Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Jeih



• cat (Captain)
• danielle (Co-Captain)
• snezana (Co-Captain)
• pat-gent
• Emily
• yasmine
• christina-t
• Namita
• mary-c
• sarah
• Marie(UK)
• ccap
• Tina_Randleman
• Marie-Anne
• renata-silveira
• v-nerdbooks
• curlyfriesareawesome
• celia-buell
• megan
• 124219983


Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

*

*

Helpful Information

Being a Good Team Player
We ask only three things of team players:
1. Be kind in communications in the thread
2. Communicate regularly
3. Have fun!

- Thread chat is great, but it is also a high risk zone for miscommunications in the same way that all text-based chat is. Please assume the best intentions from everyone, and don't jump to the worst possible interpretation of a message.
- It doesn't matter how much or little you read, what makes captains REALLY happy are players who let us know what's going on. That means posting in the thread at least once a week, or updating the tracking sheet, or sending one of the caps (or the mods) a message if something is going wrong. We get tht life happens, and totally understand that, all we ask is a quick note to say: sorry! life! going to be awol for a time.
- Fun! this is a fun reading challenge, with nothing at stake, really! Chat here about what you are reading; go visit other teams to say hello (top tip: Team Dez will almost be guaranteed to have a picture of a Chris posted at least once a day. head over there for your eye candy, but don't expect to get dibs on any of the men - take your own to share!)

The Rules!
At first or second glance TT might look intimidating, but it really isn't! All you need to do is:
1. pick a book that is at least 100 pages long, or 3 hours audio, or 25k words.
2. read it.
3. report it to us.
4. go back to step 1!

The official rules go into a bit more detail of how you decide if you need to check audio length or page count, and they can be found here. The quick guide is:

if your book has Childrens, Kids or similar, is poetry or a play, or has an illustrator you will need to check the length.

Audio (using Audible or Overdrive or similar, but NOT YouTube Music or similar) is a great first start, especially for adult books. We can also use word counts found on one of the ARBookFinder sites (there's .com, .co.uk and .com.au)

Reporting your books
We have a tracking spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...) that you can add your long-term plans, currently reading and completed books. Ideally we'll all use that, but if you can't for whatever reason, please post your completions in here, using this format:

Completion Post
[bookcover] of the EDITION YOU READ so we can see if there is a predominant colour or if there's anything useful on the cover for connections
LINK TO THE BOOK EDITION YOU READ and shelved
Date read
#pages of the edition you read, or of the default edition if you read an audio version.
Spell-out letters author name; speaking character names; title; series title; narrator (if audio); translator (if translated)
Any Mini requirements it meets.


Here's an example:
Completion Post

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
1 May
384 pages
Spellout: Author Benjamin Stevenson, Chars: Ern, Michael, Audrey
Minis: mod Judith read; teal cover


The Minis
There are some minis to keep us entertained during the challenge - you can ignore or play as you like. We can put all the books we read against a mini challenge, so even if you ignore, chances are one of the captains will press-gang your book into a mini task! ;-P

If you LIVE for the minis - GREAT! We love that :) We only ask a couple of things:
1. No hogging the tasks - claim two or three tasks at a time
2. Try to fit your books to the trickiest tasks possible (if your book has twins, and a shape changer and is set in North America, use the twins or shape changer before North America if possible!)
3. Don't be precious: Understand that the captains might move the book from where you had put it to another task. Your book is still being used for the points, but moving it might be more efficient for us. We'll try to explain, but if we don't, just ask and we'll explain!

The minis we have so far are broadly going to be prioritised as follows:
- Rainbow Tower - we'll chuck colour covers in there to make our rainbow towers. If your book is 50% a colour, it's probably going to be a rainbow mini book
- Mod Tower - as this is linked to shelves of NBRC Mods, it's a little less flexible, and also we might get tired of double checking shelves, so finishing that one quickly will cut down or admin
- Crayola Tower - tricky letters (I, O, U, Y, Q, X, Z etc) will get put in there early doors
after that, we'll flex between the spell-out and the Winners Tower creativity.

