NBRC: Tower Teams Read 2013, Round II discussion

Here is a link to the October Readathon

High level summary: Oct 4 - Oct 19

There are 2 events:
* Each event is worth 10 BAP
* A team can do none, one or both events

Event 1: Read Like a Banshee
* Each team member sets a reading goal and reads (like a banshee)
* The team score is determined by adding each team members score which is the number of pages read/book goal.

Event 2: Treasure Hunt
* We chose 5 tasks from the 10 themes (see below) to complete and order them from 1 - 5.
* We must log the tasks in order although people can be working on them in any order.
* We need to read 1 book to complete task 1.....and 5 books to complete task 5. (So 15 books in total to complete all tasks.
* Once complete, we will get a clue to the final task.

◈ Book Hunt Themes

Theme #1:Classic Horror
Read classic horror books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Bran Stoker’s Dracula. Or, you can choose the modern revamp of old classics like Pride, Prejudice and zombies.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters Dracula

Theme #2:Masters of Horror and Fantastic
Read a book from a master of horror and Fantastic like Stephen King or Dean Koontz, or if you prefer a more lighter approach, like Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratcher.
The Shining (The Shining, #1) Watchers American Gods Good Omens The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Theme #3:Samhain (**)
Read a book that focus on Celtic/Gaelic traditions like Beltane, Samhain or other rituals, or somehow fit the meaning of Samhain (see spoiler for info)
(view spoiler)
People also took steps to protect themselves from harmful spirits, which is thought to have led to the custom of guising. Divination was also done at Samhain.
The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1) Beltane Samhain

Theme #4:Trick or Treat (*)
Let your inner child on the loose in a trick or treat spell-it-out challenge. Suggestions: the perfect costume, the sweets, the pranks, the kind neighbor, the scary one. Surprise us.
T - Tangled Threads
W - Wallbanger
I - Ilona Andrews - Magic Burns
Z - Zeke from The Immortal Rules
Z - Zevin, Gabrielle - All These Things I've Done
L - The Last Olympian
E - Etiquette & Espionage
R - Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling
S - Sarah Dresden - Just Listen

Theme #5:Face your Fears (**)
Read books about things that scary you - urban legends, ghost stories, spiders, spider webs, murders, even elevators or planes, is all about your fears.
Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1) Ghost Story Venom (Elemental Assassin, #3)

Theme #6:Hallow Places (**)
For this option, is all about the setting - Cemeteries, dark forest, haunted house, the asylum, Dracula's Castle
The Graveyard Book Asylum The Prophet (Graveyard Queen, #3)

Theme #7:Halloween Party – a Spell-it-Out challenge (*)
Use your imagination to create the perfect party item: the beverages, the food, the decorations, the theme, the music
P - Prodigy
O - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
T - Tolliver from Grave Sight
I - Ilona Andrews - Magic Strikes
O - The Orphan Master's Son
N - Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book

Theme #8:Supernatural Creatures
The title is self explanatory, read a book that has witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, zombie, ghosts, spirits, poltergeist, anything counts.
Grave Dance (Alex Craft, #2) Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1) Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2) Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4) Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, #2)

Theme #9:Halloween Cover Hunt
Read books with covers matching Halloween colors - black, orange, red - or Halloween themes - pumpkins, skulls, etc.
Touched (The Marnie Baranuik Files #1) Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) Halloween Night (Point Horror) Coraline Orange is the New Black My Year in a Women's Prison

Theme #10:Special Abilities
Read books with characters with special abilities - fire power, magical powers, sending the dead, flying, weather manipulation, visions, time traveling, etc.
Firelight (Darkest London, #1) Ill Wind (Weather Warden, #1) Touch the Dark (Cassandra Palmer, #1) The Body Finder (The Body Finder, #1)

(*) For spell-it-outs: use the first letter in the book's title (if the book starts with 'the', 'a', 'an', etc, you may use the first letter in the second word of the title), the first letter of an author's first or last name, or the first letter of a character's first, last or nick name.

