You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Team First for Knowledge
Marie wrote: "what did you think to the UK? I feel so lucky to live here if we only had the weather it would be perfect "I enjoy the UK. I think it's beautiful. My Dad was British, and one of my brothers lived there, as well as all of Dad's family. I love the history, everything and everywhere has a story. From a country with a very young European history, my mind gets blown. Generalisation here, I like the North and Scotland more, as I find them more easy going like Australians.
I've spent 4 weeks each time in the UK and I still find myself physically relaxing when I get home. There is still an element of the culture/society that I just don't quite understand and it does make me a little on edge. It's so nuanced. I do things that I would here and I offend someone, but I have no idea what i have done. We're so close, but some times so different.
However, I'll keep coming back over and over again. I'd come back just for the Yorkshire Ales.
Lisa wrote: "Ruslaka-Do you have birds? What kind? I have currently 3 grumpy and bursting with personality Australorp chickens - Tephra, Hiro and Tāne, and 1 indignant and clumsy bantam Elizabeth duck - Madesco.
What would you like to grow? I started off doing a Square Foot garden for vegetables and love gardening. Whatever grows! Our backyard is mainly raspberries, boysenberries and jerusalem artichokes honestly. I'm harvesting a lot of figs and tomatoes at the moment. My zucchini is struggling, potatoes are just finishing growing. We have a pomegranate starting on the bush, and hopefully we have some feijoas this year. I just remembered I have radishes somewhere i need to go find and harvest, but they may be gone. Big experiment at the moment is Wasabi. I think we have one winner plant, and one not so much.
Where are you going in the Caribbean? St Martin/Sint Maarten, and Trinidad and Tobago. And then through San Fran, Vegas and San Diego on the way home. Shall be a fun adventure.
Sarah wrote: "Marie wrote: "what did you think to the UK? I feel so lucky to live here if we only had the weather it would be perfect."I'm nosing about in this thread and stumbled on your post Marie. For some ..."
No always lived in UK - originally from Lancashire but lived in Yorkshire over 40 years. we are very fortunate to be only just over and hour from city, sea or countryside
Rusalka wrote: "Marie wrote: "what did you think to the UK? I feel so lucky to live here if we only had the weather it would be perfect "I enjoy the UK. I think it's beautiful. My Dad was British, and one of my ..."
I am from Yorkshire and as I am now retired i volunteer for The National Trust - they are about maintaining that historical heritage. I work (just once a week) in the tea rooms of a beautiful family home that was owned by The Terry family (of terry's chocolate orange fame) It is such good fun
Hi all, glad to be part of the team :)I still haven't chosen the books I'm going to read which is why I never commented here. I'm going to the library today after work. I'm sure that I want to read Middlesex, even though it's pretty long but I need an excuse and it's been on my TBR for a long time.
Teanka wrote: "Hi all, glad to be part of the team :)I still haven't chosen the books I'm going to read which is why I never commented here. I'm going to the library today after work. I'm sure that I want to r..."
Hi Teanka I am reading middlesex for the challenge too
jaxnsmom wrote: "I was hoping that between the theme and using First, Second, etc., the teams would think up some names outside of the box. Be creative!"Jmom posted the above message in the toppler teams thread. Anyone have any creative team name ideas? We do seem to be staying "in the box" on this one using simple numbered team names... even though I did say Numero Uno was fine with me :)
Broadening HorizONEs
Box Breakers
I'm not creative, someone help me out here! LOL
I'm terrible at this…Bookish Wonders
Text Wonders
Wisdom Seekers
Just One More Book
Obsessive Readers
Readers of Planet One
Knowledge Seekers
One Life in Books
KimeyDiann wrote: "jaxnsmom wrote: "I was hoping that between the theme and using First, Second, etc., the teams would think up some names outside of the box. Be creative!"Jmom posted the above message in the toppl..."
will think some more - creativity not my strong point
The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this
if everyone can think of one suggestion we can have a look tonight and decide
I'll second Awe and One-der:)I know some of you are reading Middlesex but do you think that might be to long of a book? Isn't the challenge about reading the most books from the categories?
We don't know the scoring yet. Usually it is. However, people read at different speeds (there is usually one person who churns through 15+ books in a week).
Also, I am all for reading one book you really want to and end up loving, than points. That's more the point of the game really. I like winning of course, but I like people reading stuff they really want to read more.
