Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Tower Teams X
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Damara Damara
Tracking Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...Rules: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Completed Book TemplateMandatory
Title:
Date Read:
Pages:
Optional, but give us as much info as possible!
Rainbow Tower (50%+ Color Cover):
Crayola Tower (Spell it out Options):
Mod Tower (Mods Who Read It):
Winners Tower (Winner Tasks it Applies to):
NBRC Book of the MonthsYou have 1 month from start date to finish reading the book to count towards BOM. You must participate in the conversation with at least 3 responses for participation points.
MAY
May 2nd
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames / Discussion Thread
May 10th - Back Room Erotica BOM
The Dangerous Harem by J.R. Hogan / Discussion Thread
May 16th
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia / Discussion Thread
JUNE
June 2nd
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty / Discussion Thread
June 10th - Back Room Erotica BOM
The Red by Tiffany Reisz / Discussion Thread
June 16th
11/22/63 by Stephen King / Discussion Thread
JULY
Nominations for July Theme - War
Nominations Thread
Nominations for July Adult Fiction/Nonfiction
Nominations Thread
Recommendations from the Mod ShelvesLisarenee
Rachel
Lisa Kay
Jex
Laura
Sonia
Karen
Amanda
Renee
Tea
Kelly
Karsyn
Shannon
Laura
Silje
Cat
Eldarwen
Aiswrya
Judith
Sophie
Winners BrainstormingTeam C
*Any "spell it out" application of C
*C on the cover
*set somewhere that starts with a C
*books about team sports
*someone being a team player
*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
Moonstone
*Moon or Stones on the cover
*gemstones important to the plot
*set on a moon
*gemstones used as currency in the world
*Florida connection (setting, author is Floridian, characters from Florida)
*June connection (author/character names, set during summer, published in June, etc)
Thundercats
*Cat Shifters
*Aliens
*Set when Thundercats was on the air (1985-1989)
*Characters are warriors or work in TV/animation
*3rd in a series
*the word third in the title
Anubis
*Death Gods
*underworld Settings
*Cemeteries or Gravestones important to plot or on the cover
*Egyptian setting or author
*mythology genre
*characters work in a mortuary
*jackal in book or on cover
*scales on cover
*book with funeral rites
Palpatine
*Emperor character
*Star Wars books
*books with clones
*sci-fi genres
*characters with P names
*hooded person on the cover
*grandfather characters
*Lightning
*Old
*Senator/politician
*Theme - manipulation
*Evil
*Dark side - dark cover or theme or in the title
*Force. - in the title, text
*Mentor
*Hiding in plain sight
Remus Lupin
*Werewolf character
*Beasts
*Harry Potter books
*wizards characters
*professor characters
*school settings
*characters/authors with the initials RL
Lust
*Backroom books
*Books with MPG Erotica
*romance books
*books where someone lusts after something inanimate (money, car, etc)
*books where sin is a theme/topic
*covers you love
*Found on a Listopia with lust in the title
*red cover
*lust in text
Lord Vetinari
*A book from Discworld/written by Terry Pratchett
*A character who is a writer (he has an unpublished manuscript in the books)
*His name is a pun on Medici family and the word veterinary - so a vet character or a book about/featuring a Medici.
*He graduated from the assassin's guild, so we could use an assassin character.
*The article says he is "technically a dictator" - so we could use dictators characters, or even stretch it to politicians.
*Titled Character
Electra
*Greek setting/author
*tragedies
*characters with dead parents or who deal with a parent's death during the story
* theme: brother's best friend
Good Morning Team!Welcome to Towers X, I'm Vicky and I'll be your captain for this wild ride. Along with our co-captains Shelby and Stacie we've got yearsssss of captaining experience, so you will be in good hands! There will be lots of info coming out this week, but in the mean time...
I see a lot of new faces! So let us know who you are, what you like to read, what your current read is ... or anything else you'd like to tell us! We'd also appreciate confirmation on your tower shelf and give us a heads up if you'll be on vacation at all throughout the challenge so we can keep on top of that.
