Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Good afternoon, everyone! Just got back from the gym and a late breakfast :) It's kind of overcast here in Ohio and the kiddo is down for a nap, so I think I'll cuddle under a blanket with my current book. Right now I'm finishing up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which I'm having a bit of a time getting through. It's not holding my interest as much as the second book in the series did.

Other than that, no big plans for this weekend, which is fine by me. What about everyone else?

Cuddling up with a book is always a good thing, sorry it isn't holding your interest much. I know the series is popular, my Hubby tried the first one twice and didn't like it at all. Hope your next book keeps your interest!

Noting going on here, as usual. Just football and more football. Right now I'm playing Skyrim, but my Hubby has His team on tonight and I'll be watching my Steelers tomorrow on Sunday Ticket. If He gets off work before His game is over, He'll probably watch His Bucs on his Fire or laptop.

Just the same old thing for us. Nothing ever changes here.

Good afternoon, team! I'm back from my 5k run. I walked it this time in 58 minutes, which is very slow indeed, but for me, it is very, very good. I walked this one about 9 minutes faster than the one I did last weekend.

Kerri, sounds like fun to just relax and curl up with a book for a while.

I love watching football, Karsyn, but I don't get to do much of it these days. It's kind of a hit and miss thing.

M...hope you are getting some good rest!

Congrats jingles! That's great that you did it faster than last time. I couldn't do it in that time, I know that. :D You'll keep getting faster and faster as you do more.

We're a football 4 times a week couple. :) I can live without the college, never did get into it, but gotta have my NFL on. We actually canceled our DirecTv at the beginning of the year because we got tired for only paying for sports, which is basically all we watch. They gave us a great deal to come back, so we couldn't pass it up. :)

Hi guys just got back from shopping.

I have dinner in the oven :). Later there is a new episode of "Doctor Who" which I'm planning to watch with my husband & my son.

Morning everyone! Later start to my day today. Been up about a half hour, but been working on my Fantasy teams. I KNOW I set them on Thurs, yet none of them were ready. Sigh. :)

Did you have fun shopping Maritza? I'm not a shopper, I really dislike it. :/

Hope you had a good dinner and tv watching time, Deedee.

How's everyone else doing?

A week to go before this starts. Anyone have any questions about any part of Tower Teams?

Morning, teammates! Up with the kiddo and getting him ready for his first haircut. I don't foresee it going well, haha. My son doesn't like to sit still for any length of time unless food is involved. Even then, it's iffy if he'll actually stop moving.

Hope your shopping trip went well, Maritza!

jingles, great job on your 5K! That is awesome progress :)

Deedee, I hope dinner and Doctor Who were great. My friends have been trying to get me to watch Doctor Who for ages, but it's hard for me to marathon watch TV shows. One day, maybe.

No big plans, besides the haircut, for us today. We'll probably watch some football, even though our team (Go Pack Go!) has a bye this week. My other team (Go Bucks!) kicked butt yesterday!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday :)

Well done jingles!

Deedee - I really am enjoying this season of Dr Who. They have toned down Clara which helps! How cool was this week's episode. Love that we now have a new villain ready for future storylines ;)

Glad you're enjoying the football Karsyn. One of our football code players was selected for the SF 49ers (Jarrad Hayne) so now we get news updates of those games whenever he plays lol

Good luck Kerri! My 1st sons first haircut was at 4 months (he was born with masses of hair) and he gets it cut every 6 weeks with me. I find bribery (marshmallows) did the trick lol

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have not joined into the conversation earlier. My name is Victoria and I am originally from Ohio but moved to Dallas 9 years ago to finished up my degree and ended up staying. I am a lab supervisor in the food industry. I am in my early 30's, married, no kids and obviously enjoy reading as well as yoga, running, biking, hiking, martial arts, etc. I am usually a 1-2 book a week person and try to read a fiction and a non-fiction book a week but I lean toward fiction (historical, classics, and thriller/suspense). I am excited to start the TT4! I just read the discussion thread and am adding books to my to read list already.

November 7 is so far away. Just stopped at the bookstore for some birthday books

Hi Victoria! Nice to meet ya!

Looks like we almost have everyone. We're still missing Michelle, I don't know if we'll get her or not. Hopefully!

Oooops, you reminded me Jennifer, it starts on the 7th not on the 1st. I have my challenges mixed up. In about 4 of them right now. :) Awesome on the new books, are you going to start them now, or wait til the 7th?

Depends on my other two challenges holding off for now. Finishing up my October challenge.

James, how many books did you say you get through? I don't see you on the spreadsheet. Are you a book a week, or a few books a week, or a few books a month? Also, will you be using your "special shelf" as the shelf for tower teams?

