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

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

I'll give it a shot, Geoff! I might read some of his short stories first.

I'm currently on Book 4 of Paradise Lost, and have just started Alias Grace. For once, I'm actually book juggling!

That's what I did. The Hobbit almost 'sets you up' for LOTR. It's simpler, and shorter, so you can get a feel for it and get into the world of Tolkien's writing.

That's a really interesting list, Alie! I hope you enjoy all of them!

60 is a brave number. Good luck to you :)

Carol, you'll have to let me know what you thought about Enders Game. I absolutely loved it!

Vicky, I wholeheartedly recommend The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to you. It is beautiful writing, and the story is just wonderful. Tolkien makes a world come alive, even though it is completely different to your own.

If you read it, I wouldn't bother with the first chapter about the history of Hobbits. It's very easy to be put off by it, but it's not really needed in the story. It was basically Tolkien showing off how deep his world was. I went back and read it after I read the books, and I didn't see much point to it!

If you can, read them. :)

Most people count e-books as part of their challenge. They are, after all, books :)

If you read a lot of bigger books, it might be more rewarding for you to do a 'word count' challenge? Like this year, along with my reading challenge, I said that I should read at least 10,000 pages, which I've completed. Smaller goals, rather than bigger ones can perhaps entice you to read more and more!

I'm planning on reading some Poe later today! I'll check the ones you've said out!

There's a readalong with The Classics Club of Ulysses this winter (December-January) and I'm really not sure whether to give it a shot or not! Everyone says you need to have read The Odyssey, which I haven't...

I must admit, Middlemarch was long considering it was 880 pages. I remember Les Mis being really interesting to read, until he got to the rambling, tangent parts. I don't really remember it feeling particularly long for that reason...

Ah, the world of trading cards! It's been a few years since my love for that has died out.. Found my old collection of yugioh cards the other day. It was a proud moment

I completely agree. You have some big works in there too! If you ever start reading Ulysses, you'll have to let me know. The length makes it daunting, but makes me inquisitive at the same time...

That's an amazing set of books, Lissa! I can't wait to see what you think of them. We seem to share a lot as well, so I'd be really interested in doing some buddy-reads with you!

You are slightly biased when it comes to that point!

This has always been something I've struggled with. I have a book open, pencil poised, and I just can't think of anything to write. I guess this is freaking me out a little (hence this post) seeing as they massively push this in Universities, and I'm just not who writes in books.

To a certain extent, I have nothing against making notes/underlining. Just as long as it's in pencil, and certainly not in highlighter. I see highlighted paperbacks and part of my soul blackens and dies...

A blogger I follow recently posted a picture of her copy of Middlemarch, lovely an annotated and pretty from use. Part of me dreams about being able to do that, and this is why I've made this thread. Does anyone have any tips for writing in them? My mind goes blank when I want to annotate something, therefore I have an absence of scribbles and underlinings in my books.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Maha, that's a really interesting way of doing things. I've always been told by my parents that there's no point buying a book that you've already read in paper form. I do it if it's one of my favourite books *cough*The Handmaid's Tale*cough*.

I'm afraid I disagree with you when it comes to libraries, Lissa. I basically live in my school one, and they have such a wide array of classics that I just can't help myself! You'll have to give me your tips on underlining and annotating books, I've always massively struggled with this! I might make a thread about it actually...

I don't know how you can cope with two massive novels like that! I'd be quaking in my boots!

I don't even know the storyline for Bleak House, but I have heard that it's one of the harder Dickens novels. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on it. Have you considered having a character list beside you? I quite often just find one on google and print it out. They often have a short description of the character, which helps for the larger novels

I don't read those ones ;)

This is one of the most heated debates I think going on right now in the book world. e-Readers are increasingly becoming common, with Goodreads increasingly pushing self-published books now it's been brought by Amazon.

Personally, I'm happily on the fence when it comes to this topic. I think the whole culture has a 'this-or-that' view. You can either read paperbacks OR use an e-Reader. I use both. I must admit, I am more partial towards physical books. If I can get it from my library/I own it, I will read it in it's physical form. However, I do have 3,500 books in my Calibre library (basically iTunes for ebooks), which I got free. If I can't get it in my library, I will read it on my Kindle if I have it in my library.

What are your views?

I've been meaning to read it this month, instead I've been putting it off. I really should get round to it. Might start it today actually and give 'book-juggling' a go.

That is very true, plus you review some great books!

Apparently they hate all of the characters. Personally, I've only read about half of it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.