Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Hi!
I am so sorry for posting so late! For some reason I did not find the thread till now...

My name is Sofie (she/her), and I am from the Netherlands. I am still a high school student. I will likely be less active (or more if procrastination hits its mark) in May because I have exams that I need to pass to enter the last two years of my school program.

Outside of school, I really like to read, and I will read anything that I can get my hands on (Kindle Unlimited is a lifesaver). I most frequently read fantasy but I am not all too picky. Also, every Sunday, I work at my local bookstore.

I really look forward to the Book Games and to getting to know all of you better over the next three months!

Welcome, Sofie and good luck on your exams

Thank you so much :)

Good luck with your exams Sofie!

Hello team! I'm so sorry about the lateness of my introduction, it's been very busy with real life things.

Anyway, I'm Sarah (she/her), I'm one of your co-captains and really excited to be here. I'm from NC, I work in retail but in operations/behind the scenes so yeah. I read a little bit of everything, thrillers, horror and mystery being my genres of choice but yeah, I'll read just about anything. I'm happy to help with anything that I can, so just ask away if you need to.

Again, I'm happy to be here with you all, and can't wait to get this party started!

My bookshelf: Bookshelf

Hi, Sarah! Happy you joined us 🙂

Hi! Sorry for the delay - I was out of town all weekend at my kiddo's college Parent Weekend, and then was working/out all day today. But I'm here!!

My name is Tricia (she/her), I'm 53yrs old and live in the suburbs of Seattle. Married for almost 30 years to my lovely husband, and have three kids (ages 18 to 24).

I had way too much time on my hands once my youngest went to college last fall (although the middle one is back and still giving me gray hairs) so I've recently started volunteering for my local library and just got a part time job at a local indie bookstore.

I played Tower Teams last summer with Judith and I think Lexi (right??) and absolutely loved it. My favorite genres are MM romance, regular romance, graphic novels, mainstream fiction, and paranormal/scifi/light fantasy, and some light gothic/horror/thrillers. I read a bit of nonfiction as well, and some literary fiction, but I prefer my books on the short and fast side. I typically have three books on the go - one audio, one in paper, and one on the kindle, so I can read in any scenario.

Nice to meet you all! :)

Yep! You are stuck with us again :) Though I'm not the mod who did team sorting this go round so it's a happy accident!

Alright team, we are still waiting on one person and hopefully they pop in soon.

But in the mean time I wanted to talk a bit about the game and what people should be looking for in books they are reading.

-Books used for Book Games cannot be started until the game begins.
-To get started things are fairly simple. Read a book and figure out which resource pile the book will go in.
-Page points will be earned for each book and allocated into the designated resource pile
-Every book you'd want to read can fit into at least one of the piles. At a minimum they can go into defense to help build a defensive wall made out of books

So for the first week or so, read what your heart desires. New things will be popping up throughout the challenge. This includes mini challenges. There will be one per month, I don't feel like that is revealing secrets as you can see tabulation cells for those on the main spreadsheet.

The mini challenges are task driven so for those of you who enjoy tasks, they will be coming :)

But us mods have some other things up our sleeves as well, so just keep an eye on the team thread so you stay aware of the goings on.

There are also BOM (Books of the Month) and a Hunger Games trilogy Buddy Read happening that can earn additional points.

Here is a tracking sheet for people to add their books too if they'd like.

I did add the 2 remaining May BOMs and the Hunger Games BR book the runs from May 15 until June 15 to the Round 1 spreadsheet for people to look at as examples.

With no mini challenges up and running yet, there's not really tasks to claim or anything like that yet.

I recognize some people are planners when it comes to reading while others are mood readers. So please feel free to log what you plan to read or just log once you've finished a book.

Also if you aren't comfortable with spreadsheets, just post your book info here in the thread and Lexi, Sarah or I will get it where it needs to go. Same goes if you are on travel and are having access issues (or just log when you get back as long as you aren't bumping up against a deadline).

There is a link to this in post 5 as well, but here is the tracking sheet for the team. More things will be added as new things get announced: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Please bring any and all questions to the thread :)

Do you want us to list all options when listing a book? Not sure how you want to handle that. I see a column for other options so I assume yes but wanted to check!

