Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Tower Teams 9 - The Muses
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Team Circe
SIGHS I just got home from picking up my oldest grandson(4 yo). He may have picked up a staph infection at school. DIL took him to ER and he has some type of skin infection but not sure exactly what, but since he was exposed they are treating it as such. So he's back at my house LOL The plus side is that at least he will let me read, listen to my audios. He is easily entertained with his toys, tablet and movies on tv. I hope all of you get some needed rest, no more surprise conference calls etc. Enjoy your reading time.
Finished the Traveling Cat Chronicles. In some ways it reminded me of the Midnight Library.Also, for those of you who like a reading challenge with a prize the Seattle Public Library posted their annual book bingo today (https://www.spl.org/programs-and-serv...)
You don't have to be local to win. Getting a bingo gets you entered into a drawing for gift certificates to local independent bookstores.Blackout is tickets to the Arts and Lecture series so you may want to be more local for that. But it's a fun thing I do each year if anyone is interested.
I may also be looking for help with some of the prompts.
Robin (Saturndoo) wrote: "SIGHS I just got home from picking up my oldest grandson(4 yo). He may have picked up a staph infection at school. DIL took him to ER and he has some type of skin infection but not sure exactly wha..."Ugh, so sorry to hear that. Hope it's something minor that passes quickly.
Louise wrote: "Hope you feel better soon, Erin."Thank you, it's been a good evening and the tiredness passed. Now I need to get to bed. At least tomorrow is a short one and FRIDAY for me, less than 8 hours to work. I want to get house work done this weekend and have a friend call scheduled tomorrow with bible study hour, but otherwise want to get some major reading and relaxing in.
Tonight I finished Alien re-read, and the read of The Great Gatsby. Surprisingly I have never read it, or seen the movie, of The Great Gatsby before. I was new to the story; I enjoyed it and rated it 4 stars.
I will continue the BOM, The Travelling Cat Chronicles, tomorrow. So far I like it and find it easy reading. Dreading that sad ending. Also still need to start Firestarter and Omens. Almost done with my Perry Mason short story collection, which will count for one of those "P's". May read The General's Daughter as my next half-audio/half-physical read.
Looks to be a typing error 7(8)
@Annalisa can you check A Deadly Fortune the book you’ve shelved and linked is the hardcover at 368pgs. On the tracker you’ve tracked 298pgs.
Robin (Saturndoo) wrote: "SIGHS I just got home from picking up my oldest grandson(4 yo). He may have picked up a staph infection at school. DIL took him to ER and he has some type of skin infection but not sure exactly wha..."Hope he gets through it quickly and doesn’t suffer too much.
Good morning all, @Jax that looks super interesting I’m positive we can help you with some prompts. It’s FRIDAY should be a relatively quite day today with no interruptions to reading other than my own making. Happy reading all.
Robin (Saturndoo) wrote: "SIGHS I just got home from picking up my oldest grandson(4 yo). He may have picked up a staph infection at school. DIL took him to ER and he has some type of skin infection but not sure exactly wha..."I hope your grandson feels better soon!
Louise wrote: "@Stacey please check The Glass Bead Game the edition and page counts of the one you shelved Is different to the one tracked.
Looks to be a typing error 7(8)"
Sorry! You are correct, it was a typo.
Thank you everyone!!! I think he's going to be ok. He acts fine, we just need to keep washing the skin infection with Dial soap and applying the ointment the Dr gave him. As long as the skin rash doesn't spread we are doing good. I think we got him separated from my other 3 grandchildren before they caught it too. We are just spending the day relaxing and doing some of the daily minor household chores. Hoping to get lots of reading done today. Jr is watching his tablet and he said "Mhamo you can do your homework." LOL that's what he calls it when I sit down and read or get on the computer.
I hope all of you are having a great day today and getting some good relaxing reading time in.
Will check back later.
Jax wrote: "Finished the Traveling Cat Chronicles. In some ways it reminded me of the Midnight Library.Also, for those of you who like a reading challenge with a prize the Seattle Public Library posted their..."
