Read-a-Thon #2 - Team Cherry Discussion Topic

[Andrea]

Katie wrote: "Great progress today, #teamcherry!

We're close to having all of our recommendations done. We're just still looking for recommendations from Elin Birna & Jody.

I decided it might be good also to h..."

YOU GO!

[Andrea]

Day #1 (8/22) Stats:

Audiobook hours: 0
Hours read outside: 0
Pages read today: 105
Pages read in total: 105
Number of total books completed: 0
Number of ATY challenge books completed: 0
Color of completed books' covers: N/A
Read-A-Thon game participation: 2/12
Longest single reading session: 1.5 hr
Total approximate time spent reading: 2 hr
Books started prior to challenge: 0

[Jody]

Ok, my Day 1 wrap up!

Pathetic ... but I read:

21 pages of Mummies in the Morning, which can count for B5 (Female author), I3 (Series), O3 (Children's book) or O4 (Article in the title).

49 pages of The Blind Assassin, which can count for B5 (Female author), O2 (Historical) or O4 (Article in the title).

My recommendation to the group is The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly. I've been recommending this ever since I read it last year - it's a beautiful, heartbreaking little book. A translation of a Korean folk tale/fable. I love it.

[Michelle]

The spreadsheet looks fantastic, Katie. I'm sorry to be a huge pain in the tush but, uhm, I was having a very hard time getting into the narration of the audiobook of Who Fears Death so I've decided to go with The Martian by Andy Weir instead. It still works for the orange cover and it won an Audie Award so I'm optimistic about the audiobook. ;D

Also, can you remove The Graveyard Book as being a "started before read-a-thon" book for me, please? I was more than 75% of the way through it when the read-a-thon started so it doesn't count, sadly.

Day 1
Audiobook Hours: 4 Hours, 45 Minutes
Hours Read Outside: 20 minutes
Qualifying Pages Read Today: 89
Qualifying Pages Read in Total: 89
Number of Total Books Completed: 1 Book; 1 Short Story
Number of ATY Challenge Books Completed: 1
Color of Completed Book Covers: The Graveyard Book = Blue
Read-A-Thon Game Participation: 1/12 (Alphabet Soup)
Longest Single Reading Session: 1 Hour
Qualifying Books Started Prior to Challenge: 0

Sorry, Katie, I didn't finish my project tonight. I worked on updating the reading map and it got too late. Hopefully it will be worth the wait. ;D

[Mimmi]

I'm going to the library today so I thought I would pick up a graphic novel to read, since we do need to read two of those to complete the challenge!

[Jody]

I'm also reading a graphic novel - The Complete Persepolis. I'll work on finishing that for this week!

[Rachel]

Day 1 Wrap-up:

Audiobook hours: 0
Hours read outside: 0
Pages read today: 158
Pages read in total: 158
Number of total books completed: 1 short story
Number of ATY challenge books completed: 0
Color of completed books' covers: Not completed, but I started Harry Potter and the Cursed Child which is a yellow cover
Read-A-Thon game participation: 1/12. I didn't realize there was a second game available yet
Longest single reading session: 2 hr
Total approximate time spent reading: 4 hr
Books started prior to challenge: 0

[Elín Birna]

Jody wrote: "I'm also reading a graphic novel - The Complete Persepolis. I'll work on finishing that for this week!"

We're reading the same graphic novel this week, funny :) I also have The hen who dreamed she could fly on my ATY to-read list this year, as fairy tale from a different culture. Looking more forward to it now after your recommendation!

Great first readathon-day everyone! And I love the spreadsheet Katie!!

[Elín Birna]

A few book recommendations from me:

The Saga, Volume 1 series by Brian K. Vaughan! It's a family saga basically, in graphic novel format, happening in outer space when two star-crossed lovers from fighting planets/moons fall in love and have a baby. A sci-fi adventure basically, and beautifully written and illustrated.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children: an non-fiction book about the journey of a high-flying Microsoft man who quits his job to start building libraries and schools for children in Nepal. Really inspirational, and basically shows you that you don't even have to uproot your life in that huge way to be able to make a positive impact on the world.

