Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

I listed all of the characters/title/author info for the two books I've finished that aren't used yet. Feel free to dump them where they're needed when we get to the end. I'm still trying to catch up on everything, so not going to Tetris the books right now!

On the page number thing, a couple of the books I've added (Thea and Denise and Nightcrawling) don't have page numbers on the default edition. I'm reading an ARC version on Pigeonhole so there is no actual edition. I've gone with page numbers per the only edition I could see that had page numbers on GR. Is that ok?

Alison wrote: "On the page number thing, a couple of the books I've added (Thea and Denise and Nightcrawling) don't have page numbers on the default edition. I'm reading an ARC ver..."

Alison, just tag the editions that have page counts, since it's an un-labeled ARC, rather than tagging the default editions. Choose an edition in your language from the publisher that is publishing in your country. (basically, don't go tag the highest page count edition just to get more pages. That way it's fair! :) )

Steven wrote: "Alison wrote: "On the page number thing, a couple of the books I've added (Thea and Denise and Nightcrawling) don't have page numbers on the default edition. I'm rea..."

Thanks, I think that's what I've done. I usually try to match up the cover, have a look on Amazon to see what it says on page numbers and pick the edition that's closest.

GR page numbers are often a bit of a nightmare, particularly for ARCs or self published KU books

Absolutely agree. I’m a GR librarian so I can fix things. I just try to be super careful to have backup if I’m fixing things for my team during Towers! Don’t want to be accused of cheating. Not that anyone who knows me would ever accuse me of that. :)

So i have a question that's kinda unrelated to the challenge.

Is all the "english" audiobook services like audible? Where you pay a monthly subscription and have to buy books as well?
Because my norwegian audiobook subscription is like netflix, where you pay a set amount every month and get to listen to how many books you want.

Mia wrote: "So i have a question that's kinda unrelated to the challenge.

Is all the "english" audiobook services like audible? Where you pay a monthly subscription and have to buy books as well?
Because my..."

Mia - you should take a look at Scribd! You pay a set monthly price and you can listen to multiple audiobooks. The company states that it's unlimited but I think that's a bit misleading. If you listen to a lot of popular releases, you'll be cut off until the next month. You should take advantage of a free trial month.

https://www.scribd.com/

I'm still have some audible credits. The other way I get audiobooks is via my library.


Scribd I got annoyed with when they cut me off and it didn't come back next month or have any indication when it would.

Norwegian audiobook set up sounds awesome.

The norwegian service have mostly english language audiobooks, as well as a bunch of new releases, so dont need a recommendation.

You all should pretend to be norwegian to get the better service 😂

Very tempting! Suspect it would be more complicated to set up than I'd like.

Audible's changed recently. You pay a monthly fee and that gets you one credit which you can use to buy one book (or two if they have a buy one get one free deal on). However they've recently started this new Audible Plus thing which is kind of like Kindle unlimited where if you have an audible membership you can listen for free to a selection of audiobooks and podcasts. There's actually a pretty decent selection in Audible Plus, lots of classics but there are some more recent books too (Midnight Library for example).

The biggest problem for me is that they sometimes switch around which books are in Audible Plus, not the first time I've been midway through something only to have it disappear. But then I'm really slow on audiobooks.

Like Sophie though I use the library a lot for audiobooks.

Chirp has a pretty good book selection and I always find my kind of books on sale. Completely free app. You only pay for the books you want no fees like Audible.

Right now I just use my library for audiobooks (Overdrive and Hoopla).
I was with Audible for a long time but had to quit since I'm not currently working.
Scribd made me mad because I'd pay my fee and only get 1 or 2 days access to things I actually wanted to read. I wouldn't call their service "unlimited." There are definitely limits there.

Wouldn't you know it. I gave up the slot for an "A" task because I didn't think I would get the audio for the book I had slotted in time and the audio came through today. When I checked a couple days ago, it said 2 weeks wait. I guess a copy came up that was owned by my library so I got jumped to the head of the line (because they will do that on Overdrive). Just my luck... LOL

Insiyah wrote: "As far as Erin Morgenstern books go, there seem to be two types of readers - the ones who absolutely LOVE it, and the ones who just don't. Personally I enjoyed both a lot.

The Starless Sea was ve..."

Thanks for the tip!

Amy the book-bat wrote: "Right now I just use my library for audiobooks (Overdrive and Hoopla).
I was with Audible for a long time but had to quit since I'm not currently working.
Scribd made me mad because I'd pay my fe..."

