Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Welcome everyone! We, the Muses, are happy to have you here with us for any and all conversations as you prepare your minds to be struck by our divine inspiration over the coming months.

After the divine inspiration I'll get here, I suspect my mind will never be the same!

What do muses drink? There needs to be a muse-based drinking game here soon, I think. Probably about a week after Uno ends, and TT hasn't started yet.

I'm so excited about this theme. Lots of potential.

Tower Teams IX - Woo Hoo. Let the games begin..

Suzanne wrote: "After the divine inspiration I'll get here, I suspect my mind will never be the same!"

Is it ever the same after one of these challenges? LOL

I feel like I'm just getting back into really enjoying reading books at the moment... excellent timing!

i'm so very lost, it's pathetic! 😂🤣

PrinzessBookDragon wrote: "i'm so very lost, it's pathetic! 😂🤣"

There's pretty much everything you need to know in the rules thread / this comment specifically: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

oh, i read the rules. i understand that. i'm lost on you guy's jokes! lmao i honestly have no clue what you all are going on about.

Judy wrote: "PrinzessBookDragon wrote: "i'm so very lost, it's pathetic! 😂🤣"

There's pretty much everything you need to know in the rules thread / this comment specifically: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/sho..."

Thanks Judy!

PrinzessBookDragon - don't worry about being lost, a lot of people feel that way in some of the group conversations. There are a few friendships in NBRC which have been going on for over a decade and predictably there are some running jokes it takes some time to get used to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muses gives more background on the Muses of Ancient Greece which might help with some of the challenge chat to start with.

Jenny wrote: "What do muses drink? There needs to be a muse-based drinking game here soon, I think. Probably about a week after Uno ends, and TT hasn't started yet."

Maybe th muses would fancy some mead or something sweet like that?

Possibly Ambrosia - the drink of the gods.

Excited! :)

Sophie wrote: "Possibly Ambrosia - the drink of the gods."

The gods do have delicious drinks :)

Jenny wrote: "What do muses drink? There needs to be a muse-based drinking game here soon, I think. Probably about a week after Uno ends, and TT hasn't started yet."

Or a plain drinking game of sorts. Maybe we get to mix our own drinks with funny names much like meal making on restaurant rocks.

Uh

I suck at keeping my promises of not feeding the muses.

*shakes head at self restraint*

Signed up and praying to the gods for a nice, reliable team, the members of which will actually show up and read a book or two, lol!

I do however need to go shopping, because my stock of longer books is just about run dry. (seriously, I'm going to need a good couple of years between NBRC challenges to re-stock if we're going to stick with the book caps! lol!)

I've signed up too :) I have piles of longer books to read. Most of them +500 pages, but I keep procastinating.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've signed up too :) I have piles of longer books to read. Most of them +500 pages, but I keep procastinating."

Finally, someone that thinks like me that long books start at 500 pages, not 900

*cough* Sammy and Jenny *cough*

Anyway, I have the Cormoran Strike series sitting quietly on by top shelf, (yep, also procrastinating here), plus the illuminae files, plus a few more. And it's about time I read the Tomás Noronha series. Heck, the books are translated to at least english, italian, spanish and greek (and I think a few more) and I still haven't read them.

Quietly sits in the corner, nursing a drink and making notes

Teehee. It's all a matter of perspective. If you read a lot of 1000 page books, a 500 page one is a medium length. If you read mostly 200 page books, a 500 page is a mammoth, lol.

I've never been scared of 1000 page books. I've just run out of the darned things! (I know I could re-read, but I'm desperately trying not to. There are so many books in the world, I don't want to just read the same ones over and over again!)

Sophie wrote: "Quietly sits in the corner, nursing a drink and making notes"

*giggles*

Keep sending the snacks this way please!

Hey all,

I'm definitely in the 500+ pages is loooong group, starting to wonder if signing up for this is wise. I haven't done Tower Teams in a few years but I'm hoping the muses will inspire me to read longer books.

I will be joining again. I have so many books on my TBR that are 500+ pages that I am trying to work through. Most of them are classics I added in 2012 so this will help me clear some of those off, hopefully. Real life may get a bit in the way though.

Alison wrote: "Hey all,

I'm definitely in the 500+ pages is loooong group, starting to wonder if signing up for this is wise. I haven't done Tower Teams in a few years but I'm hoping the muses will inspire me to..."

I'm ok with things that are 500-600 pages long. Over that and I start to struggle unless they've really got my attention.

By snacks do you mean donuts or blondies or tuna bruschetta, or do you mean things like:

you know what would be really cool?