My go to genres are fantasy and romance - but I'll read almost anything on a good recommendation! A large majority of my reading is audiobooks because I have so many projects I want to do (I've been a homeowner for just over a year and we're still making it our own!) that I can't sit still to read an actual book. I'm also almost always reading multiple books - right now I'm reading Gone with the Wind, A Master of Djinn and From Blood and Ash.... not to mention the books I've started and plan to finish but aren't currently making any progress on. It's chaos around here!
Hello hello! As Vicky mentioned, I'm one of the co-captains for TTX. Can't believe we're on #10!Like Vicky, I read primarily romance and fantasy, both young adult and adult. I've been slowly tiptoeing into young adult horror but it's still not my favorite.
When I'm not reading, I'm working on my Bookstagram account or playing a video game. I live in MD with my husband and our four cats and I work for the federal government. I think that's enough about me.
Looking forward to getting to know new book friends and having fun with this challenge!
Hello!My name is Susan. I'm new to Tower Teams. I live in NJ -- so that's Eastern Daylight Time. I'm at stay at home mom, to mostly grown kids and my husband works away from home frequently, so I have lots of reading time! I do a mix of audio and ebook, but generally more audio during challenges. I read romance and mysteries mostly. I'm not a big fantasy reader. Depending on book length, I'll usually read at least one book per day
My favorite part of challenges is the planning...and I am stumped. I have no idea what I should be looking for. So far, I made note of some over 600p books that I'd be willing to read. If anyone has any advice on what I should be looking for, please let me know.
Here's my shelf:
ttx
Please let me know if you'd like me to rename it
Welcome, Susan! No need to change the shelf name - as long as we know where to look you can call it whatever you like!There's definitely not as much planning for towers. 600+ page books is a good place to start though. The first mini challenge was released to the captains, but we're still picking it apart and clarifying behind the scenes before it gets released to the masses. As soon as we can share that info we'll have a little bit more direction for the planners of the group! :)
Hello all! I think this is my third year playing TT, but it seems like each year is a little different, so I'm sure I'll have questions. I'm excited to get to know all of you a little bit through this challenge. I like reading a little of everything, but mysteries/thrillers are probably my favorite. I work as a public librarian and am actually headed there now. I'll pop back in with a shelf name later today--just wanted to say a quick hello!
You all will find that I love breaking down numbers and stats for group challenges - and Susan's question about targeting gave me an idea! But before I start rambling, I just want to make it super clear that my favorite thing about Tower Teams is that every book counts and you can read anything you want. Some players like to focus on planning and maximizing points and some players just want to read and hang out - whatever kind of player you are, you are welcome here. Just because I get excited figuring out and sharing all the little ways to squeeze out an extra point here and there doesn't mean any of us (myself included, because I am a huge mood reader! lol) are obligated to follow it. My gut instinct after my last post was that we might also need to target the 100-199 page range, so I went back to my TT9 sheet to see what things looked like. Obviously take this with a grain of salt because - 1) it's only one example and 2) the cap on books in TT9 incentivized reading bigger books (we don't have the cap in this round!), but...
Based on what we need for this challenge, we very comfortably read over 200% of the 100-399 ranges. We were over 100% on both 400-499 and the 600+ range. BUT we were short on the 500 range, only reading 68% of what we would have needed.
So, I think the 500 page range is going to be just as important to target as the 600+ page books. HOWEVER - since there is no cap this round, we want to try not to overread big books. Shorter books will get us more points if we can also apply them to minis (2x 250 page books applied to minis will get us 140 points and 1x 500 page book applied to minis will get us 120 points... so the difference will start to add up!).
Based on sign up, we should read about 60 books per week. Which means we'll have the quantity of books to finish the tower done by the middle of the month - though not necessarily the correct page number allocations. So we should definitely be able to redirect mid-month to anything specific we might be lacking in! I'll also eventually be adding some at a glance trackers to our tracking spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...), so we'll have a real time look at what categories we might be lacking in!
I love that kind of info!Some quick questions.
I can't find a general rules section for this group. If there is one, can you point me to it?
It looks like there will be spell outs -- what works for spell outs in this challenge?
If we listen to an audiobook, we use the default edition page count. Do we also use the default edition cover for a task that involves covers?
