Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Crixus



Members

• Vicky Captain
• Apoorv Moghe Co-Captain
• Kate S
• Sara
• Dragana

Spreadsheets
Master Spreadsheet

Team Spreadsheet

- Once all columns of a goal have been filled out a new goal will appear within 5 minutes.

- Do not change existing pages. You may add a new page to your spreadsheet if you want to track additional information.

- Mark books as used in your books list once they are used for a goal.

- Only books read during the current round may be applied towards goals, once the round has ended those books may no longer be used for a goal.

- Once you merge teams, you may use your books for your partner teams goals. List them in your books list and on their goals sheet. Mark them as used.

- If you end up with more than 3 open goals, contact a moderator for help.

reserved

reserved

Team Crixus - GoodReads Shelves
Please log in all the books you read during the challenge period, into your respective shelves.

✔ Apoorv (Challenge-NBRC-Gladiator Games)
✔ Dragana (NBRC-The Gladiator Games)
✔ Kate (Crixus)
✔ Sara (Gladiator Games)
✔ Vicky (NBRC-Gladiator Games)

★✩★✩★✩★✩★✩★✩★✩

Rules
☞ Books must be more than 160 pages in length.
Children's books, Graphic Novels, Cookbooks and Poetry books cannot be used unless by word count they can be verified as more than 160 pages.

☞ Only books read during the specified round can be used
(“read date” is what counts, not the day you start.)
Books cannot be “banked” from previous weeks to use later in the challenge.

☞ Books must be started after the start date of the challenge to count towards the challenge.

★✩★✩★✩★✩★✩★✩★

Point System
A gladiator may gain an advantage through two methods: Attack and Defense

☞ Attack points
Any book read will earn:
161-500 Pages : 0.5 Points
500+ Pages : 1.0 Point

☞ Defense points
Any books read toward completing goals will earn:
1 Goal = 1 Point

REMEMBER: You also gain attack points for books read toward completing goals.

Hi Apoorv, hi Team!
First team challenge for me and super excited! :)

Yay, Team! :) I'm super excited for this challenge. I just got home after a 2 hour commute though, so I'm going to relax for a bit before I get too crazy organizing things here. I'll be back in a bit!

Hello Team! Checking in, ready to get this party started

Yay ! Just waiting on Dragana and we are all set ! *hii everybody, my first challenge with all of you.. super-glad*
I am so excited for this challenge.. amongst all the team challenges I have played so far, this is most novel.

The fusing of teams will be really cool.

Vicky, if you need any organizing help, spreadsheet preparations or anything of that sort.. I am here ! :)

Just FYI, your official spreadsheets are coming soon. You'll want to keep those up to date since when you complete a goal a new one will pop up within 5 minutes.

The master spreadsheet and team spreadsheet has been added to the beginning of your team thread.

Captains and co-captains should message the moderator account with their team name and google doc e-mail to be added to the approved editors of the team spreadsheet.

YAY! We have our first three goals:

* Read a book with more than 1000 goodreads reviews
* Read a book where a character's first name starts with the letter K
* Read a book that starts with the letter W.

I could be starting a book on Sunday which fits our 1st task :)

Woopie ! :D
This is so awesome.

BTW, I have all our shelves linked up to my first message. Please check if I have them correctly linked. Do let me know if not.

Dragana, Kate, its absolutely possible that I might not have found your shelves, but incase you havent set them up, please do so, so that we can be ready to go tomorrow. :)

EDIT : Also updated are some basic rules and the point system for easy reference.

Mine is correctly linked, thank you!

Sara wrote: "First team challenge for me and super excited! :)"

You'll love it! I always find that I'm more motivated to read during team challenges and I miss them when they aren't going on!

Apoorv wrote: "Vicky, if you need any organizing help, spreadsheet preparations or anything of that sort.. I am here ! :)"

Sounds good! :) I'm still deciding if I want to make a separate spreadsheet. Normally I do (because I'm a spreadsheet addict) but I think the official one will be enough to satisfy our needs for this challenge since we won't be shuffling anything around. And since the goals are time-sensitive on our official spreadsheets, it just makes sense for that to be the primary one. My work schedule is tight this month so I'll likely only be on in the evenings and weekends, feel free to keep things updated as people are reading if you catch them before I do. All I ask is that you post here that the spreadsheet has been updated to your current post (I'll do the same) so we can easily tell where the other person left off. Also, I'm getting married on September 26th which is the day before the challenge ends, so I'll definitely need extra help for that round! :)

Roger that, captain ! :)

.. and hey, heartiest congratulations.. we will do our special team celebration in that week for you ! :D

Many congratulations on the big date, Vicky!
We will surely do a special team celebration for the occasion! :)

Aww, thanks! :D I'm looking forward to it, but the closer we get the more stressed out I get about trying to finish everything! haha



I've been thinking a little bit about strategy. It seems to me that we need to maximize our defensive points by rotating out goals as fast as we can (since our attack points will be coming just from reading). We should still be calling out that we're reading a book that meets a certain goal, but if someone else happens to read a book that qualifies for that goal first we should turn in the goal and get a new one instead of waiting for the person who called out the book.

