Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Teammates:

Elizabeth F
Amanda
Carrie
Alex w
Jessica S

Monster List

Rules: (view spoiler)[

◈ Starts on Jan 16, 2026 and runs for SIX weeks (ending Feb 27)
◈ The start / end time for each round will be 9pm UK time
◈ The team with the highest points at the end of the game wins!
◈ Each team will be made up of five players, and each player will get 5 books every two weeks.
◈ You will create your own team and should be of people who can commit to five books over a 2-week period. Other than the 10 shared across the team. People will not be allowed extra books if someone is under-reading. If real life happens, and someone needs to switch out, you need to find your own alternate. There will be a thread for finding teams.
◈ Each team will get an extra 10 books for the two-week period to share between members. One member cannot read all 10 books by themselves.
◈ Teams may make a private group to discuss monsters and planning. A moderator will have access to the spreadsheet to verify that books are being entered correctly, and no one is over-reading.
◈ Each team can have up to five monsters active (on the spreadsheet) at once
◈ Each monster has a set of required tasks that must be completed in order to vanquish the monster. Books can be used to complete more than one task, but only for the same monster. If you can find a single book that meets all five tasks, congratulations, you defeated the monster with just one book.
◈ Monsters are assigned at random and may be repeated by the same team/individual. However, you can request a re-spin if you already have the monster on your spreadsheet or this would be the third time that you would have this monster during the entire 6-week period.
◈ Usual rules hold on location (must be over 50% of the book) and color cover (must be over 50% of the cover).
◈ Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count
◈ Books must be at least 100 pages in length (hide spoiler)]

Completion points per monster by Wheel:
◈ Greek, Asian, Urban Legends and Fictional Humans – 20 points per monster
◈ Dr. Who, Vegi-might, Discworld and Holiday – 30 points per monster
◈ Bad Romance, Overly Specific and World Villains -40 points per monster

So we just need a team name and then it's the waiting game until everything starts i think!

Thanks for creating the thread Elizabeth!

Thoughts on team names? I found a few possibilities

The Ghoul Scouts
The Graveyard Shift
The Book Slayers
The Frightening Five
The Spine Breakers

I like all those honestly! 😂

Hi team!

My top pick is The Spine Breakers, but I also like The Book Slayers and The Graveyard Shift.

The Spine Breakers is very fun for a monster type challenge. 😂

I'm good with The Spine Breakers.

Hi guys!! :) bookmarking this thread now lol

Spine breakers works!

Starts the 16th and i think we're juat waiting on Alex to check in!

Spine Breakers is reporting for duty! Let's slay some monsters with this great name!

Here's your team spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

You'll need to request access. Only the NBRC Mod account will have access to view your spreadsheet outside of the members of your team.

Happy Hunting!

Just requested access!

Also requested 😊

We can officially request wheel spins as of today - anyone see a category they're specifically interested in? Looks like we can do 5 spin requests. Are we thinking higher point monsters or a variety?

There is five of us so we could do a pick each?

After reading the tasks, Fictional Humans seems the easiest, but I am very competitive so I might pick one of the 40 points options.

Overly Specific tasks seem the hardest, but World Villains should be avoided if we aren't keen on reading books set in unusual countries 🤔 I guess it would help to know each other's reading tastes 😄

My reading tastes are Historical Fiction, Thrillers and Mysteries

Alexw wrote: "My reading tastes are Historical Fiction, Thrillers and Mysteries"

Bad Romance seems the best choice for a historical reader, and it's also worth 40 points a monster.

I know I'd regret it, but the try hard in me wants to pick Overly Specific 😂

Maybe an easier category for the first round, just to kinda learn the ropes and see what it will be like. I tend to learn by doing so I'm a little confused by just reading the rules lol

Doesn't have to be super easy, but maybe one with less "very hard" options also because my books planned out for the next week or so aren't super long

Amanda wrote: "Maybe an easier category for the first round, just to kinda learn the ropes and see what it will be like. I tend to learn by doing so I'm a little confused by just reading the rules lol

Doesn't h..."

So we can do five spins and take on five monsters at a time. Shall we do two 20 points (easy), one 30 points (medium) and two 40 points (hard)?

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

I really like Discworld, Fictional Humans and Bad Romance, but happy with anything...except maybe Doctor Who

Jessica wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Maybe an easier category for the first round, just to kinda learn the ropes and see what it will be like. I tend to learn by doing so I'm a little confused by just reading the rules ..."

Yes, that sounds good! Where does it say whether it's 20, 30, or 40 points?

I like bad romance and overly specific.

I tend to read a lot of horror, mystery and noir.

Amanda wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Maybe an easier category for the first round, just to kinda learn the ropes and see what it will be like. I tend to learn by doing so I'm a little confused by just re..."

Scroll to the bottom of the rules.

Carrie wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Maybe an easier category for the first round, just to kinda learn the ropes and see what it will be like. I tend to learn by doing so I'm a little conf..."

Thanks :)

What's really scaring me isn't the tasks but the hit points! I don't have many books on my TBR that are 651+ pages

I do have an 800 page book I'm reading in the next week though.

