The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

25.1 - Andy P.’s Task: “Eat Your Words”

As a retired Librarian I try to adhere to the practice of respecting Intellectual Property . I therefore recognize that the idea for this task came from the June 2016 edition of Games Magazine. The creator of the puzzle “Eat Your Words” is Stephen Sniderman. Mr. Sniderman’s puzzle is more complex than my task which I have adapted to create a Seasonal Reading Challenge.

First and foremost, this task is intended for adults, so no book that has Childrens, or Sequential Arts, Comics or Manga as a genre may be used.

This is a two book challenge, and the combined page count for these books must total 500 pages or more.

For this task you will read two books that satisfy the following conditions:
Select a word that is “hungry” enough to “eat” another word Your word must “eat” another word (minimum of two letters, not a proper noun such as a name) in its entirety. In other words, the eaten word appears intact with all the letters together in the same order within the hungry word’s letters.

Examples of hungry word eats word:

Relic can eat Pub to become Republic
Magic can eat Net to become Magnetic
Swing can eat Allow to become Swallowing
Seated can eat Par to become Separated

Please note that both words retain their letter sequence and the word that is doing the eating surrounds the eaten word.
You now have three words, the beginning word (Relic), the eaten word (Pub) and the newly created word (Republic).

Read two books, each of which has a title and/or subtitle that matches a different word selected from the three in your creative endeavor.

Required: State your hungry word, your eaten word, and the word it has created.

This message is for me

This message is also for me

Andy wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Andy, first I want to say, how creative! I love it.

Now I need to ask: Is this the idea? Do I have it right

[book:The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's D..."

Andy wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Andy, first I want to say, how creative! I love it.

Now I need to ask: Is this the idea? Do I have it right

[book:The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's D..."

Ok, thanks-yes I was looking at it the wrong way -will try again

Sorry for jumping in so soon before you got a chance to reserve spaces.!

I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Using the ward OUR as the the one to be swallowed

I could do The Courage Tree Where "Cage" surrounds "our" to make courage

I am still struggling with how to post
In this case OUR would be my Hungry word i.e. book 1
COURAGE the word created i.e. book 2
and CAGE the word added which I would just state in the posting

Hopping in to tidy up the thread a bit. Any questions (and their respective replies) asked prior to Andy's buffer posts will be preserved as best as possible, but the order might seem a little jumbled, so please bear with me!

Robin P wrote: "Just wanted to be sure I understand - for example, in the example of Relic - Pub - Republic. Book 1 title would include the word Relic and Book 2 title would include the word Republic. The word Pub will be listed in our post, but will not be in the title of a book, it just has to be a legitimate word. Is that correct?

And can 2-letter words be used, for instance, Be in It Had to Be You swallows On to make Bone in The Bone Ships?"


Andy wrote: "Sorry for late post. In the midst of a move from Michigan to Arizona and no access to my computer for several days. Yes that is correct"

Fiona (Titch) wrote: "I am just making sure I understand the task. I've chosen The Swing - Krista G Johnston - SWING & Oblivion's Swallowing Sea: A Sefton Ponds Mystery - Richard Canterbury - ALLOW = SWALLOWING

Many thanks"


Andy wrote: "Yes that works."

Joanne wrote: "Andy, first I want to say, how creative! I love it.

Now I need to ask: Is this the idea? Do I have it right

The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths -Hungry Book

Eats Dive to become

The Libyan Diversion"


Andy wrote: "Which one is the hungry word? It has to encompass the eaten word which you are telling me is dive. I don't think we are looking at the task the same way. One word has to surround the eaten word which remains intact."

Dee wrote: "ok so i think i have it

my hungry word is SING - Why Birds Sing: A Novel

my hungry word ate WEAR to make SWEARING - What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves"


Andy wrote: "Yes. That Works"

Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Using the ward OUR as t..."


You have interpreted the task correctly both you boos work.
Andy

Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Usin..."

Whoops. Now I'm confused. In Marie's example, isn't CAGE the hungry word, making COURAGE (by eating OUR). So books would have to have CAGE and COURAGE, not OUR.

Or am I totally confused now? I thought I had it.

Another question...

Is there any limit on size of words? For example, can PER be the hungry word, eat OW, and make POWER? Both are listed as actual words, just short.

