Challenge #1 - Reporting Thread (Closed)

[Janice, Moderator]

When you finish reading the book you chose for the challenge, report in this thread.

Click on the "add book/author" link about the comment box and click on "cover" (not link). Make sure you select the edition you read, not the first one that comes up. If you need help doing that, ask for assistance. It may be easiest to search by ISBN number.

Tell us the date you finished reading it and how many stars you gave your review.

Tell us what attracted you to choose this book.

Example:



Star Rating: 3

I chose this book because I loved the white rose against the black cover.

[Cheryl]

How to Be Yourself (no book cover picture available - mostly B&W line drawing w/cat & flower)

One star.

I chose the book because it looked like it might give some good & easy advice. Easy, yes, good, no. (Ten minutes to read, free from a bookcrossing meeting, so ok.)

[Janice, Moderator]

A little disappointing for you Cheryl.

If you like, go ahead and pick another book for the challenge and your highest scoring choice will be the one that is counted. That goes for everyone. Is this what you call making rules up as you go? :)

[Cheryl]

I like that idea, thanks. I'll see if I have anything else on my Mt. TBR shelf that was an impulse buy. (My personal sense of integrity, which may be foolish, says that I shouldn't use the library for a second attempt. :)

[Kristina]

I chose . I had been eyeballing this book for months at Barnes and Noble and finally bought it on Amazon simply because I liked the cover. I liked the pink color with the black writing, that color combination is really appealing to me I guesss! :) I knew it was YA just because of the section it was in but nothing more about it.

I read it in a couple hours today (its only a couple hundred pages) and I really liked it! It wasn't what I was expecting but I gave it 3.5 stars that I rounded up to 4 for the rating system. The book was a little predictable but still a fun, quick read, and I especially liked the ending because it had a little twist that I hadn't seen coming.

[Alison]

I chose Our Tragic Universe.The picture here really doesn't do it justice as the yellow is actually gold embossing, with a mainly gold spine and black pages edges, making it quite a nice object. I gave it 4 stars but am at something of a loss as to how to review it. It'a a story about an author and her struggle to write a real book, whilst churning out genre fiction - which leads to discussions of metafiction (books which acknowledge they are fiction - I had to look this up on wikipedia). Its also about relationships breaking up, theories of the universe and having a dog. It's in no way a difficult or heavy book, just that there's a lot of speculating about writing and the universe in it. I really enjoyed it - and it turned out not to be anything like I expected from the cover.

[Janice, Moderator]

The bookswap is a great idea but it is only available in the States. I can't even look at the books that are listed.

Your book looks and sounds interesting, Judy.

[Janice, Moderator]

We're halfway there. So far, we have 4 people who have completed a book for this challenge.

Scores so far are:
Cheryl in CC - 140
Kristina - 180
Alison - 220
Judy - 110

You can enter as many times as you like, but only your highest scoring book will be counted.

[Emma]

The book I chose was Life's Too Short to Frost a Cupcake by Rosie Wilde . It's not the most beautiful cover out there, but if a book has a picture of a cupcake on it, I'm gonna read it, haha. I finished it on May 28th and gave it four stars.

I also read another book that I picked based on the cover, which I gave four stars too as well. It was The Spell Book of Listen Taylor: . Bare feet aren't the most appealing thing to me, but it caught my eye and it was on my books to read list. It's too bad it wasn't this edition: , since that is the one that caused me to put it on my to read shelf in the first place.

[Janice, Moderator]

Judy wrote: "What is the score from?"

Before we started the challenge, I came up with a list of point qualifiers. I didn't reveal them because they could have affected your selection. Once the challenge is completed, I'll reveal them.

If you like, you can read another book towards this challenge and the higher score will count.

[Cheryl]

Ok, I read Deerskin because of the author and cover image - didn't read the back. It was an iffy read. I think if I had read the blurb & reviews I would have passed, but otoh I don't regret my time with it.

So - is it worth more points? :)

[Janice, Moderator]

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Ok, I read Deerskin because of the author and cover image - didn't read the back. It was an iffy read. I think if I had read the blurb & reviews I would have passed, but otoh I don't ..."

