Take A Chance Challenge Wrap up and Introducing Take Another Chance Challenge

Wrap it up

This year Jenners hosted the Take a Chance Challenge which ran from June through November 30th.  There were 10 challenges involved and I managed to complete 1/2 of them.  You can find out all about it here

1 Random Book Selection - completed: I chose a book at random from the mystery shelves in Borders which was Blood Dreams by Kay Hooper.   Enjoyed the book, discovered an author I like and looking forward to reading Blood Sins, the next book in the series which comes out in paperback at the end of December.

2.  Random Word - completed.  Using the random word generator to generate a word and find a book with that name in the title:  My word - Liberty.  I settled on Lady Liberty by Vicki Hinze.  I took me three tries to get into the book for some reason and the third time was the charm.  Lady Liberty is U.S. Vice President Sybil Stone and while she is trying to broker a peace agreement between leader of two former soviet nations, she is called back to Washington because someone has managed to infiltrate the computers overseeing the missile.  If she doesn't return in time with a briefcase holding a secret something, a first strike missile will launch.  On the way back, her plane is highjacked and due to the fast thinking of her secret service agent, Jonathan Westford, he manages with one parachute  to get off the plane with her before it crashes.  Someone doesn't want Lady Liberty to stop the missile launch.  Is that someone on the inside in the white house, the senate or out side belonging to enemy forces?  This book is full of twists and turns and backstabbers and political game playing and intrigue. 


3.  Birth Year Book - failed.   Using the New York Times Best Seller Listings pick out a book published in your birth yearMy birth year 1959, the book Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor CaldwellUnfortunately it was very long and I waited until November to read it and just couldn't get into it.  Shelved for next year's historical challenge.



4.  Judge a Book By Its Cover - completed.  Not as easy as it sounds. Pick out a book based on its cover only, don't read the back flap, write what you think the book is about, then read it and see if you were right. Read about the process here.  I picked out the book Vanished by Joseph Finder.  I wasn't correct in my assumptions about the book, but it turned out to be an excellent story.  My thoughts on the story.
 
5.  Phoning an Author - half completed. Randomly open the phone book and pick a name.  The name picked MacInnes.  I just happened to have two copies (one a old library copy, the other inherited) of The Venentian Affair by Helen MacInnes.  I started it, but just couldn't get into it.  Looks like a good story, so will be going back to it at some point. 

6.  Public Spying - failed.  Spy on someone reading a book in public.  See what book they are reading and read it.  Should have been quite easy, but I was amazed that everywhere I went, I didn't see one person reading a book. A lot of people of cell phones. So I've come to the conclusion, cell phones have replaced carrying a book to read. 




7.  Random Bestseller - completed:  Using Random.org and the best seller list, pick a year, pick a book.   I picked 1976 and decided on Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart.  Totally enjoyed it.  Now I want to read her Arthurian Saga: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment.  Lucky me because I have all the books from reading them way back when.


8 - Lit Riff - Failed:  Choose a song and write a story about it.   Didn't have the time


9.  Poetic Review - Failed:

Seems simple enough to you
Write Haiku, Limerick, Free Verse
Which I failed to do.



10. Movie/Book Comparison - Completed:  Find a book that you have not read before, which also has a movie based upon it which you haven't seen.   I chose Inkheart.    The synopsis of the book:  "One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from Inkheart, an an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of the book, landing in their living room.  Suddenly, Meggie's in the middle of the kind of adventure she though only took place in fairy tales.  Somehow she must master the magic that has conjured up this nightmare. Can she change the course of the story that has changed her life forever."  Basically when her father reads, he reads characters out of the books. However, whenever he reads a character out of the book, something or someone from real life goes into the book.  Meggie's mother was pulled into the book, when Capricorn came out.  Now the worst character ever, the Villian from Inkheart, who has built up a network of evil henchmen from character's read out of books, comes for Meggie's father because he wants him to read the Shadow of out Inkheart so he can take over the world.  Good good book and captures your attention.   Picked up the movie Inkheart which has one of my favorite actors Brendan Fraser who played Meggie's Father.  The movie stayed true to the essence of the story, however there were differences.  I don't want to give away any spoilers from the movie and ruin the movie for anyone.  The movie was excellent.  Even my husband enjoyed it and he isn't a big fantasy movie fan.

This challenge was a lot of fun and thanks to Jenners for hosting the challenge.   I was wishing the challenge had been for a full year, because then I could have completed it.  And guess what.  My wish has come true.  Jenners is hosting the Take Another Chance Challenge  and it will run from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010.







 
 



This time there will be 3 participation levels which are.

A Small Gamble: Complete any 3 of the 12 challenge.
A Moderate Gamble: Complete any 6 of the 12 challenges.
Gambling It All: Complete all 12 of the challenges described below.

The challenges are all quite interesting and it will take me probably the rest of december to decide what I'm going to do.



Challenge 1: Read Your Doppelganger
Challenge 2: Blogroll Roulette
Challenge 3: 100 Best Book
Challenge 4: Prize Winner Book
Challenge 5: Title Word Count
Challenge 6: Genre Switch-Up
Challenge 7: Break A Prejudice
Challenge 8: Real and Inspired
Challenge 9: Same Word, Different Book
Challenge 10: Become A Character
Challenge 11: All in the Family
Challenge 12: Author Anthology Pick

The challenge is quite creative and I have to say it - challenging. Head on over to Jenners and read all out the challenges, decide which gamble you are going to take and join in.

5 comments:

  1. Hmmm, you know, you can get challenge 11 and fullfill part of your sci-fi challenge at the same time. Read Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen and one of the three books Vernor Vinge has won the Hugo for (A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, or Rainbows End), and you'll have it. :)

    (The Vinges are, if I recall correctly, the only two related people to both win the Hugo for best novel. They are definitely the only married couple.)

    -kat

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  2. Take A Chance challenge sounds fun, I may have to do this one even though I told myself that I wasn't going to join another challenge!!!

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  3. Wonderful wrap-up -- I agree with you -- 6 months wasn't enough time. I hope that for this year, the longer timeframe and levels of participation will work better! I can't wait to see what you end up reading and writing about for 2010!

    And I'm so sad that cell phones have replaced reading in public. Sniff.

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  4. Kat: Great idea, thanks for letting me know. I was thinking of getting Rainbow's End so the Snow Queen would be perfect. I love the cover for The Snow Queen. It is beautiful. Now I just need to find it.

    Staci: Yes, I keep telling myself I won't join any more new challenges either but they all are so enticing. I think as long as any new ones cross over with my other challenges I will be okay.

    Jen: Thanks for hosting another challenge and I probably will take the plunge and gamble it all. We'll see what I come up with by the end of the month.

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  5. I love your poem!!!!!! I think this challenge sounds like so much fun, but I'm nor sure if I have room for another challenge.

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