Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Zee wrote: "Haha the thing I like about it is I have to plan so much more than in a normal challenge. Normally a book fits a scavenger task or a letter. Now every book I plan to read I'm like hmmm... do I put ..."



*snikers*
Know what you mean. I keep putting my books in tote cause I feel bad to use them now. Who knows if they'll be better in some later quest.

You guys will be so excited when March's comes out :) Soon! I promise. We're just fitting in the last few.

LOL Yes, it IS time consuming but once the plan is laid out, you know what you're going to do.

Leveling up a weapon is really important in my mind. I can already beat rats and goblins with no affect on health. Bats are the goal for this week. I've found that older series often have books that are between 100 and 300 pages each while newer ones run 350 to 500+ pages. So fewer pages mean that you can level up your weapon more quickly.

Finding books less than 200 pages that you enjoy is also crucial. The more you have, the more risk-free attacks you can make allowing you to gain more experince points and level up your Hero's Standing and Increase Heath without using health points or potions.

Reva wrote: "LOL Yes, it IS time consuming but once the plan is laid out, you know what you're going to do.

Leveling up a weapon is really important in my mind. I can already beat rats and goblins with no aff..."

Yeah, but Reva you need to keep in mind not everyone has as many books read as you have. For us mere mortals more planning is needed. :)
I have little less than 60 now (so ok I'm probably somewhere between you and mere mortals :P), and for every book I'm doing pros and cons since I want to finish quests before they disappear. It's not that easy to decide. ☺

Heh, and you even have a few days head start on knowing what quests are coming Tea :P

Reva wrote: "Finding books less than 200 pages that you enjoy is also crucial. The more you have, the more risk-free attacks you can make allowing you to gain more experince points and level up your Hero's Standing and Increase Heath without using health points or potions. "

So you prefer attacking monsters to solving quests?
I know battle is practically trouble free exp, but I still feel bad sacrificing a book to get monster sooner if I could use it in quest.
Maybe I need to work on my battle strategies?!

I've read 16 books so far so I'm nowhere near finishing some quests and I can't afford to use books as sacrifices for attacks. My next two reads though will allow me to level up my staff twice though, woot!

Kelly wrote: "Heh, and you even have a few days head start on knowing what quests are coming Tea :P"

You know, it doesn't really help. :) I just keep putting more books into tote 'to use them in next set of quests' and then leave them in in case something better comes along. *sigh*

Will there be some award for hero with heaviest bag of books? :P

My commitments in reading a book from two fantasy series is eating into my ability to read smaller books for quests. Both books this month are 600+ pages and I am not even half way through either :(

*Orders the strongest drink in the tavern in the biggest tankard available*

Ok, pre-hint to make Alex feel better. The most awesome quest for March will have a requirement to read a book over 600 pages as one of the items in it :)

❀Tea❀ wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Heh, and you even have a few days head start on knowing what quests are coming Tea :P"

You know, it doesn't really help. :) I just keep putting more books into tote 'to use them in n..."

Maybe you can knock out a goblin just by swinging your book tote at it. No sword or staff necessary.

Kelly wrote: "Ok, pre-hint to make Alex feel better. The most awesome quest for March will have a requirement to read a book over 600 pages as one of the items in it :)"

*goes to see what quest*

Yeah, I think it depends on 1) how fast you read and 2) what you actually care about as far as this game goes. For me, I haven't even tried to kill any monsters yet. So I get irked at myself for slotting books for weapons because I really don't care about killing things. I just want the petty sense of accomplishment I get from finishing quests lol Like yesssss all those hours on goodreads, they mean something now :P

Thanks Kelly, I will take full advantage of that quest.

With as many books as Tea has in her tote it may take magic to swing it at a monster. Or she could force the monster to read all of the books in her tote in one sitting and lull it to sleep.

Cait wrote: "Yeah, I think it depends on 1) how fast you read and 2) what you actually care about as far as this game goes. For me, I haven't even tried to kill any monsters yet. So I get irked at myself for sl..."

