Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Members
Audrey (CAPTAIN)
Elinaly
Agnès Renié
Camilla
Jane
Imke
Erin
Cristina


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

Reserved

Reserved

♦ Team Rankings: here

♦ Team Emerald's Wheelathon shelves:

Cristina: challenge
Erin: wheelathon
Agnès: wheelathon II
Imke: w-a-t II
Camilla: wat 2015
Jane: wheel-a-thon 2
Elinaly: wheelathon 2015
Audrey: wheel-a-thon 2015

♦ Weekly Deadlines:

*Post finished books each Saturday (NA) / Sunday (EU) before: Time Zone Converter
==> Countdown to Round 8 - FINAL ROUND

♦ Wheelathon II Rules:

Points

10 points - Books less than 500 pages
20 points - Books more than 500 pages
15 points - Complete spell-it-out word
30 points - At least 50% bookcover colour
20 points - write BOM discussion questions

What can be used for the spell-it-out

- The author's first or last name
- The book title
- The series title
- The characters first name, last name or nickname
- The narrator's first or last name (audiobooks)

(view spoiler)[◈ The team with the highest points at the end of the 8 weeks wins!
◈ Each week the mods will “spin the wheel" and assign each team a colour name
◈ The team's task is to read books to spell out the colour name for 10 points per letter for books of less than 500 pages and 20 points per letter for books of 500 pages or more
◈ The team will get an extra 15 completion points if all the letters in the colour name are part of their spell-it-out
◈ The team will get an additional 30 bonus points if at least one person in the group reads a book of that colour (the book cover must be about 50% of that colour)
◈ Once teams have read their colour name for the week they can "re-read" the colour name to gain more points (10 points per letter for books of less than 500 pages and 20 points per letter for books of 500 pages or more , but no additional completion points).
◈ BOM bonus: Have a team member write discussion questions for a day of a Book of the Month (BOM) and receive 20 points (limit one BOM bonus per book per team ; that is, if two of your teamies write DQs for the same BOM, you still only get 20 points). NOTE: You can volunteer on the BOM thread to write DQs. If we have more volunteers than days available 3 days prior to the BOM start, then the volunteers will be chosen using a randomizer. If you volunteer and do not write your allocated DQs without notice then you will not be eligible to nominate yourself again for the duration of this challenge
◈ Books must be more than 160 pages in length. Children's books, Graphic Novels, Cookbooks and Poetry books cannot be used unless by word count they can be verified as more than 160 pages
◈Only books read during the specified week can be used (“read date” is what counts, not the day you start.) Books cannot be “banked” from previous weeks to use later in the challenge. (hide spoiler)]

Colours
(view spoiler)[Blue Violet (blue cover)
Cerulean (blue cover)
Dandelion (yellow cover)
Goldenrod (yellow cover)
Mulberry (purple cover)
Fuchsia (purple cover)
Maize (brown cover)
Almond (brown cover)
Pink Flamingo (pink cover)
Wild strawberry (pink cover)
Shamrock (green cover)
Inchworm (green cover)
Neon Carrot (orange cover)
Apricot (orange cover)
Licorice (black cover)
Black coral (black cover)
Cultured (white cover)
Baby powder (white cover)
Sonic Silver (grey cover)
Granite gray (grey cover)
Brick Red (red cover)
Scarlet (red cover)
Changeables (any colour you choose)
Heads 'n tails (any colour you choose) (hide spoiler)]

Team Emerald - TRACKING SHEET

♦ Week 1 (22 - 28 March): Pink Flamingo



Total Points: 395

✔ Pink cover: Mõrv maasika-vahukooretordiga by Joanne Fluke - Elinaly

✔ BOM DQ's: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - Imke
✔ Letters: 12/12
✔ Number of readthrough: 2

