Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

Sammy, I hope you will have a lovely reading trip. :)

I have fallen behind a bit, as my son caught a slight cold and in these covid-suspicious times it was better to keep him home. But today he finally went to school so I am trying to make up for it and made quite a nice dent in my 30-hour-audiobook.

In the meantime, having just finished , I have the sudden urge to post pictures of this guy...



(I'm kinda pleased about finding the above picture. I mean, look at that wheel! :D)



(That one pleases me for other reasons. Who needs wheels anyway...)



Oh and in case you're wondering what he has to do with the book... he played the MC in the 1997 UK mini series adaptation.

Sonia wrote: "Have a nice trip Sammy!

btw, did you know about this?


Yes. did you know that the ones for next year are out already? ;)

Melindam wrote: "I have fallen behind a bit, as my son caught a slight cold and in these covid-suspicious times it was better to keep him home. But today he finally went to school so I am trying to make up for it a..."

My daughter's been home for 2 weeks now because she has a cold. I get that people feel uncomfortable, but she catches colds so often, if she can't go to work when she has a cough, she'll actually never get there! lol.

I get really paranoid whenever I walk into a building with air conditioning, because that always sets off a coughing fit (messes with my asthma, apparently). then everyone suddenly turns to look at me and I feel I have to yell "not covid!" so they'll stop glaring at me, lol!

Is he James Purefoy? (on my phone, so cannot enlarge the image)

Melindam wrote: "Is he James Purefoy? (on my phone, so cannot enlarge the image)"

He is.

AKA: The man I had a huge crush on until he did The Following, and now I can't help but feel a little creeped out when I see him because he plays a FAR too convincing serial killer, lol.

I only saw him in a Knight's Tale and did crush on him meself. :)

Melindam wrote: "I only saw him in a Knight's Tale and did crush on him meself. :)"

He was loooovely in that. (also happens to be one of my favourite pick-me-up movies!)

He was my pick for Bond when Brosnan quit. I'm still put out they went for Daniel Craig instead.

It was only when searching for the ideal Bond candidate that I realised that the guy from Sharpe's Sword, the guy from Resident Evil and the guy from A Knight's Tale, all of whom I thought scrummy, were actually one and the same guy, lol.

Nice revelation. And I agree, he could have been a suave Bond. :)

I'm doing OK on my reading I think. I haven't finished anything yet, but I intentionally chose a super long audiobook so I wouldn't overread. :-P I'll probably pause it here soon to take a break and listen to a different (not 40+hr) audio just for some variety.

Hope you have a good trip Sammy!

Have Good trip!!!!


Just finished two books today....... Yay

Isnt that Marc Anthony from Rome?????? Never had a crush on him... but im Alos not blind.... Very nice

I think he played Marc Anthony as well. :)

Yes he did. Which may or may not have been the reason I watched the show in the first place. ;)

Great show even when not considering the above, lol.

Kaley wrote: "I'm doing OK on my reading I think. I haven't finished anything yet, but I intentionally chose a super long audiobook so I wouldn't overread. :-P I'll probably pause it here soon to take a break an..."

You're as bad as I am Kaley... I was going through my audio tbr trying to decide what my books for the round should be, and I skimmed past most of them because they were all too short for my liking. Under 20 hours? No way! lol.
Only 2 of my 10 for the first round are under 500 pages!

Next round will all depend on what letters we need, but I have some around 1000 pages with tricky letters lined up :D

I actually thought sensibly about this when settling on my final books per month. I've been reading an average of a book a day this year, but dropped it to 20/month for the challenge so I could make sure to add lots of nice chunky ones :D

i cant remember the series that well.. i remember him though!!!!


Im a bit of a series reader and i fit in Novellas here and there... so please feel free to prioritize the bigger reads over my book claim i think i said about 25 book a month.....

I do have A Court of Mist and Fury which is over 600 pages & The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous which is 700 Pages that i will get to this month... other than that im trying to read my series that are around 400 Pages to try and help with challenge (sorry im a newbie to this)

We finally have a nice storm going on outside but we are sectioned off by the island by a bridge that is being repaird and a river that when dried up is easy to drive through.... at the moment all the gunky mountain water has come down and we along with the kids school are isolated... no teachers can get to the school so it has closed.... i have done studies with the kids ironed and cooked fish stew so i have a nice glass of chianti... working through my Audio and planning the next team challenge i do as a mod in another group.... nice relaxing day... The hubby made it over the river earlier before weather go bad... so he may go and stay with his brother tonight if he cant get back..... kids are watching sonic.... and i have my cozy dressing gown on so im all set HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sounds great Laura!