I kind of read whatever I need for a challenge 🤣 i guess the only genres I'm not a big fan of are nonfiction and historical or like epic fantasy. I read a lot of urban fantasy, romance, horror/thrillers. I like the idea of keeping it varied- I'm not super familiar with task options of the monsters. I'm fine with whichever monsters honestly!

Elizabeth wrote: "I kind of read whatever I need for a challenge 🤣 i guess the only genres I'm not a big fan of are nonfiction and historical or like epic fantasy. I read a lot of urban fantasy, romance, horror/thri..."

I'm the same. I will read whatever the challenge needs and can read any genre, but I mostly read MM romance with fantasy as my main sub-genre.

My favourite thing about these challenges is reading a book you would never have read by choice, and falling in love with it. I had it recently with Underland: A Deep Time Journey when I had to read MPG Enviroment. Was prepared to be bored senseless but it was amazing.

Is everyone happy with this line up?

Bad Romance
Overly Specific
Discworld
Fictional Humans
Asian or Greek

I guess the only monster I'd prefer avoiding would be the world villains since they're each containing a different country which i would struggle with. I think my top picks would be bad romance and fictional humans with vegimight not being too bad. I don't mind overly specific so I think if we're doing to harder probably Bad romance and overly specific unless someone reads a lot of books from different countries?

I'm good with that Jessica if everyone else is! sorry I didn't get an updated comment till I posted 🤣

So then we get 10 extra books shared between us besides the 5 each does that mean 2 additional monsters after these 5?

Elizabeth wrote: "So then we get 10 extra books shared between us besides the 5 each does that mean 2 additional monsters after these 5?"

Not quite. Every monster has 5 tasks we need to complete to defeat it, but it will be rare we find a book that fits all 5 tasks. It will probably need 2 or 3 books per monster, so 25 + 10 divided by 3, we can probably get at least 12 monsters defeated in two weeks.

Oh! I forgot that you can use 1 book for multiple tasks for this challenge as long as they're all for the same monster. That makes things move a little quicker. In my head I was thinking 1 book per task 🤣

I might be way underestimating the difficulty and we do end up reading a majority 1 book per task, but I like the scavenging part of this challenge.

Jessica wrote: "What's really scaring me isn't the tasks but the hit points! I don't have many books on my TBR that are 651+ pages

I do have an 800 page book I'm reading in the next week though."

yes same here!! At least for the first round, I don't have many chunksters lined up lol

Could we maybe do Urban Legends for one of the easy ones? I feel like it has a lot of safe options lol

but if someone really wants the other two, then it's fine!

Definitely Amanda - i don't have a swap preference

1-I will read Bleak House by Charles Dickens -1017 pages
2-My year of Rest & Relaxation-289 pages
3-THe Heart is a lonely hunter=359 pages
4.Accidental Rancher 154 pages

5. Undecided but whatever we need to win this quest by slaying the monsters!

5-missed one-The Miniaturist by jessie Burton with a snow scene on the front cover

I'll replace Asian with Urban Legends and submit now :)

Thank you :)

Our 5 monsters and tasks

George and Martha
200 to 299
MC is married Bleak House Alex
character name is also a type of animal (first, last, nickname)
tagged 'classic' at least 10 times Bleak House Alex
made into movie or TV show Bleak House Alex

Frankenstein’s Monster
175-225
Possessive in title My Year of Rest and Relaxation Alex
Author publishes using a pseudonym (can also use real name - initials are not a pseudonym)
Read a book from either list: 1. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... (no series sub) or 2. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2... (can series sub)
MC runs away from a place or person

Count Magpyr & Family
200-299 Nightingale Jessica
Story features vampires
modernisation a plot element (your interpretation. could be house refurb or new computer system)
monochrome cover (e.g. Black and white, but other two colour only covers work) Nightingale Jessica
bird on cover Nightingale Jessica

Barguest
350 to 450
Char death important to plot
Only colors on cover are black, red and white
MC gets lost
MPG Classics

JR Ewing (Dallas)
100 to 175
MC has a large family
Set in Texas or a state/country that touches TX
Hat on cover
Author uses initials for first name

I've asked if we can use books we started before the 10th, as I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights, but if not, Bleak House works for the same tasks.

Wow-Jessica-many thanks for all the work you have done in matching the books. This was (to me anyway) a confusing rules system but with your guidance we should win this quest.

Added the ones i'm certain of so far on the SS

I just want to check in and say I will have both my books on the SS finished by Friday. I am pretty confident I could find a book that will cover all 5 tasks for JR Ewing, but is there anyone else that wants to take it as it's an easier one? I'm not trying to be a one man army, I'm just very enthusiatic😂

Enthusiasm is awesome!

I’ve been looking to see what I plan on reading next (The Maze Runner) will work for.

At this point I know page count 350-450 and MC gets lost (I think)

It doesn't look like any of my books fit that category that I know of, but the big family one I prob won't know ahead of time. I did add some books in the George & Martha category

Also, FYI, if I have a book listed as "CR" please feel free to remove it if anyone finishes a book before me that works for that task

I didn't see you added The Cardigans on the SS Jessica let me know if you want to take mine off (I wasn't paying attention when I added it).