Abbey’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2018)

Abbey’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Angie ☯ wrote: "Well Abbey....since you are running errands across the country...I'll give you my list too! hahaha!"

Perfect! It'll save me from nodding off during a session on the immune system. One should definitely not attend virtual conferences from their comfy couch and/or bed, its way too easy to nod off lol. All the errands here I come!

Jenny wrote: "How many times do I have to watch Hamilton before it becomes an obsession? Are obsessions bad? At least this time it is just on in the background while I do other things around the house That's OK ..."

Perfectly acceptable! Anything goes in a pandemic (and when it comes to Hamilton!). Whenever I get hooked on something, I just let myself "ride out" the obsession and not deny it lol. Not sure if that's the right way to go, but it beats *wanting* to watch/read/listen to something again and telling myself no. I've certainly watched some movies/episodes of tv shows wayyy too many days in a row lol.

Jenny wrote: "Thanks for all the effort, Abbey. Now is the time to stop worrying about it and chalk it up to mischievous internet elves. We believe you, and if anyone has an issue with the page count or the read..."

hahaha sounds great! I so wish I could, I'm in a virtual conference Fri - Sunday...and while it's convenient, it's weirdly draining to be at a conference all day on your computer. I'm tempted to just find some errands to run myself to get away for a bit lol. My July/early August schedule is a LOT of virtual 3-day conferences from different organizations, which usually involves travel and fun socializing/networking. Now I just stare at my computer and think about what else I could be doing around the house instead of listening lol.

I'll zip right over from MN to take your errands on!

Angie ☯ wrote: "Abbey wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Abbey, your Azkaban book still doesn't have a read date. Can you fix that please? Thank you!"

There is something weird going on with that book. It won't let me switch t..."

I'm really not sure what's going on. It may be easier to just use the older version. When I find the book, it shows up as "Read", "Wheel-V" and the date finished (July 9), but it does not show up in the list when I select either of those shelves. So, clearly there is something funky going on technology-wise with this edition.

I don't have my screenshot hosted online anywhere, so I can't share it here, but I have it taken of that edition's page where we clearly see it's shelf labels and date read. Yet it won't show up anywhere else. I shouldn't have been able to add it, since I should have just been able to "switch to this edition", but somewhere it glitched and only let me add it as if it were a new book (despite finding it on the "other editions" tag on the book's page.

It's a pretty common paperback edition of the book (I bought it at Target recently), so I'm not sure why I had to dig so deep in the editions to find it either.

Not sure if there is another way to share the screenshot, but I'd be happy to share if we needed proof to keep the extra few points the page difference got us. If it wasn't super close in points, then sticking with the edition GR is showing may be easier.

Thanks and sorry for this hassle, it's been confusing me for days!

Thanks for finding that task for Carbs & Cadavers, you have a good eye for the cover! I was going to end up with the easy task, "set in US" but you picked the much better/harder "vegetables on cover" from the pizza on the cover. You rock!

Jenny wrote: "Abbey, your Azkaban book still doesn't have a read date. Can you fix that please? Thank you!"

There is something weird going on with that book. It won't let me switch to the edition I read, it instead lists it as a separate book, and it looks like it's linked to my "WheelV" shelf, but does not show up when you click the shelf. I read this one which has more pages than the original paperback (this one ). Yet I can't for the life of me get it to show up in my Wheel List.

I put the edition I didn't read on my list, but the page numbers will then need to be lowered on the spreadsheet to match that listing. It's definitely frustrating that instead of switching to that edition it made a new listing. Ugh, technology. Sorry for the delay.

Jade aka MrsTosh wrote: "Manage to finish another couple of books today. was brilliant, I definitely recommend a read, this is exactly why Nora Roberts is one of my favourite authors."

Just added this to my TBR, thanks for sharing! Do you have any other favorites of Nora Roberts? I think I read a few of hers years ago, but recently got back into the romance genre and am always looking for great recommendations!

