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

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

Since Starling house won for June, I swapped it out.

And then realized District 8 captains are apparently feeling very murder-y :P

No, not for the BOM bonus points but if you decide to read it and answer questions you could earn a token. 3 tokens allows for an extra entry at a chance of being selected for DQs

Judith's BOM tracking

Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 3: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 4: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Final day questions:

13. Would have have gone back home, or would you have gone to save Rocky, knowing you would die (view spoiler) ?
I'd like to think I try and save my friend but I also think that's one of those you never really know what'd you do until it's a real choice.

14. If you were given the opportunity to live on an alien planet, would you take it?
It depends on a lot of factors. But I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

15. How about "me burgers"? Beggars can't be choosers, or just gimme sludge for life?
I think the will to live can get you around a lot of ick factors. I mean it's not like he's eating Jim Bob from accounting.

16. What did you think of the book overall? Where would you rank it compared to any other books by Weir you've read, and will you read any others in future?
It was fine, I think this is one that suffers from being a BOM because it's getting picked at more than if I was just reading it. I liked the Martian better. But I don't know if it's because I read that one first and the MC are essentially the same character just in a different situation or what.

DQs Day 23 - Ch 15 to Ch 21

9) Ok, we have avoided this question long enough. :)
So what was your reaction to all that math, physics, molecular biology, etc. stuff?

A - Cool. I understood every aspect Ryland Grace (and later Rocky) discussed, though I spotted several errors in their calculus.
B - Cool. I could follow (almost) all aspects and they made sense.
C - Cool, though most of the time I had no idea what it was all supposed to mean and anyway, I was battling the frightful and long-subdued demons of my maths education that suddenly woke up.
D -Ssssh - I skipped those parts.
E - your answer

B for the most part. I could follow most of the math, though I don't particularly enjoy physics. Of the hard sciences it has always been my weakest area in terms of interest and understanding (probably due to the interest part).

10) What have been your impressions about Stratt, the other "main character" of this story? Why do you think she chose to involve Grace in the whole process?
I think she just knows what needs to be done and is willing to make the decisions to have it happen. And realizes dramatics help absolutely no one so having them is a waste of time. I'm guessing because of his thought process, unwillingness to give up, and that was necessary for the story to happen.

11) What did you think about Rocky's and Ryland's common discovery about the "antidote" to astrophagus-reproduction? Did you find it interesting? Plausible?
Plausible I suppose

12) "What could go wrong"? Famous last words and all that. Did you anticipate that things would go awry
I figured something would go very pear shaped, just not necessarily the what or the how. Gotta keep the story interesting :)

For the most part, yes you can likely justify most books into any of the resource piles. It's mainly a way to sort pages points into different groups that may or may not be important later.

There are a lot of things yet to be revealed. You know, like the fun surprises the tributes had to deal with to try and survive the Hunger Games. Sorry if that's not helpful, I'm trying not to spill secrets I only happen to know because I'm one of the mods.

And yes the cover color just needs to be present, not at least 50% like for most tasks.

I always base the tracking sheet off of the main spreadsheet because that makes it easier to transfer the information from one to the other. Only the captains have edit rights to the official spreadsheet. It also allows the captains to shift and sort things throughout the game as needed and not mess up the official sheet.

And add columns like "other options" to track other places a book might fit if captains do need to shift around. It's problematic with formulas if teams mess around with the placement, etc. on the official sheet. Especially if new stuff will be added later on in the game.

Sure, though don't overthink it for the resource piles. But you did just remind me I left the option column blank for the books I put on there. Bad captain! Oops :)

If there ends up being a real imbalance between the 4 piles we may shift around or note in the thread to try and place your next books in pile X and not as much in Y.

I was thinking more about various options for mini challenge tasks if we need to shift.

Please bring any and all questions to the thread :)

Here is a tracking sheet for people to add their books too if they'd like.

I did add the 2 remaining May BOMs and the Hunger Games BR book the runs from May 15 until June 15 to the Round 1 spreadsheet for people to look at as examples.

With no mini challenges up and running yet, there's not really tasks to claim or anything like that yet.

I recognize some people are planners when it comes to reading while others are mood readers. So please feel free to log what you plan to read or just log once you've finished a book.

Also if you aren't comfortable with spreadsheets, just post your book info here in the thread and Lexi, Sarah or I will get it where it needs to go. Same goes if you are on travel and are having access issues (or just log when you get back as long as you aren't bumping up against a deadline).

There is a link to this in post 5 as well, but here is the tracking sheet for the team. More things will be added as new things get announced: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

There are also BOM (Books of the Month) and a Hunger Games trilogy Buddy Read happening that can earn additional points.

Alright team, we are still waiting on one person and hopefully they pop in soon.

But in the mean time I wanted to talk a bit about the game and what people should be looking for in books they are reading.

