Read-a-Thon #3 - Team Pie

[Jody]

Kathryn, I've been wanting to read that book for ages - I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I love Anh Do.

[Kathryn]

Jody wrote: "Kathryn, I've been wanting to read that book for ages - I'm really looking forward to hearing what you think of it. I love Anh Do."

I don't actually know an awful lot about him, other than that he's a comedian and not a bad painter from what I've seen of his TV show where he paints celebrities. But from the first chapter, I'm thinking there won't be much comedy in this book...

[Johanne]

Grey skies, a little sun in between and no rain here in Copenhagen, Denmark. But it can change in an instant. I am in our yard reading, soon it will be too cold for that.

Hope you figured it out Trish. If not I'll be happy to see where your book fits best when you're finished.

[Johanne]

And good night to you Kathryn :)

[Lieke]

I just finished my second book, it was a very fast read. I can’t add it to the spreadsheet now, but will do it when I get home.

[Jody]

I've got 25 minutes left on my audiobook (which will cover wishlist) - I'll definitely be finishing that off tonight after dinner. I've scratched my feminism book as it doesn't cover any available shelves, but that's now given me motivation to decide finish another book I was about 40% of the way though - it covers a few shelves with less options too, so hooray!

Now, off to cook dinner so I can get back to it!

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Warcross definitely has sci-fi, so I've added that one to the spreadsheet. It'll probably be Tuesday.

As Diverse doesn't seem to have any takers, I don't mind reading The Hate U Give, probably Wednesday. Unless that's too far away.

Apologies for being confused.

[Johanne]

No need to apologise Trish! We don't need to fill all the shelves, only 15 of them. So I wouldn't plan too far ahead. But whatever people are reading it might fit something else when we get to quest #2.
I wonder what the next quest is?

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Presumably books we've already finished this week, but didn't fit the quest #1s can be used in the next set?

[Johanne]

I hope so, but I am not sure. I'll ask the mods.

[Marina]

I haven't read as many pages as I had hoped today. I've been a little tired, so I've needed a few breaks from reading. I'm halfway through my second book but I still have the rest of the evening so I still plan on finishing it tomorrow at the latest.

I'm also curious to find out what next quest is and yes if we can use finished books that didn't get used for the first quest. If not it might be worth waiting to finish a book until next quest is revealed.

[Johanne]

Everyone has updated the spreadsheet as far as I can tell. A few books seem to be close to finishing.
And we only need to finish 6 more books that fit any of these shelves (please correct me if I've missed something)

Cover-Love
Nature
Wishlist
Sci-fi
LGBT
Family
Coming-of-Age
Realistic-Fiction
All-Time-Favorites
Contemporary
Diverse Books
Faves
Music
Retellings
September
September 2019
Inspirational

There is no answer yet to the question of whether we can use finished books that don't fit now, later.
I have one chapter left in Den blå portal that doesn't work for quest #1, and I will hold off finishing it till I hear the verdict on that.

I did make apple pies today! They were delicious and I ate too much :)

I'll start Drengen på toppen af bjerget (The Boy at the Top of the Mountain) by John Boyne. It's a library book soon due, and it fits a lot of tags :)

[Jody]

I've finished Heart of Darkness for wishlist - we're two-thirds of the way there! I'm hoping to knock over my next book by tomorrow night (work is going to get in the way now, unfortunately). I'm so glad I joined, I'm finally beating this slump I've been in!

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

Yes, you can use books for later quests, assuming they fit later categories. Just make note of them somewhere.

[Johanne]

Thanks Laura :)

I am off work tomorrow, so lots of reading hopefully!

Will read a bit more before going to bed.

[Johanne]

Glad to hear you're out of your reading slump Jody. Readathons are a great remedy for that!

[Kathryn]

Great work, team! You’ve done well while I’ve been sleeping!! ;-) Only 5 more shelves to cross off before we can progress to our next quest. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be crossing anything off today.

[Kathryn]

And it certainly seems you’re out of your reading slump, Jody, since you’ve finished two books already!!

[Katie]

I'm jealous but also super excited for you that you're out of your reading slump, Jody.

[Kathryn]

When all you Europeans and Brits wake up, I just greyed out the rows of shelves we'd completed on our spreadsheet because I found it made it easier to scan across and see what was still up for grabs and which shelves the various books we're reading still fitted into. I hope this doesn't make it more confusing for anyone, but let me know if so and I'll change it back.

