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

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

Tomorrow evening at 5pm for me! Yay!

I am actually going to start with Network Effect (the new Murderbot book) because my library e hold came in at a weird time. I had to check it out before I lost my place in line, and now I have to read it before it gets yanked.
I was hoping our first word would have some N's, but oh well.
It'd better work for some character names...

Laura wrote: "Alysa wrote: "@Captains -- if you would like some help putting together our team's Rec list, let me know.
I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but I do love organize stuff. I'm not captaining bu..."

Oh, great! I hadn't seen that she'd updated that sticky.
I hope more Dons give some recs :)

@Captains -- if you would like some help putting together our team's Rec list, let me know.
I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but I do love organize stuff. I'm not captaining but perhaps I can be like a "First Mate", lol.

Yeah, certain challenges have a direct point penalty.

But on a meta level, it's more like an honor code. Like, of course people go into "challenge mode" sometimes, but the Mods obviously would not be happy with anybody intentionally signing up for (example) 10 books/month, and then proceeding to read 40 books/month. Because that would significantly skew the team assignments.

I signed up for 15 books/month, but I'll probably end up reading more like 12 unless I force myself into challenge mode and/or pick shorter books. It's been harder for me to read as much as usual, what with working from home and losing my usual train commute plus having my kid at home (she is 9). Plus I recently got a sort-of promotion at work due to other people leaving, so I have a bit more/different stuff to do. *grumble not getting a raise grumble*

Nope, no penalties -- and people who read more than sign-up number can help cover for people who read less, when life gets in the way.

I think that the only thing Mods would really care about is if someone reads next to nothing after signing up for a high #, or reads a billion books after signing up for a very low #.
There are no penalties within the challenge per se, but I think they pay attention if someone does these things repeatedly across multiple challenges. They'd probably get a strongly worded PM.

Laura wrote: "Hey team! Let’s do a little planning, since we’re limited to 10 of the book tags per round.

For this first round, our tags are INSECTS, CREEPY, RACISM, WINGS, or TWILIGHT.

I have the Guild Hunte..."

If anybody feels like they might be interested in reading Just Mercy for one of the “Read a book recommended by someone on you own team” tasks, it is tagged RACISM.

Melanie wrote: "Alysa wrote: "Maybe there can be a separate thread for this (if there isn't one in Captains group), but can another GR Librarian here look into updating page count on this if appropriate? I don't w..."

Yay, thank you!

That would be awesome if we can pull it off!
I guess it will depend a lot on whether more people prefer to read longer or shorter books. More books = more spell-outs, and the new point system doesn’t reward for length anymore so lots of short books would be fine, but if we get many people who happen to be reading long books, it will impact the spell-outs. Just so long as we don’t end up with more than 1 partial word, it’s all good :D

Probably, but not everyone around here would know that. Most people just figured, "Hey, it's summer, time for some deckchairs."

I wish there were more tasks that involved drinking pina colodas and such. *dreams*

That cover was fine dark chocolate 4EVA!!!!!

And I actually do not mind that Jetsetters cover for deckchairs. I mean, there are chairs like that on pool decks, right?
At least no one was picturing the deck chair scene from Kate's Crew... until... NOW.

Maybe there can be a separate thread for this (if there isn't one in Captains group), but can another GR Librarian here look into updating page count on this if appropriate? I don't want to update my own (or a teammate's) book during a team challenge. Conflict of interest. :)

Perfiditas

GR says 288 pages for this ASIN but Amazon says 322.

I am hoping to read Blameless, which works for spell-out due to a bunch of character names, plus P series title. But I'm still waiting for my library hold on ebook to come in.
I am crazy and searched through all its 70+ pages of tags, and found 1 person has tagged it TWILIGHT.
So, that's something. ;D

[eta: cut last sentence for atrocious writing... I am clearly still tired]

I was expecting to read a bunch of crap, but got lucky!

I loved my initial QUAFFLE book, and then had to read 3 defense books that I would not ever have chosen and didn't love, but weren't completely awful.
These last 2 quality books were offensive strikes against the other team's Seeker, who just happened to pick more "real" books instead of all random crap from KU, haha.

Welcome, Roger!

42 print books in the past 3 days? Wow, yes, your mail carriers are going to love you.
I'm a big fan of both print and e-readers. The latter opens up a whole new world, and you won't ever run out of local device storage if you don't keep all of your titles on the device at the same time. :)

Thanks to Quidditch, no less, I have now read #s 14 and 15, bringing me halfway to my goal!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard
A Wizard of Earthsea

Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed both. 4 stars each. :)

New planning sheet looks great, Michelle! I think it'll be easier to see what's going on, and what can be moved around.

Funny --
Where you wrote "lawman mystery", for some reason I read it as "lawnmower mystery" and was like WHAT IS THAT, lol.

