Read-a-Thon #2 - Team Butterfly

[Brittany]

Emily wrote: "Perfect, everyone! We are updated through here.

We are just three people doing the kickoff short of getting to ask our first question. We will also definitely finish Bucket 1 today!

So the next q..."

Maybe what genre the author is known for writing?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Hm.. I wonder if it's 20 questions style where you can only ask yes or no questions.

[Jackie]

Finished the kick-off.

[Brittany]

Oh I wasn’t paying attention to the 20 questions thing, apparently.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Brittany wrote: "Oh I wasn’t paying attention to the 20 questions thing, apparently."

I'm not 100% sure that's how it works! I asked the mods.

[Edie]

An idea for a question:

Is the author living?

[Christy]

I just completed the questions in the kickoff thread. Is that the game for today?
Sorry, I'm very new at this. :-)

[Kathy]

I've just been added to Team Butterfly and look forward to reading with all of you!

I finished the Kick-Off

[Samantha]

Happy Birthday Johanne!

And Good afternoon team! I live on the west coast of USA so in the Pacific Time Zone. Log in to see a flurry of activity already and not quite sure where my books could fit in to what has already been done but if nothing else I can add to pages read!

Here is what I started today:
The Girls of Slender Means- short so should finish today
Buried - hope to get through a chunk of it if not finish by Sunday night
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This is an audiobook and may take a few days or even the week to finish.

[Samantha]

I finished the kick off

[Deborah]

Emily wrote: "Perfect, everyone! We are updated through here.

We are just three people doing the kickoff short of getting to ask our first question. We will also definitely finish Bucket 1 today!

So the next q..."

My first thought was gender too! Living or dead was also a good one. Narrowing down genre would be good, but hard if they are yes/no only questions, but could maybe try the most popular ones. Also thought that a question on whether they have published 5 or more books (or a different number) could help clarify a new vs more established author.

[Brittany]

I feel like there are a lot of authors from the US and the UK so we could maybe ask if the author is from one of those places.

[Sarah]

Happy Birthday Johanne!

I finished the kickoff this morning and have listened to 18% of my book so far today. Which is about 86 pages for the page count so far today.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Christy, you did the right thing!

I like all of the question suggestions! Right now, we qualified for our first question with everyone's participation in the Kickoff Activity.

So, mods, our first question is:

Is our author a female?

We have also completed Bucket 1!

So, mods, our second question is:

Is our author alive?

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Possible Questions:
Have not qualified to ask these yet, but wanted to have them written down somewhere

- Is the author from the US or UK?
- Does the author write romance or thrillers?

I'll add more to this post as we come up with suggestions, and we can pull from here as we get answers!

[Dina]

I finished the kick-off questions.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Ok since we finished Bucket 1, let's commit to Buckets 2 and 3. Here's what I've got so far:

PROMPTS TO FILL

Tentative, with allowances for books finished sooner to slot in

Bucket 2
Book set on Continent A - Nine Perfect Strangers - Australia - Emily or Kathryn
Book set on Continent B - The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding - Europe - Jill
Book published in X decade - We Have Always Lived in the Castle - 1960s - Nancy
Book published in Y decade - Appointment with Death - 1930s - Sarah

Bucket 3

Book in X format - Swing- Audiobook - Deena
Book in Y format - Any print book or ebook read
Book 1 published in 2019 - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A Modern Retelling of Little Women - Meg
Book 2 published in 2019

Bucket 4
Book 1 for the ATY challenge - The Tempest - Brittany
Book 2 for the ATY challenge
Book 3 for the ATY challenge
Book 1 with New-to-You author
Book 2 with New-to-You author
Book 3 with New-to-You author

[Tracy]

forgot to write in my post this morning that I did the kickoff game, but were all set with that. One bucket done??!! Go Team!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Just a head's up from the Q&A tab... We can get multiple questions per game. We have 26 people in our group (!!), so if everyone completes the game today, we could get two questions, and some left over to go towards our questions for tomorrow. It's not just one question per game! So please keep updating me if you finish the game.

(I promisssssse I won't be posting this much all week! Just trying to get everything straight for the first push!)

(Also, I think we are the first team to finish a bucket, so GO BUTTERFLIES! ((I really want that badge lolol)))

[Kathryn]

Good morning from Australia, Team Butterfly! You have all been busy while I've been sleeping!

