Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Tower Teams XII
>
Aoraki
date
newest »
newest »
Mount Aoraki TT ShelvesChristine Upton - Upton’s 'tt-xii-2026' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Sara Hollingsworth -
Kelly (Maybedog) - Kelly (Maybedog)’s '2026-c-tower-teams' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Amanda Edgar - Amanda Edgar’s 'tower-team' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Elisabeth Rose – Elisabeth Rose’s 'tt-26' books on Goodreads (1 book)
Emily Heisler – Emily’s 'aoraki-tt' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Becky Q -
Megan - Megan’s 'tower-teams-xii-2026' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Catherine - Catherine’s 'tower-2026' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Toni Harnett -
Vi -
Tara Taylor – Tara’s 'tower-teams-xii' books on Goodreads (0 books)
Tracking Spread sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...Resources
Cover Color - TinEye - https://tineye.com/labs/color-extract...
Word Count - https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.a...
Points - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Rules - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
The challenge starts on 16 May 2026, 9am UTC.Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.
Countdown is here: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...
Check other cities here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...
BOOK OF THE MONTH (BOM)Participating in current BOM discussion (3 days minimum) = 20 points.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions (randomly chosen volunteers) = 40 points
📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚
MAY
The Will of the Many ~ Discussion May 18 - June 18
The Astral Library ~ Discussion May 25 - June 25
JUNE
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me ~ Discussion June 2 - July 2 ~ Links TBA when available
Memoirs of a Geisha ~ Discussion June 16 - July 16 ~ Links TBA when available
JULY
Nominations will be open until 27 May, UK evening.
Anyone can nominate a book; try your luck!
July General BOM Nominations
July Themed BOM - The 2000's - Nominations
Polls for voting will be added when available!
AUGUST
To be updated when nominations are opened.
Mini Challenge - Time to ClimbPart One
You know them, you love them (or maybe not? haha) - the ladders!
Unlike in some of our mini challenges in previous years, you are not going to use series numbers or titles. You are going to build ladders based on the years in which a book has been originally published.
You are going to build 2 ladders of 10 books each.
The publication years range from 1990 - 2025.
Not every year needs to be read for. Each year can only be used once per ladder. You don't have to start at 1990 or end at 2025. Your ladder could, for example, be: 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022.
Part Two
Mountains - and towers for that matter - are tall. They have several layers and they have a peak. What would Tower Teams be without a tower? Or a mountain in this case.
You are going to build a minimum of 2 mountains of books. For these, you are going to use page numbers. The page numbers you can use range within the standard rules of the challenge. You don't have to start at 100 pages or end at 1000 pages.
Beware though, your mountain should have a mountainous form. As a team you'll need to work your way up to one or more peak(s) and then back down the other side.
Plan carefully and communicate with your team members, for you can only climb one mountain at a time! Books for a given mountain can be completed in any order, but each climb you start must be completed before working on your next mountain. Once a mountain is completed, books are locked in and cannot be moved.
The team will build a mountain with 1 peak (20 books):
Example: 150, 209, 343, 489, 492, 562, 631, 848, 999, 802, 700, 650, 575, 501, 485, 400, 350, 289, 210, 101.
And another mountain with at least 3 peaks (30 books).
Example: 105, 150, 209, 343, 489, 492, 301, 352, 401, 502, 562, 631, 848, 999, 900, 802, 700, 780, 689, 650, 600, 575, 501, 430, 485, 400, 350, 289, 210, 101.
There will be completion bonuses for the first 2 mountains. After that, the team can choose to build other mountains throughout the challenge (of 20 or 30 books), but no more completion bonuses will be given. One partial mountain is allowed.
The Restrictions
🧳This mini challenge runs the length of Tower Teams.
🧳Each book read can only be used for one part of this mini challenge.
🧳Only one mountain can be worked on at a time, once a mountain is completed, books cannot be moved. In that way, banked books are not allowed for this mini challenge.
🧳Books can be started at any point since the start of Tower Teams XII (16th May 9am UTC).
🧳The usual book length rules apply.
🧳You will gain 10 points for each book you read.
🧳You will gain 20 completion bonus points for the 1 peak mountain and 30 completion bonus points for the 3 peak mountain.
Thank you Emily and Elisabeth! Welcome to Mount Aoraki :)
Welcome all to Mount Aoraki aka Mount Cook aka "Cloud Piercer" the tallest peak in New Zealand. It has 3 peaks; low, middle, and high and I think that is a clear sign that we are meant to rock the mini challenge Time to Climb!I am Upton or Christine and I'm excited to be your co-captain along with Kelly (Maybedog) and Sara.
I am from Minnesota (Go Wild! Go Wolves!) and am a regional manager for a handful of sports bars and restaurants. I have 3 loving, but high maintenance dogs that keep me on my toes and frazzled most of the time :)
I will read most anything for a challenge, but I love thrillers, mysteries, survival non-fiction, and a good apocalypse. My TBR shelf is 3026.
How about all of you...anything we should know?
Hello everyone! I'm Sara, and I will be co-captaining with Kelly and Christine this year. I am from sunny California, and a kindergarten teacher. This is a perfect time of the year for this challenge for me because it will be through a good chunk of my summer off! Cheers. I have 1.5 cats, the .5 being a neighbor stray who comes and goes as he pleases and eats me out of house and home.
I read just about everything, but favor fantasy, sci-fi, and LGBT. My to-read lists combined across physical, digital, comics, manga, and audios is near 5000+ books. My Goodreads is not nearly up to date with my entire kindle library. I have *so* many more books then are actually added which is even more daunting.
So, I am very much looking forward to tackling the MOUTAINOUS collection of books and start widdling that TBR list down with you all!
