Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team One Flew Over the Couscous Nest




Team members

❅ Bouchra Rebiai
❅ Mary C
❅ Meghna
❅ Pooja
❅ Karolyn
❅ Vanessa

Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Status Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Well, hello everyone! Who is going to be in charge of the spreadsheets? Karolyn I believe you and one more person offered, if I'm not mistaken. Can you both please email your Gmail emails to the mod so they can share the spreadsheet editing access with you as well?

Hey everyone! I requested editing access to the spreadsheet and will play around with it a bit later this week - I'm still trying to figure out the rules.

Looking forward to "cooking" with all of you - I need to keep my momentum going after Tower Teams. I live in Missouri in the middle of the USA and like to read historical fiction, suspense/thriller/crime, horror, and non-fiction.

Hello!!
I live in Tanzania(Africa).
I love to read Romance, Thriller/Mystery, Middle grade, YA, Contemporary.
Its my first time joining a game like this..


Lets Cook and Eat the Books

:)

Hi! Sorry my daughter and I took a day trip to New Haven CT yesterday. We're both into photography so we walked around Yale University and the old cemetery. Great area for interesting architecture and such.

I'm Mary, I'm from Massachusetts but I've lived all over the US. Back in Mass for several years now. I'm married and Mom to a 24yr old college student and a 6 year old Boxer/Pit mix Lucy. She's my profile picture. I read just about everything although not a huge fan of anything overly religious, or teen romance. I love non-fiction so if there's a need for that in this at all, I'm your reader.

I'm pretty good with spreadsheets but more with excel. Not sure how different that is from google sheets.

I would think we'd allow all the players to add their own books to the spreadsheets and fill in all the tasks that apply. That's what most games like this seem to do anyway.

I should point out that I did not play this game before so I'm still a little clueless as to how it works.

Howdy folks!

My name is Vanessa and I live in Kentucky in the US. I am a married mother of four. My favorite genres to read are fantasy (epic fantasy, paranormal, urban fantasy), contemporary romance, and science fiction. I like to read both adult and young adult titles. I do read other things here and there but those are my preferred genres.

I sent a message to the mod profile to add my email for the spreadsheets. Is everyone getting access so we can add our books individually or are only a few people on the team supposed to do that? I figured that is what would happen and then a few other people would make sure everything is in the right place.

I'm excited to get started with this challenge! =D

Are we ready to start playing in 2 days? I'm going to check out some food/coffee themed mysteries and romances. There's a lot of them and they should be good for meeting the tasks. Which I'm still kind of vague on because I haven't really looked a the the game yet.

One thought on the spreadsheet: if we want to have a "captain" to do the official page, we can create a duplicate workbook or just add a sheet for people to list their books and what options they work for that the captain can then use to fill in the main sheet.

I personally do not get offended if a book I read is moved around.

Does everyone have spreadsheet access or is there anyone that doesn't want to use the spreadsheet? If everyone is using it then we could add a completion post with options the book works for. Whatever everyone thinks will work best.

I’m a fan of having a “working copy” of the spreadsheet and then the “official” one. For me, it’s less about control and more about having a version we can play with and move things around in where it’s not the end of the world if we mess up a formula.

But happy to do whatever is easiest for the team 😄

I am trying to finish a few podcasts today/tomorrow so I’m ready to read Thursday! I have a ton of travel the next few months, so will be reading on planes, trains, and automobiles this challenge.

I need a few Young Adult, New Adult or LGBTQ for a genre challenge. So I'll be starting with some Flavia DeLuce series books.

It's slow at work today so I thought I'd use Amazon word search for the books I plan to read. Since I mostly listen to audio books, I do that in case I miss key words or locations.

Anyway, the first book I plan to read works for so many options that I'm wondering how we'll work that out on a tracking spreadsheet. I have a personal thread for tracking challenges and I'm marking page numbers. My thought is that if a book works for a lot of options, we can post them in this thread and just note on out working spreadsheet what a book works for and maybe a reference to the completion post #?

For example:
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust read by Mary C 9/1/22 works for coffee, tea, sandwich, fish and chips, post 22

I finished my first book and added it to the spreadsheet. I only added it to the read books tab and I didn't specify where it goes yet so it can be moved around. I will take another look at it to figure that out. I wanted to read the rules one more time before committing to anything. =P

I'm a little confused on the rules myself. Has anyone played this before?

