Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

The books can be started at anytime during TT, they just can’t be finished before the 15th.

The maze is finished ✔️:)
Now to focus on slaying some monsters!!

Ok, I am listening to The Broken Girls, which is 336 pages. It will work for:
Boar - #2 or #4
Harpies - Possibly #3?
Sphinx - Possibly #3 - The MC is trying to figure out who killed her sister. Would that be considered a riddle??

Nanci wrote: "Ok, I am listening to The Broken Girls, which is 336 pages. It will work for:
Boar - #2 or #4
Harpies - Possibly #3?
Sphinx - Possibly #3 - The MC is trying to figure out who killed..."
Sounds like a riddle to me!
Now which one to choose! It looks like we can use one book per monster, although we can defeat multiple tasks of that one monster with the book.

I think we should get that boar!
Maybe we can use your book, Nanci for the boar, and Keely's. That would get us 1,2 4. I am reading The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness which would work for 5 (MPG Animals). Now, we'd just need some snow.

There are a few short books there!

I couldn't contribute to the maze at all - I couldn't even keep up with the discussion around it! 😅 Hopefully I can help with this one - looks fun!

Sounds like a great plan, Melissa! I'll listen to mine as quick as I can.

Laurie B, I'm with you. It was just way too fast for me! This one seems more doable.

I was busy today. I’ll look at the tasks tomorrow and see what I can do

I'm still looking -- but I have that works for 1, 2 and 3 and possibly 4 for boar if you want to save some of those books for other tasks?

I have a shortish one I was going to read by not record -- it will work for Harpies 1 and 2 if that helps.

I can hold off on finishing Catch-22 for a bit. By the sounds of it, we can get the same monster again later. I'll have a closer look at the tasks and what books I can read next. I'm just happy I have been able to read a bit more lately. Maybe the BOMs I'm still reading will fit in nicely somewhere and it will give me more incentive to actually finish them quicker

Keely, I haven't started mine either, so why don't I just wait? I missed your earlier post - sorry!

Stacey wrote: "Kelly, I haven't started mine either, so why don't I just wait? I missed your earlier post - sorry!"

Yours fits for more of the tasks so I don't mind waiting to finish mine until later. As long as I actually finish it at some point, I really don't mind. I'm intending to get to the last chapter hopefully today and then I can just finish it whenever. Of course, if you would rather read other things, I can easily have it done when the mini begins.

I have a book I'm currently reading that would fit The Nemean Lion:

Wild Warrior
1.) Read a book between 350 and 450 pages (inclusive).
5.) Read a book that features a cat (cat shifter accepted).

and the Sphinx:
The Last Flight of Marius Chastain
1.) Read a book between 200 and 299 pages (inclusive).
2.) Read a book where the characters go on a journey.
4.) Read a book with a mountain on cover.

I have a book that I can start that works for the Nemian Lion too for tasks 2 and 3

Melissa wrote: "I think we should get that boar!
Maybe we can use your book, Nanci for the boar, and Keely's. That would get us 1,2 4. I am reading [book:The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the W..."

Melissa, if you haven't watched My Octopus Teacher on Netflix yet it is fantastic! Such resilient, intelligent animals. The documentary is very educational and the photography is beautiful!

I'm reading Definitely Dead which hasca cat shifter on the cover. I can hold off finishing it until after the mini quiz starts

Just finished The Book of Cold Cases
It was okay!
My link for all 5 sets of questions is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nanci wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I think we should get that boar!
Maybe we can use your book, Nanci for the boar, and Keely's. That would get us 1,2 4. I am reading [book:The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Explor..."

Yes!! What a wonderful documentary! This book is pretty good, but not as good as that movie!

I also just finished Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence for school. It's a short book, so if we need to take one off at the end, that would be a good one.

Keli wrote: "I'm reading Definitely Dead which hasca cat shifter on the cover. I can hold off finishing it until after the mini quiz starts"

That looks like fun!
Is it?

Laurie B wrote: "I couldn't contribute to the maze at all - I couldn't even keep up with the discussion around it! 😅 Hopefully I can help with this one - looks fun!"

Tell me about it! That was a whirlwind! Nice people though :)

Mary C wrote: "I finished book of cold cases and will do more questions tomorrow and post a link to my participation."

Laurie B wrote: "I should finally finish a book tonight, which will make me feel like less of a benchwarmer, lol! Work has just been crazy and tiring me out lately. Hoping it calms down soon."

I hope summer brings a calmer vibe to your work!!

