LitWit Challenge: Why I should get this book
The winners of last week’s LitWit Challenge: The Fahrenheit 451 Project are:
thysz, who intends to become the Oxford English Dictionary,
20thcenturygirl, who will be American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis,
and romel, Blindness by Jose Saramago.
Winners of the Fahrenheit 451 Project can now claim their prizes at National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Go to Customer Service, tell them you’re claiming a prize from the National Bookstore contest in this blog, and give your full name. Sorry I was unable to bring the prizes to the Glorietta 5 branch as my schedule today, Thursday, is shot because Globe Tattoo Prepaid is a worthless piece of crap.
To the winners of the previous LitWit Challenges, Rescue Mission and Your Imaginary Date, your prizes have been waiting for you.
This week’s LitWit Challenge is all about you. In 100 words or less, tell us why we should give you a copy of this book:
The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr, translated from the German by Anthea Bell. It’s a historical adventure about an amazing “invention”: Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen’s Mechanical Turk, a chess-playing automaton. It’s like Deep Blue in the 18th century—except that it’s not really a machine.
Two winners. We’re accepting entries until Friday, 16 October 2009.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 11th, 2009 at 10:24
Pakibigay na lang ho sa akin ang Chess Machine dahil apat na lang ang natitira kong libro. Lahat, kasama ang mga textbooks at ultimong bookcase, ay hiniram ni Ondoy nang walang balikan. Salamat ho.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:07
I should get this book because our sembreak is near and I don’t have any book to read since I can’t borrow from the library. And I like chess and books with black and white cover. :D
October 11th, 2009 at 15:08
…a) because I don’t know anything about it, and b) the cover is really good that if you would give it to me, I’d definitely start reading again after a long time starting with this book (tambak na ang backlog)
October 11th, 2009 at 21:55
i think this is a perfect book for my boyfriend, who is so addicted to chess (he was a varsity way back in college and has a collection of chess books at home). i would want this to give it to him as a gift. he will be thrilled. thank you.
October 12th, 2009 at 03:12
baka pwede pong pakibigay ang libro kay insiang kasi tipong kailangan nya, isa pa, lahat ng nagpapaalala sa akin ng pelikula ni hilda koronel pinapaburan ko…
October 12th, 2009 at 08:23
I am silver nightwing. I was conceived and immersed in amniotic fluid mixed with soma juice, thus, it penetrated my brain.
I was born and nurtured by sucking ink from the ink bottle and let this ink run into my veins to morph into a person whose brain is always triggered by beats of curiosity and I got superpowers too!
I can launch a thousandfold of changes beating the record of Helen of Troy and I can illuminate the darkness with the spark of my pen. And the source of my power? BOOKS!!!!!
That’s why I need that book badly!
October 12th, 2009 at 09:24
because i dont know how to play chess even if my father tried his best to teach me when i was young. he’s good at it. and i like the cover (i often judge books by their covers).
October 12th, 2009 at 10:38
Ako ang dapat makakuha ng libro dahil di pa ako nananalo sa kontest. Meron na nga akong tawag sa pagka-malas ko e, ‘the up reg experience’. Nung college kahit ako ang pinaka-maaga sa linya para magregister di sa akin binibigay ang slot. Ginagawang bunutan, 3 out of 4 ang makaka-enlist, bunutan ng ID. Guess whose ID does not get picked? Sumasali rin ako sa palaro ng cellphone provider ko at ng isang TV noon program pero di pa ako nanalo. Sa mga bunutan pag Christmas, di pa rin. =(
Di nga naman game of luck ang pamimigay ng premyo sa blog na ito (except sa tickets sa Ayala Museum?) pero baka naman pwedeng manalo ako sa game for once? hehe
October 12th, 2009 at 11:59
I should win this book because I don’t know anything about chess; I read somewhere that this book has swordfights and court intrigues; those I know of.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:10
because I for one welcome our 18th century overlords!
October 12th, 2009 at 12:55
I should get a copy because:
(a) I am literally a bookless bookworm (all stolen by Ondoy)
(b) Wants to win, for once, in a “raffle” contest
(c) My birthday’s coming- Oct 26
(d) Found the cover and title intriguing- Chess= a lot of thinking, creativity, scheme, betrayal, predator-and-prey situation. Machine= predictability, uniformity, rhythm, anti-mind.
(e) I am begging!
October 12th, 2009 at 13:24
i should get this book because i am currently on the verge of committing suicide because there’s too much crap on the television and i don’t have a budget to buy a good book for this week. sleep is not an option either because the king of all night’s dreaming is on sabbatical.
October 12th, 2009 at 13:45
I started playing chess when I was six years old. I feasted on “How to Win with White/Black beginners’ books, started beating my older brothers and some old guys at our village, played for our elementary school, and earned some undeserved rep as a good young chess player.
In high school I would cut out NM Bordonada’s Inquirer chess columns from the library–literally stealing, but the librarian didn’t give a squeak when she found out–played for our school, too, and went as far as the provincial meet. Around this time, I could memorize numerous games and moves all the way to the end and I was already quoting Bobby Fischer’s “Chess is better than romance.” blah, published in an interview by a school student writer who would later become my ex-girlfriend.