-Books used for Book Games cannot be started until the game begins.
-To get started things are fairly simple. Read a book and figure out which resource pile the book will go in.
-Page points will be earned for each book and allocated into the designated resource pile
-Every book you'd want to read can fit into at least one of the piles. At a minimum they can go into defense to help build a defensive wall made out of books

So for the first week or so, read what your heart desires. New things will be popping up throughout the challenge. This includes mini challenges. There will be one per month, I don't feel like that is revealing secrets as you can see tabulation cells for those on the main spreadsheet.

The mini challenges are task driven so for those of you who enjoy tasks, they will be coming :)

But us mods have some other things up our sleeves as well, so just keep an eye on the team thread so you stay aware of the goings on.

Yep! You are stuck with us again :) Though I'm not the mod who did team sorting this go round so it's a happy accident!

DQs Day 2
Ch 7 to Ch 14

5.) If honest for real alien life if right in front of you for the first time, what would your do? Be excited? Freak out? Ignore it until it goes away?
Hmm, I think this would depend a little bit on the context. Walking down the street? I might just ignore it and not even be 100% sure it was an alien to be honest. But in the MC's circumstances, probably freak out a bit and just then get on with it. What the heck else is there to do I suppose.

6.) Did you enjoy the communication with aliens and how that developed over this section? Especially the initial contacts with the models/objects. Do you think you would of figured it out. let alone in a couple hours?
I thought it was an interesting way to go about it and I'm wondering if the author dream that up or based it on something that happened in real life between two cultures. I'm guessing the later, I'd be interested to know though. I think it would of taken me a lot longer to figure it all out, even for someone who likes puzzles. Especially if I had been in a coma for 3 years.

7.) What do you think about Rocky? He seems like a cool bloke.
He's an intergalactic treasure. I don't care how much belief I need to suspend for his character. LOL

8.) Stratt and the the global politics/legality of it all. Do you think this is a realistic portrayal of how things would unfold? What are your thoughts on destroying much of Earth in order to save it.
I think the world would of gotten to this point but I think it would of taken a lot longer to get there than it does in the book. I was thinking off and on that it was a bit nuts. Until Stratt said she'd likely be in jail after Hail Mary launches, imply everyone is going to turn on her and use her as a scapegoat. Which is 100% believable.

DQs Day 2
Ch 7 to Ch 14

5.) If honest for real alien life if right in front of you for the first time, what would your do? Be excited? Freak out? Ignore it until it goes away?

6.) Did you enjoy the communication with aliens and how that developed over this section? Especially the initial contacts with the models/objects. Do you think you would of figured it out. let alone in a couple hours?

7.) What do you think about Rocky? He seems like a cool bloke.

8.) Stratt and the the global politics/legality of it all. Do you think this is a realistic portrayal of how things would unfold? What are your thoughts on destroying much of Earth in order to save it.

I’ll post some things maybe Monday? We still have a few stragglers I’m hoping will pop in over the weekend

Day 1 DQs; Chapter 1-6

1. Have you seen The Martian or read any books by this author? If so, does that effect why you wanted to read the book and any expectations?
I've read The Martian and this has been hanging out on my tbr because I enjoyed it and the humor woven into the story.

2. Opening the book with an amnesia scene, love it or hate it? Did the opening scene catch you attention and make you want to read more?
It was fine, it made it a bit interesting and I'm liking that the flashbacks are coming in pieces. One because it's less info dumpy that way and two I think that's how the memories would come back if this was real.

3. What do you think of the MC so far and their history with academia and current role as a science teacher? Are you having any issues with suspending disbelief on how he gets involved with the Astrophage?
This seemed way off. Maybe if he'd had more of a successful care in academia then left to become a teacher. But how they described how it all went down. No. just no.

4. Do you have a favorite first contact movie or book? What do you expect from this ship?
ET of course!
I'm waiting for the ship to deliver some surprises. But I don't really have guesses when it comes to made of science. The Author could chose to go in any direction really.

Sammy wrote: "If there's one thing I've learned about the NBRC mods, it's that they're always lurking. That way they can use all the innocent comments we make as ammunition to create diabolical tasks for challen..."

I don't lurk. Or add things I see to an Evil Ideas thread we have in the mod group.

Nooo. I've never done that.

Welcome everyone whose checked in so far, it looks like we have a fun team and I am very excited to get started.

We are close to having the full team, I'm going to wait a few more days to let everyone pop in and then go over some logistics and see what questions people may have.

*******If you are participating in Book Games and raised your hand to write DQs, please make sure to edit your post to include your team name now that the teams have been released.

Thank you!**********

*******If you are participating in Book Games and raised your hand to write DQs, please make sure to edit your post to include your team name now that the teams have been released.

Thank you!**********