Fall Read-a-Thon 2021: Team Westeros

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Hark! It's time to save the princess from the vast variety of monsters that are keeping her trapped in the castle.

This week, you will read books that will help you slay these monsters. There are a wide variety of monsters, each with different weaknesses, so make sure you are slaying the most you can to accrue points and win favor from the queen!

How It Works:
Read books to fulfill the prompts and slay monsters. When each monster is slayed, you will earn that monster's badge and points. You can attack multiple monsters at a time, and you can slay multiples of the same monster (except for the elusive sphinx!). You can also log your pages to attack those pesky harpies. Your battle strategy is up to you!

For more information and to ask questions, see our Introduction and FAQs thread.

Members:
Captain: Johanne
Elli
Fee
Ira
Caitlin
Aimee
Sarah (Message 9)
Kat

Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Each tab will help you track the monsters you slay. Use the tabs to fill in books, pages read, and audio hours listened that you have already completed. Use the planning tab to track books-in-progress and hopeful books. Your queen (me!) will be watching those spreadsheets to see when you've successfully vanquished the monsters.

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

THE MONSTERS



Harpies - 50 points
- Read 1000 pages as a group OR
- Listen to 8 hours of audiobook as a group


Banshees - 100 points
1. A book featuring the death of a character
2. A book that has a person with long hair on the cover


Wraiths - 150 points
1. A paranormal book
2. A book with a black and white cover
3. A short book (less than 250 pages)


Ogres - 200 points
1. A book with a green cover
2. A book set in a rural town
3. A giant book (500+ pages)
4. A book whose title starts with a letter found in OGRE


Dragons - 250 points
1. A book with a source of light on the cover
2. A book with animal print on the cover
3. A book with a predominately red or orange cover
4. A book featuring a "fiery" character
5. A book starting with a letter in the word NORBERT


Sphinx - 500 points
Can only complete once
1. A book with alliteration in the title
2. A book with a main character who has a pet
3. A book (at least partially) set in Egypt
4. A book with a protagonist who solves problems
5. A book with a yellow cover
6. A book with a mythological creature

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

YOUR MONSTERS SLAYED
TOTAL POINTS: 3800

[Kate]

Hi everyone! I’m in Australia so it’s already the 11th here and I’m working through N.K Jemisin’s The Fifth Season :).

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

I forgot to change the settings on the spreadsheet. You should be able to edit them as a group now. Sorry about that!

[Elli]

Hello! This is my first time in a group read-a-thon & I am really excited! =D

I've updated the group spreadsheet with some TBR & books I'm currently reading but how do we track the pages/audio we read daily?

[Kat]

Hi everyone. What an exciting challenge.

Elli, the pages and audio are tracked on the first tab in the column under your name.

[Sarah]

Hi team! I feel like we got the magical land I'm least likely to survive in lol

[Ira]

Hi team. Excited to read with you. I have in a reading slump this year so I hope this readathon will help me snap out of it. I started listening to Peace Talks by Jim Butcher. He has a cat and a dog, so it fits that prompt or i can maybe fit paranornal since there are vampires in the series...

[Johanne]

Hello team, this is your captain speaking! We are going to slay those monsters! Even though this princess saves herself thank you very much!

I am a Mother of Dragons, so we're going to rule Westeros (just don't talk about that ending). They're bearded dragons, but still ... 2 adults and 12 youngsters to help is through.

I'm in Denmark and just gotten up. I'm not a spreadsheet wiz, so if anyone wants to tidy up our spreadsheet etc at one point, you're welcome.

[Johanne]

@Emily and team Westeros, can we recruit the monsters instead of slaying them? :D

[Aimee]

Hi all! Excited to be slaying monsters with you all.
I'm in the UK but got up late this morning because I was playing D&D until the early hours of this morning, so I have a lot of monster-staying experience.

Johanne, I'm happy to help with the spreadsheet if you like?

[Johanne]

Cool Aimee, that's a deal :) It's not necessary right now, but in my experience such needs may arise.

