Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Archived Chit Chat & All That
>
How many have you read? (Reading the books on our group bookshelf)
message 1201:
by
BAM doesn’t answer to her real name
(new)
Sep 21, 2020 01:29AM

reply
|
flag

That is amazing. Those last two will take you no time. Congratulations on quite an accomplishment.

BAM wrote: "I have been very lucky that I’ve read everything already in the last several months that’s been picked, so I only have TWO BOOKS on the shelf left to read: Vindication’s and that recent Ray Bradbur..."
Wow!!
Wow!!

June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Dec 2018 137/244 - 56%
Dec 2019 180/278 - 65%
March 2020 192/288 - 67%
June 2020 205/298 - 69%
Sept 2020 213/307 - 69%
And the struggling to keep even begins. It feels sad and like an accomplishment at the same time. I have to get into a new mindset. Note to self "Even is good, even is good, even is good. Even is 3-4 group books a month, of course that's good!"

If you have read The Martian Chronicles, then you already read "that recent Ray Bradbury", since it is in that collection.

Laurie wrote: "BAM wrote: "I have been very lucky that I’ve read everything already in the last several months that’s been picked, so I only have TWO BOOKS on the shelf left to read: Vindication’s and that recent..."
Yes BAM congratulations!
Yes BAM congratulations!
Sue wrote: "I decided to do my quarterly update now since I'm not reading any from our shelf in the next 9 days .
June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
..."
Yes, it is very good. I find I average 3 books/short stories from our shelf a month. Some months more than others but over two years the average stays the same.
June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
..."
Yes, it is very good. I find I average 3 books/short stories from our shelf a month. Some months more than others but over two years the average stays the same.

What a progress.... In June I was at 57.4%
Read with group:
Our Man in Havana
The Fire Next Time
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
Brideshead Revisited
Catch-up:
Anne Franks dagbog (=The Diary of a Young Girl)
East of Eden
Added books, I have already read:
Julius Caesar
The Nose

I just joined and will try to read books from this list that are also in the top 200 or so on thegreatestbooks.org, kind of a dual challenge.
I saw someone posting quarterly reviews so I'll do something similar. The goal is to get to 10% by the end of 2021, so 15 classics in 14 months, let's see how that goes!
Miguel wrote: "I'm at 18/328, so 5% it is.
I just joined and will try to read books from this list that are also in the top 200 or so on thegreatestbooks.org, kind of a dual challenge.
I saw someone posting qua..."
Nice plan. I think it sounds achievable.
I just joined and will try to read books from this list that are also in the top 200 or so on thegreatestbooks.org, kind of a dual challenge.
I saw someone posting qua..."
Nice plan. I think it sounds achievable.

I just joined and will try to read books from this list that are also in the top 200 or so on thegreatestbooks.org, kind of a dual challenge."
If you are reading the top of thegreatestbooks.org you should get a "free" book now and then. We already have most of the first page on our shelf..... well, except book number 1 In Search of Lost Time, and after number 33 Absalom, Absalom! there is a few we do not have yet.
You are very welcome to try nominate some of them. We still do not have any Chekhov or Jorge Luis Borges on our shelf. Both a short story and a collection would be great. And then there is Leaves of Grass... 600+ pages of poems..... hmmm....

Edit: Actually, scratch that. There's something a little wrong with the list, as the shelf lists 318 books not 328. I found two obviously non-shelf books and am now wondering who's got the authority to remove them. As a GR librarian I could do that myself, but would welcome a double check from someone before I go ahead.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
I have done the check for duplicates just now, and got
"0 duplicates found and removed "

A quick count 22 books on that page 4 is not from our shelf. That means a lot of books from our shelf is missing.

A Gentleman in Moscow from 2016,... no...

But I haven't been keeping up with the group for the last year, so wasn't certain.

Yes, please when you find books that don't belong on the listopia, let us know so that we can take care of that. Give the book number on the list would really help with this.

300: Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark
303: Three-Martini Lunch
304: Foreign Affairs
306: The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium
307: A Long Fatal Love Chase
308: Fettered For Life
310: Vera
311: My Notorious Life
312: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (One Thousand White Women, #1)
313: Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman
315: The House on the Strand <<--- double check this one
317: The Ladies of Missalonghi
318: Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
319: The Loving Spirit
320: A Virtuous Woman

287: Hester
290: Leaves of Grass
291: Peyton Place
292: My Ántonia
293: Family Happiness <<--- double check this one
294: Cloudsplitter
297: Myra Breckinridge
298: Quartet in Autumn

maybe a moderator could have a quiet word...?
Darren wrote: "the person who added all these does look to be a member of our group
maybe a moderator could have a quiet word...?"
Sent a message
maybe a moderator could have a quiet word...?"
Sent a message

Laurie wrote: "So isn't the list missing books since we have 318 on our bookshelf? I have more votes and can add books if I know what to add."
Check the newest books on our shelf. Those are the ones that probably need added.
Check the newest books on our shelf. Those are the ones that probably need added.
Thank you J_Blueflower , Laurie, Darren, and Katy for cleaning up the Listopia. I had not visited there for a while. I would like to encourage all members, in particular the new ones, to visit and vote on books you have read from our shelf. There is a limit on the number of books we are allowed to vote on, and many of us have already reached our limits. Here is a link:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...



