Reading with Style discussion

Happy New Year everyone!

I just learned of this collection. The "Read Sample" (formerly Look Inside) link shows the Table of Contents. For those who read digitally, there might be titles that fit your earlier Mysteries Challenge years.

British Mysteries - Boxed Set (350+ Detective Novels, Thrillers & True Crime Stories): Sherlock Holmes Cases, Father Brown Mysteries, Hercule Poirot, P. C. Lee Stories…

Apologies for appearing to be MIA, I have been in a reading slump and have really struggled even picking up a book :(

I am back at work as of yesterday, so back to a regular routine, and should be around a bit more :)

Come chat with me about what you'd like to see in Styles and Bonuses in future seasons here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Halfway! Halfway! Halfway!

How is everyone doing?

I have a different approach this season. I'm doubling/tripling up on a few tasks and so won't come to even a whisper of a finish. On the other hand, I'm binge reading a series I really enjoy and getting to some other very enjoyable authors too.

If this was a regular winter season, I would say I was on track for a megafinish. However, I'm not sure because of my 'big fat read'. I am at 17 completed out of 30 tasks, as of just now. Because I don't tend to read for the tasks in a strategic way, I may not finish any grouping! We'll see.

Genji is taking some time away from shorter RwS books, of course. So far though, 83 pages in, I am finding it very readable (but not a fast read) and am enjoying the episodic story so far.

There are seasons when I've been very tempted to take that approach Elizabeth, but for some reason I haven't jumped in yet!

Welcome, Claire! Hope you enjoy the group and the challenges.

I have finally posted my first review in my world journey (one more week of our BBL cricket competition - our Melbourne Stars somehow made the finals!), and you can see it here if interested:

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

Melbourne, this time of year, is tennis.

It is partly because of the tennis crowd I gave up my membership for BBL - all the sports are in the once precinct, so traffic and parking are an absolute nightmare (that said, they have actually changed our start and finish dates, so it is a little less of a crossover). We also have our football/soccer season, so it is absolute madness. Much easier to watch from my lounge room.

Growing up I watched the tennis, Yannick Noah was my favourite, but since being married, and more since being a mum, it has been cricket all the way.

Australian Open is a different experience for me. The time difference makes the daytime play late afternoon/evening. Your nighttime matches are way too late for me. You are 20 hours different from me, so I just do the time 4 hours later, but a day/date earlier.

Wimbledon and the French is a different problem. The matches start my time about 2am. I get up early, but not that early. But it’s easier to set the DVR for them. At least I can watch on the same day.

The US Open in NYC has nighttime matches starting at 7:30 in NYC or 3:30 pm for me. I like those.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Halfway! Halfway! Halfway!

How is everyone doing?

I have a different approach this season. I'm doubling/tripling up on a few tasks and so won't come to even a whisper of a finish. On the other ha..."

I am doing well points wise.

Anika wrote: "my NYR is to work towards completion of the group Countries of the World challenge, this one was set >50% in Lithuania which turned that country green :-)"

Hooray!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anika wrote: "my NYR is to work towards completion of the group Countries of the World challenge, this one was set >50% in Lithuania which turned that country green :-)"

Hooray!"

Thanks, Elizabeth :-) Even though it's slow-going, I am determined to chip away at what's left on that challenge!

I should be looking at it too with my goal!

Last night (in the midst of a terrible winter storm!!), my friend and I went to see 'Fifteen Dogs" in Toronto. Of course, we bought the tickets months ago so this was the inspiration for my task this season: 10.8 Theatre.

It was 5 star good. The adaptation of André Alexis' novel was stellar. The staging was minimal, so it was up to the actors to portray the 'essense' of dog - and boy, were they good.

Polls for Spring season are posted!

For the color task, do white and black count? How about plurals, possessives or hyphenations? (I don't have examples for this latter.)

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "For the color task, do white and black count? How about plurals, possessives or hyphenations? (I don't have examples for this latter.)"

Yes, white and black will count, and plurals are fine. We will not count combined words (e.g., blacksmith).

Thank you. Lots of possibles for this one.

For the water-related task, would words such as ice, snow, rain etc count?

Lagullande wrote: "For the water-related task, would words such as ice, snow, rain etc count?"

Yep!

Thanks go to Anika for designing a fabulous Spring Subchallenge.

Come check out Choose Your Own Adventure, RwS style.

Joanna wrote: "Thanks go to Anika for designing a fabulous Spring Subchallenge.

Come check out Choose Your Own Adventure, RwS style."

Oh what fun! Thank you Anika!

5 views on the Spring 2025 Task Overview thread as I write. Are we all anxious? LOL

Now that I've seen them, not so anxious.

Hi everyone.... I hope everyone is doing well. (I'll have to catch up on this board.)
I haven't been checking in for quite a while.... have had a lot going on..... but I thought I'd say hi and pat myself on the back for completing all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

Glad to see you, Ed. You’ve been missed.

