Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Devann!!! Glad to have you aboard! Same team again :)

Elli wrote: "Hi everybody~ I'm Elli from Singapore.

This is my first time participating in Tower Teams. I do solo challenges usually but started participating in more team challenges this year. The Uno challen..."

Lovely to meet you! I still need to read The Emperor’s Soul!

Sophie wrote: "Work as funding a book buying habit... doesn’t sound familiar at all. Definitely not an issue in my house. Thank goodness for libraries and subscriptions for keeping the costs down!


Steven - I'm ..."

Thanks for the food rec! :)

I’m hoping a respite will help me. I am also spending this time deciding if it’s career change time lol

Sophie wrote: "Looks like we've got a solid core of Sanderson reads here! *eyes up the page counts approvingly * I haven’t read any of his for a long time, but a couple of rereads then moving on with the series m..."

Yes I backed that Kickstarter! That man writes like a beast!!!

Alison wrote: "@Steven Eni and Sammy were the captain and co captain of my team for last year's Wheel so Sonia was a regular visitor to the thread. It's so great that you became such good friends thru TT.

I'm pr..."

I just got my reading mojo back after a few slow years. It’s still not back to full! So I get it.

Eni and Sonia are sisters, and they’re both fantastic people. I adore them! Sammy too. She’s great also!

Sophie wrote: "Hector and Achilles was Sammy and Jenny beofre wheels. So that was my doing. Judith chose Pandora (or Circe). Those bits can't be left as Cat's intention.

ETA: not that anyone will listen to poor ..."

I was there at that debate. There's something about Eric Bana as Trojan Prince that calls to my soul, so, I'm quite happy with the sorting.

Audrey Jane wrote: "Hello fellow Cassandrians! I'm Audrey, a Belgian living in France. I work for a law firm (assisting two Partners). I loyally serve two cats at home and will welcome a puppy within three weeks. I'm ..."

Glad to meet you, Audrey Jane!!! :). “Loyally serve two cats” is spot on!

Oh right, before I forget, here's the link to my shelf for TT9

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

@Sophie. Sanderson is a monster at writing. He has the benefit of having a lot of followers so his kickstarters draw a lot of attention. Also the quality of the books they produce during the kickstarters is great. I got the anniversary edition for The Way of Kings and it is beautiful.

@Steven. It is nice to meet you too. I highly recommend The Emperor's Soul. The magic system is really cool. It is one of the novellas I usually recommend to people interested in Sanderson alongside Warbreaker. These books give them an idea of what Sanderson is about whitout overwelming them with the cosmere and the behemoth that is Stormlight Archive.

@Audrey, We serve only one cat at our office. We adopted him recently and it has only taken him a couple of months to train over 15 people. He is really efficient and bossy.

Hi Team! I am Megan and I live in Albany New York with my husband, two girls 7 and 3, and two furry kitty cats! In other words a houseful! I currently work from home as a bookkeeper that keeps me busy in between everything else and reading. It has been awhile since I have joined a team challenge as I finally feel like my schedule can handle it again. I don't read a lot of long books but I read a lot of short books. More quantity over length! LOL. Looking forward to the challenge.

Andrea, I own it and it’s on my upcoming reads plan. It’s set in the same Cosmere planet as Elantris, which I finally just read after years of being a Sanderson fan! Lol

Nice to meet you, Megan! Welcome to Team Cassandra!

Sophie wrote: "There needs to be an excuse to eat chocolate... not in this house/team."

Oh good, I'm on the right team then ;)

Steven wrote: "Glad to meet you, Audrey Jane!!! :). “Loyally serve two cats” is spot on!"

Nice to meet you too, Steven !

I swear sometimes the level of arrogance with which my cats are looking at me, it's like they are conviced they're better than me. The worst thing is they know they are pretty and can get away with everything...Please send help asap !

Andrea wrote: "We serve only one cat at our office. We adopted him recently and it has only taken him a couple of months to train over 15 people. He is really efficient and bossy"

Haha, he must be really proud of his humans! Mark my words, one day cats will rule the world.

I recently watched a video that made me laugh out loud called 'purranormal activity' which was really relatable - here's the link for the ones interested : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEqJj...

Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!

Steven wrote: "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!"

LOL!

It's nice to e-meet everyone!

Welcome Megan ! Nice to meet you.

Steven wrote: "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!"

Haha, indeed :D

Steven wrote: "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!"

So true. At least the 3 Feline Rulers that dictate my morning and night routines act as so.

Steven wrote: "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!"

