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

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

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.

I added a Tag list at the top of Round 1 in planning sheet, just to have one more point of reference without clicking thru the drop-down.

Re tasks -- I know every person has their own list, but does anyone know if the list resets every Round? Like, if you Read a book set in Canada (#1) in Round 1, can you Read [another] a book set in Canada (#1) in Round 2? Or is the one long task list supposed to last for the entire Wheelathon?

Nice start!
It might be a good idea to either A) do the Spell Out with each letter in a single row or column, so we can place books in for each letter as we go (and note possible alternate letters), or B) change “Reason” to something like “Letters this works for” and ask everyone to just list all letter options there.
In either case, it will make it a lot easier for you Captains to move stuff around as needed.

I might not be making sense because very tired...

Geri wrote: "Congrats Alysa! I have never played. But it seems like the game is intense!"

It was pretty intense, yeah. But my team got along really well (I had played on various other team challenges with the majority of them before) and we spent a lot of time preparing, which fun and really paid off. It was almost like a real sport! And I even got to read some good books, which I was not necessarily expecting, lol.

Hi! Quidditch is over! My team won, and then I got a whole night of sleep, phew! (That was nuts but fun — did anyone else follow the match?)

I am promised to my family today, but starting late tonight I will be a lot more present here. I can also help with a planning spreadsheet. I don’t think I have ever been on a team that did not use one... and I have rarely not been on a high-performing team. Just sayin’ 😁

Two more things for now:
1) Hi Frankie!!!! You are the only person here that I’ve ever teamed with before, and didn’t we have fun in TT? Ira 4 ever!
2) Everybody used a crap ton of O’s during The Floor is Lava challenge last summer. We can dig up those NBRC threads (and spreadsheets, if applicable) and pull ideas.

I was ready to post my successful attack on Ambi -- didnt get a chance. But thanks Ambi's book choices for helping me some stuff off of my ancient TBR!

I have stuff to finish before Wheel now... but probably will not read too much for the next week, lol.

SO MUCH READING!
Great match, everybody!!!

Team Who Must Not Be Named Beater

Wait a minute, that wizard school wasn't even Hogwarts!!! Alysa abandons failed attack on A Wizard of Earthsea, and attempts to distract Seeker Ambi with The Tales of Beedle the Bard instead.

(The only edition of Beedle I could get has a lower page count but I will of course abide by Ambi's edition's minimum time.)

Is it Sapphired Book Dragon, Nikk? :D

Ambi wrote: "Finishing The Tales of Beedle the Bard: The Illustrated Edition, seeker Ambi catches a glimpse of gold. Off to read After the Quake while searching for the snitch."

What task is that for?

Beater Alysa has always wanted to read... A Wizard of Earthsea. Attempting to distract Seeker Ambi!

Team Who Must Not Be Named Beater Defense

Alysa wrestled that Sinful Cinderella on the quidditch pitch, and defense is complete! Seeker Rebecca can keep looking for that snitch!

(with appropriate time delay, of course)

Both Rebecca's current book and previous book have the word Cinderella in the title, and they have different min read times.
We didn't know which one we were defending, and had to pick a defense book based on min read time of whichever was being considered Rebecca's book under attack.

Apparently that is Sinful Cinderella (so I have to read that now), and not Cinderella Cook-Off (would have been shorter).

We're at 36 min ago for Magpies and 18 min ago for me for Sinful Cinderella.

Wanna use this post as the point of reference for time?

ETA: to be clear -

TWMNBN Beater Defense
Alysa is reading Sinful Cinderella, 4:14pm

(but Magpies only have 18 min lead time, not 36 min)

Cat wrote: "Ummmm.... I think that I thought any was fair game, even if its been turned in (cos the catch book is off limits)

Let's stick with that, but say each find book can only be attacked once?

Feedbac..."

Okay, so, can both sides do a timer reset?
Because I lost a lot of time simply waiting for the answer in this case, and now I will need to defend with Sinfull Cinderella instead of Cook-off... of which I have only read 2 pages, lol.

Lexi wrote: "I can go with that. Alysa will change her book to the right one and reset the timer."

No need in this case, because they both have Cinderella in the title. So I can stick with the Cook-Off one.
ETA: length question.

Maybe we should wait for Cat to answer, and in meantime both reset timers. Because this "you can attack any seeker task book at any time" is not something I would ever have thought of, once the book has been reported in.
In which case this attack only makes sense based on Common Word in Title.