Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Ashara عَشَرَة



• suzanne (Captain)
• mn-lisa (Co-Captain)
• Shannon-o-flynn (Co-Captain)
• nanci (Co-Captain)
• apoorv-moghe
• jen-sabo
• nanci (Co-Captain)
• Kirsten
• jackie
• Amanda
• Janeylou
• Vi
• tone-bardal
• keli
• cris-the-biblio-blonde
• kerri
• nicole-b
• elinor
• Andrea
• Leslie-Ann


Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Challenge Description and Rules

Team Spreadsheet (only editable by Captains) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Team Rankings https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Countdown: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Mini-Challenges
Original: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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

Planning sheet (claim tasks and let us know your planned/finished books): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

If you don't want to use the planning spreadsheet, you can leave a completion post for your finished books in the team thread.

Sample Completion Post
Book:
Author:
Pages:
Date finished:
Any comments you'd like to make about the book.

If the book is for a mini challenge, please list all tasks it will work for, including reasons why


Team Shelves and NBRC Comments:
✔️ Suzanne TTX Comments
✔️ Lisa 2023-ttx Comments
✔️ Shannon O'Flynn ttx Comments
✔️ Nanci Drum tt2023 Comments
✔️Apoorv Moghe challenge-nbrc-ttx Comments
✔️ Jen Sabo tt10 Comments
✔️ Kirsten ttx Comments
✔️ Jackie tt-x Comments
✔️ Amanda tower2023Comments
✔️ Janine ttx Comments
✔️ Vi tower-teams-x Comments
✔️ Tone B ttx-2023 Comments
✔️ Andrea tower-teamsm-10 Comments
✔️ Cris towerteams23 Comments
✔️ Kerri McDonaldtower-teams-x Comments
✔️ Nicole towers-x Comments
✔️ Leslie Ann Towerx Comments
✔️Elinor 2023-towerteams Comments
✔️Keli ttx Comments


(Please try to remember to add your finished books to your challenge shelf - that makes your captains' lives so much easier!)

Books of the Month (group reads)

These are a great (optional) way to get bonus points.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

May Books
Kings of the Wyld discussion Starts May 2

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Starts May 16

June Books
City of Brass Starts June 2
11/22/63 Starts June 16

Weekly Status Report

Summary: (As of July 16)
We have been reading so much! The top three teams are all being super competitive. The teamwork on Wheel has been super fun to watch.

Status sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

July Books *as of July 16, 52% done with the month - :
100-199 10/10 100%
200-299 20/20 1000%
300-399 30/30 100%
400-400 16/30 53%
500-599 7/20 35%
600+ 5/10 50%
Free 86/103


Shelf fixes

Books of the Month

Starts 2 July Fantastic job on questions Kerri!!

Starts 16 July - remember to go answer questions :)

Mini-Challenges
Rainbow Towers: Keep marking any of your books that have colored covers.

Wheel: Nice Teamwork! This is a fun mini - and certainly a challenge.

Page points: We are behind or right on with our long-page books (I'm sure that's because we have focused on wheel, and can't count the pages for the tower - they still count for page points!) I know Leslie is reading some long books on her trip, and when I travel the next two weeks I'll be reading some as well.

Hello team! I (and the other captains) are SO excited to get to read with you during the next few months! I'm looking forward to playing with some old friends again and to making new ones.

Please come, check in, and tell us a little about yourself. Oh, and if you can link your tower team shelf, I'll put it on our list above.

Also, whenever you have questions we're here for you, and if we don't know the answers, we will find them.

A little about me: I retired from teaching about a year ago - life has seemed just as busy, but it is a lot of fun. I love dogs and reading (obviously) and playing computer games. I look forward to travelling more - we have been doing a lot of grandchild care the past couple of years, but that will be tapering off in the next few months.

There might be other interesting things about me, but I woke up at 4 a.m. because I kept thinking about things to post here, and now my mind is blank :) I can't wait to meet you all!

