Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

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

I still don't really get the thing where we're allowed to save meals for the next round, rather than just deleting books so they can't be used at all. Maybe we'll find out later if we could have done something differently with that. Something to do with "tips", but we won't actually know if we got any tips until after the fact. IDK. :/

So we have 89 Books Read, including 5 under 160 pages (2 are mine and 3 are Maddy's).

@Lexi, I'm assuming you have some sort of "What are the available ingredients in those books?" way to decide which of those 5 books to remove if/when more >160 page books are finished, but I figured I'd list mine here again in one place, for everybody's convenience:

God Save the Queen:
pumpkin, p.16
rabbit, p.71

Summer Frost:
salt 37%
roasted duck 37%
(and water, though I wasn't tracking it at the time)

So... that was supposedly the 90th book on the spreadsheet, but for some reason the total was only coming out to 89.

I checked and figured out that there was no Row #86 for some reason -- the spreadsheet went from 85 to 87 -- so I added that line.
Hopefully I didn't screw up anything. Either way, maybe others should check and make sure none of their recent books are missing.

FInished Counterclockwise
11/14/2020
194 pages

coffee x3 : 5%, 9%, 65%
sugar 65%
"a cup of tea" 46%
water 58%
chips 46%
olive x4 : 10%, 32%, 38%, 63%
sardines 45%
ginger x2 : 66%, 70%

The Hazelnut and Nutmeg above are used in the book as coffee flavorings. One idea for us is to do the same... if Hobbits ever drink flavored coffee... 🤔

Finished Sovereign
11/13/2020
314 pages

Did the best I could with pagination in Overdrive:

Coffee x4: p.48 (x2), 49, 50
Hazelnut p49
Nutmeg p49
Turkey p115
Tofurkey p115
Bread p115
Vinegar x3: p194 (x3)


I will finish my final book in the morning. It’s a 4 item book, and in case it helps plan ahead, so far it’s got coffee (x3), olive (x4), sardines, chips, tea, and water.

Can't find anything in the rules --
Are there restrictions on MPG Childrens ?

Lexi wrote: "We have 8 fish and chips without vinegar so we will happily use all 3."

Oh, okay. Rebecca said something a few comments ago about having extra vinegars. I will plan to finish mine in time but I can still hold off if anything changes.

I ended up starting a shorter book last night too (over 160) just in case too.

So I may have spoken too soon on my current book not having useable words... because I’ve just found 3 instances of vinegar!
If we can’t complete any more fish & chips meals in time for the end of Round 2, maybe I should stop reading this book for now and resume it for Round 3?

Are we supposed to mark "Swinbourne" items for levels besides the top level one that has Ube, Watermelon, and Legume?
I still don't entirely get how the tiered system works, but I noticed that Meal #6 has mushroom, for example, which is a lower-value Swinbourne item...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, next I can either start a new 500+ book for Round 3, or I can read another short book for Round 2 (I think I can squeeze in something greater than 160 but less than 300).
@Everybody but especially @Lexi, which do you think I should do?
ETA: that would be in addition to finishing the book I'm already reading, which I still expect I'll finish in time for Round 2, though it doesn't have a ton of useable words in it.

Round #2
Adjective called: Revolutionary
Final noun pick: Romance

Spreadsheet updated :)

Finished God Save the Queen
11/11/2020
96 pages

Pumpkin, p.16
Rabbit, p.71

I think that was it. A seasonal autumn curry, perhaps?

Finished Apprentice
11/10/2020
390 pages

fish x2 : 49%, 52%
bread 56%
fresh bread 55%
salt x4 : 27%, 28% (x2), 29%
cloves x3 : 44%, 45%, 98%
cinnamon 98%
herbs 18%, 72%
peppermint 53%
salted meats 55%
venison 22%
pig's blood 76%
"buttered greens" 22%
vegetables x2 : 55%, 64%
"a handful of grapes" 7%
mango 10%
cherries 64%
water x4 : 53%, 54%, 56%, 76% (there's more water but I stopped tracking it)

Round 2 Completion Post


Apprentice by Rachel E. Carter
Read: 11/10/2020
Pages: 390
How it fits: tagged strong-female-lead (3 times), kick-ass-heroine (11 times), and other relevant tags
Nouns chosen:
mage (precis), combat (precis), romance (tagged 140 times), academy (precis & tagged 7 times), underdog (tagged 1 time)

Oh, and Spreadsheet Updated!

ETA:
Round #2
Adjective called: Revolutionary
Final noun pick: Romance

True that.

Lexi wrote: "I saw it and it makes no sense to me. Those aren't words for food. You could just randomly add them or what? "

Yeah, it’s weird. They are not ingredients so I don’t even know how they would be added, randomly or otherwise, anywhere except in the meal description. (And I am not sure I understand whether it is Round 2 or Round 3 in which we are supposedly getting “reviewed” — for points this time? — based in part on how good our meal descriptions are?)

Maybe they are a separate thing besides ingredients in terms of # of items that can be used per book? Like maybe, in a 350 page book for example, we would use 7 ingredients instead of 8 and then the 8th word would be if the book also has the word “chic” or “local” or whatever in the text/title?
Hopefully the Mods will clarify. I will try not to worry about it too much for now. 😕

Hey has everybody seen that “Google Reviews” thing for this round? Not sure I get when it takes effect.

It was posted on Saturday but I don’t know how much y’all have been online...

Generation Loss
11/7/2020
308 pages

coffee x8 : 3%, 7%, 8% (x2), 9%, 14%, 20%, 21%
tea 30%
pickled string beans 51%
home-baked bread 51%
corn on the cob 11%
lobster x5 : 11%, 13%, 17%, 19%, 71%
fish x8 : 14%, 52%, 57%, 66%, 71%, 75%, 77%, 79%
salt x5 : 14%, 22%, 24%, 76%, 83%
milk x2 : 35%, 36%
skim milk 39%
fried egg 21%
egg x2 : 82%, 90%
eggs x4 : 21%, 39%, 44% (x2)
egg yolk 42%
egg whites x2 : 88% (x2)
salt pork 14%
bacon 21%

OMG this book has so much coffee. The MC basically lives on coffee and booze.

Forgot to add SALT to my last completion post (#398).
Will go add there in case we still need it...

Finished The Cogsmith's Daughter
11/6/2020
302 pages

bread x8 : 19%, 22%, 64% (x2), 65% (3), 66%
wheat bread : 32%
meat x2 : 19%, 73%
egg/eggs x4 : 33% (x4)
bacon x2 : 33% (x2)
pork roast x3 : 65% (x2), 66%
goat milk x2 : 65% 74%
goat butter x2 : 64%, 65%
goat cheese : 40%
cheese x2 : 41%, 83%
yogurt x2 : 56%, 66%
strawberry jam x2 : 64%, 65%
tea x4 : 27%, 60%, 61%, 74%
fruit x3 : 40%, 56%, 83%
vegetables : 40%
garlic : 64%
rosemary : 64%
lemons x2 : 80%
lemongrass oil : 31%
peppermint oil : 32%
cacti meat : 32%

ETA:
salt x2 : 17%, 24%
(there are a bunch of mentions of "salt water" too if that can be parsed)