Welcome to the first edition of The Bookword Game. Here we will, as a book loving community, come up with some phrases to describe books or book-related situations.
For example, if I say Freezer Book, people recognize a book that is making you nervous, like The Book Thief for me or Little Women for Joey from Friends.
More recently, bybee tried to discover the phrase for when you discover the title embedded in the story. It turned out that there was no such phrase! How could that be? We kept going back to find out what it could be, so suggestions were made, and a vote was held: Title Drop was most popular. It perfectly describes a situation that I look for everytime I read now.
That's what gave me the idea to continue the game. What other bookish situations do we need phrases for? I'll post a situation and take suggestions in the comments. Next week, Suey will compile the suggestions and then post a poll of the top (or our favourite) nominees. We'll send the results to Price-Waterhouse, and keep them under secure lock and key until we reveal the results.
Suey and I have come up with a list of possible situations that we plan to post about, but if you have an idea for a bookword situation, please let us know as well and we'll add it to the pile. The more interactive and involved we can get people, the more fun this will be.
The situation: what can we call a book that you read after hearing other people rave about it, they love it and want to name their children after, but you don't get it. They loved this? You don't love the book but everyone else does. What is the new bookword for this?
suggestions in the comments please.
edit: We'll leave the suggestions open til sometime on Tuesday, then we'll have the vote at Suey's blog. There are some good ones so far!
I have come across a few of these recently!
ReplyDeleteThe only word I can think of is POLARISING, but that doesn't quite cover the feeling of isolation you get, when you just don't understand why everyone else loves it!
I look forward to seeing if someone comes up with a great new word for this!
I was thinking of BookPolar or PolarBook, similar to Farmlanebooks's suggestion.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of "high jump" ss the book was way high in expectation and went diving from there. I am enjoying this game. Thanks
ReplyDeleteWhen this happens, I think to myself 'I just don't get it, I am baffled.' So I propose something like "book baffle" or "bafflebook".
ReplyDeleteGreat game and so much fun:)
How about a puzzle book? As I am puzzled why everyone else likes it!
ReplyDeletethis is a tough one ...
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think of something that most people really like but others just don't get the attraction ...
it is sort of like this: most people love Oprah but I just don't get what all the hype is about (of course, we can't call it an Oprah book b/c that is already a real thing)
one book that comes to mind that fits this exactly is Eat Pray Love: many people said it changed their lives while others said it was cr*p
it reminds me of a bunch of lemmings all running together off a cliff - all the lemming-readers are happy and joyful about a book while some other readers are like WHAT?!
so maybe a "lemming book" would work? but maybe this would be a better name for a different category of book, like the ones that it seems literally everone is reading (Twlight, anyone?)
I'm trying to think of something that most people really like but others just don't get the attraction ...
ReplyDeleteLike olives or stilton?!!
How about a blue cheese book! Some people love it, but others just think it smells bad!
I like these. I don't know if I can come up with anything like that. How about "Twilight Zone" book, for 2 reasons. First, it seems like a Twilight Zone episode: everyone is crazy for something you don't get. And 2nd, Twilight is such a popular book that to have a different opinion seems to set the Fangirls off.
ReplyDeleteHa! I like Blue Cheese Book!
ReplyDeleteI like Pass-A-Long book as in pass-along plant. Peeps give me all kinds of plants to enhance my garden and sometimes they take, but most of the time they languish for a couple of months then finally turn brown and die.
ReplyDeleteA RecommenDUD.
ReplyDelete;-)
love the game.
Wow! You guys are coming up with some great ones!
ReplyDeleteAnchovie, people either love em or hate em
ReplyDeleteI just call it a letdown. I really like recommenDUD though. That's funny!
ReplyDeleteA "That's it?" book. Just thought I would take a shot at this!:)
ReplyDeleteI have your letter: "Y" for the meme. Totally random, I swear!
ReplyDeleteHow about the "Nimho," as in "Not in my humble opinion."
ReplyDeleteA "Huh? Book"
ReplyDeleteI do like RecommenDUD?
Badwagon Book ?
ReplyDeleteNot Quite Book ?
I would like to come up with a name for this situation:
ReplyDeleteA book that is about a famous person's relative, friend, mistress ect...
For example,
Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper is about about Shakespearse's "other wife" or Signora da Vinci by Robin Maxwell is about Leonardo da Vinci's mother.
How about book tumble? The book with high expectastions took a tumble down.
ReplyDeleteI like both the Blue Cheese book and recommenDUD
ReplyDeleteOMG people have such great ideas! I just wanted to say I think this idea is fabulous. :-) My ideas aren't nearly as good as recommenDUD.
ReplyDeleteHow about a chalk-cheese book? Readers' reactions can be as different as .....
ReplyDeleteI like blue cheese book! What about a fallen book? Like you had it up on a pedestal until you read it and it fell off.
ReplyDeleteI have no suggestions to add, but wanted to say that I like recommenDUD...it's perfect!
ReplyDeleteSuziQ's recommenDUD is great!!! Very clever, Suzi, I wish you were in my class!
ReplyDelete