To have a Minotaur Maze type of thing.. after all it's the 9th edition and legend says that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens should be sent every ninth year to be devoured by the Minotaur. So, you could have a special maze made, with traps and riddles, and whatnot, where sometimes the price to pay would be books, and others would be members "eaten" till the only one left is Theseus and the Minotaur is killed?

It could even be a multi-team alliance effort.

I call dibs on Jenny, Judith and a Lust alliance.

*giggles*

Sonia wrote: "Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've signed up too :) I have piles of longer books to read. Most of them +500 pages, but I keep procastinating."

Finally, someone that thinks like me that long books star..."

I've read the first of the Cormoroan Strike series. Not sure if I read the rest. Well, I feel like a gnome next to a book of 900 pages. It's like the Mount Everest. I think, somewhere in a corner, I've got 1 or 2 around 900 pages. Actually, I'm reading The Wandering Inn: Book 1 That's above 1000 pages, haha.

And about 500+ books: there are lots of them that read like a train. Thinking of Gardens of the Moon, The Shadow of What Was Lost...

Hm, Sonia, I love your idea about the Minotaur Maze type.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Hm, Sonia, I love your idea about the Minotaur Maze type."

Thanks :) I really like maze-type challenges :D

Sonia wrote: "By snacks do you mean donuts or blondies or tuna bruschetta, or do you mean things like:

you know what would be really cool?

To have a Minotaur Maze type of thing.. after all it's the 9th editi..."

Tapas is always appreciated.

There may or may not be a maze planned; the muses and gods have their schemes, and mere mortals are at their whims.

Yay, I was hoping for a maze since some of us are already running around in one like rats.

I am in the 500+ pages is long group, yet every year I end up reading one of the giant ones, i.e Wandering Inn, the giant holiday romance collection, which was awful. Cat found my favorite read for the page numbers one with The Hands of the Emperor.

Lexi wrote: "Yay, I was hoping for a maze since some of us are already running around in one like rats."

I almost cried yesterday when I realized that I read the right type of book with the wrong title... fortunately, the page numbers allowed for not to do a crab move. I am back to starting point, though..

I was so upset that when the new task came, I just grabbed the first cut&run book that had the text I needed.

Sophie wrote: "Quietly sits in the corner, nursing a drink and making notes"

Everyone feeling better at Casa de Sophie? I'm just about to make chicken soup, so holler if I should pour some into an envelope or something. (I'm sure I have a waterproof one around here somewhere...) 😂 😂

"The Hands of the Emperor" sounds quite intriguing.

Melindam wrote: ""The Hands of the Emperor" sounds quite intriguing."

It was utterly lovely! Nothing much happened - it is in no way a twisty-turny thriller, but the characters were all compelling - the main one we follow is a middle-aged bureaucrat!

I don't mind that. One of my favourite books "The Goblin Emperor" (500 pager) sounds a bit similar as it concentrates on human relationship and character development mainly ... with some political intrigue.

I highly recommend audio for some of the longer books. I have one or two Wandering Inn books yet to read, and the audio for those is very fun.
Plus, sometimes you get to listen to a brilliant book read exclusively for you by someone with a voice that makes your knees melt, and those long hours and pages fly by. (Waiting patiently for Idris Elba to read a book to me.)

I would love a Lusties maze reunion. Or something.

Melinda, yes The Goblin Emperor and Hands of the Emperor are very similar in that way!. If you like the Goblin Emperor I suspect you'd enjoy the Hands of the Emperor

Jenny totally agree about audio for the long book win!

I think the only way of having a Lusties reunion is to demand a make your own team self directed challenge. Or create one ourselves and demand politely request the mods to run it.

Hands of the Emperor is not available on audio, but it sounds really right up my alley, so I will give it a try.

I can recommend The Goblin Emperor audiobook, I found the narrator to be really good.

Yayyyy for tower teams 9!!

I'm going to have music from Disney's Hercules movie stuck in my head all day now I believe :) "We are the Muses!"

Melindam wrote: "Hands of the Emperor is not available on audio, but it sounds really right up my alley, so I will give it a try.

I can recommend The Goblin Emperor audiobook, I found the narrator to be really good."

Only note I would add is that it is self-published so if you can't read books with typos or the occasional grammar error, it may not be for you.

Just gonna leave this here for Sonia... (Other oglers also welcome)

Thanks for the heads-up, Lexi. :)

And thanks Sammy, on behalf of tge Other Oglers. :)

I can't see it... why?

I am guessing I would also like to be an Other Ogler but I cannot see it either haha