Archive for the ‘contest’ Category

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015

Congrats to Our Edible Books 2015 Winners!

Thanks to all who entered our Fourth Annual Edible Books Contest! Your confections look amazing, and my only regret is the sugar craving you’ve left in your wake. You can check out all the submissions for this year’s Edible Books Contest over in the “EdibleBooks2015” tag gallery. Without further ado, I present our winners for 2015.

Grand Prize

This year’s grand prize goes to LT member W.MdO, whose assortment of sugar cookie book covers from iconic works like To Kill a Mockingbird and Catch-22 wowed us all. Iced by hand entirely with royal icing, most of LT Staff agrees, these look almost too good to eat. We’d be willing, though, to save anyone else from having the destruction of such masterpieces on their conscience.

In addition to the requisite fame and glory, W.MdO will be receiving $50 worth in books, hand-picked by LT Staff! We’ll also be sending some LT swag their way: an LT t-shirt or tote bag, an LT library stamp, a CueCat barcode scanner, an LT sticker, and two lifetime gift memberships, to bestow as they see fit. Amazing work!

2nd Place

Our first runner-up award (and the accompanying prestige and prizes) goes to LT member powerfulpotentiality, for their truly magical (sorry) cake, inspired by Annie Sage’s fantasy novel, Magyk. powerfulpotentiality’s work is the spitting image of the tome itself, in cake form—crafted as a hummingbird cake (banana pineapple spice cake, for the uninitiated) with browned buttercream frosting. I’d love to know how our baker achieved the shimmer gold effect on the accents!

3rd Place

Second runner-up honors (and prizes) go to LT member gofergrl84, for their impressively faithful reconstruction of the eponymous cake, from Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half masterpiece, “The God of Cake”—if you haven’t read this yet, go do it, now. Complete with looming caricature of the author in the background and marshmallow animals, we can only wonder how gofergrl84 managed to contain the need for sugar long enough to photograph their work. Well done!

Thanks, everyone!

Winners, be sure to check your profile comments shortly for details on claiming your prizes.

Competition was fierce this year—while it was a small batch, the sheer quality across the board submissions really knocked our socks off. I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout-out to StJohntheBaptist‘s heartfelt and detailed pop-up cake, depicting the grand opening of their church’s lending library. LT member marcottm made a beautiful, hand-painted Rice Krispie treat castle, complete with a boy and his dragon, inspired by When a Dragon Moves In. The apple pie shipwrecked on an island of marshmallows created by milibrarian was clever and sounds delicious! And—particularly as a fellow cat-owner—morningwalker‘s cat box cake (complete with scoop!) amused me to no end. You are all far better bakers than I. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us!

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Thursday, March 26th, 2015

LibraryThing’s 4th Annual Edible Books Contest

Spring has finally sprung, which means it’s time for our FOURTH annual Edible Books Contest! Members cooked up a delicious batch of literary confections and concoctions last year, and we’re expecting another strong showing for 2015.

The Rules

1. Create an “edible book.” We’re defining this broadly, so entries can include dishes:

  • referencing a book’s title or characters (puns are entirely welcome)
  • inspired by a book’s plot
  • in the shape of an actual book (or eBook, or scroll, etc.)
  • takeoffs on the LibraryThing logo

2. Document your masterpiece. At right is the grand-prize winner from last year’s contest, inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You can see other submissions from last year in the EdibleBooks2014 gallery (and here’s 2013 and 2012). If your creation is super realistic, take a photo cross section of your creation as you eat it!

3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.

4. When adding the image, be sure to tag it “EdibleBooks2015.” Yes, those capital letters are important. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry. If your photo doesn’t have that tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You can see current entries here.

5. Tell us about your literary inspiration—and how you made it—in the “Title/description” box

DEADLINE: The contest will run for just over three weeks. Add your photos by 6pm Eastern on Sunday, April 19th.

The Prizes

From all entries in the EdibleBooks2015 gallery, LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

Grand Prize (1)

  • $50 worth of books from Sherman’s Bookstore*
  • Your choice of LT t-shirt OR tote bag
  • An LT library stamp (your choice of classic, mini, or “clean” stamp)
  • A CueCat
  • An LT sticker
  • Two lifetime gift memberships
  • Great honor and prestige

Runners Up (2)

  • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, tote bag, stamp, or CueCat
  • Two lifetime gift memberships

As always, we will pick a few Honorable Mentions from the batch of entries. The more entries we receive, the more Honorable Mentions we can make—and all of them will get lifetime gift memberships, too.

Have fun, and good luck!

Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. Your dish must be made of edible ingredients (no hats, lost-wax sculptures, performance art), and by entering the contest you certify that it is your own creation. Entries submitted to previous LibraryThing Edible Books contests will not be considered. All decisions as to winners and book prize slections will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

Questions? Comments? Post them over on Talk.


