Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Carrie wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Sorry I haven't been very active lately. My dad has been in the ICU for the past week due to a by-pass failure, blood loss and a blood clot. Thankfully, he will be com..."

Glad he is home. Take care!

Copy/paste what Devann said. Never bothered to add Taylor Jenkins' books to my tbr as it doesn't seem like something I would enjoy (after reading the blurb and some reviews). And agree, it can be quite confusing and frustrating not liking a popular book. I often read the BOM but can't bring myself to read that one.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an autobuy author but even I've liked some of her books more than others (loved Daisy Jones, struggled a bit with Malibu Rising) and I can definitely understand they may not be for everyone.

I'm a bit like that with Colleen Hoover. Everyone seems to rave over her books (Verity in particular) and I'm like yeah it was OK.

I think certain authors get overhyped

I've only read two TJR books. I'm the opposite of Alison though. I liked Malibu Rising and struggled with Carrie Soto Is Back. I think it was just a little too much tennis for me. 😂

Very interesting comments. I was excited to read Daisy Jones because I thought it sounded very interesting. It just left me feel like something was missing though.

I feel the same way as Alison with Colleen Hoover - I've read two books by her and I wasn't swooning over either.

I just wonder why some authors get so much hype. I know BookTok certainly helps some authors.

I also read Where the Crawdads Sing and thought it was okay, but not much more than that. I will be interested in seeing the movie though because I think it may be one of the few instances where the film may be better than the book!

Denise wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Sorry I haven't been very active lately. My dad has been in the ICU for the past week due to a by-pass failure, blood loss and a blood clot. Thankfully,..."

Thanks Denise! He is so much happier now that he can sleep in his own bed and watch baseball on tv :)

I added What Moves the Dead to the spreadsheet.

It's very short (176 pages), so we can use it as a last resort if needed.

can we choose whether to use the word count or the audio length to verify the length for middle grade books? because i could just continue with animorphs for the series chain thing except the next several are like juuuust barely too short by word count on arbookfind but the audio [which is what i'm listening to anyway] is almost always over 3 hours long

Carrie wrote: "Denise wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Sorry I haven't been very active lately. My dad has been in the ICU for the past week due to a by-pass failure, blood loss and a blood cl..."

Carrie, that sounds ideal! Best place for him to be.

I'll often avoid popular books when they first come out because I'm rarely convinced that they are worth the hype. Plus I'm largely a mood reader and often struggle when they come up as a BOM because it just doesn't fit what I want to read.

Devann wrote: "can we choose whether to use the word count or the audio length to verify the length for middle grade books? because i could just continue with animorphs for the series chain thing except the next ..."

For middle grade books we need to use arbookfind if the books are on there. Very frustrating if the audio is long enough though.

Hello all! I believe I just got added to this team. If anyone could let me know what's needed currently I'd appreciate it!!

Also am I allowed to put up any of my past books, or is it from now forward?

Amanda is coming to join us from team Gods as we've got a few team members for whom real life has had a large impact on their reading levels/the rigors of battling monsters and involvement in warships have caused reading injuries.


Welcome Amanda! I'm very happy to have you here.

Amanda wrote: "Hello all! I believe I just got added to this team. If anyone could let me know what's needed currently I'd appreciate it!!

Also am I allowed to put up any of my past books, or is it from now forw..."

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... is our tracking spreadsheet which has most of the info on there. If you use the minicodes in the right column that would be fab!

For the squares we're basing them round T titles to make life easy so if you have any of those, I'd love to hear about them.

Generally we haven’t got very far with it yet, so anything you read will fit somewhere. I'll try to do a proper update tomorrow.

Amanda wrote: "Hello all! I believe I just got added to this team. If anyone could let me know what's needed currently I'd appreciate it!!

Also am I allowed to put up any of my past books, or is it from now forw..."

Anything that isn't on the Gods SS can be used here.

Sophie wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Hello all! I believe I just got added to this team. If anyone could let me know what's needed currently I'd appreciate it!!

Also am I allowed to put up any of my past books, or is i..."


Sounds good! Can I use anything from when the mini started?

ETA: Saw what you posted! We keep posting at the same time, sorry about that!

Welcome Amanda!!

Hi Amanda

I finished a few books yesterday and marked them read on the SS.

Welcome Amanda!

For series, I have 9, 11, 12, 13, 16 coming up this week

Finished my book. I’ll add a link and potential uses to the spreadsheet tomorrow. Can’t do it easily on my phone.

Welcome Amanda!

BOMs for August are up.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Starts 2nd August)

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger (Starts 16 August)

Welcome to our team Amanda !

I will start my #16 in a series today. We could also use it for the pairing as the title contains an interrogative pronoun (is that how you say it in English?) and all the titles in that series start with one. Might read the next book as well then.

Hi Amanda, great to have you on the team.

I've volunteered for DQs for Book Lovers, I really enjoyed Emily Henry's last two books so was planning to read this soonish anyway. I think someone else in the team has already read this so hopefully it fits for the mini too.

Looks like our series chain will be all 16 in one list. We've got 14 and 15 left blank at the moment and I think I can fill them both if no one else wants to.

Hi Amanda. Great to have you!

I put Book Lovers on hold at the library, but I may not get it in time for the BOM for TT. I did pick up the other August BOM book, but I think it falls after TT ends?

Amy, that's right, the 2nd August BOM won't count for points, but the more people involved with the discussion, the better.

