District 3

[Elisabeth]

I’m on p273 of 419. Will finish The Angel of Waterloo tomorrow. Strike 5 from memory.

[Vicky]

@Elizabeth - Oooh it makes more sense if it was on your iPad. I think in Safari you can click the "aA" button and there's an option to request the desktop site which should fix it!

[Vicky]

I have two books I have a combined ~3 hours of listening time left in and then I'm picking up The Jazz of Physics. I have a full day of hopefully solo work tomorrow, so I should be able to make some decent progress!

[Snowtulip]

Listened to my battle book while cleaning today, so took a good chunk out of it.

[Shelby]

I'm painstakingly making my way through the first book in my other battle book's series. This is not going to be fun. I'm probably going to have to read something in between as a palate cleanser.

[Catsalive]

B1A3 done & ss updated - N'Tsuk.

[Elisabeth]

Vicky wrote: "@Elizabeth - Oooh it makes more sense if it was on your iPad. I think in Safari you can click the "aA" button and there's an option to request the desktop site which should fix it!"

Thanks! I'll give that a crack. It really is painful by contrast and I'm in the midst of having a protracted PC issue fixed. End in sight on Wednesday all going to plan.

[Elisabeth]

Aha. I found a button that said 'Desktop version' on my profile page. Who knew? And who pressed it in the first place to change the setting?? Hahaha Many thanks, Vicky.

[Heli]

Finished my book for the Area Battle.

[Kaley]

Excellent work everyone!! I am cheering you on so much. I will make sure I take one for the team in round two (hoping they go easier on us but considering we just barely got them in round one for overlapping letters I'm expecting it might be brutal). My goal for this week in the meantime is to get through two more of the BOMs I missed so I contribute more points that way haha

[Ashley]

Sharing just because I feel like you all might feel my pain. I was trying to clean up my GR shelves a little because they are kind of just an overwhelming mess sometimes. I went to take 3 books off of one shelf. I thought I did the batch edit, but apparently it didn't go through and they were still selected. I had moved on to selecting some books to totally remove from my shelves and those other books got deleted too. They were all books where I had listened to the audiobook and fortunately 2 were recent reads and I knew what they were and had the dates I read them... but I am totally at a loss for what the 3rd one was. So now I'm trying to figure out how to best go about finding what the missing book is and I have no idea how to even do that. Clearly a 1st world problem, but still... I need to find that missing book!

[Kaley]

That's the worst!! GR really needs a good way to clean up your shelves! (My personal problem is the multiple editions of things on my shelves. If I mark the default edition of something to-read and later mark a different edition as read, it shouldn't still make that book appear as to-read just because the default edition is set at that, Goodreads!!!!!)

I hope you are able to remember the third thing soon!

[Shelby]

Nominations are open for July's Backroom BOM, go check it out. Add a book if you're interested as well. :)

[Elisabeth]

Finished my Battle book The Angel of Waterloo

[Elisabeth]

We’re missing Battle book 9 from the tracking sheet.

[Shelby]

It's one of mine. I'll add it when I finish the stupid thing. I got through book one and am about to brave starting book 2. Thank god they're not that long.

[Catsalive]

Shelby wrote: "It's one of mine. I'll add it when I finish the stupid thing. I got through book one and am about to brave starting book 2. Thank god they're not that long."

😂 Not so good, eh? Maybe the 2nd book is better. 🤞

[Shelby]

Catsalive wrote: "Shelby wrote: "It's one of mine. I'll add it when I finish the stupid thing. I got through book one and am about to brave starting book 2. Thank god they're not that long."

😂 Not so good, eh? Mayb..."

Oh the struggle was real! My Review if you're interested.

[Ashleigh]

@Shelby - Your review sounds like you experience some torture reading that!

I have finished reading Ormeshadow for Strike 6.

