SP11 General Questions & Answers

[Liz M]

Post your general questions about the Reading w/Style challenge, Style point rules, or the Spring 2011 Challenge here.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

I need poet suggestions for Post 20th century and poets who have non poetry books. Also I like to know if my book choices for task Quotable Quotes is okay: "Stranger in A Strange Land", "What Dreams May Come".

[Liz M]

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Also I like to know if my book choices for task Quotable Quotes is okay: "Stranger in A Strange Land", "What Dream..."

The title comes from a famous line in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be..." soliloquy, namely, "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, / Must give us pause."

Exodus 2:22: "And she [Zippo'rah] bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land."

Both work! And I recommend Stranger in a Strange Land.

[Coralie]

The cyberpunk list includes The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I have recently read the first half of this Shadow & Claw although I didn't claim it for any RwS tasks, and I intend to read the second half Sword & Citadel during the spring challenge. Can I claim it, and if so, how do I count the page numbers?

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

Thanks, when anyone gets a chance. I need the poet suggestions for non poetry book by a poet and the post 20th century poets.

[Katy]

Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Thanks, when anyone gets a chance. I need the poet suggestions for non poetry book by a poet and the post 20th century poets."

As for the non-poetry books by poets, I don't know whether the intent of the task is for it to be written by a person primarily known as a poet, or whether someone who is more widely known as a non-poet but who also published poetry will do. Here are some people I found for both situations:

Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde are both primarily known as poets but have also published essays and memoirs.

Alice Fulton is a poet who's also published at least one story collection - haven't read her at all but I did run across her.

I've always known Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Hardy, and Raymond Carver as fiction writers primarily but they have all published poetry collections as well.

And of course there's Shakespeare.

I also ran across Stuart Dybek who writes both prose and poetry - but I don't know anything about him beyond that.

[Liz M]

20.7 Read a book of poetry written after 1900:
poets born 1901-1950 and poets born after 1951

[Liz M]

20.5 epic poetry

[Liz M]

20.6 Read a book of poetry written before 1900:

This will take more research, but wiki's literature pages might help
19th Century
18th Century
17th Century
16th Century
15th Century
14th Century

And also look at the website referenced in message 7 for poets by century, here are poets born before 1400

[Joanna]

A lot of books of poetry have fewer than 100 pages. Would it be okay to read two books by the same author for the task?

[Krista]

If there are other tasks that you'd like a separate Help folder created for, post your request here and we'll add it.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I'd just like to pop in here and say it's good to see Liz on here as a moderator. I don't know when this happened - maybe months ago and I didn't notice. Thanks, Liz! (And, of course, as always, thanks to Krista and Sam - this place wouldn't be the same without you.)

[Sam]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I'd just like to pop in here and say it's good to see Liz on here as a moderator. I don't know when this happened - maybe months ago and I didn't notice. Thanks, Liz! (And, of course, as always, th..."

The formal announcement is coming as soon as I get the poll posted, which will be later today. We really like having her around too. I realized this morning that I had posted the tasks and not anywhere to ask questions about them. I come here at lunchtime, and there they are. It's such a nice feeling.

[Joanna]

Another question: how will combos with 10.1 work? I know 10.1 can't be repeated, but can we use it for combos with other tasks (i.e., combo points available for books that fit tasks this challenge that would have fit a task in the last challenge)? Maybe one combo per previous challenge task?

[Sam]

Joanna wrote: "Another question: how will combos with 10.1 work? I know 10.1 can't be repeated, but can we use it for combos with other tasks (i.e., combo points available for books that fit tasks this challeng..."

10.1 won't work as a combo for any other tasks.

[Sam]

Joanna wrote: "A lot of books of poetry have fewer than 100 pages. Would it be okay to read two books by the same author for the task?"

Absolutely.

[Sam]

Coralie wrote: "The cyberpunk list includes The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I have recently read the first half of this Shadow & Claw although I didn't claim it for any RwS tasks..."

Is your version a combined edition or are 3-4 separate from the first like the one you linked? In either case, I would use the number of pages you actually read as the page count.

[Joanna]

Sam wrote: "Joanna wrote: "A lot of books of poetry have fewer than 100 pages. Would it be okay to read two books by the same author for the task?"

Absolutely."

What about two books by different authors (e.g., two collections of post-19th century poems by different poets).

[Liz M]

I should know the answer to this, but I can't remember:

If we have read less than half of a book prior to March 1st, can we finish it & count it for the Spring Challenge?

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

yes

[Liz M]

Excellent. I stalled on The Aeneid, partially because it doesn't count for a winter task. :D Now I have want an incentive to finish it in March.

Sam?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I don't think we've ever had anything about reading 1/2 book in this group. As far as I know, that was only in The Seasonal Reading Challenge.

[Krista]

Yes, we've had the rule that you could start 1 book before the actual start date of the challenge.

You can read up to 1/2 of the book before the challenge begins.

[Melissa Wiebe]

Any suggestions for 20.2? I can't think of anything. Can somebody help??

[Liz M]

Melissa W wrote: "Any suggestions for 20.2? I can't think of anything. Can somebody help??"

This might be best approached by typing rhyming words into the search box:
white night
may day
blind mind

[Krista]

Joanna wrote: "For 20.2, do Valerie and Mary rhyme?