You're signed up for 22 a month (so 11 per 2 week round). (if anyone has forgotten what they signed up with, it's available on the member info tab of the planning sheet)

The main thing is to read what you'll enjoy reading. Some of us *looks at self* get a teensy bit challenge-crazy and do insane things to maximise points (I remember a challenge not so long since where a load of us were reading 3000 page anthologies - that was before the page number cap. wouldn't mind, but the anthology was terrible, lol!)
No one is under any obligation to copy said insane behaviour, and if people read what they enjoy reading, it'll be more fun all round.

Luckily for me, I enjoy reading 1000 page books! lol.

lololol ... Thats great... i did not feel any pressure... but say other team memebers read more than they claimed and they are big books, feel free to replace any of my smaller reads if it fits... but i will try my best to read larger booksx

Sammy wrote: "The main thing is to read what you'll enjoy reading."

This is my other current problem, aside from my super long audio. The other book I'm reading for the theme war challenge I am not a huge fan of. I'm pushing through but it's definitely slowed me down! But I'm too far gone to turn back now lol

Kaley wrote: "Sammy wrote: "The main thing is to read what you'll enjoy reading."

This is my other current problem, aside from my super long audio. The other book I'm reading for the theme war challenge I am no..."

Ah that sucks. I didn't mind mine this round, which helped, and I know I'll love reading The Talisman for the werewolf round (my favourite King!), but it's so frustrating when you hit on something you really aren't enjoying. I usually tend to power through them even faster to get back to reading good stuff, but I know most people go the opposite way.

Hope your next one is more fun!

Laura..devouring books like crumpets wrote: "lololol ... Thats great... i did not feel any pressure... but say other team memebers read more than they claimed and they are big books, feel free to replace any of my smaller reads if it fits... ..."

We'll definitely keep it in mind. We have a little bit of leeway anyway (we are allowed to read up to 71 books before penalties kick in), so there could be room for both. But if there are too many over-achievers around, we'll look at what'll get us the most points.

I doubt it'll be far out either way this round, but when the tricky letters start coming into play later, that may change. I have a heap of tricky-letter books I've been sitting on for wheel that aren't terribly long. which I think is very inconsiderate of authors.
If you're gonna write a 1000 page book, surely you have room for X, Q, Y, Z, U , O and I characters? :D

I'm pretty sure Game of Thrones must have some of those... how about Sanderson?

If you want to lower to the 800, House of Earth and Blood has a Q character - it's on my reserve list.

I remember that particular 3000+ Xmas anthology. The stories were quite bad (not naughty!), they brought the Grinch out of me, much as I love Xmas, lol.

This reminds me that I have a Sanderson book, "Way of Kings". It's really time I read it. :)

Way of kings is really good! Dooooooo it!

*Should probably get around to the rest of that series one of these years*

GoT must have some, but I'm not so sure about X, which seems to be the worst one. Qs and Ys I can do with chunky books, but they will again be re-reads.

I started doing challenges to help me get through my excessive TBR... But they're responsible for 90% of my re-reading! lol.

The only chunky (for me) I can recall with an X, is Deadly Hallows, and since the argument during restaurant rocks, I'm not comfortable on using Harry Potter books for big numbers.

This is not the best challenge for me as most of the books I have / want to read are in the 350-500 page range, so not the longest. I've always found the big monster books off-putting, particularly as they have a tendency to be sci fi or high fantasy which are not favourite genres.

I think I'm on track for the four books I'd put on the sign up. First book finished and I'm halfway through two, which I'll definitely get finished (probably this weekend). I think I'm in the mood for a romcom next so while it's unlikely I'll find a long one it'll probably be a quick read. I am considering starting a longer book (I have Empire of the Vampire) with a view to finishing it in a later round.

On the anthology thing, what are the rules around collections of books? I've seen the Bridgerton books in collections for example (Bridgerton Collection, Volume One), would this count as one book or would you count the individual ones?

I think the mods are still trying to experiment with trying to make things as fair as possible across the board. As so many people tend to seriously underestimate how many books they will read during a challenge, it can seriously unbalance teams.

Unfortunately the cap does mean that teams with people that like to read big books on them have a distinct advantage over others.

In terms of page count, I suspect mine will be significantly higher during this challenge than it was during TT, even though I'll be reading less books, as I'll push myself to read bigger books on the whole. I was quite happy to read 3 200 page books instead of one 800 one (I need a break between books, so will read less pages if I'm reading shorter books because more breaks!). Especially as I was reading extra to cover for missing team members etc.

Alison wrote: "On the anthology thing, what are the rules around collections of books? I've seen the Bridgerton books in collections for example (Bridgerton Collection, Volume One), would this count as one book or would you count the individual ones?"

Usually the rule is that if you're reading the whole thing, you can use it. but if only reading one or two books from it, use the individual listings instead. But I will double-check.