OR,

Can a name be one of the words? If FATTY is hungry and eats ALI, you would get FATALITY

Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."

That is the way I interpreted it also - CAGE "eats" OUR to make COURAGE, so the book titles would have to contain CAGE and COURAGE.

Here's a list I made from some of my TBR titles, in case you are panicking about this one. I'm not sure if proper nouns are allowed or length of words, etc., so you might check. I did verify definitions of all the words here. Hope this helps someone.
Hungry word - eats this word - new word
fatty - Ali - fatality
per - ow - power
sands - worm - sandworms
lard - eon - Leonard
skyer - hunt- skyhunter
tress - spa - trespass
king - ill -killing
bin - as- basin
bad - all- ballad
songs - bird - songbirds
fir - a - fair
far - I - fair
ring - is - rising
aft - Loa - afloat
fed - at - fated
Bing - urn - burning
this - eve - thieves
show - ad - shadow
sow - had - shadow
tor - err - terror
dater - ugh - daughter
coning - sum - consuming
he - at - hate
she - or - shore
sing - gin - singing
caress - el -careless
don - alt - Dalton
bet - as - beast
so - oh - Soho
drags - on - dragons
and -notate - annotated
or - the - other
Freda - Eric - Frederica
she - am - shame
unable - speak - unspeakable
content - in - continent
folks - way - folkways

Andy and/or mods: please let us know if some of these don't work. I'll probably pick one to use.

Robin P wrote: "Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spec..."

OUR and COURAGE are the words in the titles but which is book 1 and which book 2 that is where i come unstuck. I am usually very careful with posting so as to get it right but I cannot gt my head round this one.

Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."

Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."


Can a name be one of t..."

Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."

Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."

Kathy,
You have the Cage word correctly interpreted

Andy wrote: "Kathy KS wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spec..."

IN this post you stated that both my books worked using OUR and COURAGE

IN reply to Kathy's question you are now saying my books should have CAGE and COURAGE in the titles and OUR is the word i have added which should simply be identified in the task. This task has me totally bamboozled.

Add me to one of the folks that is also extremely confused! I tried going back to read other people's questions and responses, but it appears some of the posts are missing. Is it possible to get an exact example of book 1 and book 2 with titles/ words used? Thanks!

SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten and should simply be identified as such in my post

and book 2 would use the word created - which is COURAGE
Six Faces of Courage

I still don't get it but is this way right and my original post using OUR and COURAGE wrong

Personally i have spent longer trying to get this right than reading books

Hmm, there seems to be a contradiction.

Andy, can you please clarify your Post 12? Marie UK is asking about OUR and COURAGE but some of us don't think that matches your original examples. Maybe it wasn't clear because of all the extra questions we threw in before you were ready.

Andy wrote: "This message is for me"
I am going to try and answer all the unanswered messages through message 16 here.
You may use any word that is in the dictionary which the challenge uses for this task; So if the dictionary has OW or PER then Power is legitimate. Please ask for moderator help with problems like this because they will have best access to the dictionary we are using
One letter words do NOT work Words used must be two or more letters
Proper names are NOT allowed be they names of people places or things. There are too many variants in spelling to make this possible for this task
Thanks for being patient with me. I am in the midst of moving from Michigan to Arizona and undergoing a severe downsizing in the size of my abode. I would much rather be reading.

Thanks for clarifying some that. I'll look through my list and see what doesn't have one letter and/or proper nouns.

Andy wrote: "Thanks for being patient with me. I am in the midst of moving from Michigan to Arizona and undergoing a severe downsizing in the size of my abode. I would much rather be reading.."

Thanks for clarifying, Andy. I feel for you with the downsizing. It's a hard process!!

For those of you still looking, I think I've found one that will work with Andy's criteria. Hopefully, anyway, since this is the pairing I'm planning to use!

SISTER --> The Sun Sister

Hungry word SISTER eats IN to become SINISTER

SINISTER --> A Cherry Sinister Murder

Marie (UK) wrote: "SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten and should simply be identified as su..."



So I hate to be a nuisance but I am still trying to work out which two words i should be using. I suspect that your reply saying OUR and Courage worked was wrong perhaps because you have a lot on your plate at the moment. I now think i should be using CAGE and COURAGE and stating that OUR was the word added.

