Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Team Challenges Archive
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Questions about TTIII?
Allison Ann wrote: "This is my first time participating in Tower Teams and I have no idea how this round differs from the first two, but I'm enjoying it even though from the beginning it seemed like the best we could ..."perhaps I missed your suggestions..:( what mysteries? I love mysteries :)
As a Team Captain of one of the lower point teams I have to say I have had mixed feelings about this round. It is hard to keep the chats going sometimes because my team has such a wide variety of readers. We have a few that read all day long and check Goodreads all day long and have time for BRs and BOMS. Then the majority of us read a good amount but personally I don't really like participating in the BOMS and BRs. I have a TBR list that I plan out with all my other challenges and if I keep replacing them with BOMS or BRS I will never finish them. Plus some of the books just don't appeal to me.I like the idea of uping the points per pages and just having people read. Everybody has different availability to read and paces so it makes it a little more fair for a team to win. Maybe adding a few mini challenges in the middle to get extra points. I don't know but it just doesn't seem like much of a competiton and I can't force my team to participate more, even when I don't really want to either.
Did people like the Save Christmas Quest and the Read-A-Thon Dual?
Yay they were fab, really gave the team a buzz to complete it.
Kelly wrote: "Did people like the Save Christmas Quest and the Read-A-Thon Dual?"Yep
Yes!!!The quest to save Christmas has been my favorite thing about this round, besides my team who are all fabulous of course. It was so fun working together to complete tasks that were doable with a wide variety of books. I loved it.
I am having a great time this round and enjoying the challenge. Loved the extra challenges between teams. And I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into making it all work. A point about BR, BOM's and chattiness in the team thread. It has occurred to me that some of the chatter that would necessarily take place about books is now taking place in the BR's. If I've already made a point about a book in one place, I'm not necessarily going to make it in another. Our team has been in the middle of the pack - we have lots of different types of readers - some are very involved in the BR's and some aren't. It's been a nice mix. I, unfortunately have not been able to participate in very many BR's, and this has probably hurt my team. There are so many of them at this point, it became hard to keep track of them all, and I also have certain books I need to read for other challenges. So I have mixed feelings about them. I can see their value as far as building up participation in the Group overall, but I'm not sure that they helped build up a particular team.
Kelly wrote: "Did people like the Save Christmas Quest and the Read-A-Thon Dual?"Loved them!
Megan L wrote: "As a Team Captain of one of the lower point teams I have to say I have had mixed feelings about this round. It is hard to keep the chats going sometimes because my team has such a wide variety of r..."yep..you said it exactly1 :)
I loved the Save Christmas challenge..maybe more mini challenges like it :) I am on the fence about BOM/BRs...I participate in them if I want to...but I very rarely read a book in a specific month....I'm lke Megan...I usually pick my books by my various challenges....and BOMs usually are not on that list....it's the nature of the beast.....but I think fewer points in tht department, and more for actually reading, would be the better way :)
or....do a mini challenge....worth so many points where people have to participate in a BR or read a BOM....that way, I think perhaps more people might participate :)
Kelly wrote: "Did people like the Save Christmas Quest and the Read-A-Thon Dual?"Yes. The duel is pretty fun because you can read whatever you want and it doesn't matter, it's just based on books read. The Christmas quest was fun but does require a little more work than the duel. Not a lot, as compared to mini challenges in the last round of TT and it was pretty easy to fill in all the tasks. If there were to be more mini-challenges such as these, I would request it still remain fairly easy to track them or fit books into them or whatever, and not have a bunch of them. I think less is more when it comes to those.
I'm sort of in the middle on the matter of BoM/BR. I have enjoyed the buddy reads I've had, so far, but like some others, I don't like to read the same books that most people like, or I can't squeeze a buddy read into my already-packed reading plan, or I just don't want to spend the time typing my thoughts every few chapters when I'd prefer to spend the time reading (my time has been really precious for the past few months thanks to a horrible work schedule). I have wanted to join a few buddy reads that I still haven't even read the books for because something else came up (I'm also a moody reader). I have felt a little bad that I can't contribute buddy read points to most of my books but my team seems to be pretty understanding. Some of them do buddy reads, some don't, some read fast, others don't.
I like that buddy reads and BoMs were added to this round as a way to encourage and foster book discussions, but it feels like a lot of the points from the higher placed teams seem to be coming from those people who have joined one or the other of those for a lot of their books (I could be wrong). I'm just really not sure how things could change to make things better or different in the next round. So basically, I'm just rambling here.. heh.
One of the things my team did to not only motivate our reading, but to foster some chatter was that we had our own mini read-a-thons where we would set a goal for pages to read or number of books to read or aiming to reach a certain points goal by the end of the week. We usually try to meet the goal before the Sunday night update.