♦ Week 2 (29 March - 5 April): Maize



Total Points: 315

✔ Brown cover: Fortuna tütar by Isabel Allende - Elinaly

- BOM DQ's: no
✔ Letters: 5/5
✔ Number of readthrough: 4

♦ Week 3 (6 April - 12 April): Almond



Total Points: 305

✔ Brown cover: Slow Apocalypse by John Varley - Camilla

- BOM DQ's: no
✔ Letters: 6/6
✔ Number of readthrough: 4

♦ Week 4 (12 - 19 April): Pink Flamingo



Total Points: 325

✔ Pink cover: My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland - Imke

✔ BOM DQ's: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton - Imke
✔ Letters: 12/12
✔ Number of readthrough: 1

♦ Week 5 (19 - 26 April): Neon Carrot



Total Points: 265

✔ Orange cover: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared - Imke

- BOM DQ's: no
✔ Letters: 10/10
✔ Number of readthrough: 1

♦ Week 6 (26 April - 3 May): Fuchsia



Total Points: 315

✔ Purple cover: Fifth Grave Past the Light by Darynda Jones - Imke

- BOM DQ's: No
✔ Letters: 7/7
✔ Number of readthrough: 3

♦ Week 7 (3 - 10 May): Shamrock



Total Points: 245

✔ Green cover: Everlost by Neal Shusterman - Elinaly

✔ BOM DQ's: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - Imke
✔ Letters: 8/8
✔ Number of readthrough: 2

*Green Teams Mini-Challenge: 220

♦ Week 8 (10 - 17 May): Black Coral



Total Points: 295

✔ Black cover: Iso paha susi by James Patterson - Camilla

✔ BOM DQ's: Red Rising by Pierce Brown - Imke
✔ Letters: 10/10
✔ Number of readthrough: 2

*Green Teams Mini-Challenge: 430

Hi team! I'm Audrey, your team captain, my favourite genres are historical fiction, mystery, urban-fantasy, and occasionally romance. But I will try anything and I'm open to recommendations.

I hope everyone is getting excited for this second round of Wheelathon :) I participated to the wheelathon challenge last year, and had a great time. If there are questions or suggestions please feel free to post them here or send them via pm.

When checking in could you please link your challenge shelf as well.

(Btw I love the gemstone our team got!)

Hei-hei teammates!

This is the first time for me to participate in such challenge, but I promise to give 110%! :)
(Nice gem indeed!)

I read any genre (always ready to try anything new), maybe little less excited about romances.

My challenge shelf can be found HERE

Hi Elinaly and welcome to Wheelathon! Hope you're going to have a great time with us :)

@ Teammates: Our first spell-it-out word has been announced already (see spreadsheet in post 1), it's Pink Flamingo. I've put all the practical info about the challenge in one of the first posts. Tell me if I need to change something to make it easier for our team.

How we do this?
Everyone will tell which book(s) they are going to read this week and then we observe that the word of the week will be "spelled out"?
And of course at least one of us will have to "choose the book by its cover colour" :D

Btw, I am from Europa (Estonia) and I will be reading books in English, but also in Estonian.
With the translated books the rule is I belive that the version you read counts, right? (the first letter of the title and the colour of the cover)

May we start planning what to read? (=:

PS! I'm afraid I'm able to start and finish only one book in a week. (sry)

Hey AudreyJane! Just popping in to wish you and your team the best of luck. Have fun!

Oh dear, how its possible to read over 10 books just in a week?!? (I peeked other teams discussions) :D

Is it ok to post the books f.e. like this?:

I'm planning to read:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millennium series)
Title: G
Author: L
Series: M
Characters: L (Lisbeth); M (Mikael)
Bonus: 630 pages!
Cover: no


This way it's easier for a captain to decide which letter to use (which one from the week's word isn't covered)

PS! Amazing poster for pinkflamingo (very motivating!) LOL

@ Elinaly: Thanks Elinaly, that looks great! And very good you're already snooping around on other team's threads, we need all the inside information we can get ;)
Remember the start date doesn't matter, it's the finished date that counts. Also don't forget to put your book on your wheelathon shelf once finished.

Yes, indeed it's the version you read that counts, and that can be one of our advantages when it comes to difficult letters to find in the English language :) I think most of our teammates our from Europe and some of us might be reading in other languages too.

