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

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

@Lexi - his arms have had a good look in too!

It's the whole surface lust thing that is annoying me - she's all "Dain is so gorgeous, obvs I must fancy him, why no connection" as if
1. he's been like a brother all her life. call me weird but I do not fancy my brother!
2. he's an asshat, again, call me weird, but whilst I might think a person is sexy AF, I can't actually maintain lustful feelings once they reveal themselves to be an asshat!

Xaden is annoying, and, arms aside, not someone I'm minded to be swooning after, but he has at least given Violet some agency and respect. (damning with faint praise, I know!)

finished an N book!

NEW WHEEL TASKS
🎡 Tower Teams 9: Monsters - Ewok
• Read a book set in a forest
• Read a book with a surprise twist (your interpretation)
• Read a book with a carnivore on the cover (make sure it's not an omnivore!)
• Read a book with author initials (all) found in ENDOR.

whoo-hoo!

waiting for a spin :)

DQ Day 3 Chapters 14-20

10. So we are half way through the book. Thoughts and feelings? Loving it? Hating it? Ambivalent?

I'm enjoying it. i don't think it's as amazeballs as BookTok, possibly because I've read the original version in Pern. But for readers who didn't grow up with McCaffrey's dragons, this is kinda new right now - other dragonish books in the last decade or so have been of the dragons are rare type, not the dragons are essential partners

11. Jeremiah gets killed pretty quickly as his signet shows. Do you agree that power can't be allowed?

You'd think they'd want to make use of that sort of power, but if the first instinct of someone who gets it (presumably relatively frequently, if Xaden knew the answer) is to babble everything they hear it's not a great spy tool!
I feel like they should be doing more training around mental strength before the bonding, given that signet reveals can go very wrong...

11. What's the deal with Andarna? Why do you think 2 dragons have bonded with Violet?

She's a child, right?I can't work out if she's actually bonded, or if it's more like kid dragons are rubbish at mental shields so can chat away to anyone. She seems moderately bratty, given that she shouldn't have been anywhere near the bonding activities.
and Violet is special

12. If you coul choose a Signet what would it be? https://www.julesbuono.com/fourth-win...

no idea!

13. Were you surprised about Amber's betrayal? How about when Xanden completely believed Violet but Dain didn't?

I had no opinion on Amber, tbh. that Xaden believed when Dain didn't is not a shocker, Dain being an asshat.
on the Xaden note, I am NOT loving the mated dragons can't be more than 3 days apart, so we're going to have to be ... something ... line.

@Karen: re hype: the Curse of Sammy striking again?

For me I'm enjoying it enough to cope. I came in half expecting the YA stuff, given that TikTok hype is generally not for the more complex books out there. I guess a large part of my enjoyment is the throw-back to Pern, one of my formative SFF experiences.

352 pages

Current total: 1,098,335

just finished Outside, for 3.03 rating

post colonial tag next, in parallel with an N book (we need a lot of Ns right now, to finish off some spellouts!)

NEW WHEEL TASKS

🎡 Tower Teams 5: Star Wars - Sith
• Read a book tagged Post-Colonial at least 10 times
• Read a book featuring aliens
• Read a book featuring a rebellion
• Read a book with title starts with one of letters SITH (all words count, inc A, An, The)

I picked up Outside which is 3.03 rating

Amazeballs!

DQ Day 2: Chap 7- 13

6. This section starts with two scenes with each of the male love/lust interests. The comparison of them continues very clearly. Do you like Xaden or Dain better or neither?

I dislike Dain for his inability to listen to what Violet wants and help her effectively. Xaden is being written a bit obviously in the overtly bad but really good and has erthshttering info on the course of history. He is definitely making it feel more formulaic YA

7. Violet uses alternative methods to survive the fighting challenges. Do you think that counts as cheating or using the resources available? Do you think she is aware that she only has this information because she comes from a privileged background and her sister count sneak in it? Do you think one of the professors should have noticed after 5 rounds?

It's creative, but Xaden does have a point that she's not actually improving her skills. This is another point where Dain is being counterproductive with his mother hen over protective tendencies.

8. The obstacle course is straight out of American Ninja warrior (and other similar TV shows) including ending with the giant ramp. Did you enjoy this section and how Violet figured out working with her height limitations? Have they told us how tall she is? (Though in real life, the shortest person to make it up the wall has only been 5’1” – I just Googled it).

I enjoyed her use of the rules a lot. Reminded me of Trevor Likely in Unseen Academicals using a rule to get a tin can in as a football.
I don't mind the Ninja wall too much.

9. Finally, we meet the dragons. Was it all you were hoping for? Did anyone guess the black one when it was first introduced in this section? (Also, I am not taking the fall seriously at the end of my section since we still have 2/3 of the book to go).

I thought the black or the feathertail when they were first mentioned. When the feathertail was mentioned as being in the threshing I went that way.

Bonus: If you could have a dragon from any book or movie, which one would you want?

I thought about Ramoth, but will leave her with Jenny and I'll take Ruth, the white asexual super-timetravelling little one, who seems to think more than the bigger ones. Shades of the golden feathertail we are busy rescuing - completely out of the norm.

hurrah!

I've had a couple of times when I've been working from home and the internet has failed me... never fun, so I'm glad you got a solution!

I've got a couple of heavy books on the go plus the BOM, which I'm enjoying, and enough that even the Curse of Sammy - aka a hyped book that is read for a BOM ends up being very meh - hasn't struck (yet, touch wood!)

but, i know I'll need some light relief from those so will look up some options for all our outstanding tasks!

Do shout out if you want to claim a task - we've some very specific ones for Sloth and NBRC Goals that would be good to get assigned, as we can generally hook most books into a Hogwarts House!

So, look out for middling ratings, platypus, heron, chipmunk, zebra and stationery! :)

309 pages

Current total: 1,096,117

Finished Mort, to complete the Discworld Task set :)

polite reminder, now we are on a new page: a couple of shelvings to be fixed, please:
Mary - Honor
Marie - Carrie Soto

thanking you!

WHEEL TASKS
• books must be finished after getting new set - no banking books


🎡 Tower Teams 9: Monsters - Ewok
• Read a book set in a forest
• Read a book with a surprise twist (your interpretation)
• Read a book with a carnivore on the cover (make sure it's not an omnivore!)
• Read a book with author initials (all) found in ENDOR.


🎡 Tower Teams 5: Star Wars - Sith
Cat • Read a book tagged Post-Colonial at least 10 times
• Read a book featuring aliens
• Read a book featuring a rebellion
• Read a book with title starts with one of letters SITH (all words count, inc A, An, The)



🎡 Tower Teams 7: Sloth
• Read a book with the animal "zebra" in the text
• Read a book with the animal "chipmunk" in the text
• Read a book with the animal "heron" in the text

@Alysa re Q3 and the pointless deaths - added to which it seems ridiculous that they allow killings across the different wings - at the end of the day you want the whole dragon force to be coherent and pull together. allowing - encouraging - these rivalries so early is just baking in feuds into the future, surely?!

Mary wrote: "completion



On SS

working on now"

Can you add Honor to your TT shelf, please?