The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

Oh Elisabeth I'm really happy for you guys that you can do all these things!

Tina, I'm honestly not sure. I think it's partly because our government is too slow in taking action and partly because people just don't follow the rules. The old "give them a finger and they'll take an arm" adage definitely applies here too. Our neighbours - who are the most white trash people I've ever seen, but anyway - have people over every single day, often four or five different people over the course of the day. They've never followed the rules even when we were in actual lockdown last year. And there are many people like that here, who feel like the rules don't apply to them and others will follow them so they'll be safe or something. This week there was an April Fool's joke that there was a festival in a park in Brussels and everybody knew it was a joke but thousands of people (mostly young adults) still went and partied. The police had to use water cannons and everything.

Anyway that being said - sorry if I went on a little long, I really hate people who don't follow the rules while we do our best - I'm going to have a think about board games! We often play quite difficult games but we have some 'gateway' games as well, I'll keep you posted :D

Going by the Tracking Spreadsheet we need a few greens, red and maybe a yellow atm. I'll be at the library tomorrow so will have a look. Blue looks well covered. I have 2 blues in my tbr pile but as far as I can tell they don't have the right numbers.

The book I'm reading right now is yellow and I think it could count for either of our remaining yellow cards.


It's really, really good. It's a big one but I've read about 70% so far, most of it today as the weather has been icky so we've just stayed in on the sofa under a blanket.
I'm honestly a little freaked out about the weather, last week it was 25°C here and I was reading outside in the sun; today it's actually snowing (in April!) and the flakes are super thick, like someone's shaking out a down cover in our garden or something. Weird.

Completion Post

Book: The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Pages: 288
Date: 04 Apr 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Standalone
2: Title T
3: Author H
4: C: Ingrid
6: C: Seed, Nora
8: C: Elm, Louise
9: C: Nora Seed
Skip: C: Kerry-Anne
Reverse: Read by Apoorv & Laura

Cover - Blue (82.6%)

How annoying. Two of my library books don't pass the TinEye test. One is 49% green and the other is different shades of red but TinEye says it's orange and brown with no red at all. The colour isn't reproduced properly again. The other two are fine but may only fit the 2 card.

Hey ho--they look like good reads and you never know, might fit something in the mini.

As a rule, we don't have to use TinEye. That is just a quick way to verify a cover, but this challenge allows to NOT use TinEye, if it is giving out rather weird results (which is very often does!)

So, Elisabeth, if you red book looks red to you, I can have it asked to the Mods/Other Caps and get a yay/nay for that.

Laura wrote: "Oh Elisabeth I'm really happy for you guys that you can do all these things!

Tina, I'm honestly not sure. I think it's partly because our government is too slow in taking action and partly becaus..."

I actually appreciate your point of view Laura. I've studied public health and am generally intersted in it. I want to understand the global response to the pandemic and what worked and didn't work and why. From what I understand, Australia had a quick government response and public behavioural changes to it; USA did not have a good government response and but had some public behavioural change or interest in health which seems to be the same in Belgium but not as bad as USA.

But that's so frustrating that you're doing what you can for your health and the public, and others don't care at all. And that festival situation is not good at all! Using water cannons is an interesting technique from the police! It's sad because there will be mass gathering situations that shouldn't be happening :/

And yes! Get back to me about the board games haha

Elisabeth wrote: "Going by the Tracking Spreadsheet we need a few greens, red and maybe a yellow atm. I'll be at the library tomorrow so will have a look. Blue looks well covered. I have 2 blues in my tbr pile but a..."

I think we're going good! I've been trying to save my reading for when the mini challenge comes out so my red book will be counted

Laura wrote: "The book I'm reading right now is yellow and I think it could count for either of our remaining yellow cards.


It's really, really good. It's a big one but I've ..."

That sounds lovely! I love books about cracking codes and women power from WW2... or just girl power

Elisabeth wrote: "How annoying. Two of my library books don't pass the TinEye test. One is 49% green and the other is different shades of red but TinEye says it's orange and brown with no red at all. The colour isn'..."

