Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

It's that time again...

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

As with years past, I leave coloring to you guys, but if you have column/formula/etc requests, send them here and I'll accommodate, as best I can, in the coming weeks...

Old sheets for inspiration:

2024: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
2023: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
2022: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
2021: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
2020: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
2019: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Not many first-timers this year, but a quick recap anyway. There's a primer page with a bit of a tutorial about the features of the sheet. Find your tab (alphabetized by team and player), and bookmark it for use throughout the year. The sheet takes care of all the solo and team math, and creates some nice statistics on the first couple pages. The sheet can be safely used all the way to December 31st 2025, without messing up the competition rankings, which ends at Halloween.

Also, you can pre-input all your books and Buddy Reads... points won't be calculated and added to the top section and group/competition, until you input the date you finished reading the book, in column D/E on most sheets (that didn't add a bunch of extra columns)...

Have Fun!!!

This is a bit of a bare bones posting this year... I just adjusted the teams, added in new players, and revealed it to the world...

I might have forgotten some basic setup that I'll remember in the next few days, but I think I did what I needed to do...

For Soo, I gave you a copy of Hailee's sheet, for now, but still need to add in the genre column...

Okies! Thanks! =D

Thank you, O Master of Google Sheets

I went to tweak my sheet and probably already broke something. Just letting ya know. XD

*slinks off sneaky*

Soo wrote: "I went to tweak my sheet and probably already broke something. Just letting ya know. XD

*slinks off sneaky*"

DIV0s can be ignored until Jan 1 and you have a book listed as finished...

I fixed the data validation complaints about checkboxes no longer being active in column 1 with your monthly headers...

I also shrunk your monthly headers, because it's safer to leave the book points column at 0.0 for point calculations, without me going in and changing a bunch of formulas... never know when your text might get converted to a number and screw with something somehow...

Thanks! Glad it wasn't too complicated. XD

Hi, Iain. It looks like the copy of my tab is from before Virginie made the changes for me on December 14th. Can it be updated, please?

Change Request

Virginie's Response

Thanks, Iain, for your hard work. Is it possible to put a few things back like it was in this year?
I miss the percentage stand alones vs series
Short stories - novellas -books -tomes
YA vs Non - YA
The months underneath the series
The monthly progress with the stats in columns

If you look at 2024, then you'll see what I'm trying to explain. I'm a bit bad at it. Thanks!

@Nyssa: I’ll re-inport your sheet and anyone else with big changes in the past 6 weeks later today… I made the copy back between Halloween and Thanksgiving to start tracking all the BR requests me and Ann-Marie were making…

@Saar: it sounds like you just have the top section hidden, there’s a plus sign on the left next to row 3ish that should make it appear…

Found it! Thanks, I'm not so good with Excel.

Timelord Iain wrote: "@Nyssa: I'll re-inport your sheet and anyone else with big changes in the past 6 weeks later today… I made the copy back between Halloween and Thanksgiving to start tracking all the BR requests me and Ann-Marie were making.."

Thank you; I look forward to it.

I'm not planning on doing challenges outside of the group one.

Can the Challenge Column be changed to Genres? Give me a base drop down menu and I'll go in & edit it to work for me after.

Soo wrote: "I'm not planning on doing challenges outside of the group one.

Can the Challenge Column be changed to Genres? Give me a base drop down menu and I'll go in & edit it to work for me after."

Challenge changed to genre... Challenge Points formula removed and hard coded to 0... top row monthly section will also be 0 for that column now, unless we come up with a new thing to track there...

Genres can be added in cells Q10-Q22... if you want more genres we need to edit the Data Validation rule... and if you want a pie chart of the data, we need to add that in later...

Nyssa wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "@Nyssa: I'll re-inport your sheet and anyone else with big changes in the past 6 weeks later today… I made the copy back between Halloween and Thanksgiving to start tracking a..."

Imported your Sequential Art version... forgot to check if you had any book data input into old tab before deleting it, so you'll need to re-enter anything you already input, sorry... should be good to go, tho...

Thanks! =D

Timelord Iain wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "@Nyssa: I'll re-inport your sheet and anyone else with big changes in the past 6 weeks later today… I made the copy back between Halloween and Thanksgiving to st..."

Thank you!

Hi Iain, hope all is well on your end.
I just visited my sheet, looks like it needs some setting up still.
let me know when you get a chance to take a look.

