Should Have Read Classics 1st Annual Book Battle

[Lisa, the usurper]

I just wanted to let everyone know that we have not forgotten about the next challenge, but Kerri and I are trying to figure out the details for it. Since we have many international members, we are trying to figure out how to do the prizes. How is that for a teaser? We would love your input and if you would like to do smaller challenges, please let us know your ideas! Thanks again!

[Kerri, the sane one]

For our Next Big Challenge we are going to do a Battle of the Books type challenge. If you aren't familiar with that, it is where you read a certain number of chosen titles in a specified time period and then you go to battle against other individuals or teams to answer a series of questions on the chosen books.

We have decided to start our online "Battle of the Books" challenge on June 1st and run through November 30th. The battle questions will be given out on Dec. 1st and you will have several days to answer them and email us your answers. If a second round of questions or tie-breaker questions are needed to determine a final winner then there may be additional questions posted. You can participate as an individual or as a team of two people(you both need to be members of "Should Have Read Classic"). So if you know someone else in our book group you can work together on this challenge or you can invite a friend to become part of our group so that they can participate with you(they need to join as a group member before the list of questions comes out on Dec. 1st but it would be best if they joined earlier to help you out.) You and your teammate(if you have one) can even split the book reading responsibilities if you want. There will be prizes given out as an incentive. You will also receive bragging rights as the "Should Have Read Classics Battle of the Books Champion" if you are crowned the winner.

To help us determine the list of books to be used in the battle please post any nominations here. These may include any adult or children's classic. You may use strategy and chose a book or two that you already know a lot about...or you may go for the gusto and choose all new titles. As the moderators, Lisa and I, will look through the nominations and throw in a few of our own choices to be on the final list.

You may start nominating now!

[Beth A.]

Wow! That sounds like a lot of fun.

I'd like to suggest The Four Feathers. I've been meaning to read it for a while.

[Amy J.]

What an awesome idea. I nominate the collected works of Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell!

[Shannon SA]

Great challenge!
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist or Great Expectations
R D Blackmore - Lorna Doone
Any of the Bronte sisters
Second any Jane Austen

[Laura]

How about Black Beauty I also like Oliver Twist. Though this Murder on the Orient Express is a mystery, I consider it to be a classic.

[Kerri, the sane one]

Good ideas so far...and you've even mentioned a few that Lisa and I had thought of. Can't wait to hear more of your suggestions.

[Marna]

To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath, one each of a Shakespeare tragedy and comedy

[Amy J.]

Frankenstein, Draculaand Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Kerri, the sane one]

Here is the list of one dozen books to be read by Dec 1st for the 1st Annual Should Have Read Classics Book Battle. I tried to include at least one suggestion from each person who added to our suggestions list. Some of these "battle books" will also be our monthly featured book so that those of you who are participating can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I hope you find a few old favorite reads along with some books that you have never read before. For an explanation or directions on what to do please refer back to my message posted on May 10th. The list of books follows: , , , , , , , , , , , . Happy Reading and good luck!

[Laura]

Very exciting!!

[Beth A.]

Yay! I love the selection of books. I'm very excited!

[Amy]

Sounds like a good challenge! Very exciting!

[Vicky]

I finally had time to take a look at the list, great choice of books, I'm also very happy that out of 12 I have only read 2 of them, which I will of course read again.

I think I saw mentioned somewhere that one of the monthly reads each month (adult or children's) would be part of the battle of the books. I was wondering if it would be possible to know a little in advance what the monthly children's choice would be (at least for those included in this challenge and if possible for all)? As I found out for "Mr Popper's penguins" it can be a little harder for me to find the children's books since there's no English library in my neighborhood, not all children's books are available in ebook and although there's English libraries downtown as a working mom I'm afraid I can't always make it??? Please!

Those included in the challenge are listed here of course but i'd like to follow the reading order if some of those are monthly reads and apparently I might need time to order them if they aren't available in ebooks (not a problem for the adult classics they're all easily available). Thanks in advance and if it poses a problem, it's ok, I'll read what I can get. No drama.

[Lisa, the usurper]

I noticed that Kerri had added The Little Princess for July. I will post some ideas for the next few months under the next group read thread. This is not a problem, I live in a VERY small town and sometimes I need time for the books to get into the library, so I can relate!

[Kerri, the sane one]

Aug. will have Magician's Nephew, Sept. will have To Kill A Mockingbird, Oct. will have Frankenstein, Nov. will have North and South and Wind in the Willows. All the other books for the battle will be on your own and not necessarily part of our regular monthly reads. Hope that helps in your planning.

[Lisa, the usurper]

Kerri and I were wondering if we could move the date to January 1st or 2nd instead of Dec? That would move the read time for the books to the end of Dec also. Would that be ok? Somehow the Holiday times just seem to get crazy for everyone so we thought this might help everyone out. Please let us know!

[Beth A.]

Sound fine to me... February or May would work too, lol, I'm way behind!

[Amy J.]

I'm fine with having the "test" at the beginning of Jan.

[Vicky]

That's fine with me as well!

[Mandy]

Just joined the group but I love this idea! Going to try to read as many of them as I can in the next ~month or two! :)

[Lisa, the usurper]

Good luck! We are going to try for January so that gives you and us a little more time! Have Fun!

[Ingrid]

Just joined the group and love this. I am going to have to join this and work my butt off. With only 2 months I hope I can at least make a dent.

[Lisa, the usurper]

Good luck Ingrid!

[Kerri, the sane one]

Way to set a challenging goal Ingrid.

[Zuzana]

Mandy and Ingrid, I joined only recently but I'm trying to catch up with this challenge, too.