It's why I don't like using tineye. It makes finding a book cover hard for colours grr

I know what you mean, Tina. I have a "blue" book but after eliminating the check marks instead of being 87.4% blue it became 38.5% blue and 56.4% black...go figure!

Completion Post

Book: Shattered
Author: Sophia Sharp
Pages: 128
Date: 05 Apr 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
1: #1 in Series
6: Title S
7: Place - Vancouver, WA
Skip: C - Kelly

Vicki wrote: "I know what you mean, Tina. I have a "blue" book but after eliminating the check marks instead of being 87.4% blue it became 38.5% blue and 56.4% black...go figure!"

LOL! That made me chuckle!
TinEye is truly special! :D

As a general rule though, if you are not happy with TinEye's outcome for any cover, post it here and we can decide as a team. If not, I can always ask in the Mods group for a consensus. Better to ask than assume.

Okay, if I had an I for my book, I would've done that.

Thanks Apoorv.
Update. There are two entries for the same book! I took the first that came up but this is what it really looks like 58.6% red

It's at least red 8.

Completion Post
If It Bleeds
Author: Stephen King
Pages: 447
Date: April 6

Cards
0 Standalone
1 C: Ondowsky
3 C: Holly
4 C: Felicia
5 Title : If
6 A: Stephen
Skip A: King
Reverse: read by Vicki

What a master Stephen King is!

Completion Post

Book: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 541
Date: 04/06/21

UNO Cards it fits:
0: C: Zorya
1: #1 in Series
2: Character T - Technical Boy
3: Character H - Hinzelmann, Richie
6: Character S - Salim
8: Character E - Essie MacGowan
9: Author N - Neil Gaiman
Reverse: Laura, Tina

Book Cover Color: Blue

Completion Post


Book: Royal Holiday
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Pages: 304
Date: 06-April-2021

UNO Cards it fits:

3: Character- Hudson, Malcom
4: Book 4 in series
7: Character- Vivian Forest
8: Place- England
Skip: Character- Pepper, Julia

Cover Colour :Green (84%)

Completion Post
The Night Fire
Author: Michael Connelly
Pages: 405
Date: April 6

Cards
I C: Olivas
2 C: Thompson, Margaret
3 C: Harry
4 C: Falcone
6 C: Selma
8 C: Elvin
9 Title: Night
Skip: Kidd
Reverse: Vanessa

Completion Post

Book: The Rose Code
Author: Kate Quinn
Pages: 646
Date: 6 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Standalone; Character - Zarb, Harry
1: Character - Osla
2: Title - The Rose Code
3: Character - Harry Zarb
4: Character - Finch, Beth
5: Character - Irving, Geoffrey
6: Character - Sally Norton
9: Character - Norton, Sally
Skip: Author K

Cover color: yellow



This book was absolutely amazing and I can highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, powerful women and/or codebreaking.
Also I want to change jobs and be a codebreaker now, but I don't suppose I can :D

Tina - it's not near as bad here as in the USA, but it's still bad.

Board games:
A few games I would recommend if you are used to playing the classics like Monopoly are
- Carcasonne
- Ticket to Ride (I prefer the Europe version)
- Villainous (Disney themed but I don't know if you're into that)
- Bärenpark

A bit more difficult, but really fun and beautiful:
- Wingspan; it's about birds and there's also an expansion for it about Oceania :)
- Azul
- Sagrada, both of these are a bit abstract but they're so pretty :D
- Parks, about the US national parks

If you like playing with just 2 people here are some recommendations:
- Jaipur
- Patchwork
- Hive - it's sort of like chess but different :D
- Santorini

And if you would prefer party games that you can play with a lot of people I can highly recommend Codenames. It's hilarious. There's also Exploding Kittens which is very funny but I don't want to play it anymore because we played it too much and I got sick of it :D

Anyway; there are thousands of games and I could go on forever but I would suggest you pick something that visually appeals to you and with a theme you like. Board games are generally quite expensive but you can often find them in thrift shops too.
I hope this was useful! :)

Completion Post

Book: Rich People Problems
Author: Kevin Kwan
Pages: 398
Date: 7 Apr 21

UNO Cards it fits:
1: Character O - Oliver
2: Character T - Teo, Michael
3: Character H - Harry
4: Character F - Fiona
5: Character I - Isabel
6: Location S - Singapore
7: Character V - Victoria
8: Character E - Eddie
9: Character N - Nicholas
Skip: Author K/P - Kevin Kwan
Color: Green (TinEye says all the greens add up to 49.6%. Can we round up?)

