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

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

Res.

Res.

I'm going to go ahead and read the short book, put a few points on my Tower team, and then if we want to wrap that card we can. I know it's silly, but I'd kind of like to defeat all the monsters...

Abir, that one looks really interesting!

I moved my bookmark back one chapter and restarted Shadowed Souls, a book of mostly urban fantasy short stories. My day will consist of meetings and waiting so short stories should fit into all the little spots.

May the Fourth Be With You!

My library has me #58 on the Circle, #66 on Strange the Dreamer, and #225 on Gentleman in Moscow. I am not hopeful, but sometimes things move faster than I expect...

I am ready to go as well. I've gotten most (sadly not all) of my currently reading done, and I've got some books I'm interested in lined up on my shelf. The library has been up soon on two of the BOM selections, so I'm ready!

What are y'all opinions on the separate reporting thread? We have to request one if we want it.

I think there may be a few extra challenges along the way, but mainly just read what you want!

I guess you can look at the BOM books if you want to pick up the extra points for discussing them. Looking at my library hold lines, it's a long shot for me. I'm mostly planning to read what I've got.

I'll try!

Easy Breezy = Read 3 to 4 books. *
Moderate Winds = Read 5 to 7 books. *
Dust Devil = Read 8-12 books. *
Heavy Gusts = 13-24 books. *
Gale Force Winds = Read 25-35 books.

I had 25 books, but one was a manga so it doesn't really count. But it fit perfectly so I included it.

(view spoiler)[

1. “April showers bring May flowers.” - Read a book with flowers or rain on the cover. Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi 5/24/17
2. “Be that as it may.” - Read a book with a title that starts with the letter “B”. Or has an author whose name (first or last) that begins with “B”. Or with a series names that begins with “B”. Or a character’s name (first or last) begins with “B”. Shadowed Souls, ed. Jim Butcher & Kerrie L. Hughes 5/5/17
3. “Cinco de Mayo.” - Read a book that is fifth in a series, or has five words or letters in the title. Break and Enter, Norah McClintock 5/6/17 (5th in series)
4. “Come what may!” - Read a book with a futuristic setting. The Span of Empire, Eric Flint & David Carrico 5/1/17
5. “Devil-may-care attitude.” - Read a book where the protagonist has this attitude. (i.e. Heedless of caution; reckless. Jovial and rakish in manner.) The Sea Without a Shore, David Drake 5/3/17 (Daniel)
6. “He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day.” - Read a book where someone gets bullied. Or where the protagonist is a professional fighter or gets in a fight. Or a story about survival. Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George 5/7/17
7. “How may I help you?” - Read a book where the protagonist helps someone out. Raymie Nightingale, Kate DiCamillo 5/10/17
8. “If I may be so bold...” - Reader’s Choice. A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley 5/12/17
9. “It may account for...” - Read a book with an accountant protagonist, or someone who deals with numbers. Or is an account based on a true historical event. Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner 5/17/17
10. “I may be crazy, but...” - Read a book where the protagonist gets “Gaslighted”... or a little crazy, paranoid, spooked, or rattled. The Door at the Crossroads, Zetta Elliott 5/23/17
11. Mae West. - Read a book with a black & white cover. Or is set in Hollywood. Or where the protagonist is a vamp. Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo 5/8/17
12. “May the better man win!” - Read a book where a competition takes place. Black Butler, Vol. 6, Yana Toboso 5/14/17 (Probably technically too short, as it's a manga)
13. “May Day!” - Read a book that is first in a series. Or where the protagonist attends a fair. Raven's Shadow, Patricia Briggs 5/6/17
14. “May-December Relationship.” - Read a book with quite a gap in years between protagonists’ ages. This does NOT have to be a Romance book. Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente 5/15/17
15. “May the force be with you.” - Read a book with stars on the cover. Or is set in outer space. In Fire Forged, David Weber 5/18/18
16. “May he rest in peace.” - Read a book with ghosts. Or where someone dies. Or has a graveyard or tombstone on the cover. City of Stairs, Robert J Bennett 5/16/17
17. “May I be excused?” - Read a book that is written in the first person POV. (Point of View.) My Life Before Me, Norah McClintock 5/7/17
18. “May Pole” (AKA May Poll) - Read a book on a listopia list. Or is set in Poland. Or written by a Polish writer. Or won one of our BOM polls (past or current). (Examples found on listopia’sBest Polish Books.) The Innocent, David Baldacci 6/1/17 (David Baldacci Books: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...)
19. “May the road rise to meet you...” - Read a book with a road on the cover. Or someone takes a road trip. An Unseen Attraction, K J Charles 5/19/17
20. “May you live in interesting times...” - Read a book where someone is cursed. Or one with lots of danger, uncertainty, and chaos. MaplecroftMaplecroft, Cherie Priest 5/29/17
21. “Terms & conditions may apply.” - Read a book that fits another challenge. Blood, Bullets, and Bones: The Story of Forensic Science from Sherlock Holmes to DNA, Bridget Heos 5/11/17 (Cybils Finalist Challenge)
22. “Things may look good on the surface...” - Read a book with an attractive cover. Wanted, A Gentleman, K J Charles 5/22/17
23. “To whom it may concern.” - Read a book with a stand-alone “letter” in the title. Or by an author with a stand-alone “letter” in their name. Or read a book of memoirs. Or one that has a letter or envelope on the cover. (Examples: C, by Tom McCarthy; author J.R. Ward; All Creatures Great and Small; or maybe something like these found on this listopia .) The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas 5/22/17
24. “Try as I may.” - Read a book that was published any day in May, of any year. , Catherynne Valente 5/27/17 (May 2011)
25. “Warning: May be hazardous to your health.” - Read a book where someone finds themselves in a precarious situation. Or where a character gets an illness. Or is a cigarette smoker. Ghost of a Potion, Heather Blake 5/25/17 (stuck in office with killer vet) (basement with bomb)

(hide spoiler)]

Did you have fun with Dewey's? I've done it a few times, but this year I had too much stuff I couldn't wiggle out of...

