Iain's BR Tracker -- The Rebel Spreadsheets of the Free-Realms

[Shae]

Love the Eeyawn picture - Zaara will be so happy to see this :-)

[Soo]

Cause you are a great Buddy to read with, you should totally come over and read Ship of Theseus with me at SFFBC.

I have a BR set up to start on 12/12/18. Plan is to take our time to read the book and chat about it as we go. It'll be slower because we're all reading the hardback.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It's an interactive, multi-layered media book. It has notes written in the margins. Letters & flyers/etc in select sections of the book.



Doooooooooooooooo it! Bwahahah

[Soo]

It'll be way easier than when we did House of Leaves. That sucker was a monster of a book.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "It'll be way easier than when we did House of Leaves. That sucker was a monster of a book."

I hope so... House of Leaves was a nightmare I don't particularly wish to repeat... a one-time experience best kept that way, in my book...

I went ahead and ordered the book... it should arrive on Tuesday... I'll look at joining the SFFBC group/thread after work tomorrow... hopefully I can fit this in with all the other things I'm trying to wrap up before year's end...

[Soo]

WOOHOO! =D

[Soo]

LitRPG Recs

Welcome to Ludus
SpeedRunner
Survival Quest
Ascend Online
Sufficiently Advanced Magic


I know I've read a lot of LitRPG's but these are the ones that I enjoyed. Well, there are bumps in all of them but I think they're more good than bad. I'm still mad at the ending for Way of the Shaman but that's like book 7. I think the audio for that may be out now. I liked Way of the Shaman enough to buy the ebook on release dates. *sigh* Then I lost the new author fun glamour and got annoyed by the usual things that make me annoyed with books.

The You were so good why didn't it stay that way or grow towards awesome?!?!?

OH and they are all the 1st books of a series because I haven't seen a LitRPG that is not part of a series. Well, I haven't read one.

I personally avoid Aleron Kong books in LitRPG. Everyone raves about him and I think the writing is bad. He needs a good editor. A person who is strong enough to chop up the story into a clean whole. Cool ideas. Poor writing.

[Virginie]

Oh, I've been meaning to try LitRPG.
*steals the list of recs and runs away*

[Soo]

LOL

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Oh, I've been meaning to try LitRPG.
*steals the list of recs and runs away*"

Pick one and we can do one of your binge reads next summer, once D20 Sorceress & Eli Monpress are over with :)

[Soo]

Of the series I posted, only Delver's LLC & The Way of the Shaman series are complete. The others are still in progress. If I come across any others that I really like, I'll share. =)

[Em Lost In Books]

Soo wrote: "Cause you are a great Buddy to read with, you should totally come over and read Ship of Theseus with me at SFFBC.

I have a BR set up to start on 12/12/18. Plan is to take our time..."

that cover is lovely, Soo! :)

[Em Lost In Books]

So I was checking the spreadsheet and Iain, you have filled yours up to October. O_O so much planning! you are giving us lesser mortals serious reading goals. :)

[Soo]

Manju, it's a shot of the hardback and some of the material that's inserted into the book as part of the mystery.

[Soo]

Woah. You're nuts! =D LOL
That is intense planning.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I was able to do it so fast, because I input all that data in another spreadsheet a few weeks ago, when I started signing up for stuff and inviting other people to read books I want to read in 2019... it filled up fast... the majority of the BRs are in January thru March, with a dropoff in April/May, and a bigger dropoff from the Summer onwards...

Later on, it's mostly just continuations of longer series I started early in the year... and then I included most New Releases on the list, so I don't fall behind as much next year...

It IS already 100 books & 50,000 pages tho :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It's a bit better labeled in my other sheet... I just didn't want to add any new columns to the 2019 Scoresheet yet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

[Soo]

I'm not sure if it was better that you added that to my Tracker. I don't know how it functions. I doubt that the info will be automatically compiled under the months and stuff. Tacked on top, it doesn't fit with the original headers.

Tell me if I'm making a problem. LOL

[Karishma]

Iain, I see that you asked for the threads for a month apart. Can we do them one after the other if we like it? I generally lose interest if I keep such long gaps between books.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Oh, sure...