Hello Team! I am one of the co-captains of our team in this challenge. I love spreadsheets. It's my obsession. If you want to see how obsessive I can get, let me know I have a few examples. :)

Other than that I work as a Product Manager for a Software Company and have been there for over 20 years. I have an 18-year-old daughter who will graduate in June and then start college in August. When I'm not working or reading, which is rare, I am playing bar trivia with friends, on a duck pin bowling league with some girlfriends, gambling with the hubby, or volunteering for our local Job's Daughters Bethel and the Grand Guardian Council for Minnesota.

I can't wait to get started!

Hi Team! I am also a co-captain for this team and I am so excited to start this challenge with you guys!

I am a senior at Penn State University so I will be finishing up the semester when this challenge starts, but I will still be active as I only have one final! Some things I like to do are hang out with my friends, do gymnastics, and dance! Obviously, I love to read, and I (like Lisa) love Excel!

I'm so excited to get started!
Here is my shelf link: ttx

Lisa - I love the hobbies - such a fun variety! I had to look up duck pin bowling - that looks fun! And sniff...it's bittersweet having a graduate - but exciting.

And speaking of graduating - congratulations Shannon!! And how well planned having a single final!

We are lucky to have you both on the team!

Hi Team!
I'm Nanci another co-captain. We are loaded with captains for our team, so between all of us we should be able to help answer any questions. I recognize some of your names from past challenges and I'm looking forward to getting to know the rest of you.

I retired from being a teacher (13 years) and a school counselor (19 years). Now my husband and I enjoy traveling and spending time with our adult children and our 7 grandchildren and 2 grand dogs. I love to spend time outside enjoying nature and playing sports. I also love baking and of course reading!

The link to my TT thread is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hi team! I’m Jen. I work in the school system as a speech-language pathologist, it’s so neat to see other people who were previously in education on the team.

I’m looking forward to another tower teams— this always gets me to read a lot.

Here is my link to my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hey! Hey! Hey! Good humans!
I am so darn excited to be part of this humongously awesome team and for once I am not the captain or the co-cap, so this is definitely a different (albeit somewhat chill) feeling. Hehe! I can't wait to get another TT underway.

I am Apoorv (he/him), currently in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and I am practically the old crone with these challenges now. :P Every year TT gets more exciting and different and this year seems particularly interesting. Also, Ashara is a beautiful team name to have (I think it means auspicious in Arabic, so great start already! :=)).

I see a bunch of familiar faces and a few new friends on the list - can't wait to read your stories and interact with all of you. Thank you to all the cappies for getting us all set up and ready to go. Much appreciated! :)

LET'S GOOOOOOOO! :D



My Shelf: Challenge-NBRC-TTX

MN Lisa wrote: "I love spreadsheets. It's my obsession. If you want to see how obsessive I can get, let me know I have a few examples. :)."

I LOVE spreadsheets! And I love that you are obsessed with them, Lisa! :)

I have a spreadsheet for all the books I've read and each books metadata, all movies I've watched, all the flights I have taken, etc. etc. - so I am thrilled to see there is another spreadsheet nut in the mix. Haha! :)

Can't wait to see what you do with this challenges' spreadsheet! :)

Hello, Nanci, Jen, and Apoorv - it makes me so happy to learn a little more about each of you!

Nanci - I love your hobbies! Living the dream! :)

Jen - what an important job. I know some people who have been greatly helped by a speech pathologist.

And Apoorv - first off, I did not know our team name meant auspicious in Arabic - I love that fact! And how awesome that you have a spreadsheet for all those life things - that is such a fantastic idea!

Thanks for linking shelves! I'll get those input tomorrow, and be sending out some friend requests too. But I'm going to bed so happy to have started meeting such great teammates!

Hi everyone. I am Vi, currently living in Netherlands so a little ahead of some of you time zone wise. This is my second TT. I was one of the co-captains in TT2. I think we won that round. I had loads of fun that time and played around with Spreadsheet tracking everything.

I have two kids a 9 year old and a 4 year old. Now that my youngest has started school, I have more free time until I land a job(which seems very hard right now). If I’m not doing household or chauffeur stuffs, I’m either reading, cycling or studying.

