Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Ben Nevis




Team Members
• Eldarwen - Captain
• Christina - Co-Captain
• Kari
• Lisa-Aussie Girl
• Susan A
• Vnerdbooks
• Judy
• Lucy
• Ingeborg
• Caipi
• Priya Prakash
• Imke





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

mod reserve

mod reserve

‼️ All About Tower Teams, ie THE RULES ‼️

Countdown to Start of Tower Teams
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Team Planning Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

🧳Mini Challenge:
◈ Time to Climb (runs the length of the challenge)
◈ Maze Mountain Challenge (runs the length of the challenge)
◈ Link to all the mazes: https://maze.meic.dev/
◈ Link to our maze: https://maze.meic.dev/maze/250/


‼️IMPORTANT‼️

‼️With Goodreads having removed the private messaging feature, captains can no longer hunt you down if you go missing in action. So we ask you to PLEASE check in at least once a week on the team thread to let us know you're still playing. The team thread is here for chatting, please make use of it :-)

‼️ If you are aware you're going to be offline for a longer period (maybe you're going on an actual holiday, and not just a fictional hiking trip up a fake mountain), then please let us know beforehand so the team doesn't have to worry about you having gotten lost on the mountain. THANK YOU!

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⛰️ Team Shelves
• Eldarwen
• Christina
• Kari
• Lisa-Aussie Girl
• Susan A
• Vnerdbooks
• Judy
• Lucy
• Ingeborg
• Caipi
• Priya Prakash
• Imke

============

Sample:

Completion Post

Bookcover (potentially needed for future tasks)
Book: title and author
Date Read:
Pages: **
Rating: optional but it could spark some interesting conversation

TBR Recommendation: yes/no

Mini 1
- task and why the book works for the task (unless it is really obvious)


Mini 2
- task and why the book works for the task (unless it is really obvious)


(If tasks are a spell-out option, please provide the entire name of the character wherever possible, first name and surname, thanks! Random surnames floating around give me hives. Sorry 😅)

================

**IMPORTANT!! if your book has a main page genre from the "special" list mentioned in the rules (aka childrens, middle grade etc.) please mention that you have verified the word count and where

It helps to avoid misunderstandings or frustrations to verify the word count before you start reading such a book.

reserved for mini tracking where necessary

extra reserve because you never know

R

R

Hello and welcome to Team Ben Nevis - our personal Mount TBR for this year's Tower Teams Challenge!

I hope you're all fit and ready to tackle your TBR mounts in our 'little' bookish hiking trip, no matter how small or large those TBRs actually are. And hopefully we can all resist in increasing it more than we're diminishing it haha. Either way, it's going to be a lot of fun!

If you have played Tower Teams before, you know the drill. If you haven't, then you'll learn very quickly, not to worry :-)

Have a look at the rules, newbie or veteran. It may look like there is a lot to take in, but fret not! Tower Teams is pretty straight forward in what we're supposed to be doing. Even if reducing the TBR sounds all nice and easy but often somehow isn't... hehe. At least, I don't know about you, but I have in recent years definitely come to the conclusion that reading books and acquiring books are two completely different hobbies of mine!

So anyway, do read the rules . (I mean it!) If you're unsure, read them again . And if things are still unclear, feel free to ask, we're happy to help!

When you pop in, please post a link to your challenge shelf and feel free to tell us as much or as little about yourself as you wish :-)

What I'm curious to know is:
⛰️ Are you brave enough to tell us how large your TBR mountain actually is?
⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves?
⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer?
⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start?
⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish?
⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave?

Hi friends :)

I'm Christina (she/her) from Austria - same timezone as E, but my schedule is quite different I'm sure 🤪 I work as waitress in my family's restaurant so it can get quite late at times.

