Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
The Boring Wheel of Life
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Team Long Commute
Judy wrote: "I had some of the most stressful minutes of my life when the train system was down and I had to find a taxi from Utrecht to Schiphol while the Harry Styles concert was at the Arena 😭 not easy to get one when all these parents are preoccupied with making sure their 13 year old daughter is going to be 2 hours early! It ended up fine and I made my flight but for a while there it was touch and go 😅"
Oh my, the train system downtime is increasingly frustrating in the recent times. My second day at work, the first train was late and that set off a domino effect and I ended up getting late to work. Glad you made it back in time!
30 mins late but HAPPY READING EVERYONE!!!
I just put a read date on my first book in the spread sheet and it did not calculate any bonus points for publication and pages. Should it be showing bonus points or will that be on the official team sheet?
RachelG. wrote: "I just put a read date on my first book in the spread sheet and it did not calculate any bonus points for publication and pages. Should it be showing bonus points or will that be on the official te..."Yep that is as it should be - forgot to hide the fields! My google sheets formula skills don't extend far enough to sort this out the way I'm imagining it and I don't think it's that necessary on the planning spreadsheet, anyway :)
I was doing (Canadian) Thanksgiving with a bunch of friends last night but started reading this morning! I doubt I'll get a lot of it done today but I have 4.5 hours on the train tomorrow which will be excellent reading time
I've finished my first book and added my next two planned books to the spreadsheet. I do most of my reading during the weekends so it will probably be later in the week before I have the next one finished.
Judy wrote: "RachelG. wrote: "I just put a read date on my first book in the spread sheet and it did not calculate any bonus points for publication and pages. Should it be showing bonus points or will that be o..."Let me know if you need help! I create a lot of Google spreadsheets and do formulas for work. So I think I can figure something out 😁
Thanks for the offer Lizzie but it really isn't necessary for our planning sheet to calculate points. That's what the official team sheet is for; I think there's already more than enough to look at in the planning/tracking sheet, wouldn't want anyone to get overwhelmed haha.
I've started my first book and wouldn't you know it wasn't actually a planned book of mine!
@Judy this is the link to my shelf btw since you're keeping track of those https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Sorry if this is a silly question, but I can't seem to be able to add my books to the spreadsheet? Is there a step I'm missing? Help please!
Are you trying to add them to the official Team spreadsheet or the planning one? You can only add them to the planning one as the main one is for the captain/co-captains only.
The only people editing the official spreadsheet are captains. Here's the link to the planning one: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Have also added the link to the "pinned" posts, forgot to do that before!
Vi wrote: "I've started my first book and wouldn't you know it wasn't actually a planned book of mine!"Classic hahaha! That happens to me almost every time!
How's the reading going everyone?I have started The Way of Kings in audio this week -to listen during my commute and it's been great. The audiobook is available for free in his youtube channel and that's amazing. Kinda regretting not starting it earlier.
Anyway, I think it'll take me 2-3 weeks at least to get thru this book so can I use it in the later rounds regardless of when I started it?
Small change to our tracking sheet- I want the reason in column G to be spelled out please.
EDIT: I've noticed a few discrepancies where the reason (column G) in the Books tab and claimed letters didn't match today, and I'm not blaming anyone, I'm sure no one did this on purpose! But I've always preferred seeing the full reason to have a better overview in the Round 1 tab anyway so that's what we're doing now. Hope this makes sense and you're all okay with it. It's just a tiny bit of more work I think :)
Vi wrote: "How's the reading going everyone?I have started The Way of Kings in audio this week -to listen during my commute and it's been great. The audiobook is available for free in his you..."
I plan on starting that soon, too! Got a couple of books to knock out first, but I've been meaning to reread it all year (both because I feel like I need a reread before I continue the series and because it's the weighty tome for this year) and I think it's finally time... those sweet, sweet points will come in handy here!
I'll probably be switching between physical, ebook and audio so good to know it's available on his youtube 👀
And yeeeep you can use it in the later rounds, as long as you started it after the challenge started!
Vi wrote: "How's the reading going everyone?I have started The Way of Kings in audio this week -to listen during my commute and it's been great. The audiobook is available for free in his you..."
Oh, a Brandon Sanderson novel sounds good right now. I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov because it has the most points but it's a heavy read. Don't recommend it for a reading challenge 😅.
@Jessica can you make sure The Red House is on your shelf please? - It looks quite interesting btw; what are your thoughts, did you like it?
