Keli’s Comments (group member since Jun 23, 2016)

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

Always be the peanut butter. Unless you're allergic. Jam works just as well!

Thank you, Angie and Jenny for making my first attempt at co-captaining be an easy one!

Sammy, thank you for the Thirst Games!

Regardless of where we finish, this was the best team. Best posts and banter! You all are crazy reading machines. I had a lot of fun, too.

Hopefully, I'll see you all in Turf Wars.

I'm off to bed. Happy reading for the last 11 hours those of you in later timezones. Or night owls.

RachelG. wrote: "Keli wrote: "We have just over 11 hours left. Hopefully, my link works."

Worked great! Thank you!"

Oh good. I've never made a countdown clock.

We have just over 11 hours left. Hopefully, my link works.

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Defo looks very orange to me.

I finished Black Water Sister. I will have Hidden finished tomorrow. Don't think I will get to Open Season. Guess that will be my first read for turf wars. I'll find a short audio to put in its place.

I will have Black water sister finished in 2 hours. The author is Zen Cho

Jenny wrote: "Damn Keli, you have been a bit busy.
I want to see pictures of the nails please!!! Of course my pre-coffee morning brain read that as nails that one hits with a hammer. I've got it now though!"

I haven't set up my nail room's insta yet. Will be soon! The photos from the weekend will go there along with my introductory offer. I love offers. So I've got a few planned. You can check out my nails on my Instagram which is @keilaniclinton. I did some super awesome ombre seashells ones!

Dang, I'm away for one day, and I cime back to hot gay mermen and male pregnancy! The former 🤤🤤, the latter wth?!

Soz, I've been away. I was a busy bee this weekend. I had three sets of nails to do on sunday, and get really good pics of them as I'm getting ready for the opening of my nail room. Plus the windows guys were here in Saturday, finishing up the upstairs and I spent all day cleaning. Windows create a mess! So I was only able to dip in to the post.

None of my three remaining books works for anything on the didtrict tasks. Open Season will be down to the wire.

Keli D1 participation post
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Day 5 ~ Chapters 35 - 41

20. “Everything we see is seen through the lens of our expectations. Our prejudice provides a broad brush, imagination sprinkles detail, some of which may actually be there.” - Illusion by Copper Davidfield
This epigraph at the start of one of the chapters, stopped me for two reasons. One was due to whom it was credited. What do you make of this work/person? Did you have any thoughts or “lightbulbs” when reading this epigraph? How do you think it relates to the story or does it?
This one made me snort. I can't remember who it was that made me realise that some of these were messed up versions of books for closer to our time and, also characters from Mark Lawrence's worlds. Sister Apple, from the red sister trilogy, is one of the author's quoted, as well as, Jorg from Prince of Thorns. I spent more time trying to figure out where they came from than on their meaning.

21. Livira finds a way to get through the portals again and she and Evar have a bit more time together. This time they explore some of the pools/portals and are have different reactions to where they go. Did this give you any more ideas on what the portals are for or why the two of them can use them at times?

Yes and no. I tend not to think very much when I read. If I figure out a mystery book, it means the plot was insanely basic. I can be surprised by Scooby-doo. This lack of mind occurs with all forms of entertainment. Anyway, at the time it made sense that they couldn't interact because I thought they were from different worlds going to different worlds. The not breathing for her and him being okay thing stumped me.

22. Yute took Meelan and Livira before the king, all along to appoint Livira as junior librarian. (She had the complete wrong idea until he made the announcement to the king!) This was met with complete disapproval by the king and others. Yute was able to persuade the king to accept the appointment with prejudice. What do you think Yute’s ultimate goal is by this action or by his recruitment of Livira, even?

He knows that if anyone can help stop the slaughter and lead the warring factions to peace it will be her. Yes, she hates the Saba, but she is incredibly intelligent, practical and empathetic. So she is the exact kind of person who could see beyond her anger.

23. This section is full of time jumps. That twice we are told that 3 years have passed in Livira’s world and we know that she is “striding toward her twentieth year”. Then boom she is a fully fledged Librarian, when it seems just a few chapters earlier that the king and his followers were going to try to remove her as junior librarian. What are your thoughts on Livira now that she has aged and is developing her opinion of her world?

I still like her the best of all the characters. I enjoyed the time jumps. It felt like we were finally gettng on. It was crawling by for me.

24. Since we are a little over half way through the book now, has your opinion of the story changed? Are you liking it more or less than you were before? Any predictions on what will happen in the story?
So this one is hard to answer since I've finished the book. I can remember that things felt like they were starting to pick and the info we were being given about the library and the world was making much more intriguing that the previous 10 hours!

DQs Day 2 Chapters 8 - 16

6. How are you enjoying the book so far? How's the pacing for you?

I can remember being a teensy bit bored through the firrst half of the book. It was slow feeling. Even though stuff was happening, it just lacked excitement or animation or tension. It was missing some spark, something that kept if from being a page turner.

7. What are your favorite characters, situations, quotes so far?

I like Livira. She is spunky. I loved her just going to the fifth door. I like that she does what she needs to but also what she wants.

