Holly’s Comments (group member since Nov 05, 2013)

Holly’s comments from the The Reading Challenge Group group.

To Read Lists:

University Reading: 17/17 (COMPLETED)
The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope - READ 27/01
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte - READ 26/01
Dr Faustus, by Christopher Marlow - READ 01/01
Henry V, by William Shakespeare - READ 2014
A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift - READ 24/02
A Sicilian Romance, by Ann Radcliffe - READ - 04/03
Lyrical Ballads, by William Wordsworth - READ 20/03
North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell - READ 26/04
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley - READ PREVIOUSLY
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen - READ 2014
The History of Mary Prince, by Mary Prince - READ 20/02
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte - READ PREVIOUSLY
Goblin Market, by Christina Rosetti - READ 08/03
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf - READ 17/01
The Driver's Seat, by Muriel Spark - READ 20/03
Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy - READ 27/03
The Colour Purple, by Alice Walker - READ 30/03

Shakespeare: 20/37

Left to read:
All's Well That Ends Well
Cymbeline
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Love Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of WIndsor
Othello
Pericles
Richard II
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressinda
The Winters Tale

5 essays/essay collections: 2/5
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, by Various Writers

5 poems/poetry collections: 3/5
The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope
Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti
Lyrical Ballads, by William Wordsworth

Reserved

Again, I'm going to aim for 100 books in 2015. I'd go for higher, but I've struggled enough as it is this year!

Total: 52/100

1. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
2. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
4. The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
5. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
6. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
7. Stoner by John Williams
8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
9. Stop What You're Doing and Read This! by Various Writers
10. The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave Narrative by Mary Prince
11. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
12. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
13. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
14. A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe
15. Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
16. Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth
17. The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark
18. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
19. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
20. The Martian by Andy Weir
21. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
22. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
23. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
24. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
25. Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) by Hugh Howey
26. When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales of Neurosurgery by Frank T. Vertosick Jr.
27. Othello by William Shakespeare
28. Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson
29. Pansy by Andrea Gibson
30. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood
31. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
32. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
33. Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
34. The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts
35. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
36. Armada by Ernest Cline
37. The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
38. The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen
39. Shift by Hugh Howey
40. Normal by Graeme Cameron
41. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
42. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
43. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
44. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
45. Richard II by William Shakespeare
46. Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
47. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
48. The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer
49. The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
50. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
51. The White Devil by John Webster
52. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Loads of things are happening!

You might see a few changes going on around the site through December. This is essentially us prepping for 2015. We've got loads of really awesome things happening next year, so things might be a bit mad and wild. If you're at all confused, don't worry. Feel free to ask us any questions you have!

Most importantly, have you signed up for our final readathon of the year? It's the big on, running from the 24th to the 31st! Don't forget to sign up to the event (so we can get a rough idea of numbers), and get chatting in our discussion threads!

Secondly, you may have noticed a new folder is up and running. Towards the bottom of the group, we now have a place to put your 2015 Personal Challenge threads for next year! It's only 31 days away! (eek!) You're welcome to make them what you wish, go as mad in organisation as you wish!

And finally, yes, the name has changed! We're getting ready for the move to 2015! Just to make things clear, we are not moving groups. We will be archiving threads and rearranging things a bit, but it will ultimately be the same group!

Don't forget, we always want your suggestions for the group! Come up with an idea for 2015? Let us know in the Suggestions/Improvements thread!

It's a new dawn, it's a new year!

Personal Challenges are threads for you to keep track with your reading over the year. How you use them is up to you. It could just be a simple book list, or it could be a log of everything you do in the group (mini challenge participation etc). Basically, it's your place to do what you want with. You could have multiple lists within your thread if you want!

Set up your own thread and get ready to start reading! 2015 here we come!

I absolutely adored Master and Commander, Melissa. I hope you do too!

(I am also very partial to the film as well!)

Aha, I actually don't mind it, Renee, although it took me a while to adjust!

What do you think is 'yuck' about it?

Pretty sure I've lost my voice. Note to self: don't go out drinking with the LGBT lot when you have a sore throat. It leads to lots of singing...

Think I'll read A Christmas Carol for this. I really need to read more Dickens...

I completely forgot to do an announcement for everything currently going on!

We have two polls for you to vote on, which we really need your votes for!

The first is a poll to decide when the December Readathon will be! This is to 'close' the year, but we understand that people are super busy around important holidays, so we've opened it up to you guys when to pick. You can find it here.

We also have a really important poll to get your opinions on our new Group-Wide Challenge: The Points Challenge. You may have seen this in the Mini Challenges folder, where we test run it for the last two months to get an idea of it's popularity. We want you to give us your opinion on it. You can find the poll here, and we've also set up a discussion thread to get your opinions.

We really want your views on how to run it! Give us all you ideas! :)

(Sorry it took me a while to reply to this)

That's a really intersting idea, Chase, and would definitely add some variation to the challenge! We could have like a 'featured category' like the ones you mentioned!

My only worry that it would lessen opportunities for small mini-challenges like the Banned Book Challenge and other shorter ones (often with only one book).

But I really like the idea. We could have really silly ones like 'Read a book with a red cover', or ones that are simple but add something to it.

Awesome suggestion!

Phew! I was getting worried then! :P

That's some insane numbers! And great improvements from 2013!

Over the last two months, we've been testing out the Points Challenge in the Mini Challenges thread. We're looking to expand it into a group-wide challenge, which will replace the 10,000 books tally next year!

The Points Challenge has a set of points for each book read, and how they relate to the group. This is just another fun way of adding a bit of fun and light hearted competition to the group. Like the 10,000 books right now, we'd have logging threads so you can log how many points you have each month.

POINT SYSTEM
Read a general book: 1 point per book
Read a "shortie" (short story, poem, play): 0.5 points per
Read a group read book: 5 points per book
Read a buddy read book: 5 points per book you read with a buddy
Read a book for the genre challenge: 3 points per book
Read a book for a mini-challenge: 3 points per book
Complete a multi-book mini-challenge: 10 extra points

We ran it through October, and it continued into November with a lot of success.

Ultimately, what we want to know is: Do you want the Points Challenge to be expanded to be a Group-Wide Challenge in 2015? Would you be interested in taking part in it? Please vote in the poll here .

This is the thread to ask any questions, or give us your ideas and recommendations for the challenge. We'd really love this to go ahead, but we understand that it may be more maintenance than people want to.

I'm up to just over 26,000. This is 10,000 more than what I read last year, so I'm really chuffed.

Just need to get to my goal!

So looking forward to reading this one!

Might consider it if I need something reasonably quick to read, really need to push next month to hit my goal!

After the tie-break poll, our Non-Fiction group read for December is 84, Charing Cross Road!

Reading/Discussion will commence on the 1st.

If you want to read the runner-up, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, many people seem interested in it, so don't hesitate to set up a buddy read for the month!

I read Mrs Dalloway a year or two ago and really enjoyed it. I've been meaning to read this for ages, but have never gotten round to it! Looks like now I have a reason to! :)

Gah, I'm so jealous of your daughter! That would be like a dream. Why do I have to live in the UK?!

You're making me blush, Melissa! ;D

Melissa, I see you've got The Madness Vase by Andrea Gibson on your list. I wholeheartedly recommend it, it's really the only collection of poetry that really 'spoke' to me, with the danger of sounding too cliched.

If you get a chance, check out her performances of her poems on YouTube. She is, first and foremost, a spoken word poet, and many from that collection have been performed.

And let me know which poem is your favorite! I adore 'Andrew'!