Thanks for sharing this : ) Looks like lots of fun. I'm sure we can help you with some recs for the prompts!!!
I've been super busy with work the last couple of days so haven't had much time for audio listening, but it's a long weekend here with Monday off so super excited to get some extra reading time!
Robin, good to hear he's doing better. Hope everyone else stays healthy.Jax, that looks like so much fun! I doubt I'll sign up but I may try to complete the card just for me.
Was just looking at our team's official spreadsheet, and I think an error was made for the justification for mine, The Assassin's dragon. For spell it out of "L", justification was given as Character: Radcliffe. There isn't an L for this particular book, sorry.
Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "Was just looking at our team's official spreadsheet, and I think an error was made for the justification for mine, The Assassin's dragon. For spell it out of "L", justification was given as Charact..."Fixed. :)
I am SO happy it's Friday! This week has been busy and I am ready to relax, read, rest. May want a mystery movie with mom tomorrow and drink some white wine aunt left for me when she moved back to Texas this week.
Been working on The General's Daughter today - good book. I own several Nelson Demille but haven't read him. I've seen the movie over the years, so do know the plot. So far they follow each other pretty closely other than the beginning.
I'm happy to say I'm in a reading mood, so that helps. Sort of craving a Cozy Mystery for some reason, so may have to dig one up for a change of plans and pace in between the other reads. I'll probably just stick to a planned read, Omens. It's a mystery type and works.
It's also been a rainy and stormy day and looks like that will continue throughout the weekend, which is pretty much perfect for reading background when at the house.
Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "I am SO happy it's Friday! This week has been busy and I am ready to relax, read, rest. May want a mystery movie with mom tomorrow and drink some white wine aunt left for me when she moved back t..."
Enjoy your weekend Erin, sounds like a perfect time!
Trinia wrote: "Enjoy your weekend Erin, sounds like a perfect time!"
Yes, I'm in a relaxed mode. May even put on a kettle of tea and really party it up :p
I haven't had a chance to use the new book light I bought yet that I discussed with you. Will try to use that tonight with Firestarter.
Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "Trinia wrote: "Enjoy your weekend Erin, sounds like a perfect time!"
Yes, I'm in a relaxed mode. May even put on a kettle of tea and really party it up :p
I haven't had a chance to use the new b..."
ooh! Enjoy, I'm hoping to finish Believe Me this weekend so I can start The Book of Cold Cases which I will need my light for.
Happy Reading to you with all that too. Adding some planned books I need to juggle read to the spreadsheet right now and just laid out some food in the background with it thundering outside. Ah, bliss. May sneak in a movie later too.
Louise wrote: "@Annalisa can you check A Deadly Fortune the book you’ve shelved and linked is the hardcover at 368pgs. On the tracker you’ve tracked 298pgs."I read the hardcover book. I went to the last page in there and put in the number of pages. I don't know why there is a discrepancy between the actual book and what is in goodreads.
Still storming. Going to put on Downtown Abbey the movie and read a bit with some candles and cook soon. Almost done with General's Daughter also,
Trinia - the Best Friend isn't on your TT book shelf. Can you please add it?
Annalisa wrote: "Louise wrote: "@Annalisa can you check A Deadly Fortune the book you’ve shelved and linked is the hardcover at 368pgs. On the tracker you’ve tracked 298pgs."I read the hardcover b..."
Thank you. I will double check with the Mods how we handle this as all online references to the hb edition matches goodreads. Do you have the isbn number for reference.
Happy Saturday! Boy am I glad it's the weekend, we had a rough week at work. I'm going to be doing some chores and hoping to finish a few books I started before the challenge today, and then hopefully sitting down to finish The Travelling Cat Chronicles tonight, so I can start the back room BOM tomorrow!
Louise wrote: "Annalisa wrote: "Louise wrote: "@Annalisa can you check A Deadly Fortune the book you’ve shelved and linked is the hardcover at 368pgs. On the tracker you’ve tracked 298pgs."I rea..."
