Winter Reading Regatta: Carol of the Books

[Brady]: This winter, we’re giving the gift of reading! With thousands of intricate rules that I’ve specified sitting at my desk at 3:00 a.m..

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. What have we talked about? KISS. Keep It Simple Sailor.

[Brady]: So we’re not doing point breaks?

[Auntie Obvious]: It’s Christmas. Not the Reading Olympics.

[Brady]: Do you have any ideas about how this Reading Regatta could go?

[Auntie Obvious]: How about we give the gift of reading? You partner up with a reading buddy and you recommend a book for your buddy to read?

[Brady]: That’s cool, but let’s call it Carol of the Books or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reader or something like that.

[Auntie Obvious]: Those are both great, but let’s do Carol of the Books! Everybody try to finish their book by the end of 2022, which is 10 days away.

[Brady]: My book for you that I’ve selected is A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.

[Auntie Obvious]: Cool! My book for you is Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It’s a really quick read!

[Brady]: Dude, it’s 451 pages. When we were discussing having another Reading Regatta, you said the limit should be 400 pages. Keep it Simple, Sailor.

[Auntie Obvious]: Fine. My selection is the first 400 pages of Peter and the Starcatchers. If you don’t want to find out how it ends, that’s on you.

[Brady]: If I finish it, can we do weekly updates and point breaks?

[Auntie Obvious]: But it’s only one book and…you know what? Knock yourself out. Sure, if you finish it, we’ll do unlimited hot chocolate and point breaks.

[Brady]: Fine. What if somebody reading this doesn’t have a Book Buddy, though?

[Auntie Obvious]: We’ll be their book buddy! They can choose from one of our selections below! ::whispers:: pick mine, pick mine, pick mine…

Brady	Auntie Obvious
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning	Peter and the Starcatchers
A Christmas Carol	The Hobbit
8-Bit Christmas	Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, I’m totally going to read 8-Bit Christmas! That movie was awesome! Except for the puking.

[Brady]: I really liked The Lightning Thief. That was a solid choice!

[Auntie Obvious]: Time to say the thing!

[Brady]: Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Regatta! And also…Keep Reading…Sled on!

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude.

Reading Regatta Fall Flight: The Big Finish!

[Auntie Obvious]: Hey, Book Sailors! The Reading Regatta Fall Flight ends today!

[Brady]: Did you finish your four books?

[Auntie Obvious]: Yes! I finished six. Well, allllllmost. How many did you read?

[Brady]: I read six! I read Jurassic Park, and I re-read all five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. And Kendall (my Kindle) tells me that I’m 54% finished with The Hobbit. What did you read?

[Auntie Obvious]: I read “Rebel Rising”, which is about Jyn Erso, “The Reading List”, which was my book club book, “The Wives of Henry the VIII” which was a history book, plus Rick Riordan’s “Throne of Fire” and also Jurassic Park. Plus, I will finish The Silmarillion TONIGHT if it kills me. (Update 10/31/21 – Auntie Obvious did, in fact, finish The Silmarillion, and luckily, it did NOT kill her.

[Brady]: And how many pages is the Index in The Silmarillion?

[Auntie Obvious]: The Appendix starts on page 379 and goes to page 458 – so 79 pages total. This was a hard book for me, because I have a challenge remembering names and places, and this book is FULL of them. So in this book, they will be all, “This famous elf was named Steve, but the other elves called him Bob, but some other people called him Jim, but then after a rabid bunny gnawed off his big toe, he was thereafter known as Walter.” ::slowly bangs head on desk::

[Brady]: I was struggling with Trials of Apollo, and I just realized today that the Appendix is there for a reason.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, I think you will really like the conclusion of that series if you get back into it. So how come we haven’t seen any new stories from you lately?

[Brady]: I have been working on something big in the Power Monkey industry, and I’ve got this project with Dadat, which has a possibility of being published, but I don’t know for sure yet. Under both of our names, as we agreed!

