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

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

Wow, so many great answers!

I loved Beatrix Potter, Good Morning Good Morning, and The Pokey Little Puppy as a wee kid, reading them a billion times over until their covers wore out. Then I progressed to The Bobbsey Twins, which were the loves of my literary lives for many years.

I also love love loved The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Victoria Plum, Winnie-the-Pooh, The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo, The Sleepover Friends series, The Babysitters Club series, absolutely everything by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables series, The Story Girl, Pat of Silver Bush, Jane of Lantern Hill, Emily of New Moon, etc), The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (!!!), anything by Enid Blyton, Tottie (or Story of a Doll's House), Little Women, the Little Town on the Prairie series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Golden Filly series... I know I'm forgetting some!

I swear I did more than just read through my entire childhood...

Question 1 - What were your favourite childhood books? Do any still stand out in your memory today and give you that warm feeling of book-love all over again just thinking about them?

Hey, guys!

Holly and I thought it would be fun to set up a kind of getting-to-know-each-other-better activity, where we can share and discuss various aspects of our reading lives, so we came up with the idea of the 50 Questions folder.

Every week I'll post a new book-related question for everyone to answer. Everyone is welcome to answer the question in the thread provided, and to discuss other members' answers as well. I'm sure we'll find out a lot about each other, and have lots of fun at the same time!

The thread for Question 1 is here.

Holly wrote: "What did you think of Rebecca?"

I really enjoyed it! I can't really formulate my thoughts on it yet, though. It kind of haunts your mind for a while after reading it, I'm finding.

I've read Rebecca and Things Fall Apart.

Finished Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, which counts towards my goal of 30 books from the Top 100 Books in World Literature list.

I didn't enjoy it at all, unfortunately. It follows a rather unlikeable character, and spends more time describing Nigerian culture and superstitions than it spends on building a decent plot. It felt like the author was trying to emulate the ancient epics like Gilgamesh, which can be forgiven their scattered plots and lack of character building because of when they were written. I couldn't overlook the faults in that approach coming from a modern pen.

I'm reading Ithaca, and enjoying it very much so far.

Jim wrote: "My goal for this year is 40 books so we shall see if I can make it."

Good luck, Jim. :)

Narin wrote: "I want to learn Russian someday too, but that's just way too terrifying for me right now, what with the completely different alphabet."

To me, the different alphabet is the best part! It's lots of fun to feel 2 years old again, learning what sound each letter makes, LOL. :)

Aitziber wrote: "And so I don't hijack Faye's thread with Duolingo love -- Faye, are you thinking of any specific book to read in Spanish? :)"

By all means, share the language love! :)

I have a book of short stories in Spanish that I definitely plan to read. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet. If anybody has suggestions, I'm open.

Margriet wrote: "This is a children's story in Latin, Faye Miffa Ad Mare

Good luck with the Challenge!"

Miffy in Latin?? That's awesome! Thanks, Margriet!

Holly wrote: "I must admit, I'm highly jealous of your '10 books in foreign languages'. I'd love to learn a language, but it just doesn't sit well with me. I hated the idea of studying at school, so I never have..."

I might be aiming too high with that one! I love studying languages, though. LOVE. I always wanted to be a translator, but aside from taking some French in school as a kid, I've never had the opportunity to take any language classes. It's a bit slow-going trying to learn them on my own, but I'm getting there. :)

Holly wrote: "Ah, Rebecca is such a beautiful novel.

I've been meaning to read more HG Wells. What did you think of The Island of Dr. Moreau?"

It was quite disturbing, actually, haha! But in kind of a reserved way, like a Hitchcock movie - what you don't see creeps the heck out of you. He was certainly a skillful writer!

My reads so far this year -

The Island of Dr. Moreau - Jan. 5
Rebecca - Jan. 12

I 5-starred them both, though I wouldn't say that they will end up on my "favourite books" list. I found them well-written, enjoyable, and even though they were a bit predictable to my modern mind, they still kept me guessing at times and held my interest. They both must have been quite shocking back in their day!

STARGATE!!!

*ahem* Sorry. Bit of a major fangirl. ;)

Aitziber wrote: "Botchan down, and since I finished with a few days to spare, I decided to pick up Berlin Alexanderplatz as a book outside the official challenge.

Berlin Alexanderplatz, along with other modernist..."

Ohh, I own a copy of Berlin Alexanderplatz but haven't read it yet.

Ukgardenfiend wrote: "Glad you think that too - I thought it was rather a mean thing to say - but maybe he was just a grumpy..."

Definitely sounded mean to me! Maybe he was bored. It's amazing how many people have nothing better to do than to pester folks online. ;)

K.L. wrote: "Ha! Hey, I'm slow. What do you want?"

Speed!! Chop chop! You still have the rest of the Hitchhiker's series AND all of Dune to get through.

Ukgardenfiend wrote: "I said I would read 125 this year as I am expecting to spend a considerable amount of time at home and immobile due to operation(s), but I got a response on the YouGov site where this was mentioned..."

Unless it's a competition and there's some kind of prize for largest amount of books read, I really don't see how it matters whether a book is long or short. Reading is reading, and if you're enjoying yourself and maybe even expanding your horizons a bit, then that's all that matters.

Someone who would set themselves the challenge of reading a large number of books only to fill up those numbers with books that mean nothing to them aside from being quick to read, well... that would be their own loss. If they actually enjoy reading Ladybird books, on the other hand, and feel rewarded doing so... hey, more power to them!

Either way, I don't see how it's anybody else's business. Read what you want to read, and count what you want to count. These are personal challenges, so you make your own rules. :)

Holly wrote: "Brenda, I love how Du Maurier wrote the main character. I love how we never got to know her actual name, and her insecurities are amazingly well written."

I noticed the name thing... it's actually quite skillful how she never lets it be known. Almost like that's part of her insecurities. I also noticed that (view spoiler)[she mentioned Maxim calling her by her name over and over once the whole thing with Rebecca had come out and they were finally on the same page. Even though she didn't tell us what her name WAS, it was like that signified that she wasn't going to walk around under the Rebecca cloud anymore - she was finally going to become her own person. (hide spoiler)]

I'm not quite finished the book yet, but that stood out to me.