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Pewter Blue
message 801:
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Nancy from NJ
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Jul 17, 2013 04:46AM
How many are you in, Mary. I'm in 6 but pretty active in 3 so I am kept busy.
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I am a group hoarder, too. I'm in 28 groups (not counting my personal group and GR Feedback). Some are just challenge-based, some are genre-based, a couple I just use as a database for books to look into (like 1000 Books to Read Before you Die), some of them introduce me to books I might not have really taken time to read before (like my YA groups. I get into YA phases and I love having a place of 'experts' to go find new books or authors to read in that genre), but they don't always have a book-of-the-month that I am interested in. There are a few groups that I really like because they choose from a wide variety of books for BoM, like this group. I don't like it when a group has 3 BoM and all of them are paranormal romance just about every month, yet the group is not strictly PR based, or even romance-based. I am most active in just a handful of groups but they are all so different from one another that I get fulfillment from each one. A common theme for the groups I am most active in is that they are run like well-oiled machines by the group moderators and that is something I really value and appreciate.
I'm in 28, counting Goodreads Feedback & the Captains Group for this challenge. I recently dropped a couple that were pretty much inactive. I would say I am only very active in about 6 groups, hardly active in 3 or 4 and marginally in all the rest. The ones I'm less active in, I should probably drop but I do read posts there even if I don't always post in the groups. I guess, like Teresa, I use some of these groups as just a data-base for books. Like the Sci-Fi Romance group. I rarely post there but I read the threads a lot. Same with the Cozy & Historical Mystery groups. I am just a lurker there. In the All Things Jim Butcher group, I post sometimes. But I am all caught up on the Harry Dresden series and not interested, at this point, in starting his other series. So probably won't post there much until he finally releases another Dresden Files book or I get tired of withdrawel symptoms and start rereading the series. Maybe now is a good time to review and possible drop some of my groups. I feel quilty when I drop one.
I just dropped 6 groups. I joined a bunch of Kindle owner groups when I first got a Kindle but then I rarely, if ever comment on them or even read the threads. I don't really read much erotica anymore and so dropped the Kindle Smut group. I think I made 4 posts in 2+ years. Also dropped a historical true crime group that wasn't very active and I forgot I had even joined. Maybe I'll participate more in some of the quieter groups if they appear on my group udpate page instead of some in which I lost interest but are active.
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "I am a group hoarder, too. I'm in 28 groups (not counting my personal group and GR Feedback). Some are just challenge-based, some are genre-based, a couple I just use as a database for books to loo..."28???? Yikes - do you have time to do anything else? I find I spend way too much time on my computer despite that I love it on Goodreads and reviewing for Amazon ad their Vine program but there are other things in my life which also need my attention. Once summer is over I go back to my life of substitute teaching three days a week, a tennis game once a week, a Bible class once a week and various volunteer positions and then there's my husband, daughter and friends. I am sure you too have a very active life but I can't imagine how you do it.
Haha, I was surprised to see that I am in that many groups. I am not very active in many of my groups. Some are just kept for "references", to put it simply. This one is probably my most active. I actually spend more of my GR time looking for books to read or making reading plans than I do posting in groups. I tend to multitask a lot, too, especially online. I'll read a news article in between posting on GR forums, for example. Right now I'm playing the Sims 3 while reading a book and doing laundry and talking to my son about Pokemon. Soon I'm going to go make lunch and fold some of that laundry and I might even put some away, hehe.
Teresa I am the same way. I do most of my posting at work actually. I work at a computer all day and I'm allowed online. So I pop on here while waiting for my printer to spit something out, waiting on hold, waiting for a program to open etc.., Or I might be reading news articles on another page and then pop in here every so often. Or watching something on TV and posting during commercials. When I was on here last night, I was catching up on Glee with my daughter who paused it repeatedly to answer her constantly ringing cell phone.If my hair salon has WIFI, I will be on tonight while getting my hair done.
