The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Welcome to the 50/50 challenge!

The goal is to read 50 books and watch 50 movies in a year. The year has just begun so you're not too late to join in.

I'm not the original creator of the challenge. If you want to know more go check out their official site on Fiftyfifty.me

You can post you're progress on this post or just come by for support and encouragement. Come here to get and give recommendations, find new friends and discuss about how awesome books and movies are!

My progress for this challenge is here
I've read two books so far and watched four movies.

Good luck Inkeri! I've read 6 books so far for my 2014 reading challenge and I watch a movie a week for a weekend movie review for friends and family so my films so far are:
1. The Moleman of Belmont Avenue
2. The Lifetime film Girlfight

With that speed, you'll complete this challenge easily, Amber. Good luck with you too!

Thanks Inkeri! I'm reading 1 or more books a week until the end of the year anyway. I don't know what to watch for this week though. :)

This seems like such an interesting challenge, and one that I'd love to do, if I actually had the time to read and watch a lot of films!

I'll definitely be joining in the conversations/cheering people on/seeing recommendations, even though I won't be participating.

Great thread! :)

Thanks Holly!

I'll be looking forward to your recommendations and cheers! :)

I wrote reviews for the books I read so feel free to stop by my goodreads page and check them out. my books are here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

you can find my reviews for them on my books page on my goodreads page.

Glad this thread was made! I LOVE films so this challenge is very awesome to me. I just started Animal Farm by Orwell as my 2nd book today and I'll probably be watching Farewell, My Queen by Benoît Jacquot tonight as my 2nd film. I've been meaning to see this for ages now so hopefully I'm not disappointed.

awesome Lori! ^_^

Amber wrote: "I wrote reviews for the books I read so feel free to stop by my goodreads page and check them out. my books are on my personal challenge thread on here."

But how do I access your reviews?

Lori, you'll have to let me know what you think of Animal Farm!

Luffy wrote: "Amber wrote: "I wrote reviews for the books I read so feel free to stop by my goodreads page and check them out. my books are on my personal challenge thread on here."

But how do I access your rev..."

Hey Luffy: This is my review for Angels Cry: A Novella

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

let me know if you need the others. otherwise, when you go there, just click on my name's reviews there and then look for the ones of my personal challenge reads.

4 likes? Damn, I never have received more than 2 for any of my reviews. That one of yours was good enough for the likes. Thanks for posting that link.

No problem luffy. Do you need the rest of the 7 I read so far for my reading challenge? let me know. I'm glad you liked it. :)

Amber wrote: "No problem luffy. Do you need the rest of the 7 I read so far for my reading challenge? let me know. I'm glad you liked it. :)"

Don't worry, Amber, I'll manage. OTOH, you haven't joined the goodreads reading challenge? I didn't find your progress bar on your profile page...

Holly wrote: "Lori, you'll have to let me know what you think of Animal Farm!"

I will update you here Holly when I've finished it! I actually had to read this book at some point in the beginning of high school, but now I've chosen to reread it because the story's become hazy to me and at that time I think I just half a**ed reading it in school.

Okay cool Luffy. No I haven't as I am reading 1 or more books a week until the end of the year as that is my challenge, I don't have a set number of books planned so I am not going to do that. and will add the links to the reviews of the books I read under my books in my personal challenges thread. btw I read what I want to read and as long as I enjoy it,that's all that matters. and that's all I am going to say about that.

I also would like to do the 50/50 challenge...so far im on book 3 and have watched 3 movies...list posted in another thread but haven't figured out how to access it yet LOL

my third movie is New Year's Eve I saw it last night and it was pretty good.

Last night was my first time watching that film and it was funny Narin. :)plus one of my favorite actors matthew Broderick was in it too.

yeah. his part was okay. That was before he went to rehab anyway.

