Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion
Tower Teams XII
>
Aconcagua
🌎🌍🌏 Team Shelves 🌏🌍🌎
📚 Deanna - Captain
📚 Bernadette Daniel - Co-Captain
📚 LavenderLane - Co-Captain
📚 Trio
📚 Joyce Gravino
📚 Lady Tea
📚 Kirsten
📚 Marylène Girard
📚 Anna
📚 M
📚 Ivelisse
📚 Thieryn
📚 Trisha - Withdrawn
📚 Aimee Schneider - Lost
🌎🌍🌏 Important Links 🌏🌍🌎
📌Tower Teams Rules
📌Base Camp Chat
🌎🌍🌏 Spreadsheets 🌏🌍🌎
Team Aconcagua Planning Spreadsheet (enter books here) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Aconcagua Official Spreadsheet (edited by captains) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status Sheet (check how we're doing against other teams) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
🛑⚠🛑⚠Rules in Nutshell⚠🛑⚠🛑
🚸Books must be started after the start date of the challenge to count
🚸Books must be />100 pages.
🚸Audio books are allowed.
🚸Some books required a verified word count. (view spoiler)
🚸For boxed set in the title on Goodreads can not be used as "one book".
🚸Spell-it-Out Rules: (view spoiler)
🚸"Re-reads" will be allowed after 6 months
🚸Books must be added to your challenge shelf
🚸Please plan to "check-in" in some manner to this threadat least once every week.
🏅🏅🏅Points🏅🏅🏅
🏆Books less than 100 pages = 0 points
🏆Books between 100 and 1000 pages = 0.1 points/page
🏆Books over 1000 pages = 100 points
🏆For audio only books, the page count will be set as 100.
🏆BOM participation - 20 points
🏆BOM discussion question writing - 40 points
🔨🪓🔧Resources🔧🪓🔨
Cover Color: https://labs.tineye.com/color/
Word Count:
AR Bookfind US - https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.aspx
AR Bookfind AU - https://www.arbookfind.com.au/UserTyp...
AR Bookfind UK - https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType...
⏳⏰⌛Countdowns⌛⏰⏳
Start of TTXII: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...
End of Month 1/Start of Month 2: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...
BOMMay
The Will of the Many by James IslingtonDiscussion Thread - starts May 18
The Astral Library by Kate QuinnDiscussion Thread - starts May 25
June
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona AndrewsDiscussion Thread - tba - starts June 2
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur GoldenDiscussion Thread - tba - starts June 16
July
August
Mini Challenge📚📚📚📚TBR Recommendation Book List📚📚📚📚
📗 Books read from the TBR nominations earn an extra 5 points per book read.
📗 Series substitutions are allowed for books on the list.
📗 You can read multiple books in a series and earn the points for each.
🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️Mini 1 - Time to Climb🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️
🏞️🏞️Time to Climb - Part 1 - Ladders🏞️🏞️
(view spoiler)
🏞️🏞️Time to Climb - Part 2 - Mountains🏞️🏞️
(view spoiler)
🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️Maze Mountain Challenge🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️
Link to mazes: https://maze.meic.dev/
(view spoiler)
Tackling Mount TBR Mini
Duration: June 10 - July 16
Part 1: The Tasks
(view spoiler)
Part 2: Spell-outs
List of Spell-out Words:
(view spoiler)
3: Word in text
Words to Find in Text:
(view spoiler)
Bienvenidos team! It's time to grab our gear and get ready to hike our tbr mountains!I'm Deanna, one of your expedition leaders for the summer. I live in Virginia. My favorite genres and fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery with side trips through other genres from time to time.
This is my 7th TT challenge, and I'm looking forward to a fun game with all of you. Please take time to read through the rules and ask any questions you have.
A few introductory questions for everyone:
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?
Last discovery on KU was J. Parsons. I've really enjoyed his Arcane Awakening series that starts with
. 🧭What book are looking forward to reading during TTXII?
comes out this summer. I already started a reread of the previous books while I'm waiting.My shelf: tower-xii
Can't wait to meet everyone and hopefully find some new books to love along the way!
Hello everyone, I'm Lady Tea. *curtseys* 😊I'm from Canada (EST). My favourite genre is technically Gothic, but I only mean real Gothics (aka Romantics and Victorians, because nothing published in the modern day that claims to be a Gothic actually is), but I mostly read thrillers, mysteries, and historical romances, with maybe a sprinkling of sci-fi and literary fiction here and there. I've signed up for this with 12 books per month, but realistically I do read more, and especially will during the summertime.