Jenny wrote: "I think the hardest is going to be the three E books per word we have to find. I don't mind speed reading some Xarissa cozy mysteries towards the end if we need X's."

That's true too. Those darn vowels are hard too.

I found Sue Grafton's novels (which I seem to always forget about), that are just titled letter of the alphabet. My library had and so I added those for planning. Hoping as I read more of some other cozy mysteries I already have checked out this weekend some characters pop out that fit the letters, since the title, Author and MC do not fit.

Jade aka MrsTosh wrote: "Abbey wrote: "Jenny wrote: "We have our third round word and tags. We need to spell out
OVERNIGHTEXPRESS.
Our tags are linked in the usual place, and are-
Spring
Bloom
Renaissance
Nature
Fairy/Fae
..."

That was the name I was thinking would pop up easier in books than a title! I'll definitely search around that genre to get at least one read this next read to contribute one X to the list. :)

Jenny wrote: "We have our third round word and tags. We need to spell out
OVERNIGHTEXPRESS.
Our tags are linked in the usual place, and are-
Spring
Bloom
Renaissance
Nature
Fairy/Fae

The spreadsheet isn't up ye..."

That "X" is going to be tricky. Anyone have any good recommendations? I found some GR lists but all titles looked quite obscure on the list I found, so I could have just found an odd list. I feel maybe the true challenge will be if my library has access to some of the "X" titles instead of finding titles, characters or authors with the letter. Hmmmm. Time to start planning.

I finished 2 more books today. Waiting for Tom Hanks was adorable and made me smile while reading many times. Just the light-hearted book I needed today while doing a lot of tedious paperwork sorting at work.

I’m hoping to get 11/22/63 for a later round! I’ll be back at my apartment (where my copy of that book lives, while I’ve been in a different state at my parents since March) at the start of August, and this challenge is just the motivation I need to finally tackle that book! The size intimidates me lol.

Angie ☯ wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I think the circle thing is open to interpretation. What does the team think?"

I agree - as long as it is a circle shape, I would say it fits."

Cool, thank you. I'll leave that task selection as is then! :)

Thanks for all your work on the spreadsheet, you two are awesome! I added tasks for the books I've completed, and will see what I can do to increase my books this week. :) I don't think I'll get to What If It's Us this round because my hold hasn't arrived yet, but I have another W book I will replace it with in the spreadsheet once I'm sure of the swap.

There is also one task I entered that didn't automatically add the points (or page number points), but I haven't check to see if that was fixed already.

Question: what does the task "circles on cover" mean exactly? I added it for a book (although I know I could find other tasks for it) since there are circular stools, plates, barrels and balls of yarn on the cover, but wasn't sure if that was what the task was getting at lol.

Jenny wrote: "I have, but if you ask me to name them, I will draw a blank. Part of me is disappointed that I can't separate the language or attitude of the times the book was written from todays standards. I fin..."

I totally get that too, in respect to being able to separate/compartmentalize the writing in a book knowing that it was correct for the time it was written. This particular book was re-released in 2013, which surprises me in that these word choices weren't slightly altered with the re-release. Maybe that's what got to me more. I also couldn't see where the plot was headed and the emotional responses of the characters fell flat. (the family loses their daughter and the wife's friend are only concerned about when she will go back to work as a teacher...like a week after the funeral. That just felt so flat of a response).

I'm not great at not knowing a plot, even for books I DNF, so I'll probably end up googling around for a summary lol. I'm with you on knowing if the words/actions fit a character or not. If a jerk character does jerk things, I get it or if some character is having a jerk moment in response to something. But otherwise, it shows the views of the author more when it shows up in "wrong" places, I think.

Also, I love that bummer sticker saying. No need to lump people together like we do, lol :)

Happy 4th to my US teammates and Happy Saturday to everyone else! I don't enjoy fireworks near me (I like watching when the noises aren't loud), but we've had local fireworks going off in my neighborhood on and off all day, that I assume are about to ramp up as we enter the evening.