I see Team Cake has finished Quest 1 and are onto their second quest - keep reading, Team Pie!!!

[Kathryn]

And I'd forgotten all about the games - but day 2's game is up here, if anyone wants to have a go at these one-liner synopses: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Jody]

Sending you some slump-busting vibes, Katie! I’m hoping my day enthusiasm continues today ... fingers crossed!

[Hannah]

I’ve finished The Last Tudor and I’ve been able to move a book to fit it in, so we only need 4 more books to finish Quest 1!

[Marina]

Good morning Pies!
I'm up but unfortunately I have to work all week. I'm trying my best to squeeze in some reading whenever I can and I'm still planning on finishing Unbecoming today.

I've started listening to an audiobook but that'll take me a few days to finish.

Happy reading today!

[Ellie]

Sorry I'm such a slowpoke, I shouldn't have picked up Darkdawn for this as I now remember I read all the other books super slow too. Back at work today so my audiobook consumption will at least increase and hopefully I'll be able to contribute a bit more to our second quest...

[Johanne]

hello all!
@Kathryn, spreadsheet looks good.
I am about to write that review (for work).
After that I am off work, and the kids are at school :)
Happy reading! Only 4 books to go for the first quest!

[Johanne]

@Ellie, some books are really slow reads for several reasons.

[Kathryn]

Ellie wrote: "Sorry I'm such a slowpoke, I shouldn't have picked up Darkdawn for this as I now remember I read all the other books super slow too. Back at work today so my audiobook consumption will at least inc..."

Don't stress, Ellie! We read for enjoyment, and sure, we're also trying to complete tasks for a read-a-thon this week, but that still comes second to reading for enjoyment, as far as I'm concerned.

If you push to read something quicker just for the read-a-thon, you'll probably find you don't enjoy it as much as you would have otherwise. And perhaps by the time you're ready to finish it, it will satisfy another task that we have by then!

[Kathryn]

Johanne wrote: "hello all!
@Kathryn, spreadsheet looks good.
I am about to write that review (for work).
After that I am off work, and the kids are at school :)
Happy reading! Only 4 books to go for the first quest!"

Enjoy your day of reading, Johanne!!

[Hilde]

Good day

No worries, Ellie - you're not the only one. I am also reading a slow one, but like Kathryn said, some books are meant to be read slow.
Hopefully I can contribute to quest 2 since this one is almost done:)

Happy reading, Pies!

[Ira]

Hey team. This weekend turned out prtty busy for my part. I am almost done with The Silent Patient, I should finish when I get home today. After that I am reading The Red Knight for another team challenge I am doing that I have to fishe this week. Maybe I can listen to an audiobook or two during the week.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

Right. I'm on the case for Warcross for the "Sci-Fi" shelf.

[Kathryn]

I stayed up later than I should have and finished The Happiest Refugee which I crossed off for inspirational. So only 3 shelves to go now. Something strange seemed to have happened with the spreadsheet with the grey boxes in the "count" column being out of line with the rest of the grey lines, but everything else seems OK, so I just changed them to the green colour... For some reason they won't change back to grey, but I figure it doesn't matter - we only need that sheet for 3 more books!

Now I'm going to bed and will hopefully still be able to get up when I need to tomorrow morning!!

[Hilde]

Kathryn wrote: "I stayed up later than I should have and finished The Happiest Refugee which I crossed off for inspirational. So only 3 shelves to go now. Something strange seemed to have happened with the spreads..."

Sleep well!

Regarding the colour, I think the template that we borrowed from the other group was just formatted that way from the beginning (to show green where there were many options, and red/pink where there were few options, i.e the colum seems to have a formatting condition if that makes sense).

[Marina]

I've just finished reading Unbecoming. I ticked of family on the spreadsheet. So only 2 books to go 😊

[Jody]

I've just finished off Naked, which I put down for all-time-favorites (that one only had the least options). Only two books to go now, team!

Kathryn, how was it? Would you recommend it?

I think I'll read The Red Pony next - it just sneaks over the page limit (128!), it's going to be sad (my favourite) and it fits at least two of the remaining shelves. I should be able to have it finished by tomorrow evening, if I'm lucky. Stupid work getting in the way.

[Marina]

Jody wrote: "I've just finished off Naked, which I put down for all-time-favorites (that one only had the least options). Only two books to go now, team!

Kathryn, how was it? Would you recommend it?"

No, only 1 book left 😊 Go Pies!

I added the title of your book in column C 😁

[Jody]

Oops, I knew I forgot something. Yay!!