Teresa is always doing laundry. **hee hee**
Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "If my hair salon has WIFI, I will be on tonight while getting my hair done."**hee hee**
Lisa Kay wrote: "Teresa is always doing laundry. **hee hee**"Seems that way, doesn't it?? I can go days without doing it and I won't post about it but boy, when I have to do laundry I seem to mention it, LOL! FYI: I have not put any away yet. The one load wasn't dry so I had to dry it for longer and well, I've since gotten wrapped up in something else and forgot to check on it again, hehehe.
LOL @ Mary logging on while at the salon! Ahh, wifi!
I tried doing the Sunday update from my Iphone while waiting for DD to try on bras at Victoria's Secret last Sunday but my battery was dying. Going to try and be a good girl and read while I get my hair done. Getting a body wave so I'll have time sitting alone.
Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Teresa I am the same way. I do most of my posting at work actually. I work at a computer all day and I'm allowed online. So I pop on here while waiting for my printer to spit something out, waiti..."My hairdresser dies have WiFi but I am sorry they do since I much prefer to read there instead of working on my I PAD.
No wifi so I got a large chunk of this read: 
The 7% Solution is about to end.
Soon, no more cupcakes for you to win.
For the last four puzzles*, we will allow.
An addition day for to figure out the how.
This series of "duplicates" and "jigsaw" puzzles will earn you four "bouncing" cupcakes
*Puzzle numbers #97, #98, #99, & #100 - just to be clear. #97 starts here. Complete by July 20th, 4 P.M. PDT.
We already did the 7% challenge twice and we also earned cupcakes to get extra credit for our longer books. So I don't really think there's anything else we need to do for that.
It's been so quiet today. I was super busy at work today. Was supposed to go out with a friend to a singles group outing to the fireworks in East Hartford tonight. But she just called to say that she got a chance to see (hear?) Stephen King talk at the Bushnell tonight. (she volunteers there and was on a waiting list for this event). Kind of releived as I am tired and E. Hartford is 40 minutes from me & since its fireworks, I would have gotten home late.I purposely haven't made any plans for this coming weekend. It's been weeks since I've been able to just relax at home for a weekend.
I've been busy because as of today I'm moderating a new 1000 member group (which is actually the second largest one I'm moderating), so I'm trying to organize stuff and get a feel for the group :P And I'm of course reading a ton! I've got four books going on right ow, so those are keeping me super busy!
Mod
Mary: HDLS, according to Captain Cupcake's Spreadsheet, Pewter Blue still has Puzzles #99 & #100 to finish. When the series of four is complete, they will turn into "bouncing" cupcakes, which can be redeemed for "chunksters" - even after the 7% Solution is finished. (Except on the SU.)
If you need any help finishing those Mary I doubt I can do them all by myself, but I can definitely help out!
I was planning on finishing them up tonight or tomorrow. They're all pink and blue covers and after I did the first two my eyes were hurting too much to finish, lol.
Haha in that case thanks Vicky!!! If you need help with #99, jsut ask :)
Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I'm near the Berkshires."Where are you Mary? I spent 11 summers in Pittsfield and we stay in Becket when we go up each summer.
I didn't have my kindle for a couple days, which is how I access internet, but I finished
and got 1/3 way through
Sorry I can't figure out how to do the cupcake puzzles.
DIdn't you just LOVE the Night Circus Sarah??
Sarah wrote: "I didn't have my kindle for a couple days, which is how I access internet, but I finished and got 1/3 way through "Are you still reading A Bastard Out of Carolina. I love this book - wonder what happened to this gifted writer since I haven't see anything written by her lately.
So, Nancy, you like Daniel Silva? Is he one of your favorites?
I LOVED IT. Soooo good. And I am totally sucked into Bastard - read the first 100 pages quickly but gotta work two 12 hour shifts back to back. Then I will wrap this up in a heart beat. Then on to
- which I have wanted to read all year.
Still around. Reading has been slower this week, been doing some other things. Reading a shorter (216 pages) book right now to finish up my self-imposed "Lunar Madness" spell it out mini challenge for July. I'm reading "Unleashed" the last letter I need. Prior to that, had spent a few days plowing through a 490 page book. Hope to get Unleashed done tomorrow and at least one more before the Sun update.
