You can use the same words, related words, words suggested by any title word or the author's name. Sometimes we use something that relates to the story told in the book, or take a homonym or homophone and use that. Take a look at a couple of threads and you'll soon figure it out.

Example, using some made-up titles and names:

The Dark Ones, by Lewis Dork, leads to
Nerds on Parade, leads to
The Procession of Flowers, leads to
The Trees, leads to
The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood (incidentally, this one is real), leads to
The White Cloud, leads to
The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles (another real one), leads to
The Rules of Lawn Croquet,
etc.

Thanks!

And you should know this seems to be "addictive" to RP participants. This CLX (150) is the 150th version of the game which allows 150 postings per version!!!! This game has been going for YEARS!!!! :^O)))))))

When complete that will be 22500 entries.

Mea Culpa... CLX I should have said 160!!!! Shame on an old math teacher :-)))))

After seeing this game in action for years, I have meant to ask (but never got around to it until now!) what is the everlasting appeal of it? At other book sites I have frequented (and still frequent) there are usually equally long-running versions.

I have participated occasionally; but since it seems an endless roundelay to me, I guess I don't get the point. Does anyone go back and read through the old threads? I'm hesitant to post something that somebody else probably thought of a couple of hundred posts back.
Is the quickness on the draw the thing?
Is it the cleverness of the association? The obscurity? The cutting edge?

I don't follow closely enough, but it seems there's a core group of participants and a lot of hit-and-runners -- folks who don't post very often, or at all, in other threads. Is there satisfaction in a daily dose of -- and posting of a nugget to -- 'the game' as there is in, say, reading one's horoscope and solving the daily 'jumble'? Maybe there's not much time for participation in anything else.

I'm slow, I know, but I'm still curious. :-)

Frieda, some folk cannot leave the breakfast table without doing the sudoku in the morning paper, others must find the answers to the first clues in the Times crossword. I usually 'check-in' at RP before I start the 'chores' (and no I don't get up at 4am as somebody once asked me. We are 5 hours ahead of US EST)
For me, having a 'go' at the game is no more than checking that my brain cells are firing on a couple of cylinders. I do try and come up with different titles and naturally all my responses are nothing less than clever, obscure and cutting edge. ;-)

Frieda, I come and go at the game. I like the way it changes from one link to another - titles, authors, word play - and I always read back about 10 posts to make sure I'm not repeating something recent.
I started a similar thread at another forum I go to, but with songs as the theme.

Frieda, I think it can be a way of "checking in" to say "hello" to "friends" when time is short.

I play occasionally. It's a lot of fun and is quick and easy. I used to play more when I spent more time online. Our game is the only one I have stuck with all these years, since I first found RP ages ago.

I used to play but seldom do anymore. I thought my cleverest response was The Constant Gardener following Lady Chatterley's Lover. It was all down hill after that.

Frieda,

Like Vee, I check in to RP usually in the morning and often click on the Game. I like the quick hit; the sudden association; but if nothing comes to me, then I don't linger. I don't have tme, on the whole, to write long(ish), thoughtful comments on threads which make a demand on one's mind, so this is also a quick way of keeping in touch with you all.

And no, I don't go back and read all the old threads - I just quickly read through, say, the last 10 postings to make sure I'm not repeating titles too soon; though most famous titles (and not-so-famous) get repeated over and over, through the many hundreds of threads - you couldn't possibly read back through them all every time you post. A lifetime would be too short!

And sometimes, when I've no inspiration, I feel deeply bored by the whole thing and might not post again for ages.

Dido

As kids, we used to play a similar game with songs. One person would sing a song and end on one word, the next person would sing a song starting on that word. It was a great way to pass the time on a stormy day, specially if the power was out.