For starters I think we all just read what we read and then we can strategise when the monsters start filling up.

[Aimee]

Sounds like a plan. I've got two books on the go at the moment (I deliberately left the last 100 pages on each of them yesterday so they would count!) but after that I can be a bit more strategic.

[Elli]

Johanne wrote: "@Emily and team Westeros, can we recruit the monsters instead of slaying them? :D"

Lol! I was thinking the same thing to myself too! I would love to have a pet dragon.

[Kat]

This readathon snuck up on me a bit so I don't have any books with 100 pages left. I've got some short and hopefully quick reads planned for the week and hopefully I can make them fit a prompt.

[Johanne]

The prompts seem pretty broad and we can slay multiple of the same monster, except for the sphinx, so I expect we can make our reads work for something.

[Fee]

I also have a few shorter books planned out. So far my first reading day was quite good. Will try to read a few more pages when the kids are in bed later. Happy to read with the group this week.

[Kellie Lyn]

Good afternoon from Texas. Excited for this read-a-thon. It always amazes me how much reading I get done during these. I have two books I should finish today and another short one tomorrow. Fortunately, this is a short work week so I should be able to get quite a bit of reading in (hoping for no major surprises). Happy reading all!

[Johanne]

Elli, it looks as if you've completef a couple of books. Feel free to put them in the spreadsheet for whatever prompts they fit, and if they fit several, what seems hardest to fill; a guideline is the number of books people have in process or tbr that also fit, and pick the one with the smallest number. If you need assistance with figuring out where they fit, or adding to the spreadsheet let us know.

Happy reading everyone!

[Johanne]

*completed

[Kate]

Yay for already killing a monster, guys! Day 2 for me and I (should!) be completing a book which fulfils the prompts of 'a book featuring the death of a character' (banshee), 'a giant book' (ogre), and 'a book with a mythological creature' (sphinx). Happy for any of them if others have a preference!

[Elli]

Help! I can't decide this one can be considered to be a book that has a person with long hair on the cover..



She has her hair up in a bun & you need long hair to put it up in a bun right? :D

[Johanne]

Elli, I like your logic ;) but I think we'd rather wait for gamemaster Emily to decide.

Morning all! (or whatever the time is where you're at). Happy reading om day two.

I've almost finished a book where the mc is ... a monster hunter ... seems appropriate :)

[Elli]

I'll post my question in the Intro & FAQ thread then, hope she agrees with my logic ;)

[Johanne]

Robin agrees, and she's also a mod. Let's put it for long hair, unless Emily chimes in and disagrees.

[Elli]

Nice!

[Elli]

I just finished a book which fulfills 6 prompts! Now on to the next one.

[Aimee]

I've just had a look at the spreadsheet and it seems we have the same book for multiple prompts - in previous readathons this hasn't been allowed but looking at the Intro thread I can't see anywhere that specifies it as a rule. Have the rules been changed for this readathon?

[Johanne]

As I understand the rules, one book finished=equals one prompt. One may get a bit confused since the planning tab has multiple crosses, but that's to be able to see the options. When a book is finished you choose one prompt to use it for. The exception to this is harpies, that we slay by adding our pages read and audio listened to, regardless of finished reads. Hope that make sense. Emily, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Johanne]

Oh Elli, I saw it's you :) Hooray for completing a book! It's your first readathon, and the rules may be confusing. Do you want to choose which prompts you want to use the book for, or should I have a look?

[Aimee]

That's what I thought Johanne.
In which case, we need to decide where to use The Steep & Thorny Way as it's currently down for 2 prompts udner 'banshee', 1 under 'wraith', 1 under 'ogre' and 2 under 'dragon'.
I'd be inclined to keep it under 'dragon' as that seems to be the prompt we have fewest alternatives for, but happy to be overruled.

[Elli]

Oh dear..

I interpreted the rules "You can attack multiple monsters at a time, and you can slay multiples of the same monster (except for the elusive sphinx!)" to mean that a book can be used for multiple prompts..

I'll use 1 book per prompt then.

