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

Weeeeeell, now that you mentioned it, I definitely read more than 50 books a year. I hasten to add that this reading is often other imposed. More than I'd care to admit, I have to valiantly stave off sleep or nausea while reading--which really sucks the joy out of the endeavour. But, the latest few I've read that I actually enjoyed are:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
La femme gelee by Annie Ernaux
Delirio by Laura Restrepo


I'm guessing those last two are translated to The Frozen Woman and Delirium respectively. Always assuming they actually exist in translation of course. And assuming the translations are any good.

But my favourites of all time remain the super famous Anna Karenina and rarely mentioned La placa del diamant. Apparently I'm not alone in my love of Tolstoy as this link to a Time article from earlier this year can attest to:
The 10 Greatest Books of All Time

I agree wholeheartedly with the questioning of some of the supposed favourites of favourite authors, but it's an interesting lineup to see.

PS:

DSDragon wrote:
Read your review. Because I'm a collector of random information and thought you might be too, she's never referred to as Anna Oblonsky because she's married. And she's not referred to as Anna Karenin because in Russian, the last names are always reflective of the person's gender. Therefore, Karenina.

This thread is so much fun ) and I can't wait to read em

Somehow I think I'll pass the 50 books no problem. Last year's list:

1-4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
5. Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
6-9. Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, Digital Fortress, Deception Point by Dan Brown
10-12. The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
13-15. Pellinor by Alison Croggon (waiting for book four to be published)
16-18. The Bitterbynde by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
19-22. The Axis Trilogy, Sinner by Sara Douglass
23-45. The Belgariad, The Malloreon, Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, The Elenium, The Tamuli, The Redemption of Althalus, The Dreamers by David and Leigh Eddings
46-54. The Witches of Eileanan, Rhiannon's Ride by Kate Forsyth
55-56. Dragon Sleeping, Dragon Burning by Craig Shaw Gardner (still trying to find book two in the bookstores)
57-63. The Ancient Future Trilogy, The Book of Dreams, The Celestial Triad by Traci Harding
64-75. The Deverry Series by Katherine Kerr (waiting for book thirteen to be published)
76-78. Trinity by Fiona McIntosh
79-80. Eragon, Eldest by Christopher Paolini
81-85. The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, Sourcery by Terry Pratchett (Discworld Series)
86-88. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
89-90. The Sleeping Dragon, The Sword and the Chain by Joel Rosenberg
91-96. Harry Potter by JK Rowling (waiting for book seven to be published)
97. A Castle in the Window by Laura C Stevenson
98. The Queens Gambit by Walter Tevis
99. Shadows of Myth by Rachel Lee
100-109. The Chronicles of Narnia, Space Trilogy by CS Lewis

Plus any number of Agatha Christie novels. I have them all. I randomly pick one from the collection when I want a break from fantasy.

I've actually stopped reading lately to concentrate on my WiP "Begin the Begin", so I haven't read anything that wasn't on these boards since the beginning of March. Of course, I *have* read absolutely every fic posted during that time.

But in January and February I read these:

1-3. The Isavalta Trilogy by Sarah Zettel
4. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
5. Rosa and the Veil of Gold by Kim Wilkins
6. 1610: A Sundial in a Grave by Mary Gentle
7. Snare by Katherine Kerr

And that's just the *printed* books I've read this year. I've been working through the archive and the message boards as well. They would *far* outnumber these.

Sam

Wow--if this post did nothing else, it proved to me that I'm definitely an oddball FoLC in the reading category. A large share of responders seem to be SF/Fantasy fans. Not to mention those I know of who didn't post but are avid romance readers.

I guess I can see how liking this fandom would be similar to both genres.

Oh, I joined this community back in January as well. I didn't see this thread here back then.

Of course, I'm a bit behind on my reading. :p But it's coming along.

Julie

I haven't been reading too many books (busy in school; rarely have any time to sit back and read a good book), but I got into the Janet Evanovich's Plum Series. She currently has twelve books of the series out (thirteenth coming out this summer).
Here's the link to the author's webpage:
www.evanovich.com

I don't think these books are indicated for the younger audience (violence and sex), but for those of you who don't mind laughing out loud while reading a book (hard to control when in a public place ), I'd suggest at least taking a look at the first one, "One For the Money". Here's an excerpt .