Okay, so I was looking at the rules and I think I have a better understanding. We are trying to either find the words for each meal in our books like a scavenger hunt or we can spell out words for each meal if there are no food items we can use in our books.

I'll copy and past the rules:

🟣CREATING MEALS
Scavenger hunt for words in titles or text or items on cover, or spell out, words as follows:


Fresh meals (must be used within the month - page count of 50 pages or more. No restriction on using children's, graphic novels, etc.)

◈ sandwiches items which would be suitable on a sandwich (for example: bread, butter, lettuce, tomato, ham, chicken, salami, cheese, carrot, cucumber, salt, pepper, beetroot or beets, gherkins or pickles, peanut butter, jam or jelly, vegemite, mustard, honey, pastrami, devon, egg, bacon)
Sandwiches have a minimum of 7 and maximum of 10 items.
◈ fish and chips (fish, or any types of fish, potato, salt, lemon) Note for scavenger hunt only: Must contain all these items (4), add vinegar for bonus points.
Fish and chips have a minimum of 4 and maximum of 5 items.
◈ coffee (coffee or anything coffee related, e.g. latte) ; milk, sugar, cream, water) Can be items to make a coffee, the word coffee, or just a coffee word (e.g. "cappuccino").
Coffee has a minimum of 1 and maximum of 6 items.
◈ tea(tea, milk, sugar, water, cream) Note for scavenger hunt only: Must contain at least tea and water. Other items are optional.
Tea has a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 items.
◈ salad (e.g. salad, lettuce, cucumber, any cheese, tomato, olives, carrot, cucumber, beans, peas, nuts, pear)
Salads have a minimum of 5 and maximum of 15 items.

Frozen meals Can be used in the following month. Page count of 160+. No graphic novels, cookbooks, poetry or childrens books unless audio version is more than 5 hours or wordcount can be verified with arbookfind as more than 40,000 words
◈ pasta (e.g. pasta types, cheese, cream, salt, pepper, chicken, chilli, basil, tomato, garlic)
Pasta have a minimum of 7 and maximum of 10 items.
◈ quiche (e.g. eggs, bacon, leeks, ham, spinach, salt, pepper, pastry)
Quiche have a minimum of 6 and maximum of 10 items.
◈ curries (e.g. beef, lamb, chicken, lentils, potato, sweet potato, carrot, beans, curry powder or paste, turmeric, chilli, cloves, coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic)
Curries have a minimum of 10 and maximum of 15 items.

Desserts, drinks and cocktails ; can be shelved/frozen and used at any point through the challenge. 500+pages. No children's, poetry, graphic novels, plays, cookbooks.
◈ Champagne, wine, liqueur, beer (generic term or a specific brand/type)
◈ Chocolate, fruit, marshmallow, ice cream, custard or any dessert (generic term or a specific type, e.g. “tart”)
◈ Water, Juice, soda, soft drinks (generic term or a specific type, for e.g. Lemonade)
Desserts, drinks and cocktails have a minimum of 1 and maximum of 5 items.
Monthly Special . For Month 1, this is a fresh item which much be used in the month created.
◈ Fijian Chicken Curry (chicken, spice(s) (generic term or a specific type), tomato, coconut milk, chutney, roti, chilli, rice. Must contain chicken, spice(s) and rice. This dish has a minimum of 6 and maximum of 8 items.

🟣SPELL-IT-OUT RULES
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 the first letter of a title is a numerical digit, then you use the first letter of that digit for your spell out (i.e. 1984 is N; 2046 is T; 1Q84 is O)
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.

◾ So for the scavenger hunt the items for the meal have to be found in the text of the book, in the title, or pictured on the cover. If you do not find any of the above words in your books then you can specify so and we will use them for the spell-it-out option. Just indicate so in your completion posts. =)

@Pooja, I added your book to the spreadsheet. =)

If anyone doesn't want to use the sheet just create a completion post with all the info and I will add it to the sheet. Make sure to include all food and drinks located in your book and where you found them.

If you guys can also link the book in your completion posts that would be great. And if you could list your character's names because we can use those for the spell-it-outs. =) Thanks!

FYI: If you don't know how to link to your book just click the link above the comment box that says add book/author and then type in the name of your book. Then you can search and click on it to add it.

Pooja wrote: "I read one small book of it's countable than we can use it
title - return of the mummy
pages - 118
date of read - 2/09/22
read by - Pooja
food available :
bag of peanuts - loc 19
ice- cream - loc..."

