Suzanne’s Comments (group member since Aug 13, 2015)

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

And note to team: Perhaps the easiest way (at least initially) to find the planning spreadsheet is in my "LINKS" post (message 4) - I copied the link Lisa gave us and it is by "Planning Spreadsheet". It is, of course, in her post above too.

Janeylou wrote: "Ive had another look at SS and think i may just post in team thread
I'll post in groups of about 5 books to make it easier"

Thanks for checking things out and seeing what works best for you! Which spreadsheet is extra confusing because they do look very similar, and the one in the first post of the thread (in the mod post) is the official team spreadsheet that in theory only the captains can edit. But it just says Team Spreadsheet so...

Posting in the thread is fine too (of course!). And groups vs. individual posts is totally your preference.

Hi Nicole :) You are living one of my favorite "comfort genres". I'm sure opening a bookshop is much more work than it sounds in the wonderful books I've read. And weekly updates are fine - that works beautifully!

If any of you would like to enter books in the planning spreadsheet, feel free to do that at any time. It can be exciting to plan future reading adventures!

Thanks Lisa for linking that - and for creating such a wonderful sheet for us to track on!

And Elinor thanks for checking the other link - I will get that fixed right now - oops!

Hi Keli! It's great to have you on the team. We lived in Texas when we were first married and met the nicest people! And I'm imagining a wonderful story about how you ended up in England with a wonderful husband. ❤️

Hello Elinor - it is great to meet you. I looked up padel tennis - how interesting. Is it correct you can also use the walls? It seems as if that would change the game a lot. Good luck with Uno to all who are playing this last week!

Janeylou wrote: "When we finish a book do we need to post in thread AND on SS ?"

It is fine to just post finished books on the spreadsheet - but if you dislike using spreadsheets, post in the thread and someone will enter it into the spreadsheet. There's no need to go to the work of posting both places.

And yes - happily books can work for both the mini-challenge and the monthly tower of books - phew!

Thanks for the excellent questions!

Here is the link to the mini-challenge (I also have it on my "Links" post above). It's going to be fun!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I thought the same thing about color covers!

The nice thing about the mini-challenge is it lasts the entire tower teams. The "interesting" thing about it, is we can do as many rainbow towers as we choose, which means there is no cap on the books we can read.

That said, the only task we must accomplish to get points is the tower described in the main challenge - all of the mini-stuff is "just" bonus. So we'll see how it goes. Hopefully we can all find books we love and read lots, but also not get burned out :)

Hi Kirsten - I'm so glad to have you on the team. I hope this is your first of many tower teams :)

Hi Jackie and Kerri!

Jackie - I feel like needlework is a lost art. Although I had some students that taught themselves how to crochet using YouTube - I was so impressed!

Kerri - you are not late at all - thanks for checking in. Wow I cannot even imagine how busy you were when COVID first hit! I just bookmarked your blog - I love the McBookNerd - very clever :)

Welcome Tone and Cris :) Tone that sounds like such a beautiful place to live - it's wonderful when you can just look at the window and see something like a fjord :)

And Cris, I'm glad we get to continue playing together for TT (note, for those of you playing Uno, Cris and I are on the same team). I can't garden here yet either - it keeps snowing intermittently.

It is wonderful to wake up to seeing three more new team members - thanks for checking in!

I'm so glad we have teammates from different parts of the world. With all the crazy things happening sometimes, it's nice to think about a worldwide community of readers who have the "crazy" idea to read towers of books together.

Vi, my husband and I had the the opportunity to visit the Netherlands quite a few years ago but only for a day, so we really need to go back. As we drove places, I LOVED the street signs but had no idea how to pronounce most of them. It felt like I was in a magical place :) Good luck with the job hunting.

Janine - what wonderful hobbies. And how kind of you to foster guinea pigs! Good luck with the helping daughters move/find places. That sounds like a lot of moving help in the future :) I'm glad you decided to play tower teams! Even now, reading all of the rules makes me feel overwhelmed, and yet like most games it is easy once you get started. But ask questions anytime!

And Amanda - how exciting to have a baby due at the end of summer! You can complain anytime you want - with all those changes happening in your body, lots of that is NOT FUN. Miraculous, but sometimes a good complaint is just the thing :)

Hello, Nanci, Jen, and Apoorv - it makes me so happy to learn a little more about each of you!

Nanci - I love your hobbies! Living the dream! :)

Jen - what an important job. I know some people who have been greatly helped by a speech pathologist.

And Apoorv - first off, I did not know our team name meant auspicious in Arabic - I love that fact! And how awesome that you have a spreadsheet for all those life things - that is such a fantastic idea!

Thanks for linking shelves! I'll get those input tomorrow, and be sending out some friend requests too. But I'm going to bed so happy to have started meeting such great teammates!

Ashara is open and ready to meet you! Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Lisa - I love the hobbies - such a fun variety! I had to look up duck pin bowling - that looks fun! And sniff...it's bittersweet having a graduate - but exciting.

And speaking of graduating - congratulations Shannon!! And how well planned having a single final!

We are lucky to have you both on the team!

I'm in and can do daily questions. If I get picked, I'm travelling the 10th - 13th so would need to be scheduled before that. (Not sure how long the schedule will run for this.)

Note: team Ashara

Hello team! I (and the other captains) are SO excited to get to read with you during the next few months! I'm looking forward to playing with some old friends again and to making new ones.

Please come, check in, and tell us a little about yourself. Oh, and if you can link your tower team shelf, I'll put it on our list above.

Also, whenever you have questions we're here for you, and if we don't know the answers, we will find them.

A little about me: I retired from teaching about a year ago - life has seemed just as busy, but it is a lot of fun. I love dogs and reading (obviously) and playing computer games. I look forward to travelling more - we have been doing a lot of grandchild care the past couple of years, but that will be tapering off in the next few months.

There might be other interesting things about me, but I woke up at 4 a.m. because I kept thinking about things to post here, and now my mind is blank :) I can't wait to meet you all!

Weekly Status Report

Summary: (As of July 16)
We have been reading so much! The top three teams are all being super competitive. The teamwork on Wheel has been super fun to watch.

Status sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

July Books *as of July 16, 52% done with the month - :
100-199 10/10 100%
200-299 20/20 1000%
300-399 30/30 100%
400-400 16/30 53%
500-599 7/20 35%
600+ 5/10 50%
Free 86/103


Shelf fixes

Books of the Month

Starts 2 July Fantastic job on questions Kerri!!

Starts 16 July - remember to go answer questions :)

Mini-Challenges
Rainbow Towers: Keep marking any of your books that have colored covers.

Wheel: Nice Teamwork! This is a fun mini - and certainly a challenge.

Page points: We are behind or right on with our long-page books (I'm sure that's because we have focused on wheel, and can't count the pages for the tower - they still count for page points!) I know Leslie is reading some long books on her trip, and when I travel the next two weeks I'll be reading some as well.

Books of the Month (group reads)

These are a great (optional) way to get bonus points.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

May Books
Kings of the Wyld discussion Starts May 2

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Starts May 16

June Books
City of Brass Starts June 2
11/22/63 Starts June 16