Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Neeznáá



• judith (Captain)
• lexi (Co-Captain)
• jax (Co-Captain)
• michelle
• mahi
• brittany-mccann
• laura-devouring-books-like-crumpets
• aoife
• April-Raimond
• Rebecca
• tricia
• kira
• logan
• megan
• sharon
• jamie
• Bobbi
• susan


Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Team Shelves

• judith: tt2023
• lexi: tt2023
• jax: tower2023
• michelle: x tower
• mahi: 2023 tower teams
• brittany-mccann: 23 tower teams
• laura-devouring-books-like-crumpets: tt 2023
• aoife: ttx 2023
• April-Raimond: tt2023
• Rebecca: ttx
• tricia: tower teams
• kira: towerteams 2023
• logan: tower teams x
• megan: ttx
• sharon: towers23
• jamie: ttx challenge
• Bobbi: team tower x
• susan: tower team 2023

Important Links and Information

Spreadsheets
Tracking Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

General Links
General Rules
Pre-Challenge Chat
Tower Mini Challenge

Resources
Cover Color: https://labs.tineye.com/color/
Word Count: https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.a...
https://www.arbookfind.com.au/UserTyp...
https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType...

Countdowns
Start of TTX: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

                        

Tower Teams X - Build towers based on past TT challenges!

This is an optional mini challenge which will run for the whole period of Tower Teams X.

1. Rainbow Towers
Using as many shades of colours as possible from the list below, create a rainbow tower using book cover colours.
You do not have to read for every colour, you do not have to differentiate between bright or dark, but it needs to be a clear rainbow, with at least ten colours (which means at least 10 books).

Got a tower together of rainbow colours? Start a new rainbow! At the end of TT each team can receive points for each complete rainbow tower.

You can also receive bonus points for creating a tower with all 18 colours. You can only do this once for bonus points.

Cover Colours:
(view spoiler)[White
Bright pink
Dark pink
Bright red
Dark red
BROWN
Dark orange
Bright orange
Dark yellow
Bright yellow
Bright green
Dark green
TEAL
Dark blue
Bright blue
Bright purple
Dark purple
Black (hide spoiler)]

Points: 100 points per complete rainbow tower
A bonus 200 points for creating a tower with all 18 colours (so a total of 300 points. You can do this once during TTX)

2. Crayola Towers
Use the below Crayola colours and spell-it-out. Each name can only be spelled out once. At the end of TT each team will receive points for any name that has been completely spelled out, plus one partially completed word.

Crayola Spell-outs
(view spoiler)[- Atomic Tangerine
- Blast Off Bronze
- Cadet Blue
- Cerulean
- Electric Lime
- Leather Jacket Black
- Mango Tango
- Mauvelous
- Moonstone
- Purple Mountain's Majesty
- Radical Red
- Tickle Me Pink
- Wild Blue Yonder (hide spoiler)]


Points: 10 points per letter and 20 points per completed word

3. Mod Towers
Read any book listed on the 'read' shelf of our past mods!
Each team can only read one book per mod for points.

Lisarenee
Rachel
Lisa Kay
Jex
Laura
Sonia
Karen
Amanda
Renee
Tea
Kelly
Karsyn
Shannon
Laura
Silje
Cat
Eldarwen
Aiswrya
Judith
Sophie

Acknowledging other prior mods (with private profiles or no longer active on GR)- thank you for your contributions!
Sashana
Mary
Susan
For these three mods, read a NBRC BOM from anytime between and including August 2010 and December 2019. (Check the "BOM" tab here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...)
one BOM per mod. It needs to be three different BOMs

Points: 20 points per book read

4. Winners Tower
Each team can read up to 5 books per winning tower team name (below).

Your books need to relate in some way to that Tower Team name. Be creative!


Past Tower Teams Winners:
(view spoiler)[Team C
Moonstone
Thundercats
Anubis
Palpatine
Remus Lupin
Lust
Lord Vetinari
Electra (hide spoiler)]

Points: 10 points per book read

Some examples under spoiler
(view spoiler)[
Team C - Books starting with the letter C, a C on the cover, a main character who is a bit of a c.... whoops there...., a book about an alphabet killer, a book that includes huge groups of people (go and check out how big those teams were!) etc.
Anubis - based in Egypt or ancient Egypt, jackal in book or on cover, scales on cover, book with funeral rites etc.
Lust - Romance genre, red cover, characters lust after an item or another person Word lust in text, etc.