Can you link to the book so I know more about the book, please? =)

Pooja wrote: "A little problem sorry for this i can't send link in group it don't allow me because I'm using Android phone . but it allow if i send personally . if u allow me to msg than I will send u personally..."

No worries. If you could just list the name of the author as well I will look up your books that way. =)

Pooja wrote: "ok I will do that . btw i had also created a shelf "restaurant challenge 22" if that help.
thankyou!"

Thank you. That is great. =)

Book 1

Title- This Girl - Colleen Hoover
Pages- 306
Date of read- 5/09/22
Read by- Meghna
Food available:
Cereal - Loc 437
Marshmallow - Loc 442
Coffee - Loc 529
Pizza - Loc 577
Cheese - Loc 608
Sandwich - Loc 608
Soda - Loc 611
Chocolate Milk - Loc 674
Icecream - Loc 1262

Character Name:
Will
Layken
Kel
Caulder
Eddie
Gavin
This Girl

I’ll have a couple of books to update with tomorrow

Hi everyone,

Sorry for being absent the past few days, I had a crazy family thing that took longer than expected, but now I’m firmly headed towards a more organized period of time in my life. I am going to start reading today and I hope to have a few books done by the weekend 😊

Mary C wrote: "I’ll have a couple of books to update with tomorrow"

Sounds good!

Bouchra wrote: "Hi everyone,

Sorry for being absent the past few days, I had a crazy family thing that took longer than expected, but now I’m firmly headed towards a more organized period of time in my life. I am..."

No worries. Life happens. -hugs- I hope you enjoy your reading. =)

I have added all of the completion posts to the spreadsheet. I haven't allotted them into meals yet because honestly, it takes a lot of time to sort through everything and update the sheet with the meals. I will come back to the sheet sporadically and add everyone's books and create meals when I have a moment here and there. Just wanted to let you all know in case you look at the sheet and don't see your books allotted for meals yet. =P

Added 2 books to the spread sheet:

Task options for As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust:

pg 12 "or perhaps a bowl of cream"
pg 56 "I pinched a sugar cube and washed it down with a swig of slightly soured milk"
pg 264 "one that had nibbled on the cheese sandwich"
pg 157 "the vegetable scraper, the cheese grater and the corkscrew"
pg 157 "even a pickle-fork in a pinch"
pg 191 "we picnicked on pink bricks of tinned pork, boiled eggs, and Brazil nuts"
pg 125 "whipping up a dish of chocolate mousse"
pg 14: "Dogger Appeared and offered tea"
pg 194 "your usual cucumber and soggy-lettuce"
pg 194 "still peanut-butter and banana is my own favorite"
pg 235 "sowing sweet-peas and dividing rhubarb"
pg 98 "eating roast-beef and parsnips"
pg 8 "Rainsmith's invariable bottle of champagne"

task options for Murder at Pirate's Cove

pg 26 "Grog-rum, a lot of rum, lime, sugar and beer"
pg 26 "the evening specials: shepherd's pie, meatloaf dinner, and baked mac and cheese"
pg 28 "the Ritz-cracker crust of his mac and cheese"
pg 81 "Ellery spat his morning coffee all over"
pg 150 "cream and sugar, thanks"
pg 156 "Ellery had bought sandwiches, tea and cupcakes"
pg 214 "a real ham"
pg 169 "fragrance of Italian cheese, tomato sauce and sausage"
pg 210 "Ellery fixed himself a Lean Cuisine Comfort Glazed Chicken and a glass of white wine"
pg 90 "lunch of tuna-salad made with avocado, Greek yogurt, arugula and tomatoes on wheat bread"

I just read through the questions thread and I'm more confused on how this game works now. LOL.

So someone who knows what they are doing, please point out if there's a word we really need to find. Or a book page minimum with a certain word. I've just been going by the examples on the spreadsheet.

Mary C wrote: "I just read through the questions thread and I'm more confused on how this game works now. LOL.

So someone who knows what they are doing, please point out if there's a word we really need to find..."

We are searching for food items that we can use for the scavenger hunt or character names that we can use for the spell it out. So just keep track of any food or drink you come across as well as a list of all the characters in the book.

