Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Camilla wrote: "Good morning team, happy Monday!

A quick question: I listen to audiobooks on increased speed (as I think many do).
When we record hours listened to in audiobooks, should I then record the hours ..."

Yes, I do the same and asked this question in a previous readathon, you should record actual length, in this case 12 hours

Morning, Team Bacchus! Hope everyone has a slow and calm day, esp if you had a late night! I myself had a bout of insomnia so not much sleep was had here but sadly enough I'm used to it. On the upside, I got in a lot of reading/listening time. Good thing this readathon goes from when we wake up to when we go to sleep each day. Insomnia will be my friend! lol

Speaking on listening time - Camilla, great question. I believe it was posed on a readathon last year. We go by the actual audiobook time. Fortunately for me, bc I doubt I'd be able to keep track of my actual listening time, as I also fluctuate my listening speed. I listen whenever I can and wouldn't know how long it took me!

And thanks to whoever cleaned up the color coding on the spreadsheet. It was bothering me, but I was too tired to fiddle with it last night.

Today, I'll be reading The Flatshare and listening to Unnecessary Drama. Happy reading, everyone!

Thank you all for clarifying! I will record my recent hours then :)

JennH wrote: "Morning, Team Bacchus! Hope everyone has a slow and calm day, esp if you had a late night! I myself had a bout of insomnia so not much sleep was had here but sadly enough I'm used to it. On the ups..."

I'm finally into House of Flame and Shadow so have a feeling I'll be up to the wee hours reading tonight too :D

I was trying to leave the spreadsheet alone but ended up fussing with it because the totals weren't lining up across the tabs. I kept getting confused about which book was tagged for which prompt so changed it. Hopefully what I did makes sense

Hard party of my workday is done, so hoping to finish off the last couple audio hours now while I do some mundane tasks.

I just finished my book Det blå mellan himmel och hav (The Blue Between Sky and Water) and I moved it to the completed spreadsheet but I have not filled it into any of the specific colour tabs. I think it is only black on the cover left for this one.

Now I actually went over the spreadsheet again and added some more options for the above book that I realized fitted after I had read it.

Managed to fit in quite some reading today eventhough I have done some cooking as well. Cooking a few meals to freeze in for our skiing holiday in a few weeks.

Anna wrote: "Now I actually went over the spreadsheet again and added some more options for the above book that I realized fitted after I had read it.

Managed to fit in quite some reading today eventhough I h..."

That's a great tip - to remember to double check prompts after you finish reading! I just found a couple more for my book as well.

Reading, cooking and getting organized .. that sounds like the perfect day!!!

I finished 2 books yesterday which was great for me. Today I have to go into the office so I won't get much chance to read til I get home.

I just finished Once Upon a Leap Year: A heart-warming friends-to-lovers romance full of love, second chances, and hope by Anna Bell. I put it under a love story for now.

Awesome Kat & Ira!

I tried to read a bunch last night, but kept nodding off. Up too late the night before for superbowl!

Hoping to get a bunch more reading done after work, then I'll jump to shorter 'readathon' books based on which prompts need filling.

Spreadsheet it looking good!! Way to go, team!

Sheena wrote: "JennH wrote: "Morning, Team Bacchus! Hope everyone has a slow and calm day, esp if you had a late night! I myself had a bout of insomnia so not much sleep was had here but sadly enough I'm used to ..."

I was having trouble with that, too. Thanks for changing it. What I did want to do, which I did just now was flip the across the spreadsheet color coding to the Plans tab. I'm hoping that will give a better picture of which prompts still need fulfilling. And to change colors to indicate when/if we go another round. If it's too confusing, we can change it back.

And I saw your additions to the spreadsheet. I love it! I often count the books and thanks to you, now I don't have to!

Day 4 of the Readathon and we are looking good! 20 books in and already 6 pendants and counting! You all rock!

It's a snow day here. Which means hot cocoa day! But I also have a couple of sick kids, so I'll be busy making comfort foods and soups.

I'm listening to The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking in hopes to glean some wisdom from the Danish. It's a short book, so I'm already halfway. Though I keep stopping to share facts with the kids. lol I also started reading Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore but I'm not really feeling it at the moment. I think I might start my next book, Front Desk by Kelly Yang instead before going back to it.

Happy reading, team!

OMG it's taking me ages to finish Jumpnauts, I'm starting to think they got the page count wrong. Hoping to finish it tonight, then I can move onto What Feasts at Night.

