Hooked on Books discussion

Quill Questers Book Quest
Duration: January 2025 to December 2025

Welcome, Quill Questers! This thread is your space to connect, share book recommendations, discuss your reading experiences, and post updates throughout the Book Quest Adventure. 📚✨

🌟 Team Members:
Amanda
Jackie
Janeylou
Kirsten
MN Lisa

📊 Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
🏅 Scoresheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

🏆 *Updated* Scoring System

1. Page Points
0.01 points per page (with rounding)
100 to 149 pgs = 1pt
150 to 249 pgs = 2pts
and so on…

2. Task Completion
10 points for each monthly theme task completed
Maximum of 100 points per month (10 tasks x 10 points)

3. Bonus Genre
Additional 5 points if the task is completed with a book from the monthly bonus genre

4. Reviews and Summaries
5 points for each book review or summary submitted
Reviews must be at least 200 words to qualify

5. Discussions
5 points for active participation in each book discussion
Discussions must be held in the Buddy Read folder with a mod-approved thread

6. Team Reading Challenge
2 bonus points per book if the entire team reads the same book in a month

7. Diversity Reading Bonus
5 bonus points for reading a book by an author from an underrepresented group or a book translated from another language

8. Monthly Milestone Bonus
50 points if the team completes at least 80% of their monthly reading goals

9. Quarterly Milestone Bonuses
25 points if the team maintains an 80% or higher completion rate of their reading goals for the entire quarter

10. Team Balancing Bonus
To recognize teams that exceed their expected reading totals based on their combined maximum capacities, there is a Team Balancing Bonus. This bonus rewards teams for pushing beyond their limits while maintaining individual reading caps:

5% over Expected Total: 50 bonus points
10% over Expected Total: 100 bonus points
15% over Expected Total: 150 bonus points
20% or more over Expected Total: 200 bonus points

Example: If your team has a combined capacity of 36 books but reads 40 books in a month (11.11% over), your team will earn 100 bonus points.

11. Team Improvement Bonus
To encourage consistent growth and effort, there is a Team Improvement Bonus:
If your team increases its total books read compared to the previous month, you’ll earn an additional 30 bonus points. This bonus applies every month, rewarding teams for striving to improve regardless of their starting point.

Example: If your team read 29 books in Month 1 and increases to 35 books in Month 2, you’ll earn this bonus.

12. Adaptive Scoring System
To level the playing field further, there is an Adaptive Scoring System based on each team’s total monthly reading capacity:

Tier 1 (41-50 books): No multiplier
Tier 2 (31-40 books): 1.1x multiplier
Tier 3 (21-30 books): 1.2x multiplier

All points earned by the team (including bonuses) will be multiplied by this factor at the end of each month. However, if your team exceeds its tier’s capacity (e.g., a Tier 3 team with a capacity of 28 books reads into Tier 1 territory by completing 45 books), the multiplier will no longer apply. This adjustment ensures fairness as teams progress into higher tiers.

🌟 Quarterly Mini-Challenges 🌟
Get ready to level up your reading game with our Quarterly Mini-Challenges! These fun challenges are designed to earn you extra points while diving deeper into your reading journey. Remember, to qualify for bonus points, the books must match the monthly tasks! Get reading to multi-task!!

📚 Q1: Themed Reading Week
• Week 1 (January 8-14): Books with Strong Female Leads 💪
Dive into inspiring stories featuring powerful female protagonists. Whether they’re overcoming challenges, leading adventures, or breaking barriers, these characters will motivate you!

• Week 2 (February 12-18): Books About Friendship 🤝
Celebrate the bonds that matter! Choose books that explore the beauty and complexity of friendship, from childhood pals to lifelong companions.

• Week 3 (March 19-25): Books Set in Different Countries 🌍
Travel the world through literature! Read stories set in diverse locations, immersing yourself in different cultures and perspectives. Choose books set in countries different from your own. Each book should represent a unique country.

Points: Earn 15 points per book that fits the weekly theme.

Hello Team!

Hi everyone 👋👋

Hello team!

Oh, hi!

It's nice to meet all y'all. I hope we have a good time playing together (jk).

Hi Team, I've updated your team sheet with the new scoring system: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I am also here

For the Team Reading Bonus, everyone on the team must read the same book.
From the Q&A.

I think we should try and find one book each month to do a BR for.

