The 50 Books Challenge

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Is anyone signing up for the 50 Books Challenge? Are you setting up a specific outline to follow?

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 16:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't think I could do it. My pace seems to be about 2 per month, which would put me on track for 24 in a year.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

I made it through about 80 or so last year and blogged about the first 60 of them but the blogging suffered toward the end of the year as my life went crazy! Still, I'll be aiming to read at least that many books again this year.

I find that I'd rather just read books as I find them rather than plan ahead long term. Part of the joy of reading is the flexibility of finding something that fits your mood, current thinking, interests, etc. Of course, sometimes the mood is to catch up on a classic I've neglected so those books make it into the list anyway.

― physicsdavid, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 17:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

50 books in a year?!

Sorry, there is no way I could do that. I can manage 2 books per month or 3 per month if they're shorter. I only read 40-60 per hour.

Geez, some of you are fast readers.

― Vic, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm going to try it, though I've a nice big pile of TBR to go through to start off with. While I'm on those, I'll probably draw up a list and schedule and see if I can hold to that.

― Joseph J. Finn, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:22 (9 years ago) Permalink

I read about 2 a month, too. Interesting to me that other people report the same pace.

I tried to get up to 30 last year and failed--I think I reached about 26. I wish I could quit and read full-time. THEN, 50 might be doable!
;-)

― Robomonkey (patronus), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm gonna try. I'm sure I'll read the fifty. My problem is keeping track of what I read. I think I'll start with the books that I have to read for book groups and then add books that I've purchased over the last year. I don't know that I will have a schedule. I'm a little all over the place in terms of reading and genre...

― Susan Prokopeak (sallying), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

isn't posting about what I read and write here intellectual exhibitionism enough? I mean, there's wantonness, and then there's deliberate overkill...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

Vic: Don't feel bad. Being able to read fast is far short of a virtue - check out Van Doren/Adler's 'How To Read A Book': if you're not happening at at least the third level, you're wasting your time. But then, that doesn't count for fiction, so I guess it all depends.

Anyway, I used to knock over a book a day, no sweat, but that was when I was unemployed. Now I have a job and the only chance I get to read is on the train, maybe an hour or so before bed, a few hours on the weekend, so it's more like a book a week, these days.

Do those tiny little Penguin 60's count?

Physicsdavid: People who "plan" their reading on a long-term basis ought to be shot. Sure, figure out the next couple books you're gonna read, but anything beyond that is just silly, as it begins to become a chore and a task and not a source of joy and inspiration.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 22:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'd consider it, but two Stephenson Baroque Cycle books are coming out this year, so between them taking their own time, reading the whole cycle straight through a few times more, etc. they'll throw me off track.

― anode (anode), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 00:00 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll probably read fifty books, but I don't see that I'll have any time to blog about them. Maybe we should keep this thread active and use it as a way those who want to do the fifty-book thing can "blog" about them and keep each other up to date and inspired. (Or maybe that was the idea in the first place, and I was too dumb to pick up on it.)

― Phil Christman, Wednesday, 28 January 2004 00:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

ill probably read about 2-3 books per month too, last year when i had an hour and a half journey to and from work i was reading 2 books on a good week.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 00:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

I kinda already do this, at my website - though I've not updated it with my last two reads *making mental note to do so*. (Though I've yet to get all of the text files for the books from last year up there, too.) Anyway: Laura's List - follow the link at the top to "Laura's List (reviews), if ya want to.

(Er, and if you have a complaint about the site, please save it for another week - I'm trying to get a major document out the door this week.)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 08:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

I must be out of step here. My new year's resolution when I was 19 was to read 100 books every year. I'm 34 and have always kept to it, give or take a small margin.

The key to achieving this:

(1) Do a degree with no more than 9 hours of letures a week. Do it for four years.

(2) Then go backpacking. Third world bus stations are ideal reading habitats.

(3) Get a job but live a decent commutable distance away

(4) Save money from 3 and repeat from step 2

I'm not saying this to be bigheaded and I will be the first to admit I'm not well-read or eloquent enough to always express what I read and certain ideas whizz over my head without even contemplating a brain visit. I just read a lot because I love books.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 11:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll give it my best, but the average for me seems to be 26 books a year.

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 15:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

Oh yeah, I'm already doing this in my livejournal. Well, sort of. I've announced that I'm going to do it but I've yet to blog a single book that I've read yet. Mostly because I was trying to figure out a way to get a nice picture of the books in the posts and never did...
I haven't picked out which books to read, but I want 10 of them to be from the 100 books list, and at least 10 to be non-fiction. So very loose guidelines....