In college, chess would dog me and I would dog it. It’s a dog it, dog thing all the way if you’d pardon the lousy pun. I’d bet on chess puzzles at the bangketa and would win some good money to buy some good food and at one point the runner asked me to stop betting and let others have fun, too. I splurged most of my allowances on Chess Life back issues and obscure chess books. I’ve won all our college’s chess try-outs but could not barge into the University players’ pool because the world is unjust. But I won the University’s Blitz Open just before I graduate (take that!).
I’m still a patzer now, and lost many of my chess books/materials to borrowers who had forgotten to return them (I can’t forget them, books and borrowers). I just won with the black pieces against GM Jayson Gonzales in a simul fundraiser (GM against 24 players, I was the only winner) for PARA chess players and some typhoon victims. All I want to do, ever, is just play chess. There’s a Fischer quote again.
If you don’t give me this book, you’re heartless.
October 12th, 2009 at 13:55
That’s 300 or so words?! Gawd.
October 12th, 2009 at 14:41
because my brain needs emergency re-wiring after the aftermath of two massive typhoons that still threatens to alter my thought processes. This is the perfect book to keep it up and running again.
October 12th, 2009 at 14:53
sa buong tanang buhay ko, hindi pa ako nakakapagload ng P500 at kapag nakuha ko na tong librong to at naipakita sa mga nagbebenta sa recto..malamang matupad na ang mithiing yun. yun e kung aantukin ako sa librong to. pero paano ko malalaman kung hindi ko maangkin ito, paano, paano, sabihin nyo?!
joke. seryoso, joke lang, promise, hindi ko sya ibebenta. ito na lang: kasi bagay siya sa black and white ensemble ko. at naloka ako sa summary na nabasa ko sa internet, baka hindi ako makatulog kapag hindi ko naangkin itong librong to. at wala akong P500.
pls?
October 12th, 2009 at 15:24
I was just fired from work because my insecure bosses think i am way too smart!!!
I was the unwilling boyfriend who was forced to watch “Mula sa Puso” the movie yesterday with my humahagulgol na gf!!!
I dropped out of law school because my wallet can’t catch up with my school needs!!!
My Wii game console broke down!!!
Two of my best pals have just bought their 2nd brand new car,s and i don’t even have one!!!
So, who needs the book more than i do?!
Oh,lest if forget, I already ran out of toothpaste!
October 12th, 2009 at 17:21
it has been years since I received a book for free or as a gift.
October 12th, 2009 at 17:41
A chess book should go to a chess fanatic. I was so obsessed with the game I almost flunked highschool because I’d rather play than attend classes. I shoplifted my first chessbook at NBS Quad many years ago (when GM Mark Paragua was still playing in short pants) but got caught and never did it again. That book belongs to my chess library, built up painstakingly from highschool when I would save my allowance to learn the intricacies of Karpov’s calm yet lethal style. Or Tal’s inventive “where-did-that-come-from” combinations. Don’t force me to steal that beauty, Jessica. :-)
October 12th, 2009 at 19:33
Jessica, sa akin mo na lang ibigay ang isang kopya ng The Chess Machine. May edad na ako at wala ng gaanong panahong nalalabi para antayin sa BOOKSALE o sa mga bargain bins ng NATIONAL ang nasabing aklat. Iyong isa ay kay Insiang mo na ibigay. Kung sakali mang may susulat sa iyo at magpapakilalang bilang Julio Madiaga, sa kanya mo na ibigay ang sana ay para sa akin. Maraming salamat.
October 13th, 2009 at 02:56
I am no chess fan, but if the story is of the steampunk genre, it just makes it a whole world more interesting, it does. And not many books about it have come out lately, it’s all vampires and chick lit. When I get this book I’ll be chewing through it word by word and punctuation marks.
And if it counts to my merit, I’m a good boy who has done away with his book log in time for this reading. Please let me have it, thank you~~
October 13th, 2009 at 12:46
As a kid, I loved reading books during bus rides. My father would tell me not to because reading on the bus is “bad for the eyesâ€. He’d end up getting my book and reading it himself. “My eyes are already bad as they are,†he’d reason. Now, I myself wear eyeglasses, and my father couldn’t stop me from reading on a bus anymore to “borrow†the book I’m reading.
If I get this book, I will give it to my father. He loves playing chess, so I’m sure he wilI enjoy reading it. I will borrow it from him.
October 13th, 2009 at 18:57
If you love gore and want to see someone drowning in her own pool of blood… give the book to me. Chess talks makes my nose bleed. Besides… the term Mechanical Turk already summons my BFF migraine. Plus, I plan to stash that thing in my collection of unread bargain books which cost me below P100 each. I never buy books priced above P100. Much better if it’s for free.
PS: I love cats. (Such a suck-up) Give me, give me, give mehh….
