Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Do we know what time this starts on the 13th? It's usually a specific time and not just when people hit the 13th in their time zone. But I can't see it anywhere.

Countdown

We can start reading books for wheel AFTER 10pm UK 12 June; which is 5pm East Coast and 2pm Pacific Coast.

Those will also be the cut-off times for each Round.

Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Some of this years favorites are:


And some all-time favorite books/series:


I'll stop myself there, but tempted to keep listing!

Mary C wrote: "I'm hoping to update the spreadsheet some more this week. Waiting to see what library check outs I have left when this starts.

I just read Sundown Motel or I would so be in that BOM read. But I r..."

I hope your arm starts to feel better soon! If you need help with searches just let me know.

Thanks for the countdown.

I highly recommend the Sun Down Motel to anyone debating joining the BOM.

If anyone is into music bios, I highly recommend The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx.

Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Mine from the past couple years have been:
Marked Men series - Jay Crownover
Loving on the Edge series - Roni Loren
All series by Cassandra Clare
Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between - Lauren Graham
Lock Every Door - Riley Sagar
Becoming - Michelle Obama
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

and for you Romance Readers... anything by Nora Roberts.

Doesn't count for the challenge but Amanda Lovelace's poetry books are also awesomesauce!!!

Judith wrote: "Hello Hobbits!

As we Hitchhike through the galaxy, my team is collecting recommendations. Ours can be found here. And you may want to check it periodically as some members appear to of gotten lost..."

Thanks Judith!!!

Think this counts for black cover? It works for racism tag.



also, frequently narrators count for the spell outs, do they this time?

It looks more dark blue to me than black.

Actually not sure why I asked, I forgot about Tin eye. Tin Eye color extractor says it's 83% black so I can use it for that task.

Gah. I have wait listed non-fiction books from the library that don't work for our letters this week. I might have to speed read them before hand.

Mary C wrote: "also, frequently narrators count for the spell outs, do they this time?"

Yes, narrators and translators count as well.

Well, I just visited our library after a 2.5 month break and snagged several new books with only a 2-week loan period, so my planned books will need a major change. Duh, I knew I shouldn't list planned books, they always change...

Mary C wrote: "Thanks for the countdown.

I highly recommend the Sun Down Motel to anyone debating joining the BOM.

If anyone is into music bios, I highly recommend The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx."

I'd second it, I read it around the time it was released and loved it. One of those books I couldn't put down

Ugh. None of the narrators work either. Looks like I'm binge reading non-fiction books this week.

Sophie wrote: "Hi Jenn! You're here in plenty of time so don't worry. We're all getting settled into the Hobbit Hole with an appropriate selection of meal choices.

As Victoria said, work must be mad at the momen..."

Things are getting somewhat better with work....at first it was insane with the number of changes to be implemented. Sometimes we got updates on changes to processes multiple times a day.

It has tapered off and now we have a weekly medical leadership call with the medical director of our company (our company has 136 clinics across the US) and the occasional mandatory change via email.

We have somewhat of a routine for our new way of being now, but Arizona's numbers have been jumping by approximately 1000 new cases a day and the hospitals in our cities are at capacity. Fortunately I live in a rural mountain area and my whole county has only 336 cases as of today....but climbing.

Is there a place where we can get the MPG for a book verified? I will be reading Viimeinen leski, it currently shows MPG Suspense by 61 users, but it's the last genre showing and I'm worried it might not be there all the time.

Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Some of my favorites this year have been:
Odd Thomas
There's Something About Sweetie
You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain
Deadly Little Scandals
Weave the Liminal: Living Modern Traditional Witchcraft
Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration

Some of my all time favorites
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Likeness
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To Kill a Mockingbird
Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power
The Ultimate Gift
Darkhouse (series)
Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper (series)
Dark Places
Dangerous Angels
Omens (series)
Stalking Jack the Ripper (series)
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Trouble Is a Friend of Mine
Vassa in the Night

So can we count the books we're posting here as recommendations?

I had some time today and added some book info from my library books. Some have 2 tasks listed for now. When I finish them I'll pick the hardest to get task that they work for to claim.

I forget, do we get a new set of tasks every 2 weeks or just this set for the whole game?

Victoria wrote: "Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Some of this years favorites are:
[bookc..."

All of these I've read, I'd definitely second in terms of recs! Robin Hobb is fantastic and I love all her books.

Given the overlap I'm def going to have to find an excuse to read A Bad Day for Sunshine, A Curious Beginning and Good Omens!

Camilla wrote: "Well, I just visited our library after a 2.5 month break and snagged several new books with only a 2-week loan period, so my planned books will need a major change. Duh, I knew I shouldn't list pla..."

At least they've reopened!

