Battle of the Books

[closertofine]

My city's library system is having a Battle of the Books adult trivia night. I've never participated in anything like this, but I put myself out there when one of the moms of dd's friends asked if anyone is interested. I'm actually available that evening (I have my kids the vast majority of the time, so I don't get out often), and I really like this woman. So I was just wondering if anyone here has ever participated in something like this and was it fun? It will be three of us and we're going to divide and conquer, with some overlap. Here is the book list:

Baby Teeth - Zoje Stage
Carnegie’s Maid - Marie Benedict
Better Nate than Never - Tim Federle
Hoop Roots - John Edgar Wideman
Olive Witch - Abeer Y. Hoque
The Blues Walked In - Kathleen George
The Haters - Jesse Andrews
The Lady’s Desire - Audrey Abbott
Whiskey, etc - Sherrie Flick
The Gone World - Tom Sweterlitsch


Any opinions of any of these?

[charlatti]

That sounds fun! That’s an interesting list — do you know how they made the choices? The only one I’ve read (or even heard of, actually) is The Gone World. It was just ok for me, but it was a fast read and kept my attention.

[closertofine]

Three of the descriptions have Pittsburgh mentioned in them, so I thought maybe they all have something to do with the city. I don't have a clue. I just hope it is fun! The Gone World is on my list, so I'm glad to hear it is a quick read.

[wesleycrusher]

Hi neighbor! I'm not doing the Battle of the Books, but I saw it on the website a few weeks ago. The only one on the list I've read is Baby Teeth, which is also set in Pittsburgh. It was a fast read (domestic thriller mixed with We Need to talk about Kevin).

[wildrice]

Is this like book trivia? I've never heard of this!

Though, I think we did do something along the same lines as the title implies when I was in middle school. We just had 1 book to read, though, and teams would answer trivia about the book, then the team with the most points wins. Being the nerd that I am, I participated each year and read the book multiple times in preparation. Lol. But that was doable with 1 book. I think with a whole list it would be hard!

[wesleycrusher]

wildrice I also did reading challenges in school.

Nerd alert: We had a book trivia completion in elementary, middle and high school. It was called Reading Olympics and there were around 12 people on each team- each age level had a list of 45 books to read split among the team. You competed at the end of the year against other teams in the county. I was in Reading Olympics homeroom in the library in Middle School. Senior year, I did an independent study in Library Science where I helped the librarians 3 days a week, and the other 2 days I got to spend the period reading. I was captain of the team and read all 45 books on the list.

[closertofine]

Feb 4, 2019 10:59:20 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Is this like book trivia? I've never heard of this!

My understanding is yes. But I have zero clue how detailed the questions may be!

[mrspez07]

There is one in older elementary that is actually called this (3-6th graders). They are working their way thru a variety of books and then will have to answer questions about them. The final “team” from school will go on to compete against other schools in the area, kind of game show style, I think.
Maybe the adult version is similar?

[dontlook]

Feb 5, 2019 20:56:55 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

There is one in older elementary that is actually called this (3-6th graders). They are working their way thru a variety of books and then will have to answer questions about them. The final “team” from school will go on to compete against other schools in the area, kind of game show style, I think.
Maybe the adult version is similar?

My kids school does the same. The questions are very basic as they aren’t trying to trip the kids up and they want the kids to have fun with this activity. This sounds really fun!

[aurora]

I did something like this in school. I think it was called the same? But I haven't in decades. Sounds fun!

[expectantsteelerfan]

My local library does a parent/child competition that is coming up this month, and I'm excited for it. Now I'm going to have to do some google searching, because I'm in a suburb of Pittsburgh and I'd LOVE to participate in an adult one, and I think my local book club girls would be in too.
I know for the child one, the answers to the questions are the title of one of the 8 books, so questions like 'in which book would this be likely?' so pretty simple if you've read the books.
The only one on that list I've heard of is Baby Teeth, which I'm next in line for at my library so I'll be reading soon. But I'm going to put them all on my to-read list!

[closertofine]

Feb 11, 2019 20:30:31 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

My local library does a parent/child competition that is coming up this month, and I'm excited for it. Now I'm going to have to do some google searching, because I'm in a suburb of Pittsburgh and I'd LOVE to participate in an adult one, and I think my local book club girls would be in too.
I know for the child one, the answers to the questions are the title of one of the 8 books, so questions like 'in which book would this be likely?' so pretty simple if you've read the books.
The only one on that list I've heard of is Baby Teeth, which I'm next in line for at my library so I'll be reading soon. But I'm going to put them all on my to-read list!

www.carnegielibrary.org/staff-picks/adult-battle-of-the-books-after-hours-spring-2019/


Now it may look like we're now not doing it bc the friend had to back out