Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Archived Chit Chat & All That
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How many have you read? (Reading the books on our group bookshelf)
Mod
That is a respectable starting place. I hope you enjoy reading along with us!
I've lost track because I recently replaced all the Edgar Allan Poe stories on my GR shelf (borrowed from a local library) with a single volume that contains them all plus a bunch of others and I can't remember which stories I'd read in the last few years and which I read as a teen. I'm in the mid to high 70s somewhere as of the end of June, but that book of Poe's stories is on my short stack.
Aprilleigh wrote: "I've lost track because I recently replaced all the Edgar Allan Poe stories on my GR shelf (borrowed from a local library) with a single volume..."You can have both on your shelf. If you don't want both versions to count in the stats, just leave out the date (and year) on one of them.
I know I can have both, but I'm a little OCD, so if I purchase a personal copy of a library book I've read, I prefer to only have the personal copy on my shelf. That said, my shelves are not consistent for this because I've gone through two purges since joining GR that never made it all the way to my GR shelves.
Lynn wrote: "July update. I joined this group one year ago. I calculate that the Group adds 40 books to the bookshelf each year. ( 3 x 12 = 36 That's OId School, New School, and Short Read. Then 4 Quarterly Lon..."congratulations Lynn! That is great progress. I didn't realize that you only joined the group a year ago. Happy anniversary!
Aprilleigh wrote: "I know I can have both, but I'm a little OCD, so if I purchase a personal copy of a library book I've read, I prefer to only have the personal copy on my shelf. That said, my shelves are not consis..."My shelves are a mess with all sorts of different versions of books I've read listed as unread. I can't stand to have the boring kindle version cover in my "read" pile so I always pick a different version.
I used to always pick the version of whatever the group read was, even if mine was different, but now with J Blue's great idea of adding a read shelf, I don't do that anymore.
Sue wrote: "Aprilleigh wrote: "I know I can have both, but I'm a little OCD, so if I purchase a personal copy of a library book I've read, I prefer to only have the personal copy on my shelf. That said, my she..."I try to shelve the version I actually read, but now that I have a kindle I find myself keeping both on hand and reading from the hard copy during the day and continuing on the kindle at night - when that happens I shelve the hard copy only, because usually the kindle version was borrowed from the library even if the hard copy wasn't (but not always). However, even on my physical shelves I have multiple copies of some titles - for example, I have four copies of Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - A hardcover and paperback of the first edition, a paperback of the second edition, and a third paperback I picked up with a different cover that I haven't had a chance to examine yet. All are in excellent condition and I haven't decided yet which two I'm keeping and which two I'm giving to family members who love his books as much as I do.
Wow I just pick the copy that shows up and shelve it lololol sometimes I can the bar code but I’m just not picky as long as I have the book one way or another lmao so maybe I’m not ocd
Mod
I have 3 1/2 books remaining on the shelf. I say 1/2 because I’m in the middle of Lonesome Dove. I need to read Pale Fire, Wide Sargasso Sea, and House of Spirits.
BAM wrote: "I have 3 1/2 books remaining on the shelf. I say 1/2 because I’m in the middle of Lonesome Dove. I need to read Pale Fire, Wide Sargasso Sea, and House of Spirits."Wow! You're soooo close!!! :)
Dropping behind some more: 166/266 = 62%60% in sight!
Mod
Wow! You're soooo c..."
I agree Wow!!
It took a lot of work and patience and the help of LibriVox
BAM wrote: "It took a lot of work and patience and the help of LibriVox"Good ol' LibriVox!! ;)
I'm giving it double duty this month!!!
Finished 30 from the shelf. On War and Peace now. It’s going to take some time.
Mod
Excellent progress! I remember having a Tolstoy year. I read Anna Karenina and then War and Peace. I remember I enjoyed them quite a bit.
I had read Anna Karenina earlier this year and liked it a lot that’s why I wanted to read War and Peace. I have read about 50% of it and it keeps getting better.
War and Peace finished. Nice and lengthy read.