[Auntie Obvious]: That sounds awesome! I can’t wait to hear more! Any final thoughts as we wrap up the Fall Flight?

[Brady]: Okay, never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you…

[Auntie Obvious]: Oh nice (***sarcasm***), a Rickroll. Anything else to say?

[Brady]: Coke is better than Pepsi.

[Auntie Obvious]: Anything else related to reading, since this isn’t a soft drink website?

[Brady]: Keep Reading…Sail On! Stay tuned for our special winter reading challenge!

Fall Flight Reading Regatta

[Brady]: Wow, our first annual Fall Flight Reading Regatta! It feels like we just ended the Summer Smackdown Reading Regatta, and now it’s already September!

[Auntie Obvious]: A “flight” is a sample of four cool things, so with the Fall Flight Reading Regatta, you pick four books of your choice to read between now and October 30th!

[Brady]: Let’s make up some complicated rules!

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, ever heard the acronym KISS? Keep it Simple, Sailor? But we do need to decide if the book you are currently reading counts as one or if you start with your next book.

[Brady]: You start with the next book.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. I’m like 150 pages into Rick Riordan’s the Red Pyramid, and it’s about 550 pages long.

[Brady]: Rules are rules. ::shrugs::

[Auntie Obvious]: OK, fine. Should we show everyone the awesome Fall Flight Reading Regatta trailer that we made?

[Brady]: Lights, camera, action!

[Brady]: So how do you know who wins?

[Auntie Obvious]: Everyone gets participation awards!

[Brady]: What about the weekly updates and point breaks that we did for the Summer Smackdown Reading Regatta?

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. Keep it Simple.

[Brady]: Fine. But you and I are having a contest to compare page totals from our four books.

[Auntie Obvious]: Fine. It. Is. On.

[Brady]: Keep Reading. Sail On. And welcome to the Fall Flight!

New Book Sailor Announcements!

Hi, Book Sailors! Today, I have a couple of new announcements for new series! I hope you really like these, and that I’m able to release them all very soon.

The Monkey Legion is the sequel series to the hit Power Monkey novels. It follows Aaron two months after The Elusive Prey, in an all-out war against the Gorilla Clan. I am also here to give you some news about the titles of The Monkey Legion books and a new hero, who will be a main character in The Monkey Legion. Say hello to Shield Maiden. Shield Maiden is the sister of Alex and Nartha, who has to help Aaron in his escapades to defeat a mysterious gorilla named Wade Woodrow Walters and a mysterious other villain along with many surprise characters. The book titles are:

• The Crusader and the Shadow
• Arrows of Vengeance
• Metal Reckoning
• Starfall Battlefield
• Wade’s Fury

Next up, we have an entirely new series starring an entirely new character. May I introduce you to Mercury, The Last Avatar? This story, based on Roman and Egyptian mythology, follows Mercury, the last of the Avatars, who is being hunted down by an evil entity named Pluto. The Mercury books will consist of three books:

• Mercury: The Last Avatar
• Mercury: Journey through the Duat
• Mercury: Flames of Justice

For my next comedy series, we have Mr. Anti-Hero, the villain who does it all wrong. He gets recruited by the Association of Villains to stop a hero who’s been stealing money from all the villains. This is their journey to expose the hero for what he is: a fraud. The Mr. Anti-Hero series will consist of many various books, like the classic series Power Monkey and The Kind Little Truck.

Moving on to the topic of Book Sailor Animations, we get a name change in that department: introducing Sailor Studios. Sailor Studios will broaden the view from paper animation to tech animation, as well as new audio stories, PodSailing season 2, and much, much more.

Our last and biggest announcement is that the Reading Regatta got so much attention this summer that we’re bringing it back with an all-new season and all-new rules. This time, the challenge is to read four books in two months, starting on Labor Day. Stay tuned for more details on the Fall Flight Reading Regatta.

Reading Regatta: The Finish Line 2022

[Brady]: My gosh, I can’t believe the Reading Regatta is over!