Ah, I was mistaken. Sanderson has the first 7 hours (i.e Part 1) in his youtube channel. But The Way of Kings Prime an alternate version is what is available in the channel (and everywhere).But I am really enjoyed the audiobook so far - the narration was great. I'm just sorry that I waited so long to start it. The number of pages was daunting but I had forgotten how much I love tome fantasy and Sanderson's works.
Christina wrote: "@Jessica can you make sure The Red House is on your shelf please? - It looks quite interesting btw; what are your thoughts, did you like it?"All fixed! Sorry!
I enjoyed it, the twists were good!
Vi wrote: "How's the reading going everyone?"I've finished The Road Trip and am currently listening to an audiobook.
I'm going to try to read as much as possible this weekend! I've been so busy with work for the past week that I haven't been reading at my usual pace, so I'm going to try to make up for it over the next couple of days. I'm going to try to finish Home Ice Advantage & The God of Small Things and then we'll see... I should really get started on Life And Fate but that's a buddy read and I don't know if my friend is ready.
I wish I could start The Road Trip but my library hold just isn't moving at alllllll so I'm trying to figure out which other O books I could be reading.
Judy, I have the audio of The Road trip if you like.
I may have chosen a wrong book for a challenge. While it is interesting one and I enjoy the mood it brings, it is not a fast read in any means. I got greedy and only thought that longer book would bring more points (650pages) . I am around the halfway point. Opinions, do I continue or pick up some short and light books instead?
Alyana wrote: "Judy, I have the audio of The Road trip if you like."Yes please, that would be a huge help! 👀
Laventeli wrote: "I may have chosen a wrong book for a challenge. While it is interesting one and I enjoy the mood it brings, it is not a fast read in any means. I got greedy and only thought that longer book would ..."If you're enjoying it, feel free to keep going! With the way the reading cap works, it's definitely worth it to read longer books and maximize points that way!
Laventeli wrote: "I may have chosen a wrong book for a challenge. While it is interesting one and I enjoy the mood it brings, it is not a fast read in any means. I got greedy and only thought that longer book would ..."I agree with Judy, if you enjoy it why stop? We can always use the book whenever you finish it (as long as it fits one of our spell out letters) even if it isn't in this round. You could also read something else, something more light hearted maybe, on the side if you want to break up your other reading time, or feel like you might not be contributing enough - which I promise you is 100% alright; we all read at our own pace :)
Vi wrote: "How's the reading going everyone?I finished Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and will update the tracking sheet later today. It was pretty good read, I just don't know if it was 3,5 or 4 stars yet. And I am almost done with Flame in the Mist which is amazing so far and probably be a 5 star read for me.
I don't know which book I am gonna start next, I have Empire of Storms on the list, but I just don't know, that book is big!
Thanks for checking in Zuza :)
Should I tell the captains if I read more than my estimated book count (but still under the 50% cap)? I have 10 books per round which means my cap would be 15 books max. I currently have 11 books planned for this round.
Jhmingos wrote: "Should I tell the captains if I read more than my estimated book count (but still under the 50% cap)? I have 10 books per round which means my cap would be 15 books max. I currently have 11 books p..."If you go just a little over the cap, no problem and really no need to mention it.
Do let us know if you get close/are likely to go over the cap though!
Saturday, 9pm UK time! I've added a countdown on the planning spreadsheet :)
We have received our Round 2 word: LEAKING PIPES
There are also three mini challenges starting on 26 October!
All info is here in the pinned post, do make sure to read that since there’s a couple specificities!
Here’s the extremely short version/task list:
📄 MINI 1: ADMINISTRATIVE
Find books that fits one of the following criteria:
- the main character works in an office
- the plot revolves around an office romance
- typical administrative material on the cover
- tagged non-fiction / nonfiction (at least 10x)
- tagged office (at least 10x)
- the main character works in taxes
- the main character works in finance
- the clue to solving a murder is found in paperwork
- cover colour is at least 50% grey
- cover colour is at least 50% orange
- someone is murdered in an office
- the plot revolves around white-collar crime
- the main character needs to know how to handle a budget
- letters GREY in title
- letters TAXES in title
- letters ADMIN in title
- author first & last initials in FILING
- author first & last initials in PAPERWORK
- author first & last initials in SHREDDING
- tagged DNF (or direct equivalent) (at least 10x)
🌷 MINI 2: GARDENING
Prep
- read 2 sets of 5 books that are consecutive numbers in series (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Tend
- find books with words in their title (or subtitle) that meet the following criteria:
Germinate: is 6 or more letters long
Plant: is exactly 5 letters
Mulch: contains one of the following digraphs: CH, PH, SH, TH, WH
Weed: contains a double vowel
Water: contains and H and 2 Os
Pest Control: contains two letters consecutive in the alphabet (e.g. AB in alphabet)
Feed: contains a double letter
Prune: can be cut to reveal a different word of at least 2 letters (e.g. PRUNE - RUNE / AFFAIR - FAIR)
Harvest: that could be a noun or verb (e.g. TRAIN)
Deadhead: contains a repeat set of at least two letters (e.g. BEGINNING repeats IN)
Bloom
- read 10 books with colour covers (50%+) to reflect the colours in your flowers.
