Hooked on Books discussion

Let's Play...

Duration: January 1-February 28, 2023
📌Make sure that you have notifications turned on, so that you don't miss updates, bonus task notices, etc.

Team Cannon
✅ Michelle's Empty Nest (Captain)
✅ Carrie Elrick (Co-Captain)
✅ Vicki
✅ Lori
✅ Bobbi
✅ Zuza
✅ Hina ♡
Karla
Taya

Team Tracking Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Boardwalk Group Game Board: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

If you have any rule questions, you can refer to these links, ask a Captain or Co-Captain or use the Q&A:
Q&A: Game Board Spaces - Book Tasks
BOOKOPOLY How-To
Chance Card Wheel: https://randomspinwheel.com/wheels/bl...
Community Chest Card Wheel: https://randomspinwheel.com/wheels/Z1...

Important Dates:

12/30 - Will notify teams of who goes first! You will continue in order after that.
12/31 - Check-in deadline for team members. Captains, if you have members that haven't been checked in by then, please message them directly and let me know/
1/1 - Start Date! For simplicity, the first roll can happen after 7am CST (1pm in the UK), please adjust to your time zone for the first roll.
2/28 - End Date! 6pm CST (12am in the UK)

➡️ ➡️ ➡️ Please use this format for completion posts. ⬅️ ⬅️ ⬅️


Book:
Author:
Date Read:
Pages:
Property:
Task:
How it Fits:

*

*

Hey team! I'm Michelle from Georgia. I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 33 years and together for 36 years. We have 3 grown sons (28, 30, 32). I was a middle school math and science teacher until I had to leave my job due to health reasons about 10 years ago. We have a Yorkie and 2 Siamese cats. I read a little bit of everything - especially when it meets a challenge requirement. I mostly listen to audiobooks these days. I'm able to read about a book a day. I'm excited to get started on this challenge with all of you!

Hi all! I'm Carrie from PA.

I'm married and have one daughter who just turned 25. My husband and I have 4 rescues (3 kitties and 1 Westie who is getting ready to turn 15).

My favorite genres include mystery, thriller, horror and nordic noir but I'll read pretty much anything.

Looking forward to hearing from you all and getting this challenge started!

Hello fellow Cannons! I'm Vicki from Dallas, TX (born), but I have lived in California since I was about 18 months old. I now live in the Central Valley, about 75 miles south of Sacramento and 76 miles east from San Francisco.

I have 5 grown children, 3 boys and 2 girls. They've blessed me with 22 grandchildren lol 12 boys and 10 girls, and my grandkids have blessed me with 6 great grandchildren, 3 boys/3 girls so we're pretty evenly distributed.

I'm a retired high school teacher as of May 2017, and I am loving retirement mainly because I have more time with my grandchildren. Let's just say when I hop in my Highlander my phone pops on and says, "30 minutes to work" lol so I watch my 2 youngest grandchildren (almost 5 and almost 3) a lot. I loved teaching as well. I taught English and yearbook (25 years and 18 years respectively) and five years of multicultural literature.

I have 2 dogs, a Bichon Frise (Jazzy) and a Border Collie/lab mix (the vet thinks) named Rocky. My daughter found a box of 6 abandoned puppies about 5-6 weeks old on the side of the road and we adopted Rocky. At the time we had 2 dogs but after a few years Buddy died...best dog ever. So Jazzy & Rocky are about 6 months apart and are now 12.

I love historical fiction, mystery/thriller/psychological thriller, romance but prefer emotional reads and sweet love (not really into erotica but have read some). I tend to like sports romances too.

I am ready to get going on this new challenge...my first in this group which I just joined in December. :)

I just looked at the SS tabs and this one looks really fun! Michelle, I think you are the perfect captain for this challenge! Your experience teaching science and math prepared you for this one! lol

Hi friends! I'm Bobbi from Michigan and I am currently buried under almost 200lbs of dogs. (Thor: 90lb Shepherd mix, Loki: 42lb Shih Tzu/GSP mix, and Duncan: 45lb Sheltie). I'd say send help, but help would just be absorbed into the puppy pile/Borg.

I have a degree in psychology which is currently collecting dust until I can get back to working on my Masters. I read just about anything as long as it can hook my attention.

Hi everyone,

I am from Czechia (or The Czech Republic), I live near Prague.