I read books one, two, and three in January, and this last week (yes, THIS LAST WEEK ), I finished reading numbers 4, 5 and 6.

It seems I can devour one book (which has about three hundred and thirty pages in paperback) in a few hours, absolutely cannot put them down until I finish. I have number 7 with me, but since I didn't expect to read the three first so fast, I'm going to hold on to it for a few days (at least) so that I don't feel the urge of buying the rest of the series right this minute.

Of course, I have other things to do for school that I have been procrastinating, and now I'm covered in schoolwork for this week. Yikes! Got to put away the book for a least a week.

Got to go back to schoolwork.

malu

Capes said:
If you are an oddball folc, then so am I. I will occasionally read science fiction and romance... but only occasionally. I have a problem with romances because so many follow a tried and trusted formula. If I read more than about two or three at once, I get bored. I think it's a couple of years since I last read one!

I have read some wonderful and clever science fiction stories in my time, mostly because they have been recommended to me by friends (or book sellers!). If someone recommends a story, I might give it a go, but I don't go out of my way to find SF books.

I had a look at the link Capes posted to the Top 10 books, and a feel woefully ignorant now because I haven't read any of them!

In fact, I find reading a huge amount quite a struggle these days, mostly because I have to read so much for my job. Too many words at work make me unable to face too many words at home, I think, even if the words are completely different in nature.

So... this year I have read four novels so far. (I've just started on my fifth.) If anyone is interested, they are:

Reginald Hill's The Stranger House
Steve Bochco's Death By Hollywood
Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell's The Pale Horseman.

The first was a gift, the second a recommendation (which made me laugh, and I read in a single evening), the third a find in a charity shop and the fourth the sequel to the third, which I just had to read. (I'm now reading the third in that series.)

Oh, and I have a load of books scattered around, waiting to be read. Very eclectic the collection is too: more gifts and more charity shop finds (including a few Scottish authors I feel I should investigate)...

Krissie <who wonders how Sammy finds the time for all that reading!>

I didn't notice this post earlier in the year, so I don't remember everything I've read. I do remember "The Shunning" by Beverly Lewis (Amish Christian fiction) and its two sequels, several of the "Politically Incorrect Guide" series (I believe one on literature, one on feminism, maybe a third), and then I discovered P. G. Wodehouse. I've read about ten of his books so far, about eight of them Jeeves books. Great fun. Somewhere in there I also reread "Ella Enchanted" (does that count?) and read its new sequel, "Fairest." So that's probably at least 15-20 so far. Since I feel like I've hardly been reading books at all, doing mostly online reading, like www.townhall.com, I shouldn't have trouble reading 50.

It's March and I still have not read a novel. Only fanfic, text books (for fun) and books on how to do certain crafts or how to do plumbing.

So I guess none of it counts.

My husband says that's is very sad of me since the room I'm in at the moment has hundreds and hundreds of books. *sigh*

Good Faeries Bad Faeries
Author: Brian Froud
I reread.

Creative Wire Jewelry
Author: Kathy Peterson
Not much text!

In the Shadow of Man
Author:Jane Goodall
I'm currently rereading this one when I have a chance during my lunch hours at work.

Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook
Author: Debbie Stoller
An amusing read. I've read it a few times, but have knitted NOTHING! I have a couple from this series.

I still can't get into the Harry Potter series adn I'm so upset about that. I'm taking a week of that follows the Canadian May long weekend. I hope to fit some reading in there along with planting my own garden for the first time! I have seen some books I want to read on the grasses and flowers native to my region. I want to put the text books aside and find something more colourful in regards to this topic.

I have some of the ones listed above. Hopefully I will go and read them!

<adds to list: read books = more interesting>

I want to read some more romance novels, but I am rather shy to wander through that area of the bookstore/library. Since I love LnC, can anyone suggest a romance novel that would jive with that love? I would like to read some novels!

