Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Today was cold and extremely windy. DD and I sat in chairs in the back of the truck reading, so we could stay out of the wind while the boys fished.

What soon to be released book are you excited about this fall?

I've really been enjoying this series.

Do you have a favorite book or author that you like to read around Halloween?
I like to read more mysteries and/or thrillers around this time of year, but I still read my other favorite genres. I'm hoping to continue/finish The Patrick Bowers Files series by Steven James.

First five names that pop in your head - Who are your favorite authors?
Kasie West, Kelly Oram, Tracie Peterson, Sarah Sundin, Steven James

Who are the best new to you authors that you have discovered this year?
Rula Sinara ( ), Amy Vastine ( ), Kim Findlay ( ), and Rachel John ( )

What are the best audiobooks you listened to this year? Who are your favorite narrators?
I've listened to one audiobook this year and it was Ruby Red. It was a reread but interesting to listen to it this time instead of reading it.

What series do you have sitting on the back burner that you keep thinking you need to get back to reading?
Besides The Patrick Bowsers Files, probably either Cainsville series by Kelley Armstrong or Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

Megan wrote: "What soon to be released book are you excited about this fall?

I've really been enjoying this series.

Do you have a favorite book or author that you like to ..."

I had forgotten about Armstrong's Cainsville series. I think I've only read the first book in the series.

Question of the day

What's your favorite kind of Halloween candy? Do you have a favorite Halloween memory or tradition you'd like to share?

I'm partial to either miniature Snickers or Three Musketeers. We don't really have any Halloween traditions. I think this my youngest and I will make pumpkin shaped cut out cookies to decorate. (Maybe I can find a recipe to make them pumpkin flavored.)

Milky Way Midnights are my favorite Halloween candy

Well, CANDY CORN of course! But I equally love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and mini Snickers.

I am so jealous of you beach goers. It's a bit too chilly here in NY to relax on the sand. So instead I relaxed in my house :) I made homemade chicken stock for the first time and it took all day and came out pretty tasty. Best part was my 6 y/o being my little kitchen helper :) And listening to Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology when my kid ditched me for her dolls, lol.

5 days!!

5 days, 5 painful days of waiting!!!

Gah, I really want to add to my Week One plans but I am holding off to make sure that I finish other stuff first for higher point value. It's just that I reeeeeaaaaalllllllly want to read it, and I have to read it -- AND the next book after it in the series -- before I can read a couple of short stories that I have for it that take place afterwards and DAMMIT THIS IS KILLING ME!

Ah well, just working my way slowly through so I should finish right before Wheel begins. I barely read over the weekend. Had a bunch of stuff to do with my daughter, and took her dad out to see Halloween for his birthday. That was fun :D

Alysa wrote: "5 days, 5 painful days of waiting!!!

Gah, I really want to add to my Week One plans but I am holding off to make sure that I finish other stuff first f..."

I've been wanting to try the Chronicles of St. Mary's, but I keep telling myself to finish up a few of my ongoing series first. I'm reading mostly shorter KU books this week but am planning to start my reread of the Peter Grant series either tonight or tomorrow.

Alysa, how's the walking going? DD and I took a nice one hour beach walk this morning, and we talked my mom into a shorter walk this afternoon when we got back to the house.

I really, really love the St Mary’s books. The characters are so much fun, and I am continually impressed by how well the author manages to keep things fresh. Not to mention her amazing grasp of history.

The walking is going well, thanks! Weekends are harder for me than weekdays because I can’t build extra steps into the day in the same way (e.g. getting off the subway a couple of stops early en route to work), but other than that, well, let’s just say my feet hurt 😉

Does anyone understand why other teams would be thinking that the bonus categories cannot be earned during the first spell-out? Apparently more than one other team thinks this, but I see nothing in the rules that indicates so.

Alysa wrote: "Does anyone understand why other teams would be thinking that the bonus categories cannot be earned during the first spell-out? Apparently more than one other team thinks this, but I see nothing in..."

A misinterpretation of the rules. They say:

"◈ Once teams have read their word for the week they can "re-read" the word to gain more points (according to the point system below)"

Some have read this as the first reading doesn't get any additional points besides reading (book points plus the completion bonus for the first word). Sonia has a detailed example on the captain's board to show that BOM points and bonus points can be earned in any spelling as long as they are in either a fully spelled word or the first partially spelled one. HTH

Weird misinterpretation. I would never have gotten that from the rules’ language at all. 🤨

I guess it doesn’t matter much, assuming that all such confused teams make it past their first spelling anyway. (And if somehow they don’t, and they miss their chance to use all their ‘bonus point’ reads in any subsequent spellings, well, that would be all the better for the rest of us, LOL.)
Thanks for the extra details!

