Fall Read-a-Thon 2021: Team Westeros

[Johanne]

Morning all! My day 3 just started as well. I'm off to work in a bit. Happy reading!

[Aimee]

Morning everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I'm expecting to finish Delicacy today, which is a beautifully-written memoir but sadly for the readathon it doesn't fit anywhere except 'long hair on cover'.
Then I'll make a start on Symona's Still Single for the alliteration prompt.

Johanne, I had a look through my TBR for books set in Egypt but didn't find any that I haven't already read, so feel free to find something in your library that works. (SO jealous of people who work in libraries and bookshops!)

[Elli]

I have a A Dead Djinn in Cairo & A Master of Djinn in my TBR but I won't be able to borrow a copy from my library until after the readathon. Looks like it is a very popular book & A Dead Djinn in Cairo is a really short book too. Just 43 pages.

[Johanne]

Elli wrote: "I have a A Dead Djinn in Cairo & A Master of Djinn in my TBR but I won't be able to borrow a copy from my library until after the readathon. Looks like it is a very ..."

They look good Elli :)
We still have the minimum page count of 100 to account for, though.
I've got this children's mystery that takes place in Egypt:

[Elli]

Oh! I had thought that the minimum pages only applied to Graphic novels. Oops. I have to take out one of my finished books, 84, Charing Cross Road then. It has 97 pages, 3 short of 100.

[Johanne]

We may also have a challenge with the animal print one. There's been clarification questions about that, and Emily says:
"I would say a picture of an animal wouldn’t work, since that’s an animal, not animal print. When I wrote the prompt, I was actually thinking of the fabrics type thing, like leopard print and cheetah print. But paw prints work as well, I think!"

So animal patterns and animal tracks is what works. Anyone have that?

[Johanne]

Aimee wrote: "... (SO jealous of people who work in libraries and bookshops!)..."

It's great :)

[Johanne]

Elli wrote: "Oh! I had thought that the minimum pages only applied to Graphic novels. Oops. I have to take out one of my finished books, 84, Charing Cross Road then. It has 97 pages, 3 short of 100."

Oh no, I thought that was longer!

[Aimee]

Johanne wrote: "We may also have a challenge with the animal print one. There's been clarification questions about that, and Emily says:
"I would say a picture of an animal wouldn’t work, since that’s an animal, ..."

When I read it I immediately thought of animal print fabric, but looking at the chat in the FAQ thread I can see other people had very different interpretations!
I've got a Kindle copy of A Man of the People which I've been meaning to read for ages, and the man on the cover is wearing leopard print so it will work for the prompt.

[Johanne]

Aimee wrote: "Johanne wrote: "We may also have a challenge with the animal print one. There's been clarification questions about that, and Emily says:
"I would say a picture of an animal wouldn’t work, since th..."

Great Aimee!

[Elli]

Johanne wrote: "We may also have a challenge with the animal print one. There's been clarification questions about that, and Emily says:
"I would say a picture of an animal wouldn’t work, since that’s an animal, ..."

I've looked through my TBR & no animal prints, fabric or paw prints to be found. I think Aimee has a book for that prompt.

[Elli]

Johanne wrote: "I've looked through my TBR & no animal prints, fabric or paw prints to be found. I think Aimee has a book for that prompt. ..."

I wished too... But even counting the front & back covers would be 1 page short of 100. Hah!

[Johanne]

Goodnight everyone. I had an okay reading day, but didn't finish anything.

So far we've recruited 8 harpies and a wraith, and well on our way to recruiting many more! We're going to have us an awesome army of creatures, while everyone else slayed them instead. Mwuahaha!

Everyone who's still awake and/or in other time zones: Happy reading.

[Kate]

Hi everyone! Nothing finished today but still working through my two in-progress books. Happy reading.

[Elli]

Good morning everybody! Didn't manage to finish anything yesterday but I plan to finish one by tonight so I could read something else tomorrow.

Happy Reading!

[Kellie Lyn]

Checking in for Monday (evening)...the work week just got a bit shorter due to school closings for the Tropical Storm Nicholas. Sad to be about to get that much rain but excited for another whole day of reading while stuck at home.

