Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

The struggle for survival in the arena is a never ending cycle. Sometimes a tribute will luck into a boon but they are just as likely to be a victim of sabotage.

The Randomizer was let loose on all of the teams' resource supply piles. The Arena Masters are not heartless, the news isn't all bad. At least this time.

In Round 1, 1 pile receives a boon (15% page point increase), 2 are left alone, and 1 is the subject of sabotage (15% page point decrease). Impacts to resource supply piles are team specific.

Your team's randomizer results

Weapons: 15% increase (protected by supply drop so is left alone)
Shelter: 15% decrease
Food: Left alone
Defense: Left alone (protected by supply drop so is left alone)

Moderators of NBRC wrote: "
The struggle for survival in the arena is a never ending cycle. Sometimes a tribute will luck into a boon but they are just as likely to be a victim of sabotage.

The R..."

Well ouch! That was unlucky.

I stole this from another thread, so I can't swear to its complete accuracy:

💥The Capital - 15% decrease in defense
🏹District 1 - no change in supplies
💥District 2 - 15% decrease in shelter
🏹District 3 - no change in supplies
💥District 4 - 15% decrease to food
📚District 5 - 15% increase in shelter
🏹District 6 - no change in supplies
💥District 7 - 15% decrease to food
🏹District 8 - no change in supplies
💥District 9 - 15% decrease to shelter
🏹District 10 - no change in supplies
🏹District 11 - 15% decrease in weapons and 15% increase in food
📚District 12 - 15% increase in food
💥District 13 - 15% decrease to shelter


We'll just have to read more to make up for it. :)

And thank you, Karolyn, for getting all that done last night!

Popping in from the Capitol to let you know that we will be firing back against Indie and the Brother's Best Friend with Ender’s Game.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

I've got one - An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew.

Discounting the subtitle, that gives The Capitol ESS - so, The Essex Serpent, a multitude of books beginning with Essential/The Essential, and Essay(s).

Does anyone else have one?

I was looking at American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI, it’s been on my TBR forever. But “ESS” is better than “OCK” I think.

Other ideas? Go with Tru’s?

Both books would be hard to find other books for.. ( i just tried looking up words for the endings)

I will look for some options when I get home.

A Memory of Love: A Novel (one of my favorite authors)

A Memory of Violets on Hoopla & Everand

A Memory to Cherish

A Memory That Once Was

A Memory So Sweet

A Memory of Solferino

A Memory for Wonders: A True Story

I wouldn't mind reading the first one but I gave options in case someone else wanted to jump in.

At least 3 of the books I’ll finish while camping can be shelter for round 2!

Hey all! We found one person whose book # total wasn’t calculating correctly in the Summary tab of the official spreadsheet because of a formula error.

If anyone else sees a formula issue, please let us know here in the thread 😁

I did not find any on my tbr but I did come across some I already read. An American Marriage
American Wife
American Dirt
The American Roommate Experiment

Angela - would you be good taking An American Marriage? AGE is a good set of letters and you haven’t picked one up for the battle yet.

And don’t forget not to start any battle books till Week 2. We’ll get a countdown timer to when we can start battle books at some point this week.

I actually already read all the ones I listed. Just wanted to throw them out there in case someone else might be looking for options.

Ha!!!! Ok!

If nobody speaks up on the next little bit let’s go with Tru doing The American Princess. Tru hasn’t gotten one yet either and ESS is good - works for Essex, essay, essential…

Anyone having issues with the dropdown menu for Resource Type? I just added books I'm reading for Round 2, but can't seem to update that.

Jhmingos wrote: "Anyone having issues with the dropdown menu for Resource Type? I just added books I'm reading for Round 2, but can't seem to update that."

I did earlier so i just put down my reason and will deal with the drop menu later

Jhmingos wrote: "Anyone having issues with the dropdown menu for Resource Type? I just added books I'm reading for Round 2, but can't seem to update that."

Thanks for letting us know! It should be fixed now 😁

I’m going to send Tru’s book over for the battle. Can’t wait to see what’s next!!

So I snooped a bit, and it looks as though The Capitol is having trouble with ESS - I wa so sure someone would read The Essex Serpent!

I've been planning to reread A Memory Called Empire, but I thought that IRE would be tougher than ESS.
ETA: Lots of I Remember... books, not many Ire, unless about Ireland.

Should we offer it to them?

Ugh - and absolutely worst case, I could read America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. It's on my TBR and I'm sure it's good, but it doesn't strike me as a book to be knocked out in a week.

Hey there District 2! The Capitol is going to be reading The Essence of Malice for the 4th shot of our Battle.

FYI, on the spreadsheet the Letters Overlap column, which draws from the Mini Reason column of the Round tab, is suppose to be the number of letters that overlap, not the letters themselves.

I think I'm totally wrong about that!

Laura wrote: "FYI, on the spreadsheet the Letters Overlap column, which draws from the Mini Reason column of the Round tab, is suppose to be the number of letters that overlap, not the letters themselves.

I th..."

I was playing with it yesterday and could only get the formula to work if I listed the letters. Still not sure f it’s correct, though 😂😂😂

Alrighty!!! We have Essence of Malice.

I could do one of these (my library has them). And can’t wait to see what y’all come up with.
The Ice Swan
Ice (short but would be either funny or evil to give them back the same word)

Ice cold hearts by sofia t summers

Karolyn wrote: "Alrighty!!! We have Essence of Malice.

I could do one of these (my library has them). And can’t wait to see what y’all come up with.
The Ice Swan
Ice (short but wo..."