Karsyn wrote: "James, how many books did you say you get through? I don't see you on the spreadsheet. Are you a book a week, or a few books a week, or a few books a month? Also, will you be using your "special sh..."

I can read a few books a week and yes I will be using the "special shelf" for this team challenge.

Awesome James, thanks! Just making sure everything's ready for us to get started! :D

Victoria wrote: "Hi everyone,

Sorry I have not joined into the conversation earlier. My name is Victoria and I am originally from Ohio but moved to Dallas 9 years ago to finished up my degree and ended up staying..."

Hi, Victoria! I'm in Ohio, currently, though we're soon about to relocate to New Mexico. I'm ready for some warmer winters.

Karsyn wrote: "Awesome James, thanks! Just making sure everything's ready for us to get started! :D"

Oh, no problem. I will definitely be contributing more to this thread when the actual challenge starts.

Morning everyone. How is everyone today?

It's a dreary morning so far here. Guess we're gonna get some rain. It's chilly too. I can't WAIT for snow! :D

How was everyone's weekend? We had a good one overall, except all our teams (my Steelers, His Seminoles & Bucs) all lost. That's never a good thing. Other than that, typical weekend here.

Good morning, team!

Karsyn - sorry to hear about the losses. Maybe they will all turn things around though :)

Maritza, how was your shopping trip? I hope you got some nice things. Shopping is always a hit and miss for me, and I can usually tell within the first little bit how it's going to be. If I find something right away, I'm good. However, if I start trying on clothes and I don't like anything, I know it's time to give it up. Lol. At least as far as clothes are concerned.

Deedee, I hope you all enjoyed "Doctor Who". I've never watched it before. I should check it out, because I hear a lot about it.

Kerri - how did the haircut go?

Karen - I'm amazed at how you keep up with everything with having a baby and toddler to take care of. Hope you are getting some rest when you can. And reading too of course, though I'm sure it's hard to find the time.

It's nice to meet you, Victoria! Welcome to the team!!!

Great haul on the birthday books, Jennifer. I've been wanting to read Beautiful Disaster for quite some time. Maybe I'll get to it soon.

@ Jingles
Well... I'm stuck in a chair feeding a baby for about 10 hours a day so I use that time for GR and reading. I don't really use social media so GR is like Facebook for me and I really enjoy reading about people and their books ;)

LOL...they do like to eat, don't they, Karen?!! I'd forgotten all that as it's been so long since mine were little.

Good morning, guys! Or afternoon if you happen to be in the Eastern time zone.

@jingles The haircut went really well! The only part he didn't like was when the stylist was getting his damp so she could trim it. He kept scowling at her, heh. Other than that, he was rather fascinated by the whole process and he came out looking very handsome :)

Thanks jingles. I'm sure things will be better when we get our QB back. We were on the 4th string QB this week. He did ok, but it just wasn't good enough. Jesse's college team will bounce back, it was their 1st loss in around 2 years. His NFL team always sucks. LOL!

GoodReads is like Facebook for me as well. I only have FB to keep up with 2 people, otherwise I really wouldn't even have it. My Hubby got rid of His a few years ago. I'm so not a social media person, except GR. Now there just needs to be a GR type place for video games. :)

hi guys , sitting here freezing in my office again. they fixed the air conditioner and i guess we'll be getting air instead of heat this winter.

@jingles. Great shopping trip. Used my coupon on VS for a free full size perfume. got some boots at DSW that i didn't need but loved.

catching up on some books that are due at the library that are on hold for someone else. i will not be returning until i read them so i guess i have fines to pay. is that bad of me if people are waiting to read them? have you all done that before? please don't judge me :(( i always try to finish on time but have not been reading as much lately.

p.s. the whole Beautiful series by Jamie Mcguire is awesome.

Maritza wrote: "hi guys , sitting here freezing in my office again. they fixed the air conditioner and i guess we'll be getting air instead of heat this winter.

@jingles. Great shopping trip. Used my coupon on VS..."

I love DSW. My favorite is hitting the clearance section to see what I can find :D

@Karsyn A GR type for video games would be awesome! I saw you mention Skyrim. I love that game. It's so immersive! What other types of video games do you play?

jingles wrote: "LOL...they do like to eat, don't they, Karen?!! I'd forgotten all that as it's been so long since mine were little."

haha
yep, it is pretty constant for the first 6 weeks then slightly drops until 3 months, then another drop until you finally get to solids at 6 months.
I remember with my first one it felt like an eternity, but here I am now almost 4 weeks in and it has flown!

