danielle’s Comments (group member since Jul 30, 2025)

danielle’s comments from the Hooked on Books group.

Amanda wrote: "so for example, if we choose rebirth as a theme then we each try to find things in our book that aligns with some type of rebirth - literally or metaphorical?"

Right… so ONE list for all the books that month. And all 5 of us would have to find at least 1 book to hit it in order to take that bonus.

Does that sound right?

Amanda wrote: "Also, I'm always happy to BR so any book that anyone's interested in BR just lmk, even if I didn't put in the BR section,"
💛

Is it a list per month and then you select the books that work for it?

Elizabeth wrote: "Done for this round I think! I started Heartless by Marissa Meyer but it's 15 hours so I'm pretty sure I won't finish tonight."

I added a note in our notes tab.

I don’t think I’ll be finishing my current book tonight.

Amanda wrote: "btw if I put a ? next to a key, it means it sounds like it might work, but don't know for sure."

That makes sense!

Amanda wrote: "I was thinking about that too when I was adding stuff into the SS yesterday. One possible idea would be to maybe add a theme/motif(s) that come up while reading a book, and then people could add to..."

That would work. Since I’m audio, it’s helps if I know what I need to pay attention for, but I can always circle back & research for things in text, etc.

But we would still need all 5 of us to participate. I know Melinda from outside GR. I know she’s pretty busy until after the holidays. Michelle said she didn’t want to do BRs, but might do other team stuff. Meanwhile, we 3 are the chatty ones. 😉

At some point we need to come up with a game plan for maybe trying for the Team Treasure Hunt bonus for January. But I have not a clue on how to approach that.

Plus, for that one, we do need all 5 team members to participate in order to get the bonus. If we won't have that, then no sense spending time on it. Based on intros, looks like Team Read bonuses are not going to happen (BRs with all 5 of us).

I'd sooner spend time on stuff we can achieve vs stuff that will just be wasting time. You know?

Am editing our tab on our SS now. My thoughts were, replacing the monthly prompts each month & renaming those keys to match that month. But the rest will remain with their KEYs (or code) for the year.

I made a few edits... let me know what you think or want changed. Just trying to organize it, but open to ideas!

Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "I had an idea about those 12 books to recommend... thought I'd run past you guys.

What it we each pick 4 books we really want to do this year (pas..."

Yeah... was just looking for some input since even I have you guys pick 4 of the books (1 each), I still need to come up with 8 recs myself. And I rather try to gear them towards preferred genres.

Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "Amanda wrote: "I'm fine with whichever"

probably less typing to just add it at the top and add X's... or to list it ONCE (if you're thinking a BR) ..."

Let’s add a column for notes. Gimme a couple mins and I’ll swing by my laptop and add it.

Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "I had an idea about those 12 books to recommend... thought I'd run past you guys.

What it we each pick 4 books we really want to do this year (past January), then each of the oth..."

I was thinking more of picking 4 actually books you plan on doing this year (vs the genre)... or picking the genre would work too I guess. Just not guaranteed that one would be picked you want to do?

Even if not everyone wants to do that.. was just thinking it was an easy way to make sure we each get 4 of those bonuses for the year?

Amanda wrote: "danielle wrote: "Amanda wrote: "I'm fine with whichever"

probably less typing to just add it at the top and add X's... or to list it ONCE (if you're thinking a BR) or just as a suggestion, and the..."

Unless people find it hard to read, I prefer the way I set it up. Otherwise, we would need to move the BR section as well. And it would push anything else way to right as it grows.

I will cue this one up to do next - likely with a tomorrow start.

Sammy wrote: "Hubby has hyperfocus. Trust me when I say it's soooooo much better to have than not! 😆

I have my headphones on alllllll the time, but I still have to work hard at concentrating. and my hands MUST ..."

I actually do both. Although the % of hyperfocus can be a bit higher. I find that for me, it can depend on my caffeine intake levels and clean/not-clean eating for which end of the spectrum I am on. The goal of course being more in the middle and "normal" (if such a word exists!).

Elizabeth wrote: "Well if you're picking something I'd be interested in either horror or thriller would be great since I'm always looking for those types of recs!"

yeah, I was thinking if those or some other genres are better, maybe I should widen my search to include books I gave 4 or 4.5+ to.

I'll take a peek at both of those!

Maybe I should drop these from my list:

Legal Thriller - 2
Action Thriller - 1
Middle Grade - 1

and maybe choose only 1 from:

true crime - 1
non-fiction/bio - 1

Sammy wrote: "You know it's a good thing you've given us several badge options, because:

Time Dilatation ⌛ – Get completely lost in a book, reading for so long you lose track of time.

I have ADHD without the h..."

I'm the opposite. ADD with hyperfocus. It can be an issue sometimes!

So I did a fist pump when I saw that bonus!

me again. (I warned y'all I can be chatty! LOL) ... So, I started working on my rec list. I still like the idea of each of you picking 1 for my list of 12, and then me coming up with the other 8.

Anyway.. I reviewed my lists from 2024 and 2025 and picked out a bunch of the 5 star books as my starting point. For the record, I'm a tad stingy with 5 stars. In 2024, I only gave 7% 5 stars (and over half of those were rereads). In 2025, i was close with 6% being 5 stars (again, 1/2 of those were rereads). So, I feel like picking from this list is the best I can do for recommendations.

But... the genre break down is below. So, if I do just pick 8, maybe I will try to only pick 1 from each genre below.

Historical Fiction - 4
true crime - 1
non-fiction/bio - 1
Thriller - 1
Legal Thriller - 2
Action Thriller - 1
Horror - 1
Middle Grade - 1

~Melissa~ wrote: "danielle wrote: "~Melissa~ wrote: "danielle wrote: "~Melissa~ wrote: "danielle wrote: "Ok... so I know this is early, but I'm doing some January planning, so I thought I'd see if anyone has any int..."

Ok. I'll plan on starting that one this weekend, maybe tomorrow.

I'm finishing up my current and would like to get at least 1 more in today before the cut-off time!

~Melissa~ wrote: "I'm about to start reading Elf on the Edge if anyone wants to join. Pretty sure all 3 books are stand alone as I'm jumping into the 3rd lol

I'm also working on audio for [book:Cal..."

I was going to grab Call Me Maybe, but it's too short for a BR. 🙁 Too bad since I remember it being really cute!

Sorry I wasn't very clear. I did try clearing my cache, but it still happened again. But, it doesn't happen every time. When i googled about the problem it said it can be subject to internet connectivity and/or server speed issues when SS are formula heavy. I have no idea what the issue is, but usually I just close it out, and re-enter and eventually it works ok.