Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Thanks all. Sadly the series' I read don't have those in betweeners. I'll take a look at those suggested. I did find a collection from Divergent though I only read the first one.

Kelly could you approve these for the Fairy Odd Path quest?

1. I, Robot (Robot, #0.1)
2. The Positronic Man (Robot, #0.6)
3. Robot Dreams (Robot 0.4)

Goodreads lists them as 0.x books, but they are in fact collections of short stories (Positronic man is a novel) set before, during and after the Robot novels or in an AU.

Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold series books .5 are usually full novels. For those who read contemporary novels :)
Side Jobs is collection of Dresden's short stories
I also think Janet Evanovich's Sugar Plum In Betweens are also full novels.

Question about all the rat killing.

Can the 4 rat kills for the Tavern Delicacy also be included in the 10 rat kills for Boast the Most? Or do we need to do 14 total?

For the Date Night Quest:

A max of 1 additional experience may be claimed if one of the books is a romance novel.

Does this book have to be a contemporary romance or could it be any kind of romance, like paranormal romance?

Zuzana wrote: "Kelly could you approve these for the Fairy Odd Path quest?

1. I, Robot (Robot, #0.1)
2. The Positronic Man (Robot, #0.6)
3. Robot Dreams (Robot 0.4)

Go..."

Those look fine to me. If GoodReads lists them as inbetween books that's acceptable.

Cait wrote: "Question about all the rat killing.

Can the 4 rat kills for the Tavern Delicacy also be included in the 10 rat kills for Boast the Most? Or do we need to do 14 total?"

They can overlap. The 4 just have to be fresh ones. The 10 can be ones you've already killed before.

Angel wrote: "For the Date Night Quest:

A max of 1 additional experience may be claimed if one of the books is a romance novel.

Does this book have to be a contemporary romance or could it be any kind of roman..."

Any type is fine.

Kelly wrote: "Those look fine to me. If GoodReads lists them as inbetween books that's acceptable. "

Thanks, Kelly. I wasn't sure. Goodreads lists them as 0.x books which indicates that they're prequels (which technically are not inbetween books), and it's inaccurate.

Ah, the thrill of killing my first sewer rat.

Well done Tory. I'm sure it's the first of many.

Congrats Tory :)

I am a little confused about story collections...would something like this work?



Nevermind, I just saw it is only 94 pages :(

Tory wrote: "Ah, the thrill of killing my first sewer rat."

Exciting, isn't it? Just wait til they fall over at the mere sight of you.

If it helps anyone out, my mid-way books are going to be

Beannachtaí*, fair lords and fierce ladies! Máiréad an Bata Dearg salutes you. I have traveled far from the land of the Red Stick (what Bata Dearg means in English) to do honest battle for the good Queen.

Barkeep, may I trouble you for your strongest ale?




*If the Irish Gaelic I'm tossing around is incorrect, my apologies to any native speakers, I'm using Google Translate for this character. Also, Máiréad is pronounced my-raid. Appropriate for a questing knightess.*

fáilte roimh Máiréad

Have an ale on me.

do dea-shláinte!

Do you think these books have golden covers?

Yeah, those look fine Angel.

Great! Thanks :)

For the academy quest, #5) "Start a Spell-It-Out challenge in Reading Challenges and finish at least one word."

Should this be one of the longer spell it out challenges, or can it be a monthly one? And also should be starting Feb 2nd or can we backtrack to the beginning of the challenge (ie if we finished a letter in January).

For resting, do you need to complete a word in order to gain the HP or can you recover on a book by book bais?

Book to book basis, Teresa. You just can't start spelling out a new word before finishing one first.

Zuzana wrote: "Book to book basis, Teresa. You just can't start spelling out a new word before finishing one first."

Thanks!! That helps a lot :)

I just used 15 books to level up my magic staff from lvl 3 to lvl 6. My tote of infinite books is almost empty. *sits down and orders a pint of beer*

Good Job!!! Both my weapons are still at level 3...

Congrats, Zuzana! That's awesome.

I'm at level 2 with my staff and dreading even just spending three books on getting it up another level. But I need to be able to kill rats without taking any damage so I guess it's necessary :/

I just leveled my sword to 4 but now I'm going to have to work on quests before they expire.

I've had this week off work and devoted it to upgrading my staff from level 1 to level 3. Felt good to knock out a rat with one blow and then kill my first goblin! I shall join you in that beer Zuzana before returning to questing...

Cait wrote: "Congrats, Zuzana! That's awesome.

I'm at level 2 with my staff and dreading even just spending three books on getting it up another level. But I need to be able to kill rats without taking any da..."

I know how you feel, Cait. I've become quite a miser when it comes to parting with my books. Don't know what I'll do when I earn my first gold and that announced merchant caravan comes to town. :D

Right? I'm just now looking at the Midas quests and having a huge internal debate.

On one hand, I definitely want gold because I'll need any special items or potions or whatever we end up being able to buy with them (assuming that's the stuff we can buy). And I hate to leave a ton of "quests" just sitting there. BUT--

They don't give any experience.

So do I spend a ton of books on them and hope it's worth it? Orrrrrrrrrr.....

