You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

I think I'd prefer the paranormal, if it's okay with the group...

Welcome to our new members, Erin & Anne! I'm trying to help get our Bingo strings lined up, so if you could post your preferred genres, that will help.

We especially need readers for Chick Lit, Science/Nature, Steam Punk, Humour, and Myth/Fable.

I think I'd prefer to stick with paranormal if it's okay with the group...Chick Lit isn't my cup of tea, really.

Ann wrote: "I think I'd prefer the paranormal, if it's okay with the group..."

That's fine, Ann! Hopefully Erin or Anne will want Chick Lit.

Wow, ya'll are doing great with the planning! I'll have to keep an eye on the plotting going on.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Ann wrote: "I think I'd prefer the paranormal, if it's okay with the group..."

That's fine, Ann! Hopefully Erin or Anne will want Chick Lit."

Theresa. Do you want to come and work for me? I desperately need a born organiser ;)

You can use me as a back-up for Chick Lit if no one else volunteers. I have a few on my shelf and although it's not my favourite genre I can 'take one for the team' :-D

Hi teammates!

I do like Chick Lit.I can even do humor, too.

Whatever you all need is fine with me, except Steampunk.

I do read many CLASSICS, CRIME, CHICK LIT, NONFICTION, MYSTERY, CONTEMPORARY, HISTORICAL FICTION, you name it. But I can't stand Paranormal or Steampunk.

I just had a moment. Would Borderline work at nature book? Nothing says it cannot be fiction,..

Anne, if you can take Chick Lit, we'll have the top row locked down.

Esther, Borderline has Environment>Nature as a genre on its home page, so that does work!

That will give us 2 strings of 5 books!

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Anne, if you can take Chick Lit, we'll have the top row locked down.

Esther, Borderline has Environment>Nature as a genre on its home page, so that does work!

That will give us 2 s..."

Great . So it takes the first column and 2nd row out of my choices for a 2nd book. I like this planning thing. I must be nuts. :)

I hate to throw a wrench in the works, but should we be utilizing the free space and concentrating first on the strings with them? Or are we going for a blackout?

Strings with free spaces:

Chick Lit, Mystery, Steampunk, Biography
Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary, Myth/Fable
Suspense, Dystopian, Short Stories, Cultural
Sci-Fi, Romance, Non-Fiction, Crime.

Hmmmm - a black out is do-able. There are 12 of us, and 24 books to be read. That's 2 books each. Granted, some of us will only be able to read 1, but the power houses could maybe read 3 or more.

Janice, I'm actually going for a blackout, but it still needs to be planned due to the restrictions in paragraph 1 of the rules. I'm at work and will elaborate tonight.

I'm your team, yay!
I will take whatever needs to be filled. Though My preferences for this Toppler are:

1. Short Stories
2. Fantasy
3. Steampunk
4. Horror
5. Science/Nature

My *I hope I don't have to read this* list:

1. Memoirs
2. Non-fiction
3. Biography

I'm so excited to do this! Eeeeeeek!

Welcome, Erin. It would be delightful to have you with us in any case, but the fact that you are willing to read Steampunk makes it even better. I'm glad you are on our team.

Hi Erin! I love that you chose the genres we really need. I'll work on this tonight.

I'm happy to mop up any remaining genres so just throw 'em at me :-)

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Anne, if you can take Chick Lit, we'll have the top row locked down.

Esther, Borderline has Environment>Nature as a genre on its home page, so that does work!"

Sorry, but that really doesn't qualify.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Janice, I'm actually going for a blackout, but it still needs to be planned due to the restrictions in paragraph 1 of the rules. I'm at work and will elaborate tonight."

Awesome - we are Team Gold, we can do the blackout!

Welcome to all our new team members - Erin, Sam, Anne! Did I miss anyone?

Oops! Jaxsnmom, can you elaborate on what would fit science/ nature? I thought we were using the GR home page for the book.

Well, as we now have another nature girl (i guessed right, Sam?) on the team, maybe I can delegate that Nature one.... Until i know for sure if I am in town or not, I will assume I am not.

jaxnsmom wrote: "Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Anne, if you can take Chick Lit, we'll have the top row locked down.

Esther, Borderline has Environment>Nature as a genre on its home page, so that does ..."

I was afraid you'd say this. Can't blame a girl for trying....