JennH wrote: "Sheena wrote: "JennH wrote: "Morning, Team Bacchus! Hope everyone has a slow and calm day, esp if you had a late night! I myself had a bout of insomnia so not much sleep was had here but sadly enou..."

Nice! Much clearer to see on plans, I like it! I've been copying & pasting the B column formatting only from [Completed] tab over to the [Plans] tab every once in a while but the visual is much better stretched across

I kept losing track of the counting when people interrupted me, and having to start over thus the auto sum, lol

I'm about half way through The Only Survivors audio. I couldn't decide if the cover has a purple sky or blue, so used TinEye to pull the colours. It's so hard to tell on screens sometimes what the true colour is!! TinEye says 34.6 % violet, so unless anyone objects I'm going to list purple as an option.

Set in the Southern US .. going to pop this here since I just had to look it up. My book can count if needed (set in Tennessee) since we don't have many options

As defined by the U.S. federal government, it includes:
Alabama
Arkansas
Delaware
the District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia

Hi everyone!
Today has been super hectic with work, so I haven't had a chance to read much unfortunately.
But I'll finish a book today that can also be used for a few of the prompts we don't have a lot for.
I'm just adding my books to the complete tab and will let the captains decide where to use it if that's OK 😊

JennH, if you need any additional tips, I'm Danish! 😉

Also, happy Mardi Gras! I just ate way too many pancakes!

Finally finished Jumpnauts! I put it under family drama.

Amazing job, Team Bacchus! We are just one prompt shy of getting a purple, a green, a silver, and a black bead! I put my latest finished book, Wrapped Up in You, into a round two bc there weren't any first round prompts that it fit.

@Ellie - Glad you were finally able to finish Jumpnauts! Was it good? I love the cover!

@Sheena - I love using TinEye. Such a helpful site! Esp with those tricky covers.
re: Southern US - I'm glad you found the government definition but I'd be hard pressed to consider Delaware as a Southern state. Maryland is even iffy to me. lol That said, I have a few easy reads set in south - I even deliberately borrowed one set in New Orleans!

@Camilla - I've slotted your book for ' someone wearing jewelry' since there weren't any other books options. I've always been fascinated by how Denmark is known as one of the happiest countries. If you have any tips, I'm all ears!

So I've definitely put Oona Out of Order aside. I'm going to see if I can make a decent dent in Front Desk tonight.

❤️ Happy Valentines Day ❤️

Spreadsheet looks great and we're flying along. I should be able to finish Survivors today and then will look for something to fill one of our missing prompts.

JennH wrote: "@Ellie - Glad you were finally able to finish Jumpnauts! Was it good? I love the cover!..."

It was pretty disappointing, started off great: Terracotta Army couldn't possibly be made at the time therefore aliens! Let's go find them. But it got really weighed down with infodumping and a lot of Chinese philosophy. I wanted dragons space!

Ellie wrote: "JennH wrote: "@Ellie - Glad you were finally able to finish Jumpnauts! Was it good? I love the cover!..."

It was pretty disappointing, started off great: Terracotta Army couldn't possibly be made ..."

That sounds like it had such good potential!!!

Happy ❤️ Day! We're at the halfway mark and Krewe of Bacchus has done a brilliant job! I pushed through reading Front Desk last night to fill a prompt only to find that it was already fulfilled. What a great problem to have!

@Ellie - Aw, that's bad. Dragons in space would have been cool!

I'll be reading Postcards from the Dead which is set in New Orleans and during Mardi Gras! Krewes are mentioned a lot. lol I thought it'd be a perfect book to read for this readathon! I'm also listening to Besieged which is a novella, and therefore short. And fits the 18th century prompt. And I'm back to listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and hope to finish it by the end of the readathon, as it's our only option so far for the dance/ball prompt.

Happy ❤️Reading❤️, everyone!

Hi everyone and happy Valentines day!

I just finished A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir which is amazing, but a very tough read about her mother's death, and could be used for several of the prompts we don't have a lot for.

I've made a selection of quite short books that can fit some of the prompt we don't have a lot of books for. Like you, Jenn, I am seem to read something for a prompt only to find that someone else has done it too, but I figure that for the trickier ones, the more we have the better, since those will likely be the deciding factor on how many beads we get in the end :)

Woohoo! We've earned our first beads! We have a green bead and a gold bead! Go Team Bacchus!

