Challenge: 50 Books discussion

I just wrote about self-studies, here:

http://readingwithsea.wordpress.com/2...

Does anyone else do self-studies?

-Sea

Last year I wanted to plow through all of Agatha Christie, which was a childhood passion of mine. I succeeded barely, and learned alot about Christie, her times and her style from the effort. I'm an attorney by trade, and I find reading older detective fiction actually hones modern logic and gives one creative ways to form jury arguments.

This year, I am taking a totally different path and reading all of Haruki Murakami. I'm 2 years into the self-study of the Japanese language, and I thought that the literature of the country would be a great perspective for me. Of course, Murakami is supposed to be very "Western" in style, but I read his non-fiction novel Underground last year and was hooked on his style and prose.

As an aside, I am also reading all of the original Sherlock Holmes, for pure fun. Great question and discussion topic though :)

Ast

astrangerhere wrote: "Last year I wanted to plow through all of Agatha Christie, which was a childhood passion of mine. I succeeded barely, and learned alot about Christie, her times and her style from the effort. I'm ..."

I would so love to hook you up with my friend and fellow Member (of Reading With Sea) Robin. He loves, loves, loves Haruki Murakami and is currently reading all of his books, too.

Your studies sound so fun. I have the original collection of Sherlock Holmes sitting on my shelf, but it hasn't quite made it to my read next pile.

-Sea

Algebra. I felt so... disheartened.. by my poor performance in high school when I was certainly capable enough that I actually took an adult ed class before I went to college. I had better things to do once I got to college. My self esteem marginally restored, a few years ago I picked up an algebra book & work on it when I'm stuck at jury duty or on a train. I feel remarkably less stupid, not proficient, but definitely less stupid.

Donna wrote: "Algebra. I felt so... disheartened.. by my poor performance in high school when I was certainly capable enough that I actually took an adult ed class before I went to college. I had better things t..."

That's quite an ambitious self-study. I am horrible at math and struggled beyond description throughout high school and college as well.

2008 was the year of Dickens for me. I read all of his completed novels. 2009 was a year of westerns, and 2010 is a year of biographies & memoirs. Spending a year with Dickens is one of my proudest reading accomplishments.

For 2010, my goal is to read all of Elizabeth Gaskell's major works. I read North and South and Cranford last year, and have finished Mary Barton so far this year. Still have to read Ruth, Sylvia's Lovers and Wives and Daughters. Gaskell's work includes a lot of social commentary on the state of the working class during the industrial revolution, and I do like to use other sources to read about these topics at the same time.

Jeanne wrote: "2008 was the year of Dickens for me. I read all of his completed novels. 2009 was a year of westerns, and 2010 is a year of biographies & memoirs. Spending a year with Dickens is one of my proud..."

I love Dickens. I've never known really why, but I have for as long as I can remember been so wrapped in his struggles.

Badlydone wrote: "For 2010, my goal is to read all of Elizabeth Gaskell's major works. I read North and South and Cranford last year, and have finished Mary Barton so far this year. Still have to read Ruth, Sylvia's..."

Sounds like you have a long list of reads. I've never read any of her works.

I'm a little hesitant about reading challenges though, in terms of actual areas of study or authors. Perhaps it was years of college, graduate and law school and all the required reading it entailed. Feeling like I "have to" do something makes it a little tougher. It puts my partner off completely. Of course, as I keep setting myself challenges, I understand that this is rather a contradictory line of thought. But I'd been thinking about it recently, and here is a nice ready made forum for discussion...

A good example is of the problem: I am rading all of Murakami this year, and finished After the Quake this weekend. But I was a little put off because I didn't really like it as much as some of his other novels. The letdown makes it a little harder to pick up that next book. Thoughts?

astrangerhere wrote: "I'm a little hesitant about reading challenges though, in terms of actual areas of study or authors. Perhaps it was years of college, graduate and law school and all the required reading it entaile..."

Forgive me, but I laughed while reading your last post. Challenges don't have to an assignment nor are they graded. Besides, no one will hold you accountable. For me, these challenges are ways to keep myself on track on the challanges or goals that I had already set for myself.

Last year, was a busy year and I had set myself a goal of reading 50 books in a year. I fell short of this goal by about 10 books and at the rate at which I bought books last year felt this was not a ratio I could be happy with. So while friends were telling me to lower my goal for this next year, I decided to double it and give myself a goal of 100 books for 2010. I have no idea if I will be able to accomplish this, but I'm enjoying the self challenge.

What I like to do, when I'm in the middle of a self-challenge like your Murakami one, is to read something totally easy and light-hearted in between. Like a guilty pleasure sort of novel. Keeps me reading at the very least.

Sea wrote: "Badlydone wrote: "For 2010, my goal is to read all of Elizabeth Gaskell's major works. I read North and South and Cranford last year, and have finished Mary Barton so far this year. Still have to r..."

Sea, if you enjoy Dickens, you may enjoy Gaskell too. She was a contemporary of Dickens and addressed some of the issues of the day that Dickens does. Many of her works were published by Dickens in "Household Words". Good places to start reading Gaskell are "North and South" or "Cranford".

Badlydone wrote: "Sea wrote: "Badlydone wrote: "For 2010, my goal is to read all of Elizabeth Gaskell's major works. I read North and South and Cranford last year, and have finished Mary Barton so far this year. Sti..."

Thank you for that information! I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know that. I'll order one of those two books this very day.