The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

Team Alex Cross

Team Members:

❅ Cat- Captain
❅ Cally Buchel- Co-captain
❅ Lugosifan
❅ Dawn Robinson
❅ Nikki San Miguel
❅ Sassafrasss
❅ Cecily Kyle


♕ Team Spreadsheet

COUNTDOWN to Start!!

Key points:
ALL books must be started after the challenge begins (1 Feb)
Min page count of 100p / 25k words (verified) for Kids / plays etc

UNO Rules
FAQ

Team Spreadsheet - for us to record books as we read / plan, with the different letter options

Official spreadsheet

Competition ranking sheet

❅❅ Cat	uno2019
❅❅ Cally uno-2019
❅❅ Dawn	uno-2019-challenge
❅❅ Nikki uno-2019
❅❅ Sass	uno-2019
❅❅ Cecily unopart2
❅❅ Lugosifan uno-tbr

February Cards

Updated: 20 Feb
ALL CARDS DONE!!!

FEB MINI
Check out the full details here, including the cute crime story we need to solve!

How do we play the mini?
- spell out three phrases
- read 7 books meeting specific criteria
- solve the puzzle (we can ask for clues when we finish some of the clues)

Specific book tasks:
1. Read a book with a housekeeper, maid or servant in the story - Lugosifan - DONE
2. Read a book where the MC works in the medical field - Sass - DONE
3. Read a book tagged MPG science - Cecily - DONE
4. Read a book where a murder occurs - Lugosifan
5. Read a book tagged MPG mystery - Dawn - DONE
6. Read a book based in Sweden or by a Swedish author - Cat - DONE
7. Read a book with an alliterative title - Nikki - DONE

Letters for the spell out:

	#needed	#filled	#left	
S	5	2	3	
N	6	4	2
F	1	0	1	
O	2	1	1	
R	2	1	1	
T	3	2	1	
C	1	0	1	claimed
G	2	1	1	claimed
Q	1	0	1	claimed
U	1	0	1	claimed
TOTAL	14

Things to note:
- we can use books for both the main challenge and the mini
- books used for the mini have to be finished AFTER 8am 14th Feb UK time, but can be started before then (since the challenge started, though, obvs)
- I've added a tab to our planner to help organise
- Shout if you want to claim one or two of the tasks (#1-7) or the tricky letters (Q, I, U, E, V)
- otherwise I'll add a column to the main tab to record any additional letters in the books we're reading

MARCH HANDS:

All Done!

MARCH MINI:

Dawn	6	Read a book with the letters D-N-A in the title 
Sass	9	Read a book with a character who is a nosey neighbour
	12	Read a book with a character that talks a lot
Sass	22	Read a book where someone has a secret family
Nikki?	33	Read a book with the word "arrest" in the text or title
Cecily	34	Read a book with the word "detective" in the text or title
Cecily	36	Read a book where a character needs to be somewhere on time
Cecily	42	R spell out

26 Mar update

Countdown to April: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

APRIL HANDS

Card	#Needed
0	6
1	6
2	12
3	8
4	6
5	5
6	8
7	7
8	8
9	10
Draw 2	7
Reverse	6
Skip	4
Wild	3
WDraw 4	2

COLOURED CARDS
0 Red	1 - Done
1 Green	1
2 Green	2
4 Blue	1
4 Red	2
5 Green	1
5Yellow	1
6 Blue	1
7Yellow	2
8 Red	1
9 Red	1

R

Hello everyone! Welcome to Team Morgan Freeman.... Uh... I mean Alex Cross!

I'll be linking up rules & sheets & stuff shortly, but for now, some intros (with your UNO shelf link too please)!

I'm Cat, in the UK, and I read a bit of everything! This is my 3rd Uno - and I can't wait!

Uno shelf : uno2019

Hi everyone! I'm Sassafrass. I'm in the US on east coast. I think this is my third uno as well. I read mostly romance but sprinkle a bit of everything else in there.

I'm looking forward to playing with everyone. :)

My uno shelf: uno-2019

Hi Sass! Hi Lugosifan!

Hello team! I’m Nikki, currently in Louisiana but moving back to Texas in February. It’s my second time playing uno and I’m super excited. I read a lot of different genres but my top three would probably be sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.

My uno shelf:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hi Nikki!

So far I'm the sole Europe-based reader - you think this is a Brexit commentary by the mods?!
(sorry, sorry, Brexit is SUPER hot topic right now - Parliament is debating the deal, with the vote on it tomorrow....)

Talking of voting, though.... The mods are asking if we would like a separate thread for reporting books read.

