Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Thank you!!

Stacie wrote: "I'll be on vacation from Sunday to Thursday with just my phone so maybe not a lot of updating between now and then."

Enjoy your trip!

I'll be back with official links when they are up, but the 2 BOMs for July have been chosen. They are The Familiar and The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.

There is still time to volunteer for the DQs for The Wishing Game HERE if you would like.

Also, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is starting in the Backroom Group on June 10th, and I gave it five stars. It does have explicit parts (hence backroom and 18+) but also has a fun plot and smugglers.

Is there a deadline for reading & joining discussion for Starling House?

In order to earn the extra points, you’d need to have it read and 3 sets of DQs answered by July 16th.

If you have it down for a mini task and you don’t think you’ll finish by June 15, just remove the mini task code so people know the spot is available.

FYI - Vikki, Lexi is reading Starling House and it doesn’t have a spot on the mini right now. If you are pinched for time we can just swap you two, no worries

Thanks Judith - I just wanted to check incase it was any earlier than 15th June. I'll definitely have it read by then.

I updated the sheet when I completed Pines but it doesn't look like it updated the mini task for being set in Idaho.

I fixed it, somehow the formula got deleted on the mini tab.

Thanks for catching that!

I love our team! I checked the tracking sheet and saw all the mini tasks are claimed.

Hats off to everyone for finding books to fit everything. And a special shout out to Krissy for finding 3 books taking place on Crete. That task is a struggle for most of the teams.

Happy reading everyone and go team 😄

Judith wrote: "In order to earn the extra points, you’d need to have it read and 3 sets of DQs answered by July 16th.

If you have it down for a mini task and you don’t think you’ll finish by June 15, just remove..."

Is it a 30 day deadline after the discussion starts? I was thinking of doing Malevolent Seven and/or Salt & Broom if it will get us extra points. I already have copies of both.

Logan, yes each BOM has a 30 day deadline for when the book needs to be read from when the discussion starts. These dates are on the BOM sheet on the planning spreadsheet.

The Malevolent Seven must be read and have questions answered by 16 June.
Salt & Broom must be read and have questions answered by 25 June.

Sofie, when you have time can you remember to answer one more day of DQs for Salt & Broom so you get your points. It is due by 25 June.

Thank you for reminding me! I was hoping to get to that today!

It looks like a spot for “takes place in Idaho” opened up on the spreadsheet. So if anyone is looking for a book this week and has one that works there, it’s up for grabs

I'll snag it. I'll update the spreadsheet as soon as I get home from work.

hopefully will finish my Crete book by tomorrow.

I think the set in Idaho task was mine that got deleted. Not sure how or why. I’m about 1/3 through one called Idaho already. It’s really not that good and am fine working through it more slowly for regular points.

If Sarah wants to take the task I can start my last task book I have on the list. Just let me know.

I’ll let you and Sarah work that out.

I deleted it because it just had the word Idaho in the cell that had over written the formula. I thought it was a mistake, sorry!

There isn’t a need to enter things directly on the mini tab, you can enter everything on the Round 1 tab and it auto populates the mini tab with the formulas.

Sorry Judith! That was probably my fault 🤦‍♀️

It can get confusing and you weren’t the only one. It’s all been set to rights so no worries

I removed a Heracles book as it was a DNF for me and I don't seem to have another one with me at the beach.

I already finished a book that would fit that Heracles task if you guys want to update my book Best Beast.

Mary wrote: "I think the set in Idaho task was mine that got deleted. Not sure how or why. I’m about 1/3 through one called Idaho already. It’s really not that good and am fine working through it more slowly fo..."

I'm honestly good with whatever you'd like to do! I'm only about 27% into the audiobook for mine personally, but I will probably be done with it either later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Krissy wrote: "I already finished a book that would fit that Heracles task if you guys want to update my book Best Beast."

Done! Thanks Krissy

I was going to look through books read but not on the mini this morning hoping to find one that fit and you beat me to it :)

This does remind me though, if anyone thinks they may not finish a book on the mini before the June 15th deadline, please let us know and we can find a replacement.

Books not on the mini that aren't finished will simply be rolled over to Round 2.

Thank you and happy reading!

I'm hoping to finish Starling House tonight. May squeeze another in before deadline but Starling House is the only 1 of mine remaining for the mini challenge

And the next thing has dropped! It's a bit of a dozy and it's a lot to unpack, but don't worry! Lexi, Sarah and I will help everyone get it figured out :)

In order to succeed in the Arena you will need to battle with your competing District Tributes.

You have been matched with an opposition and will fight them twice (once in round 2 and once in round 3), switching who strikes first.

The fight will consist of parrying book titles back and forth, by matching the end of your opposing team's title with the start of your own. You can use or ignore articles at the start of the title. There must be an overlap of at least three letters.

Planning
To start the fight each pair will be spun a title by the Arena Masters. The first team must find a book with a title that overlaps by at least three letters, and declare their planned strike to their opposition team, who must then plan their riposte. Each team will plan out a maximum of 10 strikes each this way.
Books can be read in any language, but titles must be in English.

Note: planning must be completed within the first week, and you must NOT start reading any book until the second, fight, week.

Fighting
Once the fight phase starts each team simply reads their planned books!
There's no requirement to read them in the correct order, but if at the end of the week you have missed a planned strike then you will lose the battle, regardless of how many of the rest of the books you complete.