(**)For this theme, it all depends on the reader's interpretation - it can be book concept, settings, cover or title.

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

OK --- who's interested???

I personally was planning to read some longer books in Oct, but they don't have much to do with the Halloween theme. I can modify a bit if folks are interested in doing the Treasure Hunt.

I am in!

I'm in for Event 1 and will have a personal goal of 6,000 pages. I plan to read the following...


Aunt Dimity and the Duke - Nancy Atherton
Blood Rites - Jim Butcher -- fits Task 8 - wizard
Fall of Night - Rachel Caine -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
Gunmetal Magic - Ilona Andrews
Healing the Highlander - Melissa Mayhue
A Hoe Lot of Trouble - Heather Webber
Hunted - P.C. Cast -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Little Shop of Homicide - Denise Swanson
Once Upon a Tower - Eloisa James
R is for Ricochet - Sue Grafton
Raven Calls - C.E. Murphy -- fits Task 8 - werewolf
Raven Cursed - Faith Hunter -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Secondhand Spirits - Juliet Blackwell -- fits task 8 - witch
Such Wicked Intent - Kenneth Oppel -- fits Task 1 -- Frankenstein
Temptation Rising - A.C. Arthur -- fits Task 8 - shifter
What Doesn't Kill You - Iris Johansen

Yes --- for this one, it's a page number goal.

Remeber it's also a 2 week period (which is unfortunately during my birthday when one of my friends is coming to visit --- less reading time :-()

I can participate this round with Event #1, with a personal goal of 4,000 pages.

I will use this spot as my tracker, and post my books read as I go.

ETA: After reading the instructions again, it looks like we also have to have a book total goal, as well as a page total goal.

If this is correct, I would take a guess and say 15 books for my book goal.

The problem with this is I do not have planned what I will be reading for October, so I really don't know how many books I will read to reach the 4000 page goal. I know I can safely make the page total goal within a 14 day period.

I hope all that makes sense.

:)

Since we have tons of participation in event 1, I will do event 2.

@jingles, The book total in the formula is just your book total for the challenge. I think your book total is 300 or something like that.

@Ange, you are correct that we only have to do the number of letters that correspond to the books. However, Option 2 is a team challenge, so we decide the options as a team and try to finish it as quickly as possible.

Please note that you can participate in BOTH challenges.

@Hina, do you want to take the lead in proposing the categories for Option 2. As mentioned I can probably do a supernatural creature and Spell It Outs (maybe)

Evil Twin One (Ange) wrote: "Ok, I didn't realize the themes were picked as a team. I'll change mine then once that's decided. So for the spell it outs we decide as a team which word(s) to use if that's a theme chosen?"

Yes....the good news is that you read as a team too, so you don't have to do every single category.

JoLene wrote: "@jingles, The book total in the formula is just your book total for the challenge. I think your book total is 300 or something like that.

Okay, gotcha. Mine is 250

This is what I am proposing for event #2:

Task 1: Theme #6:Hallow Places
Task 2: Theme #9:Halloween Cover Hunt
Task 3: Theme #8:Supernatural Creatures
Task 4: Theme #4:Trick or Treat - Spell it out challenge (Banshee/Zombie/superman etc etc
Task 5: Theme #7: Halloween Party – a Spell-it-Out challenge (gravestone(decoration)/skeletons (decoration)/Superstition(music)/Ghostbusters(music)/Thriller(music)/


JoLene & ETO

So these are the ones I am thinking....I put the spell it out challenge for last, since you have bigger books to read through...I should be able to get through the first 3 tasks quickly and you guys can work on 4 and 5 and I can help finish up the last 2 themes if I needed to since they are so flexible. I put together some words we can use for the spell it out that fits into the theme...but they are pretty broad and flexible...so let me know which ones you would like. What do you guys think?

Looks good -- I will probably listen to Succubus Blues so I can take one supernatural creature.
I have to finish Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for book group.