It’s so great to meet you all. You all have diverse hobbies! I will link my shelf once I can use my laptop. It’s not possible from the app.

Hello everyone 👋👋 good to see some familiar names in the team
Im afraid im a TT virgin so will probably be asking loads of questions along the way.
Im Janine from england , so will probably be fast asleep while you're all chatting away 😄
I work part time in a coffee shop so have plenty of spare time to read . Hobbies are music , gardening, foster guinea pigs for local RSPCA, cooking .
Ive 4 daughters ( 2 of which are teachers ) and 3 are looking at moving house so seem to be constantly looking at details of houses lately 🤪

Link to my shelf
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hello team!

I'm Amanda (she/her) from Michigan (EST) and this is my second-ish TT. I was called in as an alternate about 1/2-3/4 of the way through the last TT so I kinda get it but also was just working hard to fill in where needed so may still need some direction! I'm a lawyer but not the kind that goes to court so I'm still WFH 2 days a week (Mon/Tues) so then and weekends are when I'll do most of my posting. Right now it's just me, my husband, and our two pups but I'm currently pregnant with our first and due in August so it's an exciting time! (Although my friends on this team will back me up in saying there has been a lot of complaining and I am not having a fun time LOL). Looking forward to playing with you all!

My TT Shelf

It is wonderful to wake up to seeing three more new team members - thanks for checking in!

I'm so glad we have teammates from different parts of the world. With all the crazy things happening sometimes, it's nice to think about a worldwide community of readers who have the "crazy" idea to read towers of books together.

Vi, my husband and I had the the opportunity to visit the Netherlands quite a few years ago but only for a day, so we really need to go back. As we drove places, I LOVED the street signs but had no idea how to pronounce most of them. It felt like I was in a magical place :) Good luck with the job hunting.

Janine - what wonderful hobbies. And how kind of you to foster guinea pigs! Good luck with the helping daughters move/find places. That sounds like a lot of moving help in the future :) I'm glad you decided to play tower teams! Even now, reading all of the rules makes me feel overwhelmed, and yet like most games it is easy once you get started. But ask questions anytime!

And Amanda - how exciting to have a baby due at the end of summer! You can complain anytime you want - with all those changes happening in your body, lots of that is NOT FUN. Miraculous, but sometimes a good complaint is just the thing :)

Hello team! My name is Tone (she/her) and I live in Oslo, Norway. This is my third tower challenge and I'm so excited to be here!
I'm an accountant by day and a reader by night. Gotta balance all those numbers with some words! My hobbies include playing video games, traveling and I'm just picking up golf. I live with my boyfriend with a beautiful view of the fjord.

I'm really looking forward to playing with you all!

My shelf is ttx-2023

Hello, teammates! I'm Cris, and this will be my second year doing Tower Teams.

I'm an empty nester in the Midwest US, and my husband and I spend our time spoiling our two poodles. I read a lot, journal, do genealogy, and I'm trying to get into gardening... our weather hasn't been cooperating enough to get started yet this season! ;)

Look forward to a great challenge... my shelf is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Welcome Tone and Cris :) Tone that sounds like such a beautiful place to live - it's wonderful when you can just look at the window and see something like a fjord :)

And Cris, I'm glad we get to continue playing together for TT (note, for those of you playing Uno, Cris and I are on the same team). I can't garden here yet either - it keeps snowing intermittently.

Suzanne wrote: "Lisa - I love the hobbies - such a fun variety! I had to look up duck pin bowling - that looks fun! And sniff...it's bittersweet having a graduate - but exciting.

And speaking of graduating - cong..."

Thanks Suzanne!

Hello team! I'm Jackie from North Carolina and have participated in several TT's. I'm retired from a career in IT management and have three grown children. Besides reading, I enjoy several types of needlework, especially crocheting hats and scarves for the homeless in my area. I am also a big sports fan, in particular baseball and football. I'll read almost anything and am addicted to challenges. Looking forward to playing TT with friends and getting to know everyone.