8. What are your fondest memories of a library?

I can remember walking the children's section of the Dallas public library downtown. It was so big and had every book I wanted to read. It was magical to my 10 year old self.

9. Library as prison... does that ring true for you?

No. But if I was stuck inside of one with no windows and the same few people for 20 years, then yeah.

10. If you could have one natural ability relating to books (view spoiler), what would it be?

That's tricky. That seems like a good talent to have.

DAY 1 CHAPTERS 1-7

1. Ahhh.. The Library! ..My happy place. And what a beautifully intriguing cover! How often do you visit your local library and have you visited any famous libraries around the world. Do share!

I visit my local library weekly, at least. I love it.
I planned a long weekend around a trip to a library. I had recently read Shadow of Night or watched the series, and it kindled a desire to go see the Bodelian. So my hubby and I drove to Oxford, stayed in a really cute boutique hotel/pub (really good value for money!), and wandered the city. The following day, we went on a tour of the Bodelian and got to see the amazing place in detail. Sadly, the general pop can't just wander through and touch 600 year old books. Or, maybe, that's a good thing. Either way, one needs a reason, other than desire, to gain admittance. So, a full tour we did. Then we went to the wonderful botanical gardens, a must visit if you are ever in Oxford. We finished our time there looking for as many Inspector Morse, Lewis and the other one in that world places. That was my husband's joy. We didn't get to the Ashmolean, so we'll have to go back.

2. The first chapters describe a barren wasteland with an equally hopeless type of existence for Livira and her people. But straight away we establish that there is something special about Livira as she rises above her surroundings and the life she seems destined for. But circumstances change... your first impressions of Livira and how she influences her new destiny.

I really liked this spunky little girl. I find curiosity appealing, not annoying in children. She was the best part of the book to me.

3. The chapter headings.. how do they fit into the tale? Do you find them interesting as a guide or somewhat cryptic at this stage of the story?

I listened to the audiobook, so I have no clue. Unless this referes to the little quotes from books that sort of fit into our world and Mark Lawrence's alternate world of ours? Some of those entertained me. I was curious to see if I could recognise them from how they'd been bastardised.

4. Enter Evar in Chapter 4 and the scene changes from the barren Dust to the mysterious and atmospheric library and its Mechanism. A lot of information to absorb about how it all works and the role of Evar and his "family". Does the author do a good job in getting across what the library is and does? Is it good, evil or omnipotent?

It took a while for all of it to come together for me. He was as clear as he wanted to be at each stage. But I don't think he wanted it to be something grasped by the reader straightaway. It needed to unfold as we read. I kind of like that. Like his characters we had to earn the knowledge. But it was a slog at times.

5. "Evar, don't turn the page. I'm in The Exchange. Find me at the Bottom" .
Who wrote this sentence and what is its purpose at this point in the novel? What impact do you think it will have in the story moving forward?

Sadly, i have read the whole book now, so my answer will be affected by my knowledge of what happens. I do remember thinking, "Ooooh."

Jon Snow, Viggo Mortensen, Denzel Washington (always my winner. Sometimes I have fantasies about a Keanu-Denzel sandwich. I'm the peanut butter keeping those slices together. I really hope they don’t have any nut allergies. ), and Jake Gyllenall.

Nice common letters, except that U.

Hey D1, all we need to finish our spellout is a D! The R is missing but,Sammy's Redemption actually goes there. Angie, SS wizard, can you fix that, please?

If you read a D book pop in the Arena Hazard mini code, please. Remember that character names don't qualify in the spellouts.

Sammy, I respect your Keanu but he is kicking some JDM butt. So I'm ginving Angie's man some support. However, if Kane should ever get behind by 1 point, swap my vote and they both win!!!

The other Sandy wrote: "The problem with Into the Wild for me was that Krakauer so over-identified with Chris McCandless. The whole book could've been an article in Outside, really, but Krakauer was too busy examining the..."

Yeah, I thought about that, too. The mental health aspect. I completely agree with Krakauer identifying with and comparing himself to McCandless.

Read another 4. The Book of Joan was an interesting idea, but poorly executed. It does make you think about the political power of all the billionaires, particularly the techocrats.  Still just a ⭐️⭐️ novel for me.
Into the Wild and Keturah and Lord Death were both ⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads. Into the Wild wasn't very long but I felt that this would have been better as a long article. Not that Chris McCandless's life is unworthy of detail, but this is about a very specific and significant part of his life and everything is based on supposition. It's all guesswork, so there's a good deal of repetition and use of anecdotes from others to try and help us understand McCandless. There was a good twenty pages on other climbers, including a story from the author. If this had been a book about the fearless, naïve stupidity of youth with a central focus on McCandless and supported by science as well as anecdote, then brilliant. But it was supposed to be about the young man and the strange tragedy of his death. Though Krakauer was sensitive to his memory and family, I don't feel I got a picture of the man.
Keturah and Lord Death was a European middle ages version of Scheherazade. Well told, but definitely been there done that.
The best book out of this bunch was From Dead to Worse. Excellently entertaining as always.