The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

Sabrina wrote: "I thought this was interesting...a list published by the BBC as the top 100 books that have been published. According to the article, the average person has actually only read six of the books. How..."

I've read at least 41. I may have read more Dickens and Austen, but it was so long ago.

Some I shall never read, as they don't interest me.

Jayme wrote: "I've read 56 and have a bunch on my shelf to read and I'm currently reading Persuasion. I'm not sure why, but I just do not have the Austen bug- I've never liked anything by her, no matter how har..."

I also read Marley and Me last summer and I LOVED it.

Sabrina wrote: "I thought this was interesting...a list published by the BBC as the top 100 books that have been published. According to the article, the average person has actually only read six of the books. How..."

Wow I have read 34 of them. And alot of them are on my TBR.

I've also read only 34 of them. And here I thought I was a voracious reader!
Guess that's still well above the average, though.

currently reading the tale of murasaki by liza dalby and listening to alice, i have been by melanie benjamin on audiobook. i never used to like audibooks, but now i love them! i can read while i walk, drive, clean, cross stitch or cook! it's amazing!

ON the BBC List:
I have read 53 and parts of 7 more and a few I have never heard of. All of the remaining are on my TBR shelves! My coffee mug says it all "So Many Books, So Little Time"

I am currently halfway through The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and almost finished with Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor.

Halfway through Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason for half of #25.10.

I'm doing too many 'halves' - if I get them all pulled together, I should have some serious points!!

I am well into the second book of the Temeraire books. I couldn't wait to get the second one through InterLibrary Loan, so I bought the whole set for my Sony Reader. Guess I'll have something to take on next week's trip.

I finished "The Silver Chair". I am now starting "Katherine".

Donna Jo wrote: "I am well into the second book of the Temeraire books. I couldn't wait to get the second one through InterLibrary Loan, so I bought the whole set for my Sony Reader. Guess I'll have something to ..."

Donna Jo, I loved those first two books, but I am stalled looking for the third. My library doesn't have it, my used bookstore doesn't have it, and it is not coming up on any swap lists I am on. When I FINALLY finish this challenge I may have to - gasp! - order it new!

Right now I am reading The Constant Princess which is enjoyable, but I am straining my brain trying to remember all about that period of English history. And I am strugging mightily to finish Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, which is not a difficult book, but for some reason is just not capturing my imagination I guess.

I reading The Last Town on Earth: A Novel by Thomas Mullen. I'm having trouble with it: I love the idea, but find myself not wanting to read.

Has anyone read it? Thoughts?

I do need to get to it -- it's for my book club on Thursday and I am only about 25% done with it!

Ashley, I returned this book to the Library without reading it. I just couldn't get into it. Good premise but somehow not interesting.
Sorry I can't be more positive than that. Hope you get through the book by Thursday.

i'm reading the screwtape letters by c. s. lewis. i hate this book. i am 19 pages from the end and i want to throw it across the room. it is all i can do to force myself to finish, since i am so close to the end.

hahahaha Bunny. I have thrown books across the room too. My new phrase is i want to throw things out the window.

Reading The Pilgrim's Progress for part of Leora's task.

as of now i just finished up on The Divine Comedy Part One "The Inferno" By Dante Alligeri...I'm going to start reading "Catch-22" then probably move on to Part 2 of the divine Comedy "Purgatorio" =P

Jayme wrote: "hahahaha Bunny. I have thrown books across the room too. My new phrase is i want to throw things out the window. "

haha I know how you feel...i've done that several times...I hate getting annoyed with a book,and yet I get annoyed if I don't finish it. I usually force myself to keep going -_-

I have thrown books across the room because I disagreed with the content.

Petra, I'm almost done now and it has . . . improved, I guess. I think my hopes were too high or something. Part of my issue is that I disagree with 90% of the lessons the characters are taking from the events of the book. Sometimes books like that make me really THINK and see things from another perspective. Here it just makes me think the characters aren't very bright.

11 days left to finish Vanity Fair, only 350 pages to go....

you can do it, liz! that's only 31.8181818181818 pages per day. :P

i am still listening to alice i have been in audiobook form for task 15.2 and reading the lightning thief for 35.2 and a certain slant of light for 30.5. i really like a certain slant of light and can't wait to read more of it, and the lightning thief is a fun, quick read.

as usual, it is really tempting to lose track of the current challenge and spend hours searching for books to fit the spring task list! i'm trying hard not to be distracted by it...

Finished The Pilgrim's Progress for Leora's task - that was work! Some of it did flow quite smoothly, and Book One about Christian went well, but halfway through Book Two about Christiana, I was more than ready to be done!

Now reading Mr. Dixon Disappears for the librarian task

Bunny wrote: "you can do it, liz! that's only 31.8181818181818 pages per day. :P

i am still listening to alice i have been in audiobook form for task 15.2 and reading the lightning thief for 35.2 and a certain ..."

Bunny, that number made me laugh & almost spit out my tea! And the announcement of the spring challenge tasks has completely disrupted my reading -- I just spent 3 hours reading the task-help boards instead of reading another 100 pages of Vanity Fair...

I bought "Vanity Fair", THAT sure I was going to read it and love it. (I buy very few books because I hate clutter and am cheap) It is still, unread, on my shelf. Sigh.

In the spirit of full disclosure, everyone else in my book club LOVED "The Last Town on Earth". In the end, I still loved the idea and decided I liked the book (but didn't love it). Maybe my expectations were too high? I was definitely the most excited in the group to read it, going in.