[Aimee]

Totally understandable Elli, I had to check to make sure because it wasn't 100% clear. Not your fault at all :)

[Elli]

Thank you for clearing that up, Johanne & Aimee.
I agree with your suggestion, Aimee.

I've placed it under the 'dragon' prompt for a book with a source of light on the cover.

[Johanne]

Aimee, that's fine I think.

I just had a look in the other teams' spreadsheets and they're doing one book - one prompt.

Remember all books over 100 pages (or books you started before the readathon with more than 100 pages left), and graphic novels with more than 200 pages count as a finished book. If we end up reading something that doesn't fit a prompt, or finish a book under 100 pages, that page and audio count still counts as that days read, and will help us earn harpies.

[Johanne]

Elli wrote: "Thank you for clearing that up, Johanne & Aimee.
I agree with your suggestion, Aimee.

I've placed it under the 'dragon' prompt for a book with a source of light on the cover."

Oh we crossed comments ;)

[Kellie Lyn]

Happy 2nd day. I finished yesterday and put it as a black and white cover in wraith--did not see too much else for it. I finished listening to The Dead Girls' Dance and listed it in Wraith as well, as a paranormal book. Feel free to change as needed. I have a short book next but it looks like we are well covered in that department. I will see if it will fit anywhere else; if not, I will move further down my TBR.

[Ira]

Hi team. I am in the middle of reading The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding for another challenge. I have a deadline to finish by the end of Monday, so all my energy goes towads finishing that monster of 824 pages. It can count towards giant book, or death of a character once I have finished. Unfortunately everything else have been put on hold so I can finish.At least I rack up a lot of pages towards the team challenge. On monday I am going to listen to a lot of audiobook hours since I will work at the archives and I am allowed to. I will update my pages once the day is over.

[Kat]

That's a lot of pages Ira!

I've read two books so far which isn't bad with the busy weekend I've had. Staying up late to watch the tennis didn't help either. Back to work tomorrow so will probably slow down a bit.

[Johanne]

I'm reading a book with a monster slayer and listening to Dragonlance on audio. Both those books were planned before the readathon, but it seems serendipitous.

[Aimee]

Ira wrote: "Hi team. I am in the middle of reading The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding for another challenge. I have a deadline to finish by the end of Monday, so all my energy goes..."

Well we do need a long book!
Every page will count towards harpies too so it will still help the team.

[Aimee]

I've nearly finished All the Birds in the Sky and looking at the spreadsheet I think I'm going to put it down as 'death of a character' (multiple!) as we have plenty of other options for 'MC who solves problems' and those are the two best fits.

Planning ahead, I've got a Kindle copy of A Man of the People which I could use for 'animal print on the cover' and I've also got a book with an alliterative title on Audible (Symona's Still Single) so I'll work on those two next.

[Johanne]

Has anyone got a book set in Egypt planned? It seems we have 0 options for it (I'm on my phone and the spreadsheet update is not consistent so I may be wrong). If not, I work at a large public library and will be able to dig something short and quick out :) I'm a children's librarian and I know there are children's archeological mysteries and such I can read.

[Sarah]

Oh my gosh, that wraith is so cute. I almost wish we hadn't slain the poor thing. He just wants a cuddle :D

I'll probably finish my current book sometime tomorrow. I don't think I have anything set in Egypt to read but I'll check

[Johanne]

I still say we recruit those monsters instead.

[Johanne]

I just finished Nattevandreren (the Night Wanderer) about the monster slayer (and it turns out some of the monsters are nice). I put it for mythological creature (there are Huldre and other creatured from Nordic mythology), but it fits a lot of others as well.

[Kate]

Hi everyone! Day 3 here for me. Still working on A Promised Land (audiobook), and am just starting Shuggie Bain. Wondering if I'll be able to get a fourth book done for the read-a-thon as well...

[Johanne]

Morning Caitlin, I'm off to bed :)

[Fee]

Hello. My third day just started. I had a great reading week-end. I managed to read over hundred pages each day, which for me is great . Now it is monday. I'm wishing you all a happy reading week.