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

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

Rajiv wrote: "Silje wrote: "I see there are many who has signed up for BOMs (and started participating in the first one, The Jetsetters). It was asked in the captains' group how many DQ (daily questions) one nee..."

Thanks, Rajiv.

You can add your book as well, even if I've read it too, that doesn't matter=)

@Vicki, we got a majority vote on the yellow cover, so you're good to go =)

I see there are many who has signed up for BOMs (and started participating in the first one, The Jetsetters). It was asked in the captains' group how many DQ (daily questions) one needs to answer in order to get points for participation. The answer was more than half, so at least three days=)

When the BOM is done, or you have answered enough DQs, I would appreciate it if you write a message here stating which BOM you've participated in and the number of one of your posts in the BOM thread. This is because we have to add a link to the spreadsheet to one of your posts as "evidence"=)

The BOMs are open a month after they're done, so if you didn't get to read the book right away, you can still answer the questions afterward and get points.

Vicki wrote: "@The captain/co-caps, I posted one book on the SS that I wasn't positive about for the task, so I went to TinEye and it came up 49.8% yellow. I went ahead and added it because rounding it up, it is..."

Yes, as the color is so close to 50-50, we feel more comfortable having discussed it with the other captains before accepting or not=)

Greetings from team Around the World in 80 days! So nice of you to visit us, Navi=)

A recent non-fiction book I've read that I would gladly recommend is Educated, it is one of the best books I've read in 2020, it really gives food for thought. Another book I can recommend is Lily Collins' biography, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me.

9. Structure:
I think that each new part is a new place, especially after they boarded the ship. If there is some deeper meaning to it, I haven't picked up on it.

10. Setting:
I like hearing about the places they visit, I have been to several of them myself. I'm not sure if different settings would have mattered for the things that happen (and will happen, but no spoilers=P).

11. Minor Character (Paros):
Paros is an entirely objective person when it comes to their lives and problems. Perhaps hearing things from such a person made the difference, or perhaps his advice or thoughts are different from what they have heard before.

12. Minor Character (Kiko):
I must admit that I barely remember Kiko, except for his fascination for Lee, despite her changing her attitude towards men.

Bleh, auto correct. I meant : and a task if your book fits one.

Yes, and choose one task it your book for one =)

They didn't do it when I first started using Scribd, but perhaps their library had fewer books then and wasn't that up to date. I listen whenever I walk with the dog or drive to work, so I get to listen to a few audiobooks a month, but I try to use different apps to avoid Scribd limiting me. I also tend to read the paper version at the same time when I can=P That said, Scribd is the cheapest audiobook app I have tried so far; others are more expensive but don't necessarily have a better selection.

@rajiv, can you switch edition of "You Should See Me in a Crown" to the one you read on your shelf? You have shelved hardcover, but based on your page number on the planning sheet, you have read the kindle version?

@Vicki, can you add "Sorry I Missed You" to your Wheel-shelf?=)

Ashleigh wrote: "Yeah I use Scribd and it's one of my issues with the service! It seems they do this for everyone. So frustrating! But I only ever have that problem with audiobooks."

Yes, me too, I don't really read that many ebooks on Scribd=)

Does anybody here use Scribd for audiobooks or ebooks? They have this function that if you read too many books on their app, they suddenly make over half of your saved books temporarily unavailable until next month. I never got a good answer as to why they had started doing this, just something about agreements with publishers/authors, rotation of library, etc.

My point is that I've been listening to a series on Scribd, and from one book to the next, the series was unavailable (luckily the BOM-book is still available!) So I've started a reread of the Throne of Glass-series while waiting, after seeing both that both Halli and Kim was reading it for this challenge=) I've started at book four though=P

5. We get more flashbacks to Charlotte's early life in Paris, and start to get an understanding of why her family isn't close or communicative - she herself was brought up to repress feelings. Will her current crush on Paros blossom into a full relationship? How will her fascination with Paros help or hinder her main aim of this holiday - to reconnect her children?

I feel that attitude, not communicating and ignoring problems, was kind of the norm back in the day. Maybe Charlotte is finally ready to break that facade, be who she truly is? But due to all the sex-thinking, my only impression of her so far is a horny 70-year-old. If this cruise was her way to try and fix her family, she hasn't tried to do so yet. So a fling or a relationship with Paros might be right for her, but whether it will help her relation to her children is yet to be decided.

6. Cord: he jettisons a year and a half of sobriety very easily, though I did enjoy how the author then used his drunken ramble through the ship to show off some of the glorious absurdities of massive cruise ships. Will Cord be able to pull himself together over the cruise, or is he going to self-sabotage any happiness he might have had? Do you think Charlotte would react badly to his coming out of the closet? Any guesses on how he gets outed?

I don't understand why he decided to board the ship in the first place if he thought this whole thing was such a bad idea. Even his sponsor advised him not to go. And the first thing he does is drink, just like that. Is the thought of his mother 's reaction truly so terrifying when she most likely have wondered about it already? If he keeps drinking, he might end up destroying things with Giovanni and out himself with no help from anyone else...