Ashley, it's nice that you liked The Last Town on Earth after struggling with it. It would have made an interesting discussion, I think, in your group.

I'll finish Lolita this evening. I'm glad I read it but I can't say I enjoyed it. My heart bled for that girl. Sadly, because I didn't enjoy it, my rating will be lower than the average. Nabokov writes well. I wonder why he chose that subject matter.

I'm starting Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return during my lunch break today. I'm still hoping to finish Task 30.2 (825+ pages) before the end of the Challenge.

I picked up The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Lost Loves, and Forgotten Histories by Sadia Shepard and read the first chapter, but decided to save it for the Spring Challenge as it will fit the Asian American one.
I'm trying to save whats on my Reader for next week's trip. Guess I need to go to the library.

I am currently reading Flawless by Sara Shepard. I will probably just be reading this for fun since I won't be able to get done with it by the end of this challenge. I love this series even though this is only my second book.

I finally got my copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll from the library, so I am finally getting to my group read.

Reading Notes from Underground for #10.10

Just got to the part where he states that man is either stupid or ungrateful!

Petra wrote: "Ashley, it's nice that you liked The Last Town on Earth after struggling with it. It would have made an interesting discussion, I think, in your group.

I'll finish Lolita this evenin..."

Petra, have you read Laughter in the Dark? I preferred it immensely over Lolita (which most people would skewer me for, but that's ok).

i just started reading Shutter Island- my boyfriend wants to go see the movie tomorrow, and i'm hoping i can finish it by then. and i am still listening to Alice I Have Been. being able to "read" while i cross stitch is awesome!

Cait wrote: "Petra, have you read Laughter in the Dark? I preferred it immensely over Lolita (which most people would skewer me for, but that's ok)...."


Cait, I've added this to my TBR list. I'll take a break from Nabokov for a bit. I found Lolita depressing and emotionally hard to read.

I'm reading The Coral Thief for the World of Books task. I already read the other book I chose for that task, and I'm pretty sure I'll definitely finish this second book before the end of the month.
This may be my last book for the winter challenge. I'll have reached my personal goal of at least 300 points and I have a stack of magazines I've been neglecting for a while AND I'd like to start searching for my spring books.

Finished Notes from Underground, and have to admit that I got lost in some of the rambling notes - guess I'm one of those 'stupid' ones he talked about!

Now reading a gardening book for part of #35.4

Oh dear, BJRose.....I just bought that book (for 69cents!!). It's not boding well, if you didn't follow it. Maybe I'll slip it down my list a bit. It'll keep.

I just started The Forbidden Daughter last night. It seems like it'll be an easy, pleasant read.

Should finish A Skeleton In God's Closet for the 50 pointer and hope to complete enough pages this week for BJRose's task but I think that will be it for this challenge. I will confess that I went to the library today and got some books for the next challenge. So they will be taunting me for the next week.

Petra wrote: "Oh dear, BJRose.....I just bought that book (for 69cents!!). It's not boding well, if you didn't follow it. Maybe I'll slip it down my list a bit. It'll keep..."

Petra, for 69 cents you should enjoy Notes from the Underground a lot more than I did! Seriously, I think my main problem was that I got distracted while I was reading and missed something significant, and when I got confused, I should have gone back to clear it up, but I (arrogantly?) thought I could fill in the blanks - it didn't work!! Well, he did call it 'Notes'

Now reading and enjoying Cold Comfort Farm

I started "The Historian". This is my second attempt, and I've officially gotten further than last time, and am enjoying it more. It's one of those books that is a veeeerrrryyyy sllllooowwww read for me, so I figured it would be a good one to do my pre-read on for the Spring Challenge.

It's going fast enough that I think I am going to hit the 1/2 mark a few days before March 1st and stop. I don't have a good enough memory for start-and-stop, so I try to avoid it. Wish me luck!

Best of luck with "The Historian," Ashley.

I just finished the well-written and thought-provoking My Sister's Keeper.

I'm bugged though by one thing the mother says about her son: "He only wants attention."

This has bugged me for over 50 years. Parents, teachers, psychologists, even President G W Bush have said it -- or the other version, "He's only doing it for attention."

Can't people deal with irritating/disappointing/"bad" behavior some way and still see how horrible it is to brush away a child's wanting to feel loved / be loved or an adult's wanting to be heard with "only"?

I think some kids do it for attnetion. On the other hand, we all want to be paid attention to.

What bugs me is using "He only wants attention" as justification for not giving him attention.

I agree with you pj.

I started "The Princess Bride"

I just started Labyrinth - Kate Mosse.

yes, if someone is doing something "only for attention", I think that person is starving for attention and shouldn't be brushed off as if it is a weak thing to crave someone's attention.

I'm reading Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls and hope to finish it over the weekend. So far, it's great. I'm enjoying every page.

I've also started listening to Catching Fire. I wasn't wowed by the first book. Let's see how this one turns out. It's an okay story...just not as great as I had hoped and thought it might be.

I've also started The Russian Concubine but this one's taken a back seat to Set This House In Order.

I finished "The Princess Bride" and started "Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's"

Still reading The Historian ;) My page-per-hour on this book is really low -- it's taking me WEEKS to read it!

Ashley wrote: "Still reading The Historian ;) My page-per-hour on this book is really low -- it's taking me WEEKS to read it!"

I had the same problem with that book when I read it last year. It became a chore for me to read it.