My favorite genres are anything YA and Mystery, but if a synopsis sounds interesting enough, I am sure to put that book on my never-ending TBR 📚.

I have never played this game before but I am so excited to start!

I just saw that we will roll first in our group.

Looks like we have all checked in! Ready to Roll!

🎉 Welcome, Team Cannon! 🎉


It looks like we're waiting on a couple more people to show up, but let's go ahead and start talking strategy and details...


➡️ We can use books we've started already as long as we don't complete them until January 1st {HOW can 2023 almost be here??} or later.

➡️ Please try to take a few minutes to look over the tasks on the Game Board Spaces tab on the spreadsheet. This may help you decide on a particular book to read. Pay closer attention to the first row of the game board since that's what we'll come to sooner than later.

➡️ I saw it mentioned somewhere that we will need to make Completion Posts here in the thread in addition to keeping up the spreadsheet, so that's what we'll do. I think that will be a good way to double-check that we haven't missed anything as well.


❓Does everyone have access to the Team Cannon Tracking SS? If not, make sure you request access from Ashley.

❓Are you comfortable with entering your books onto the SS? If not, indicate this at the bottom of your Completion Post and I will enter them for you. Maybe type: >>>Please add to SS.<<<

❓Do you want to try to buy each property we land on as long as we have the funds available?

❓Any questions so far? I'm not 100% sure I can answer them all just yet, but I will find out. 😊

I was so focused on the green check marks that I missed the two people who didn’t check in yet.

What are the benefits/drawbacks to buying every property we land on? Would it be more beneficial to focus on higher priced properties?

Michelle, I've looked at your post and perused the SS, Game Board, Tasks, etc. I think I mostly understand but will likely have questions as we go along. One thing is different for sure (for me) and that is banking books before you can even use them. lol If I understood correctly.

I would reiterate Carrie's question, but I say in general if we have enough money without breaking our bank, we'd probably want to buy properties we land on. With your math brain, I think you might need to advise as we go along.

I'm excited to get going!

By buying what we land on, we would get money from other teams when they land on them in the future. If we pass them up, other teams will surely buy them later. We have to own the property before added houses/hotels as well.


I added a column to the SS for "other options" our books could work for. We can just list out the property and 1 - 4 to coordinate with the 4 task options given on that tab. In Ashley's example book, it would also work for States Ave. #4. We can then narrow down the justification if we do indeed need to use the book in a different spot. I hope this makes sense. I snooped on the other teams and *borrowed* the idea from one of them.

Funny, I was going to mention that because sometimes a book works for so many tasks and it's easy to forget; however, after I looked at all of the tasks I saw that most of them were cover items and easy to spot, such as "starts with letter S" or something like that. But I'm glad you added it because I'm sure it'll help.

Regarding benefits of buying properties when we land, those are the reasons I thought we should but I wasn't sure if there were reasons not to that I wasn't aware of so I stand by my original thought...BUY!

I tend to agree with you, ladies. Buy what we can so other teams can't make us pay more for landing there later.

I'm so glad we can bank books. That will be helpful.

Hi Ladies: I am simple minded when it comes to technology but I think this challenge looks fun and I hope I can be of some use to the team. I am married with 3 children, my oldest son is single and lives in Dallas, my daughter is married and lives in Oregon and my baby got married in September and lives with his wife in Austin. This is all very tough since we are in Maryland. I look forward to getting to know you all.
Not sure about entering completions in the Spreadsheet. I took an Excel class multiple times when I work for our County Government and I failed miserably and am still terrified of spreadsheets.

Lori wrote: "Hi Ladies: I am simple minded when it comes to technology but I think this challenge looks fun and I hope I can be of some use to the team. I am married with 3 children, my oldest son is single and..."

Lori, don't stress over the spreadsheet. Just do your completion post here and I will add your books for you. No problem at all. :)

I rolled for us around 9 AM EST.


We got a 3 which puts us on Baltic Avenue. It costs $60.

These are the tasks we can choose from:

Read a book with a brown cover (>50%)
Read a book whose title starts with B
Read a book set in the Baltic states (see note)
Read a book by an author whose first and last initials can be found in “BALTIC”

Only 1 of us needs to complete a task to purchase this property and allow the next team to roll.

Anyone have a book in the works that will fit? If not, anyone ready to pick something?

I'm posting in the Q&A because I'm not able to deduct our money from the cell on the SS...it says it's protected. Hopefully that will get fixed today.