Sure, though don't overthink it for the resource piles. But you did just remind me I left the option column blank for the books I put on there. Bad captain! Oops :)

If there ends up being a real imbalance between the 4 piles we may shift around or note in the thread to try and place your next books in pile X and not as much in Y.

I was thinking more about various options for mini challenge tasks if we need to shift.

Sounds good, thank you!

In reading the game description it honestly seemed like any book could count towards any task. The instructions don't say that colors on the cover need to be a majority - just present. Is that right?

Also, what's the difference between the team spreadsheet and the tracking spreadsheet? I opened them both and they seem the same??

For the most part, yes you can likely justify most books into any of the resource piles. It's mainly a way to sort pages points into different groups that may or may not be important later.

There are a lot of things yet to be revealed. You know, like the fun surprises the tributes had to deal with to try and survive the Hunger Games. Sorry if that's not helpful, I'm trying not to spill secrets I only happen to know because I'm one of the mods.

And yes the cover color just needs to be present, not at least 50% like for most tasks.

I always base the tracking sheet off of the main spreadsheet because that makes it easier to transfer the information from one to the other. Only the captains have edit rights to the official spreadsheet. It also allows the captains to shift and sort things throughout the game as needed and not mess up the official sheet.

And add columns like "other options" to track other places a book might fit if captains do need to shift around. It's problematic with formulas if teams mess around with the placement, etc. on the official sheet. Especially if new stuff will be added later on in the game.

First things first, if you want to go vote in the polls for BOM for June, it closes May 8th at midnight: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/3...

I nominated for the Games theme BOM if you don't know what to vote for, as the team would be given the first day of questions if it won (points).

For the other BOM, I nominated and Judith nominated .

In both cases, feel free to vote for whatever book you would most like to read.

Next, feel free to nominate a book for the July BOM. Nominations are open until May 20th evening UK time.

The general Adult book thread is here.

The Theme is Time Flies When You're Having Fun and the thread is here.

Finally, there are two BOMs for the rest of May.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points.

Starting May 16th is The Malevolent Seven, and it is Judith's nomination so we are guaranteed a DQs set (See above for yay on more points). The thread for the discussion is here.

Starting May 25th is Salt & Broom. Please volunteer for DQs if you want, and the team can help if you are new to writing DQs. The more who enter from the team, the better odds we have of getting a set (as that is how probability works). The thread for the discussion is here.

Please ask any questions if anything is unclear.

Just want to verify something. If webread a BOM book we have to comment in the corresponding book thread in order to receive the "extra points"?

Krissy wrote: "Just want to verify something. If we read a BOM book we have to comment in the corresponding book thread in order to receive the "extra points"?"

Yes, the points are for the discussion. Also, the comments must be posted within a month of the start date. The book can be read ahead of time as long as the book is started after May 15th at the start time. Rereads, including BOMs, cannot have been within 6 months.

I forgot one. There is a new option.

Hunger Game Buddy Reads

Informal buddy reads will be held for the original trilogy of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. One informal buddy read for each month of the challenge.

Informal buddy reads means there will not be formal discussion questions as with our groups BOMs.

However, in order to earn the 20 points for participation, players need to post at least 3 posts that provide a reasonable contribution to the discussion of the book. You do not need to provide a school worthy book report, but the posts need to be more than "Katniss is awesome" or "I love this book" to count for participation points.

The Buddy Reads for each book will run as follows:
The Hunger Games: May 15th to June 15th - here
Catching Fire: June 15th to July 15th
Mockingjay: July 15th to August 15th

Sorry all, I got the date wrong for when the poll for June closes. It is tonight at midnight PST if you still want to vote here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/3...

I know it ends on the 15th, but are we able to read Project Hail Mary for extra points?

No, not for the BOM bonus points but if you decide to read it and answer questions you could earn a token. 3 tokens allows for an extra entry at a chance of being selected for DQs

I have Salt and Broom on my Kindle so I will sign up for the DQs! It would be my first time doing this but I think it could be fun.

It's been my super busy period at work and I haven't had time to read at all, but it's going to ease up basically right before this challenge starts and I'm so excited to be able to read! The light at the end of the tunnel....

July BOM are chosen and posting early, in case you need to go get in line at a library or find a random person to borrow the books from:

Oh yay, gives me the push I need to read Starling House

Stacie wrote: "Oh yay, gives me the push I need to read Starling House"

Same for me. I wasn't that fond of The Ten Thousand Doors of January but wanted to give the author a second try, especially as I grew up in KY.

