Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team CN Tower




Team Members
• Tammie Captain
• Ushashi Co-Captain
• Jenn C Co-Captain
• Maritza
• denise
• Jackie
• Roe
• Jill
• Saar the Book Owl
• Kirsten Pullen
• CB
• Franzi


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

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LINKS

Rules (Read 1st) > https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Countdown to END of TTs>no matter where you are in the world...this is your timer :) This timer for book limits only > https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...
Once the challenge starts, books can be carried over if needed.
📕Book caps/limits can be monitored @the 'members info' tab @ our WS

Our WS (Working Spreadsheet) - this is where we'll record all of our book entries > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Spreadsheet (captains only) > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Our Team Member's Threads > Please share your TT shelf link with us to record here.

❅ Tammie | Read | atw tt
❅ Ushashi | Read | nbrc-tt11-around-the-world
❅ Jenn C | Read | 2025-tt
❅ Maritza | Read | tt11
❅ denise | Read | tt
❅ Jackie | Read | tt-xi‎
❅ Roe | Read | 25-towers
❅ Jill | Read | tower-xi
❅ Saar the Book Owl | Read | tower-25
❅ Kirsten Pullen | Read | 25-tt
❅ CB | Read | tower-teams-2025
❅ Franzi | Read | challenge

Misc Helps :)
How to post a link to your book on the SS
1. Go to your the version of the book you are reading. COPY the address for your book. (ctrl + c)
2. Place your cursor in the spot, on the SS, where you want to put your link
description
3. ᨖ <- Find this icon at the top of our WSS and 'click' on it
4. PASTE (ctrl + v) the copied address in the box labeled 'LINK'
5. Type in the name of your book in the box labeled 'TEXT'
6. Click 'APPLY'
7. Double check that your link works.

Need a word count for a book that may require an exception? Try arbookfinder
Minimum word count for this challenge is 30,000 words or 3 hours on audio. If your book is an 'exception' book, please include details on words/audio length in your book name on the WS.
https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.a...

BOM / LINKS

July >
Start: July 2
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Discussion thread/You can volunteer for DQs HERE

Start: July 16
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Discussion thread/You can volunteer for DQs HERE

Start: August 2
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Discussion thread/You can volunteer for DQs HERE

Details (view spoiler)[◈ For current BOM (Book of the Month) discussions
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

NOTE: We will accept one team member per book per team for writing a days DQs. If, by three days prior to the BOM starting, we don't have enough volunteers to write all DQs, then we will let more than one team member per team write questions. If we have more people than days sign up (prior to 3 days before start date) we will randomise the volunteers to determine those who can write DQs.

Remember that you can collect your participation points from previous BOM (from January 2022) for an extra entry in the randomiser, on a basis of 3 participation points to 1 extra entry. Your team will be allowed a maximum of 6 entries for each BOM.

Restrictions:
- you must link posts to your participation if you want to claim them
- only one set of writing DQs will be allocated to each team (unless there aren't enough volunteers)
- must be from the main group, Backroom BOM participation doesn't count
- you must finish the book after the start of Tower Teams, and within one month of the BOM starting

Example:
The first challenge BOM is the June 2022 Adult BOM.

Cat participated in the January and February, plus the May Themed BOMs (5 participation points in total). She can therefore claim ONE extra entry for the June Adult, and still has two participation points. She participates in the June Adult, and thus gains an additional participation point (to a total of three). She can turn these three in for an extra entry in the June Themed BOM. She now has no participation points remaining.

Team Mods have three volunteers for the June Adult BOM: Cat (could claim two entries), Judith (could claim three entries) and Sophie (could claim two entries). They are only permitted a maximum of 6 entries, and so Judith only turns in enough participation points to claim two entries. Judith still has participation points to claim another entry in the June Themed BOM.

Note: We are starting the May 2025 Themed BOM on May 18th (2 days later than normal) allowing for its inclusion in Tower Teams. (hide spoiler)]
Please don't feel like you should read what you don't like, but if you can fit these in to your reading plan...it's a big help to our team.

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🙌 Hey there, CN Tower! 🙌

I'm totally thrilled and honored to be one of your 'fearless leaders' alongside Ushashi and Jenn. We're your trusty sidekicks for any head-scratchers you might have!