Karítas án titils by the Icelandic author Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir: the first part of a duology about a woman born in a fishing village in Iceland in the beginning of the 20th century, and her life as she grows into a great artist. These two books are among my absolute favorites. Unfortunately I don't think it is translated into English, but it seems to be available in Danish, German and French for those of you who read those languages...
Another great Icelandic book is Heaven and Hell, the story of a fisher boy a hundred years or more ago (doesn't sound fun maybe, and it is a little dark, but very beautiful!)

And finally a classic I read when I was 20 and loved! The Catcher in the Rye: Like I said, about 12 years since I read it, but I remember how great I thought it was, both the characterization and the writing.

[Mimmi]

I finished a graphic novel, American vampire volume 1 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King and I also read outside for two hours!

[Katie]

Way to go #teamcherry! We had a great Day 1. Here's a recap.

We completed 4 tasks:

N3 - Thanks everyone for your recommendations.
G1 - Thanks Debra for reading a book in one sitting.
G3 - Thanks for reading for 1 hour straight Andrea, Debra, Emm, Joann & Rachel.
G5 - We hit 30 comments on our thread almost immediately. Our team is leading in comments, which I like to think is because we're the best.

Running time/page totals to end day 1:

Hours read outside: 4 h 20 m
Audiobook hours: 12 h 15 m
Total pages: 950

[Katie]

Has anyone added any of their ATY books to the Reading Map? That's something none of us have mentioned yet.

[Mimmi]

I actually haven't added any books to the Reading map, how do you do that?

[Joann]

I just finished
This would work for a couple, but I think it was determined we'd count it as a blue cover.

I also read outside for 2+ hours and it's my second book finished for a total of 411 pages so far.
Played the alphabet soup game too.

[Debra]

I participated in the second mini game working on audiobook now only an hour in on that ane added 85 more pages read today for total 282 pages read

[Elín Birna]

Modest reading today...
Audio: 25 min
Pages: 16
Tomorrow and Thursday will probably not be a lot of reading because of family visiting, but then I'm back!

[Marta]

Hey guys, how about sign-ups for topics so we know who is working on what? I am thinking if Katie could add a "plan" and actual section to each topic, we could put into tge plan section who is planning to do that category.

For example, I can take the poem because I have milk and honey, a poetry book, on my stand, for the popsugar challenge. It is short.

I was wondering if anyone was reading for the history prompt, because I got The Lady Elizabeth in my queue, but it is a bit longish so I would have to get on it. It is also green!

[Mimmi]

I just saw your comment Elin, good to have another Swede in the group!

[Rachel]

I think you're right, Marta. I'm having trouble keeping track of what we still need (although I had a long day today, so it might just be my own mind not keeping up).

[Marta]

Rachel - I just loked at the spreadsheet, it looks great! We can look at what else we need, and people can volunteer.

I will take the historical fiction since that is the only completely blank category, and those books are loooong. And the rainbow can overlap with this category, so I will cover green as well!

[Joann]

I just read twenty pages from

this included a poem (the Raven) and a short story, the Masque of Death, which I will use for ATY week 51 - short story by a well known author.

We could use for G-2 or N-5, B-3, and N1 since the book is also violet in color.

There isn't a location given in the short story so wouldn't be able to add it to the map for O-5.

[Joann]

Marta wrote: "I was wondering if anyone was reading for the history prompt."

I have Wouldn't It Be Deadly planned for the next couple of days and it is labelled as a historic fiction and historic mystery. We could use it as either a History, Mystery or part of a series.

[Mimmi]

Stats for the day:
I read for 2 hours outside
Read 192 pages of American Vampire and completed it for the graphic novel challenge. It doesn't have page numbers but it says 192 pages on Goodreads so I'm going with that. I also read 100 pages of Tease.
total pages: 292

[Mimmi]

And the sign ups sounds like a good idea, then we all will know who is completing which challenge.

[Marta]

I have just finished milk and honey, a poetry collection by Rupi Kaur. Wow! I don't read poetry normally, but this blew me away. Can be used for the poems category. A bit of a stats booster, too, 204 pages with an average 20-30 words on each...

[Rachel]

I'm currently working on the Alphabet Soup game for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but I'm stuck on X and Z. Really wish Xenophilius Lovegood and Blaise Zabini would show up for a scene...unless the letter doesn't have to be at the start of the word?

[Rachel]

Sorry to double-post, but I just wanted to ask -- should I be updating the spreadsheet myself as I read? Or is that going to be too confusing?

