Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Laura..devouring books like crumpets wrote: "Hello fellow Novel Kingdomers

I would like a gin and tonic please!

I am Known as quill-shimmer... I and from an island off UK... but fell in love with a Greek and now live there with two small pi..."

Welcome - if you can handle two pint sized dictators you can handle dragons! 😂😂

Welcome to the Kingdom Laura!

Welcome Laura! I hope you bring some greek sunshine to the tavern! Enjoy the G&T!

Hello hello fellow knights!!!

I'm Lady Cat, originally from the far-away territory of Greece, newly arrived to Novel Kingdom to offer my services to Queen Skye!

Right now I'm in the midst of 6-7 quests (I just love them all, how could I ever stick to just 1, xD).

I read an interesting article on the Goodreads blog and would love to discuss it with you. (Link: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...)

First of all, great releases coming our way, and I'm excited for the vast majority of these books (all the while thinking which ones to use for my quests, haha!).

Second of all, I had no idea that speculative fiction is such a broad genre. I actually thought it was a subgenre?

Anywho, my fave of all these subgenres is definitely YA (or adult) fantasy, then some paranormal (or urban) fantasy.

How about you brave Sirs and Ladies?

(Also, seeing as I am here, may I also ask, how can I acquire a pet cat? I've only found Jack & Jill's familiar cage. Is that the way or perhaps a quest?)

Cat wrote: "Hello hello fellow knights!!!

I'm Lady Cat, originally from the far-away territory of Greece, newly arrived to Novel Kingdom to offer my services to Queen Skye!

Right now I'm in the midst of 6-7 ..."

Fantasy (mostly YA) is one of my favorite genres as well, though I also love historical fiction and sometimes read stuff that skews more sci-fi. Basically, I like anything that takes me to another place or time!

To get a pet cat, I believe you just buy the familiar cage. But then you have to read books to train your cat to actually help you in battle. I'd like to get a cat someday too, but I've been focused on getting a horse and now a bunny. So many great pets, so little time!

Welcome Cat! I was in a similar boat with speculative fiction until hearing it discussed in a lecture last week (Medical ethics in speculative fiction by authors from minority groups). I read and enjoy most subgroups that would come into speculative fiction, but tend to stay clear of horror.

Laurie is right about how you get a cat. It looks useful, but there are too many quests etc that I'm wanting to get done already. Probably should focus my efforts a bit...

Ooooh a cat - I missed that.

I have my horse and bunny and puppy who is working his way through puppy school.

But I don’t have a kitty

@Sophie

I avoid horror as well - but if I am backed into a corner and have to read one for a challenge I find the Goosebumps books are as scary as I can cope with 😃

Hellooo my fellow knights! Oomph, my notifications were off so I only now saw your comments that I came in for my beer in the Tavern!

Thank you so much for your answers, I will need to wait a bit before I undertake new quests (too many pets and quests, too little time :D), but I definitely want a kittyyy!

I totally agree @Laurie, anything to get me to another place, too!

And, of course I totally agree @Sophie and @Sally about horror, although I really want to delve into that genre some day... definitely not at night!

I am in need of advice, my fellow knights. I am working on catching the many rabbits and I need help finding a book where someone owns a rabbit. My favorite reads are in the fantasy genre.

I will be over here sipping my wine waiting.

If you don't mind a kids book, Bunnicula. I listened the audiobook of the first three books for that task.

Stephanie wrote: "I am in need of advice, my fellow knights. I am working on catching the many rabbits and I need help finding a book where someone owns a rabbit. My favorite reads are in the fantasy genre.

I will..."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (view spoiler)[Lavender Brown gets a letter about her pet rabbit dying (hide spoiler)] and The Psychology of Time Travel both work for owning a rabbit, and although not fantasy, so does Black Rabbit Hall.

The Psychology of Time Travel has two rabbits on the cover, and depending on your edition, so does Black Rabbit Hall, which also works for rabbit in title, so you can duplicate (with a duplication potion) if you want to knock out two tricky tasks with one book.

Hello fellow knights!! I am hoping someone can help me. I am trying to decide which quests to do next. Could someone explain what is the benefit of a warm horse rug (If it Sounds like a Horse... reward).

I am not sure what this means: make one of your attacks an area of effect attack.

From the quest: 1 warm horse rug which allows a horse to make one of your attacks an area of effect attack.

Thank you!

⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚ wrote: "Hello fellow knights!! I am hoping someone can help me. I am trying to decide which quests to do next. Could someone explain what is the benefit of a warm horse rug (If it Sounds like a Horse... re..."

Hi Cynthia, you need the horse rug for attacking certain rare monsters - so it's not a priority item but later in the game you need it to tackle the Swarm and the Queens, maybe one other rare monster I can't recollect right now. Basically it helps against monsters that attack in pack (2 or more against 1). You can than once hit back and with one blow hit every single one of your attackers. That's probably why it's called "area of effect attack" because you attack everybody in the area.

