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Here's a place to discuss anything about the Play Harder activity that suits your fancy!

Have a prompt for which you need help finding a book? Post it here, and maybe others will have ideas.

Share a prompt with someone else? Feel free to discuss.

Want to generally laud or grip about your list? Here's the spot!

Brainstorm, share, and have fun discussing our all time favorite topic, READING!!!

Thanks, Anita! I noticed that some tasks are on multiple people's lists, so we might like to share info,

For example, there is one about "set in a National Park" that is rather unusual. All or most of the mysteries by Nevada Barr are set in them.

Books with a graveyard - not always obvious at the outset

Here are a few

The Graveyard Book
Her Fearful Symmetry
The Resurrection Mystery

I like Nevada Barr and mysteries but for those not mystery fans a National Park book I read and liked was Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park.

Rachel N. wrote: "I like Nevada Barr and mysteries but for those not mystery fans a National Park book I read and liked was Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park."

I have some book suggestions for Yellowstone, actually should anyone be interested. Plus there are many National Parks that are not wildlife and nature oriented - like The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

I just read a book I enjoyed very much about a National Park:
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon

I can also recommend this fiction set in a few National Parks:
Take Me with You

ETA - Another good one is:
Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America's National Parks

Yay for a chat area! I just glanced through my list - I get 2 prize winner books which are not really my thing outside Edgar winners ... and a sports one which I will probably read a romance for.

So interesting to see everyone's lists. And how cool is it when you see one you suggested show up on someone's list!

I'm sure there will be lots of chatter here.

One of my prompts is a book with a jacket at least 50% the color red. No need to rely on eyeballing - here's an easy to use link to determine percentage of colors making up an image - here that is the book jacket - it's called Tineye:


It's very easy to use and can have surprising results because what your eye sees is influenced by many things.

Instructions to use Tineye:

When checking cover colours, you will need the URL of your book cover. On the book page, hover over the book cover and click 'Enlarge cover'.

Using Chrome: On the pop-up, right-click and click on 'Copy image address'. You have just copied the image URL.

Using IE: On the pop-up, right-lick and click on 'Properties'. A dialog box will pop up with 'Address (URL):' select and copy from "...." to ".jpg"; it's rather long.

Then go to TinEye, and 'Enter image URL' by pasting what you just copied and click 'Extract colors'.

Make sure to uncheck the "exclude background colors" boxes too.

Set in a cemetery:
Lincoln in the Bardo

Anita wrote: "12. Read a book recommended by a librarian.
..."

LOL! This is one of mine. Can I recommend one to myself? :-) I'm sure I can find a librarian to recommend something for me!

I do have a couple that will be trickier for me (particularly the published in the 1970s!)

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "12. Read a book recommended by a librarian.."

Or you could read any of the books in one of Nancy Pearl's "lust" books -
Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason
Book Crush: For Kids and Teens--Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest
Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers

etc ...

Joy D wrote: "Set in a cemetery:
Lincoln in the Bardo"

Thanks Joy, at least 2 of us have a book with a cemetery. I couldn’t handle the sound mix in Lincoln in the Bardo when I tried it (post concussion), but it might be easier now. The content seems great for me. Joy - the Spinner picked some longer challenges for you. It’s like it really knows you! You got one of mine (you can probably tell). Let me know if you’d like lists.

I loved The Graveyard Book. I know there are a lot of calmer books with characters who visit cemeteries. I read at least 3 this year, including The Story of Arthur Truluv. I would love to hear about more if anyone can think of them.

Added- Unlikely Animals works for cemetery too in a non-scary way. Also wild animals.

I am loving these prompts. How lucky that I got an award winner prompt.

My hardest will be �
4. Re-read the first book you remember reading that you thought was an adult book (as opposed to a childrens book). It’s really hard to remember. I’m trying to picture my parent’s bookshelves. I’m thinking of Taylor Caldwell, Jeffrey Archer, the Godfather, but that was probably high school. My dad worked Reader’s Digest so we had a lot of abridged books, but I don’t know if they count.

Book Concierge wrote: "LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "12. Read a book recommended by a librarian.."

Or you could read any of the books in one of Nancy Pearl's "lust" books -
[book:Book Lust: Recommended Reading for E..."

Another is one from any year of the Dublin Literary Prize as the books are recommended by Librarians from all over the world.

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "12. Read a book recommended by a librarian.
..
I do have a couple that will be trickier for me (particularly the published in the 1970s!).."

Here is a handy link for books published in different decades, etc.

/list/show/2...

I think the randomiser realized I had a tough year and gave me an easy, for me at least, list. I think the hardest normally would be read a cookbook or a book about cooking but one of the things of my grandma's I got was The Alice Bradley Menu-Cook-Book Menus, Marketing Lists and Recipes that she got in college in the 1940's. I flipped through it when I got it but haven't read it. Some of the recipes are definitely not anything I would eat, anyone for Cabbage, Prune and Marshmallow salad (the only other ingredient besides those three is mayonnaise, yummy).