Of course you may! If we succeed in spelling out the word once entirely then we're all pretty much free to read what we want afterwards, since we can't claim completion points twice.

No worries, as long as you can contribute one way or another, have fun, and enjoy your books :)

Elinaly wrote: "Oh dear, how its possible to read over 10 books just in a week?!? (I peeked other teams discussions)"

Yes I know, I wish I could do that. But luckily we have all kinds of readers on our team too. I also think it depends on which books you read and how many pages.

Hi team Emerald!

I am one of the NBRC Mods and I have been assigned as the "mentor" for the green teams (Jade, Emerald and Malachite) which means I'm here to help out your captain and check your weekly submissions.

For those who didn't play the first wheelathon, a tip from me is that the "tougher" letters to spell were E,N,Y,I so keep an eye out for books that may count for these letters.

Your team spreadsheet has been set up for you to allocate your books and points. You may also want to set up a tracking spreadsheet to help you track all the different options for your books. I've done one for Malachite here ; if you'd like one set up for you just let me know. Audrey, I'll also need you email you use for google docs to give you edit rights.

That's about it for now. Enjoy planning over the next week!!

Hello teammates! I'm excited to start my first Wheel-A-Thon! I'm Camilla from Finland, working full-time, so will not be able to read 10 books per week, LOL! usually I manage 2-3 books per week. I read mostly fantasy, horror, scifi, non-fiction and thrillers. My shelf for the challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Elinaly wrote: "Oh dear, how its possible to read over 10 books just in a week?!? (I peeked other teams discussions) :D..."

Don't worry, all teams have been set up with a total average per team of 85 books per month. So some teams have less players (but bigger readers), and others more players and smaller readers. It should all work out in the end ;)

Hi team-mates.

I am Jane and I am from Denmark.

My shelf is wheel-a-thon-2

If possible, for the first week I would like to read Never Saw it Coming by Linwood Barclay , since I need to return it to the library on the 23rd of March. It would cover N for title or L for author's first name.

Thanks Karen! Send you a PM. We would gladly use the tracking spreadsheet.

Welcome Camilla and Jane!

No worries Camilla, 2/3 books per week is good. That's pretty much my reading speed too. Your book looks good.

Jane, great to be on the same team :)

I'm planning to read A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter which works for letters K, F, L, A, G. I can also cover the letters I and O with my next read if needed, the pink cover will be a bit tricky though.

Is there a thread where we can get covers approved? Sometimes I'm unsure whether they contain enough of the required color. Would this be pink enough?

It's difficult to say. I'm going to ask the Wheel Master once everything is set up ;)

Meanwhile there's still the tool we used during TT: http://www.coolphptools.com/color_ext...

Hey Team

I'm Imke and I'm from The Netherlands. This is my second wheel-a-thon and this is my shelve: w-a-t-ii.
I'm not sure what I'll be reading for the wheel-a-thon, but I'll be planning some books this week.

I'm planning on reading book of the month: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr starting on March 19 and I've volunteerd to write a set of discussion questions.

I really try to plan but I am not very good at it as I have a few challenges going on. But I read a fair bit and should be able to throw some letters out there on short notice.

Audrey Jane wrote: "It's difficult to say. I'm going to ask the Wheel Master once everything is set up ;)

Meanwhile there's still the tool we used during TT: http://www.coolphptools.com/color_ext..."

I tested the book Camilla pointed out and the result said 53% (counting 4 different shades of pink).
So it seems pink enough :)

PS! (sry for the stupid question)
why we have 3 "pinkflamingo" words in our spreadsheet?
The more words we complete during the week, the more points we get?
(and only for letters, because the bonus points only count once - cover and one complete word?)

Hi Imke! Glad you're part of our team. Great for the BOM, I hope it's a good one.

@ Jane: I completely understand. I'm planning to let everybody read what they want. When we're closer to the deadline we can discuss our options to fill in the possible gap(s).

@ Elinaly: No worries. Yes, you got it right. Some teams will be able to spell their word multiple times, but after the first spell-it-out they can only claim points for their letters.

