Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

• Morgan (Captain)
• Donna Flynn (Co-captain)
• Imke Sprengers (Co-captain)
• Shannon
• Anja
• Chris Davies
• Maritza
• Geri
• Rebecca
Tara
GreenFairy

res

res

res

res

Duration: May 12-July 31st

TEAM SPREADSHEET
♠ Ginny Weasley Tracking Sheet (Mods)

♠ Team Spreadsheet (Captains)

RANKINGS

House Cup Points (Team Rankings)


Important Links:

→ All About Tower Teams Vi
→ Owl Mail (Event Announcements)
→ Quidditch!
→ Spells!
→ Class Descriptions
→ Completion Check-In
→ Room of Requirements
→ FAQ's

Team Members:

✔ → Morgan (Captain)
✔ → Donna (Co-Captain)
✔ → Imke (Co-Captain)
✔ → Shannon
✔ → Anja
✔ → Chris Davies
✔ → Maritza
✔ → Geri
✔ → Rebecca

Team Member Book Shelves:

✔ → Morgan's Tower Shelf
✔ → Donna's Tower Shelf
✔ → Imke's Tower Shelf
✔ → Shannon's Tower Shelf
✔ → Anja's Tower Shelf
✔ → Chris's Tower Shelf
✔ → Maritza's Tower Shelf
✔ → Geri's Tower Shelf
✔ → Rebecca's Tower Shelf

⌘ Countdown until the challenge starts is here.

Time Zones

→ Lisbon
→ EST
→ CST
→ MST
→ PST

For reading books:

Pages Points
100 - 160 5
161 - 350 20
351 - 500 40
501 - 650 60
651 - 800 80
801 - 900 100
901+ 130

For Tasks

Tasks Points
BOM DQs 40
BOM Discussion 20
Buddy Read* 30
HP Buddy Read* 40

* All Buddy Reads must be done with a member from another team or a non participating member from NBRC for the points to count

Classes and Spells
It will be open for the entire challenge. Extra points for completion BUT it will also give negative points for lack of.



♔ Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.)
Highest number of books read by the end of the challenge
♔ Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test (N.E.W.T)
Highest number of points by the end of the challenge
♔ Hogwarts House Cup
Highest average of points of all teams belonging to a Hogwarts House by the end of the challenge
♔ Quidditch Cup
House scoring higher at the end of the three Quidditch Matches
♔ Tri-Wizard Tournament Cup
Team with the most points won on the Tri-Wizard Tournament at the end of the challenge

Pages-Per-Point Guide (Tips & Tricks

The lower the number of pages per point, the faster you can theoretically accumulate points. This will help you get an idea of the points per page for each tier of pages.

Pages | Pages Per Point

100 | 20
160 | 32

161 | 8.05
350 | 17.5

351 | 8.775
500 | 12.5

501 | 8.35
650 | 10.8

651 | 8.14
800 | 10

801 | 8.01
900 | 9

901 | 6.93

The Advantage of Books at the Bottom of Tiers
The closer a page count is to the bottom of a tier, the fewer pages to read in order to get one point. This difference is more pronounced in the lower tiers. In general, lower end of the tier is better.

The Advantage of Short Books
Short books are psychologically easier to get through. Even if you don't like it, a short book can be easier to push through and finish. If you decide not to finish a short book, it is overall a lower potential loss of reading time and points. I might finish five 100 page books more quickly than one 500 page book, simply because each book is less daunting and the sense of progress is less ponderous.

The Advantage of Long Books
Long books tend to have a lower number of pages required to earn a point. In higher page number books, books at the top of that page tier aren't as drastically different from the lower part of the range in their pages-per-point ratio than lower tiers. Finishing a long book gives us a lot of points, and can be really satisfying.

The Advantage of Totally Ignoring Page Numbers
If you don't go for books based on what you enjoy or what you feel like reading, you'll probably read slower. So read books that YOU are really excited about, and maybe let the considerations of page number influence you if you can't decide."

