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Chuck's Chapter
HA! I like the name I came up with. I mean, it's going to primarily be about my reads, and this is my little section, so it's kind of a play off the two definitions.
Well I'm currently in the middle of what I've dubbed a 30/30 Challenge: that is to read 30 books in 30 days. Today is Day 16. I'm way behind too! However, I think it may still be possible. I've read 11 books so far, so I'm 5 books behind. I need to read a novel right now to stay 5 behind too. But I think I can still do it because I've got a handful of books I've been reading as well this month that I haven't finished. So all I have to do is read a novel everyday and knock out those I haven't finished. Next month (and after), I'm turning my attention to some books I've wanted to read but just haven't got it done: War and Peace, Les Miserables, Infinite Jest, etc...
I have had War and Peace on my bookshelf forever. One of these days I will actually get around to reading it. It's just Soooooooo long *sigh*
Cindy wrote: "I have had War and Peace on my bookshelf forever. One of these days I will actually get around to reading it. It's just Soooooooo long *sigh*"Yeah, it really is. It's one of the very longest ever. But it supposed to be really, really good.
I read Anna Karinna and liked it. I love most of Solgenitzen' s books. I guess I like the Russian authorsI have downloaded War and Peace and am also working into it
Soon I think.
Diane wrote: "I read Anna Karinna and liked it. I love most of Solgenitzen' s books. I guess I like the Russian authorsI have downloaded War and Peace and am also working into it
Soon I think."
Cindy wrote: "I have had War and Peace on my bookshelf forever. One of these days I will actually get around to reading it. It's just Soooooooo long *sigh*"
Maybe we can buddy read it next month. I'm definitely reading it. I'm going to slow way down starting next month and start being really picky about what I read.
I've been thinking about this for a while now. I'm going to start reading a lot more classics. At least 1/3. There are just so many books coming out and most of them are junk frankly, and a person can only read so many books in a lifetime. There just isn't enough time to sift the wheat from the chaff. There are currently over a 130 million books out there, and by far more are published every week than a person could read in a lifetime. The classics are classics essentially because billions of people have read millions of books over many lifetimes and narrowed it down to a few thousand good ones. I think everyone should take advantage of that.
As so often happens with me, I got a monkey wrench thrown in my plans. Started reading several books I gave up on, at least a 100 pages of stuff that I decided I'm not going to read. So, I'm working on finishing THE DESERT SPEAR right now. I wish I could get it finished. Technically it's day 17 and I'm 11 for 17, but I don't consider it Day 17 until I wake up, ha-ha. It would be nice to end the day 12 for 16. We'll see. I have a feeling I'm going to wake up 11 for 17, lol. That's okay. I should be able to add a couple more today. I'm saving back a couple I can blow through pretty quick like NYPD RED and THE SCARLETT LETTER.
It seems like since I started really immersing myself in literary fiction for well over a year now, I'm just not impressed with a certain type of book anymore. It's the James Patterson-esque stuff. Maybe the books were just bad books. I'm definitely going to try some more, but they seem SO vapid. There is no substance to 'em. There is no character building, no inner dialogue. Check out this guy busting on Patterson by telling a story in Patterson's style. It's hilarious because it so true: http://www.booklistonline.com/%28X%28...
I've not read James Patterson for so many years, I got a bit bored by them. The style just wasn't for me and that's why I never got into his new stuff. Did you ever start on the Patricia Cornwell books you wanted to read Chuck?
I started reading the very first one:Postmortem I'm not sure if I'll get back to it this month or not. I'm still planning on reading them though. Maybe I'll go ahead and read it for one of my challenge books for this month, just depends on my mood.I wanna read at least one of what I've come to think of as a mega-series. Seems like a good one. I'm also thinking about some others too. JD's Robb's In Death series is a possibility also.
I really want to get back into the classics soon myself. I keep telling myself I'm gonna do it and then end up end a million different buddy reads at one time (none of them classics). Already have stuff lined up for the first two weeks of May at least. Maybe I'll get into a classic after that. I own a bunch of them and nearly all of them you can get for free through the Guttenburg project.
Cindy wrote: " I own a bunch of them and nearly all of them you can get for free through the Guttenburg project."Exactly. There is A LOT of good reading to be done for free before spending good money on bad books.
Where the heck did that quote come from Chuck? Weird, I don't remember writing that at all.
Cindy wrote: "Where the heck did that quote come from Chuck? Weird, I don't remember writing that at all."HAHAHA! SO very sorry, Cindy! No you certainly didn't say that! I pasted the wrong quote from my clipboard! SO, SO SORRY!
It's OK Chuck. It was just strange because I usually remember what I say. I thought "boy you were really tired if you wrote something you don't remember".
Cindy wrote: "It's OK Chuck. It was just strange because I usually remember what I say. I thought "boy you were really tired if you wrote something you don't remember"."Haha! I must be the one that's tired. Again, so sorry-can't believe I did that.
Today is Day 18 and I have only finished 12 books. It's still within reach maybe, if I would finish some of these books I have going. Last night I started reading my very first Mary Higgins Clark: I've Got You Under My Skin: A Novel. It's pretty good so far. It's hard to believe I haven't read her before. She's only one of the most popular novelist ever, ha-ha. I think she's been dubbed: "The Queen of Suspense".
I think I read one book by her Chuck. Can't recall the title but it was a holiday book of some sort. Glad you're enjoying the book.
I've got one of her novels Chuck, but haven't gotten to her yet. I've never read her, either.
