Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Bea wrote: "Kathrine wrote: "I'm still confused about the page count and top 5 editions. Is it the top five english edition or just the top five overall? I just read The Song of Achilles and the top five editi..."

My interpretation of what the mods said before is:

Top 5 English editions + #1 edition in your language... in most cases that #1 foreign language edition will be higher, in some you're better off sticking to English probably... and this is only if you read in that other language... no picking and choosing extra German points if you read an English edition ;)

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "My interpretation of what the mods said before is:

Top 5 English editions + #1 edition in your language... in most cases that #1 foreign language edition will be higher, in some you're better off sticking to English probably... and this is only if you read in that other language... no picking and choosing extra German points if you read an English edition ;)"

That's not really how I interpret it and I think people read it in different ways, so it'd be nice if we got a final clarification from the Mods :D

Yea... the further back I scroll, the more slight differences I see... and I even contradict myself... and I'm just trying to repeat what the mods said...

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Yea... the further back I scroll, the more slight differences I see... and I even contradict myself... and I'm just trying to repeat what the mods said..."

We'll wait and see what the mods say. I agree it'd make the most sense with top 5 english editions or whatever foreign edition you're reading

Kathrine wrote: "Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Yea... the further back I scroll, the more slight differences I see... and I even contradict myself... and I'm just trying to repeat what the mods said..."

We'll wai..."

I agree, it seems like the word count is a lot higher in spanish, so I guess it's fair to get more points when you read a spanish copy, but not when you actually read the book in english...

I just assumed that you would treat all languages the same and it would be the Top 5 editions in whatever language you read it in.

So if you read in English, the highest of the top five English editions and if you read a Dutch version, and there are three Dutch editions, the top one from those three.

Is this right?...

I’ll need Scott to confirm, but the last thing I remember saying is top 5 English editions only, regardless of the language you actually read it in. I think we did this for consistency, and I remember some people having trouble with the rule because their other language editions were much higher. So to reiterate: just the highest of the top 5 English editions.

Sorry for any confusion or frustration the lack of clarity has caused.

Niki Hawkes wrote: "I’ll need Scott to confirm, but the last thing I remember saying is top 5 English editions only, regardless of the language you actually read it in. I think we did this for consistency, and I remem..."

Thanks for clarifying, Niki!

Hm, it's debatable which edition should be used if you actually read in a different language. Some languages need more words to express the same thing so you're actually reading more than somebody who reads an english edition. So I personally would say that Yanique's suggestion makes sense.

But if I read a book in Dutch (my main language) and it's not translated in English, then I can use that page count?

Please see rule 3 as per below. This is the rule for this year's competition. We'll take any concerns re this under consideration for next years competition.

3. Page count will be the highest from the top 5 most popular versions. We'll be posting some screenshots for directions on this to ease confusion. Rationale is there were some 300K word count books counting less than some a third of that size. It's imperfect but unless we had a word count for every book out there-there isn't a better way.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "But if I read a book in Dutch (my main language) and it's not translated in English, then I can use that page count?"

Yes.

Angela wrote: "Please see rule 3 as per below. This is the rule for this year's competition. We'll take any concerns re this under consideration for next years competition.

3. Page count will be the highest fro..."

How I read that is that it's the top 5 most popular versions regardless of language. Would it be possible to add in the word "English" in the rule so it's 100% clear that it only counts for English versions?

Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule.

Angela wrote: "Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule."

That'd be great, thanks :D

Angela wrote: "Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule."

Top 5 English versions unless you're reading a non-English version. Those of you who are bilingual or better....

Scott wrote: "Angela wrote: "Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule."

Top 5 English versions unless you're reading a non-English version. Those of you who are bilingual or..."

So it's what I said then? The top five editions in whatever language you are reading it in.

Books have to be started in January, right? Also, what's the rule for rereading? (I had to read a play twice for two classes)

Slytherpuff wrote: "Books have to be started in January, right? Also, what's the rule for rereading? (I had to read a play twice for two classes)"

Yes, books need to be started in 2019. And you can enter a book multiple times, if you read it from start to finish each time... (or count a partial, if you DNF once, just need to modify the page count)

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Slytherpuff wrote: "Books have to be started in January, right? Also, what's the rule for rereading? (I had to read a play twice for two classes)"

Yes, books need to be started in 2019. And you ca..."

Thank you.

Yanique wrote: "Scott wrote: "Angela wrote: "Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule."

Top 5 English versions unless you're reading a non-English version. Those of you who ar..."

