Emma (M)’s Comments (group member since Dec 02, 2014)

Emma (M)’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

I’ve been reading a bit more than usual this week due to an injury that’s kept me home bound for a few days. It seems to me from the spreadsheet that there is room to read over our allotment right now, but I just want to confirm that’s the case?

Awesome, thanks 🙂

Just confirming, that means that even books that had provisionally been assigned a number in the mini are no longer needed for the mini but can just be read for book points?

Hey Deanna, just letting you know that I won’t likely finish one of the two books I have left to read for the mini challenge (the one against 82). I’m on a long weekend away with family and am not getting as much spare time as I thought I would.

I’ve just finished my new favourite book of the year . Took me by surprise how much I loved it. So far a good start to TT.

Hi Ilsen, welcome to the team :)

I’m going to skip my task to read a book tagged hardcover on the first page. Going East - even pages

H - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - 600 pages - narrator: Mel Hudson - 2 June
E - A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine - 496 pages - ch: Eleven Antidote - 1 June
L - Lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - 392 pages - 21 May
P - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - 482 pages - 11 June

I first listened to and the 2nd in the series when I was pregnant and had morning sickness. Needless to say I never continued with the series as all I can remember when I see the book covers is feeling ill, 😂

Woohoo, and we’re off!

Anyone else racing to get a current book finished before tower teams starts? Thankfully it’s a rainy cold day here today, so great day to curl up with a good book.

Sara wrote: "@Emma - I've heard so many good things about A Memory Called Empire! I really need to get to it. I've had it and the sequel A Desolation Called Peace on my bookshelf for far too long."

Oh I hope you love it as much as I did - It was the book that got me over a two-year reading slump :)

Some of my favourite books are:

by Elizabeth Gilbert - historical fiction that is of the slow and contemplative type. I found it delicious and the audio narration by English actress Juliet Stevenson was wonderful.

by Brandon Sanderson - Stand-alone fantasy with a magic system based on colours. As per usual for Brandon Sanderson the world-building was just so good and the characters well fleshed out. I didn’t want this story to end. I’ve loved the two his books I’ve read so far and have the first of the Mistborn series on my tbr for TT.

by David Joy - contemporary literary fiction set in the South about a young man who longs to escape the life of crime he has grown up in. Heart wrenching, claustrophobic and beautifully written is how I would describe this book.

by Arkady Martine - Sci-fi mystery with lots political intrigue. Imagine a culture where you begin a diplomatic position with a complete copy of your predecessor’s mind implanted in your head to help you navigate your new role. Excellent world-building and unique concepts, I loved this book and will start the next in the series for TT.

I’ve got It on audio and I want to try and get to it this challenge, so lots of Stephen King all round.

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Hi Team, regarding volunteering for BOM dq’s. I see team mates have already volunteered. I have 4 previous BOM credits. Do you want me to volunteer and use one to try and guarantee one of us gets p..."

I reckon use it on the BOM you are most interested in reading/writing questions for. If there is something that appeals now, use it now, and if not maybe wait for later BOM options.

Volunteering DQ,s (Ajax)

Are we able to start popping in books to the planning spreadsheet now to get an idea of the best way to attack the tasks?

I’ve been having a think about the points allocation for the mini-challenge and I’m not sure if reading shorter books to get the tasks done will necessarily be the best way to get the most points, especially for those of us who have 1-2 books per week to work with. For instance, if I chose to read a 250 (25 points) page book for the task instead of a 350 (35 points) page book, then that is a 10 point difference and I only get 5 points for the task (total 30). Reading the 250 page book will also contribute to getting the 10 completion points, but since I lost 5 points for reading the 250 page book (instead of the 350 page) anyway, I’m not sure if the task completion bonus is worth it when you consider the lost points for all the ‘shorter’ books read for that task. If we weren’t restricted in how many we can read it might be different because I could read two shorter books to make up the points but if I use my, for instance, one book per week allowance on the 250 page book, I don’t have much room to read another short book to increase points. Also, if I had just read the 350 page book as the book for that week I can still likely use it in the task and therefore get 35 points for the book and 5 points for the task (total 40).

I think it might different for people who have a multiple book allowance per week though, especially if the multiple books were going to be on the shorter side anyway.

Anyway, just my initial thoughts, keen to hear how others think the best way to approach the mini-challenge may be?

Well, here I was thinking we had the entire three months to finish the challenge. This sure is going to be interesting…. I’m excited to see how many we can get completed. Let the games begin :D

I feel a maze will be on our future :)

Oh, I forgot my shelf it’s Tower-teams-2022

Hi All, I’m Emma, also from Canberra.

I’m the Canberra cliche and work as a public servant and have one son (5yo).

I like lots of different genres but my favourites would probably be sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and historical fiction. I’m partial to non-fiction at times as well.

Looking forward to getting to know you all over the next few months :)