*Surprise books will be chosen by LibraryThing staff from Portland, ME’s indie bookstore, Sherman’s! We’ll make our selections based on the winner’s library/wishlist.

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

AllHallowsThing 2014

Today marks the launch of our 2nd Annual AllHallowsThing Contest!

“What is AllHallowsThing?” you ask? Last year, we asked you to send us pictures of your literary-themed Halloween costumes and pumpkins, and boy, were we impressed.Your submissions knocked our socks off.

Help us celebrate Halloween once again!

How to enter

  • Choose one (or both!) of the two categories.
    • Costume: Dress up as a character, object, etc. from your favorite book.
    • Pumpkin: Decorate a literary pumpkin!
  • Take photos of your costume/pumpkins.
  • Upload your photos to your member gallery.
  • Be sure to tag your photos. Tag them with “AllHallowsThing2014“. Yes, capitalization matters.
  • Go ahead and add a title, description, etc., detailing how you made your costume or creation.
  • Deadline: Be sure to submit your costumes and pumpkins by 6pm Monday, November 10th to be considered for one of our fantastic prizes!

Prizes

On November 11th, LibraryThing staff will have a top secret meeting in which we’ll choose winners for each category.

Grand Prize: One per category

Runners Up: Two per category

  • Your choice of a LibraryThing t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
  • A lifetime LibraryThing gift membership

Fine print: You can enter as many times as you like, to either category, but you can only win one prize. By entering the contest, you certify that your creation is your own. All decisions regarding winners will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final, damn it. LT staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less honorable mentions. We reserve the right to use your photo, but the copyright remains yours. You can release them under a copyleft license.

Questions? Comments? Post links and questions here on Talk.

Labels: AllHallowsThing, contest, contests

Wednesday, April 30th, 2014

Congratulations to Our Edible Books Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered our Third Annual Edible Books Contest! Once more, you’ve left your judges impressed, and in serious need of cake we can eat right this second. Edible Books would be impossible without you. You can see all submissions for the contest in the EdibleBooks2014 tag gallery.

The Winners

The grand prize goes to LT member nk1271’s collection of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cake pops. Made for a “geeky” potluck, these strawberry cake pops were accompanied not only by proof that nk1271 really knows where their towel is, but also references to the ill-fated whale and pot of petunias. We loved those additions.

Along with fame and glory, nk1271 will be receiving $50 worth in books, hand-picked for them by LT staff! Additionally, we’ll be sending the following LT swag their way: a LibraryThing t-shirt, stamp, sticker, CueCat, and three lifetime gift memberships to share.

Our first runner-up (and all attendant prizes) goes to Agailbee, for this charming take on the children’s classic, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Comprised of a whopping 21 individual cupcakes (plus a single larger cake for the head), this confection bears a striking resemblance to its inspiration. He even has feet (chocolate chips), antennae, and branches (both licorice) to climb on. Well done!

3rd Place—We have a tie!

Kudos to our second runner-up (and winner of great prizes), WildNelly, for splitting the vote. We liked two of their creations so much, the judges here at LTHQ just couldn’t decide! One the left, this delicate birthday cake was accompanied and inspired by Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds’ Nests. Below and on the right, we have WildNelly’s homage to the American Girls Mystery series. Made for a daughter who’s a fan, they also held a mystery party, at which guests were challenged to solve the cake’s inspiration, The Curse of Ravenscourt.

Honorable Mentions

The competition was very close this year, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t also tip my hat to jessipete, for their impressively intricate rendition of of Smaug the Golden, from The Hobbit. The level of detail was incredible. I’m also really curious about the Elvish-inscribed cake in the background!

Thanks, everyone!

To all our contestants, congratulations! You all did amazing (and delicious-looking) work! Thanks so much for joining us, and I look forward to seeing more scrumptiously literary creations next year.

To our winners, be sure to check your profile comments shortly for details on claiming your prizes!

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

LibraryThing’s 3rd Annual Edible Books Contest!

April has finally arrived, and with it, LibraryThing’s THIRD annual Edible Books Contest! Members served up a tasty batch of literary delights last year, and we’re expecting another strong showing in ’14.

The Rules

1. Create an “edible book.” We’re defining this broadly, so entries can include dishes:

  • referencing a book’s title or characters (puns are entirely welcome)
  • inspired by a book’s plot
  • in the shape of an actual book (or eBook, or scroll, etc.)
  • takeoffs on the LibraryThing logo

2. Take photos of what you made. The photo on the right is the grand-prize winner from last year’s contest, inspired by David Wong’s books. You can see other submissions from last year in the EdibleBooks2013 gallery. If your creation is super realistic, take a photo cross section of your creation as you eat it!

3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.

4. When adding the image, be sure to tag it “EdibleBooks2014“. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry. If your photo doesn’t have that tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You can see current entries here.