[Hilde]

You’re both on a roll, excellent 👏🏻

So did the book live up to its tag; ‘all-time-favourite’?!😅

[Jody]

It was pretty good, I really liked it. He's a great writer!

[Hilde]

Glad to hear that!

I had a little sneak peak at the other teams (hush), and I saw that Quest 2 will be the same for all teams. So since we are close to the finish line for Quest 1, I played a little with the spreadsheet and made a suggestion for how to log Quest 2. Have a look and see if it is ok by everyone. I tried to make it simple to avoid lots of works with updating, just add your name and the category/prompt it fullfills from the drop down menu, add your planned book, and hook off for completed when finished.

Tonight it's election night here, so politics is high on the agenda right now. Hope everyone is having a nice Monday evening 😊

[Ellie]

I had a sneaky look at team cake's second quest too. My audiobook will work for the autumn challenge and I should be done with that tomorrow. Woo, progress!

[Johanne]

My day of reading turned into a couple of hours reading, since there is always something going on in my house and life in general it seems... and today there was an emotional drama outbreak. This time not instigated by my own teenagers or ten-year old, but by my very adult brother behaving like one of the former... so spent some time on the phone with him and our mother. I did manage to finish Drengen på toppen af bjerget / The Boy at the Top of the Mountain which works for realistic fiction. Heartbreaking book.

That means we have finished quest #1!!! Great job everyone!

[Johanne]

Hilde wrote: "Glad to hear that!

I had a little sneak peak at the other teams (hush), and I saw that Quest 2 will be the same for all teams. So since we are close to the finish line for Quest 1, I played a lit..."

Thank you Hilde, our own wizard of spreadsheets on this quest :)

Happy elections today. You live in Norway as far as I recall?

[Jody]

Yay Pies! We made it to the second stage of the quest!

[Johanne]

I added my book from yesterday on the new spreadsheet (the one that didn't work for quest 1). So we're already one book down on the next quest!

[Kathryn]

Jody wrote: "I've just finished off Naked, which I put down for all-time-favorites (that one only had the least options). Only two books to go now, team!

Kathryn, how was it? Would you recommend it..."

Sorry, Jody - I hadn't forgotten you wanted to know, but I didn't want to stay up any longer!!

It was good - he jumps in the deep end almost right at the beginning to describe the journey over here, and then later on as I was reading, I couldn't wait to find out about whether something he was describing came to pass, so I googled him to get relief from my curiosity!!! It was an interesting read - he seems like a really nice guy.

[Kathryn]

And well done to Marina and Johanne and Jody for finishing off Quest 1! On to Quest 2! Although we're still waiting on confirmation from the mods that the second quest is the same as Team Cake's, it looks like it will be, so I say we tentatively go ahead with planning for that.

[Kathryn]

So, from looking at the second quest in Team Cake's thread, this is our next quest (unless we're told otherwise!):

Quest #2

Sometimes a quest takes you closer to home than you expect. The next step of the journey focuses on your "home" in the ATY group.

Read 10 books that are somehow related to the ATY group. This includes (limited to) the following:

- A books with that starts with a letter found in "AROUND THE YEAR"
- A book that one of the moderators rated as 5 stars
- A book for the 2019 or 2020 challenge
- A book for the Fall/Autumn Challenge
- A book you originally discovered within the group
- A book from ATY's "lesser known" book list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

For any other teams that may or may not be lurking in other team's threads, you're in luck with this quest. But future quests may not be discovered quite so easily ;)

And in Team Cake's thread, Laura has also clarified that for "A book for the 2019 or 2020 challenge", "The book does not have to actually be applied to the prompt, it just has to fit one of the prompts.
You also can apply books to the same prompt as many times as you would like."

So, in theory, we could read all 10 books from 1 prompt, so we don't really need to do a lot of strategising, just read 10 books between us that fit any of these prompts!

[Kathryn]

Hilde wrote: "Glad to hear that!

I had a little sneak peak at the other teams (hush), and I saw that Quest 2 will be the same for all teams. So since we are close to the finish line for Quest 1, I played a lit..."

Thanks, Hilde - I just had a little fiddle around with the spreadsheet - hope I didn't make it too complicated. I just added the tasks at the top, and added an expected date of completion, to give people an idea of when books may be finished... Although, as Johanne has found, the best-laid plans for reading don't always work out!

Johanne, hope you managed to resolve things satisfactorily with your family!