Scavenger Hunt Book Club-- November '10

This November marks the one-year anniversary of the Scavenger Hunt Book Club! (Minus a month of my own slackiness.) A toast to this awesome group! :)

If you’re just joining us, this a monthly swap. Each month, the participants send their partner a book that fits three different criteria— a specific color on the cover, certain words in the title, imagery within the book, etc. You don’t have to join every month in order to participate... but it’s more fun that way!

For this month’s swap, you will send your partner a book, from your own collection or from a used bookstore, thrift shop, etc. that contains all three items from the following list.

1. The book must have an unusual, cryptic or lengthy dedication at the beginning. Something a little more than “To Jane,” or “For my father.” For example, Demetria Martinez dedicated her novel Mother Tongue “To the memory of the disappeared.” (Note: I’m not talking about the acknowledgments, which are often quite lengthy anyway, but the dedication—a name, or names, of the person or people to whom the book is dedicated.)

2. My boy Billy Idol turns fifty-five on November 30th! To celebrate, your book must contain the name William or any of its derivatives—Billy, Bill, Will, what have you. This can be a character, or a mention of a real person, or the author’s name.

3. To honor the one-year anniversary of the SHBC, books must have a number one (either the number or spelled out) featured on the front cover. This might be part of the title, or maybe the book was a #1 New York Times bestseller, or maybe there’s a one in the price?

Books can be any type or genre—fiction, biography, self-help, how-to, children’s, little “gifty” books, etc. Sender’s choice, but feel free to check your partner’s profile to get ideas or avoid specific dislikes. Books can and most likely will be used, but must be readable and clean. PLEASE include a note describing where all three items can be found (if it’s not obvious), and anything you’d like to add about the book, your reaction to it (if you've read it), etc.

To recap: you will have ONE partner and send them ONE book, but it needs to have all three scavenger hunt items represented in/on it (unusual dedication, Billy, one).

Feel free to send Media Mail (within the US), particularly if your book is quite heavy, but do not include anything else in the package, other than the note (and maybe a bookmark) tucked inside the book! It might be a good idea to have a book in mind before signing up... then, after partners are assigned, you can keep an eye out for something that might be more your partner's taste, if necessary.

Unfortunately, I have to make this one US/Canada/Mexico only… mailing books overseas, especially heavy ones, can be super-expensive. :( But feel free to start an international version if you’d like!

NEW RULES

The negotiable rule: -Must have at least five rated (with fives) swaps under your belt. PM me if you think you can convince me otherwise.

The non-negotiable rules:

No recent ones or threes. And if you're going to be late for any reason, PLEASE let both me and your partner know!!! Failing to do this will potentially ban you from future SHBC swaps.

General guidelines:

--If you think it might be too difficult to find a book for this swap, don’t sign up.

--If you plan on putting off this swap until the last minute, then sending late because you had a hard time finding something, don’t sign up

--If you don’t know how to use PM, e-mail, ESP or other forms of communicating with your partner to let them know you’ll be mailing late or having other issues, don’t sign up.

--If rating isn’t a big deal to you, and you feel perfectly justified in a) not rating, and b) giving a curt reply when your partner PMs you to see if you received their book, don’t sign up.

--If you think my rules are too harsh, don’t sign up.

(Disclaimer: I’m really not a mean person! I wouldn’t have made these rules if these things hadn’t ALL been an issue at some point over the past year of hosting these swaps!)

I will check profiles and ban anyone whom my spidey-sense deems fishy or flaky, or has been known to create ongoing problems in the SHBC swaps or others.

Having said all that... let's scavenge! :)