As I'm babysitting grandkids this weekend my third movie of year was cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2

Amber wrote: "As I'm babysitting grandkids this weekend my third movie of year was cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2"

Did you like the movie? I think animations these days are getting better and better and I feel like I want to see all of them. But at the same time I feel like I can't watch them unless I watch them with kids. Since I don't have any of my own, (yet), I usually borrow someone else's. :) Mostly I still watch them anyway and just don't care wheter they're supposed to be children's movies or not. :D

My reviews of the book and movies I read and watched this week are on my blog. Read them here if you feel like it.

I finished Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari and watched three movies, Parker, Stargate and The Golden Compass.

2 Books done and 5 movies watched!

I've seen Stargate and The Golden Compass, both when they were newly released. It's nice that you've got a handle on what's what in TGC. I liked the Stargate series a lot as well. You should try to delve more into details, either about what made you watch the films, or about them and the cast. My 2 cents. I give your overall layout ****/5.

STARGATE!!!

*ahem* Sorry. Bit of a major fangirl. ;)

Faye wrote: "STARGATE!!!

*ahem* Sorry. Bit of a major fangirl. ;)"

Lol!

Luffy wrote: "You should try to delve more into details, either about what made you watch the films, or about them and the cast."

Yeah, I know I probably should and maybe I will someday. I just don't feel I have strong enough opinions about cast or cinematography and sorts to be confident enough to write about them.

I have a really lighthearted approach to movies anyway. I watch them for entertainment and don't really think about them as deeply to have something really profound to say. I leave that to my best friend who loves movies and watches them from a different point of you. She's constantly annoyed when I give four or five stars to movies that she thinks doesn't deserve them because their screenplay wasn't good or the cinematography obviously sucked. Well maybe the cinematography sucked, but I didn't notice and I don't really care. If I'm entertained and like what I see, I give it a higher rating. :D

See, Luffy, that's why I don't delve more into details, because I don't mind the details. :D But I might give it a try if the sort of movie comes along where I find the details to be amazing and create an opinion about them. :)

I have nothing against sharing the reasons why I choose to watch the movies, although the reason usually is that 'my husband put it on on Netflix and I had nothing better to do so I watched it with him'. :D

Anyway, thanks for your great suggestions! I promise to give them a thought next time I write my reviews. :)

Inkeri wrote: "Luffy wrote: "You should try to delve more into details, either about what made you watch the films, or about them and the cast."

Yeah, I know I probably should and maybe I will someday. I just do..."

Yes I can understand, even if I never was in your mindset. Before I got internet when I was a kid, I was always hungering for movies and cartoons, and when I finally got to be in a position so I can watch anything I want, my experience soured because movies stopped looking like those of my childhood.

Even worse, I couldn't really enjoy the movies of the late 80's and 90's because I had moved on. So now I'm stuck, and the filmmakers of my generation have run out of drive, so I rarely watch new movies now. I haven't re watched a movie since 2008 and I haven't given a movie a perfect score since 2005.

I like the idea of this challenge, the book part I am already sort of doing. My 2014 reading challenge this year is 100 books. But I was just wondering what sort of films poeple were intending to watch. I am assuming films you have never seen before or can it be old favorites?

Leianne wrote: "I am assuming films you have never seen before or can it be old favorites?"

It's an interesting challenge for sure! I'm glad if you decide to join us! I would say any book or movie counts! The original creators of this challenge say that anything counts as long as you're enjoying yourself!

So re-reads and re-watches are OK and can be counted toward your goal, but only one time during the one year counts. For example, if read or watched The Help last year, I could read and/or watch it again this year and count it toward my goal, but if I read/watched it this year, lets say, in February and decided to read/watch in again in November later this year, I could only count it one time.

I hope this makes any sense. :)

You can always make the challenge harder for yourself, and make your own rules, like 'watch only never before seen movies' or 'watch only movies made in the 90's'. It's your challenge and you can do whatever you want as long as you're enjoying yourself. That's pretty much the only rule. Have fun!

I watch a movie a week for friends and family for a weekly weekend movie review so the films I see are ones I've never seen before, new ones, and indie stuff. I got Shrek the musical which is the original broadway show so I am watching that one next.