That sounds right!

Steven wrote: "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff!"

Completely true!

Hi everyone! I'm Insiyah, co-captain of Team Cassandra. I've been reading all your intros and it's incredible that we've all been brought together by our love of books.

Like everyone here, I'm a complete book nerd. I've been on an intense second hand buying spree lately, and my triumph is 31 books for 50 Dhs. (13.61 dollars) - got them at a charity fun fair where I volunteered on the first shift at the book stall so I got first pick of the books.

I live in Dubai, and while waiting for my Master's to start in September (Inshallah), I've been shadowing my dad at our family business. It's been so interesting, and I'm really looking forward to how my studies integrates with everything I'm learning here.

I keep myself between a couple of challenges/shelf clear picks so my TBR actually reduces (very little though, because I'm always adding more books). I just got off UNO, and now this one. I've been so excited!!!

Most of my books tend to be between 300-500 pages, so I'm going to try to mix those with some of the bigger books on my TBR (Gone with the Wind, The Priory of the Orange Tree, A Little Life). Let's see how it goes.

Looking forward to playing TT with you all!

Insiyah - Eid Mubarak!

That's very impressive bargain hunting!

Hope everything goes smoothly until the masters starts and you carry on finding the family business interesting. The days go much faster that way.

I really enjoyed Priory of the Orange Tree. The Hands of the Emperor is another I'd recommend - long but beautifully written fantasy.

Insiyah wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Insiyah, co-captain of Team Cassandra. I've been reading all your intros and it's incredible that we've all been brought together by our love of books.

Like everyone here, I'm a ..."

What a fantastic haul for such little money! You're a bargain hunter! :)

Nice to meet you and looking forward to playing with you.

Insiyah wrote: "I've been on an intense second hand buying spree lately, and my triumph is 31 books for 50 Dhs. (13.61 dollars)"

Wow, that is super impressive! :O

I’m Keri, and I’m from Ohio. I love reading a variety of genres but romance is my least favorite if that’s the main genre. I’ve been known to like them here and there by recommendation but prefer if that’s the subplot to another story,

I’m currently in AZ for work so it’s been a struggle it get used to the time zone switch!

Keri, it’s nice to meet you! Welcome to the team!

A lot of us seem to have gone through major reading slumps. Mine lasted for almost five years, from 2014 to 2019 before I slowly managed to start reading new books again. Most of my books from 2016 to 2019 were easy to read YA in series that I was familiar with already.

I read a Tumblr post that described it perfectly - that burnt out readers who've been reading since a very young age often go through a phase where they are unable to identify with brand new characters. In my case, this was very true, because I was reading still. I was just not reading books - I preferred fanfiction. The familiar characters were ones I already had a relationship with, and the different plots provided a fun story.

Have any of your experiences with reading slumps been similar?

yeah i definitely get that although i usually either reread book series i've already read or try to read some middle grade books to get out of a slump because i don't really read fanfic that's over like 6,000 words so it's not really a replacement for books for me

Hi all, I'm Jillian, from Michigan. Married mom of two, mostly grown boys, (21 & 19). I have two puppers, Stella and Tober, who are beyond spoiled. I'm an office Administrative Assistant (I answer phones and file papers). And when I'm not reading I'm watching movies and putting together puzzles.
I love to read romance including most sub-genres. I also enjoy the occasional sci-fi, horror, and mystery, again I enjoy them more if there is some kind of relationship angle in there. This is only my second year of Tower Teams but I had a blast last year. Most of my books are under 350 pages so I'm trying to find some longer ones to read for the challenge.

Welcome, JL! Glad to have you on board!

Reading slumps are tricky; mine tend to last a few months. So long as you don't count the massive reduction that having children has caused... I don't have a foolproof way out yet. They seem to fade once I find a book that grips my attention.

Hi Jillian! This year looks like we've got an awesome team so it should be as good as last year if not better!

Don't stress too much about the page counts, the main thing is that everyone has fun.

Hi Jillian, I read a lot of romance too and they really don't write very many long ones.

My plan I think is to continue the Zodiac Academy series. I read the first 4 books during Wheel and while not the best written books every single one finishes on a cliffhanger making them completely addictive.

I probably get more book hangovers than slumps. If I finish a really brilliant series or book I can find it difficult to start something new. I quite often end up rereading a fave, picking up a novella or just reading something completely different.

My recent slump was 100% pandemic related though. I had zero concentration for reading and would read the same page over and over and still not take it in. The only thing I had any hope of reading was romance. Speculative fiction was a big no.