If and when more minis are revealed we may take stock and change up our strategy.

BOMs
BOMs are where all the bonus points come from, so if you are feeling competitive, please do read and participate in the BOMs during the challenge. If you are feeling SUPER competitive, chuck your name in to write some questions - it's not difficult to do, and does give us 40 points if we are picked to do questions.

Links to BOM threads can be found below or in the tracking sheet.

If you have participated in any BOMs during 2022 or 2023, please shout, as we might be able to use your participation to get token entries to get more chances in the DQ randomiser. This does mean that you would be volunteering to write DQs, so if you know you don't, then don't worry. (info on tokens below the spoiler)

(view spoiler)[BOM Participation Tokens
Rules:
For each NBRC BOM you participate in (i.e. answer at least three sets of DQs within a month of the start of the BOM) you will get a participation point. During challenges you can swap your participation points for an extra entry in the randomiser, on a basis of 3 participation points to 1 extra entry. Your team will be allowed a maximum of 6 entries for each BOM.

Restrictions:
- you must link posts to your participation if you want to claim them
- one one set of DQs will be allocated to each team
- must be from the main group, Backroom BOM participation doesn't count
- takes effect from January 2022 BOMs
- participations are not transferrable (i.e. you can't pool wiyh another player)

Example:
The first challenge BOM is the June 2022 Adult BOM.

Cat participated in the January and February, plus the May Themed BOMs (5 participation points in total). She can therefore claim ONE extra entry for the June Adult, and still has two participation points. She participates in the June Adult, and thus gains an additional participation point (to a total of three). She can turn these three in for an extra entry in the June Themed BOM. She now has no participation points remaining.

Team Mods have three volunteers for the June Adult BOM: Cat (could claim two entries), Judith (could claim three entries) and Sophie (could claim two entries). They are only permitted a maximum of 6 entries, and so Judith only turns in enough participation points to claim two entries. Judith still has participation points to claim another entry in the June Themed BOM.

NOTES:
1. You only get participation tokens for at least three days of answering questions, There is no extra token for writing DQs.

2. It doesn't matter if it was from a previous challenge, if you participated you gained a token.
2a. You only get tokens from participation in the main group BOMs, within 1 month of the start of the discussions (so you need to have had three days of response by 2nd or 16th of the following month, typically).
2b. Backroom BOMs don't give you participation tokens, but you do get challenge points as per normal.

3. If you cashed in tokens for an extra entry (3 tokens = 1 extra entry) then those tokens are gone.

4. Tokens haven't been reset at the turn of the year. If you have been participating in BOMs, and putting your links in, we've recorded those in our BOM sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...). That shows the number of tokens gained, and entries used. There might need to be some trivial maths to get the final figures for current position.
For instance:
Cat: 27 tokens gained = 9 extra entries.
Cat has used 2 extra entries already, leaving 7 extra entries, or 21 tokens to take into the start of the challenge.

5. When claiming extra entries during the challenge bear in mind the tokens are not transferrable, so a team can't pool), and that if the players token information isn't on that sheet they will HAVE to include evidence links to prove they have legitimately gained their participation tokens.
5a. If historical tokens from 2022 haven't been recorded on the sheet then that time has passed - you can still use them for extra entries, but will have to document them with links. If there are players who have participated in a 2023 BOM but that participation hasn't been logged in the sheet, then they can go back to that BOM thread and create a post with the evidence links to get it recorded.
(hide spoiler)]

BOMs

May
Regular: 2nd May start - Kings of the Wyld
Backroom: 10 May start - The Dangerous Harem OVER 18s ONLY. explicit and extremely silly
Theme Mexico: 16 May start - The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