If the default edition is not English, but we listened to an English language audiobook, do we still use that edition? ( The Ice Limit is on my May TBR)
You said there is no cap -- so, I signed up at 30 books -- I'm not limited to 30 books? Instead of reading 30 books averaging 400 pages, I could read 45 averaging 250 pages?
I'm delighted about this news:
HOWEVER - since there is no cap this round, we want to try not to overread big books. Shorter books will get us more points if we can also apply them to minis
Hi!I'm Sandy and I think I started with TT4 - love this challenge! I live in the Los Angeles area (so PDT). I mostly read romance with some mystery thrown in, but will read other genres for challenges.
I don't have any vacations planned, but I am having surgery on May 11th - I'm hoping my down time will give me plenty of time to read, but I may be out of it for a couple of days after.
My shelf is tt-x
Hey everybody!I'm Shelby, another of your co-captains. I've done a million challenges around GR across a multitude of groups. I love the diversity of it all but TT is one of my absolute favorites!
I read just about anything, but my favorites always tend to be some sort sub-genre of romance. Usually paranormal, fantasy. :) But really, I'll try anything.
I'm also west coast, out in Los Angeles. Hi Sandy! I'm waving hi probably across the city, but since we sprawl who knows how close are we really? ;)
Susan, I've done so many challenges with you over the years and you're going to crush this one! So glad you're here!
Soooo excited to get started! I'm really struggling to decide what to read this week as I want to save so much for TT next week.
Susan A wrote: "I love that kind of info!Some quick questions.
I can't find a general rules section for this group. If there is one, can you point me to it?
It looks like there will be spell outs -- what works..."
Spell Outs - Letters are pretty standard. Title/Author/Series/Characters - Audio and Translator's can only be used if that's the edition you're using.
When it comes to page counts, other than with audio always use the edition you read. When you link that book to the spreadsheet it needs to be the edition you have on your shelf. We captains will be checking that the book on your shelf is the same as the one you linked to and that the page count you reported matches the number to the book on your shelf. For audio please link the audio and we know to look for the first page count.
As for different covers - I believe the standard rule of thumb is that it's about the edition you read. So to fit a cover challenge it needs to be the edition you're reading.
There is NO LIMIT to books read this round unlike past rounds. So please please please just post everything you read! If you signed up for 30 books, but read 35, AWESOME! If you signed up for 2 books, but read 3, AWESOME! If you signed up for 5 books, but only read 3, NO WORRIES! We're here as a team and together we will make sure we finish our minimum and then crush the overages. :)
We will work at moving it all around so that we cover all of the mini challenges. For those that like to help out with the weird tasks we're missing we will probably reach out at different times if we need something specific and ask if someone has something they could read.
Hi Everyone,I'm Briana, or Bri doesn't bother me I'll respond to both. This is my third year participating in TT. I started with TT8 which was a riot and cemented my love for this challenge. I'm in CT and just started long-term subbing so I'm anticipating May to be one of those months where the majority of my reading happens between Saturday and Sunday with my reading hopefully getting back on track in the latter half of June when school lets out. But not to worry I have all of the Murderbot Diaries currently eligible for a reread in May to keep me occupied and those range between 145-175 pages not including Network Effect which is like 350 pages.
I tend to read fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and mystery/thriller. I'm working on getting some more non-fiction into my reading habit by reading at least one a month (and still haven't read one for April so we see how well that's going). I'm currently reading: Wolf Gone Wild, Before They Are Hanged, Blood Mercy, Sinner, and The Sinner and the Scholar. I uh have a hard time with reading only one book at a time. I hope to have most of those done by the 1st so I can start fresh for the beginning of the challenge.
My shelf is here.
Can't wait for the start of the challenge.
@Susan - I think Shelby got most of your questions, but I'll clean up the rest. Rules are in the "All About Tower Teams" thread which is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I've also thrown a link to it in my first post here for easy access!
The Ice Limit is.... weird. I don't know why a French translation would be the most popular version of one of their books, some weird Goodreads quirk I'm sure. I would say for this instance go with the most popular edition - it looks like the pages are comparable to the actual English language editions anyway. I've never seen that before, so I think we'll probably just do a case by case basis if it comes up again.
