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

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

I might do Grimm's in January. I plan on buying a few books for myself in the post-Christmas sales, and I could certainly make that one of them.

Holly wrote: "90 books is big! I can't wait to see what some of your picks are!"

And yet it still won't feel like I'm reading fast enough! *headdesk*

Ola wrote: "What do you think your foreign-language picks will be, Faye? Any idea, or will you pick on the spot?"

I have a Spanish dual-language book of short stories that I haven't read yet, so that will definitely be one of them, and there's a book of Russian fairy tales that I'd love to read, which would be my first time reading a book in Russian. Beyond that, I have no idea! I'm not at a very high reading level in any of these languages, so it probably won't be anything too difficult at first, but I'd love to read some Dumas or Hugo in the original French by the end of the year.

Looks great, Holly!

That's a very interesting challenge, Karen! Good luck. :)

Is it similar to Russian? I've been learning Russian and having lots of fun with it. I think I read somewhere that Polish is similar in grammar and vocabulary, but with different pronunciation and spelling.

Ohhh, Polish! I'm hoping to learn Polish some day. I'm a bit of a language nerd, always studying a new one, haha!

Thanks!

Oh wait, if we're one short we could bring back Utopian/Dystopian? I only meant to put that in with SciFi/Fantasy if we ran out of slots, but if we're one short it could go back in. Although I do like the idea of returning to our favourite genres, too.

I think Romance could be good for February... we could maybe have Romance/Chick-Lit in together? It might give the guys a little more wiggle-room for that month. ;)

Looks good! I can't wait to see what Historical book we select for January. :D

Good luck, Elena!

And yes, it makes me very nervous! But also excited. I love the thrill I get when I think of all the amazing (and not-so-amazing) books I'll read in the coming year. :)

Thanks!

Haha, that's great, Emad! Just don't choose any 800-pagers for those extra 20 books!

I'm breaking this down into smaller categories, just to keep it interesting and challenging throughout the year.

10 books from this list of the Top 100 Works in World Literature -

1. Things Fall Apart
2. Memoirs of Hadrian
3. Fairy Tales Of Hans Christian Andersen
4. A Doll's House
5. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

20 books that have been sitting around in my room collecting dust for months -

1. The Custodian of Paradise
2. Jamaica Inn
3. The Dead Secret
4. The Trumpet-Major
5. The Alienist
6. The Girl in Blue
7. Micah Clarke: A Tale of the Monmouth Rebellion
8. The Jungle Book
9. The House of the Dead
10. Time and Again

10 books in foreign languages -

French:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Spanish:
1.
2.
3.

Russian:
1.
2.

Latin
1.

50 books from my mile-long to-read list that don't fit into any of these other categories -

1. The Island of Dr. Moreau
2. Rebecca
3. Ithaca
4. The Book Thief
5. The Hunger Games
6. The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
7. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
8. The Zookeeper's Wife
9. 100 More Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces
10. The Eyre Affair
11. Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages
12. The Help
13. Far from the Madding Crowd
14. Catching Fire
15. Mockingjay
16. Thunderstruck
17. The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line
18. The Moon in Close-Up: A Next Generation Astronomer's Guide
19. Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer
20. Journey to the Center of the Earth
21. Children of Dune
22. My Cousin Rachel
23. Mary Poppins
24. The Art of Fiction
25. Vanity Fair
26. The Warden
27. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
28. Typhoon and Other Stories
29. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
30. We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever
31. The Invisible Man
32. The Lovely Bones
33. We
34. The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
35. A Passage to India
36. A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems
37. Lost Horizon
38. The Wombles Go Round the World

Why does it never sound like enough??

Okay, I've settled on a number - 90. The last couple years I've tried for 100 and 104, respectively, and it's been a mad rush at the end of the year to cram as many shorter books in as possible to meet the goal, so in 2014 I'll go a little easier on myself!

30 is still a great goal, Ola! What's your first language?

Narin - yes, audiobooks count. And good luck with that goal! :)

Welcome, Elena!

The Brontes and Dickens are my favourites!

Welcome, Lisa! :)

Good idea, Kisha - we could have at least one of the scheduled group reads correspond with the monthly genre challenge. What do you think, Holly?

Welcome, Kisha! :)

We'll also have member-controlled buddy reads going on at the same time, so there should still be lots for people to choose from. But as Holly said, nothing will be set in stone. We're open to changing things as we go along. Thanks for your input! :)