5. Tell us about your literary inspiration—and how you made it—in the “Title/description” box

DEADLINE: The contest will run for three weeks. Add your photos by 6pm Eastern on Tuesday, April 29th.

The Prizes

From all entries in the EdibleBooks2014 gallery, LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

Grand Prize (1)

  • $50 worth of books from Sherman’s Bookstore*
  • An LT t-shirt (size/color of your choice)
  • An LT library stamp
  • A CueCat
  • An LT sticker
  • Three lifetime gift memberships
  • Great honor and prestige

Runners Up (2)

  • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
  • Two lifetime gift memberships

As always, we will pick a few Honorable Mentions from the batch of entries. The more entries we receive, the more Honorable Mentions we can makeā€”and all of them will get lifetime gift memberships.

Have fun, and good luck!

Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. Your dish must be made of edible ingredients (no hats, lost-wax sculptures, performance art), and by entering the contest you certify that it is your own creation. Entries submitted to previous LibraryThing Edible Books contests will not be considered. All decisions as to winners and book prize slections will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

Questions? Comments? Post them over on Talk.


*Surprise books will be chosen by LibraryThing staff from Portland, ME’s newest indie bookstore, Sherman’s! We’ll make our selections based on the winner’s library.

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

AllHallowsThing Contest!

To celebrate Halloween, LibraryThing is introducing a brand new competition, “All HallowsThing.” It could help you decorate for the big night, or even inspire that costume you are worrying about!

How to enter

  1. Choose one of the two competition categories, or submit to both.
    • Literary Costume: Dress as a character or object from your favorite book.
    • Pumpkin Creations: Make a literary pumpkin!
  2. Take photos of your costume/pumpkins.
  3. Upload your photos to your gallery.
  4. Be sure to tag your photos. Tag them AllHallowsThing2013.
  5. Go ahead and add a title, description or whatever, detailing how you made your costume/creation.
  6. Deadline: The deadline is by 6 pm, Eastern on November 8th to be considered for our fabulous prizes!

Winners get

The staff at LibraryThing will choose the winners of each category.

Grand Prize: One per category

Runners Up: Two per category

  • Your choice of a LibraryThing t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
  • That secret, undisclosed LibraryThing gift we haven’t announced yet
  • A lifetime gift membership

Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. By entering the contest you certify that your creation is your own. All decisions as to winners will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final, damn it. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less honorable mentions. We reserve the right to use your photo, but the copyright remains yours. You can release them under a copyleft license.

Questions? Post links and question on this Talk topic.

Labels: AllHallowsThing, contest, contests

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

Edible Book Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered our second annual virtual Edible Books Contest! Once again your biblio-culinary talents impressed and amazed! Check out all of the entries in the gallery.

Without further ado, your winners …

The grand prize goes to new member GSCK for this sinister tableau of books by David Wong: This Book is Full of Spiders and John Dies at the End. The books are made of vanilla and chocolate cake, with fondant and white chocolate spider webs. Another view here.

Along with the honor and fame, GSCK wins a $50 gift certificate to Longfellow Books, an LT t-shirt, stamp, and sticker, plus a CueCat and three lifetime gift memberships to LibraryThing!

We picked two runners-up: both will win their choice of an LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat, plus two lifetime gift memberships. First we have mellu for an anagrammatic and delicious-sounding take on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, made from “layered sponge cake filled with raspberry mousse + bilberry jam, decorated with red marzipan and white sugar paste.”

Our second runner-up this year is v4758, for a birthday cake of “desert island books,” made from “innumerable batches of Victoria sponge and enough fondant icing to satisfy even the sweetest tooth.” v7458 even provided a cross-section. The books are Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, as well as Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary.

We also chose a couple of Honorable Mention winners; each will receive a lifetime gift membership. These are jorkar for an axolotl cake to celebrate the release of Susan Hood’s Spike, the Mixed-up Monster and debwalsh51 for her take on Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.

And just because it made me laugh, I have to mention “Maybe Tomorrow” by GSCK: It’s captioned “Homage to The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing made out of frosting. I haven’t gotten around to making the cake yet.”

I’ll be contacting the winners to claim their prizes.

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks again to all the entrants!

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

Edible Books Contest deadline extended!

It’s been just a little bit busy around here these past few days, so we’re going to extend the deadline for entering this year’s Edible Books Contest.

The new deadline for entry is 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 18. The original post is below, with all the contest info, how to enter, all the prizes, and more. Check out all the entries submitted so far at the EdibleBooks2013 gallery.


We had so much fun with last year’s virtual Edible Books Contest, we’ve decided to make it an annual event!

