Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Rosina - Hope you had a great time camping. Was the book based on the video game or completely separate?

Sophie wrote: "Rosina - Hope you had a great time camping. Was the book based on the video game or completely separate?"

Separate I think....I haven't played the game....

Second book (Norse Mythology) finished & updated on spreadsheet

Hello, dropping in from team Fridge for some recommendations for Fantasy (Epic/High/Dark) and Space Opera. If you have any please?

Thank you!

Hi Danielle! I've heard really good things about The Ruin of Kings and The Priory of the Orange Tree for epic fantasies. The latter has been sitting in my TBR forever but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is fantastic (or at least to the point 2hrs before the end which is where I'm at).

Space Opera - I've been really enjoying the collapsing empire series by John Scalzi.

morning
Added another book I finished.

Noticed on the team spreadsheet that the book Inhale I had finished was not tagged for whales.

Fix that, thanks. Could you add the Siren to your challenge shelf please?

I've been reading more lately. Hubby went back to his Saturday bar tending job. Work has been slower. Which means I'm usually alone in the office most afternoons and just there in case the phone rings and to lock up after the guys in the shop leave.

Also this year has been bad for me medically speaking and a lot of time in doctors offices and waiting rooms. I mentioned before that I've had an issue with my arm and shoulder. But I've also needed some major dental work. I'm just getting over my 2nd sinus infection of the year. I went in for a mole/skin check and recently found out that I had the very beginnings of skin cancer. I'm glad my appointment didn't get pushed back because of the pandemic because they caught it so early that it's barely cancer. But that's multiple appointments with the dermatologist and yesterday with a surgeon whose going to dig out more of the spot they biopsied. Just to make sure there's not a speck left to regrow. Now I have to go regularly for skin checks. But I'll take that over full blown cancer.

If you haven't had a skin check yet, get one! Don't wait especially if you are light eyed, light haired and fair like me. I have 2 friends with the same issue as me. All 3 of us are light eyed, fair skinned blonds.

Oh Mary, sounds like you've really been going through it with your health recently. Glad to hear the skin thing was caught early and the appointments carried on happening

Oof, that sucks you've had such a crummy health year, especially with the pandemic I know it must be stressful going into the doctor's office. Glad it was caught early though! :) Also glad you have lots of time for reading to escape some of the crazy that is the world right now.

@Sophie @Victoria Is it possible to please ask one of the mods to fix the Member Info sheet on the main SS? Thanks!

Sophie wrote: "Tonya - I hope you are doing ok, and well done for focusing on yourself.


We've just completed our first spell out of this round and the 2nd is looking good."

Thanks Sophie - I am! It helps that the man I'm separating from is a good person and a great friend. We just grew in different directions over 20 years together. :)

Sophie wrote: "The Priory of the Orange Tree is fantastic (or at least to the point 2hrs before the end which is where I'm at).

Space Opera - I've been really enjoying the collapsing empire series by John Scalzi."

*Starts digging for this thing called "space opera" as this is the first time hearing that term*

I think of it as sci-fi concentrating on the characters not big space battles. Another good author for it is Becky Chambers.

I'll fix the members info tab when I get onto my computer.

Tonya, sorry to hear about your break up.

Sophie wrote: "I think of it as sci-fi concentrating on the characters not big space battles. Another good author for it is Becky Chambers."

I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so much! The characters in there are so great and diverse. I haven't read her other two books but for a debut, this one was amazing.

Just checking in. Close to finishing several books. Work has been crazy with Covid testing....so I haven't been as chatty but I promise I'm reading.

Thanks for checking in! I can't imagine how things are night in terms of the virus with all the new surges. I'm a bit worried we're going to have a lot more cases in the UK once restaurants and pubs open in a few days.

Mary C wrote: "I've been reading more lately. Hubby went back to his Saturday bar tending job. Work has been slower. Which means I'm usually alone in the office most afternoons and just there in case the phone ri..."

