Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Agamemnon - AEGEAN



• Melissa (Captain)
• Paula Reyes (Co-Captain)
• Snezana (Co-Captain)
• Bernadette Daniel (Co-Captain)
• Yasmine
• Joy
• Tara Taylor
• Alysa
• Megan
• Holly
• Paris
• Kimber
• Ashley Basile
• Mamacita aka MawMaw
• Alaina Meserole
• Elinor
• Sunflower

Official Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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

.

.

.

General Info
Rules and Information

Page Minimum: 100 pgs
Books with MPGs Childrens / Kids / Poetry / Play / Graphic Novel / Illustrated / Photography / Art (or which have "Illustrated" in the title or an "Illustrator" contributor in the metadata) must have at least 30,000 words
https://www.arbookfind.com/ (there are also .co.uk and .com.au versions)
If we cannot verify word count the book cannot be used so it's always good to check before you start reading. If you are unsure just ask and one of the captains will let you know.

Strategy
The Longer the book the better!

BOM are a great way to get extra points. If you plan on reading for the BOM, please volunteer to write DQs. It's not difficult to do I promise! :)
Only one person per team can write DQ's but you can volunteer as backup in case we are chosen and the person can't participate.

Mini Challenge Tasks: No more than 2 tasks at a time are to be claimed by one team member. This allows everyone the chance to pick up books for the mini. Books will be moved by the captains if needed. All of the books will be used so please don't be upset if something is moved!

IF we get to the point where we are in danger of the Over-Reading Penalty, we will use the books that are longer in length, as long as the Mini challenge is still covered.

Please check in at a minimum once a week to this thread or by posting books on the tracking spreadsheet. It's not fun having to chase people down to check if they are still playing. BUT if life gets in the way (as it tends to do from time to time) please just reach out and let us know you can no longer participate or you'll be quiet for a while but you are still here. We all understand that it happens!

Countdown to the Start
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Spreadsheets:

Main Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Tracking Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
You should only be able to edit the Tracking spreadsheet. Please don’t request access to the Main Spreadsheet - only Captains have access to edit that one.

Team Members
✅Melissa (Captain) - tt9-2022
✅Paula Reyes (Co-Captain)- tower-teams-ix
✅Snezana (Co-Captain)- tt9-muses
✅Bernadette Daniel (Co-Captain) - tt9
✅Yasmine - nbrc-towerteams-9
✅Joy - tt9
✅Tara Taylor - tower-teams-9
✅Alysa - tower-ix-2022
✅Megan - tower-teams-9-the-muses
✅Holly (Rokk) - tt9
✅Paris - tt9
✅Kimber - 2022-towerteam-may-june-july
✅Ashley Basile - rc2022-tower
✅Mamacita aka MawMaw - tower-teams
✅Alaina Meserole - towerteam
✅Elinor - tower-2022

BOM
Current BOM
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

May BOM

The Travelling Cat Chronicles BOM

June BOM

The Book of Cold Cases BOM

June BOM

The Witches Heart BOM

July BOM

Ariadne BOM

July BOM

Malibu Rising BOM

August BOM

Mini Challenges
You will gain 5 points for each task you complete.
For each Muse you complete all the tasks for, you get an additional 10 points.
You may only complete each task once.

Spell out the word(s) using the first letter in the book's title, the first letter in the author's first or last name, or the first letter of a character's first, last, or nick-name, or the first letter of the series name. As always, if the first letter of a title starts with an indefinite or definite article ('A', 'An', 'The', etc.), you may use the first letter of the second word in the title to spell out your chosen word. If you are listening to an audiobook, the first letter in the narrator's first or last name also can be used. We're also allowing for Translators names, as long as the edition you are reading is a translation version.

Meet the Muses Mini Challenge
Only books read and finished from the start of the challenge until 9pm GMT+1 on 31st May will count for the Meet the Muses mini challenge.

Monster Mini Challenge
The official start of the Monster Mini Challenge is June 15, 9pm GMT+1 and runs until July 15th, 9pm GMT +1. Countdown clock to mini challenge start: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

August Mini

Hi everyone! Welcome to Team Agamemnon!

