Buddy Reads discussion

We'll read a total of 7 books for this each Reading Sprint. A book a day. The books will be read in the order of the highest votes and so on (or whatever order they'll be written in the next comments). Participants will update their progress each day after reading the book and each book will be discussed on the day that it's read.

You'll update your progress the same way you did for other challenges (e.g. if you read 5 books of out 7-you're progress will be 5/7).

Don't forget to add spoiler tags!

Participants and Books will be mentioned below:

P.S. It's okay if you don't have all the books. Participation is what matters :)

Books:
Day 1 (01/02/19): Into the Wild
Day 2 (02/02/19): The Metamorphosis
Day 3 (03/02/19): The Stranger
Day 4 (04/02/19): The Call of Cthulhu
Day 5 (05/02/19): The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Day 6 (06/02/19): We Should All Be Feminists
Day 7 (07/02/19): The Trial

Participants:

Aqsa: 3/7
Suki: 4/7

Participants will be added when they finish a book.

Day 1 (01/02/19): Into the Wild

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/Into%20the%20Wi...

can i get a link for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, please. Thank you

ohh .. got it on the same (above) site. Thank you :)

Good, I'd add them as their day comes.

perfect!

I've never participated in a reading sprint before, so I'm not sure if I'm posting on the right thread. I have finished The Metamorphosis; it was a reread for me. I have read critics' reviews that have described the book as a comedy-- I don't get that at all. For me this book reads as a tragedy-- the saddest part is that (view spoiler)[ Gregor has to lose his humanity in order to experience joy in music. (hide spoiler)]

I will read The Stranger tomorrow.

My progress is 1/7.

Oh no :/ I forgot to update here!!! Ugh, I forgot this thread completely 🙁

Suki wrote: "I've never participated in a reading sprint before, so I'm not sure if I'm posting on the right thread. I have finished The Metamorphosis; it was a reread for me. I have read critic..."

You're in the right place, Suki :)

Day 2 (02/02/19): The Metamorphosis

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/The%20Metamorph...

Day 3 (03/02/19): The Stranger

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/The%20Stranger%...

I started the Stranger. I don't know what to make of it and it's weirdly interesting :)

I read The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain last month (it was a great roman noir) and one of the interesting things I learned about it was that Camus said that it was the inspiration for The Stranger. I was really happy when the book turned up in this Reading Sprint because I really wanted to reread it and compare it with Postman. The two books are very different, but there are a few common points. The Stranger is not a crime novel (in my opinion), although it is inspired by one. Both books end with (view spoiler)[ the protagonist being condemned to death, although in Stranger Camus leaves the ending open. Is Meursault granted his appeal? It doesn't matter. The murder he committed doesn't even appear to matter; ultimately, the "crime" he appears to have been judged and found guilty for is detachment. He didn't react "properly" to his mother's death. He didn't behave in the way that society dictates and expects someone to react in that situation. The Stranger, The Outsider, must be punished and removed from society for not complying to its expectations and demands. (hide spoiler)]

I will read The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories tomorrow (actually I will read some of the other stories tonight, but in keeping with the spirit of the Reading Sprint, I will save Cthulhu for tomorrow.) :-)

My progress is 2/7.

Aqsa wrote: "I started the Stranger. I don't know what to make of it and it's weirdly interesting :)"

It's kind of a strange book, and it has taken me more than one reading to really get it. I hope you enjoy it! :-)

Suki wrote: "I readThe Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain last month (it was a great roman noir) and one of the interesting things I learned about it was that Camus said that it was the in..."

Now I feel like reading The Postman too. Maybe I will after the sprint ends :) I really wanna open that spoilet tag but I guess I'll have to wait until after I finish The Stranger.

Suki wrote: "Aqsa wrote: "I started the Stranger. I don't know what to make of it and it's weirdly interesting :)"

It's kind of a strange book, and it has taken me more than one reading to really get it. I hop..."

It really is strange. The first part was mostly observing. And I felt like it wasn't important but only after getting to part 2, do I realise how much of a role those early chapters had. Only 2 chapters to go for me.

Really enjoying so far.

Day 4 (04/02/19): The Call of Cthulhu
Under 50 Pages!

Link for ebook: http://ebookhunter.ch/the-call-of-cth...

Finished the stranger.

Progress: 1/7

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

I love the way Lovecraft can paint with words. His works are on a steady rotation through my to-read piles-- I love to revisit the stories every year or two; I enjoy reading different editions of his story collections, so that there is always something new(er) mixed in with the old favorites. I was very happy to see Call of Cthulhu chosen as one of the selections for this reading sprint.

I have finished Call of Cthulhu, but I haven't finished all the other stories in The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. I will finish the book after the Readathon; I can't count this book toward that because Lovecraft is definitely not an author that is new to me.

My progress is 3/7.

I will be back here on the 7th for The Trial.

Day 5 (05/02/19): The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/the-strange-and...

Suki wrote: ""The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and..."

I am currently reading this. The lines you mentioned were really amazing. Loved the writing. This is my first book from him.

Day 6 (06/02/19): We Should All Be Feminists

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/We%20Should%20A...

Read We Should All Be Feminists.

Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.

I am awestruck. This is hardly a 15-20 minute read and I didn’t think it possible to squeeze such a big topic in so few pages without making this a complete disaster. We should all read this; men and women.(I’m gonna buy all her books!)

At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men And Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss And High Heels For Herself And Not For Men.

Of course much of this was tongue-in-cheek, but what it shows is how that word feminist is so heavy with baggage, negative baggage: you hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, you think women should always be in charge, you don’t wear make-up, you don’t shave, you’re always angry, you don’t have a sense of humour, you don’t use deodorant.

I didn’t want to read this book because of the title, and I thought I won’t agree with most things there; and maybe because to some extent, I believed a feminist is a woman described in the quotation above. I didn’t really know what it means to be a feminist, but after reading just a handful of pages written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I can easily call myself one. I can talk hours on this, but I’d rather you read it. I reread it again just because I really wanted to agree with her all over again (and it’s super short).



The thing that captures me most is that she doesn’t only talk about the changes in society we need for women but also for men; I understood feminists but I hate when some (or maybe even most) expect men to adhere to the typical standards required by society (and mainly women) when the women themselves struggle to free themselves of their expected roles and nature predefined by the society. We should all speak up and try to uphold the rights of each other as well as our own, and we should all indeed be feminists.

Read Ava Lavender. Loved it.

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

Progress Update: 3/7

Day 7 (07/02/19): The Trial

Link: http://ebookhunter.ch/The%20Trial%20b...

I just finished The Trial, and it was definitely odd. Every detail in the book was a bit off-- it was as if the legal proceedings were taking place in Lewis Carroll's Wonderland.

Progress Update: 4/7

Suki wrote: "I just finished The Trial, and it was definitely odd. Every detail in the book was a bit off-- it was as if the legal proceedings were taking place in Lewis Carroll's Wonderland.

Prog..."

I am reading this and this is an awesome description. I'm not that deep in it to know for sure though.

Updated!