born in Japan, but his family moved to the UK when he was 6 and he is a British citizen.

[Beth]

Thank you for the clarification. The examples helped too.

[Amanda]

What is the ruling for books that appear on a list under one title, but the edition you have / read is under a different title ? I have two books on my reading plan that this may have an influence on : The Sun Also Rises ( copy is titled "Fiesta" ) and the other is And Then There Were None ( my copy has the less socially acceptable original title ).

For tasks 20.6, and then " Best Twists" which currently looks like winning its poll.

[Liz M]

Amanda wrote: "What is the ruling for books that appear on a list under one title, but the edition you have / read is under a different title ? I have two books on my reading plan that this may have an influence ..."

For a list-based task, it doesn't matter which title is on the cover -- The Sun Also Rises, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises, Le soleil se lève aussi, or خورشید همچنان می‌دمد.

The tasks are not edition specific and all the points are based on the most popular English print edition regardless of whether you read it in American English, British English, French, or Arabic, whether is is an 1926 first edition or a movie tie-in edition, a library binding edition or something picked up in a charity shop in 20 years ago.

[Amanda]

Fabulous, thank you.

My husband collects old Pan / Great Pan book, movie tie-ins and just general old books, so we have a LOT of those!

[Krista]

Can I get a ruling as to whether The Diving Pool: Three Novellas would count for 'Not-a-Novel' Style points?

It seems like it would be in between short-stories and novels. It's 164 pages with three distinct stories.
I'm looking at this for my TBR Roulette choice.

Thanks!
-Krista

[Liz M]

Krista wrote: "Can I get a ruling as to whether The Diving Pool: Three Novellas would count for 'Not-a-Novel' Style points?

It seems like it would be in between short-stories and novels...."

From the Style Categories post:
3. Not-a-Novel (10 points): Explore new forms by reading short story collections, non-fiction, plays, and poetry collections.

Novellas do not qualify for not-a-novel points.

[Krista]

Liz M wrote: "Krista wrote: "Can I get a ruling as to whether The Diving Pool: Three Novellas would count for 'Not-a-Novel' Style points?

It seems like it would be in between short-stories and no..."

Okay -- thanks! I'll strike that Combo

[Liz M]

Amanda wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I just updated the Non-Western authors list in the Quick Links post."

Query : I've checked the list - J.M. Coetzee, non western ? Not on there, and I notic..."

For the purposes of the challenge, Coetzee is Western. Please see post 3 above for a slightly more in-depth explanation.

[Karen Michele]

I'm using and just finished Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened for the comedy task. I looked it up at BPL and it isn't shelved as a graphic novel and isn't one in the traditional definition of the form. Can you check whether it qualifies for styles or not? It was great however it counts!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Karen Michele wrote: "I'm using and just finished Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened for the comedy task. I looked it up at BPL..."

We are carrying this as non-fiction in the database. There seems to be enough text beyond the drawings to qualify. So, yes, you'll get styles.

[Joanna]

My bookclub has picked The Vacationers by Emma Straub for August. I don't think it fits any task, so I think I have my square peg, but I haven't found a birthdate for the author to confirm that she's over 30. Anyone see her birthday or any other hitch for this as a square peg?

[Denise]

Joanna wrote: "My bookclub has picked The Vacationers by Emma Straub for August. I don't think it fits any task, so I think I have my square peg, but I haven't found a birthdate f..."

Apparently the LOC doesn't know, either.

This site says 1980, but I don't know how reliable it is:

http://www.webbiography.com/biographi...

[Liz M]

Christine wrote: "There's a miscalculation I believe somewhere in my score. On the reader board I should have (I believe) 185 points at the time when it was posted, but it is listed only as 175. I posed this questio..."

Score-keeping only happens once or twice a week and if there are a lot of posts Kate may not be up-to-date with the completed tasks thread. I think she may not have come across your post yet. It should be sorted in the next readerboard update.

[Amanda]

This has probably been asked somewhere but i just can't find it :-

If you finish the RWS challenge twice, do you get the bonus twice ? A long shot, as I doubt I could get hold of a second WILLA book, but I have double up on a few challenges even now. Which also leads to me to ask - would you have had to read all the second challenge books after you have completed the first round ?

[Kate S]

Amanda wrote: "This has probably been asked somewhere but i just can't find it :-

If you finish the RWS challenge twice, do you get the bonus twice ? A long shot, as I doubt I could get hold of a second WILLA bo..."

This season, completing the RwS more than once is not possible as you can only complete 10.1 Square Peg one time during the season. There are seasons (rarely) in which you can earn multiple RwS Bonuses. If it is possible to complete RwS more than once (i.e. no single use tasks), then yes, you do get the points for additional completions.

[Amanda]

Kate S wrote: "Amanda wrote: "This has probably been asked somewhere but i just can't find it :-

If you finish the RWS challenge twice, do you get the bonus twice ? A long shot, as I doubt I could get hold of a ..."

Ahh! I forgot about the square peg! But, good to keep in mind as, although I always sign up for the sub challenge I do find that I am less drawn to them than the multiple books I find for the main challenge.

[Rebekah]

This may be picky but did you know Franny and Zooey aren't on our bookshelf? I thought maybe you'd want to put it there as a record and I know before one of the tasks had been to read books from our bookshelf in previous years

[Liz M]

Rebekah wrote: "This may be picky but did you know Franny and Zooey aren't on our bookshelf? I thought maybe you'd want to put it there as a record and I know before one of the tasks had been to read b..."

Thanks for pointing this out! It's been added.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

I am reading Ready Player One and the author looks like he would fit the under 31 task. I can't find anything on his birth date either on Goodreads or wikipedia or his website. Could someone tell me fit this book would fit the under 31 task?

Update: I found his birthdate on wikipedia and he was born 1972 so it won't work for the under 31 task.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "I am reading Ready Player One and the author looks like he would fit the under 31 task. I can't find anything on his birth date either on Goodreads or wikipedia or his website. Could someone tell m..."

Ernest Cline was born in 1972, so too old for that book to work for the Under-31 task.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

yeah I just found the birth date on wikipedia when I rechecked.

[Rebekah]

What is the protocol when the MPE is a Kindle book with 0 pages? Or if the Kindle edition varies widely from the paperback or hardcover editions?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Rebekah wrote: "What is the protocol when the MPE is a Kindle book with 0 pages? Or if the Kindle edition varies widely from the paperback or hardcover editions?"

We use the most popular English language print edition for page length.

[Rebekah]

got it