I'm thinking of Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin"

Just as an FYI --- I just added a Help folder for Task 20.2. I figured we'd get more questions (and hopefully suggestions) about this Task as folks dug into it more. -Krista

[[deleted user]]

If I read Inferno by Dante Alighieri will that be sufficient for 20.5 or would I need to do the entire work?

[Sam]

Joanna wrote: "Sam wrote: "Joanna wrote: "A lot of books of poetry have fewer than 100 pages. Would it be okay to read two books by the same author for the task?"

Absolutely."

What about two books by diffe..."

Poems and plays need to be by the same author if combined for a 100+ page count.

[Sam]

nsfancy wrote: "If I read Inferno by Dante Alighieri will that be sufficient for 20.5 or would I need to do the entire work?"

Any of the three parts of The Divine Comedy can be read separately to complete the "epic" task.

[[deleted user]]

Sam wrote: "nsfancy wrote: "If I read Inferno by Dante Alighieri will that be sufficient for 20.5 or would I need to do the entire work?"

Any of the three parts of The Divine Com..."

Thanks!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Thinking the poll task Lab Lit might win one of three places, here is a Listopia I found.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/90...

[Krista]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Thinking the poll task Lab Lit might win one of three places, here is a Listopia I found.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/90..."

Thanks Elizabeth. I saw that Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly was on that list. Has anyone read this yet? (I had it slated for the time-travel task for Winter, but ran out of .... time.)

From the blurb it didn't sound like a scientist was a main character. If there is a scientist who is a main character I'd be so happ!

[Karen Michele]

Yes, Revolution is excellent and it counts. The main characters father is a Nobel Prize winner who travels to Paris to do genetic testing on the heart thought to belong to the dauphin. He is important to the story. It was accepted over at the SRC and there are a few posts in the help thread there. The Listopia for Lab Lit was established for the task.

[Krista]

Karen GHHS wrote: "Yes, Revolution is excellent and it counts. The main characters father is a Nobel Prize winner who travels to Paris to do genetic testing on the heart thought to belong to the dauphin. He is import..."

Wonderful. Now I'll have to go change me vote at the poll to help make sure this task gets included in for the Spring challenge.

[Karen Michele]

For Quotable Quotes:

Can the quote be from a song?
Across the Universe from the Beatles song of the same name.
In this case, it is all credited on the verso page of the book and a longer quote is inside.

Also, how about

World Without End? I have an audio copy so I can't check the book, but I assume it's a deliberate quote.

[Liz M]

Karen GHHS wrote: "For Quotable Quotes:

Can the quote be from a song?
Across the Universe from the Beatles song of the same name.
In this case, it is all credited on the verso page of the book and a l..."

My apologies, I wasn't clear. The task should read "Read a book that deliberately quotes another work of literature in the main title.... " So no Beatles song lyrics, unfortunately. Thanks for asking for clarification!

I am still researching the Ken Follet title. So far, i have not found any evidence that it is a deliberate quote, but I have only looked at wiki & the available amazon pages. If I can get to a bookstore to look at a physical copy, that may have definitive information. Does anyone else have more insight?

[Karen Michele]

I'm home now and I have a hard copy of World Without End. Nothing is specifically said about it being a part of "The Lord's Prayer" but the book is all about religion and power. Anyway it has alliteration in the title and I can use Across the Universe for Spring Cleaning, so no need to spend time on it-- I can pick something else out.

[Deedee]

How about A House Divided? The phrase "a house divided" is both from the Bible Mark 3:25 (or is it Matthew 12:25?) and also from a speech by Abraham Lincoln.

[Karen Michele]

One more quote question:

Is Lord of Misrule an actual quote from Shakespeare, or just an alternative name for the fool in Twelfth Night?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

This is such an interesting task. Without it, I would never have learned this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_...

[Karen Michele]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "This is such an interesting task. Without it, I would never have learned this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_..."

I agree, Elizabeth. Last night I was reading
Illyria and they are putting on the play Twelfth Night and the fool character calls himself the "Lord of Misrule". I found some of the same information you posted and lots of mention of Shakespeare using it in his plays, but I'm not sure whether there is a literary quote involved or if it is just another author using the same legend Shakespeare referred to, if that makes any sense. Anyway, it looks like a good book to fit in somewhere!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

It will fit the scrabble task - l o m j g can make LOG.

[Karen Michele]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "It will fit the scrabble task - l o m j g can make LOG."

Hey, that's right, it will! Thanks!

[Christy]

I just wanted to verify... no style points in the Spring challenge for books in translation?

[Rachel]

For 10.8 are we to use only the books on the page that comes up or the full list found on the Excel spreadsheet?

[Coralie]

Rachelccameron wrote: "For 10.8 are we to use only the books on the page that comes up or the full list found on the Excel spreadsheet?"

I meant it to be all of them.

[Krista]

Christy wrote: "I just wanted to verify... no style points in the Spring challenge for books in translation?"

Correct.

[Tobey]

For 10.6 Lab Lit, will Prodigal Son by Koontz work?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I don't know how you navigate to this page via Goodreads, but I just became aware of it:

http://www.goodreads.com/places

When you click on a location, it gives you a list of books that are set in that location. This could be very useful for Krista's Peace Corps task.

I believe they may be re-organizing the page to make it more user friendly, but in the meantime, it's what we've got.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

And, while we're at your task, Krista - does the book have to be set in the modern day country, or can the location be set on the same land, but prior to current political boundaries. I'm considering Island Beneath the Sea which is set on the island which is currently Haiti and the Dominican Republic.