I agree. It's not unlimited. Still a decent deal, IMO but I've been bitten by the access thing with them, too.

My frustration with it is that they aren't open about the limits so you can plan. Felt like false advertising to say unlimited when in fact it could shut down access to stuff quickly.

Sophie wrote: "My frustration with it is that they aren't open about the limits so you can plan. Felt like false advertising to say unlimited when in fact it could shut down access to stuff quickly."

I would get like 2 days where I could access anything and from then on, it was kind of hit or miss if something I would want to read would become available. Very annoying. And yes, it would have been better if they were honest about the limits.

Missy Can you add your finished books to your shelf please?


Mini Progress

4 days left! Going well so far thanks everyone! If you get a chance to put 'reading ' in the date column on the ss for your current read, that would do my over anxious completionist brain a lot of good!

If you have a book that you finish that works for one of these, please let us know. Swaps are happening, and we can juggle for highest page numbers until the end.

Thalia
Spell out H - JL
MPG Humour - Alison

Urania
Stars on cover - Mia

Polyhymnia
Spell out Y - Insiyah
Spell out I - Navi

Calliope
Spell out P - Missy
Royal title in book title - Sophie

Clio
MPG History - Insiyah

Euterpe
Musical instrument on cover - Denise

Terpsichore
Spell out P - Navi
Spell out C - Andrea

Just finished The Starless Sea which fits task 54. I've indicated that I'm reading the other two on the SS.

I'll definitely be finishing Queen Mary, Sundial and The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science before the end of the month!

Is there anything in particular you would like me to read for? I have a huge stack of books out from the library right now to work through, so I can hit quite a few options if need be.

I have a book with an "E" author up next.

The only books I have finished were started before this challenge or are under 200 pages but we’re already planned for my TBR this month with other things so I didn’t put them on :/
I’m reading 11/22/63 which is massive but I started mid April 😩

Next month I’ll do better because I’ll plan for the fact that we want longer books for this. Already I’m planning to fit in a 699, 625, and 509 page books.

I’m working on a new one now so I’ll look for what it fits.

We're at 90% of the book total we would have read up to this date if we were going to get to 630 exactly at the end of the challenge. I hope that makes sense...

Thanks everyone for marking things on the SS!

Amy and anyone else looking for inspiration: Anything from the list above - I'm updating it as books come in as finished. I think stars on the cover, P, H and musical instrument on cover haven't been marked as reading yet, but those might be less active GR users. Looking at the shorter books that are being used in the mini and it would be nice if we could replace:

M more than 152p
E more than 165
E more than 203
N more than 207
R more than 224
L more than 233
U more than 246
S more than 272
I more than 272

I'm obviously not expecting all of those to be replaced!



Keri - please put anything started after 15th May onto the sheet if it is over 100p. We may end up using the shorter books to get us to the 630 (+9%) at the end of the challenge for maximum points. I'd rather have more options than less.

Sophie wrote: "

We're at 90% of the book total we would have read up to this date if we were going to get to 630 exactly at the end of the challenge. I hope that makes sense...

Thanks everyone for marking thing..."

added a book that will fit for M with 301 pages.
Also i'm currently reading mine for stars on the cover. Will try to finish by sunday.

Wonderful, thanks Mia

All three of the books that I have read and marked as read have been removed from the spreadsheet. Is that how the spreadsheet works? Add what you plan to read and it gets removed as you read them?

We've hidden the rows that have been moved to the official ss so that when we have 500-600 books read on there later in the challenge it isn't too hard to find what people are currently reading or what has recently been finished. Nothing should have been deleted.

JL wrote: "All three of the books that I have read and marked as read have been removed from the spreadsheet. Is that how the spreadsheet works? Add what you plan to read and it gets removed as you read them?"

Once you've completed the books, we (captains & co-captains) check to make sure that it meets requirements, etc. and then add them onto the main spreadsheet. Once that's done, we've taken to hiding the completed books to make the internal spreadsheet less complicated. So the books you've added on the internal sheet are still there, and they've already been added to the main sheet.

Had a trip to the beach today so managed to get a lot of listening time in and finished The Rosie Effect. I've slotted it in for MPG humor instead of Lessons in Chemistry.

I am still reading Lessons in Chemistry but it's taking me a bit longer as I haven't really had the focus for it.

I also had hairdresser today so ended up starting a Meghan Quinn, which seems to be on the longer side (I think it's 460 ish pages). There's a fair chance I'll finish before the end of the month so it could possibly replace a shorter book

I will be able to finish my last book for May, Small Favors, tomorrow. It works for a bunch of letters. I will update the ss when I have access to my laptop later.