It has to be used wisely because you can extend your weapon to that purpose only 1 turn per fight.

Hope this helped.

Zuzana wrote: "⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚ wrote: "Hello fellow knights!! I am hoping someone can help me. I am trying to decide which quests to do next. Could someone explain what is the benefit of a warm horse rug (If it Sou..."

Thanks Zuzana! It makes sense now :) I will leave that quest for later then.

Hello fellow knights!!

I have been browsing in News & Interviews and I found this article:
12 Backlist Books That Continue to Trend with Readers

I have to admit that I have read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
this week and The House in the Cerulean Sea a couple of weeks ago. I would also like to read The Song of Achilles in the upcoming weeks. So many books in my TBR and so little time!

Have you read any of those Backlist Books recently?

Cynthia, I've read The Song of Achilles. I read it back then when it won the Orange Prize for Fiction. My expectations were super high & they were not entirely met. It was still a good read though, it just didn't blow me away. I'm a sucker for Greek Myths - so it helped, too.

Zuzana wrote: "Cynthia, I've read The Song of Achilles. I read it back then when it won the Orange Prize for Fiction. My expectations were super high & they were not entirely met. It was still a g..."

Oh! That happened to me with Circe but I have read that people prefer The Song of Achilles so I want to give it a chance. I am always worried when reading this type of books because I have very high expectations. That happened to me too with The Silent Patient. But then sometimes these lists work as I rated 5 stars The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, It Ends with Us (one of my favourites from all time) and The House in the Cerulean Sea

Today is a happy day for Lady ⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚! I finally got my first pet, a puppy. Say hello to Lancelot!



He is not very well behaved though so he is starting the dog training school ASAP.

⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚ wrote: "Today is a happy day for Lady ⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚! I finally got my first pet, a puppy. Say hello to Lancelot!



He is not very well behaved though so he is starting the dog training school ASAP."

Congratulations on getting Lancelot 😀

He’s joining my pup - they can train together.

We’re working at beginners fetch right now

⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚ wrote: "Today is a happy day for Lady ⚚♆ Cynthia ♆⚚! I finally got my first pet, a puppy. Say hello to Lancelot!
He is not very well behaved though so he is starting the dog training school ASAP."

Lancelot is SO CUTEEEE *-*

Can't wait to get my puppy and bring him/her to play with all of your cuties! :D

Lancelot is adorable!!!🐾 Congrats!

Aww Lancelot is adorable! Enjoy training him!

Hopefully I will be joining you and Sally's pup in training very soon.

Hello Novel Kingdom humans!

I am Lady Mithah, newly here from MS, USA. As a nurse in my other home, I have chosen to start helping the kingdom by doing some Plague Prevention!

I am very new, and still slightly confused/overwhelmed, but so excited to be here! I love reading and anything RPG - you can find me on World of Warcraft when I'm not reading!

Courtney wrote: "Hello Novel Kingdom humans!

I am Lady Mithah, newly here from MS, USA. As a nurse in my other home, I have chosen to start helping the kingdom by doing some Plague Prevention!

I am very new, an..."

Welcome to the kingdom! It feels like a big place at first, but I'm sure you'll settle in just fine. This tavern is a great place to ask questions if you ever get lost.

Have yall seen this article? There are so many on this list that are on my tbr. Looks like I need to move them up my list!
New Books to Read This Native American Heritage Month

Courtney wrote: "Have yall seen this article? There are so many on this list that are on my tbr. Looks like I need to move them up my list!
New Books to Read This Native American Heritage Month"

No kidding! I was reading the same post for the same reason as you :) At this point, I have almost every book by Louise Erdrich in my TBR. One would think I would have tried her books by now. Firekeeper's Daughter is also one I'm curious about.

After a quiet couple of months, there are some new quests available. Please see the notice board for more information.

Hope everyone is staying safe both in the novel kingdom and their worlds outside.

Hi guys! Don't sleep on the Santa's Little Helper quest. Santa coupons can help you in the quests you got stuck on. It's one of the best rewards. The quest is only available for completion in December. But if you won't be able to finish in December you can use a Timewalking potion to complete the quest later. :)

my News&Interviews articles:
2021 Award Winners
7 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week
The Most Anticipated Young Adult Novels of December

The last one is the kind of article I try to read a few times a year. I am always adding the newest books from authors that I've already read to my wishlists, I don't get a lot of new authors unless their debuts are super popular. If it is a new series, I will usually wait to read them until at least two are released. This one has a few modern stories, mostly romances and coming of age stories with diverse characters, plus a few fantasy or sci-fi books. it looks like 2 fantasy and 1 sci-fi this time. I already had one of the fantasies on my wishlist and I will be adding the other one.

