Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

What are Tower Teams?
Essentially it is small groups of members in a team who read and discuss books, record them for "points" in order to compete against other teams.
It doesn't matter if your yearly goal is to read five (5) books, fifty (50) books or five-hundred (500) books. Anyone can join! We are still balancing the Tower Teams Reading Challenge by Total Books read.

IMPORTANT
This is NOT a read-a-thon and WILL go for a few weeks, so please only sign-up if you are a consistent goodreads user and are willing to discuss books with your team mates over a period of a few months. Unlike our other team challenges, the Tower Teams Challenge is a marathon, not a sprint!

Goal: Read! Read! Read!

When: Starts 1 May 2021 at 00:00 UTC and goes for 3 months, ending on 31 July 2021.
Countdown to the start can be found HERE

How: We will take all the people who sign-up (use THIS FORM) and divide them equally - by book goal - into SMALLER groups, taking into account the number of books they read per week. Otherwise we will be using a "randomizer" to assign.
UPDATE: Sign-ups will now be placed on the Reserve list, in the event that players have to leave the challenge.

Challenge requirements
To be a part of this challenge you need to be able to:

◈ Create a special shelf for the challenge for the books you are reading

◈ Check-in on your team's discussion thread at least once per week

◈ Have fun!


ARGGGGHHH! Discworld Theme? Do I have to read Discworld books to play?
No, no, no! Do not fret - you can play and be a productive team member without reading, or having ever read a single Discworld book! (though we think your life will be enriched if you do so - ask for suggestions and you'll be guided to one that fits your reading desires!)

Book Points
◈ Books less than 100 pages = 0 points
◈ Books between 100 and 1000 pages = 0.1 points/page
◈ Books over 1000 pages = 100 points

◈ Points will be rounded up/down from 0.5 as per standard maths
◈ For audio only books, the page count will be set as 100, no matter how long the audio is.

For current BOM (Book of the Month) discussions
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM = 20 points

Participation means answering at least three of the DQ days over the course of the BOM discussion
Points stack, i.e. if a player is picked to write a set of questions AND answers at least three of the question sets they will gain 60 points
There is no limit to the number of team members who can get participation points

NOTE: We will accept one team member per book per team for writing a day's DQs. If, by three days prior to the BOM starting, we don't have enough volunteers to write all DQs, then we will let more than one team member per team write questions. If we have more people than days sign up (prior to 3 days before start date) we will randomise the volunteers to determine those who can write DQs. In accordance with our BOM guidelines, nominators of the BOM are automatically allocated a day

Discworld BOMS
To avoid having a lot of Discworld nominations, we will have an additional BOM each month:
May - Equal Rites
June - Mort
July - Guards! Guards!
These represent the first books in three of the sub-series, and deliberately skip over the first two books which are generally agreed not to be the best introduction to the books.

Discworld Reading Bonus
Each team will get 8 bonus points for each Discworld book they read, to a maximum of SIX over the whole challenge. Note that this is for the whole team, not each member. You can use the BOMs to claim this bonus.

MORE POINTS!
As well as the page points you can use your books against one of the three mini-games, which are active throughout the whole challenge. You can only use a book in ONE of the mini-games.

Tasks
Each Discworld book has had 6 tasks assigned to it. As a team, you can fit your books to the tasks for an additional 5 points. Excitingly, each Discworld book belongs in a sub-series; if you finish all the tasks for all the books in a sub-series you will get bonus points!

Sub-series 	(#books) 	Bonus points
Rincewind	(8 books)	40 points
DEATH 		(5 books)	25 points
Witches		(6 books) 	30 points
City Watch 	(8 books)	40 points
Industrial Revolution (6 books)	30 points
Tiffany Aching 	(5 books)	25 points
Others 		(3 books)	15 points

Bingo
Use books to mark off the squares on the bingo card - being creative with your links! Each book can only be used to cover off one square.
Marking off a square is 5 points
Completing the card gives a bonus 40 points.
The card is under the spoiler.
(view spoiler)[
an example: for square C8 "I Aten't Dead" you could use a book with Zombies MPG (hide spoiler)]

Jackanory
Write a story (max 500 words) using books - any element of the book is fair game.
We've given you some prompts to help: you will need to identify two genres that apply to the story; to work out your characters and then to write the story.
Whilst we've give some plot suggestions, you can be more creative if you wish - you could have a story of a banquet at the Unseen University (fish & chips & vinegar, anyone?), a road-trip exploring different landmarks or a space-octopus v interdimensional pirates on a bank heist.
Each book used in the story gets 5 points
A completed story (minimum 8 books) gets 80 bonus points

◈ Teams will be similar in size to other Tower Teams or Wheelathon challenges. We haven't decided on the exact number, as we are going by books read, but we are shooting for 10-20 members.