Happy reading everyone! For those who live in wintery climates. Are you looking forward to reading out in your backyard or balcony this summer?

I mostly just read and reread old romances and other favorites, Watership Down, all the Jane Auel Earth's Children series, tons of Dragonlance novels and anything with humor like Death Rat, by Mike J Nelson of MST3K and The Rants from Dennis Miller. If I could I will promote and recomment my current favorite:

Chronicles of Dubya, Volume I by Frankj of www.imao.us fame.

The man is brilliant, just making "teh" funny with all the press conferences and other idiosyncrasies of the media. I love this book; it's the one that keeps me occupied on the park bench while the little one utilizes the play ground.

That, I think I knew. But in the book itself, she's not ever referred to as "Anna Karenina." And I was LOOKING. Instead, she was either referred to as "Mrs. Karenin, or a couple of times as "Anna Arkadyevna"--or something like that (can't remember exactly), and I couldn't figure out WHERE that name had come from AT ALL.

Arkadyevna is her maiden name. I believe Anna Arkadyevna is used when Tolstoy wants to distance her from the Karenin part and emphasize what she was before/her single mindset. I'm sure someone, somewhere has written a whole paper on it. Not that that means anything

How can Arkadyevna be her maiden name, if Oblonsky is her brother's last name? Wouldn't she have been Anna Oblonska before she was married then? Russian names are confusing!

Ah hah! I think I can explain this one! Arkadyevna is not her maiden name.

Russians have three names: forename, the patronymic and the surname.

For a woman, the patronymic is formed by the father's name plus an ending, usually 'ovna' (but in this case 'evna').

For a man, the equivalent is formed by the father's name plus an ending (usually 'ovich').

Thus, a woman whose father was called Ivan would be called, for example, Olga Ivanovna (plus surname). Her brother's name would take the form Pavel Ivanovich (plus surname).

Wow. I never thought that 'O' level knowledge would come in handy...

Chris

I know nothing about Russian, so thanks for the explanation, Chris. I always figured it was her maiden name because in some cultures the children get both the father's and the mother's names. So Arkadyevna would be her mom's name and Oblonsky her father's. But WRONG.

I love how much random information I learn on these boards. So I offer a suitable graemlin for the occasion.

So, it's like a specialized middle name then? Interesting.

So Anna's maiden name really WAS Oblonsky?

Ditto. I haven't read a sci-fi book or a romance book in ages. I'm woefully underread in British lit and contemporary American lit (even though I'm a big Faulkner fan). I generally tend to prefer Latin American fiction (currently reading Roa Bastos' "I, the Supreme" which is a totally on crack, but really interesting take on dictatorship) and general oddities (like House of Leaves). I do have a long list of random books I would love to have the time to read, starting with:

The Road: Cormac McCarthy
Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abe
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Rosario Tijeras Jorge Franco

The list goes on, but I'm currently drowning on nonfiction. Someday...

Finally! I've found some common ground with another FoLC's reading list! (Maybe not a lot of common ground, but at least some!

Alcyone, when I was a student, we were encouraged to read novels that were related to the areas / topics we were studying. (I was a geography student.)

That's how I came to read John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes, which dealt with the flooding of London.

I read one of Achebe's books, too, though I cannot remember the name. And I also read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude. (I tried to get into books by V S Naipaul (sp) but failed, and Isabel Allende plus some other Latin American authors are still on my 'to read' list.)

But, wow. Achebe and Latin American literature! Thanks for reminding me of them!

Chris

Oooh, that sounds really interesting! Got a blurb?

I may be more focused on sci-fi/fantasy/mystery/political thrillers, but every once in a while, I need to read something else--sort of a way to "cleanse the pallet of my brain" before jumping back into my usual genres.

From your post, DSDragon, I'm not sure whether you realise that The Kraken Wakes is science fiction or not. Whatever, you might want to take a look at Amazon\'s listing , which has a -- not very helpful -- blurb, as well as some more detailed reviews.

Given that I read the book <ahem> years ago, and it was dated then, I suspect that it will definitely be showing its age now! Mind you, one of the reviews actually made me want to read the book again!

Chris