Melissa wrote: "I hope summer brings a calmer vibe to your work!!"

Well...I'm a children's librarian and it's Summer Reading season, so one of my busiest times of year. 😅 I kind of forgot how tiring it is after two years of a covid break. But now that everything is up and running, I'm feeling better. And most of the craziness will end at the end of June.

I haven't looked at the June mini yet. I did a 5 mile walk on Saturday for a fundraiser for a cancer support group that my friend goes to for breast cancer support. I think I got to much sun because I felt like crap yesterday. Almost like I was hungover even though I didn't get a sun burn.

I have books that I've finished that I will start posting on the SS this evening after work.

I also just found out that they are sending me to do a trade show in New Mexico the first week of August. I just did one back in February in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Hubby can't go with me this time so it might not affect my reading all that much. I'll have to make sure I bring my kindle with me to read while I'm stuck in my display booth.

Really excited about going to New Mexico though. The resort is about 45 minutes outside of Albuquerque. Recently for fun I decided to track all the states I have been to an realized that I had hit 40 of them in my 52 years of life. Louisiana gave me 41 and NM will give me 42.

Keely wrote: "Stacey wrote: "Kelly, I haven't started mine either, so why don't I just wait? I missed your earlier post - sorry!"

Yours fits for more of the tasks so I don't mind waiting to finish mine until la..."

I'd say go ahead and finish, and I'll just move mine to later in the challenge. I always love a good Kristen Ashley, so I'm good to read, but since you are so close to finished, I'd hate for you to have it lingering on your shelf. :)

I'll just go find something with snow to finish up the boar spots.

I went through my on deck books. I put the Secret Poisoner aside to read The Witch's Heart but I have most of that completed now. Secret poisoner doesn't really work for any monster tasks so I'll switch back to that.

It looks like we can bank books finished after 6/15 and use them if they work for new monster tasks. So it might be worth holding off on finishing books until the 15th to potentially capture more monsters.

The Witch's Heart

works for:
Lion: task 1
Harpies: task 2

Snowmen in Paradise
Boar task 3
Lion task 5 (word search shows lots of cats in book)
Sphynx task 1

A Slow Fire Burning
Boar task 4
Sirens task 2 (houseboat)

Based on a True Story
Sphynx task 1

I'm not sure any of the books I am currently reading will cover more that one task per monster (apart from Catch-22), so they are probably better reserved for when we only have one task left on a monster. I'm not finishing any books until the 15th. I'm planning on starting It very soon as not only is it over 1,000 pages but if we get the Minotaur it will cover at least three of those tasks.

Checked out a couple more books that work for some current beast tasks.

The Spirit Rebellion
Harpies 4 & 5
Sphynx 5 (also likely 2 and 3)

The Princess Trap
Lion 1 & 3
Harpies 4


I just read the book before Spirit Rebellion and I think might work for a few tasks but I won't know until I read it

Keely wrote: "I'm not sure any of the books I am currently reading will cover more that one task per monster (apart from Catch-22), so they are probably better reserved for when we only have one task left on a m..."

Wow!
Over 1,000!!
What book will that be?

Mary C wrote: "I also just found out that they are sending me to do a trade show in New Mexico the first week of August. I just did one back in February in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Hubby can't go with me ..."

I haven't been to New Mexico since I was a kid. I loved it back then. Will you have time to look around? What are you looking forward to most?

Laurie B wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I hope summer brings a calmer vibe to your work!!"

Well...I'm a children's librarian and it's Summer Reading season, so one of my busiest times of year. 😅 I kind of forgot how tiri..."

Nice!
Do you have any challenges going for those kiddos?

I've got a few books with an open plain landscape on the cover if we need them.
I have borrowed some books from friends, and I really need to read them this summer!!

I will have some time. I'm hoping to get to the botanical gardens in Albuquerque and the Pueblo Cultural Center. I'll only be there 3 full days and 2 half days. One of those full days is all work all day even the lunch and dinner. Sometimes the problems I have on these shows is that the days I am free to do touristy stuff, stuff is closed like Mondays and Tuesday. But fingers crossed I can some stuff.

But still really happy to get to see New Mexico for free. The company will even pay for my entertainment while I'm there.

Are we going to get a page on the SS to plan on for the monsters? I know its still 2 days from starting, but I'm getting lost on what books to start/look for.

Good question. Let me see what I can find out.

Stacey wrote: "Are we going to get a page on the SS to plan on for the monsters? I know its still 2 days from starting, but I'm getting lost on what books to start/look for."

