Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Am I correct in thinking that books started before the challenge don't count? Or are we going by completion date (as long as it was finished when the challenge started)?

Completed 5/12
Exile, Anne Osterlund
304 pgs
on SS

Shan ~ A ~ wrote: "Am I correct in thinking that books started before the challenge don't count? Or are we going by completion date (as long as it was finished when the challenge started)?"

You are right...books that apply had to be started at the start of the challenge...not before.

4. First book you're planning to read
A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa
and something from this List:
Angry Robot Publisher

5. Books and Series that you recommend
If I did books...... just look at my 6 star books shelf!
Series -- They're popular for a reason!
A Song of Ice and Fire
Harry Potter
House of Earth (Beginning with: The Good Earth)
and, for mysteries,
Molly Murphy Mysteries
Flavia de Luce
Liberty Lane Mysteries
graphic novels:
SAGA (note: explicit sex & violence, not appropriate for children)
and, lesser known but excellent series:
The Murderbot Diaries
The Company Series
The Long Price Quartet
Pink Carnation Series
Alex Benedict (antiquities dealer)
Newford

6. Worst book you've read this year
worst book that I finished:
The Comforters -- Particularly disappointing as I've read several of her books and given them 5 stars: The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories, Symposium and The Public Image

I did-not-finished All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry -- very disappointing, as I liked his other books that I've read (Telegraph Days and Boone's Lick)

I will read both Muriel Spark and Larry McMurtry in the future.

Ashley wrote: "Deedee wrote: "LOL my daughter-in-law says that everyone else in the world says which country they are from, while Americans (like me!) say what STATE they are from. I told her it's because America..."

We've got the lower coast covered with WA, SA and VIC :) Actually it's probaby half the country :D

4. First book you're planning to read
I am going to continue the MJ Arlidge Helen Grace series with book 6.
I also have a few audiobooks ready to go for this week :)

5. Book or series that you recommend
MJ Arlidge's Hellen Grace
Mo Hayder's Jack Cafferty series
Small great things by Picoult

6. Worst book you've read this year
I try to just not remember the bad ones, but there've unfortunately been a few

Sitting at a high school graduation this morning meant I got a lot of this book knocked out before finishing it up this evening. On to Into the Water!

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Pages: 258
05/12/2018

How did you like it Kate?

JanEyre9 wrote: "How did you like it Kate?"

I liked it. The ending felt stilted to me though - not sure why, it just felt like it ended abruptly. It's a book I wish was 300 pages instead of 250. I was looking forward to something light that I could read with a lot of distractions and also read quickly and this was really a good fit.

Completed 5/13
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
320 pgs
on SS

Buddy Read--my final post: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I did read this via audio

Book Completed


Red Dirt Heart 2 N.R. Walker
Finished: 5/13/18
Rating: 5 stars
352 pgs

Do I need to put this anywhere else?

So we're posting finished books here? That might clog up the thread really fast. Should we create a post that we keep updating? Like maybe use our first check in post or something?

I'm hoping to finish something tomorrow. Oddly enough, I normally read more during the week than I do on weekends.

@Karen and Mary
Yes...please post your finished books here.
You can then go to the spreadsheet and enter the character options for Spells...
Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

If you don't want to deal with the SS, that's fine...you can post your info here...see post 98 from Ashley for details -> https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Ashley--I'm wondering for convenience...could you post all the links at the beginning so they're easy to ref?

Completion Post
Book/Author: The King's Spinster Bride by Ruby Dixon
Finished: 05/13/18
# of pgs: 138
Series: Royal Wedding
Characters: Halla, Mathior, Pen, Ishera
Letters: K, R, D, H, M, P, I

Was unable to add to the spreadsheet.

In order to be able to access the spreadsheet Ashley will need your email address. You can message her with that...if you prefer complete privacy, you can continue to post as Shan has and we’ll post for you.
If you help understanding how to do anything at all...just post here and we’ll help you...when I was new to this stuff my teamies were a great help...

I will have a buddy read which I've started for a series. It will start on Wednesday. Here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It's listed as a children's book. I've verified the word count with arbookfind as 89778 words

Chava wrote: "We've got the lower coast covered with WA, SA and VIC :) Actually it's probaby half the country :D."

It's always so exciting to see another Aussie around!

Tammie wrote: "Ashley--I'm wondering for convenience...could you post all the links at the beginning so they're easy to ref?"

Yes - all updated now!

Deedee wrote: "If I did books...... just look at my 6 star books shelf! Series -- They're popular for a reason!"

I love your list and that you have a 6 star shelf!!

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Pages: 368
Finished: 05/14/2018
Characters: Nel, Jules, Lena
Letters: N, J, L, I

Completed 5/13
The Pirate Bride, Kathleen Y'Barbo
251 pages
on SS

...Just a note with the planning spreadsheet.

If you want to use it to track names etc. whilst you're reading, this is definitely okay. Ie. You don't have to wait until you've finished the book to enter in information. I use the app and I find it easy just to enter in names as I see them on my phone.

When you've finished the book then put your pages and read date in and post here.

Completed 5/14

Pages - 360

Completion Post
Book/Author: Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews (audio)
Finished: 05/14/18
# of pgs: 400
Series: Hidden Legacy
Characters: Nevada Baylor, Connor "Mad" Rogan, Adam Pierce, Augustine Montgomery, Penelope Baylor, Grandma Frida, Catalina Baylor, Arabella Baylor, Bern, Leon, Cornelius Harrison, Troy Linman
Letters: B, I, A, H, N, B, C, M, R, P, F, L, T

Completion post:
Title: The Widow
Author: Fiona Barton
Pages: 432
Series: N/A
Characters: Jean Taylor, Glen Taylor, Inspector Sparks, Fleur, Dr Jones, Inspector Matthews, Bella, Kate,

Book of the Month

In case you're interested, the next book of the month for May is Lilac Girls.

