Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Team Raithe




⚔ Christina (Captain)
⚔ Judy (Co-Captain)
⚔ Louise (Co-Captain)
⚔ Sana
⚔ Taylor
⚔ Kate
⚔ M
⚔ AJ
⚔ Janine
⚔ Patti
⚔ LaurLa
⚔ Emily

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

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

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WHEELATHON 11 FULL RULES: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

⏰ COUNTDOWN TO START: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

📝 PLANNING SPREADSHEET: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

📈 OFFICIAL TEAM SHEET: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (editing access for captains only)


The Basics
◈ runs from 31 August to 26 October
◈ start/finish time each round is 9 pm UTC time
◈ four rounds - each round lasting two weeks
◈ only books started after the challenge begins are eligible
◈ check in with your team at least once each week

The Rules
◈ Minimum 100 pages.
◈ For Audiobooks use the default Goodreads edition unless it's a Large Print version, then use the next most popular print or ebook edition instead.
◈ Books with the Goodreads genres Children's, Kids, Poetry, Play, Graphic Novel, Illustrated, Photography or Art (or books with *Illustrated* in the title or an *Illustrator* listed as a contributor) must contain at least 30,000 verified words. AR BookFinder (.com, .co.uk or .com.au) is a good source for verification. As a general guide, the audiobook should be over three hours long.
◈ No Manga, cookbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias, no matter the word count or audio length.
◈ Books in any language are eligible, provided they meet the challenge requirements.
◈ Re-reads are permitted if it has been at least six months since you last read the book.
◈ Only books finished during the current round may be used. Books cannot be banked from previous rounds.


‼️ Team Bonus Points for Riyria Books (which is our theme this year)‼️

Bonus points are available for books read set in the world of Elan. 20 points are awarded once per book per team. These can be earned by any player in any round and are on top of any page points or mini challenge points the book might earn.


‼️ Bonus Points for current Book of the Month (BOM) discussions‼️

Writing one day's discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM discussion (minimum 3 discussion sets) = 20 points


Spell-Out Rules

First letter of:
◈ Book title or series title (articles may be ignored)
◈ Author's first or last name
◈ Fiction only: significant character's first name, surname or nickname
◈ Non-fiction books do not have eligible characters
◈ Audiobook narrator's first or last name (if listening to audiobook)
◈ Translator's first or last name (if reading a translated edition)


Our Shelves
⚔ Christina
⚔ Judy
⚔ Louise
⚔ Sana
⚔ Taylor
⚔ Kate
⚔ M
⚔ AJ
⚔ Janine
⚔ Patti
⚔ LaurLa

‼️ IMPORTANT ‼️

‼️Since goodreads has removed the private messaging feature at the beginning of the year captains can no longer hunt you down if you go AWOL. Therefore we ask you to please please please check in at least once a week on the team thread so we know you're still playing and you haven't abandoned us (it happens way more than you think 😕).

‼️If you're going on vacation or will be away/offline for a longer period of time please let us know beforehand (if you can) so we don't file a missing member report with the mods and you get replaced by a reserve player by accident.

DMs having been removed really sucks during these kind of challenges - in fact, tracking down people on this website now can be a bit of a challenge in itself and I'd rather not have to do it again 😅 Thanks in advance for your cooperation everyone :)

WORLD OF ELAN


The Riyria Revelations
Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are enterprising thieves who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the death of the king and get embroiled in larger political machinations.

The Riyria Chronicles
A prequel series that explores the beginnings of Royce and Hadrian's partnership and first escapades.

The Legends of the First Empire
Taking place in the same world as the Riyria Revelations/Chronicles, this is a prequel series that takes place thousands of years before those series and reveals the truths about the First Empire that were hinted at in the Riyria novels. (This is where our guy Raithe shows up as one of the protagonists btw.)

The Rise and Fall
This series will bridge the gap between The Legends of the First Empire and Riyria Chronicles.

The recommended reading order by the author is the publication order (view spoiler)[
◈ Riyria Revelations (1 - 6): Theft of Swords | Rise of Empire | Heir of Novron
◈ Riyria Chronicles (1 - 2): The Crown Tower | The Rose and the Thorn
◈ Legends of the First Empire (1 - 3): Age of Myth | Age of Swords | Age of War
◈ Riyria Chronicles (3 - 4): Death of Dulgath | Disappearance of Winter's Daughter
◈ Legends of the First Empire (4 - 6): Age of Legend | Age of Death | Age of Empyre
◈ Rise and Fall (1 - 3): Nolyn | Farilane | Esrahaddon
◈ Riyria Chronicles (5): Drumindor
(hide spoiler)],
however our lovely moderator Judith is a big fan of the series/universe and had this to say in the pre-challenge chat: (view spoiler)[

"Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron to start. In these Royce and Hadrian's relationship as friends and business partners is established already. And in these you get references to The Crown Tower or Drumindor (and the others in this series).