Laura wrote: "Completion Post

Book: The Rose Code
Author: Kate Quinn
Pages: 646
Date: 6 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Standalone; Character - Zarb, Harry
1: Character - Osla
2: Title - The R..."

Sounds great, Laura. Thanks.

Here's the green I'm reading and it comes in at ...... 95.8% Yay!!!
It'll be 0 or 2.
There are 12 monologues in it and almost every character's name starts with J, even some of the referenced people. Very odd. Apart from that it's very good. Bit like the Alan Bennett Talking Heads.

Completion Post
A Certain Age: Twelve Monologues from the Classic Radio Series
Author: Lynne Truss
Pages: 208
Date: April 7

Cards
Green 95.8%
0 Standalone
2 A: Truss
3 C: Henny
6 C: Shakira

Completion Post


Book: Bad Blood
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Pages: 384
Date: 04/07/21

UNO Cards it fits:

0: Character - Zhang, Lia
2: Character - Thatcher Townsend
3: Character - Hobbes, Cassie
4: #4 in Series
6: Character - Sterling (Agent)
7: Character - Vance (Agent)
8: Character - Elise Delacroix
9. Character - Nine
Skip: Character - Kane Darby

Completion Post


Book: Office Girl
Author: Joe Meno
Pages: 293
Date: 4/7/2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Character - Odile Neff
5: Character - Isobel
8: Character - Edward
9: Character - Neff, Odile
Skip: Character - Paul



Book: Dangerous Illusions
Author: Irene Hannon
Pages: 352
Date: 04/08/21

UNO Cards it fits:

1: #1 in Series
2: Character - Trish Bailey
3: Author - H
4: Character: Flynn, Colin
5: Author - I
6: Place - St. Louis
8: Character - Eilene Coulter
9. Character - Nicole
Skip: Character - Parker, Matt

More blue or grey?

Completion Post

Book: The Death of Vivek Oji
Author: Akwaeke Emezi
Pages: 256
Date: 07 April 21

UNO Cards it fits:

0: Standalone
1: C: Osita
2: Title T
3: Author - H
4: C: Florence
6: C: Somto
7: C: Vivek Oji
8: Author E
9. P: Nigeria
Skip: C: Kavita
Reverse: Read by Apoorv

Kathryn wrote: "

More blue or grey?"

I've given up on judging colours after my run of fails hahahaha

Completion Post
The Mesmerist
Author: Barbara Ewing
Pages: 400
Date: April 9th

Cards
Red 58.8%

1: Ist in series
2 C: Tunks
3 C: Hester
4 C: Fortune
6 C: Spoons
8 C: Ewing
9 C: Neville
Skip : Preston

What a great book! Loved it.

Kathryn wrote: "

More blue or grey?"

More Grey for me, sorry! :(

Kathryn, I just looked at the physical book on my shelf and it's hard tot tell because the cover is sort of metallic but I would describe it as bluish grey. I wouldn't worry about it too much though because blue is a fairly easy cover colour to find so we'll get there. I hope you like the book, I LOVE Neil Gaiman!

We actually have all the Blue's covered for this round and have some backups too. Rather we are doing simply superbly on the color cards. Kudos!