I mostly listen to audiobooks (can't concentrate on reading with my eyeballs anymore - might be ADHD, who knows...) and they usually are mystery/thrillers, contemporary fiction, and some horror thrown in. But I also read other genres on occasion, especially if the books are BOMs and give us bonus points 😉 I also started doing Goodreads' official challenges last month, thanks to team member Judy 🤪

⛰️ My personal TBR mount (on here at least) is currently at 245. I remember a few years ago it was at like 325 and I made it a point to get below 300 lol.
⛰️ I think the book that's been on my TBR the longest is The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. I added it when the movie came out and it's also one of my most dreaded. I'm really not interested anymore at this point, but I also own it physically so I haven't gotten myself to remove it from the TBR shelf (yet)
⛰️ I'm a mood reader so and I don't currently have a book that I'm *most* excited to start lol. There's been a lot going on lately... But hey I'm sure that means there'll be more random stuff being thrown into my backpack! (I hate packing y'all...)

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

245?!
I'm jealous, like seriously!

⛰️ My TBR is currently at 806, and I remember a time where I made it a point for it to be under 700 🤪 At least some of those books I don't own a copy of, so it isn't quite as bad, but still haha.

⛰️ I added quite a few books to my shelves when I joined GR in 2013, a lot of which have been lingering on my physical shelves since before I joined and I'm not entirely sure which one is the oldest. There are several competing for that title. Those are probably also the ones I'm partially dreading to read because I got them so long ago I'm not sure I'd still be interested. Though I've often been pleasantly surprised by some of those books I've left to gather dust... 😉

I can absolutely see why you'd dread reading The Blind Side. Apparently they took quite a few liberties with the film (which admittedly I liked), so the book is sure to be rather different. Might be a good thing though?

⛰️ I have a LOT of books I'm excited to read but since I can only read one at a time... it varies, depending on mood, challenges and what I can fit into my handbag haha.

Hellooooo everyone!

I'm Judy, she/her, from Germany :) usually I'm a captain for these things but I tend to be really busy around June/July and this year is going to be even more unpredictable than usual, as I'm going to be heading to the World Cup in a few weeks and spending quite a lot of time away, wrapped up in 12+ hour workdays... not sure how much reading will be done, and definitely didn't want to be an absentee (co-)captain, so I'm excited to play the game from this side of things again!

⛰️ Every time I see people talk about how big their TBRs are, I get anxious hahaha! My Goodreads TBR is at 43 right now... I haven't ever had more than 100 books on there because at that point, it's unwieldy and I can't keep track, so I whittled it down for a long time and spent most of the past couple of years in the 30s... adding a whole bunch a few months ago to get me over 40 was very brave! These books are almost exclusively my physical TBR (and some Kindle TBR) as well as select upcoming releases I do not want to miss. But rest assured, I have a lot more books running around in my head that I'm interested in picking up – and I've been on a big rereading run anyway.

⛰️ I recently dug up a couple German books I received as Christmas presents in consecutive years from my older cousins when I was 14/15 – right around the time I stopped reading books for a few years. So technically those it's those, Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo & Die Geschwister Apraksin. I'm determined to pick them up at some point this year and either read them or DNF and say goodbye to, finally.

⛰️ As I keep telling Christina, I really, really need to read House of Leaves at some point soon - though whether that happens in this challenge... I'm not so sure. A friend gave me their copy a year and a half ago and I don't want it to become one of those things I never return, so I mustttttttt - and I'm also really curious, but also intimidated.

⛰️ Funny that you're asking, since I'm literally in the process of packing for two separate trips right now... I get back from the first one late Saturday night and leave Sunday morning for the second one, so there's really only a quick pit stop at home for a sleep and to move my toiletries from one suitcase to the other. Definitely a last minute packer, both when it comes to real travel and when it comes to deciding what I'm reading ;) so I have no idea what my first book for this challenge is going to be!

Oh and my shelf is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hello Judy!

Wow, it's been ages since we played together! Good to have you on board :-)

Uh, heading out for the World Cup sounds like extremely exhausting fun! Though it's probably less fun for you than it might sound to our ears hehe.

Judy also brought up another good point - first book for the challenge!

If you already know, all the better for you; if not, well then maybe this will help you choosing ;-)

======

Two days after TT starts, the first BOM for May also starts!


Discussion Thread
The Themed BOM for May is The Will of the Many by James Islington and it starts on 18th May.