I'm popping by to take a break from a lengthy assignment (some may say procrastinating...!) so:- I've read parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh (I should read the whole thing... especially since I was very immersed in Biblical studies in my past life)...
- Night by Eli Weisel
-Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (at least pretty long selections of it. I should go back and read a complete version. I teach high school language arts so we often use excerpts of longer classics.)
-Eugene Onegin
- Common Sense (years ago when I was a teenager)
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Flowers for Algernon (as a teenager/middle school student)
- A Light in August
- The Sorrows of Young Werther
- Demons/The Devils (very recently & I've been updating a book group about it here)
- Waiting for Godot
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
- The House on Mango Street
- A Wizard of Earthsea
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet
- Gift of the Magi
- Pit and the Pendulum
- Othello
- The Little Mermaid
- Notes from Underground
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- A Wrinkle in Time
- A Doll's House
- The Canterbury Tales: Only the Prologue and about 4-5 tales. I definitely should read more (though I don't know about the ones with potty humor...)
- The Lottery
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Excerpts -- maybe this is the kind of story I could listen to when driving or multi-tasking since I am pretty familiar with it)
- The Death of Ivan Ilych
- The Odyssey (Excerpts..)
- And Then There Were None (many years ago)
... Ok, that's pages 1-5. I'll come back to the list later. Looks like a great collection of books here and good ideas for ones to catch up on... !
(Edited to add... Oops! Sorry for the excessive verbiage! Next time I will just do a total count of how many I've read like normal people ...! ) :D
July 2016 19/152 = 19% (When I first joined)July 2017 69/189 = 36%
Dec 2017 89/201 = 44%
Dec 2018 125/240 = 52%
July 2019 139/263 = 53% I'm holding steady around 50%, so not too bad. Will update again at the end of the year to see if I've raised it at all. Quite a jump from when I joined 3 years ago though!
Mod
July 2017 69/189 = 36%
Dec 2017 89/201 = 44%
Dec 2018 125/240 = 52%
July 2019 139/263 = 53% I'm holding steady around 50%, so not too bad. Will update ..."
No kidding. Not bad at all.
uhh, I only read 44 books (16 %). I have a lot to catch up on.
I am at 41 books read. I am embarrased because Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors and I have yet to read The Red Pony, East of Eden (I did just buy a copy though) or the Grapes of Wrath (tisk tisk).The problem I have and we all have is that there are way too many books and way too little time.
June 2017 81 out of 186 = 43.54 %Aug 2017 86 out of 192 = 43.54 %
Oct 2017 88 out of 198. = 44.4%.
Dec 2017 93 out of 205 = 45.3%
Feb 2018 96 out of 208 = 46.1%
April 2018 100 out of 214 = 46.7%
June 2018 109 out of 222 = 49.1%
Aug 2018 112 out of 230 = 48.7%
Oct 2018 120 out of 237 = 50.6%
Dec 2018 128 out of 244 = 52.5%
Feb 2019 134 out of 250 = 53.6%
April 2019 137 out of 256 = 53.5%
June 2019 143 out of 263 = 54.4%
Aug 2019 147 out of 269 = 54.6% steady at two books per month
Mod
July 1, 2019 114 /266 = 42.9%
Aug 1, 2019 119/269 = 44.24%
Mod
Aug 2017 86 out of 192 = 43.54 %
Oct 2017 88 out of 198. = 44.4%.
Dec 2017 93 out of 205 = 45.3%
Feb 2018 96 out of 208 = 46.1%
April 2018 100 out of 214 = 46.7%
J..."
Great job as always J Blue Flower
since I last reported 51.2% at the end of April:4 more have been chosen that I'd already read (easy life!):
Tinker,Tailor, Antigone, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Wide Sargasso Sea
3 read with group:
Gilgamesh, Ballad of Reading Gaol, Pale Fire
7 Catch-Up:
HarryPotter, Then There Were None, Wizard Of Oz, The Plague, Sound and the Fury, Secret Garden, Ulysses
145/269 = 53.9%
Making steady progress, read 43 books from the shelf till now.