I've had two DNFs already this round, the most recent coming today by way of Winter Chill. It's a thriller by a cozy mystery author I enjoy, but I learned too late it's re-release of an older writing. Just within the first 10% I came across some uncomfortable references to people with disabilities (such as using the term "invalid" and essentially equating losing a child and having a disabled husband as the same level of tragedy *eye roll*).

I'm sure these were more commonplace when it was written, but that language does not stand the test of time. As a disabled person myself, I found it all just so slightly angering to read, so by that point I could have cared less if the story was going to get better. I get there are plenty of people still thinking this way, but I certainly didn't need to be reading it.

Have any of you come across books with language/word choices that didn't stand the test of time and left you wanting to (or actually) abandoning the book?

Thanks for checking, Jenny! I was new to the AR website and wasn’t sure how to click through to get the word count, my bad! And no worries about it, I wasn’t loving it anyways so it may just head into my DNF in favor of other books. Thank you for confirming/checking.

2 Questions:

1. What is the determination on Characters being counted for a word? I have a book that works with the author, but the MC sons works for F and H too, they are just not has main as the MC, but still pretty prevalent in the book. Either way the book works, but figured I'd check for the other options too. I feel like I read something about it, but I can't find that part of the rules at the moment (but it's early and I've been up since 6am to teach a fitness class for work, so my brain's a bit slow lol)

2. Would I be able to get a verification on the book Calling All Minds: How to Think and Create Like an Inventor? It's MG, 228 pages and I found it on AR (but couldn't find word count). However, as I got started with it I realized it's got history writing interspersed with some craft/invention instructions (in recipe-ish format). So then I started doubting if it works. It's definitely got lots of regular writing and stories in it, there is just a tutorial at the end of every chapter I wasn't counting on being there lol.

No sweat if that one doesn't work, I'll finish it regardless, but wanted to check once I realized the format is different than I thought.

Thanks!

Jenny wrote: "Ohh, the Illuminae Flles are sooo good. I have yet to read the last one, but it is on my list.
Abbey, if you like cozies, you may like . Not a cozy per se, but..."

Thanks for the suggestion, this looks just up my alley! Just placed the ebook on hold (with a short wait time), I'm excited for this. I love the Temperance Brennan series with a forensic anthropologist (which are vastly different than the TV show 'Bones' loosely based on the books) but I find that line of mystery fascinating. Those books aren't traditional cozies either, but they are a sort of gap/bridge between a cozy and thriller because they have elements of both.

Jade aka MrsTosh wrote: "I just finished no way is it every going to be a classic nor is it a work of genius but it was so funny, I laughed aloud the whole way through the book, which is ..."

That series is pure comedic gold! Some of the things are so out there that it's just hilarious how she goes about her bounty hunting. I always return to a book that series when I need a laugh or a book for a challenge (since there are so many, and I know I'll at least laugh while reading it regardless). Great choice for this crazy time!

On the "blah" end from the first round were and . The Girl He Used to Know was a contemporary romance of sorts, which should have clued me in that it may not be for me. However, the MC (with first person narration) is an adult on the autism spectrum, so I wanted to give it a shot since I'm always looking for great neurodiversity and disability representation in literature. As for Swing, it just seemed like a lot of nothing happened in the majority of the book and ended fairly abruptly right as something happened. It's got decent reviews, with some feeling my same way. It's told in verse, which could contribute to the choppiness I felt in the story.

As for what I loved, my re-read of was immensely enjoyable. I love the Illuminae Files series. I also started a few new cozy mystery series (one of my favorite genres) like and that were great first books and I will be continuing with the series. My re-read of for the BOM was also fantastic. I love that book and movie with all my heart.

I’m on my phone so I can’t link, but I’ve got Obsidio (615 pages) up next and am on On The Come Up (464 pages) currently but I think the rest I have planned are average length (300-400 pages). Although I’m working through Harry Potter again for my yearly re-read once I make it past #3, those are decent page counts! Great work on round 1!