So I found it fun after I read the main series to then read The Crown Tower (this is where they meet). Some of it I found more entertaining because you know where they end up and it's kind of amazing that they manage to get there.

However, if you start with The Crown Tower, you don't spoil anything for yourself. Drumindor is actually the most recent publication out of all of the entire list.
The Crown Tower
The Rose and the Thorn
The Death of Dulgath
The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter
Drumindor

The Legends series (all the books that start with "Age of"). These take place 1000 years before Royce and Hadrian's story. And is really the story of how the empire of man came to be and characters and places in this series get referenced in the other books but almost a myths and fables. In these you get the "real" story. You could start with these if you wanted to as well.

I actually read Age of Myth first because of an audible sale, then jumped to Theft of Swords because of a TT7 task and realized I loved Royce and Hadrian so did their books and then went back to the other series.

What I will say is Nolyn, Farilane, and Esrahaddon should be read last. These are almost stand alone books about important characters from the series but you will spoil a lot if you read these first. And will not understand a lot background things going on." (hide spoiler)]

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSIONS



2 Sep: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon - discussion thread
10 Sep: Queens of the Jungle by J. R. Hogan - discussion thread (backroom): www.goodreads.com/topic/show/24735325...
16 Sep: Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang - discussion thread

2 Oct: Skyward by Brandon Sanderson - discussion thread
10 Oct: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden - discussion thread
16 Oct: The Strength of the Few by James Islington - discussion thread

r

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Just

In

Case

Hello and welcome explorers of Elan :)

I'm Christina (she/her) from Austria, and I will be your captain on this adventure 🫡 I work as waitress in my family's restaurant and most likely have adhd, so I'm online at random hours of the day (and night) (except for mornings, that's when I sleep 🤪) don't be surprised :D

I almost exclusively listen to audiobooks, mostly 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 😉 as long as they spark my interest. And I also started doing Goodreads' official challenges a few months ago thanks to Judy!

The spell-out of wheelathon is always pretty straight forward and the mini challenges that get thrown at us throughout the challenge usually are too, however if you do have any questions please don't hesitate to ask (just make sure to double check the rules in the wheel or mini threads first please 😅)

But let's discuss this: how come the Riyria/Elan universe is such a big one, yet I had never even heard of any of the books or the author? How is this even possible?? What about y'all- please tell me you haven't been as ignorant as me! Or actually, please do. Make me feel less alone lol.

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

Hi everyone im Janine from England 👋👋

Im a bit of a challenge addict and usually have 10- 15 team /partber challenges on the go at any one time 😄😄
I read mm romance pretty exclusivly , and if its paired with a mystery at the same time ..then even better .
I havent heard of the Riyria/Elan universe either and tbh it doesnt sound like my cup of tea either

Heres my shelf Wheel 11
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Im off to bed now so hopefully everyone else will have arrived when i wake up 😁

Hello everyone.
I'm Sana from Pakistan and this is my third wheel. Had to skip last wheel because of numerous health issues but I'm so glad to be here.

I read all genres but fantasy and historical fiction are my favorite and I avoid non fiction.

I love Riyria books. I got a couple of short stories from the author, introducing his two protagonists and was asked to leave a review on GR. This was more than a decade ago. Since then I have been in love with Royce and Hadrian.

It's a great time for a reread of Revelation/ Chronicles. And I haven't read the Rise and Fall trilogy. I'm so looking forward to it.

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

Hey there!

I'm AJ (they/them). I'm from BC, Canada in pacific time. This is my first wheel and the 4th goodreads challenge I've ever joined.

I read sci-fi, fantasy and romance (mm, alien, and monster ones mostly).

I've never heard of Riyria before this challenge even though I'm a fantasy person!

Heres my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hi everyone!