If you're interested in reading this one, you can still volunteer for DQs. I signed up already, but if the team gets chosen for DQs, then I'll gladly relinquish my day to someone else if someone is eager :-)




Discussion Thread
The General BOM usually is earlier in the month but got postponed because of a lack of books - library queues are rather long because it's a fairly new release.
The book is The Astral Library by Kate Quinn and it starts on 25th May.


Lisa has already volunteered for our team, yay! Any more people wanting to read this one?


Books of the Month are not a requirement, but they do bring a nice heap of extra points for answering the discussion questions, so it's definitely always worth considering picking up one or the other.

Hi team. My name is Susan A. I live in New Jersey, timezone EST

My shelf:

*tower-teams-xii

I tried and failed Tower Teams a few years ago, but it was so short lived, I don't really remember it. I will use mostly audiobooks for this challenge. My favorite genres are mysteries and romance. My least favorite thing to read is "real literature" and celebrity memoirs.

I have a trip planned June 9-20. I'm not sure how must reading I'll get done or how much posting I'll be able to do. However, I do expect to still meet my monthly average. I just need to know when the cutoff dates are -- does the month run May 16 to June 15? or June 1 - June 30.


⛰️ Are you brave enough to tell us how large your TBR mountain actually is?
538

⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves?
Rook by T. Strange added 9/6/2020

⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer?
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves


⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start?
If I feel dread, then I delete from my TBR.

⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish?
I started both Alex Delaware by Jonathan Kellerman and Harry Bosch Universe by Michael Connelly in the 1990s and re-started them in the 2020s. I would like to finish or get up to date these series. I have a long way to go.

⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave?
Probably add.

Hello and welcome Susan!

The challenge always runs monthly from the start date, so 16th May to 16th June and so forth. The cut-off time for the first month is the same time as the start time for the next month, which is always the same time as the initial starting time for the challenge, so 9am UTC.

Thanks for the heads-up already about your vacation! :-)
Don't worry if you can't get a lot of reading done during that time, I'm sure you'll have plenty of other stuff to do!

Eldarwen wrote: "Hello Judy!

Wow, it's been ages since we played together! Good to have you on board :-)

Uh, heading out for the World Cup sounds like extremely exhausting fun! Though it's probably less fun for y..."

Right!! Nice to be on your team again after all this time :)

I'll definitely really enjoy the experience too, but it's always quite a ride and I think I'm in the "healthy respect" camp ahead of this venture right now

Ohhhhh right I was going to pick up The Will of the Many 👀 I read the first chapter several months ago but then never continued... now's the time! I can't do DQs though because I'll still be away while that is going on and there's no guarantee I can keep up with any sort of schedule... but I'll try to answer the questions for sure

I have questions. I'm apologizing now because I am that person who will ask a lot of questions (even though I make a real effort to limit them)

1. For the first month, is it just TIME TO CLIMB and BOM that we work on, or will something else be posted on Saturday? I'm not sure what I should be planning. I understand that ultimately, I can read whatever I want, but I do like to try to earn the extras.

2. What is the Tower Teams shelf for? Mine is empty.

3. Do we make completion posts? (If so, what is the format?) Or, do we just post on the spreadsheet? (If so, do I request permission?)

4. It look likes if we read from the TBR Rec tab in the spreadsheet, we earn points. Is that correct? Does that bonus apply if it is a re-read, or if it is already on our TBR shelf?

5. From the TBR Recs
Note: Series substitutions are allowed for all TBR recommendation related bonuses or tasks. Therefore, only one book from each series recommended by players is included in this list.

This Is Why We Lied #12 Will Trent series is on the list. I've read this entire series. Does this mean I can start at Book 1, re-read the entire series and receive the TBR credit for each one (so 12 bonuses)? Or is it for just one book?


I have another set of questions, but I'll wait for that set to be answered. Thanks so much for your patience.

Alright:

1. If there will be another mini in the first month or not, we shall see. For now, let's concentrate on BOMs (if you wish - especially the first is almost 700 pages long so not everyone's cup of tea), and on the Time to Climb mini. If you want to plan for some extras, then have a look at the TBR Nominations tab on the spreadsheet - maybe you'll find one or the other book on there you'd like to read.

