2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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ARCHIVE 2016
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2016 - Buddy Reads Introduction & Sign Up
Sorry everyone. I shall fix these now. I've not been well lately so haven't been able to do much lately.
I've added all the new ones for this month and recorded requests for February etc. Please let me know if I've missed any. Thanks.
Zara I have a question... The Mod threat that you have used to have all the upcoming reads that also help to look what is coming up and sign instead of running to the tread to see which books are already selected. Will it be possible to you to put it again?
Caro wrote: "Zara I have a question... The Mod threat that you have used to have all the upcoming reads that also help to look what is coming up and sign instead of running to the tread to see which books are a..."Hi Caro. I shall be updating this later today.
I would love to read Vicious by V.E. Schwab in either February or March with someone. I got it for Christmas and it's been sitting there, mocking me while I read other books on my TBR pile.
Cassandra wrote: "I'd be up for Vicious! Either month is fine with me - I don't have much planned out that far yet."Yay! I've heard so many good things about it.
Maybe I got here too late?I'd be up for Americanah, War and Peace and Gone with the Wind.
Someone interested in reading Crime and Punishment in August?
I'd be up for Vicious & Crime and Punishment. I definitely need to get back into Dostoyevsky.
Dostojevskey is so good!! I really liked Crime and Punishment and will re-read when I find the version I collect :) This year I'm really exited for my first Tolstoy too though!
Awesome! :) I loved The Brothers Karamazov so much and I'd love to reread it in Russian now that I've had more time to learn it. So Crime and Punishment should be spectacular. Oh, that's great! Which one are you going with?
You can read russian?? I love everything russian and polish and slavic in general. Learning polish, but russian would be my second choice! I'm reading a series of books, collectible voted by authors the 100 best works in literature. I have Anna Karenina, so that's the one I will start with. Also have dostojevskey in that version, but only one work: the possessed I think.
Hoping I find War and Piece used and the rest of the D. Books on the list of the series :)
Oh, Lord! So many books! Ah, I'd be up for Game of Thrones too.
I'd love to learn Russian and Polish. Russian I tried once, but I could only learn the alphabet. Too complicated.
German, though, I never learned the alphabet, but I knew the basics.
Now I only remember my native language, Portuguese, most of English, something of French, and I comprehend Spanish, as it's too similiar with Portuguese. The funny thing is that I hate Latin lol
I wanna read Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov too.
I'd love to read Tolstoy sometime, currently reading Tchekhov, though.
Well I def have some room for improvement lol but I can get by with reading Russian for the most part. I wanted to teach English abroad for a couple years and the program I'm going with has spots available in Russia. I've always found Russian and Polish really interesting so it seemed like a great idea to finally learn. My mom can speak German but I've stuck mostly with the basics. It's a great language so I really should get more into it. My most comfortable languages are my native (English), French, & Spanish though.
I've been wanting to get more into reading in other languages, it helps me get into the feel of a language. I like side by side translations a lot like Pinsky's Dante's Inferno. It was really cool going through the Italian with the English right there. I'm still pretty rusty with Italian though.
I need to get to Karenina, it's been sitting on my shelf mocking me for ages lol. Same with Tchekhov. I've only read Ward Number Six & that was forever ago.
Oh, but it's actually awesome that you can read Russian. How much time did you have to dedicate to get there?I'll give it a try again sometime. German too. But now I'm stuck with French and Spanish. During French classes, I wanna speak English. During Spanish classes, I wanna speak French or English. And after a whole year of Spanish I cannot speak much, so, I'm quite bored with it. But I'd like to learn as many languages as humanly possible.
I understand that need to "get into the feel of a language". I really love bilingual books because of that. I'm trying to read whole books in English, but I get really tired after a while.
By Tchekhov, I've read Ward No. 6, Kashtanka, Verotchka, The Kiss and The Murder. Currently reading A Boring Story.
Anna Karenina is on my list since I was in High School, about 5 years ago lol Dante's Divine Comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron are there for the same length of time too.
My preferred language for reading is english. Norwegian is my native. German was so hard for me. After five years in school I can barely say a few sentences.
Just the fact that you can read Russian is amazing though :)
Polish is hard, but so fascinating, love it! Just been learning for half a year though :)
If anyone would be interested in reading any of the books I list below, please message me. I love doing buddy reads, and really want to get through these books soon.The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Wicked by Jamie Maguire
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I am up for The Book Thief Amanda! Will March will be good for you or when are you planning to read it?
Oh, The Goldfinch! I wanna read it too. I'm up for it!THG I already read. And The Book Thief I wanted to re-read anytime soon.
It'd be interested in doing a buddy read starting in February. I don't actually have any books planned to read that month though.
Caro wrote: "I am up for The Book Thief Amanda! Will March will be good for you or when are you planning to read it?"March is perfect!
Gabriella wrote: "Oh, The Goldfinch! I wanna read it too. I'm up for it!THG I already read. And The Book Thief I wanted to re-read anytime soon."
When would you want to read The Goldfinch? After March may be best since I am reading a big book in both February and March.