Cait no one is forcing you to do anything that you don't want to do. Reading is very personal and doing what "floats your boat" and gives you pleasure is paramount. The nice thing about goodReads is the fellowship it encourages and the things that you get out of reading that you can share with other kindred spirits.

❀Tea❀ wrote: "Reva wrote: "Finding books less than 200 pages that you enjoy is also crucial. The more you have, the more risk-free attacks you can make allowing you to gain more experince points and level up you..."

I don't prefer attacking monsters. They're only one part of the game. I like fulfilling the quests too. And yes planning HOW to best use books read IS an important factor in how successfully the demands of the overall game are met.

There are plenty of times when I plan to read one book then find another which also qualifies but is less pages to read. I still have to WANT to read that second book too. I rarely read anything that I don't want to read. The quests simply encourage me to read something of interest that much sooner.

Cait wrote: "Yeah, I think it depends on 1) how fast you read and 2) what you actually care about as far as this game goes. For me, I haven't even tried to kill any monsters yet. So I get irked at myself for sl..."

That's what I like about how it's structured is that people can play however they want and it's still fun.

Reva wrote: "Cait no one is forcing you to do anything that you don't want to do.

I'm aware. I wasn't complaining. Just saying that so far it's been pretty easy to figure out where to put things/what to read because my main goal is just filling in quests.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the March quests are! I've got a lot of books I need to read coming up that I need spots for :)

I've found what really helps me chip away at the quests is listening to audiobooks at work. I work 40 hours a week and even if 10-20 of them are spent listening to an audiobook, that's a HUGE increase in the number of books read per week.

I actually have one of the quests (A Toy for Hadley) structured entirely around audiobooks so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something even when I can't pick up a book directly.

This strategy obviously won't work for everyone, but it's something to consider for the working folk!

Kelly, I have a question about hospital/healing :P
If I'm spelling out the word to heal, and in the middle of the word read a book with doctor/healing word in title, can I use that book now or need to finish spelling first?

❀Tea❀ wrote: "Kelly, I have a question about hospital/healing :P
If I'm spelling out the word to heal, and in the middle of the word read a book with doctor/healing word in title, can I use that book now or need..."

Healing word in title for the quest? It's fine to do the healing word in title in the middle of a spell-it-out. I just didn't want people to have 16 healing words being spelled out at the same time and there not being any issue with actually finding letters.

Thanks. ☺
Those leeches are healing me too slow so I thought to look for another doctor to help me. :P

"• Read a book about healing/doctors or with healing in the title. 1 hp per book."

Does it have to be the word "healing" or can it be a healing word (ie rest, medicine, doctor, bandage)?

Teresa wrote: ""• Read a book about healing/doctors or with healing in the title. 1 hp per book."

Does it have to be the word "healing" or can it be a healing word (ie rest, medicine, doctor, bandage)?"

Here were some of my selections:

1. The Doctor's Runaway Bride 192 pages Read: 8/1/2015 ✓
2. The Surgeon by Kate Bridges 304 pages Read:x/x/2015
3. The Sicilian Doctor's Mistress 186 pages Read: 7/1/2015 ✓

Also:

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer
The Heroic Surgeon by Olivia Gates
Doctors by Erich Segal
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Doctor Who: The Three Doctors by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Teresa wrote: ""• Read a book about healing/doctors or with healing in the title. 1 hp per book."

Does it have to be the word "healing" or can it be a healing word (ie rest, medicine, doctor, bandage)?"

I'm ok with a healing word in the title. It's still 1 hp per book so it won't sway things much.

I'm a little confused now, what's the difference between that requirement and the requirement for the healing quest that grants minor heal potions?

Zee wrote: "I'm a little confused now, what's the difference between that requirement and the requirement for the healing quest that grants minor heal potions?"

There isn't one really but this one has wider requirements. It's the resting healing so it can't be done in battle and is 1 hp per book. The quest you can only turn in 3 books for so after that you have to heal the slow way for now :)

Ok so I can use The Surgeon for the quest to gain a potion? I've not hit three books for that yet, and kinda feel like I should stock up on potions should I ever feel the need to attack anything bigger than a goblin :-P

Yep.

