Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Cat wrote: "oh! oh! there is!

hang on - brb!


ahhhh... bother.
It's https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/97800...
But GR doesn't have that ed with an image, and it doesn't appear to be availa..."

Hah! GR does have this version, with an image where you can see the pan flute in the dude's hands if you look closely:
Cloven Hooves

I may try to get an Interlibrary Loan of this (there's a partner institution of my library [workplace] that seems to have it) but it may not come in time. :/

Thanks Cat!

fingers crossed! surely you can use librarian magic to get it to wriggle it's way to you?!

I think I can! I don't have any control over the speed of arrival, as that's not my Department, but I just put in the request and it's supposed to turn up sometime next week.
If it does, I shall post a happy picture of it :D

Just looking at the UNO cards for April. My team has 3 yellow cards, and I need a V or I character / location... Why don't any of the reviews list the secondary characters?!?!?! So annoying, not knowing if a Ichabod or Venetia will pop up during the Perfect Sax book! grrrrr!

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I'm trying to decide if I want to break my compulsion to read series in order to get a couple of tasks done."

I can count on one hand the number of times in my life that I have done that. I was usually sorry, but not always. I guess it depends on the series.

Managed to finish my 3rd book and I am honestly so proud of myself today :D

I'm finally on a roll! Finsihed five books in quick succession and I really needed that in order to keep up with everyone.
Unfortunately just discovered that in my quest for reading fast books I did read one that was too short. Luckily, I can make that up quickly, though I will have to tinker in my spreadsheet later today to set it right.
This challenge is really making me come out of my comfort zone. I even read a romance story just last night while this is one of my least favourite genres (hey, it had the word April in the title so at least it's going to earn me big points for the bonus task).

I've definitely upped my reading with this challenge and I haven't read anything I would otherwise have no interest in either-so that's a plus. Still debating if I want to try and go up a category. I probably won't. I think I could get into the next one but then I'd probably end up at the bottom and I don't think I'd be able to keep it up for the rest of the challenge. But I'll see how much time is left when I hit my max on my current category. It's finally up into the 40's here and I have been walking more, which means more audio book time.

Alysa wrote: "I think I can! I don't have any control over the speed of arrival, as that's not my Department, but I just put in the request and it's supposed to turn up sometime next week.
If it does, I shall po..."

@Cat
Library copy of Cloven Hooves just came in... but it's an "approved photocopy" with blank paper binding! It's absolutely the correct edition so I could still use it, but the problem is it's printed on this really heavy letter-size paper stock. It probably weighs 3 times the original book, and barely fits in my bag! There is no way I am carrying it around. *sad*

Luckily, I found something else that fits the task. :D

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I've definitely upped my reading with this challenge.."

I actually lowered my category this round because I was getting really stressed last time trying to make sure I read enough books. I didn't want to do that this time, plus I have more larger books slotted into my reading plan.

But so far, I haven't had much trouble fitting a book I'm already reading into a task. So it's worked out okay.

Yeah, I'm thinking once the first month excitement wears off, I might end up regretting going up a category. But if I hit my limit with a week to spare, I might be really tempted.

Just finished my first Bonus Task book!
That’s my good news. My bad news is that the 2nd book I started for it is probably going to be a DNF. Ugh, I am not into it at all.

At least I already have a back-up plan though...

Aw man, hardly anybody voted on May BOM polls, and one of them has a 3-way tie for first place (only 6 votes each).
Here’s me hoping that some kind person with enough Ruby Gem Coins to overturn the poll outcome will do so, in favor of my nomination (which got 5 votes). Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? 😅

If not, will there be a run-off poll for the tied titles?

Alysa, the mods are discussing what to do, in the absence of a Ruby Gem Coin override. Timezones & such mean it's probably going to be tomorrow morning (for context: I'm in the UK, and it's early afternoon here) before we decide and act on it.

Cat wrote: "Alysa, the mods are discussing what to do, in the absence of a Ruby Gem Coin override. Timezones & such mean it's probably going to be tomorrow morning (for context: I'm in the UK, and it's early a..."

Thanks for the info, Cat!
FWIW, in a run-off I would change my vote to The History of Bees. There’s yer tiebreaker right there. Boom. 😎

ETA: Isn’t History if Bees also the book that you nominated but then ended up not voting for? That must count for something, eh?

Alysa wrote: "Isn’t History if Bees also the book that you nominated but then ended up not voting for? That must count for something, eh? "

I am a fickle fool, is what it counts for!