I have pruned my currently reading to under 20 books! I'm hoping to be closer to ten by the time the challenge starts. And I'm planning to read both the graphic novels I have out from the library as breaks, because those don't count either.

Getting into my game mode...

Apparently it's up to the captains. This is my first time as captain, so I think you can do what you like, but Audrey Jane may have a better opinion.

I plan to move them to my shelf as I finish, so I can watch it grow, but if you like knowing what you plan to read, that's cool too.

Is anyone friends with Vanessa? I think she's the only one who hasn't found our team chat yet. I sent her a PM and I'll send another one later tonight.

And I'm super-impressed by the bilingual members of our team. I'm a typical American who barely speaks her own language. I've studied German and Greek but am so out of practice I could never read 100+ books in those languages. In college I could sorta read German books, and I got my Greek up to kid books levels (Enid Blyton in Greek was really fun for me), but by now it's English or bust.

Hi Claire! Thanks for checking in.

Did I guess your team shelf right?

Welcome Abir!

The main goal of the Tower challenge is to amass a tower of books that you read :-)

Your team gets more points for longer books, so if you are super competitive you can only read books that are 801 pages long or something, but I'd rather just read what I like and let volume count.

I'm guessing they put in the BOM stuff for two reasons -- 1) Sometimes it's fun on a challenge to strategize and figure out ways to score extra points, so it adds some complexity, and 2) it's a way to encourage people new to nbrc to explore and find some of the social aspects and keep the book discussions lively.

But if you are new to the group, feel free to ignore that extra stuff and just have fun reading towers of books. And yes, Arabic books count, and I will now go over and check message 5 to make sure I have the correct shelf for you. But you can't start a book for the challenge until the official start date, which Audrey put in one of the early messages in this thread.

I hope everyone tests out their shelf links, because it was pretty late when I edited some of them so typos are definitely a possibility.

I haven't done many BOM, so I probably wouldn't be good at discussion questions, but I put holds in at the library for all the May ones and if my library comes through I'll toss in some discussion.

I'm not super competitive -- I put having fun first, and then it's nice to win. But I'm also not about to leave points sitting on the floor...

I hope you feel better, Plethora?

I was poking around on the shelves but could only chain 4 together, so I went with the one with the shortest addition. I would love someone to find something better!

I'll check back on May 4th, and if no one built a chain I'll go ahead and read the missing link. It's a short Nancy Drew book so it should be fun. I like checking in to see what they've done to her every decade or so.

☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ wrote: "It's the titles of the books. I started to put something together on the spreadsheet but it was getting late and just left it and figures is get to it later today.
"

Ok, working on what someone (Carmen? me?) started I have a plan for the ladder card:

Dressed to Steal (Book I'll read after Tower starts because I promised not to start anything new)
Steal the Dragon
Dragon Blood
blood bound
Boundary (is single word OK?)

Would that work? And I have no idea how the bug card works. Am I supposed to note every time someone in a book mentions an insect? Do spiders count?

Oh -- just to make sure everyone knows, the mods have declared:

For TOWER TEAMS we're making The Circle (May's Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy BOM) an exception.

Meaning, we are granting the page points, participating in discussion points, and DQ's points, as long as you finish the book after the starting date.

In case anyone was hesitating over starting it...

I get all my audios from the library. I can get them either as CDs or as digital audios. I read off a tablet rather than a kindle, because I use Kindle, NOOK, and Overdrive apps so I can read in any format. And I still like paper best of all. Sometimes I get books in paper and digital formats from the library so I can read one at home and bring my tablet if I'm going out.

Hi Carolyn!

Avid Reader -- I knew the problem was my eyes! In my defense, it was late and I was just skimming the shelves on your home page, and since there are 0 books on all our tower shelves, it didn't even make the list.

I'm a 49 year old mother of 2 in Washington (the state), and my oldest son has just decided on Willamette University in Oregon, so we just got back from a visit there.

I'm a compulsive book starter, and I also have a habit of leaving books scattered about (a book that lives in the car, for example) so I have some books that will inch along on my currently-reading shelves forever. I should have around ten or so on there, what with my challenge books, my quest to read a book from every shelf of my local library, my attempt to read the entire list of finalists for the Cybils awards, my book clubs, and my random picks from my shelves and the library. I like to switch around a bit, but somehow things have recently gotten out of control... I like the excuse of Tower 5 to make me straighten up!

Oh, I can only listen to audio books in the car; they drive me crazy otherwise. Currently I have two going on -- the SF one serialized on the Baen podcast that I listen to with my son during our car pool, and one for me that I put on when he's not around. But depending on how much driving around I do, it can take me ages to get through them.