I'm Judy (she/her) from Germany and one of your co-captains for this adventure! While I took a break from captaining for this towers, me and Christina have been captaining for years at this point so we've got plenty of experience :)

The Riyria have been on my somewhat extended TBR for a while in the sense that I'm aware of them and interested the way I am in many big fantasy universes, without any concrete plans to pick them up at any point soon... but for bonus points... I've placed some holds with my library and we'll see what comes in over the next few weeks!

I read all over the place but usually no thrillers, horror or mysteries please! Every once in a while I'll pick something from those genres up and well... it doesn't often go well (though I do really need to get around to House of Leaves before the end of the year, a friend lent me their copy almost two years ago 😬)

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

Hi Janine, Sana and AJ 👋🏻 good to have you on our team!

So far we've had three people completely unaware of Riyria, one does know about them and is loosely interested, and one who loves them! I'm curious where the rest of our team falls :)
Remember that we get bonus points for the 17 main books set in the world of Elan, but only ONCE per book. There's a full list of books that are eligible for bonus points here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... but the list will also be on our official team sheet once we get it. At the moment the mods are still working hard on them!

AJ wrote: "I read sci-fi, fantasy and romance (mm, alien, and monster ones mostly)."

I assume you've already read Skyward by Sanderson? If not, it's gonna be a Book of the Month in October 😉

Have i read that we can ONLY read the amount of books we signed up for ..i know in the past we could go over a little bit

Also will we be adding our books straight onto a planning SS, or posting here and captains sort

Which reminds me-

On top of the BOMs Judy already linked above, there will be another one in the NBRC Back Room (which is specifically "for books with a mature or clearly adult content, in a reserved space, out of range of our underage members")! It's gonna be fun and ridiculous, and I promise you haven't missed out on much if you haven't read the previous books in the series (plus there's summaries by Sammy!)

starting Sept 10: Queens of the Jungle by J. R. Hogan - thread

I've added that one to the top as well - my Backroom notifications are wonky so I missed out of that one so far ;) maybe it's time to return to dino island for me too......

Judy wrote: "I've added that one to the top as well - my Backroom notifications are wonky so I missed out of that one so far ;) maybe it's time to return to dino island for me too......"

I also didn't get a notif and forgot it had come up last month already. Just saw it mentioned in another team or captains thread and was like 💡 right!

Janeylou wrote: "Have i read that we can ONLY read the amount of books we signed up for ..i know in the past we could go over a little bit"

Yes you've read that right - except there's some wiggle room overall:

However, we know that real life happens and an extra 10 books can be read by the whole team over the team reading cap for each round. These may not all be read by one person.

So we can read a liiiittle more, but we have to coordinate who reads what over as it can't just be one person doing all of them. For those that like to strategize, wheel is always a good time to read those chunksters on your TBR to maximize points ;)

Also will we be adding our books straight onto a planning SS, or posting here and captains sort

There will be a planning spreadsheet, we're still waiting for the official spreadsheets to come out to more info to follow later!

👍👍

Hi everyone I’m Louise from South Wales one of your co/captains for this adventure. I’ve taken a break from captaining in the last 18 months but have started to ease back in.
I read a wide variety of genres and often go out of my comfort zone if there are team points to be had. Already downloaded the BOM’s 🤭

I had never heard of Ryira or the world of Elan prior to this challenge . Will have to see if I can get hold of a freebie.

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

Team spreadsheets have been distributed and our first word to spell out will be
⚔ HINTINDAR ⚔

And, as a little surprise from the mods, there's also bonus tags and bonus words in text for each round which are worth 5 points each.

Bonus tag: Low Fantasy (must be tagged at least 10x)
Bonus word: supernatural

If anybody needs inspiration here's a list of books tagged low-fantasy: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔ ⚔

Mini Challenge 1 - Wheel of Fate

Take your chances with Fate and spin for your next adventure! Each adventure is composed of 5 tasks inspired by one of Sullivan's books that takes place in the world of Riyria. Teams can have up to 3 sets of adventures going at any one time.

The Restrictions
✳ Each book read can only be used for one mini challenge task.
✳ This mini challenge runs for the length of Wheelathon.
✳ Banked books are not allowed for this mini challenge.
✳ Books can be started at any point since the start of Wheelathon (31st Aug 9pm UTC).
✳ Books must be used in a spelling to be used in the mini challenge.