Classes

Quidditch Tournament


Each round lasts 2 weeks or until the snitch is caught


⌘ QUIDDITCH THREAD


Round 1:

Team:
Chasers ❂❂❂
Keeper ❂
Beaters ❂❂
Seeker ❂

Tri-Wizard Tournament

Tournament will be from May 30th till July 31st.

⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ May BOMs ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖

⌘ Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi (Young Adult Fantasy BOM) - May 2, 2018

⌘ Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly (Adult Ficton or Non Fiction BOM) - Start Date May 16, 2018


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ June BOMs ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗

⌘ Leah On the Offbeat By: Becky Albertalli (Young Adult BOM) - June 2, 2018

⌘ Red Sister By: Mark Lawrence (Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy BOM) - June 16, 2018


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ July BOMs ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗

Big shout out to Eni on the Hermione Granger team and our fellow Housemate for her awesome organization skills! I took her lead to try to help us stay organized, as organization is not always my strongest quality.


Hello fellow Ginny Weasley-ians!

This section is going to have useful information regarding the challenge we are about to endure. If you have played Tower Teams before, you can probably skip ahead. If you haven't played before please read on :)

Tower Teams is a team challenge where you are asked to read as much as you can and usually has some mini-challenges and fun themes to go with it.
It will start on the 12th of May so

**NO books may be STARTED for Tower Teams until May 12th**

There will be several games during Tower Teams VI:
→ Attending classes and learning spells - we will have several class incantations that we will need to spell-it-out in order to gain points
→ Quidditch Tournament - there will only be 7 players on each round, from each house. Also this is a speed challenge.
→ Tri-Wizard Tournament - will start on the 30th of May and will consist of 3 daunting quests.
→ BOM discussions
→ Buddy Reads


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗
Ginny Weasley's Captain/Co-Captain's Availability:
⌘ Captain - Morgan. Timezone EST (Florida, USA). MOST available everyday from 9 a.m.-12 a.m. Some nights you might see me up very late from insomnia.
⌘ Co-captain - Donna. Timezone EST. MOST Available from 4 p.m.-2 a.m.
⌘ Co-captain - Imke. Timezone GMT+1 (Lisbon+1), (Netherlands, Europe). Available XXXXXX.

We are also always available through pm, so feel free to message us with any concerns/doubts/requests you have.

**Before posting any questions, please read the RULES**

If after reading the rules you still have questions, please follow the communication chain:

**Member --> Team Captain/Co-captains --> Mods**

This means that you can´t go over the captains/co-captains directly to the mods. The mods will be busy running and organizing the game and they can't answer every participating member's question.


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗


If your profile is set to private, make sure you are friends with Moderators of NBRC and your captain/co-captains so that your books can be properly tracked on the spreadsheet.


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗


Reporting Books Read

When posting a complete book, please let us know the following:
Book Title
Date read
Number of pages
if it is a BOM, did you write questions or just participated, and link to comment
Character Names


⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗⋖ ⋗


Last recommendation - HAVE FUN :)

RES

TriWizard Claim Tasks

RES

R.

R.

R.

R.

R.

Wanted to go ahead and do a little introductory post so y'all can get to know me a little better.

I am 29, I have two little girls (7 and 8), and I'm recently engaged. I am getting married January of next year and let me tell you, the wedding planning process is not fun! LOL! Stressful is more like it. I am getting ready to take my teaching certification exam this Saturday, May 12th, and will hopefully begin my career of teaching English to the middle grades this fall. *fingers crossed* My undergraduate degree is in Social Work, so this is definitely a big career change for me, but I'm very excited. In my free time, I love to read (obviously!) and I am also one of the Moderators for the For Love Of A Book group on GoodReads also. I just started facilitating my first book challenge in that group that I created from scratch--it's Grey's Anatomy themed. I'm a little overwhelmed with life right now in general, so until after this Saturday, I may not be as active as I usually am, because I have to study, but I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and I can't wait to start our challenge. This is my first time doing the Tower Teams Challenge, so I hope I can handle it, but I've been the Captain of many other past team challenges before. :)

Hi teamies!!