October 13th, 2009 at 20:55
when i was a kid, my brother and me always play chess. i always lose in each game, and i’m a sore loser… so very end of the game after my king’s been captured, i pick that piece, aim, and hurl it towards him. that makes me feel better. hehehe.
nowadays people always assume that i’m a chess freak. blame it on the spectacles. i may look geeky but i’m no chess master. there’s this time when, just for fun, i joined our college’s chess team for our school Olympics. funny thing is players from other colleges really expected much of me. if only you could see the look on their faces.
books are like friends in the cheesiest sense.
i don’t leave the house without at least one. there isn’t any decent bookstore here in palawan. i only get to buy books when i’m in manila for a workshop, or when there are interesting stuff in the second-hand books section of a department store here.
i’ll keep my fingers crossed.
October 14th, 2009 at 02:42
because i’m listening to the smiths:
“So please please please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time”
October 14th, 2009 at 13:35
I am 8 1/2 months pregnant and it seems that my baby loves books as much as I do.
I’ll read this to him if you give it to me.
October 14th, 2009 at 14:06
I actually searched for Bobby Fischer. I didn’t find him. Please let me have this book as a consolation prize.
October 15th, 2009 at 02:07
Hello? Hello? Hello Jessica? So, will william_tan_see win the Chess Machine? In exchange for your rigging the contest in his favor, I promise not to seek for re-election in 2010. I will ensure a clean, honest election in Pampanga only. I will let my husband sleep outside the kulambo inside the presidential room. I will not let Mikey do any more movies, very horrible movies. I will not hide the removing of my mole as mandatory self-quarantine. If I cannot make good on my promises, consider it a lapse in judgment, I AM SHORRY!!!
October 15th, 2009 at 04:05
Some nights ago three green ninjas came into my room and kidnapped my Lolo. For ransom, they asked me for a book about the diet of three-year-old bulimic cats. They were like, “Get me a book on three-year old bulimic cats within this month. Else, your lolo’s dead.” And then I was like, “There’s no such book published yet. Besides, can’t we settle this more reasonably, like, say, I don’t know, on a simple game of chess maybe? They said it didn’t sound so bad.
I need this book for the training.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:21
I am a fresh college graduate enjoying my rule-free environment after two decades of being bound by it from school (much like an instruction-filled game of chess), and celebrating my newfound freedom by trying new things. This book will be a great part of my new reading experience, which was limited to detective novels by Robert Parker, Sue Grafton, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, and Dick Francis, among others. (And DVD marathons of Veronica Mars, of course.) And yeah, plus I turn 22 today.
October 15th, 2009 at 16:15
I see there are 2 books to be given out. Options:
(1) Choose me, and Ill choose your other winner.
(2) Choose me, and I’ll choose two winners. One would have the book, as you give it. The other would have it, after I read it. Im here for the contents. Soon, Ill free it to the reading community (picture a dove in my hands being released).
You’re a writer and a servant to this country (I read issues of Flip). I would think the last thing in your mind right now is reading people yacking about why they deserve to win. You may like power.. but world domination is big responsibility, and the way to succeed is to do an Alexander-the-Great: delegate. Ill be your Ptolemy I.
(this offer would expire after this round. I will not make the same offer on your next LitWit challenges, just to make sure I will not win all the time)
October 15th, 2009 at 17:36
When I saw Mechanical Turk, I immediately thought Amazon! First on the list then, eradicating ignorance is always a good idea. Second, I’m too cheap to buy a copy. The university library doesn’t have it, and I don’t have the time to hang out at book stores to read it there. Finally, I like books but I don’t collect them, so this one will most likely get donated to the library when I’m done. The caveat is there in case someone borrows it from me and doesn’t bother returning it.
October 15th, 2009 at 17:49
because I couldn’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t get it.
October 15th, 2009 at 21:38
White Black
1. e4 c6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 dxe4
4. Nxe4 Nd7
5. Ng5 Ngf6
6. Bd3 e6
7. N1f3 h6
8. Nxe6 Qe7
9. O-O fxe6
10. Bg6+ Kd8
11. Bf4 b5
12. a4 Bb7
13. Re1 Nd5
14. Bg3 Kc8
15. axb5 cxb5
16. Qd3 Bc6
17. Bf5 exf5
18. Rxe7 Bxe7
19. c4 Resign!
October 16th, 2009 at 19:47
ahahaha, natawa naman ako kay #20 entry, kay alan. at naawa na din, sa kanya mo na lang pala ibigay ms. zafra ang libro. bilang na ang oras nya.
tapos sa akin na yung isa.
pls?
:)
October 16th, 2009 at 23:28
I’m an avid reader but I’m not sure how much I’d grovel to earn a free book. At least I can’t say it in 100 words. If one sentence will do, then I can only think of one. I am too poor to buy a new book because I usually wait when National Bookstore has bought old library fiction books and sell them at 49.95 pesos or I troll through Book Sale and find some great bargains so I am famished for smell of new books. Besides I give books away after reading for lack of space, so please can you let me win and I will give it to the 3rd winner after 3 days(speed-read) maximum.
October 17th, 2009 at 00:00
I’ve tried my wit and luck in Litwit many times and I’ve also molted nominally several times so as not to be found out as Litwit’s nitwit. I am using my online sobriquet for a second time and risking skull exposure and I hope you’ll be a fairy and reward honesty. (Blink, blink…)