MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

DoodlePanda wrote: "I really don't mind to be honest, it's all for fun anyways :D"

oh thank god! I am running into...some terribly written and/or terribly plotted books. O_O

WHY DID I BUY THIS STUFF????????

I skim finished Their Virgin's Secret and - not gonna lie - I was so angry at it that I re-titled one of the MegaMix. I HATED IT

I will just note that you need to enter a date for it to count in the spreadsheet - that could be the date you abandon it though.

Dazrin wrote: "I will just note that you need to enter a date for it to count in the spreadsheet - that could be the date you abandon it though."

That will work for me!

Hey, Dazrin, gotta question: the "gift" column in my Buried Alive challenge spreadsheet makes its own negative numbers. What did I do?

I think that is a formula that was supposed to be deleted when I was making the sheet. Just select the whole column (except where you have overwritten it) and delete anything in there and it should be ok.

I have updated it in the master spreadsheet now.

Dazrin wrote: "I think that is a formula that was supposed to be deleted when I was making the sheet. Just select the whole column (except where you have overwritten it) and delete anything in there and it should..."

Thank you! I thought I'd broken something, lol.

I thought the DNF book was supposed to be one we wanted to but toughed it out and finished.

Thats what I used and if anyone wants to do some reasonable skimming I think that would be okay.

That's what I did too HIMS :)

Me too.

I don't feel bad for actually finishing it now. :P

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I thought the DNF book was supposed to be one we wanted to but toughed it out and finished.

Thats what I used and if anyone wants to do some reasonable skimming I think that would be okay."

Oooh! That works!! I have onea lot of those, too.

I've got a book on request -- 79 days and counting -- for "Main Character Your Age" with a main character who is 47 years old. An exact match. I just found another book that I could request witha main character that is 49 years old. I'm turning 48 later this year. Is that close enough?

The first book might not show up until I'm 48 at this rate.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I've got a book on request -- 79 days and counting -- for "Main Character Your Age" with a main character who is 47 years old. An exact match. I just found another book that I could request witha m..."

close enough for me! I went with someone who was 35 instead of 37. It's harder with the odd numbers not ending in "5."

It's going to be a hard one to fill for me. Who writes books about men of 105?

Orlok wrote: "It's going to be a hard one to fill for me. Who writes books about men of 105?"

I'll give you The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.

It's within 5% experimental error and you can just watch the movie if you get too tired to finish reading. :P

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Orlok wrote: "It's going to be a hard one to fill for me. Who writes books about men of 105?"

I'll give you The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared b..."

:-D

I couple of years off is definitely fine :)
I kinda wish it was "within 5 years" or something, exact age is so tricky. What bozo made this silly challenge anyways *cheeky grin*

I requested it. I'm tired of waiting for the last few books to finish this off.

lol

I have TWO boards complete!! I'm at 123/144 items complete and 140/300 points!

:-D

^Congrats.

I've had some TERRIBLE reads lately, lol. I'm paying for this.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Orlok wrote: "It's going to be a hard one to fill for me. Who writes books about men of 105?"

I'll give you The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared b..."

:)

MrsJoseph wrote: "I have TWO boards complete!! I'm at 123/144 items complete and 140/300 points!

:-D"

Crumbs, (as no one actually says in the UK), I'm waaaay behind.

^Genre will finish her. Mwahahahaha!!!

When we all finish everyone can nominate books for awards.

I'm thinking categories like:
- Best book you read from a category you thought would be a lousy read.
- Worst book you read from a category you thought would be a great read.
- Best book you read from a category you thought would be a great read.
- Worst book you read from a category you thought would be a lousy read.

Nominees should be from non-substituted categories.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "^Genre will finish her. Mwahahahaha!!!

When we all finish everyone can nominate books for awards.

I'm thinking categories like:
- Best book you read from a category you thought would be a lousy r..."



Oooh! I agree!

Orlok wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "I have TWO boards complete!! I'm at 123/144 items complete and 140/300 points!

:-D"

Crumbs, (as no one actually says in the UK), I'm waaaay behind."

You're doing good for 105 y/o! ;-)

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "^Genre will finish her. Mwahahahaha!!!"

Yes. THIS IS SOOOO TRUE.

Genre's have the MOST unfilled spaces. I read randomness all the time - randomness that fits specific categories, that is. ;-)

I just looked and we're 100 days into the challenge. Obviously a great time for some useless statistics for everyone.

Some random statistics

Most books
79 MrsJoseph
44 HomeInMyShoes
39 DoodlePanda
27 Orlok
25 Dazrin, Thunderella

Pages
20,184 MrsJoseph
13,266 HomeInMyShoes
8,628 Dazrin
7,836 DoodlePanda
6,479 Orlok
4,917 Thunderella

Pages per Point
59.24 Thunderella
61.22 DoodlePanda
67.49 Orlok
81.40 Dazrin
97.54 HomeInMyShoes
164.10 MrsJoseph

Magic Number (fewest books to read to finish)
5 HomeInMyShoes
10 MrsJoseph
11 DoodlePanda
23 Orlok
24 Dazrin
26 Thunderella

Estimated Completion Date
April 23 HomeInMyShoes
April 24 MrsJoseph
May 10 DoodlePanda
July 6 Orlok
July 17 Dazrin
July 25 Thunderella

For the estimate, I calculated days per book and multiplied by the fewest books to read to finish number and added that to today’s date. I’m pretty sure I won’t hit April 23, but the first week of May is probably a good guess.