Lucky, I honestly don't read books shorter than 300 pages nowadays and most average around 450!! It's great because I love these books, but it sucks because it takes so much longer for me to read them....And so much of my time is sucked up going on Goodreads :P
This year I have been reading 300 to 500 page books on average - last year they all were more like 800 plus.
I am in Agawam MA right down the road from Six Flags New England and right on the CT boarder. Pittsfields maybe 45min from me more or less depending on how I would go there. Took me almost an hour to get to Great Barrington recently.
I thought we had already redeemed enough to cover all our chunkster books? I suck at those puzzles.
There has been almost no mention of this on Goodreads or the groups I am a member of now. But what do you make of the news that JK Rowling wrote a book using a pseudonym? I found it somewhat amusing that when nobody knew much about the author, almost nothing, the book wasn't selling. Then when word leaked out who the author really is, they keep the books on the shelves. Not sure how the book was rated by unsuspecting readers but nothing like fame, huh?
Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I am in Agawam MA right down the road from Six Flags New England and right on the CT boarder. Pittsfields maybe 45min from me more or less depending on how I would go there. Took me almost an hour..."Wow that is close. I'll wave to you. LOL
Ok so I never got a response from Holly (QC) who has not shelved a book since she joined although she did put a book on her currently reading shelf. She did that after I messaged her and did not add it to her shelf for us. I would think if she's still participating should have taken a minute to say "yes, I have just been too busy to read and/or post lately". I have asked for a replacement player and a new challenge tracker. Again, the threads would all stay put. We would just get a new tracking page that shows all the players and where they are in their goal and where the team is for its goal as a whole. This page would be replaced with a new one that removes our now 3 inactive players who were asked to remove themselves but didn't: Pewter-Blue-Tracker
You will not have to create a new shelf, reshelve books or anything but just sign into the new challenge with your current shelf. In fact, I think we all will stay signed into the old one incase someone doesn't move quickly or something but not sure on that.
Nancy wrote: "There has been almost no mention of this on Goodreads or the groups I am a member of now. But what do you make of the news that JK Rowling wrote a book using a pseudonym? I found it somewhat amus..."My library actually has this book and I would guess they've had it for a lot longer than the news about the true author has been out, so that's pretty cool. It sounds like a book that's right up my alley so I will be borrowing it. I just wish I had discovered it before the reveal so I wouldn't feel like I'm just jumping on a bandwagon, haha. The book earned good reviews on the sites I snooped at, reviews dated before the reveal, too, and it was Library Journal's Mystery of the Month back in April, after it came out. I just don't think it received much publicity at all, which may have been intentional.
I read an article detailing how the two professors analyzed the writings of the pseudonym against J. K. Rowling and a few other (all female, interestingly) authors but what I don't know is how or why anyone even thought to do the research. Well, that may have been at the beginning of the article and I might have just erased that from my brain (don't recall), but still, I wonder if there was a leak or something somewhere that got the ball rolling on that. It just seems so random to me, that someone would read a book by a new author and say, "Hey, this sounds like Rowling! Let me find out!" Makes me wonder if people go around researching all authors from Scotland, hoping to discover they are her.
Riya wrote: "Lucky, I honestly don't read books shorter than 300 pages nowadays and most average around 450!! It's great because I love these books, but it sucks because it takes so much longer for me to read t..."I read mainly series from my favorite authors and they tend to keep their books all around the 300-400 mark. I only had so many "U" titled books to read though and wanted something a bit shorter. That was the shortest I had that was over 160. Some of my erotica are really short.
I read all over the place. I don't normally like anything really short but will read the occassional anothology or short freebie ebook.
Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I thought we had already redeemed enough to cover all our chunkster books? I suck at those puzzles."We redeemed the ones that we could at the time, but they've added more since then. :P I'm working on them after I catch up on this thread though!
Nancy wrote: "There has been almost no mention of this on Goodreads or the groups I am a member of now. But what do you make of the news that JK Rowling wrote a book using a pseudonym?"