[Elisabeth]

Oh my goodness, Shelby. I found it I maybe I should have made the sacrifice…

[Shelby]

Elisabeth wrote: "Oh my goodness, Shelby. I found it I maybe I should have made the sacrifice…"

I wouldn't wish this on anyone Elisabeth. I'm already confused as hell with book 2 and I'm only 25pgs in. We literally start this book where the MC has a sister that's been with her in the life she has after her parents sent her away "for her own protection" and locked her memories, but suddenly she has another sister who was supposedly sent with her to the moon she was on. But the writing was so ambiguous at first I thought the author'd forgotten the name of her own character from book 1. It's only now as the original sister is being mentioned by name that I see that in reality there were two sisters, one from the birth parents, and one from her adoptive placement parents. *headdesk*

***Update*** (because if I have to suffer you all can bear witness to my pain)
I am now 100pgs in and we've essentially thrown aside the entire storyline we'd built up until now and dragged our MC to another moon against her will. Of course as soon as they get to said moon she conveniently forgets that she wasn't there willingly for some inexplicable reason. Even though she's supposed to be the most powerful being, pretty much ever, and is the only person who can destroy the evil people from some other moon that are supposedly trying to enslave them all. I have yet to see her do anything remotely strong. She flip flops between two guys, forgets anything bad that happens so that the plot can be forced down a path the character wouldn't chose to go in on her own, and is constantly betrayed by those she is supposed to trust. (Let's be clear that all factions in this ridiculous epic are not even remotely clear. So far I'm counting 4 factions...I think...and I'm not even sure of who did what and who's on whose side.)

[Catsalive]

Shelby wrote: "I wouldn't wish this on anyone Elisabeth. I'm already confused as hell with book 2 and I'm only 25pg..."

Oh, no! I feel for you, Shelby, & honour your sacrifice. Is there still a dragon?

[Shelby]

There was still a dragon for about as much time as she had in the first book, which is to say about a chapter. :-p Thank god that's done. I pretty much don't like a single character in this book as they're either duplicitous or have now at this point committed mass genocide. You're the greatest power that's ever existed, but sure you're "forced" into being the "warrior" that will save them all by murdering every last man, woman, and child of this other race.

There's only one person I feel bad for in this story and that's the MC's young daughter who was taken from her and she thought was dead. And of course that's the one piece of the puzzle that's supposed to pull you into reading book 3 as she's still not saved and is off with I guess the ultimate evil, the MC's father.

***But at least it is finished!

[Elisabeth]

So your series reading in order thing doesn’t compel you to finish the series and read number 3, I assume?

[Shelby]

It often has in the past, but I'm trying really hard to relax that a bit and be able to let things go when I'm not enjoying them rather than force myself to finish. I have a whole secret group where I track all the series' I'm reading and it's literally overwhelming. And because I'm trying to read so many I don't always keep up the series' I am enjoying which then leads to me having to reread a series as it's been so long since I read a previous books I don't remember enough to read the next one. So thus the new resolution to try to let things go when I'm not loving it.

[Elisabeth]

I finish books I’m not enjoying but I do tend to skim those. I wouldn’t read more in a series I wasn’t enjoying because as you said, it takes you away from books you do enjoy. When you think about it that’s a bit crazy. Life’s too short to waste good reading time on something you don’t like…unless it’s for one of these challenges! Haha

[Kaley]

Ugh to have to read not only one but two in the series . . . your sacrifice is appreciated.

[Lucy]

Shelby wrote: "It often has in the past, but I'm trying really hard to relax that a bit and be able to let things go when I'm not enjoying them rather than force myself to finish. I have a whole secret group wher..."

I completely understand this. I will read an entire series I'm not that thrilled about because I have "completionist" issues. lol I haven't found a resolution myself on this but good for you! I've tried to relax on this but it eats away at me.

[Shelby]

Lucy wrote: "Shelby wrote: "It often has in the past, but I'm trying really hard to relax that a bit and be able to let things go when I'm not enjoying them rather than force myself to finish. I have a whole se..."