Supply Drops
Supply drops from your partner team can be used to provide ONE extension letter to help you make an overlap.
You can use either the first or last letter of your supply drop title to make the overlap work.
Supply drop books can be read during either of the two weeks, and may be started at any point during the challenge.

Points and Winning
Each team gets 5 bonus points for each completed strike
The winning team in each pair will get a further 5 bonus points
The winning team will be either:
- the team to make the last completed strike, if not all 20 books (across both teams) are read; or
- the team with the smallest number of overlap letters in their strikes, if all 20 books are read; or
- if there is a tie for number of overlap letters, a coin toss will be made by a neutral mod to decide the winner.

Example
Team A will strike first.
Their randomly assigned book title is Orphan Black.

Team A Strike 1: Blackwater (BLACK overlap, 5 letters)
Team B Strike 1: Terms and Conditions (TER overlap, 3 letters)
Team A Strike 2: Onset of Danger (ONS overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 2: Anger (ANGER overlap, 5 letters)
Team A Strike 3: Gerald's Game (GER overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 3: Me Before You PLUS a supply drop letter A (AME overlap, 3 letters)

Team A final total (of overlap letters) = 5 + 3 + 3 = 11 letters
Team B final total (of overlap letters) = 3 + 5 + 3 = 11 letters

Battle Pairings

District 1 & District 8
District 2 & The Capitol
District 3 & District 13
District 4 & District 12
District 5 & District 11
District 6 & District 10
District 7 & District 9

Timings
The first week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for planning your fight
The second week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for fighting your fight

In Round 2 Districts 1 - 7 will strike first
In Round 3 Districts 8 - The Capitol will strike first

Once District 1 picks their first book, we'll let you all know what letters we need to overlap with

So we'll know all the titles by the end of week 1 but have to start and finish them all within week 2? oh boy... I get so many books from the library that one week isn't a lot of time.

Also if we supply drop a title to our partner district, does that mean we don't count it on our spreadsheet?

For everyone, yes, you have to start and finish the book in one week. Not everyone will be able to do that and there are plenty of other tasks and minis to participate in. I may have to sit out some later, as my internet gets inconsistent when I’m traveling. There are many ways to support the team.

Also, if both of you want to finish your Idaho books, I’ll DNF mine. It relies very heavily on knowledge of horror films and I’ve seen parts of two in my entire life so not a great fit. I’ll wait until I hear confirmation from you both.

I can also go find a new short Idaho book if needed.

Tricia wrote: "Also if we supply drop a title to our partner district, does that mean we don't count it on our spreadsheet?
"

We get page points/it's in one of our resource piles. Think of the supply drop as a sort of mini challenge. For Round 1 we sent 3 books that were read before the mini challenge started so we didn't have to worry about covering more spots on top of the mini tasks.

I realized I never updated our tracking sheet, just the official sheet with what our sent supply drop books were. I fixed that, hopefully it makes a bit more sense now.

Lexi wrote: "Also, if both of you want to finish your Idaho books, I’ll DNF mine. It relies very heavily on knowledge of horror films and I’ve seen parts of two in my entire life so not a great fit. I’ll wait u..."

I added mine back to the sheet. Should have both of my remaining books (including the Idaho one) done in the next 2 days, 3 max. Lots of driving the this week so plenty of time for audio :)

Sounds good, I found a short cozy if you need any help on the Idaho one.

Mary wrote: "Lexi wrote: "Also, if both of you want to finish your Idaho books, I’ll DNF mine. It relies very heavily on knowledge of horror films and I’ve seen parts of two in my entire life so not a great fit..."

Sounds good to me too. I've also got one set in Idaho if we need it too.

I'm a bit confused is Sarah taking the last Idaho spot or Lexi?

lol I'm apparently confused too. I only looked at the main sheet of the spreadsheet. I can take C40 then, as I'll be done with mine here in the next hour or so. I'll add it once I'm home from work.

If that's okay with everyone that is.

I finished Starling House last night, all updated on spreadsheet. I've answered all the discussion questions - do I need to provide links or anything to make sure we get the points for that?

Sarah wrote: "If that's okay with everyone that is."

I think that sounds like a good plan!

Vikki wrote: "I finished Starling House last night, all updated on spreadsheet. I've answered all the discussion questions - do I need to provide links or anything to make sure we get the points for that?"

I'll go grab them. Those get tracked on the BOM tab

Sarah wrote: "If that's okay with everyone that is."

That works great. I am sorry for being confusing. I meant I found one if either of you (Sarah or Mary) could not finish your Idaho book, but I was not planning on reading it unless one of you had an issue since you already started your books. Hope that makes more sense. Thanks

For anyone planning on getting points for the first The Hunger Games buddy read,

"To earn BR discussion points for The Hunger Games the book must be finished and at least three posts of actual discussion need to be made during Round 1," so the book must be read and comments made by June 15 at the end of the round. The countdown to help with time zones is on the first page of the planning spreadsheet.

District One is getting ready to attack you with Age of Vice.

We are so ready for whatever. you lob back at us!!!!!

Anyone have a book they want to read that starts with ICE?

I have Ice Planet Barbarians

Stacie wrote: "I have Ice Planet Barbarians"

it would need to be started and finished the second week of Round 2 (22nd to 29th of June).

Does that work? I know it's a shorter book but wasn't sure if it was from the library with a return date too early