I'd just sat down with my laptop to give you all a proper update on the mini and how it's going. My son decied that was the time to start vomiting so instead you get this unhelpful message from my phone. Sorry everyone!

Just a heads-up that this week's Wargames slots are up for grabs HERE :)

We just need one more volunteer from Cassandra :)

Sophie wrote: "I'd just sat down with my laptop to give you all a proper update on the mini and how it's going. My son decied that was the time to start vomiting so instead you get this unhelpful message from my ..."

Haha, don't know why this made me laugh ! I'm sorry, Sophie, I sincerely hope your son is feeling better :) And that all goes well tomorrow with the Christening.

Also I just realized that the book I'm currently reading (What the Devil Knows) works perfectly for other categories (Clio and Terpsichore). In case Amy is still planning to read her book #16 in a series, we can easily use mine elsewhere.

Audrey Jane wrote: "Also I just realized that the book I'm currently reading (What the Devil Knows) works perfectly for other categories (Clio and Terpsichore). In case Amy is still planning to read he..."

I'll definitely be reading it sometime this week. I think the series chain won't be a problem at all. If yours works for something more difficult, go for it :-)

We had a thunderstorm last night and apparently it was strong enough to patrially pull down a line that goes from our house to the pole. I'm not sure if it is electric, phone, or something else. It is still connected at both ends, but it is hanging really low in our yard and that means I can't mow (even though it really needs to be done. It is also blocking part of my driveway so I'm not sure if I can get out without getting into the line. Not sure who to call. I swear, it's always something! My son discovered it when he went to get the mail and then told me about it much later. Luckily, it isn't affecting the electric, phone, or internet in the house. I think it it just pulled loose and needs to have someone come tighten ot back up (and remove some vines that have started growing on it). I guess I should start with a call to the electric company to see if it is theirs and go from there.

Definitely seems like you're having a bad run at the moment Amy.

I am spending this afternoon moving a bookcase full of books. Had the electrician out during the week to try and sort some sockets that aren't working and he thinks the problem is under the bookcase. I'd actually just moved the other bookcase in that room a few days earlier but nope the problem had to be under this one.

I have sooo many books it's not even funny. Was just counting up how many on my shelves I haven't read and it's about 160, some have been on my shelves for 10+ years. I probably should just call it and offload to the charity shop or sell them but I won't.

I have a call in to the electric company. Now I get to wait and see if they show up and what they have to say. If it isn't theirs, I don't know who to call next. Maybe the cable company? Or DISH network? It looks like it is connected to the house above where the dish is situated. We aren't currently using the dish, so it isn't that big of an issue if that is what the cable is for. I'm just afraid to go near it in case it is electrical. Fingers crossed it isn't anything too serious/complicated.

UPDATE:
It isn't electrical. It is a phone line. I called the phone company that the guy from the electric company thought owned the line. Went through a bunch of automated stuff just to have them disconnect me. I tried the company that services my internet and phone and they are going to send someone out to take care of it. Not sure how soon they will be here, hopefully today, but possibly tomorrow. Luckily, I still have internet and phone, so it isn't affecting service.

Alison wrote: "Definitely seems like you're having a bad run at the moment Amy.

I am spending this afternoon moving a bookcase full of books. Had the electrician out during the week to try and sort some sockets ..."

Sounds like you have a busy afternoon ahead of you. I'm afraid to even think about how many books I have. I really need some book shelves so I can get them out of the plastic bins I have them stored in.

Been thinking about the book pairs task, could you pair up books based on number of words in the title? So if you had two books with a 5 word title, would that work? Or is it too general?

What is the cut off for Malibu Rising to count for BOM points? I'm still struggling to get interested and haven't even finished the first day's reading yet. I do like the story with Mick and June, but don't care about Nina and the other kids. I hope it gets better soon or it may end up a DNF.

If I remember it correctly, you have one month from the start of the BOM to answer the DQ questions for points. In this case until the end of this challenge (August 15).
Hope it gets better and if not no worries ;) In fact I should DNF books more often in order to avoid unnecessary frustration.

For a couple of years I used to update an Excel sheet with all my owned books. It included an percentage books read of my library. Last time I checked I was at 33% books read... It's pretty discouraging. I only give away or sell bad/DNF books but I have to read them first before knowing that.

Good idea regarding the pairs task, Alison. I think we can be pretty creative with it so hope that works as well.

could we use and as a pair because they both have red covers with white text?

Sorry everyone, the last little while has been a bit crazy here.

The chemo my father-in-law has been having hasn't worked at all and he is currently in hospital with no idea when he might get discharged. My grandmother was admitted 2 weeks ago after a fall and it turns out that her breast cancer has spread and she's got a few weeks left to live.

In happy news we had my daughter's Christening at the weekend. Was lovely to see everyone who could make it and we got to play in my dad's swimming pool because the weather was gorgeous. Sometimes it is worth having an outdoor pool in the UK!

I'm off out for a haircut now, but when I get back there will be much spreadsheet updating and then an update for you all.

So sorry your family is going through a hard time, Sophie.

That's a lot to handle Sophie. I hope that you're managing to get through each day and have supportive friends and family to help you along the way. It sounds like your daughter's Christening was a good time though!

(My husband was military and we were stationed in Aviano, Italy. We had friends, one of whom was from England, so we went there for a visit. It rained literally every day lol. We had a great time though and still took in all the sights!)