I'm from Missouri and live in a suburb of St. Louis along with my husband. We have 2 grown children both with partners and dogs who we love!
I work as a real estate agent, so my time is pretty flexible...except when it's not. RealtorWorld can be busy this time of year :)
I'll be around quite a bit checking in several times per day.

Reading is my favorite pastime next to travel. My husband and I visited UAE, India and Vietnam in January. An awesome experience with lots of adventure stories...here's 1...in Saigon when we had to cross a street...we literally had to step out in front of traffic...I'm talking hundreds of cars and walk across without stopping. Terrifying...but they just drove around us like we weren't even there!

I love to read...perhaps a little too much at times. You’re welcome to explore my shelves whenever you like. I enjoy making recommendations and discussing all things related to books. While horror isn't my favorite genre, I'm open to exploring just about anything else.

Here's a few warm up questions (travel focused) you can consider including in your introductions.

🌎Tell us about yourself
🌎Have you ever traveled outside of your country? ...add where you'd like to go 'someday'.
🌎Have you ever had what you'd consider an adventure on a trip? Tell us about it if you don't mind.

Share your TT shelf please.

Don't forget to check the box to receive notifications to our thread!

Hello everyone!
Ushashi here, one of your co-captains. I'm from India, currently living in Boston. I work as a scientist, essentially on my laptop most of the day.
I could not be more excited about the theme of tower teams this year. It has been my personal goal for a few years to read at least one book by authors from every country. And it's a bigger struggle to find those books in the library that I would have thought. So I'm really hoping this challenge will push me to knock off a bunch of countries from my list.
I love to actually travel too, been to a few countries in Europe, now exploring USA. I never knew how big and wildly varied this country's landscape is before moving here. And of course I've been all over India!!
I love to read all kinds of historical and contemporary fictions, dystopia and thrillers, but always open to try recommendations of other genres. Been trying to expand my non-fiction reading but always seem to pick up a fiction once one gets over.

Here's my tt shelf: tt-11-around-the-world

Can't wait to read with you all!!

Hi Team - I’m CB and I live in Northeast Ohio. I’m in the finance industry, so if I go silent for a bit it’s because work has gotten especially crazy!

I absolutely love to travel and enjoy exploring new places and having new adventures on my trips. I tend to be pretty active on my vacations, and have both a yoga retreat and a hiking trip out of the country planned for this year. When I think of where I’d really like to focus some of my travels in the next few years, I’d love to further explore Southeast Asia, in particular Cambodia and Vietnam. The Sapa region is supposed to be gorgeous and great for hiking, so I’m hoping to organize something around that for maybe next year or the following.

My favorite genre is urban fantasy, and I primarily read books that have fantastical or paranormal elements, although I have gotten a bit into humorous cozy mysteries of late.

Here is my TT shelf: Tower Teams 2025

Looking forward to the start of this challenge!

CB wrote: "Hi Team - I’m CB and I live in Northeast Ohio. I’m in the finance industry, so if I go silent for a bit it’s because work has gotten especially crazy!

I absolutely love to travel and enjoy explori..."

Hey CB! Teamies again :)

Alan and I spent 8 days in Vietnam in January. Highly recommend.
I've heard Cambodia is equally awesome!

Hi everyone! I'm Saar and I live in Bruges, Belgium. I work in a mental hospital and I'm studying hard to become a veterinarian assistant. I've only traveled to London, Amsterdam and Paris, but I love to go to Japan one day. It's a fascinating country.

My shelf for the Towers: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Minis Update: Our first 2 countries World Wheel is FRANCE and KOREA

Hello, everyone! I'm Kirsten (she/her), a theatre professor in Illinois. I read a mix of MM romance (hockey, fan fiction, historical), thrillers, and lit fic.

My shelf is 25-tt

I love to travel. I've lived in the US, Canada, and Germany, and visited countries in Europe, North and Central America, South Asia, and East Asia. I'd most like to visit Peru, Ghana, Cambodia, and Turkey and go back to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia.

Every trip is adventure, but probably the best time I ever had is the trip my sister and I took to Sri Lanka. The whole week was amazing, but the best part was driving back from an elepant hunt (with cameras, obvs! so amazing and the cutest babies) in an open air jeep through the country side at night, seeing and smelling the flowers and hearing the music and lights and hearing and seeing the monkeys, deer, people, and nightlife on the roads and in the towns as we zipped past. It was just magical.