― geekjen, Wednesday, 28 January 2004 17:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Who cares about the number? The fun part of the challenge--to me--is sharing our reading & our thoughts on our reading. We can all do that.

― Robomonkey (patronus), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

"People who "plan" their reading on a long-term basis ought to be shot".

I found that it took me ages to get my reading rate back up to about 40 books a year once it started to slip. I reckon I have Patrick O'Brian to thank for getting me into the habit of reading over my breakfast, instead of going out, and instead of watching TV. Now I can't stop! It's like a very cheap addiction.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like planning out my next four or five books, but there's no way I would want to know how many I read in a year (because I would feel guilty). I just don't seem to have/make the time to read as much as I want anymore...it's always before bed, and I usually fall asleep in half an hour (plane trips coming up though!!).

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 19:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think I did about 35 in '03..and that was a record. 50 would really be pushing it.

I'd have to give up all newspaper and magazine reading to pull it off.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 21:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

I would have to give up the internet.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 21:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

accentmonkey: Oh, don't be silly, of course not. But to write up a list of the fifty books you're going to read, and then deciding in which order to read them, is a major offence.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 22:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

Comforting words from someone who's writing to me from the stabbing room.

In fact I cheat quite a lot. Well, those Marcel Proust books aren't going anywhere. They've lasted this long at the bottom of the pile. They'd only get dizzy if I moved them up.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 23:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

damn, it should say "stabbign".

how big's your pile? mine's got like...ten or so books in it. i think three of them have been there for months - i know i should read them but they just look so boring ('The Golden Bough', 'D-Day', etc.). others i'm rereading. only one i'm vaguely excited by is Bill Bryson's 'History Of Nearly Everything'.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Thursday, 29 January 2004 00:15 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, since my New Year's Ambition (no point in calling them resolutions, it only depresses me) to buy no more new books until the pile was at a manageable size, I've only bought twelve new books. The problem is that I work in a charity book shop. So when the good books come in there's always the possibility that they'll never come in again and must be seized immediately. It also means that I spend a lot of the day idly picking books off the shelves and reading little bits of them, so I end up with books that I might pass over in a new shop.

In fairness, I do donate a lot of them back once I've finished. This week alone I bought The Verificationist because someone on another thread recommended it, My Life as a Fake (which I finished and didn't think much of really), and a book about Grace O'Malley, the Elizabethan Irish pirate. Arr.

The short answer is that the pile probably has about sixty books in it. Gah.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

i have trouble reading books if theres any sort of compulsion involved- a target to be met, an upcoming book group exchange, books to be reviewed, to be red for class.. reading is a hobby thats associated with joy and anything forced about it, even the smallest hint of having to-do, puts me off

― cheeesoo (cheeesoo), Thursday, 29 January 2004 15:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

I do somewhere between 70 and 90 books a year (depending on size and difficulty), but I generally have to be really impressed by a book (or really disgusted with it) to blog about it.

― August (August), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think I will. I read around 50 last year but only wrote about them in my trusty book journal. I don't know that I want to sign up for yet another user name and password, though, so I think I'll just do it in my blog. (http://tinylittlelibrarian.blog-city.com)

― Tiny Librarian, Friday, 30 January 2004 04:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

Book piles? Hell, I have bookcases of books that fit into the "I'm going to read these next, really, I swear I will read all of these books before I buy any more" category. In fact, I have four bookcases like that. And a couple of stacks. I'm embarassed. I use the excuse that my book habit is cheaper than heroin. I think I've reached the point where heroin would be more cost-effective. On the other hand, should books suddenly become unavailable, I should be well-stocked for at least three years, I think. (I'm a closeted librarian.)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 30 January 2004 05:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

Piles of books, that threw me, because I have three piles, two bookshelves and a headboard bookshelf filled with the "I resolve to read two of my own to one borrowed library book this year" books. The husband brought home a new computer desk. Hovering about the area where the PC and stuff go, are three new, clean, empty shelves for me to fill up ;)

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

You should all award yourselves a reading week. Or get someone else to come to your house and pick books out of your collection for you to think about reading next. I find that if I buy too many books in one purchase, I see them all as a sort of amorphous lump and can't make a start on them. Only when a friend comes over and recommends some that they've read can I really get to grips with them. Or when one of them turns up on a message board like this.

