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

Team 3 members:

Rusalka
Tejas Janet
Sarah
Connie
Marnie
Debra
Tasha
Wanda
Lynn
Judy
Deedee
Thing Two
E
Wendy

Wooohooo. Team Awesome!

So you shall be called :D

Oh dear. O.o

Hope everyones cool with that, teamies.

Who would complain about being called Awesome??? We should make T-shirts!

HA HA HA HA, well done Rusalka and for that I nominate you team leader! ;)

Yesterday I looked at my planned books for February and what genres they covered. When I get back home I'll post what I have.

Lol fair enough. I do like democracies though :P

Well, to start the ball rolling, for me I can read anything on that list. I have a book in every genre on my shelf here, because I have far too many books. I must have a chick lit one somewhere...

But point is, I can fill in any gaps. Anyone else have a list of to reads in Feb they want to nominate for (look forward to your list Lynn) or just preferences on what you like to read or feel like reading at this point in time?

I second Lynn's nomination of Rusalka as team leader. I can find books in most categories but would like to read

A classic and a short story book.

If I get through those two I'm willing to grab one from whatever genre we are short on.

Also, Lexx looked at the chart and did the maths. According to Jmom's rules, each person could read up to a total of 5 books for this Toppler if they are super keen. I will aim for one, and two if it's a slow week or short books. But if some of our quick readers are keen, that's your max.

I have 5 patterns worked out already if people are keen to know those, but there are more, if people want to go further with the maths/patterns.

Oh jeez... too many keens. Keen Bean.

I'm here. I had a busy day yesterday and most of today but I'll probably be around tonight and tomorrow for sure to check things out more thoroughly.

Team Awesome is totally fine with me. :)

I'm going over now to take a quick peek at the rules and stuff and will be back later with what I can contribute.

Looking forward to my first team toppler and first toppler ever. :D

btw, I'm 'keen' to see the patterns Rusalka!

I'm planning on reading Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan in Feb so I could read this during the toppler week to help out in either the memoir, non-fic or biography space.

I'm also planning on reading The Faithful Spy which fits in for either thriller, mystery or action.

I think this just about does it, 2 books would be my max for the week.

IGNORE THIS POST!!

THIS IS ALL WRONG

No worries. So, you need to overlay this with Jmom's bingo sheet. I've put the ones you can read numbered the same, so you can read all the 1s or all the 2s, etc. I've also coloured them for ease, but left the numbers in if we have any people who have problems with colours.



Here's the justification for the 1s for example, drawing in all the lines you can't cross over

WRONG


WRONG
There are more than these 5, but this is a start. I guess see if any of these are appealing. And if none of them are, and you want to read 5 or so books, you can let us know any other patterns!

WRONG

See, I knew I was right in nominating you for the team leader! LOL

I will be one of those who will / can read 5 or so books.

I will be back later with my list :)

Thanks Rusalka. I'm even more confused now. LOL ;)

But no worries. I have my 2 books picked out (in message 12). I think my only question at this point is:

Do we state which box we are reading each book for BEFORE we read it or do we wait to see which boxes need filling in and then decide AFTER (right before the challenge ends) we read it?

I hope that Q makes sense.

ETA: I am NOT confused now. lol I am good to go... :D

Nevermind about my confusion on the reading grid picture, I just got it! LOL Sometimes it takes me awhile...sheesh

Ok- your chart helped a great deal.
So if I understand correctly I cannot read a classic and a short story because that would be a 4 and a 2.
In order of my preference I can read:

2- Short Story
Fantasy

4-Classic
YA
Action ( maybe)

1-Romance
Historical Fiction
Dystopian

3- Humor
Sci fi
Thriller

5 mystery
Crime
Contemporary
Whatever helps the group. Most likely I will read two books maybe three depending on length and life :)

My preference is:


4
Action
Memoir

which will fit the books I plan on reading in Feb.

I'm open to changing things around though if it will help our group win. ;)

The grids are awesome Rusalka! Makes things much clearer!

YAY!!!! You've got me! Jmom got back to me and I'm in team awesome!