Hi everyone! I'm Jackie from North Carolina. I'm retired and enjoying every minute of it! I'll read almost anything but fantasy, mystery/thriller, and horror are my favorite genres at this time. I've played TT several times and am looking forward to this version.

I've traveled extensively across the United States but haven't yet made it to Europe. Greece, Ireland, and Germany are countries I'd particularly like to visit.

My shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

For those of you that checked in early...not sure if you noticed, but our WS thread is posted at the top here

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

These first few spots will be where you can always go for links, etc.

Please do check out the WS...ask questions/clarification.
This is a tougher challenge than last year...I know I'm up for the challenge! Let's discuss any thoughts on strategy!

Also posted are BOM books...please check out post #7 and consider reading the easy point getters. I'll keep this post current for links to all BOM books and send reminders along the way. Right now the current book is open for volunteers for DQs and nominations for July are in the works.

Kirsten wrote: "Hello, everyone! I'm Kirsten (she/her), a theatre professor in Illinois. I read a mix of MM romance (hockey, fan fiction, historical), thrillers, and lit fic.

My shelf is 25-tt

I love to travel. ..."

WOW! I'm in awe of your experiences. Turkey is on my list too...going to Mexico here soon. We love going there!

Jackie wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Jackie from North Carolina. I'm retired and enjoying every minute of it! I'll read almost anything but fantasy, mystery/thriller, and horror are my favorite genres at this time. I'..."

Welcome Jackie....I hope to retire one of these days...I like to stay busy which is what has kept me from taking the leap. Ireland is on my list too! When you pack your bag, make room for me :)

I'm wondering...are we up to starting off the round with our 1st itinerary of all 'hard level' books? What do you all think...I'm totally open to whatever if the team wants to give it a go.

I'm working on adding a few links to the harder countries tab...feel free to add whatever and ideas you might have here and your captains will get those to the country thread. We can start another thread for idea sharing if that works better for everyone too.

Hi team
I’m Denise from a suburb of Los Angeles. I’m a high school teacher and will soon be on vacation and able to contribute to the team.

I don’t travel much but love reading books from and set in other countries. I spend my summers at the beach or hiking. Work is stressful and I don’t want to spend my 7 weeks off planning trips.

I’m fine with starting with harder countries. I also already have a copy of The Berry Pickers so let me know when to start it

I’ve done team challenges before but not this one, please excuse me if I have a lot of questions after we start. I hope I posted the shelf right.

Shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Denise wrote: "Hi team
I’m Denise from a suburb of Los Angeles. I’m a high school teacher and will soon be on vacation and able to contribute to the team.

I don’t travel much but love reading books from and se..."

Welcome Denise and thank you for your work as a teacher!
Most of us have completed this challenge in the past…ask us anything! We’re here to help!

Sure, I’m game to target the hard countries for the 1st round mini! The hard countries get us more points, is that correct?

CB wrote: "Sure, I’m game to target the hard countries for the 1st round mini! The hard countries get us more points, is that correct?"

You are right...20 pts for hard, 10 pts for med and 5 points for easy.

I found a post somewhere in my searching yesterday where someone was trying to read a book from every country in the world...I think it was in my search for North Korea.
Books from there are few but I found one that looks interesting. I plugged it in to one of the World Wheel spots. I hope it's good ;)
I might try that challenge after I get through a few with this challenge...we'll see how that goes.

Hi book fam! I'm Roe, coming to you from the wide open spaces of Iowa, where I live with my husband, daughter, and—brace yourselves—six dogs. Yes, six. And yes, it’s as chaotic and wonderful as it sounds. We wrangle the crew on five acres of land, which they’ve generously agreed to let us humans share.

By day, I'm deep in the world of finance (numbers, spreadsheets, the whole deal). By night—and weekends—I switch gears: part-time newspaper photographer chasing stories through my lens, and ER weekend warrior helping people through some of their toughest moments. Never a dull moment, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve traveled to quite a few states, mostly for work, and every new place leaves me more curious about what’s out there. I haven’t made it out of the country yet, but one of my biggest dreams is to become a National Geographic photographer in my elder years—camera in hand, passport full of stamps, and stories from every corner of the globe.