What are the Spell-It-Out word you want to use?

How about doing Banshee and Superstition?

sounds good to me --- maybe we put Supernatural Creatures last since it looks like from ETO's proposal of what she wanted to read, she was going to do 5 books.

I know I have 1 or 2 audios that I can burn through for that category

I wasn't sure since you said you weren't reading many books that were theme related, so I was think to keep the numbers low there, and since Ange is a maybe for the second event, I figured, it would be more flexible to keep spell it out for the bigger sets of books, so it would be easier on us if Ange drops out.

I generally have audios going along with my "reading" books. The "reading" books are definitely not theme related, but I'm flexible with the audio.

For now, let's leave it this way...it gives us more flexibility if its just the two of us doing and if Ange stays in the challenge she can do all of the supernatural creature category if she wants. But we are basically reading against everyone else for BAP's, LOL. And we still have to solve the puzzle after we collect all the clues :)

I wonder if we can also use cupcakes --- we have a lot of the regular ones.

Ummm...I don't remember seeing anything about it. I am not sure.

JoLene wrote: "I wonder if we can also use cupcakes --- we have a lot of the regular ones."

I'll link Sonia to your question, JoLene.

~LK

No cupcakes for this one, sorry.

But you can use the spell-it-out options with any type of books, and as long as the covers match halloween colors, the book type isn't important either.

Barbara ★ wrote: "I'm in for Event 1 and will have a personal goal of 6,000 pages."

I'm going to change my goal as I didn't realize that as a team we had to cover both events.

I figure I'll read 17 books over the two week period. I can split them between event 1 and event 2. I can read event 2 books first so we can get to the clue for the final task quickly.

This is what I am planning to read for those two weeks and they can be split however needed to cover both events.

Aunt Dimity and the Duke - Nancy Atherton
Blood Rites - Jim Butcher -- fits Task 8 - wizard
Fall of Night - Rachel Caine -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
Gunmetal Magic - Ilona Andrews
Healing the Highlander - Melissa Mayhue
A Hoe Lot of Trouble - Heather Webber
Hunted - P.C. Cast -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Little Shop of Homicide - Denise Swanson
Once Upon a Tower - Eloisa James
R is for Ricochet - Sue Grafton
Raven Calls - C.E. Murphy -- fits Task 8 - werewolf
Raven Cursed - Faith Hunter -- fits Task 8 - vampire
Secondhand Spirits - Juliet Blackwell -- fits task 8 - witch
Such Wicked Intent - Kenneth Oppel -- fits Task 1 -- Frankenstein
Temptation Rising - A.C. Arthur -- fits Task 8 - shifter
What Doesn't Kill You - Iris Johansen

The ones not marked for a task, can be used for a spell it out or for event 1.

Hina & JoLene
I don't really understand the rules for event 2 so do you want to decide what goes where before I choose a goal for Event 1? FYI - if you can use all the books for task 1 or 8, the remaining books have a page count of roughly 3000.

FYI - if you already have event 2 covered, that's no problem either, I'll just stick with Event 1 with the goal of 6000 pages.

Sonia wrote: "No cupcakes for this one, sorry.

But you can use the spell-it-out options with any type of books, and as long as the covers match halloween colors, the book type isn't important either."

Wait is she saying that all books need to have halloween colored covers no matter what they are used for? If that's the case, I can't do any of the spell it outs as my covers aren't black, orange or red.

no barbara...there is a theme that is based on covers...she is talking about that.

oh good. scared me there for a minute.

I will explain event 2 in more details when I get home....lol there is just too much to type on my phone lol

no biggie Hina. If I can help with the books I've listed, I'll be glad to. Just let me know where you want what and I'll do the reading.

Barbara, the books you read for event 2 can count for your page count in event 1.

JoLene wrote: "Barbara, the books you read for event 2 can count for your page count in event 1."

hmm that's interesting. then I'm good for 6000 pages.