I read earlier this year. This month I finished , , and . And yesterday I started .

Sometimes it's really hard to get some of the children's books. Only few are available as e-books and if I really wanted to read them I'd have to order them from abroad. You wouldn't believe how long it takes for books to arrive and the prices for delivery are outrageous.

[Jim]

Zuzana wrote: "You wouldn't believe how long it takes for books to arrive and the prices for delivery are outrageous. .."

Have you ever ordered thru Amazon in Germany? I order through Amazon France, but of course, I live in France, so it's easy. Anyway, check it out if you haven't already looked...

http://www.amazon.de/

[Zuzana]

Thanks, Jim, I'll check it out. As for the Annual Battle books, I was able to get everything but one. I couldn't find Big Red anywhere. It seems that Kjelgaard's books were never published in the Czech republic (with the exception of Lion Hound).

EDIT:

I've come across http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
They have many books for reasonable prices that are either unavailable or overpriced elsewhere. I ordered Big Red and Doctor Zhivago and both books arrived in about 10 days.

[Zuzana]

I finished last of the books earlier last month. I like this type of challenge, it made me read books I might have missed otherwise (Four Feathers or Black Beauty, I loved both).

[Lisa, the usurper]

Just to let you know we are working on the questions, so don't think that we have forgotten about this! I'm glad to her that you liked this style of challenge, they are great fun!

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)]

@Zuzana
The Bookdepository is a great webshop and prices are (very) reasonable and sometimes even cheap. But delivery can be (very) slow, depending upon where you are located. Usually takes 2 to 3 weeks (or even slightly longer, sometimes) for a book to get to the Netherlands (but who cares, as delivery is free).
Do compare Bookdepository.com and Bookdepository.co.uk as they mostly have the same books, and both have free delivery, but prices sometimes differ.

[Mandy]

Is this still ending this month? I keep getting distracted by new releases- need to get on those classics! :)

[Zuzana]

Greeneyedlady wrote: "@Zuzana
The Bookdepository is a great webshop and prices are (very) reasonable and sometimes even cheap. But delivery can be (very) slow, depending upon where you are located. Usually takes 2 to 3..."

Thanks, Greeneyedlady, I'll check it out. I wasn't aware they have a separate webshop for "the rest of the world".

[Lisa, the usurper]

We are getting closer to the final test days!! We were thinking that we would have the test questions given on January 27th, then you would have until the 30th to email us with your answers. We were wondering who exactly is going to participate in this battle? If you could just let us know in this thread, then we would have an idea how many are participating. Thank you again for participating, this is just fun! I hope that you have read some wonderful new books and had a great time as well!

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)]

@Zuzana
I order at both, depending who is cheapest. Ordered a book last week at co.uk which cost me € 7,20 while .com would have charged me € 8,89 for exactly the same book/edition... But similar things have happened the other way around as well and sometimes the price difference is just a few euro cents. And sometimes, although rarely, the one might stock a title the other doesn't. So it is always worth checking out both :-) Good luck!

[Pragya]

Ah I missed this one. When's the next one starting?

[Mandy]

Lisa wrote: "We are getting closer to the final test days!! We were thinking that we would have the test questions given on January 27th, then you would have until the 30th to email us with your answers. We w..."

I'll be participating! I haven't finished all the books yet but it'll be fun to guess :)

[Beth A.]

Lisa, I'm planning on participating, too.

[Vicky]

I'll be participating too, I still have 3 children's classic to read; big red, black beauty and four feathers but I think I can make it by the 27th and if not i'll just leave those questions blank, after all the fun is in the participating!

[Zuzana]

I'll be participating, too. It will be a good test of memory as I had some of the books from the library so I won't be able to check the answers. ;-)

[Ed]

Good contest. I'm in but won't be able to read that many and the ones I have I won't remember well enough, but I will have fun watching the rest in competition.

[Jennifer]

This sounds so exciting! Will a new contest be started this year?

[Amy J.]

Lisa wrote: "We are getting closer to the final test days!! We were thinking that we would have the test questions given on January 27th, then you would have until the 30th to email us with your answers. We w..."

I'll participate. I managed to at least read all the books. Didn't think I'd get through Much Ado. But some of them (Wind in the Willows), I'm not sure I remember very well

[Amy J.]

Vicky wrote: "I'll be participating too, I still have 3 children's classic to read; big red, black beauty and four feathers but I think I can make it by the 27th and if not i'll just leave those questions blank,..."

I don't think I'd count The Four Feathers as a childrens novel. It's all about war, betrayal, and redemption.

[Everyman]

Are we allowed to wait to see the questions before deciding whether to participate? I've read most of these books, but many of them books years ago; I would probably remember major plot elements, but not fine detail, so how well I would do would depend on the nature of the questions.

[Lisa, the usurper]

Pragya wrote: "Ah I missed this one. When's the next one starting?"

Not sure about that one! We will have to see how this one goes! If it is well received, then maybe it will be a yearly thing!

[Lisa, the usurper]

Everyman wrote: "Are we allowed to wait to see the questions before deciding whether to participate? I've read most of these books, but many of them books years ago; I would probably remember major plot elements, ..."

We were hoping to send out the questions to individual participants so we can add you to the list.

[Lisa, the usurper]

This is the list of participants:
Mandy
Beth A
Vicky
Zuzana
Ed
Jennifer
Amy J
Everyman
If there is anyone else, please let us know ASAP! Thanks!

[Lisa, the usurper]

Thanks to everyone that participated in the book battle. I hope that you enjoyed it and read some new books that you would not have thought about before! We will announce the winner once I find out where I put my list of answers to my questions.:}