Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
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2017 Weekly checkins
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Week 10: 3/3 - 3/9
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This week I finished The Story of a New Name on audiobook for the audiobook prompt. I haven't really enjoyed audiobooks that much before, and this one was taking forever as I was finding it hard to find listening time, but then I started listening in the car and that made my long drive to and from work go much quicker and I think I may be a convert to audiobooks now. Aside from the format, I loved the novel as I did the first, and am looking forward to starting the next in the series. I also finished The Glorious Heresies which was good, sad and funny and depressing and grim but hopeful in weird places too. I wasn't overly struck with the final third but then I supposed the happy ending I always hope for wouldn't have fitted either.
QOTW - all I can think of is I had Benedict Cumberbatch's autograph inside a book signed by Michael Pailin - both these I'd met at signings at the Cheltenham Literary festival. It's probably still there now. I tend to use whatever is to hand as a bookmark, but it's mostly train tickets and receipts. Once I found a photo of an ex I thought I'd deleted all traces of, which was an unpleasant surprise! I should do an amnesty one day and check all my books to see what's lurking in there.
Don't forget the toilet paper too! Can't be running out of the soft stuff in the middle of a blizzard!Challenge: 17/52
Children's Lit: 10/52
A book about food: I finally finished Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way through Great Books. I'm going to be honest here, I wasn't too enthralled with her book reviews - they all felt the same after the first few. But I did love the recipes. I know I've been saying I'm going to try some, but I did copy a couple that I think we're going to love!
(On a side note, this book actually could fit a couple of different prompts. Obviously a book about food. Also a book with a subtitle. And it obviously has many book that are mentioned - so you can always read one of those for the prompt about a book mentioned in another book!)
A book by a person of color: I'm a little late with this one but also just finished The Underground Railroad. Liked this one, but I felt some of the chapters were just randomly stuck in there. That kind of threw off the flow for me a little bit.
Not for a prompt, but I did finish another audiobook - Death on the Nile. My first time reading (listening) an Agatha Christie book and I am hooked. It just kept going on and on and took so many turns I could barely keep up! Definitely did not see the ending coming!
QOTW: I also have found an airline ticket stub in a book from the library. I have also found the library receipts numerous times. I would love to tuck a note in a book that I really loved. May have to do that someday.
For 3/3-3/9, I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, which I selected for "A book by a person of color." I continued reading The Elusive Elixir and The Cracked Spine. That brought my completion totals to 10/40 and 1/12.Of the prompts I've finished, I'm probably most relieved to have "a book with a red spine" knocked off the list -- only because it seemed like it'd be tricky to complete. I don't have the prompts planned out, but I'm saving "a book you bought on a trip" for later in the year because I don't currently have any books that fall in that category...unless I v-e-r-y loosely interpret the word "trip." I'm sure I won't have any trouble completing that later in the year though :)
QOTW: Not exactly unusual, but, I routinely find airline boarding pass stubs in books I buy at used book stores. The Aer Lingus stub I found in Inspector Imanishi Investigates stands out most in my mind and made me wonder how far the book must've traveled before it wound up in that used book store. I also once found a bookmark signed by an author in a library book -- I still hope the librarian I returned the book to was able to find whichever patron had left it in the book. I haven't left anything in a book before (at least, I don't think I have :)), but loved finding out that kids were leaving notes of encouragement for other kids in the book Echo when I read it for last year's BookRiot Read Harder Challenge.
Well 14 of 65 books done. I'm slacking a little right now do to some family issues. I am currently reading 4 books: The Lost World by Michael Crichton
The Solomon Curse by Clive Cussler
Taking the Titanic by James Patterson
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (Takes care of a book with a family term in the title or a book with a character's name in the title :) )
Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Reading!!
Sara: where did you use Solomon Curse? That's on my shelf too but I wasn't sure where to use it
This week: 31. Main character is a different ethnicity: The Sun Is Also a Star I really enjoyed this book...like a romance novel on philosophical steroids :)
39. 1st in a series never read before: March: Book One
5. By a person of color: March: Book Two An intense series (of course). As a librarian I love having these books in our collection - they fit so many readers advisory needs but are also still really "enjoyable" (for lack of a better word).
QOTW: As a children's librarian I have found a long, long list of things in books...The worst would be all the unidentifiable stains/solid matter/liquid?-soaked pages.
My favorite thing to find is kid's artwork. We have a small space in our office to display our favorites :)
My first checkin, and late at that! Three books completed for the challenge during this week - an unusually high figure, but am off work and not up to much else!
After a long three week haul (but one which I thoroughly enjoyed), completed Lorna Doone for the book with a title that's a character's name. I haven't seen many others doing this one, and it is a hefty tome, but it ultimately proved thoroughly rewarding.
