Books on the Nightstand discussion

How about we repeat Eric's 2013 challenge by choosing authors we have always wanted to read, and read all of their books?

At least Donna Tartt would be pretty easy for me :-)

But I think that could get a bit annoying or daunting, depending on the author involved. I'm a huge fan of Dan Simmons and John Irving, but they've also both written books that I didn't enjoy at all. And Brandon Sanderson is definitely on my to read list, but that's a fair amount of books to cover.

One of my reading challenges for next year is to read 10 of my list of 'much-admired and discussed books that I've just never gotten around to'.

I'll be talking about my own 2014 "reading focus" on an upcoming episode of BOTNS. I can't remember which date it will run. I hope you'll leave a bit of room in your reading schedule to join me.

I have my goals all set, and I am adding this year to making sure I purchase at least 1 book per month from my local indie book-store. Don't need to download everything on my Kindle.

Intrigued to hear what your "reading focus" is Ann!

Amy wrote: "I have my goals all set, and I am adding this year to making sure I purchase at least 1 book per month from my local indie book-store. Don't need to download everything on my Kindle.
"

Oh, how I love that! Thank you, Amy. It will truly make a difference for that lucky bookstore!

I REALLY like Denise's idea for the Reading Challenge: to choose an author and read their entire catalog. (oeuvre?) Of course that would be a ridiculous amount of reading if you chose Dickens or Nora Roberts but you could read ALL the work of a literary-yet-entertaining writer like William Boyd and feel as if you had accomplished something. How about some suggestions on authors? Ann Patchett?

Okay, maybe it wasn't such a great idea. Lol I just read Louise Penny for the first time and am going to read all of her in 2014. I have wanted to read Zadie Smith and thought I might read all of her....but I don't want to commit if I end up not liking her.

Ann, I always have room for more so I look forward to your ideas.

oh who to read. idea welcome

Lots of ideas to challenge myself this coming year-- I want to make all of my book club meetings because we really do talk about the book and different ideas are so stimulating. I like the Goodreads challenge for number of books, but I will need to scale it down if I read some of the longer books I have on my list. Also hoping for an audible subscription for Christmas so I can expand my reading this way. I do not think I could commit to one author's works--I am too distracted for that. But looking forward to Ann's "reading focus" because so many good ideas come from Ann and Michael and Books on the Nightstand!

IF I had adhered to my entire 2013 reading goal, I would have only had to choose 20 books in addition to a formidable list I planned to tackle to make my 80 reads.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make my 80 books, but I think I'm only getting 2 or 3 of the other 60 read.

I think I'd better rethink my goal setting.

For 2014, I want to try reading one to two books a month that one of my kids is reading (ages 13 and 11). It will be pretty easy for the oldest as we have similar tastes (she's making her way through The Book Thief now) but the younger one tends to go for fantasy, a genre I don't enjoy. The goal is that I must read what they pick out for themselves and not something I suggest.

Oh wait, is this a thread for a BOTN challenge or a personal one?

Based on a topic from the last podcast episode, for BOTN, I would suggest reading one play each month. I recently read August: Osage County, and was blown away. Now making my way through The Seagull.

These are personal challenges :-)

It's been awhile since BOTNS posted any sort of official challenge. I recall the DystopYA Challenge and the Beowulf on the Beach Challenge; and then there was Michael's informal reading challenge in 2013... Eric posted the "read all the works of one author challenge" this past year. It seems Ann tends to post more reading projects, like the War and Peace read-along and the Year of the Short Story :-)

Ann wrote: "Amy wrote: "I have my goals all set, and I am adding this year to making sure I purchase at least 1 book per month from my local indie book-store. Don't need to download everything on my Kindle.
"
..."

I'm going to add indie book buying to my 2014 reading goals too. I've only picked up physical books from the thrift store or dollar store bargain bin this year.

