The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

Captains- Does this cover work for the pattern it is asking for Cephalopods? If so I can also not finish until March 15th. Let me know. Also wondering more about the "on water" requirement for location this one is asking for.

Agree with someone else who commented that this challenge takes on more creativity than I am use too.

I think I have some questions about spreadsheet usage and colored cards. First, I have only been putting books on the spreadsheet if I am currently reading them or will definitely read this month (ie book club picks). I'm not sure if this is not what everyone does, but I guess I was under the assumption based on previous years so I want to make sure I'm on the same page here.

Looking at the spreadsheet, I see that I am on there with Shades of Sunshine and Sarah S is on there with The BodyGuard both for 6 or Skip Yellow, but then both Yellow 6 and Skip were on the recap for things pending. So I guess I need some clarification on either what is meant by "pending" or if listing the books on the spreadsheet doesn't mean anything as far as books being covered. I'm totally fine with my colored cards being used for other things if needed, but I would hate for someone to prioritize a book they don't really want to read right now to meet a need that doesn't actually exist. Or for us to have too many of one color cover and not get the ones we actually do have a need for. Hopefully this makes sense.

It also looks like we will be needing a few grey, brown, or white books for the mini. Will this be good for grey? I started it today and won't finish until after the mini begins.

I have more questions about the mini, but I'm going to save them for tomorrow when I can look at it again with fresh eyes.

Sorry for all my rambling.

I'm not going to lie I find the mini super confusing lol

I stole this from another group that I thought was helpful to better explain the Mini Challenge this month. Hope that was ok but it was helpful to me.

For each animal - Here is the task list:
#1 - Colour Cover
#2 - Location
#3 - Colour Cover or Location (Different colour to Task 1)
#4 - Characteristic
#5 - Characteristic

Below we have a quick look at each animal for the potential Colour covers and Location where the book is set OR the author is born.


**********************

🐇Alaskan Hare
Cover Colours: Brown, White, Black, Grey-Brown
Location: Alaska

🐰Arctic Hare
Cover Colours: Brown, Grey, White
Location: Canada

🦎Chameleons
Cover Colours: Pink, Blue, Orange, Turquoise
Location: Africa - North or South

🦎Anoles
Cover Colours: Bright Green, Brown
Location: the Americas (North, South or Central America)

🐸Peron's Tree Frog
Cover Colours: Emerald Green, Grey, Brown, White, Yellow, Black
Location: Australia

🐙Cephalopods
Cover: Patterned Cover
Location: at Sea or on Water

🏵️Flower Spiders
Cover Colours: Yellow, White, Green, Brown, Grey
Location: Australia, New Zealand

🐢Golden Tortoise Beetle
Cover Colours: Gold, Reddish-Brown
Location: the Americas (North, South or Central America)

🕷️Chrysso Spiders
Cover Colours: Black, Yellow
Location: Europe, North America, Asia, Brazil, Peru

Sarah wrote: "I stole this from another group that I thought was helpful to better explain the Mini Challenge this month. Hope that was ok but it was helpful to me.

For each animal - Here is the task list:
#1 ..."

thanks for sharing that def. makes a bit more sense. I could just have a case of the weekends but I read the mini and I was like......what.

ok so for each animal we need EACH of the tasks, correct?

Verónica wrote: "Hello everyone!

I wish I could say my slow reading this month is a product of some fun travel but It's been chaotic for me lately, between home remodeling with a lot of issues, and a rescue of a p..."

I added myself to one of the reverses today (Payback's a Witch, which looks like Mary has as pending) and am going to compare books right now

Yes for each animal we need to complete the 5 tasks with color and location and then characteristics but you can repeat EITHER color or location once but not BOTH. IF you do color twice you cannot repeat the same color but pick a different color.

The characteristics are the hardest part to be creative. I was trying to see if there any other example in groups but didn't a ton. I think it just has to be sentence or line in the book that you can relate to a characteristic of the animal. Like I was thinking for the Tree Frog it mentions laughing tree frog or maniacal cackling tree frog so if you found a book where a character was laughing really loudly or hard would that work?

Sarah wrote: "Yes for each animal we need to complete the 5 tasks with color and location and then characteristics but you can repeat EITHER color or location once but not BOTH. IF you do color twice you cannot ..."

thank youuuuuuu for explaining it that makes so much more sense than whatever I had going on in my brain.

I feel like what you're saying about characteristics makes sense...I'm reading zodiac academy 7 and like there are a million characters (and so many of them are shifters) so I am sure I can try to find characteristics for that one. I MAY get #8 done as well but that's a firm maybe. I'm listening to them and they are CHUNKY.

I have a couple of books I'm holding off on finishing.

One works for Europe (Russia) or blue cover
One works for Africa (it's set in Egypt) or brown cover. (this one might work for chameleon: They are traveling on camel's in the desert and camels blend into the desert sand.