Part of my issue in not participating in BOTM reads has been the timing of when they are announced in relation to getting my hands on the book. The last few books I'd be interested in reading were newer books and cost too much to buy...since they were newer books, they had a linger wait list at the library. If there would be any way to get book nominations and voting done earlier it could help me and others too perhaps. Due to various challenge groups, I also usually have most of my books picked out for one month by mid month with only 1-2 book wiggle room to add.One group I'm in does nominations/voting a full month ahead...so for March, we just did the nominations and are voting now so I'll know by January ME what the March book will be. I'm not sure if this is an option but perhaps that could impact others reading the books as well. I do like having the multiple categories here, and having the staggered reading...I just haven't been able to participate for these reasons.
I didn't mind the BR's but didn't do the BOM as I prefer to read the book in one go and not have to wait to answer questions. (but that's just me) I didn't go mad with the BR but I did a fair few, my reasoning was, this is the book I'm reading, I'll check to see if there is/was a BR for it and join.
A couple of us in the same team were reading the same book too (as me and her often have BR'S already set in another group) so checking to see if anyone else wanted to join us was just natural, sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't.
Mod
Catherine wrote: "Allison Ann wrote: "This is my first time participating in Tower Teams and I have no idea how this round differs from the first two, but I'm enjoying it even though from the beginning it seemed like the best we could ..."perhaps I missed your suggestions..:( what mysteries? I love mysteries :) "
A lot of suggestions get posted, I imagine it is easy to miss one. :) I forget what I suggested at the beginning of the challenge, but right after P.D. James died I suggested Innocent Blood or another of her stand-alone novels. I read a lot of older books but let me know if you ever want to do a mystery Buddy Read.
sure...is P.D. James your only author? I have a ton of mysteries....I'll look up Innocent Blood....I have to read it first....but I have a ton of mysteries on my tbr list...feel free to check it out as well :)
ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) wrote: "Catherine wrote: "Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Interesting to read the above comments, I really think it is the luck of the draw concerning the chattiness of the teams. I really like to chat and ch..."
When I joined the team in 14th place and now close to being in 5th place.
When I joined the team in 14th place and now close to being in 5th place.
Mini challenges after the tower team challenge is over. I have thought of 2 different ones. Starting in Feb once this challenge is over. We do a mini challenge on Love since Valentines Day is in Feb. Everyone stays on the team they are now, we read until 6000 points (or however many points you decide). The books have to be about love of course. No Buddy Reads, no Book of the month reads. We use the same book page numbers with points system we use now.
The second challenge will be about St. Patrick's Day which is March. Everyone stays on the same team they are now, we read until 6000 points (or however many points you decide) The books have to have shade of the color green on the cover, which can be just a little bit of green or a lot of green so just so there is green on the cover. No Buddy reads, no Book of the Month reads. Use the same page number with points system we use now.
Now on both for Feb (love), March (St Patrick's day color green) and April (Easter) you can write up a thing like you did about Saving Christmas. But Feb will have to do with love with points to earn for each one done. March will have to do with St. Patrick's Day with points to earn for each one done and April will have to do Easter with points to earn for each one done.
Thought of a third mini challenge. April do one on Easter. The same way Feb and March is done, same teams, etc.
When the April, Easter one is finish then it will be time for a New Tower Team challenge with new teams and new challenge.
The second challenge will be about St. Patrick's Day which is March. Everyone stays on the same team they are now, we read until 6000 points (or however many points you decide) The books have to have shade of the color green on the cover, which can be just a little bit of green or a lot of green so just so there is green on the cover. No Buddy reads, no Book of the Month reads. Use the same page number with points system we use now.
Now on both for Feb (love), March (St Patrick's day color green) and April (Easter) you can write up a thing like you did about Saving Christmas. But Feb will have to do with love with points to earn for each one done. March will have to do with St. Patrick's Day with points to earn for each one done and April will have to do Easter with points to earn for each one done.
Thought of a third mini challenge. April do one on Easter. The same way Feb and March is done, same teams, etc.
When the April, Easter one is finish then it will be time for a New Tower Team challenge with new teams and new challenge.
I like this round much better than last round even though my team is a bit less chatty. But on my part that has a lot to do with me being on an opposite time zone than most of the regular chatters on my team. They're asleep when I'm up and vice-verse. Plus I went back to school and have less time. I agree with some others that a lot of the team chatter has moved to the buddy read threads and that's OK too. I didn't do the buddy reads before but I like them and might do more now. I still have no real interest in the BOM reads and don't want to have to write questions so I just didn't do any of those. I do not miss all the cupcakes and puzzles and stuff. While I like reading challenges a lot, I don't like ones that are too restrictive. In the last round, I had to change my reading plan and drop books a few times to fit in different books for whatever challenge we had to do to get extra points. Which is a pain when you read a lot of library books with wait lists and due dates.
I've been lurking and reading everyone's comments, so I guess I'll add my two cents :)This is my 3rd tower teams challenge and I must say they really are my favorites of all the team challenges I've participated (throughout all my groups). I like that this round we have more "freedom" to read anything we like, because the points are based on pages. In the past TT challenges, I tried to shy away from longer books, because I knew it would take me longer and thus decrease my book numbers.