Jeana wrote: "It'd be interested in doing a buddy read starting in February. I don't actually have any books planned to read that month though."There are a few going on, As far as I can recall it will be The Nightingale and Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster but also you can suggest something and people will pop up for it!
@Gabriella - I started learning Russian here and there in high school. There weren't any classes available so I just did what I could on my own. It was a back burner thing but over the last two years I've been hitting the books more. So I'd say I've been decent with reading in Russian for about a year.That's so awesome that you've finished so many. Same here, I have so many books sitting in my TBR lol.
@Winter- I don't know any Norwegian but I certainly wish I did. Yeah, German is rough. I ended up writing to a pen pal when I was a kid and her English was always so much better than my German lol.
I need to focus on tackling Polish more.
I'd like to join in for The Book Thief, pls. Also would like to join in on Chernobyl in Feb.
Ariel wrote: "@Gabriella - I started learning Russian here and there in high school. There weren't any classes available so I just did what I could on my own. It was a back burner thing but over the last two yea..."I don't think Norwegian is too hard, but it's not so easy to value your own language. It has some similarities with German. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish is very similar, we mostly understand each other and reading wise Danish and Norwegian are almost the same :)
Wow!! I'm impressed with all the great buddy reads being requested. Below is a link to the updated Mod BR thread; please go and have a look at it and see if everything is there. If any BRs are missing please let me know in this thread and I'll correct it.Keep all the great BRs coming.
Link: Mod thread for BRS
Thank you so much, that's great Zara! I looked up Divergent and got it for 1.99 , so I'm in on that. Looks like it extends to February?
I don't know if we ever said it was going to be a buddy read, but Julie and I planned reading Hunger in February :)
Winter wrote: "Thank you so much, that's great Zara! I looked up Divergent and got it for 1.99 , so I'm in on that. Looks like it extends to February?
I don't know if we ever said it was going to be a buddy r..."
Got it. Thanks Winter. I've marked it down.
Has anyone read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante? Looking to start a new book..any suggestions? anyone want to read one with me?
Thanks a lot Zara! This really help me to see which readings I will join!
Amanda - Is April okay? March would be best for me, but I suppose April is just fine.Winter - Hunger seems very very interesting. Can I join you two?
Ariel - A year? That's fast! And so amazing! I have more than 250 books to read, but still joining buddy reads of books that weren't on the list *hides*
Gabriella, March is fine if that's better for you.
Amanda wrote: "Gabriella, March is fine if that's better for you."Oh, I just saw I have three BRs in March, so April is really better =)
Gabriella wrote: "Amanda - Is April okay? March would be best for me, but I suppose April is just fine.Winter - Hunger seems very very interesting. Can I join you two?
Ariel - A year? That's fast! And so amazing!..."
Yes Gabriella, that would be great!
Gabriella wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Gabriella, March is fine if that's better for you."Oh, I just saw I have three BRs in March, so April is really better =)"
April will be also good for me... I still didin't plan any reading so ....
Winter wrote: "Anne wrote: "Anyone want to buddy read War and Peace?"I have wanted to read it for years. However I'm looking for a specific version, and since I haven't found it yet I'm probably going for Anna ..."
If you are going to read either War and Peace or Anna Karenina make sure you get the Pevear/Volokhonsky. By way of idiom and meaning translation, they get it all out there. Other versions lose their vitality. Trust me.
I would be willing to buddy read either of them! It has been too long.
I can't find any War & Peace editions translated by either of those two in the UK, Kylie. Do you know if the Maude translation for it is any good?
Zara wrote: "Caro wrote: "@Zara: Can you please move The Book Thief for April... Thanks a lot!"Consider it done."
Thanks a lot!
Lulu wrote: "I can't find any War & Peace editions translated by either of those two in the UK, Kylie. Do you know if the Maude translation for it is any good?"They all will have errors (even the Pevear/Volokhonsky), Maude is considered to be "outdated" by most Russian literature lovers (I've never read this version, although I own it.) However, the story, I'm sure will be essentially there. I just wanted to advocate Pevear/Volokhonsky edition because it seems to be the most agreed upon translation.
Gabriella wrote: "Ariel - A year? That's fast! And so amazing! I have more than 250 books to read, but still joining buddy reads of books that weren't on the list *hides* Haha, I'm in the same boat!
It sound more amazing than it was lol, I think it being so spaced out and learning bits and pieces here and there for years definitely helped tremendously and I'd say I'm a just a tiny bit over intermediate at this point.
Kylie wrote: "Winter wrote: "Anne wrote: "Anyone want to buddy read War and Peace?"I have wanted to read it for years. However I'm looking for a specific version, and since I haven't found it yet I'm probably ..."
I think there is a plan to do War and Peace March-May.
I want to do Anna Karenina but probably in the fall, after kids go back to school.
Zara wrote: "Wow!! I'm impressed with all the great buddy reads being requested. Below is a link to the updated Mod BR thread; please go and have a look at it and see if everything is there. If any BRs are miss..."Thanks for up date :)
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2025 Reading Challenge
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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I'll read Divergent in February. It's on my short list as of now.