Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Bubble, Bubble, Boil and Crumble aka The Scottish Cafe




Team members
❅ cb
❅ Lisa - Aussie Girl
❅ emma
❅ Vicky
❅ Ariel
❅ Kaley

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

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

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There was an error starting about line 20 or 25 on the books read tab. It was giving books over 500 pages 15 ingredients instead of 12.

It should be fixed now on your team sheet. But if you copied the main sheet to make a tracking sheet, you'll need to fix that on your own so I wanted to make teams aware of the correction.

Hey Team! I just requested access to the spreadsheet - I probably won't look at things too much until after Tower Teams wraps up.

This will be my first time doing this challenge - so for those who have done it before, did you have a separate tracking sheet or add columns to the sheet provided? I think it would definitely be good to have a place to mark down any food words/spell it outs that could be used, especially if we need to juggle anything close to the end of a round.

Hi teamies!!

I did this challenge before and I cannot remember if we had our own tracking spreadsheet or not — but I’m totally down for having one where we can put down possible meals and stuff around and then put finalized meals once they’re completed over onto the official spreadsheet, if everyone thinks that’s best.

I can definitely get more into digging into possible strategies once tower teams is over as well!

Hi Vicky,

I played last time and we just entered our finished books/meals on the provided spreadsheet. It seems complicated at first but once you've done it a few times it all falls into place.

Once TT9 is over I'm sure we can all chat more about how we want to do recording for this one. And some of the more tech savvy gals who played before might have some input about
tracking sheets. It's going to be a lot of fun. 😁

And thanks to the Mods for our bubbling crumble picture. Anyone good with words who wants to write our Team Blurb, go right ahead!

I believe the MRR team I was on in the last round did have a separate tracking sheet, where we could list possible ingredients and then use them as needed to create the meals and then mark them off.

Hi everyone! Bear with me but this will be the first time I have ever participated in this challenge so I am still getting my understanding on everything. I have been reading the rules and all of that jazz but if you guys have any tips or tricks, feel free to let me know. :)

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "And thanks to the Mods for our bubbling crumble picture. Anyone good with words who wants to write our Team Blurb, go right ahead!"

Isn't it delicious?! mmmmm


We've also now accepted the spreadsheet edit requests that have come through

I’ve read all the info. This is my first time doing this challenge and I have to admit at the moment to be being *quite bewildered*. I am sure all will become clear quite quickly once we get started….🤔

Don't worry, Emma, Ariel and Vicky, it will all work once we start playing.

You really just have to note down all food items once we start. And maybe how many pages in the book you're reading. And we can combine different ingredients from different players to make complete meals. As it was two years ago we played, I'll probably have to refresh the rules too. You'll have fun, I promise!

I concur — it sounds complicated but once you’ve done a few you’ll likely pick it up easily! And if not, just note down the foods mentioned (& where they appeared in book) and I volunteer to help you form meals if you need it!

Thanks Lisa and Kaley.

I can't believe Tower Teams is over! And you'd think I'd be giving myself a break to not think about challenges for at least 24 hours, but I'm already thinking about this one :)

My first question -- I think our combined total expected reads per month added up to ~100 books, but we have a max of 80 books in round 1, so I'm guessing we'll go over the max pretty easily. How do we want to address that? Just do the first 80 combined that we read? Each only include about 80% of our expected reads for the month (whichever ones would be the best for potential meals)?

I like that we have an expected output a little over the max, because that way if real life causes someone to read less than anticipated there is no stress about not reaching the max -- but now we just have to figure out what to do assuming we all read our expected amount!

Morning Kaley, and team BBBC

I know, I love TT and glad to be launching into another Challenge. And this one is crazy fun.

I think it's good as well that we have plenty of options with number of books as usually things happen (real life!) and teamies can't always read their usual number. ( I'll be away for the last couple of weeks in November and don't know how reliable the internet will be for instance) And sometimes books don't have heaps of food choice items either.

Cause we've got choices for the the first month why doesn't everyone choose which books they log in with the best potential meals for the first two weeks, see how we've going and then we can cut back or increase for the last two weeks. What does everyone think?

Looking forward to a fun challenge with you all. 😁

I think that works too!

Good idea. I’m going to start ‘having a think’

That works for me! I'm going to sit down this weekend and see what I have on my TBR that seems like a food book - I just read A Little Bit Country through Libby and I'm so sad I didn't realize before I started it that one of the characters is an aspiring chef. It would have been perfect! haha

And of course I just finished a book with vinegar in it! Hopefully I can keep up the food momentum, lol.