It's like when your friends come over and play your CDs, they start choosing albums you haven't listened to in years and had forgotten you even owned. Makes you look at them anew.

Also headboard bookshelves freak me out. I always think they're going to fall on me while I'm asleep.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 30 January 2004 15:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

how about storing books in alphabetical order and not having this non-read pile of stuff?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 30 January 2004 17:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, accentmonkey, it isn't exactly sleeping that dislodges some of my books... ;)

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Friday, 30 January 2004 20:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

I, um, kinda had several "over the bed" book shelves fall onto my bed in the '89 quake. Thank goodness I was watching the World Series at that moment, else it would have been painful. So now I've nothing over my bed. And I like it that way.

(Yippee - seven - yeah, count 'em! - Seven new bookcases arrived today! Yes, the world is good!)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 31 January 2004 03:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, accentmonkey, it isn't exactly sleeping that dislodges some of my books... ;)

What a great chat-up line. "So, you want to come back to my place and, you know, help me dislodge some books?"

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 31 January 2004 11:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'll have to remember that, accentmonkey! It'll help me identify other lovers of books with whom I like to spend my time :D

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Saturday, 31 January 2004 16:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

Books cheaper than heroin struck a chord with me. Surrounding me here in my computer room are several stacks of books to be read. I also have another stack in the living room next to where my desk used to be. I read very quickly (about 4 or 5 books a week) but discovering all these sites on the Internet is eating into my book reading time. I read while eating meals (a big no-no for dieters, but I do it anyway) and during break time at work.

― naleta, Saturday, 31 January 2004 18:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Naleta - we're related at the heart! I've pretty much had to give-up my Internet time to get back to reading all the time - so I post here and keep a blog and that's about all that I allow myself - and when I'm on this darn machine, most of the time I'm thinking about how I want to get back to whatever it is that I'm reading (even if it's just to finish the darn thing and move onto a better tale). And I too read while I eat - as best I can.

I come from a family of readers. One of my favorite memories is of a family reunion where we all got together on the Oregon Coast for the weekend. We were all camping, and at one point I wandered into the main campsite (where we gathered for meals and whatnot) and looked around the clearning - out of the 19 of us at the reunion, I was the only one not sitting somewhere within looking distance and reading. Made my heart feel all warm and fuzzy, so I grabbed my book and settled in at the foot of a tree and got with the program.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 31 January 2004 19:03 (9 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

How did everyone do in 2004? Anyone up for it again?

― Jessa (Jessa), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 18:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

I did it! I was still reading book number 50 at about 10pm on New Year's Eve, but I did it. Most of them are documented on the What Are You Reading threads of this site. But this year I was thinking, for the laugh, of getting rid of my telly for a year and seeing if I could double the number of books I read and blog them.

As an experiment, like. Of course, I don't actually have a blog, but I might find the time to start one if I had no telly.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 19:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

Can I also point out, Jessa, that I wouldn't have read even close to 50 books last year if it wasn't for your 50 book challenge?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 19:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm up for it. Do we count books we started in 2003?

― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 19:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

um, 2004. dammit.

― Haibun (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 20:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Does having a big pile of books beside the bed and making sure you add your new ones to the bottom instead of the top so that there's NO CHEATING count as planning your reading? If it does then I'll paint the target on my head right now.
Until I read that you cheated, accentmonkey, I was going to say that I found it amazing that you could pull this off, that you had more discipline than Johnny Ramone.

There is a great line somewhere about the director Alain Resnais and how one morning he counted how many books he had and realized that if he read one per day it would still take him 20 years to finish them all. Then he want out and bought five more books.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 20:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

Last year was a slow one for me - not so much reading time, several huge volumes (Infinite Jest, Kristin Lavransdattir and a really mammoth sculpture history, for instance) and the first few months I had serious eye problems (one book took me four moths), then I had eye surgery and was back to normal. I guess I still read something like 100 books, probably more. There have been years when I must have read 300.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Until I read that you cheated, accentmonkey

I never!

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

I've been meaning to do it, I've got a book that is split into seperate books Book I, Book II, Book III within the covers. Can I count these seperately?

― Kevan (Kevan), Thursday, 6 January 2005 13:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

I might try and do this this year. I think I read three or four books a month usually but I'm sure I could up that in the interests of a challenge... and will find time to blog them as well. Hm.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 6 January 2005 13:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Of course, I don't actually have a blog, but I might find the time to start one if I had no telly."