The wheel has been spun and these are our first three sets of tasks:

⚔ Heir of Novron
E01 - tagged "medieval" at least 10 times
E02 - character has an abnormally long life
E03 - no letters from GWEN in author's first or last name
E04 - a character isn't who they seem to be to the MC
E05 - creepy cover (your interpretation)

⚔ The Crown Tower
E06 - tagged "action-and-adventure" at least 5 times
E07 - character is nobility
E08 - tower on cover
E09 - the MC has an older mentor
E10 - first published in 2013

⚔ The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter
E11 - tagged "bromance" at least 5 times
E12 - where family is important to the MC
E13 - the word "winter" appears in the text
E14 - contains a missing person mystery
E15 - author uses their middle initial

now that I look at the books on my immediate TBR and those tasks... that might be harder than I thought!

I've made up my tbr list for September and I've got options for the spell out and some that fit for the mini too!

So do we say here which tasks we want to claim or just claim on SS

Doing here to remind me
Magpie lord...low fantasy
Gwen..first oaths
Middle initial used ..house of cards
Tower..billionaires boyfriend

Gor tower on cover ..does a tower block count?

Janeylou wrote: "Gor tower on cover ..does a tower block count?"

I wouldn't see why not

AJ wrote: "I've made up my tbr list for September and I've got options for the spell out and some that fit for the mini too!"

Nice!!

Janeylou wrote: "So do we say here which tasks we want to claim or just claim on SS"

Feel free to share here too :) spreadsheet is coming soon, we're putting the final touches on it!

I've got books that work for medieval, nobility, Gwen, tower, middle initial!

E15 - author uses their middle initial
House of Cards

E08 - tower on cover
The Billionaire's Boyfriend

E03 - no letters from GWEN in author's first or last name
First Oaths

Im having an operation on the 3rd so may be a bit slower than normal for this first 2 wk round

Im letting everyone know now that although i may claim certain tasks , if anyone finishes a book before i can get round to mine then just take it ..as sooner we finish we can get more tasks 😁

Janeylou wrote: "Im having an operation on the 3rd so may be a bit slower than normal for this first 2 wk round"

Thanks for letting us know - hope everything goes smoothly!

thoughts on Dino Island for "character has an abnormally long life"? considering none of these characters should still be alive by book 4 😂😂😂

I dont see why not
Im presuming the dinos are not dino shifters then ..thats what i was expecting

I wish... then there's at least be something about these books

I once again am not getting any notifications grrrrr! Sometimes I truly do hate goodreads...

I had to get into work early today and won't be home until ~7 hours from now, but I will share the planning sheet then!

Judy wrote: "thoughts on Dino Island for "character has an abnormally long life"? considering none of these characters should still be alive by book 4 😂😂😂"

I was considering this task for the queens too tbh 🤣

And I agree, some of the tasks for this mini are hard 🥵

Christina wrote: "Judy wrote: "thoughts on Dino Island for "character has an abnormally long life"? considering none of these characters should still be alive by book 4 😂😂😂"

I was considering this task for the quee..."

that's a good one, too hahahaha

Okay friends, our planning/tracking sheet is here!


📝 PLANNING SHEET https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

A few notes-

⚔ Please fill in all the details of your books where applicable. Of course you don't know all the info before you start a book, but you can still add the rest as you go or once you're finished.

⚔ While we are giving you the option (and in fact encourage you!) to claim tasks in our planning sheet, captains might be moving them around as they see fit. Please don't be upset if we do. We're trying to do what's best for the team after all 😉

⚔ When providing word in text please add the page number, loc, or % (chapter is also okay if you're doing audio), and a snippet of the text with the word in.

⚔ Once you've finished your book please post here. A quick message à la "hey, I've finished [book title]" is enough. You don't need to give us any more information since it should all be in our planning sheet already, however you are more than welcome to share your rating and thoughts on the book :) we're hoping this will encourage engagement in our thread and lead to interesting conversation! And hopefully it'll help us keep track of everyone too. We wouldn't want anyone to get lost 😁

⚔ Judy and I have already added some of our planned reads as examples but feel free to take my 'claimed' mini task E15 - I won't finish the Dino Island book until about 2 weeks into the challenge anyway, and we want to get through the mini tasks as quickly as we can :D


Less than five days to go!!!

Hopefully the missing people of the team finds us soon 🙏

AJ wrote: "Hopefully the missing people of the team finds us soon 🙏"

Team members have until 48 hours prior to the challenge start to check in, so there's still some time left. Keeping my fingers crossed! 🍀

Creepy cover ..yes or no
I know its a creepy book so thinking yes


Ive provisionally put in published 2013