How many stars did you give it?

[Janice, Moderator]

Emma - Life's Too Short to Frost a Cupcake scores 130 and The Spell Book of Listen Taylor scores double that at 260, so we will go with The Spell Book of Listen Taylor.

Just for fun, I scored ] . It would have only garnered you 170 points! All shall be revealed on June 16th (or thereabouts).

Cheryl in CC NV, Deerskin scored 210 points. I found your review and saw that you gave it 3 stars. We'll use this book as your higher score.

[Cheryl]

Thanks Janice!

[Kimberly]

I chose . I love romance and this one caught my eye because of the cover models. They're both beautiful people and I love interacial romance novels. However I expected a little more from this book then I ggot which was disappointing. It started off well enough but then it just lost steam. The plot got dreary really fast. I gave it 3 stars.

[Janice, Moderator]

Kimberly, your books scores 180.

[Kimberly]

woohoo :) Thanks Janice

[Janice, Moderator]

I'm glad you were able to participate in the challenge, Amber. Your choice scored 110 points.

[Kate]

I gave this book 4 stars but this is one of those books (I have this come up frequently!) that I'd really give 3.5 stars to.

This was one of those books that surprised me. After I selected it and read the cover I rolled my eyes. I almost didn't start it. A DWARF high school drama? Oh please. But it turned out to be a very effective metaphor that really worked without every crossing the line into cheesy and over-done.

I chose it because the cover evoked the Wally Lamb book and also . Interestingly enough, both in cover and subject matter these three books are similar.

[Janice, Moderator]

It sounds like a happy accident then Kate. Your book scored 150.

[Janice, Moderator]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your book, Anna. It scored at 190.

[Janice, Moderator]

I have that problem too. LOL!

[Janice, Moderator]

Here are the scores so far. There are two days left in the challenge!

Where people read two books, I have listed the higher scoring book.

Cheryl in CC - Deerskin 210
Kristin - Choker 180
Allison - Our Tragic Universe 220
Judy - Pease Do Feed the Cat 110
Emma - The Spell Book of ... 260
Kimberly - Burn 180
Amber - I Think I Love You 110
Kate - Big Girl Small 150
Anna - The Winter Ground 190

[Janice, Moderator]

Here are the point qualifiers. There are still a few hours left in the challenge so I will announce the prize and winner tomorrow.

Cover:
Mostly white - 10 points
Mostly Red - 20 points
Mostly Blue - 30 points
Mostly Black - 40 points
Title or Author's name a significant part of cover - 10 points
Building on cover - 10 points
Featuring a dress - 20 points
Single Flower - 30 points
Water on cover - 40 points
Bird/Animal on cover - 50 points
Book/books on cover - 60 points

Title:
Three Words - 10 points
Two Words - 20 points
One Word - 30 points
Contains first name - 10 points
Contain first and last name - 20 points
Contain city name - 30 points
Contain country name - 40 points

Author's Name:
Goodreads author - 10 points
American author - 10 points
Canadian author - 20 points
British author - 30 points
Australian author - 40 points
Three names - 30 points
Two authors - 20 points
One Syllable Last Name - 10 points

Pages:
200-299 pages - 20 points
300 - 399 pages - 30 points
400 - 499 pages - 40 points
500 - 599 pages - 50 points
600 - 699 pages - 60 points
700+ - 70 points
less than 200 pages - deduct 10 points

Format:
Paperback - 10 points
Hardcover - 20 point
Ebook - 30 points


Genre:
Mystery - 10 points
Horror - 20 points
Non-Fiction - 30 points
Fantasy/Speculative - 40 points
Historical Fiction - Ancient Egypt - 50 points

Star Rating:
1 - 10 points
2 - 20 points
3 - 30 points
4 - 40 points
5 - 60 points

[Janice, Moderator]

Did everyone get a chance to verify their scores against mine?

According to my calculations, Emma had the highest score with .

Emma will recieve a bookmark made by me as her prize. Canada Post is on strike right now so there will be a bit of a delay in getting it out.

[Alison]

Congratulations Emma!