Ed wrote: "Hi everyone.... I hope everyone is doing well. (I'll have to catch up on this board.)
I haven't been checking in for quite a while.... have had a lot going on..... but I thought I'd say hi and pat ..."

Long time, no see! Welcome back 🤗
And a huge kudos on the Proust finish—that is a monumental accomplishment…it took me forever to get through just Swann’s Way.

Hi Ed! That is quite the accomplishment!

Hi Ed - it's good to see you!

I'm excited about the 20 point tasks that are connected to MIT! My dad studied aeronautical engineering there and so I lived there when I was 3 (1956) and then visited again with him near the end of his life. There is just such a sense of excitement for science there. I've glanced at the MIT Research Themes and look forward to looking into them more (after I've planned for the challenge)! Here are some pictures of the wind tunnel where my dad spent a lot of time. I'll always love and miss him!

I have a relative that works at MIT so I also enjoyed the MIT connection. I like the climate change task since I enjoy dystopian fiction and it makes me think about the world. For the other tasks we can choose books that are as light or as dark as we want. (There are some politicians that promoted peace and/or helping others like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Jimmy Carter, and the Dalai Lama if you want to get away from wars or contemporary politics.)

Finished my last book for this season.

Hi Kathleen - welcome to the group!

Welcome, Kathleen!
I love “dark, tense, and adventurous” so hope you’ll be participating in the challenge and that you’ll be writing reviews for your books—I’m always on the lookout for something new…

Welcome Kathleen! Glad to have you hear.

I really liked The Broken Earth Trilogy. I'm a Jemisin fan for sure. Have you read Parable of the Sower? I really liked that one and it's sequel.

Welcome Kathleen.

All Spring tasks are now posted. Happy reading!

oops! I have completely lost my challenge worksheet lol

I can't be bothered building a new spreadsheet either - umph, it's also got a list of all the books I own to read. oh dear... I thought it was in a safe folder but I thought wrong!

sooo I might leave this season challenge unfinished but I'll be back next season :D

Oh god! I can’t imagine losing my spreadsheet! I switched it to Google drive so I can access on my home and work computers as well as phone.

I’m not obsessed, you are 😝

Tien wrote: "oops! I have completely lost my challenge worksheet lol

I can't be bothered building a new spreadsheet either - umph, it's also got a list of all the books I own to read. oh dear... I thought it ..."

Oh no! That's the worst :( . I lost my original reading spreadsheet about 10 years ago - I was not happy.

I've used OneDrive from Microsoft for years. My challenge spreadsheet includes everything from when I joined RwS in 2010 to the present. All of the books I read and all of the books that fit tasks but didn't get read. AND, the Mysteries challenges, my personal Women of the 20th Century, 19th Century, and WWI challenges, too. In February, I added a sheet for books that fit the Countries of the World challenge. Maybe one day we'll even have a task again for that.

Is anyone else having an issue with getting notifications?
I never changed my settings, but the last time I got any notifications was 4 days ago and I just came in here and noticed there has been a lot of activity I've missed... :-/

No, I seem to be fine.

I have already hit the part of the season where I am juggling books, looking at what i had selected, what I am actually interested in reading this season, and seeing what is going to work and what isn't. This is about two weeks early, lol.

I tried to front load the season and I hope I can keep up with the plan. The first 2 weeks of May have things going on that will impact my reading time, so I am hoping this plan will hold me in good stead. If I can stick with it until the end of April, without shiny 'other' book choices distracting me it could be a good season.

Those damned shiny books!

Anika wrote: "Is anyone else having an issue with getting notifications?
I never changed my settings, but the last time I got any notifications was 4 days ago and I just came in here and noticed there has been a..."

I don't get notifications by email any more. I think Goodreads stopped that.

Notifications were stopped after some sort of update but I believe you can opt back in... as I just realised I forgot to tick the "notify me when people comment" in this thread and many others! It's not automatic anymore.

keep it on the quiet but I use my work laptop for my worksheet (saves me from logging on to another computer) and I can't upload anywhere. Makes sense for security purposes and last time, I had to change laptop, I remembered to move it but this time, I just wasn't thinking right... it's ok. I'm forced to sit back and relax though how is it relaxing when I'm stressing how to pick my next book lol

yea, we are obsessed, Apple!

Well better late than never! My The Tale of Genji update.

I am about 1.5 weeks behind, but I have finished the first quarter! I am liking it quite a bit, overall, the writing and use of language is poetic. There are A LOT of characters though, but I decided before starting that I wouldn't worry about that because there is essentially no plot (I would if it was Tolstoy because there is a plot). We have followed Genji from birth to 28 yo at this point. This is not a book of adventures, instead we follow a high-born wealthy man of the ruling caste in medieval Japan. We get to know a little of how the ruling class lived, in Japan, at that time which is interesting. The thing I did not expect is that is book is more of a romance and melodrama - but I can only suppose that is what Murasaki Shikibu 's audience wanted.

Oops. Something happened to my score. At message 293 I had a score of 145. Now the Reader Board shows 15 points.