My name is Melissa and I’ll be your captain for TT9. I live in the US right outside of Philadelphia, PA with my husband and 2 teenage daughters. My oldest is graduating high school and heading to college this summer 😭 so there will be some time here and there I’ll be on sporadically throughout the summer. I’ve participated and captained plenty of challenges and I’m excited for this one! TT is my fav team challenge and I always look forward to it every year. Between myself and your other lovely captains you are in good hands this challenge!

My favorite genres to read are mystery, historical fiction, and fantasy though I will usually try anything at least once. I’m taking a break from reading between Uno and TT so I’ll be ready to start in a couple weeks. I used to LOVE the movie Troy. Has anyone else seen it?

I’m glad to see some of you I know and excited to meet those I don’t!! I did send a friend request to everyone so please accept it or let me know if I’ve missed you. Let us know about yourself, where you’re from, what you like to do, favorites, anything really!!

I love a good recommendation too so please feel free to share your favorites with us!

res

res

res

Hii checking in! :) So happy to participate in my second tower teams. I will try to keep up with my reading however until mid June I will be very busy with my exams and projects for my master studies (I'm studying computer science at a university in Switzerland), but after that I should hopefully be able to make up for the time. (I signed up with a reading average of 3 books per month, just as a warning).

My name is Yasmine, I'm Swiss and my favourite genres are fantasy, science fiction and I love reading graphic novels/comics (especially Marvel & DC). Lately I've been trying to read some historical fiction and contemporary works too. I'm still struggling with the romance genre :P

Happy to be part of this team!

Hi everyone! I’m Ashley!

I'm 36 years old, and I own/run a family business (Pet Boutique, Bakery and Grooming Salon). I live in Alabama (CST time zone), but I’m not much of a “southern girl”. I love most genres, but my favorites are PNR/UF and historical fiction. I’m working hard this year to get outside my “box” and read lots of different things, and so far I’m enjoying the change!

This is my first time doing Tower Teams! I just finished co-captaining UNO with Paula, so I’m excited to be on a team with her again (although, she might be sick of me by now!)!

So excited to get to know everyone and read!

PS….
I have a question about the BOM! I would like to participate, but I don’t totally understand the “participation” points. I think I’ve digested the writing of questions portion (other than, is this something we have to sign up for in the main BOM post beforehand?), but how much discussion participation is required to get the other points? And how do we decide which team members are eligible? I suppose it doesn’t really matter unless I am a captain/co-captain and actually allocating points, but I’m just confused!

Hi Yasmine! No worries on the number of books. I'm a slower reader too I've only signed up for 6 books a month. Just read what you can and enjoy!

Hi Ashley! For BOM anyone on the team can participate in answering questions and there is no limit to team members. We can all participate if we want. If you want to volunteer to write DQs you would post in the BOM thread (which is linked in the BOM info above). Only one team member can write DQ's per book. More can volunteer as backup in case the person is not able to write the DQ's when the time comes. To get participation points you need to answer 3 different days worth of questions.

So for example with the May BOM:

I've volunteer to write DQ's and Ashley decides to volunteer as my backup. I'm chosen to write DQs for Day 1 but I couldn't get the book from the library or whatever, Ashley can write the DQ's on my behalf. If I am able to write them then Ashley wouldn't need to. We would get 40 points in addition for a team member writing the DQs.

If myself, Ashley, Bernadette, and Yasmine read the book and answer at least 3 days worth of questions then we could get an additional 80 points (20x4).

Does that make sense?

Hello!! Looking forward to being here! I have taken a long time off of reading challenges since I overwhelmed myself. But I figured this was a good one to come back to 🙂.

I live in southern Illinois with my husband and two kiddos. May is an insane month for me with both kids birthdays and our wedding anniversary. Plus we have a family vacation at the end of the month into the first week of June. I won’t be out of contact, but probably won’t be checking in as much as I would like until mid June.

The last few years I had tried to expand my reading into other genres outside of my usual mystery/thriller preference. As a result my reading was all over the place. Including a major 6 month reading slump. This year I’ve let myself read what I wanted and have gone back to my sweet spot of mystery/thrillers. As a result my reading has picked back up. I’ll still read other things here and there but I realized I need to stay in my wheelhouse.

Anywho, I look forward to meeting everyone and reading with you! Can’t wait to get started!

Yes! Thank you for clarifying. I think I was getting confused about the pre-challenge BOM rules and somehow adding them into the point system you just described!