For anyone else who got the celebrity book list prompt, I've been scouring them trying to find something from my TBR and here's a few I've seen that I can recommend:

Project Hail Mary and The Martian (Bill Gates)
How to End a Love Story (Reese)
Romantic Comedy (Reese)
The Complete Persepolis (Emma Watson)
Firekeeper’s Daughter (Reese)
Daisy Jones & The Six (Reese)
Woke Up Like This (Mindy Kaling)

I did also like:
Honey & Spice (Reese)
In Memoriam (Kaia Gerber)
Seven Days in June (Reese)
Evvie Drake Starts Over (Jenna)

I think I'm going to start with either The Day of the Triffids or Piranesi from the Florence + The Machine book club. I don't read litfic so I had to do some deep diving to get a decent list of possibilities!

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "12. Read a book recommended by a librarian.
..."

LOL! This is one of mine. Can I recommend one to myself? :-) I'm sure I can find a librarian to recommend something for me!

I do hav..."

I was totally laughing when I saw you got that! You can recommend one to yourself, but I'm sure you have librarian friends who could help, right??

Question for this prompt:

> A book that is a travel essay or memoir

Do we think the "travel" descriptor also applies to the memoir half of the prompt? Or could it be any memoir?

Rachel N. wrote: "I think the randomiser realized I had a tough year and gave me an easy, for me at least, list. I think the hardest normally would be read a cookbook or a book about cooking but one of the things of..."

Just in case Rachel The Pasha of Cuisine (which is on my top ten list year) was a great book.

Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?

NancyJ wrote: "I am loving these prompts. How lucky that I got an award winner prompt.

My hardest will be �
4. Re-read the first book you remember reading that you thought was an adult book (as opposed to a chi..."

I think reading the full version of a book you read condensed would be perfect.

@Hayjay, Orbital, which won the Booker Prize this year, is really short

Pam wrote: "Question for this prompt:

> A book that is a travel essay or memoir

Do we think the "travel" descriptor also applies to the memoir half of the prompt? Or could it be any memoir?"

I have that one too. I interpreted it as read a travel essay or travel memoir, partly because a travel memoir on my TBR immediately came to mind. Your interpretation also makes sense. Maybe Anita has an opinion or the prompt writer might share their intention.

Pam wrote: "Question for this prompt:

> A book that is a travel essay or memoir

Do we think the "travel" descriptor also applies to the memoir half of the prompt? Or could it be any memoir?"

Hi Pam!

I tried to interpret some of these prompts as best I could, but I think I fell down on the job here.

My interpretation here is:

A book that is a travel essay or a travel memoir.

Thank you for clarifying!!

Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

The White Tiger is under 300 pages and a winner, and I liked it.

My Name Is Lucy Barton is by my favorite author and just under 200 pages I believe. It's also very accessible.

If you haven't read Room, it's a bit over 300 pages, but reads fast.

Anita wrote: "My interpretation here is:

A book that is a travel essay or a travel memoir."

Ok, thanks! I thought so, too, but then I thought...maybe I'm making this harder on myself than I need to

Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

Hayjay, here is my Booker shelf. It doesn’t have the newest books, but they all fit. A few were nominated for Booker International, which should work. You should be able to sort the list by number of pages. I really liked Elena Knows (147 pages). It’s a little slow paced but short. Lanny (210) a delightful dark(ish) modern fairytale. Mariana Enrique’s stories are a little too dark for me, but she’s very good. I will be reading The Prophet (249). I think My Sister the Serial Killer is fast paced. I loved When We Cease to Understand the World (192 pages). It’s about scientists, but you don’t need to understand the science to enjoy the book. This book would also fit the science gone wrong prompt.

/review/list...

Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wise? Or is that up to interpretation?

Re-read the first book you remember reading that you thought was an adult book
So I read a historical romance that my mom had when I was 11, but I can't remember the name of it. Would reading another historical romance written in the mid 80's be sufficient for this task, I wonder?

Jen wrote: "Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wise? Or is tha..."

I have the same prompt, and I think mine was around age 11 or 12 too. I looked through the lists of books that were popular around that time, and I recognized a few that could fit. The “racy� books are easier to remember because I had to hide them. The real first book was probably historical romance too. You might look at the lists to see if an author or title rings a bell.

This link can bring you to other years or time periods:

/list/show/2...

Jen wrote: "Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wise? Or is tha..."

You can see what Anita says, but my view is that the interpretation is up to you. Nobody can verify what book you read when you were 11, or what book challenges you. I think it will be interesting to see how we all interpret these lists.