Still, let me know which books you want to use for event 2 so I read them first.

Barbara,

So this is what I think Event 2, there are 10 categories given, we get to choose 5 themes/categories out of the 10 and we can place them in the order we like...so for example, theme 6, is assigned task 1, so we need to read 1 book for that while theme 6 is task 5, which we need to read five books for.
I chose the themes, because at the time I was going to be reading majority of the books, and the themes I chose are as follows:

Task 1: Theme #6:Hallow Places - For this option, is all about the setting - Cemeteries, dark forest, haunted house, the asylum,

Task 2: Theme #9:Halloween Cover Hunt - Read books with covers matching Halloween colors - black, orange, red - or Halloween themes - pumpkins, skulls, etc.

Task 3: Theme #8:Supernatural Creatures - The title is self explanatory, read a book that has witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, zombie, ghosts, spirits, poltergeist, anything counts.

Task 4: Theme #4:Trick or Treat - Spell it out challenge (Banshee is our spell it out word)

Task 5: Theme #7: Halloween Party – a Spell-it-Out challenge Superstition(music) is our spell it out word


So this is more time constrained since whoever finishes first get the most BAP's, but also there is a secondary task as well. As soon as we finish a task, we submit that to the MODS to get a clue, that happens after every task and in the end we try to solve to finish the game. Also, for example, if I am working on task 1, you can read for task 2, but we just can't submit task 2 until task 1 has been completed. I think that is pretty much it...Did I get this right JoLene?

Also, for spell it out, we don't need the whole word spelled out, just the amount of books required for ours 4 and 5 for the other.

Did I explain it better Barbara, or made it worse?

You explained it fine. I'm assuming you are figuring out who has to read what in order for event 2 to work and us to finish quickly. So....

My question is what do you need ME to read for event 2? I need to know which of the books I listed you want me to read first in order to finish one of the tasks on time.

All righty...folks...sorry for the later response.

Regarding the tasks....I have a book for:

Task 1:
Me: ...character spends a lot of time in cemeteries.

Task 2:
Me:
Barbara: I think you have a Sue Grafton's book that is all red which can work here.
ETO I think you have an all red cover too from Evanovich's book.

So for task 2, whoever finishes up their book first, we will count it there, mine is flexible enough that it could be used for task 3.

ETO & Barbara, will you guys have enough time to finish the book, I will only take about a day to finish task 1 book.


Task 3,4,5: I think all of us who are participating in in the event 2 can fulfill that...let's just go with whoever finishes reading a book for task 3 first (Which Barabara & ETO can concentrate on) So by the time we finish task 1 and 2, 3 would be ready to go...

JoLene you can start reading for task 4 & 5, depending on which books you are reading. Do you know what you will be reading during this time, so I can get a better idea of placing books around Barbara and ETO?


Does this make sense? :)

I'll read Sue Grafton's book on the 4th and start on some supernatural books for Task #3. Here's what I'm looking at....

Task 2: Theme #9:Halloween Cover Hunt - Read books with covers matching Halloween colors - black, orange, red - or Halloween themes - pumpkins, skulls, etc.
R is for Ricochet - Sue Grafton (red cover) 10/4


Depending on what ETO reads for Task #3, any of these can be used for Task 4 or 5.

Task 3: Theme #8:Supernatural Creatures - The title is self explanatory, read a book that has witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, zombie, ghosts, spirits, poltergeist, anything counts.

Fall of Night - Rachel Caine (vampire) 10/5
Hunted - P.C. Cast (vampire) 10/5

Blood Rites - Jim Butcher (wizard)
Raven Calls - C.E. Murphy #7 (shaman/witch/werewolf)
Raven Cursed - Faith Hunter (vampire)
Secondhand Spirits - Juliet Blackwell (witch)
Temptation Rising - A.C. Arthur (shifter)

OK -- I'm working on Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Task 4) and I'll listen to Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead (Task 5) --- but can be used for Task 3 as well.
I will see what else in my audio makes the cut.

