My "Read My Own Books" Challenge

[Ruth]

Sherry wrote: "Ruth wrote: "After the Serena potboiler, I decided I was through with Rash."

Some of these short stories are wonderful, Ruth. Very different from Serena. He seems to have a thing about her, but wh..."

Maybe I should give him another try, then.

[Ruth]

Sherry wrote: "I've had Picnic, Lightning for over a decade and have read several of the poems, but I decided to read the whole thing in order. Collins is always at the Key West Literary Seminar and..."

Collins is always a delight. Although I'm not as fond of his last book.

[Nicole]

Is that a Lolita reference, Sherry?

[Cateline]

Sherry wrote: "I've had Picnic, Lightning for over a decade and have read several of the poems, but I decided to read the whole thing in order. Collins is always at the Key West Literary Seminar and..."

All I could think of upon hearing above title was Nabokov's description of Humbert Humbert's mothers death. :)

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Cateline wrote: "Sherry wrote: "I've had Picnic, Lightning for over a decade and have read several of the poems, but I decided to read the whole thing in order. Collins is always at the Key West Liter..."

"My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three." ----Lolita

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Ruth wrote: "Sherry wrote: "Ruth wrote: "After the Serena potboiler, I decided I was through with Rash."

Some of these short stories are wonderful, Ruth. Very different from Serena. He seems to have a thing ab..."

I think you would like all the stories in this books, except "Pemberton's Wife" which is about Serena.

[Cateline]

Yup, only a cat sleeping on my feet stopped me from getting the book and the entire quote. :). Thanks!

[Barbara]

Good choice. I love that collection.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Finished Picnic, Lightning. What a wonderful book of poetry. I recommend it to anyone, especially people who think that they don't like poetry. It is both easy and not easy. It is approachable and meaningful. And sometimes funny.

[Barbara]

Exactly. It is so entertaining. He gets criticized for that but I think he has done a lot to bring poetry to nonpoetry readers.

[Tonya]

I have picked it up many times over the years. Love it.

[Ruth]

Collins does have his shtick. Starts out with some humorous observation, often of himself, fleshes that out in ways that make us smile, then hits us with an ending the brings gravitas to it all.

I like it.

[Sue]

I think I'll give that one a try Sherry (Barbara and Ruth too)

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I finished up this challenge today. The last three books were A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle (we talked about this book in St. Louis), which I enjoyed quite a bit, An Actual Life by Abigail Thomas, which was well-written, but I found the characters silly and unlikeable, so I wouldn't recommend it. And finally, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros which was absolutely wonderful. It's quite different from anything I've ever read. Each chapter is very short, almost like a prose poem. Her use of language is quirky and original. I thought it was a marvelous little book. It was actually a book left here from my son's school days. I don't know if it was a high school class or a college class, but I'm glad I found it.

[Mary Ellen]

Sherry, kudos to you! I am very behind, but still trying to end the year a little closer to my goal than I am now!

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Next year I'll make my goal a little more reasonable. I had so many books this year that I ended up reading only small books. I'll also allow myself to buy a few books, just making sure that I read more than I buy.

[Ruth]

Sherry wrote: "I finished up this challenge today. The last three books were A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle (we talked about this book in St. Louis), which I enjoyed quite a bit, [book:An Actu..."

I read Wrinkle with my kids. We all loved it. Also read the Cisneros back when it first came out. I thought it was wonderful, too.

[Sue]

I'm close to my goal (12 of 15) but I don't think I will make it. But that's OK. I just enjoyed having it.

[Sue]

I've actually reached 14 books now. I may make my goal yet. And one positive thing for my shelves is that I'm taking 3 books to the used book store tomorrow. Even if they don't buy them, these books will not go back on to my shelves.

Thank you for giving me this goal Sherry.

[Mary Ellen]

Sherry, thanks for initiating this challenge. I didn't meet my goal but came kind-of-close: 13 of 15! The challenge did motivate me to move some of those dusty TBRs into the "read!" pile. And I've already signed on for 2015!

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I'm going to leave the 2014 challenge up for a while, so people can make things up to date, but I don't want to leave it there indefinitely. I wish there was a way to hide it instead of delete it.

[Ruth]

You could just close it.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Ruth wrote: "You could just close it."

It doesn't work like a thread. It's already closed since the last day of the challenge was yesterday. The only option to get it off the home page seems to be to delete it. I asked the Feedback group if there was a way to hide it, but I haven't received an answer yet.

[Mary Anne]

I made it to 11 out of 12 in 2014. I'm struggling with the motivation factor. Most of my already owned books that I want to read are tomes, while the books I could knock off in a day have been languishing on my shelf for a reason, i.e. not all that interesting. So I'm planning to liberalize my rules in order to increase my motivation. My new rule is if I own it today, Jan. 1, even if I received it for Christmas, it qualifies as already owned.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Mary Anne wrote: "I made it to 11 out of 12 in 2014. I'm struggling with the motivation factor. Most of my already owned books that I want to read are tomes, while the books I could knock off in a day have been lang..."

Well, of course it does! :)

[Sue]

I'm looking forward to working on this again in the new year Sherry. No matter how many I actually read, I like reading off the shelf.!

[Dottie]

Okay -- I want to read 12 books that I already own off my shelves -- or out of boxes (way too many books are still in boxes here and there around this house -- need to work on that problem along with reading the books). I have begun a list of books I want to tackle this year -- re-reads and titles which have been living on the TBR mountain for years (and years and years) -- the rereads will also be books I own but those won't count toward the 12. I am going to aim for lobrary books for all the new reading though knowing me, I'll go buy some of those once I get into them or have finished them because -- you know -- I'll want to read them again. I'm hopeless.

[Sue]

Dottie wrote: "Okay -- I want to read 12 books that I already own off my shelves -- or out of boxes (way too many books are still in boxes here and there around this house -- need to work on that problem along wi..."

Oh Dottie, I feel like I'm reading about me! The boxes--yes, though I've moved to plastic boxes. And the book piles. Well I've confessed to being a bookaholic before and I haven't changed. Now I am at least slowly letting go of books.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I found out from the Feedbacks group that two challenges stay on the home page. If I added a new challenge, the old will hide. So, I'm thinking we should come up with a new challenge, so everything is recent on our home page. I've been wanting to read more non-fiction--is that a challenge that anyone is interested in? Any other ideas? After I decide on the next challenge, I'm going to close out this topic, and start a new one for 2015.

[Dottie]

I don't know if I'll manage one challenge let alone two but I will say that I've fallen into a lot of non-fiction reading recently and the trend may be settling in for a long run. If enough others are interested I may tag along and try to work a dual challenge hybrid of my own.

[Sue]

Dottie wrote: "I don't know if I'll manage one challenge let alone two but I will say that I've fallen into a lot of non-fiction reading recently and the trend may be settling in for a long run. If enough others..."

I do have significant amounts of non-fiction among my books but that would definitely be a slower pace of reading. I would probably participate though.

[Katy]

I think a non-fiction challenge is a great idea. I would definitely give it a shot. There are several non fiction books on my mantle right now just waiting for me to take them down and start reading. All I need is some motivation.

[Sue]

I am planning to read Ellman's biography of James Joyce, so that would be one book---though it should probably count as three!

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Okay, I'll set a challenge. Mine will be very modest.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

The challenge is set up. The shelf to add books for this challenge is "Nonfiction 2015".