Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Wok on the Wilde Side




Team members

❅ Amanda A
❅ Angie
❅ Anna
❅ Tammie
❅ Trisha
❅ Vicki

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

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

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Hello ladies! I for one am so excited to play this one again! It was quite complex but fun looking for foods and that vinegar! lol I am hoping I will remember a lot from the last time but if not, it'll come.

We have an awesome team! Amanda, I sent you a friend request. Everyone else, we're already friends.

I'll do a brief intro as most of you know me already.

I'm a retired high school teacher who taught English for 25 years, yearbook for 18-19 years, and multicultural literature for 5-6 years.

I'm a mother of 5 grown children, 3 girls and 2 boys. I have 22 grandchildren, 12 boys, 10 girls, and I have 5 greats, 3 boys and 2 girls but in December it will be 3 girls :) I also have 2 dogs, Jazzy, a bichon, and Rocky, a border collie/lab mix found in a box on the side of the road with his 4 siblings just abandoned at approximately 5 weeks of age. My daughter found the box and we rescued Rocky even though we had 2 other dogs at the time. Buddy has since died :( but we love our fur babies.

Favorite genres: historical fiction, mystery, psychological thriller/thriller, romance but not erotica. I've read erotica but I rarely, if ever, found any to be 4-5 star books for me.

OK, down to business! We need a team name other than TBD Soon! lol

I found a few so here goes:
Wok N' Roll
Gochew Grill
Thai One On
Thai the Knot
Lettuce Eat
Thai Us Up
Turnip the Beet
Lord of the Fries

Tammie's Ideas:
Tequila Mockingbird
Custard’s Last Stand
Lettus Eat
Garden of Eaten’

Any other suggestions are welcome!

Hi everyone!!
I think I've played with almost everyone before; looking forward to cooking things up with you all!!

I work in the accounting field for a German company and work 100% from home (I do have occasional work trips but those have calmed down since 2020; before that I was traveling every other week.) I live in East Tennessee. Not married, no kids, but have 2 nieces and 2 nephews that I claim as grandkids. Lol! I'll read pretty much anything but leave Non-Fiction as the very last thing.

I'm not good with names. I like all of the suggestions!

I am borrowing these from another website.
Book related names
Wok on the Wild Side
Don Chipotle
Of Rice and Ramen

I'll have to think which my favorites are, I tried, but it was most of them!!

Hello team!!

I'm a little nervous about this challenge so I hope I can keep up. I've never played this one and just got back in to reading a few months ago after taking about a year off!

I'm in Washington state now, just relocated around the time last year that I stopped reading, and am so happy. I moved back to be near family and I love seeing them all the time again!

I read a lot but tend to read ARC's (I'm behind after taking a year off!) so I hope I can fill in spots we need!

As for names, I love Tequila Mockingbird
but there are so many good ones, I'd be open to all of them!

Hey everyone! I'm Anna. I'm pretty sure everyone knows me but I live in Southern Indiana, am married, and we have one dog, no kids. I work in pediatric healthcare so some of my work weeks are wonky but this fall should be a little better. Plus, we don't have any big trips coming up for the rest of the year but do have a 4 day music festival. I tend to read more romance and thriller books but I'll read almost anything for some good points. I'm not very creative with names but I like all the ones that y'all have tossed out. :)

How about if everyone puts 2-3 of your favorites and then we do a vote. Mine would be


Tequila Mockingbird
Wok on the Wilde Side
Of Rice and Ramen

Ramen restaurants are becoming pretty popular!

I also like Turnip the Beet but that might be more for a health food restaurant.

Amanda might also have some names suggestions.

Hi everyone! I took a break from challenges for a while so I did not play this one last time. I hope it is easy to pick up.

I live in South Carolina and work as an accountant. I'm not married and have no kids, just one very spoiled Yorkie. Lately, I have been reading mostly romance, cozy mysteries and thrillers but I will read almost anything.

I am terrible at coming up with creative team names. My favorite suggestions are Tequila Mockingbird and Wok on the Wild Side.

I like Wok on the Wild Side, Of Rice and Ramen, and Lord of the Fries.

Hi everyone!

I’m traveling this week so not checking in very often.

I’m from Missouri. Married with two grown unmarried children. Each have dogs so love when they visit and I get to spend time with them and their pets. I’ll post a picture when I get back home. I read about 15-30/mo depending on the length of books and how much I’m working. I sell real estate and am finishing a very busy time.