This is my first Tower Teams play-around, but I've been playing in challenges and team challenges on Goodreads for years (most notably UNO), so I have the full experience of those.
As for the introductory questions:
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?
Hmm...well, last year I discovered Martha Wells with the Murderbot Diaries, but I won't be reading any of those for this challenge. Just finished
a few days ago, and I already want the next book! As for anything more recent than that...nothing really groundbreaking, but I'm a tough cookie to impress, so...😅🧭What book are looking forward to reading during TTXII?
Well, the three books I put in for the Google Form are:
,
, and
, so definitely those for a start.There's other books coming out in 2026 that I'm also going to be checking out, so...whatever I read is fair game!
It's nice to meet everyone and I look forward to reading along with you! 😄
My Shelf: My TBR Tower 2026
Hello everyone,My name is Marylene and I live in Canada (French Canadian).
My favorite genres are mainly Fantasy, Mystery Thriller, Historical Fiction, and many others.
In short, I love reading everything, as long as it's well-written :)
This is my very first Tower Teams challenge. I've done many challenges over the years on Goodreads, both in teams and individually. I'm really looking forward to discovering more, both about all of you and about this challenge.
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?
I recently discovered S.A. Cosby's exceptional sense of pacing with King of Ashes. I loved his unique blend of raw tension
and social depth.
🧭What books are you looking forward to reading during TTXII?
For this challenge, I will prioritize, but not limit myself to, the books that are on my 2016 shelf. That's 97 books. All the books remaining on this list at the end of the year will be removed from my TBR. 😅
My shelf : Mount TBR Marylene
Welcome Lady Tea and Maralène!Lady Tea, I love the Murderbot series as well. I can't wait for the next book coming out.
Marylène, I love the idea of putting my oldest tbr books on a shelf with a deadline to read them.
Hi All, I’m one of your co-captains or this challenge and am looking forward to getting to know you all over the coming months. I live on the East Coast of Australia.
I’ll read most genres, but fantasy, sci-fi, horror and historical fiction are my faves.
🧭What books are you looking forward to reading during TTXII?
I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which was my first introduction to his work. I had it on my physical TBR for years but had always put off reading it because I thought I would hate it. I finally took the leap and read it because it satisfied a prompt from my last challenge, and ended up loving it. Now I want to read more of Cormac McCarthy’s works and have Blood Meridian in my sights as it also sits on mu physical TBR.
🧭What books are you looking forward to reading during TTXII?
Ther are so many books I can’t wait to read, but I really want to read Robin Hobb’s
Ship of Magic and really excited to read
Her Last Breath.I also want to continue with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I’m currently reading book 4 and want to catch up to the latest in the series (book 8) by the end of the year.
Lavender’s Challenge Shelf
Hi y'all!I'm Trio and I live in New York. I'm originally from Minnesota, but I moved out here in 1992.
First off, thanks to Deanna, Bernadette Daniel and LavenderLane for captaining us. I've played before, but I've got no idea how many times.
I love almost all genres, but I tend to read romances the most. I love mysteries, historicals, contemporary tales, and lean toward stories with LGBT+ characters. I'll read almost anything.
Trio's 2026 TT Shelf
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?yes! I just discovered Matt Cain - I read The Castle of Stories and it was excellent. I'm also reading Within This Darkness and I like this author quite a bit too.
🧭What book are looking forward to reading during TTXII?
I haven't spent enough time preparing for this challenge - I'm going to have to get caught up ASAP.
Hello fellow hikers! – I'm Bernadette and I will be one of your co-captains. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia with my husband and his cat. During the day I'm a CPA/tax accountant at a national accounting firm, I have a flex schedule so this time of year I work 2-3 days a week. I am a big library user and am currently on the Board of Directors of my local library.
I'll read almost anything if I have to for the team, but my favorites are Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery and Thriller. I'm not a fan of Sci-Fi but I do like Fantasy.
My daughter is expecting her first child (a boy) in early August so I’m going to a grandmom for the first time.
My husband and I have a 3-week trip to Alask scheduled for July to visit the 8 US National Parks there. I probably should be assigned to the Denali team. 🏞️😂
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?
In the last year I read the The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. I loved them all.
🧭What books are you looking forward to reading during TTXII?
I re-read Outlander earlier this year and now am hooked on the series and will continue to read that. Those books will make great peak books.