Books read from the TBR nominations give us an extra 5 points per book read.

2. The Tower Teams shelf is for the books you read during the challenge. Once you finish a book, you put it on that shelf. It makes it easier for captains to keep track of the books people have read and to verify the editions you read. You always shelve the edition you read, not a random edition. (More details in the rules for when you do audio.)

3. As for completion posts - Christina and I are still ironing out the details on how we want the team to do things as we usually have differing methods. We will let you know soon. If we do completion posts, we will of course also provide you with a format to use :-)
The official spreadsheet is for captains ONLY. The planning sheet for the team is still in the works but will be posted soon. That one is free to view/edit for the entire team, so there will be no need to request access.

4. Yes, that is correct (as I mentioned above without having read the rest of your questions hehe). These nominations have nothing to do with your own TBR. If they are on there, all the better! But for you, as then you would empty your own TBR. They can be re-reads, within the standard rules (ie, it has to be at least six months since you read the book).

5. In theory, yes, that is how it would work. Personally, I would find it sad because there are soooo many good books out there to discover haha. But yes, any and all books from the TBR nominations will count for the bonus. Some people have listed an entire series in those nominations, so each individual book read from that series will count for 5 points.

I hope the above answers have been helpful! If something still isn't clear, don't hesitate to ask for clarifications.

Feel free to post your next set of questions :-)

It's been a long day though for me, so I'm going to get off the computer now and veg on the couch for a bit before hitting the sack. So either Christina will answer them later if she isn't too knackered, or one of us will answer them in the morning (which would be in about 12 hours latest).

Hi everyone,

Lisa from Australia ( but currently in the UK till Saturday) Great to be playing Tower Teams again.

My shelf is NBRC Tower Teams XII 2026- I’ll link when I get back.

tBR number is 301- most are colour covers I may possibly need for challenges like UNO, lol. Or books with X, Q or U - I like to be prepared!

Helloooooo fancy seeing some of you here again 🥰

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

Hi, I'm Vnerdbooks, V for short.

I live in South Wales in the UK, I don't have a TBR as I am a mood reader, so I don't know what I'm going to be reading until I actually read it 🤷🏻 but my "Want to read" shelf on here is 669 😬
But I have set myself expectations every month, so my monthly expectations are that I read at least 2 diverse books, at least 2 of the In Death series (I'm on book 31 at the moment) at least 1 non fiction book, and then the rest is for anything shiny that crosses my path 😁

Like Christina above, I am pretty much exclusively an audiobook reader/addict.

I've played Tower Teams for a few years now, it's one of my favourite team games

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Hi everyone,

Lisa from Australia ( but currently in the UK till Saturday) Great to be playing Tower Teams again.

My shelf is NBRC Tower Teams XII 2026- I’ll link when I get back."

Hello hello and welcome to the team!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday! :-)

And don't worry about linking the shelf, I found it, thanks! :-)

VNerdbooks wrote: "Helloooooo fancy seeing some of you here again 🥰

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


Hellooooooo :-D

Hi Team, I'm Imke I live in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and this is the first tower teams in a long time. I felt it was time to try one again, also the theme is perfect because my TBR is starting to feel like Everest 😅.

My TT shelf is: imkes-tt-shelf

What I'm curious to know is:
⛰️ Are you brave enough to tell us how large your TBR mountain actually is?
Well I already told you my TBR is like Everest so it's 2274 books 😟 😰
I do need to clean it up though, because a lot of books on there I may not be interested in.

⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves?
The first book I added to my goodreads TBR is I added this book in August2012.
The oldest book is publishing date according to goodreads January 1, 430

⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer?
Any book.

⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start?


⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish?
I don't have a series I like to finish but I have one I would like to start. I want to start reading the Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson.

⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave?
Nothing packed yet, in real life I am also a last minute packer, so for this TT it will also be last minute. I think I will join some of the BOMs (no question writing because I don't think I have the time).