Tracking Spreadsheet!The tracking spreadsheet we'll be using is located here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (and also linked in my first post up top for easy access). You can either send me a DM with your email or request access from the sheet. Feel free to do so and to start adding any planned reads to the list! :)
I also added the aforementioned At A Glance! tab that will show any areas we might be behind in. It looks a little weird now since we don't have much data - the color scales will start to make more sense as we get more books added.
Please tell me if I'm jumping the gun here...other than page count...what am I looking for? I truly know nothing at all about this challenge.In the tracker there are tabs for crayola, rainbow, mods, winners.
Crayola looks like a spellout. I do not know what the other tabs are.
How many places can a single book be used?
Every book earns page points. Can one book be used for crayola and rainbow? Can a book be used for BOM points and crayola?
No worries Susan. Basic breakdown - every book you read counts towards our main Tower that we need to achieve every month. Our minimum book count is 223 books. Each book gains specific points based on page count.
In addition there will be various mini-challenges offered up by the mods throughout the challenge. Each book can be used ONCE for any task within ONE mini challenge. So right now, you guys don't know much about the rules for the first mini challenge they're offering. We captains have seen the details and started building the spreadsheet to allow ease of our tracking. You don't have to worry about the details yet, as you don't have all the rules. For each book we'll look at the information you've provided for it and fit it into the mini-challenge where we think it can be of the most use. :)
The mods should be posting all the details for the mini challenge within a couple of days so we will have time to plan to our hearts content. :)
okay...so then, I'm jumping gun. I'll wait for the mini challenge info before adding anything to the planning sheet. BOM questions
Note: I haven't participated in this.
1 The Daughter of Doctor Moreau starts May 16
My library has it now. So if I borrow it now, can I read it on May 1 and still have it count? Or do I have to wait until May 16 for it to count? I suppose reading it it early and returning the book might make it hard to answer questions (which seems like school and is making me nervous. I hated English class.)
2. Do BOM also work for mini challenges?
3. composing BOM DQs ...Is there info somewhere on how this works? I can't figure out how I'd be able to come up with questions for a book I haven't read yet. Usually coming up with questions isn't really an issue for me though ;)
4. How many BOM are there per month? I can only find two...but I thought I saw somewhere that Dino Island 3 was one of them...maybe that was another group. I can't imagine I'd make that up.
(seriously...I try not to ask so many questions, and it never works. But, I promise it's just a flurry of them in the beginning and then I'll settle down)
Thank for your help
Susan A wrote: "okay...so then, I'm jumping gun. I'll wait for the mini challenge info before adding anything to the planning sheet. BOM questions
Note: I haven't participated in this.
Girl I got you. I've played many challenges with you in the past and I know how fierce a competitor you can be in the best way. Ask away with the questions. It's easy to forget for those of us who've been a part of this group forever that what we presume to be known isn't always. :)
1. In order for the BOM to count towards TT's it must be started after the first day of the stated BOM. So in the case of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau it would need to be started after the 16th.
2. Yes the BOM also works for mini challenges. In the case of a BOM it will count towards TT in 3 places, you get the normal points per page and added towards our main tower, it can be used once in the mini challenge, and then IF you participate in answering at least 3 sets of the DQ's you also get 20 additional points.
3. Composing DQ's - ok so this gets a little confusing. For each book people will volunteer to put together DQ's for the book. Since especially for TT's there's always a lot of volunteers they randomize each teams volunteers and drawn a random pick from those who've volunteered to write a days DQ's. It always behooves us as a team to have at least one person volunteer to write DQ's as that person gains an additional 40pts for the team. In the case of the person writing the DQ's for the first day, yes they would start it a day or so early. But, when you're assigned your day, you just have to have read your section by that day so that you can post your questions for everyone on the day assigned. ALSO - You do not have to start the book on the day the BOM starts. You have a month from the start date to start & finish the book and still have it count towards BOM points.