Finished Once Hunted and put it for O in OGRE. Next up is a super short book at 130 pgs, I am not sure where it will go on the spreadsheet but I need to finish it before it has to go back to the library. Then on to something more useful.

[Johanne]

Good morning everyone!

Another busy day ahead, with work and a parents meeting at my sons school.

Oh well, a pity you can't put your life on pause for the readathon.

[Ira]

Good morning team. I finished the last 150 pages of The Ember Blade in the morning. Unfortunatelly I am very busy right now at work, so I won't be able to update the spreadsheet before late in the evening. If someone has the time and opportunity feel free to do it for me. I work in the archive today, and that means at least 5-7 hours of audiobook listening.

[Aimee]

Morning all!

Some great work from everyone yesterday, but looking at the spreadsheet we still need a mythological creature to finish the sphinx (there's none on the planning tab).
Johanne, you put The Night Wanderer under 'title begins with a letter in NORBERT but it looks like we could move it to mythological creature? We have quite a few other options for NORBERT.

[Johanne]

Aimee wrote: "Morning all!

Some great work from everyone yesterday, but looking at the spreadsheet we still need a mythological creature to finish the sphinx (there's none on the planning tab).
Johanne, you put..."

Yes, I originally put it under mythological creature, but switched it, because we can recruit multiple of the other monsters, but only one Sphinx: I am currently reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight that has mythological creatures in it, and not much else than that and long hair on cover (at least in the edition I'm reading). I didn't put on the planning tab last night, because I was on my phone, and there were no more empty columns in the tab, and editing spreadsheets on the phone is a pain (possibly disastrous when it's me).
ETA: I have now updated the spreadsheet with my planned and current reads.

[Johanne]

The Night Wanderer also has a fiery character, paranormal, and a red cover, maybe we should move it to one of them?
I'm thinking we can move books until the monster is slayed (aka recruited), then those books are locked.

[Kat]

Morning all. Fingers crossed today will be a quiet one and I can get some more reading done.

I'll be finishing The Hunting Party in the next couple of days which has a yellow cover for the sphinx.

[Aimee]

Johanne wrote: "The Night Wanderer also has a fiery character, paranormal, and a red cover, maybe we should move it to one of them?
I'm thinking we can move books until the monster is slayed (aka recruited), then ..."

Sorry Johanne, didn't mean to take charge! If you've got a planned read for mythological then that sounds great and we can probably leave The Night Wanderer where it is.

I've nearly finished Cinderella Is Dead which has a very fiery character in it so was planning to use it for that if that's okay with everyone?

[Johanne]

No need to apologise Aimee :) You couldn't guess what I was thinking. It's great you've got the overview.

[Kate]

Early day 5. A bit slow on reading yesterday, but hoping to make some of that up today.

[Elli]

I am listening to Three Hearts and Three Lions & a dragon just appeared. Didn't expect that because it looked like a serpent on the bookcover.

I might finish the book soon as there are only 3 hours left. This can fulfill a few prompts so I'll leave it open for the best possible one. =D

[Aimee]

Elli wrote: "I am listening to Three Hearts and Three Lions & a dragon just appeared. Didn't expect that because it looked like a serpent on the bookcover.

I might finish the book soon as ther..."

That was lucky! :D

[Elli]

Alrighty! I've finished Three Hearts and Three Lions & updated the spreadsheet.

Please help to choose the best prompt for it~

[Johanne]

@Elli, I'd probably say light source, and work on getting another dragon.

I've almost finished my mothological creature and my Egypt book. Yesterday was an underwhelming reading day, but today is hopefully better.

How is everyone's reading? What are you reading, and is it good?

[Johanne]

@Elli, on second thought, I have a book for review that I must read in the next days, and there's a light source on the cover (flashlight). Maybe we can decide when we hear what everyone else is working on.

[Aimee]

I finished Cinderella Is Dead yesterday evening and it was a fun read with some nice twists and turns, though the worldbuilding was a bit underwhelming (I like my fantasy as epic as possible!) I put it down as 'character dies' as several people die in it and it enabled us to finish off another banshee.