Yay...I'm so happy to see this thread!

So far, I have read 5 books:
1. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
2. The Empty City (Survivors #1) by Erin Hunter
3. 1000 Creative Writing Prompts #2 by Bryan Cohen and Jeremiah Jones
4. The Awakening: Friessen Legacy #4 by Lorhainne Eckhart (although this book is also listed as "The Outsiders #3). Go figure.
5. The Rose of Fire (Cemetery of Forgotten Books #.5) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

I've seen two movies:
1. Walking With Dinosaurs
2. Don't Mess With the Zohan

Yay LuAnn! \../ Awesome that you've joined us! Great list of books so far! :)

Inkeri wrote: "Amber wrote: "As I'm babysitting grandkids this weekend my third movie of year was cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2"

Did you like the movie? I think animations these days are getting better and..."

i always have kids around to watch animations with so try to watch other movies when there are no kids....i really enjoyed cloudy 2 and monsters U

I usually watch about 100 movies a year, but most of those are rewatches from my DVD collection. This challenge has made me curious to see whether I can manage to watch 50 movies for the first time this year.

Thus far, the only movie I've seen this year for the first time is Hereafter, which I enjoyed very much. Lots of Charles Dickens fanboying goes on in it, hee!

Faye wrote: "I usually watch about 100 movies a year, but most of those are rewatches from my DVD collection."

Most of the movies I see are rewatches as well. I have a quite a small DVD collection, but the ones I have are the ones I could watch over and over again. I use Netflix a lot too. :)

The Oscar nominations are in! Who else is excited!?
See the nominees here!

I'm just watching it for the best animated feature film and animated shorts categories for it. and the memoriam they do every year.

Amber wrote: "I'm just watching it for the best animated feature film and animated shorts categories for it. and the memoriam they do every year."

Who do you think will win those categories? I haven't seen any of the animated features nor shorts yet.

I've only seen on the feature film category the croods and despicable me 2 so far. Would love to see frozen, and the wind rises by hyao miyazaki as they both look good. croods and despicable me 2 were pretty cute. I haven't seen the shorts yet but wish they could let us watch them online.

I watched Rebecca last night, the Hitchcock movie based on Daphne du Maurier's novel. It was actually really good! I wasn't expecting it to stick as close to the novel as it did.

So now I've seen 2 movies so far this year that I'd never seen before. :)

Very good Faye!

Hey inkeri I posted my film review of shrek the musical up at the kid zone so be sure to check out http://kidzonereviews.wordpress.com . I'll be doing ya book reviews and family film reviews there. My next film review at the kid zone will be saving mr. Banks

Well....Hi everyone! ha. It feels like such a long time. Hoping your challenges are going well. I'm a little behind with my reading but I hope to pick it up this week. I have been able to do the other part of the challenge which is the film side. That part's 'easier' for me. Any who, these are the films I've seen so far:

1. The Constant Gardener
2. Farewell, My Queen
3. Blue Is the Warmest Color
4. Rush
5. Afternoon Delight
6. The Times of Harvey Milk

I'm doing pretty well with my 50-movies-in-2014-that-I've-never-seen-before goal. I can rent DVDs at my library for free, so I've been taking full advantage of it. ;)

1. Hereafter
2. Rebecca
3. The Karate Kid (1984)
4. The Karate Kid, Part 2
5. The Hunger Games
6. Now You See Me
7. Thor: The Dark World
8. The Lone Ranger
9. Veronica Mars
10. After Earth
11. Bridge to Terabithia
12. Hunger Games: Catching Fire
13. Winter's Bone
14. Red Dawn
15. Captain Phillips
16. House at the End of the Street
17. The Book Thief
18. 12 Years a Slave
19. R.I.P.D.
20. White House Down
21. Frozen
22. The Incredible Hulk
23. Star Trek

Great progress with the movies Faye!!

Kassandra wrote: "Great progress with the movies Faye!!"

Thanks! Most of them have been incredibly awesome. :D