Hi Tara! I did the same with challenges a couple years back and had to take a break. They are fun but if you try to do too much then it's not as fun anymore! When I started up again I only committed to what I realistically could and only read what I wanted (with a few exceptions) and it is so much better!

Ashley wrote: "Yes! Thank you for clarifying. I think I was getting confused about the pre-challenge BOM rules and somehow adding them into the point system you just described!"

That confused me too LOL don't worry about that part it doesn't give us any points just more chances to be chosen for DQ's. So if it applies to someone definitely let us know but if not no worries.

Melissa (or any other captain)... is there a way I can find out how many books I'm signed up for?

I originally said 10, but then was afraid I might overread and asked the mod to up it to 15, but I'm not sure that was ever done. I know they were super busy with getting the Teams formed. So I just to know which one I need to aim for!

I think there is something somewhere.... I'll see if I can find it...

Edit: Found it! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

It looks like you are still at 10 which is fine because the Over-Reading Penalty is for the entire team for the entire challenge not just individual. So if someone is under their sign up, one of us can read an extra to cover it.

Plus we can always try to read longer books for the page points if we need to. I have no problem doing that :)

My reading depends a lot on what I can get from the library so I don't always plan too far ahead. But I usually try to start with longer books then I can move to shorter ones if I see we need to fill spots for the mini challenge or we have plenty of books left to read.

From looking at the Main spreadsheet it looks like we can read up to 630 books for the entire challenge so plenty to work with. We need a minimum of 84 to read for the May Mini Challenge.

Good Morning Everyone!

My name is Alaina and I live in Northern Virginia. I'm basically a Christmas baby and absolutely love winter. I'm 30 years old but my body likes to pretend that I'm 90 sometimes.

I have two giant fur babies, Dobermans to be exact, who continue to think they are small lap dogs. They are brother and sister and come from the same family line as my first dog. Which I think is their like super super great uncle.

I'm absolutely a dog mom and will probably adopt after these two. Not that I don't love the breeder who has given me three wonderful dogs, but they just keep getting more and more expensive. So, I figured I would dip my toes in adopting next.

Other than that, I work in Business Operations. Love the working from home life because it gives me plenty of opportunity to catch up on reading instead of sitting in traffic for 2+ hours a day.

Speaking of reading, I absolutely love to read. My goal for each year is to try to get to 1,000 books. Sometimes I make it, pass it, or end up nowhere near it. I've never been hit by the dreaded slump, and I hope that I continue to never see it either.

I'm also a MOD for a group within Goodreads, Challenge Corner. I love coming up with challenges and I'm constantly on to update scores or anything else. Other than that, I love to drink wine, watch movies, family game night on holidays or birthdays, or do puzzles. Seriously covid made puzzles a huge weakness of mine.

Oh, and before I forget, this is my first ever Tower Teams. Super excited to participate and will probably ask questions whenever they pop up. As for now, I just need some coffee to wake me up :)

Hello!!
I'm Paula, this will be my 5th Tower Teams, I love this challenge =)
I have a couple of team challenges that I do every year, this is one of them =P

I've been on team challenges before with some of you and I'm happy to see you again (you too Ashley!! you were an awesome cocaptain in UNO)
And I'm excited to meet the ones I haven't played with before =)

I'm 31 years old, I'll be 32 on may 22 =P, I'm from Chile and work in mining consultancy, I work from home 2 weeks and then 2 weeks in the office.

I read almost every genre, but I love Fantasy and Historical Fiction. Recently I've enjoyed books about different cultures and countries, I'm trying to read books from different countries as I realized a couple of years ago that most of the authors I read are from the USA, England and Chile (my country).

I mostly read in spanish, but I can read in english too (it's cheaper sometimes hahaha)

It's probably that I won't join BOMs because those books are difficult for me to get them.

I love planning my TBRs so I'll start using the planning spreadsheet right now =)

Melissa wrote: "From looking at the Main spreadsheet it looks like we can read up to 630 books for the entire challenge so plenty to work with. We need a minimum of 84 to read for the May Mini Challenge."

Holy moly! That's a lot of reading! Ok, I'll just read my little heart out and we can cut 'em if we go over! :)

For the Mini letters, is it only for the book title?