How to participate:

1. Create an “edible book.” We’re defining this broadly, so entries can include dishes:

  • referencing a book’s title or characters (puns are entirely welcome)
  • inspired by a book’s plot
  • in the shape of an actual book (or eBook, or scroll, etc.)
  • takeoffs on the LibraryThing logo

2. Take some photos of what you made. The photo at right is the grand-prize winner from last year’s contest. See more of the winners here or all of the entries in the gallery.

3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.

4. When adding the image, tag it “EdibleBooks2013”. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry into the contest. If your photo doesn’t have the tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You’ll be able to see all the entries here.

5. Tell us about it in the “Title/description” box.

Deadline: Add your photos by 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 18.

What we’ll do:

Based on all the images in the “EdibleBooks2013” photo gallery, LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

Grand Prize (1)

  • A $50 gift certificate to Longfellow Books
  • An LT t-shirt (size/color of your choice)
  • An LT library stamp
  • A CueCat
  • An LT sticker
  • Three lifetime gift memberships
  • Great honor

Runners Up (2)

  • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
  • Two lifetime gift memberships

We may also pick a few Honorable Mentionsā€”final number will depend on the number of entries receivedā€”and they’ll receive a lifetime gift membership.

Have fun!

Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. Your dish must be made of edible ingredients (no hats, lost-wax sculptures, performance art), and by entering the contest you certify that it is your own creation. Entries submitted to previous LibraryThing Edible Books contests will not be considered. All decisions as to winners will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

Questions? Feel free to post questions/discussion/etc. here.

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Monday, March 4th, 2013

The 2nd annual LibraryThing Edible Books contest!

We had so much fun with last year’s virtual Edible Books Contest, we’ve decided to make it an annual event!

How to participate:

1. Create an “edible book.” We’re defining this broadly, so entries can include dishes:

  • referencing a book’s title or characters (puns are entirely welcome)
  • inspired by a book’s plot
  • in the shape of an actual book (or eBook, or scroll, etc.)
  • takeoffs on the LibraryThing logo

2. Take some photos of what you made. The photo at right is the grand-prize winner from last year’s contest. See more of the winners here or all of the entries in the gallery.

3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.

4. When adding the image, tag it “EdibleBooks2013”. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry into the contest. If your photo doesn’t have the tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You’ll be able to see all the entries here.

5. Tell us about it in the “Title/description” box.

Deadline: Add your photos by 4 p.m. EST on Thursday, April 4.

What we’ll do:

Based on all the images in the “EdibleBooks2013” photo gallery, LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

Grand Prize (1)

  • A $50 gift certificate to Longfellow Books
  • An LT t-shirt (size/color of your choice)
  • An LT library stamp
  • A CueCat
  • An LT sticker
  • Three lifetime gift memberships
  • Great honor

Runners Up (2)

  • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
  • Two lifetime gift memberships

We may also pick a few Honorable Mentionsā€”final number will depend on the number of entries receivedā€”and they’ll receive a lifetime gift membership.

Have fun!

Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. Your dish must be made of edible ingredients (no hats, lost-wax sculptures, performance art), and by entering the contest you certify that it is your own creation. Entries submitted to previous LibraryThing Edible Books contests will not be considered. All decisions as to winners will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

Questions? Feel free to post questions/discussion/etc. here.

Labels: contest, contests, fun

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

“The Casual Vacancy” Review contest winners!

Drum roll please … I’m happy to announce the winners of the review contest for J.K. Rowling’s new novel, The Casual Vacancy.

As promised the top three reviews (those with the most “thumbs-up” when the contest closed) win a $50 gift card to Amazon, Abebooks, Booksense, or any independent bookseller of their choice, a LibraryThing t-shirt and a lifetime membership (to keep or give away).

The top three are:

Seven runners up* (the next seven reviews with the most “thumbs-up”) win a LibraryThing t-shirt and a free lifetime membership (to keep or give away).

We didn’t have forty additional reviewers who both wrote a review and voted for others’ reviews, so everyone who did that will each receive a year’s free membership (to keep or give away).

Congratulations to everyone who participated! If you won a membership: I’ve upgraded your own if you weren’t already a lifetime or annual member; otherwise, go here to send your gift membership. For winners of the top prizes, I’ll be sending you a profile comment shortly!

You can read all the reviews here.


* I was actually shocked to find myself as the “first runner-up” (you can read my review here if you like). As per the rules, I am thus a “prize-less runner-up.”

Labels: contest, contests, reviews

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

“The Casual Vacancy” Review Contest

J.K. Rowling’s new novel, The Casual Vacancy, hits shelves (and mailboxes) today, and I’m going to bet it doesn’t take very long at all before the LibraryThing reviews start appearing.

We figured it was a good time to have another review contest! We did this before when Breaking Dawn and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, and it was great fun.

The prizes:

That’s right, there will be FIFTY winners.

How the winners will be chosen:

  • The top three reviews—with the most thumbs-up—will get the big prize. The next seven will get the next prize.
  • The remaining forty winners will be randomly picked from all members who both wrote a review and voted for others’ reviews.