Hopefully you get the idea! Be Creative, don't overthink it :)
(hide spoiler)]

                        

◈ Each book read can only be used for one task.
◈ Books used for your core tower of 223 books can also be used for this mini.
◈ Books can be started at any point since the start of Tower Teams X (May 1)
◈ The usual Tower Team book length rules apply



SPELL-IT-OUT RULES
(view spoiler)[Spell out the word(s) using the first letter in the book's title, the first letter in the author's first or last name, or the first letter of a character's first, last, or nick-name, or the first letter of the series name.
As always, if the first letter of a title starts with an indefinite or definite article ('A', 'An', 'The', etc.), you may use the first letter of the second word in the title to spell out your chosen word.
If the first letter of a title is a numerical digit, then you use the first letter of that digit for your spell out (i.e. 1984 is N; 2046 is T; 1Q84 is O)
If you are listening to an audiobook, the first letter in the narrator's first or last name also can be used.
We're also allowing for Translators names, as long as the edition you are reading is a translation version. (hide spoiler)]

reserve

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

MAY
starts 2 May - Discussion thread

starts 16 May - Discussion thread

Backroom BOM - MUST BE 18+ and join a seperate group. These are generally read for being explicit and terrible. It is book 3 but there has been no plot up to this point really and someone will likely provide a summary.
starts 10 May - Discussion thread

JUNE
Polls for the June BOM's close 7th May
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/3...

1. June Adult Fiction / Non Fiction book Book details here
2. Themed BOM for June Book details - The theme for June is "Longest"

Also mine

And this one

Hello and Welcome to Team Neeznáá (Navaho for the number 10)!

I'm Judith and your captain for this round of TT and I'm also one of the mods of the group behind this crazy challenge.

We have a lot of fun things in store for you and please ask questions here in the thread as there are many moving pieces.

Personally speaking I live in the US on the East Coast and professionally am an economist for the USEPA in the toxic chemical office. Outside of work and reading, I spend most of my time chasing after an active 5 year old. I read almost any genre of books and am always looking for new recommendations.

I think we have a great team and am looking forward to getting to hang out together for the next 3 months.

A wee bit of housekeeping. . .

If I could clearly tell it was your shelf for TT, it’s linked above. Please check it’s correct! Copy paste was involved so something may not be correct.

For everyone else can you please create and post a link your TT shelf here in the thread? Then I can add the links above.

Thank you!

I think my link didn't paste correctly so here you go!

tower-teams-×

I haven’t joined TT in a few years so I'm excited to be back and meet some new faces!

I'm Logan and live in Denver, CO so I'm in MDT. My husband and I moved out here last July and I love it! We currently both work from home with our dog, Lucy.

I'm an insurance adjuster with The Hartford and currently in the recruiting process for our in-house coding bootcamp to move into a tech role. I will be finishing pre-work through May and final interview in June so fingers crossed I'm selected!

I read pretty much everything. I love challenges because they help me pick my next book to read and keep the genres mixed up so I never get bored. I'm in some other group challenges and it's an extra fun challenge to try and find a book that fits multiple prompts. ;)

I can't wait to get to know everyone and get started!

Hey everyone!

I'm Aoife (ee-phaa) I'm from Ireland and this is my first ever TT! I'm new to the group as well so I'm excited to get stuck in and see how it all works.

I work as an R&D engineer and work closely with environmental projects but my main role in very much in house right now. I only started in February so I'm still finding my feet but it's been great fun so far.

I read mostly mystery, romance, fantasy/paranormal but I will pick up anything that seems interesting. If a cover or title is intriguing I'll probably add it to my tbr lol. I use a lot of audiobooks with work and commuting now and get a lot of them from my library. I am not consistent in genres at all and just see what happens.

