The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

25.5 - Andy P's task: Remember Alphabetical Order?

With the advent of computers the need for alphabetical order has waned somewhat so I created my task to help preserve its importance.

First the general rules:
This is a two book task.
Books which are labeled on its main page as children’s or kid’s are not eligible for this task.
Books must be written by a single author.
Books with an author who uses his/her initials may be used but will only make the task more difficult. ALL initials must be used.
The total number of pages of both books must exceed 500 pages (i.e., 501 pages or greater).

The objective of the task is to pair two authors whose initials put together will form a letter sequence in alphabetical order i.e. ABCD HIJK.

Thus Agatha Christie could be paired with David Baldacci or Alafair Burke could be paired with Dana Cameron to create the letter sequence ABCD. Arthur Conan Doyle could be paired with Erica Boyce to create the letter sequence ABCDE. Becky Chambers could be paired with Edwidge Danticat to create the letter sequence BCDE. Kristin Hannah and Joe Ide could be paired to create HIJK. Letters may also wrap. So ZABC or YZAB may also be used.

Notice that you can switch the positioning of the letters used to get alphabetical order. Any letter sequence in the alphabet can be used but they must follow exactly in the alphabet so you could not use Agatha Christie and Karin Slaughter because ACKS, while being in alphabetical order, do not directly follow each other.

My two cents

Another 2 cents which if my math is correct equals 4

This thread is now open!

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies - does this book work [paired with Elizabeth Berg]? It has Caitlin Doughty listed as author, but it also has Dianné Ruz (Illustrations). Looking at the rules below, it looks like I can ignore the illustrator - is this correct?

7. Do illustrators and translators count as authors for SRC purposes?
No. Only authors that are identified as authors (or a default blank in the author role field), co-authors, or contributors may be used for tasks involving author information. Other roles or functions such as editor, illustrator, artist, translator, introduction, designed by, foreword, preface, assistant or afterword may not be used for author-sourced tasks. Ask about other roles identified in a Goodreads record in the season's General Questions help thread.

Just confirming that the initials of the authors can be out of order and the following examples would work?

Bruce Alexander and Charles Dickens for ABCD

Robin Paige and Spencer Quinn for PQRS

Does it have to be 4 initials? Would this work:

Book 1: Book by Arthur Conan Doyle - ACD
Book 2: Book by Erica Boyce - BE

The initials would line up to make ABCDE.

Andy - can we wrap letters - i.e. ZABC or YZAB?

Robin P wrote: "Just confirming that the initials of the authors can be out of order and the following examples would work?

Bruce Alexander and Charles Dickens for ABCD

[author:Rob..."
Yes

Simone wrote: "Does it have to be 4 initials? Would this work:

Book 1: Book by Arthur Conan Doyle - ACD
Book 2: Book by Erica Boyce - BE

The initials would line up to make ABCDE."

Yes and a virtual gold star for the extra work

SRC Moderator wrote: "This thread is now open!"

Kim wrote: "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies - does this book work [paired with Elizabeth Berg]? It has Caitlin Doughty listed as author, but ..."

SRC Moderator wrote: "This thread is now open!"

Yes

Dee wrote: "Andy - can we wrap letters - i.e. ZABC or YZAB?"
Yes to wrapping letters if you want to work with the less friendly letters
Simone wrote: "Does it have to be 4 initials? Would this work:

Book 1: Book by Arthur Conan Doyle - ACD
Book 2: Book by Erica Boyce - BE

The initials would line up to make ABCDE."

Not sure if I'll use them but I found these:

Publishable By Death by A.C.F. Bookens (paperback has 246 pages - kindle is currently free)
Give It Back by Danielle Esplin (paperback has 302 pages - kindle is free for Prime members)

Initials would result in ABCDEF.

Aprilleigh wrote: "Not sure if I'll use them but I found these:

Publishable By Death by A.C.F. Bookens (paperback has 246 pages - kindle is currently free)
[book:Give It Back|280912..."

These will work if you want to use them, unfortunately no extra points for overachievers, but a virtual pat on the back is available

Andy wrote: "Aprilleigh wrote: "Not sure if I'll use them but I found these:

Publishable By Death by A.C.F. Bookens (paperback has 246 pages - kindle is currently free)
[book:..."

The only thing I achieved was blind luck - I was looking for BD to go with AC (figured I could reread an Agatha Christie if I couldn't find anything else).