Another works for orange cover & North America.

I'll have to look up some of the animals to see if any work for characteristics.

Sarah wrote: "I stole this from another group that I thought was helpful to better explain the Mini Challenge this month. Hope that was ok but it was helpful to me.

For each animal - Here is the task list:
#1 ..."

Can someone or can I add this to the spreadsheet so that we can review this throughout the rest of the month? This makes more sense to my brain than the descriptions listed on the sheet. Otherwise, I'll just save on my computer, haha! Just thought it might be nice to keep in a shared location if that's okay with everyone.

Ashley wrote: "I think I have some questions about spreadsheet usage and colored cards. First, I have only been putting books on the spreadsheet if I am currently reading them or will definitely read this month (..."

I looked on TinEye and that cover is definitely grey with almost 97% due to multiple shades of grey so you can slot that in for a color cover.

Also I agree with the question around color cards. In past years the groups I have been a part of have usually signed up and have all months to read. Can we get a list of the color cards left and assign people so we know who is reading what? I started my Yellow Book today that is either Skip or 6 since I can't finish any current books until March 15th. Now to figure out how to make it work for this March mini challenge....

I'm struggling to figure out characteristics for the animals so I can keep an eye out while reading. The location and cover colors make sense to me, but I don't understand how to find characteristics. Do we need to do independent research on the animals or pull from the "Animals" tab in the spreadsheet?

I only add books to the spreadsheet once I've started them because I am a mood reader and don't want to add them until I'm sure I'm up for reading it/that I can for sure finish it that month. That being said, I'm a team player and can absolutely commit to reading specific books if specific things are needed. I've been thinking of picking up "Carrie Soto Is Back" which would work for a Yellow 6. It's not needed for this month, so I haven't pushed to start it, but if we need that for next month, I can absolutely commit to that :)

I also have quite a few reverses on my personal "to read next" list and I'm sure I'll read a few more of those this month. I just haven't added them all to the spreadsheet because I'm not sure exactly which ones will be read or when.

If the captains or anyone would prefer that I do this differently, just let me know. I'm sure we all have our own ideas what works best, so I don't want to assume.

I think you should do it whichever way you feel comfortable. I try not to add too many myself because my mood which change. Or library books I've waited for will finally be available. If I have several unread books on a sheet it's almost always because I had to wait for them from the library and will not be able to renew them without waiting again. So they're my priority reads.

If I have time this afternoon I'll look up some of the animals and try to come up with some characteristics we can work with. The Chameleon is kind of easy. But I've never heard of some of the others.

Sarah wrote: "I stole this from another group that I thought was helpful to better explain the Mini Challenge this month. Hope that was ok but it was helpful to me.

For each animal - Here is the task list:
#1 ..."

Just having the color covers and locations written out like this is super helpful. Thank you.

According to the "Animals" tab, Anoles change colors according to emotions like aggression or stress. If there's a character in a book I'm reading who gets angry or aggressive regularly, would that be considered a characteristic? Do I need to copy down a specific quote from the book that describes him being angry? I know we're all trying to figure this out, but I just want to make sure I'm doing this right, haha!

Hannah, I'm the same way. I'm a huge mood reader so me writing books on the sheet would stress me out because who knows if I'll read it.

as far as you mentioning the aggression....that makes sense to me?

Hannah wrote: "I'm struggling to figure out characteristics for the animals so I can keep an eye out while reading. The location and cover colors make sense to me, but I don't understand how to find characteristi..."

The challenge specifically says:
◈ The books you are reading for each animal MUST relate to the description given and not any other sources. (So, for example, reading a green cover for chameleon is not valid as green isn't given as a colour in the description).

So shouldn't have to do any extra research. My research is checking out what other teams have been saying. One group put together ideas for characteristics. Go to TEAM LEAFY SEADRAGON and comment #702. That has a lot of ideas on how to incorporate characteristics of animals into something you are reading in a book. I have zero creativity so that's why I was seeing what others have put out there. It can be as easy as finding a tree on a cover of a book for tree frog or harder with finding either ideas. Thought that post had good ideas and was helpful for me.

But what I am not clear on as what others have asked if we need a sentence from the book or just an idea and why to make it work. Can the captains give us more direction on that! Thanks.

Hannah- Good job on getting the Alaska location with The Great Alone! I thought was going to be hard to find potentially. I think you can just keep mood reading and we can try to find a way to make the books work. Need lots of color covers too so it should work out.
And I hope you love the book too. I really liked that book a lot. I feel like that author is due for another new book to come out.

I didn't notice the descriptions. I didn't do any internet searching either. I thought I saw someone mention that there were was nothing provided to help with the characteristics one. So that's why I was going to look.