A quick 2-day zip through my first Anne Tyler, The Amateur Marriage satisfied the category for an author from a country you've never visited (in spite of the fact that I have family in the States) - I read this for another challenge, and this is the only category that it seems to satisfy here, so slotted it in. Good, if not amazing, read - certainly want to try more of her.
Finally, for the week, read Gerald Seymour's The Waiting Time for the espionage thriller category. Not really my scene normally, but this was a speculative birthday present from OH (we'd just visited the area it's set in), and as it fitted this category..... Proved better than expected, although the ending was a mite disappointing. I'd read him again if needing something quick off an airport or station book stall, but I won't go chasing.
That makes 14/52 completed so far - just about on track.
I suppose the one I'm most glad to have got out of the way is the careers advice book, although I really enjoyed the one I chose ( A Year of Living Danishly ). I'm not saving any; although I've got ideas for categories, I'm not sticking to any list, and the book I've landed up reading has been different to the list on about half the categories so far.
The most awkward one will be the audiobook, as I only ever listen to these in extremis. With the greatest respect, I don't think this should even be a category - it's simply not reading (however valuable I think audiobooks are); OK as a stand-in, but that's as far as it goes for me.
QOTW: nothing spectacular - the odd cut-out review, bookmark, receipt etc. I did find a Belgian 100-Franc note on one occasion - but that was well after the Belgians had gone over to the Euro, so I use it as a bookmark (which has caused comment on occasions!).
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I think audiobooks are definitely "reading"!! Words are words, whether they get into your head through your ears or through your eyes, they are still words that make up a story. For some people, it is easier to see the words. For some people, it is easier to hear the words. Some people like both.
I have just finished reading "All The Light We Cannot See" and I loved it! I was also concerned about the hype surrounding it but I loved every page. So delicately written, I was touched by it.I have now started reading Murder on the Orient Express for a book that's becoming a movie in 2017.
Hey there from Paris in the Spring! Although rough weather is forecasted for this weekend, just when I have a trail run scheduled...No progress to report last week; in part because I'm having a kind of a March Madness, running wise, with two races in 15 days. Plus, I was on a train trip for my union last week, and I forgot to take my book with me! I have finished it since, but that's material for the next check-in!
QOTW, interesting: I tend to use almost anything as a bookmark. For instance, I have used train tickets, ski passes, and I still have a 10,000 francs CFA banknote (the common currency for French-speaking West Africa; 10,000 is worth about 16$) that stays in a book by Malian author Amadou Hampaté Ba.
One strange find: an advertisement card, in German, for a brand of oatmeal - dating from the 60s and 70s, from the look of it. That was in an early 19th Century reedition of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron. I'm not quite sure where the book comes from; a gift or a found in a second-hand bookstore.
Archives are obviously in a different category. I found some strange stuff in 17th or 18th Century public records: for instance, a late 17th Century complaint by cloth makers that iron masters upstream where polluting their cloth laundering facility - with samples of fabric that had indeed the red hue of iron oxydes; also, a 1720 treatise on the making of gunpowder that included twig-size samples of the best woods to be used for that (hazel, dogwood, etc.). But those were not books, proprio motu.
I'm writing this a bit late, halfway through the next week, but I am getting reading done. I am currently reading The Underground Railroad, and I am about 90% finished with it. I will have to find more to read! I'm not sure how many books I have finished, I guess I will have to count that up next week and review my list. I've been meaning to get to some books for work, but really, I do need the escapism. I think I need to stop watching TV though!Spring Break is around the corner! More time to sit in the comfy chair and read!
QOTW: Nope, not much more than student papers and a lot of drawings of male genitalia. Teenagers...
Sara wrote: "Happy Check-in Day!
It’s nearly the middle of March, and we are about 20% done with this year’s challenge. Woo hoo! Have you knocked out some prompts already that you are relieved to have behind y..."
Nadine wrote: I think audiobooks are definitely "reading"!! Words are words, whether they get into your head through your ears or through your eyes, they are still words that make up a story. For some people, it is easier to see the words. For some people, it is easier to hear the words. Some people like both.Words are words, but I still have to disagree; reading I would maintain is not the same as listening. When I read a story to my class, they are listening, not reading. Learning to read, a visual process, is completely different to learning to listen, an auditory process. Both are important skills, but they are different.
Where I think the line is far less distinct is reading through touch, i.e. Braille. I'm insufficiently expert on the latter, but my instinct is that the processing is very similar, interpreting the letters and patterns they create into meaningful words, sufficiently so for both to be reading.
