Week 40: 9/29 - 10/5

[Jackie]

Stina wrote: "Jackie wrote: "... My most read authors:

Agatha Christie with 41! Not that surprising considering she's easily my favorite author. My goal is to read her entire bibliography. ..."

Me too! I'm tr..."

Oh, yeah, I'm not going in order...trying to figure out the original publication order of her short stories sounds like a nightmare. I've read the Complete Hercule Poirot short stories and the Complete Miss Marple short stories, so I will have my own herculean (hee hee) task of making sure I don't miss any of the other short stories.

[Megan]

Nadine wrote: "Interesting! That happened to me a few weeks ago on Overdrive, one of my holds ("The Elite") changed to "#0 of 0" - it's still there on my holds list and I've been meaning to email Overdrive to ask..."

That happened to me once and I think I read on the website that the digital loan period for my library had expired and the library didn't renew it on their end. Maybe they look at what is popular and my book just didn't make the cut? I think I ended up just requesting the physical book.

[Chinook]

Yes, sometimes the libraries let their licenses lapse. I find if I put it on my hold list, it eventually shows up again. One book took several months, but I’ve yet to have any stay at 0 of 0.

[Stina]

Nicole wrote: "Elyse wrote: "Nicole wrote: " I guess I could go back and fill in all the books I can think of that I've read, but that would be awfully time consuming..."

Oh I have absolutely done that. lol. I d..."

I've been doing it kind of haphazardly, mostly as I see them on other people's lists. Fortunately, I have BookCrossing records going back to 2002 that I can refer to, and somewhere I have reading journals going back well into the '90s. My regular journals also served as a reading log in the '80s, but going through them is a bit more time-consuming.

I do rate every book I mark as "read," but the longer it's been since I read it, the less accurate the rating is. This causes me much anxiety. I'm trying to learn to get over it.

[Trina]

Kristen, I see you've read three books by Mira Grant, which may or may not be the Newsflesh series. If you have read them, I highly recommend the collection of short stories and novellas under the title Rise. If the three books are others by MG, I recommend the entire Newsflesh series, which is three novels and the book I just mentioned. Good stuff.

(Mira Grant writes urban fantasy under the name Seanan McGuire. I've enjoyed those books, too.)

[Nadine in NY]

Nadine wrote: "Interesting! That happened to me a few weeks ago on Overdrive, one of my holds ("The Elite") changed to "#0 of 0" - it's still there on my holds list and I've been meaning to email Overdrive to ask..."

I've emailed my library about it. I'll let you guys know when I hear something. So, either this serves as a heads up and they fix the problem, or ... I drop that hold and just wait for the NYPL copy to become available. win/win for me :-)

[Theresa]

Stina wrote: "Then I'm not sure what to read for the "lifespan of a character" prompt. When I looked at the prompt thread here, the only titles that sounded intriguing to me were ones that came with caveats that they *almost* fit the prompt. So right now I'm hoping that something I read for a book club or some other challenge just happens to fulfill that prompt.

Stina - i just read The Namesake because I am going to a talk this week by Lahiri, and loved it. It fits the character's lifrspan prompt for sure. Very enjoyable story about immigrant assimilation and the meaning of identity.

Commonwealth, another enjoyable and light read also fits. This is what I used.

The Nightingale also fits and is a wonderful book but emotionally heartwrenching. I cried through most of it.

The Sellout fits - it is a brilliant satire, but not a comfortable read - I counted it as my book on a difficult subject however.

Season of Migration to the North beautiful read, not long, and fits character lifetime but I used for a different prompt.

Maybe this helps.

[Stina]

Theresa wrote: "Stina wrote: "Then I'm not sure what to read for the "lifespan of a character" prompt. When I looked at the prompt thread here, the only titles that sounded intriguing to me were ones that came wit..."

I'm actually about halfway through Commonwealth right now. Is it too spoilery to say whose lifespan it covers? The main character seems to be Franny, but I don't get the impression so far that the book takes her past middle age. There's been a death (or two?) mentioned, but not of what I think of as a major character.

