BL-opoly 2020: The Pandemic Edition

Game abandoned prematurely due to BookLikes Meltdown.

My marker was based again (of course) on my little assistants and good luck charms, Sunny and Charlie, who again helped me pick my books (this time around, properly pandemic-proofed).

 

 

My Progress Spreadsheet

 

The Books and the Board

The Questions

Who?:
Why?: Pete Brown: Shakespeare’s Local – finished June 8, 2020.
How?:
When?: Bernard Knight: Crowner’s Crusade – finished June 3, 2020.

The Railroads

The Silk Road: Anita Amirrezvani: The Blood of Flowers – finished July 13, 2020.
The Patagonia Star: Nicholas Shakespeare: The Dancer Upstairs – finished May 30, 2020.
The Cape-to-Cairo Railway:
The Nordic Express:

School’s Out For Summer

#1:
#3: Phyllis Wheatley: Memoir and Poems
#4: Ellery Queen: The Roman Hat Mystery – finished June 11, 2020.

The Stay-Cation

#6: Lili Grün: Alles ist Jazz – finished June 19, 2020.
#7: Holly Throsby: Goodwood – finished July 1, 2020.
#9: Isabel Allende: The Stories of Eva Luna – DNF @ 40%, May 28, 2020.

Beach Week

#10: Helene Tursten: Night Rounds – finished June 6, 2020.
#11: Ranka Nikolić: Mord mit Meerblick (Murder with Sea View) – finished July 3, 2020.
#13:

Mountain Cabin

#15: Mark Twain: The Diaries of Adam and Eve – finished July 13, 2020.
#16:
#18: 

The Lake House:

#19: Eve Makis: The Spice Box Letters – finished June 23, 2020.
#20: Agatha Christie: Dumb Witness – finished May 31, 2020.
#22: Margery Allingham: Police at the Funeral – finished June 1, 2020.

The Summer Blockbuster

#25:
#27: Ian Doescher: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – Verily, a New Hope – finished June 2, 2020.

The Summer Romance

#28:
#30: Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other – finished June 26, 2020.

European Vacation

#33:
#35: Olivia Manning: The Great Fortune – finished June 18, 2020.
#36: Arthur Conan Doyle: The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Collection – finished June 28, 2020.

The Novelty Cards

The Race Car: Picked up June 12, 2020; used July 4, 2020.
The Robot: Picked up June 18, 2020.

The Cat: Picked up June 9, 2020 and June 17, 2020; used June 12, 2020 and June 18, 2020.
“Cat” Books:
Patrick Leigh Fermor: Between the Woods and the Water – finished June 16, 2020.
Saša Stanišić: Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert – finished June 19, 2020 – and Herkunft – finished June 22, 2020.

The Dog: Picked up June 9, 2020 and June 17, 2020.

 

The Four Corners

GO: Collected $20 on May 26; and $5 each on:
June 3 – June 9 – June 18 – June 29 – July 4 – July 13

Jail:
Free Parking:
Go to Jail:

The BookLikes Squares:
Spin the Wheel Decide

#24: July 13: Move to the Start Space
#31:

 

 

 

BL-opoly 2019

 A HUGE thank you to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting another fabulous game — I had a total blast!

Final Stats
Final status of my bank account: $181

37 books counting towards the game
* 35 books finished
* 2 DNFs
* 11,640 pages read

Somehow I managed to steer clear of jail and visit all except five squares of the board over the course of the game, a few of them even repeatedly.  The only novelty card I never picked up was the cat — I suspect the BL-opoly gods decided there were enough cats in my game already and they needed to redress the balance by giving me three Scottie dogs instead!

A few more stats:

Books read towards my individual challenges:
Around the World in 80 Books: 26 books (incl. 2 DNF)
– of these, 2 books by Native American authors
– and 13 books (incl. 2 DNF) by authors from / set in countries other than the UK and U.S.

221b Baker Street and Beyond (aka Summer of Sherlock): 2 books
(+ 1 book read outside BL-opoly)
Summer of Spies (Redux): 2books
Mystery Classics: 7 books

The Gender Wars:
* Books by female authors: 19
* Books by male authors: 18

My marker was based (of course) on my little assistants and good luck charms, Sunny and Charlie, who were again helping me pick my books.

