Zaz’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2014)

Zaz’s comments from the 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] group.

Mar 21: The folders for weeks 19 and 20 are available, add your true story and bottom list books.

We are currently doing a read-a-thon, so we'll read, read and read. If you decided to join us, there are plenty of questions and games on this folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Have fun!

20. a book at the bottom of your to read list
May 14 - May 20, 2015

Maybe your to read list was small before the challenge, but now, it's so HUGE. You don't know where to start, so the challenge will help you a little. Select a book from the bottom of your list, the one you added a long time ago, the one you're not fully interested in, or the one at the bottom of your pile of books. At the end of the week, there will be one less book to read... and obviously ten more. Good luck!


How to Create a Topic:
1. Create a topic in the appropriate folder using your book's author and title (Title by Author). Link your book with the "This topic is about" feature.

2. In the body of your post, comment about why you chose this book. Have you read it before? What are your expectations?

3. Feel free to use the thread as a way to update the group on your progress. Also, when you are finished reading, add a small review and your thoughts about the week's challenge.

4. Comment on everyone else's posts as well! Participation and group involvement will make this challenge so much fun!

**If you chose the same book as another group member for the same week, do not create a duplicate thread.**

Books ideas:
On your profil, click on the "to-read" shelf ;)

I'm jumping in the read-a-thon with a morning cup of tea!

---
Someone you just met: Valyn, a teenager boy with a brain, from The Emperor's Blades.

Someone you can't live without: Pax, a sunshine from the future in Hollow World.

Someone you met when you were little: Ronia, a young independent girl from Ronia, the Robber's Daughter.

Someone who is a lot of fun: Hadrian and Royce, a team from the Riyria Revelations series.

Someone who is very smart: Gandalf from The Fellowship of the Ring (LotR).

Someone you miss: Pax!

Someone who makes you laugh: Rincewind from The Color of Magic (Discworld).

Someone who changed your life: The ants from Empire of the Ants (it opened me to the tiny world and helped me to have a good mark in university, so it changed something).

Someone you crushed on: Haplo from The Death Gate Cycle

1. Tell us a little about yourself and why you decided to participate in the Read-a-Thon.
I'm mod here and when I'm not editing topic titles, reading or annoying my cats, I go to university as I'm on a "back to school" year.
I've free time and I usually read on weekends...

2. What books do you have in your "to be read" pile for the next 24 hours?
A short story: Greener Grass
A fantasy book: The Emperor's Blades
A re-read (fantasy too): Dragon Wing
If I finish The Emperor, I'll probably read P.O.W.ER (dystopia).

3. Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, etc.)?
Yep, to read books I enjoy and no reading challenge ones!

4.5.6. I'll continue to cook as usual, read on the couch or in bed, depending the hour, and I won't cover the event on my social networks.

Welcome :)
Yes, the group is great to build a never ending to read list! I'm glad you found interesting books with the suggestion links.
Some of your books are chosen by other members too, so you'll find people to discuss them.
Have fun!

I changed the date set to sign up for the read-a-thon, so you'll have until midnight to join if you didn't do it before :)

I'm looking forward to the event!

I started it before the week because my one word is boring and I'll need at least 2 weeks to read it.

The stories are definitively not scary, so I didn't find what I expected. However, I think the writing is good and help me to find some motivation to read them, because the subjects are really not my cup of tea. It's short stories about weird situations and awkward people.
I didn't reach The Lottery, so I hope it's better than the rest.

For this week, I wanted something different and I was interested in a book about US apartheid. Finally, I ended up with this book about slavery, with a woman point of view. It's free, because it was published a long time ago, and it's short.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of "the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.
Written and published in 1861 after Jacobs' harrowing escape from a vile and predatory master, the memoir delivers a powerful and unflinching portrayal of the abuses and hypocrisy of the master-slave relationship".

- A book set in the past (more than 100 years ago)
- A book with time travel
- A book recommended by a member (we could do a topic where everyone asks "I want to read this genre or a book with this theme" and selects one of the answers)

"a book you would like to see turned into a movie or tv show"
This one is like "a book that makes/made your cry", you can't know before reading it if it will fit in the category, so it's not convenient.

Haha Berit, I thought exactly the same thing :D
I like the Popsugar list but it's way more fun to build our own challenge.

Awesome Jody, thanks! What a list!

