Judith’s Comments (group member since Apr 15, 2015)

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

Day 2 DQs
Ch 9 to 18

6.) Did Galass turning into a blood mage and Fidick being the cause of Lucian's death (I assume that's what the black cloud that left the tent did) surprise you? Or were you expecting their bit in the story to be over and just a footnote about Cade's character?
I didn't expect her to turn into a blood mage but at that point in the story I don't think readers even really knew that was an option. But I was expecting them to turn back up but not in the way the scene played out and I wasn't initially expecting Galass to become one of the 7.

7.) We learn about more magic types and there's pretty much any type of magic you can dream up. What type of magic you like to have or what animal would you like an affinity with?
I thought the plant magic was really cool and I like how for that type of magic the wielder is still limited by the morphology of the plant it's manipulating. For an animal affinity, some sort of bird I think.

8.) Is anyone else's favorite character Mr. Bones? Just me? mkay.
Me and surly Mr. Bones need to have a play date. LOL

9.) At this point I think it's clear Cade is a fallen Glorian of some sort, likely a Justicar. Do others agree with my guess here or do you have other thoughts?
As this is my guess, I obviously think I'm right :)

10.) Assuming my guess in Q9 is right, why do you think Cade got the heave ho from the Glorians?
Part of me thinks he was a pompous arse and was tossed to teach him a lesson. But that doesn't really track with why they are hunting him down. Maybe he betrayed some secret? There doesn't seem to be wiggle room in Glorian justice based on what's been said about them so far.

Day 2 DQs
Ch 9 to 18

6.) Did Galass turning into a blood mage and Fidick being the cause of Lucian's death (I assume that's what the black cloud that left the tent did) surprise you? Or were you expecting their bit in the story to be over and just a footnote about Cade's character?

7.) We learn about more magic types and there's pretty much any type of magic you can dream up. What type of magic you like to have or what animal would you like an affinity with?

8.) Is anyone else's favorite character Mr. Bones? Just me? mkay.

9.) At this point I think it's clear Cade is a fallen Glorian of some sort, likely a Justicar. Do others agree with my guess here or do you have other thoughts?

10.) Assuming my guess in Q9 is right, why do you think Cade got the heave ho from the Glorians?

One of the things that I didn't appreciate Collins getting at in my first read all those years ago is the how expensive/the additional costs of being poor.

When Katniss was eating one of her first fancy dinners and she starts clocking what she'd have to do to make the same meal in District 12. The amount of time it would take for her to just get all the ingredients, most of the much lower quality substitutes, was several days worth of time. It's not something people talk much about or factor in when discussing the cost of poverty.

Also the scene with her prep team made me laugh a bit. It reminded me of the makeover scene in Miss Congeniality a bit. And it reminded me of a line from a book a read a couple months ago that was along the lines of "when people stop making such a fuss about it, nudity is actually pretty boring".

And I'll never not love the arrow in the apple scene. Iconic.

It's just doubling down on the less than 100 pages and if someone looks at the formula calculating page points.

If the book has a page count and is over 100 pages (as long as it's not middle grade/children's) you just use the page count.

The minimum of 3 hour length and be used to confirm a children's/middle grade book has enough words to count (as these tend to have a much lower word count per page). Or if the book is audio only and does not have a physical book published with an actual page count.

If the books are less than 100 pages, you can just leave them off the spreadsheet as they are too short to count for the challenge.

Sammy wrote: "Ah Cinna... Casting Lenny Kravitz was a stroke of genius. Easily my favourite character both in the book and on screen! 😁"

I think this was the best casting decision of the movies

Sonia wrote: "Okay... all done and sent to the Wheel Mistress for validation. Thank you for all the suggestions. I was a bit rusty and they were a priceless help!!"

:)

I only made it about 5 chapters in before I fell asleep. I needed to read the BOM section first :)

One thing I that caught my attention on a reread is the mentions of how Gale is like a brother in just those first few chapters. I think from the very beginning Collins was telling us Gale was not going to be the one for Katniss.

As others have mentioned Katniss wasn't a pleasant person but she was doing what she needed to do to get through the day and keep her family alive.

I forgot how quickly they moved to the Capitol. The author packed a lot about life in District 12 in just a few chapters. Someone else mentioned this, but I am also a bit annoyed that the movie cut the Madge character. I think it mattered the Mockingjay pin came from someone outside Katniss's family.

DQs - Day 1: Chapters 1-8 (pages 1 -71)

1. The book has the MPG Dark Fantasy. Do you like this genre in general? If so, do you have any favourite authors or books?
I do if done right. There are a lot of authors though that can't pull it off so the list of authors I read in this genre is short.
My favorite Dark Fantasy author is John Gwynne. He has 3 series (2 are related) I would highly recommend. If you haven't read any of his novels I would start with his first series which starts with Malice or if you really like Norse mythology you could start with The Shadow of the Gods which is the first in his newest series but I don't think that series has all the books published yet.

Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. No doubt he's wearing iridescent silk robes that couldn't protect his frail body from a light breeze. The hat's a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing, covered in esoteric symbols that would instantly show every other mage where this one gets his magic?

2. The book starts with the quote above. Is this your mental image of a wizard, too? Or something different? :)
It really is. Honestly someone says 'wizard' and my mind immediately unlocks a core childhood memory of Merlin from Disney's Sword and the Stone.