Completion Post
The Frangipani Tree Mystery
Author: Ovidia Yu
Pages: 320
Date: April 10

Cards
Red 76.5%
1 A: Ovidia
2 C: Thomas
3 C: Harry
4 Title: Frangipani
6 Place: Singapore
7 C: Vanessa
9 C: Nickname Nessa ( of Vanessa)
Skip C: Palin

Completion Post

Book: The Lost Days
Author: Rob Reger
Pages: 266
Date: 10 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
1: Series #2
2: Title - The Rose Code
3: Character - Hamhawk
6: Character - Strange, Emily; Mr. Schneider
8: Character - Emily
9: Character - NeeChee

Completion Post

Book: Stranger and Stranger
Author: Rob Reger
Pages: 263
Date: 10 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Character - Zenith
2: Series #2
4: Character - Fang Fang, Venus
6: Title S - Stranger and Stranger
7: Character - Venus
8: Character - Emily
9: Character - NeeChee
Skip: Character - Patti

Cover color: red

Completion Post

Book: The Big Bad Wolf
Author: James Patterson
Pages: 432
Date: 10 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Character - Zoya
1: Character - Olsen, Lili
2: Title T - The Big Bad Wolf
3: Character - Hughes, Jamilla
4: Character - Farley, Rafe
5: Character - Irene Ciaccio
6: Character - Sampson, John
7: Character - Vasilev, Slava
8: Character - Elizabeth Connolly
9: Series #9
Skip: Author P - Patterson, James

Completion Post

Book: The Familiars
Author: Stacey Halls
Pages: 448
Date: 10 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Standalone
2: Title T - The Familiars
3: Author H - Halls, Stacey
4: Title F - The Familiars
6: Author S - Stacey Halls
8: Character - Elizabeth Device
9: Character - Nowell, Roger
Skip: Character - Puck

My boyfriend and I had a little reading marathon yesterday. We used to this more often when we were younger and had fewer responsibilities :D
We just read all day, did nothing else except eat and shower! I didn't even cook because we had leftovers (strategically planned of course).
My boyfriend is a very slow reader so he just read Red Rising all day and finished it around 10.30pm. I read 3,5 books (the first one was already 1/3 through before Saturday) and then when I finished the Familiars around 10pm I had had enough because I didn't want to start another book so I watched a tiny bit of TV :) it was a really fun day!
I'm excited to see what the mini challenge is going to be this month. It's a bit of a pity that it's going to start towards the end of next week because my vacation will end then, but I'll do my best!

Laura! You did amazingly! That sounds like fun! A super quiet day huh? I'd love for my partner and I to do that but he's not much of a reader. He's been reading the same book for about 2 years now and has completely deformed my copy of The Art of Happiness to my dismay

Get excited for the mini challenge everyone! I think you will all love it!

We'll get you more details soon ;)

Laura wrote: "My boyfriend is a very slow reader so he just read Red Rising all day and finished it around 10.30pm. I read 3,5 books (the first one was already 1/3 through before Saturday) and then when I finished the Familiars around 10pm"
Oh, I am a slow reader. This UNO Challenge had boosted my reading. Unfortunately I am moving soon (maybe to Florida, depends on which offer comes first), so I am packing boxes. Wish us luck!

Update

Did you say you loved the tasks we did for the March mini? :P

Oh no if you take two years to read a book, how can you possibly enjoy it?
My boyfriend likes reading but he reads mostly comics, graphic novels and manga. They take less time :) he's planning to read 12 books this year so yesterday certainly helped!

Good luck with your move, Danah! How can you not know where you're moving? I'm confused :D

Apoorv - WHAT!!

Apoorv wrote: "
Update


Did you say you loved the tasks we did for the March mini? :P"

Oohh something similar?? We were good at the March mini...

Where are you living atm, Danah?

Completion Post

Book: Norse Mythology
Author: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 301
Date: 10 April 2021

UNO Cards it fits:
0: Standalone
1: Character - Odin
3: Character - Hugin
4: Character - Fenrir
6: Character - Sleipnir
7: Character - Vili
8: Character - Embla
9: Author - Neil Gaiman
Reverse: Read by Laura

When does the mini challenge start?

Paris wrote: "When does the mini challenge start?"

Here is the COUNTDOWN to the start of the mini challenge.
Note: As usual, the books can be started before, they just need to be finished after this clock ticks over.