Hello fellow team members - I'm Bernadette. I just finished my first co-captain position in UNO and it was fun

I live about 10 miles outside of Philadelphia, PA. I'm a tax accountant so I'm coming out on my busy work season.

I prefer a real book to an e-book but about 3 years ago I started listening to audiobooks when my work commute changed, and I love them as well and that has increased my reading. I am a big library user and actually served on the Board of Directors of a local library where I grew up for 25 years and am currently on the Board of Directors of the local library where I live now.

I can read almost any genre but do not really like science fiction.

This is my second Tower Teams and am looking forward to it😀

Hello fellow Team Agamemnoners...hmmm... are we Agamemmnites??! :)

I'm Alysa, from NYC. I'm 40, and I've got an 11 year old daughter.
I've been doing NBRC team challenges for over 4 years, and this is my third Tower Teams. I co-captained on my first one, which landed me in minor infamy with some and in fond friendships with others! But I've been a lot less active on GR -- and with reading in general -- since about Fall 2020, because Life. My job changed significantly around that time. So I'll mainly pop in here and there to log my books but probably won't be super active.
Well, I mean, I say that now, but we'll see what happens. Sometimes I just can't help myself when it comes to books and book chatter. And poking of bears.

I've played with a couple of you before, but mostly not! *waves*

@Bernadette --
Nice! I'm actually a librarian in real life, but in an academic library.

Hey Ya'll!
*(& no that ya'll is not spelled wrong if you are from Tennessee or Arkansas like I am)

I'm Mama or MawMaw. Whatever you wanna call me. I'm in my 50s #live in Texas. I am totally a southern girl with a but of a redneck side. I have two grown girls and now two grandbabies. Those grandbabies are my life. They live only 3 hours away but I go at least once a month and spend a week there. I also have 3 rescue pups. 2 Littles & a Big. Molly, Daschund/Min Pin Mix
Brody, Chug Chihuahua Pug mix and Crowley, Black English lab.

This is my second Tower Teams & I love my challenges. I only read romance. But I do read a lot of different sub-genres in that category, especially PNR & Rom Suspense. Right now I'm going thru a Lexi Blake Masters & Mercenaries series.

I can't remember what else I'm supposed to say.

Alysa wrote: "Hello fellow Team Agamemnoners...hmmm... are we Agamemmnites??! :)"

Hi Alysa! I think Agamemnites has a nice ring to it!!

'ello all.

I'm Holly, aka Rokk or Rokkan. I'm 37 years old and live in the UK. This is my second tower teams go around so hopefully I can keep up my good run of reading so far and help out! I also crochet, knit and write a bit (nothing published). My tt9 shelf is here (hopefully this works? the link parses for me but... Iunno if that's just me,y'know?)

Hello Team Agamemnon!

I'm Megan from the US and have played most of the previous Tower challenges - love them! I read a variety of genres, but my current favorites are contemporary, cozy mystery, and thrillers.

Hi Alaina! Wow 1000 books year!! That's impressive! I work from home as well and I love that I can get extra reading done when I'm having a slow day. We've adopted our 3 cats and it's the best :) You'll enjoy TT, it's a lot of fun. Definitely ask questions of anything you're unsure of.

Hi Paula! Great to see you again :) Sometimes that's my problems with the BOM too. They are not always available from the library and I won't pay for it unless it's something I really want to read.

Hi Bernadette! Great to see you again too! :) I've always wanted to work in a library. That's a pretty cool job.

Hi Alysa! I think we are Agamemmnites LOL I love that! I think most of us go through spurts with GR and reading depending on RL.

Hi Mama! Good to see you again too!! :) I'm glad you're back for another TT game!

Hi Rokk! Glad to have you on the team! That's great that you write. I've always wanted to but never was able to put anything down.

Hi Megan! I've started reading more contemporary books and I'm beginning to really enjoy them!

Ashley wrote: "For the Mini letters, is it only for the book title?"

It also includes the Title, Author, Series, Character Names/Nicknames.

Spell out the word(s) using the first letter in the book's title, the first letter in the author's first or last name, or the first letter of a character's first, last, or nick-name, or the first letter of the series name. As always, if the first letter of a title starts with an indefinite or definite article ('A', 'An', 'The', etc.), you may use the first letter of the second word in the title to spell out your chosen word. If you are listening to an audiobook, the first letter in the narrator's first or last name also can be used. We're also allowing for Translators names, as long as the edition you are reading is a translation version.