I'm so sorry to hear about your health but it sounds like things are going relatively well given the circumstances, especially being able to keep your appointments. I imagine all this is very stressful and the pandemic can't be helping.

And thanks for the reminder about getting skin checks. I've had a new mole appear under my armpit and I've been hesitant to get it checked as it's prob nothing and haven't been wanting to deal with scheduling around said pandemic. But I'm only hurting myself if I do have something and was too lazy to do anything about it.

Our 1st 2 spell outs are done and we've got enough I and O books to do the next 3 (or 5 with some juggling).

Looking at the team comparison we are currently in 2nd, but a number of teams haven't added anything for round 2 yet (among them a couple of teams that were v close to us last round).

Yay, last day of work today before my three week holiday! We were going to do some hiking in national parks starting tomorrow, but after being lovely sunny all of June the weather has turned into a normal Finnish summer weather (i.e. rain and temps under +20 C), so we're postponing the hikes a bit, hoping that we'll get better weather towards the end of my holiday. We'll head towards the summer cottage on Sunday and then visit Helsinki towards the end of next week. I will have to see how well I'm able to access the SS from hubby's laptop (I normally use our desktop PC for this). If not, I'll just have to send completion posts, but I'll have less reading time than usually.

Enjoy your holiday! Shame the weather isn't playing nicely for you. Completion posts are good if you can't get onto the SS

Any letters we need more than others?

I have one more week of work but things have calmed down considerably. I'll be able to read way more now. What strategy would you prefer:

A) I read 500+ page books, which will be about 2 a day.
B) I read 300 - 400 page books, which will be about 3-4 a day.

Not sure if page numbers or quantity is better?

Mary C wrote: "Any letters we need more than others?"

Just doing a quick glance at the spreadsheet, I'm thinking P, N, and always I since those are the letters we need 2 books for each and they have lower # of books counts than some of the other letters.

I'd say P and N really. Seem to have enough I for now.

Points wise, we get points depending on the number of pages so if it works out as the same number of pages we get the same points. After the 1st spell out there are no bonuses for finishing them.

Sophie wrote: "I'd say P and N really. Seem to have enough I for now.

Points wise, we get points depending on the number of pages so if it works out as the same number of pages we get the same points. After the ..."

But we can only have 1 incomplete word right?

Yeah, we've currently got enough I books for 17 spell outs if everything on the sheet is read. Enough books work for multiple letters that Victoria and I will be able to shuffle books around to make sure we only have one incomplete spell out this time next week.

Question: I'm reading the biography of Stevie Nicks written by Steven Davis. Would Stevie Nicks count as a character since its about her life or do characters only work for Nonfiction?

With the points per page system, there’s a slight benefit to reading shorter books to get more tasks points. But I think people should read what they want and enjoy.

Have a little think and chat about the subject of a biography being a character or not - will get back to you ASAP.

The 5 points for the task is equivalent to 50 pages. I'd lean towards reading what you enjoy and the increased reading speed/time spent reading will probably make up that balance.

Stevie Nicks would be ok to use as a character in that example, but no-one else. In general, people in non-fiction wouldn't count.

We're halfway through round 2! Well done everyone for another fantastic week's reading. Ideally looking at the members tab, everyone would be at roughly 50% at this point. Some people are already at 100% (or above) which is fantastic and balances those of us who haven't (myself included). As a team we've read 60% of our expected total which is great.

Reminder - each person can only use a task once. I'm seeing some duplicates on the SS.

I'm struggling with 20 thousand leagues under the sea. Will get it finished and then hopefully my reading will speed up

I''m hoping to finish my 3rd book tonight which works for a tag (mermaid)
I'm going to be away from tomorrow until Friday so may not be posting much. I will have my laptop as will have some work to do. I'll be continuing to read and will keep spreadsheet updated as I finish books.

Sophie wrote: "Reminder - each person can only use a task once. I'm seeing some duplicates on the SS."