Happy Valentines day!

I soon off to bed and hope to finish the book I am reading (Vårjakt i Rosengädda) before I go to sleep. Then I will be able to start a new book tomorrow,
Being the first readathon I am part of I am amazed by the number of pages/books we have achieved so far.


Tomorrow I will go back to work as well, have been on sick leave for a bit more than 2,5 weeks due to a back surgery. So guessing I will be tired tomorrow evening.

I've fiddled a bit with the spreadsheet. I switched two of my books, so that we could fulfill the instrument prompt - that was a tough one. I've designated Camilla's book for the France prompt and added Joi's book to the Completed tab.

We have 32 books read! And are in the possession of three beads: Gold, Green and Silver.

If anyone is curious on where we stand with the other beads, the prompts that remain to finish them are:
Purple
A book in which a character gets justice - 3 options

Pink
A book with pink on the cover - 3 options
A book that includes a dance or ball - 1 option

Black
A book that has a food item on the cover - 1 option

Blue
A book with a body of water on cover - 3 options

Anna wrote: "Happy Valentines day!

I soon off to bed and hope to finish the book I am reading (Vårjakt i Rosengädda) before I go to sleep. Then I will be able to start a new book tomorrow,
Bei..."

I hope you're well rested and had a smooth recovery! Good luck on your first day back at work!

I have three hours left of Womb City which I'm listening to at 2x speed now as the narrator is so slow... So I might get that finished today for justice.

Unless What Feasts at Night has a surprise dance in the second half, I'll have to use that for a second bead, if we are aiming for any. They all seem to have at least one tricky prompt this time!

My pink cover book is Check & Mate so should be quick but it will probably be a weekend thing at this rate.

Good morning everyone and happy Thursday!

I saw the missing dance/ball prompt this morning and decided to re-read one of my favourite books In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce which is such a quick read, and I know it has a ball!
I am travelling for work, so had 2 hours on the train, so just finished it :)

I can't add it to the spreadsheet from my work computer because of restrictions, but I wanted to let everyone know that that one is taken care of for now.

Finally, I just wanted to ask like Ellie whether we are planning to go for more beads of each colour? I see that a few of them would be possible with some "tailored" reading, so am glad to do so.
I will try and read a few more books with some of the more tricky ones, so we have a chance - but please do tell me if there are any particular prompts (other than the ones already listed) that are needed - I am sure I can find something, especially on the weekend to read so we can complete a few more beads!

A bit of a low reading day for me yesterday since we went out for Valentines dinner, but hoping to finish my looonnng (but great !) book tonight and then jump into some more typical shorter readathon picks.

I say YES, to more beads. I like to see how many we can get so anyone who's in let's keep tracking and try for round 2

Camilla wrote: "Good morning everyone and happy Thursday!

I saw the missing dance/ball prompt this morning and decided to re-read one of my favourite books In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce..."

Way to go Camilla!! I added to the spreadsheet so it would be marked off. Please edit/add more details as needed.

Anna wrote: "Happy Valentines day!

I soon off to bed and hope to finish the book I am reading (Vårjakt i Rosengädda) before I go to sleep. Then I will be able to start a new book tomorrow,
Bei..."

Wishing you a wonderful first day back and a relaxing evening !!

A big YES to another round of beads! Including today, we have 4 days left of the readathon. It'll be fun to see how many more books/beads we can add to our collection!

@Ellie - Whoa, the narrator must have been very slow for you to listen at 2x. I really don't get why they read so slowly. I remember listening to a memoir of someone well known and they were speaking sooo slowly and I knew their regular speaking voice wasn't like at all.

@Camilla - Awesome! That dance/ball prompt was a hard one. The prompts I listed were for round one. Round 2 is mostly all open, we can really read anything. I suppose we can shoot for the easier bead/prompts, but that's really subjective as we might all consider different things easier to read.

@Sheena - Hope you had a nice night out! Is it the Sarah J Maas book? I've read A Court of Thorns and Roses series (one book to go) and Throne and Glass series (2 books in). Have yet to try Crescent City.

Happy reading today!

Evening all,

first day back at work and now I am very tired in my back.

I finished Vårjakt i Rosengädda and I put that for the prompt A book with pink on the cover.

I will now lay down on the couch and start on Sommar på den lilla ön i havet (The Summer Seaside Kitchen) which on the Swedish edition has a body of water on the cover.