I don't think so unless Kelly changed her mind you can only use HEAL, REST, CURE, BLOOD or their equivalents for the Potion quest.

EDIT: I remember because we argued a little about logical healing words like hospital or doctor being excluded. But these are the rules. :)

Here is Kelly's original post where she explains that you can only use the four healing words and ther synonyms: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Yeah that was part of our initial question asking and confusion. I wasn't going to make anyone go back and re-do ones they had done how they understood just have it clarified for moving forward.

It's single player so as long as we're reasonably consistent the playing field should be pretty flat.

Here are the synonym lists for easier reference:

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/heal?s=t
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/cure?s=t
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/rest?s=t
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/blood...

doctor is on there as as synonym for heal

My question is can we use variations of the words, ie resting, healed, bloody?

I must have missed "doctor" on the list. Good to know it's there. It makes the quest a little easier.

So doctor works but not surgeon? Hrm, I may need to do some re-planning.

Teresa wrote: "My question is can we use variations of the words, ie resting, healed, bloody?"

Yeah. I'm ok if the word is in another word as long as it's the same approximate meaning. (Healed, Resting, etc)

i.e. Not restroom for rest or insecure for cure.

So Restless wouldn't work, eh?

Apparently I have no good healing/resting title books. I'll have to be following what other people use for some inspiration...

But the books count if they are about healing or doctors so most of the surgeon titled books will still work for the healing/resting just not the quest for potions. Right?

Teresa wrote: "So Restless wouldn't work, eh?"

Restless is the opposite of rest :P

RebeccaS wrote: "Apparently I have no good healing/resting title books. I'll have to be following what other people use for some inspiration..."

Try going to your to-read list then using the search bar there. If you have a large to-read list then you might come up with some. It's not a perfect search but it at least narrows down options.

Also it seems like if you go here: https://www.goodreads.com/genres and type the word in as a genre you get at least some books with the word in the title though it's a bit of a hodgepodge.

Teresa wrote: "But the books count if they are about healing or doctors so most of the surgeon titled books will still work for the healing/resting just not the quest for potions. Right?"

Yup. The resting healing is much less restrictive than the quest.

I've only done one for the quest so far but it was if anyone else is reading the maze runner series :) It was good. Maybe I cried maybe I didnt. Who knows?

Kelly - I tried the search, but forgot I could use the word blood! I found a couple with blood and that's about it, but hopefully it'll work. Most of them are in series (of course) so I may have to wait a bit for these. Thanks!

Cait - I might have cried during ...maybe...

I don't think healing book by book is worth it for me right now. I could put my next six books towards gaining six hp and have another pop at the goblin orrrrrr I could put my next six books towards A Toy for Hadley and gain nine exp which will level me up and gain me full hp again.

I'll save my healing books for later on when there's a bigger gap between levels :-)

And just found out that my local library has Blood Red Road which my cousin loves, so I'll try and read that for a potion instead! *in strategy mode*

Also a quick question about The Queen's New Clothing quest.

For "clothing" on the cover, does it have to be a whole outfit? Or just any article of clothing.

Some of the books I'm thinking about are:
(hat), (veil, crown), (hat)

Any article of clothing is fine.

Zee wrote: "I don't think healing book by book is worth it for me right now. I could put my next six books towards gaining six hp and have another pop at the goblin orrrrrr I could put my next six books toward..."

I love when people talk strategy :P

*pulls out huge blackboard and draws X in the middle*

OK, people this here is Dragon. We need hero here *draws x*, here *x*, here *x*, and here *x*. Cannons *looks at Kelly* should be here *draws o*, here *o*, here *o*, here *o*.
Now I want you *points at one of x* to go from here to here *draws squiggly line*. You *x* go here *line*, you *x* here *line*, you *x* here *line*

And then everyone at exactly same time CHARGE!!!

*Takes a drink from his tankard*

Who's going to sit with me and watch the dragon make mince meat out of Tea's plans?

Yes, we will buy drinks for the ladies who come back with charred armor.