Sending them back ICE would be funny. Actually, for a while they were considering sending us one that ended in DLe (I was snooping.) I actually found one book: DLE. It's over 1000 pages and looks to be absoultely teriible, but I was willing to plow through it just to send the same letters back to them.

I swear, I don't usually have a mean streak....

Dale wrote: "Ice cold hearts by sofia t summers"

I'm not sure RTS would endear us to them....

Hmmmm.... I don't have many with decent ending letters.

Ice Vs. Paper: M/M Gay Contemporary Sports Romance and Ice Dragon are the two best I could find - PER and GON.

I tried to read Ice Planet Barbarians onbe, too try to learn what all the fuss was about. Yeah, that didn't go well....

Truitt_T wrote: "Hmmmm.... I don't have many with decent ending letters.

Ice Vs. Paper: M/M Gay Contemporary Sports Romance and Ice Dragon are the two best I could find - PER and GO..."

Per would be easy i think nd its m/m🥵

Dale wrote: "Truitt_T wrote: "Hmmmm.... I don't have many with decent ending letters.

Ice Vs. Paper: M/M Gay Contemporary Sports Romance and Ice Dragon are the two best I could ..."

Ha - both are mm and would be quick and easy. I have a few long books lined up, so I want some ringers in there. :)

Plus, as we get further into this Battle, there may be some books we're not going to be thrilled about reading - also a good reason to have some easy ones.

Laura - or anyone else from The Capitol who might be lurking about - so you have any preference so far?

Truitt_T wrote: "Actually, for a while they were considering sending us one that ended in DLe (I was snooping.)"

To be clear, I got in the zone of searching ESS books and just posted everything I found to my team thread. Someone said, "I can read The Essence of Nathan Biddle," and I said, "Great. We've got that one sorted." Then it was pointed out that it ended in DLE and I realized we don't want to do that to you! Not after one team was stuck with RGE!

Truitt_T wrote: "Laura - or anyone else from The Capitol who might be lurking about - so you have any preference so far?"

I don't have a preference, I don't think. I wouldn't mind you sending back ICE, I think MAN would be easy, and while I haven't searched for PER yet, it's probably pretty common.

We're all too nice and those final 5 points are totally going to come down to the coin toss, aren't they? :)

Well… we went first this round and you go first next round. So if we both finish all all books we’ll both end up better off. I do think cooperation is the best plan for this particular battle (coming from the super competitive person 😂)

I’ve got Ice downloaded, so will pop over with that as our pick.

Laura wrote: "Truitt_T wrote: "Actually, for a while they were considering sending us one that ended in DLe (I was snooping.)"

To be clear, I got in the zone of searching ESS books and just posted everything I ..."

Laura - I didn't think you'd actually do that to us, but I wanted to be prepared!

I agree with Karolyn - I think it's best for both our teams to play nice and max out the 50 points for the 10 books.

The Capital is thinking about also reading “Ice”. We could just read it… over and over… for the rest of the battle 😂😂😂

Karolyn wrote: "The Capital is thinking about also reading “Ice”. We could just read it… over and over… for the rest of the battle 😂😂😂"

Snort.

On a different topic, has anyone else gotten sucked into the Audible sale?

The Capitol here looking for your preferences. Our options:

Ice Like Fire
Icebound Rivals
Ice Me Out
Ice Wolves
The Ice Palace
Icebreaker
The Ice Princess - not linked because we have a couple with this title

Your top 3, please.

Alright… see anything you’d like District 2?

If they choose Ice Me Out, I can read Out of the Clear Blue Sky by Kristan Higgins.

Karolyn wrote: "Alright… see anything you’d like District 2?"

Hmmmmm.....

IRE:
There are lots of I Remember books I'm not particularly interested in reading.

ALS:
Not much.....

OUT:
The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod - USE
Outrageous Fortune - UNE
Out of Control - ROL
Out of Nowhere - ERE

VES:
Vespertine - INE

ACE:
Aced - CED
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex - ACE

KER:
nothing

ETA

ESS:
The Essex Serpent - ENT

If no one else chimes in… let’s offer OUT (and use Angela’s), ACE, or ESS.

Whoops - I forgot ESS!

I can finally read The Essex Serpent.

So, I agree that OUT, ACE, and ESS are the endings for which we have the best options.

I’ll share them now and let’s see what we get.

I feel like we should use OUT

Dale wrote: "I feel like we should use OUT"

Karolyn gave them the three choices, so they could decide - it's part of the being nice agenda!

We've got it covered, whatever they chose.

Some teams are being really mean....

Truitt_T wrote: "Dale wrote: "I feel like we should use OUT"

Karolyn gave them the three choices, so they could decide - it's part of the being nice agenda!

We've got it covered, whatever they chose.

Some teams..."
How?

Dale wrote: "Truitt_T wrote: "Dale wrote: "I feel like we should use OUT"

Karolyn gave them the three choices, so they could decide - it's part of the being nice agenda!

We've got it covered, whatever they ch..."

In the Battle that District 4 is in, the other team sent a book title that ended with GEORGE. They ended up having to use the whole word. I'm sure there's other examples, too. But the win is only 5 points, so I would rather make sure we all can read books we (mostly) want to read!

Dale wrote: "Truitt_T wrote: "Dale wrote: "I feel like we should use OUT"

Karolyn gave them the three choices, so they could decide - it's part of the being nice agenda!

We've got it covered, whatever they ch..."

Teams ended up with ERE and LUB, and there really aren't many words that start with those two. Erection and lube jokes ensued....