My Shelf: TT 12
Hey Everyone! I'm Anna and live outside Louisville Ky. I'm on Eastern time zone. I was raised in Alabama and love the Crimson Tide and the Atlanta Braves. I'm married with a dog. I work M-F and am scarce here and there. May-cember has my weekends crazy but I'll still be able to check in. I've played TT several times in the past and have lost count. I dropped my book count for this round though because life has been lifeing and my numbers are way down.
I love to read romance and especially hockey romances but will always try a book out for a challenge. I still don't like bats or spiders....
I don't even remember what books that I put down but I'm just looking forward to a fun team.
Bernadette, I'm going to need more details about this Alaska trip because we want to do that at some point in our life too. Our goal of visiting all the MLB stadiums (at 21 currently) goes along with our goal of visiting all the national parks.
The Sideways Life of Denny Voss was not my typical book and turned out to be really good. The Astral Library was also good. The rest of the start of 26 is kind of a blur, lol.
My shelf: (tt-26)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Hello Everyone! I’m Aimee, I’m 19 and am born and raised in Minnesota! I’m currently in finals week at college for my last semester (whoop whoop🥳). In college I am majoring in business management, Entrepreneurship, Bookkeeping, Business Assistant, and Management. Aside from that I own three businesses and am working on opening my fourth currently. I also do all the bookkeeping for my dad’s business. With that being said I’m a pretty busy person but I ALWAYS have time to read. Aside from that I love anything to do with the water, working out, going to the racetrack, and skateboarding. This is my first ever reading challenge so I’m a little nervous to say the least. I think I understand it for the most part but if anyone wants to kind of give me a run down I would much appreciate it. Two questions I have though are.
1. What books do we put on our shelf? (Currently reading, read, going to read, or all of the above)
2. I have my notifications turned on for Goodreads but is there a way to make it so I get notifications from the group? I currently don’t get any notifications at all from Goodreads really.
As far as reading goes I absolutely LOVE fantasy. Specifically a darker romance fantasy. Really anything that’s fantasy or romance I’ll more than likely love. I’m currently trying to finish up the first book in the Touched series. The issue with my TBR list is that the vast majority of them are the first book in a series 😭. I think I will try to get all my standalone TBR books done and then focus on the rest of the touched series.
I’m really looking forward to this challenge!
My bookshelf is tower-teams-12
Anna, I'll get you info on the trip. We have a goal of visiting all 63 National Parks. 22 down, 41 to go.
Aimee wrote: "Hello Everyone! I’m Aimee, I’m 19 and am born and raised in Minnesota! I’m currently in finals week at college for my last semester (whoop whoop🥳). In college I am majoring in business management, ..."Hi Aimee, welcome to your first Tower Teams, it’s a great starter challenge. I’ll try and answer your questions.
1. You need to select a shelf where you can place thebooksyou’ve finished for your challenge. Feel free to create a new shelf for this challenge, or nominate an existing shelf. The reason we ask you to put books into a nominated shelf is so Captains/Co-Captains can confirm your finished books against the spreadsheet.
2. At the bottom of every thread there is a checkbox that says “Notify me when people comment”. Any threads where you want notifications, just select that checkbox.
Hello, Team!This is maybe my 4th Tower? I think? It's one of my favorite challenges.
Aimee, like you, I'm in finals week, but unlike you, it's not my last. I'm a professor of theatre at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (so CDT right now). I'm also a huge (queer) hockey romance fan, long before the Heated Rivalry hype. Anna, I used to teach at Texas A&M, so... don't Roll Tide? When Bama came to play TAMU, College Station's population tripled. Marylene and LadyTea, I used to live in Calgary and my daughter was torn between McGill and UBC--she chose Vancouver which was right for her but I was selfishly hoping she'd pick Montreal because it's closer and I have friends there (she's a citizen, but I'm not). Hi, Trio! I'm always glad to play with you! Everyone else, I look forward to getting to know you and finding out what we have in common.
I will be mostly absent the rest of this month. I am traveling first to Colorado for my favorite aunt's celebration of life tomorrow-Tuesday, taking my octogenarian parents on a 12-hour drive (which is easier than flying, honestly). Then on Wednesday, I'm headed to Italy with one of my best friends, Alan, for 2 weeks in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Neither of our partners likes to travel, so we decided to do this together. I'll read and check in when I can, but don't worry if you don't hear much from me.
I read about 30% MM romance, 20% fan fiction, 20% lit fic, and 20% mystery, and 10% whatever else I need to for a challenge. If it has MM romance in it, I'll probably give just about any genre a try. I also try to read about 30% BIPOC and 2LGBTQIA+ authors, regardless of genre. I read so much non-fiction for work that I rarely read it for pleasure.