June
Regular: 2 June - City of Brass
Backroom (18+ only): 10 June - The Red (should be halfway well written, which will be a shock to the system!)
Themed (Longest): 16 June - 22/11/63

July
nominations close 27 May: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Regular: 2 July
Themed (War): 16 July

Chipmunk Tasks

Random 10 - Read a book featuring a gymnast (in honour of Olga Korbut's perfect 10) - Sarah
10 Commandments - "Honour your parents" - Read a book featuring a parent - child relationship (can be adult child too)
Random 10 - Read a book by a female or non-binary author
Random 10 - X-Factor - Read a book related to a talent competition
X-Files - Read a book featuring aliens
Film 10s - 3 1/2 Minutes 10 Bullets - Read a book that shares a title word (NOTE: 3 and three are deemed to be the same, as are 1/2 and half. Singular variants OK)
Film 10s - Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings - Read a book that shares a title word (e.g. Legend) NB - can't use THE, AND or OF
X-Rated - Read a book with three people on the cover - Marie
Solve for X - Read a book with a fraction in the title (e.g. The Vanishing Half, 7 1/2)
10 Awards - Read a book that won a RITA

*

*

res

res

Hello, and welcome to this 10th anniversary Tower Teams challenge!

I'm Cat (she/her), captain and frequent challenger! I'm based in London, UK.

Most interesting book read this year: Babel: An Arcane History
Book I'm most looking forward to reading this challenge: actually, I've a couple. One is BOM in May (The Daughter of Doctor Moreau), and the other has been nominated for June - fingers crossed! (Saint Death's Daughter)


What do you folk have planned for the next few months? Any recent recommendations?

My shelf: ttx

Hello Jeih!

I’m Danielle (she/her) and I’m from Wales. Looking forward to this TT.

Romance is what I’m mainly read, along with fantasy. I do like to read some mystery and sci-fi too. Horror is a definite no!

I’m looking forward to reading The Study of Poisons and Only Good Enemies during TT

My shelf is tower

Hello team!

I'm Snezana (she/her) form Serbia, one of your co-captains! I'm very excited for this challenge to start!

I like to read all genres, but my favorites are fantasy and romance. So I will be reading BOM Kings of the Wyld for sure!

My TT shelf

Snezana wrote: "Hello team!

I'm Snezana (she/her) form Serbia, one of your co-captains! I'm very excited for this challenge to start!

I like to read all genres, but my favorites are fantasy and romance. So I wil..."

Hello, nice to meet everyone. This is my first time joining tower teams, so if I seem confused, I probably am. 😂

My name is Tina and I'm from New Jersey in the USA. I'm a prolific reader and have a bunch of challenges going across several groups. My fave genres are science fiction, fantasy (but not grimdark), and mystery.

Some upcoming books that I'm looking forward to areThe Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor, Dead Country by Gladstone, and In the Lives of Puppets by Klune.

My Shelf

Hello all!

I'm Cynthia (she/her). I'm based in Winnipeg, Canada.

Picking a favourite book from the year so far is incredibly tricky. I think one of the ones that will stay with me the most is: From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way

Not sure what is coming up for me but I DO have Solito and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn sitting on my shelf from the library at the moment. However, I have book club this Thursday so I have to finish THAT book first. (A book that 100 pages in I'm still not enjoying.)

My shelf: tower-teams-2023

(My first time doing this challenge so I may need some assistance.)

Hi everyone!! I’m Namita from Vancouver, Canada.

I’m a mood reader, so I don’t really plan ahead. My TBR just stares at me and shakes her head. If it was possible 😂😂😂

My shelf tt2023

Hello all! Glad you got your way here :)

@Namita - I totally know what you mean! I am kidding myself that I've been pretty good at raiding my TBR for books for challenges so for this year, but in the depths of night I know the truth, and that is that my TBR is a monster out of control!

@Tina - Gladstone is an author I have on my TBR. Would you recommend the Craft sequence or the Empress one first?