A lot of books will mention more food than you would think!! I remember being surprised at how many food words I can find. At the very least books tend to mention coffee a LOT. But thankfully we still have the spell it out option for books if you end up with not a lot of food words.

So frustrating to find vinegar right before it counts though!! That word is like a gold mine lol

Hi teammies!

About a week till we start, yay!!

Just wanted to touch base with everyone to talk strategy as far as meal planning goes.

So the fresh meals offer the most points, but are the most risky because if you don't use them in the month they're made, they go bad (unless you get the tips to allow you to preserve them). So I wanted to check with everyone and see about how many meals we want to do as fresh vs frozen vs dessert vs alcoholic beverages vs non alcoholic beverages etc.

Obviously the number of meals we create overall will greatly depend on that books we read, the food words or spell-it-out letters available in them, etc. But how much do you think we should do fresh meals vs. other categories?

I checked my spreadsheet from last year and it looks like there were 160 customers in the first round, 110 of which could eat fresh meals. Now obviously there are different types of customers for each team so that number varies, and the mods may not stick to 160 customers in the first round either. But I figured that could give us a baseline for how many fresh meals we want to max it out around so as to not waste ingredients.

Thoughts??

Also -- do we want to each work on creating our own meals, or making partial meals and then if someone else can complete it then work that way? I think it's less complicated to work on building your own meals (with obvious exceptions like if you read a book that says vinegar five times you can top off other people's fish and chips with your vinegar), but that's a call I think we should all have input on.

Hi Team,

I was just thinking that with about a week to the challenge starts it was time for everyone to check in. 😍

That's absolutely great info Kaley, so it totally works to get those fresh meals done, there is a monthly special also this Challenge with maximum points so quite a few of those would probably be good as well. And books over 500 pages contribute to desserts if they are in the book.

Last time I played we created our own meals or contributed to partial with other teamies finishing it off, just as you described. Putting what number meal it was and leaving the gaps if it needed some extra ingredients by others - it worked really well. For those who haven't played before don't worry, it isn't really complicated and you'll soon catch on by having a look at the spreadsheet or posting your books and ingredients here and someone else can fill them in .

This is such a fun challenge looking forward to starting with you all next week.

Okay so as a newbie, I have been rereading the instructions to make sure I understand everything and I think I have got it down - I guess we'll find out. LOL

I am cool with doing whatever anyone else wants to do since I am still trying to get the hang of it all - that way I can just acclimate to whatever is happening, you know? :)

Yay! I'm excited to get started! I'm fine with creating our own meals and then collaborating when we're short.

I have some thoughts, mostly around the fact that this seems like the kind of challenge where we work through the month to get a good base of items and then go in the last week and edit/rearrange to maximize where we can. But I want to reread the rules and catch up on the Kitchen Prep questions to make sure I'm on the right page before I start rambling about that! lol

I picked my first read for the challenge - it's a food themed romance with 3 vinegars. Get those fish & chips ready! Can't wait to get started, I'm already noticing all the food words. Just need to figure out the best way to record them while listening to audiobooks at work.

Great Vicky. Not much longer now and our Restaurant is open for business.

Anyone who is creative can write the blurb for our cafe.

If there's any theme in particular you'd like to touch on for the theme, let me know and I can try a blurb.

Also -- I remember last year they encouraged creative meal names/descriptions. I can't remember if there were bonus points for that or not, but keep that in mind when making meals!

Posting the countdown to start to this thread for convenience: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

So . . . if you're like me, you might wonder . . . what is the best way to maximize points?

So, I compiled this list of what the highest value points per ingredient is if using the minimum required ingredients. Please feel free to disregard, but I'm posting here in case anyone finds it helpful. I'm dividing it into FRESH, FROZEN, and DDC (dessert, drink, and cocktails) categories.

FRESH - used same month. 50+ pages
coffee (min. 1) — 20 points per ingredient using min. ingredients
tea (min. 2) — 15
special (min. 6) — 13.33
fish n chips (min. 4) — 11.25
fish n chips w/ vinegar (min. 5) — 11
salad (min. 5) — 10
sandwich (min. 7) — 8.57

FROZEN - Current or following month. 160+ pages.
quiche (min. 6) — 7.5
curry (min. 10) — 6
pasta (min. 7) — 5.71

DDC - used anytime. 500+pages
alcoholic (min. 1) — 20
dessert (min. 1) — 20
non-alc (min. 1) — 20


And here's a list with all of them together . . . just make sure you're following what's allowed for page counts when creating meals!

coffee (min. 1) — 20 points per ingredient using min. ingredients
alcoholic (min. 1) — 20
dessert (min. 1) — 20
non-alc (min. 1) — 20
tea (min. 2) — 15
special (min. 6) — 13.33
fish n chips (min. 4) — 11.25
fish n chips w/ vinegar (min. 5) — 11
salad (min. 5) — 10
sandwich (min. 7) — 8.57
quiche (min. 6) — 7.5
curry (min. 10) — 6
pasta (min. 7) — 5.71

OMG Kaley that's amazing, I love those kinds of stats!