There's always Old Rottenhat, if you want to blog. (Its not really my blog to invite you on to, but I reckon you'd be welcome)

― Ray (Ray), Friday, 7 January 2005 11:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oh yeah. Now why didn't I think of that?

Anyway, we discussed it at home and figured it was fairly drastic (and unfair on Keith) to actually jettison the telly completely, so I have resolved to watch NO MORE than one and a half hours of telly a day and spend less time on the Innernet.

I am not doing well on this year's challenge. My file o' facts tells me that this time last year I had already finished three books. So far this year I have finished nothing. I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this resolution lark.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

Long commutes are the key to reading - I was up to about 120 books last year, and I've read two or three so far this year. Is a train like a bus, in that you could just sit on it all day, going round in very big circles? Because that's clearly the solution.

― Ray (Ray), Friday, 7 January 2005 12:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

I've thought about that. I also keep meaning to try and take more cross-country trips on the bus. But it doesn't seem to happen.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 7 January 2005 18:59 (8 years ago) Permalink

I attempted this last year, but I failed to document the things I read, so I have no idea what the total was, though it couldn't have been more than thirty or so. I don't want to plan it out much, but I do have a few in mind after I finish the one I'm reading now. I keep a book journal sort of thing already, though I want to use it more often this year.

― sparkle j (sparkle j), Sunday, 9 January 2005 21:37 (8 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

Here it is!

My blog tells me I have read 36 books so far this year. Which is about the same as this time last year, I think.

The problem with the 50 books challenge is that it puts you off reading longer, more involved books. I'm thinking that next year I might try something else.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 06:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

I have read 50 books as of yesterday!!

Actually it's a few more than 50 because I haven't included comfort re-reads like children's books and Douglas Adams and stuff, or poetry, or books I had to read for my masters.

But 50 have been blogged. I think I would have read most of the same books, at the same rate, had I not been doing the challenge. But I was very surprised that I got through so many, I've never counted before. It's not that impressive though when you look at the list, as there's nothing very heavyweight there.

Boringly enough, here is the full list copied over from my blog:

**********************
If anyone is interested in an overview, here are the fifty books, notated thusly: fiction is in standard type, non-fiction is in italic type, books NOT acquired from the library are marked with an asterisk (just to show how good the library can be). And just for the hell of it, they get a mark out of 10 too.

1. *Brick Lane by Monica Ali (8)
2. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (6)
3. How to be Alone by Jonathan Franzen (6)
4. Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson (7)
5. Language Play by David Crystal (5)
6. Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (8)
7. The Safety of Objects by A.M Homes (9)
8. *The Complete Yes Minister by Anthony Jay/Jonathan Lynn (7)
9. The Best of McSweeneys 1 edited by Dave Eggers (5)
10. The Man who Hated Football by Will Buckley (2)
11. 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray (5)
12. The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway (7)
13. Official and Confidential by Anthony Summers (6)
14. *Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin (6)
15. The Bitch in the House edited by Cathi Hannauer (6)
16. Quick Service by P.G. Wodehouse (7)
17. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (7)
18. *The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam (4)
19. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (4)
20. Do You Remember the First Time by Jenny Colgan (5)
21. Melancholy Baby by Robert B. Parker (8)
22. Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse (9)
23. Strangers by Taichi Yamada (7)
24. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (5)
25. Changing Planes by Ursula LeGuin (6)
26. A Certain Chemistry by Mil Millington (7)
27. The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura Schlessinger (4)
28. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (3)
29. The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartright (5)
30. Authenticity by David Boyle (7)
31. Stupid White Men by Michael Moore (2)
32. Perfume by Patrick Suskind (8)
33. Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (7)
34. Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland (8)
35. Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey (3)
36. Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware (9)
37. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon (7)
38. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (9)
39. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (8)
40. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (6)
41. The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli (4)
42. The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (5)
43. Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce (5)
44. *Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (7)
45. Love in Idleness by Charlotte Mendelson (5)
46. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (6)
47. P.O.S.H. and Other Language Myths by Michael Quinion (5)
48. The Understudy by David Nicholls (7)
49. Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem (5)
50. A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker (9)

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 07:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

That's an impressive selection. So, what are you going to do with the rest of your year?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 09:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'll keep reading! But since I now have to write a 20,000 word dissertation I don't suppose I'll keep up the same pace...