Look forward to making all kinds of interesting/creative meals with you all!

My fav names are:
Tequila Mockingbird
Wok on the Wilde Side

Looks like it’s either Tequila Mockingbird or Wok on the Wilde Side.

Please, everyone pick ONE of those 2 as your favorite and we will have our restaurant name!

I like Tequila Mockingbird

Thanks, Trisha.

I say Wok on the Wilde Side. :)

Thanks, Anna.

Wok on the Wild Side

Thank you, Angie.

I’ll go with Wok

Wok on the Wild Side sounds good to me.

I’ve started planning a few books for September…looking for vinegar and interesting ingredients…oh how I love Kindle for searching!

Kindle saves us! Lol I keep finding food in books and think I shouldn’t read them now but need the ones I am reading for other challenges.

We have our official name now! Woo hoo! I am watching my grandchildren so I cannot see the image that was posted but I can’t wait to get home and look at it on my computer!

An Oscar Wilde quote…not an appealing quote for our restaurant…I guess as long as our customers can’t see it…

Oh no! Hmm…maybe we can make something positive out of it. We’re all smart!

Wonder if the quote is because we used "Wilde" instead of Wild? Lol

I was thinking it was more for the book, Walk on the Wild Side, and not Oscar Wilde.

You're right, Tammie! Not a very appealing quote for a restaurant. Hmmmm, how can we spin that...

I wasn’t really thinking about him either…we could discuss whether we want to…

Wikipedia Def - Wilde
Language(s) Old English
Origin
Meaning "high spirited, a leader"; "a person worth of high respect, dictator"; (descriptive)
"person who has attained a higher form"; "from an area of educated beings: a classist" (residential)[citation needed]
Region of origin England

We’ve got the ‘wok’ in there too…perhaps we could come up with some good names using that too…

Take a Wok Curry
Wok ‘n Roll Salad

Maybe we could do mixture and also use the word "wild" as inspiration.

Lol, I liked the name because I like Chinese/Asian food so I totally was thinking something different. I like doing a mixture but don't know how to spin it.

bamaace83 wrote: "Lol, I liked the name because I like Chinese/Asian food so I totally was thinking something different. I like doing a mixture but don't know how to spin it."

Just go with what sounds right...what rhymes with wok...
wok around the clock
This wok just struck 10 out of 10 for this salad

Feel free to revise and change names if you think of something inspiring too. Just have fun with it!

I'm ready to get started! woohoo!

I can totally do that. I'm ready to start this one too. I'm already trying to pay attention to ingredients in books to get my mind back on that train.

I'm just noticing that we get 80 books for the first round and then 10 more following...it looks like the strategy is the same...to max out the number of meals we need to read longer books if we can.

Do you want us to only enter book options at a certain level to start and save our others for just in case...not sure where it's best to keep track of our extras...maybe we need an extra page for that

Here's the break down
up to 2 scavenger words / spell-it out letters per book >50 pages and <=160 pages
up to 4 scavenger words/ spell-it out letters per book >161 and <=300 pages
up to 8 scavenger words/ spell-it out letters per book >301 pages and <=500 pages
up to 12 scavenger words / spell-it-out letters per book >501 pages

longer books I can do, but I'm still fuzzy on how this is going to work

so my book HAS TO HAVE 4 of the scavenger words, or 8 or 12?
or just ONE of the scavenger hunt words?

and spell out is. . .title and/or author first or last?

and if we're doing coffee, we have to have certain words?

I'm really good if you guys just tell me what to read for! lol

It’s easiest to do scavenger words

If you read a book that has 350 pgs…see post 34 or the ‘meals and points’ tab of our SS…you can use 8 words from that book to make meals

Column D of this same tab gives you examples of how you can use your scavenged words to make meals.

One of us who has done the challenge before can start things off so you have an example.

The best thing to do…as you read your books keep track of all the ingredients you find including dishes.

Example…I just read Sex, Lies and sweet tea

Sweet tea- pgs 24, 55, 60, 70, etc
Lemon pgs 118, 119
Vinegar 59
Fish 174
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich 207
Carrot 207
There’s lots more…

So with this book I could make tea with lemon
Start a fish n chips (which another team member could finish
Start a sandwich as well

It’s ideal to capture as many ingredients as possible so if we have to move things around we can.
You’ll notice fish n chips have required ingredients…fish, chips, salt, lemon…extra point if you can add vinegar…I try to hunt for these ingredients in every book

Take a look at the spreadsheet and it will likely help you a bit until we get going
Link to SS in post 2

Tammie wrote: "I'm just noticing that we get 80 books for the first round and then 10 more following...it looks like the strategy is the same...to max out the number of meals we need to read longer books if we can

Do you want us to only enter book options at a certain level to start and save our others for just in case...not sure where it's best to keep track of our extras...maybe we need an extra page for that...."