I love doing challenges since they help focus me with my reading and I love finding things that work for prompts. I toned down my challenges so far this year just with the new job since it's fully in office and my last one was nearly fully from home, but I was given the all clear to use headphones in work if I'm not in a meeting and can quickly take them off if someone needs anything (I was very nervous of this until the last 2 weeks ish just because no one else was wearing them much and there's only 6 of us in our department but no one does really care)

Excited to get started and get to know everyone!!

Hi all, My name is Lexi (she/her/hers). I live in Northern Indiana (EST) for all of two more weeks, and then, I am moving to Atlanta (also EST). I am starting a new job on May 15th in global health and parasitology. I enjoy reading fantasy and sci-fi, and am trying to read authors from a wider range of countries. I have co-captained TTs before with Judith, so I am excited for this team.

Also, just a reminder that all books must be started after TTs starts, so you have about a week to finish anything you already started.

Please feel free to ask any question now and throughout.

Shelf: tt2023

Checking in! Here is my shelf: x-tower

Logan wrote: "I think my link didn't paste correctly so here you go!

tower-teams-×"

There was certainly something weird going on with the links starting about halfway down the team list. I fixed your shelf and a bunch of others. Hopefully it's all fixed now!

Hello everyone. I am excited for this round of TT. I live in Central Texas. My link did correctly.

Hello all! I'm Bobbi from Michigan and I can't wait to get started I read a little bit of everything though my first love is horror (I was a big R.L. Stine kid in the 90s). My shelf linked correctly, so that's all set.

Hi! I'm Tricia and I live in the suburbs of Seattle. This is my first time doing TT and I'm super excited. I have loads of questions, but I'll be patient. ;)

I discovered reading challenges just last year and did over a dozen. This year I pared back just a little and have already completed a couple of them in order to make room for doing a team challenge.

I love the variety of genres you get introduced to when doing challenges. I read a little bit of everything, often having multiple books on the go between my kindle, paper books from the library, and audio books.

Lots of familiar faces here! Tricia, you are going to love Tower Teams. So much fun!

Checking in!

Hi, checking in. Like Tricia I live in the suburbs of Seattle. I like challenges because they force me to finish books, otherwise I'd have a half dozen half read books lying around the house. I like non fiction and am currently trying to finish out some series that I've had on my tbr forever.

Sorry I have time for an intro now.

From Montana, live in Teas, started a Goodreads group some time ago, some of you I have seen in there before: For Love of a Book.

I'm a single mom of a tween boy, and 4 rescue pets. 2 dogs: Comet a miniature Dachshund and Maya a Plott Hound Mix. 2 Cats: Mrs. Nesbitt a domestic long hair, possible Maine Coon mix (she's very long), and Stevie Nyx my neighborhood stray that claimed me, a black domestic medium hair.

I read every genre pretty much, Favs are Speculative Fiction, Psych Thriller, Historical Fiction, and Biography/True Crime. I read both physical and audio books.

My hobbies are cooking, photography, reading, writing, gardening, etc.

I think I joined Goodreads in 2014 or 2016. I don't know I've been on here for a bit haha.

Such a great group! Everybody seems so smart and interesting!

Lexi, good luck with the move!
Aoife, congrats on the new job!

I love exclamation points!!! ;P

Hey Everyone!!!

Happy to See some familiar Faces - Look forward to meeting new ones... HAHAHA

So im Laura - I love Crumpets.... Hence the Name...

Im from the Isle of Wight in UK, But Had a bit of a Holiday romance With a Greek Fella... So got married and Now live in Greece - Kefalonia with him and our two boys - 6 and 8

I work seasonally Part time, Helping out in either the Family's boutique or Taverna - My youngest Has Autism so family looks after him so i can work a bit...

Ummm books..... Im a sucker for a good ol dark romance... Romance in general... Not so much regency, Love Fantasy, and dabble a bit in other genres....

Cant wait to start!!!

Hi everyone! This is my first time in Tower Teams, but I've definitely participated in other challenges with some of you.

I'm Kira. I live in Alberta Canada (MDT), but am kind of a night owl. I work full-time as veterinarian and spend most of my free time with dogs - Ravi (St. Bernard) & Charles (Great Dane).