4. There are 2 BOM's every month. Currently the BOM's for June are still up for nomination (if your book gets chosen you're automatically given a questions spot) and the voting will begin via poll I believe around the 27th of the month. But you are not wrong, there is a 3rd BOM this month. NBRC is all ages and because of this there is a "NBRC Back Room" where sometimes there will be an erotica option offered for people to read as a BOM. They've chosen to keep this separate to keep the group as a whole more family friendly. Because of some long running jokes and questionable choices we've made in the past, this months back room book is The Dangerous Harem. It is book 3 in the series as the other two have been part of past challenges. The commentary on the back room books can get pretty hilarious honestly. There's isn't always a Back Room BOM every month. But we are starting out with one for May.
Thanks so much Shelby.I have always avoided BOM, in every group, because it's just too much like school, BUT...yes, I am too competitive to just ignore potential points. I'll hold off on borrowing for another week and hope it's still available.
I'm sure this won't be surprising to you, but yes, I have read book 1 in the Dino Island series. I'll need to read book 2 to get caught up. I am absolutely on board for that one. I will even volunteer for DQs as soon as the group accepts me. My son will be home from college by then and he is an excellent writer. If I talk to him about the book for a few minutes, I'm sure he can help me compose some questions if I get picked. That would be a hilarious event.
Lol! Not a surprise at all. Once you get accepted - take a look at the past BOM questions for the previous two books. You'll see the questions for this one can get absurd and amusing. :D
I think I went through and added everyone as a friend so if you see a strange girl requesting to be friends, it's me!
Hi, Hi!My name is Abir, and this is not my first TT. I have been participating since I joined the NBRC years ago. I think I only missed it once and I'm still regretting that. I'm from Algeria so my time zone is GNT+1. I'm a daily worker but I get my reading done at night mostly, or during stolen breaks. I don't have a specific genre, I Iike to keep my options open, and some of the books I read are in foreign (to some of you maybe) languages, like Arabic, Frensh, Spanish or Turkish beside the English. So please don't be shocked when finding a bizarre looking title.
The best part about TT for me is trying to find a book that works with a certain task. Since this is the only challenge I participate in that has a sweet pressure to it.
My TT shelf:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Hey guys!! I feel like I missed a notification or something, I didn't realize teams had been posted until I started getting friend requests from unfamiliar (soon to be familiar) people. Anyways, here now and I've turned on the notifications!I'm Frida, right now I live in France. I've done TT once before (TT8), but I've essentially forgotten everything about how it works - you can blame my goldfish memory for that. Seems like most questions have been answered already, so I'm sure I'll be visiting them many times.
I really have no preference when it comes to genre. My primary criterion is good writing, after that anything goes. I've been wanting to reread all the Shadowhunters books recently, so if they get us a decent amount of points I'll probably start with those. Plus since they're YA I'll read them pretty fast (relative to me, that is)
I'm pretty busy at work until June 9th, so that's going to affect my books per month a bit. Either I'll read a lot less, which is what I really should do, or I'll read a hell of a lot more out of procrastination, which is what I will probably do. It's a tossup either way, so my reading pace for May is a bit unclear. After that though I should get 5-6 books a month!
My shelf is here
Hey!My name is Liz. I live near Green Bay, Wisconsin (CST) with my husband, dog, and 3 cats. I had a terrible reading year last year due to our wedding, continued work on updating our home, and switching jobs twice. I finally feel relaxed enough to focus on reading again this year.
This will be my first reading challenge ever so I am very excited to meet other readers and figure out how this all works. I am definitely a mood reader. I primarily read fantasy/sci-fi and non-fiction, although I've been branching out lately and find that there isn't much I dislike. I am currently reading The Paying Guests, Anansi Boys, and A Dangerous Business.
My shelf is tower2023
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...Hi everyone. I’m Carrie. I live close to Pittsburgh, PA with my husband, dog, and 3 cats.
This is my 4th time playing Tower Teams. It’s definitely one of my favorite challenges!
My preferred genres are mystery, horror, thriller and noir but I dabble in other things as well!
Looking forward to playing with you all 😊
Welcome Abir, Frida, Liz and Carrie! Glad to have you all here. :)Just as a little FYI - I'm frantically trying to finish up a few last minute projects before I leave for Apollycon in DC this weekend, so if I'm a little MIA the next few days I'm just off in procrastination land.