I think when I voted A History of Bees was trailing a bit, so I went with my 2nd choice, and then didn't recheck the position later.

I found chlorophyll!! It's in , the second Thursday Next book. (Now to go find another 399 page book for the page count add to 21 task.)

Deanna wrote: "

I found chlorophyll!! It's in , the second Thursday Next book. (Now to go find another 399 page book for the page count add to 21 task.)"

Nice find Deanna!

Deanna wrote: "I found chlorophyll!!"


Haha, that GIF is perfect.

That's how I felt when I was trying to pick a bookshelf bingo book and found a book on the shelf, that I own already and has a Y named character (thank you goodreads character listings).

Well, we finally got a pick for our Adult BOM: The Fifth Season, which makes me squee a bit in happiness, even if my Bees failed to win again :(

On the expectation (though I have no input) of a DQ volunteer 100pointer for Month 2 of RSU, the two picks can be found over here

And don't forget to look out for your chance to nominate a book for June!

Cat wrote: "Well, we finally got a pick for our Adult BOM: The Fifth Season, which makes me squee a bit in happiness, even if my Bees failed to win again :(

On the expectation (though I have ..."


I was following that poll very closely (because of course I was) and once Mother-In-Law was removed, I would have been totally happy with anything BUT The Fifth Season, lol. I read it in 2016 and didn’t particularly like it so I don’t really wanna reread. I guess I *might* consider giving it another go at some point if it wasn’t also like 500 pages long. :/

I have been assuming there will be another 100pt BOM task for May, but now I sure hope there won’t, hehe!! Switch things up a little, I beg you? ;D

But the thing that really stings most is that, based on my observation of every other hotly-contested BOM poll ever, only a tiny portion of the people who voted will end up participating. I mean, this time there were like 200 voters, and a lot of them just picked the most famous candidate, or the one book they’d read and liked. So the majority who won’t participate basically chose the BOM for the minority who will (or who wanted to).

/end rant

Idea!: If there is the usual 100pt task, maybe there can be a separate 50pt task for “Read any book that was nominated for May BOM (besides the winners)”. It narrows the task to just a handful of titles :)

That's why I don't vote in the polls. Because I very rarely participate in the discussions. Maybe some people like they have to? Then I'm sure there are those who just love taking polls even if it's irrelevant to them.

Which is why, I did participate this month, because Drowning Deep interested me and I figured if it was a repeated, task, It might be the only one picked that did interest me. (My library also had tons of copies of it some edition or other)

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "That's why I don't vote in the polls. Because I very rarely participate in the discussions. Maybe some people like they have to? Then I'm sure there are those who just love taking polls even if it'..."

Yeah, I was happy to participate in Drowning Deep because it was a book that interested me anyway, apart from being a good chance to pick up those extra 100 points in case I don’t do the BOM task in Challenge months 2 and 3.

This was the first time I ever participated in a BOM while it was also part of a challenge [eta: apart from one book during Wheel-a-Thon!], though I have participated in BOMs in the past simply for fun and brain-exercise :)
I do get pretty invested when I nominate stuff, or even when I simply vote on stuff, because I only do these actions if I really want to participate if my choice wins. I am weird like that though.

I totally understand and respect why the Mods reopened the poll and made an announcement about it, but if I were a Mod I would have been the super hard-ass one, like, “Listen people, y’all had plenty of time to vote the first time and did not do so”, and just contacted the 6 people who voted for The Mother-In-Law to have them redistribute their votes among the other 5 candidates. Unless they were split 3/3 across the other 2 books that were tied, that surely would have gotten to a winner. (Which may still have been The Fifth Season, but at least I would be less annoyed about it 😉)

Okay, these grapes are sour.

really /end rant :D

We have a separate area as mods that we use to discuss ideas/rant, chat, etc... I won't bore you with the details of the rants. Sometimes there can be a few. So as long as your rant is tasteful and doesn't hurt anyone else we don't mind! Thank you for your suggestions we will take them into consideration.

Side note...the 100 pt BOM volunteer discussion task was included to bump up BOM participation which it has. Also we understand that not every nomination is going to be appealing for each member because of individual reading tastes- get your nomination out there for next time around!

Laura wrote: "We have a separate area as mods that we use to discuss ideas/rant, chat, etc... I won't bore you with the details of the rants. Sometimes there can be a few. So as long as your rant is tasteful and..."