Sarah wrote: "Yes for each animal we need to complete the 5 tasks with color and location and then characteristics but you can repeat EITHER color or location once but not BOTH. IF you do color twice you cannot ..."

I was thinking for cackling maybe there would be maybe like a witch novel or something? That might be a good one to find the word... or maybe just someone laughing a lot or loudly would work. I would think for something like finding a word in the text or using something like aggression or laughing like that, just picking a sentence or two from the text to illustrate that and the page number would be sufficient.

Sarah wrote: "

Captains- Does this cover work for the pattern it is asking for Cephalopods? If so I can also not finish until March 15th. Let me know. Also wondering more..."

Unclear about the pattern part, but if not, maybe it could work for one of the characteristics for the flower spider?

I'm going to try to look a bit closer and see what my current reads (and possible other reads) might work for tonight after the kids go to bed.

Hannah wrote: "According to the "Animals" tab, Anoles change colors according to emotions like aggression or stress. If there's a character in a book I'm reading who gets angry or aggressive regularly, would that..."

I think you would have to show the emotion made him change colors like got so angry turned red in the face? But I am not sure if it is literal because they say get creative too

Ashley wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Yes for each animal we need to complete the 5 tasks with color and location and then characteristics but you can repeat EITHER color or location once but not BOTH. IF you do color twi..."

I keep thinking we just need some more direction with what works for the characteristics and if need a sentence or just an idea how it works to justify it. Because that other group that listed ideas that I talked about earlier said for the laughing part just read a book that is funny or makes you laugh. But witches cackling would also certainly work.

Hannah wrote: "I'm struggling to figure out characteristics for the animals so I can keep an eye out while reading. The location and cover colors make sense to me, but I don't understand how to find characteristi..."

I think Carrie Soto is Back might also work for a gold cover which is an option for Golden Tortoise Beetle if you DO want to read it this month. (No pressure.) We should probably make sure but it seems like it would qualify as yellow or gold in my opinion.

Also, I'm putting my current reads on the mini in the colored cover spots for now, but am happy to try to move them somewhere else if needed. I'll try to make some notes in the mini column on our regular tracking spreadsheet if I come up with other connections.

I read Carrie Soto so we could use it for a reverse if you end up reading it

Ashley wrote: "Hannah wrote: "I'm struggling to figure out characteristics for the animals so I can keep an eye out while reading. The location and cover colors make sense to me, but I don't understand how to fin..."

I have put ideas with what might work for my reads for the mini in the column in the March Log, should I put them directly in the mini tab instead?

Sarah wrote: "Hannah- Good job on getting the Alaska location with The Great Alone! I thought was going to be hard to find potentially. I think you can just keep mood reading and we can try to find a way to make..."

Thanks! I'm really excited to read this one. It's been on my shelf since it came out and I read the Four Winds before finally getting to this one. I've really enjoyed the author's newer books. I read Magic Hour a few years ago and didn't really care for it. So I'm not as excited to jump into her older ones, but there are a few that intrigue me.

I will see if I can get to Carrie Soto this month as well if it works for a gold cover. I have that one on paperback and I'm reading The Great Alone on paper, so not sure if I'll be able to get around to both before the month is over. I listen to a lot of audiobooks at work, but don't have as much time for paperbacks and The Great Alone is a pretty big book, haha! I will let everyone know within the next week or so if I can commit to Carrie Soto also or not.

This challenge has definitely inspired me to make more time for reading though and I've gotten through more paperbacks than I usually do in a month, so I'm hopeful :)

We got hit with a storm starting Monday morning and ending last night. A snow plow took out a pole near us early yesterday morning. Had no power for several hours and then it would go out for short periods the rest of the day/night. No internet most of the day.

I did do some reading though because one needs power and internet to work from home. But I haven't been able to look at the mini challenge much.

I'm putting the Last Camel under Chameleon. It's set in the African deserts of Egypt. Description says chameleons can be found in the deserts of Africa. So either a 2nd location one or to me it works for characteristics because the characters are trying to survive in the desert just like chameleons.

The Witch and the Tsar has a hare mentioned in it a couple of times (part of a folktale). Would that count for one of the hares? It doesn't mention the type of hare. Spiders are repeatedly mentioned and the book is set in Europe.

I just added a book that works for reverse. I'll look for a book set in Australia since there's 2 it could work for and I don't see anyone mentioning having any.

Sarah had suggested going to the other teams for ideas on the characteristic tasks. I found the comment she had mentioned in Team Leafy Snapdragon and I added comments into our team log with the ideas under the mini challenge tab. I thought that might make it easier for us to access those ideas and inspire us to come up with our own ideas. They had some great options! I've definitely been taking the challenge a bit too seriously I think, so it inspired me to think outside the box.

I was thinking of doing the same thing. Snoop in other teams for book ideas.

