The Sunday Salon - A Guessing Game


Like many other bloggers, I've been thinking about what my favourite reads of the year were. I already have a good idea of what will make my final top twenty (and have in fact written a draft), but usually I only post my list on the final week of December because I'm hopeful until the very end that another book will blow me away.
As some of you might remember, last year I had a game/giveaway in which I asked people to guess my favourites, and rewarded one winner with a book of their choice from my final list (credit to Literary Feline, who I think was the first blogger to do this back in 2007). I had a lot of fun with this little contest last year, so I thought I'd do it again. Here's what you need to know:
Another thing: as I mentioned last week, Chris and I are hosting the 2010 Graphic Novels Challenge. Quite a few people who are new to the comics medium have asked us to put together a list of recommendations for beginners, and we plan to do just that. But to make the list as complete as possible, we'd like to ask for your help. Please click the link for details - I have to say I'm a little sad that the post has been up for a while and we got zero e-mails with suggestions so far. You don't have to to be an expert in comics and graphic novels to contribute; if you read one that you'd recommend to others, please send it in. Thank you in advance!
As some of you might remember, last year I had a game/giveaway in which I asked people to guess my favourites, and rewarded one winner with a book of their choice from my final list (credit to Literary Feline, who I think was the first blogger to do this back in 2007). I had a lot of fun with this little contest last year, so I thought I'd do it again. Here's what you need to know:
- If you click here you'll find a list of all the books I read so far this year.
- After taking a quick look through the list, leave me a comment with five titles that you think will make my final Best Reads of 2009 list.
- The books don't have to be published in 2009. As long as they're books I read this year, they're fair game.
- ETA: It's totally okay to just guess randomly if you have no idea. Who knows, you might get lucky!
- I will put the names of those who guess correctly in a hat and draw a winner.
- If nobody gets five books right, I'll draw from among those who manage to guess four.
- Order doesn't matter. You don't need to guess my favourite five reads of 2009; just five books that will make my final list.
- The winner will receive a book of their choice from my final list, which I plan to post a week from today.
- This means that you have until Saturday the 26th to play.

Somehow, I've whittled it down to 5:
ReplyDeleteTender Morsels, Fingersmith, The Knife of Never Letting Go, the Children's Book, and The Time Traveler's Wife.
Cheers, Ana! :)
First of all, I'm planning on e-mailing y'all by GN suggestions soon! :)
ReplyDeleteOk...here are five I'm guessing:
Shakespeare Wrote For Money
Paper Towns
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
The Children's Book
I could never guess but I did have fun scrolling through in amazement at all the wonderful books you have read this year!
ReplyDeleteI can't comment on the guesses until the contest's over, but thanks for playing, Amanda and Eva!
ReplyDeleteJill: Just so everyone knows, it's okay to guess randomly :P You might get lucky!
I couldn't even begin to take a guess, but I just wanted to say that I am absolutely AMAZED how many books you read in a single year! How do you do it? I am lucky to read a book a week, but I desperately need to improve my speed or I won't accomplish half of my lifetime reading goals.
ReplyDeleteMolly: I know of bloggers who read twice as many as me, though! And when I post my end of the year stats and break it down, you'll see that a lot of them were comics or children's books, which are quicker readers :P Anyway, it helped that until October, I only worked part-time. My monthly totals have been steadily decreasing since I started my current job :P
ReplyDeleteThat is some serious list of books, Ana! You have been a very productive girl! OK, here is my guess for five of your favs:
ReplyDeleteBlack Juice
Time Travelers Wife
Fingersmith
The Moonstone
Tender Morsels
So hard to choose from all the fabulous books you've talked about this year. My guesses are:
ReplyDeleteThe Knife of Never Letting Go
Girl Meets Boy
Bluestockings
Alias Grace
Naomi and Elys No Kiss List
How fun! I must play! After taking a look at your list, here are my guesses:
ReplyDeleteLittle Brother
Fingersmith
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Magic for Beginners
The Moonstone
I'm surprised you could narrow it down to five! :D
ReplyDeleteMy guesses:
The Ask and the Answer
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
The Love We Share Without Knowing
The Children's Book
That was tough...as I know you read so many that you really treasured this year.
Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, Ana!
La la la can't comment on guesses :P Thanks for playing, though!
ReplyDeleteAnd Debi, I could never narrow it down to five! That's why I said order didn't matter :)
I'm going with Tender Morsels, Fingersmith, Mortal Love, one of the Bone books (do I have to pick one?) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited for year-end lists! Going to compile mine next week :-)
Oh gosh!
ReplyDelete-The Knife of Never Letting Go
-The Woman in White
-Fingersmith
-The Ask and the Answer
-The Moonstone
:D
LOL, I love it! I'm terrible at these things so I'm not going to guess, but I think it's a great idea!
ReplyDeleteOoh, exciting!
ReplyDeleteMy guesses:
Paper Towns
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
The Fox Woman
Nights at the Circus
I couldn't even begin to figure this one out!!!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to blame it on being overly exhausted, still fighting the remnants of this damn flu, and overall overwhelmedness, but I'm afraid misreading "this post" two years in a row can only be blamed on me being an idiot! :D
ReplyDeleteSo how many books made that final favorites list this year?
Ok...
ReplyDeleteThe Knife of Never Letting Go
The Love We Share Without Knowing
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
Paper Towns
Oh my God do you know how hard that was?!?!?! I wanted to pick like...25!!!! I'm never going to be able to do a top 10 this year :/
I hope we get more suggestions for the GN 2010 challenge as well...I'm about to email you back!
Argh, I can't even hazard a guess! Like Chris says, there are at least 25 that could be in your top picks. I am going to email suggestions for graphic novels, but I bet you already have 'em.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming back later with my guess. But about the recommendation, I find it hard to do it in your requested format (if you like this book, you'd like..) I can't, for the life of me, compare graphic novels to any normal novels!
ReplyDeleteDebi, you are not an idiot >:( If it makes you feel better, Mathie misread it in the exact same way as you :P
ReplyDeleteGavin: The final top will be 25, yes, but I thought that made it easy to try to guess 5, not harder. Sorry, I should have realized this was a stupid idea.
Mee: Another bad idea :( Sorry. I guess I just don't think of the graphic medium as very different from other mediums. I think of graphic novels as books, as just another way of telling a story, and that makes it easy to compare them in my head.
To everyone else: thanks for bearing with me.
Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI'll guess:
Paper Towns
Fingersmith
Tender Morsels
The Children's Book
Alias Grace
:)
Tender Morsels, Fingersmith, Paper Towns, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Secret History.
ReplyDeleteYou have read a lot of fantastic books in 2009, so I look forward to finding out which you liked the best.
You know...it would help if you hadn't read 1000 books this year!!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm....after a great amount of going back and forth, I'm sticking to this:
ReplyDeleteTender Morsels (although it probably won't make MY top 5!)
The Ask and the Answer
The Secret History
Paper Towns
and Fingersmith!
Actually, that does make me feel better. Much better. :)
ReplyDeleteMy guesses (and these are random-ish guesses):
ReplyDeletePaper Towns
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
Purple Hibiscus
The Children's Book
I think I'm going to go with:
ReplyDeleteTender Morsels
Fingersmith
The Knife of Never Letting Go
The Ask and the Answer
Black Juice
I hope I'm not late!
ReplyDeleteMy guesses:
Tender Morsels
Fingersmith
The Love We Share Without Knowing
Purple Hibiscus
Alias Grace