Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic 50 Book Challenge

I just joined a nice live journal community that is challenging people to read at least 50 books this year. I thought this might be a nice challenge to share with all of you. I know I spend a lot of time reading fanfiction but it has been a really long time since I made room for normal books in my life. I used to read them all the time when I was in highschool but once I started college I let that drop out of my life. Sadly I read maybe 3-4 books a year now. This is pretty pathetic. So this year I am challenging myself to try to accomplish reading the 50 books. If you want to know more about it you can find it here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/50bookchallenge/

If enough people are interested, we could keep a little log here of the books we are reading and share suggestions with each other. Maybe together we call all do it. ^_~

Very interesting, JoJo. I'm currently reading 'Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life'.

Fascinating! I don't know how many books I read a year, but I'm always up for sharing my current titles! And I definitely can't buy 50 books LOL. I collect books and don't rent out of the library. I don't think my bank account can handle that number heh.

I just finished Cross by James Patterson. Gory, heinous, and creepy as usual. Not for the weak stomached, but I love murder mysteries, especially serial killers.

I've got three others from Christmas that I'm going to start reading:
-A type book, which unless you're a graphic designer, could be like reading the dictionary to some. Or an advanced user manual to something you don't own. <g>
-The Innocent Man by John Grisham. I've read all of John Grisham's books, so I'm assuming this will be good as well. <g>
-Son of a Witch by Gregory Macguire (sp?). I loved Wicked, so I'm gearing up for another one by Gregory.

JD

One year or so, I kept track of all of the books I read. I had a notebook that had Title, Author, and # of Pages. I had a ton of 130-page novels that I went through quickly, since I could finish them in a little over an hour. I read way too many books that year -- several hundred, I think, or more.

I may keep track again this year. I'm currently reading Eragon. Right before that, I read Stork Naked by Piers Anthony, but I'm counting that as last year, since I can't remember when I finished it. Next will probably be a Dragonlance novel, or I'll borrow a Forgotten Realms book that the hubby has.

Only 50?!? Piece of cake! I usually read at least twice that in a year (possibly even six months, I've never really kept track), if I'm not reading fanfic!

Okay, I'm glad to see other people are interested as well.

My first book for the year: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Just 50?

Okay, so far this year I've read:

Split Second - Alex Kava
A Cold Heart - Jonathan Kellerman
Show of Evil - William Diehl

If I get into a really good book that I'm enjoying, I just tend to shut out the world and keep going till I'm done. And I tend to read well into the small hours of the morning when Stuart's working a night shift. And, being retired, I have all the time in the world to read whenever I want to...so I probably have an unfair advantage or two.

I have a huge pile of books here in the office that I gathered from a very successful raid on my favourite charity bookshop and Christmas and early birthday presents, so I expect I'll have gotten to 50 by summer at the latest! If not much sooner.

Jen, do you have a charity store nearby? I was in the same fix, always struggling for something to read, until I found a wonderful local charity store at the start of last year which has a ton of secondhand books for sale and they kept me supplied all year round. I visited every six weeks or so and ended up always having a book beside the sofa. I've been in book heaven all year!

On my last visit, at the start of December, I had my most successful visit yet, coming out with 32 books! At 50p a paperback/£1 a hardback, it's great value for money (I'm sure your prices would be similiarly cheap) and you have the added bonus of knowing you're contributing to a good cause.

And one of the other bonuses is that you get introduced to a ton of new authors in the genres you enjoy that you never knew were out there. Or find yourself able to revisit old genres you once read but have drifted away from. I'm enjoying picking up the odd historical novel here and there, for example. I used to read this kind of thing in my teens but haven't for years. But reading books like Joanne Harris's Holy Fools or Rosalind Laker's To Dance With Kings has been a real, rediscovered pleasure.

You get more adventurous, too, I find. I've picked up books I might not have chanced if I was buying them new, but which don't seem so much of a risk when it's only 50p, and surprised myself by enjoying them immensely.