   

 

My Progress Spreadsheet

 

The Books and the Board

The Questions

Who?: Ellis Peters: Monk’s Hood – finished July 2, 2019.
Why?: Gertrude Bell: A Woman in Arabia – finished August 2, 2019.
How?: Julia Alvarez: How the García Girls Lost Their Accents – finished May 26.
Douglas Adams: The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – finished June 27, 2019.
Wendy Moore: Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match – finished July 11, 2019.
When?: C.J. Sansom: Tombland – finished July 1, 2019.

The Railroads

The Silk Road: Banine: Days in the Caucasus – finished August 9, 2019.
The Patagonia Star: Laura Restrepo: Hot Sur – DNF @ p. 55 July 25, 2019.
The Cape-to-Cairo Railway: Kofi Annan: Interventions – finished May 30, 2019.
Aminatta Forna: The Memory of Love – finished June 16, 2019.
The Nordic Express: Cary Elwes: As You Wish – finished August 7, 2019.

School’s Out For Summer

#1: Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility – finished June 3, 2019.
#3: Frank Froest: The Grell Mystery – finished June 5, 2019.
#4: ./.

The Stay-Cation

#6: John Le Carré: A Small Town in Germany – finished July 29, 2019.
#7: Miles Burton: The Secret of High Eldersham – finished May 21, 2019.
J.K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy – finished July 14, 2019.
#9: John Le Carré: A Murder of Quality – finished June 19, 2019.
Chingiz Aitmatov: Jamilia – finished July 3, 2019.
Ann Leckie: The Raven Tower – finished July 23, 2019.

Beach Week

#10: Renee Ahdieh: The Wrath and the Dawn – DNF @ p. 146 July 31, 2019.
#11: Julian Symons: The Belting Inheritance – finished June 6, 2019.
#12:

Mountain Cabin

#15: Louise Erdrich: The Plague of Doves – finished May 23, 2019.
Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman: Good Omens – finished July 16, 2019.
#16: Ellen Wilkinson: The Division Bell Mystery – finished May 28, 2019.
Georgette Heyer: A Blunt Instrument – finished June 8, 2019.
Ronald Knox: The Body in the Silo – finished June 21, 2019.
#18: James D. Doss: The Night Visitor – finished July 5, 2019.

The Lake House:

#19: Margaret Atwood: Hag-Seed – finished May 25, 2019.
#20: Winifred Holtby: South Riding – finished July 10, 2019.
M.M. Kaye: Death in Kashmir – finished July 19, 2019.
#22: Richard Hull: The Murder of My Aunt – finished June 24, 2019.

The Summer Blockbuster

#25: Witi Ihimaera: The Whale Rider – finished May 31, 2019.
#27: ./.

The Summer Romance

#28: ./.
#30: ./.

European Vacation

#33: Ronald Knox: The Three Taps – finished May 31, 2019.
#35: Israel Zangwill: The Perfect Crime, aka The Big Bow Mystery – finished June 16, 2019.
Andrea Camilleri: The Shape of Water – finished July 20, 2019.
#36: Candace Robb: The Apothecary Rose – finished July 26, 2019.

 

   

The Novelty Cards

The Race Car: Picked up on May 24; used on August 8.
The Robot: Picked up on July 2; used on July 31.
The Cat: ./.
The Dog: Picked up on July 2, July 19 and July 23; used on July 19, July 29 and August 6.

 

   

The Four Corners

GO: Collected $20 on May 20; and $5 each on:
May 24 – June 1 – June 9 – July 1 – July 2 – July 19 – July 27 – August 8.

Jail: ./.
Free Parking: July 23: dice roll: 8 => Scottie Dog.
Go to Jail: ./.

 

The BookLikes Squares:
Spin the Wheel Decide

#24: August 2: Read a book that has been on your TBR for over a year. (Sarah Bakewell: At the Existentialist Café – finished August 6, 2019.)

#31: May 24: Move to the space of your choice.
(→ Race car via GO)
June 9: Two extra rolls.