I'm inclined to no - if you guys put full details on the tracking sheet (here) and post an update in here on completion, that'll work for me - with the added bonus that we'll be able to see what fab books everyone's reading! BUT.... if you'd prefer to keep book reporting in a separate thread, shout out - I'll happily go with the majority :)

Lugosifan wrote: "Personally I'm voting no as well. The tracking sheet that you've provided - thank you very much by the way - should be simple & convenient enough. :)"

I'd love to claim credit for that tracker, but it's one that the UNO Pixie Mods have had in use for at least a couple of years now!
I do love a spreadsheet, though, so you may find that I start to tinker! ;-)

Hello everyone :)

My name is Dawn and I am also from the UK!

I also read a bit of everything but I particularly like fantasy and historical fiction. This is my second UNO and I'm looking forward to playing with everyone.

Link to my UNO shelf here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I'm happy to use this thread to report the books read. Much easier to keep track on who is reading for which card and also to increase my want-to-read shelf ;)

I don't want a separate read books thread either.
That just ends up making us report so many different places.

And Cat, I guess the mods want you to get used to being on your own. ;)

Hurrah! Dawn! someone else from good ol' Blighty!

Hi! I am popping over from Mikael Blomkvist to wave a coffee-fueled hello at Cat (and the rest). MORNING!!!! (Too loud?)

We have 9 reverses, Cat, so you know I will be suggesting Kadin to the newbies, none of whom I know. This should be fun.

Happy Monday all!

Jenny wrote: "Hi! I am popping over from Mikael Blomkvist to wave a coffee-fueled hello at Cat (and the rest). MORNING!!!! (Too loud?)

We have 9 reverses, Cat, so you know I will be suggesting Kadin to the newbies, none of whom I know. This should be fun..."

You HAVE to let us know when that starts happening! I'll bring the popcorn :)

No prob. Are you sharing here as well, or just being a potential voyeur?

Jenny wrote: "No prob. Are you sharing here as well, or just being a potential voyeur?"

ummm..... *whispers* I've not actually read it yet .....

which doesn't stop me reading it for a K & then everyone else reading for the Reverses....

we might have a plan!

Please read it. You have to know why it keeps coming up in wicked conversations. (And, you don't want to be the only one, do you? Peer pressure is a real thing you know.)

Jenny wrote: "Please read it. You have to know why it keeps coming up in wicked conversations. (And, you don't want to be the only one, do you? Peer pressure is a real thing you know.)"

*teeny voice*No, I don't want to be the only lonely one...

Hahahahaha! Just seen this:


Dawn, lets you & I promise not to try and baffle our teamies with Brit-speak?! ;-P

LOL, that's great. But seriously, how would you know that???

that'd be from our mother's milk, Sass!

You guys, I'm sorry, I just realised the tracker sheet was (still) read only. D'oh! I think I've sorted it now, so you should be able to edit it.

Hi guys, I'm Cally! Sorry for not posting earlier! But, nice to meet you all.

I'm located in California in the San Diego-ish area (meaning I live an hour from the city and my town has limited everything, haha). ;-)

Here's my Uno folder: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hey everyone! I am Cecily! I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. I am an Educational Assistant for a grade 1 student with Autism. This is my second time doing the Uno challenge.
I love to read romance, psychological thrillers, YA, crime dramas. I am not really into fantasy, historical fiction, or paranormal. However, I am usually willing to give pretty much anything a shot.
I am really excited to start!

Haha Cat we can only try!

Whoop! that's everyone present and correct! Yay!

Two requests of the team:
- check-in regularly, and let me or Cally know if you need to drop out / reduce involvement / whathaveyou. It's a fun game, not (and this is a reminder to myself) super-competitive, but it's no fun for the team if members vanish without a word - it makes us worry and then get grumpy. Especially if you vanish on a yellow card book! ;-P

- be kind to each other :) We're all bookish people, so that'll be easy, but always worth agreeing to!

If anyone wants to add another team request, shout out!

In terms of planning - we've a couple of weeks yet before we start, and I get super itchy if I get excited about books that I can't read for weeks, so I wasn't going to get knee-deep into prep until Burn's Night (25 Jan). That's not to stop you from doing so!

If you are of the mind to plan ahead, the tricky cards that we want to fill first are:
- coloured cards
- Wild Draw 4 cards (basically the coloured cards again
- Reverses (read a book that a team member has already read

======
Coloured Cards:
Having said that I don't like getting knee-deep into planning, that doesn't stop me having a little paddle!

Our cards are, with volunteers already:
1 Green
3 Blue - Cat
4 Red
6 Red
7 Red (will also cover a WD4)
8 Yellow - Cat
9 Blue
Wild Draw 4 - 6 off

I've got books that will cover the dreaded Yellow card (and the captains have all been warned that the UNO gods were big fans of Yellow this year, so let's enjoy this month of only one Yellow!)

If anyone else knows that they have books to cover any of those, and want to claim it, shout out.