With the books I have planned for February (and I've also included some of March reads that I can move about) I can do:

Dystopia - 4 options
Romance - 6 options
Fantasy - 5 options
Thriller - 4 options
Paranormal - 6 options
YA - 15 options
Mystery - 5 options
Crime - 4 options
Contemporary - 8 options

Steampunk - I don't have any planned but I do enjoy this genre so I'm sure I can find something if needed

(Obviously the books I plan to read have more than one of these options each, so there is some cross over)

Hurrah Sarah! :D

Here are some books I'm considering for this toppler and the categories/squares they could fill, depending on how the team wants to count them. I can probably read 2, maybe 3.

Time and Again - 1/romance, 3/scifi, 5/mystery
The House by the Dvina - 2/biography or nonfiction, 4 memoir
Everything is Wonderful - 2/nonfiction, 5/cultural
Yoga Bitch - 2/nonfiction, 3/humor, 4/memoir, 5/contemporary

Remember, if you don't want to read 5 books, you can be more flexible. I recommend printing out the grid or screen shotting it and drawing all over it.

But if you want to read more than 2 or 3 books, you have to be clever. Lexx has been taking it as a personal challenge to work out how many combos of 5 books there are. It is very useful being around someone who likes doing maths for fun.

But if you are like me and only going to get 1-3 books done, then we can do whatever we want as long as they don't cross the streams, and only 3 of us can read each individual genre. I will start plotting peoples preferences on to the chart today too.

Yay Sarah!!

IGNORE THIS POST!!

THIS IS ALL WRONG

Following on from before. I realised I may have confused people, so I made more charts to show what I mean.

WRONG
WRONG
So if I only wanted to read 2 books say, I can start any where. So I want to read Chick Lit (hah), this shows what I can't read from then on - red lines knock them out.

WRONG


Then looking at all my available choices, I choose to read a contemporary book. That's circled in blue, and then that knocks out everything along the blue lines.

WRONG


If I choose to read one more book, my only choices are Crime and Dystopian. Circled in green.

WRONG


So my point is, if you want to read the max amount of books you can for the toppler, which is 5, you have to be smart and make sure you don't knock your choices out. But if you are only wanting to read a couple, you can do what you wish, and ignore the numbers above. Our only restriction then, is that only 3 of us can read a crime book.

WRONG
Is this all clear as mud?

So point is, if you really want to read something let us know, you don't have to follow the numbers.

WRONG

Got it. :)

Phew oh good. Sorry for the large amount of pictures. I think sometimes visuals help a lot more than my dodgy words.

Rusalka wrote: "Phew oh good. Sorry for the large amount of pictures. I think sometimes visuals help a lot more than my dodgy words."

Very helpful indeed, thanks!!

Right, thanks to Jmom's comment about the middle box, looks like we can get one bingo so far going from your above lists.

From my reading, the book read only counts for one string/bingo. I didn't read that properly yesterday so thought I'd restate it in case anyone else missed it.

Rusalka - post 26, the second box - I'm guessing Bingo isn't a game you've played much :) Reading a contemporary book would only knock out the books in the horizontal and vertical lines. There are no diagonal bingo strings for that box. That gives you four more options for your next book. The diagonals only run from upper right corner to lower left corner, and from upper left corner to lower right corner. All Bingo strings have five boxes.

Does that make sense?

Love your boxes! I suppose you'll have to make Lexx an honorary member of your team.

I can read horror, mystery, paranormal romance (can count as paranormal OR romance). Not sure I can commit to more then 2 books, since my reading ability has slowed down considerably. It seems I'm too tired to keep my eyes open during my off hours!

You'll have to make Lexx a special Maths badge!

I have books that I could fit in to most categories so I'm easy but I'd prefer not to do memoir, autobiography, science/nature, short stories, chick lit, and non fiction.

Oh and I will be able to do 2 at least, maybe a third depending on the book and my week but it's looking possible.

So we should concentrate on the rows which contain the free space then?!? Is that right?

jaxnsmom wrote: "Rusalka - post 26, the second box - I'm guessing Bingo isn't a game you've played much :) Reading a contemporary book would only knock out the books in the horizontal and vertical lines. There ar..."

