the grand 2015 reading challenge thread

[billy_bob]

erm, yes?

I was about 1/3 of the way through two of those at the start of the year, the rest are mostly around the 200-300 page mark, rather than huge fat tomes.

300 pages is still above average for e.g. a novel. I can certainly get through a book in a day if it's really good, not too highbrow and I've got nowt else on, but one a day, every day, is a damned impressive workrate!

 

[rich!]

300 pages is still above average for e.g. a novel. I can certainly get through a book in a day if it's really good, not too highbrow and I've got nowt else on, but one a day, every day, is a damned impressive workrate!

I did spend several days of the New Year on my back on the settee with the flu, which helped

 

[purenarcotic]

Hmm, I'm gonna need an also-ran list (not here obv), second book of the year rejected now. On to the third attempt. I start a lot more books than I finish. How do people choose books they know are going to be worth reading I wonder.

I am very like this. I start books, might even really enjoy them, then have to put them down for whatever reason and never go back to them.

I have no idea why as I used to devour books when younger. So I can't help but do empathise.

 

[rich!]

I am very like this. I start books, might even really enjoy them, then have to put them down for whatever reason and never go back to them.

I have no idea why as I used to devour books when younger. So I can't help but do empathise.

I have several shelves with books that got stuck. ("Drood", I'm looking at you). Occasionally, I pick them up and finish them; occasionally I send them for a holiday in the charity shops

 

[imposs1904]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
2/50 The Child Thief, Dan Smith

Amazing. The best book I have read for a long time and I think it will take a lot for it to be beaten as my best book of the year. Thanks so much Manter for recommending it.

I really want to read this.

 

[toggle]

I'm going to make a real effort this year! I used to get through books in one reading and read at least a novel a week! Then life intervened and I've been worn down gradually! Also my ability to concentrate has been completely shot due to PTSD symptoms.
But now I'm getting counselling and medical help I feel that I can read prolifically again! I'm in a book club at work so that'll be 12 books at least!! I also subscribe to audible so another 12. I've also just bought a massive book case so that all my books aren't just sitting around in random piles!

then you will aquire more and need another massive bookcase. this is how it all begins.

 

[toggle]

300 pages is still above average for e.g. a novel. I can certainly get through a book in a day if it's really good, not too highbrow and I've got nowt else on, but one a day, every day, is a damned impressive workrate!

novels, i can ramp up to 170-200 pages an hour. sometimes less if it isn't easy reading, but when i was sitting about and seriously fed up with not being able to do anyhting in late pregnancy, i read Shogun in a day, which is like 1200 pages and a little harder going than most of the novels I read. it's only when i'm reading stuff i need to really focus on, like academic texts that I need to really understand that rate will seriously drop. I've failed to complete a 20 page paper in an hour and 20 mins on the train cause I spent more time arguing with it than reading it.

 

[MrSki]

1. The Widow's Secret - Brian Thompson
2. The Sacred Art of Stealing - Christopher Brookmyre

 

[Manter]

I really want to read this.

I've finished my second reading of it and it really is quite something. Not perfect, but so many moments that stop your heart for a second. I said 'no' out loud once when I was reading it because I didn't want something to have happened.

And Me76 glad you enjoyed it. Can I say 'Dimitri on the ridge! Omigod! And the lake! I don't think that gives anything away....

 

[Me76]

1/50 Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
2/50 The Child Thief, Dan Smith
3/50 Wanted, Nick Stephenson
Really unrealistic thriller. But it was free so hey

 

[Me76]

I've finished my second reading of it and it really is quite something. Not perfect, but so many moments that stop your heart for a second. I said 'no' out loud once when I was reading it because I didn't want something to have happened.

And Me76 glad you enjoyed it. Can I say 'Dimitri on the ridge! Omigod! And the lake! I don't think that gives anything away....

The Dimitri thing was the point when I realised it wasn't just going to be a good start. The lake bit I read last night while I was in the pub and I had to tell people to go away while I had watery eyes!!

Thank you again. I am recommending it to every one I know.

 

[Kidda]

1/30 Inferno by Dan Brown
2/30 Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples

 

[tufty79]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey

2. Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves

 

[DotCommunist]

1. Money: The unauthorised biography- Felix Martin

I liked this one because it explains every point about the evolution of money with historical details. Accessible and a good read 8/10

 

[rich!]

