Reading with Style discussion

Thinking of you Elizabeth and hoping it all remains stable. As Denise said, way too close for comfort!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "What is your favorite task this season?

I think 20.3 Chemistry is mine because it works for the most authors I want to read. BUT ... there are so many other good ones there must be at least 5 oth..."

That is a hard question to answer! I'm still in the "honeymoon phase", where I lay out a plan but then find other books I would like to slot in. I am enjoying 20.3, and was actually a little sad when one of my chosen books didn't combo with it! ha, ha.....

I agree all the tasks are good, and it would be easy to go completely off the rails and only read for a small handful.

I am liking fall birthdays with the author's birthday year having a 0,1,9 in it. I am finding a few authors that fit.

I'm enjoying all the tasks, but my favorite is the Scrabble sub-challenge. I'm wishing I had four months to read all the books I want to slot into the main challenge!

There are seventeen authors who fit 20.3 Chem with books I really want to read. That’s a lot of Multiple points. So that would be my favorite. I am also enjoying all the tasks that offer unexpected combos.

Apple wrote: "I had planned 7 books from a series in Scrabble, and am now desperately trying to move them to the main challenge.

And, how many different challenges can I schedule Poirot or Marple for ???"

Okay Elizabeth, I have set myself a challenge this morning of seeing how many I can fit, not necessarily read, because there are a lot. It would also see me finish a few series, so that would be good!

3 x Tommy & Tuppence, series complete.

1 each Superintendent Battle and Colonel Race, remaining books would be crossovers with Poirot.

6 x Miss Marple. Yep, 6 different tasks. And I haven't looked at 10.6, which is kind of scary ...

I am still working through Poirot, but I have 5 each for the main and subchallenges. I think I could get one more, maybe.

Wow! That's a lot of Agatha Christie!

You inspired me, though. I have found 4 places for Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti. There are probably more, but I'm already over-planned. 😂

Apple wrote: "Apple wrote: "I had planned 7 books from a series in Scrabble, and am now desperately trying to move them to the main challenge.

And, how many different challenges can I schedule Poirot or Marple..."

I love Agatha Christie! I am more a Marple fan than a Poriot. I do enjoy both. Christie died the year I was born.

I'm also a big Christie fan! Because I've read virtually all of her mysteries many times, I like to use them as a 'treat' read (eg. when I'm in the midst of a difficult or overly long book).

Mary wrote: Recipes for sauces for boiled ostrich and a sauce for flamingo. Handily for the frugal cook, there is a note that the flamingo sauce also “serves for parrot”

I love this! I had no idea that people ate flamingo or parrot.

Joanna wrote: "Mary wrote: Recipes for sauces for boiled ostrich and a sauce for flamingo. Handily for the frugal cook, there is a note that the flamingo sauce also “serves for parrot”

I love this! I had no idea..."

It surprised me too. Apparently the ancient Greeks ate all sorts of birds that we wouldn’t think of as food.

Yes, pretty well any bird (and a lot of animals) were/are eaten. Songbirds were eaten by Italians (and probably others), even in Toronto as late as the 1970s. Considering they weigh in the 15 gram range - that is like an appetizer on toasted baguette. The Great Auk was pushed to extinction because it was 'convenient food source' for early European explorers (of N. America) - they were flightless so easy to catch.

Here is a little article about this:
https://www.britannica.com/list/6-ani...

And the nursery rhyme where four and twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "And the nursery rhyme where four and twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie."

I know! You can average their weight at 50 grams, so I guess that's why it took 24 to make a pie!

My older granddaughter has a small cookie business on the side. She is a great fan of Halloween. Today she shared her latest creation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dVtm...

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "My older granddaughter has a small cookie business on the side. She is a great fan of Halloween. Today she shared her latest creation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dVtm......"

That's cute!

Apple wrote: "Because I need to find ways to include the books I randomly pick up EVERY time I go near a library ...

I go to the library to pick up specific titles. I have already looked at the card catalog online and know they are on the shelves.

I never learned how to browse books at the library. Never. So, how do you do this?

Well..my library does wonderful displays of themed books, (right now the theme is kindness), which sits behind the collections area. Then there is another themed stand, often First Nations or other ethnic writers, and a display at the end of each aisle, and on the top shelf either end of the racks to show off all new books.

And once I am amongst the racks I start thinking of the writers I am currently enjoying, so I start looking to see if there is anything else by them there and then I get distracted by a different title or brightly coloured spine in the section that I am looking at.

And then I remember a book that I always wanted to read that might be there…

I am often meant to pop in just to pick something up and it will take me 44 minutes to leave…

Apple wrote: "Well..my library does wonderful displays of themed books, (right now the theme is kindness), which sits behind the collections area. Then there is another themed stand, often First Nations or other..."

Your comment in the 'back to school' thread made me laugh! Try working at a library.... I'm only there part-time, but boy does that do a lot of damage to the TBR list! And yes, the impulse books I come across often damage my nicely laid out RwS plan.

OK. I easily lose an hour or two browsing here at Goodreads. Not necessarily daily, mind you, but often enough. There is that Similar Books on most book pages, listopia, genre pages, author pages, friend shelves. 😉

Not sure yet, but I am likely to use the Year I Joined Goodreads for Karen's Significant Year task.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "OK. I easily lose an hour or two browsing here at Goodreads. Not necessarily daily, mind you, but often enough. There is that Similar Books on most book pages, listopia, genre pages, author pages, ..."


That's a fun idea! At the moment I have chosen my Mom's birth year, particularly because I have a book that fits!

I joined in 2009.

Me, too, Jayme.

Great idea Elizabeth! I just added that to my list! I joined in 2014-so this year is my 10 year anniversary!

