Cat’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2015)

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

Teresa wrote: "Cat wrote: "New Task

47 Read a book with an earthly mode of transportation on the cover (i.e., no spaceships)

So books with cars, bikes, trains work :)"

I have [bookcover:SOS Hotel: On the Road|..."

There's no rush on the tasks, and we get more points for page counts, so if you are only reading to clear the task quickly, don't! I'd rather sit on it a while for more page points :)

And with Rina's latest we are now no longer able to travel (for itinerary) to Sierra Leone.

Mini 3 needs 2 medium (mandatory) and 1 hard (for maximum points) country! But that hard country can't be Senegal

New Task

47 Read a book with an earthly mode of transportation on the cover (i.e., no spaceships)

So books with cars, bikes, trains work :)

Happily we were able to handle the flying cheese pot with books on the sheet already, without losing a Q or U either.

We are increasing low on vowels, to do pop any vowel characters, author etc on the planner sheet to help with future cheese-filling :)

@Lucy, I see you are planning (currently?) to read At Night All Blood is Black.

I hope you are enjoying it, but it would be great if you could be alert to when you finish it: there's a Senegal book already in our open itinerary. If you finish it before we start a new one we can't use it for the hard country, and it'd be a shame to lose out on the 10 extra points.

So, can you let us know how far off finishing you are, and how long you are willing to wait with a couple of pages left so we can decide what to do about the itinerary to maximise our points?

Thanks!

Day 3 Chapters 14-20

11. Whether the stories are true or not, are you interested in the back stories of Margaret’s family? What did you think of Freddy’s first interaction with Bernie? (The one that contained the only laugh out loud line so far “Because of your wardrobe?”)

Bernie is genuinely the best so far. Generally I'm enjoying Margaret's backstory pretty well even though I don't believe most of it

12. Who exactly is Jodi? Will she be a part of the BIG REVEAL?

No idea but I'm interested for sure!

13. I do not have kids, but Hayden’s list of “what ifs” to worry about was a lot. Do you parents worry about that stuff?

I don't have kids, but I think the things parents worry about is wide, varied and not all of it is purposeful.

14. Why do you think Alice thinks that Margaret’s tales of her childhood are true, as opposed to the stuff about her family before she was around? Do you find her insightful or naive?

I think there's an assumption that we are now into primary source rather than hearsay of a polished family story passed down and around. But I can't believe that Margaret is suddenly being more truthful, it's just that there's not been anything unexpected to lie about yet.

15. Think the visit to Alice’s family will go well? Think we will meet Hayden's family also?

I think there will be a moment when Hayden gets defensive on Alice's behalf and calls out her mother, causing ructions to be worked through.
Definitely meet his family at some point

Vian wrote: "I finally finished my BOM read. I got so far behind, I'm going to finish up the questions tomorrow."

fab! :)

Teresa wrote: "I was able to squeeze in a short and just finished “Alien Alpha’s Sweet Omega” by Leo Thorne. MC is named Xade

I’m still camping so can’t enter it on the spreadsheet."

Amaze! I'll grab it & the others from your shelf
Thank you!

and hope the camping is fun and midge-free :)

DQs Day 2
The Story to Chapter 13

5. Margaret is lying – and probably not just about one singular thing. Do you think she’s even telling Alice and Hayden the same story? Personally I’m also really curious where Margaret’s sister Laura is – to me it feels like she might be key to the whole story… anything specific that made you perk up?

I agree that Laura seems critical, but honestly I'm not doing much thinking - it's another book that doesn't do brilliantly under too much scrutiny, so I'm sort of reading at the superficial level and not trying to delve or predict

6. Similarly, it was kind of an aside but I thought it was interesting when Margaret mentioned the Ives family’s rivalry with the Pulitzers. Is it just a random coincidence that Hayden is a Pulitzer-prize winning author who now also gets to talk to her? Especially since she requested him? And he has a bunch of family issues too?

I think the Pulitzer piece is significant only to explain why they are all fan-girling over him. The family issues is a Henry staple.

7. I was a little shocked when they were already kissing 25% in – and then not surprised when Hayden rejects Alice. Do you think he’s telling the truth when he says “I’m not going to hook up with someone whose dream job I’m about to take from them”? Or is there something else going on?

Oh my word, big ego much?! No, not entirely surprised by the early nookie nor quick rejection. It's about the only way Henry builds tension and/or romance....