Thank you Sarah! I copied that list in another sheet (list), you don't have to fill that, it's for control purposes, but also an easier way to check out which tasks might be vacant, and also to check the list without having to look for the comment.

*** UPDATE ***

We have knocked down half our reverses, we only need 5 more. I have two on my list, so three more and we make it.

I'm almost done with the Red 3, and started the Red 2. I also have a Green 5 that I will read, so the only colored cards pending are the yellows.

Skip Yellow
5 Yellow
6 Yellow

We also need 5(I) = 4 and 7(V) = 3.

I get that the mini tasks for characteristics are tricky, but I think they did it like that to be more open, thus the "be more creative". There's definitely a lot of questioning in the captains group. So if you think you have the weakest of connection just ask and I'll pass that to the group for approval.

Sometimes when I see that a member doesn't log the book in the mini I try to fit them using the overview or data I might find, but in this case it's kind of specific to the text as a whole. So only the reader can do it. A few books already finished only work for tasks already taken, at least as per the MINI column description indicates. If you don't have a book already finished assigned on the mini try to fit it in a characteristics task.

So with this being creative part for characteristics do we need an actually quote in the book or could be some idea from the book?

For example I finished my Yellow Skip or 6 and it mentions she gets a makeover and pretends to be girlfriend to blend in. Would that work for cephalopods changing colors to blend into environment?

Also I notice books were added to mini list that were finished before March 15th? I thought couldn't be finished before that.

I also asked if my book worked for a pattern cover but no one commented back in message 301.

Sarah wrote: "So with this being creative part for characteristics do we need an actually quote in the book or could be some idea from the book?

For example I finished my Yellow Skip or 6 and it mentions she g..."

My mistake, I got carried away on the update, Thanks for the heads up.

Verónica wrote: "*** UPDATE ***

We have knocked down half our reverses, we only need 5 more. I have two on my list, so three more and we make it.

I'm almost done with the Red 3, and started the Red 2. I also hav..."

Again, just to be clear, Sarah finished a book that could work for yellow 6 or skip today and I have about an hour left of audio in a book that could work for the other (yellow 6 or skip). So it seems like Yellow 5 is the only colored card in the main challenge that is not spoken for.

Verónica wrote: "Sarah wrote: "So with this being creative part for characteristics do we need an actually quote in the book or could be some idea from the book?

For example I finished my Yellow Skip or 6 and it ..."

What about my other two questions?

*** UPDATE ***

Only Yellow 5 is still pending.

Sarah wrote: "So with this being creative part for characteristics do we need an actually quote in the book or could be some idea from the book?

For example I finished my Yellow Skip or 6 and it mentions she g..."

Yes to the cephalopods question.

I just added some more options for the mini for my books. I've been trying to jot down some quick notes of things as I read that I think MIGHT work from what I remember about the animals as I'm reading. Feel free to switch any of mine on the mini to a different option if that is better... or have me do it and I can better type out/explain the characteristic.

Sarah wrote: "Verónica wrote: "Sarah wrote: "So with this being creative part for characteristics do we need an actually quote in the book or could be some idea from the book?

For example I finished my Yellow ..."

Yes to the Patterned Cover.

wait I am so sorry I am so confused. I thought there were SET characteristics we were supposed to match up. is that not the case?

so for example, yesterday I finished a werewolf book. Since werewolves are pack animals & in this particular book part of a LARGE pack could I use this book for a characteristic of artic hares?

My research says "Arctic hares are sometimes loners but they can also be found in groups of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individuals."

(& yes I think I am making this too complicated..maybe just open characteristics is too broad for me lol)

Sarah wrote: "wait I am so sorry I am so confused. I thought there were SET characteristics we were supposed to match up. is that not the case?

so for example, yesterday I finished a werewolf book. Since werew..."

3-5. Characteristic - get creative! Find a book with ermine in the text, where someone changes their appearance, buys a coat in a new colour, where an environment changes (e.g. flood/fire/war), where the book moves through the seasons of summer to winter etc.
Note: You can use the colour cover or location a second time as a characteristic, but only one of these not both.

**The remaining three books must relate to a characteristic of the animal in some way as per the description given - get creative!

"In the winter, Arctic hares mostly live in groups, and in the worst cold temperatures, living in groups allows Arctic hares to huddle for warmth."

So yes, it also applies for the hares.

ok thanks so much

Verónica wrote: "*** UPDATE ***

We have knocked down half our reverses, we only need 5 more. I have two on my list, so three more and we make it.

I'm almost done with the Red 3, and started the Red 2. I also hav..."

Just added an I book.

Hannah, Sarah finished a book that works for a characteristic of the Arctic Hare, you have claimed two and already reading one. Would you mind to cede one to Sarah's book? the one you have not started yet.