No reading started for me yet - I had to check all this out! - but I've just completed the Kick-off questions.

I'll work on Nine Perfect Strangers today, but I wouldn't mind betting someone else will have a non-European book read before I'm finished this one! Or Emily might be quicker than me!

[Kathryn]

Just a quick question about the spreadsheet - the number that is next to the required page counts for the buckets (in column C) - is that our current total page count? I was going to ask if you could include that somewhere, and then I realised those numbers might be it...

[Christy]

I've read 39 pages so far today, and I won't have time to check in this evening so I'll count evening reading toward tomorrow.
I promise I'll carry my weight more tomorrow, teammates! The Fifth Season is really starting to pick up, so it will be my pleasure. :-)

[Brittany]

I’m listening to The Magnolia Story audiobook. It’s only 5 hours long and I always listen to my audiobooks sped up a little so I might be done tonight, definitely tomorrow. If nothing else it can be used towards page count. I’ll be working on The Tempest next for AtY if you want to slot that in for bucket 4.

[Johanne]

Hallo again!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes :)
I had a grand day, and now the guests have gone home it's almost midnight here in Denmark, Europe.

So much going in this group, I love it!

I listened to the equivalent of 35 pages in 'One of us is lying'.

I did the kick-off earlier.

Will try and read some pages before I go to sleep.

I wonder how many buckets will be filled between now and when I get up tomorrow... ;)

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Kathryn, the totals in column C are a current tally of our reading (the formula adds up all of our individual totals and tracks it there). I've been devouring Nine Perfect Strangers all day... I'm already 220 pages in, and I still have a solid 4 hours before it's time for me to sleep. It has short chapters, which makes me keep reading!

[Kathryn]

Emily wrote: "Kathryn, the totals in column C are a current tally of our reading (the formula adds up all of our individual totals and tracks it there). I've been devouring Nine Perfect Strangers all day... I'm ..."

Perfect!

And yes, Nine Perfect Strangers is an easy read - I think I've just read about 20 pages over breakfast!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Just a reminder, mods, so it doesn't get lost in the thread, we have two questions asked!

For completing 10 games:

Is our author female?

And for completing Bucket 1:

Is our author still alive?

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Yes, the author is female

No, the author is not alive

[Katie]

Happy birthday, Johanne!

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Two questions down, and it looks like we are dealing with a classic author (probably), which means that the genre questions may not matter as much...

Should our next question be something about when they published books? Or how many books they published? Or we could even look at some of the lists (like the BBC Big Reads) and ask if she has a book on that list?

[Katie]

It's not a requirement, but it might be helpful for you guys to number your questions as you ask them, since you have 20 questions to guess the author or you'll be assigned a new author.

[Kathryn]

Emily wrote: "Two questions down, and it looks like we are dealing with a classic author (probably), which means that the genre questions may not matter as much...

Should our next question be something about wh..."

I'm thinking knowing her nationality (or even if she isn't American or British, but I think they're most likely) might be most helpful...

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Katie, I'm tracking our questions on a tab on the spreadsheet!

Kathryn, I think that's a good idea, but maybe asking about one specific one ("Is she from Europe?") would be more clarifying than asking about both nationalities? If she's not European, we can probably assume she's American... and if we need further clarification, we can ask that as well down the line.

[Kathryn]

Emily wrote: "Katie, I'm tracking our questions on a tab on the spreadsheet!

Kathryn, I think that's a good idea, but maybe asking about one specific one ("Is she from Europe?") would be more clarifying than a..."

Could do - as long as "Europe" was taken to include Britain as well (possibly a touchy subject at the moment...!).

Edit: I was also thinking about trying to narrow down when she was published, but not sure how to do that without being too specific (if we ask if she's published in 20th century and the answer is no, do we ask also about the 21st or the 19th centuries and use up 2 more questions?).

[Dina]

My total pages read for 6/7 is 107 pages. I plan to finish The Woman in the Water tomorrow, then start another ATY challenge book or work on a book I currently have in progress.

I am finding that, with this reading challenge, that I am trying to read as many shorter books as I can vs reading my longer books. # of books vs # of pages...?

[Danielle]

Got assigned to the team while I was at work, but I am home now and reading an ebook - Trail of Lightning . I'll add my total page count for the day later, but I did do the kickoff.

