Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Sir Anni wrote: "Jenna wrote: "Soo wrote: "For Buddy Reads to count, I remember you can start reading the book one week before the BR start date or join in within 2 weeks after start date.

Am I remembering that p..."

I like this clarification, otherwise it just invites people to collect points they haven't actually earned.

I personally always counted books as a BR when I have given some thoughts on the book in the BR thread in at least one comment (and by that I don't mean comments where i say I'm in) and have followed the discussion while reading. Would you say this is sufficient?

Bea wrote: "I personally always counted books as a BR when I have given some thoughts on the book in the BR thread in at least one comment (and by that I don't mean comments where i say I'm in) and have followed the discussion while reading. Would you say this is sufficient?"

Yes, this is great!

Hi Mods! I was wondering whether we can input DNF'd books in this challenge. Say I read 200 out of 350 pages of a book but I don't want to continue, can I still count the 200 pages?
Thanks in advance!

Navi wrote: "Hi Mods! I was wondering whether we can input DNF'd books in this challenge. Say I read 200 out of 350 pages of a book but I don't want to continue, can I still count the 200 pages?
Thanks in adva..."

I'm not a mod, but yes you can count the pages you read.

Tammie wrote: "I'm not a mod, but yes you can count the pages you read."

Thanks, Tammie!

From a mod: here to confirm that yes, what Tammie said is true.

What's the ruling on when all the new additions should start counting books?...

I think, in the past, the rule was the day they signed up on the signup thread?... when turnaround was pretty quick, anyway...

But last year or the year before, tho, there was some wiggle room in early January...

Just curious, since we've had so many late signups this year, and this newest batch took a week to decide/include...

Timelord Iain wrote: "What's the ruling on when all the new additions should start counting books?...

I think, in the past, the rule was the day they signed up on the signup thread?... when turnaround was pretty quick,..."

I will say from the sign-up date because it took a bit longer to add the last two people. I'll add it to the rules.

Updated the rules.

Hey guys. Reading this on my kindle. This is the only edition and it doesn't have pages listed. It is a short story. Thoughts for how to count it?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Not a mod but... Well, if you can have a word count, then 1 page = 300 words is an acceptable approximation.

Otherwise, if you can get it in Calibre (ebook management software), there's a nifty extension called 'Count Pages' that does exactly that.

Virginie wrote: "Not a mod but... Well, if you can have a word count, then 1 page = 300 words is an acceptable approximation.

Otherwise, if you can get it in Calibre (ebook management software), there's a nifty ex..."

This sounds good.

Two questions just to be sure:

Are we allowed to add BR-points for Dnfs?
And can Dnfs still be used for challenges like book cover and Bingo etc.?

Bea wrote: "Two questions just to be sure:

Are we allowed to add BR-points for Dnfs?
And can Dnfs still be used for challenges like book cover and Bingo etc.?"

1) Yes... just remember to plug in the pages you read, not the full book.
2) Again, I think yes, but for the competition, a DNF generally isn't worth wasting a challenge bonus on (maybe that's just me and my 100s of books talking, but challenges are best used on big books/points... this is less of an issue with the Incomplete Series Challenge)

Bea wrote: "Two questions just to be sure:

Are we allowed to add BR-points for Dnfs?
And can Dnfs still be used for challenges like book cover and Bingo etc.?"

I'd say yes for BRs. If you discussed the book on the thread, you should get the bonus points for the pages your read. As for challenges... Up to you, I guess? I'm personally only counting DNFs for the series challenge (since it's still one less series :p).
Maybe we can get a Mod ruling on this? :)

Timelord Iain wrote: "Bea wrote: "Two questions just to be sure:

Are we allowed to add BR-points for Dnfs?
And can Dnfs still be used for challenges like book cover and Bingo etc.?"

1) Yes... just remember to plug in ..."

Hm, I think it also depends on when you dnf a book. If you stop reading after only 30 pages then the challenge bonus isn't worth it but if you read 300 pages or more it's just like you read a regular shorter book.

I've been counting DNFs for every one of those for a long time. I count them for my challenges too, but every single book I read fits into one of my challenges, so it's not a big deal. Unlike the team reading contest, the mods have said before that the rules for the challenges are flexible. They mostly leave it up to our discretion.

Yes, DNFs can count for any challenges or buddy read points, but make sure when you are adding the pages, only include the number of pages you read.

Jenna wrote: "Yes, DNFs can count for any challenges or buddy read points, but make sure when you are adding the pages, only include the number of pages you read."

Thanks for clarifying, Jenna! That's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure I'm not adding any points I shouldn't :)

Question for you all since I'm a noob with these sheets. So I know for the audiobook portion you can always use a percentage for what you read and what you listened to...but when you write that number in the cell do you add like "25%" or just "25"?

Also, I was just testing some numbers and why does the point value change for a "Y" vs "100%" for audiobook? Just want to make sure I'm doing it right XD

Good tip about the DNF too! Thanks much!

Katie wrote: "When you write that number in the cell do you add like "25%" or just "25""

Just enter the number without the "%".

Katie wrote: "Also, I was just testing some numbers and why does the point value change for a "Y" vs "100%" for audiobook?"

It changes because there's the "%" character after. Google Sheets understands % as "divide by 100"... Entering "50%" in a cell is the same as entering "=50/100" or "0.5". So when you enter "100%", it's like you're putting "1" in the cell, and my point formula gives the points for a book 99% "eyeball", 1% audio.

(Btw, I did not know that before tonight... Always something new to learn :p)

If you enter "100", the point value should be the same as for "Y". (You probably tried and figured it out by now ^_^)

Virginie wrote: "Katie wrote: "When you write that number in the cell do you add like "25%" or just "25""

Just enter the number without the "%".

