Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Just want to know if musicians include singers who do not play an instrument, such as opera singers for example? My singer friends call their voice their instrument.

Definitely yes from me. They're professional musicians. No-one would say Elvis wasn't a musician. What are they if not?

That said there is the scathing old muso comment -- there are singers and musicians,

Yes, agreed. Singers also count as musicians

Round 4 update

20 hours to go!
Please have your books on the tracking spreadsheet well before the deadline, or if you are running close than you can hold off finishing it until round 5. (Once the round finishes we can't add any books to it)

Round 5
Our word BAGPIPES is now on the tracking sheet and we are looking for black covers. Although it was easy to find blue ones it is nice for a change! And don't forget to also look for musicians (including singers)... they need to be professional / doing it as a job, (not just someone who plays an instrument or sings around the house for example) :)

My bonus books are non fiction so can I use people’s names or do I have to stick with title and author initials? Lady Sings the Blues credits Billie Holliday as co author but the one about The
Eagles doesn’t. I suppose Eagles is okay.

Finished my last round 4 book.

I've added my last book for round 4.

Elisabeth wrote: "My bonus books are non fiction so can I use people’s names or do I have to stick with title and author initials? Lady Sings the Blues credits Billie Holliday as co author but the one about The
Eagl..."

The rules for non fiction books is that people featured in the book cannot be used for spell it out as they are not technically character. Only the title, author, narrator (if audio) and translator (if translated) can be used for spell it outs.

So is there any point reading the one about The Eagles, do you think if it doesn't count for the spell out? The title is a bit ambiguous. It's listed on GR as Dark Desert Highway but the cover has Eagles first.


Or can a book be used for the bonus and page count only?

I just finished a book and can’t remember if I added it to the SS. My daughter gets married today & I will not be near a computer. I listened to:

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders
Pages: 352
W - CLN - Wong
R - CFN - Riki
T - CFN - Tilbert
E - NFN - Eunice

Can someone add it for me if I haven’t?

Elisabeth wrote: "So is there any point reading the one about The Eagles, do you think if it doesn't count for the spell out? The title is a bit ambiguous. It's listed on GR as Dark Desert Highway but the cover has ..."

We only get the points if it fits in the spell it out. I will pose the question to the captains because the cover clearly has the word Eagles on it.

Bernadette wrote: "I just finished a book and can’t remember if I added it to the SS. My daughter gets married today & I will not be near a computer. I listened to:

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders
Pages: ..."

All done, Bernadette. I hope your daughter has a great wedding day!

Have a great day, Bernadette. 💕

Elisabeth - the captains response to being able to use the word Eagles on the cover was as no. Unless we are able to provide acceptable catalogue evidence that the word should be included in the title then a librarian could update it.

Keely wrote: "Elisabeth - the captains response to being able to use the word Eagles on the cover was as no. Unless we are able to provide acceptable catalogue evidence that the word should be included in the ti..."

I looked it up on world cat.
The official title is “Eagles: dark desert highway : how America's dream band turned into a nightmare” so I shall update the goodreads entry

Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "Keely wrote: "Elisabeth - the captains response to being able to use the word Eagles on the cover was as no. Unless we are able to provide acceptable catalogue evidence that the word should be incl..."

Great, thank you. Back into the drug addled riotous rock land of the 70’s. So many well-known names floating around in LA at the time. Some, like Jackson Browne are still going strong.

Round 5 bonuses update

We have no limits. Woot! So feel free to read as many black covers or books with musicians as you would like :)

In case anyone is interested in a quick sweet romantic read, Lisa read one of my books for the last round in which the two leads are professional orchestral musicians. These are the others.

-Pop singer
orchestral bassoon player
orchestral violinist
orchestral cellist with RSI Black cover
All the above are on Kindle Unlimited.
professional violinist/pianist

Would it count if I read some? hehehe. I haven't read any of them since they were published over ten years ago.

Yes you can read them too Elisabeth 👍🥳

I know when I re-read my book I was still surprised at some of what I wrote 😂 so many edits you forget what’s in there

Great!
What's your book, Karen?

Oh it’s a boring business book. Only useful when there is a need for a teal cover in challenges so I have discovered 😂😂

If only you’d known about these challenges you could have snuck in a few sneaky little oddities 😀

I’m now annoyed that my books characters don’t have the right initials.

Our previous Mod, Renee, wrote a book with an X character and mentioned why in the dedication 😂

Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "Oh it’s a boring business book. Only useful when there is a need for a teal cover in challenges so I have discovered 😂😂"

Don't sell yourself short Karen!

