2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

I have been a bookworm for as long as I can remember, and generally consider myself fairly well-read. That is, until I come across one of those "100 Books to Read" lists and find that I've read a pathetic number of them! Even some absolute essential children's books - although I suppose I can blame my mother for not being introduced to those as a child. But I'm determined that my own daughter will have them!

Some books (or authors) that I can't believe that I haven't read yet:

Swiss Family Robinson
Robinson Crusoe
Frankenstein
Dracula
Kidnapped
Charles Dickens - anything!
Mark Twain - anything!
Peter Pan
Winnie the Pooh
Peter Rabbit
Black Beauty

There are, embarrassingly, a whole lot more, but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind, and I wonder how the hell I haven't read these yet!

Anyone else have a list like this?

I do! I've been wanting to publicly confess this for ages! I am 45 and didn't start reading avidly until I was 35 or so. I even resorted to Cliffs Notes in school for most book reports because I hated to read.

I have not read any of these authors...

Mark Twain
Charles Dickens
Jane Austin
Tolstoy
William Shakespeare
Steven King
Emily Dickinson
Dostoyevsky
Orwell
Kafka

I haven't read...

Sherlock Holmes
Moby Dick
The Harry Potter series
Dracula
Frankenstein
Catch 22
The Grapes of Wrath
Beloved
Atonement
Robinson Crusoe
Brave New World
LOTR series
Gone with the Wind
Lord of the Flies

My list goes on and on. Some of these are part of my Challenge list for this year and I am very anxious to read them!

It is good to get that out!

Vanesa wrote: "I thought that everyone here at Goodreads had read those books but now I am relieved to know that I am not the only one who was missed these part.
I thought I had read lots of books until I discov..."

Vanessa, it's never too late! Do you have any of these authors in your 2015 Challenge? That would be a great time to sneak a few in and get some of the weight off your shoulders. I'm hoping I may fall in love with an "old" author just as I have some of the new ones of our time. Self discovery through books is a magical thing!

Jody, this is a great topic!

This is a great topic. I've read more of the older books and authors (not all but more), the classics but not may of the books that have come out in the last 10-20 years. I'm trying to catch up!

Ooh, TJ & Vanessa, as a former avid Stephen King reader (I had to stop, as his books affected me that much!) I'd recommend The Shining as one to start out with.

If it's considered a classic, I probably haven't read it :) Unless it was required reading in school, and I probably still didn't read it.

I was in advanced placement in high school English, so I got my taste of Dickens, Twain, Shakespeare, Melville, Hemingway, and so many others. If I ever touch a book by Samuel Clemens again it will be too soon. He was paid by the word and it shows in his long-windedness.

I was in the poetry club and was taught Dickenson, Frost, Eliot, Dylan, and given Keroac and Ginsberg to peruse. (I would definitely recommend "On the Road")

My mother was an old-world romantic that pushed Austin and the Bronte sisters into my piles of books. I got 20 pages into Wuthering Heights and never touched it again. The flowery prose just didn't garner my attention very well. Maybe now that I've aged a bit, I will appreciate the romance a little more?

But there are some covers I can't believe I haven't cracked. (The saddest part is most of these are on my bookshelf right now)

Ivanhoe
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dracula
Anything Jules Verne
Anything HG Wells
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Robinson Crusoe

I found Wuthering Heights impossible to get into when I was younger too. The second time I attempted it (in my mid-twenties, I think) I loved it.

It's a lot of the classics for me. I've added some to my list for this reading challenge.

Anything that was required in high school is probably something I haven't read. And that was despite the fact that I loved to read. I just never wanted to be told what to read. And I hated the way those classes picked apart the books -- what was the symbolism of this or that? ugh.

One of those books is "To Kill a Mockingbird". I have friends who swear this is The. Best. Book. Ever. Period. So, I'm going to read it. lol.

Ohh, that is a wonderful book Lorraine. A high school read for me, but I still loved it!

Lacey wrote: "If it's considered a classic, I probably haven't read it :) Unless it was required reading in school, and I probably still didn't read it."
For me it's the same. I've tried a few times but I really can't get into classics... Those are the few books I didn't even come close to finishing

this:

Charles Dickens
Jane Austin
Tolstoy

I'm not a fan of Romantic novels, so I have no interest in Jane Austin. I'll read books by the other two as soon as I finish reading all the books I own

I am not a fan of the classics, at all.Cliff notes were my friends in high school and college, I believe they are called Spark notes now.to be completely honest I have no desire to even attempt to read the classics, I love to read.I just don't want to spend a week or two of my life trying to read a book that I really don't think I will ever like, just to say I have read it. I give all of you much credit for attempting to read all the classics, I am sure some of them are very good, but I'll sit this one out;-)

Lacey wrote: "If it's considered a classic, I probably haven't read it :) Unless it was required reading in school, and I probably still didn't read it."


That is so me Lacey. I'm really not a fan of the classics so I probably still won't read them.

A year ago or so I got a reading journal, and in this journal there are lists of books that have won the Pulitzer, the Man Booker prize, BBC's top 100 books to read and several other lists. And when I looked through them, I also had the thought: Why on earth have I read so few of these books?