I never end up planning much because I'm v much a mood reader and will slow to a crawl if something isn't what I want to be reading at the time

Mary C wrote: "Ugh. None of the narrators work either. Looks like I'm binge reading non-fiction books this week."

Bah! This week is especially bad for stuff not fitting - lots of tricky duplicate letters. Hopefully things will get better from here.

Sorry your arm is still painful, really hope that settles down soon

Jenn wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Hi Jenn! You're here in plenty of time so don't worry. We're all getting settled into the Hobbit Hole with an appropriate selection of meal choices.

As Victoria said, work must be m..."

I'm glad things are calming down a bit. We seemed to have changes to how we were meant to work 1-2 a day to start with. At least that's all settled now. The fun we have is the unexpected government announcements at 5pm on a Sunday for things that need doing on Monday morning...

Fingers crossed the climbing case rate slows down and gives the hospitals a chance to catch up!

Mary C wrote: "So can we count the books we're posting here as recommendations?

I had some time today and added some book info from my library books. Some have 2 tasks listed for now. When I finish them I'll pi..."

Yes we are counting these as our team recommendations! I've just spent a while putting them all in a post at the start of the thread so everyone can find that. You guys certainly all have a lot of recommendations!! I'll add others as you post them.

And it's 1 task list for the whole game.

Sophie wrote: "I never end up planning much because I'm v much a mood reader and will slow to a crawl if something isn't what I want to be reading at the time i>

Me too. I think I'm going to make a list of all the books I have that will fit and pick when I get there...

Please take a look at the 1st page of posts every so often during the challenge. Victoria and I are putting stuff in the posts there so that they don't get lost in among the general chatter.

Victoria has added pages linking to the tags we are searching for this round to help us all out.

Sorry about the sudden bombardment of messages and if I've missed anything. I work on a Monday and Tuesday and things have definitely got busier over the last couple of weeks so I might be a little absent during those days.

MPG verification hasn't been discussed yet. I'll get back to you on that in a little bit.

Awesome thanks. I'll post some more book recommendations and check out the other posts to see if there's anything I'm interested in reading. I noticed that the task to read a book recommended by a teammate is in there at least twice.

I will also likely steal book ideas for some tasks from teammates.

I just decided to scrap one of the non-fiction books. It's really depressing and I don't need that now.

I need 5 LGBT books for the month of June for another challenge and it looked interesting. I'll go back to it another time when I haven't been stressed for several weeks. So I'll definitely get that task in this round.

Depressing books aren't needed right now! Not convinced they're ever needed tbh.

MPG verification - if you've seen it and are happy, great it counts! If you'd like Victoria or me (or anyone else on the team) to confirm it's there too we can do. Basically we are being trusted to be grown ups with the tasks!

Great, thank you for the info Sophie! I don't understand what the technical issue with the MPGs is, why they fluctuate in number the way they do, but it's super annoying when doing challenges where you have to be absolutely sure that the MPG is visible when reporting.

Okay, here are some recommendations from me. I tried to avoid books/series that have already been recommended, but some might have slipped in.

Fiction:
The Unicorn Anthology
Fir
NOS4R2
The Fault in Our Stars
Dark Matter
Shades of Grey
Prickle Moon
The Martian
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Beginning of Everything
Cuckoo
The Women's War
A Discovery of Witches
The Summer Book
The Giver (the whole series)
Mr. Mercedes (the whole series)
Pines (the whole series)
Ender's Game (the whole series)
The Passage (the whole series)
Glass Houses (the whole series)
Genghis: Birth of an Empire (the whole series)

Non-fiction:
Best Foot Forward
Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?: A Mother's Guide to Sanity in Stilettos
Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life
A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness

Hello Hobbits!
I'm drifting over from Watership Down to wish you safe travels as we embark on this voyage of book exploration. My shipmates are tossing out recommendations for each other to use during our trip and I wanted to invite you to come aboard and have a look in this post , if you so desire. We promise not to let the bunnies attack!

BUT, in the spirit of team interaction, I would also like to invite each of you to drop by anytime to ask for specific recommendations for your favorite type of book or when you want something totally random to read!

If you happen to read a book our team recommended, please come back and let us know what you thought of it - good or bad!

Happy Travels and Happier Reading!

Camilla wrote: "Great, thank you for the info Sophie! I don't understand what the technical issue with the MPGs is, why they fluctuate in number the way they do, but it's super annoying when doing challenges where..."

I don't think it's so much a technical issue but rather a result of the way GR tracks genres - which is by the amount of users tagging a book to a certain shelf.
But as Sophie said, if it does happen or you think it might just let us know and we'll confirm it was an MPG when you picked the book up :)

Angie ☯ wrote: "Hello Hobbits!
I'm drifting over from Watership Down to wish you safe travels as we embark on this voyage of book exploration. My shipmates are tossing out recommendations for each other to use dur..."

