CHALLENGE

The following is a list of books I have read since September 1, 2009, to complete the Goodreads Seasonal Reading Challenge for Fall 2009. The challenge runs from Sept 1 through November 30, 2009. Two people were finished with all the tasks by the end of September! Some people didn't even decide to join until last month.

5 POINT TASKS
1. Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick
2. After the Apple by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt
3. Jack Nastyface: the Adventures of an English Seaman by William Robinson
4. Krapp's Last Cassette by Anne Argula
5. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
6. Web of Evil by J.A. Jance
7. My Journey with Farrah by Alana Stewart
8. The White Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
9. Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz
10. This Time Together by Susan L. Liepitz

10 POINT TASKS
1. Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward L. Beach
2. The Seven-percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
3. Stories Children Need by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
4. When the Ground Turns in Its Sleep by Sylvia Sellers-Garcia
5. A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio
6. Sacred Ground by Mercedes Lackey
7. Aphrodite's Flame by Julie Kenner
8. Joining by Johanna Lindsey
9. Jayhawkers by Bryce D. Benedict
10. Catfantastic 1 edited by Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg

15 POINT TASKS
1. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson AND
- Swim to Me by Betsy Carter
2. Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
3. Addition - 11 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho AND
- Division - 31 1st - The Black Gryphon,
4. Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff
5. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez AND
- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
6. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
7. Risk by Dick Francis
8. Japan: The Ramen King and I by Andy Raskin AND
- Canada: Burying Ariel by Gail Bowen
9. Dance with Chance: Making Luck Work for You
------ by Spyros Makridakis, Robin Hogarth & Anil Gaba
10. To Sir, with Love by E.R. Braithwaite AND
- Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

20 POINT TASKS
1. Zora & Nicky by Claudia Mair Burney
2. Exile's Valor by Mercedes Lackey,
- Fanuilh by Daniel Hood AND
- Grayheart by Tara K. Harper
3. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

25 POINT TASKS
1. Ogden Nash's Zoo AND
- You and No Other by Cathy Maxwell
2. Restoree by mother, Anne McCaffrey AND
- Dragonsblood by son, Todd McCaffrey
3. The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen DeGeneres
4. Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
5. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
6. The Shadow of Blooming Grove : Warren G. Harding in His Times by Francis Russell
7. 1: Compromised by Kate Noble,
- 2: Look Again by Lisa Scottoline AND
- 3: Fool for Love by Eloisa James
8. person: Saving Faith by David Balducci,
- place: The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz AND
- thing: Face Down under the Wych Elm by Kathy Lynn Emerson
9. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks AND
- Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
10. The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak

30 POINT TASK
1. Holes by Louis Sachar AND
- The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge

50 POINT TASK
1. The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland,
- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik AND
- Baby Teeth by Blythe Holbrooke

Totals: 45 tasks, 62 books, 690 points
Reward: an expanded mind, a disheveled house and the right to choose a task for the Winter Challenge.

The word for the day for October 29, 2009 is "challenge" - Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a : a summons that is often threatening, provocative, stimulating, or inciting; specifically : a summons to a duel to answer an affront. b : an invitation to compete in a sport2 a : a calling to account or into question : protest b : an exception taken to a juror before the juror is sworn c : a sentry's command to halt and prove identity d : a questioning of the right or validity of a vote or voter. 3 : a stimulating task or problem. 4 : the act or process of provoking or testing physiological activity by exposure to a specific substance; especially : a test of immunity by exposure to an antigen.

Our quote for the day is from William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Romeo and Juliet Act II. Scene IV:

Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father’s house.
Mer. A challenge, on my life.
Ben. Romeo will answer it.
Mer. Any man that can write may answer a letter.
Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared.

INDOLENCE

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The company, at the Unions' behest, gives us Friday off this year because Independence Day is on Saturday. I had originally thought, oh goody, more time to read. However, I decided that, as I have been moving things about, I ought to get with the program and get the bookshelves I have been promising myself ever-so-long. So yesterday on the way home, I picked up a couple of DIY media storage units from Walmart.

It took about three-quarters of an hour construction and about three hours of recuperation for each unit. Anyway they are nearly full of the books that I had brought up from the basement that I am determined to keep on hand. They have taken the place of the unused bar table and chairs that were in the dining area. My next project is to get a cabinet to store Speedy's paraphenalia (you can see the containers on the left in the last picture. Now I can spend all of the Fourth with a glass of sun tea and a book, listening to the neighbors' fireworks.

The word of the day for July 3, 2009 is "indolence" — Pronunciation: \'in-də-lən(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 1710
: inclination to laziness : sloth

Our quote for the day is from Henry James. (1843–1916). The Portrait of a Lady:

He wintered abroad, as the phrase is; basked in the sun, stopped at home when the wind blew, went to bed when it rained, and once or twice, when it snowed, almost never got up again. A certain fund of indolence that he possessed came to his aid and helped to reconcile him to doing nothing; for at the best he was too ill for anything but a passive life.

;^)

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BIBLIOPHILE

My sister invited me to join LibraryThing the other day. This is a site to inventory your library, or just list all the books you've read. There are chat rooms and billboards and that sort of socialization for librarians and others who work with or just plain love books and reading.

One of the easier ways to enter data for LibraryThing is something called a Cuecat, aka a barcode reader. Way back in the mid-ninties, Radio Shack was handing out these clever little critters (they are shaped like a stylized cat) left, right and center. The idea was that you could read the barcode on a product and get information above and beyond what was on the lable. Well, I never was able to find anything that had info out on the web. I really think the reason for their existence was to allow advertisers to develop a database of people who bought whatever objects and target them for further advertising. They are a lot more subtle about collecting their data now.

Anyway, I thought, that's just the ticket. I don't want to have to type in a kazillionty-three ISBN numbers (which is what the barcodes translate to) to populate my portion of the site. So, I did an exhaustive search, mostly moving piles of books and computer literature into other piles, until I found my Cuecat. Calloo, Callay, O frabjous day! HOWEVER, my Cuecat is ancient in technological terms: not a USB device. Either I find a converter, or I'll have to bite the bullet and acquire a new one. Maybe there will be more on this.

The word of the day for December 29, 2008 is "bibliophile" — Pronunciation: \ˈbi-blē-ə-ˌfī(-ə)l\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from bibli- + -phile
Date: 1824
: a lover of books especially for qualities of format ; also : a book collector.

Our quote for today is from Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), Chilean poet. Memoirs, ch. 11 (1974, trans. 1977):

A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.

;^)

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