I listen to a lot of audiobooks on the road for work. But always have a print book and a couple kindle/e-books on the go as well. 98% of my reading is romance, though I'm not entirely opposed to branching out on occasion.

Looking forward to playing with you all!

Hello Hello!

Welcome everyone whose checked in so far! Most of the team has, just a few left which is great since the thread hasn't even been open 24 hours.

I love the excitement!!

Hi all!

I'm Sharon and I'm so excited to be doing Towers again this year! I always read so much more when it's part of a challenge.

I live in Northeast Pennsylvania with my husband (also an avid reader) and our dog, Millie. By day I run a local foundation.

I prefer reaching literary fiction, mystery/thrillers, and "chick-lit." I also really like some historical fiction. I'm not as much into the fantasy genre, but have dabbled here and there (Dresden files, mostly).

Feel free to friend request me, if interested. Looking forward to this challenge and to getting to know everyone!

Hi everyone!

I'm Mahi and I live in Texas. Right now I work as a research assistant but in July I'm going to be starting medical school!

I gravitate to fantasy more than anything else but I do read mystery/thrillers, nonfiction, and romance when I'm in the mood for them.

I started doing reading challenges last year and immediately got addicted. This is my first Tower Teams but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Logan wrote: "Such a great group! Everybody seems so smart and interesting!

Lexi, good luck with the move!
Aoife, congrats on the new job!

I love exclamation points!!! ;P"

Thank you!! It's a lot of fun :D

Very excited to get recs from everyone there's a really good mix of genres coming in

Mahi congrats!! That's amazing omg

Hello everyone!

This is my third or fourth tower teams I think...been on teams with Lexi and Judith before and they are both AWESOME captains we are very lucky to have them.

I am owned by two very spoiled exceptionally needy cats. Ciara an all gray (think Russian blue) and Charlotte an ex-stray, picked me as his pet parent and moved right in all black cat. Ciara tolerates him to a point but finds him more annoying than endearing lol Charlotte loves to read, in fact he owns his own books that he lays on and looks at the pictures. He gets so excited sometimes that he has been known to accidentally tear the page and get very upset with himself. Ciara does not like reading and does like it when I read. She feels it takes my attention away from her lol They are a handful that I wouldn't trade for anything. I also feed about 8 (that I know of, probably more) strays. Clearly I am a borderline crazy cat lady and proud of it!!!

I am an avid baseball fan and so glad the season is in full swing. My team is the Chicago Cubs-Go Cubs Go! If I'm not watching the Cubs then I'm watching the Red Sox or some of my favorite players such as Kyle Schwarber, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Willson Contreras.

I read pretty much anything with the exception of science fiction but I will try anything at least once. I work afternoons/evenings so the majority of my reading comes either late at night or in the morning.

I'm looking forward to the next 3 months and playing the original Tower Teams challenge and getting to know everyone.

Happy reading!

Rebecca! So glad to have another Cubs fanatic on the team. Looking forward to reading with you.

Kira wrote: "Hi everyone! This is my first time in Tower Teams, but I've definitely participated in other challenges with some of you.

I'm Kira. I live in Alberta Canada (MDT), but am kind of a night owl. I wo..."

Waves at another veterinarian. I am non-clinical though; my formal title for my new job is veterinary epidemiologist.

Also, very tired this evening but I will be by tomorrow with information on BOMs and some thoughts on the mini challenge. (I'm checking grad students spreadsheets so fun times).

Michelle wrote: "Rebecca! So glad to have another Cubs fanatic on the team. Looking forward to reading with you."

Always glad to have another Cubs fan friend! Looking forward to reading with you as well

Rebecca wrote: "Hello everyone!

This is my third or fourth tower teams I think...been on teams with Lexi and Judith before and they are both AWESOME captains we are very lucky to have them.

I am owned by two ve..."

GO CUBBIES!!! I still whine about losing Rizzo to the Yankees of all teams. Barf.

Mahi wrote: "Hi everyone!

I'm Mahi and I live in Texas. Right now I work as a research assistant but in July I'm going to be starting medical school!

I gravitate to fantasy more than anything else but I do re..."