I play a little bit of everything, Kerri, I guess. :) Skyrim is a new find for me. Not something I would have thought to try but when a book blogger talked about books being in it, I decided to try it and I got SOOOOO hooked. I just started playing it in April, took a bit of a break from it in July and just got back to it, it's so fun. It's amazing. Have you played it on PC and tried any of the Mods? Some of the stuff people can do is just fantastic!

Typically, I'm a puzzle adventure player. I started YEARS ago with old games like 7th Guest and Shivers. Now, my favorite puzzle types are Portal 1&2, Quantum Conundrum & Talos Principle.

Other favorite series ~ Kingdom Hearts (my all time favorite), Batman Arkham, GTA San Andreas & 5, Resident Evil (4 was the best), DeadRising, Roller Coaster Tycoon (anxiously waiting on the newest).

I built my own gaming PC in Feb and I've been enjoying finding new stuff to play. I'll pretty much at least try anything that looks half way fun to me. Just wish some things weren't so platform specific. We're going to have to get an Xbox One or PS4 just because we want Kingdom Hearts 3 and ScaleBound (have you seen that yet?)

What do you play?

I have been sucked into the new expansion of Star Wars The Old Republic for the last 2 days. My book has been pretty much ignored for so I can get in my pew pew blast blast time.
On a side note I lost the battle and I will be starting The great Zoo of China.

I never have played any of the Star Wars stuff, M. I'm a Trekkie. My Hubby is the Star Wars fan. Sorry you lost the battle, but YAY for Great Zoo!! Hope you LOVE it! Now I wanna re-read it.... hmmmm.

Ok, could NOT resist. I just listened to it in June, but I'm in the mood. :) That way, the book I was going to start can be started later and perhaps count on one of my challenges. :)

Funny enough, the narrator of the book (and many of Matt Reilly's books) is the narrator of the other series I was reading. I do like the dude. YAY!

I'm a big fan of RPGs and puzzlers, myself :) I tend to be more console-based, though I do play Diablo III on the PC as well as Civilization V and a couple of other games. We have a PS4 and I loves it. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Journey. I absolutely adore that game. It's short and sweet, but a lot of fun.

I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts! I'm ashamed to admit I've only played the first one, but I've been meaning to play the others. My problem is I have a very short gaming attention span, lol. I start a game, get engrossed for about a month, then lose interest for awhile. My husband, who is a big time gamer, doesn't get it at all, heh.

Speaking of the hubs, he's mainly a PCer and refuses to play Skyrim without mods. Like you said, the things they can do are incredible!

All this talk of video games makes me want to pick up on my many games I'm currently playing.

Also, definitely a Trekkie here, too :)

Glad to see so many people who love playing video games on here. As for me, I usually play whatever my friends are playing. I hate playing video games by myself.

Kerri ~ ohhhhh, you gotta try KH2. 3 looks so amazing, so you gotta get caught up! We've never played the handheld ones, just 1 & 2, but we want to get the remixes at some point so we can get all those stories as well. With my PC, we were going to skip the jump to PS4/Xone, but too many games we want are console only.

I have heard good things about Journey, haven't tried it. My PS3 time has dwindled, but we still make sure to get the Plus games each month, even the PS4 games, so if/when we do get one, we already have like 25 games for it.

Awesome that your hubby is into the Skyrim mods! They are soooooo fun. Does he have any favorites he wants to share? :) I have the big main ones, like Falskaar, Wyrmstooth and Helgen Reborn. I love the different land/quests ones, though I spend a lot of time on my character/clothing too. She's pretty sexy. :) My favorite mod that is getting more and more notice is Legacy of the Dragonborn. It's a museum with all the collectibles in the game, plus tons from the mods. It's so fun filling the place up! :)

YAY for another Trekkie. Which series? I started out a fan of TNG, as I never saw an episode/movie of Star Trek until an ex took me to see Generations. It got me hooked, but now I'm more of a Voyager fan, although First Contact is top 5 movies all time for me. :)

James ~ what have you and your friends been playing lately? I almost always play alone, never really had anyone to play with except Hubby. We used to play Mario Party together back before games cost so much. My first time playing with others on a big scale was GTAV. It was definitely a different experience for me, but I ended up loving it and actually made a few "friends" that I played with often. It was fun!

Morning everyone else! How are y'all today?

morning all. it's colder than yesterday in my office. guess no one got the memo that we don't need ac anymore.

my co-worker called out sick she was like an ice pop yesterday ;)))

Karsyn, I just went over page 100 on the Great Zoo of China. You were right, I am loving it.

YAY!! So glad you are loving it!! It's just gonna get better and wilder! I got tired early last night so I turned mine off right after the demonstration.

Sorry you are so cold Maritza. You can't get some one to shut it off?