Hello and welcome to the team, Imke!

Hopefully this round of TT will help you climb that Everest of yours! ;-)
I still have Priory lying around as well, but it's also already on my currently-reading shelf as I started it last year or so and always intended to continue but still haven't done so. Guess I'll do that after TT. Hopefully, maybe ;-)

Hello hello, welcome in everyone :)

Lisa- I think I'm already known for being a big Delta Goodrem fan around here lol and I even saw her live being interviewed for Eurovision on Monday! AND I just (literally less than 3 hours ago!) secured myself a M&G ticket for one of her new album prelude shows in Berlin on July 2 🥳

V- I don't know if you've checked the TBR Recommendations on the spreadsheet yet, but there's an In Death book on the list! So, that's 5 extra points for every book you read of the series - might be a good incentive to pick those books up 😉

Imke- (👋) Elantris, Mistborn, The Way of Kings, and Warbreaker are also on the TBR rec list, so many books of the Cosmere Universe will allow for those 5 extra points too in case you truly feel like diving into the series! Plus all I know about Sanderson's books is that they're all Big Boys so many many page points for us hehe

Christina wrote: "- I don't know if you've checked the TBR Recommendations on the spreadsheet yet, but there's an In Death book on the list! So, that's 5 extra points for every book you read of the series - might be a good incentive to pick those books up 😉."

Ooh I haven't checked it out yet, but Yay!! 🕺🏻

Edit: Just had a little gander and there is loads on there 👀 I may be able to read a fair few of them if they sound good, I'm assuming that there isn't a limit to how many we can read?

Hi, team!

I'm Ingeborg from Norway. Excited to be playing Tower Teams again. :)

My shelf is tower-teams-xii.


⛰️ My TBR on Goodreads is 430 books. But could do with tidying - there are books there I'm, no longer interested in and also some duplicates of books I've actually read. Maybe this challenge will push me to actually do something about that. 😄
⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves?
On GR, Jane Eyre. I did start it once, then stop. But I'd like to actually get around to it again.
⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer?
Maybe that one? But this depends on my mood, I'm a mood reader.
⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start?
Like someone else said, if I dread it, I won't have it on my TBR. But I can feel anticipation about big or heavy books. I'd like to finish Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall series, have read two of three. But the last one, The Mirror and the Light, is such a brick, I'm a bit nervous.
⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish?
Well, that one. 😄 And Robert Jackson Bennet's divine cities. And probably many others I can't remember right now.
⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave?
In real life I'm quite organised, so I tend to have checklists and systems for packing. For this challenge I have ideas for books and have prepared a bit, but as a mood reader, I'll be flexible about what and when. So I'm ready to go! :)

Christina wrote: "Plus all I know about Sanderson's books is that they're all Big Boys so many many page points for us hehe"

They aren't aaaaall big hehe. Some of the intermission books that play in the Cosmere but aren't part of an actual series are shorter for the most part. So are the novellas... :-p hehehe

The Way of Kings was a really good book, Imke! It was the Doorstop buddy read for NBRC two years ago and most of us enjoyed it so much that we went on to buddy read the rest of the series - I dropped off the wagon though because I couldn't keep up with the others, so I still need to read books #4 and #5. I'll consider one of them for TT but I don't want to overstretch as there are quite a few other books on the nominations list I've got my eye on.

Ingeborg wrote: "Hi, team!

I'm Ingeborg from Norway. Excited to be playing Tower Teams again. :)"


Hello and welcome to the team! :-)

Tower Teams might be JUST the thing to get you reading that big Hilary Mantel book - think of the points for just one book! ;-)

In case you didn't know, there is a feature in the bookshelves that finds duplicates for you, so that might help with tidying up your TBR a little bit.

VNerdbooks wrote: "Edit: Just had a little gander and there is loads on there 👀 I may be able to read a fair few of them if they sound good, I'm assuming that there isn't a limit to how many we can read?"

Nope, no limit - you can go absolutely nuts and read half the TBR nominations list if you feel like it! ;-)

I probably wouldn't read the next 30 In Death Books only for TT as a little bit of variation might be nice, but there's definitely A LOT of interesting books on that list.