How is that possible? Isn't everybody using the tasks sheet? Entering the books into the task sheet prevents duplicates, as you see that you've used the task already. I think that is a very good way of handling the tasks, as there are so many of them. I think another team got penalized in the first round for repeating tasks, so hopefully we can avoid that.

Some people haven't been using the task sheet. I've just been through and updated it and will be checking it every time we add books so shouldn't be a problem going forward.

I think we have a couple players working mostly from their phones. Which might make it harder to work with the spreadsheet.

Yeah, it's fine and I'm happy to double check everything, this was just a quick reminder. The app and sheets on a phone really aren't the easiest to work with.

I have the tasks on my own spreadsheet...
I dont use the one in the group spreadsheet...
I color mine once I use them...dont think I have duplicated any tasks...
also tried spreadsheet on phone ...couldn't do it....so devised my own system...

Camilla wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Reminder - each person can only use a task once. I'm seeing some duplicates on the SS."

How is that possible? Isn't everybody using the tasks sheet? Entering the books into the task..."

It is, in fact, possible Camilla since I am one of those people. Simple error on my part.

Before the next round starts on Friday night, I'd be v grateful if everyone could PM me ideas of things you think would improve how the team works, so that we can try to improve things a bit. This is my first time running a team, and am aware that I may have let things slip a bit.

Spell outs 1-3 are done.

Spell out 4 is missing:
S
L
P Sophie - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea c: Pierre Aronnax
N
G

Spell out 5 is missing:
S
L
A
N
D
H
P
P
N
G

Spell out 6 is missing:
S
L
A
N
D
H
P
P
N
G

Spell out 7 is missing:
I
S
L
A
N
D
H
P
P
I
N
G

If you have anything you are currently reading, or are planning to read, please let me know so I can add it to this overview as well as the SS. I don't want to just fill in the gaps with what is on the SS as there are a lot of books down as planned, and people's reading choices may have changed over the last week.

Tags: 6 are read. I've got 2 books that I am reading towards them as well.
On the SS are also:
Sea witch - Imke
Tangled Tides - Vikki
Where the crawdad's sing - Tonya
Meg - Rosina
If you know you won't get one of these finished, please shout. We've got 12 books for 10 slots at the moment, but if there's a problem I'd rather know sooner rather than later.

Last an apology! I should have made the info about tasks and the SS clearer. Please don't blame each other re this - it was my responsibility to check everyone knew what the plan was. If you have an alternative plan, like Rosina, that's absolutely fine - please just shout and let me know.

3rd book finished & updated on SS

Sophie wrote: "

Before the next round starts on Friday night, I'd be v grateful if everyone could PM me ideas of things you think would improve how the team works, so that we can try to improve things a bit. Thi..."

I'm almost done with Crawdads. I've also taken a look at the spreadsheet to try to button down what else I'll be reading this week. I've made an adjustment and will adjust again as soon as I'm done with Last Ever After.

Thanks!

Crawdads finished!

I will definitely finish Nattsångaren and Buried before the end of round 2. Not sure about the other books I had planned. I might postpone them to next round.

I'm going to try to add these daily as an easy overview of where we have got to.

Currently 2nd in overall rankings (AWESOME READING) and 1st in tricky letters. Not so hot on BOM, but they aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Spell outs 1-3 are done.

Spell out 4 is missing:
L Tonya - The Last Ever After
N MH - Nattsangaren
G MH - Buried

Spell out 5 is missing:
L Sophie - The Woman in Cabin 10
N
D
H
P
P
N
G

Spell out 6 is missing:
S
L
A
N
D
H
P
P
N
G

Spell out 7 is missing:
I
S
L
A
N
D
H
P
P
I
N
G


Tags: 9 are read.
On the SS are also:
Sea witch - Imke
Meg - Rosina
Sophie - Woman in Cabin 10/State of Fear

Sophie = I will remove Meg from the spreadsheet...just not in the mood for it right now..