Sammy wrote: "I think the mods are still trying to experiment with trying to make things as fair as possible across the board. As so many people tend to seriously underestimate how many books they will read duri..."

Yeah it's not an easy one. I've definitely experienced the frustration of being on a team where everyone read roughly what they'd said but other teams are storming ahead reading 2 or 3 times what they signed up for.

I will try to read the longer books I have but if someone else reads over and their books are longer I don't mind if their books are used instead of mine.

Same here: I don't mind if you switch my shorter books for longer ones read by others in the team.

I suspect I will over-read a few "short" books per round (short for me being 3-400 pages, lol), just because I'll want a buffer in case people have life happen to them, which invariably happens.

One of these challenges it will be me, and then the rest of you have a 6k page shortfall to make up for :D :D :D

Same as Alison and Melinda — no worries if you switch a shorter book of mine for someone else's longer one if it means more points! I will totally understand.

I'm going to try to get at least one longer (600+ page) book per round, but my typical books are usually in the 300-400 page range, so if they have to be sacrificed during Captain Tetris for points, so be it!

Same here though I will be starting to pick up some longer books now that I have a lot of my shorter ones done.

Same as everyone previously said - I don't mind if you switch any of my shorter books for longer ones (Points, points!!).

morning guys

how are we defining short & long books?

it has only just occurred to me that i could read longer books to counteract that i only have 2.3 books per round.. however a long book to me is probably 400+ pages which probably isnt very long to others!

also in the past i’ve found long books kinda intimidating so i don’t have a lot on my tbr list, would you have any recommendations?

i’ll also search my local library next week for some fat spines.

the one longer book that i do own & have never read is The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll which is 864 pages, so I could squeeze that into a round at some point!

either way I am going to read another book for our current round which will be 3 in total for me in round 1.

p.s - happy friday!

Paris wrote: "morning guys

how are we defining short & long books?

it has only just occurred to me that i could read longer books to counteract that i only have 2.3 books per round.. however a long book to me..."

Oh goodness, I think between us we could probably give you thousands of recommendations! lol What kind of books do you prefer?

And again, please don't feel you have to read longer books! You can of course if you want to, but if you prefer reading shorter books, that's perfectly ok too!
And once the trickier letters start showing up, we'll all be scouring our tbrs looking for them without much regard for the length of the book. (I have a trilogy of 'X' books I've been sitting on for over a year - keeping them in reserve for Wheel - which are only 2-300 pages each. For me that's practically a short story, lol!

As for what makes a long or short book, that's entirely subjective. If, as you say, you rarely read books over 400 pages, then a 3-400 page book is going to seem reasonably long to you.
Because I regularly read 800+ page books (and tend to prefer them over short books on the whole), to me anything under 500 pages is short. a medium book is 5-700 pages, and a longer book is anything over that :)

My average page count per book is lower than usual this year, as I've been getting the really short ones (anything below 150 pages, which rarely qualify for challenges) out of the way in the break between challenges. :)

Finished , ss updated.

Hey guys, hope all is well and you're enjoying your books.

I'm now comfortably installed at the Yorkshire seaside, and have just been for a lovely walk on the beach. About to have a sandwich, the seriously hitting the stack of books I brought along, lol.

Almost done with Christine, but probably won't update until tomorrow. :)

i Finished Of Fates And Phantoms today..... Started Chances remember reading it in my teens and i liking it....

Have a Yorkshire tea and Hobnob for me xxxx

Sammy wrote: "Hey guys, hope all is well and you're enjoying your books.

I'm now comfortably installed at the Yorkshire seaside, and have just been for a lovely walk on the beach. About to have a sandwich, the ..."

Have a great time!!! And have some fish and chips for me😊
That is one of the things I miss most from living in London. That and doner kebabs after a late-night movie.

Sammy wrote: "Hey guys, hope all is well and you're enjoying your books.

I'm now comfortably installed at the Yorkshire seaside, and have just been for a lovely walk on the beach. About to have a sandwich, the ..."

I miss the beach :( we haven't been to one since before this whole covid mess began :(

Hope you have a lovely trip Sammy =)

So since Sammy is on vacation... i went to find some inspiration for us to celebrate this half-round time.

Eni wrote: "I miss the beach :( we haven't been to one since before this whole covid mess began :( ..."

Same here ☹️ We have been going on vacation to Goa every December for ages. Last year was the first year in a very long time that we didn't go and we aren't going this year also.

Ian Somerhalder



Now He is My Crush!!! Along with Tom Hardy, Keanu Reeves and Jenson Ackles

LOL, thanks Eni!

Have a great time, Sammy. I just had a lovely cuppa Yorkshire tea (have tons in my cupboard, courtesy of a friend of mine. :)