Beth’s Comments (group member since Aug 12, 2014)

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

Then I got nothing. I hope someone finds a detective!

Although seeing as a bounty hunter by definition is someone who finds people on the run from the law, which is one of the jobs of a detective, I'm not sure what the difference is.

By the way, it looks like my detective book won't work -- it has to be a professional detective, not just someone who solves crimes. I actually have One for the Money on my shelves -- does anyone know if the main character Stephanie Plum is a detective? The description says she is but it also says she's a bounty hunter. Does she solve crimes for a living?

If not does anyone else have a book with a professional detective whose initials appear in POISON?

So far I see we can make the word "THAN". (Task 4) Any other ideas?

Lexi wrote: "On a side note, I am deeply confused by what Batman is doing on this list. Did I miss that comic?."

When I realized that I had no idea what the mods meant I asked google.

I googled "Famous Detectives" and found a list of 10 Famous Detectives, including Lindsay Davis's Roman detective Falco. And Sherlock Holmes. And Cadfiel and some other guys. But Nancy Drew, Girl Detective should have been on that list. But most of them would not qualify under the definitions I'm seeing.

But in the questions Google lists under your search it had "Who Is The Most Famous Detective In the World " so I clicked on that and apparently that's one of Batman's nicknames. Huh.

I was even more confused when a mod said Yes to Miss Marple but no to amateur detectives, but it turned out she was thinking of a different person when she said Miss Marple. I still think it's rather random what people think are detectives.

Jenny wrote: "Who is Falco?"

Lindsay Davis's character who solves mysteries in Ancient Rome in books like The Silver Pigs. I googled "Famous Detectives" and picked the ones where I have read some of the books but they don't seem to meet the qualifications here. And of course none of them have useful initials!

On the detectives:

I am now completely confused. People who solve mysteries don't count unless they are paid by the government? Because if Bounty Hunters don't count, who would? Not Sherlock Holmes. Not Nancy Drew. Not Miss Marple. Not Peter Wimsey. Not Philip Marlow. Not Perry Mason. Not Batman. Not Falco.

Finding people who are supposed to be in custody seems like what a lot of actual police detectives do. Eve Dallas spends large portions of her books chasing down criminals. Bounty hunters are doing the same thing. The book descriptions of Stephanie Plum books refer to her as a detective. And from what I see from the book descriptions, the whole book series is about her solving the mysteries along the way.

At this point I'm wondering whether if you read a book when a small town sheriff solves murders it wouldn't count because she's not a Police Detective, she's a sheriff. How about Sergeants?

This is very different from how I've heard the word detective used when talking about mystery books. I always thought of the detective as the person in a mystery who solves the puzzle, especially when the puzzle is a murder. HELP!

Judith wrote: "I would say no to Stephanie Plume because Karen’s response was a detective had to be your actual job.

It sounds like she’s a bounty hunter who does detecting on the side (or as she stumbles into i..."

Wait, what's the difference between a bounty hunter and a detective? She's does for a living exactly what police detectives do. She and Eve Dallas do the same sort of thing.

In eight hours from now I'll be in bed, so right before then I'll look at what we finished and try to make words out of it. That's 23:00 PDT (West coast of the US).

Unless someone will be around after that to do that? Unless I hear differently that will be our team deadline.

Yeah, I'm terrible at flexible anagrams.

My book can be A, T, C, H, or P if that helps. And the one I'm trying to finish for WITH could be: N, M, A, R, or H.

Shout out if you come up with something smarter!

Moderators of NBRC wrote: "Let's say that those that are actually 'solving crimes for living' aka not doing some other work like owning bookstore or catering. :)"

OK, I think I understand this except that you give Miss Marple as an example of doing it for a living.

Does this mean that you don't read much Miss Marple or that the fact that she doesn't do anything for a living makes her count? Because she definitely doesn't generate income from solving mysteries and I don't think she considers herself to be working at it. I guess sometimes people will ask her for help -- is that enough to qualify? That they are known in the story more for their detecting than for anything else?

I think I can finish an "H" book before the deadline, giving us W-TH.
Does anyone have an I?

Maritza, worst case your book is "A" (task 10). Do you want me to put that in the spreadsheet?

I switched to task 10 (from task 1) because I have to read that book by Friday for a book club anyway. But I am flexible if someone wants me to shift!

I signed up for

* Task 1 because it was on my TBR list, and then I found a mystery that fit

* Task 7 but that one has to be sent to my library so if someone has been wanting to read a Stephanie Plum mystery feel free to grab that spot and I'll find something else to read.

Also, this is a good time to look over the tasks for Group 3 and claim your first book.

Chava is on the ball here!

I'm thinking we may not finish WRITTEN -- the new countdown is up and we have to be done by this weekend.

Should we try for WITH? That's in task 10.

I'm pretty sure I can finish my T -- can we get an I and an H?

Finished and updated spreadsheet.

Started book that fits T. I'm not completely sure when I can finish it though, so I put that doubt in the notes for the book.

If we finish WRITTEN we will have exceeded MAGMA (our team level) expectations. Does anyone understand the rules around that? Of course, it might not be an issue.

OK, I added the Secret Garden. Did you like it? It was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I really emphasized with Mary when she was in her bratty stage.

Back to my book!

P.S. Chafic -- it looks like the link to your book It fell off. When you get a chance, can you update the spreadsheet? Because it links up with The Secret Garden to give up a complete ladder. I think.

We are spelling out ACID with the four books:

Iron and Magic, Ilona Andrews
Liar Liar, by Candace somebody or other
Impasse
The Secret Garden, starring Dickon

Meanwhile we try not to finish anything else until these are all done.

We have a plan! I'm excited to be a part of this plan. I will attempt to finish my book on Wednesday.

The spreadsheet is pretty amazing, isn't it? It's hard to read it; I'm in awe of whoever MADE it.

Since we've finished the stuff in the COUNTDOWN stage on top, we get to pick where we go next. There are three Groups: 1, 2, and 3. We can be reading books for all the groups at the same time, but we can't finish them out of order.

Currently (since you guys are letting me pick these things, I guess) we are going for Group 1. We have to spell out ACID. Maritza and I have picked out letters A and I. Chava's The Secret Garden will work for D because Dickon is a major character.

We still need a C.

(One book in Group one has to be special, but that's already covered if I finish my book. It was used by another team.)

Once we finish all four Group 1 books we can start finishing books for either Group 2 or Group 3. Group 2 books are really hard to find. No one has signed up for any, so I say let's skip them.

Group 3 books are Spell-It-Out books where we pick the words we want from the COUNTDOWN tasks. Chava, if you hold off reading the last page of Liar Liar until we finish the Group 1 books, we could use it there. You could propose we spell out "LIST" from Task 1 and use it for L or something. Then we try to finish spelling out the word you picked.

Is this long enough? MEANWHILE, there's a regeneration tab where we can try to build a ladder to win back lost points. I figure if we get lucky and do it by accident then great but otherwise forget it. But that's why i keep asking about page count.