I don't know if you *need* to know anything. :) I'm Kelly (she/her) and I live in Seattle with friends and my 15½-year-old dog Cupcake. In addition to reading, my hobbies include sewing and crafts, word games and I captain a trivia team. I'm on disability, but used to be in high tech. My funny, smart and kind granddaughter means everything to me and I'm obsessed with dogs, dogs, dogs.Right now I read M/M almost exclusively with the occasional dog-centered cozy mystery. My favorite genres in M/M are urban fantasy and thriller/suspense/mystery. If there's a bedside vigil I swoon.
I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you!
Elisabeth from Canberra, Australia, here. I like historicals and crime/mystery/suspense but will read pretty much anything for a challenge. I’ve been reading classics over the last few years to catch up on books I either read years ago or should have. I’m retired but originally did a performance degree on clarinet. Now I play clarinet in a community orchestra and also do concerts occasionally with a wind trio. I also whack tennis balls a couple of times a week at the local club social sessions. All good fun.
Hi everyone! I’m Becky and I live in San Diego, CA! I’m currently a full-time caregiver for my parents which has actually allowed me to get back into reading a LOT more recently and I’ve been having so much fun with it! I have joined way too many challenge groups/challenges lately!Our house is also basically controlled by dogs at this point because between me, my parents, and my sister…there are SEVEN of them running around 😂 So it’s a little chaotic over here at all times!
I’ll read pretty much anything and lately I’ve been loving reading challenges because they push me to pick up books I probably never would’ve chosen on my own otherwise! I think rom-coms have been my favorite lately, but I’m really wanting to get more into sci-fi too!
Also…I refuse to publicly discuss the size of my TBR for legal reasons. Just know it’s concerning and we’re all doing our best over here. 😅
Also Also, this is my first time doing this challenge and I'm a little bit confused about the shelf we're supposed to link? Does it need to be an empty shelf designated for this group or do I need to add some of my TBR onto it? Thank you for the help!! I'm very excited to start this with all of you!
I am Emily. Live in Portland, Oregon and work from home with hubby. I have two daughters and a granddaughter close by. Live with two dogs and a cat. TBR shelf is currently at 9314, but I keep adding to it so there you go. Currently my go to is romance, thrillers, paranormal with a dash of what peaks my interest in the moment.
Have done this challenge a few times, very fun.
Becky Q. wrote: "Hi everyone! I’m Becky and I live in San Diego, CA! I’m currently a full-time caregiver for my parents which has actually allowed me to get back into reading a LOT more recently and I’ve been havin..."Hi neighbor! Fellow Californian, though I am wayyyy up North. To answer your question about the shelf, this game does usually ask for you to make a dedicated shelf for the game. You create one and call it what you like. A lot of people call their shelves either tower team or tower team tbr or tower team xii. And that shelf will be what we use to track your completed reads.
It doesn't have to be empty though. Like I currently have some of my planned reads already on my shelf. You can fill it with what you want to read, and that is perfectly fine. As long as it's dedicated to books only for tower teams.
Hi everyone! 😊 Here is my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...I'll give a more thorough introduction in a bit, but just wanted to check in real quick :)
Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorrow when I have access to a desktop
Vi wrote: "Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorrow when I have access to a des..."I’m ahead of everyone haha. I’m usually on a team with the Aus contingent but this time we’ve been shared around. My husband was born in Rotterdam but his family migrated here in the early 1950’s with many other migrants from the Netherlands.
While I think of it, years ago when our daughter was 18 months old we drove a camper van around the South Island of NZ and spent a night at what was then known as Mt Cook. Aoraki. It was the worst night ever with a gale force wind rocking the van and a terrible NZ parrot trying to break in through the skylight. I’ve forgotten the name but they’re total vandals and wreck everything they can. Far worse than our cockatoos. 😀Remembered the name.Kea!
“kea are notorious for taking delight in prying apart rubber windshield trim and wiper blades on cars, raiding and playing with the contents of tourists’ backpacks and handbags, dismantling skis and snowboards, and flying off with unguarded clothing and other items from campsites and carparks.”
I was unaware parrots were vicious! Animals are my thing and you just cannot have too many dogs as long as you have enough people to give them attention and care for them. I usually have three (the max my city allows) but I'm not in a place where I can have that many right now. We have half a cat, too, who's become a whole cat because his owners rescued two bouncy dogs and he got scared. It was fine because he's over here all the time anyway and they pay for vet bills and food. You all are so interesting. I can't wait to get to know more about you as the challenge goes on! I normally would comment on every post but even though I bookmarked this page, I somehow didn't check "notify me". I can be an airhead sometimes due to some meds I take so if you notice I do something dumb/silly, please point it out. It's never anything egregious (knock on wood) and I usually figure it out myself within a couple of hours, but not always.
I want to add that for your Tower Teams shelf, if you add stuff that you haven't read yet, it would be very helpful if you make sure to mark the completed ones with the date read. When we check books, it's so much easier if the book we are verifying is at the top of the shelves. We can sort by date and it makes is so much easier. Thanks!
Hello everyone my name is Catherine and I am from Utah. Summer is hitting strong, so pool side reading sounds fun. I enjoy mostly Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, and Fiction but willing to venture out to other reads every once in a while. The Astral Library is my BOM pick so hope to see you all there.
Team Members
• Christine - Captain
• Sara Hollingsworth - Co-Captain
• Kelly (Maybedog) - Co-Captain
• Amanda Edgar
• Elisabeth Rose
• Emily Heisler
• Becky Q.
• Megan
• Catherine
• Toni Harnett
• Vi
• Tara Taylor
Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...