Has everyone read Chronicles of St Mary’s? If not, I highly recommend them! So much fun.

Hello everyone! I'm Denise and I am late to the party!

I'm looking forward to participating in my second Tower Teams (but it takes me a while to get out of Uno mode).

I live in the Midwest (United States). I'm a public librarian and mom to three boys and a spoiled beagle named Dudley.

I read just about anything. I find lots of things at work...job hazard. I'm interested in the Travelling Cat book. I'll try to track down a copy.

I will share that my last two weeks of May will be my busiest of this challenge. I'll check in, but may not be as chatty or productive here at the very beginning.

I'm looking forward to a fun challenge!

Steven wrote: "Has everyone read Chronicles of St Mary’s? If not, I highly recommend them! So much fun."

Love them! They are one of my comfort listens. I can't imagine reading them myself now.

The other series that is firmly in that category for me is Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. The narrator is fantastic as is the series.

I'm a little behind on the Chronicles of St Mary's. I think I've read the first 5 or 6 but not the more recent ones. I have been tempted to try them on audio

One of Taylors other books, The Nothing Girl, is one of my go to comfort reads. I love that book so so much

Hi Denise! Thanks for letting us know about the last couple of weeks of May, just keep in touch and all is fine.

I've got a few trips away throughout the challenge, but I'll let you all know as they come up and I should still be able to get online, chat, answer questions and generally keep everything moving the right direction!

Alison wrote: "One of Taylors other books, The Nothing Girl, is one of my go to comfort reads. I love that book so so much."

And so begins the inevitable team challenge based expansion of my tbr. It always ends up longer at the end of a challenge than it was at the start!

Alison wrote: "Hi Jillian, I read a lot of romance too and they really don't write very many long ones.

My plan I think is to continue the Zodiac Academy series. I read the first 4 books during Wheel and while n..."

If you are looking for long romance I enjoy the outlander series, though after the first few the romance is more of a subplot. The Black Dagger Brotherhood are romance (with a vampire twist). There's another series that is tapdancing round the back of my head but refusing to let me know what the title is. If it deigns to introduce itself properly I'll add it here later.

I already have a TBR mountain but suspect it's going to be even bigger by the end of this challenge.

Thanks for the rec's Sophie, I've actually read the first Outlander book, I did enjoy it but it felt long. Maybe now is the time to finally read on in the series. The Black Dagger Brotherhood is already on my tbr, I should probably bump them up the list. I do love the occasional vampire romance (or pretty much any vampire romance). I've just blitzed my way through Ilona Andrews Innkeeper Chronicles.

This is going to be the image I use when I'm posting something I would like everyone to read and pay attention to!

I've updated the first couple of posts I had reserved on the 1st page. There are now links to the rules, our spreadsheet and our tracking spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... is the link again. I like treating my teams like grown ups, so I'd like you to add your books to the book tab and to pick which tasks in the mini-challenges etc they work for. You can use it to reserve tasks too, but please don't reserve more than 2-3. If you don't get on with spreadsheets for whatever reason, please post a completion in this thread and one of the captains will add it for you.

I've found several shelves for the challenge on people's profiles. If it isn't listed here please post in the thread to let us know what it is. Please only add books to your shelf when they are finished, otherwise I find checking them a bit of a headache!

Mini-challenge details for May will be out properly soon (as soon as I stop faffing and write them up neatly), so get ready to start planning.

I think most of us on here have a mountain that stubbornly keeps getting higher.

I've just read the 1st of the Innkeeper Chronicles. Should really get on with the rest. Maybe if one fits a task for this it'll encourage me to keep going.

I haven't been enjoying my last couple of books so thought taking a break from reading for a few days. However I started the BOM, The Cartographers on a whim before going to bed yesterday and I'm really enjoying it so far. Sometimes it reminds me of Raven's Gate (at least the beginning). It gave me goosebumps while reading which is a good sign for me. I tend to gravitate towards mysteries/thrillers/gothic/Victorian suspense lately.

Glad you enjoyed the Innkeeper Chronicles, Alison. GR used to have a 'most read authors' feature under stats (now it's an Excel export). My most read author was Ilona Andrews followed by Juliet Marillier and Patricia Briggs/C.S. Harris (tie). I'm pretty sure that's still the case.

Will have to check out Black Dagger Brotherhood, see if it's something I might enjoy :)

Glad the BOM is catching your interst! Will see if my library has a copy. Goosebumps are an excellent sign and hopefully your reading mojo is coming back.