5/3/11

Help a worthy cause by taking my tbr list deciphering challenge!



Edited to add:

here are the updated lists, if anyone wants to try to decipher the last few remaing titles in my TBR deciphering challenge! 65 have been deciphered (although two are still listed unanswered on the pictures (To Timbuktu and Charlie and Kiwi: an Evolutionary Adventure, 1 was left as answered by me when I was fiddling with the picture. I can't edit the picture from my mac at home (I have spent too long trying already, and I can't access my blog at work, so it's tricky).

But in any event, thanks for playing--7 books are on their way to Ballou Senior High School.

And here's the bonus round: if anyone can tell me what this book, from the last round of my tbr list, is (I have no clue, myself) I'll buy an eighth book:

The c and the -ity are my best guess, but they could be wrong. Sigh. My speculations can be found here in this post.

The current tbr list, with answers spelled out:
















Here's the explaination part, for those just now tuning in:

For the past few years, Colleen at Chasing Ray has been organizing book drives for needy schools. This year, the books will go to Ballou Senior High School, a public high school library in Washington D.C. that needs them so, so badly. There are 1,150 books on the shelves at Ballou; there are over 1,200 students in the school. Here's the page at Guys Lit Wire that tells all about it, and how to help. It's very easy--you go to the wish list at Powells, buy your books, and put in the librarian's address.

In my house, there are four people and multiple thousands of books. If I see a new book I want in the bookstore, I can buy it without worrying about the cost. Books come to me from publishers. I live in a state with a brilliant, and free, interlibrary loan service, and my library is four doors down from my house. I'm lucky that my only problem (viz books) is finding the time to read all the ones I have on hand!

Last year, just to underscore this point to myself, and because I find it amusing, I issued a challenge to readers of my blog. I put up a copy of my tbr list (you can find that one here), and promised that for every ten titles that could be deciphered, I'd buy a book for the cause. I dunno how much it was enjoyed by others, but at any event people played along. 61 titles were deciphered, so I bought seven books--the one I'd have bought anyway, and six more.

So I'm doing it again this year! Here's my main tbr list (there are others, like my library list and my amazon list and my paperback book swap list, but this is the main one). I added an easy one at the end, just to be nice! I'll buy a book for every ten titles deciphered.

Update: lots of titles have been deciphered, but not all are correct...I'll update tomorrow, when I have the piece of paper in front of me again!



Even if you don't want to play, do consider donating a book or two to this worthy cause.

And to make it even more worthy, if you buy your donations through the Powells link I have up on the left, you'll be helping my local public library....If you do, just put guyslitwire@gmail into the find a friend's wish list box, and it will come up!

23 comments:

  1. Prisoners of the Palace, I'll take the easy one, since I'm first: The Demon's Surrender, Desperate Measures, Dragon Castle.

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  2. I took a few minutes to look over the list and here's what I've got so far:

    I See the Promised Land
    Ruby Red
    The Midnight Gate
    Alice in Time
    Prisoners of the Palace
    Year of the Golden Dragon
    Song of the Sword
    Divergent
    The Painted Boy
    Hobgoblin
    Revolution
    The Very Thought of You
    Between Shades of Gray
    Entwined
    Save the Best for Last
    Bad Girls Don’t Die
    The Boys Are Back in Town
    Contested Histories in Public Space
    The Silver Bowl
    The Silver Crown
    Small Acts of Amazing Courage
    Secrets of the Sand
    Sparrow Road
    Imaginary Girls
    Desperate Measures
    The Wall & The Wing
    Viola in the Spotlight
    The Girl Who Was on Fire
    Dragon Castle
    The Silver Knife
    Four Seasons
    The Midnight Palace
    Luminarium
    Bad Blood
    A Year Without Autumn
    Ghosts of the Titanic
    Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant
    The Alchemist & The Angel
    The Accidental Sorcerer
    The Demon’s Surrender

    and I'm working on getting the others!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll look at it tonight but I want to say right now, Alicia you are my hero!!!

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blood of Flowers (should have asked me; I donated my copy a few months back)
    Second Fiddle

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well done, Melissa and Sarah! And wow, Alicia! I'm impressed! I don't actually have the list here at home with me to check (last year I managed to be convinced I had books on there when I didn't...) but I'll do so tomorrow, and post an update.

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  6. Actually, Blood of Flowers isn't on the list! Close, though...

    Was it good, Sarah? (if you happen to be back...) I looked it up on Amazon, not remembering it, and it looks like one I'd like....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here's what I could decipher:

    I See the Promised Land
    Playing Hurt
    Song of the Sword
    Divergent
    The Three Loves Of Persimmon
    Linnet
    Revolution
    The Very Thought of You
    Between Shades of Gray
    Entwined
    The Silver Bowl
    Imaginary Girls
    The Wall and the Wing
    Entangled
    The Alchemist and the Angel
    The Demon's Surrender

    ReplyDelete
  8. blood & flowers
    Playing Hurt
    The Three Loves Of Persimmon
    The Great Cat Massacre
    Merlin's Magic
    Seven Sorcerers
    When the Hip Chicks Went to War
    The Tempest
    Linnet
    The Emerald Atlas
    See What I see
    Juniper Berry
    Second Fiddle
    Steel
    The Snow Merchant
    The Witchling
    Where Do You Stay?
    Luminous
    Spear of Destiny
    The Dragon of Cripple Creek
    Lifeblood

    That's filling in some of the blanks. Others I have no clue about. :) Thanks for doing this! I donated about 4 books just now as well. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Something tells me that you were going to donate books anyway and just came up with this contest because you couldn't read your own handwriting...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Year of the Golden Dragon
    Playing Hurt
    Song of the Sword
    Imaginary Girls
    The Demon's Surrender
    The Alchemist and the Angel
    A Year without Autumn
    Second Fiddle
    Viola in the Spotlight
    Dragon Castle
    Four Seasons
    The Midnight Palace
    The Very Thought of you

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nope, it's not quite that bad, Alicia! There's only one book from various versions of the list that stumped me utterly--you can see it here--http://charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com/2010/10/help-wanted-but-not-actually-expected.html

    I'd love to know what book that is!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh, Charlotte, this cracks me up every year. I'm going to get you a pad of LINED PAPER (of course, where's the fun in that??).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ok, I've got a few more...

    Zizou Corder Halo
    Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln
    Crown Conspiracy
    Other Kingdoms
    Emerald Atlas (crossed out)
    See What I See (crossed out)
    Juniper Berry
    Steel Carrie Vaughn
    Long Lankin
    Girl Who Leapt Through Time
    Brief History of Montmaray

    This is where working in a school and needing to decipher student handwriting comes in handy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Not already listed (I think):
    To Timbuktu
    Ruby Red - K. Gier
    Blood of Elves
    Charlie and Kiwi: An Evolutionary Adventure

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well done! To Timuktu and Charlie and Kiwi are correct!

    (Ruby Red was already on, the blood of Elves isn't one)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Two from me:
    The Anvil of the World
    When Rose Wakes

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  17. Bad Island and When Rose Wakes are correct! But The Wilding isn't....

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  18. May I take a stab at guessing the mystery title? Could it be "The Changeling" (by Kate Horsley)? Seems unlikely, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. Just in case. =)

    -FreeNarnian

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks, Free Narnian, but I'm pretty sure that's not it--I don't remember hearing about that one before, and it looks most memorable! And rather good....

    ReplyDelete

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