I've read both of those books! Starling House wasn't a hit for me but many of my friends loved it.

Stacie wrote: "Oh yay, gives me the push I need to read Starling House"

Same for me too

Bummer I read both the July books, but I'll have to check the read date to see if I can do a reread. I loved them both!

I am super excited for Malevolent Seven, and Salt & Broom looks really cool.

Please welcome Kim
• Kim

Welcome to District 8 Kim!

Welcome Kim!

quick check in before work. intro to come but super excited to be on the team!!

Welcome!

Kim wrote: "quick check in before work. intro to come but super excited to be on the team!!"

Yay! Welcome. Game starts on Wednesday, so close!

To start things are pretty simple but things will be added and changing as we go.

Let us know if you have any questions once you have a chance to look things over and settle in :)

ok lunch time means i can play on GR haha. I'm Kim from South Carolina, USA. i enjoy a lot of different kinds of books and like to change it up.

i haven't done this challenge before but the overall categorizing of books seem straight forward enough. i'm excited to see what twists will be thrown our way. my shelf is NBR book games 2024.

my 2 questions are:
1. do we add our own books into the spreadsheet? or do captains take care of that?

2. other challenges i've done have used a review thread to show completed books; what is the process here?

thanks in advance!!!

I'm going to sort of answer your 2 questions with one response.

I don't use review threads (we used to) but in general just use the Tracking Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Though I know there are a few captains that don't use tracking sheets because they don't like them. I'm an economist and live in spreadsheets so I swear by them. LOL :)

If you are comfortable using spreadsheets, you can just log all your books on there. Captains will keep an eye on the read dates and check/move them over to the official Team Sheet.

If you aren't comfortable using spreadsheets, you can post the relevant information in the thread and one of the captains will get it where it needs to go. Same goes if you are out and about in the world and have spreadsheet access issues.

You can enter books you are planning to read and just add read dates when you've finished or just add books to the spreadsheet as you finish them. Whatever works best for your reading style is fine.

Though if you are reading for a specific task (when mini challenges, etc pop up) I would recommend getting that on the spreadsheet to 'claim' the task. It helps avoid multiple people reading unknowingly for the same task.

I love a spreadsheet so this works for me!

General reminder to everyone that books started before the challenge cannot be used for points or Books of the Month or anything. We are under 24 hours until start and please feel free to ask any questions.

Lexi wrote: "July BOM are chosen and posting early, in case you need to go get in line at a library or find a random person to borrow the books from:
[bookcover:Starling Hou..."

I've read The Wishing Game recently. I absolutely hated it so I'm curious to see what everyone else thinks

How do you know how many BOM tokens you have? I think I've participated in 4 books but I'm not sure if I answered enough questions for a token or not.

Mary wrote: "How do you know how many BOM tokens you have? I think I've participated in 4 books but I'm not sure if I answered enough questions for a token or not."

You would have three that I could tell but you need to make a completion post so the mods know you have answered the questions. You have none right now; three equals one extra entry so that is not a lot lost.

For everyone, Judith put everyone's token's on the summary sheet on the tracking spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Jenny was nice enough to make a post recently on making completion posts so copied that below the spoiler for anyone who needs the help:
(view spoiler)[ Basically, you right click (windows) or control click (Mac) on the right side of the message bar that gives the date or time of the message, and then click on copy link, and then paste that all in a new message, like this-

Click on the May 07, 2024 03:05PM part of the shaded bar, and then copy that link here like this-

Angie's tracking posts-
Day 2
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If you have to go between pages on the thread to find your messages, remember to copy what you have written out and paste that to a new message window in the new page, or you might lose it and then you will say bad words and have to start over.
(hide spoiler)]

Lexi wrote: "Mary wrote: "How do you know how many BOM tokens you have? I think I've participated in 4 books but I'm not sure if I answered enough questions for a token or not."

You would have three that I cou..."

Thank you!

Does anyone else have a feeling this catch-all defense wall of books is going to come into play at some point during this challenge?

It's such an odd thing to throw in. It's either giving us a bucket to put books in if we can't make them fit a category or it's going to be important later. What do you all think?

where's the countdown?