I think it's great for her to have the opportunity to split up her fanbase - she's clearly writing two entirely different things and it's not uncommon for authors to use different names for that purpose (Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb). It's interesting to see so many people up in arms about it, but I suppose it's rarer for an author with Rowling's level of fame to write under a pseudonym.
I mainly read books that average around 400 pages, though I have been reading a few door stoppers this year - I read 6 Outlander Books (2 of them re-reads), just finished Promise of Blood and am starting on The Wise Man's Fear for a Buddy Read here. Luckily the Buddy Read will keep me moving on WMF and I'm listening to it so I'm putting a few short reads on desk to read read while I have that going on. I've also read a handful of series novellas and graphic novels lately. Unfortunately none of them count for this challenge, but I'm still ahead of my goal so I think I'm okay. :)
Brooke wrote: "Riya wrote: "Lucky, I honestly don't read books shorter than 300 pages nowadays and most average around 450!! It's great because I love these books, but it sucks because it takes so much longer for..."That makes sense. Being a teenager all the young adult authors have begun to write books from around 400-550 pages. On rare occasions I'll find something around 350, but even then it's part of some huge series or something.
Sarah wrote: "This year I have been reading 300 to 500 page books on average - last year they all were more like 800 plus."
And wow Sarah- what books were you reading that were 800 plus?
I just finished up the last of the June/July Cupcake puzzles. We have another 4 that I'll be turning in for chunksters today (I've already redeemed 19). We also have 34
and 18 
that we can put towards our August challenge if we need to. :)
Awesome Vicky, that's great!!! Do we need to read any more chunksters on purpose, or do we have enough already? And by the way, what do the other two cupcakes do?
Vicky, I'm going to be adding to the today with some puzzles. I forget how those work but I think more names on the spreadsheet means more options for ...something in future challenges. I think. Or something. ;) Brain fuzzy.
Riya wrote: "Awesome Vicky, that's great!!! Do we need to read any more chunksters on purpose, or do we have enough already? And by the way, what do the other two cupcakes do?"It's tough to say because we aren't sure how many bouncing cupcakes will be up for grabs in future months. Based on the rate at which we're reading chunksters in our everyday reading and the rate at which we earned bouncing cupcakes during June/July I don't think we'll need to make any special effort to read chunksters. Right now we have a really good cushion of chunksters that we don't have cupcakes for.
During the August challenge we'll be able to use cupcakes to take the place of books.
7
gets us a total freebie. The challenge requires us to read 75 books. Since we have 34 , we could theoretically finish with 71 books and use 28 of those cupcakes to fill in the final 4 spots. We can cash in 1
+ 5 to use a previously read book to fill the spot - this book has to fit the challenge guidelines (so to use it for a book near the water, the book has to be set near the water), but it can be any book read in 2013 and it can be less than 160 pages. The trick to this is that you can only use books from team members who have completed those puzzles. If you look on the Cupcake Spreadsheet you'll see that the columns with have lists of name in them, those are the members who shelves we can pick from for each cupcake. We'll probably keep our cupcakes unless we really need them, they might come in handy later! :)
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Vicky, I'm going to be adding to the today with some puzzles. I forget how those work but I think more names on the spreadsheet means more options for ...something in future challenges. I think. O..."
Yay! More options are always good! :)
Thanks so much for that explanation Vicky!!! That was seriously the most helpful thing ever!
Yes thank you Vicky. I seem to have a mental block over understanding the cupcakes. I don't think we'll need them for August considering we did the 7% challenge twice for 98 books. But it's good to have them just in case. Especially since we seem to keep racking up inactive players. Vicky has messaged another possibly inactive player who has hopefully just been busy.
Didn't get much print reading done today. Was busy at work but I was also alone and listened to 4 more discs of In Cold Blood. Hoping to finish it tomorrow while doing housework. Took my daughter to 4H tonight and then we went to visit my mother. Now we are watching a documentary on the Mayans. But will try to read a little before bed.
So, Nancy, you like Daniel Silva? Is he one of your favorites?
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