Yeah, Zee. Level 3 weapon is a must, it brings free + 1 XP every week for knocking off one rat.

Come order a pint and sit at my table. I need to rest some more before I get back to my reading ... err questing. ;-)

I figured out that for effectively leveling up the weapons you need to reach LVL 3 (killing rats in one blow), LVL 6 (killing bats with sustaining only 3 HP of damage), LVL 8 (killing goblins in one blow) and after reaching LVL 9 under certain circumstances you have a chance of killing the lesser dragons.

Cait wrote: "Right? I'm just now looking at the Midas quests and having a huge internal debate.

On one hand, I definitely want gold because I'll need any special items or potions or whatever we end up being ab..."
Yeah, that's how I feel about the horse. In the end I decided that I need to get one, but it's about 12 books worth. It will take me a whole month of reading and without any direct XP.

RebeccaS wrote: "For the academy quest, #5) "Start a Spell-It-Out challenge in Reading Challenges and finish at least one word."

Should this be one of the longer spell it out challenges, or can it be a monthly one..."

The intent was to do one of the longer ones. (Like the A-Z animals etc.)

You can use one you've already started if you do a word that's completed entirely after the start of the quest. So it has to be a word that was unstarted but it could be a challenge you're already working on.

If it helps anyone out, our intent is that we have about 4 Midas quests each month featuring different people.

We also plan to have a caravan stopping by each month probably near the end of the month. What each caravan contains will be different though so if you miss it one time it may or may not be back the following month or a future month down the road.

(And before you ask, we don't know what's in the caravan yet ;) )

Kelly, will the Midas quests expire on a similar schedule as the regular ones?

Cait wrote: "Kelly, will the Midas quests expire on a similar schedule as the regular ones?"

Yeah, probably about 2 months. Otherwise we just get way too many quests.

Even with some people's crazy amount of book reading, I'm still expecting people not to be able to finish everything. So everyone's going to have to end up making choices :)

Kelly wrote: "So everyone's going to have to end up making choices :) "

I REFUSE!! :P

I won't do the highest level of every quest but I want to TRY to finish all of them. It will literally drive me nuts if I don't. I get antsy when I don't finish challenge related things. It bothers me so so so so so so much lol

I'm going to need some serious snow days in the next month so I can read my butt off for these quests. It's so hard to decide which ones to prioritize!

I have my books scheduled out till the end of March and am still not completing anywhere near all the quests - boo! =p

Tia wrote: "I have my books scheduled out till the end of March and am still not completing anywhere near all the quests - boo! =p"

At least your bag will be full of books for later :)

Random question. If i read a BOM for a task on The Academy, can i use it for another one of the tasks for the same quest?

Clarification: i'm planning on reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is March's BOM (task 2 and 3), but i was also planning to use it for the monthly challenge (task 4) due to it's green cover.

is there someone to check a book to see if it qualifies in this challenge?

I've been reading Usborne Illustrated Classics for Girls. this to my daughter and we just finished. It has 6 stories completely illustrated and is 383 pages long. I can't find a word count to provide. Is there someone who could let me know if it could qualify?

Kari wrote: "is there someone to check a book to see if it qualifies in this challenge?

I've been reading Usborne Illustrated Classics for Girls. this to my daughter and we just finished. It ha..."

I'm confused as to your question. A 383 page book would qualify for 300+ pages to level a sword. If the books included are the full unabridged texts then you might consider breaking them up into their individual stories and get separate page counts for each. Not sure where you would need word counts.

Reva wrote: "Kari wrote: "is there someone to check a book to see if it qualifies in this challenge?

I've been reading Usborne Illustrated Classics for Girls. this to my daughter and we just fin..."

Thing is it has more pictures then text. From what I saw on Amazon it has at most 50 words per page.


@Kari
I'm really not sure. I couldn't find word count. I'd say OK, but not with that page number, but if we do math with that 50 per page, it wouldn't have 100 pages
(50 words * 383 pages = 19150 words)

I'll let Kelly decide this one.

How do I join the quests and stuff?

Tiffany wrote: "How do I join the quests and stuff?"

You just do them :) You start your own thread over here and then keep all your quest information and what have you organized in your own spot.

If you need an example, mine is here. You can find my completed quests in post 3, the ones I'm currently working on in post 7. There's no set way to do it but sometimes it helps seeing one already written out :)

Edit: I forgot to add that you find them all on the rules/notice board. And that you can pick them up and do them in any order you want whenever you want as long as it's passed the start date. (For example the newest ones can't be started until the 1st of March but any of the old ones can be done in any order you choose.)

Tiffany wrote: "How do I join the quests and stuff?"

Yay! New victim!

*orders ale for Tiffany*

OK, go to main thread here and start your adventure log. You can check out how other set it up, but it's up to you how you want it. It'll be you who's using it. :) If you need help with it, let me know.

Read rules if you didn't already and you'll find some quests there. Other quests are on Notice Board

After new quests are posted I copy Lady Rachel's layout. She doesn't mind me copying as long as I pay her in drinks and kill rats in the tavern.