The mini challenge has been announced!Check out the rules for the mini here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I'm typing up a little cliff notes/my strategy perspective post, but read over the rules and let us know if you have any questions! :)
Mini Challenge Thoughts Most important:
--> This challenge runs the entirely of the challenge, so there's no rush to get it done!
--> Books for the main page tower ALSO count for the mini.
Overall Strategy (In my opinion, feel free to discuss though!)
The biggest thing I want to stress is that every book you read counts. My strategy as a captain has always been to take the information the team gives me about a book and figure out the best way to maximize the points we get from it. I want us all to be flexible and please don't take offense if you read a certain book for something specific and it gets shuffled around later. It's all to make the dream work! :)
That said, I think there are some places in the mini that we will need to target: the full 18 color Rainbow Tower, the Mod Towers and the Winner towers. These all need a little coordination and/or research and/or planning.
For the Crayola Towers and the rest of the rainbow towers - I think the strategy is to amass books and see what we can make work. We need about 240 books (not including the unlimited number of rainbow towers) so there's no reason we won't finish!
For the planners among us - the At A Glance tab on the tracking spreadsheet will give insight into areas that might be lacking.
Mod Towers - The mods have a LOT of books to choose from, if you open their read shelf right next to the search bar is a "compare books" feature that will show you books that are on both their shelf and your shelf - it might help narrow down the list (although I don't think it's comprehensive!). Also if you're looking at the mod shelves and see a book that you've read and would recommend - let us know! :)
What color do you think this is? It looks orange on GR. To me, it looks more pink/coral in real life.
Looking at the colors in the tracking sheet drop down bar, I'd say it matches the orange better than the pink.
Tin Eye calls it orange, so I'd probably go with that to play it safe.
For the Winner towers ... can we brainstorm ideas and put them in a sticky? I'm not familiar with a lot of them.I have no idea who Lord Vetinari is... but would any historical romance with a Lord (Duke, Marquess etc) work?
For colors -- is there a required percentage?do books like this work? Or is there not enough color?
Hello!I'm Paula, from Chile, I'm 32 and work in environmental and mining consultancy.
I read mainly fantasy and historical fiction, I'm reading 3 to 5 books a month, I hope to read as much as I can during the challenge.
I won't be participating in BOMs because they're hard to find for me here in Chile.
I swear I'll have all read by wednesday, but I wanted to let you know that I'm here and happy to participate in TT again! (this might be my 5th or 6th time)
Work has been crazy, so I'll probably won't show up much here (weekly of course).
Here's my shelf
Susan A wrote: "For the Winner towers ... can we brainstorm ideas and put them in a sticky? I'm not familiar with a lot of them.Yes, Susan that's a great idea! We can brainstorm and one of us will get a post up at the top with the things we think of.
I would definitely say yes to a book with a titled character!
I didn't know who he was either, but he's a character from Discworld! He's got a full wiki page with info about him we could use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Ve...
So other options...
A book from Discworld/written by Terry Pratchett
A character who is a writer (he has an unpublished manuscript in the books)
His name is a pun on Medici family and the word veterinary - so a vet character or a book about/featuring a Medici.
He graduated from the assassin's guild, so we could use an assassin character.
The article says he is "technically a dictator" - so we could use dictators characters, or even stretch it to politicians.
There's lots of room for interpretation on these. :)
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Damned and Desirable (other topics)Much Ado about Nauticaling (other topics)
Divine and Dateless (other topics)
Small Things Like These (other topics)
Small Things Like These (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gabby Allan (other topics)K.M. Neuhold (other topics)
Stephanie Garber (other topics)
Cassandra Clare (other topics)
Jennifer L. Armentrout (other topics)
More...
• vicky (Captain)
• Shelby (Co-Captain)
• stacie (Co-Captain)
• paula-reyes-wagner
• carrie
• Susan-A
• sandyl
• donna
• vanessa-fangirl-faction
• jodie-jt
• briana
• denise
• Cass ☀️
• frida
• abir
• liz
• Berit
• stephie
• teddie
• Kim
• Christene Paula ✨
Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...