One more thing...


Please list whatever you are currently reading that will work for any task on the board into the Game Board Books Tab on the SS.

That list can grow as big as it needs to so that we can have books to pull from in future turns. I'll choose up to 10 to exchange for money when we pass Go.

I can do this challenge.....I am starting a book today called Plum Tea Crazy by Laura Childs and both LC and can be found in Baltic.

Lori wrote: "I can do this challenge.....I am starting a book today called Plum Tea Crazy by Laura Childs and both LC and can be found in Baltic."

Great! I see Zuza is also reading a book that works, so we probably need to go with whoever finishes first since the other teams are waiting on us for their turns. Regardless, we will be able to bank the other book to use later. 😊

🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲
Completion Post

Book: Lost Horizon
Author: James Hilton
Date Read: 1-1-2023
Pages: 224
Property: St. James Place
Task: Read a book by an author whose first or last initial can be found in “STJAMES”
How it Fits: First initial is J

Hey, team!


I've added a template to Message 3 for making completion posts. We can keep it simple, but it does need to be done. Be sure to check the box in the Posted column on the SS once you have made your post here.

Completion Post for Baltic Avenue $60

Book: Plum Tea Crazy
Author: Laura Childs
Date Read: 1/2/23
Pages: 300
Property: Baltic Avenue
Task: Read a book by an author whose first and last initials can be found in “BALTIC”
How it Fits: Baltic - BAL(aura)TIC(hilds)

Head's up Team Cannon! Since Taya has not checked in, I'm getting you a new player! Look for Hina ♡ to check in soon!

Awesome! Thanks!

Lori wrote: "Completion Post for Baltic Avenue $60

Book: Plum Tea Crazy
Author: Laura Childs
Date Read: 1/2/23
Pages: 300
Property: Baltic Avenue
Task: Read a book by an author whose first and last initials ca..."


Added to SS and turned us in for this round. 😊

Book: How You Ruined My Life
Author: Jeff Strand
Date Read: 1/4/23
Pages: 322
Property: Oriental Ave
Task: Read a book with a light blue cover (>50%)
How it Fits:

UPDATE:


After thinking it through and checking with Ashley, let's not check the Posted box when you list your books on the SS. Carrie and I will need to save that for when we actually use a book.


Thanks, team!

Sounds good!

Michelle,

Is there anything in particular you want me to do or be looking at right now?

Carrie wrote: "Sounds good!

Michelle,

Is there anything in particular you want me to do or be looking at right now?"

I honestly have no idea...LOL! 😅 Still figuring everything out.

I guess helping keep a look out for when we need to roll and bank books, etc. Now that teams have had a couple of days to read and bank their own books, turns should move much more quickly.

Team Thimble landed on Community Chest and got $10 from each team. I have deducted that from our Bank. We now have $1430.

So only Team Battleship has to take a turn before we go again, correct? This game will definitely be moving fast!

Carrie wrote: "So only Team Battleship has to take a turn before we go again, correct? This game will definitely be moving fast!"

Yes and I think as more books are banked it'll get faster and faster!

Hi everyone!

Hi Hina! Glad to have you join our team 😊

Welcome to the team, Hina! Do you have access to the spreadsheet?

Michelle's Empty Nest wrote: "Welcome to the team, Hina! Do you have access to the spreadsheet?"

Yes!

Great! 😊

Team Cannon

Starting Bank Acct: $1430 {after $10 to Team Thimble}
Roll: 3
Landed: Oriental Ave
Task: Read a book with a light blue cover (>50%)
Read by: Bobbi
Book/Author: How You Ruined My Life by Jeff Strand
Finished: 1-2-2023
How it fits: Light blue cover

Bought: Yes
Amt: $100
Ending Bank Acct: $1330

Team Thimble paid us $4! Woo-hoo...we are rolling in the dough now! 😁

Are we filling in prompts with books less than 250 pages. I read one that was 224

Lori wrote: "Are we filling in prompts with books less than 250 pages. I read one that was 224"


Standard Rules say at least 100 pages, so you are good to go.

Team Battleship paid us $4. Back up to $1338.

I’ll take any and all $$ so $4? Yippee!

Michelle, I just put my 4 books on the SS. I only add a completion post after we know a book is going to be used for a specific property, right?

Is it our turn to roll?