I've just finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and I'm about to start Love Letters to the Dead. Hopefully that fits something we still need...I'll admit I'm still a bit lost about which categories we still need help with.

[Katie]

I'm fine with if people want to update the spreadsheet, or if they don't, whatever works best for people.

Rachel, you mentioned yesterday that you were reading Callum. Did you finish it?

[Rachel]

Katie wrote: "I'm fine with if people want to update the spreadsheet, or if they don't, whatever works best for people.

Rachel, you mentioned yesterday that you were reading Callum. Did you finish it?"

Yes, I finished it last night. It was kind of an unexpected extra. I didn't realize my copy of the book had it.

[Katie]

I finished 2 books today. I followed Marta's path and read a book of poetry: Dog Songs. It was super quick and good for pages: 127.

I also finished Before We Visit the Goddess. Though I listened to it as audiobook, since I already finished my audiobook hours, I'm counting it as pages read. It's 208 pages.

And I read outside for 20 minutes.

[Katie]

Again, a ton of progress on our bingo card.

B2 - Thanks Rachel for reading Callum (one word title).
B4 - Rachel also covered fantasy with everyone's favorite wizard in HP and the Cursed Child.
B5 - Joann and I read Your Perfect Life and Before We Visit the Goddess, both by women.
I3 - Joann took care of our series read with the first book in the Cordelia Gray series.
I5 - I read Dark Matter for this one.
N2 - Thanks mostly to Debra, Joann & Mimmi, we've totally killed our outside reading goal. (Emm and I joined in too.)
N5 - Marta took on not just a single poem, but a whole book of poetry.
G2 - We have a lot of short story readers on our team! For this one we're using stories read by Debra, Emm & Marta.
O4 - Thanks Mimmi for reading a book with an article: How to Lead A Life of Crime.

Here's what our bingo card looks like. We are officially over halfway done, and it's only day 2!

B--I-N-G-O
[ ] [ ] [ ] [x] [ ]
[x] [ ] [x] [x] [ ]
[ ] [x] [x] [x] [ ]
[x] [ ] [ ] [ ] [x]
[x] [x] [x] [x] [ ]

[Katie]

Here's what we need. The prompts that require totals will take care of themselves. Some prompts have already been claimed, while others are awaiting folks to claim them.

B3: We've got 4 ATY reads done. We just need one more.
I2: We need one more graphic novel. Elin Birna & Jody have both mentioned reading one.
I4: Emm has chosen to read one book set in summer. We need someone to select another book set in summer.
N1: Emm has orange, Marta has green, and Joann has violet. Marta, did I suspect hesitancy about your green choice because of length? Do you want someone else to take a stab at green or are you happy with it?
G4: We have 2 books started pre-Readathon done. We need one more. Any takers?
O2: Joann, Jody and Marta all said they have a book in their pile that would fit for historical.
O3: Jody is reading a children's book.
O5: Still no takers for adds to our Group Reading Map. Emm, are you planning to add The Graveyard Book? Or Debra, for A Child Called "It"?

You guys are awesome!

[Marta]

Katie, what an awesome job you are doing at tallying! Kudos!

I am reading The Lady Elizabeth for both the historical and the green book. In think it will be ok, but will probably be my only other book for the week - although I can fit in a graphic novel, I have Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft from the library, which is also purple :) (hmm more purple in person than on screen)

Today's totals:
milk and honey 204 pages
How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form -17 pages
The Lady Elizabeth 30 pages
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances - 30 mins audiobook

Total for week:
301 pages read
2h audio
Finished:
Solaris - sci-fi, started before, one word
milk and honey - poetry, finished in one sitting, female author

[Rachel]

I'm currently working on Love Letters to the Dead, which is an ATY read (a work of YA fiction). We could use that.

[Katie]

Rachel, that's on my to read list, so I'm excited to hear what you think of it!