OH i have. I just took you really literally. So, we can read the diagonals, unless it makes up a string of 5?? So sorry. I just took it as face value as you can't read anything in a diagonal line from what you read.

WHICH MEANS ALL MY S.... STUFF DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

jaxnsmom wrote: "Love your boxes! I suppose you'll have to make Lexx an honorary member of your team."

He was picking boxes to read today and I told him he has to join goodreads to play!!! He got miffed at that.

Sarah wrote: "So we should concentrate on the rows which contain the free space then?!? Is that right?"

I am guessing so. That 4 books per bingo instead of 5, which seems smart.

One of the ones I mapped out was using a free space. that had:

TJ doing Cultural
Marnie doing Short Stories
FREEEEEEE
Lynn doing Dystopian
Tasha doing Suspense/Thriller

Would this work for you guys?

So other strings:

1:
Scifi
Romance
FREE
Non-Fiction
Crime

2:
Fantasy
Paranormal
FREE
Contemp
Myth/Fable

3:
Bio
Steampunk
FREE
Mystery
Chick Lit

Anyone with their own personal diagram drawn up keen for any of these?

Again, I have a bingo chart written up with 1-3 of each genre scribbled on it, so give me a yell and I can fill in 2 of the places at least. We don't need to go for 4 bingos, but we can try if people are keen. And more!

Sarah wrote: "You'll have to make Lexx a special Maths badge!"

He was a little more excited for this than he is happy to admit ;)

Debra wrote: "I can read horror, mystery, paranormal romance (can count as paranormal OR romance). Not sure I can commit to more then 2 books, since my reading ability has slowed down considerably. It seems I'..."

Feel you. I nearly collapsed on the couch when I walked in the door today. No idea what's going on!!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!

IGNORE ALL MY CHARTS!

All those charts are WRONG . I need to start again. I misunderstood all the diagonal rules. Re: Jmom's points msg 31, diagonals ONLY count if they make a string of 5, nothing else. WHICH MEANS WE HAVE A ....TON MORE OPTIONS!

And there is no mathematical equation I know of for those rules. So I am so sorry and you are all back on your own.

I need to replot our community graph too.

OK, so I could do Romance for string 1 (I can't believe I just said that! I want to read Chocolat though which is forgivable (sorry to those who like Romance books)), and Myth/Fable for string 2. I also have a book for Historical Fiction. I've chosen reasonably short books to maximise how many books I can do (apart from chocolat). If I went with the ones I've just mentioned it would mean that I can only then read Dystopian or Science/Nature, followed by Chick Lit or Horror. Not got any books for Science/Nature but if I went for dystopian it would leave me with Chick Lit for my final selection which is not my thing. I hope this makes sense!

Rusalka, if this helps you out on the community graphing bit more:

Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan can fit for these spaces:
non-fic, memoir, action/adventure, biography

The Faithful Spy can fit these:
suspense/thriller, mystery, action

Don't worry about the wrong bingo strings. It's all figured out now and that's what matters. :)

Sarah wrote: "OK, so I could do Romance for string 1 (I can't believe I just said that! I want to read Chocolat though which is forgivable (sorry to those who like Romance books)), and Myth/Fable fo..."

I'm not a romance fan but I loved Chocolat. It doesn't feel like a romance, and you could probably argue historical fiction if you were invested.

Your diagonals don't count as they don't equal 5 it seems, so you have a few more options.

Tasha wrote: "Rusalka, if this helps you out on the community graphing bit more:

Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan can fit for these spaces:
..."

Got you penciled in for those, but then crossed out. I will re-work tomorrow and scan the scribblings in i think. Gives Jmom a chance to yell if I have completely lost the plot as well too!

Tasha wrote: "Don't worry about the wrong bingo strings. It's all figured out now and that's what matters. :)"

Heh glad you got it sorted. I have no idea!
It is bedtime though and I have relegated this to tomorrow's problem. Take that, Future Rusalka!