I am sorry I have not been around much.  I am battling some nasty germs.  However, my lethargy did not prevent me from reading and I have finished by first book.

Did anybody get back to Cindy about her question about the short books she was looking at?

Has anyone heard from Heather, last I knew she was still in the hospital and not feeling great?

I agree with what Rebecca said that's why I hadn't commented back to Cindy.  I think she should pm Tami about the first one but the second one seemed fine.

I'll be reading my shortest two books because they are short and easy.

Rebecca are you planning on reading The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon, or are you waiting to see if Cindy reads her's?

Thanks Elisa it seemed easier to focus on shorts they stack up for page counts too jic that one get chosen too.  I always manage to keep going on shorts when I would have gotten tired of a longer book and stopped reading sooner.

I'm down one book so far and on too the next one. Burn for me was awfully similar world wise to her edge series. 

Michele hope you are feeling better!  And I have not heard anything from Heather other than what she has posted here.

I am two shorties down! Hooray, though only one is a first in a series. Gotta read another of those...

but of course, tomorrow I must work. booooo

Has anyone heard from Heather, last I knew she was still in the hospital and not feeling great?

Heather responded to my email Saturday at 3:52PM (but I think that would be 11:52PM or 12:52PM her time??).  She was in a lot of pain, still in the hospital, but planning to go home in a few hours.  I haven't heard since then.

I did ask Tami about the 1st book I emailed you all about.  She is fine with it, just suggested I read through the list.  I had planned to do that anyway, it just felt like cheating since that section is 4 columns with 1-2 words per column.

I made a list of books to read, but I'm not sure where my head was at the time.  There is NO WAY I'll have time to read that many books:/  I'm going for the two I emailed you all about, then as many 1st in a series (and they will be Love Inspired Suspense - approx. 180-190 pages each) as I can wade through.

Elizabeth, I was probably going to wait on the Michael Chabon book - because I figure there could be other weeks where "Short books" would be one of the possibilities, and it doesn't fit into what I need for Vintage/Vogue and it's not 1st in series. I'm all over the place at the moment: about to finish a V/V Vogue book that's shortish but doesn't otherwise fit here; then I have a 1st-in-series book, also for that, that I'm halfway through (so that will make 2 for this challenge); and then I will probably go on to something I have to read for a swap that isn't 1st in a series but will be a quick read at least! This is very complicated; I'm looking forward to Friday when V/V will be over at least.

Im home, in pain and sleepy.  I was checking to see if either of the books that I have that are about 60 pages will work.   I need to check the rules.

I'm glad you're home, Heather, and praying your pain goes away.

So glad your home Heather, and glad to here from you.  Hope you get feeling better soon!

Rebecca its all good we should probably save some smaller ones for if we have to do them again!  I'm knocking out most of my smaller 1's in series this time and while I still have tons more its going to be harder on me next time if we don't end up doing 1st this time!

I'm down 5 books for the week as of today.  All are first in series and I'm well into the 1000's pages read.  I've never tried to read mostly shorts.  I speed through them and they are not so grueling so I'm still in the mood to keep reading after I'm finished with them.  Plus I can get 2 or 3 done a day and its equal to 1 of my average book...  YEY!  I still have 6 ebooks under 250 pages, all first in series; but I only have 4 audio left that are first in the series and they are all longer.  Not sure which ones I will finish but I'm going to keep plugging on! 

You are kicking booty Bizzy! 

Heather - glad to hear you are home, but I am sorry to hear you are in pain. Hope that mellows out soon.  Thinking about you.

I'm so glad to hear you're home and up for reading, Heather! I remember it took me several days after surgery before I could manage much more than TV cooking shows.

Teammates, this probably won't be my best week, and I'm going to blame Heather (or actually her challenge) for that - I'm having Issues balancing the two and since Heather's ends at 10 PM EDT on Thursday I am prioritizing it for now! But I'll have two first-in-series done by the end of tonight (one is being sort of hard going so I've taken a break before I go knock off the last 40 pages...).

who knows, it might be number of books or most pages read this week.  You never know!  They all might count.  :)

Has anyone else looked at the stats we are exactly 2 books behind the Red team when I last looked....

Sorry guys. I just finished my second book yesterday.

I'm right there with you, Beverly!  I did start book 3 last night, but I'm also prepping for a book sale tomorrow AM.  On a brighter note, I haven't posted either of the books I've read so that makes us tied with red team;)

woo hoo Cindy!  I am trying to finish another 1st in series book by tomorrow night...I have a lot of things going on between now and then though, so I can't promise...but working on it during the quiet times  :)  I have posted all my books so far though

Awesome Cindy and Beverly!  I'm down 8 and I haven't posted for my last one yet, and I'm reading book nine and listening to ten so hopefully I'll get them finished.  However there a little longer all over 200 pages so it might not happen.  But we have until midnight tomorrow to post all the books we read so I might get at least one done!  I'm listening to Raven's Shadow by Patricia Briggs, and reading Delicate Freakn' Flower by Eve Langlais.  If I finish them both I have no idea what to do next I do have some early romance by M C Beaton she's writing as something else though and they are not long, who knows!

I just posted my 8th book (I've been mostly posting as I go), which was an ebook I've been reading on the subway for the past couple of days, and I'm about halfway through the 9th (I had to put it down to take a break at an intense moment and decided to knock out the other one first). I'm going to bed now, but I can finish #9 tomorrow, and I have a fairly short mystery up next that might be able to manage too. That will bring me to either 4 or 5 1st-in-series books for the week.

I just filled out my form for my 9th book and all so far have been first in series.  I'm working on finishing Raven's Shadow on audio, and I'm reading Clean Sweep on eBook.  Not sure I have time to finish those or not.  We have to have filled out all of our forms by midnight eastern time just incase anyone didn't know when we needed to have them in by!

Tami posted next week's possible categories and since Most books popped up again it might not be this weeks.  That would be really good since I think Red won that, at least they were ahead when I checked last.  Does anyone have a strategy for this weeks categories?

Week 2 possible categories:

Most books (dead tree and ebook) read (by week)
Longest book
Most YA books
Most "other" books (i.e. not Romance/erotica or Sci-fi/fantasy)

I've got a bunch of YA, so I'll work especially on that, but try to read some "other" books too. My best potential "longest book" is non-YA fantasy, so maybe I'd better save that for another week (I'll see if I have any longish YA or "other" stacked up too, but YA tends to top out at 450 pages or so, and my "other" books tend to all be slower reads). I also have 2-3 other books I have to get through this week for library or swaps that are SF and fantasy, so that's going to drag me down a bit. (I didn't bargain for the categories being known when I joined this swap, and it makes it more strenuous.)

I also am going to post a question about the "other" category in the main thread: I assume it excludes YA too (and excludes mysteries), but the description isn't explicit about that.

ETA: Actually, I did just find an 800-page historical novel (which is Other) that I've been meaning to read for 25 years or so, and that woul go fast, so I could do that unless somebody has a better candidate, in which case I'll be happy to step back! 

Assuming I'm not "voted off the island", I have a few "other" books I plan to read this week, and I also have a couple of "YA" if I have time.  I have a couple of 700 page books, but nothing longer (that I've found).  I'm not planning to shoot for longest book category.  I only managed six books last week (all less than 300 pages), and may only get that range again this week.