I'll be glad to take Chick Lit. Have already picked my book =)

Any other genre I can do? I usually read 3-4 books per week.

What about the free space? I don't understand (I may be dumb) what to use there - the rules weren't clear on that space to me.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Oops! Jaxsnmom, can you elaborate on what would fit science/ nature? I thought we were using the GR home page for the book."

The GR home page shows people's VERY subjective opinions. Someone may have put the book as nature because it took place outside, even though it's a mystery. Offhand, I can't think of many fiction books that would be considered nature. Ok, I found The Lorax on the list, but it's too short. There's one on my tbr, When the Killing's Done, that would probably apply. I didn't look at all the books on the list, but it should give you a good idea of what I consider to be a nature book for the Toppler.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

jaxnsmom, does Chick Lit need to stand alone or would Womens Fiction > Chick Lit work?

Doesn't matter to me, either way.

jaxnsmom wrote: "Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Oops! Jaxsnmom, can you elaborate on what would fit science/ nature? I thought we were using the GR home page for the book."

The GR home page shows people's VERY sub..."

Nevada Barr's are in the grey area for me. As Anna is a ranger it kind of flirts with the genre, IMO, which is why I asked. I would not put it in the genre myself but hey.... The only novels that i can think that would qualify as science/nature are Alex Brett's Morgan O'Brien series and Karen Dudley's Robyn Devara series.

Anne (Booklady) wrote: "jaxnsmom, does Chick Lit need to stand alone or would Womens Fiction > Chick Lit work?

Doesn't matter to me, either way."

It would qualify. Use the GR page as suggestions more than the final word. The genres listed there are very subjective, and not necessarily right.

Anne (Booklady) wrote: "I'll be glad to take Chick Lit. Have already picked my book =)

Any other genre I can do? I usually read 3-4 books per week.

Omigosh! How does a person read 3-4 books a WEEK?! I wish I could do that!! I'm lucky if I can plow through 3-4 a month!!

Okay, I'm at home and working on our plan....Science:

Esther's science/nature book was rejected, but Casceil's choice of The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking is classified by the Dewey Decimal System as 530.142 - Science, Theories and mathematical physics, Field and wave theories, Unified field theory. I have every confidence that this one passes for Science. On top of that, the author is the hero of Sheldon Cooper of the TV show, The Big Bang Theory (Geek TV show). I'm curious about it, so I may even volunteer to read that for another string if we do the left column.

Here are the current assignments for rows #1 and #2. Please let me know if you want to change your books.

#1 Anne-Chick Lit, Annette-Classic, Theresa-Fantasy, Janice-Horror, Roz-Suspense/Thriller

#2 Casceil-Science/Nature, Karila-Mystery, Ann-Paranormal, Kat-Dystopia, Joe-Action/Adventure

I have a couple of questions. 1- Do we need to submit our book choice ahead of time for approval? And what would the deadline be on that? 2- Do we need to make a commitment to a certain number of books? I can read more than one. More than two if I choose wisely.

Annette, there's no requirement to submit your book choice ahead of time, but we do need to plan the genres so we don't end up with a bunch of orphaned books read that don't fit strings. I'm about to do a post asking who wants to read more than one and how many.

Rules clarification: Restrictions & Black Out

Jaxnsmom has verified that the only way to re-start the restriction that you cannot read any book in a string attached to your book EVEN if its not the string for which your book gets credit to is for the team to complete a Black Out and start a new Bingo card. Without a re-start, each player can only read a max of 5 books.

BUT the Black Out requires that we complete every possible string within the restrictions above. That means a total of 56 books, an average of 4.3 books per player for our group of 13.

I doubt that is doable, but we can give it our best shot! Maybe we'll get more players!

And by the way, FREE SPACE means we don't need to read for that one. Strings that intersect on that only need 4 books read.

Who wants to read more than one book? So far I have:

Janice can read one more and asked for Crime
Anne(Booklady) will read 3-4
Annette will read at least 2
I plan to read at least 3

If you have a preference of genre for the next book, let me know that, too. Remember that it cannot be on a string that your 1st book lies on, even if it's not the one that is counted for a finish.

For example, Anne has Chick Lit, so her 2nd book cannot be in the first row, the left column, or the diagonal running from Chick Lit to Biography, even though her Chick Lit only counts for the top row string.