Recs, rec, let's see...
I will list stuff that I really liked recently(ish), and that maybe hasn't been super widely read/rec'd yet, at least not on NBRC. Otherwise, I will end up going too far down a deep rabbit hole, lol.


by M.R. Carey, which also has the next book coming out in Sept (which I am excited about, but it'll be too late for Wheel, oh well!). Post-apocalyptic/sci-fi/coming of age. Dead serious and funny at the same time.

by family Mike Carey, Louise Carey, and Linda Carey. Mike is the same MR Carey as the the book above, who mostly now publishes under his variant name for some reason. This book is a sweeping feminist-inspired desert fantasy adventure.

by Bryan Stevenson. Nonfiction memoir, recently made into a movie (which I have not seen). This book made be super angry about injustice, which was its point!

by Tom Miller. I'm going back further for this one, because I don't want to just recommend its sequel which I read more recently. Really impressive debut historical fantasy work.

by Chandler J. Birch. Reminiscent of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Sadly, the publisher did not know how to market it and it fell through the cracks. Do read, and maybe they will let the author release the sequel someday!

by Linnea Hartsuyker. In the interest of full disclosure, the author is an old friend of mine in real life. But that is not why I'm rec'ing it. It's just great historical fiction, especially if you like vikings!

by Sue Rainsford. So, so bizarre, in a good way. Some call it magical realism, but to me it's more like literary meets weird fic.

And...
by Megan E. O'Keefe. Highly entertaining space opera, and the next book comes out in July, which I am excited about!


So, mostly fantasy/sci-fi stuff except for Just Mercy and The Half-Drowned King. That's not all I read, but those are just books that came to the top of my mind :D

Yeah, I figure either the beaters get frustrated that they have to give up books when their attack (or defense) fails, or chasers get frustrated when their chains fail via attack in addition to just quaffle breaks.
I was actually *expecting* to have a whole bunch of unfinished books -- as a beater -- by the end of the match, and ended up having none except for one abandoned attack on a Seeker, abandoned for strategic timing purposes (though it was so close to the end, that it wouldn't have mattered anyway).
I was expecting this so hard, in fact, that Lexi kept having to remind me to keep reading for defense even after our chasers finished the book first! Because I just could not keep my head firmly wrapped around the concept that an opposing attack was still valid even after chain completion.
I was like... "But how can we still be lobbing bludgers to stop or defend a goal that has already been scored??!?" :D

I agree with all of the people who chimed in above re preparation and weekend/length.

Re seeker maybe being allowed to read at least once for quaffle repair, that's an interesting idea. It would also allow an extra nap for at least one chaser, lol.

I am ambivalent about Lexi's suggestion regarding Seeker still being possibly overpowered. I mean, I get how it would be extremely frustrating if our team had had our 100 points to the other team's 10, and then the Magpie Seeker had gotten the snitch and they'd beaten us on points in the end. That could very well have happened if our Seeker hadn't gotten such a big head start! But, well, that's part of the game. That outcome is also the desired ends of a valid strategy of going all-in on a Seeker -- albeit a risky strategy, and one which doesn't give chasers much to do.

I'm also ambivalent about Jenny's comment re beater attack on a completed chain to affect the next chain. This was my first time playing so I guess I don't fully understand what this rule was changed from? So I'll just say that while on the one hand I agree that "once a chain is complete, that should be it," on the other hand, I gather that doing it the way we did it this time surely cut down on the number of unfinished books a lot of people were left with by the end of the match.

This is possibly a related concept, but it would have been nice to have more clarity regarding the eligibility of Seeker books for attack. The two teams obviously had wildly different understandings as to whether a book that a Seeker had already finished and logged, prior to the announcement of an attack, was in fact eligible to be attacked. This was further confused by the fact that when the question came up, it involved two books (one finished, the other currently still being read) that just so happened to have the same damn word in the title, LOL.
But I think if everyone had had the same understanding going in, that aspect wouldn't have mattered.

But whatever is decided on that count, it does not automatically follow that the same should be applied to beater attacks on chasers. That is to say, if a chaser finishes and logs a chain book, an opposing beater should not be allowed to go back and announce an attack on it several chains later; or put one more way, beaters should still only be allowed to announce attacks on opposing chasers' unfinished books (apologies if I misunderstood someone who seemed to be proposing otherwise at one point during the beater/seeker rule controversy).

Overall that was a really awesome game and well designed game -- and definitely made me feel better about having missed the original HP themed TT!!

@Emeli -- wow the American news reports about Sweden lately are so confusing! I hope everything is okay for you :)

@Britta -- Estonia! I have been there once, like 10 years ago in the middle of snowy winter. I would love to come back someday.