I have read 150 out of 269 = 55%In a couple of years when I am ready once again to focus on literature, I will work on catching upon some of these group selections. I am thinking that I need to read more of the Camus and Dickens selections.
45 completed from the shelf till August.
I read most of the under 100 page stories/books on the list over the summer plus a few more of the longer ones, so I'm all the way up to 249 out of 272 or 91.45% read. I am counting books I have read at any time in my life, though, and I'm not much of a re-reader so it's a bit easier to catch up than it is for those of you reading the whole list. That plus I'm retired!
Karen Michele wrote: "I read most of the under 100 page stories/books on the list over the summer plus a few more of the longer ones, so I'm all the way up to 249 out of 272 or 91.45% read. I am counting books I have re..."Wow! That's great! I've read 239 with about 5 more that I'm planning to read, so I'm right behind you!
I think the books count no matter when you read them in your life -- you still put in the time ;)
And you're right -- it really helps to be retired! ;)
Keep Reading! :)
Terris wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "I read most of the under 100 page stories/books on the list over the summer plus a few more of the longer ones, so I'm all the way up to 249 out of 272 or 91.45% read. I am co..."Excellent reading, Terris and thanks for the encouraging words!
Cynda wrote: "I have read 150 out of 269 = 55%In a couple of years when I am ready once again to focus on literature, I will work on catching upon some of these group selections. I am thinking that I need to re..."
You should join in on the David Copperfield quarter-long read that starts in October Cynda. It's supposed to be one of his best
Shakti Singh Rathore wrote: "45 completed from the shelf till August."That's great Shakti!
Karen Michele wrote: "I read most of the under 100 page stories/books on the list over the summer plus a few more of the longer ones, so I'm all the way up to 249 out of 272 or 91.45% read. I am counting books I have re..."That's what I did when I started (read a lot of the short ones). I still have some left, but in the beginning it's great to make the unread list more managable. Contgrats Karen!
Terris wrote: "Karen Michele wrote: "I read most of the under 100 page stories/books on the list over the summer plus a few more of the longer ones, so I'm all the way up to 249 out of 272 or 91.45% read. I am co..."That's great Terri!
I'm recording my quarterly update: June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
June 2017 64/183 - 35%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Jun 2018 105/224 - 47%
Dec 2018 137/244 - 56%
March 2019 149/250 - 60%
June 2019 158/259 - 61%
Sept 2019 168/269 - 62%
Still slowly moving the %.
Mod
June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
June 2017 64/183 - 35%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Jun 2018 105/224 - 47%
Dec 2018 137/244 - 5..."
You have really read a lot Sue. Your progress is so steady. Great job!
Sue wrote: "I'm recording my quarterly update: June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
June 2017 64/183 - 35%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Jun 2018 105/224 - 47%
Dec 2018 137/244 - 5..."
Wow! Nice progress, Sue!
I got confused few times while counting, but I believe I’m at the exciting number of 99 books from your list
Completed 49 from the shelf. I don’t expect to read at all for a week or two due to reading fatigue. Probably read too much this year, and this month did lot of heavy reading, so unable to concentrate on anything now.
I've read 119 books from the shelf and have a number more of them in progress!
Mod
Excellent Cleo! That is a nice percentage of the list.
Idit wrote: "I got confused few times while counting, but I believe I’m at the exciting number of 99 books from your list"counting is the hardest part! I started keeping a list as JBlueFlower does, but even then I realized that I added a couple of books twice with more than one edition.
Terris wrote: "Sue wrote: "I'm recording my quarterly update: June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
June 2017 64/183 - 35%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Jun 2018 105/224 - 47%
Dec 2018..."
Thanks Terri! It's going to be depressing at the point when I can no longer maintain my percentage.
my percentage has been going up recently without my having to read any more,
as books I have already read keep getting chosen
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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I need to re-read that one too! It's been so long! I read it 45 years ago!!! :o