Allison Ann’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2014)

Allison Ann’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

I was trying to check authors on my upcoming books (failing utterly BTW unless I can use Starla for Star, which I am pretty sure I can't :) ) so I figured I'd put all the possible names (first and last) here for quick reference.

Anna
Anthony
Ben
Bush
Cate
Chris
Colin
David
Eric
Geoffrey
Gold
Green
Guy
Heath
Hugh
Hugo
Joel
Lamb
Land
Naomi
Nicole
Paul
Rose
Russell
Toni
Ute

I don't think I missed any but I apologize if anyone knows someone named Meat Pie. :)

Awesome, thank you.

This Australian Day challenge looks super fun, but I'm a little confused as to what this means... if more than 75% of your team members find an item, you will get a bonus 30 points! So it sounds like we should try to find the same words to get the 30 pt. bonus? Or does that just mean if more than 75% of our team participates by finding any word we get the bonus? Just trying to figure out if we should be getting as many different words as possible or trying to co-ordinate finding the same words.

Thanks!

Ashley ♦Sugar & Spice♦ wrote: "Do you like YA Dystopian? I read Uglies and I liked it. "

I do like Dystopian, but I've already read that one. It was good. Thanks though.

Hope your exams went well Angel. I miss organized learning. I hated school but I loved learning and being tested - weird!

I've read both those books but me chatting won't help and I read them awhile ago, so my memory is spotty. I wish someone would finish up and talk to me about Tatiana and Alexander. I read that book solely for the BR points, how annoying if I can't get them before the challenge is over! :)

I decided to do all Spell-a-word options for Ashley's Meet Your Fellow Dragons. I've finished 19 of the 39 books I need. I really need some titles that start with U. Any suggestions?

I agree it was common for the time period and the culture, but just because it was doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy reading about it. To me Alexander was a bully and Tatiana was a martyr - when they weren't together they were much more enjoyable to follow.

(view spoiler)[I absolutely hated the last 100 pages of the book. I'm sure a lot of people think their "love" is grandiose and passionate, I'm fine being in the minority but I don't think what they had was true love, trying to force your will on someone else even when it is (ye gods I hate this phrase) "for their own good" isn't loving, I think it is violent and one-sided and not something I enjoy reading about. (hide spoiler)]

Yay Fire!!!! Yay Freddie! Spandex was a new and exciting material in the 70s, he was just fashion forward. :D

I finally finished Tatiana and Alexander for 50 pts. and another 30 when somebody else finishes and jumps into the BR with me. :) It ended on such a poor note for me I don't think I'll read the third book, at least not for a long while. Actually when we finish this challenge I think I'm going to take a little reading break. Too many bad books making me cranky lately, time for a switch to music and crafts in my spare time. Maybe some TV.

Finished another mediocre Danielle Steel novel today. I just can't quit her, I don't know why. Halfway through a BR for Tatiana and Alexander, another romance where the romance makes me want to become a hermit and never talk to another human being again. I guess my short stretch of good books is over. :) I'll be starting the Eragon BR next. I really hope there isn't a sappy love story in that book, but since it was written by a teenager I'm afraid there will be. I need some hardcore serial killering in my life soon.

Hope everyone is doing well with their schooling and various life activities. I need to go to bed soon because I am much too old for all-nighters any more. Don't let the bedbugs bite teamies!

I'm halfway through - no specifics until someone else is commenting. :) I'm still not liking the back and forth in the timeline, but that's a personal preference. And I still don't like Tatiana and Alexander together. I realize that is the title of the novel and all, but I don't mind the characters when they are apart, together I still find their romance wrong and uncomfortable. And I definitely prefer Tatiana to Alexander, she's got spunk when she's not being his doormat.

Catherine wrote: "Allison Ann wrote: "This is my first time participating in Tower Teams and I have no idea how this round differs from the first two, but I'm enjoying it even though from the beginning it seemed like the best we could ..."

perhaps I missed your suggestions..:( what mysteries? I love mysteries :) "

A lot of suggestions get posted, I imagine it is easy to miss one. :) I forget what I suggested at the beginning of the challenge, but right after P.D. James died I suggested Innocent Blood or another of her stand-alone novels. I read a lot of older books but let me know if you ever want to do a mystery Buddy Read.