Morning all! Only 4 more days until start!

Question of the day

What book(s) are you trying to finish up before the challenge start?

I don't have any partially read books at the moment, so I'm currently sticking to short <250 page books to finish off some other challenges. I have decided to reread the Peter Grant series and will try to finish the first two books this week.

Deanna wrote: "I have decided to reread the Peter Grant series and will try to finish the first two books this week. ..."

Don't know if you do buddy reads at all, but I've asked for a thread to be set up for Lies Sleeping for the day (Amazon says) it comes out....

I mean, I'll be reading it quick, but it's also fun to chat too, if you fancy?

I should be finishing
and this week, maybe other books

I'm trying to finish Postcards from the Edge and Alice before the challenge starts. I'm hoping to get the former done by tomorrow and the latter by Thursday, then plan to just do short reads like Big Mushy Happy Lump and Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy to fill any time before the challenge starts (and because I want to of course). I'm listening to Practical Magic and Frankenstein and should finish them by tonight or early tomorrow so I'll probably do one more audio book to get me through the work week. I've got The Essex Serpent ready on Overdrive so will move on to that.

Practical Magic the book was a BIT darker haha I loved it

I'm about halfway through now, but it's meant to be read in "episodes" and really is better like that IMO, so I'm taking it a bit slowly.

I am expecting the audiobook of to come in from the library on Overdrive any friggin' day now. I already have an e copy (NetGalley) but if the audio comes in by tomorrow, I may try to squeeze it in before Wheel, as I like to switch back and forth between ebook/print and audio.
If it doesn't come in until Thurs or later, well, I take 21-day loans so I will just try to use it for Week Two or Week Three instead.

Brittany wrote: "Practical Magic the book was a BIT darker haha I loved it"

I read an article recently about the movie, which for some reason I have never seen.. but now I really want to!

Alysa wrote: "Brittany wrote: "Practical Magic the book was a BIT darker haha I loved it"

I read an article recently about the movie, which for some reason I have never seen.. but now I really want to!"

Oh man I have seen it more than 20 times. I LOVE it! but I watched before reading, so hopefully that doesn't make you hate it haha

BTW Brittany, do you know what you're reading for Wheel yet? I have the spreadsheet open right now if you want me to add anything for you. If it's helpful, it looks like we especially need O's.

JanEyre9 wrote: "I'm kind of relieved that October BOMs won't count. Frees up some space on my overdrive!"

There are other teams that seem not to have gotten the memo that October BOMs won't count for BOM bonuses. I thought about telling them, but we are only 4 days out now. If they don't notice the error of their ways, they can lie in the bed they're making. LOL.
ETA: Aw, at least one of them has self-corrected. ;D

As for Nov BOMs, I have requested The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein six ways to Sunday. Print, eBook and Audio at public library all have very long wait times but with nearly a month to go, I may have a chance. I also requested it via ILL at my work (academic library) -- WorldCat says that over 400 libraries own the print version, so if one of them is done cataloging it and hasn't already loaned it out, it should only take a week or two for me to get a copy! Eeee!

Brittany wrote: "Practical Magic the book was a BIT darker haha I loved it"

This is definitely darker than I expected and not quite as magical in an obvious way but I am really enjoying it.

Alysa wrote: "BTW Brittany, do you know what you're reading for Wheel yet? I have the spreadsheet open right now if you want me to add anything for you. If it's helpful, it looks like we especially need O's."

Is this a Title O or an author initial O?

Brittany wrote: "Alysa wrote: "BTW Brittany, do you know what you're reading for Wheel yet? I have the spreadsheet open right now if you want me to add anything for you. If it's helpful, it looks like we especially..."

Doesn't matter. Any kind of O (title, author, character name) that we can use!

Let me see.. is it for the first week, or how much time do we have?

Oh wow, I have practically no "O"s
The only one I am seeing I could use right now is The Other Mother by Carol Goodman

Can it be the last name of a character? OR does it have to be a first name?

Hey guys, I'm at a trade show most of this week, sorry I havent been around a lot! I have a couple O's I can use if we end up needing those, and can probably find more too

Brittany wrote: "Can it be the last name of a character? OR does it have to be a first name?"

