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

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

ClaireB wrote: "I understand how you felt Alysa, it happened to me before too where I specifically started a book for a difficult (for me) task. Realizing that my book wasn't used for that task in the end was quite frustrating."

Good to know it's not only me :)

During that same team challenge there was also a time when I hadn't been online in a few days because I was traveling (which I told everyone in advance -- and I had also indicated in Sign-Ups that I only expected to check into group chat a few times a week). But I would never get anywhere close to the end of a Round without telling the team if I wasn't going to finish a planned book (which never happened anyway).

Apparently, during my absence, someone said "UsE MY b00k for Task 'X' beCuz ALYSA is N0T h3re! Wut if ALYSA d03sn't sh0w up?!?" -- and they did!!!

I logged on just a few hours later, having finished my book, saw what happened, and was like WTF? When have I ever not showed up? I would literally have to be dead or in a coma.

It wasn't a huge deal book-wise because my book was good and I'd have finished it anyway, but it was quite difficult finding another task that it could fit, as it was getting later in the game. Argh. I think I just felt very unwanted on that team.

All fine!

If there's a rare instance where it's not fine, I will say. Last time I did a group challenge I was reading a bad book that I wouldn't have finished if it weren't for a difficult task, and then when I opened the spreadsheet to log it, I found that somebody had quietly moved it without mentioning anything (I think it wasn't even a captain). I was so irritated; I regretted not saying anything!

Hmmm, I am interpreting the instructions as only past BOMS (the spreadsheet is broken into different tabs, to differentiate BOMS from BRs and such). Maybe ask in the Captains group?

Melindam wrote: "Was it in/around Budapest you visited or did you get to some other locations as well?"

We spent time in Budapest at the beginning and end of most trips but we mostly concentrated on the eastern part of the country, like around the Miskolc, Eger, Debrecen, and Tokaj areas. The 2020 trip was supposed to be to Lake Balaton but IDK if that's going to happen!

Melindam wrote: "Concerning past BOM squares & ladders.... that may be the toughest part of the challenge and one requiring very specific reading efforts. Let's see if/how we can manage that."

Yeah we can leave it until a bit later and just keep an eye on whether anybody happens to read an old BOM we can use.
Listen to me saying "we" like I'm a co-captain. Old habits are hard to break, LOL! But anyway, there are some books that both start and end in "S" (for example: Six of Crows and Snow Like Ashes), which could be helpful. I bet "T"s are helpful too because articles like "The" can't be ignored (for example: The Darkest Part of the Forest).

Oh and @Melindam, there’s a good chance that I will be in Hungary next summer! I have been there several times between 2004 and 2016 but not since then. I was supposed to come in 2020 but it didn’t happen because of COVID. We’re finally going to try again!

My partner writes very niche cookbooks and he’s working on one about Central Europe that will focus a lot on Hungarian food.
I am very interested to see how the places I knew best in Hungary have (or have not) changed over 10 or 20 years.

Someone else nominated the second book by Gareth Brown, whose first book is the *current* BOM. It’s not a direct sequel but it’s apparently set in the same world. For multifarious reasons, I am happy that your RJB nomination won instead!

Speaking of BOMs, I was having a look at Mini 7 where we would have to make “Squares” and “Ladders” with previous BOMs. Could be doable if we coordinate well.

Melindam wrote: "Awesome! 🥳

And mine won for the adult/non-fiction one, so those will be some nice fat extra points. 😊"

That was you! Sweet!
I really loved Book 1 so I'll be happy to read Book 2, especially for a Wheel BOM.
If not for that, I would be waiting a bit longer to read it. I have a weird thing about reading books by the same author (or with a similar cover, or with the same word in the title, etc) too close together because I like them to be spread out when I look at my cover grid in Goodreads Stats (and formerly in the annual Reading Challenge -- still annoyed about how they changed that). I can be a little neurotic lol.

Teddie wrote: "For everyone traveling the Camino de Santiago with us, the road is ready!"

I just read that as Carmen Sandiego and was like WHAT?!

Melindam wrote: "And hereby our Team is COMPLETE! 🥳"

Yay!

And also for yay: it looks like my nomination won the poll for the November South America-themed BOM 😁😎

DQ'S - DAY 5 Reality Again - end

18. Who else thought that Izzy really had been killed and was very upset about it?! Did you like how the fake-out was handled? Do you think it worked as a narrative choice?