I added it.
BAM wrote: "Yay! All cleaned up! I’ll be honest. I’ve never looked at this list y’all are talking about. I use the bookshelf itself of books read each month. So what is the difference? I’m really dumb about so..."
The List should perfectly match the bookshelf, but it is a public list and sometimes people vote for classics they like, that aren't on the shelf. The difference is that people get to vote for favorites. The #1 book on our Listopia is To Kill a Mockingbird, so it is our group's favorite book. In reality, the newer books struggle along with only a few votes, while books that were read a long time ago get more. Still if people go update their votes every so often, it is a good guide for which books on our shelves were most enjoyed. I look at it sometimes when deciding what to read.
Since you have read almost all of them, your opinion would be very valuable. I have heard you need to be on a computer, not the app, to vote on the list.
The List should perfectly match the bookshelf, but it is a public list and sometimes people vote for classics they like, that aren't on the shelf. The difference is that people get to vote for favorites. The #1 book on our Listopia is To Kill a Mockingbird, so it is our group's favorite book. In reality, the newer books struggle along with only a few votes, while books that were read a long time ago get more. Still if people go update their votes every so often, it is a good guide for which books on our shelves were most enjoyed. I look at it sometimes when deciding what to read.
Since you have read almost all of them, your opinion would be very valuable. I have heard you need to be on a computer, not the app, to vote on the list.
Laurie wrote: "Nente wrote: "A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories is not in the list, so if someone would like to vote for it would be nice."
I added it."
Yea! Thank you Laurie.
I added Meditations which gets us to 314 now.
I added it."
Yea! Thank you Laurie.
I added Meditations which gets us to 314 now.

As for this other list...I’m still dumb as a box of rox. So I just click on that link above and vote on my favorite ones? That’s all I have to do right? I can do that easy peasy
BAM wrote: "OMG! Y’all! Great choices in January! I now have five 📚 I need to read on the group shelf to catch up! I know how I’ll be starting the new year.
As for this other list...I’m still dumb as a box of..."
yes
As for this other list...I’m still dumb as a box of..."
yes

I’m also confused about the difference between….
a. Listopia with 318 books
and
b. The Group Bookshelf with 321 books. There might be duplicates here as well, but I didn't go over it as carefully.
Sorry…I’m a nut about lists. I’m a lover of lists, or albumiphile (term I created). But, I know the mods have lives. If there’s no simple answer…I’ll just deal with it. (I’ll probably twitch a little…but I’ll deal with it.)
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and has a Blessed New Year!

I have done the librarian "check for duplicates" on the list and two duplicates was found and removed. I added the three latest books. So now there is 319.
Our bookshelf has 321. Very likely the more recent ones are missing. Can you vote them in? I have spend my votes now.

June 2016 14/148 - 9% (when I started the group)
Dec 2016 44/168 - 26%
Dec 2017 85/201 - 42%
Dec 2018 137/244 - 56%
Dec 2019 180/278 - 65%
March 2020 192/288 - 67%
June 2020 205/298 - 69%
Sept 2020 213/307 - 69%
Dec 2020 221/318 - 69%
8 books added in each of the last two quarters without moving the percentage. My initial goal was to maintain 50%. At some point in the not too distant future, I'm likely to start decreasing my percentage which is fine since it would take reading 7 group reads per quarter to maintain where I'm at and I only aim to read 2 per month (6 for the quarter).


I wonder if you'll get stuck like me soon Laurie.

I completely understand Aubrey. I was like a kid in a candy store when I started reading the classics with this group. I was interested in everything because most were new to me. Now that I have a better idea of what I like, I'm less likely to read some.
Books mentioned in this topic
Infinite Jest (other topics)The Death of Ivan Illych (other topics)
The Death of Ivan Illych and Other Stories (other topics)
Swann’s Way (other topics)
The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)Thomas Bernhard (other topics)
Michel de Montaigne (other topics)
James M. Cain (other topics)
Ken Kesey (other topics)
More...