7. Lee: We get confirmation that Winston did commit suicide, and chose to do it in her bathroom (what a $*!@$!). Why would Charlotte make her lie to her siblings about how he died? And why does no one call her out about her lies about her career?

My guess is that Lee is still struggling with her father's suicide, and having had to hide it from her siblings all these years made it worse. Perhaps Charlotte wanted to protect the younger children by hiding the truth? Or a more cynical thought: she didn't want other people to know that's how he died. As for Lee's career: I'm not sure if her siblings realize how bad her situation is. As for Charlotte, it might be the "if we don't talk about it, it is not a problem we have to deal with"-thinking. Then again, everyone has a lot on their plates, so maybe they haven't noticed the problems the other's have.

8. Regan: plotting murder! The plot thickens! What do you think the private detective has turned up? I assume it must be worse than infidelity because you don't hire a PI unless you suspect infidelity, right? ('cos of course we have all thought about having our partners trailed rather than just, y'know, communicating with them!) Do you find the flashbacks to Matt rescuing Regan from the artist teacher (shades of Charlotte again!) make him more likable?

I like that she imagines different ways of getting rid of him; it shows that she is reacting to her situation on the inside, even though she hasn't done anything on the outside, yet. There must have been stuff before since she decided to hire a PI, you don't do that on a whim. But it is hard to say what he may have done; infidelity, a crime, or something else entirely. He is not a very likable character, to say the least, so it is a bit ironic that both sister have been in love with him. And even if he did an act of kindness at some point, it doesn't justify the way he behaves now.

1) This is not a book I would’ve picked up on my own, and from the beginning I felt very strongly that I’m not the target (age) group, so I’m extra curious how I’m going to feel about this. Had you heard about this book before it was chosen as BOM? What were your expectations going in?

I hadn't heard about this book before, and I don't think I would have read it if it weren't for the Wheel-Challenge. I'm not quite sure what I expected beyond a book with a lot of family drama.

2) I was surprised to see that the POVs rotates. Somehow the blurb made me think the whole book would be from Charlotte’s POV. Whose POV are you enjoying the most so far? Who is your favorite character?

I did expect a rotating POV, mainly because all of the children were mentioned by name in the blurb=P If the book is going to be about fixing family problems, I would assume that we would get to know all sides of the story.

3) While Charlotte is supposedly the closest to Regan out of all her kids, their POVs show that they actually resent each other the most out of any of our four main characters. I can understand where Regan’s coming from, but Charlotte’s dislike of Regan so far is quite a mystery to me. What do you think is at the core here?

I don't think Charlotte is closest to Regan in any other way than her living closest to home, compared to the other two. The weight is a clear issue for Charlotte, it seems like she feels embarrassed on Regan's behalf. On the other hand Regan resents Charlotte for not letting the issue go, when she has so much more important stuff to spend her energy on. Regan is the youngest, and lived at home longer than the others, maybe she has seen a different side of their mother than the other to?

4) What do you think will happen on the trip? Will they even do the whole thing? Who will be the first to pack their bags and run back home? Which secrets will come out first?

I think the cruise will happen. I also think the book will build up to several explosions and big reveals. At this point I'm not sure who knows what regarding many of the mentioned secrets, it'll be fun to read more.

Rajiv wrote: "Ok, silly question, but now that we have finished a few books, I was just checking the "Member Info" sheet in the planning spreadsheet, and noticed some formulas added to the Round 1 field. Would i..."

Apparently someone had noticed this before and changed it themselves. The MODs haven't informed of us on how to fix it, as these numbers aren't really important for the challenge itself, they are more fun fact for those interested. I have, however, changed the formula for round 1 books (only on the planning sheet, not the team sheet), so that you can see number of books read and the percentage compared to how many books you signed up with. I will have to change the formula for new every round, so right now it is only the numbers for round 1 that are correct.

Vicki wrote: "Do we have a countdown clock to the end of this round? If not, can we possibly get one in this thread?"

I haven't seen one yet, but I'm guessing one will show up when we are getting closer to the end of the round. Each round lasts for 14 days, so I suppose the end of round one will be on the 26th of June.

Rajiv wrote: "Ok, silly question, but now that we have finished a few books, I was just checking the "Member Info" sheet in the planning spreadsheet, and noticed some formulas added to the Round 1 field. Would i..."

It is supposed to update automatically, but it looks like there might be an error in the formula. I've notified the MODs.

Rajiv wrote: "Silje wrote: "@rajiv, I noticed that you'd marked The Mystwick School of Musicraft as tagged with Lavender, but I couldn't find that book on the list for Lavender here. Nor could I ..."

The five words, flower, lavender, France, space, and battle are just important regarding tags (shelves), nothing else. I've added the links to the specific book lists on the planning sheet too, but they're already posted in one of the top posts here. If you read a book on one of these lists, you can mark the tag, but if a book isn't on the list you just skip the tag-column when adding your book to the spreadsheet.

If anybody wants more, or more specific, book recommendations from our team or any of the other teams, feel free to ask here or in the other team-threads. There are eleven tasks regarding reading recommended books after all=)