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

Hello, team! Sorry to be popping in so late! I just realized today that we had been assigned teams despite being on Goodreads multiple times this weekend 😂

I'm Kerri and I live in Massachusetts. Actually, Apoorv, I live near Boston, so it's nice to have another local on the same team! My family and I moved here in 2019 and I'm loving it so far, even though I'm not a fan of cold weather. I work as a medical laboratory scientist specializing in microbiology and molecular diagnostics, which was super fun when the pandemic first hit. A lot of COVID testing is done in molecular so you can imagine we were very busy, haha. Still, I love my job and can't imagine doing anything else!

As for hobbies (other than the obvious 😉), I like to play D&D, board games, and video games. I also love going on hikes when the weather starts to warm up! I don't have a lot of time for hobbies with the job, our two kiddos, and our three pets, so reading is usually my go-to for relaxing. My only other hobby is my book blog, where I post reviews, book tours, and the like.

I'm looking forward to another fun round of TT and getting to know y'all!

And here's my shelf for this round: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hi Jackie and Kerri!

Jackie - I feel like needlework is a lost art. Although I had some students that taught themselves how to crochet using YouTube - I was so impressed!

Kerri - you are not late at all - thanks for checking in. Wow I cannot even imagine how busy you were when COVID first hit! I just bookmarked your blog - I love the McBookNerd - very clever :)

Hello, everyone--

I'm excited to be here, for the first time with this challenge. Hello to MN Lisa, Janeylou, Amanda, and Jackie, with whom I've had a fair few challenges, and to everyone else who I'm excited to get to know.

My reading is about 3/4 MM and 1/4 lit fic and I like challenges that push me out of my comfort zones and clear out my v v long queue. I'm a theatre professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and have a lovely partner and brilliant daughter. Tenure is a beautiful thing, and I read about as much as I work at the job that pays the rent.

I never think of myself as crafty, but I am pretty fond of embroidery... and painting my nails, 2 things I can do in front of the television.

ETA my link: ttx

Hi Kirsten - I'm so glad to have you on the team. I hope this is your first of many tower teams :)

Just been looking at the mini challenge tasks ..thats a lot of books 😳

I thought id finished with colour covers now UNO nearly finished 🤣🤣🤣

I thought the same thing about color covers!

The nice thing about the mini-challenge is it lasts the entire tower teams. The "interesting" thing about it, is we can do as many rainbow towers as we choose, which means there is no cap on the books we can read.

That said, the only task we must accomplish to get points is the tower described in the main challenge - all of the mini-stuff is "just" bonus. So we'll see how it goes. Hopefully we can all find books we love and read lots, but also not get burned out :)

Here is the link to the mini-challenge (I also have it on my "Links" post above). It's going to be fun!

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

So each book can work for the main challenge & mini challenge ?

When we finish a book do we need to post in thread AND on SS ?

Hi everyone,

I’m Elinor - English, I live in Belgium with my partner and our two dogs. I work in IT Software Development. My hobbies include reading (of course!), tennis, aerobics and have just started some padel tennis classes. I love going to the cinema too though don’t often find the time. Also, I’ve planted some passion flower seeds and hope I don’t kill them (that’s unfortunately what usually happens with my gardening projects! 😅).

Link to my shelf:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Looking forward to the challenge. It’s my second TT. Currently finishing up UNO… go, go, go!

Janeylou wrote: "When we finish a book do we need to post in thread AND on SS ?"

It is fine to just post finished books on the spreadsheet - but if you dislike using spreadsheets, post in the thread and someone will enter it into the spreadsheet. There's no need to go to the work of posting both places.

And yes - happily books can work for both the mini-challenge and the monthly tower of books - phew!

Thanks for the excellent questions!

Hello Elinor - it is great to meet you. I looked up padel tennis - how interesting. Is it correct you can also use the walls? It seems as if that would change the game a lot. Good luck with Uno to all who are playing this last week!

