EPBOT Readers discussion
Reading Challenges 2018
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Week 6 Check In
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Last week I finished Beartown as my book about sports. This book was a difficult read since the centre of the story revolves around sexual assault. I could not put this book down, and when I finished it, I found myself wishing that it could be required reading for every young teenager in the country. I have never encountered a book that so clearly communicates the pressures that young people feel to act they way they do, how cultures come to be built of male privilege and double standards of how young women and men are supposed to carry themselves, why people choose to deny the possibility that someone could commit a violent crime, and the mentality of victim blaming. This book could spark so many important discussion at an age when it's really important that we talk about these things with youth (that's the former English teacher in me talking!).
I've started reading Little Women as my book mentioned in another book. I'll be honest, I'm only reading this because what I really want to read is March, but I figured I get more out of March if I read Little Women first, since March is from the perspective of the father that's absent in Little Women. I've only had time to read for about 20 minutes each morning this week, so it's been pretty slow going. I've also read this book before, but not since I was in high school, which was in the 90s.
For my audiobook, I'm still listening to Leviathan and would have finished it on my walk home today if I hadn't forgotten to pack my headphones. Oh well. Tomorrow! I'm really disappointed that my library doesn't have the rest of this trilogy on audiobook, but they do have the ebooks, so I'm sure I'll be checking those out to finish off the series, because I've really enjoyed the first book.
In response to Sheri's question, I try to do about a book a week in the challenge, and I'm generally quite content with that because my challenge books are physical books and my audiobooks aren't. So, I feel like I get enough "non-challenge" variety through the audiobooks. Every once in a while, though, I get tired of being restricted by the challenge and just read something else. I don't generally find the challenges restricting, though, because I make sure that every book on there is something that I truly want to read, and I've discovered some wonderful books that way. I like having the structure to help me pick from the vast sea of books out there; however, I do keep an expanding list of TBR books, so I tend to go to town on them when the challenge is complete, or just tuck one in in between challenge books.
This week has fried my brain with meetings, but I am about a third of the way through Bad Feminist - it's really engaging and thought-provoking and I am enjoying it.To answer the question the only challenge I set for myself this year was 52 books in a year. I'm not a huge fan of the read blah for foo reasons type challenges. I tend to go through phases in what I read - like right now my overdrive hold list is stacked with star wars books - so I hate to be constrained. I'm at 5 of 52 right now, with plenty of time to go, so even though I do tend to binge read I should be fine by the end of the year.
This is the first year I've set up a reading challenge; I'm aiming for two books a week and think that's reasonable. I tend to read mostly mysteries, fantasy, and sci fi, so I made up my own challenge rather than doing a published one. I'm trying to read one series by a favorite author in order (the Deborah Knott series by Margaret Maron, twelve new authors, and twelve classics I haven't got around to reading. I think the suggestions I've noted from the FoE Book flood are going to more than take care of the new authors.I'm doing well on the 2 books/week pace. I usually read one book completely before starting the next. However, it took awhile to get through my Robin Hobb book, so I took a break and read one or two shorter ones. Doing the same for Well of Ascension. I'm enjoying both of those series, but have decided that I would prefer my epic fantasy in a length that was a little less epic.
This week was the end of a vacation, a long flight home, and being laid up with a broken foot, so I'm killing time by reading!I finishedThe Library at Mount Char. It was...interesting. A bit more gory than I care for, and a lot bizarre.
Next up was Guns of the Dawn. It was like reading about Elizabeth Bennett fighting in WWI but in the Victorian era with wizards. Mainly it was about how war changes people, and I think it did a decent job of it while keeping the story interesting.
Then I got my hands on Ann Leckie's newest, Provenance. It wasn't quite what I expected, but was still good. It's a lot smaller in scope than her Imperial Radch series, though it takes place in the same universe. Though I have to admit, while the non-gendering of characters was a novel thing at first, it gets tedious to read after a while. Disrupts the flow, forces me to stop and let my brain catch up with my eyes.
And now I'm working on my book flood book, Qualify. I haven't read any YA for a while, so hopefully it's good! Just started it today.
As for the question of the week: I've given up on setting reading goals for myself. I read for fun and to escape, and anytime I did a challenge I found it turned reading into a chore. I just read what I want when I want. I don't tend to need a goal to remind myself to read. It's more the opposite, I have to set goals to stop myself from reading. :)
This week I finished Veronika Decides to Die (Popsugar #16 - a book about mental health) and Death du Jour (#3 - the next book in a series you started). Both were enjoyable, quick reads.I took a lot of notes this week, penciling in books in the various challenge prompts. I've got two potentials lined up for #38 - a book with an ugly cover. I started on the first one, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design but it's such tiny print that it may be a long slog, even though I know I'll probably enjoy it quite a bit. I may put it on the backburner and go for Haunted instead for the prompt.