I am really looking forward to hearing Ann's reading goals for 2014 in the podcast. This year, my goal was 52 books (one a week) but I totally surpassed that and I noticed that while I did read longer books (i.e. The Goldfinch, Dr. Sleep, NOS4A2) I also would pick up smaller books just so I could reach my goal. In 2014, I want to read for quality, not quantity and I also want to listen to at least one audiobook a month. I recently got really into borrowing them from the library and they take the mundane out of my daily errand driving. I also want to get busy reading the books on my TBR list; as I tend to often pick up the next great book and ignore the ones I have bookmarked that I want to read.
Looking forward to hearing others' goals and maybe stealing a few for myself!
Happy reading all!

Chanda2426 wrote: "I am really looking forward to hearing Ann's reading goals for 2014 in the podcast. This year, my goal was 52 books (one a week) but I totally surpassed that and I noticed that while I did read lon..."

These sound like admirable goals, Chandra. Ones that I should follow, too.

I also want to get busy reading the books on my TBR list; as I tend to often pick up the next great book and ignore the ones I have bookmarked that I want to read.

Chandra is right on. So easy to get the newer books while the others are waiting. As a quilter I tend to want to start a new one rather than finish. Must be contagious!

I've been thinking about this since listening to The Readers talk about their 2014 reading goals and I'm 90% with Simon on reading just for pleasure, and about 10% thinking about a few goals. One is to start reading some Persephone books, maybe 1 a month. Another is to branch out of my comfort zone genre (i.e. literary fiction) and maybe do a different genre each month. With both The Goldfinch and The Luminaries on my nightstand, though, it may be awhile before I get to anything else.

I have mixed things up a bit this year reading more young adult (loved it), and some mysteries, as opposed to mostly fiction. I also read a few more biographies and other nonfiction than I usually read (Manson bio, Lost Girls and Five Days at Memorial). I had been in a mostly WW 2 phase for several years. I still love WW 2 historical fiction and have some waiting. Overall, I've 105 books, and I feel like it was a terrific reading year.

My goals are to read all of Louise Penny's series, the Harry Hole series and the Donna Tartt, Kate Mortons, and Edward Rutherfords I have regretfully never read.

I never seem to meet my reading goals but love to make them anyway. My goal is to read 1 non-fiction a month and 1 graphic novel a month to get myself out of the box a bit. I'm setting no goals for overall numbers read.

"My goals are to read all of Louise Penny's series, the Harry Hole series and the Donna Tartt, Kate Mortons, and Edward Rutherfords I have regretfully never read."

Denise, I discovered Louise Penny this year. I started with the first one, planning to just sample, and then kept turning pages and reading and turning pages some more. As soon as I was done, (late at night) I went to my Kindle and bought the next. I think I was up until 2 a.m. that night. Then I bought each subsequent one on my Kindle as soon as I was done. My family didn't see me for a number of weeks. Although I love my indie bookstore, only ebooks can provide a not recently published book in the middle of the night!

I have an idea of the number of books but I'm going to leave the author and subject matter opened. As much as I love Neil Gaiman and Neal Stephenson I got tired of them.

I think I would like to read more of my older TBR books as stated above. I don't know about a total goal, I have been setting my goal around 30-40 books, but this year I read more than 80 (which was exceptional and probably won't be repeated). One problem is that my library doesn't have a lot of my older TBR items as ebooks and I don't want to buy them if I can avoid it. I do own a lot of unread Kindle books, though, maybe I should start either those. There are just TOO MANY that all sound so good!

My only reading challenge is to read period. Most of the books that I "read" in 2013 I actually listened to. I love audio books and I understand that listeners actually get more out of books by listening to them even while listening while working but I feel that reading is much more personal. So my challenge this year is try to read as much as I listen.

Everyone has great ideas for the challenge. I have (embarrassed to say) over 100 unread books on my Nook. My 2014 goal is to have 50 or less by this time next year.

Steph, you prompted me to go see what I have unread on my Kindle and it's about 60 books. Taking out a few that I know I will never read, a few really belonging to my kids and husband that I probably won't read either probably leaves about 50. I think I will challenge myself to read 12 of them in 2014. A number of them I have already started and just never finished so I think that will be an easy specific thing to include in my 2014 reading, as well as read xx number of books overall for the year.