1. Money: The unauthorised biography- Felix Martin

I liked this one because it explains every point about the evolution of money with historical details. Accessible and a good read 8/10

Did you read David Graeber's Debt?

 

[rich!]

1. Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion.
2. Kameron Hurley, The Mirror Empire
3. Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Djinni
4. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 1.
5. End of the Road, ed Jonathan Oliver.
6. A Natural History of Dragons, a Memoir by Lady Trent, Marie Brennan
7. Discount Armageddon, Seanan McGuire
8. Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, ed Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
9. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 3.
(Several really good stories in that one)
10. Midnight Blue-Light Special, Seanan McGuire

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron

Damned creepy.

 

[DotCommunist]

Did you read David Graeber's Debt?

not yett, i'll stick it on the 'to read' pile though.

 

[rich!]

11. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, Laird Barron

Damned creepy.

12. GRR Martin & Gardner Dozois eds, Dangerous Women, Part 2.

 

[Patteran]

1) Language in the News, Discourse & Ideology in the Press - Roger Fowler.
2) Hold Everything Dear, Despatches on Survival & Resistance - John Berger.

 

[tufty79]

1. The Girl With All The Gifts - M. R. Carey
2. Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves

3. The Millionaire's Death Club - Mike Hockney

 

[billy_bob]

novels, i can ramp up to 170-200 pages an hour. sometimes less if it isn't easy reading, but when i was sitting about and seriously fed up with not being able to do anyhting in late pregnancy, i read Shogun in a day, which is like 1200 pages and a little harder going than most of the novels I read. it's only when i'm reading stuff i need to really focus on, like academic texts that I need to really understand that rate will seriously drop. I've failed to complete a 20 page paper in an hour and 20 mins on the train cause I spent more time arguing with it than reading it.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to dispute anyone's claims. I'm accustomed to thinking of myself as the fast reader I was when I was younger (probably 2/3 books every week) and being slightly awed/envious when I meet anyone even faster. But I guess the fibromyalgia brain fog, bob_jr and general age-related degeneration have all leeched my concentration skills out of me - I will not place highly in this reading challenge!

 

[chainsawjob]

1. In the Midst of Life - Jennifer Worth

 

[tufty79]

Cheers everyone who's recommended 'the child thief'. been hovering over it in the local library for months but not picked it up til now - sounds like it's one to look forward to.

 

[colbhoy]

1/20 - Strange Loyalties by William McIlvanney
2/20 - Calico Joe by John Grisham

 

[marty21]

1/60 - 'Til Death - Ed McBain
2/60 - How to Connect with Nature - Tristan Gooley

 

[Pickman's model]

1. 'personal', lee child

2. 'the weiser concise guide to aleister crowley', richard kaczynski
3. 'yeats's golden dawn', george mills harper

 

[billy_bob]

2. Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice
3. - The Man With the Golden Gun
4. - Octopussy and the Living Daylights

I got the whole lot of them a couple of years back in one of those Book People sets. Remembered reading a few when I was about 12 and liking them then ( )
The first few hold up ok as daft escapist thrillers, although you have to resolve to be pity Fleming for the 'of its time' misogyny and ethnic stereotyping rather than take deep offence. But they get more tiresome as the series continues and You Only Live Twice is probably the low point.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I'm off to a slow start, but I figure I can read a book every other week. I'm a bit ashamed of that number. When I was a teenager I'd read a book a day. The cost of being an adult is your reading time.

1/27 The Universe in a Single Atom -- The Dalai Lama
2/27 The Last President -- John Barnes

 

[toggle]

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to dispute anyone's claims. I'm accustomed to thinking of myself as the fast reader I was when I was younger (probably 2/3 books every week) and being slightly awed/envious when I meet anyone even faster. But I guess the fibromyalgia brain fog, bob_jr and general age-related degeneration have all leeched my concentration skills out of me - I will not place highly in this reading challenge!

.you're really only competing against yourself.

 

[toggle]

1. Mike Cronin - The failure of British fascism
2. Raymond E Feist - Rides a Dread legion
3. Robin Hobb - Dragon keeper
4. Terry Pratchet - Unseen Academicals
5. Campagna and Campiglio - What are we fighting for?
6. Dunleavy et al. - Voices of the people
7. Conan Doyle - A study in Scarlet
8. Stuart Bell - The conservative party and british politics
9. Robin Hobb - Dragon haven
10. William Morris - News from Nowehere
11. Philippa Gregory - The white Queen

12. Raymond E Feist - Exile's return