Evil Twin One (Ange) wrote: "Barbara, do any of yours fit the first two tasks? 1 of mine has a red cover which works but the rest don't really fit. they all work for tasks 3-5 though and the first 6 are only about 200 pages ea..."

Yes I have one for Task 2 which I will read on the 4th. it would also work for task 4 or 5.

I also have one for task 1 if needed (frankenstein monster)

I'm doing by Kathy Reichs as an audio book. Can you set it up for Task #5????? I have the paperback version as well so I can bounce in an finish sooner if need be. Just let me know as we get closer to finishing task 5.

We just have to finish on or after the fourth. Also, now there are assigned days for reporting the tasks. For example, task one can only be reported on Oct 5th.

I will copy the schedule over when I'm on my PC

OK -- they may be changing the rules again so stay tuned....

For Banshee
I looked at my audio list and library books. I am listing to Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn right now, so I will stop and finish after Oct 4.
I just started listening to Masques (Sianim, #1) by Patricia Briggs so that can be used for supernatural creature or B
I may also try to read a Flavia book by Alan Bradley which could be A or B (want to read for another challenge)

Superstition:
I think I can easily to the R and U

I'll sign up for the first task but I'm keeping my number lowish 1000

Halloween Read-a-Thon
Event #2: Halloween Book Hunt
Duration: 10/4/13 - 10/19/13
0/15 Completed


Task 1:
Theme #6:Hallow Places (Cemeteries) -Hina
1. The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens.



Task 2:
Theme #9:Halloween Cover Hunt (Red & Orange) -Barbara & Hina
1. R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton.
2. Oliver's Hunger by Tina Folsom.


Task 3:
Theme #8:Supernatural Creatures -
The title is self explanatory, read a book that has witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, zombie, ghosts, spirits, poltergeist, anything counts.
1.
2.
3.

Task 4:
Theme #4:Trick or Treat -
B - Masques (Sianim, #1) by Patricia Briggs. JoLene
A -
N -
S -
H - Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend. JoLene
E - Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. ETO
E -


Task 5:
Theme #7: Halloween Party –
S -
U -
P -
E -
R - Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs. Barbara
S -
T -
I -
T -
I -
O -
N -

Okay...I put together our tentative tracker up for event 2.

I only set up task 1 and 2 completely. I will leave 3 to however much Barbara and ETO get done and since there are lots of PNR on both reading list...I left it blank for now.

With task 4 and 5 is the same.

New Changes to Event 2
So we are not in competition as far as I can understand with other teams in terms of who finishes first, but now there is a report date for all 5 tasks and we get 1 BAP to finish each task.

The reporting is done like this:

The teams can only starting posting their completed tasks on October 5th, Midnight BST - Eight Hours after the read-a-thon start.

task #1: October 5th
task #2: October 7th
task #3: October 9th
task #4: October 11th
task #5: October 13th

Also don't forget, the read-a-thon is starting a little differently such that everyone is starting 4 PM BST time,, which for me 10 AM Friday morning...just double check what time you are suppose to start (by clicking on the read-a-thon link JoLene has in message 1) and make sure any books you want to count is finished after that time.

I have a question for the "Read Like a Banshee" part.

If I see that I am well within my goal and could possibly go higher, can I change my "pages read" goal?

I don't want to mess it up like I did before.

@Jingles, this time the "Read like a Banshee" is a bit different. 1st, there is a competitive nature based on a score.

The score is determined by the # of pages read/your tower team goal (which is probably the same as your yearly goal).

Essentially, it doesn't really matter what your page goal is, the score is only using how many pages you actually read!!!

@Hina --- thanks for laying this out.

We can track in this post and post your daily (or every other day reading in the other post).....

Hi JoLene,

you can post our participants here for event 1, I am going to post for event 2 on the event 2 thread.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

I will probably read about 3K to 5K pages for event 1 but I am not sure yet .