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

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

Liz wrote: "this book was an oddity. never really warmed to it or the characters but it is considered a must read so i did. glad i did but wouldn't read it again."

I have to admit, Liz, I shared your opinion when I read it a while back, haha! I read it because... that's what you do. But I didn't enjoy it.

Shreya wrote: "I love the word "babushka". Soetimes call my grandmas when i am goofing around:). Its lovely that you are studying Russian. I always wanted to read them in Russian too. I wish goodreads also has a ..."

Yes, Goodreads members can add books! They're called Goodreads Librarians, and anyone can apply to become one. Here's the Help section about it - https://www.goodreads.com/librarian_m...

I'm told that non-Librarians can add books, too, but I don't know how that's done.

When I'm working on a reading challenge and I've invested precious time on a book that I'm not enjoying, I just skim the rest of it and still count it as read.

Welcome Jane, Monika, and Samantha! Jump right in and have fun. :)

Lindsay, don't get me started on how bad the manufacture and non-destruction of electronics are for the environment and how easy it is to plant a tree... ;)

Welcome Elly, Melissa, and Jennifer, and hi Kassandra, haha! :)

Sorry for the lack of structure thus far with the read-along, guys! Feel free to just talk amongst yourselves until we can sort out some kind of schedule.

The only thing I ask is that when mentioning specifics about the plot or character developments, you make it clear at the beginning of your post what chapter you'll be talking about and put any spoilers under a spoiler cut, out of respect for those who might be reading a little slower or who have fallen behind. A spoiler cut is made by typing in < spoiler > (without the spaces), then typing your comments, then adding < /spoiler > (without the spaces) at the end. Thanks, guys!

Sorry for the lack of structure thus far with the read-along, guys! Feel free to just talk amongst yourselves until we can sort out some kind of schedule.

The only thing I ask is that when mentioning specifics about the plot or character developments, you make it clear at the beginning of your post what chapter you'll be talking about and put any spoilers under a spoiler cut, out of respect for those who might be reading a little slower or who have fallen behind. A spoiler cut is made by typing in < spoiler > (without the spaces), then typing your comments, then adding < /spoiler > (without the spaces) at the end. Thanks, guys!

Sorry for the lack of structure thus far with the read-along, guys! I don't have my copy from the library yet, so I don't know how to set things up schedule-wise. Feel free to just talk amongst yourselves!

The only thing I ask is that when mentioning specifics about the plot or character developments, you make it clear at the beginning of your post what chapter you'll be talking about and put any spoilers under a spoiler cut, out of respect for those who might be reading a little slower or who have fallen behind. A spoiler cut is made by typing in < spoiler > (without the spaces), then typing your comments, then adding < /spoiler > (without the spaces) at the end. Thanks, guys!

That's great, Jeanna! Good luck. :)

I'm certainly thinking about it, Kassandra! We'll see how things go after the first month or two. :)

Bookcases! Nice!

James wrote: "No plan at all. I read what I feel I like to read from moment to moment..."

That's probably the best strategy of all, James!

Only 5? *whimpers*

Well... I definitely want to read Joyce's Ulysses and get started on Proust's In Search of Lost Time series/novel-in-volumes/whatever-it-is. So there's 2. There are loads that I plan to read, most of which I've been looking forward to for a long time, but as for really-really-want-to-reads...

The Book Thief
Vanity Fair
The Grapes of Wrath

Wow, that was painful...

Great idea for a discussion, Ola!

I tend to break down my goal for the year into how many I need to read per month (this year it's about 8) and then choose a few biggies and a few shorties (so to speak) out of the books at the top of my to-read list. Sometimes I don't read as many in a month as I should, if life gets too busy or I get too wrapped up in TV (shame on me, I know), but there are other months where I read a lot more, and there are always the shorter books to fall back on if I'm falling way behind, so it all evens out eventually.

I often stray from my original monthly list, though, since usually I come across a book or five that I hadn't planned to read that leaps out at me and cries "READ ME NOW!!!", giving me no choice but to abandon my carefully laid plans and indulge myself.

So I guess I don't really have a strategy, heh.

Hello all! Holly and I are so glad that this group has attracted so many members who love to read such a wide variety of literature! Hopefully we'll all have a wonderful reading year together in 2014. :)

We know that it can be hard sometimes to get your bearings in a new group, and on Goodreads in general for those of you who have recently become members or who haven't tried out the site's many wonderful features before, so we thought a post offering helpful hints for getting started was just what we needed to help you get the most out of your experience in this group.

So, without further ado, here are a few of the things you'll need to know in order to fully participate in The 2014 Reading Challenge Group -

1. Introduce yourself! We'd like to know who you are, what part of the world you're from, what kind of literature you love, and anything else about yourself that you feel like sharing. We're a friendly group, and we love to chat and share our love of books with one another. Jump right in and join us! The introduction thread is here.