Hey, everyone. My Murder on the Orient Express post was all wrong. I completely forgot about checking Lexile apparently. Joanna kindly contacted me off thread.

Just so you know I'm definitely not getting any special treatment. 😂

Ha, ha.. Honestly, it’s nice to know even “the pros” make mistakes. There are times I feel like a terrible dimwit about some tasks! 😂

October 15th. My younger granddaughter's birthday AND it's Fall halfway. How is everyone doing?

I'm just having the best time reading with all of the wonderful tasks. I might get a couple of halfway finishers bonuses ... and then again I might double/triple up on some tasks and not get all ten of either type.

I just finished a 20 point task for 180 points so far.

I'm hoping to finish Scrabble and at least one of the halfway finishes. I'm trying to get a lot of reading in now since I'll be dealing with cataract surgery in Jan and Feb 2025.

I have, I think, managed to stick with the books that were on my plan at the start. Oh, no, I’ve read 3 I didn’t intend to… and have another 3 I added after.

Probably not true , it’s probably double that BUT I am still doing better than I normally would! Lol

Connie - the world will look all fresh and new after the cataract surgery. I had mine nearly 30 years ago. I was very (VERY!) near-sighted, so the implants were an added bonus for correcting vision.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Connie - the world will look all fresh and new after the cataract surgery. I had mine nearly 30 years ago. I was very (VERY!) near-sighted, so the implants were an added bonus for correcting vision."

It's good to hear from someone who had great results, Elizabeth. I'll still have to wear glasses, but with a weaker prescription.

i also recently had cataract surgery and am very happy with it! The challenge is going well for me and I'm getting through some books I already own.

Karen Michele wrote: "i also recently had cataract surgery and am very happy with it! The challenge is going well for me and I'm getting through some books I already own."

I'm glad your surgery went well, Karen.

Connie wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "i also recently had cataract surgery and am very happy with it! The challenge is going well for me and I'm getting through some books I already own."

I'm glad your surgery we..."

My mom had cataract surgery but she still needs to wear glasses.

Jayme(theghostreader) wrote: "Connie wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "i also recently had cataract surgery and am very happy with it! The challenge is going well for me and I'm getting through some books I already own."

I'm glad ..."

I'll still have to wear glasses too, Jayme, but not as strong a prescription. I've been wearing glasses since I was in 6th grade so it's just part of my life.

I been wearing glasses since I was 9 and then i wore contacts in high school, then went back to glasses. 20/20 vision is not in my future.

When I had my cataract surgery, I commented to the doctor that a great great grandfather had had cataract surgery in 1850. My doctor said the surgery was very crude back then, that basically it was opening the eye and knocking the lens away. Of course they had no anesthesia or implants then, and the glasses needed afterward were heavy and pretty awful.

The procedure has come a long way since then! I ended up with one eye for distance and the other for close-up for very short spells and do pretty well for most things without glasses. I have a large screen for the computer and manage pretty well. I do wear glasses for reading when I’ll be at it for longer than just a restaurant menu, for example.

I, too, started wearing glasses very young - I think I was 7, after they tested vision in 2nd grade. My vision got progressively worse for several years and then leveled out when I was 15 or so. I got hard contact lenses then, well before contact lens wearing was commonplace. Soft contacts had not yet been invented, but I couldn’t wear them anyway because their prescription isn’t steep enough.

I still have hard contact lenses - they make them permeable now, so they let through some oxygen. I have one eye for distance and one for computer/reading. The brain adjusts between them, and with my lenses in, I have a better range of vision than anyone of my age that I know.

I have tried soft ones but I couldn't get along with them because they don't correct astigmatism so well. Also, they are so much more expensive! I think it is almost a scam the way everyone (in the UK at least) is introduced to daily disposable soft contact lenses as if they were the only kind. There is a lot more profit in those daily lenses, but they are not so effective for many people.

Does anyone else wish this season had an extra month in it? I have so many books I want to get to this season and it's just not going to happen. Yeah, I know, there's still most of a month left, but I can't read 30 books a month like some of you. ;-)

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Does anyone else wish this season had an extra month in it? I have so many books I want to get to this season and it's just not going to happen. Yeah, I know, there's still most of a month left, bu..."

Ha, ha.... I often feel like that.

I feel like that every season! :-)

Yep, always! So I am going to try something really radical next season- I am not going to plan! I am just going to read whatever takes my fancy whenever I finish a book, then pray to the book gods that it will work for something! 🤣😂

It’s been a hectic few weeks in our house, after a challenging couple of months, so I think it is time to take the pedal off and just chill for a bit.

Apple, that's heresy! How can you not plan!!! 🤣

You mean people don't plan????? Actually, I am doing pretty good this season.

My reason for planning is that I have so many books I want to read. I use the challenge to help me to make choices among them. My plan always includes at least twice as many books as I could possibly get to in the time allowed. This season "twice as many" is an understatement.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Apple, that's heresy! How can you not plan!!! 🤣"

I am feeling the pressure of the end of the year, so I am going to experiment ;)

I always see books I just *have* to read (just picked up Even Though I Knew the End, which I am loving, and will work for Maths, but was not part of my plan), so I am just going to see where that takes me, instead of reading the books that I feel that I have to read.

This made me laugh from Joanna's task post: (***I might be one of the only people in the universe who hasn't read a book by this prolific author, but this is my first one***).

I haven't read any of his books, so now I may be the last person..... ha, ha.

Oh, no, not the last. ;-)

Glad to know I'm not the only one! For what it's worth, I thought Killing Floor was an exceptional book for a debut novel, though more violent than I had realized I was getting myself into. I'd definitely read another Jack Reacher book in the future.