As I added a new folder for the challenge, you can create new topics ;)

Jody, good idea for the list.

Hi!
We'll need a new name for the group next year (changing this one or moving to a new group), so feel free to propose your ideas, even the crazy ones.

We'll do a poll later :)

Suggestions
With weeks, year or challenge :
52 Weeks of Interpretation
Ink your world in 52 weeks
Around the year in 52 books
52 weeks of wonderful words
52 books in 52 weeks
Challenge your year
Annual 52 Book Reading Challenge
Challenge the year with 52 books
Challenge the year in 52 weeks
52 books in 1 year
2016 Reading Challenge
Challenge Time

With book, read and related :
Expanding your world one book at a time
Expand your mind one book(page) at a time
Readers wanted, apply here
The world on a printing plate
Through the library in 52 topics
All The Bright Readers
All The Books We Can Read
2016 Readers and Eaters
Bookaholics anonymous

General titles :
The Bandwagon
For the love of it...
Expanding and shrinking the world at the same time
On the shoulders of giants
Wuthering Words
Many more words, many more looks!

Sophie, this survey is great, it seems perfect for checking the week and order them. Maybe we can do this in several steps if we have lots of submitted weeks and finish by a survey with the most voted weeks from the previous surveys.
Surveymonkey seems good too but with less options (?).

Peter, you can improve your skills with the "some html is ok" ;)

For the challenge, I read The Maze Runner and I plan to watch the movie. And I hope the movie is way better than the book, if not, I'll probably do something else while watching it...

I tend to prefer books over movies, with some exceptions like LotR 1 (I always found this one boring and with the movie, they cut all the boring parts :D). The Wave had too an interesting adaptation with enough changes to give another atmosphere.

For the tv show, I agree, Dexter is way better than the books.
I enjoyed the first seasons of GoT (I've to catch up) but not the 2 first books. Multiple points of view are nicer on screen than in books.
For The Walking Dead, I found the comics more interesting than the tv show.

We are halfway done with Week 11 and we hope the book hidden behind this one word title was good.

This discussion thread is solely for your progress (book discussions go in individual threads).


What did you read this week?

Did you enjoy the book? Would you recommend it? (feel free to link to your review)

Is the title appropriate for the book?

Can you tell us something about the book, in just one word?

There's this really nice map to read out of order:
http://electricliterature.com/infogra...

I started Discworld with... the videogame booklet :D It was written by Pratchett and I found it really funny with the bottom notes. I jumped on the novels, but they were less numerous than now of course, so it had to be in order.

I like the witches and death books better. Tiffany Aching are great too, but not published as Discworld novels in France so it's easier to read them separately. There are many different topics so I can see why people can recommend some series more than others :)

You're very nice :D

I didn't re-read LotR since the movies, I suppose I'll have a different way to see the characters now (except for Frodo, Bilbo and Gollum who had always stand out).
I think I never read the appendices, they are interesting?

For me the 3 LotR are different: 1st is boring, 2nd is full of war, 3rd is an adventure. I always read them one after the other without problem but I think for some other trilogies it will be harder to read them in succession.
I'm on less interesting weeks so I'm "guiltily" side-reading some other weeks of the challenge :D

We have a discussion about running away from a book, before reading it, so maybe we can discuss too what we like or dislike while reading it.

I like:
- likable characters with an interesting background, but not too much self-centred or cliché.
- a good team, friendship or love relationship.
- deep female characters (and male too of course but they tend to have more depth than women).
- a nice world building with original ideas.
- a fast or well paced story with plenty of things happening.
- surprises and good twists.
- author who cares about his characters and doesn't kill/ bully them for fun.
- a book with a true end, even if it is part of a series.


I dislike:
- 1st person. I found a little difficult to enter a story when it's all about "I" because I'm really not the character. When I start a book and see it's a 1st person, I know it will need a more better writing than a 3rd person book.
- multiple points of view. There are always characters I don't care, so there are many boring chapters...
- long descriptions.
- jumping in time. There's a chapter in the present, one 3 weeks before, and you'll find yourself 4 years ago, and return to the present. And again, and again. My brain starts swimming a lot to understand what is happening.
- torture, abuse, very explicit content, racism, sexism...
- religion, like when characters spend time in church or think a lot about faith and when an author tries to convert you to his religion.