[Auntie Obvious]: I know, right??? And I can’t believe that you are officially a Middle Schooler now! I’m so proud! ::bursts into tears::

[Brady]: Dude, take a chill pill. And get a calculator, because we need to tally up our points! This week, I read The Secrets of Dumbledore screenplay, which earned me a whopping 500 points, plus 200 points for the Point Break, leaving me with a final score of 7,560 points.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, way to run up the score. Just kidding. I don’t think that’s a thing in reading, only football. This week, I read Fortune & Glory: Twisted Twenty-Seven for 250 points, which gives me a total of 3,215. You totally smoked me, even without the Point Break and the double points for kids.

[Brady]: So what are you going to read post-Reading Regatta?

[Auntie Obvious]: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[Brady]: I can’t understand you.

[Auntie Obvious]: The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis comes out on Tuesday. And I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!! Do you want to borrow it when I’m done?

[Brady]: My next read is probably going to be a Spider-Man comic, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe Rick Riordan’s The Tyrant’s Tomb – I got kinda sidetracked re-reading Harry Potter (for the third time). And I can’t wait for the new High Republic books to come out in the fall. No thanks on The Princess and the Scoundrel. Too much romance.

[Auntie Obvious]: Sigh. There will probably be like three pages of romance. But suit yourself. Speaking of Star Wars, how about that Andor trailer?

[Brady]: It looked amazing! It’s going to have twice as many episodes as Kenobi, and we get three on premiere day!

[Auntie Obvious]: Premiere party at my house! Time to SAY THE THING!

[Brady]: Keep Reading…Sail On! And check back with us for news about the Fall Flight Reading Regatta, where you read four books of your choice between September 1st and October 1st.

Reading Regatta Week 10 Update: Uranus Jokes are Always Funny

[Brady]: Hey, guys, welcome to the Reading Regatta Update! I scored pretty big this week!

[Auntie Obvious]: I thought you were on vacation last week. Again.

[Brady]: I read at night! I flipped on Kendall (my e-Reader has a name – like yours is named Libby).

[Auntie Obvious]: Oooh, I’ll bet The Mommylorian loved that.

[Brady]: Dark Mode has a lot of useful properties.

[Auntie Obvious]: So what was your big haul?

[Brady]: I ready Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this week, which were both “Whitewater Rafting”, which is 1,000 points each. BOOM! So with those and the Point Break, I have 6,860 points.

[Auntie Obvious]: Well done! I read The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by George Beard and Harold Hutchins and St. Patrick’s Gargoyle by Katherine Kurtz.

[Brady]: Really??!!??

[Auntie Obvious]: Yes! St. Patrick’s Gargoyle is a great book!

[Brady]: I’m talking about the Kindergarten Book.

[Auntie Obvious]: I *told* you last week that I might read some Captain Underpants. He has an important cameo in this story. I just need to figure out how to do the points. Does it count as a book? Or a comic book?

[Brady]: It counts as a comic book. Small Splash, because it isn’t a collection.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, it was like 100 pages long.

[Brady]: I only see one comic.

[Auntie Obvious]: I can’t believe you are quibbling with me over 15 points when you have like fifty kajillion points, and I have, like, twelve.

[Brady]: Rules are rules. ::shrugs shoulders::

[Auntie Obvious]: Fine. So now I have 2,965 points. So what’s your final Point Break Selection for the Regatta?

[Brady]: Mine is the brand new Power Monkey story, Power Monkey: Dawn of Darkness.

[Auntie Obvious]: Mine is ‘Twas Three Weeks Before Christmas: MCU Edition. I know it isn’t Christmas, but we got loads of MCU scoop from San Diego ComicCon. I can’t believe you got to visit the The ComicCon Museum. I am sooooooo jelly. Grape jelly. Strawberry jelly. Raspberry Jelly.

[Brady]: It was really cool. I got to see a bunch of Marvel and DC props. But there’s no place like home.