ISBN is 9781643136301
That is so odd that the age number is so different. Amazon also lists the 368 pages. I wonder where the extra pages came from.
This week ended up being a lot crazier than I thought it was going to be, but I finally finished my first book. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev fills the instrument on the cover prompt.
I'm still planning on reading the BOM, I just need the time to get over to the library to actually pick it up. In the meantime, I'm hoping to knock out at least one book this weekend.
Vian wrote: "This week ended up being a lot crazier than I thought it was going to be, but I finally finished my first book. The Final Revival of Opal & Nev fills the instrument on the cover p..."
How did you like The Final Revival of Opal & Nev? I've been curious about that one and don't know a ton of people who have read it.
Happy Happy Saturday!!I finished 3 books over the last couple days and got them added to the spread sheet.
--3 stars. I liked this retelling of Anne Frank's story. Very different and not what I was expecting. 
--2 stars. I liked the format of this one but just not the story line. It ended up being ok. This is my second time trying to read it and I made it through this time. 
--4 stars. I really liked this one. Have had on my TBR for a little while and glad to finally read it. Not a whole lot going on here today. Just the daily chores and hopefully a lot of rest, relaxation and reading : ) It's hot but maybe this evening when the porch is shaded I can read outside for a bit.
Hope you all are having a great start to the weekend.
I read some Firestarter this morning, such a good book, going to enjoy these King re-reads. Got to try out the book light and it's as nice as advertised.Right now my son got up and we're rewatching some Stranger Things before he has to go to work. Argh, weekends go so fast.
Trinia wrote: "@Jenn -Added 🤭"Thank you :)
The spreadsheet has been updated with pages read. We are in first place. Everyone is doing such a great job :)
Currently working on The Trespasser I'm kind of sad Tana French isn't doing more Dublin Murder Squad books. I've really enjoyed them. they're pretty twisted.
I'm happy we've started so strong with our score. Way to go all who have been reading =)
Our first week now complete. The challenge also flies by so fast.
Finished The General's Daughter. Decent page count points, and has an N in the author's name, which we need a few of. Use wherever, of course, but I remember N's being a bane of existence when I did previous spell-it-outs.Put on some Alpine Frost fragrance oil and cleaned a bit, going to make steak and potatoes appetizers when mom comes over later for wine and a Poirot episode. Trying to wake up a bit, though!
Weekly UpdateWe are nearing the end of our first week and we are doing well. Some basic stats for you all:
Book Points: 1507
BOM Points: 120
Total Points: 1627
Books Read: 44
Pages Read: 15058
We are currently in a strong 1st place but this can change.
Don't forget our BOMs:
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Discussion
Wildfire starts tomorrow
Discussion
The Book of Cold Cases
Discussion
You can still volunteer to write discussion questions.
The Witch's Heart
Discussion
You can still volunteer to write discussion questions.
I will let Vicky update you on how we are doing on the mini.
Quick question has anyone read the book of our team name.
That's great! We will see where we end up. I know a few members of other teams that won't read anything under 600 pages for TT (unless it's the BOM). They are very competitive. I'm trying to up my page counts this go.I haven't read Circe, but have hear good things.
I have not read Circe, but plan to sometime. I loved The Song of Achilles.@Stacey, I have large books set aside but mix with smaller and mood books to keep it fun for me. Different strategies people use are interesting and I've seen the strangest things make the difference on which teams come on top.
I still plan to do the two BOM's this month, but I won't be doing the two main BOM's in June - we'll see which comes for the Backroom; if they have one there, it's usually easy and cheap to get ahold of and participate in.
I haven't read Circe but it's on my TBR, I'm excited to read it, maybe I should read during TT!
My strategy is mainly to read bigger books, I only signed up with 8 books per month because of this but am in a couple of other challenges right now too so reading small books for that. So it's turning into a bit of both big and small books.
My strategy is mainly to read bigger books, I only signed up with 8 books per month because of this but am in a couple of other challenges right now too so reading small books for that. So it's turning into a bit of both big and small books.