◈ Books must be started after the start date of the challenge to count towards the challenge

◈ Books must be />100 pages. NOTE: This number is lower than our other team challenges! For page number questions, please check with your captain who can ask in the Captains group for verification.

◈ Audio books are allowed. (For page numbers, use the "default" GR book page numbers. If the "default" is a Large Print version, use the next most popular edition for page numbers. If there is no print / ebook, then the audio book must be longer than 3 hours, and page numbers will be set at 100 pages, no matter how long the audio is.

◈ No MPGs graphic novels, cookbooks or poetry. (Sorry.)

◈ Anything with the word" boxed set" in the title on Goodreads can not be used as "one book". They need to be shelved as separate books to count for this challenge.

◈ Books with MPGs Childrens / Kids / Illustrated / Photography / Art (or which have "Illustrated" in the title or an "Illustrator" contributor in the metadata) must have at least 25,000 words (must be a verified count. sites that provide estimated word counts are not valid sources for verifying word count). ArBookFind is a great site to double check (there are also .co.uk and .com.au versions). If in doubt, ask your captain. Another rule of thumb is the audiobook version should be over 3 hours.

◈ Any book in any language will count, as long as it meets the criteria.

◈ "Re-reads" will be allowed, if it has been six months since you have read the book. This includes listening to the audio version, if you've already read the book.

◈ This challenge involves adding a special bookshelf to your personal GRs bookshelves other than "read." You may choose a preexisting one.

◈ Those people who want to keep their Profiles Private, must be willing to "Friend" their Team Captain(s), the NBRC Mod account, or one of the Moderators, to allow page count verification and to assist you if you are having difficulty with your bookshelves.

◈ Please wait to be told to which Team you are assigned. It might take awhile; however, you will be able to count the books you have read from the START date of the challenge.

◈ Once you actually join, please check-in with your team discussion thread by posting the name of your bookshelf. Remember to add a HYPHEN between words for your bookshelf.

◈ Helpful Tip: Knowing about Sticky Shelves may help you put your assigned bookshelf near the top of your dropdown box.

◈ With MOBILE DEVICES there have been major problems when trying to add books. If that is all you have to access the Internet, or you don't know how to Cut & Paste on it, then this challenge probably is NOT the right fit for you.

◈ Discussion threads will be in the regular NBRC group. (No secret groups allowed)

◈ You do NOT have to join the discussion, if you don't want to; communicating
via posting a book is good enough. Nevertheless, Your Team wants to know if you are still participating. We understand Real Life gets in the way. However, please plan to "check-in" in some manner at least once every week. If we don't hear from you for two weeks, you may be replaced with another team member and be prevented from joining future team challenges

Spell-it-Out Tasks:
Find the letters needed using the first letter in:
◈ book title*
◈ author first name
◈ author last name
◈ character name**
◈ series title*
◈ If listening to the audio book: audio narrator first/last name
◈ If you are reading a translation: translator first/last name

* if the first word in the title/series is a definite or indefinite article you can ignore them if you prefer
** characters must be significant to the plot. you can use first, last or nickname. note that non-fiction books don't have characters)





◈ We need people to volunteer to be Team Captain(s) whose duties include:

- Keeping a Google Spreadsheet that all members can view (we will provide you with a template)
- checking team members books read and page counts
- communicating with a NBRC Moderator
- communicating with all Team Members
- making sure Team Members are staying active
- notifying the NBRC Mod if someone drops out
- have effective and kind (this is a game, remember) on-line communication skills to help members having trouble
- making sure Team Members belong on your team
- posting weekly status updates/reminders
- dealing with minor issues that arise
- post little challenges within challenges, if desired.

We will partner Captains with at least one Co-Captain to share these duties.

◈ Captains and Co-captains will need to have access to Goodreads daily and be posting to the team thread and updating the team spreadsheet at least every 2 days.

◈ Please let us know, when you make a request to sign-up, if you are interesting in being a Team Captain.

Team allocations can be seen here. Threads will remained locked until captains and co-captains have had a chance to reserve some spots. Be patient - remember that captains might be in different time-zones and/or be busy with life!
We will ensure that threads are open by 22 April.

Countdown to the end of Towers 8 can be found by clicking on the hourglass image

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