Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Place holder so it is easy to see!

Our captain team is struggling! If any of you lovely people would like to step up and help out, please let me know.

Mini priorities:

Polyhymnia - squares - 2 left, think these might be tricky.

Erato - Loving all the suggestions so far.

Urania - Series sequence - 11, 13, 14, 15 to go

Calliope - team member reads - 2 read or claimed.

Clio - 3 claimed with a couple more queries on the SS

Euterpe - concert - 3 more instruments and 4 more lyrics

Thalia and Melpomene - Stories from titles - bottom of my list, we can sort something with anything that is left over.

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

Personally I don't think these covers are similar enough, but if you read them both and other people think it works I am happy to be overruled.

thats fine i was just trying to think of something so i wouldnt have to go back combing through hooked for a food or instrument reference lol but i can try to figure out something else it will work for. guess they could probably be used somehow in a story when we get to that point as well.

Hooked seems like it'll work in the story. Don't worry about searching through.

Sophie,

What kind of help are you looking for?

Also, I read two books by T. Kingfisher. Could they work as a pairing?

Regarding Polyhymnia - the squares; I have a start T end T title coming up (The Last Knight) if we want to continue with the T-T titles.

Sophie, if there's any way I can help you, please let me know :)

Carrie wrote: "Sophie,

What kind of help are you looking for?

Also, I read two books by T. Kingfisher. Could they work as a pairing?"

If we can use two books by the same author for pairing, I added two by Drew Hayes in the Food/drink in text tasks in Terpsichore. I guess we could move them since the food items are easier

Ideally I'd like one person to join our captaining team to replace Insiyah who unfortunately has real life stuff happening so isn't finishing the challenge with us.

It would involve a mix of checking books on the spreadsheet (are they on the reader's shelf, right edition, allowed by nbrc challenge rules etc), posting occasional updates like mine above (to make up for me being flaky, sorry everyone!) and generally cheerleading! If you haven't been involved in captaining before this could be a gentle introduction, or if you have but wanted an easier challenge and feel you can help that would be awesome.

If someone is keen, I can add you to the captain's group and give you editing access to the official spreadsheet as well.

Audrey Jane wrote: "Regarding Polyhymnia - the squares; I have a start T end T title coming up (The Last Knight) if we want to continue with the T-T titles.

Sophie, if there's any way I can help you, pl..."

Sounds ideal to simplify some of the square construction.

I'd hoped for the books in pairs to have a more creative link, but I'm happy with them having the same author.

I.e. Megan's For 100 Days and For 100 Nights are by the same author, but day and night make a pair.

I'm reading The Diamond Eye and plan to pair it with Behind Her Eyes which is on the sheet already. I'd have used another body part as well.

the poem or song lyric in text has to be like ...in the actual paragraph text of the book to count right? like if a book has poetry quotes at the beginning of each chapter that wouldn't work?

I’ve not been a captain or a co captain before but I would be willing to give it a go.

Hi! I'm back from vacation!
I've got a lot of books to put into the spreadsheet for points.

is there some other games I should be aware of?

Mia wrote: "Hi! I'm back from vacation!
I've got a lot of books to put into the spreadsheet for points.

is there some other games I should be aware of?"

we are working on the "Inspired by the Muses" mini and Battleship is still going on with the larger group.

Saw through the inspired by muses list. Should be able to read quite few of them. Especially the “books read by others in the group”.

I’m sorry I’ve been so inactive, but I’ll try to help more this challenge!

Everyone please try to make sure everything you’ve read and marked in the spreadsheet is tagged to your Tower Teams shelf. I’m going to be checking books in the AM!

Mia wrote: "Saw through the inspired by muses list. Should be able to read quite few of them. Especially the “books read by others in the group”.

I’m sorry I’ve been so inactive, but I’ll try to help more th..."

Wonderful thanks! Hopefully the tasks are reasonably self explanatory.

How was your holiday?

I have access to a #14 in a series, but I can't download it until the 1st. We still need a #15 if anyone has anything. The series I am reading only goes to 14 at the moment and the other one I was reading I stopped after 9 so I could switch and fill in number we needed. I don't think I have any that are at 15 or that I haven't read 15 already

iirc someone was saying earlier that they needed catch up on the last few october daye books and the one that came out last year was #15 if they want to try to catch up before the end of the challenge. unfortunately i'm mostly allergic to very long series so i've got nothing lol

My vacation was exhausting! But In a good way. Went bicycling around trondheimsfjorden, 350 kilometers in 5 days! So much pretty nature, and fun memories with my bff.

See you need a number 15 in a series, will goosebumps 15 count? Because if it does, I’m on it!

I'm currently reading 13 of October Daye. Can certainly do 14 but getting 15 finished as well might be pushing it.

Mia if you can link to 15 of goosebumps I can check if it will work.

Sounds like an excellent trip but I'm not surprised you are exhausted!

You Can't Scare Me!

it's 120 pages, so should be legal?

Unfortunately it is children mpg so needs more than 30000 words. It only has 21000 so we can't use it in TT.

Aw… that sucks.

what about this one:
The Haunted Bridge

it's got 53 800 words, and 180 pages.
so that fits the criteria right?

Yep that's good thanks for searching.

I’m 27% into the book now. Will notify when done.

And then check for other tasks I can get done! :)

I read Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths yesterday. It is an examinaton of women in the greek myths. It references the illiad and the odessy a lot in the text. And since both of those is considred poems, does that count for the muse mini ?

Hey there fellow Trojans. Most of the Warships books have been claimed for this round, but there are still two up for grabs for Cassandra...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'm happy to swap either of the genres I claimed if you prefer those to what is left for you :)

Hi Mia, you will need to post that in our Trojans secret group. The books need to be finished by Friday, 5th of August.