@Cynthia - do not worry, we'll all help each other :)

Welcome!

So, basically, with this challenge (other than the minis) it's just simply about number of books read? ANY type of book - it doesn't matter? And is there a rule about starting it now as long as we don't finish it until May? Or do they have to be started in May?

I'm sure if I were to go back to read the rules I'd find out but unfortunately, I'm SUPER busy at work so was hoping for a brief recap.

Books have to be started after the challenge starts

✿~Danielle~✿ wrote: "Books have to be started after the challenge starts"

Thanks!

Cat wrote: "Hello all! Glad you got your way here :)

@Tina - Gladstone is an author I have on my TBR. Would you recommend the Craft sequence or the Empress one first? ..."

I haven't read the Empress book, I'm planning to read it next year. However, the Craft Sequence is fantastic!

Hi all

I am Emily from Portland, Oregon.

Last couple of books I thought were terrific Garden Spells and Beautifully Broken Life.

I read most anything but gravitate towards romance.

I think this is the first time I played this one.

My Shelf tt2013

Hiya teamies!

I'm Megan from Hertfordshire, UK.

This is my sixth Towers Teams and I can't wait to get started!

I mostly read fantasy, scifi and horror but do dabble in pretty much anything apart from romance. Pretty shocked to see Kings of the Wyld as a BOM, it's one of my absolute favourite books of all time. It makes my nerdy, geeky, rock music loving soul so happy haha. I hope those of you who read it enjoy it too!

I've recently discovered the author Rob J. Hayes a self published fantasy author and I'm really loving his books so far and will be reading a few more of them throughout this challenge.

My shelf: Towers Teams 2023

Hi! Mary from Massachusetts.

Sorry I tend to not be online much on the weekends because I'm glued to a computer M-F 40 hrs a week.

My shelf is:TTX

It's easier to list what I don't read: not a huge fan of hard core erotica anymore (I need more plot than sex), or anything overly religious. I can be picky about YA/NA books. Not into the teen romance and coming of age stories usually.

Hello and welcome!

Hello! Welcome everyone!

I am Marie She /Her
Most Interesting Books this year - I have had some really good reads this year I would Recommend
Isaac and the Egg; The Collected Regrets of Clover Go as a Riverand Enjoyed re reading Austen. I like books to entertain and dont do well with really sad or brutal books


I think I can easily get both May BOM's but warn that I am not good at BOMs and although I have Done DQs I am not sure I want to this time - Sorry - hangs head in shame

I m quite happy to read some longer books I have some real tomes on my TBR
Cryptonomicon
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
and The Rise of Jonathan Flite
there are probably more

my shelf is https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...)
Obviously I have challenged with several other team members many times (and I can be a challenge)

I will be trying to fit in books that fit with SRC (I think I might Finish this time - first time in a while

Visiting / having visits from the 9 grandchildren can interfere with the reading - but I still love them

I may have done some DQ's and Participation 2022 but not this year

Hello Marie :)

I participated in the Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow BOM. Here's the link:

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow DQ's

Hi everyone!

I'm AT, and I go by any pronouns. I live in Texas, and my shelf is https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/146275089?shelf=tower-teams-reading-challenge

I like reading webnovels and romance. I have a lot of books on my TBR list, but most are 500+ pages so I might spend a while reading them :)

Nice to meet everyone!

Welcome AT.

✿~Danielle~✿ wrote: "Welcome AT."

Hello :)

Hello and Welcome!

Hello All 👋

My name is Mary I’m from the US, Pacific Northwest to be more specific.

This is my first Towers challenge, it seems straight forward enough, and I’m looking forward to it.

I read a little of everyone, lately been working more classics and non-fictions in but I love a good rom com, thriller, sci-fi or fantasy.

I’ve been reading a lot of Taylor Jenkins-Reid this year and she will probably make an appearance in my reading lists.

My shelf name is Team Teams.

Should be fun!

Hello everyone.

Welcome Mary!