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 09:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

Right, because organising a wedding really slowed you down. I'm surprised you didn't throw a book-et.

GEDDIT! Man, I'm as funny as Aldous Huxley.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 09:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hee :)

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 11:19 (7 years ago) Permalink

Didn't some dumbass actually write a book about how he tried to do this and failed? It sounds like such a book of our times, like the one about birdwatching from your kitchen window.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

According to my list, I've read a mere 16 books this year so far. Not that I was seriously trying for 50, but it feels kind of inadequate (though I did start the list in June and tried to recollect what I'd read before that, so I might have missed one or two).

If I included comics though, it'd be over 50 easy.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 16:58 (7 years ago) Permalink

My list currently reads:

1 - The Mediterranean: A Portrait of the Sea by Ernle Bradford
2 - The Peacock Manifesto by Stuart David
3 - Being Dead by Jim Crace
4 - Nobilis by R. Sean Borgstrom
5 - Straw Men by Michael Marshall
6 - No1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
7 - The Outsider by Albert Camus
8 - The Place of Dead Roads by William Burroughs
9 - The Outlaw Sea by William Langewiesche
10 - Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris
11 - Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
12 - Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
13 - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix - J K Rowling
14 - Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers - Harry Harrison
15 - Archangel by Robert Harris
16 - Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
17 - Toby Litt - Finding Myself.
18 - 1602 - Gaiman, Kubert & Isanove
19 - Ian Rankin - Knots & Crosses
20 - Silverfin - Charlie Higson

Gravity's Rainbow is proving to be a time sump.

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 17:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

I did my first GR reading at maybe 10 pages an evening over a span of months, at bedtime. It didn't come together for me, but I suspect that's true of a first reading of GR in general.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 18:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

I am on my 34th book of the year, so I'm on pace to get to 50. I've hit some dry spots and had more than the usual number of books that I started and not finished.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 20:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm halfway through #28. Before mid-June I had only read 3. Thats when I started going to the library.

― Stan Fields (Stan Fields), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 21:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

Gravity's Rainbow is proving to be a time sump.
That is the limitation of the 50 book challenge. I'm thinking next year I might abandon it and set myself the Desert Island Books challenge, where I can read no more than ten books. That would be much harder, and would require some planning.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 06:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

or you could, you know, just *not* treat books like a sporting event.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 06:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

ok that was mean.

i guess if it's novels, which ilb is about mainly, then it's not mainly different from changing up record listening habits or etc.

i'm just so used to reading nonfiction that i have a hard time thinking in other terms. + i'm really burned out on the gradstudenty cult of "look how many *I* haf read lately, and reading more books is better as any fule kno" etc.

not that i'm not addicted to books or anything but.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 06:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

I would never get competitive about my reading like that.
The other way to look at it is - reading books is good, and I should do it more, so maybe setting myself a target of 50 books will help concentrate my mind.
Accentmonkey's idea sound interesting too. Pick out 3 or 5 or 10 books that you've always meant to get around to reading, and decide you will read them next year. (Maybe say you'll definitely read 7 of 10, so you can drop something you really don't like without feeling like a failure) I might finally read Hardy, or James, or Dickens, or Tristram Shandy, or Don Quixote...

― Ray (Ray), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 08:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

There isn't a competitive element, for me, despite what it may look like.

But ONLY TEN books in a year, now that would be a proper challenge! I mean it's no effort to do what I'd be doing anyway, but to LIMIT my reading - very interesting and scary concept. I'd have to line up all those massive books I've never been able to finish/start: War and Peace, Middlemarch, Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses...

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 09:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

I only know how many books I've read because I've been keeping a list this year in my notebook, due to me being really forgetful and not remembering what I've read. So when I saw this thread, I just got out my notebook and counted. No competition/sport involved.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 16:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

Archel = dreamy.

I have never kept track of my reading, but the opening bit of grad school reminded me how easy it is to get through loads and loads of books, if you really want to. I was doing three novels a week, on average. It helped that I was only working thirty hours, but most of the new reading-time came from putting the television away and not having home internet.

Now I keep having to spend my time writing, instead of reading, so I'm down to a fairly small number. And I'm trying not to spend money on books, so I find myself -- for instance -- nursing a big-ass collection of Cheever stories for an entire month.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

so is anyone else convinced they're phsyically incapable of doing this? i'm not talking about outside constraints so much as attention-span issues + slow processing/digestion/uh reading in general.

― John (jdahlem), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oooh, that'd be me.

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

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