@Janique: It's the top 5 English versions. But if you are reading a book in another language, then you take that one. I assume it's a bit different from what you've said.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Yanique wrote: "Scott wrote: "Angela wrote: "Scott will amend his post Kathrine next time he's online and clarify the rule."

Top 5 English versions unless you're reading a non-English version. Tho..."

Nope. that's exactly what I said.

I'm stating it in a way that gets rid of the "but if you do this then..."
If you read in English: Top-five English editions.
If you read in Dutch then Dutch etc.

Every time we think the topic is resolved, it resurfaces, because of a secondary mod reply...

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Every time we think the topic is resolved, it resurfaces, because of a secondary mod reply..."

😂

Ah, okay, I missinterpretated it 😉

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Every time we think the topic is resolved, it resurfaces, because of a secondary mod reply..."

Yeah, just assume that whatever Scott says about page rules is correct.

Yeah I defer to anything scott says as far as the rules go haha. I almost didn’t respond but I didn’t want to leave y’all hanging.

If only everybody would defer to me what a wonderful world it would be. ;P

Lmao

What do we do about marking a book on the spreadsheet as a buddy read if no one but yourself actually ended up joining in the buddy read?

That happened to me last year. My buddy backed out at the last minute, when i was already halfway through the book... I marked it as a buddy read anyway, because it was one of those books i wouldn't have read otherwise and I'd already commented a ton on the thread...

Hailee wrote: "What do we do about marking a book on the spreadsheet as a buddy read if no one but yourself actually ended up joining in the buddy read?"

That's happened to me for the last two Nalini Singh books, I'm counting them as BRs since we organised the thread and I posted my thoughts.

Ok thanks guys, thats good to know. I'll do the same thing 😉

some of my BRs, people fell behind for a few months, then caught back up... Kurtherian Gambit with Choko, and Vorkosigan Saga with Sara J and a couple other people

Yeah, as long as you have good intentions and don't set up a buddy read by yourself (which is then not a buddy read) in order to get points, I have absolutely no problem with adding points for buddy reads others backed out of.

Jenna wrote: "Yeah, as long as you have good intentions and don't set up a buddy read by yourself (which is then not a buddy read) in order to get points, I have absolutely no problem with adding points for budd..."

It's a symptom of planning things so far away... it's easy to guarantee a Buddy Read tomorrow... harder to guarantee in September...

Jenna wrote: "Yeah, as long as you have good intentions and don't set up a buddy read by yourself (which is then not a buddy read) in order to get points, I have absolutely no problem with adding points for budd..."

Great thanks Jenna and yeah purposely setting up buddy reads by yourself would definitely be pushing the rules. Unless your imaginary friend wants to join in and then its ok right? lol 😂

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Yeah, as long as you have good intentions and don't set up a buddy read by yourself (which is then not a buddy read) in order to get points, I have absolutely no problem with adding p..."

True. We did only arange this buddy read two weeks before we started but the girl was new and I haven't seen her around the group since so maybe she changed her mind about the group altogether or she just had something come up in real life last minute. No-one can plan for those kind of things.

A new question for the mods. How do I track pages for a book that is exclusively on audio for six months and doesn’t have any page estimates yet for the print copy?

Narilka wrote: "A new question for the mods. How do I track pages for a book that is exclusively on audio for six months and doesn’t have any page estimates yet for the print copy?"

In general, audiobook narrators read at 30 pages per hour at default speeds, unless the words are long fantasy made-up words... narrators like Michael Kramer seem to read slower... some read faster... but it's a good average, in my experience...

I think Scott agreed when Shaitarn asked about another audio-only title...

FOUND IT: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Scott wrote: Shaitarn wrote: "Question: I was looking at listening to some audiobooks, but they have no physical form, so no page count. Is there a time = page count sum I can use to get a rough figure to add the book to my Cha..."

See if you can get the page count off of Amazon and if not I would say 30 pages per hour is about right.

Thanks Iain!

How Long do you have to comment after a BR thread is started?

I believe the rules are you get buddy read points if you start no more than 1 week early, or 2 weeks late.

Yes, that's it, Siobhan :)

Thanks Saar :)

But just because you can't earn bonus points, doesn't mean you can't hop into a BR thread while reading a book... discussing books is great, with or without bonus points :)

Thank you. I’m sorry for more questions. The br thread for Thunderhead was set for March 8th but I didn’t start until March 20th but I didn’t comment until the 24th. Would it count?

Yep your good!

Thank you!

Timelord Iain (Eeyawn) wrote: "But just because you can't earn bonus points, doesn't mean you can't hop into a BR thread while reading a book... discussing books is great, with or without bonus points :)"

The more, the merrier, off course ;)