I started Symona's Still Single this morning and am enjoying it so far. It's a debut and the author needs to work a bit on character voice - there's a scene early on where the MC, her sister and their friends are at a dinner party together and I had a real problem keeping track of who was speaking because they all speak in exactly the same 'voice'. But other than that it's very interesting so far.

[Johanne]

I love when authors write distinct character 'voices' (the opposite of what you're saying ; )

[Johanne]

@Elli, I really don't know what's the smartest, but I'm most inclined to say we go for another dragon, and put it for "Norbert". Until the monster is defeated, and locked, we can move around if anyone has any objections.

Everything is looking good, we're getting a good monster armada :)

I have just finished Dragons of Autumn Twilight for mythological creatures.

I have several short books up next, one is which works for animal print (for #2 dragon, I know we don't have #1 yet, but someon Aimee? is working on the last prompt on #1) according to the clarification of the rules in the FAQ thread (animal skeleton).

Another is , which has a light source on the cover (flashlight).

I'm almost finished with my Egypt book .

I also started another audio, that works for a couple prompts.

After all those I'm going to concentrate on finishing which is a longer book.
I think that's more or less what's realistic for me for the remaining readathon :)

[Fee]

These last three days had been unusually busy I couldn’t get envy reading done. Thats annoying. I’m so sorry. I hope that it will be better from tomorrow.

[Johanne]

No need to be sorry Fee :)
But I hope you do get some reading time.

[Kat]

The last few days have been unusually busy for me so I am a bit behind.

I'm currently reading And Then There Were None (which only really works for a character that dies so it can go towards another banshee) and The Hunting Party which has a yellow cover. I'm hoping to finish both by Friday and then I can find something to read at the weekend depending on what we still need filling in.

[Kate]

Falling behind a bit, but still determined to finish:

A Promised Land, which would fit 'a book with a black and white cover' (wraith), 'a giant book' (ogre), 'a book where the main character has a pet' (sphinx -- already filled), and 'a book with a protagonist who solves problems' (sphinx -- already filled).

Shuggie Bain, which would fit 'a book with a black and white cover' (wraith).

[Elli]

Good morning everybody~ It's Thursday at my side of the world already. I didn't manage to get much reading done yesterday, just listening to that audiobook took too much of my brain power already. That one has so much going on that it fried my brains a little. =D


I'm planning to start and finish Clean Sweep by Friday but it won't be able to fill any prompts for Dragon unless we count that glowing broomstick as a 'source of light'.

[Elli]

@ Johanne, sounds great~

I agree! We can always move it around until it gets 'locked in' when we have enough prompts to get a monster.

[Ira]

Hi team. I finished listening to Peace Talks by Jim Butcher. I have no idea where I can fit it. I must admit I am abit lost about what we need...

[Aimee]

Ira wrote: "Hi team. I finished listening to Peace Talks by Jim Butcher. I have no idea where I can fit it. I must admit I am abit lost about what we need..."

Hi Ira, we need another 'paranormal' book for our second wraith, maybe you could put Peace Talks there? I've not read any of the Harry Dresden books but my understanding is they have vampires etc in so I think that would count as paranormal.

[Ira]

Yes I think it would count as paranormal. It has vampires and warewolves in this book, so I think it counts. Plus many people have shelved it as paranormal.

[Elli]

I've just finished Clean Sweep & I've put it under 'A book that has a person with long hair on the cover' so we can get another banshee.

[Aimee]

Elli wrote: "I've just finished Clean Sweep & I've put it under 'A book that has a person with long hair on the cover' so we can get another banshee."

Whoop whoop! :)

[Johanne]

Elli wrote: "I've just finished Clean Sweep & I've put it under 'A book that has a person with long hair on the cover' so we can get another banshee."

Yipee!

[Elli]

Looks like we need another book which fulfills the animal print prompt.
I'll try to read The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History as it is in my TBR for far too long...

[Johanne]

That's cool if you want. I also have a short book that works, but I don't mind reading something else.

[Elli]

That's great! I just read the 1st chapter & I feel like dropping it already.

[Johanne]

Elli wrote: "That's great! I just read the 1st chapter & I feel like dropping it already."

Haha okay :)

[Sarah]

Animal print feels like the hardest prompt. I can't think of a single book I've read that would work. Or maybe I'm just wasn't looking out for it?