JennH wrote: "@Ellie - Whoa, the narrator must have been very slow for you to listen at 2x. I really don't get why they read so slowly..."

I usually listen at 1.5x and then adjust if it needs it. Rarely 1x speed though, my brain zones out! I've found the Beth O'Leary books to be more normal talking speed, but they hired TV/film actors so I guess it's a voice actor thing.

How is it Friday already? I finally finished my fourth book Slow Horses which I've slotted in for round 2. I should finish another book tonight as I have to give it back tomorrow so need to power through the last 50 pages. My weekend is looking quite busy so I might switch my planned reading to something quicker and easier to read.

I finished Womb City and we now have our purple bead!

@Jenn, yes book three of Crescent. It's her first adult series so it's all a bit more. I think most people love ACOTAR best, but I think my fav (and I just reread every single book) is still TOG.

@Ann hope your feeling rested today :D

@Ellie I'm usually a 1.25-1.5 speed but just listened to Anything's Possible (Amgash #2) and it was a 2x as well. Listening at 1x was making me nuts. Honestly, I would have tried 2.25 if it was a thing. Sooooo slowwwww

@Kat with you!! This week has flown by. I can't believe it's Friday already!!

Ellie wrote: "I finished Womb City and we now have our purple bead!"

Yay!! One more bead for round one. And it sounds like Anna's got the final prompt (body of water) covered. And we have lots of pendants.

Ellie wrote: "I finished Womb City and we now have our purple bead!"

Amazing! Great job everyone!

Looks like we are just missing one prompt to have one bead of every colour and then I am sure we can get a few more over the weekend :)

I am also reading a book with water on the cover and also good for other prompts, so we will surely get there!

Good Morning, everyone! Can't believe it's Friday either!

@Anna - I hope it's a short work for you and you get to rest over the weekend! And with your book we'll have completed Round 1!

@Ellie - Same here. I never start off original speed and adjust accordingly. I think I've only ever listened to Lin Manuel Miranda and regular speed bc he's speaks so quickly! And yay on getting us the purple bead!

@Kat - I basically only plan for quick and easy reads during readathons. lol

@Sheena - Thanks for the heads up on Crescent City being adult. I've listened to her other books and those I already cannot play parts aloud.

@Camilla - Great, either you or Anna will finish round 1 and make a good dent into round 2.

I'm finishing off Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes and have started Pink Lemonade Cake Murder which is an easy read. I've been tired of the Hannah Swensen series but I know I can get through it quickly.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Sheena wrote: "@Jenn, yes book three of Crescent. It's her first adult series so it's all a bit more. I think most people love ACOTAR best, but I think my fav (and I just reread every single book) is still TOG.
..."

Oh, it's a thing! Hoopla goes up to 4x! Can you believe it?? I could never! The kids already make fun of what they call the chipmunk sounds when I listen to sped up audiobooks. lol

Good morning team, and happy Saturday!

I just finished my book Skygge-Baldur by Sjon that has a body of water on the cover, so I think we have our final bead!



I've added it to the Blue tab as well as a pendant.

I'll start my next book a bit later, I am sure we can manage to get a few more beads together over the weekend :)

Woohoo well done on finishing one of each bead!

I finished What Feasts at Night last night. It's still on the plans tab since I'm on my phone and the option to delete a column seems to have vanished this morning.

I'll pick my next read after I've walked the dog.

Ellie wrote: "Woohoo well done on finishing one of each bead!

I finished What Feasts at Night last night. It's still on the plans tab since I'm on my phone and the option to delete a column see..."

Uh, I'm really keen to read What Feasts at Night - did you enjoy it? I have loved many of Kingfisher's other books

Camilla wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Uh, I'm really keen to read What Feasts at Night - did you enjoy it? I have loved many of Kingfisher's other books..."

Yes! Although I already have a thing about moths (when I was a kid, someone managed to convince me they nested in your hair) so it was extra creepy!

I finished a book last night and another this morning which both work for round 2 prompts. I have started a short paperback and might try to fit an ebook in as well.

I'm going ahead and starting reading Check & Mate which works for title starts with a letter in black for the second black bead which has several prompts ticked off already. Or it has a pink cover for the pink bead if we try for that.

happy Saturday:)
Im checking in from phone but will get my laptop on for my spreadsheet updates soon. being lazy so far this morning, drinking coffee, reading and watching the snow fall