Yes we are Stacey. I'll do that in the morning after taking the little one to school. Oof sorry I haven't been on much, but weekends are usually trickier. And this month is full of Holidays (holy days?) which is great for who works, but bad for parents 😅

Also, anyone who participated in the maze, please make sure your book is properly tagged with an M or the indication that is was a maze book so we can get the 5extra points.

Regarding the maze, I think we will get 50 extra points for completing the maze. It was third place, but we still completed it. And everyone did an amazing job. We were just very unlucky and had to backtrack so much! :(

I haven't been in a reading mood it seems. :/ I started Swan Song but read like 30pages of it 😅 need to keep pushing through it. Maybe I'll start something else that gets me excited to read first and then go back to it :/

Anyways just dropping by a quick post. It's 1am so I need to go to sleep.

If anyone has any questions about the mini go ahead and ask and I'll answer then first thing tomorrow.

Melissa wrote: "Nice!
Do you have any challenges going for those kiddos?"

The challenge part is pretty laid-back this year - they can go at their own pace. They get a calendar in June and July that encourages them to read on each day but also has fun activities and challenges for them to do. Things like picking up trash in their neighborhood, playing a board game, spending a whole day without technology, etc. The theme is all about oceans, so there are also a lot of suggestions to read books set near the ocean, learn about ocean animals, learn what they can do to help keep the oceans clean, etc.

Laurie B wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Nice!
Do you have any challenges going for those kiddos?"

The challenge part is pretty laid-back this year - they can go at their own pace. They get a calendar in June and July tha..."

That sounds like so much fun! i know my kid would love it!

Countdown to the start of the Monster Mini Challenge: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Remember that we can only use books that were finished after the countdown!!

We now have a mini tab on the spreadsheet (i also deleted the previous mini tabs so it's less confusing). It's pretty straightforward, but if you have any problems with it just ask :)

Please don't claim more than one book at a time for the mini.

i put a few of the books you talked about on the mini tab just for a reference, but they can be changed.

I also left a book on the books tab to serve as reference on what to be filled when you read a book. If you can put on the "Also works for" column all of the tasks you feel your book can work for, that would help us a lot.

Laurie B wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Nice!
Do you have any challenges going for those kiddos?"

The challenge part is pretty laid-back this year - they can go at their own pace. They get a calendar in June and July tha..."

So much fun. I'd be interested in how it goes! I might start a challenge for my students in the fall.

Eni wrote: "i put a few of the books you talked about on the mini tab just for a reference, but they can be changed.

I also left a book on the books tab to serve as reference on what to be filled when you rea..."

Looks great! I have about 30 minutes left of my Octopus book - I'll listen tomorrow at 4:00 my time and finish it quickly :)

I might prowl about the other monsters too to see what's going on.

Mary, 42 states in 52 years...you're doing good! We went cycling through my last 2 contiguous states (Mississippi, and Louisiana) in the fall. Our very last state will be Alaska. We were going to go for my husband's 70th bday in September, but now have to push it back as I need my other knee replacement at that time. It's ok, as we really want to be able to hike a lot while there and another new knee will hopefully make that happen with less pain.

Laurie, the summer reading challenges are so important at the library. I love taking our grands to the library! Our one grandson, who is now 9, is my dedicated library buddy, which is so much fun. All 6 of them love books, but he's the real book lover. He asked me to get him a book light when he was 7, so he could read in bed just like NanNan. (That's me.) Be still my beating heart!

I'm 60% done listening to The Broken Girls for the Boar monster. I'm east coast US, so won't be able to log it until tomorrow morning, as I can't stay awake past midnight, but I will finish all, but the very end before bedtime.

It's mostly from my first husband being in the military. We lived in WA, MD, PA, NY, & VA. So I drove cross county twice and when the top half the country on the way to the west coast and then down the bottom part on the way to the South. We took our time on both drives to stop and see America.

It's kind of my bucket list now to get all 50 states in before I die. I'll get to knock off OK next year for a trade show and and AZ when we go to the Grand Canyon in 2024. (for my BFF's 60th)

It doesn't seem to be in my financial destiny to travel the rest of the world much so I might as well try and get all of the US.

I have kayaked all over New England. There's section of the CT river where you can put in right where MA, VT and NH meet. Feels pretty cool to say you kayaked in 3 states in day. Even if the are small states. I have also biked from MA to CT but that's not as impressive when you know I live on the CT border and it's only 1 mile away. LOL