When I do get some downtime, you’ll find me nose-deep in a book. I’ll read just about anything, but thrillers and true crime are my absolute jam. Got a recommendation that’ll keep me up at night or have me checking the locks twice? Send it my way—I want it!

Can’t wait to read along with all of you and discover our next favorite together!

My shelf -25-towers

Jackie wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Jackie from North Carolina. I'm retired and enjoying every minute of it! I'll read almost anything but fantasy, mystery/thriller, and horror are my favorite genres at this time. I'..."

I’ve travel to North Carolina, where my company’s based, all the time! Maybe a bookish lunch is in our future!! :)

I have a handful of really long books I have been saving for this challenge to help us get high points. Let me know if you want me to start with these or something else.

The Pillars of the Earth Pilar UK (mini option- Author born in UK)

The Fountainhead USA (Mini- author born in Russia)

Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer USA (mini starts with A)

Welcome Roe! My roots are in Nebraska and I go back often to see 'the dad's'. My dad is 90 this year and my father-in-law is 91. Both still driving and living alone...yikes right! We need to have pet show-and-tell...share those photos of our furry friends!

To answer your Q...you can start with any book you like...yes, the longer the books the better. You have 3 months, so you can fit them in whenever you like.
You could start the Russia one knowing there is a chance we'll draw 'Russia' on the wheel at some point. Right now our wheel is for France and Korea. I think the main screen I'll encourage everyone to use is to try to always fit it in to a mini task if you can.

We're going for the most points possible on Mini 1 Novels...but that doesn't mean we can't put another lower point country on there.

Said even another way...I always try to put my books on what I think are the hardest tasks first, noting what else it works for in the far right side of the SS.
A few of us have entered some books so you all can see what I mean.

Also...I'll bet you all there will be more mini's thrown at us. My experience...try if we can to focus on the mini's that give us the most points. All 3 of the current minis run the duration of the challenge. Mini 2 and 3...the tasks are worth 10 points
Mini 1...20, 10 and 5 pts depending on what we pick.

So...if you have a choice between Mini 2 or 3 and Mini 1 @5 pts...go for Mini 2 or 3 first. Those are progressive anyway...actually they all kinda are. We can't move on to the next until something is finished in some fashion. I made notes @ each tab and even more details on the 'rules'.

If your book won't work anywhere except for 5 pts...put it there! Remember we can only use each country twice.

This is a tougher challenge than in years past...will stretch us all a bit.

Please continue to ask if unsure....it's helpful to eveyone!

Roe wrote: "Jackie wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Jackie from North Carolina. I'm retired and enjoying every minute of it! I'll read almost anything but fantasy, mystery/thriller, and horror are my favorite genres a..."

I'd love it!

I know these are medium not hard but I own books that take place in Zimbabwe (We Need New Names and Ukraine (Forgottenness, and also one each from "hard" countries Honduras (The Mosquito Coast and Guatemala (Daughter of Fire

Roe, where in Iowa? I grew up in indianola and my folks still live there.

I have a book set in Malaysia, but I don’t see that country on the list? Did I just miss it? TIA

ETA: nvm

@Denise and Kirsten...nice sleuthing on the books!

I have been to Indianola !

Kirsten wrote: "Roe, where in Iowa? I grew up in indianola and my folks still live there."

20 min south of Indianola! I was just there Sat at Theisens getting vegetable plants!

Roe wrote: "I have a handful of really long books I have been saving for this challenge to help us get high points. Let me know if you want me to start with these or something else.

[book:The Pillars of the ..."

Hi Roe, I can see see all of these working for letters even in our current country wheel of France and Korea. Also, Ahab's wife has the sea on the cover which works for the mini 'body of water on cover'. So I guess you can pick up whichever you want to start first.

If you finish it soon we can use it in one of these, if not I'm sure more minis will turn up to fit these. We might ask you to hold off on finishing the book since we can't bank books much this time around.
Either way, these will get us huge page points!!

Denise wrote: "I know these are medium not hard but I own books that take place in Zimbabwe (We Need New Names and Ukraine (Forgottenness, and also one each from "hard" countries ..."