2. Set yourself a reading goal. Members have set personal reading goals for 2014 ranging from 5 books to 365 books! The number of books that you read depends entirely on you. This isn't a contest to see who can read the most - it's a community full of people who are challenging themselves to read as much as their schedules, circumstances, and personal preferences will allow. We're here to encourage each other and share our love of great books, not compete with each other or put each other down. So set whatever goal feels right for you. There are a few different ways that you can do this -

a. Set a Goodreads Reading Challenge goal. You can do this by going here and typing into the widget how many books you hope to read in 2014. Once you have that number set, the widget will appear on your personal Goodreads page. Every time you finish a book within 2014 and declare it "read", simply go to the Edit Review page and under "date I finished this book" select the day, month, and year 2014. Once you save the review with that date on it, the book will automatically be counted towards your 2014 goal.

b. Set a 2014 reading goal with this group. This one is a little different. On this group's main page, you'll see at the top that there are 2 separate widgets for 2014 reading goals. The first is The Genre Challenge, which I'll talk about under "c". The second is The 2014 Reading Challenge. Type into that widget the amount of books you hope to read in 2014, and follow the instructions to create a shelf on your Goodreads page just for that challenge. Then, every time you complete a book in 2014, remember to add it to that shelf when you edit your review. Once it's on that shelf, it will automatically be counted towards your goal, and we'll be able to see it here on this group's challenge page.

c. Set a Genre Challenge goal with this group. One of the features on this group is our Monthly Genre Challenge, where we challenge each member (only if you want to) to read at least one book each month in that month's chosen genre. The monthly schedule is as follows -

January - Historical
February - Romance/Chick-Lit
March - Young Adult
April - Humour
May - Fantasy/Science-Fiction
June - Contemporary
July - Utopian/Dystopian
August - Crime/Mystery
September - Classic/Literary
October - Horror
November - Non-Fiction
December - Adventure

We're doing this in the interests of helping members to broaden their literary horizons, perhaps to step out of their comfort zone a little bit, and see what these different genres have to offer. Each month we'll have threads set up for people to recommend and discuss their favourite books in the genre-of-the-month, as well as having a group read of a book from that genre that members have voted on to read together and discuss at length.

To set yourself a goal for this challenge, use the Genre Challenge widget on the group's main page. Type in the amount of books you hope to read for this challenge, then follow the instructions to create a shelf for your personal Goodreads page to store the monthly genre books as you read them. Each time you finish a book that fits the category of the genre-of-the-month, add it to that shelf when you edit your review. It will automatically be counted towards your Genre Challenge goal.

3. Set up your own Personal Challenge thread. This is not a requirement, but a lot of members are finding it useful and fun to create their own thread in the Personal Challenges folder. You can find the folder here. To create your own thread, click the "new topic" link on the top right of the list of topics. Call it anything you want, but preferably include your name in the title so that you can find it easily amongst the multitude. That thread is then your own - you can keep track of the books you read throughout the year, post your own goals or challenges as you go along, even post or link to your reviews if you feel like sharing. Others will no doubt stop in to cheer you on or discuss the things you post, and we encourage you to peek into other people's personal challenge threads as well to offer encouragement and show some interest in your fellow members.

4. Join in on Group Reads. We will have 3 main group reads each month, as voted on by our members. One will be a classic, one will be of the Young Adult genre, and one will fall under the genre-of-the-month. For instance, the group reads for January are as follows -

Genre-of-the-Month (Historical) - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Classic - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
YA - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Throughout the month we will be reading and discussing these books. Feel free to join in with one, two, or even all three of these group reads. The more the merrier! Towards the middle of the month we'll be setting up nomination threads for the next month's group reads, again to be voted on by the group members. I'm sure we'll be reading some great literature together throughout the year!

5. Suggest a Buddy Read. As well as the official Group Reads, we also allow Buddy Reads here, which are unofficial group reads that the members set up on their own terms. If you see that another member will be reading something that you're planning to read yourself, feel free to ask that person if they would like to make it a buddy read. If that person is willing, take the discussion over to the Want to start a buddy read? thread and ask if anyone else would like to participate. Once you have a few interested parties, set up a thread for the book in the Buddy Reads folder, arrange a start and end date amongst yourselves, and off you go! You can also suggest a buddy read on your own, even if you haven't seen anyone else with that book listed in their reading plans.

6. Be kind to your fellow members. Everyone here loves to read, and that's probably more than you have in common with a lot of people you meet in your daily life! We're a community, even a family of sorts, but we're also a very diverse group with very different opinions, tastes, and beliefs. It's possible to disagree without arguing or belittling another, so we would ask that you please keep discussions friendly and be as open-minded as you can. As I said before, we're here to encourage each other and share our love of books, not to compete with each other or make one opinion out to be superior to the rest. It takes all kinds to make a world, as the saying goes, so please bring your best "live and let live" attitude to this group so that it remains fun and uplifting for all.

7. Have fun! If there's a topic you feel like talking about, feel free to open a discussion thread in the appropriate folder. If you'd like to talk about a book that doesn't have a thread yet, feel free to open one. If you're struggling with meeting your goal, let us know and we'll encourage you. If you're on a roll and feel like doing a happy dance, go right ahead and we'll join in! We're all in this together. Let's have a great reading year, everyone! :D

If you have any more questions or comments or suggestions, you can contact myself or Holly anytime just by clicking on our picture and the "send message" link on our profile page. We're here to help. :)

There's just never enough time to read all the books that are worth reading, is there? Good luck, Jenna!

I know, with the amount of people who are still flooding in I might have to raise the goal! ;)

Welcome, Lindsay!

Kimberly wrote: "This is my first time doing a challenge. I was going to go through my kindle and pick different books depending on my mood. Do I need to list them?"

No, you don't have to list them. Some people just like to share what they'll be reading so that if anybody else is reading the same thing they can discuss it together. :)

Welcome Dytana, Elayne, and Leigh! Jump on in and have fun. :)