It's also brilliant for challenges that need loads of letters in the title! 😂

(All kidding aside, if you run a business or work in HR, it's a great book to read! I am my husband's HR department and would have found it extremely useful if there was more than one other employee and they didn't also happen to be my son 😂)

Seconding Sammy's opinion about Karen's book.:)

I wish the people in my institute's HR team had read this book. The only reason I dare not recommend it to them is that they would get mortally offended. (and rightly so, there's lots of room for improvement there. ...giggles)

Having said that, it HAS a gorgeous teal cover. ;)

lol yes true, tons of letters too.

And thank you both - very kind!

Perhaps if I ever do a revised edition I'll find a way to insert 'defenestration'

I finished

so nice for the time of year!

Also

which was sent to me by one of my business groups and I actually was surprised with how much I got out of it

Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "lol yes true, tons of letters too.

And thank you both - very kind!

Perhaps if I ever do a revised edition I'll find a way to insert 'defenestration'"

Let's face it... There are HR situations where it is the only viable option 😂

Bahahaha true

:D

I am sure everyone would appreciate a book called "The little handbook of defenestration", though if you could make it start with U or X somehow, it would be even a bigger hit. ;)

Up and Out? Or maybe Up, Over and Out.

Darn. I just came across yodelling in my Eagles book.

Haha
Up over and out is perfect
🤭

I must apologise. I don't really know where the time has gone. Most of the week has past and I hardly done any reading. I am now on my days off though so I'm hoping to get at least one or two books done.

Elisabeth wrote: "Up and Out? Or maybe Up, Over and Out.

Darn. I just came across yodelling ."

Me too 😂

Finished
which was an eye opening account of one of Australia's most successful musicians

Hello team!

We currently have four started spell it outs. We need two P's per spelling and those seem to be the ones we are struggling with. As a reminder, we are only allowed one incomplete spell it out when the round ends.
This isn't something we should be panicking about yet, but just something to be vigilant about.

I just finished a P and Stephanie Plum is next.

And the book I just finished had instruments galore! Pity they didn't make all the bonus rounds applicable in this last one.

I just finished a P book. I'm halfway through another P title. Will post in a minute.
I think I need to withdraw the book I started to read before I realized it will probably can not be used.
It is Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War by Nigel Cliff. It is a non-fiction bio about Van Cliburn. If I remember right, only author and title can be used for spell-out. and none of those letters qualify. I was really enjoying it. Please let me know and I'll remove it.

I'm afraid you are correct. It's a shame we didn't get a spell it out with a more variety of letters in for this last round.

Keely wrote: "I'm afraid you are correct. It's a shame we didn't get a spell it out with a more variety of letters in for this last round."
For sure! I'll update the list.

My current book I’m reading also has a p which I haven’t added to the spreadsheet yet (the letter not the book). So that’s another one. It’s a long book and I’ve had a busy pre Christmas week but I’ll catch up with my reading this week. Can’t believe we’re in the last week of the wheel!

Those who've read any Stephanie Plum books will know Grandma Mazur. Stephanie refers to her all the time as Grandma. Does that count as G? P for Plum is probably more use anyway but wondered.
Btw Hot Six is hilarious.

They are terrific escapism books Elisabeth!
It is a title (we only use something like Grandma as a name if they are never referred to as having any other name). But as you say, P is generally more helpful :)

I just found another musician book called 'Stravinsky' about the Russian composer. It's a translation from French so can I use the translator's first name, Eric? The author name is an S so no use.

Elisabeth wrote: "I just found another musician book called 'Stravinsky' about the Russian composer. It's a translation from French so can I use the translator's first name, Eric? The author name is an S so no use."

Yes, if you are reading a translation you can use the translator first/last name 👍

My current book also has a P, partly why I chose it next with 2 p's in bagpipes. I'll finish it today/tomorrow

Any letters we need to prioritise at the moment? Trying to decide whether to go with the other book I listed on spreadsheet or swap it for another one

It doesn't look like we are lacking any particular letters at the moment, Vikki.

I'm about to start my last book, the autobio by Billie Holiday. Might squeeze in another but doubt it.

I've enjoyed the musician aspect this round. It's made me read a few of my student days books I never would have read cover to cover. eg Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Only ever used them as essay writing reference but now I enjoyed them because the orchestra I'm in are playing works by them.

Interestingly the Stravinsky one was written in about 1959 and the author was a conductor who knew him as he was still alive and working at the time. In the chronology at the end I'd written -- 1971, dies. That was in the first year of my music degree.

I've finished my last book. Don't think I can finish another one before the end.