Marie wrote: "I am from Yorkshire..."So's my lot. Dad grew up in Otley. My cousin was in Bradford but just moved to Barnsley. Aunt and Uncle in Huddersfield. Have to visit Whitby every time I'm in the country, it's a rule.
I'm a huge fan of Yorkshire.
Rusalka wrote: "We don't know the scoring yet. Usually it is. However, people read at different speeds (there is usually one person who churns through 15+ books in a week).
Also, I am all for reading one book ..."
I'm all for loving the book also. The choices hold a lot of interest to me so I'm sure I will at least really like all of my books. I didn't choose any I didn't think I would like, lol. When do we find out the scoring? It makes it kind of hard to pick books without knowing how it works.
Really? 15? That is insane.
This is the first time I'm going to read something as long as Middlesex for a toppler. But it fits very well with the topic, and I'm going to read shorter ones (maybe None of the Above as another book on trans gender, Never Let Me Go for cloning, or The Drowning Girl about schizophrenia), too, so it shouldn't be a problem even if I don't finish Middlesexon time. It's the non fiction books that would really slow me down, I think, even if they were 200 pages long.As for the scoring, some things we'll find out only after the toppler. It's part of the fun :).
Marie, it's nice to have company ! :)
Teanka wrote: "This is the first time I'm going to read something as long as Middlesex for a toppler. But it fits very well with the topic, and I'm going to read shorter ones (maybe None of the Above right now and will most likely hold off finishing it until after the toppler. I can only do one long & serious one at a time. I will be pickling up Never Let Me Go from my library tomorrow morning. I have some really good ones picked out…now I just have to narrow it down:)
Lisa wrote: "I'll second Awe and One-der:)I know some of you are reading Middlesex but do you think that might be to long of a book? Isn't the challenge about reading the most books from the categories?"
my copy of Middlesex is 523 pages not too bad i think
Rusalka wrote: "Marie wrote: "I am from Yorkshire..."So's my lot. Dad grew up in Otley. My cousin was in Bradford but just moved to Barnsley. Aunt and Uncle in Huddersfield. Have to visit Whitby every time I'm i..."
I am in leeds
Rusalka wrote: "Awe and One-der?"I like this
I think the fun is in the group, the chat etc more than in the winning. I am hoping for 3 or 4 books in the week but we shall see.
Marie wrote: "I think the fun is in the group, the chat etc more than in the winning. I am hoping for 3 or 4 books in the week but we shall see."I agree. I like getting to know different people.
I may be being stupid but cannot find start time - does anyone know what time tomorrow we start
Marie wrote: "I am in leeds "So you're family, is what you're saying ;)
Looks like it's roughly 5pm for you Marie? Not knowing time zone thingys (I always used text my brother at 3am without fail. Even after spending heaps of time working it all out), please take with a bucket of salt.
Rusalka wrote: "Marie wrote: "I am in leeds "So you're family, is what you're saying ;)"
as near as damm it lol
and you are right about the time
Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"I love The First for Knowledge! You are obviously better at it than I am!
I'll be starting So You Thought You Knew: Letting Go of Religion sometime tomorrow. The Toppler starts at 12:00 for me, but I'm having a girls' day tomorrow with a couple of friends to celebrate my birthday and my friend's birthday. I'll start reading when I get home so it will probably be tomorrow night.
I'll be starting The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had on audio probably Monday morning on my commute to work.
KimeyDiann wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"I love The First for Knowledge! You are obviously better at it than I am!
I do like this one!
Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"Go with this.:)
Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"Go with this.:)"
Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"
Go with this.:)"
I can keep score i reserved a couple of posts at beginning of reporting thread to use
Shall i change name to "The First for Knowledge"
Marie wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"Go with this.:)"
Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you ..."
Sounds good to me. Let everyone else chime in. You will be starting before me as I am in the US and behind you.
Happy reading and have fun everyone:)
Marie wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you can see how bad i am at this"Go with this.:)"
Lisa wrote: "Marie wrote: "The First for Knowledge - play on Thirst - you ..."
Sure. The First for Knowledge sounds great! I'm OK with that.
Rusalka wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Ruslaka-Do you have birds? What kind? I have currently 3 grumpy and bursting with personality Australorp chickens - Tephra, Hiro and Tāne, and 1 indignant and clumsy bantam Elizabeth ..."
That is great. Are your chickens laying chickens? Are you rural/country?