19. We finally found out how Mr. Webber got the Book of Doors. Were you expecting that? Did you have any other ideas about how that would play out? Did his “final” final scene change your feelings or interpretations of the earlier ones?

21. The ultimate stories of Hugo Barbary and the Woman are… interesting. And rather unexpectedly intertwined! What did you think about all of that? Had you predicted anything along those lines?

22. What with how this ends for the remaining characters — not to mention a few loose plot threads — it seems to me like the author is leaving the door open (no pun intended, lol) for a sequel. Does this book feel like a complete story to you? Why or why not? In fact it looks like his next novel is set in the same world, even if it’s not a direct sequel. Would you read it? Why or why not?

DQ'S - DAY 4 The Final Goodbye to Mr Weber - The Woman, After the Auction

14. Mr Weber! So good. How do you feel about the characterisation in the book? Do they feel real? Any particular thoughts on our main players?

I enjoy the characterizations in some cases, but in others they feel a little thin. It’s actually an odd mix. Cassie and Izzy are great, for example, but Drummond a bit less so as it feels like there is more telling and less showing. I like Mr. Webber a lot, and also Cassie’s grandfather. For the latter, though, it feels like he is more of a symbol for Cassie than he is a full person but that also kind of makes sense given her childhood-colored view of him. IDK, perhaps I am giving the author too much credit. He makes some character, like Hugo Barbary, more cartoonish, but even that feels intentional when you recall that Drummond’s deceased friends, the ones we barely see and only in a flashback of sorts, still seem well drawn. I am actually wondering if there are plans for a sequel, based even just on the character work being left open for more depth in select cases.
It’s also a little strange how the author implies some romance but merely skirts around it. It’s almost like he is afraid he doesn’t know how to write romantic scenes, so he just doesn’t try. Or maybe he didn’t want to but there was publisher interference.


15. In all that we never really saw how Mr Weber got the real Book of Doors, given the one he found wasn't the one he gave Cassie. Do you have thoughts on how this will be solved?

Well I have finished the book. But by this point I had largely given up speculating, and when I did I was usually wrong.


16. Lots of action in the auction. Did you enjoy the auction scene? Did you expect that sort of action when you first started the book?

I enjoyed that scene, in a horrific kind of way! I was initially surprised that it didn’t occur later in the book, because it felt so climactic. Like, how much more could there possibly be to this story. But there’s so much left to wrap up so it worked.
So, here’s the thing: I actually got an eARC of this book but that was ages ago and obviously I never got around to reading it. I had never gone back to reread the description before finally starting the book for this BOM. So beyond “magic book that opens any door” and seeing that the ratings are good, I had zero expectations!


17. The Woman, honestly she's a caricature at this point, but pretty effective at bringing the horror! Do you think we'll get a backstory to humanise her or will she remain a nameless horror?

Again I have finished the book. But without spoiling anything, I will say that at this point in the book I had somewhat started to wonder whether the book would avoid additional backstory for the woman in favor of exploring the idea that some people are just born evil.

Here I am again!
I have been on teams with at least 4 of you before, but it's been a minute. Glad to "meet" you again, and to be teammates with the rest for the first time!

🌍 Where are you journeying from?

New York, New York. As in the actual Manhattan part!

💖 A book, author, or genre that’s always “preciousss” to you?

I've been reading mostly sci-fi and fantasy for the past decade or so, but don't make me choose, lol.

🍫 Optional snack check: if you were bringing second breakfast for the road, what’s in your pack?

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. But when I eventually get nauseated from eating too many, then apples.

🧿“Who is your favourite villain… and why is it obviously Me, Sauron?”

Rather than a favorite (IDK if I'd be able to name one!) I will just say the very first one that popped into my mind, for some bizarre reason as this is kind of a deep cut:
The character Butterfield in the movie Lord of Illusions from 1995.
Srsly, IDK how that just popped into my brain. I used to love that movie as a teenager in the 1990s but I haven't seen it since like 1998 maybe. WTF, brain.

💍 Which unread book on your shelf whispers to you most like the Ring?

There are 3 books tied for "The Oldest Ones on my Goodreads TBR" and the one of them that whispers to me the most in the sense that at this point it's the least likely I'll ever actually read it but I still can't bring myself to take it off my TBR despite many purges of old TBRs: Graceling by Kristine Cashore

🌋Which books/characters did you feel like throwing into Mount Doom?

Oh gosh, anything I've rated 1 star? That's a hard question. Every book is somebody's baby... but I do wish some of those book babies hadn't been born.