Eldarwen wrote: "I hope the above answers have been helpful! If something still isn't clear, don't hesitate to ask for clarifications.

Feel free to post your next set of questions :-)

It's been a long day though..."

Good answers. And you managed to address my next question, which was edition to put on the tower teams shelf. I have default editions on my TBR, but I understand I'll need to switch editions when I mark it read and add it to Tower Teams shelf.

My next set of questions is really generic challenge stuff that I can't seem to find in this group. Please feel free to direct me to it.

1. For title tasks, are subtitles included or ignored? Are articles (an, a, the) ignored, included, or my choice?

2. Color tasks are so hard for me. Do we strictly use tineye? Or do we go by captains' opinion? (Using my own color opinion from a computer screen just doesn't work. Based on my experience, I obviously see things differently from the majority.)

3. For cover tasks, if I listen to an audiobook, I use the cover of the audiobook? (Not the default?)

4. Audiobooks = default edition.
a) Is this the correct process - go to the search bar at the top of the goodreads page. Enter the book title, use the page count of the book that results.
b) If the edition is large print or if there is no page count, go to the next edition
c) If the edition is not English, still use it
d) Are there any other exceptions?

Example: I listen to this audiobook Love is a Stranger. The page count is 507 found from this edition Love Is a Stranger. Is that right?

5. If I read an ebook, what edition do I use? Default or the one I read? (I'm a big fan of everyone uses the same edition, everyone gets the same credit for the same book, but I think it doesn't work that way)

6. No boxed sets Is that a literal rule - as in if it doesn't have the words "boxed set" it should be fine? Do "collections" or "volumes" work?
Examples:
The ABCs of Spellcraft Collection: Volume 1
Armed and Dangerous
In Death: The First Cases


Again, thank you for your patience.

Hello teamies, checking in. My time zone is GMT+2. I've played TT lots of times and it's always a lot of fun for me. I think Eldarwen you were my team captain once before - Discworld team Death if I remember correctly. @Lisa, it’s great to see you, it’s been soo long ☺️.
⛰️ Are you brave enough to tell us how large your TBR mountain actually is? 825 at this point, not too bad 😜
⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves? A couple of Tessa Dare historicals which have been there for more than ten years.
⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer? A Present Mistake by Alice Winters is one I'm looking forward to reading soon.
⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start? Like Susan said, if I dread it, it's kicked out of the TBR.
⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish? Not really, I go slow with series, I'm sad when they end. I'm loving the Miss Fortune mysteries right now.
⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave? Random. I'm a very moody reader and rarely plan anything in advance unless it's challenge-related. I also prefer shorter books in general and am reading mostly mm romance and cozy mysteries.

Here's my shelf: tower-xii‎

FYI, I'll be traveling the last week of July, I'll be sure to post it here again before I leave.

Hi! I'm Lucy, from the UK (timezone UTC+1 at the moment because ugh clock changes). I've done at least half a dozen team challenges (going by my shelves!) and I definitely recognise more than a few names in this group :D I'm looking forward to another team challenge, especially one that is focused on clearing Mount TBR. No plans to be gone for more than a few days over the challenge time but I'll message if it goes anywhere near a week.

My shelf is mount-tbr-ttxii.

⛰️ Are you brave enough to tell us how large your TBR mountain actually is?
I have honestly lost count! I know that my physical books have expanded off my shelves and one bookshelf (one from IKEA which is at least 13 years old) has started giving up so there is a definite need to read some of those physical books. I would probably estimate 500?

⛰️ What is the oldest unread book lurking on your shelves?
Again, hard question because my Goodreads is not up to date. Maybe A Wizard of Earthsea

⛰️ Which book are you most excited to finally conquer?
So many of them. I think The Pillars of the Earth because that and the sequel are taking up so much room on my shelf.

⛰️ Which book are you most dreading to start?
Not many, if I'm really dreading a book I take that as a sign (it's why The Fifth Season has gone to a friend after trying to start it three times). I do think some of the longer books give me a 'I'm going to spend how long reading this??' feeling mostly because I have a lot of thoughts about books which are longer than they need to be.