My 2014 Challenge will be all about Big Books. I have several/many big books (thick, long) on my shelf that I really want to read but haven't because I don't want to start one then get distracted by other fun reads. My goal is one big book a month. Currently on the list: Truman by David McCullough, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haudt, The Greater Journey by David McCullough, Catherine the Great by Robert Massie plus seveal others on my Kindle that I can't remember right now. I have more than 12, so some are going to have to go. We'll see what 2014 brings.

Back with Kindle titles ...(less HTML markups)... 11/22/63 by Stephen King, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel, The Fifties by David Halberstam, Steward:Lincoln's Indispensable Man by Walter Stanr, To The End of the Land by David Grossman, Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. Anxious to hear any comments about my selections.

*First off it's my plan to do the:

Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge
Goal: 100 books

*Second:
Finish my Around the USA in 52 Books challenge
I've still got 27 books to go

*Third:
I've been reading too many short-ish books this year - because of too many challenges :-p But I have quite a few long books I want to read so I'm reading 5 books for:

Big Book 500 pages+ Challenge 2014


Fourth:
I have to read 10 Danish books for my read Danish authors challenge - sofar 6 books to go.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

My goal is one book a month. I'm in college classes this year and plan reading less. This is hard for me but I'm trying to accept it. Also, I do intensely make up for it on breaks :)

One a month is probably the best way to challenge yourself.

1. Finish or give up on Nikolski (in French).
2. Try an e-reader. I think our local library has devices for loan.
3. Read some of the international fiction on my TBR.
4. Read some of the "not my usual genre" books on my TBR: mysteries, speculative fiction, noir, classics.

My main 2014 challenge is to read the books I already have! I have 2 full shelves of books bought but not read and I want to read at least half of them this year. I don't know the exact number--I'm afraid to count!

Annalisa wrote: "My main 2014 challenge is to read the books I already have! I have 2 full shelves of books bought but not read and I want to read at least half of them this year. I don't know the exact number--I'm..."

I'm stealing this one! What a great idea!!

For this year, my challenge was very specific - 80 books and 60 of them were quite particular (the ones piled next to the bed, the ones borrowed from others - WHY do people "lend" me books? I don't have enough? - etc.

I will make the 80, but all the little ones that made that up - well, I've done very few.

This year I want to aim for 100, which I've never done before. Since I've realized I always have 4 active books (2 audio and 2 others) that just means very little more than 2 a month for each. I will get the borrowed books back to their rightful owners AND by the end of the year I will have read Peace Like a River and the P.G. Wodehouse that Eric thinks I should read.

Katie, we read the first Louise Penney for book club last month. I enjoyed it so much that I immediately read the second book. She really is a terrific writer; the characters and plots are great. I want to read all of them.

My biggest reading challenge is to read A Suitable Boy. I don't read more than one book at a time (weird-I admit) I know lots of you read 2 and 3 books at the same time. So my challenge is twofold read A Suitable Boy at 1400 pages and read other books too! I'm probably going to lower my total book goal as well, I got caught up in the race to meet my goal instead of savoring a book and not rush through it!

After finding a box filled of books from when I was in school, grammar school through college. My mom saves everything. I have decided my reading challenge for 2014 would be to re-read books that I was assigned to read in grammar school, high school, and college. Maybe being a little older and wiser will help me appreciate them the second time around.
Also, since my daughter left for college, I am going to read the books she has on her book shelf. And when completed I will re-box them. I guess I am just like my mom:)

After Christmas I will compile the list of the actual books I am going to read.

Cindy wrote: "After finding a box filled of books from when I was in school, grammar school through college. My mom saves everything. I have decided my reading challenge for 2014 would be to re-read books that I..."

Cindy,

A few years ago I re-read Little Women. It was remarkable to understand a book from a woman in her mid-50s view rather than that 14-year old reading on her bed!