You have an amazing collection! If you could, going for the hard countries will get us more points. But no pressure to read something if you don't feel like it.

Good morning everyone. I'm Jenn, your second co-captain. I am really excited to be part of this Tower Teams with you. I think I've done all of them so far, except maybe one. It's my absolute favorite of all the challenges.

I currently live in Arizona and I'm an Area Operations Manager for urgent care clinics here. My check ins will be all over the place, because I'm all over the place. I live with my husband and two Maine Coons, Ringo and Sunny.

I love to read, and I also had made a goal to try to read something set in or written by someone from each country in the world.

I have been outside of the United States to Canada once and Mexico once. I have been to 36 of the states in my country. My husband and I had plans to go to Italy in 2020 - but we all know how 2020 went. I hope someday to go to Irelands and Wales, Italy, Greece and Japan.

I would consider my move from Florida to Arizona an adventure. My parents and teenage niece and I pulled a U-Haul trailer and drove cross country. Once we emptied it and unpacked at my new apartment, we then did a 3 week trip visiting Vegas, the National Parks in Arizona and California, Hollywood, Venice, and then we took historic route 66 all the way to Ohio to drop my niece off, stopping along the way at National Parks, caves and caverns, road side attractions and more random places. After spending a few days in Ohio it was back down to Florida, for me to make the drive to Arizona again a month later with my boyfriend and my cat.

My shelf is 2025-tt

CB wrote: "Hi Team - I’m CB and I live in Northeast Ohio. I’m in the finance industry, so if I go silent for a bit it’s because work has gotten especially crazy!

I absolutely love to travel and enjoy explori..."

Hi CB, I'm originally from Ohio. I grew up in Kent. I have family in Cleveland, Ravenna and Massillon.

Tammie wrote: "I found a post somewhere in my searching yesterday where someone was trying to read a book from every country in the world...I think it was in my search for North Korea.
Books from there are few ..."

I read two books about North Korea earlier this year, unfortunately for this challenge, but can share them if someone is looking for a book. They're both non-fiction, memoir type books.

Question - our first mini is Korea -is that North or South or both?

I've added 2 books into the worksheet. The first is for Iceland and the second for Japan. I'm not sure what I need to add in the mini - section?

Jenn wrote: "Question - our first mini is Korea -is that North or South or both?"

It doesn't say, so it could be either

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've added 2 books into the worksheet. The first is for Iceland and the second for Japan. I'm not sure what I need to add in the mini - section?"

On our WS you'll see several tabs 'locked' along the bottom. Each book we read - 'books' tab - ideally will find a home on one of those minis.

In the left column of each mini task...there is a code...once you find a spot for your book on the mini, you enter that code in the mini section. You should notice that it populates automatically into the mini. We have them locked to avoid missing books/overlapping/potentially losing the formulas.

Does this make sense??

I entered a book myself for each mini...hopefully that will help you make sense of it all.

Tammie wrote: "Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've added 2 books into the worksheet. The first is for Iceland and the second for Japan. I'm not sure what I need to add in the mini - section?"

On our WS you'll see sev..."

No, sorry, it's me. My brain is tired, haha. I've got a book for Iceland. So, do I need to put E13 then in the mini section?

A bit more clarification

The tab marked 'countries - mini 1' goes with the tab labeled 'mini 1 - novels'

Find your country on the country tab...look to see where it is on the levels...Easy - 5 pts * Midlevel - 10 pts * Hard - 20 pts

If your country is 'blacked out' that will mean we have used it twice and it can no longer be used. We'll need to monitor this and captains will black out as needed.

The tab labeled 'mini 1 - novels' is where you find your code....basically pick a spot that hasn't been claimed and use that code for your book.

Saar The Book owl wrote: "Tammie wrote: "Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've added 2 books into the worksheet. The first is for Iceland and the second for Japan. I'm not sure what I need to add in the mini - section?"

On our WS..."

You'll pick I4

please continue to ask...others may be uncertain as well :)

We are limited to 6 each and 3 mid level per itinerary.
The more 'hard' level we read, the more points we get. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be picking from wherever...read what you think you'll enjoy

*Reminder* no books should be started until the official start of the challenge...see our timers...posted at the top of this thread and there's a link on the WS as well :)