⛰️ Is there a series you would finally, finally like to finish?
I have no faith I'll finish it but I do want to make more progress on the In Death series.

⛰️ Is your backpack ready to go? Or are you going to randomly throw some things in five minutes before you're due to leave?
Absolutely both. I make a list, pack my backpack and then spend the morning packing the final morning of items and almost certainly finding an item I've forgotten to add to the list.

A lot of people seem to be reading the In Death series. Is that a sign that I should start it as well? ...

Also, Hiiiii Lucy, Kari, and Ingeborg

Christina wrote: "A lot of people seem to be reading the In Death series. Is that a sign that I should start it as well? ...

Also, Hiiiii Lucy, Kari, and Ingeborg"

I can recommend this series enough as I've read all books in this series but the last two (that were released). The narrator Susan Ericksen is wonderful.

Also this is a series that is difficult to finish with book 63 and 64 set to release in September this year and February next year. But Eve and Roarke have me hooked.

Hi Kari! Yes, great to be playing on Tower Teams together.,It has been a long time.. I guess your son is all grown up now.. and I have six grand children. And I’m still travelling .. just heading home tomorrow.

Always great to re-connect with old friends and make new ones over our love of reading.. and challenge addiction. 😜

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Hi Kari! Yes, great to be playing on Tower Teams together.,It has been a long time.. I guess your son is all grown up now.. and I have six grand children. And I’m still travelling .. just heading h..."

Wow 6 grandkids, that's wonderful! I remember when you became a grandma for the first time😃. My son is 20 now and he's doing great. I'm glad you're still traveling, I remember how much you enjoyed doing it. Have a safe trip back home🧡

Kari wrote: "Hello teamies, checking in. My time zone is GMT+2. I've played TT lots of times and it's always a lot of fun for me. I think Eldarwen you were my team captain once before - Discworld team Death if ..."

Hello hello!
Oh wow, Discworld TT, that has been quite a while! DEATH is still of the best characters ever 😃

Lucy wrote: "Hi! I'm Lucy, from the UK (timezone UTC+1 at the moment because ugh clock changes). I've done at least half a dozen team challenges (going by my shelves!) and I definitely recognise more than a few..."

Hii, we shall conquer that TBR mountain, absolutely!
Maybe this challenge will be the challenge for you to read Ken Follet? Pillars of the Earth is a TBR Recommendation so apart from the massive page points it would bring, there would be 5 extra points just for reading it...? hehe

Imke wrote: "Christina wrote: "A lot of people seem to be reading the In Death series. Is that a sign that I should start it as well? ...

Also, Hiiiii Lucy, Kari, and Ingeborg"

I can recommend this series eno..."



I can only second Imke. I was slightly dreading starting the series because it is SO long, but I'm reading along at my pace, sometimes more sometimes less books and they're really great. Not just Eve and Roarke but the entire side cast are amazing. Plus the crimes are often very interesting. Eve takes a bit of getting used to at first with her sometimes rather prickly attitude but absolutely worth it!

Sorry if this has already been answered- I couldn’t find an answer when scrolling back.,

On the TBR mountain list does it have to be the actual book listed or can you read another book in the same series to get the extra points?

Thanks.

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Sorry if this has already been answered- I couldn’t find an answer when scrolling back.,

On the TBR mountain list does it have to be the actual book listed or can you read another book in the same..."


Any book in the series :-)
We listed only one book in the series to avoid duplicates on the list.

Scrap that last question. I just found the very awesome answer in base camp!

Can’t wait to get home to my laptop, the goodreads app is frustrating!

Pity the challenge, doesn’t start till the night I get back as I have 24 hours of reading time coming up , lol.

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "Can’t wait to get home to my laptop, the goodreads app is frustrating!

Pity the challenge, doesn’t start till the night I get back as I have 24 hours of reading time coming up , lol."


Haha, pity indeed!
Just take it as well deserve relaxing time before the challenge starts ;-)

Susan, here are the answers to your next set of questions.