Thanks Angie! We'll be sure to swing by with our recs soon.

And I 100% second

Some of my favourites from this year have been:
The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
The Titanic Sisters by Patricia Falvey
The Winter Secret by Lulu Taylor
Poppet by Mo Hayder
The Mist by Ragnar Jonasson
The Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg
For Reasons Unknown by Michael Wood
Closer to Home by Heleyne Hammersley

Camilla wrote: "Okay, here are some recommendations from me. I tried to avoid books/series that have already been recommended, but some might have slipped in.

Fiction:
The Unicorn Anthology
"

I need to give Genghis: Birth of an Empire another try. I read it right after reading a lot of non-fiction about him and couldn't enjoy it as I was being too nit-picky with the facts. But I've a terrible memory and have forgotten most things by now that I should give the series another attempt. Especially as I love Genghis Khan.

Jenn wrote: "Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Some of my favorites this year have been:
Odd Thomas
"

Have you read the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad series? I loved The Likeness but wasn't a big fan of In the Woods or Faithful Place so not sure if I want to continue with the series.

Vikki wrote: "Some of my favourites from this year have been:
The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
The Titanic Sisters by Patricia Falvey
[book:The Winter Secret|4055098..."

Haven't read or really heard of any of these, will have to check some out!

I didn't care for the first Dublin Murder Squad book.

Some book recs from me:

or anything by Simone St James

Victoria wrote: "I don't think it's so much a technical issue but rather a result of the way GR tracks genres - which is by the amount of users tagging a book to a certain shelf."

No, it's not just that. A book can at one time have ten genres showing on the main page, the next day only five. I.e. the number of genres visible on the main page varies by time for the same book. Many groups that have challenges where the tasks rely heavily on MPGs have separate MPG verification threads, so that you're able to have a genre verified when it shows and then you're able to use the book for a specific task even when the required genre is not showing when you post the completed task. E.g. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Victoria wrote: "I need to give Genghis: Birth of an Empire another try. I read it right after reading a lot of non-fiction about him and couldn't enjoy it as I was being too nit-picky with the facts. But I've a terrible memory and have forgotten most things by now that I should give the series another attempt. Especially as I love Genghis Khan."

Have you read his Emperor series (starts with The Gates of Rome)? Also very good. Then again I didn't like Darien, I will not be continuing that series (I don't think he has the touch to write fantasy). I currently have The Falcon of Sparta from the library and was planning to read it for the first leg of the challenge.

Victoria wrote: "Have you read the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad series? I loved The Likeness but wasn't a big fan of In the Woods or Faithful Place so not sure if I want to continue with the series."

That series is quite uneven, IMHO. I liked The Likeness quite a lot, In the Woods, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place not quite as much, and really didn't care about Faithful Place. Sigh, another series I should continue reading...

Greetings Hobbits!

We've begun packing book recommendations in preparation for our Odyssey and will continue updating the list throughout the challenge.

Book Recommendations from Team Odyssey

Happy reading!

Camilla wrote: "Victoria wrote: "I don't think it's so much a technical issue but rather a result of the way GR tracks genres - which is by the amount of users tagging a book to a certain shelf."

No, it's not jus..."

Ahh I see what you mean! I'm surprised I never noticed, will have to pay more attention.

Decided to look at what team Odyssey recommends. Make a note of some books. Shelley on their team recommended a U book that has a snake on the cover: task 153.

Camilla wrote: "Victoria wrote: "I need to give Genghis: Birth of an Empire another try. I read it right after reading a lot of non-fiction about him and couldn't enjoy it as I was being too nit-picky with the fac..."

No, I've only the first Genghis book. The Rome series sounds particularly good and I've had several people recommend the author to me so I need to read more. Especially since I think I'd have really liked Birth of an Empire if I hadn't been so obsessive about every little bit of inaccuracy. This makes no sense given the few historical records we have of Genghis Khan; I imagine much of what I know is inaccurate in some way.

Camilla wrote: "Victoria wrote: "Have you read the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad series? I loved The Likeness but wasn't a big fan of In the Woods or Faithful Place so not sure if I want to continue with the ser..."

Glad I'm not the only one not enjoying the rest of the series so much. I'm thinking The Likeness may just be the exception to the series (for me anyway) and I should not bother with the rest.

Victoria wrote: "Jenn wrote: "Vikki wrote: "Fellow Hobbits - any favourite books that you've read so far this year? Or all time favourites?"

Some of my favorites this year have been:
Odd Thomas
"

Ha..."

I've read all but the last. I liked In the Woods but was frustrated with the ending. Faithful Place was Ok. The Secret place was good. I don't really think any of them are on par with the Likeness. The whole story behind The Likeness is unlike anything I've read before and I just though the concept was really cool.