Katie wrote: "Also, I was just testing some numbers and why does th..."

Gracias Virginie!! I figured it was some weird code in google sheets or something when using symbols XD So just the numbers and I'll be good? Awesome :D

You're welcome :)

I need a ruling. I just read Beautiful by Juliet Marillier but it is an audible original meaning it is only out in audiobook format so there is no page count. It is 7 hours and 18 minutes long. What do I do?

I think it was decided last year that audio exclusives are to be counted as 2 minutes = 1 page. So... 438/2 = 219 pages.

I think Jenna added this to the official rules... just gotta make sure GR considers it a book... a bunch of us listened to last year, and it's since been moved to the NOT A BOOK graveyard, which I didn't even realize was a thing... it's apparently a GR Librarian holding pen for non-books with valid ISBNs (for publisher sorting reasons)

I was only able to link that book, because I found the page through google... non-books don't appear on the GR search results...

Also, some Audible Originals are given page count editions by someone... I read yesterday, and there's a 175 page edition listed...

Virginie wrote: "I think it was decided last year that audio exclusives are to be counted as 2 minutes = 1 page. So... 438/2 = 219 pages."

Thanks Virginie.

Timelord Iain wrote: "I think Jenna added this to the official rules... just gotta make sure GR considers it a book... a bunch of us listened to last year, and it's since been move..."

I checked the other editions but the only one with pages listed had 8 pages.

Bill wrote: "Virginie wrote: "I think it was decided last year that audio exclusives are to be counted as 2 minutes = 1 page. So... 438/2 = 219 pages."

Thanks Virginie.

Timelord Iain wrote: "I think Jenna add..."

That's a relic of GR not having audiobook length settings until recently... or at least, I never saw anyone using them correctly until recently...

Before people could say a book was 7hrs and 15 minutes, they'd just say an audiobook is 7-8 pages, as a measure of hours... so use the minutes/2 average formula we mentioned above (30/hr)

Ok so I wanted to revisit something I brought up earlier in the month. I’m doing Lightspeed podcast which is just an audio short story. The magazine is listed on GR but it has a lot of content other than the short stories and I’m finding that the short stories don’t match up well with the individual issues anyway.

So I added up the time for all the podcasts I listened to so far(Lightspeed Podcast episodes 1-41) and got 1,506 minutes. I then subtracted 4 minutes for each podcast to cover the intro and outro for each episode. That leaves me with 1,342 minutes which I would divide by 2 for 671 pages. So I would basically count it like an audiobook only release.

Can I count that in the competition or not?

Thanks.

Bill wrote: "Ok so I wanted to revisit something I brought up earlier in the month. I’m doing Lightspeed podcast which is just an audio short story. The magazine is listed on GR but it has a lot of content othe..."

Since it has a GR listing, go ahead and include it. :)

Jenna wrote: "Since it has a GR listing, go ahead and include it. :) "

Thanks Jenna.

If I read a fanfiction - it has an entry on goodreads - but i didn't want to include it on my goodreads shelves (I just prefer not to add all the fanfiction I read to my goodreads records to avoid cluttering it up) can I still add it to my spreadsheet for points?

About the fan-fiction part: it's technically the same as a webnovel, and several persons (myself included) have been counting Worm for the competition, so I'd say it's fine.

About the not-shelving on GR: I'm personally not shelving the mangas I read on GR to avoid cluttering as you said, but am counting them for the competition. I know for a fact I'm not the only one doing that so again, I'd say it's fine :)

EDIT: on second thought, you're on the enemy team... No, don't count it! :p

Hey guys, this is more of a pet peeve than a problem, and just maybe something to keep in mind for next year. I have two books that I didn't finish that I added what I did read to the spreadsheet. Both of them are counting as novellas in the amount of each type read section. Maybe next year could there be a box that if we didn't finish the book it won't count in the short story/novella/novel/tome section? Like I said, not really a problem, just bugging me a bit.

Virginie wrote: "About the fan-fiction part: it's technically the same as a webnovel, and several persons (myself included) have been counting Worm for the competition, so I'd say it's fine.

About ..."

Haha no take backs. Thanks Virginie :-)

Elizabeth wrote: "Hey guys, this is more of a pet peeve than a problem, and just maybe something to keep in mind for next year. I have two books that I didn't finish that I added what I did read to the spreadsheet. ..."

Ah, I feel you, this annoyed me so much I modified the formulas on my own scoresheet. I added a value to the rating column: "-". Every book with this (while still counting properly for the competition) won't be considered for the short/novella/book/tomes stat. Do you want me to implement that on your sheet?

I'm keeping a list of improvement/modifications for next year so I'll add this issue on it.

Virginie wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Hey guys, this is more of a pet peeve than a problem, and just maybe something to keep in mind for next year. I have two books that I didn't finish that I added what I did read to..."

That works... it's similar to me tracking re-reads, so I won't skew my genre charts...

Virginie wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Hey guys, this is more of a pet peeve than a problem, and just maybe something to keep in mind for next year. I have two books that I didn't finish that I added what I did read to..."

yes please!

Done! I've modified your total book counter as well so that the number match shorts + novella + novel + tomes.

Thanks!

So, I just finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue and the first 4 editions are English and then a bunch of non-English except an audio book in between (which doesn't have a page count). So if you don't count that, the next English edition would count as the 5th one.. can I use that page count? It's got 464 pages

Yes

Thank you! 😊

The only time it feels like cheating, is when a large print edition is in the top 5

Timelord Iain wrote: "The only time it feels like cheating, is when a large print edition is in the top 5"

Yeah it kind of does, but it's also nice haha.