For anyone interested, the July BOM polls are available. So many good options this time!

Themed BOM: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Adult BOM: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Finally finished my long biography (Queen Mary if anyone is interested). I loved it and highly recommend if you enjoy learning about Royal figures! 😊

Audrey Jane wrote: "For anyone interested, the July BOM polls are available. So many good options this time!

Themed BOM: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2......"

Thank you for posting the polls! I've voted on my own nominees.
I nominated The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea for YA. I wanted to read it ever since I saw the UK cover version.

And The Moscoviad which caught my interest after I saw it on a list of best novels by Ukranian authors.

i'm planning on finishing the 3 books i have on the spreadsheet before the end of the month. still finding it pretty hard to stay motivated but i think i should be able to manage it.

Alison wrote: "Had a trip to the beach today so managed to get a lot of listening time in and finished The Rosie Effect. I've slotted it in for MPG humor instead of Lessons in Chemistry.

I am still reading Less..."

Hope you had a fabulous time at the beach! Thanks for the heads up about how your others are going.

Audrey Jane wrote: "For anyone interested, the July BOM polls are available. So many good options this time!

Themed BOM: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2......"

Thanks Audrey! BOM aren't my strong suit for remembering nominations and voting.

Karen is also having a mod takeover BOM this month for both her birthday and eurovision. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
We have 48 hours to nominate something.

Navi wrote: "Finally finished my long biography (Queen Mary if anyone is interested). I loved it and highly recommend if you enjoy learning about Royal figures! 😊"

Looks interesting! Non-fiction takes me an age to read so I'll probably leave it for now.

Finished by "stars on cover" task. And have only 2 hours left of an audiobook with about 350 pages.

Mia wrote: "Finished by "stars on cover" task. And have only 2 hours left of an audiobook with about 350 pages."

Awesome work! :D I'm trying to finish up my currently reading books by the end of the month too

Missy, please add "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" to your tower teams shelf. Thanks! :D

Sorry for the mixed messages everyone. I didn't remember Sophie had asked you to put "reading" into the date read column. I've already deleted them, so when you get a minute, please go re-mark them since I don't remember which ones they were.

I'm sorry for all the confusion!

Proof that captains are as fallible as the rest of the team! We do our best but sometimes things slip.

On a happy note, your are all making being a captain easy with how quickly and well you respond to everything! Thank you.

Sophie wrote: "

We're at 90% of the book total we would have read up to this date if we were going to get to 630 exactly at the end of the challenge. I hope that makes sense...

Thanks everyone for marking thing..."

Ok great I got them added, only added ones I’m sure I’ll finish by the end.
I’m also reading The Woman in the Window but might have bitten off more than I can chew with that one in the time left.

Happy Sunday!

I just finished Rock Chick Revolution by Kristen Ashley. A great end to a fantastic series!! This series is a must read if you like bad ass chicks, bad ass boys and lots of humor. This author is one of my favorites.

Keri wrote: "Sophie wrote: "

We're at 90% of the book total we would have read up to this date if we were going to get to 630 exactly at the end of the challenge. I hope that makes sense...

Thanks everyone fo..."

So long as it's done by the end of August I'm happy.

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone is having a chilled out day.

Kristen Ashley has gone under my radar so far. Might have to rectify that soon. I've enjoyed the Meghan Quinn books I've read and they are handy for a tricky spell out.

Does anyone know why my link won’t work? I’ve been having this issue all of the sudden for the past few months and can’t figure out why

Here’s the link to my shelf:
<*a href=“https:// www. goodreads. com/review/list/2602646-keri?per_page=50&ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=tower-teams-ix-2022&utf8=”*>Keri’s Tower Teams IX<*/a*>

Everywhere there’s an * is normally not there, no space.
I only added spaces to the URL to make it show as text for errors if any of you see anything. This has been driving me nuts.
The ones that don’t work look no differently set up to me than the ones I have that work!!

V odd, it reckons that is linking to not goodreads. Can you add me as a friend so I can look at a couple of things? I couldn't immediately see the shelf on your books page.

Just finished Small Favors which was not really enjoyable. I liked the overall mood but it dragged a lot and had a confusing/boring set of characters. It supposed to be a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin but couldn't tell.

I read House of Salt and Sorrows (a retelling of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses') by the same author and enjoyed that one more.