I can find books to fit either option but I want to know that I am reading the right books thanks

Marie (UK) wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten and should simply ..."

if CAGE was your hungry word, then it eats OUR and you get COURAGE

so you would need CAGE/COURAGE as the two words in titles

Kathy KS wrote: "Thanks for clarifying some that. I'll look through my list and see what doesn't have one letter and/or proper nouns."

Thanks,
Andy

Marie (UK) wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten an.d should simply ..."
You are correct. As you have guessed things are a little hectic for me at the moment,
Andy

Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten..."

thanks Andy

Kathy KS wrote: "Thanks for clarifying some that. I'll look through my list and see what doesn't have one letter and/or proper nouns."

Kristina Simon wrote: "Andy wrote: "Thanks for being patient with me. I am in the midst of moving from Michigan to Arizona and undergoing a severe downsizing in the size of my abode. I would much rather be reading.."

Thanks for the suggestion. Anyone else who likes playing this game is welcome to add other possibilities and others that need help are welcome to use these suggestions.
Andy

Marie (UK) wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "SO I am trying to get this right

Book 1 Is the HUNGRY word in this case CAGE as appears in book The Gilded Cage

OUR is the word that is eaten and should simply ..."
You are correct.
Andy

Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Using the ward OUR as t..."

Cage is the hungry word that surrounds our (the word getting eaten) creating the new word courage. So Three words Cage is the hungry word eating Our the word being eaten, and Courage is the new word created
When posting you can choose two of three and identify as such.

Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies

Usin..."

I am sorry Andy but you are contradicting yourself in this post. It is not how the task reads. The task reads as if you should simply state the word eaten not use it to create the task. I am sticking with Cage and Courage. However, i think you have added more confusion to the mix with your last response.

Perhaps the number of comments is not helping but I do think we need to stick with two words to use and one to state and it should be the same word whether it is hungry eaten or added. That should also be made very clear in the task wording

Perhaps a moderator wants to weigh in here

My original question may have been lost because I posted it too soon, but most of us got the impression that the 2 words in the title must be the hungry word and the longer word that is formed. It seemed like the word that is inserted cannot be one of the titles.

Robin P wrote: "Just wanted to be sure I understand - for example, in the example of Relic - Pub - Republic. Book 1 title would include the word Relic and Book 2 title would include the word Republic. The word Pub will be listed in our post, but will not be in the title of a book, it just has to be a legitimate word. Is that correct?

I agree with Marie(UK) that if instead we can use 2 out of 3, the task would have to be rewritten to state that. It would certainly make it easier if we could do 2 of the 3. I looked through literally hundreds of books to find one possible option for myself the way the task is written. You also could add that 1-letter words aren't acceptable.

Sorry you have to deal with all these questions in the middle of moving! I think it's a very clever task, and I have loved Games Magazine from the 1970's when I had the very first issue ever published!

Marie (UK) wrote: "Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "I struggled to get my head round this and am glad there are so many questions here as it has helped me focus
So I have a book [book:Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies|59..."

You are much better at making it clear on what needs to be done than I. The moderators are working to improve the wording which will be the final say in a few days. I'm sorry I got you confused. I m not the world's best task master but hopefully the moderators will smooth out the wrinkles.

Robin P wrote: "My original question may have been lost because I posted it too soon, but most of us got the impression that the 2 words in the title must be the hungry word and the longer word that is formed. It ..."

Between you and Marie you have said what I meant. Goes to show I should stay away from task writing. I meant to give you a choice between the three words involved. Sorry, and I can't even claim to have English as a foreign tongue.

Thanks, Andy, so sorry if it sounded like we were critical! I always forget that the tasks have some time to be finalized. I think the 2 out of 3 will be more flexible.

It's interesting that several of the 25 point task creators this time independently came up with related words in titles - I have one and Lois has one. It's not easy to figure out how to phrase things, I went through multiple versions of mine, including removing an option that I couldn't even fulfill myself.

Andy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "My original question may have been lost because I posted it too soon, but most of us got the impression that the 2 words in the title must be the hungry word and the longer word tha..."

Andy it is a complex but very creative task and I hope all the questions haven't put you off task writing. It sure isn't easy but this challenge would be nowhere without group members and challenge writing.