It's a good question what qualifies as an adult book. I read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was maybe 12. It seemed normal to me because it was about kids, but it's not really a children's book.

Many of us were adolescents before the genre of YA existed. So once we moved on from kids' books, we read all kinds of things.

Pam wrote: "Question for this prompt:

> A book that is a travel essay or memoir

Do we think the "travel" descriptor also applies to the memoir half of the prompt? Or could it be any memoir?"

You got one of my prompts! Yes, it is a book that is either a travel essay or a travel memoir.

Robin P wrote: "Jen wrote: "Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wis..."

It’s so hard to remember. Some of the books on my dad’s shelf were boring or gross (Portnoy’s Complaint), and none of the Digest titles come to mind. I vividly remember reading Lolita and the Godfather, but I just saw Love Story on the list, and I’m sure I must have read that before the others. I probably read a woman’s mystery on my mother’s shelf first, but nothing comes to mind.

Robin P wrote: "Jen wrote: "Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wis..."

I was so glad I did not get that prompt as I had no idea how to handle it! There were when I grew up no middle grade or YA book categoriess - you went from picture books to Nancy Drew and the Bobsey Twins and I read at same time from a very young age the condensed Reader Digest collections from the 1950s my parents had in the house, the Mary Stewart and other author serializations in women's magazines, abridged classics and, from my Catholic school library, biographies of saints, and from public library, other historicals or thrillers like Alistair MacLean's books. And Rex Stout and Agatha Christie. I would probably default to a Christie. I do remember thinking that those and the Rex Stout were really adult when I found them in the library.

NancyJ wrote: "Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

Hayjay, here is my Booker shelf. It doesn’t have t..."

There are several PBT members who read tbe Booker nominees annually - JoyD is another. I am definitely NOT! And there is a Footnotes thread every year where they discuss Booker readings you can look at.

Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

I think a lot of people might like this one and it's only 157 pages:
Lanny by Max Porter

Book Concierge wrote: "Or you could read any of the books in one of Nancy Pearl's "lust" books -."

Oh, that's a good idea!

NancyJ wrote: "Here is a handy link for books published in different decades, etc. ..."

Thank you!

Anita wrote: "I was totally laughing when I saw you got that! You can recommend one to yourself, but I'm sure you have librarian friends who could help, right??..."

Yes, I definitely do!

Pam wrote: "Do we think the "travel" descriptor also applies to the memoir half of the prompt? Or could it be any memoir?"

I was assuming that to be the case.

NancyJ wrote: You got one of mine (you can probably tell). Let me know if you’d like lists...."

I assume it's the "fish out of water?" I probably own a few, but I do love lists! Suggestions welcome.

Joy D wrote: "NancyJ wrote: You got one of mine (you can probably tell). Let me know if you’d like lists...."

I assume it's the "fish out of water?" I probably own a few, but I do love lists! Suggestions welcome."

Yes, here is the Fish-out-of-water Listopia from 2 years ago, I have more books on my dedicated shelf. Do you think Beautyland fits? Maybe there are more on the Tob list or compass possibilities.

/list/show/1...

Joy D wrote: "Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

I think a lot of people might like this one and it..."

Two for Lanny!

NancyJ wrote: "Hayjay315 wrote: "Any recommendations on books that will fulfill the prompt of a book nominated for the Booker Prize that are shorter in length?"

Hayjay, here is my Booker shelf. It doesn’t have t..."

Oh yeah, When We Cease to Understand the World is fantastic. I didn't recall that was nominated for the Booker, but so good.

Robin P wrote: "Jen wrote: "Yay I'm so excited to ponder my options! I've got a couple on my list that I'm scratching my head on a bit...

Read a book that challenges you.
Intellectually? emotionally? Interest wis..."

I agree with Robin - - this is up to your own interpretation. What challenges one person might not challenge another.

Like I can read hard books and muscle through 99% of the time, but reading fantasy would be a challenge for me!

Will we have any swap/grab bag options this year? I have seen some prompts on other lists that I'm not sure I could complete!

Anita, I have "a book with a title with all the letters of your first name"- Is the subtitle included in this? For some, this would be an easy one-not so much for someone with a J in their first name. LoL. Also, for duplicate letters in the name (Ex nn) will one letter suffice, or does the title need to include 2?

NancyJ wrote: "Yes, here is the Fish-out-of-water Listopia from 2 years ago..."
Thanks! Yes, I think Beautyland fits perfectly.

I have one saying main character is an artist. When I looked up shelves for artists on GR, The Covenant of Water was listed. My understanding is that it's a saga with multiple characters. Can someone who has read it tell me if there is a "main" character artist?

Robin P wrote: "I have one saying main character is an artist. When I looked up shelves for artists on GR, The Covenant of Water was listed. My understanding is that it's a saga with multiple char..."

Yes, there is a main character who is an artist.
And its a really great book!