I actually turned on the heat this morning. I like it cool, but not cold, in the house. We keep our temps pretty low compared to most people around here, we start to get warm if it's higher than 74 inside. It was 54 in here when I got up, I was cold. :)

Karsyn wrote: "Sorry you are so cold Maritza. You can't get some one to shut it off?

I actually turned on the heat this morning. I like it cool, but not cold, in the house. We keep our temps pretty low compared..."

you would think someone could do it so easily but have to send memos all over the place i work in a hospital so not so easy.

That must be a universal thing for hospitals, they are almost always cold. :) Thankfully we haven't made a trip in a while (knock on wood). My Hubby has heart problems and I'm tired of seeing Him in hospitals. :/ I've always hated them, the person that spawned me should have one built just for her, she's in them so much. After I was around the age of 11-12, I just stopped going when she'd be in one. Now, I've mostly gone with Hubby, though not the last two times since I had to be here for the animals.

Karsyn wrote: "Kerri ~ ohhhhh, you gotta try KH2. 3 looks so amazing, so you gotta get caught up! We've never played the handheld ones, just 1 & 2, but we want to get the remixes at some point so we can get all t..."

Journey is awesome! I love it for the interactive play. You don't think you would get attached to other players who you can't even talk to, but you really do.

I'll have to ask my husband cause he has a gazillion mods, lol. I know he has one where it increases the amount of dragon encounters you have. He has one that modifies the looks of the characters (much prettier!) and one for the landscape. I swear, it's like watching a live action documentary when I watch him play, it's so clear! I'll have to let him know about Legacy of the Dragonborn. That is right up his alley! Modding is one thing I wish you could do on the console.

I'm definitely a TNG girl. That show was what introduced me to Star Trek and Jean-Luc is my favorite Captain. I have recently started giving Voyager another try and I'm enjoying it a lot. I think when I first started watching it, I was still in mourning for TNG so I didn't give it a shot. Still can't get into DS9 or Enterprise, though. Also, I absolutely love First Contact :)

Right now we are playing a lot of Smite, which is a five player team based arena game. Its really fun but the bad thing about the game is I get too invested in it. This leads me to spend six hours on the game instead of two hours. Which is how long I wanted to spend on the game.

Ahhh, investing 6 hours in a game is all good James, at least til this challenge starts, then you can read instead. LOL! Kidding. As long as you are having fun, that's what matters. I know when I first started playing Skyrim, I was playing from the time I woke up til we went to bed, just taking breaks to eat. That's probably why I got burnt out on it so quickly. :)

I have a bunch of mods as well, I think I'm sitting somewhere around 130. :) He must have one of the dragon overhaul ones. I was going to get that, and the Civil War overhaul and forgot before I started this game, perhaps next time. I don't care about the NPCs being prettier, but my chick has to be, and she has to have all the sexy revealing armors. :) I've used (at different playthroughs) the Temptress & Lunari races and now I'm doing the Norial, which is really neat because she can turn into a bear or a big cat. She can also get a dragon to come help her in battle. It's just so amazing the other things modders come up with. I love finding new stuff.

I love Jean-Luc as well, though I'm a fan of Riker/Troi as well. My username everywhere online/gaming is ImzadiRose. I wanted Imzadi, but it's used so much, I tacked on Rose and use it pretty much everywhere. I definitely like Voyager just a little more right now, especially after Seven got on the show. I adore Jeri Ryan!! I watched all of DS9 & Enterprise, but didn't like either, though I didn't mind Jadzia/Worf on DS9.

Awesome we have so much in common! :)

Karsyn wrote: "Ahhh, investing 6 hours in a game is all good James, at least til this challenge starts, then you can read instead. LOL! Kidding. As long as you are having fun, that's what matters. I know when I f..."

Don't worry, I'm a really competitive person. I'm hoping to beat some personal reading records of mine during this challenge >:).

James wrote: "Karsyn wrote: "Ahhh, investing 6 hours in a game is all good James, at least til this challenge starts, then you can read instead. LOL! Kidding. As long as you are having fun, that's what matters. ..."

Wooohooo! I like competitive people on my team. :) Here's to hoping we do great!

The challenges always get me going as well. I don't know if I'll be able to beat my personal record, just because I don't wanna get burnt out again, but we'll see how it goes. I don't wanna crash and burn 6-7 weeks into it, which is what usually happens. :/ Of course, that's around 70 books in that time that I crash out at. :)

Good morning, team!

I tend to get burned out quickly too if I'm not careful. This time around, I'm more aware of it, and so will pace myself accordingly. Personally, I want to be able to finish as strongly as I start, and just be very consistent.