[Tania]

I can't believe I missed a check-in on a week that I made a big breakthrough on what's left of my challenge list :-)

I am now at 47/50 for the challenge - I finished 2 prompts this week:
✓4. An audiobook - The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel and narrated by Sandra Burr ★★★ I was disappointed by this book, I've always loved the series but this one really dragged for me, but I did get to try out my library's audiobook player that I've seen other people talk about and that was a convenient tool

✓42. A bestseller from 2016 - Me Before You by Jojo Moyes ★★★★ - the subject matter made this a bit difficult for me to read, but it was a great book and handled delicate issues really well

My most read authors didn't surprise me either, since the top 3 have my favorite series(es?) that I love, although it did surprise me that the books per author dropped drastically after #6:

1 V.C. Andrews (40)
2 Janet Evanovich (30)
3 Walter Farley (19)
4 Jean Plaidy (18)
4 Sue Grafton (18)
6 Maria V. Snyder (10)

[Nadine in NY]

Tania wrote: " ... 3 Walter Farley (19) ..."

:-) I devoured his books when I was a kid!!! that was, of course, long before goodreads existed, and I can't even remember which ones I read - every one I could find, but I'm sure I missed a few.

[Theresa]

Stina wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Stina wrote: "Then I'm not sure what to read for the "lifespan of a character" prompt. When I looked at the prompt thread here, the only titles that sounded intriguing to me were on..."

Stina - I defined 'lifespan' as applying to a character if it essentially covered some character's life from birth up to present day of the book, and did not necessarily mean the death of that character but preferably took them well into adulthood. I don't construe these prompt categories too narrowly. But then I am a lawyer and we are experts at using definitional nuances to our advantage!

The Nightingale gives you a choice of characters, major and minor, from birth to death if you want something that fits a very narrow definition.

[Nadine in NY]

The only definition of "lifespan" that I know is "from birth to death" - I didn't like this category and if there's some nuance to exploit, I say go for it, but I never found one! (And luckily for me, I ended up reading a book that happened to span the character's lifespan. Like Water for Chocolate starts with her birth and ends with her death. I'm not exactly recommending this book, because I didn't love it, but it's there.)

[Kristen]

Trina wrote: "Kristen, I see you've read three books by Mira Grant, which may or may not be the Newsflesh series. If you have read them, I highly recommend the collection of short stories and novellas under the ..."

Yep, it was the Newsflesh series!! I loved them, thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of that one, I'm definitely going to have to read it and look for her books by seanan :-)

[Kristen]

Chinook wrote: "Yes, sometimes the libraries let their licenses lapse. I find if I put it on my hold list, it eventually shows up again. One book took several months, but I’ve yet to have any stay at 0 of 0."

Thanks for the info! One of the books is one of the Harry Potter audiobooks, so I'm sure that's just a matter of time before they get it fixed. I'll let it sit on my holds and see if it comes back.

[Stina]

Theresa wrote: "Stina wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Stina wrote: "Then I'm not sure what to read for the "lifespan of a character" prompt. When I looked at the prompt thread here, the only titles that sounded intriguing..."

The character doesn't have to die, but I wouldn't count it unless the character is either facing death or at or near the end of the typical human lifespan. So it sounds like Commonwealth won't work for me. I started The Nightingale for a book club several months ago, and I kinda hated it, so I put it down. I'm not in any hurry to pick it up again and try to slog through it, but I guess I will if I have to. I'm trying as much as possible not to procure more books, since I have thousands already, but with that many books, you'd think I would already have something that counts!

[Stina]

Nadine wrote: "The only definition of "lifespan" that I know is "from birth to death" - I didn't like this category and if there's some nuance to exploit, I say go for it, but I never found one! (And luckily for ..."

I accidentally watched the beginning of the movie of Like Water for Chocolate once. It is....not for me.