I agree. And I can absolutely read anything, but I did some pre-planning (it is SO WEIRD not to be doing challenges) and these are some books I've flagged for January Quills:

Read a book about someone starting at a new school. Second Shot (MM romance)
Read a book where a character moves to a new place. We Used to Live Here (mystery/thriller)
Read a book about making New Year's resolutions.
Read a book where a character learns a new skill. I'll Have What He's Having (MM romance; BIPOC)
Read a book about someone starting a new job. The Trade Deadline (MM hockrom)
Read a book where a character reinvents themselves. James (lit fic; BIPOC)
Read a book about overcoming a major life change. Karaoke Queen (MM romance; BIPOC)
Read a book set on New Year's Day. Champagne Charade (MM romance)
Read a book about someone starting over after a setback. Slow Horses (mystery/thriller)
Read a book where a character embarks on a new adventure.

I also have a shelf: quills

I think it's going to be very very difficult as we have some only MM Romance readers and some non romance readers but you can put me in for anything. (I also read Second Shot too recently so not that one either)

Is it 2 points a piece for the bonus or 2 points total? I know it's per book, but is it per book per person? Might be something we want to just not try to force if it's only 2 points per book.

It looks like its 2 per book per person.

I thought I was the only "only MM" Reader in the group? I'm going to try and read outside my normal for at least 12 books this year, more if I find them interesting, so if I'm the only one, we could look at it still.

I thought Janine as well except for her monthly book club book, but could be wrong!

I can go with the group, just didn't want anyone reading something they didn't want to :)

I’m the non romance reader, of course. lol

I actually don’t mind romance if it’s not the whole focus of the story, and even then I can make exceptions. So I’m willing to try.

And I'm not married to any of these--I was just looking at the categories and looking at my tbr and my BIPOC books (because of the 5 point bonus) and seeing what matched up. So if we find something in a category that works for everyone and it's one that I have a book for, I can switch it out.

I've really found during Killer Clowns that buddy reads make mediocre books so much better and it gives me the push to stretch myself.

I could possibly read a crime / mystery book for a non MM book ( although i need to read Love Untold for end of jan )

These tasks look quite hard for me as you need to read the book first to see if it fits ..which is why i always go for the pg count/ cover/ initials

I will be pinching ideas😄

So we only need 1 BR each month , and we all need to join in ?

We don't have to do any BR if we don't want to.

Kirsten wrote: "I agree. And I can absolutely read anything, but I did some pre-planning (it is SO WEIRD not to be doing challenges) and these are some books I've flagged for January Quills:

Read a book about som..."

Kirsten, I plan to read Slow Horses so would be up for a buddy read. And if anyone else wanted to join...

Also would like to read We Used to Live Here.

Also would like to read James but might not be able to get it in time. I put it on hold at my library.

I can hold off on James til next month—I suspect it will fit lots of things (it fits at least 3 of these). I’d love a buddy with the other 2. Let me know if you have other thrillers or lit fic planned (anyone!).

And I’m always up for mm buddy reads.

If y'all come up with a MM book that you all want to read, I'm willing to give it a try. Honestly, I'll read almost anything. Just probably won't make it a regular thing.

Ok. For the Team Reading Bonus ALL of us have to read the same book. For the Buddy Read we can do some of us and not all of us.

Buddy Reads are worth 5 Points. Team Reading is 2 per person per book.

We can try and maximize on Buddy Reads and one Team Read each month.

Also, There are themed weeks (Post 3) where we get 15 points per book we finish in that week that match the theme.

• Week 1 (January 8-14): Books with Strong Female Leads 💪
• Week 2 (February 12-18): Books About Friendship 🤝
• Week 3 (March 19-25): Books Set in Different Countries 🌍

So if we have any Strong Female Leads we should try and BR/Team Read that and finish during that week.

I would be up for BR of:
Second Shot
Champagne Charade

I would also consider, if I can get the book from my library in time
Slow Horses (12th in line, est 24 weeks)
We Used to Live Here (1st for Hardcover, 28th for ebook)

Kirsten wrote: "I can hold off on James til next month—I suspect it will fit lots of things (it fits at least 3 of these). I’d love a buddy with the other 2. Let me know if you have other thrillers or lit fic plan..."

I'll also be in for James and We Used to Live Here (Maybe during Strong Female Lead week?)

I was just thinking that We Used to Live Here would totally work for strong female lead. That’s you, me, and maybe Jackie and Lisa. If everyone can get it and Janine’s willing, it would be a good team read. It’s gotten really good reviews and I got it strongly recc’d from my Discord book club.

James is absolutely about friendship so we should save that for February and give anyone who wants to read it time to get it (hopefully). It’s fairly short.

Thanks for checking on those themed weeks, Lisa! Also, I’ll definitely BR those books with you. Jackie, I wouldn’t recommend them for you. Second Shot is by an author I really like but it’s #2 na spin-off of a spin-off series. And Champagne Charade… is likely to be pretty trashy, with BDSM and instalove and all the tropes. Not for non romance fans (though it would take you a minute to read).