It's still a work in process. :D

[Shelby]

Alright quick Mid-Week update on the current Arena Battle...

So far it looks like we've completed our books, #1, 3, 5, 9, 10. We're halfway there! If anyone thinks they're going to struggle to get to their book before the deadline just give a shout out so someone can step in to help. We've got about 2 1/2 days left to get those books completed. :)

[Cindy]

I’m working on mine and I should have it done within the next two days

[Vicky]

I'm down to the last chapter of mine!

[Ashleigh]

I have finished reading Ormeshadow for Strike 6.

Do I need to put anything in the Area Battle TAB - B1A6?

[Shelby]

Ashleigh wrote: "I have finished reading Ormeshadow for Strike 6.

Do I need to put anything in the Area Battle TAB - B1A6?"

Nope. I just missed my checkmark in my counting. Yay we've got six done!

[Shelby]

Spreadsheet Questions

Heli - Can you please make sure that The Wishing Game is on your shelf?

Kylie - Can you please double check your page count for Madly, Deeply? The edition you have on your shelf doesn't match the page count listed. :)

Rosina - Can you please make sure that Magic Bites is on your challenge shelf?

[Snowtulip]

I've got 2 hours left for my arena book, so will finish it off tomorrow on commute.

[Catsalive]

Shelby wrote: "Spreadsheet Questions

Heli - Can you please make sure that The Wishing Game is on your shelf?

Kylie - Can you please double check your page count for Madly, Deeply? The edition you have on your s..."

It did when I put it in, & someone's removed the image as well. I've changed it to another edition because someone's been fiddling.

[Lucy]

It's been a rough week for me emotionally, had some shocking news earlier in the week. But nothing like personal life so I can turn to reading to pretend that I don't have problems. I'm off my second job tomorrow, so should finish my battle book tomorrow evening!

[Shelby]

I'm so sorry it's been a rough week Lucy. I hope things settle down for you and the next couple of days are better.

[Snowtulip]

Sending you energy Lucy!

[Snowtulip]

Done with my arena book :)

[Shelby]

Just a quick reminder...a little over 24hrs left to get those battle books done. :D

[Lucy]

Done with my battle book!

And thanks Shelby and Snowtulip! :)

[Shelby]

GAME UPDATE - NEW MINI

Hey guys! There's a new Mini Challenge released! Go check it out.

I'm sure Vicky will have a page to claim books here shortly, but one of the key things it looks like with this new mini is that any books started during the challenge will count provided that they are finished after the mini starts on Monday the first...
◈ Books can be started at any point since the start of the Book Games challenge (May 15).
◈ Books need to be finished after the start of this mini challenge on July 1st 9am UTC
and before July 15th 9am UTC.

So if you're close to finishing a book over this weekend that can work for the mini, there's a benefit for us to holding off finishing that last chapter until the countdown ticks over. :)

[Shelby]

Lucy wrote: "Done with my battle book!

And thanks Shelby and Snowtulip! :)"

Awesome my dear! Can you please just make sure you've added it to your shelves? :)

[Kaley]

Oooo the new mini looks interesting! Mad at myself that I finished a #5 in series about an hour or two ago lol but that just means I know to hold off on the next one for now :)

[Vicky]

Just finished my battle book! I'll get it updated when I get home from work and will get a tab up for the new mini! :D

[Shelby]

Looks like we're just waiting on Cindy to finish her battle book and we'll be all complete! Lets go!

[Shelby]

Kaley wrote: "Oooo the new mini looks interesting! Mad at myself that I finished a #5 in series about an hour or two ago lol but that just means I know to hold off on the next one for now :)"

Kaley I have like 3 or 4 books started right now strictly because I don't want to finish any of them as they're all worthwhile for the mini. I'm excited to start planning it all.

[Ashley]

The new mini looks good and not too difficult. I just got my prompts for another challenge I have that starts on July 1, so I'll try to keep our mini stuff in mind as I go about my planning.