LabRat

Oh, I will definitely play! I do keep track of mine anyway on LibraryThing , and it is telling me that in 2005 I read 70 books and in 2006 I read 63. I used to read a lot more than that but my attention span isn't what it used to be, so a book has to really grab me if I am going to finish it. Plus I read a lot of fanfic.

First book of 2007 (in progress): The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Once upon a time I bought all my books, but then I couldn't eat. (You that saying by Eramus, right? "When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes.") So now I am all about the library. Daniel is a librarian, so I reserve the books I want online under his card, and he brings them home. If I buy a book, it is usually because I already read it and loved it.

I don't know how many books I read on a regualr basis, but my sister, when she was in high school, used to read about 50 books a month. She'd go to the Library almost every week and get 10-15 books, read them throughout the week, then go back again.

It's six days in, and I haven't read any books this year yet--but then again, I've been sick and bingeing on M*A*S*H. Once I start something literary, though, I'll certainly keep track.

MrsMosley.... that has to be the neatest site to keep track of books ever! I have been looking for something like that for years. I used to keep a list of books I had read in a notebook. I was going to bring it home with me this year and keep the tradition up but forgot it.

But this site... perfect! ^_^

You know, that LibraryThing is pretty neat. I might just use that instead of using my own MSAcess database when I catalogue all my books. It won't be able to tell me how many I read this year, but it WILL tell me what books I do and don't have!

The Library Thing is quite fun! I seriously have no life and don't know anyone in this fine state of Georgia, so I started adding which books I can remember; most of them are at my parents' house until I'm finally ordered to clean out my bedroom...which I'll do over the summer. As I speak, it's becoming their new exercise room.

JD

I am glad you all find LibraryThing so useful! I practically fainted from happiness when I discovered it about a year ago.

Sure it can, going forward just create a tag called "read in 2007". Of course, for this to work, you have to list all the books you've read whether you own them or not. For that reason I have a "books I own" tag as well. Of the 557 books in my catalog, I only own 446.

Yeah, I figured that out right after I posted. I marked the 34 books I've already catalogued with an "I own" tag, and as soon as I have the time (after I manage to recover as much data as possible that used to be on my dead hard drive) I'll finish cataloguing the rest of my books, and start keeping track of which ones I read this year.

Great idea! I've never thought to count how many books I read (can I count that high?). I think I'm currently on book #3 for the year, and I just happily picked up #4 yesterday (Just got into Susan May Warren and am now going through all her books, I'm enjoying them so much.) This is actually slow for me as I'm having fun watching all the seasons of ST: Voyager; so I haven't been reading much.

I find I read more when I'm overly stressed which I've been a lot the past year or so. I know I went through a weekend where I read at least 3-4 books alone.

I'll have to check out those sites...thanks!!

Jo

Great idea! I'm wondering if, when people list a book they might also tell us the genre - adventure, fantasy, etc as well as maybe one reason why they liked the book - writing style, plot, character, etc (assuming here you likely wouldn't finish it if you didn't enjoy it and so wouldn't be listing it )

That might help us decide whether we'd like to try the book too.

My latest - Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad. - a Homer fanfic focusing on Penelopes's POV - strong writing, loads of irony. Also a short book.

c.

Well, since I do have a problem affording that many books, I started reading my favourites time and again. There was one year where I actually recalled everything, and it was over fifty books I read that year - though not necessarily fifty different books.

Unfortunately, I don't have that much time for reading any more, and the time I have I spend reading fanfic (much cheaper!), offering feedback and, last but not least, writing some myself. But when I really get into a book, I literally devour it, close everything out (I'm just trying to train me out of that habit) and don't stop for anything but the very basic needs - or my daughter. She certainly knows how to get my attention while I'm reading!

That LibraryThing is so cool!

I've added two books to LibraryThing in the last two days, and I even brought them to work to read, but I haven't even cracked the bindings yet! I'm just not in the mood to read a book right now, know what I mean? It's kinda frustrating, 'cause at the rate I'm going, I'll probably only read 12 books this year.