[Virginie]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "It's a bit better labeled in my other sheet... I just didn't want to add any new columns to the 2019 Scoresheet yet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/......"

It's view only so can't open the months... xD

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Oops... I'm used to the free access of the group sheets... I'll open again when I get home to my PC

[Virginie]

Haha. You don't really have to, I can just take a look at your scoresheet ;)

[Virginie]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Pick one and we can do one of your binge reads next summer, once D20 Sorceress & Eli Monpress are ove..."

I'd rather do a completed series (let's not add to that crazy new releases schedule, heh?) so... The Way of the Shaman?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Haha. You don't really have to, I can just take a look at your scoresheet ;)"

I opened them all... I only closed them for a cleaner first impression, after I linked the page...

The point was actually to demonstrate how I have more information in my own spreadsheet

NR = New Release
BR = Buddy Read

Notes on the length of each series, and whether the books are part of an ongoing series or mega-series containing multiple shorter series/trilogies/cycles... etc

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Pick one and we can do one of your binge reads next summer, once D20 Sorceress & Eli Monpress are ove..."

I'd rather do a completed series (let's not add to that cra..."

Sounds good... Soo recommended most of these to me awhile ago, including that one... when do you want to start?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "I'm not sure if it was better that you added that to my Tracker. I don't know how it functions. I doubt that the info will be automatically compiled under the months and stuff. Tacked on top, it do..."

I don't exactly know what you're talking about... I didn't add anything to your sheet... maybe someone else did?... or if it's the monthly stats, they were there all along, and just hidden with the +/- sign I mentioned, visible on row 3...

[Virginie]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Sounds good... Soo recommended most of these to me awhile ago, including that one... when do you want to start?"

Mmmh. June? Since we're finishing Eli Monpress in end of May.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Sounds good... Soo recommended most of these to me awhile ago, including that one... when do you want to start?"

Mmmh. June? Since we're finishing Eli Monpress in en..."

I'm good from about June 4th onwards, I think...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I added some manly black to my 2019 spreadsheet :D

And changed the purple zebra stripes to blue...

And changed my monthly tallies to the rainbow stripes I used in 2018 & on my private spreadsheet... I cut the brown / burnt orange colors, and looped back in July...

I have some more recoloring to do later, but it'll do for now... I plan to leave my name/team in the purple box in the corner...

[Virginie]

"RAINBOW COLORED MONTHS WOOHOO"

(is what I thought when I went to your scoresheet)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: ""RAINBOW COLORED MONTHS WOOHOO"

(is what I thought when I went to your scoresheet)"

I never expected to like it so much when I first started using it in 2018, but it grew on me...

Next up, I plan to steal your top row stats...

Short Stories = >50pgs (I do some October Daye shorts sometimes)
Novellas = 51-250
Books = 251-600
Tomes = 601+

Don't want to screw up the Participant Data tho...

I also like your extra Sparkline tables...

[Virginie]

Oh, I like the 'tomes' thing. To avoid screwing up the participants data, you can simply set a "Total elements" cell and use that one?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Oh, I like the 'tomes' thing. To avoid screwing up the participants data, you can simply set a "Total elements" cell and use that one?"

That's what I was thinking...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "Oh, I like the 'tomes' thing. To avoid screwing up the participants data, you can simply set a "Total elements" cell and use that one?"

I thought of adding tomes, because so far 2019 is my largest density of tomes ever... 50,000 pages from 110 books means an average of nearly 500 pages per book...

Between Malazan (avg of 700-800pgs, I think), Wars of Light & Shadow (700ish pages), Shadows of the Apt (650 pages), Vampire Chronicles (500-800 pages), Realm of the Elderling (inches into the 600-700 range, I think, depending on the trilogy) and Night's Dawn (1200 pages per book of the trilogy)... it adds up...