Can you post a picture of your garden? You are growing some things I can't grow. Zucchini is fun to grow. What is wrong with yours?
I have one laying at the moment. The two little ones are just about to start laying in the next month or so. Right when we will be away, so we miss the tiny eggs :(Nope. I live in the capital city of Australia, Canberra. Houses here in Aus, unless you are right in the central city of Sydney or Melbourne, usually come with a good size block. Our block is about 800m2 which is about normal.
I can, but it's rather overgrown and all over the place. The problems with my zucchini is I planted them too late, then most of the seeds didn't sprout, and then when they did we have had our weeks of 38C days. The little guy is struggling. Not last year (were away from Christmas and our housesitters didn't water anything for 2 weeks and everything died) but the one before I had 8 zucchini plants and they were everywhere. This year I over compensated with tomatoes (always kill most of them), and now I have 9 bushes. It's feast or famine in my place.
Ha, ha…I hear you about the feast or famine part. Either all my neighbors and my self have a good growing year and we are all trying to give food away or we all have a bad year.I get a lot of rain where I have my garden and my tomatoes hate that.
Enjoy your tomatoes:)
Some day I will visit your country. In the US if you live close to a city you are not usually allowed to have farm animals and sometimes you can't even have a garden. It's sad.
Really? Like we have restrictions on things like cows or pigs (amount of room you need to have, how far away they are from dwellings and such). But chickens are super common. We have 5 houses in a row that all have chooks. There is always some sort of clucking or commotion going on.What do you mean you can't have a garden? As in your houses don't have yards, or you can't grow veggies and fruit in your yard? I don't think we have any restrictions on what you can plant in your gardens here. Besides noxious pests, that you can't even buy anymore. The majority of our city was built pretty quickly in the 60s and 70s. When you bought your house, you were eligible for 3 or 4 free plants from a list of 10 or so.
They were all horrible pests and now we are all spending so much time trying to get rid of them. Not only are most people horribly allergic to them (both Lexx and I included), they are vaguely poisonous, and spread like nothing else. Counting... We have removed 3 trees I think, still have a good 5 to remove.
The toppler starts in 4 hours, but I've seen no scoring guidelines. Are we just going to be scored by the number of books read? Generally there are other criteria that would influence my choice of books.
As we can't read Jmom's mind, until she responds, I would say that is the most plausible assumption.I'll go and have a sticky beak in the other threads and see what they are thinking.
Nearly toppler time and some of our team mates haven't checked in yet. Hopefully they join us soon!
Just saw another post by Jmom saying we won't have to make sure all tasks are complete and whatnot. So I would go with the assumption more books is the best plan.
And are we happy with the name "First for Knowledge"?I'm going to crash in the next hour or so, so if I can change it before I do, that'd be great. All ready for the start time!
I've chosen these 5 books for the Toppler. Let me know if anyone thinks they won't pass muster. If I finish these, I'll add more.Elizabeth Is Missing Mental Illness - aging, memory loss, dementia
A Thousand Splendid Suns Religion - J'mom already suggested this author's work for that category
The Poisonwood Bible Culture & Politics
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Race, politics - true story of Thurgood Marshall
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales Mental Illness - a clinical look at patients with various neurological disorders
They all look fascinating, Theresa. Poisonwood Bible would count for religion too, Baptist missionaries to Africa in the 1950s. Really excited to see what you think of that one. One of my favourites.
Rusalka wrote: "They all look fascinating, Theresa. Poisonwood Bible ... One of my favourites."Thanks, Rusalka. I've owned The Poisonwood Bible for a while, and my daughter also recommended it. I think I'll read that first.
Alright boys and girls, I am crashing (after staying up far too late to finish my pre-Toppler book). Have a wonderful start of reading, and look forward to reading all your thoughts over the week!!Go us!!
Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Thanks, Rusalka. I've owned The Poisonwood Bible for a while, and my daughter also recommended it. I think I'll read that first. "Hope you enjoy!
Hi Team Numero Uno. *waves*So glad to be on the same team as you, Rusalka. *high five*
I am not sure of the books yet and may not be able to read much but just glad to be a part of the toppler again. It's been so long!
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Patrick Modiano (other topics)Patrick Modiano (other topics)
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Sorry, timezones :D"
Yeah... just wake up, why don't you!? lol"
Lazyhead, Sleepbones. That's me!