Okay that is weird. I personally want to switch it to zero stars which is my rating for books that are actually harmful to life, but I want people to know that I hate it and not just didn't rate it. :)

Whoever posted right before me called it creepy, so that's three of us at least. I should really be sleeping now, I hate that I'm too pissed off to sleep.

Might as well hate on a beloved book, apparently I'm ruining the game for everyone anyway. I am kidding there BTW, I'm hoping I can still make jokes in here at least. Seems like a few more people were joining in the less than worshipful thoughts about Me Before You before I posted. That relationship wasn't romantic, no matter how you try and spin it. Inappropriate, creepy, fake - yes, romantic - not so much.

Cynthia, I'm the one who used the term Cyborg-Cats and I'm really sorry that it seems to have upset you and your teammates so much. Your points are much higher than everyone else, I thought it was funny and I even put a stupid little winky smiley thing beside it to show that I was joking for people who don't have the same sense of humour I have. I accused you of nothing, I'm not being a bad sport about not winning, it is certainly not sour grapes and if that is your idea of trash talk then you move in much nicer circles on the internet than I have seen.

I apologize for ruining the game for you but having to stop joking around is going to ruin the game for me, so I promise I won't mention your team any more. I'll just shut up and read. I just don't see how Cyborg-Cat is worse than calling the person on Scions of the Dark a reading machine.

There you go Rachel, I read the horrible Me Before You and bashed it in the BR thread with much more widespread hatred than you displayed. So much hatred. I even hated the little kid, but mainly because his mom was an idiot. :D

I even hate the name now that I know what the book is about. Blaargh!!! :D

I hated this book so much that I wasn't even going to participate in this BR, but I'm still so annoyed that I can't even sleep so perhaps ranting a bit will allow me to get it out of my system.

(view spoiler)[The overwhelming theme of this novel was, to me, selfishness. All of the characters with the exception of Nathan come across as small, selfish people. Now in a real person, these traits probably wouldn't bother me so much, but in the black and white world of fiction, I hated them. I think the forced romance bothered me most of all. Should Lou and Will have remained friends I might have liked the book more, but their love was ridiculous and fake and way too Pygmalion for my liking.

Will and his "this life is too small for magnificent me, I who truly lived life to the fullest before this cruel accident" was the worst. If he hadn't gone through with the suicide within three months he would have been blaming Lou for everything and lashing out at the world again. He wasn't nice before the accident, losing your mobility doesn't make you nice.

I personally have no problem with assisted suicide. Our world isn't underpopulated. If someone is sick and tired of being sick and tired (and miserable to the world) then where is the stigma in ending your life? Doing it painlessly in a clinic is a hell of a lot better than hanging yourself in your grandparents' basement for your 10 year old sister to find. The only problem I see is with the survivor's guilt and the extra guilt that comes with the relief.

I could complain about all the other characters but it's almost 3 a.m. and I am tired now. Maybe I'll get to them tomorrow. My final thought is just that I could have gone to my parents at any time and told them I was a serial killer who had been murdering priests in my spare time and they wouldn't have thrown me out of my home. They would have called the police and made sure I spent the rest of my life in prison, but they wouldn't have stopped loving me. If you can't love your children through anything, why the hell do you have them? Lou's mother sucked! (hide spoiler)]

Amanda wrote: "Eh...reading slump again. I've been reading The Passage, which I'm sure I would love at any other time, but at the moment I just can't concentrate on it."

Hey Amanda, The Passage caught my eye and I thought I'd mention that I read it awhile ago and loved it, but the beginning was soooooo slow and I had to put it away for a break several times. Then the last 400 or so pages were awesome, read without a break. His next book The Twelve didn't have that slow draggy start, so even if you don't end up loving The Passage, I can highly recommend the next book. Hope you end up loving them too. :)

Angel wrote: "I updated the spreadsheets

Rachel I think I gave you all your BR points, but if you could check that would be great :)"

Thanks Angel. Wow, what happened to the Chickadees? They really shot up this list the last couple of weeks. *Must read more BR points!*

I see you're discussing Eragon by yourself Rachel. :) It is next on my planned list of BRs after Tatiana and Alexander which I hope to finish today, so I'll be there soon. Unfortunately, I've tried to read the book before and couldn't get into it, so I'm hoping I'll have better luck this time.