Reading and participating in the discussion will earn 20 points. The link to the discussion is here

Ashley wrote: " Book of the Month

In case you're interested, the next book of the month for May is Lilac Girls.

Reading and participating in the discussion will earn 20 points. The link to the d..."

I’m in for that one...looks good...I’m on a very short waitlist...but should get in a day or so...

Completed 5/15
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
357 pages
on SS

Just curious as to why we aren't using the thread created just for posting books read? Wouldn't that be easier to find the finished books than finding them among the other discussions in this thread?

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Just curious as to why we aren't using the thread created just for posting books read? Wouldn't that be easier to find the finished books than finding them among the other discussions in this thread?"

I'll defer to Ashley on this for a completed 'why'...I believe we'll primarily use the Planning Sheet to populate our team sheet from...hopefully everyone is comfortable with adding your books there...it will make figuring out which books to use for spell competition vs others easier.

There is certainly more to figure out...the team spreadsheet is a bit confusing, but filled with lots of well thought out links...

Here's a link to our Team Worksheet...you'll see that we post our books read here...but then need to put them in one of four other competitions. For now, we're holding off entering in to other competitions wanting to avoid having to move things around and losing something along the way. I think it's important though that you have an idea...we'll likely need to figure out a more streamlined way of collecting info...I think a bit of time getting are barrings is really helpful for now though...

Note: not all competitions are open yet... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Just curious as to why we aren't using the thread created just for posting books read? Wouldn't that be easier to find the finished books than finding them among the other discussions in this thread?"

I didn't realize that there was a thread for that purpose. Could you post the link?

Shan ~ A ~ wrote: "Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Just curious as to why we aren't using the thread created just for posting books read? Wouldn't that be easier to find the finished books than finding them ..."

No problem Shan... post 98 from Ashley has details -> https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You need to provide her with your email address
Link to Ashley's page so you can IM her: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...
Just click on 'send message' and she'll add you so you have the authority to post...it's pretty easy...I've started just adding along the way vs keeping another sheet...works well for me anyway as I've added the Spreadsheet app to my phone.

It’s much easier just using the one thread rather than posting and checking two different ones constantly. This way has always worked best for me in past challenges!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (audio)
320 pgs
Post 688 on Discussion pg

Completion post - not on SS yet, I just sent my e-mail address to Ashley

Old Man's War
351 pages
author - John Scalzi
characters- alan, bender, charlie, deak, eaton, fiorina, Gonzalez, harry, Kathy, Leon, Maggie, newman, Perry, Reardon, Thomas, viveros,Watson
letters- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, V, W

There's a whole other folder of finished book threads, one for each team. But I'm not the captain. I just remember finding it easier, when I did captain a team, to have them separate because you didn't have to wade through all the chatter to find them. But makes no difference to me how you do it. I just wondered why we were ignoring the thread set up for it.

Here's a link to the finished books folder:
TT VI: POST BOOKS READ HERE

I'm adding the details for the 3 books I'm reading into the spreadsheet.

Do people in a non-fiction book count as characters? There's really too many to list each one, so I thought I would just list ones that appear most or have harder to find letters.

Hopefully I haven't messed up the spreadsheet. I seem to be reading books with long titles and character names.

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "Hopefully I haven't messed up the spreadsheet. I seem to be reading books with long titles and character names."

@Mary...no worries...this is just a working sheet for us...so you can't really mess it up

@Mary and ALL...note the columns in Red at the top of the Sheet are for the letters that coordinate with the name...so if you have an author who's name starts with B...you would put 'A: Bertha' under the 'B' Column...Mary I'm going to move one of yours around so you can see what I mean...

once we all get going, I think we'll see the value in using this more...honestly it really saves us all a lot of time...

JanEyre9 wrote: "Completion post - not on SS yet, I just sent my e-mail address to Ashley

Old Man's War
351 pages
author - John Scalzi
characters- alan, bender, charlie, deak, eaton, fio..."

WOW Jane...you've got almost the entire alphabet on this one!

April wrote: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (audio)
320 pgs
Post 688 on Discussion pg"

I read this one via audio too...to be honest I find this particular series a bit young for me...I've read 2 so far...may take a week off before moving to the next. I had to use a book-book for the second one because I was having a hard time keeping up with all of the characters...soooo many.

Tammie wrote: "JanEyre9 wrote: "Completion post - not on SS yet, I just sent my e-mail address to Ashley

Old Man's War
351 pages
author - John Scalzi
characters- alan, bender, charlie,..."

There were SO many characters! I'm wondering if I missed any... :)

JanEyre9 wrote: "Tammie wrote: "JanEyre9 wrote: "Completion post - not on SS yet, I just sent my e-mail address to Ashley

Old Man's War
351 pages
author - John Scalzi
characters- alan, b..."

...hehe!

April wrote: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (audio)
320 pgs
Post 688 on Discussion pg"

@April and ALL who do a 'Buddy Read'...this is a note that was dropped in our Captain's thread:
REMEMBER that for BOM/BR participation points to count there MUST be participation in the thread. That means interacting with others, not just dropping in with a comment or two.

I'm going to ask April that you do a bit more interaction in that thread so we aren't called with your points for buddy read...thanks so much!

April wrote: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (audio)
320 pgs
Post 688 on Discussion pg"

April...because you and I read the same book...I just copied my post on the planning sheet for this and added your name to it
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Finished Book


Love Another Day Lexi Blake
Finished: 5/15/18
Pages: 496
On SS

Completed 5/15
Unblocked - Episode Two, Marni Mann
148 pages
on SS