For those of you who have played before - would you say a majority were scavenger vs spell it out? Or were they pretty even?

That's really helpful Kaley. I'll definitely be using those stats! Thank you. And thanks for having a go at the blurb. Feel free to let your imagination run wild. Anything that fits the name, I guess.

Vicky, last time I played it was nearly all scavenger items. Spell it out used for books with few ingredients. Not sure why, maybe more points? Or players found it easier using words not letters to make meals?

Ours were a majority of scavenger too, with a few spell-it-outs mixed in. Though last year some meals had lower minimum ingredient requirements (like sandwich is 7 this year but was 4 last year, and pasta is 7 this year but was 3 last year) so it made more sense to do scavenger because you could get more meals out of it that way. I expect it might be a little different this year with those changes!

Kaley wrote: "So . . . if you're like me, you might wonder . . . what is the best way to maximize points?

So, I compiled this list of what the highest value points per ingredient is if using the minimum require..."

Hi Kaley, just checking back about your incredible points calculator! Amazing. So say the meal is the Special for example are the points 13.33 or 13.33 x 6( minimum) for total points of 79.98?

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Kaley wrote: "So . . . if you're like me, you might wonder . . . what is the best way to maximize points?

So, I compiled this list of what the highest value points per ingredient is if using the m..."

I based it off the points total each meal is given. Special is actually 80 points! It's not a perfect calculation...it was actually 13.33333333 but that seemed too long to type out here (pasta and sandwich had similar long numbers!).

We don't actually get points per ingredient — we get them for a meal as a whole — but based on the number of ingredients vs the meal points, I broke it down further, in case we wanted to strategize prioritizing certain types of fresh/frozen meals over others.

But yeah I just looked at the points we receive for that type of meal being eaten (below) and divided it by the minimum number of ingredients to complete the meal. Most of them divided evenly, but not all of them :)

Sandwich — 60
Fish and Chips — 45
Fish and Chips with Vinegar — 55
Coffee — 20
Tea — 30
Salad — 50
Pasta — 50
Quiche — 45
Curry — 60
Alcoholic drink — 20
Dessert — 20
Non-Alcoholic Drink — 20
Monthly Special — 80

Awesome. Only one more day to go.. hope everyone is ready to read and eagle eye those ingredients.

Just under 8 hours till start!!

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

I'm going to spend this time trying to finish the books I am currently reading so I'm ready to start fresh once the challenge hits.

Only half an hour or so till start time.

I'm going to start off reading and writing the DQ's for the BOM. If we read for BOM we can swap out two meals for meals of our choice which can come in handy. Hope I can find some nice juicy food words as well. I'm hopeful, it is set in Paris.

CB, Emma, Ariel and Vicky.. can you check in. Happy reading everyone.

I'm here! I'm probably going to start my first book at work tomorrow - it's been a rough few days and I'm exhausted. I've got to take a look at the BOTMs and see what I can get my hands on.

I’m currently on an active vacation, so will not be able to check in much for the first few days of the challenge, but will get going on my reading after the weekend.

Great to see you Vicky and CB. Happy reading!

I am checking in. I will start my book tomorrow morning since we're having a birthday night for my niece tonight and boy, she wears me out.

Thanks for checking in Ariel. Enjoy that party!

Only Emma to check in .. and we’re off🥰📚🥪🥗🍔👨‍🍳

I started my book this morning and I already have tons of spices, rice, etc. No vinegar yet but I know it's coming! Any other day I would say I'll have the book finished by the end of the day, but I run two micro-departments at work and only have one worker in each of them full time... one was scheduled off and the other called out. So it's going to be a busy day.

Checking in!

Hoping to get started on at least one today, maybe two..

I'm planning to read at least one of the BOMs too! The other I've put on hold at the library but I've got 8 weeks left on the waitlist. Sometimes they move really fast (since it's for the digital copy, a lot of people will return early / skip their turn if they're not ready for it yet), but I don't think it'll move quite fast enough haha.

This is a stupid question that I should have read the answer to but…. If an ingredient is mentioned many times in a book does it count each time or only once per book?
Also, I’m struggling to see how it all works so I will take my lead from everyone else. Is there anything I need to be doing right now other than reading and finding food and drink items? Do I only use the spreadsheet as we finish a book?