You can post your choice of book in this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

And your completion post here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hello Mia,

could you please delete your comment about the warships genres please? :) Don't want prying eyes to see. ;)

Hi! deleted my post and have posted in the secret group! Sorry for asking so much questions and such. I missed a whole lot when I was inactive.

Thank youuu. :)

Hi everyone, I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA for weeks on the thread. I have been reading and updating the spreadsheet with the basic book details and my shelf.

My mom had a brain bleed a few weeks ago and it has been very stressful and scary. She seems to be through the worst of the danger now and is not in critical care. She is still in severe therapy to retrain her brain and left side to do basic tasks. I’ve still been reading when I can, it does really help to escape. It’s very scary to think about the long road ahead for my mom, and even scarier to think how much worse it could’ve been if she didn’t catch it early enough by feeling off the day it happened.

On top of that we’ve just had a a new wave of a covid outbreak at work so currently I’m not even able to visit my mom for fear of spreading covid even tho I don’t have it so far.

I will try to check in more often, if even just for some more distractions.

I’m so sorry that happened to your mom❤️ you shouldn’t be worried about the thread when things like that is happening in your life. Take your time and do what’s right for you ❤️

I'm sorry to hear that, Keri. No one is upset with you! We've all had way too much go on for us during this Tower Teams. It's been a perfect storm of hard things. I'm so sorry for what your mom is going through! I'm glad she seems to be through the danger portion, and hopefully that long road you guys see is easier when you work together. <3

Keri,

That's a lot to take on. I'm so glad that your mom got care early on. It's very encouraging to hear that her recovery is progressing each day.

I hope that you are able to visit her again soon. I can only imagine how difficult it is with the covid restriction.

Take care of yourself (and you'll be even stronger when it comes to taking care of your mom). Positive thoughts being sent your way!!

The series chain is complete. Just added the completion for #14 to finish it off.

I probably won't get much reading done today since I will be working the election all day here in Ohio.

I have a few more books for ball outfits coming up. Not sure what else I have lined up, but I will try to fill in some other things once I finish my books for the outfits.

Want to keep you all up to date with the chaos that is my life currently while I have a few minutes!

My grandmother died this morning, which actually is a relief given how much she'd declined.

My father-in-law isn't expected to live more than another week. As a result Mr Sophie is in Cambridge (roughly 2 hours drive) and spending as much time with his dad as possible. Luckily his mum has come down to help me with the kids for a few days, but life is full on.

Delightfully my 1 1/2 year old then had croup and I've been up with her for at least 2 hours a night for the last 4 nights. I'm more than a little fried. The world needs to stop and give me time to sit and escape into a book!

Keri wrote: "Hi everyone, I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA for weeks on the thread. I have been reading and updating the spreadsheet with the basic book details and my shelf.

My mom had a brain bleed a few weeks ago..."

Keri, I'm so sorry to hear about that. Please don't worry about the thread - you have more than enough going on supporting your mum as much as you can. I hope her recovery from here is as good as possible and that you are allowed in to visit her soon.


I would like the world to stop with the disasters for our team now! I'm amazed we are still going given that there seems to be a new problem every few days.

I've added a new tab to our planning spreadsheet with the books that haven't yet been assigned to the mini-challenge. Let me know if you see any obvious pairs, squares or good story titles in there! We've made really good progress with this.

Mini priorities:

Polyhymnia - squares - 2 left, think these might be tricky.
Newest square:
TT
T
Waiting to see if there are 2 more books starting with T with the same end letter to complete the square

Erato - DONE

Urania - Series sequence - DONE! Well done everyone

Calliope - team member reads - 4/16 claimed

Clio - 6/16 claimed or read

Euterpe - concert - 2 lyrics left

Terpsichore - Ball - 8 outfits; 1 setting or decoration

Thalia and Melpomene - Stories from titles - Thalia has 20 gaps; Melpomene has 12 gaps (I've been putting stuff in where I can't see a use for them elsewhere).

Sophie,

I'm so sorry for what's going on in your life right now. I can only imagine how overwhelmed you must feel. I hope at some point soon, you catch a break and get a moment to take a breath.

Keri & Sophie,
I am so sorry to hear all you are going through right now. Don't worry about the team, real life obviously comes first.

It does seem like everyone in the team is being hit with some serious life stuff. Hopefully we will all find peace and good things soon.

Sophie I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother, and your father in law being so close as well. I don’t understand what’s going on with our team but our life muses need to get some new ideas - on the positive side!

*giant hugs*. Do what you need to do. I’ll do my best to cover as much as I can here, and if I can’t figure out something, well, it’s just a game and we’re not close to first anyways.

I'm checking books this weekend, everyone, so make sure your books are on your Tower Teams shelf, marked as read, and dated on the spreadsheet!

Hello fellow Trojans! Claim your final warships books here!

(You guys have an extra book this week. holler if you're struggling to fill it and another team will jump in)

Steven wrote: "I'm checking books this weekend, everyone, so make sure your books are on your Tower Teams shelf, marked as read, and dated on the spreadsheet!"

I've got some to add later! Finished Hidden Pictures and 2 Sisters Detective Agency. Just haven't had a chance to get them on the SS.

Check the dates... I read 2 Sisters Detective Agency during TT, but I'm not sure if it was during this mini. It might work for read a book read by a team member

Amy the book-bat wrote: "Check the dates... I read 2 Sisters Detective Agency during TT, but I'm not sure if it was during this mini. It might work for read a book read by a team member"

It looks like it was July 1st. It also looks like the book just has to have been read by the other teammate during the TT challenge (not read by both during the mini)...unless I'm misunderstanding (?). So I think it should work. I'll list it and someone can correct me if I'm wrong. :)