Here's my upcoming reads--I had a whole comment typed out about where they could probably fit and then accidentally backed out so now I'm just putting them and then if anyone's interested we can find the spots lol. The only thing is I want to read them all this week so it'd be an early buddy read.

Non MM
The Reckless Oath We Made
Murder Your Employer
The Five Year Lie
The Warm Hands of Ghosts

MM
Paladin
The Feral Alpha
The Geography of Happiness
Breathe
Let There Be Light

I’m definitely up for a BR on We Used to Live Here. I already got the book from the library.

Amanda, I plan to read Murder Your Employer again so could do a BR. I haven’t looked for where to use it but it will probably fit somewhere.

Depending on where you’re putting these, I’d read

The Warm Hands of Ghosts
Breathe (I’ve been meaning to reread)
Let There Be Light (ditto—na swimmer!)

I could be persuaded into
Murder Your Employer
if it was a team read

Ooh, I want to read The Five Year Lie and The Warm Hands of Ghosts. They both look good. Can’t get to them for a while though.

I’ll look at where I’m putting things in the morning!

I can replace on Sweden with other shorter books since page count doesn’t matter so that these can be done when we’re ready for them!

It looks like i should be able to get James fairly easy. there are 14 copies and 2 available now so....

Depending on where they go I could do the Five Year lie. i can get that from the library on Monday...oh and its KU.

Murder Your Employer looks good too.

And The Geography of Happiness

Ok. Of course I created a tab on the spreadsheet to help me stay organized with the selections and possible BR. :)

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

Ok. Having a hard time sleeping.

Max Points per book (for 135 Pages, add one point for each 100 pages over 150) is 33.
That is:
1pt - Page Points
5pt - 200 Word Review
5pt - Buddy Read
5pt - Monthly Theme (Jan is MPG Contemporary)
5pt - Diversity Read
2pt - Team Read
10pt - Task

So, if we aren't able to find a team read book each month, we only lose 10 points TOTAL (2pt per person per book) from our score per book. We can easily make that up if we make sure we are doing as many buddy reads as we can, since those are 5 pts per person per book.

We add 15 pts for books we finish from 1/8 to 1/14 that have a strong female leads, so we should try and complete as many in that week as possible.

Once we figure out most of the books, their placement for January, I'll request all the BR Threads at once.

Ok , put me down for " we used to live here"

I can do 1 non MM a month if crime/mystery etc.
Pretty easy going for MM BRs
Just not all long ones please 🙏

Not mad on Paladin, but amandas others seen ok ( never fancied Onley James)

Janeylou wrote: "Pretty easy going for MM BRs
Just not all long ones please 🙏"

Champage Charade is only 136 Pages

Never been a huge Onley James fan either. i'm kinda waiting to see where everything goes, but I would probably do all the MM I can get my hands on. A few are not KU for me and I can't seem to find them anywhere.

MN Lisa wrote: "Janeylou wrote: "Pretty easy going for MM BRs
Just not all long ones please 🙏"

Champage Charade is only 136 Pages"

Perfect 😄

I’ve recently read paladin and don’t want to read it again.

MN Lisa wrote: "Ok. Of course I created a tab on the spreadsheet to help me stay organized with the selections and possible BR. :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...-..."

I love you.

Does anyone have a New Year’s resolution book? I thought I did but can’t find one.

Kirsten wrote: "Does anyone have a New Year’s resolution book? I thought I did but can’t find one."

The only one I've found is The Friday Edition -

"She made a mental note in the New Year to do a better job with her desk. Call it a New Year's resolution." It's on KU.

I found New Year's Resolutions..

I’ll read one of those for sure. Jackie’s has a strong female lead, but I’m not sure how many thrillers I want to commit to.

We don't have to do same task for buddy read right? Here's my current plan:


Read a book about someone starting at a new school.-Murder Your Employer (BR)
Read a book where a character moves to a new place.-We Used to Live Here (BR)
Read a book about making New Year's resolutions.-After Felix
Read a book where a character learns a new skill.-The Geography of Happiness (BR)
Read a book about someone starting a new job.-The Warm Hands of Ghosts(BR)
Read a book where a character reinvents themselves.-Breathe
Read a book about overcoming a major life change.-Karaoke Queen
Read a book set on New Year's Day.-Champagne Charade (BR)
Read a book about someone starting over after a setback.-The Five Year Lie (BR)
Read a book where a character embarks on a new adventure.- Let There Be Light (BR)

Let There Heart Be Light I'd want to BR this week if you want to do that Kirsten, everything else I can move to whenever everyone else is ready, just gotta make some changes on our Sweden challenge.