So, when you finish reading, get writing! When you’re done writing, take some time to read other reviews, and give the thumbs-up to the ones you think deserve it.

The contest ends on Friday, October 19th Tuesday, October 30th. Have fun!

We’re also assembling the published reviews for The Casual Vacancy as they roll in. See this thread for discussion. Warning: don’t read these reviews if you don’t want to see spoilers.

Fine Print: The review you post must be your review (as per the Terms of Use). LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up.

Labels: contest, contests, reviews

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

Spine Poetry Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered our Book Spine Poetry Contest! We were happily overwhelmed at the number of entries we received (373 total!), and all of the judges agreed that it was very difficult to choose just a few winners. You can check out all of the entries in the gallery. Click on the images in this post to see the full-size versions.

Without further ado ….

We’ve decided to award two grand prize awards: the first goes to HouseholdOpera for “Dark and Stormy Night” (pictured at left). The poem reads “The dark is rising / under Milk Wood. / A wave / travels / the forest, / tempest-tost.”

The second grand prize goes to klx, for the only poem that made almost all of us laugh out loud when we read it (pictured at right). Here’s the poem as captioned by the author: “My goat ate its own legs, / Weird by true, / A moveable feast. / The idiot.”

Along with the honor and fame, HouseholdOpera and klx have both won an LT t-shirt, stamp, and sticker, plus a CueCat and three lifetime gift memberships to LibraryThing!

We picked two runners-up: both will win their choice of an LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat, plus two lifetime gift memberships. The runners-up are trippingpencil, for “Feed / the white tiger / or she dies, / Asshole. / How good do we have to be?” (at left) and opheliaskiss, for “The Bookseller” (at right).

We also chose a few Honorable Mention winners; each will receive a lifetime gift membership. These are:

  • eelee for Cameras
  • jorlene for Such a long journey …
  • Sylak for The Library / Thing of Beauty (which, the author writes, “will never be broken up by me and now sits in pride of place at the top of my bookshelf for visitors to admire”)
  • Rating an Honorable Mention (but not winning another prize) is HouseholdOpera for Steampunk Internet.

    I’ll be contacting the winners today to claim their prizes. And let me just reiterate how really difficult choosing the winners was: we had a great range of really amazing material to work with!

    Congratulations to our winners, and a big thanks again to all the entrants and to our special guest judge, Nina Katchadourian! Watch for a collection of Nina’s Sorted Books projects, coming in 2013 from Chronicle Books. And stay tuned; this was a good success, so I think we’ll do it again next year!

    Labels: book pile, contest, contests

    Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

    Book Spine Poetry Contest!

    August feels like a good time for a contest, right? We’ve decided to try a new twist on our usual bookpiles contest: book spine poetry (here’s a previous example, from our 2007 “downpile” contest).

    We’ve thrilled to announce that we’ve arranged for a special guest judge to help us pick the winners of this contest: Nina Katchadourian, who’s been working in this field since 1993 with her Sorted Books project (credited with inspiring many subsequent projects of this type). In 2013 Chronicle Books will be publishing a book of Nina’s works, so look forward to that!

    How to participate:

    1. Create a poem using book spines. The poem can incorporate any element of the spine you like (color, text, whatever). Theme/length/format is entirely up to you (bonus points if it’s about books, reading, or LibraryThing, though!). If you need some inspiration, there are some great examples here, or here (the latter are the works of our guest judge).

    2. Take some photos of your poem.

    3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.*

    4. When adding the image, tag it “SpinePoetry2012”. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry into the contest. If your photo doesn’t have the tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You’ll be able to see all the entries here.

    5. Tell us about it in the “Title/description” box. You can include a list of the books you used, a transcription of the poem if you want, any explanation, &c.

    Deadline: Add your photos by 4 p.m. EDT on Friday, September 7.

    What we’ll do:

    Based on all the images in the “SpinePoetry2012” photo gallery, guest judge Nina Katchadourian and LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

    Grand Prize (1)

    • An LT t-shirt (size/color of your choice)
    • An LT library stamp
    • A CueCat
    • An LT sticker
    • Three lifetime gift memberships
    • Great honor

    Runners Up (2)

    • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
    • Two lifetime gift memberships

    We may also pick a few Honorable Mentionsā€”final number will depend on the number of entries receivedā€”and they’ll receive a lifetime gift membership.

    Have fun!

    Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. By entering the contest you certify your images and the poems are your own creations. All decisions as to winners will be made by LibraryThing staff and our guest judge, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

    Questions? Feel free to post questions/discussion/etc. here.

    Labels: book pile, contest, contests

    Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

    Edible Book Contest winners!

    Thanks to everyone who entered our first virtual Edible Books Contest! We were delighted at the number and range of entries, and I think we’ll plan to do it again next year! Check out all of the entries in the gallery.