3. And the author lands us in the middle of a siege (ideal for the Book Games, right? ;) with 2 of the main characters Cade Ombra and Corrigan Blight. Cade is narrating what is happening and offering us his views on good and evil, the part they are playing and how they "win" this particular siege.
Do you think it's a strong start to the book? Has it got you intrigued?
I enjoyed that beginning and I think it helps lay groundwork of things being complicated and that good v. evil may not be straightforward (is it ever though?)

4. As an extra incentive & entertainment, the Ascendant Lucien offers young girls and boys (sublimes) to the wanderists after the siege. We get introduced to Fiddick and Galass and learn that Cade decided to kill Lucien. We can actually start putting some pieces of Cade's character together. What do you think about him at this point?
I'm intrigued. There are definitely some important bits of his story we don't have yet. I hope the author doesn't drag some of that out too long or it's going to get really annoying. I'm guessing he did something really bad and has a lot of guilt? Otherwise he needs to stop being such a whiny little B about it all and get it together.

5. Some demonic highlights to this introductory part: Tenebris the demon, with whom Cade as an "infernalist" mage trades with to get his spells.
What were your impressions of Tenebris? How do you find the "religious/magical" system of the Infernals and the Celestines?
I enjoyed Tenebris, he seemed fun and that maybe demon doesn't always mean evil. It's still a bit confusing but having read The Greatcoats series by this author, he tends to poke at religions and some of the hypocrisy that can be found in churches where leaders are more interested in money and power than the spiritual wellness of followers. But hopefully this gets explained better soon as well.

Both would be acceptable actually. There is a lot of creativity and flexibility allowed in sorting the books into resource piles.

Which I know can be confusing as our criteria is typically a lot more specific. Some of that will come later for mini tasks, etc. But we wanted people to not have everything they read be completely task driven for the entire game.

That column will make a lot more sense when mini challenges and other things are released.

The mini challenge will have tasks on a separate tab and all will have a code. Like M1, M2, M3 or whatever the code is.

If the book you are reading works for task M2, on the Round tab in the mini ref column, you enter M2. We have formulas that will auto-populate all the necessary info on Mini challenge tab. So information only needs to be entered in one spot instead of two.

For right now, just leave it blank

Right now it just putting books in various resource piles.

New things including a mini challenge for each Round will be popping up.

Here are the resource piles and some suggestions on how to decide where to put them. Note these are very open ended and that way on purpose:

Category ideas
These are suggestions. Trust your gut and don’t overthink placement.

🏹 Weapons
weapon on cover
grey or metallic colour on cover
weapon named in the book
letters of weapon in title
author or main character initials in weapons
features a character who is a blacksmith
battle in book


🏹 Shelter
shelter on cover (i.e. a building)
red, purple or pink on cover
a character you'd like to shelter with
shelter letters in title
author or main character initials in shelter
features a character who works in construction
finding / making shelter critical element in book

🏹 Food
food on cover
yellow, orange or white on cover
food or drink named in the book
food letters in title
author or main character initials in food
features a character who is a cook
cover is a "feast for your eyes"


🏹 Defense
defense on cover (i.e. a wall, a mountain or a river)
green, blue or brown on cover
books can be heaped into a wall to form a defense
defense letters in title
author or main character initials in defense
features a character who is a soldier/police officer/public defender
siege in book

Sonia wrote: "Soooo, for those that are "monster experienced" how many of those does a wheel need?

Because I lost the fight with myself.. that wheel is happening.

Also... shouldn't you all be reading instead ..."

I try to have them not be more than 24. More than that and it gets a bit much for one wheel.

Melindam wrote: "- Characters not talking to each other
- he/she/they thought ... forced misunderstanding
- love triangles"

-Mary Sue characters that are randomly perfect at everything
-MCs that make so many poor decisions they are TSTL

Cat wrote: "Christmas books that don’t have any Christmas in them!
Book descriptions or covers that misrepresent the book’s contents

I still grudge that alien santa christmas book that promised red skinned al..."

that was a definite letdown.

Yeah, that's why I meant to make one outside of the spreadsheet and I completely forgot *face palm*

Yes, Book Games has officially started!

There are countdowns for each round and the mini challenges for each round in the spreadsheet on the summary tab.

I meant to make one and post it a link to it and forgot. Sorry!

Yay! after all these months, it's almost time. LOL

I'm going to sort of answer your 2 questions with one response.

I don't use review threads (we used to) but in general just use the Tracking Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Though I know there are a few captains that don't use tracking sheets because they don't like them. I'm an economist and live in spreadsheets so I swear by them. LOL :)

If you are comfortable using spreadsheets, you can just log all your books on there. Captains will keep an eye on the read dates and check/move them over to the official Team Sheet.

If you aren't comfortable using spreadsheets, you can post the relevant information in the thread and one of the captains will get it where it needs to go. Same goes if you are out and about in the world and have spreadsheet access issues.

You can enter books you are planning to read and just add read dates when you've finished or just add books to the spreadsheet as you finish them. Whatever works best for your reading style is fine.

Though if you are reading for a specific task (when mini challenges, etc pop up) I would recommend getting that on the spreadsheet to 'claim' the task. It helps avoid multiple people reading unknowingly for the same task.

Kim wrote: "quick check in before work. intro to come but super excited to be on the team!!"

Yay! Welcome. Game starts on Wednesday, so close!

To start things are pretty simple but things will be added and changing as we go.

Let us know if you have any questions once you have a chance to look things over and settle in :)

Yes, please do! The more the merrier

The BOMs are separate from the games. You just get bonus points for your team if you participate.