I was thinking about this too, Tammie. Here are a few options:
~ We could use 1 page and sort the pages based on page count
~ We could use 1 sheet and color code for 0-300 pages and 301+ pages
~ We could use 2 sheets and put the 301+ page books on the 1st sheet and put all others on the 2nd sheet

There is an advantage to using one page - all the ingredients are easy to sort between - in case we need something that is on a shorter book.

Thank you so much Tammie, for the explanation!

Angie ☯ wrote: "Tammie wrote: "I'm just noticing that we get 80 books for the first round and then 10 more following...it looks like the strategy is the same...to max out the number of meals we need to read longer..."

I’m up for what everyone wants to do…I’m think 1 page…the problem is the SS is blocked at the max number..or is it….could we just put our shorter books at the bottom and not use them unless we need them.

I think this first round for sure…I’m sure we’ll outdo our goal for sure..not sure about other rounds

There is a video explaining how the SS works for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet-> https://www.loom.com/share/071d1cdb91...

A couple of other things I found in the rules…

RESTAURANT NAME
At the start of the challenge, name your restaurant and give a (max. 5 sentence) blurb “about” the restaurant. This may just give you an advantage for round 2….

BOOKS OF THE MONTH
For every team member that participates in a Book of the Month (BOM) (by joining the discussion and/or writing discussion questions) they will be able to swap out two assigned customers for others of their choice.

Angie has good ideas! She’s definitely a fantastic organizer. It’ll take me just a little bit to remember how to do everything but I think it’ll come quickly. I played the first time but I forget so easily. Trisha, it will only take you a minute to get it. I’m ready to start!

Here’s the BOMs I found for September
The Paris Apartment - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The Four Winds - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Vicki wrote: "Angie has good ideas! She’s definitely a fantastic organizer. It’ll take me just a little bit to remember how to do everything but I think it’ll come quickly. I played the first time but I forget s..."

Vicki do we have a team lead with access to mod announcements? I don’t really want to do it, but am curious if we have someone designated

It's been a while since I played this one, so I went looking for my teams SS from that game. We used a planning Spreadsheet to keep a record of all of our books read - with the same info as the Official sheet but additional columns to list the foods found, Letters possible for spell-outs, etc. So there wasn't a limit to the number of books to be entered. It looks like it had conditional formatting to color code the books for the different page counts/levels. At the end of each round, we hid the lines with the books for that round. Of course, the items used have to be moved to the official spreadsheet.

I can make something similar for us, if everything thinks that is a good idea. Basically, I just have to clean that one up.

Personally, I think that would be very helpful. :)

I will clean it up and post it tomorrow so we can decide - we DO NOT have to use it; it won't hurt my feelings at all!

Angie ☯ wrote: "I will clean it up and post it tomorrow so we can decide - we DO NOT have to use it; it won't hurt my feelings at all!"

Would it be a lot more work Angie…having to move everything?

It is more work, that is why I said we don't have to use it. We would just need to copy & paste from 3 tabs to the official sheet, after we have read and made all the meals and after we decide which meals to give our customers. Also, does if matter if the other teams can see what we are making and the number of meals we have before the round ends?

On the official sheet there isn't really anywhere to list all the foods that we find in each book. We can add columns at the end to track the food/page #, but it won't keep the sheet "pretty".

*ETA* I added columns at the end of the Official sheet. Have a look and see if that is how we want to go - or if someone has another suggestion.

Angie ☯ wrote: "It is more work, that is why I said we don't have to use it. We would need to copy past from 3 tabs to the official sheet, after we have read and made all the meals and after we decide which meals ..."

I personally think this plan is best…after a month at making meals I doubt any of us want to be responsible for updating 3 spreadsheets.

I also don’t think we need a special thread either, but am glad to if we want todo that…has anyone else done this?

What if we make a template and use it to post here in this thread if we don’t put a book on the SS. We could always add those later as needed. Use it for short books or whatever?

What do you all think?