8. We get quite a bit of detail on Alice’s job and research process as a journalist: what she’s searching for, working with fact-checkers, etc. Do you enjoy these types of details, i.e. minutae of characters’ jobs and hobbies?

I think this helps keep Alice tolerable - she's not just a relentlessly cheery love interest. Not sure it actually makes her more real though....

9. I’ve been to Hearst Castle, but long before I actually knew anything about him. The Ives family seems to be quite obviously inspired by him (and I guess he was name-dropped for plausible deniability). Is there a specific family dynasty you’re really interested in?

Not really.

10. Bonus question: So… anyone else feel like they’re reading Evelyn Hugo 2.0?

A bit, but without the compelling characters!

Stephie wrote: "I can also read
For the Author born in Iceland"

perfect! I read The Blue Fox, which was beautiful poetic weirdness - hope you enjoy this one :)

Stephie wrote: "I am reading a book now for Time travel. Also I have read many books on that Worst list and I am scratching my head on who made that list..."

sorry, you had said before but it was whilst I was on hols so it didn't make it fully into my head! marked your claim now :)

And agree - some of the books on the list are odd. Though possibly it's some of the "we were forced to read this at school" general hate ?

Just to swoop in as a Mod....

At the moment we are only asking for information on what scope for cap increases might exist within the team. We make NO guarantees that we will allow cap increases.
Also do remember that we NEVER wipe out the past reading of players, so Robin's books will remain.

Finally, we've not confirmed yet if Robin has left, given she's been in the midst of recovery from natural disaster.

We've nearly finished the latest cheese!

We need an X to finish it off - any recollections of X characters in books you've finished that we might not have used yet? or coming up?

Task Summary

We are moving fairly fast through them, but here's a reminder of current sitch:

Mini 2
23 Read a book with short stories
28 Read a book which has the main location (setting) as a bus, train, or other road based vehicle
41 Read a book tagged "Education" at least 10x
47 Read a book with an earthly mode of transportation on the cover (i.e., no spaceships)
48 Read a book with a title that starts with one of the letters found in TRAVEL (Articles may not be used but can be ignored)

46 Read a book first published in February of any year - claimed
31 Read a book that is on the Best Unknown but must be Known books List - claimed
32 Read a book tagged "Time Travel" at least 10x - claimed
44 Read a book that is on the The Worst Books of All Time List - claimed
49 Read a book that was originally published before 1900 - claimed

Mini 3
WW74 Author born in France
WW83 N

WW309 Author born in Iceland - claimed Stephie
WW311 character rides horses
WW312 "volcano" in text
WW313 letters GLACIER in title (any order)
WW314 nature on cover (no people) - claimed Danielle
WW316 C
WW320 N
WW321 D

Mini 1
we need 1 medium country to finish off itinerary 3 (in progress - either Dawn or Cat then onto new itinerary!)

DQs Day 1
Chapters 1 to 7

1.) Emily Henry is a popular contemporary romance author and a fair few of her books have been previous NBRC BOM selections. Any expectations for this book going in?

Judith covered it. grumpy v sunny, both with Reasons for their attitudes, said reasons to be unpacked during the romance so they end up "Normal" (TM) and together.

2.) What are your first impressions of Alice? And sending that drink to Hayden?

She's a very Emily Henry character that I am happy does not exist in my life as being TOO MUCH!

3.) Would you agree to the month long trial or tell Margaret she's a nutter and move on to something else? Why do you think Margaret is doing things this way?

I think the trial makes sense from her point of view - if you are going to tell a story you'd better be comfortable. But the competition doesn't. And actually, both seem to have decided to harass her to tell her story - it's not her choice, so I suspect she's mostly enjoying playing with them

4.) After learning a few tidbits about Hayden's family and how he grew up, did you opinion change a bit on his character?

Shed some light on the Reasons. Obviously he's not going to be a totally obnoxious person, as we are in a romance novel, so my view hasn't changed. I think I'll have less sympathy with Alice's reasons for being perky, though, whenever they are revealed (hints at traumatic loss)

Sammy is a menace!

huzzah!

Sammy wrote: "But doorstops are fun!

ok, maybe that's just me... 😆"

They are, but my main focus is reading the hard countries for mini 1, so I'm more around the 200 - 400 pages.

btw Nepal or Antigua & Barbuda:

excellent!

I'll carry on reading around the world :) (that mini may or may not have been driven strongly by me!)

TT is pushing me toward Don Quixote atm, so I don't really need additional doorstops! :)