Good luck with your challenge.

I only read one book a time as well. Unless I'm reading a non-fiction book, in which case I feel the need to read something "fun" ...

I study and have a full time job so i try to read whenever I have some time to spare. This year I read 22 ( think I'm going to be able to go up to 24). I hope in 2014 I'll be able to reach a minimum of 30 books.

Linda wrote: "Cindy wrote: "After finding a box filled of books from when I was in school, grammar school through college. My mom saves everything. I have decided my reading challenge for 2014 would be to re-rea..."

Thanks Linda for the support.

I'm going to shoot for 24 books that I currently own, in any format.
I am also aim to eliminate 14 books from my bookshelves that I've been keeping but will likely never read. This is really hard for me, especially since two books I really enjoyed recently were books that I've been toting around for years and had considered donating. Still, the piles are stressing me out.

I also have some vague plan to not buy as many books this year, but that's easy to say right now, but hard to do in the heat of the moment.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all my beautiful book people! :)

I usually have some reoccurring book goals every year and at least one or two unique goals.

My reoccurring reading goals:
1. Read 5-6 new authors (new to me, not new as in modern)
2. Read 8-10 short story collections
3. Read 5-10 books that have been on my TBR list the longest

New reading goal for 2014:
4. Read 6-7 BIG books (over 450 pages)- I'll admit I have a prejudice against big books which has caused me to miss out on many incredible stories. I feel why read one giant book, when I could have read three incredible stories in the time it took me to read one? Well, this year I'm suspending my prejudice to delve into some incredibly complex and famous plots and characters. Some of these will include: The Stand, Lonesome Dove, Shantaram, Shogun, and The Goldfinch

Recommendations are very welcome!

Vanessa, I am about 500 pages into the 700+ page and I am enjoying it. It is a complicated story though, not a light read and it took me a while to get this far. But now I am committed to finishing it straight through. Unless it falls apart at the end, I recommend it.

Victoria wrote: "Vanessa, I am about 500 pages into the 700+ page and I am enjoying it. It is a complicated story though, not a light read and it took me a while to ..."

Thanks Victoria!

My 2014 reading goal involves a single focus - reading physical books from my already overstuffed shelves, the stacks on my dressers, and the piles on all available nightstands.

It's really out of control. It will be difficult to spend less time with my e-reader, as I love being able to read myself to sleep at night with the lights out. But I must do it. My job has been making me crazy for the last month or so. Which started me thinking that maybe it's time for a change. Which started me thinking that maybe I need to move. Which started me thinking "WHAT IF I HAD TO PACK UP AND MOVE ALL THESE BOOKS?????"

Things at work have calmed down. But the specter of that eventual chore is still very much with me. So in 2014 I will read read read on paper. And I will probably spend more money at the massage therapist, who will yell at me for constantly carting big books around in my giant handbag and messing up my shoulders.

Dawn wrote: "My 2014 reading goal involves a single focus - reading physical books from my already overstuffed shelves, the stacks on my dressers, and the piles on all available nightstands.

It's really out of..."
Like!

Vanessa wrote: "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all my beautiful book people! :)

I usually have some reoccurring book goals every year and at least one or two unique goals.

My reoccurring reading goals:
1. Re..."

Some author recommendations, I discovered them this year and really enjoyed them:

Charles Dudley Warner
Ismail Kadaré

Others:
Paul Auster(The Music of Chance)

I can see you have Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories on your to read shelf - I enjoyed that :-)

Vanessa wrote: "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all my beautiful book people! :)

I usually have some reoccurring book goals every year and at least one or two unique goals.

My reoccurring reading goals:
1. Re..."

A Fine Balance. 700+ pages but worth every one. I re-read this last year and it confirmed its place as one of my favorite books of all time.

Dawn wrote: "My 2014 reading goal involves a single focus - reading physical books from my already overstuffed shelves, the stacks on my dressers, and the piles on all available nightstands.

It's really out of..."

:)