🥾What’s your favourite real-life walk… and why is it clearly the Road to Mordor?

My partner is from France and every couple of summers we do a sort of reunion thing with his family in Saint Malo, on the northern coast of Brittany (it's not where they're from, just where his mom's side of the family has been going on summer trips since the 1950s). My mostest favoritest walk is down the long beach and through the walled town there.
It's not the Road to Mordor but I'll tell you what was:
This one time my partner and I were on a road trip in Montenegro and we were stuck for a long time behind some kind of ancient black-smoke-belching roadworks truck on a high mountain pass. We legit thought the sky itself had turned black. I even remember saying "WE HAVE FOUND MORRRRDORRRRR" and my partner was like, "Shut up, nerd."

🎒 Would you survive the Tongariro Alpine Crossing carrying Sam’s cookware set and Frodo’s the Mighty Lord Sauron's Ring?

So, I think I'd be among the first to die in a Zombie Apocalypse, but somehow I might survive TAC through sheer stubbornness. I do be like that sometimes.

⚔️ If you needed rescuing, which would you choose the Nazgûls, the Balrog or the Orcs?

You mean to be rescued FROM? They're all pretty bad! The Balrog, maybe, just because I feel like it would be the coolest to see IRL before being rescued.


So funny to be talking about LoTR/The Hobbit because lately I have been randomly watching a bunch of old Lindsay Ellis videos about the movies. This team was my destiny!

Also, ditto about the notifications. Goodreads has decided this group doesn't count. Hope it resolves itself sooner than later.

Hi! Also just checking in but will introduce myself properly later!
This is going to be a great team 😃

DQ'S - DAY 3 Izzy Out of Sorts - The Book of Doors Discovered

9. If you could talk to anyone from your past, would you? Who would it be?

This answer is going to be a downer and I apologize if it triggers anybody…
I used to have a friend from university (he was a little older; we met while working together in the library!) with whom I lost touch, and that was kind of deliberate on his part because he had a girlfriend at the time who was insecure and did not like me. And to be fair, in retrospective I can see that I was indeed being too flirty in our interactions. Anyway, I had hoped to give it some time and reach out again someday, but I found out long after the fact that he had moved back to his hometown and then committed suicide a few years later.
I’m sure there’s nothing I could have done to change the outcome, but I’ve thought often about what I would say if I could go back and talk to him, and just be a better friend.


10. With more information about what happened to Drummond and his friends but also what happened to Izzy after she woke up, did it change your answer to DQ#8?

What happened to Drummond’s friends was absolutely terrifying. But I still don’t think that taking away Izzy’s memory was fair or right, and it didn’t even protect her much. I mean, she was almost immediately attacked by Hugo, and whether it had been a Hugo or The Woman who reached Izzy first they clearly have no problem using/hurting/killing anyone, erased memory or not. Drummond should have just let Izzy come along to the Fox Library. Or at least not left her at her known address. That was so dumb.


11. What did you think of Lund and The Bookseller?

They are both interesting but Lund is more enigmatic and the one I’d like to know more about. The Bookseller seems more like a plot device than a person, at least up to this point.


12. Was Cassie trapped in the past longer than you expected? Did it make some things that happened in the beginning make sense?

Oh it definitely made earlier stuff make more sense! I went into this book having zero idea that there would be time travel involved (hence my answer to DQ#1) so it’s been chock full of surprises, and they are mostly well done.
Cassie was trapped longer than I expected (and unless l missed something, we STILL don’t how the Book of Doors turned up in that time). And I heart Mr. Webber so much.


13. Now that we are about 2/3 through the book, predictions?

I have given up trying to predict anything in this book! But I have also read ahead a bit, so I can’t say anything.

DQ'S - DAY 2 A Night of Travel- Matt's All-American Burgers

6. Are you more like Cassie- adventurous and a risk taker or Izzy, more careful and think things through?

I wouldn’t consider Cassie adventurous or a risk-taker, as I feel like it’s been established that she has always been a sort of meek and scared person — it’s only now with the Book of Doors that she has suddenly perked up and wants to do something a bit more grand. And it’s interesting to me that Izzy is the more careful and thinks one in this situation when she’s also been established as the louder and more outgoing of the pair. It just goes to show that people contain multitudes, and the author is pretty good at creating complex characters. Given all of that, I am more like Izzy for sure!


7. What are your thoughts on "The Woman" now hearing more of her story.

She is hella scary. Like, deeply creepy horror-novel scary. I hope we learn more about how she became the way she is.