That being said, I really enjoy the mini-challenges that the mods put together (Save Christmas, Read-a-Thon Duel). They make it more of a team effort, which I really like (I'm not on a super chatty team). I would love to have more of those because it also helps me pick what to read next.
I also really enjoy the BR addition. I had never participated in BRs in this group before and I didn't know how I would feel about them. Now, I try to fit in as many as I can because I love discussion books with others as I read and hearing what other people think in "real-time". To me, its more fun than just reading/writing reviews at the end of books. I can see why some people may not like this addition though, because it does give those who participate an advantage. I know people read a whole spectrum of books and at all different paces.
I enjoyed the cupcake puzzles and such in the last tower teams round, but that was mostly because I have a lot of random down time during work where it's not really possible for me to read. Those puzzles really helped keep my days less boring. I can't even imagine how much work they were for the mods! I can see though that it's a lot to keep up with, and I don't think TT3 is hurting at all without them.
Mod
We will have some mini challenges up next - a new kind of wheelathon is on the horizon ;)
Ooh Goody. I loved the Wheelathon. Thanks Mods.
What is the Wheelathon?? I've heard of it mentioned in other groups.
Ashley ♦Sugar & Spice♦ wrote: "What is the Wheelathon?? I've heard of it mentioned in other groups."That was team challenge before this one. Mods would spin a wheel with genres each week. Each team would get a genre and we were trying to spell it out as many times as we could.
Here is thread so snoop around :)
Ashley ♦Sugar & Spice♦ wrote: "What is the Wheelathon?? I've heard of it mentioned in other groups."Basic premises is a spell-it-out game. You get a wheel spun with words on it, get given a word, then spell it out with your team using book titles, authors, characters, etc.
We're still working on exact rules :)
I had a blast doing the wheel-a-thon. That was my first ever team challenge and totally got me hooked on them. Glad to hear it's coming back around soon!
Picking up on Mary's observations about different time zones in teams, maybe one of the team challenges could be grouped into parts of the world. Aussies/NZ, Asia, Europe, Canada then the various state groupings of the US could be separate teams? Sorry, Mods, if you are being driven mad by our "helpful" suggestions. You all do a mighty job keeping us entertained and I'm sure we all appreciate your efforts greatly.
Mod
Question Mods regarding Tower Teams Australia Day Scavenger Hunt:Does books you have already started (currently reading) but haven't finished count towards this challenge?
Thank you
Ezinwanyi~the Impish Angel wrote: "Question Mods regarding Tower Teams Australia Day Scavenger Hunt:Does books you have already started (currently reading) but haven't finished count towards this challenge?
Thank you"
Yes. Finish date is what counts.
This Australian Day challenge looks super fun, but I'm a little confused as to what this means... if more than 75% of your team members find an item, you will get a bonus 30 points! So it sounds like we should try to find the same words to get the 30 pt. bonus? Or does that just mean if more than 75% of our team participates by finding any word we get the bonus? Just trying to figure out if we should be getting as many different words as possible or trying to co-ordinate finding the same words. Thanks!
Allison Ann wrote: " Or does that just mean if more than 75% of our team participates by finding any word we get the bonus?"That one
Allison Ann wrote: "This Australian Day challenge looks super fun, but I'm a little confused as to what this means... if more than 75% of your team members find an item, you will get a bonus 30 points! So it sounds l..."It's a participation bonus :) The spreadsheet should magically add the points when you hit this if I did it right :)
Allison Ann wrote: "This Australian Day challenge looks super fun, but I'm a little confused as to what this means... if more than 75% of your team members find an item, you will get a bonus 30 points! So it sounds l..."Thank you for asking that question because I was trying to figure it out as well!
I appreciate the explanation
Ezinwanyi~the Impish Angel wrote: "Allison Ann wrote: "This Australian Day challenge looks super fun, but I'm a little confused as to what this means... if more than 75% of your team members find an item, you will get a bonus 30 poi..."I thought you had all the answers Ezi!!!
Catherine wrote: "Ezinwanyi~the Impish Angel wrote: "I thought you had all the answers Ezi!!! ..."MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I am full of surprises, huh? Usually when I don't have the answer, I make one up that suits me :D
Mod
As always we'd love your feedback, if you could take a minute or two to complete this survey.
Thanks!
Question - is the back room BR group staying open now the the challenge is over?
Mod
I did the survey! I just want to say that I had so much fun with this challenge. It was my first team challenge and I had so much fun that I'm doing another team challenge right now in a different group. I heard there was another Wheelathon starting soon? If so, I'm definitely joining that one!
Mod
Yes, we have a wheelathon ready to go, but haven't decided on a start date yet
Mod
I appreciate your enthusiasm ;)
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Innocent Blood (other topics)Small Favor (other topics)
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I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't really participate in the additional challenges (quest to save christmas and light vs dark). I'm simply not a fast reader, so all the slots were completed by the faster readers before I had a chance to report my books as read. I'm thrilled that my team completed the challenge and received the points, but I think it would have been more fun, if we all got to add to it. I'm not sure there's anything that can be done about that though. I think it's probably just the way the chips fall.