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

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

This will be the general discussion thread for the readathon. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here. Other than that, it's a general place to discuss the readathon and how people are psyching up for it!

Don't forget the readathon is from Saturday 6th September (0:01am) to Sunday 7th September (24:00)!

Note: Don't forget to sign up at the group event!

Note: Don't forget to sign up at the group event!

Two days, 48 hours and as many books as you can read. Sound like a good enough challenge for everyone?

From Saturday 6th September (0:01am) to Sunday 7th September (24:00), we'll be hosting the groups first readathon! In celebration of the start of the school term, and a much needed push to get all of those reading challenges done, we challenge YOU to read as much as you can over that weekend. That means 48 hours of pure reading!

Whether you want to count by pages, number of books or reading time, that's completely up to you! Any and all book forms are allowed: print, short stories, comicbooks, audiobooks, poetry collections, plays, anything.

Multiple threads will be up to get people talking: the general discussion thread, a 'what are you going to read' thread and a techniques thread for sharing tips and tricks on how to do the best you can! Make sure you get stuck into them!

Obviously, many of our members live all over the world and in different timezones. In order to fix this, start your readathon when your personal clock ticks onto the weekend. It will mean, overall, the reading will be staggered, but works best for everyone!

Finally, a few people have asked me if they have to read every minute of the 48 hours? Obviously not. We all have things going on in our lives, and weekends can be busy. This readathon is just about getting you reading as much as you can, when you can. You can still take part even if you can't devote the full 48 hours to reading! (Obviously, sleep is required unless you're really hardcore!)

53% and it's absolutely a joy to read. Fabulous book! The writing is absolutely beautiful.

Well, it's up to you :) you can decide!

About 10% of the way through, and it's really intriguing me!

Some things I read in reviews and I've picked up on:

- The actual concept of homosexuality is never exactly mentioned. There's a lot of very covered innuendos that really make it intriguing to figure out what bits are about being gay, and which aren't. Definitely works well with the time of the novel.
- Renault's writing style is really poetic. There are certain passages that solely focus on one item or idea that weave into a long exploration. Personally, I really love this style of writing (reminds me of a lot less fancy The Scarlett Letter), but I can understand why it would bug people.
- Lastly, Renault seems to jump from scene to scene with little context. The jump to Laurie's school days threw me a bit, and I couldn't work out where he was and how old he was. Adds a little bit extra to the writing.

I'll definitely update my views and findings when I get more into the romance side.

P.S. What I believe to be a Laurie's kiss in his school days is perhaps one of the most romantic things I've ever read. There's no explanation or scene-setting needed - you know what it is without anything other than a dash for halted speech.

It looks like we could have a really lively discussion of this!

I'll definitely try and fit this in.

Roseanne, would you be interested at all in being a Discussion Leader for any of the group reads? :)

I'll happily do a buddy read of Catcher in the Rye!

There's some really awesome lists on here! I can't 100% confirm what I'll be reading throughout the whole month. But here's a tentative starting list:

Wuthering Heights
Great Expectations
The Catcher in the Rye
One play by William Shakespeare
Notes from Underground

A new feature we're doing for Group Reads are discussion leaders, who help continue the conversation with check-ins and discussion questions. This is in response to some of the group reads discussions not really happening, so we thought we'd spice things up a bit and make it more driven.

If anyone would like to be a Discussion Leader for this group read, please message me or Faye and we can add you to the book on the Group Bookshelf. Preferably, if you've read it before, that would be best. If you're really psyched about reading it, then feel free to ask to become one too!

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to message either one of us, or ask in the 'Any Questions?' thread.

A new feature we're doing for Group Reads are discussion leaders, who help continue the conversation with check-ins and discussion questions. This is in response to some of the group reads discussions not really happening, so we thought we'd spice things up a bit and make it more driven.

If anyone would like to be a Discussion Leader for this group read, please message me or Faye and we can add you to the book on the Group Bookshelf. Preferably, if you've read it before, that would be best. If you're really psyched about reading it, then feel free to ask to become one too!

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to message either one of us, or ask in the 'Any Questions?' thread.

A new feature we're doing for Group Reads are discussion leaders, who help continue the conversation with check-ins and discussion questions. This is in response to some of the group reads discussions not really happening, so we thought we'd spice things up a bit and make it more driven.

If anyone would like to be a Discussion Leader for this group read, please message me or Faye and we can add you to the book on the Group Bookshelf. Preferably, if you've read it before, that would be best. If you're really psyched about reading it, then feel free to ask to become one too!

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to message either one of us, or ask in the 'Any Questions?' thread.

A new feature we're doing for Group Reads are discussion leaders, who help continue the conversation with check-ins and discussion questions. This is in response to some of the group reads discussions not really happening, so we thought we'd spice things up a bit and make it more driven.

If anyone would like to be a Discussion Leader for this group read, please message me or Faye and we can add you to the book on the Group Bookshelf. Preferably, if you've read it before, that would be best. If you're really psyched about reading it, then feel free to ask to become one too!

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to message either one of us, or ask in the 'Any Questions?' thread.

I'll be re-reading this sometime in the next few days. It's required reading for one of my modules in my first semester at Uni, so I'll be taking some notes, which should aid the discussion.

Have you read any other Sherlock Holmes stories, Sandy?

The Importance of Being Earnest is a great play, and Oscar Wilde is a great writer. I've never got round to Lady Windermere's Fan, so let me know how it goes :)

Iasa, I'll set up an Events post to keep track of everything :) It will probably be in the General thread, so keep an eye out for it :)

Definitely a good idea!

Yeah, the print versions had to be split in two because it's so big. I believe Chapter 42 is where it's split. And I can confirm that the Kindle book is the two parts.

Good luck. Part 1 (just over half the book), is great!

Do you have it in parts, or the whole book?

I'll be starting A Storm of Swords, Part 2: Blood and Gold. So I'll be around where you are! :D

I might open it up to the whole group and just see how it goes. Ideally, it would be handy to have a few people just making sure, if people have any questions, or anything, to keep them on track. Perhaps to lend a hand in encouraging people and everything to go ahead :)

Just got back to you, Amber.