- MUST include 1 brown and 1 green
🍽️ MINI 3: FEEDING THE FAMILY
A: Cooking from Scratch
- find the listed food items in the text of a book, plural variants are ok,
- word doesn't have to mean the food (e.g. "it's a bit of a squash to get everyone in")
Apple, banana, bean, beef, bread, broccoli, carrot, chicken, corn, cucumber, fig, fish, grape, lamb, lentil, lettuce, okra, onion, pasta, peach, pepper, potato, pumpkin, rice, salt, spice, squash, sugar, tomato, yam
B: Let's Just Get a Takeaway!
- books with country tags (min. 5)
Bangladesh, China, France, Greece, Hawaii, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea (South Korea/North Korea also work), Mexico, Nigeria, Southern Gothic (food idea: fried chicken), Thailand, Turkey
The mini challenges look like a lot of fun!
Yeah, I'm so excited to work on the mini-challenge! One of my goals this year is to read some translated books, so the 3rd one with all those countries might work for me.
Question: If I'm reading the five books in a series, can each book also be used to fulfill other prompts (ex. words in title or colours on cover) or do they only count as the series prompt?
Kate wrote: "Question: If I'm reading the five books in a series, can each book also be used to fulfill other prompts (ex. words in title or colours on cover) or do they only count as the series prompt?"Each book only works for one mini challenge task - so no, we can't use them for both series and another challenge
Jhmingos wrote: "Yeah, I'm so excited to work on the mini-challenge! One of my goals this year is to read some translated books, so the 3rd one with all those countries might work for me."I love the country tasks every time! They push me to read things I would never have heard about otherwise. (Also, the reason why the number of tags was lowered from 10 to 5 here was to allow a lot of authors local to these places to be options for us to pick up!)
That being said, I don't know if I can commit to any of them this time around :(
Judy wrote: "Jhmingos wrote: "Should I tell the captains if I read more than my estimated book count (but still under the 50% cap)? I have 10 books per round which means my cap would be 15 books max. I currentl..."To add to this (didn't get notifs the last few days, sorry!), if you do overread by more than you're supposed to, just keep adding the books to the spreadsheet and make a note in column M as a little reminder for us and we'll check if it'll make sense pointwise to switch out one of your other (already logged) books for it :)
That's great to know Christina! I was also wondering about this.
Christina wrote: "Judy wrote: "Jhmingos wrote: "Should I tell the captains if I read more than my estimated book count (but still under the 50% cap)? I have 10 books per round which means my cap would be 15 books ma..."Will do!
Judy wrote: "Jhmingos wrote: "Yeah, I'm so excited to work on the mini-challenge! One of my goals this year is to read some translated books, so the 3rd one with all those countries might work for me."I love ..."
Dropping the tags from 10 to 5 is going to be so helpful, especially for countries like Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Thailand.
There are two library books that I need to read, and they are set in China and Hawaii. So, I can cover those tasks. Also, I'm a fan of gothic novels, especially Southern Gothic so I'll be happy to find a book in that genre if no one is interested.
Sorry everyone, been a little MIA. I also need to update the spreadsheet - I was not able to until now as my laptop was off for repair. I've got it back now so I'll do it tomorrow. I also think I may have read more than 7 - it was a slow week at work.
I hope to finish two more books before the end of this round. I took a day off tomorrow so hopefully there will be plenty of time to read.
Nothing But Reading Challenges
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I’m Leena and I’m from Finland. I have not participated in many group challenges as I prefer solo games (rpg is my favourite) but I thought I’ll give it a try.
I have few questio..."
Hi Leena, it's so nice to have you :) we always use the edition we're reading (also shelve those please!) so for your book whether you read it in English or Finnish it would work for T by title. The only time we go by the original release is for the publication bonus as discussed above.
In msg 40 Judy linked our planning sheet where you can enter your (planned) reads and can claim letters from the Round 1 tab. We'll need a lot of O's this round, and I's and V's are a bit harder to find as well. Let us know if you have any more questions :)