That sounds like a good one Chuck but its very expensive to buy yet, even to buy as a kindle book. So its looking at the library. I haven't read anything by that author before. Which one of hers have you got Holly?
I read all Mary Higgins Clark's books and like her a lot. I read all Patterson's, too. And liked them for throat part. Some I did mot like at all. I try to read at least 25% classics or non-fiction, and am up for War and Peace. (Still recovering from Ulysses. LOL)
Diane wrote: "I read all Mary Higgins Clark's books and like her a lot. I read all Patterson's, too. And liked them for throat part. Some I did mot like at all. I try to read at least 25% classics or non-fiction..."That sounds like a pretty balanced approach. And I like the fact that you have authors with some pretty huge catalogs you've read. I used to try to do that. I mean, I would get on an author and read book after book from them with that goal in mind, but I've never been able to pull that off. Not with an author with much of a catalog anyway.
How does May 1st sound for War and Peace?
Diane wrote: "May 1st, I am all over that."Great!
Thanks for the link for the book Chuck:-) I've never read War And Peace either, I've got on my nexus so one of these days I will. Is it as good as I think?
You guys are reading War and Peace? Do you mind if I join you?
If Chuck doesn't mind it sounds like a great idea:)
I will follow your posts on War and Peace but I've got too much lined up to read something that long for quite some time. Enjoy!
Day 19 on my challenge. I'm really in trouble now, but I'm still not throwing the towel. I'm hoping before tomorrow is out I'll be mounting my comeback, hahahahah!
Holly wrote: "You guys are reading War and Peace? Do you mind if I join you?"Angie wrote: "If Chuck doesn't mind it sounds like a great idea:)"
That would be AWESOME! Heck yeah, let's do it starting May 1st. We'll set up a thread for it here at Casual Readers.
Cindy wrote: "I will follow your posts on War and Peace but I've got too much lined up to read something that long for quite some time. Enjoy!"I know how that is. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, hehe.
Angie wrote: "Thanks for the link for the book Chuck:-) I've never read War And Peace either, I've got on my nexus so one of these days I will. Is it as good as I think?"No problem. You're more than welcome.
I hear it's pretty tough at the beginning, which I can kinda vouch for since I read a little bit of it, but it supposed be pretty awesome by the second half.
Welp, today is Day 21 and only read 15 books (about 5500 pages). Actually, I've read about 1000 more pages than that but it won't count because I haven't finished the books. But that's what's really hurt me the most: all this reading I do for books I haven't finished. I think it's safe to say I'm not going to make 30, haha, but technically it's still possible. I've had two-novels days. Never had seven in a row though.
Chuck are you doing a so many pages read challenge, or a so many books? Or one book a day but if its that does the book have to be a certain length not a 100 page or less? I like to read three books a week, but I count them as 300 page and up. I like reading the short stories in between to mix it up a bit.
Well, actually what I was trying to do is read 30 novels of 250 pages or more in 30 days at a minimum. I probably won't even get close. But if I could reach 7500 hundred pages that would be a small victory being that's what it comes out to page wise. Actually, I'm considering books a little less than 250 now, but anything much less than just isn't a novel IMO.
Good luck with your challenge, Chuck. I hope you reach your goal.
Holly wrote: "Good luck with your challenge, Chuck. I hope you reach your goal."Thanks Holly! Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to fail miserably. I just spend too much time trying to find something to read that's suited to my mood. Otherwise, I think I could do it.
Don't be so hard on yourself Chuck. This is supposed to be fun. Heck, 15 books in 30 days is good. :D
Cindy wrote: "Don't be so hard on yourself Chuck. This is supposed to be fun. Heck, 15 books in 30 days is good. :D"Thanks Cindy! I'm having fun with it. I read 15 books in 21 days, and a few of those days, like this last one, I completely wasted deciding what to read. I just wish I would've had my reads lined up better.
You're welcome. Aw, don't sweat it. Better luck next time! :)
15 in 21 days is somewhere around 300 a year without actually doing the math (just guessing). I couldn't even attempt to keep a pace like that. I think you were only doing it for a month, right?
Cindy wrote: "15 in 21 days is somewhere around 300 a year without actually doing the math (just guessing). I couldn't even attempt to keep a pace like that. I think you were only doing it for a month, right?"Yeah, 30 days. But I have blown it again this April. I guess there's always next April, I hope. Next time I'll have a better idea of what I'm going to read, for one. But things the past 3 days took a turn that really messed me up. Not that I've given up this year. Today is Day 24 and I would have to read 2 books everyday, and I just don't think I have it in me right now. I'm hoping just to break 20 at this point and see how well I can do page wise.
Its a hard challenge to do that's for sure, I couldn't read that many books in a month! I think I've added to many at the moment so I'm trying to get as many read before the start of May and then not add such a big list all at once.
Angie wrote: "Its a hard challenge to do that's for sure, I couldn't read that many books in a month! I think I've added to many at the moment so I'm trying to get as many read before the start of May and then n..."I think I would have had a lot better shot at it had I lined my books up and some other stuff not happened. I guess I'll finish with about 20. I think I may have done better last time.
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chap·ter
ˈCHaptər/
noun
noun: chapter; plural noun: chapters
1.
a main division of a book, typically with a number or title.
synonyms: section, division, part, portion More
"the first chapter of the book"
2.
a local branch of a society.
"the local chapter of the American Cancer Society"
synonyms: branch, division, subdivision, section, department, lodge, wing, arm
"a local chapter of the American Cancer Society"