I'm Shannon. 47, SAHM of 2 girls (20 & 17). I'm originally from Texas, but I've been in Louisiana for about 10 years now after stops in Mississippi and Indiana. (We used to move a lot!) I'm actually a mod for NBRC, but opted not to captain this time around. Just looking forward to participating and having fun with all of you as a member of the team! I think this is my fourth Tower? Anyway, really looking forward to all the fun stuff Sonia has planned and getting to know everybody.

Hi Team!!

I'm Donna, 39. SAHM of 3 (1 girl-14, 2 boys 11 & 19). I have lived in Pennsylvania all my life but moved around a lot in state. This is my 3rd TowerTeam challenge. I have co-captioned before (twice- all recent) and this is the first really big one. I don't sleep much so you will see me trolling online at all hours. I am looking forward to reading and having fun with all of you!

Hi! I'm Chris. Live in Wichita KS and have been participating in Tower Teams for several years. Happy to help if captains need it. When I'm not reading, I'm writing (maybe not the great American novel, but hopefully something close :-)) I'm a widow and live with my two Boston Terriers who keep me busy. I try to walk 5 miles a day and I do yoga 3x a week to keep in shape. I just finished taking Creative Writing and French 101 - hopefully the two will never meet.

Looking forward to our team and meeting you all.

Hi Chris! Haven't been in a challenge with you in awhile. Good to see you! I always forget you're in Wichita, which is where my husband is for his job. I'm super impressed with that exercise regime! I really need to do that! My oldest is minoring in French in college, after 4 years in HS. She loves it. Meanwhile my youngest is finishing up her 3rd French HS year and barely hanging on. She's only sticking it out for the school trip to Paris next year. My oldest has to tutor her constantly. Lol!

Hi everyone :) My name is Anja and I come from Slovenia. I'm in my late twenties, am currently single and in a search for a new job (I'm leaving my current one in August). I love reading romance books of most genres. I'm just finishing my sick leave this week (had an injury during work) and have spent my last two weeks mostly reading and relaxing. This is my first team challenge and I'm exited about it, but expect questions :)

Shannon wrote: "Hi Chris! Haven't been in a challenge with you in awhile. Good to see you! I always forget you're in Wichita, which is where my husband is for his job. I'm super impressed with that exercise regime..."

Good to see you again, too! I always wanted to take French, but never had the reason. I was supposed to go hiking in the Pyrennes this summer, but unfortunately it fell through. Oh well! I suppose it will come in handy at some point :-) I envy your daughter's trip to Paris. Let me know if she needs a luggage handler.

What's your husband doing in Wichita? Lots of aircraft stuff ....

Chris wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Hi Chris! Haven't been in a challenge with you in awhile. Good to see you! I always forget you're in Wichita, which is where my husband is for his job. I'm super impressed with that..."

I'm sorry your trip didn't happen! I bet it would have been amazing! I'm trying to talk her into letting me go myself! Lol!

My husband runs one of the local television stations there. We were hesitant to move the whole family as one was in HS and one had just started college and it was a new position, and now its actually just worse since we'd never pull her out for her last year. We'll eventually be in the same place again. But in the mean time, it just means more reading time since I'm mostly by myself and I keep crazy hours cause he's not here telling me to put the book down and go to bed. Lol!

Anja wrote: "Hi everyone :) My name is Anja and I come from Slovenia. I'm in my late twenties, am currently single and in a search for a new job (I'm leaving my current one in August). I love reading romance bo..."

Hi Anja! So nice to meet you! I'm glad to hear you are recovering. Ask away!! It's pretty easy and its going to be super fun. It's a good one to kick off your team challenge experience with.

Hi team. I am Imke, 42 and I live in The Netherlands. I am an associate scientist in early research for a pharmaceutical company. This is my 5th TT (I missed the first) and I am a huge Harry Potter fan and collector. I will post a picture of my HP shelf tomorrow.

Hey all! I just added the Spells! link to our Important Links, but I'm going to add it here as well:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Per the Mods clarification, we are allowed to work on more than one spell at a time, but only allowed to use a book ONCE.

Countdown to Start of The Challenge

I just took a quick look at the Spells....that’s a whole lot of U’s! I counted at least 13. Ha! This is going to be sooo fun!