8. Drummond Fox has the Book of Memories and it is often used more to forget than to remember something. Can you pinpoint anything in your life you would willingly forget on purpose? Cassie is now on this adventure on her own because Drummond made Izzy forget the Book of Doors but Cassie was now able to see the Library. Was the trade off worth it?

I wouldn’t want to forget anything on purpose, and that’s largely because I don’t think it is fair to other people. Similarly, I don’t think Cassie getting to see the (awesome!) Fox Library can be described as a trade off for not having Izzy around anymore because that is not fair to Izzy. In fact I don’t think enough attention was paid to how big a violation it was to Izzy’s agency to make her forget, without asking her first, even though I understand why Drummond did it, and I think his intentions were good.

Ooh the team names are so much fun!

And I see there are some mini-challenge details up as well.
This is going to be a great Wheel! Thanks, Mods! :D :D :D

DQ'S - DAY 1 START - BOOK PEOPLE

1. "This is the Book of Doors Hold it in your hand and any door is every door"
If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?

That's actually a hard one not because I can't narrow my ideas down to a single door, per se, but because there would be a "When?" component. Like, I would want to choose a place from my childhood but only if the place could be as it was then, not as it is today.
For places as they are now… IDK, maybe a house on the Dalmatian coast. Ahhhhh.


2. The first page of the novel starts with this lovely sentence - so true for book lovers. "I've read it before but as I get older, I find comfort in re-reading favourites. It's like spending time with old friends." - Mr Webber
Does this ring true for you? What is your favourite comfort read?
PS - Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo? If you have do you agree or disagree with Cassie's opinion?

I don't tend to re-read books very much but I used to when I was younger, so I've had certain comfort reads that make Mr Webber's line resonate. My main one is the original version of Laura Argiri's The God in Flight (the more recent edition is terrible: they changed a whole bunch of stuff!), about which I remain sad that the characters aren't real.
I have not read The Count of Monte Cristo but my daughter read it over the summer because her school is doing a themed trip in just a couple of weeks. They're taking a bunch of 10th graders over to France and Italy on a sort of "follow in the steps" journey. Their itinerary looks amazing, and yes I am envious!


3. After Cassie's and Izzy's first outing with the Book, despite Cassie's delight it seems that Izzy's reservations are valid. Can you see the positive and negative aspects of owning the books - So far other than the Book of Doors, the Books of Pain, Shadow, Memories, Illusions and Luck have been revealed. If you could own one book which one would it be? Which one wouldn't you touch with a ten foot pole!

Definitely positive and negative aspects to owning the books -- even just using the books, apart from the fact that owning them clearly makes one a target. But if I could own one of the books mentioned so far it'd be either Doors or Luck. As for which I would not want, well, Pain sounds like it's used to inflict on others, and I wouldn't want to do that so the book would be useless to me other than as an art object I suppose, or to keep out of anyone else's hands… Maybe I'd stay away from the Book of Memories. Sounds like a rabbit hole I would not want to be sucked into.


4. Everyone seems terrified of the mysterious Woman? Who do you think she is and why is her name capitalized?

Not enough information yet but it sounds like she's a rabid collector of Books and/or the power that comes with them. Between her and some of the other characters who are tracking down Books and their owners and former owners or whatever is going on, I'm kind of getting The Bone Clocks vibes. It'll be interesting to see if that holds.


5. Cassie goes to Mr Webber's apartment to get some answers.
"Why did you give me the book Mr Webber" she asked the room "and where did you get it. What is the secret behind it?"
These are the "64 million dollars questions"!! Do you have any theories or is it too early in the story to come to any conclusions?

It seems like the Books used to be all in one collection, got broken up in some calamitous way, and now there's this little underworld of people trying to get them back together but for individualized reasons as opposed to some greater collective good. I suspect that Mr. Webber was either a member of the "library" that originally owned the Books or he knew someone who was (possibly a woman but not "the woman"), and that he'd been successfully evading detection by the others for a long time. That's about all I've come up with so far.

Moderators of NBRC wrote: "Breakdown up and posted!"

Thank you!

I'm in!
I can write DQs if it's possible to have the final day?

Eldarwen wrote: "Yes, they're traded in. Once you've spent a token on an extra BOM entry, it is gone."

Great, thank you!
I had been thinking of using some of my Ruby coins for another BOM takeover but it can be hard to time it so it’s not during a team challenge. 😆