🧭Have you discovered any new authors recently that you love?
How recent is recent? I read James over a year ago, and have been working my way through Percival Everett's huge back catalog. I read Erasure a few weeks ago and really liked it. I read Jinwoo Chong's Flux and I Leave it Up to You and would happily read anything else he writes. E.H. Lupton's Wisconsin Gothic is AMAZING and doesn't get enough love--about magic and demi-gods and Madison, WI (where I went to grad school) in the 1960s.
🧭What books are you looking forward to reading during TTXII?
I have no idea what I put down, but right now I'm looking forward to reading How to Fake It in Society, There's Only One Sin in Hollywood, and Edge of Mercy, all MM romances of some kind, 2 historical, which (along with hockey) is my sweet spot.
ETA my shelf: 2026-tower
Hello everyone! Checking in!I'm not sure. . .I don't think I've ever played before but I'm excited to give Towers a try. I've done many challenges so hoping it's something I can pick up quick!
I'm West Coast timeframe, so I'll be on later in the morning and later at night.
My shelf: a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... Tower Team shelf
Hello, I have played Towers on and off for the past five years I think? I am a transplanted NYer living in Florida. I really love to read anything paranormal and a bit spooky lately. I will be traveling this weekend so I probably won't chime in until Tuesday or so.
I recently discovered Abby Jimenez and really loved her writing even though I am not much of a romance reader.
I am looking forward to reading
and more in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.I also want to read more of the In Death Series I am up to
As we draw near to the start of the challenge (yay!) what’s your first book/s off the blocks?I usually have an audio, e-book and physical all going at the same time, so will be starting with:
audio
physical
ebookIs anyone else doing HRCYED? A couple of these are going towards that challenge before it ends in July
First book I plan on reading is
, as I just got it from the library. It's 600+ pages, so it should be a strong start.Do we know when will the planning spreadsheet be up?
Lady Tea wrote: "First book I plan on reading is , as I just got it from the library. It's 600+ pages, so it should be a strong start.Do we know when will the planning sprea..."
Oh, let us know how how you go with The Calamity Club, I was eyeing it up at the store the other day but have yet to make the leap.
Looks like the planning sheet has gone up since your post
LavenderLane wrote: "Lady Tea wrote: "First book I plan on reading is , as I just got it from the library. It's 600+ pages, so it should be a strong start.Do we know when will t..."
It's up now (see messge 5).
If I understand correctly, we first need to build our ladders. Once those are complete, we can start building our mountains.Strategy-wise, I imagine it's best to read the books with the most pages dedicated to mountains?
Marylène wrote: "If I understand correctly, we first need to build our ladders. Once those are complete, we can start building our mountains.Strategy-wise, I imagine it's best to read the books with the most page..."
I don't see that we need to complete the ladders before we can start on the mountains, but I will ask in the Captains' Q&A to confirm.
We can only complete one mountain at a time though.
Time to Climb
LavenderLane wrote: "Oh, let us know how how you go with The Calamity Club, I was eyeing it up at the store the other day but have yet to make the leap.Looks like the planning sheet has gone up since your post."
Perfect, thanks for the update!
As for the book, I look forward to starting it! I've already been saving it for over a week and it'll come due soon (no renewals, since there are others who have it on hold) so regardless I'll have to read it first. 😅
I added a column to the BOOKS tab of the tracking SS for Publication Year. We will need that for the two ladders we need to complete so please add that information.
I've been busy the last few days so I'm getting caught up on the chat lolI went to Alasaka on my honeymoon on a cruise way back in 1992 and it was great. A must for nature lovers!
Trio wrote: "I've been busy the last few days so I'm getting caught up on the chat lolI went to Alasaka on my honeymoon on a cruise way back in 1992 and it was great. A must for nature lovers!"
We did a cruise my husband's family 12 years ago, the only cruise I was on. This time, land only.
My mom did the Alaska train trip when she was in her 70's and had a blast - I'd love to do that one too.
Hello, sorry for being late with my check-in. Life has been nuts lately. Hi Bernadette!!! Thank you for the heads up!!
I just saw that we will have to complete a maze.Our First Task: Read a book with trees on the cover
I could very quickly read a book (in TBR Rec) for this task
Wayward Children #1208 pages (even number - East)
Each book used in the maze earns 10 points for your team.
How the Maze Works
When in your maze, you must choose a direction to travel: North, South, East, West.
Each direction has a specific quality to the book you need to read.