Thanks
frank

Someone changed your name to gibberish... fixed...

Just want to say thank you to all the Mods for setting everything up--making the teams, monitoring the spreadsheets, saving our behinds when we mess things up, making our BR threads and everything...

Also want to note that I really appreciate how Iain put his tab just far enough away from mine that I can see them both on the same screen without scrolling... makes it really easy to just steal data from you! <3 Hopefully I won't need to have my team fill in all my page numbers this year as I get overwhelmed... *fingers crossed*

That was a coincidence of your team, and alphabetical sorting...

Technically, I feel like I should have moved Lawless Rogues from the Tome Raider spot, since the teams also used to be sorted, too...

House of Chains / Horns of Hammerad
Jaghut Guardians
Blood Eagles / Silver Swords
Tome Raiders / Lawless Rogues

Looks like I moved Blood Eagles from 1st spot a few years ago...

I figured it wasn't on purpose, but I still appreciate it. ^_^

On a personal note, I finally made my book source column a dropdown list, to cut down on typing, as I'm perennially lazy... and as I did last month in my 2024 sheet, I adjusted it to serve double duty as a review tracker too, with a checkbox for the monthly row to indicate when a month is fully reviewed... it's a good double duty column, since source matters less to me, once I've read the book, it's mostly to remind me what I'm reading where and when I need to download/transfer or keep track of unpurchased books... Src/Rev

Iain, can you look at my tab? I finished my first book and it's not calculating points. I read it within the timeframe to get BR points and it's part of my continuing series challenge.

Some formulas were missing...

Thanks!!

Is there a way to add Audiobook hours to my sheet? It would be cool to see how many hours I read in the year. XD

To go with the page count tally. Bwahahhaha~

Soo wrote: "Is there a way to add Audiobook hours to my sheet? It would be cool to see how many hours I read in the year. XD

To go with the page count tally. Bwahahhaha~"

Oooh that does sound cool.

Soo wrote: "Is there a way to add Audiobook hours to my sheet? It would be cool to see how many hours I read in the year. XD

To go with the page count tally. Bwahahhaha~"

Nirkatze wrote: "Oooh that does sound cool."

I agree!

I have a wishlist item: a second pie graph for the Source column. I think it would help me be more honest about clearing my TBR.

Oh, and Questions:

~ Can we add sources independently, or must we ask for additional options to avoid messing up the spreadsheet?

~ Can we use multiple sources for the same book? (For instance, I bought the e-book from Amazon and borrowed the audio version from Libby to have an Immersive experience.)

~ If we did have a source graph, would multiple sources for the same book work?

Virginie experimented with complex graph making than I ever did… I’m gonna wait for her opinion/ideas…

I'm in the mountains with no computer until Saturday (I agreed last minute when I was feeling social, and now I'm cold and overdosing on social interactions lol). I'll take a look at requests when I come back :)

Boo social interactions!

I don't need a graph. Graphs are cool, but I like the simple input into column and having a total tally.

Basically, I would like an audio time/length column added and the totals for that to be shown in the upper info area somewhere.

Hi Iain, would it be possible for me to have a column to track genres, and a column to track medium ie. physical, kindle or audiobook?

I would add myself but I'm not as good with Google Sheets as Excel and I don't want to break your formulas!

Not worried about any summary graphs, just want to track it. Unless you or Virginie are feeling creative. Or can copy easily from another sheet. 😊

Siobhan wrote: "Hi Iain, would it be possible for me to have a column to track genres, and a column to track medium ie. physical, kindle or audiobook?

I would add myself but I'm not as good with Google Sheets as..."

Look at my sheet and see if something like that would work for you.

Nyssa wrote: "I have a wishlist item: a second pie graph for the Source column. I think it would help me be more honest about clearing my TBR."

Done. It's below the Genres graph.

Nyssa wrote: "Can we add sources independently, or must we ask for additional options to avoid messing up the spreadsheet?"

Yup, you can. It's the J column (with Visual/Immersive/etc.) you shouldn't touch on your own since it's tied up in the point formulas.
I created a list of sources for the graph with a few empty spots you can fill in. It's on the right, cells V17 to V28. Feel free to add your sources there (and remove/replace the "Test source"), up to the cell with "----" in it. The additional sources will show up in the arrow selector thingy and the graph.

