Seems the host of this challenge has gone inactive, but people (including me) would like to continue. So here we are - just do it, release right away, and I'll do a tally up in the end.
Here is your task:
** Find and release books with the word "the" in the title during November. So easy! **
More details: - Any kind of release counts, whether wild, controlled, or into a public bookcase. Whatever suits you. - The word "the" may of course be in other languages, and it doesn't need to be a distinct word if the language uses a different construct to express a definite form. Whatever is the equivalent to english "the" will count. - November starts at midnight in the night Oct 31/Nov 1, and ends at midnight Nov 30/Dec 1, local time at the place of the release. The books must leave your possession during this time. - Just post your releases from time to time in this thread, or all at once at the end, as you like. - This is just for fun. There are no prizes and this is not a competition for large numbers. If you release just one book, this is just as welcome as if you release one hundred.
Now... go get those books out and have fun!
------------------------- Original post:
Only 62 hours left until it's November in Central Europe, and I realized that there's no announcement for the traditional "The The Challenge" yet. Furthermore, RockDg9, who hosted this challenge in earlier years, seems to have gone inactive. Last book activity was almost two years ago in November 2017, last forum post in January. However, it probably didn't look very different last year, since he or she (?) hadn't been active in 2018 either - but came back to host the challenge.
Does anyone have an idea whether RockDg9 will host the challenge again or not? If not, I would consider to do it once again anyway and invite everyone to follow :) After all, some people might have prepared themselves and put aside something (and it's always good to have a reason to get out those books, isn't it?)
I don't know if slt confirmed with RockDg9 or not.
All Challenges on the list were confirmed, otherwise they didn't make the list. Either with a PM or post from the host, or if they specifically stated that they would run it again at the end of the last year's Challenge.
Of course, that was a long time ago. As a matter of fact I just realized it's time to start a new Release Challenge list for next year.
I don't know if slt confirmed with RockDg9 or not.
All Challenges on the list were confirmed, otherwise they didn't make the list. Either with a PM or post from the host, or if they specifically stated that they would run it again at the end of the last year's Challenge.
I love having your list - it's very handy!
I was pretty sure you had confirmed most of the challenges directly with the host, but there were a few which had a repeat implied at the end of the most recent version of the challenge. Since there wasn't a post from RockDg9 in the thread I thought it might have been one of those.
As a matter of fact I just realized it's time to start a new Release Challenge list for next year
I reckon we could manage being "hostless" this year only. It's not a challenge where a title might fit or not so as no referee is needed I think we could monitor things between us :o)
I reckon we could manage being "hostless" this year only.
I agree and just rewrote my original posting to an announcement. I hope I got the rules right.
It's not a challenge where a title might fit or not so as no referee is needed I think we could monitor things between us :o)
Yes or no - it might occur easy and clear but unless you restrict it to english titles, it's not as easy as it sounds. Not every language has such a word like english "the".
Example 1: In the scandinavian languages articles are seldom used although they do exist, but instead there's a "bestämd form" of nouns. The word "bok" (book) can occur as (en) bok = (one/a) book böcker = books boken = the book böckerna = the books You see, the article is kind of appended as an ending. To me it's pretty clear that this should count since it is the direct translation of english "the".
Example 2: In German, the article "the" is usually "der", "die" or "das" (depending on the gender of the noun, plus a few declinated forms like dem, des, den) but there are also a few shortcut words, like "vom", which is a shortcut of "von dem" meaning "of the" or "from the". I'm myself a bit ambivalent about those because they are not really article words. During the years I've done this challenge, I sometimes counted them and sometimes not.
I do NOT want to exclude other languages. Bookcrossing is a global hobby that should never limit itself to nations or languages.
I do NOT want to exclude other languages. Bookcrossing is a global hobby that should never limit itself to nations or languages.
True...but I believe there are some languages that don't have a word for "the" - for instance, as far as I know, Japanese doesn't really.
Can't tell about asiatic languages.
Generally I would prefer that everything should count which is the _equivalent_ to english "the", which is defining a definite form. I don't say that this is the only possible internationalization of the challenge that makes sense, and RockDg9 IIRC never stated anything about that point. It _might_ make more sense to require a specific word (or set of words), but if you would do so, you would exclude many languages in which the definite form is not expressed by prepending an article, but by some other grammatical construct, and I wouldn't want to exclude anyone.
Generally awareness about differences in cultures and specifically languages is probably higher in Europe than in America. Everything is rather close here. If we feel like seeing something different than "good old Germany", France and Switzerland and Austria are all only about three hours by local train away, using an affordable group off-peak ticket. One day on the train or bus takes you to a choice of 20* independent countries, most of them with their own languages (* this includes four "dwarf countries" but not semi-autonomous territories like the Channel Islands).
Since I started bookcrossing, I have released books in 19 different countries, with 17 different official languages, and none of those places I have reached by plane. We went everywhere by train, bus and regular ferry (took a plane back home once, though).
I actually keep a stock of books in various languages to release in case we go "there", wherever "there" is. Since I plan to send off a box with mixed languages to a fellow bookcrosser next week, there probably will be various versions of "the" on the list ;)
It's not a challenge where a title might fit or not so as no referee is needed I think we could monitor things between us :o)
Yes or no - it might occur easy and clear but unless you restrict it to english titles, it's not as easy as it sounds. Not every language has such a word like english "the".
Well I never knew that! Bookcrossing certainly educates you 😀
Don't worry, I will probably NOT release another bunch of this size any soon ;) These releases include the matching parts of two banana boxes I brought to the parcel service yesterday (equals 140 books), and I'm not planning to pack another such box in November. (Still, who knows...)
Releases include books in German (most), English (a few), Spanish (a few), and Hungarian (one). I also (controlled) released a number of books in Romanian, but none of them seem to match.