    Without further ado, your winners …

    The grand prize goes to TheCriticalTimes for this edible version of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, made of sponge cake and edible paper, complete with fondant Kraken.

    Along with the honor and fame, TheCriticalTimes wins an LT t-shirt, stamp, and sticker, plus a CueCat and three lifetime gift memberships to LibraryThing!

    We picked two runners-up: both will win their choice of an LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat, plus two lifetime gift memberships. The runners-up are Unexpected, for “The Luggage,” from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (chocolate cake with marzipan and “lots of little pink icing feet”) and mellu for this take on Jo NesbĆø’s The Snowman, made of marzipan (with a real carrot nose!).

    We also chose a couple of Honorable Mention winners; each will receive a lifetime gift membership. These are infomagnet for War and Pizza, and exlibrislady for the delicious-sounding (and looking!) Gregor and the Apple (“a crunchy peanut butter mousse covered in a hard chocolate shell on caramel feet. The plate is garnished with raspberry coulis and a single apple crisp. It must be eaten in a grey, bleak building while the rain falls dispassionately outside”).

    I’ll be contacting the winners to claim their prizes.

    Congratulations to our winners, thanks again to all the entrants, and watch for an announcement next spring for our second Edible Books contest!

    Labels: contest, contests, fun

    Monday, May 7th, 2012

    Reminder: Edible Books Contest!

    Quick reminder: we’ll be accepting new entries for our Edible Books Contest until 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 10.

    See the contest announcement for all the details on entries, rules, prize information, etc. Or check out the entries submitted so far in the photo gallery.

    Labels: contest, contests, fun

    Thursday, April 12th, 2012

    LibraryThing “Edible Books Contest”!

    We haven’t run a good, old-fashioned contest in a while, so it’s time! We’re going to try something new (to LibraryThing) for this one: it’s a virtual Edible Books Contest!

    How to participate:

    1. Create an “edible book.” We’re defining this broadly, so entries can include dishes:

    • referencing a book’s title or characters (puns are entirely welcome)
    • inspired by a book’s plot
    • in the shape of an actual book (or eBook, or scroll, etc.)
    • takeoffs on the LibraryThing logo

    2. Take some photos of what you made. The photo at right is one of the entries from the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library’s Edible Books Festival (see more of their photos here).

    3. Upload the photo to your LT member gallery. Sign in, then go here and click the “Add another picture” link to add the image.*

    4. When adding the image, tag it “EdibleBooks2012”. This will add your image to the contest gallery, and counts as your entry into the contest. If your photo doesn’t have the tag, we won’t know that you’ve entered. You’ll be able to see all the entries here.

    5. Tell us about it in the “Title/description” box.

    Deadline: Add your photos by 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 10.

    What we’ll do:

    Based on all the images in the “EdibleBooks2012” photo gallery, LibraryThing staff will choose the following winners:

    Grand Prize (1)

    • An LT t-shirt (size/color of your choice)
    • An LT library stamp
    • A CueCat
    • An LT sticker
    • Three lifetime gift memberships
    • Great honor

    Runners Up (2)

    • Your choice of one LT t-shirt, stamp, or CueCat
    • Two lifetime gift memberships

    We may also pick a few Honorable Mentionsā€”final number will depend on the number of entries receivedā€”and they’ll receive a lifetime gift membership.

    Have fun!

    Fine Print: You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize. Your dish must be made of edible ingredients (no hats, lost-wax sculptures, performance art), and by entering the contest you certify that it is your own creation. All decisions as to winners will be made by LibraryThing staff, and our decisions are final. LibraryThing staff and family can enter, but can only be honored as prize-less runners-up. Any images you load stay yours, or you can release them under a copyleft license, but we get a standard “non-exclusive, perpetual” right to use them.

    Questions? Feel free to post questions/discussion/etc. here.


    * We thought about having everyone send us their dishes for judging (and tasting). But we decided they might not hold up to mailing well, and that our waistlines probably couldn’t handle it!

    Labels: contest, contests, fun

    Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

    “Paper Man” Blu-Ray Giveaway

    We’re partnering with MPI Media to give away a gift pack for the Blu-Ray release of “Paper Man,” starring Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Daniels and Lisa Kudrow (watch the trailer – available on Blu-Ray and DVD today!). Daniels plays a novelist with some pretty serious writer’s block, and Reynolds is his imaginary friend, Captain Excellent.

    The gift pack includes a Blu-Ray of the movie, plus an Amazon Kindle.

    Entering is easy: just comment on this post with your LT username, and we’ll pick the winner at random at 3 p.m. EST on Friday (21 January). Multiple comments will not increase your chances of winning.

    Update: Congratulations to LTer aglaia351, the winner of this giveaway. Enjoy!