[Jackie]

Given that I'm going to sleep soon I did the following reading:
The Quiche of Death 39 pages
The Gilda Stories 38 pages

Total read: 77

[Shelley]

I'm jumping in here late. Work got a little strange today. I used this RAT as a push to read The Blazing World, which was 105 pages. I'll probably read something else tonight, so I'll update later on my final day's count. This may mess up the plan y'all have going already, but it was published in 1666. Probably safe to use for a distinct decade.

In case anyone's wondering, it's considered the first science fiction book and was written by a duchess. It's pretty terrible by modern standards, but it's interesting from a historical standard. There were also some strong lesbian/bi tendencies going on in there that I was not expecting. Way to much talk of "it was a platonic love so it's ok" for it not to a doth protest too much situation.

Oh I also did the kickoff questions.

My next two books in the pipeline were both published this year, so hopefully that will proof to be useful for the third bucket.

[Nancy]

I have read a total of 162 pages and completed the Kickoff .

Also finished the book. This is for Bucket 2

[Edie]

Being deceased doesn't necessarily mean this author wrote "classic" literature. For example, Maya Angelo is deceased but I (at least) think of her as a contemporary author. That said, I don't have a question suggestion to help with that.

I wonder whether the cleanest next question is "is this author an American"? If yes, we have eliminated all the British classic authors and anyone from the rest of the world. If no, then we have eliminated a lot of familiar American authors.

[Jill]

Just got home from work and you have been so busy today! That is awesome!
I have completed the kickoff.
It is only 6pm here in California so I am going to wait a little bit before I post my total pages for the day.
I don’t think I will finish The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding until tomorrow afternoon California time so if someone finishes something that fits bucket 2 sooner it would probably move us along faster.
Do I add that I finished the game and my page total to the spreadsheet? I don’t have a problem doing that.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Dina, the good thing about counting pages for our challenge is that the number of books don't matter as much... so read one big chonker if you feel like it!

Danielle, I read Trail of Lightning for the indigenous people prompt and it was one of my favorite ATY reads of the year so far!

Shelley, I've added in your book from 1666 (!!!!)

Edie, I agree with your thinking... although I consider anyone that published earlier than the 1980s to be classic hahaha! I was born in 1989, so anything older than me is a classic in my eyes.

Jill, you can just post it here and Ellie or I will update the spreadsheet!

We have earned another question through the games today (excellent job!), so I was thinking of going with Edie's "Is our author American?" unless y'all would rather go the European route?

I'm heading to sleep, so Ellie can update the spreadsheet when she checks in and post the question if you all come to a consensus!

Here's where we stand with prompts:

PROMPTS TO FILL

Obviously, if books are finished sooner than the ones listed, we can sub in and out... this is a tentative plan!

Bucket 2
Book set on Continent A - Nine Perfect Strangers - Australia - Emily or Kathryn
Book set on Continent B - The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding - Europe - Jill

Bucket 3

Book in X format - Swing- Audiobook - Deena
Book in Y format - Any print book or ebook read
Book 1 published in 2019 - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A Modern Retelling of Little Women - Meg
Book 2 published in 2019

Bucket 4
Book 1 for the ATY challenge - The Tempest - Brittany
Book 2 for the ATY challenge
Book 3 for the ATY challenge
Book 1 with New-to-You author
Book 2 with New-to-You author
Book 3 with New-to-You author

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Your graphic has now been updated according to the current spreadsheet :)

[Edie]

Laura wrote: "Your graphic has now been updated according to the current spreadsheet :)"

The graphic is really cool! Kudos to you or whoever created it.

[Kathryn]

Emily wrote: "Dina, the good thing about counting pages for our challenge is that the number of books don't matter as much... so read one big chonker if you feel like it!

Danielle, I read Trail of Lightning for..."

I think Edie's suggestion of asking if the author is American is a good idea.

[Kathy]

6/7 - I read 184 pages.

[Brittany]

I agree with asking if the author is American.

[Tawallah]

I read total of 241 pages today
- Sheepfarmer's Daughter - 162 pages
- The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York - 89 pages

[Bec]

Hi all, I’ve been assigned to team butterfly - yay!
I’ve read worship of hollow gods - 200 pages on 7 and 8th June.

[Tawallah]

I just did the Kick-off questions.