Maybe the wording of the task just needs to be adapted now to make clear that we can use any of the three words and thanks again for your patience

Marie (UK) wrote: "Andy it is a complex but very creative task and I hope all the questions haven't put you off task writing. It sure isn't easy but this challenge would be nowhere without group members and challenge writing."

Seconded. I love the task - but I haven't yet found my words. I'll be haunting this thread for suggestions!

Mod weighing in here to give a bit of a view of what's going on behind the scenes, and to apologise, because a chunk of this confusion stems from a moderator misstep.

The original wording of the task did allow for two of the three words to be used. We as a mod team believed that the amendment (to the current task wording) would facilitate easier moderation. As it stands, it seems to have had quite the opposite effect, which was definitely not our intention and we fully admit we've goofed on this one! We will most likely be reverting to the original wording while the tasks are still draft.

Please bear with us as we try to figure out the best way to proceed- this is still only our second challenge with the training wheels off, and we're very much still learning how to balance tasks. With additional rules being requested in this thread this one's becoming more complex than we initially anticipated and we are having to try and juggle the practicalities of moderating the task with ease of finding books to fit. We're also stretched a little thin right now with one mod on holiday and a second dealing with a rather delicate situation in real life, so the process is taking longer than usual.

so ... hungry word HE eats CAN resuling in HURRICANE; word #1 is HE; word #2 is HURRICANE ==> did I get that correct?

Jayne wrote: "Mod weighing in here to give a bit of a view of what's going on behind the scenes, and to apologise, because a chunk of this confusion stems from a moderator misstep.

The original wording of the t..."

thanks for this Jayne you are doing a great job in a very busy challenge - I will keep an eye out for the modified wording before choosing the 2 books for this one

Task wording has now been updated. Please remember this is still draft for now as we try to figure out the remaining quirks!

Just thought of another wrinkle - It doesn't specifically say whether the longer word needs to be made up of only letters of the "hungry" word and the "eaten" word. Most of us assumed that, but please see Deedee's question in Msg 42, where there are extra letters in the longer word. Maybe that is implied in "the word it has created" in the task description, that is HE and CANE in themselves don't create HURRICANE so that combination doesn't work?

Robin P wrote: "Thanks, Andy, so sorry if it sounded like we were critical! I always forget that the tasks have some time to be finalized. I think the 2 out of 3 will be more flexible.

It's interesting that seve..."
I think that the task description as it now stands with corrections should make sense to all' If not send another message and I'll try to explain it from a different standpoint.

Deedee wrote: "so ... hungry word HE eats CAN resuling in HURRICANE; word #1 is HE; word #2 is HURRICANE ==> did I get that correct?"

No because to work with the words He and Can you would end up withHCANE not Hurricane. In other words you can't add extra letter to HE to make to composite word. Sorry.

Robin P wrote: "Just thought of another wrinkle - It doesn't specifically say whether the longer word needs to be made up of only letters of the "hungry" word and the "eaten" word. Most of us assumed that. but ple..."
Robin you are correct. Look at my answer to Dee's post.

Marie (UK) wrote: "Andy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "My original question may have been lost because I posted it too soon, but most of us got the impression that the 2 words in the title must be the hungry word and the lo..."

I think our Moderator has done a great job rewriting my task to make it clear from several different perspectives.

Andy wrote: "Marie (UK) wrote: "Andy wrote: "Robin P wrote: "My original question may have been lost because I posted it too soon, but most of us got the impression that the 2 words in the title must be the hun..."

I do believe the updated version will be clearer for some. However, I find the final sentence confusing now.
"Read two books, each of which has a title and/or subtitle that matches two words selected from the three in your creative endeavor."

This makes it sound that each book must have 2 (two) of the three words in it. Is that actual meaning more like: "Each of the the two books used must have a word (blah, blah, blah) that matches ONE of the THREE words, both different." Or something on those lines.

Also you didn't mention that proper nouns are not allowed, at least as the hungry and/or eaten words.

I finally got my head around the task as originally presented, but I think my reading list is still valid. If I understand correctly, I now have more possible words that CAN be used.

Please correct me if I've misunderstood...
(I finally got my head around it)