Shannon wrote: "I just took a quick look at the Spells....that’s a whole lot of U’s! I counted at least 13. Ha! This is going to be sooo fun!"

I'm currently reading a U book and its over 400 pages. I definitely won't have it finished before the challenge starts, so we can use it towards one of the spells and knock off one of the U's. :)

Morgan wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I just took a quick look at the Spells....that’s a whole lot of U’s! I counted at least 13. Ha! This is going to be sooo fun!"

I'm currently reading a U book and its over 400 pages..."

**mod voice** Except we can’t count any books started before the start of the challenge. ;)

But no worries, I’m sure we are going to rock this!

Shannon wrote: "Morgan wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I just took a quick look at the Spells....that’s a whole lot of U’s! I counted at least 13. Ha! This is going to be sooo fun!"

I'm currently reading a U book and its..."

Oh no, really? :(

Womp womp...

Morgan wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Morgan wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I just took a quick look at the Spells....that’s a whole lot of U’s! I counted at least 13. Ha! This is going to be sooo fun!"

I'm currently reading ..."

Ha! Yea. Sorry!

So.....we’ve got about 31 hours from now to finish up all books before the challenge starts.

Hello, Team Ginny Weasley! *waves* Good luck on this challenge! I'm sure we'll be doing some buddy reads and other interactive things together. I look forward to getting to know you all. :)

Hey, Morgan! Have fun captain-ing! LOL

Vicki wrote: "Hello, Team Ginny Weasley! *waves* Good luck on this challenge! I'm sure we'll be doing some buddy reads and other interactive things together. I look forward to getting to know you all. :)

Hey, M..."

Looking forward to it! Far too much faith in my captain-ing abilities! LOL! Hopefully I'll figure it all out. I never expected to actually be made Captain! Haha. Alas, here we are...

Can't wait to buddy read with you! :D

Morgan wrote: "Vicki wrote: "Hello, Team Ginny Weasley! *waves* Good luck on this challenge! I'm sure we'll be doing some buddy reads and other interactive things together. I look forward to getting to know you a..."

Same here, and I know you're going to do a fantastic job! Good luck to you and the entire Team Ginny Weasley!

Vicki wrote: "Hello, Team Ginny Weasley! *waves* Good luck on this challenge! I'm sure we'll be doing some buddy reads and other interactive things together. I look forward to getting to know you all. :)

Hey, M..."

Hi Vicki! Glad you stopped by. It is going to be fun doing all the joint stuff together within our Houses. Looking forward to hanging out with everyone in our common room when we get that.

So.....what’s everyone planning on reading? Got anything lined up you’re excited to tackle? Going to do any BOMs or Buddy Reads?

Well the book I'm currently reading is out! LOL. Wish I would've known that.

Vicki who posted earlier and I are planning to do a buddy read! :)

I have to look at the BOM offerings, but I'll probably try to jump in on one of those as well.

I’m planning on reading a few of the doorstopper Buddy Reads Karen has set up, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t really looked at next months BOMs yet.

***Side-note: The polls are running right now for the next BOMs, so everyone might want to go vote for what you’d rather read***

That’s really the extent of my planning so far. I’m not usually much of a planner, and am more of a whim reader. I do have some NetGalley stuff I need to stop ignoring and I haven’t read any fantasy novels in awhile, even though it’s one of my favorites genres, so I might try sneaking in some of those.

Hi guys been looking at pre challengs chats as i didnt know thread was open. Im in NYC. In a whole heap of challenges buf not reading as much as before. Ive been in a couple of tt challenges and have loved them all.

Hey Maritza!! So glad you found us! NYC is one of my favorite places to visit. We used to go every year, but we haven’t been able to the last few years much to my dismay!

Shannon, where do we vote for the BOM?

Vicki wrote: "Shannon, where do we vote for the BOM?"

Oops! It actually hasn’t come out yet. My bad! We (the mods) we’re talking about them earlier today so in my mind ..... lol!

You’ll get a PM with links for both polls probably in the next day or two.