Book 2

Title- Five Go to Smuggler's Top - Enid Blyton
Pages- 266
Date of read- 7/09/22
Read by- Meghna
Food available:
Tea - Loc 72
Buns - Loc 75
Hot Cocoa - Loc 161
Milk Cocoa - Loc 164
Coffee - Loc 704
Meat - Loc 704
Hot Soup - Loc 714
Fruit Cake - Loc 908
Pudding - Loc 959
Bread & Water - Loc 1182
Chocolate Cake - Loc 1233

Character Name:
Julian
Timothy The Dog
Anne
Dick
Fanny
Georgina
Quentin
Pierre Lenoir
MaryBelle
Block
Sarah
Mr. Barling

Five Go to Smuggler's Top

I got that much, lol. But I saw some questions about 500 page books. But I noticed that the longer a book is, the more words you can use out of it.

Should we be listing all the spell out letters as well?

Yes, the spell outs all have to be listed on the Kitchen Meals Created tab. And yes, the longer the book the more times it can be used. And only books over 500 pages can be used for any of the food items at the bottom. The desserts and alcoholic drinks and such.

I just finished updating all the books to the meals tab so we are all caught up! =D

I have a 517 page book coming up with wine in it.

Mary C wrote: "I have a 517 page book coming up with wine in it."

That's awesome. The books that are over 500 pages will be the hardest, I think.

I just checked out The Paris Apartment. I'll answer some BOM questions for the swap out option. But I have a couple of library books to get in first.

Homicide and Halo-Halo

Sundae on cover: Actually Halo-Halo which is apparently a Filipino layered dessert kind of like a sundae or trifle.

pg 9 "coffee and tsokolate on the table" (tsokolate is Filipino hot chocolate.)
pg 1 "blend of guava leaves, rosemary and lavender"
pg 108 "skewers of pork barbecue"
pg 109 "platter of grilled adobo chicken wings"
pg 109 "put a tofu and mushroom skewer on my mountain of rice"
pg 109 "the hard-boiled quail eggs were skewered"
pg 109 "I would make it saltier and add chiles"
pg 72 "a chicken and ginger laced porridge"
pg 152 "as I mixed up the condensed milk frosting"
pg 276 "why would I eat dried fish with chocolate porridge?"

Spell out:
Title: H
MC: Lila Macapagal
Characters:
Elena Torres
Adeena Awan
Benadette
Jonathan Park
Lola Flor
Yuki Soto
Naoko Soto

Lots of reading time for me. I have a bum foot. Having surgery on it next month. Also couldn't sleep last night so I read.


Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
pg 14 "they fixed upon the shrouded beef and lettuce sandwich"
pg 342 "with flasks of lemonade and ginger beer"
pg 110 "holding a glass of wine and a fat and contented cat"
pg 28 'the bitter alkaloid found in tea, coffee and chocolate"
pg 87 "turtle's eggs and coconut milk"
pg 288 "like a rotten egg in ice water"
pg 35 "garden with a salt cellar"
pg 206 "a ham was in the oven"
pg 11 "loving a chicken to distraction"
pg 203 "rewarded with cakes and ale"
pg 349 "one of those gigantic fish"
pg 92 "the bundle of herbs"
pg 75 "like lobster's claws"
pg 137 "Turnip! I said"
pg 14 "two toasted crumpets, still warm, with a slathering of honey on both sides"
pg 18 "I helped myself to a luke-warm kipper"
pg 47 "tea, butter and sugar"
pg 24 "sipping hot toddy"


Dogger
Flavia DeLuce
Alan Bradley
Ophelia Deluce
Daphne Deluce
Mrs. Mullett
Undine
Cynthia Richardson
Mr. Sambridge
Dieter Shrantz

Do you need full on quotes or just the word and location/page?

Mary C wrote: "Do you need full on quotes or just the word and location/page?"

I think that we just need the word or the surrounding words and the location.

Secret at Skull House
pg 47 coffee
pg 227 tea
pg 59 wine, clams, scotch, shrimp, paella, lamb
pg 9 ice cream
pg 132 cream and sugar
pg 178 crab salad
pg 20 pizza, vodka (for pasta sauce?)
pg 135 beef
pg 83 bacon

A: Josh Lanyon
C: Ellery Page
Brandon Abbot
Jack Carson
Susan Lewis
Dylan Carter
Mrs. Nelson
Cyrus Jones
Nan Sweeney
Narrator: Matt Haynes

Ladies, I’m afraid I will have to withdraw. Things got super hectic and I have been falling asleep every time I open a book, I’m that tired.

I really was looking forward to playing, but unfortunately this is going to have to wait for another round when my life is a bit more settled.

Good luck!