[Rachel]

Day 2 Update:

Audiobook hours: 0
Hours read outside: 0
Pages read today: 235
Pages read in total: 393
Number of total books completed: 1 short story and 1 book (play)
Number of ATY challenge books completed: 0
Color of completed books' covers: Yellow (if we are counting Harry Potter for that)
Read-A-Thon game participation: 2/12
Longest single reading session: 3 hr
Total approximate time spent reading: 5 hr today (+ 4 hours yesterday)
Books started prior to challenge: 0

[Andrea]

Day #2 (8/23) Stats:


Audiobook listening hours: 3
Book reading hours: 2
Pages read today (excluding audiobook): 85
Pages read in total (excluding audiobook): 190
Total approximate time spent reading: 4 hr
Total approximate time spent listening to audiobooks: 3hr
Number of total books completed: 0

Hours read outside: 1
Total hours read outside: 1
Longest single reading session: 1.5 hr
Number of ATY challenge books completed: 0
Color of completed books' covers: N/A
Read-A-Thon game participation: 2/12
Books started prior to challenge: 0

I did not anticipate listening to audiobooks during this challenge because I spent 14 hours last Friday listening to the end of The Nightingale for another challenge. I also did not think that I had it in me to pursue two audiobooks in one year. Wrong! When I noticed that my list of chores today would impede my reading progress, I broke down and checked my library's eAudiobook availability. I found that my remaining ATY books were checked out, so I glanced at Katie's spreadsheet for holes. As of this morning, it looked like the team needed some historical fiction, so I perused the eAudiobook historical fiction selection and chose the darkly humorous The Sisters Brothers.

Even though the hole has since been filled by our awesome team, I will continue listening to this additional book. :)

I plan to finish these two reads tomorrow and then onto Faust!

[Michelle]

Mimmi wrote: "I actually haven't added any books to the Reading map, how do you do that?"

Mimmi, the info for the group reading map is located here.

[Elín Birna]

I can commit to finishing a graphic novel (Persepolis), and a book set in summer (The Sun Also Rises - it is set in Pamplona in July during the bullfighting, not sure how big part is set during that time, do any of you know?), and will start reading both tomorrow or Friday.
I will also listen to at least a total of 5 hrs of my audiobook (Outliers: The Story of Success) and hopefully finish it.

[Jody]

Day 2 Stats

Audiobook hours: 0
Hours read outside: 0
Pages read today: 63
Pages read in total: 134
Number of total books completed: 0
Number of ATY challenge books completed: 0
Color of completed books' covers: N/A
Read-A-Thon game participation: 1/12
Longest single reading session: 30 minutes
Total approximate time spent reading: 45 minutes
Books started prior to challenge: 0

I finished two short stories on Day 2, if we still need some of those for the challenge. Fat and Neighbors, both by Raymond Carver. Planning on hitting the Badi this afternoon (little lakeside swimming places here in Zürich), our version of the beach, so I'll be doing some al fresco reading today too, not that we need any more hours of that!

[Jody]

Elín Birna wrote: "(The Sun Also Rises - it is set in Pamplona in July during the bullfighting, not sure how big part is set during that time, do any of you know?)"

Pretty much all of it. I'll be interested to see what you think of it ... I hated it.

[Michelle]

Day 2
Audiobook Hours: 0
Hours Read Outside: 0
Qualifying Pages Read Today: 99
Qualifying Pages Read in Total: 188
Number of Total Books Completed: 1 Book; 1 Short Story
Number of ATY Challenge Books Completed: 1
Color of Completed Book Covers: The Graveyard Book = Blue
Read-A-Thon Game Participation: 1/12 (Alphabet Soup)
Longest Single Reading Session: 3 Hours
Qualifying Books Started Prior to Challenge: 0

[Mimmi]

I can take care of reading a book started before the readathon with All these things I've done!

[Joann]

Katie wrote: "Here's what we need.

B3:
I4:

The short story I read yesterday will be my read for week 51
My next read is On Folly Beach and will work for set in summer

Looks like O5 is going to be our challenging one. My short story for week 51 didn't have a location so I couldn't map it.

[Debra]

I just added my book A child called it to the map

[Debra]

Katie wrote: "Here's what we need. The prompts that require totals will take care of themselves. Some prompts have already been claimed, while others are awaiting folks to claim them.

B3: We've got 4 ATY reads ..."

I added mine for the o5 slot

[Debra]

just finished the mini game 5 facts about myself

[Katie]

Hey team, just a shout out that the thread is now open to take suggestions for the 9th mini poll for next year's challenge, if anyone has ideas to submit.

[Elín Birna]

I just made a suggestion :) And finally cracked the cover guessing game! Now off to read a few pages...

[Katie]

I still have 2 covers I'm trying to get! And one of them I know I should know! It's eluding me.