🏆 North - Book title starts with A-M
🏆 South - Book title starts with N-Z
🏆 East - Even number of pages
🏆 West - Odd number of pages
The tasks will generate automatically when you change squares in the maze.
The book you read must meet:
1. the requirement for the direction you want to travel, and
2. the requirement for the task you have drawn.
For Example:
- Task: Read a book with the MPG Science Fiction.
- Direction: North (title first letter A-M).
- Ender's Shadow fits both criteria
Fill in all the information requested, then hit submit to make your move.
Yes, it’s a new mini-challenge that lasts for the whole challenge.If you have a book to read for it straight up, that would be great Marylene.
If a team member nominates themselves to read for a book, please let everyone know and then advise when you are done so the Captains can submit the completed book.
The link to the Mod post is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Perfect! I'll get to it tomorrow morning!
M wrote: "Hello, sorry for being late with my check-in. Life has been nuts lately. Hi Bernadette!!! Thank you for the heads up!!"
Welcome M!
Can you provide a link to your challenge shelf and Deanna will update her post with your link when she is on.
Hi Team, just some clarifying points on the two minis and TBR recs from the Captains group.Ladders and Mountains
* The team can work on both ladders and one mountain at the same time, but can only work on one mountain at a time.
* You can start reading Mountain 2 books while Mountain 1 is underway, but you have to finish them after Mountain 1 is completed to include them in Mountain 2. This means completed books can’t be banked for Mountain 2.
Maze Mountain Mini
*books can be started before a prompt is revealed, but must be finished while that prompt is active, meaning books can’t be banked for the maze.
General
*You can claim TBR Rec points and mini challenge points for the same book.
*For series TBR recs list, multiple books from the same series can be claimed, either by different team members or by the same team member.
M wrote: "Hello, sorry for being late with my check-in. Life has been nuts lately. Hi Bernadette!!! Thank you for the heads up!!"
Glad you made it. Without private messages anymore, thought I'd give our UNO thread a shot. Adn, it worked.
The challenge has begun!! 🥳
🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️Maze Mountain Task🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️
Task: Read a book with trees on the cover
Direction(s): 🏆 East - Even number of pages
Claimed by Marylene
LavenderLane wrote: "As we draw near to the start of the challenge (yay!) what’s your first book/s off the blocks?I usually have an audio, e-book and physical all going at the same time, so will be starting with:
[b..."
I'm starting with Requirements. I'm hoping to knock out 3-4 large books this weekend before my summer classes start on Monday.
May
The Will of the Many by James IslingtonDiscussion Thread - starts May 18
The Astral Library by Kate QuinnDiscussion Thread - starts May 25
June
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (June 2)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (June 16)July Nominations - deadline to nomination May 27
July General book
July Theme Book
I will link everything tonight when I get home around 7pm Pacific. Looking forward to the challenge. I have a pile of books ready.
I have filled in the spreadsheet with the books I will definitely read this May (because they are needed for other challenges). Because I'll be travelling, I will be slow to fill in my completions, but I promise that if I have signed up for them, I will finish them. I am a very reliable player--ask Trio, as she's played with me before. I have also given all of us a colored name, because that makes it so much easier for us to find ourselves. If you hate that I've done this, I can take the colors away. I did it randomly (and I didn't give anyone yellow, because I don't like yellow).I am not doing any maze books or fitting my books into the ladders or mountains this month because of my travel, but please feel free to move them around as needed, and thanks in advance for your patience.
Do we need to do a completion post ? I finished my first book :)First leg of the maze
Task: Read a book with trees on the cover
Direction : East - Even number of pages
Title :
Author : Seanan McGuire
Reader : Marylene Girard
Pages : 208
TBR Rec : Yes
I don't think that we need one for team challenges? Or maybe for the bonus tasks we do?Anyway, I just finished
.Here's my review (spoiler free) for what I thought of it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
We do not need completion posts, but they may be helpful for the Maze.
Nothing But Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Fahrenheit 451 (other topics)Lavender House (other topics)
Farenheit 451 (other topics)
Giovanni’s Room (other topics)
Misery (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Holly Jackson (other topics)Charlaine Harris (other topics)
Gil Courtemanche (other topics)
Seanan McGuire (other topics)
Seanan McGuire (other topics)
More...
Team Members
• Deanna - Captain
• Bernadette Daniel - Co-Captain
• LavenderLane - Co-Captain
❅ Ivelisse Colón
❅ Trio
❅ Joyce Gravino
❅ Lady Tea
❅ Kirsten
❅ Thieryn
❅ Marylène Girard
❅ Anna
❅ M
❅ TrishaTeam Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...