My problem is I'm just reading what I want to. mostly. I need to start targeting some of the specific categories. Need to find some books for the letters GRUJY, for example.

^The only board that matters is the mega board. Sort that out and you'll probably only have a couple left on the others.

You could read Gilgamesh and get rid of G and a name in the title (or maybe set in the past.)

I'm in.

Added the one (yes ONE) book I've read so far this year, as well as my in-progress and next-ups. Being able to plan a bit by adding things you haven't finished yet and seeing how they work out is AMAZING.

I'll be honest, I didn't join for the challenge. I joined for the spreadsheet porn. That thing is a work of art.

^Lol. Yes Dazrin is a great enabler.

Yes, that spreadsheet really makes the challenge :D

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "^Lol. Yes Dazrin is a great enabler."

Hah!

I did update the front page of the sheet, not sure why it didn't link to your tab properly but should be working now.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I just looked and we're 100 days into the challenge. Obviously a great time for some useless statistics for everyone.

Some random statistics..."

Nice. Optimistic for me, but nice. ;)

I did add an "efficiency" calculation to the spreadsheet a few days ago as well. Basically it is:
Number completed items / Maximum possible completed items

It's not perfect but it does not reduce efficiency for categories after they have been completed. If you have a lot of books out of order it may not be completely accurate though, it assumes that books are entered in order of completion, so if you finished a board with a book that is farther down the list and have other books that were finished later above it those books will count against you. I could fix it but that would require everyone to use the same date format (D/M/Y or M/D/Y) and it doesn't make that much difference in general. (MrsJ's goes up 1% for example.)

Right now:
Christa: 100%
Dazrin: 87%
Thunderella: 75%
HomeInMyShoes / Orlok: 71%
DoodlePanda: 69%
MrsJoseph: 54%

I feel the more books you have read the lower that percentage is going to be as in the beginning you can more easily read books that fit into all 5 boards. Still fun though :D

^Exactly. Mine was at 100% until about book four. But I'm not worried as I've only got five books left to finish.

I also think all of the finishing estimates could probably add a month and be more accurate.

Yes, the percentage will certainly go down until it is complete, the interesting part will be where it finally lands. I'm fairly sure the "planners" among us will end up win the lead at the end.

Theoretically, with 48 perfect picks in the right order, someone could get 100% but that is ... unlikely.

Christa! You're our only hope. ;) Good luck, we're all counting on you... :D

As for adding a month...probably 2 or 3 for me. I have been fairly lucky so far in what I have picked but I know when I get near the end and have to force myself to choose books that fit the categories, I won't be as consistent. That's why I didn't finish the alphabet challenge last year. I only had 4 to go in May but never did get to them all. (I have the two I missed last year already started or done though, so maybe?)

Dazrin wrote: "Christa! You're our only hope. ;) Good luck, we're all counting on you... :D"

LOL! I suspect my 100% hit rate won't last for very long once I get through the books I've already listed. :D But, I have enough books on hand that I want to read that if I put the time into it, I could probably plan it out that way. The problem is that when it comes down to it, I read what I'm in the mood for no matter what the plan says.

Thank you for fixing the reference on mine. Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. I double checked in case I spelled my name wrong. I mean, it happens. :D

I plan on being done -- library cooperating -- by mid May with 49 reads plus one or two extras with my son.

I'm just happy if I finish it this year :D
I tend to hit reading slumps, and I'm lucky that I have read a lot more at the start of this year than normal.
Like Christa I read what I'm in the mood for, and don't like to plan, so like I said - I'll be happy if I complete it :)

I'm just hoping that by the end of the year I'll have got all 300 points. Probably unlikely.

I've been trying to combine both this challenge plus the Buried Alive challenge - so some books are getting shoehorned in.

Right now, I've started Fifty Shames of Earl Grey - had it since 2014, at least. Maybe longer? Either way, I realize I'm not that interested.

Also, would this count as "a name in the title?" I plan on using it for it - and the hero's name is "Earl Grey."

Yea, definitely :D

:-D

Yes, for sure. And there was a real Earl Grey (actually more than one), and the 2nd Earl Grey had the tea named after him.

Orlok wrote: "Yes, for sure. And there was a real Earl Grey (actually more than one), and the 2nd Earl Grey had the tea named after him."

HA! I sorta knew that as my coworker is a total tea snob.

Pffft. Tea sucks. :P

Totally counts though.

Reading books with my son is a boon for some categories I'd have trouble reading and then my whole avoid the US thing makes finding books a lot harder some days.