So I'm actually trying to read some of these books, and today I can say that I have read Steinbeck, one or more of the Brontë sisters (I can't tell them apart, not yet at least), The Great Gatsby, One hundred Years of Solitude and so on. But I'm not nearly finished with the lists, and probably never will be, but I'm working on it :-)

I could make a list of books and authors I haven't read but feel I should, but honestly I wouldn't know where to start!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hasn't read the classics! As an English teacher, I now feel the need to make my way through all of the classics I wasn't forced to read in school. Audible has been my saving grace on this, since I get bogged down in overly detailed descriptions.

It's a relief to know that I am not the only one who still hadn't read some of the major classics! :)
Great topic Jody!

I haven't read the Harry Potter series all the way through. I read the first one and didn't like it enough to rush into the second book.

I have just read my first Stephen King book earlier this year and will definitely be reading another one.

I've read a few classics but the rest of them don't seem the least bit interesting to me and I feel no need to read them so I don't really mind that I haven't read them

Beth (Ducky) wrote: "I haven't read the Harry Potter series all the way through. I read the first one and didn't like it enough to rush into the second book."


That's why I'm glad I read the third one first - I really loved it and then started reading all other Harry Potters (as far as they were already available at that point) but I'm not sure I would have continued reading them if I had started with book one

Plus, I'm 10 years old than he is in the first book. I made absolutely no connection to him. Maybe it'd be different if I had read it when I was his age, but by this point I just felt like I was way older and couldn't connect with any of the characters or the school factor or any of it.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one here who hasn't read the LOtR trilogy. I've never read any Tolkien except for The Hobbit, and that was only because it was required reading back in 8th grade. I've probably started The Fellowship of the Ring 10 times, only to put it down before I'm 20 pages in. It just doesn't hold my interest.

I'm a little afraid to admit it because it's so beloved, but I'm considering it for the "book that scares you" week...'cause I'm afraid I'll slip into a coma from sheer boredom. ;-)

LOL :-) that book scares me too ;-)for the very same reasons.

I've read Lord of the Rings but I won't read it ever again. I really liked the story itself but the way the books are written was really dreading it out and made it a tedious read for me

I haven't read LOTR either. I started the first one, but zzzzzzzzz ... I will try again, because I think it's something I need to read. But there is just way too much detail for me.

Jody-That's how I felt about the first movie. I keep meaning to try the books, hoping they'll be more interesting.

I quite liked the first movie. The second I found dreadfully slow though.

I just couldn't deal with the walking and walking and walking. I guess I was hoping for more detail or something.

Audra wrote: "I just couldn't deal with the walking and walking and walking. I guess I was hoping for more detail or something."

OMG Audra! Ditto! Walking, walking, walking, walking, stopping, crying, walking, walking, whining, whining, walking, walking.

I listened to an audiobook of Fellowship. 10 hours in and they hadn't reached Rivendell. I couldn't go on. My father swears by the series, and I liked The a Hobbit, but the trilogy just drags on and on and on....

LOL! Now, I'm really afraid, and I'll definitely be reading Fellowship for the "Scary book" week.

Audra wrote: "I just couldn't deal with the walking and walking and walking. I guess I was hoping for more detail or something."

I haven't read the books either. I tried to watch the first movie, but I fell asleep. I slept about half an hour but when I woke up it felt like I hadn't missed anything. They were stille just walking and walking and walking!!

At some point I will give the books a chance. I just have to be ready for it!

I saw the Lord of the Rings movies before I read the books and absolutely fell in love with the movies, they’re some of my all time favourite movies and I can watch them again and again BUT I tried to read the first book (maybe it was because I’d seen the movies first but I don’t know) and I couldn’t do it! It just dragged on and on, I know some people find the movies slow (which although I don’t feel the same way I can understand other people finding them boring) but the book just took forever to even start! Frodo was in his ‘Tweens’ (twenties for Hobbits) at the start of the book and he was about 50 when he finally left the Shire on his quest!! I didn’t even make it half way through the first book and although I keep telling myself that one day I will read them all, I’m not sure it will happen. I’m perfectly happy to just stick to the movies!

Thank goodness I am not the only one who hasn't read a lot of the well known books or the classics.

I have been an avid book reader for as long as I can remember but I confess that there are a LOT of well known books and classics that I have never read. I will have a go at reading some of the classics, but I keep putting it off. I think it's because I have a feeling, that I won't like some of them or that I will find them boring.

The Classics I have never read are:

Jane Austen
Charlotte Bronte
Ernest Hemingway
Virginia Woolfe
Tolstoy
Aldious Huxley
Bram Stoker
A lot of Dicken's books

and more...

Other books I haven't read are:

"Lord of the Rings" Trilogy (Simply because its so big, and well I think that I will find it rather tedious to plough through. I do like the movies though)

I have only read the last three books of the Harry Potter series, which I enjoyed. I cannot be bothered reading the earlier ones because I have seen the movies already. I find it hard to read a book, if I have already seen the movies..I wonder am I the only one who is like this?

I will have a go at all of these books eventually...but I won't go out of my way to do so lol

I know you've seen the Harry Potter movies (and they are really good), but the books are so much better. It's definitely worth it to read the entire series. Once you do, you say to yourself, "Why didn't they put that into the movie?!?" LOL

To Kill a Mockingbird. Yes Im failing myself too much for not bringing myself to do it. But I'm making a resolution that 2015 won't end without me finishing it :)