1. That sometimes depends on the task. Some tasks specifically mention whether or not subtitles are included/ignored. Same goes for the articles. Usually they can be included/ignored as needed, but sometimes the tasks will specify.


2. We do not use Tineye. Tineye can be a tool, but we go by our eyes. Fair warning, I'm strict when it comes to cover colours. But not every screen shows colours the same way, and pictures aren't always helpful. So if someone tells me their physical book has a colour and it just comes across differently on the screen, I will accept that. If you're uncertain, you can always skip those tasks. There are a lot of people on the team and there won't be a gazillion cover colour tasks, so it isn't something that needs to be worrying.


3. If you're listening to an audiobook, it will be the audiobook cover you're using for cover tasks, yes, since that is the edition you're reading.


4. That example is a weird one - well done on finding one of the bizarrest examples out there haha.
In theory, the default edition is the first edition that pops up when you type the title of the book into the search bar, yes. Another way to find the default book is to go to the bookpage of the book you're reading, in your case Love is a Stranger, then you click on "Book editions & details", which will open up the page and you'll see further editions of the book. When you click on "show all editions", the default edition will be the first one that pops up. In your example, it is bizarrely not the edition you get when you type in the book title in the search box. Usually, those two editions should be exactly the same one.

If a book's page on Goodreads is set up correctly, like with Strangers in Death for example as an audio, then the default edition no matter which way you're searching for it will bring you to Strangers in Death. I don't know what went wrong with your example.


5. If you read an ebook, then that is the edition you use.


6. If your collection/volume comprises entire novels, then the same principle applies as with the boxed sets. Boxed sets are not meant to count as a single book because there is more than one novel in a boxed set, even if it isn't specifically called "boxed set". Same goes for collections or volumes that comprise entire novels. If it is a collection of short stories, i.e. an anthology, then the collection will count as one book.

Good morning everyone,

a little bit of maintenance, so please read! ☺️
I know it's a long post... sorry! 😅😂


Here is the planning sheet for our team: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

With the link, you should be able to view and edit as you like without any issues and without needing to request permission to access it.

Feel free to add the books you're going to read for the challenge to this sheet, and please add as much information as you can for the potential mini tasks. For the time being, this is not all that much - page numbers and publication year. We've added an example for your ease.

⛰️ We will be working with the planning sheet for planning the books and the mini challenges so we know where we're at and what everyone is reading to avoid doubling up for tasks, but there are no columns for the read dates on the planning sheet as we will not be using those.

⛰️ Once you are finished with a book, please put it onto your read shelves on GR as well as your TT challenge shelf. And then please post a completion post in the team thread . This will make it easy for captains to make sure you're still alive and kicking and haven't fallen off the mountain, and it will also make it easy for the entire team when we're nearing the end of a part of the challenge where completion dates are important.

You will find a sample completion post below. You don't have to go into incredible detail if all the information is on the spreadsheet and captains can easily hunt it down, especially if it is already planned for a specific mini task.

⛰️ If you do not like using a spreadsheet or are uncomfortable with using one, then a completion post is the way to go for you. However, if you're reading a book for a specific task, please please let the team know which task it is before, or while, you start the book, so it can be added to the planning sheet to avoid duplicates and frustrations. No book will ever be "read for nothing" as they will always at least count for points and with the mountains, we can always make them fit somehow, but I know how frustrating it can be to read a book for a specific task only to have someone else finish a book for that task just before you're done.

⛰️ Communication is vital no matter how we look at things :-) So please don't ignore the team thread just because we have a planning sheet.

⛰️ Tiny disclaimer: captains may need to shuffle books around, especially for the mountains and ladders, to slot in books where they fit best.


Feel free to use the planning sheet as your personal planner and scribble down as many or as few book as you want. The TBR recommendations tab is unlocked as well so you can jot down notes or mark down the books you might potentially want to read so you can find them more easily on the sheet. Should it become too cumbersome, we can always rearrange that tab to better fit needs, just give a shout.

The link to the tracking sheet as well as the sample completion post can be found in the first posts of the thread where all the important information is kept. Message 4