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

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

Welcome Dora, Carol, and Alie!

Dora - I would never forget about the visually impaired. Technology certainly has its place, and it's done wonders to improve the quality of life for millions of people. I'm glad to hear that you're one of them! :)

Also, your dreams are very similar to my own! Good luck!

Carol - I absolutely loved Eighty Days!

Pleased to meet you, too, Geoff!

My reading list seems to double in length every year, no matter how many books I read and cross off. Reading lists simply defy the laws of nature!

That looks like a good one, Lissa!

The Tell-Tale Heart, Fall of the House of Usher, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, Masque of the Red Death, Some Words With a Mummy, William Wilson... I'm getting the urge to sing "These are a few of my favourite things," but I'll spare you that, heh. They're a good place to start, anyway!

POE!!!!!!!!! *love*

CaptKirk42 Classic Whovian wrote: "That is quite a goal.

I don't think I'd be able to keep up that pace for a full year, a few weeks maybe, but I would be done in as soon as I attempted a novel of 300+ pages. That would throw me of..."

You could always balance it out with a shorter novel the next month.

I like to have a few books on the go, but usually they're all from different genres, which cuts down on the confusion considerably. I like to have something heavy, something light, and something non-fiction, and often a collection of short stories as well, since I can only read one or two of those at a time. That way, I find I have something to read no matter what reading-mood I'm in.

That sounds like an excellent goal!

Sounds good to me! Then, no matter what books we read, we could all discuss the genre and exchange recs. :)

It takes a while to get through them! He sure loved writing. ;)

Welcome, Rebecca! :)

Geoffll63 wrote: "Life tends to get in the way of my reading. Work and family keep me busy. On the plus side, as a high school teacher I get to read great novels over and over in class and they NEVER get old. In fac..."

That's an interesting challenge, Geoff. I would never have thought to do that! I know I disliked Great Expectations the first time I read it, but a few years later I listened to the audio book narrated by Hugh Laurie, and it gave me a deeper understanding of it to hear his emotional take on various moments (and to hear each of the characters talking with a different accent!).

The only Dickens I haven't read are a few of his short stories that I haven't yet tracked down. I've read all of his novels, as of 2012. :)

LOL Exactly!

LOVE HIM. But you knew that. ;)

Cue mad-crazy-Dickens-love rambling -

The thing I love most about Dickens is the way he constructs his novels word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter... I don't know how anyone manages to abridge his works, because honestly, every sentence leads to the next, each one builds on top of the other, and one casual phrase in one paragraph leads him down a whole new tangent in the next. He creates something that's WHOLE and REAL, so that there's not a page you can skip, not a character you can overlook, without losing the big picture altogether. It's ART in its highest form, it really is. Sometimes it takes you a second reading to understand that, but trust me, everything he wrote was genius, and every word is important.

And the way he played with the English language! He had it wrapped around his finger and could make it do whatever he wanted. Just amazing. And always fun! He could add a dash of humour to even the darkest subject matter, his characters were always such CHARACTERS, and most of the time you could tell that his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek while writing. He was a man with an exuberant personality, and it oozes out of every page he ever wrote. He was also a man with a great love for humanity, and especially a great affection for the poor and the sick, and everything he wrote was written in the hopes that it would make the world a better place for them.

My favourites... A Tale of Two Cities is my favourite book of all time, no contest. After that comes Our Mutual Friend, followed by A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, and Nicholas Nickleby.

The only one I'm really not crazy about is Oliver Twist, which was his first actual novel (not counting Pickwick Papers, which was more a collection of anecdotes about the same character). It's still a great story and written beautifully, but I feel as though it's the weakest link in his body of work.

I've always felt that his best-written work was Bleak House, which blew my mind at times with the way he juggled so many threads of the storyline and made it seem so cohesive. I just prefer the story of A Tale of Two Cities above all the rest.

I usually recommend that Dickens newbies start with A Christmas Carol and Nicholas Nickleby, since Christmas Carol is short and familiar to most people, and Nicholas Nickleby is perhaps the fastest-paced of his longer novels and therefore a quicker read for those not used to reading such long books. But really, there isn't a bad one to start with, if you're open to the Dickens experience.

And it really is an experience! He transports you into a completely different world, one that no other writer has been able to capture in quite the same way. The only downside to reading Dickens, at least for me, was that I eventually ran out of new Dickens novels to discover for the first time. :(

Maybe we could make A Tale of Two Cities the first buddy read for the group!

Jools wrote: "Well this is a list of favourite books read not what came out in 2013. That is a little different."

Yes, anything you read in 2013 that you really enjoyed. :)

Holly wrote: "Tess of the d'Urbervilles has been on my to-read list forever. It will definitely be a 2014 read for me. It doesn't help that my English teacher literally spoiled the whole plot for me... Which was..."

Wait, you're 17 and you're supposed to have read everything by now? Wow. No pressure, right?

Yes! Read some Dickens!! Gah, now I want to read A Tale of Two Cities with you!

My thoughts exactly on Crime and Punishment.

I don't think I've heard of The Book Thief...

Yes, kids, Big Brother isn't just a TV show... LOL

Some people actually seem offended when they find out that someone is a big reader, like the fact that you read a lot is somehow insulting to everyone else's intelligence. I've found that there are certain people I should never mention books around, because all I'll get in return is their list of reasons why they don't read, and then another list of reasons why their list of reasons makes them a better person than I am. For example, "I'm too busy to read. You know, you really ought to get out more, and LIVE life rather than reading about it." Um... I'm living life just fine, thank you, and reading is my favourite part of it. :P

Holly wrote: "One of my friends actually has a changeable slot in her door. It alternates between 'go away, exams', 'working', 'watching star trek' or 'reading'. I really need one of those signs..."

LOL Don't we all!

Jools wrote: "Holly wrote: "Over 100 books is amazing, Jools! How did you do it?!"

I spent most of 2012 in the confines of a hospital, so had plenty of time on my hands. I have been a avid reader my whole life,..."

That sucks about the hospital, Julie, but yay for all the reading time! I wish I could read from morning until night, but there's always somebody trying to drag me away from my happy place. I need a Do Not Disturb sign, flashing in neon and mounted on a hat or something, heh.