[Auntie Obvious]: Unless your home is Uranus ::gigglesnort:: The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby had Uranus jokes! In fact, I wonder if there was a Super Diaper Baby callback in Geoff the Ghost 2: Finding Pumpkin.

[Brady]: I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I might tend to incriminate myself.

[Auntie Kimberly]: Sir, have you at any point in your existence on Planet Earth laughed at a Uranus joke?

[Brady]: Yes.

[Auntie Obvious]: Thank you for your honesty. Uranus jokes are always funny! Time for us to run. Say the thing.

[Brady]: Keep Reading…Sail On!

Reading Regatta Week 9 Update: The Last Sentence

[Brady]: Well, only a couple more weeks left in the Reading Regatta, then I start Middle School! ::groans::

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude! Middle School is going to be awesome! Don’t you get special privileges like free coffee?

[Brady]: The only special privilege I’ve heard of from Middle School is boredom.

[Auntie Obvious]: I think you will be pleasantly surprised. So…I hear you had a book to read for your school. Did you finish it? And did you read anything else?

[Brady]: OK, I finished C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was my school summer reading book and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which scored me 1,000 points! OotP is one of the best books ever!

[Auntie Obivous]: Dude, I was sad for like a week after I read that one! It was sadder than Old Yeller!

[Brady]: To continue my point from last week, Old Yeller was not sad. It was because the owners didn’t care enough about him to give him a stupid rabies shot. Well, that ends my temper tantrum of the week. Sooooo…I have a total of 4,460 points. Plus an extra 200 point for the Point Break selections, for a total of 4,660 points.

[Auntie Obvious]: Agree to disagree on Old Yeller. I also read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, plus I read my Book Club book, which was Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Whew, I definitely need some happy reading after that one. Maybe some Captain Underpants.

[Brady]: We’re too mature for Captain Underpants.

[Auntie Obvious]: Speak for yourself. Uranus jokes are ALWAYS funny. So my point total is 2,700. What’s your Point Break selection for the week?

[Brady]: My selection is The Kind Little Truck: The Right Thing. What’s yours?

[Auntie Obvious]: Mine is the first Brady Washington, Kid Historian: A Story About America. I was going to do that one for Fourth of July, but I forgot! Sometimes you forget stuff when you get old.

[Brady]: Oh, like that time when we played tennis, and you forgot your phone, and we didn’t know what time it was and when I was supposed to be home. Anyway, Book Sailors, I sure hope you enjoyed this Reading Regatta Update from the first sentence to the last sentence.

[Auntie Obvious]: SAY THE LAST SENTENCE.

[Brady]: The last sentence.

[Auntie Obvious]: ::sighs:: Keep Reading…Sail On! ::slowly bangs head on desk::

Reading Regatta Week 8 Update: Never Watch Old Yeller

[Brady]: We are two months in to the Reading Regatta! I am back from vacation, which is why I let Obvious post last week.

[Auntie Obvious]: I have some news. About the scoring.

[Brady]: Oh.

[Auntie Obvious]: Remember when I told you I accidentally counted too many points for those two books? I actually didn’t, because I was including the *prior* week’s books in my total. So I’ve actually never made a mistake. I thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong. So it cancels out! And my point total is now 2,200 – including putting back the points I erased by mistake.

[Brady]: Isn’t thinking you made a mistake a mistake?

[Auntie Obvious]: No! The two wrongs make a right!

[Brady]: That’s not the saying.

[Auntie Obvious]: Agree to disagree.

[Brady]: Who totally fell for the fake Andor poster on the Internet?

[Auntie Obvious]: Good grief. I make one teeeeensy little slipup, and you never let me forget it.

[Brady]: It was five minutes ago.

[Auntie Obvious]: So aaaaaaaanyway, what did you read this week?

[Brady]: ….

[Auntie Obvious]: Is this another one of your “suspense” things?

[Brady]: …

[Auntie Obvious]: OK, so you still have 2,960.