    Labels: contest, movies

    Monday, August 30th, 2010

    One last Hunger Games box set giveaway

    For those who haven’t read the Hunger Games books, leave a comment on this blog post to win a box set of the complete trilogy.

    The deadline is Wednesday, September 1st at 10:00 AM EDT.

    Mockingjay, the final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy, came out on August 24th, and we’re celebrating with one last contest, one for those who’ve heard so much about the books, but haven’t been able to read them yet.

    Any LibraryThing member can win one of box sets by leaving a comment below. The winner will be picked randomly from all commenters–leaving multiple comments will not increase your chances of winning. Please be sure to include your username. The deadline is Wednesday, September 1st at 10:00 AM EDT.

    Congratulations to kamane for winning the photo contest.

    About Mockingjay
    Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that sheā€™s made it out of the bloody arena alive, sheā€™s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And whatā€™s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katnissā€™s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collinsā€™s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

    Read more about Mockingjay, including LibraryThing member reviews, ratings and more.

    Labels: contest

    Monday, August 23rd, 2010

    Photo contest: win a Hunger Games box set

    In anticipation for Mockingjay, the final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy which comes out on tomorrow, Scholastic has provided two box sets of the complete trilogy to give away.

    Any LibraryThing member can win one of box sets by submitting a photo that re-creates a moment from the series. The idea is to take a picture that reproduces a scene from one of the first two books, Hunger Games or Catching Fire.

    The deadline is 10 pm EST this Sunday, August 29th.

    Find a fence and pretend to sneak out of District 12. Get some crepe paper and create one of the costumes Katniss wore in the parades*. Find whatever moment you want to replicate, and capture it with your camera.

    Email your photo to sonyalibrarything.com. Include your LibraryThing username and a short (50 word max) description of the scene. The deadline is Sunday, August 29th at 10 pm EST.

    Abby and I will be the judges of the contest. Two winners will each receive one box set of all three Hunger Games books, including the highly anticipated** final book Mockingjay. Winners will be announced via blog post, on Monday, August 30th.

    About Mockingjay
    Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that sheā€™s made it out of the bloody arena alive, sheā€™s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And whatā€™s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katnissā€™s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collinsā€™s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

    *Please, no flaming costumes. We’re not responsible for your immolation.
    **Not just by me–over 500 people have already added it to the catalogs, and it’s not out yet!

    Labels: contest

    Friday, August 29th, 2008

    Breaking Dawn review contest winners

    The suspense is over—behold, the winners of the Breaking Dawn review contest!

    When the contest closed on the 15th of August, there were already 119 reviews in (for a book that had been out just two weeks). As promised the top three reviews (those with the most “thumbs-up” when the contest closed) win a $50 gift card to Amazon, Abebooks, Booksense, or any independent bookseller of their choice, a LibraryThing t-shirt and a year’s free membership (to keep or give away).

    The top three are:

    Seven runners up (the next seven reviews with the most “thumbs-up”) win a LibraryThing t-shirt and a year’s free membership (to keep or give away).

    And then forty reviewers were randomly chosen from everyone who both wrote a review and voted for others’ reviews. They’ll each receive a year’s free membership (to keep or give away).

    Congratulations to everyone who participated! Winners, email Lindsey: info@librarything.com to claim your prize (include your user name)! If you won a tshirt, include your mailing address, and preferred t-shirt color and size (see the choices here).

    Labels: Breaking Dawn, contest, reviews

    Thursday, July 31st, 2008

    Twilight Review Contest

    In mere hours (at midnight on Friday night), the fourth book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn will be released. And I’m sure I won’t be the only person up reading all weekend, and then waiting to talk about it as soon as I’m finished.

    We figured it was a good time to have another review contest! We did this before when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, and it was great fun.

    The prizes:

    That’s right, that’s FIFTY winners.

    How the winners will be chosen:

    • The top three reviews–with the most thumbs-up–will get the big prize. The next seven will get the next prize.
    • The remaining forty winners will be randomly picked from all members who both wrote a review and voted for others’ reviews.

    So, when you finish reading, get writing! When you’re done writing, take some time to read other reviews, and give the thumbs-up to the ones you think deserve it.

    The contest ends on Friday, August 15th.

    And then? Well, there are a ton of Twilight groups where you can stop by and join a discussion on Breaking Dawn, Bella, Edward, Jacob, and more. Here are a few:

    Labels: Breaking Dawn, contest, reviews, Twilight

    Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

    Book pile contest

    It’s been a while since we’ve had a bookpile contest, so we figure it’s time to bring back that LibraryThing tradition. We’re also nearing the 30 million books milestone as well as coming up on our third anniversary—time to start celebrating!

    As you know, we’ve been doing a lot of work on the home page lately. As we announced last month, every member now has a personalized, customizable home page. Next up is redesigning the home page that everyone sees when they first visit LibraryThing (the signed out home page). We’re considering a new book pile (see the current one to the right)—that’s where you come in. We’re not guaranteeing we’ll use it, but we figured we’d see what LibraryThing members can come up with!