I´m gonna try to read also another book (as the read-date counts, I think I can manage):

Mõrv maasika-vahukooretordiga by Joanne Fluke
(It´s a translation of Strawberry Shortcake Murder)

Title: M
Author: F
Series: -
Characters: dont know yet
Bonus: -
Cover: yes!!! :D


That should cover our cover-problem ;)

Oh, so great we have team-mates all from different corners of Europe!

We have Belgium, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, The Netherlands, France...

Nice to meet you all! :)

Hi Agnès! Welcome to the challenge, it's going to be lots of fun :)

@ Elinaly: Isn't that amazing! Partly why I love doing this challenges is getting to know other readers around the world.
Great for the pink cover Elinaly :) I've tried a few cozy mysteries before but never that one. I'm currently quite enjoying police procedurals/mysteries.

I guess it's a bit late for it but since we're Team Emerald I feel obliged :p
So, Happy everyone! We're going to have some great craic the next 8 weeks ;)

@ Agnès: Yes, that's good for me :) Hope they are good ones.

Team, I quickly checked and put all the letters we had with the planned reads so far. This round our difficult letters seems to be: I, N and O.

Here is a link that may help ;)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I have a few Ilona Andrews books on my TBR. I've made a wheel a thon possible shelve (w-a-t-possibles) and I can pick from that shelve what I would like to read or the letters that are needed.

I'm working on the following books:

Forgotten Sins by Rebecca Zanetti 384 pages
Works for F - Title, M - Character Matt or N - Character Nathan (Nate)

The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon 510 pages
Works for M - Title, P - Character Paige or N - Character Nick

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 531 pages
Works for A - Title, P - Character Werner Pfennig, M and L - Character Marie-Laure LeBlanc, F - Character Frank Volkheimer
Also for bonus points I'm writing DQ's on March 22. I will post the link to the questions.link to discussion questions

I'm currently in the middle of In the Woods and will finish it only after the start of the challenge, so there is one I accounted for in the title.

Great Imke & Camilla! Thanks for taking care of the BOM DQ.
I still have a couple of The Edge books by Ilona Andrews too. Can't wait for the next Kate Daniels book!

I've recently been recommended Rosemary and Rue (series October Daye), it's good for letter O so I'm going to keep it close just in case.

I've currently put our planned reads with the letters in post 5 to give us an overview of what we have already. I'm going to give it more thought and organise it better during the weekend :)

As Maria (6) and Shannon (4) have not checked-in or responded to PMs, they have been replaced with Erin (10).

Please welcome her to the team!

Hey, that's me! Hi team!

I had a little blurb all written and GR ate it.
My Shelf

I am from Canada, which I think puts me on a different continent than the rest of the team. I will try to plan, but I read a lot of review copies and need to have them read by specific days.

Welcome Erin!

Hi Erin

Hei Erin and big welcome! :)

So, we can only get one letter per book we read, yes? I am working on one called The Infinite by Lori M Lee, with a main character Kai. So I can only get I or L or K, not all three?

Welcome Erin.

Erin wrote: "So, we can only get one letter per book we read, yes? I am working on one called The Infinite by Lori M Lee, with a main character Kai. So I can only get I or L or K, not all three?"

Yes, at least that's how I've understood the rules.

Erin wrote: "So, we can only get one letter per book we read, yes? I am working on one called The Infinite by Lori M Lee, with a main character Kai. So I can only get I or L or K, not all three?"

Yes.

Hi Erin! I will check in as much as I can ;) You may plan or not it's up to you. I've put everyone's timezone in post 4 under time zone converter, I took a wild guess and put Ottawa, tell me if I need to change it :)

Almost there Team! Official countdown here.

Audrey Jane wrote: "Almost there Team! Official countdown here."

Yay, can't wait to start! Although the start time is 3 am here, so pretty sure I will not start reading at that exact moment, LOL!

I'm currently reading also Persuasion, it will work for several letters (at least P, A, M, L) as there are many characters in it. But will check the letters when reporting (not until Friday, as I am listening to it while commuting and still have five CDs left to listen to).