[Brady]: I started a couple of books, but I didn’t finish, because I was on vacation. And I didn’t even read the Point Break selections

[Auntie Obvious]: Well, I wasn’t on vacation, so I read three Rowing books: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, The Christmas Pig, and The Ickabog. Thanks for loaning me those last two.

[Brady]: Anytime! So what are your Point Break selections this week? Mine is my brand new Hoodie Man 6: The Reaper’s Star.

[Auntie Obvious]: My selection is SO SAD, you should definitely not read it without a WHOLE BOX OF KLEENEX NEARBY. It is sadder than Bambi, and sadder than Old Yeller. It’s Auntie Kimberly Runs Out of Coffee.

[Brady]: Old Yeller wasn’t very sad.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, what’s wrong with you???

[Brady]: How did he get rabies? The owners were too irresponsible to give him a shot. You should definitely watch Avengers: Endgame instead.

[Auntie Obvious]: Maybe they didn’t have rabies shots for dogs back then.

[Brady]: Everything in that movie was old and cheesey and needs to get in the 21st century.

[Auntie Obvious]: OK, time to sign off. SAY THE THING.

[Brady]: Never watch Old Yeller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Auntie Obvious]: The other thing.

[Brady]: Keep Reading, Sail On, folks!

[Auntie Obvious]: …slowly bangs head on desk…

Reading Regatta Week 7 Update: Auntie Obvious Needs a Raise

Hello There, Book Sailors! Auntie Obvious here checking in on my lunch hour with a Reading Regatta update! You might not know this, but I have an actual job that does NOT involve doing all of Brady’s bidding. Who knew? Anyway, Boss Book Sailor texted me his new point total and his Point Break selection and told me to post this week’s update. I am DEFINITELY asking for AT LEAST a 10% pay raise.

So anyway, Brady finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (600 points), Gravity Falls: Lost Legends (60 points) and last week’s Point Break selections (200 points). So if my math is right – and Brady will FOR SURE double-check me on this – his point total is now 2,960. I finished Adam Christopher: Shadow of the Sith, which was really, really, awesome! Highly recommended! I now have a total of 1,200 points. Brady is reading Shadow of the Sith now, so we will compare notes next week!

This week’s Point Break Selections are Aqua Dolphin Meets Bubbles the Axolotl (Brady’s pick) and the new Power Monkey story, The Crusader of the Crescent Moon (my pick).

See you all next week! As Yoda would say, “Reading, you should Keep…and On you should Sail!”

Reading Regatta Week 6 Update: Mistakes Were Made

[Brady]: Six weeks! I can’t believe it!

[Auntie Obvious]: Technically, it’s five weeks, but this is the 6th update. This is what you pay me the big bucks for!

[Brady]: I don’t recall paying you any bucks – or me having any

[Auntie Obvious]: It was a joke.

[Brady]: Oh, one of your cheesey ones. What are your point totals? I heard there were some discrepancies in your point total.

[Auntie Obvious]: Mistakes were made.

[Brady]: Tell me about what you did.

[Auntie Obvious]: What? Did I say that I made a mistake? No. I said MISTAKES WERE MADE. The mistakes made themselves.

[Brady]: I recall hearing that you gave yourself the amount of points that you would get for a Rowing book for TWO CRUISING BOOKS.

[Auntie Obvious]: Unfortunately, your sources are correct. My correct total from last week was actually 700 instead of 1,000. And this week, I finished Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, which is 250 points, so I have a total of 950.

[Brady]: I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – third time, thank you for asking. So I have 2,100 points. And I’m excited to be starting Shadow of the Sith, by Adam Christopher.

[Auntie Obvious]: I’m starting that one, too! Suuuuuuper excited!

[Brady]: So what’s your Point Break pick for this week? Mine is Geoff the Ghost2: Finding Pumpkin!

[Auntie Obvious]: Mine is your brand new story, The Primate 1, a sci-fi novel about an all-monkey space crew. I hope everyone likes it!

[Brady]: Well, KEEP READING everyone! And make sure not to forget to SAIL ON!