NBRC spell-it-out rules says:
"the first letter in the book's title, the first letter in the author's first or last name, or the first letter of a character's first, last, or nick-name, or the first letter of the series name"

We're still only talking about the first week for now (though probability suggests that we're likely to have more O's in future Spins of the Wheel...)

A lot of us are picking books that would fit for more than one letter (title C, with author R, and characters N and D, or whatever), so the captains can mix&match when they put in our submissons, but so far there is literally only one book with any kind of O option.

So we need at least one more O to guarantee spelling our word twice.

Other than that, third spelling is wide open!
(Though it would be great to get at least a third O and a third Y, since they're in the "difficult letters" list.)

A few of our team have claimed only 1 (Megan) or 0 (Rebecca and Brittany) things on the spreadsheet yet, for whatever reason -- which is totally fine because we have time, and not everybody plans further than 1 book ahead of themselves.

I'm worried that we're going to be skint for O's for all of Wheel though.
Probability of getting a word with at least one O on the Halloween Wheel is 17 out of 24! Then it drops down to about a 1/3 chance on the Thanksgiving Wheel and about a 1/2 chance on the Xmas Wheel.

PS -- I found a bunch more O's that I could read for Weeks 2-6, if needed, but I've still maxed out my planned reading for Week 1.

Gotta love the Control+F command. I never know what I will find! :D

I will be able to fit at least 1 more audio book into the first week so I'm choosing The Other Alcott - we can use it for O, A, and the narrator works for C. I'm scouting other O books also, I have a good amount I can keep on deck.

Oh do we know yet when we find out the next word? How short notice will it be? :)

Cat wrote: "Deanna wrote: "I have decided to reread the Peter Grant series and will try to finish the first two books this week. ..."

Don't know if you do buddy reads at all, but I've asked for a thread to be..."

I can't get it from Amazon until the 20th, but I'll come talk then if anyone is still around.

Yay Jan!

Re when we're getting out next word, I asked about that a week or two ago. Deanna said that in Captains' group the Mods said it would be 1-2 days before the start of Round Two.
That gives us a bit of time to plan ahead.

JanEyre9 wrote: "Oh do we know yet when we find out the next word? How short notice will it be? :)"

Karen said one or two days ahead of time, so either Thursday or Friday each week.

Oh I totally missed that, thanks!

Brittany wrote: "Let me see.. is it for the first week, or how much time do we have?

Oh wow, I have practically no "O"s
The only one I am seeing I could use right now is The Other Mother by [autho..."

That's fine. I have close to 20 on my longer books list and can easily find shorter ones as well.

Current Team Status

Bonuses:
🔸word in text - Deanna
🔸word in title - Jan
🔸word on cover - Deanna
🔸word as genre - Megan

Spellings of Candy Corn
🔸Spelling 1 - All claimed
🔸Spelling 2 - All claimed
🔸Spelling 3 - 1 C claimed

⏳Almost time!!⏳

Is everyone excited? Since we've been chatting for a couple of weeks, can I ask everyone to check in one more time by answering today's question of the day please. Thanks in advance!

Question of the Day

What book are you planning to read first for Wheel-a-thon III?

I'll be starting with one of my candy corn books: if I'm home by start time or if I'm still on the way home.

3 days!!!

I think my first book is going to be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Can't wait!

Deanna wrote: "Question of the Day
What book are you planning to read first for Wheel-a-thon III?"

w00t!!

I'm going to start (on Sat evening) with , because it has to be returned to the library ASAP next week. Then on Sunday I'm going to start because I just cannot help myself I am so excited to continue this series!

I know those are the shorter 2 book of the 4 I'm planning for Week One, but I should be able to finish both of them by Tues/Wed, which leaves me plenty of time to finish the long ones by the following Sat.

I am kind of looking forward to having only a day or two to plan the second word. That way everything will be more on-the-fly. I mean, I won't have claimed a bunch of books I'm excited about and then have to sit on them for like 3 weeks again, LOL.

Where are our other 5 teammies today? Let's get excited! :D

Deanna wrote: "What book(s) are you trying to finish up before the challenge start?"

- almost finished and am enjoying it.

What book are you planning to read first for Wheel-a-thon III?
I'm planning on starting first, but we'll see if it's the first I finish.

If it’s any good, maybe one of the rest of us can use it for Z if needed for any future words. :)

I'm hoping it's good, but will let you know my thoughts either way. :)

I’m still traveling for work but I’ll be heading home tomorrow and getting ready to start!

I will be reading whatever I haven't already finished before then haha So I have no idea what it will be