Ashley wrote: "Melissa wrote: "From looking at the Main spreadsheet it looks like we can read up to 630 books for the entire challenge so plenty to work with. We need a minimum of 84 to read for the May Mini Chal..."

That is the perfect plan!!

@Alysa, we were on the same Wheel VI team with @Melissa as the captain😊 - I'm a huge fan/lover of libraries and librarians.

@Melissa - I live in Media and work in Plymouth Meeting, where are you? Maybe I will work in a library as my retirement job, but for now I'm a CPA/tax accountant (35+ years now)😂🖥️✏️💸

Hello team! I'm Snezana, one of your co-captains. I'm form Serbia and I'm 31 years old. I'm interior designer and I mostly work from home. I have a pug that is nine years old, he was recently very sick but has managed to recover completely and I couldn't be happier about it. I went to visit my best friend in Croatia last week and I loved it so much I am seriously considering moving there next year.

I started doing team challenges last year and got addicted to them. This is my second TT and my first time as co-captain.

Bernadette wrote: "@Alysa, we were on the same Wheel VI team with @Melissa as the captain😊 - I'm a huge fan/lover of libraries and librarians.

@Melissa - I live in Media and work in Plymouth Meeting, where are you? ..."

I’m in Trevose it’s about 10-15 mins from NE Philly. We’re pretty close! I would love to work at a library when I retire. That is definitely one of my possibilities!

Hi Snezana! I’m glad to hear your little pug is alright! I’ve heard Croatia is beautiful but I’ve never been there. Maybe one day.

@Sneznana - Serbia is beautiful too! I have been to Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro and enjoyed all three very much. I'm actually going for two weeks this July to Bosnia and Croatia (a different area than last time). So while I'm there I'll be so close to you :D :D :D

My paternal grandfather was a Bosnian-Serb. Unfortunately not much of the language made its way to me. I've not visited but my younger sister has been to both Serbia and Croatia, and they both looked lovely in the pics she took.

@Melissa - Thank you! I've been to Dubrovnik few years ago and it was great. Now I went to Zagreb and Varazdin which are on the opposite side of the country and I absolutely loved it. I hope you get a chance to go too.

@Alysa - I'm glad you loved it here! What did you visit? I went on vacation to Montenegro a few times, but I haven't visited Bosnia yet. I'm happy you liked this area enough to want to return again! We'll be very close indeed.

@Holly - I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to learn the language, I think it's very beautiful. It's difficult to learn, but I think it's worth it. And I hope you come to visit too, there are a lot of beautiful places to see in all ex-Yugoslavian countries.

I forgot to mention, my favorite genres are fantasy and romance. So I'm planning to read a few longer fantasy books for the challenge. :)

Phew! Checking in - :)

I must have missed some or other message, because I ended up perusing the teams to find myself here :). Looking forward to the challenge - this is my first TT so please bear with me while I get the hang of it.

Signed up for two books a month - but basically read 1200p a month on average so we may want to switch those around a bit ;-).

Now, off to read all your posts. Can't wait to start the challenge!

Snezana wrote: "I forgot to mention, my favorite genres are fantasy and romance. So I'm planning to read a few longer fantasy books for the challenge. :)"

Yay! Another Romance Reader!

Melissa wrote: "Ashley wrote: "For the Mini letters, is it only for the book title?"

It also includes the Title, Author, Series, Character Names/Nicknames.

Spell out the word(s) using the first letter in the bo..."



Captains & Co-Captain Questions (I always have questions)

1. Do you want us to fill our completed & selected books in Spreadsheet? Or in a Thread or both?

2. Do you want both Selection or Completion Posts somewhere or just Completion?

3. Do you want this thread for communication & discussion mostly?

Mamacita aka MawMaw wrote: "(I always have questions)"

Hahahah, I am exactly the same -- gifs and all!

I love this Team already.

Elinor wrote: "Phew! Checking in - :)

I must have missed some or other message, because I ended up perusing the teams to find myself here :). Looking forward to the challenge - this is my first TT so please bear..."

Hi Elinor! Welcome to the team, we're in for a fun three months! If you have any questions just ask. :)