Hi everyone, I'm V Nerd (she/her) in south Wales uk
It's been a couple of years since I've been on any reading challenges, and thought I'd jump back in with a challenge I love.

Hello Marys, Marie, Emily, AT, V Nerd, Megan!

So exciting to see everyone making their way here :)

We've less than a week to go till the start, and there is the exciting minis to plan for, if planning is your bag!

One in particular is looking for creative links of books to the past winning team names (check out the information here)
We need 5 books for each team name, and the team names are:
Team C
Moonstone
Thundercats
Anubis
Palpatine
Remus Lupin
Lust
Lord Vetinari
Electra

Shout out any connections, and we'll pop them on the planning tab as prompts if people want to pick their books that way.

One example: Palpatine is a character (emperor) from Star Wars = read a Star Wars novel; or read a book set in space; or read a book with an emperor / empress / emperox character.

V_Nerdbooks wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm V Nerd (she/her) in south Wales uk"

Welcome!

South Wales, nice, that’s where I am.

Cat wrote: "Hello Marys, Marie, Emily, AT, V Nerd, Megan!

So exciting to see everyone making their way here :)

We've less than a week to go till the start, and there is the exciting minis to plan for, if pla..."

I'm planning to read Atalanta by Jennifer Saint as soon as my library gets it. It's written by the same author of Elektra.

I like to scope out mini challenge books. It's part of the fun for me. The spell out ones should be fairly easy, no X's. I'll check out some moderator shelves.

Since books can only be used for one mini task-are we focusing on any specific one first?

I think a lot of Urban Fantasy, werewolf and cat shifter romances will work for a few of these: lust, Remus Lupin, thunder cats, moonstone.

Military, sports or detective unit series would work for Team C

Archeology themed books like the Amelia Peabody series would work for Moonstone and Anubis.

Mythology related books for Electra and Anubis

✿~Danielle~✿ wrote: "V_Nerdbooks wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm V Nerd (she/her) in south Wales uk"

Welcome!

South Wales, nice, that’s where I am."

Oh yay, where abouts? In the Valleys?

Here are my suggestions:

Team C Read a book where the authors initials are CC - Catherine Cookson, Catherine Cowles

Moonstone Read a book that takes place in Florida - It's Florida state Gemstone

Thundercats - Read a book with a cat on the cover

Anubis Read a book with royalty or a book with a heart on the cover.

Palpatine - Sci fi book

Remus Lupin - Read a book with a moon on the cover

Lust - Read a book where someone crushes after another or do something with the seven deadly sins

Lord Vetinari the Vetinari family motto is, after all, Si non confectus, non reficiat ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it") - so maybe something broken on cover

Electra - A book based on a mythological character

Remus lupin could also reference twins or wolves (Remus and Romulus). Or it could be a book about Texas with Bluebonnets on the cover (a Bluebonnet is a Lupin flower) or a book with Lupine on the cover.

Tina wrote: "Remus lupin could also reference twins or wolves (Remus and Romulus). Or it could be a book about Texas with Bluebonnets on the cover (a Bluebonnet is a Lupin flower) or a book with Lupine on the c..."

I found a few books with bluebonnets on it. I do like the twins idea

Not sure if these would count because I think they are kids books, but they'd be an easy read for Thundercats
ThunderCats, Vol. 1: Reclaiming Thundera

It's a five book series :)

WHOOP~

Hi everybody!


I'm Pat (she/her), living in Central Oklahoma just east of OKC.

Most interesting book read this year: The Great Believers
I also really really thought The World Played Chess was a great read.

Book I'm most looking forward to reading this challenge: I have so many books piled up I don't even know where to start to pick a most anticipated!

What do I have planned for the next few months? I'm participating the the Around the Year 52 challenge and also do the Monthly Challenge of something like 26 book challenges a month, so I'm sure I will have plenty to pick from.

My shelf: 4b-tower-teams-10