- speaking of claiming books - in general I've found it much easier on everyone if we don't do much in the way of claiming cards early in the game - with the exception of the coloured & reverses. So, if you are reading a book, I'm going to put it where it fits best! Towards the end of the month, when we have gaps in cards to fill we can be more possessive about cards, and I'm gonna be more directive about what we need!

Reverses:
We've got 6 Reverses to fill. That means finding a book a team member has already read and reading it. It can be a book read before or during UNO.

I've a cunning plan, if you guys are up for it....
Kadin!!!
I don't know how many of you are in NBRC and were in TT Harry Potter, but this is an infamous book of not very high quality that about 90% of the players of Quidditch read. It's short, free on KU, and very very silly.
I thought we could read it to cover the Reverses, and for the group pain-shared fun! Whaddya think???!

@Lugosifan
Are these the editions you have to read?

'cos I'm not sure they are blue / red.
Do you have Newbies in the flesh? Is it obviously (50%) blue? On screen it looks black to me
That ed of Sleepy Hollow doesn't look 50% red to me - if you're going to read a different ed, then make sure that's what's shelved.

I'll double check with the captains' group & get back to you :)

Bad news :( Captain consensus is that neither cover is sufficiently safe to use. Sorry! :(

But... better to know now and find a different plan than to think it'll work and lose points later, right? :)

oh! but if Sleepy Hollow has an N or H character, it'll work the Blue card instead :)

and finally for now, the Mods & Captains group have started a little project to build up a resource for the colour covers, by tagging books with:

uno-red
uno-blue
uno-green
uno-yellow

so that GR will auto create a shelf listing group for ideas:
red covers
blue covers
green covers
yellow covers

They're a bit lightly populated right now, but as GR refreshes that'll start updating for us!

Lugosifan wrote: "Oh, too bad. But, Sleepy Hollow does have the Headless Horseman. That counts, right?"

That's what he's called, like a name / nickname, right? That should count!

Excellent! Let's pop that in against a WD4 for 3 Blue then! :)

Cat wrote: "Whoop! that's everyone present and correct! Yay!

Two requests of the team:
- check-in regularly, and let me or Cally know if you need to drop out / reduce involvement / whathaveyou. It's a fun ga..."

I'm good with this (genius) plan! I'll read Kadin for Reverse. :)

Cat wrote: "and finally for now, the Mods & Captains group have started a little project to build up a resource for the colour covers, by tagging books with:

uno-red
uno-blue
uno-green
uno-yellow

so that GR ..."
That is actually a really really awesome idea, about to compare shelves to all of you lovely teamates to see what I might already own that you have read to help with those pesky reverses (and also to see if I have some yellow cover stuff)

EDIT
These are all ones I could read for reverse and I'm posting the cover I have to visualize ones I could use for colors as well. Since these are books I already have copies of anyone wants to suggest I prioritize any of these please let me know. I would be happy to read any of these :D

From Cat:


Cally


Dawn


Sass


Cecily


Lugosifan

Wow, Nikki, that's a great range of reading!

I can totally recommend Ancillary Justice - superlative sci-fi. Long Way to Small Angry Planet is also brilliant, but in a less plot-driven way - it's more of a pootle along with exploration of what it means to be friends with different people.

I've got the Miss Peregrine's Children books on my kindle somewhere, unread - Cally & Cecily, would you recommend them?

I might do the same exercise later, if I get time... it's always fun to poke about other people's readings to do the compare & contrast & add to the TBR (which never gets shorter, however much I try!!)

Nikki, I am currently reading WOOL by Hugh Howey and am thoroughly enjoying! Would recommend that one :)

I was a bit disappointed by Spellwright to be honest.

I liked Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children but haven't yet read the sequels. You're making me want to re-read it because I could not get into the sequels after the gap in time between the first and secondary books!

It was a good, quick read which is perfect for the UNO challenge. :) It is mostly fantasy but has a bit of history (WWII) and romance which I loved, at the time.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! That will definitely help me narrow down which to read when. I love Goodreads compare books tool, it makes stuff like this soooo much easier.

I saw Borne shelves under uno-green but wanted to verify it would really count as a green.

This is the cover:

Cat wrote: "Wow, Nikki, that's a great range of reading!

I can totally recommend Ancillary Justice - superlative sci-fi. Long Way to Small Angry Planet is also brilliant, but in a less plot-driven way - it's ..."

It was a decent story but I just really liked how the book was put together. You should go for it!

I will do my best to check in as often as possible. I am rather busy these days but definitely plan to do more once the challenge starts! I will really be able to get into the planning this weekend!!

Sorry team, apparently, I'm not getting notifications.

I'll try to catch up on what's been decided.

Cat, I'm in for the sucky book if needed.

Also, I just wanted to let the team know that I'm kind of scare on Monday-Wednesday because that's when I work and I'm around more the other days of the week.