I have read Circe and really enjoyed it. I just bought The Book of Cold Cases and Book Lovers by Emily Henry at our indie bookstore. My husband and I have decided to enjoy the nice day waking around downtown Prescott.
Since there’s a book penalty for too many books I’m trying to switch to all of my large books as well.
Im working on the Trespasser and gave My Contrary Mary queued up as well.
If we need a particular letter or fall behind let me know and I can quickly read some smaller books
It's a lovely day in Vancouver too! Brought my book to the park to enjoy the sun ☀️
I’ve read Circe and gave it 5 stars. I think I mostly enjoyed it because I have read the Percy Jackson books with my son, and this was my adult version 😊I need to read her other books too! Circe is the only one I’ve read.
Jenn wrote: "Since there’s a book penalty for too many books I’m trying to switch to all of my large books as well.."
I know there were a lot of questions about this in the main announcements page, but as long as several members don't over-read what they signed up for it we shouldn't hit the cap. It was to stop the folks who kept massively underestimating their count on purpose - they'd sign up for 10 a month and then read 30, and it would made the team results discouraging and skewed.
I signed up for 23 a month, which for half months would be around 12. People always under-read too depending on what's going on in their lives or if they lose interest, so if I went over like 3 books, those would make a difference to cover the three the other member didn't read that they put in their monthly count, if this makes sense. It's a team total, not a per person total.
As long as several of us don't keep going over a lot every month, I think we'll be okay. And the captains can warn us if we're getting dangerously close or way overdoing it. I don't see me reading more than 23-25 I signed up for per month, though, so I'm not thinking it will be a big deal.
We are showing the highest count so far for books read but one team hasn't updated their yet, and we're not far off from the other teams.
I got into a romance reading mood of all things so switching between several books at once again. Did start the Backroom BOM and it's funny so far.
RE: The book penalty, we talked about it a little in the captain's group this week because this is the first challenge I've done here with a book cap and wasn't sure what the approach was. We have been flirting a little bit with the cap - we're currently at 92% of target, I've seen us at 107% and the cap is 109%. It's a balance of wanting to read smaller books for the mini challenges to make sure they're complete and reading bigger books for the higher point total (and for the extra slots in the book cap for fitting in a quick book for a later mini). But it's early enough in the challenge that we just need to let the reading pan out and make adjustments later. There's no rule against NOT including a book you read in Tower Teams - so we can always address an overflow if we need to later in the challenge.
That said, big books will always be more beneficial: 1 400pg book is worth 2 200pg books, and the "extra" slot in cap to slide in a quickie we might need for a challenge later. I'm not saying anyone HAS to read big books, but definitely don't shy away from them on account of not reading enough books because pages are the real winners in this challenge. :)
Week 1: Mini Challenge UpdateWe are 62% done with the mini, so we're in great shape to finish it up in the next week and a half!
We're waiting on six claimed books:
15 Stars on the Cover - Stormie
16 Map at the Front of the Book - Kelsie
26 Sword on Cover - Kerri
39 Author Initials in SACRED - Kelsie
46 MC is a Writer - Louise
61 MPG History/Historical Fiction - Jax
Don't stress if you claimed a book and haven't finished yet, we still have plenty of time! But don't hesitate to let us know if you can't finish a book so we can get a backup lined up.
We are whittling down letters, but still need some vowels: 4 each of I and E, 3 of O, and 1 each of A and U. Here's a full list:
I 4
E 4
P 4 (we should get all these from the Wildfire BOM)
R 3
O 3
L 2
T 2
H 2
C 2
M 2
A 1
N 1
U 1
S 1
Not sure what my reading will be like today, I had planned to do all my chores/errands yesterday so I could do nothing but read today. But then I locked myself out of the house for three hours so things did not go entirely as planned. Hopefully today will go better!
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Book Lovers (other topics)Loveless (other topics)
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Simone St. James (other topics)Heather Gudenkauf (other topics)
Eleanor Catton (other topics)
Eleanor Catton (other topics)
I have to read two other books for another challenge, so going to pick up Joyland and The Singles Game.