Nyssa wrote: "Can we use multiple sources for the same book? (For instance, I bought the e-book from Amazon and borrowed the audio version from Libby to have an Immersive experience.)"

It should be possible, I haven't tested it yet. I actually plan to make my own genre column into a multiple choice selector (so I can stop debating with myself whether a book is Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance or plain Fantasy....). I'll experiment on my own sheet and come back to you after that :)

Nyssa wrote: "If we did have a source graph, would multiple sources for the same book work?"

My best guess is that it would work, and count the book multiple times (for each source selected). I'll test the behavior and confirm it to you if/when I implement multiple sources on your sheet.

Now that you're back, Virginie, I have a question about your date filter in the Mods Sheet... I changed the value in D1, and the filter didn't seem to respond to the change... (I also changed the date to display in US order, but that was me wondering if Google Sheets was being stupid about comparing 2 different date displays)... does the filter only apply when you change something in D2?...

Yea nevermind... it worked when I opened D2 and hit OK without changing anything...

You have to reapply the filter when you change the date (click on the little filter symbol in the header and then OK). Basically, the filter isn't dynamic. It filters based on the data when you apply it.

Can I ask some spread sheet gurus to help me with my sheet? I want the data spread at the top like 2024. Let me know if you have questions~

Soo wrote: "I don't need a graph. Graphs are cool, but I like the simple input into column and having a total tally.

Basically, I would like an audio time/length column added and the totals for that to be sho..."

Done! Enter the audio time in the format hh:mm. I added the length for the 2 books you read already (based on Audible's website) to show you how it works.

Katie wrote: "Can I ask some spread sheet gurus to help me with my sheet? I want the data spread at the top like 2024. Let me know if you have questions~"

it's just hidden... there's a +/- button next to row 3 that opens the data spread... I hide it when deleting stuff from people's sheets to prep for new year, so I can see more rows of book data at the same time...

I'm pretty sure I basically gave everyone the extra monthly book data at some point... anyone that didn't have want it could just hide it... the basic sheet is mostly a relic of the past, hidden in the templates...

Virginie wrote: "Soo wrote: "I don't need a graph. Graphs are cool, but I like the simple input into column and having a total tally.

Basically, I would like an audio time/length column added and the totals for th..."

Lol... after all these years... I just implemented it with decimals, and do math in my head every time

11.75hrs... 12.8hrs... etc

At this point, I'm fine with that aspect of my sheet the way it is... changing it would require me to change formulas that use that column to determine pages/hr and efficient vs inefficient audiobooks for earning page points (more of a curiosity than how I pick what I read :D )

HAHAHAHA! I actually went to take a look at your sheet before changing Soo's to see how you'd done it, saw the decimals, promptly closed the tab and mentally categorized you as a savage.

I fiddled with hours/minutes setup when I first started implementing years ago (I think you were still around), and was having trouble with the results of adding audiobooks together, and got frustrated and went simple decimal... or maybe I wasn't happy with the display?... either way... I did that, then awhile later I started measuring pages per hour, and conditionally formatting when below 30, 30-40, or above 40...

In general, epic fantasy bad, everything else decent, kids books and shorter books with vanity editions really good for inflating pagecounts... that's what it comes down to, really... if books vary by 100-200 pages, that affects a short book more than a doorstopper epic fantasy book, in the end...

I also knew you'd come in clutch with a solid solution...

I keep this place running on duct tape and WD40 formulas :D

Timelord Iain wrote: "Katie wrote: "Can I ask some spread sheet gurus to help me with my sheet? I want the data spread at the top like 2024. Let me know if you have questions~"

it's just hidden... there's a +/- button ..."

Oh my gosh! I completely missed the tab on the left! Thank you so much!

I'll have to browse other people's sheets to see what new charts they have :D

Timelord Iain wrote: "I fiddled with hours/minutes setup when I first started implementing years ago (I think you were still around), and was having trouble with the results of adding audiobooks together, and got frustr..."

Yeah, I vaguely remember you fiddling and thinking about lending you a hand, but then life happened and I never got around to it. Then more life happened, and I stopped reading and showing up here.

Timelord Iain wrote: "I also knew you'd come in clutch with a solid solution...

I keep this place running on duct tape and WD40 formulas :D

"

Heh, I kinda expected you to show up and inspect Soo's sheet while I was implementing the audio time counter.