We all seem to be pretty quick readers, so I don't think it'll be a huge issue. But I don't want anyone to be offended if someone else takes their goal!

I've been poking around the other team spreadsheets to see what there is in the way of goals. It looks like it's a pretty extensive list - character/author/title letters, cover colors and items, words in the text, publication dates, number of ratings and average ratings. So, if you've read a book that hasn't been attached to a goal yet (we can NOT move a book once we use it to complete a goal) and you notice that it fits a new goal, let us know. A lot of them Apoorv and I will be able to look up, but there might be some minor characters that aren't easy to find or you might have read an obscure alternate cover.

If you were wondering, right now there's 200 different goals that the script randomizes between when adding a new goal to your list.

We might add more as we think of them.

Here's the link to my shelf.

Only ~40 minutes until game time! Anyone have any W titles? I have one if we really need it, but I was hoping to get through a few of my soon to be overdue library books first! lol

I have Winter's Tale on my to read soon pile. I can move it up if needed, like I can start it tonight. I would probably not finish it until Monday as it's a big book, but it could take care of that goal.

Thanks, Kate ! :)

Has anybody heard from Dragana ? She is the only one missing to the party !

Hi, Team!
I plan to start reading Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni today (with 1,385 ratings at the moment) to cover task #1.

Also FYI I've just checked my TBR of owned books and I also have a possible title where a character's first name starts with the letter K.
If needed I can also add it to my future readings (since book for task #1 is rather short), but I don't want to step on anyone's toes ;)

Time to unleash our power, girls ! :)

Just as a reminder, please dont forget to update your finished reads here, I will be checking atleast twice a day (possibly more.. hey ! I am a GoodReads addict :P) so that I can update the spreadsheet real-time as far as possible.

Also, make sure to add all your read books to your designated shelf. I will lurking around your shelves as well. (Geez ! I do sound creepy)

All the best ! :)
*runs off to polish his weapons*

Hi all, I'm sorry I am late to the party. I love Goodreads challenges and games, so this challenge is a like made for me. :)

My shelf for this challenge will be: nbrc-the-gladiator-games.

Congrats on big event in September Vicky. :)

I will not be offended if someone else finishes up before me and complete my goal.
I'll read the whole thread and goals once more before I see which are free and where I can fit in. :)

ETA, so Sara is reading a book for #1, Kate's got a book for #3, I'll dig trough the books I got to find the one where character's first name starts with the letter K. :)

ETA2: I will read The Invasion of the Tearling - main character is called Kelsea and it has more than 1000 reviews, so it can be used for gals 1 or 2. And it's over 500 pages so it will bring more points. ;)

Sara wrote: "Hi, Team!
I plan to start reading Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni today (with 1,385 ratings at the moment) to cover task #1."

Sara, Margherita Dolcevita has 1385 ratings and 114 reviews. We need a book with more than a 1000 reviews, so that one would not specifically work for that goal.

We can always use it as a book towards our attack points though. :)

Apoorv wrote: "Sara, Margherita Dolcevita has 1385 ratings and 114 reviews. We need a book with more than a 1000 reviews, so that one would not specifically work for that goal.

We can always use it as a book towards our attack points though. :) "

Oh my, I don't know how I could do that but I obviously read reviews and confused it with ratings. Sorry!
We might use it for attack points or wait to see if it satisfies any upcoming task, or am I wrong again? :)

However, I still have a book for our 1st task: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I'm going to read this edition!

I am flying through Winter's Tale! I am enjoying it quite a bit. I expect to be finished with it this evening.

Apoorv wrote: "Sara wrote: "Hi, Team!
I plan to start reading Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni today (with 1,385 ratings at the moment) to cover task #1."

Sara, [book:Margherita Dolcevita|210..."

There you are...I have been looking for you....

Me, Abbie? :)

Apoorv...
I always hunt for him in these challenges, cause I know he is hidding some where around.

Abbie wrote: "Apoorv...
I always hunt for him in these challenges, cause I know he is hidding some where around."

Ah, okay. Thought you quoted my message instead ;)

@Sara We can definitely use it for a goal later in the round! All books read count for attack points, even those we use for defensive goals. :)

I started reading Lots of Illusion last night (I'm on my phone and can't link it), which unfortunately doesn't meet any of our current goals but it's a quick read and I have to get it back to the library! lol I just got back from a 5 mile hike and am planning to head to the pool for some relaxing reading time.