I will definitely nominate another book for June. Not The Night Tiger again because I will probably read it in the meantime. Maybe I'll nominate the Bees one, in honor of Cat. I did place a library hold on it, just in case. ;D

hahahahahaha!

love it!

Let me know what you think of The Night Tiger?

Well that will save her from being predictable and boring :D

Laura wrote: "Well that will save her from being predictable and boring :D"

I prefer "reliable and dependable" ;P

Teehee!

Who thought up the April/May task #45 " a character with excessive sexual desire" ???!!

Any ideas, outside of a Laurell K Hamilton book (excluding the more sensible early Anita books)?!

Lol I love that one

I just finished a charley Davidson book and any of hers I think would count!!!

I put a couple of books I want to read up in the buddy request thread if anyone is interested :)

I asked if the buddy read points count if you read with another player who made the request or only if you made the request yourself.

No idea I was on the same time zone as Ottawa. Good to know that I have all day and night on my Saturday to finish my last couple of books.

Has anyone found anything yet for the hockey (8) or fashion designer (9) tasks in Month 2 yet?
Listopia has a lot of hockey romance, but this is not my preference so I'm fishing around, lol. Especially for books that can be got from the library! For fashion, I'm finding mainly Chick Lit which is also not my preference, but... we'll see. Reading outside comfort zones has been happening a lot with all these challenges lately :D
And what's funny is, it was me who suggested a fashion-related task, teehee!

I saw someone ask about the Authors Who Died This Year task... apparently Gene Wolfe died a few days ago. *sad*

Alysa wrote: "Has anyone found anything yet for the hockey (8) or fashion designer (9) tasks in Month 2 yet?
Listopia has a lot of hockey romance, but this is not my preference so I'm fishing around, lol. Espec..."

Answering my own questions, I found this article if anyone is interested!:

"Top 10 Novels For Fashion Lovers":
https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/l...

Alysa wrote: "Has anyone found anything yet for the hockey (8) or fashion designer (9) tasks in Month 2 yet?
Listopia has a lot of hockey romance, but this is not my preference so I'm fishing around, lol. Espec..."

Haha...*insert evil laugh* ...be careful which tasks you ask for as they just might appear!

I just read Ayesha at Last, which is a Pride & Prejudice reboot by a Canadian author, and I love it.
She's set it in Toronto's South East Asian Muslim community, with characters that challenge readers perceptions as well as book characters. It's not a retelling - Ayesha doesn't have loads of sisters for a start, but there are the recognisable tangles of P&P plots points & characters and the stirring of the mix works so well in the context of rishtas, arranged marriages and the struggle of how to be a practising Muslim in modern workplaces

Oh I saw that reviewed in the paper today, Cat. It looks interesting!

So I've spent today reading 80% of a book that I found on a list of Canadian YA books coming out in 2019, only to find out on Goodreads that the author currently lives in Canada, but was born somewhere else, and has lived pretty much all over the world.

What a great use of my time today..

Ashleigh wrote: "So I've spent today reading 80% of a book that I found on a list of Canadian YA books coming out in 2019, only to find out on Goodreads that the author currently lives in Canada, but was born somew..."

LOL, well at least this isn't Cutthroat, when we'd be reading a bunch of books that then suddenly wouldn't count due to theft or sabotage! ;D

Ahh what does it say about me that I kinda miss Cutthroat? hahaha

Time to use your ereader, amazon or google books to see if it has any other tasks in it so you at least get some points.

Ashleigh wrote: "Ahh what does it say about me that I kinda miss Cutthroat? hahaha"

Me too, former teammate. Me too :D

I ended up with like 20 partially read books by the end of Cutthroat. (ok that's probably an exaggeration but it was more than a few)

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I ended up with like 20 partially read books by the end of Cutthroat. (ok that's probably an exaggeration but it was more than a few)"

Which team were you on?

I honestly don't remember. I just remember getting hit with "no books with a letter e in the title" and similar stuff.

But it was fun and I would play again.

eta: I was on Sting.

Mary: Harry Dresden's Love Slave wrote: "I honestly don't remember. I just remember getting hit with "no books with a letter e in the title" and similar stuff.

But it was fun and I would play again."

It was super fun. It was my first Team Challenge and got me hooked and a little paranoid about stuff fitting tasks perfectly :)

You were on Sting! I just checked. Your team was one of my team's sworn enemies, lol.