Medical school is such a huge accomplishment! Congratulations!

Logan wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "Hello everyone!

This is my third or fourth tower teams I think...been on teams with Lexi and Judith before and they are both AWESOME captains we are very lucky to have them.

I am..."
Love me some Anthony Rizzo. I was so sad when he was traded. Biggest hit at that trade deadline. Heartbreaking!

I love the mini challenge! Gave me happy memories from Team Electric Lime!

congrats on Medical school Mahi!!!! huge acheivement!!!... i have passed out before giving blood hate either blood or needles im not sure... so hats off to anyone that can handle both!!!

we dont have baseball here in europe.. its all football (soccer) here... Tottanham!!!!

Mahi wrote: "Hi everyone!

I'm Mahi and I live in Texas. Right now I work as a research assistant but in July I'm going to be starting medical school!

I gravitate to fantasy more than anything else but I do re..."

Congratulations! Very exciting :)

Hello Team!

Here's the tracking spreadsheet for our team:

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

Feel free to start adding books you plan to read, just don't start reading until TT actually starts.

We have some things automated, if you played TT last year this should be familiar to you.

Column H on the Book tab is where you can enter a code for the mini challenge task and it will auto populate the mini challenge tab, so you just have to enter things in one spot. It's why the mini challenge tabs are locked so formulas don't get overwritten.

I'll add some books I'm going to be reading as examples in a little bit which may help more than looking at a blank spreadsheet.

I'm also adding the link to the tracking sheet in the top post so it's easy to find later.

I've also added a countdown clock to the top of the book tab so it'll be easy for everyone to know if TT has started.

Okay here come the questions. I waited a whole day!! :D

Can someone explain the mini challenge to me? Are we doing every option or just one of them? How do you decide which book should count for which prompt if they work for more than one?

As for the spreadsheet, is it okay to enter books as we go or do I need to build a tbr ahead of time? I have some books that I know I will read but some I may decide in the moment. What happens if I read a book that we don't need? Can I still read it and just not put it on my TT bookshelf?

Hello Tricia!

I'm going to answer you in two parts. First the mini challenge. Yes, we are working on all of them and we have the whole challenge to chip away at them. It probably seems like an overwhelming amount of tasks. But . . . our teams monthly book count, based on sign ups, is 228 books per month. So that's closing in on 700 books by the end of the challenge.

As for which prompt to use. I try to start with what I think are harder tasks. Maybe it works for a harder to find letter like Z or U so I'd put the book there. Or it's a good color for the 18 book Rainbow tower, so I put it there.

And then list some other options in case a captain needs to move your book to a different task to get something to fit. Nothing is locked in for the mini challenge until the end of TT.

There's no wrong prompt to chose as long as the book fits there.

I would say after we complete the 18 book Rainbow tower, I'd put a lower priority on additional rainbow towers until the other parts are more complete.

Answering Part 2 of your questions. Tracking spreadsheet in general.

You can do both. Entering books you know you are going to read and then others as you start or finish them. Both options are perfectly fine.

The 3 I entered first are all BOM (books of the month) for NBRC in May so I know I'll be reading them. Others I'll likely add as I go.

I'm fine if you want to wait to add them until you finish. Some people may wait until the have a few read and then add 4 or 5 completed books at once so they don't have to get into the spreadsheet as often. It's all fine with me.

There may be some things that pop up later in TT that have ore finite deadlines. If that's the case, we'd only ask that you have things logged by the deadline so we get the credit. If something like that happens, we'd post reminders in the thread.

As for books we don't need. . .well as long as it meets the requirement of TT, we can use the book. Even if it fits ZERO mini challenge tasks (unlikely, I can always make a book fit!! I am very creative! LOL) we can still get page points.

But if it doesn't meet the TT requirements, like a children's book with a word count that's too low (an example that's come up in the past is The Bad Beginning, the others in the series are long enough to count, but not the first book). You can of course read it and just not put it on your TT shelf. That's one of the reasons we ask people to make a TT shelf, so if you are reading other things they don't get mixed up with your TT books.

Those are quite long responses, but hopefully that answers some of your questions. But please keep asking as they pop up :)