Vicky wrote: "@Sara We can definitely use it for a goal later in the round! All books read count for attack points, even those we use for defensive goals. :)

I started reading Lots of Illusion last night (I'm ..."

Great then, thank you Vicky!
I finished it today but I'm not sure that we can add it to our spreadsheet already since we prefer to reserve it for upcoming tasks. Or can we? However, here it is:


Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni
Date Read: 02/08/15
# Pages: 207
Goal: None
Points: Attack 0.5 — Defense 0

Have a great relaxing time at the pool! :)

Abbie wrote: "Apoorv...
I always hunt for him in these challenges, cause I know he is hidding some where around."

Its become a serious addiction for me.
Just cant stay away from team challenges.. and hey, you are partially responsible for that too Abbie !

The consecutive 3 challenges we did together more than a year ago (which I had an absolute blast in) were the triggers :P

*secretly thanks Abbie* :D

P.S. BTW, which team are you in ? Couldnt find you. I hope we team up in the up-coming rounds, when the teams fuse.

Sara wrote: "Vicky wrote: "@Sara We can definitely use it for a goal later in the round! All books read count for attack points, even those we use for defensive goals. :)

I started reading Lots of Illusion la..."


WTG, Sara, the spreadsheet is updated, just so that I dont lose track of things.
Incase if we have to move stuff around later.. we can, I guess !

Sara wrote: "I finished it today but I'm not sure that we can add it to our spreadsheet already since we prefer to reserve it for upcoming tasks. Or can we? However, here it is:

Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni
Margherita Dolcevita by Stefano Benni"

I have to know, did you enjoy this? Have you read other books by this author. It looks entertaining, but I am not familiar with this book or the author.

Finished



Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Date: August 2
Pages: 748
Goal: Book starts with a W
Points: Attack 1-Defense 1

My next books are

Sweetland by Michael Crummey
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong AND
Go Set a Watchman

Happy to read them in whatever order most benefits the team. :)

Kate S wrote: "Finished



Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Date: August 2
Pages: 748
Goal: Book starts with a W
Points: Attack 1-Defense 1"

Way to go, Kate! How did you like it?

Regarding Margherita Dolcevita, it was my first book from Stefano Benni and unfortunately I can't say I actually liked this book. It was rather entertaining but a bit too bizarre for me I guess :) And also, I'm not a big fan of magical realism so...
Interesting that you know Italian authors though!

Apoorv wrote: "WTG, Sara, the spreadsheet is updated, just so that I dont lose track of things.
Incase if we have to move stuff around later.. we can, I guess !"

Great :) Thanks for the quick update, Apoorv! Spreadsheet looks so neat!
But just a note: the book title is Dolcevita, not Dolchevita ;)

BTW, just started reading Ladra (Fingersmith) by Sarah Waters.

I couldn't put it down. It is a bit of magical realism, but the language was absolutely beautiful!

When books say absurd, I get a bit nervous. I have enjoyed some absurdist fiction, but far too often it is beyond my comprehension (or maybe just my enjoyment). I read authors from anywhere I can find them! I have read a handful of books from Italian authors, I find Italian history somewhat fascinating.

Kate S wrote: "I couldn't put it down. It is a bit of magical realism, but the language was absolutely beautiful!

When books say absurd, I get a bit nervous. I have enjoyed some absurdist fiction, but far too..."

I've heard many positive comments about Winter's Tale language so I've just added it to my TBR :)
Now I'm curious to see what our next task will be!

And I wish I could read "Go Set a Watchman" as well already but I don't know how long I have to wait until the Italian edition will be released...

Mark Helperin is definitely a wordsmith. I enjoyed his language play as well as the descriptive prose he employed. It's not everyday I can devour a 750 page book :).

I was very lucky to have a birthday right around the release of Go Set a Watchmen, so I was gifted a copy and am no longer on the wait list at my library. How long does it take to get a book like this in Italian?

Woopie on completing the first goal, Kate.
We have our new goal.

Read a book which has the main location (setting) as a bus, train, or other road based vehicle

Apoorv wrote: "Woopie on completing the first goal, Kate.
We have our new goal.

Read a book which has the main location (setting) as a bus, train, or other road based vehicle"

YAY for our new goal!
"Murder on the Orient Express" maybe? Captain Obvious here ;)

Sara wrote: ""Murder on the Orient Express" maybe? Captain Obvious here ;) "

I am absolutely thinking of the same book.. and a couple of other Agatha Christie books.

Does anyone have anything lined up which includes any of this ? Else I am going to start my search. Would be interesting ! :)

Apoorv wrote: "Sara wrote: "Vicky wrote: "@Sara We can definitely use it for a goal later in the round! All books read count for attack points, even those we use for defensive goals. :)

I started reading Lots o..."


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