Will as an early literacy teacher I agree and because the physical processing of the symbols is with the "reader" I think Braille is certainly closer to reading than listening. In both cases the reader is actively engaged vs passive engagement in the case of listening. Both are incredibly important and valid forms of communication but listening isn't reading.Having said that, this isn't school and participation is supposed to be voluntary and enjoyable so I think that using audiobooks for the challenge is definitely valid :)
Eye and Ear reading are both forms of equal reading. The idea is of reading is take in information, comprehend the material, learning/enjoyment etc. all of which can be done through written and audio text. The only time they differ is when you are specifically working on decoding and learning to read the written words.
Was on a long plane ride last Thursday, and busy catching up at home since, so here's a really late update: 1. The Edible Woman for a book about food. Although it revolves around food, it's not really ABOUT food. Hopefully, close enough.
2. Three Sisters, Three Queens picked this up as a book recommended by a librarian. Could, of course, also work for the advanced category of name of a family member in the title, but I've got that one covered already. I didn't enjoy this book as much as some of the author's other novels, but it filled the category...
3. Steampunk Fairy Tales read this for the steampunk category, only to realize after I'd finished that the prompt was for a steampunk novel, not short stories. Really bummed about this, since this is my second attempt at reading steampunk, and I did not enjoy either read.
4. Sugar I'm not sure where to place this book in the challenge: would fit different ethnicity, name of character in title, and the book deals with issues of obesity and diabetes. Still, it was the best written of the books I read last week.
5. Last Train to IstanbulAlthough the book would have benefitted from some trimming (some of the subplots seemed to take over...), still, the book taught me a lot about Turkey in WW2, which upped its rating from me. This book works as a red spine, book by an author from a country I've never visited (Turkey), a novel that takes place during a war, and refugees.
Next posting I'll have fewer books to list...
Mirel wrote: "Really bummed about this, since this is my second attempt at reading steampunk, and I did not enjoy either read."Have you tried Boneshaker ? I really liked that Cherie Priest gave a lot of thought as to the WHYs of various steampunk elements. Like people wore gas masks to avoid a nasty poisonous gas that ate the minds of people who inhaled it. And the goggles were to help them see through it, and to protect their eyes. stuff like that. It felt a lot less arbitrary and "because it looks cool!".
![Marisa Poltrack [book whisperer] | 194 comments](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1484855164p1/43799286.jpg)
Ah! I don't think I checked in last week! I finished A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail for the prompt a book set in the wilderness. I am also reading Etiquette & Espionage for a steampunk novel. We shall see what my reading adventure brings for me!
Jillian wrote: "Eye and Ear reading are both forms of equal reading. The idea is of reading is take in information, comprehend the material, learning/enjoyment etc. all of which can be done through written and aud..."Where is this 'ear reading' authoritatively defined? As a teacher of reading, I have never seen any text or authority where listening is treated as 'reading'. Indeed, just the opposite: reading assessments specifically preclude listening to the text being read. The decoding of written text is an inherent part of reading, and can't just be arbitrarily excluded - it is part of what defines reading!
That is not for one second to denigrate the skill of listening, which is vitally important and, indeed, all too often underrated. But it is not reading!
I'll listen to an audiobook at some stage - I wouldn't have undertaken the challenge if I wasn't willing to do so - but, as I see it, it shouldn't be in a 'reading' challenge. (Actually, that'll probably be sooner than I expected - we've decided to redecorate the kitchen in the next few weeks, and there's nothing I find more tedious than redecorating. An audiobook or two will be an absolute Godsend!)
Will wrote: "Jillian wrote: "Eye and Ear reading are both forms of equal reading. The idea is of reading is take in information, comprehend the material, learning/enjoyment etc. all of which can be done through..."If you don't want to count Ear reading as valid don't. If you want to learn more, then there is information out there and I believe people learn best when they find the answers to their questions themselves.
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Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Etiquette & Espionage (other topics)A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (other topics)
Boneshaker (other topics)
Three Sisters, Three Queens (other topics)
Last Train to Istanbul (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Octavia E. Butler (other topics)Tamora Pierce (other topics)
George Orwell (other topics)
Lorraine Heath (other topics)
Anat Talshir (other topics)
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No food shortages here when bad weather comes. Things only start to disappear when there is a natural disaster and people stock up (floods, fire, etc).
This was I started and finished 3 books:
Zero Hour *A book set in two different time periods
The Hammer of Thor (Book set in a hotel)
A Moth to the Flame: The Story of Amy's Struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder could have fit multiple prompts but I chose to place it under (Book about a person with a disability), It also filled the Read Harder prompt of a micropress. This was a very difficult book to read as I know the family personally and remembered the day that they lost Amy to her high-risk lifestyle. Although it may be hard to track down I strongly encourage you to seek it out.
QOTW: I've never found anything interesting, just forgotten bookmarks or library slips