[Virginie]

I don't think I'll get many 'tomes' beyond Malazan, but mostly stray on the novella side. Still, I stole the idea for my scoresheet :)

[Virginie]

But YOU planned quite the number of doorstoppers and long series in 2019. Are you going to be OK? :O

(not that I'm complaining... We're on the same team after all :p)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "But YOU planned quite the number of doorstoppers and long series in 2019. Are you going to be OK? :O

(not that I'm complaining... We're on the same team after all :p)"

I honestly don't know... I want to commit to Malazan, even if it slows my reading pace each month... Wars of Light & Shadow might be a failed venture, because I'll need to commit to staying off my computer and reading my Kindle... Night's Dawn is a trilogy... Shadows of the Apt is a series I requested myself... Vampire Chronicles is something I want to give a shot, and Night's Dawn is just a trilogy... in between these, I plan to focus on New Releases, binge reads with you guys, and smaller series/trilogies/standalones... and some NBC romances... that's probably going to fill a lot of my time...

For now, I'm just focusing on the things I can wrap up in December & early January :)

[Virginie]

I was mostly asking about reading both Malazan and Wars of Light & Shadow. From what I heard, those two series are quite complex so you really have to commit.

I'm quite happy we found several series to binge together. This kind of series BR really suits me better than just one book a month ones :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Virginie wrote: "I was mostly asking about reading both Malazan and Wars of Light & Shadow. From what I heard, those two series are quite complex so you really have to commit.

I'm quite happy we found several seri..."

Binging used to be my main way of reading... now I can binge still with a group, but solo binging series that aren't just amazing tends to sour the experience a bit, these days...

Adjusting to reading a book every month, in a series, was a way for me to ensure I finished more of the series I start, with a definite time table, because otherwise I'd move on and never return.. it was a learning curve, but I eventually adjusted... peppering in more binges and "flash BRs" has really suited me, tho, and I'm glad there are people around to do it with...

I think I prefer commiting to only 1 faster BR at a time, tho... too many and I get swamped... i did it last year, with Legend of Drizzt, Sookie Stackhouse, and InCryptid... all in January/February/March... and it was a bit much...

[Bea]

Virginie wrote: "I was mostly asking about reading both Malazan and Wars of Light & Shadow. From what I heard, those two series are quite complex so you really have to commit.

I'm quite happy we found several seri..."

I will at least try to do both :)
My average page number per book was 460 this year so planning to read a lot of tomes shouldn't be that much of a change.

[Anni]

Bea wrote: "Virginie wrote: "I was mostly asking about reading both Malazan and Wars of Light & Shadow. From what I heard, those two series are quite complex so you really have to commit.

I'm quite happy we f..."

I'll try to read both as well :)

[Virginie]

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "I think I prefer commiting to only 1 faster BR at a time, tho... too many and I get swamped..."

I'm the same. I can do two binge at the same time if they're quite different (Fantasy and SF, etc.); then I just pick what to read based on my mood at this particular moment :)

[Zaara]

I have a nephew, Fin Santa.
😃
They're still debating/arguing between Ethan and (I think) Aiden...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Zaara wrote: "I have a nephew, Fin Santa.
😃
They're still debating/arguing between Ethan and (I think) Aiden..."

Both kinda sound like my name...

[Zaara]

Do you think so??
Esp when those two pulled one from the hat, made a right turn and sharply veered towards Aaron...huh!
Is it just that you've always liked collecting ALL the names?
Haha...😂😂😂
Oh and I'm also appreciative of how your avatar is a pink ribbon supporter....

[Soo]

I'm making my Cover challenge and using Veronica & your lists as a nice sample.

So, I went to look at my TBR list that I made on my tracker for ideas and I got this:

Cover Category: I See _____

- Dead People
- Patriotic Nudity ex:
- Nightmares
- Love

Everyone wants to know the random weird places my brain can go. Right? Right.

LOL

[Soo]

Sorry for the repeat question but for Buddy Reads Bonus:

- You can start the book 1 week before the start date or within 2 weeks after the start date to have the bonus points in the challenge.

Yes?

[Virginie]

Yup, that's exactly it. You can take however long you want to finish though.

Also, there's the implied rule that you have to participate at least a little to the discussion :)

[Soo]

Well, sure. Otherwise, it's SOLO READ ALL THE WAY. =)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Well, sure. Otherwise, it's SOLO READ ALL THE WAY. =)"

Sometimes, low interest Buddy Reads turn into solo reads, when the few signups don't show...