    So, the contest! We want book piles. Remember, your pile should represent LibraryThing itself, however you choose to interpret it (is it all about the cataloging for you? The talking about books? Connecting with other members?). Given the international flavor of LibraryThing, extra points if you include non-English books in the pile as well.

    The rules

    • Post your photos to Flickr and tag them “LTbookpile” (also tag them “LibraryThing“). If you make a new account it can take a few days for your photos to be publicly accessible, so post a URL to them in the comments here.
    • Or, post your photos on WikiThing here.
    • Or, if all else fails, just email them to abby@librarything.com and I’ll post them for you.

    The deadline
    Get your photos in by Friday, August 15th at noon EDT.

    The prizes

    Labels: book pile, contest

    Thursday, January 24th, 2008

    Groundhog Day Book Pile Contest

    Photo credit: Flickr member x-eyedblonde; CC-Attribution

    In honor of being sick of the glorious New England winter, I hereby announce the newest book pile contest theme: Groundhog Day.

    Interpret it as you like! Extra points if you can raise the temperature in Boston. I’m cold.

    More about Groundhog Day on Wikipedia, and of course, the Bill Murray classic.

    The rules:

    • Post your photos to Flickr and tag them “LTGroundhog” (also tag them “LibraryThing”). If you make a new account it can take a few days for your photos to be publicly accessible, so post a URL to them in the comments here.
    • Or, post your photos on the wiki here.
    • Or, if all else fails, just email them to abby@librarything.com and I’ll post them.

    The deadline: Friday, February 8th at noon, EST.

    The prizes: One grand prize winner will receive a LibraryThing t-shirt, and one runner up will get a yearly gift membership (to keep or give away).

    Find inspiration in our archive of past book pile contests.

    Labels: book pile, contest

    Friday, January 11th, 2008

    Holiday book pile contest winners

    Now that the holiday season is behind us, voila, the winners of LibraryThing’s holiday bookpile contest. First prize winner, Teampoush, gets a LibraryThing t-shirt for the subtly cool “Joy to the world” photo (look at closely at the books in the background if you don’t see it at first).

    The two runners up are melannen with the impressive “New Year’s Day Bookpile” (what a way to start the year!) and SanityDemolisher with “Sleigh of Books”). Each will get a gift membership.

    See all of the submissions here and here.

    SantaThing report. I think SantaThing, while a little rushed, was a success! Almost 300 people picked out books for strangers, and had fun doing it. Next year, we’ll certainly make some changes*, but it was a good start. My sincere apologies to anyone whose books came after Christmas—we tried our hardest to get them in time, but it didn’t happen in every case. If you want to see what everyone else picked for their various Santa-ees, or if your Santa left you a personal message (most messages were transferred onto the Amazon order slip, but long ones didn’t fit in), go check it out!

    UPDATE: we fixed the SantaThing page so you can peek at the suggestions on your own page.

    http://www.librarything.com/santathing.php

    The ordering process was actually kind of fun—I started to see themes of popular books. How many people got a copy of The Prestige by Christopher Priest? (Enough that I decided I should probably buy a copy for myself, if that many LibraryThingers recommended it).

    *I think we’ll start the whole process earlier to give everyone more time to pick out books, etc. We also need figure out the shipping and billing logistics better! We ended up stuck with Amazon billing us separately each time we changed the shipping address (300 times) which hit our bank account’s daily limit on the number of transactions. Who knew? Well after Tim and I ended up using up our personal credit cards and spending over a week clicking on Amazon links, we decided – next year, yup, we’ll do it differently šŸ™‚

    Labels: book pile, contest, santathing

    Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

    Holiday book pile contest

    It’s been a while, but I hereby bring back the book pile contest. I want holiday bookpiles! Make of it what you willā€”they can be holiday themed (the picture to the right is the winner of last year’s Christmas book pile contest, by thelee — I’d love New Year’s piles, or Solstice, Kwanza, Hanukkah), books you received, books you’re giving, SantaThing books*ā€”use your imagination!

    The nitty gritty:

    • Post your photos to Flickr and tag them “LTholiday” (also tag them “LibraryThing”). If you make a new account it can take a few days for your photos to be publicly accessible, so post a URL to them in the comments here.
    • Or, post your photos on the wiki here.
    • Or, if all else fails, just email them to abby@librarything.com and I’ll post them.

    The deadline:

    • Monday, January 7th at noon, EST.

    Grand prize winner will receive a LibraryThing t-shirt. Two runners-up will each get a yearly gift membership (to keep or give away).

    Find inspiration in our archive of past book pile contests.

    *Still a few days to sign up for SantaThing!

    Labels: book pile, contest