Re: Santa's Little Helper quest
Are we allowed to use books we've already read but haven't used for task #1 and #2 as well? Maybe it's a silly question given the different wording (read and use) but just wanted to be sure :)

Sara, you can use books you've already read for tasks 1, 2 and 3. There's "use" in # 3 only because "read a book you finished reading in December" sounds odd. :)

Sounds fair :) Thank you so much, Zuzana!

Zuzana wrote: "Hi guys! Don't sleep on the Santa's Little Helper quest. Santa coupons can help you in the quests you got stuck on. It's one of the best rewards. The quest is only available for completion in Decem..."

Got it lined up! One task down, two to go. I NEED those Santa Coupons! 😅

Another -probably silly- doubt re: fighting the Great Emerald Dragon.
We cannot use any potion more than once for the duration of a single battle, but I assumed that we can use more than one from different types combined (e.g. a Minor Poison Potion + a Stoneskin Potion and/or others mixed as we please). Was I wrong?

Sara, no question is silly. :) I'm just not sure I understand it. You can combine the potions any way you like as long as you don't use any one type more than once during a fight. So combinations are totally fine. You can combine minor poison potion with stoneskin in round 1 and in round 2 the minor poison is still in effect and you can use eg. a shield potion but not another stoneskin potion, in round 3 you can use an hp bounce potion but not another stoneskin or shield potion. I hope this helped.

Thank you, Zuzana. It’s exactly how I’ve understood it and applied to my first battle so I’m glad I got it right :) Sorry if my question wasn’t that clear but you perfectly guessed what I meant. The thing is that I was about to start battle #2 against the Dragon and this doubt suddenly popped up in my mind so I felt I had to ask and double check. Thanks for being so helpful as always :)

How did I miss this? Would 2022 be too late to start? I didn't see an end date but I wanted to double check.

No end date for this Bobbi, start whenever you'd like and ask anything you'd like here. We're a friendly helpful bunch.

Sweet! Thanks, Sophie.

The door swings open and in strolls a tall, redheaded stranger. Taking a look around, she grins and loudly announces herself.

Greetings, my friends! I'm absolutely sure a brave adventurer such as myself needs no introduction to the patrons of this fine establishment.

She pauses as if she expects roaring cheers but is instead greeted with silence and the occasional cleared throat or cough. She hangs her head with a heaving sigh and tries again, this time, much more humbly.

...or not. Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am Lady Bobbi of Michigandia, at your service. I have heard many a tale of the kingdom of Novel and have come to be of service to the Queen. Perhaps I should find a local guide that I may learn more and have greater success in helping not only Queen Skye, but perhaps the good people of Novel.

Welcome, Lady Bobbi! Glad to see another adventurer here to help - there's always plenty of chaos to clean up.

Bobbi wrote: "The door swings open and in strolls a tall, redheaded stranger. Taking a look around, she grins and loudly announces herself.

Greetings, my friends! I'm absolutely sure a brave adventurer such as ..."

Welcome Lady Bobbi 👍

Thank you both.

How do we fight monsters? Do we write out the RP of the fight ourselves?

Welcome, Lady Bobbi! :)

Happy New Year to everyone! May this coming year bless you with love, peace, and happiness.

Chandler wrote: "How do we fight monsters? Do we write out the RP of the fight ourselves?"

Hi, Chandler. You're right. You'll log the fight in your adventure log or however you choose to name the part of your thread where you write up your adventures.

This is how I logged my fights at the beginning:

Attack Goblin - 6 AP, 10 HP - Reward: 1 XP + 1 Goblin Bone
Hero: LVL 4 || HP: 16/16 || Sword: 0 (AP: 2)|| Magic: 3 (AP:5)|| XP: 30
•Hero Attacks Monster with Magic Staff (5 AP) => Monster: 10-5= 5
•Monster Attacks Hero (6 AP) => Hero: 8-6= 2 HP
•Hero Attacks Monster with Magic Staff (5 AP) => Monster: 5-5= Dead
Goblin - Killed: 2/1/15, Available Next: 2/8/15
•Hero: - 6 HP, + 1 XP , + 1 Goblin Bone
Hero: LVL 4 || HP: 10/16 || Sword: 0 (AP: 2)|| Magic: 3 (AP:5)|| XP: 31

There are more simple ways to do it and as the time went on my fight entries became more brief. But in the beginning the more detailed write up helped me to better understand the battle mechanics of the game.

Welcome to the game! :)

Hi - can anyone tell me if there is a reward for the Kitchen quest (under House Quests)? Is it just having a kitchen? Or is there anything else that comes along with it

Thanks!!

SandyL wrote: "Hi - can anyone tell me if there is a reward for the Kitchen quest (under House Quests)? Is it just having a kitchen? Or is there anything else that comes along with it

Thanks!!"

I think it's just the kitchen, which gives you to the ability to cook (the cooking quests are right under then house quests in the quest thread).

Thanks!!