Hello all! Guess, I need to get focused on checking in daily. Let me create my shelf.😬

Link to my shelf https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

My pronouns are she/her. I'm a Texan living in England. I've been here for 20 years. Sadly, i don't think I'll ever make it back to central TX, mostly cos I can't afford it. But I love England, well I love my husband, so yay. And it's fun being a tourist in America. I obvs love reading, coffee, wine, my little Jack Russell, and nail polish. I just started doing yoga in the mornings but have fallen in love with that, too. I've been on teams with at least one of you before (hi Nanci) and am looking forward to chatting with y'all.

Hi Keli! It's great to have you on the team. We lived in Texas when we were first married and met the nicest people! And I'm imagining a wonderful story about how you ended up in England with a wonderful husband. ❤️

Hi Suzanne, thanks lovely meeting you too and the whole team. I have played with Nanci in the past I believe :).

Yes, you can use the walls in padel but the ball has to bounce off the court first or it’s out. The racket is very different from a tennis racket, it has far less grip on the ball so that means reworking any tennis techniques (e.g. lifting 😅).

I’ve been trying to access our tracking sheet link but it doesn’t seem to be editable (may be intentional?) and has a different team’s name (Damara Damara?).

Suzanne wrote: "Janeylou wrote: "When we finish a book do we need to post in thread AND on SS ?"

It is fine to just post finished books on the spreadsheet - but if you dislike using spreadsheets, post in the thre..."

Janeylou, I'm always happy to help you post to the spreadsheet.

Keli wrote: "Link to my shelf https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

My pronouns are she/her. I'm a Texan living in England. I've been here for 20 years. Sadly, i don't t..."

Hello! I spent nearly a decade in Texas and am obsessed with nail polish. So nice to meet you.

I just read all your intro posts and I am impressed with the number of educators we've got. And the number of crafty folks; crocheting, journaling, knitting, baking, and kind of gardening 🤣. We are definitely an interesting team. I'm so glad to be part of it.

Shannon, what's your major btw?

Kerri, nice blog. I've bookmarked it too.

Thanks Kirsten
If i can just type book/ author i will be ok , but if a link is needed, thats when i have problems

Suzanne wrote: "Hi Keli! It's great to have you on the team. We lived in Texas when we were first married and met the nicest people! And I'm imagining a wonderful story about how you ended up in England with a won..."

He was on tour and it was my 18th birthday. It was a tuesday night and I wanted to go clubbing for the first time legally. I chose the one with the longest line. It happened to be a goth club on an S&M night. 😂😂😂

Keli wrote: "Suzanne wrote: "Hi Keli! It's great to have you on the team. We lived in Texas when we were first married and met the nicest people! And I'm imagining a wonderful story about how you ended up in En..."

I had many a good night at goth clubs when i was young 😄😄
Where about in England do you live

Suzanne - Thanks for checking out the blog. My kids groaned when I told them the name I picked, but I love it 😂

Keli - Thanks for checking out my blog, too! Also, hearing how you met your husband brings me back to some nights in college 😂 I love hearing how people met their SOs!

Elinor - Good luck with your garden! My husband and I have a tiny plot in our backyard that we manage to coax some cucumbers and tomatoes from every year. I'm hoping to expand on it a bit once I have a proper grasp of gardening. We are definitely still beginners, haha.

Here is the planning spreadsheet for us.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

It should be editable to anyone who as the link....

Thanks Lisa for linking that - and for creating such a wonderful sheet for us to track on!

And Elinor thanks for checking the other link - I will get that fixed right now - oops!

Hi,

I'm Nicole, and live in the UK. I'm from Coventry but live in the North East near Durham now. I had to drop out of tower teams last year due to opening a bookshop, but everything is *mostly* settled now. As well as the bookshop, I work part-time on Sundays and Mondays (those 10 and half hour shifts kill me), so I won't be able to post on either day, but I've been working pretty well with doing weekly updates every Tuesday/Wednesday for UNO so I'll try my best to continue that here.

I read at least 3 books every month for book clubs run by the shop so the first book I can already tell you will be "His Bloody Project" (due on May 2nd but I have a bad habit of reading on the day due).

My shelf is Tower X

(Also, has anyone else's notifications stopped working recently? I don't know if it's a good or bad thing I have to manually check all my threads for updates xD)