Theresa~OctoberLace wrote: "Who wants to read more than one book? So far I have:

Janice can read one more and asked for Crime
Anne(Booklady) will read 3-4
Annette will read at least 2
I plan to read at least 3

If you have ..."

I am sure I can read 2. Maybe 3. If you assign me contemporary, i may reach 4 as this one will be a quicky.

I hope to be able to read two, but I'm not sure how long the science book will take me. It's slower than fiction. I would like to add either contemporary or fantasy, but I can wait and see what is available when/if I finish the Grand Design.

I can also do Romance, Humor, Historical Fiction, if need be. I can do Memoir also: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition is on my bookshelves at home. Mystery is a favorite genre of mine.

I'm retired, so I can read all day. And the Toppler fits nicely with my birthday. =)

You're doing a great job organizing this Theresa. Thanks so much. :)

Casceil wrote: "I hope to be able to read two, but I'm not sure how long the science book will take me. It's slower than fiction. I would like to add either contemporary or fantasy, but I can wait and see what i..."

Caseil, if you're concerned about finishing, I'll pick up The Grand Design for Science, which has piqued my interest. It's a rather short book, just 195 pp hardback; 181 in some paperback versions. The audiobook is only 4 1/2 hours. I've already put a hold on it with my library.

If you think you can fit in 2 others, Contemporary and Fantasy are on the same string, so you could only read one of those. Let me know which genre you'd really prefer.

Anne, don't forget about the restrictions.

Since you're reading Chick Lit, you cannot read Science, SciFi, YA, Cultural, Classic, Fantasy, Horror, Suspense, Mystery, Steampunk, or Biography. Memoir, Non-Fiction, or Crime would work.

Romance, Short Stories, Humor, Paranormal, Contemporary, Myth/Fable, Dystopian, Non-Fiction, Memoir, Action/Adventure, Crime, and Historical Fiction will work for your 2nd pick.

If you choose Memoir, that will knock off Humor, Myth/Fable, Biography, Horror, Dystopian, and Non-fiction from your 3rd book options.

Confusing, isn't it? The bottom line is that you can only read 5 books max, unless we actually do a blackout and move to a second card.

I'll plug you in Memoir and let you know when we have a string worked out.

Theresa~OctoberLace>
If it would be helpful, I could whip up a visual chart to see who is reading and what we need for the black out. Just let me know :)
Also, bravo for taking charge and being our leader!

Erin wrote: "Theresa~OctoberLace>
If it would be helpful, I could whip up a visual chart to see who is reading and what we need for the black out. Just let me know :)
Also, bravo for taking charge and being our..."

Erin, that would be nice. I have my working copy in Excel, but it would be nice to have someone else work up the graphics. Just keeping up with the exclusions (see message #90!) is time-consuming.

Message #80 has the line-up for rows #1 & #2, except that I'll be doing Science instead of Casceil.

You can also add:
Janice-Crime
Erin-Steampunk (Yeah!)
Esther-Contemporary
Anne-Memoir

The last group are orphans and need other squares filled to make strings.

Thanks!

Theresa, I think I gave you a misimpression. I am sure I can finish the science book, and probably another book too. If you want the science book, I'll be happy to read something else. But at the moment I seem not to be assigned anything. What holes do we still need to fill? I could stick with the science book on the theory that we need two--one across and one down, or I could move to something else we need to cover on the first pass.

By the way,thank you for organizing this. You are doing a wonderful job.

Is Romance currently an orphan? Those are really fast reads.

Casceil, I'll leave you with Science and also add you for Romance. I think I may have 3 rows now, if the players agree:

#1 Anne-Chick Lit, Annette-Classic, Theresa-Fantasy, Janice-Horror, Roz-Suspense/Thriller

#2 Casceil-Science/Nature, Karila-Mystery, Ann-Paranormal, Kat-Dystopia, Joe-Action/Adventure

#3 Sam-SciFi, Casceil-Romance, FREE SPACE, Joe-Non-Fiction, Janice-Crime

Theresa! I have finished the chart! How do I post it?

Hmmm...I've never uploaded pictures to GR, but I think you need to have it somewhere on the net, such as Photobucket, so you can upload the image. Maybe one of the Mods can help.

Erin that is fantastic!

Theresa - I can read 3-4 books no problem, even 5 if needed.

Very impressive, Erin. Trying to take notes!!!