Meanwhile, the audiobook of Moby-Dick or, The Whale continues to await my next long drive. I have no idea if reading the book is as tedious as listening to it.
To answer the question of the week: I was always a voracious reader, but in the last few years I've found I read way too much online garbage and not enough actual literature, which is why I chose to tackle the Popsugar challenge (I'm also tracking Modern Mrs. Darcy and Book Riot prompts, but they're not my main goal). So it's a major challenge if you consider how many books I read last year, but not if you consider how I read when I take the time to read.
Because I feel I've fallen behind in the last few years, and because I went to school in French so there are a zillion classics I've never read, I don't have too much difficulty finding things to slot into each prompt. That said, I have slipped in one book I couldn't fit in any prompt, and I'm sure that will continue to happen throughout the year, particularly with business-related books. I'm still confident I won't have to cram come December.
Last week I finished reading Caraval. It reminded me a lot of The Night Circus, which I loved, with a little bit more of a plot. It still had the fun, dreamy/magical setting. The ending was weird and then I realized that the author has a sequel coming out this year. That'll go on my TBR list. I also started Redshirts. So far I love this book - it's a parody on Star Trek. I'm tempted to stop reading the actual book so I can listen to Wil Wheaton narrate it instead. Maybe I'll do both.
My next books are Artemis (impulse grab while at the library) and Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book (e-book).
To answer the question of the week: I did the 2016 PopSugar challenge, though it took me 2 years to complete. By the end I didn't feel like I could read any of the books I wanted to because they didn't fit in the prompts. This year I just set a goal of 26 books. So far I've read 7 (and had 3 DNF). It's amazing how much faster I'm reading when it's all the stuff I want to read vs. books I feel compelled to read. In the future I might consider another reading challenge.
On a side note, 2018 marks my first DNF ever. I'm one of those people who always has to finish a book, no matter how terrible it is. After struggling through some of the prompts from the reading challenge, I decided to be OK with not finishing. There are so many books I want to read, why waste time with a book I really don't like and am struggling to get through? This change in mindset was difficult, especially for the first one, but it's also amazing!
Had a productive reading week, but really with little that I can discuss here, as two of the books were related to a class that I’m teaching at church. Hopefully once my portion of the class is done, I can get back to my TBR pile. I still have Fellowship of the Ring underway, and several queued up that are new to me. I did manage to finish up my second book flood book this week though: Saga, which had been on my TBR list for quite sometime. I really liked the main characters and their plotline, but found the surrounding story to be far more intense than I tend to enjoy. I’ve had a million people recommend it though, so I was glad to get to see what all the fuss is about. Even though I didn’t love it, personally, I can absolutely see the appeal and appreciate why so many others do!
So between bad weather and sick days, I’ve been reading a lot! I was given three Donna Andrews books for Christmas: Murder With Puffins, Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos, and Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon. I loved them so much, I hopped onto my library and read The Hen of the Baskervilles and Duck the Halls as ebooks. My sister just leant me the first in the series, Murder With Peacocks, so I’ve just started that. I’m also still reading/listening to Cast in Deception as my commute book.
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Sherri- Stiff is just going to be gross, whether you read it or listen to it.
Sherri- Stiff is going to be gross either way. I thought it was a really interesting walk though a relatively mysterious subject, but there’s no getting around the fact that the author gets pretty graphic about the physical realities of death.
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EPBOT Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (other topics)Redshirts (other topics)
Caraval (other topics)
Artemis (other topics)
Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ann Leckie (other topics)Margaret Maron (other topics)
We're about to get hit with a ton of snow, would be a good weekend for never leaving the house and just reading constantly. However I'm going to instead run through Detroit in my underpants. Wish me luck!
This week I finished:
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter This was really good, I liked the victorian mash up part, and the idea of the various mad scientist daughters teaming up to fight their fathers. This was a book flood book, so it's my book that was a gift.
Timebound - book about time travel. This was ok. Time travel isn't really my favorite, it just gets too sloppy and confusing. This was no exception. However it didn't resolve enough of the plot for me to just walk away from so I'll probably end up reading the next book, sigh. =p I'll have to see if the library can get it in later this year.
Midnight at the Electric - I really loved this. It was like a dark chocolate truffle, bitter sweet but rich and just enough. It was my time of day in the title. The format was interesting, and i just loved the way the three story arcs wove together.
Eleanor & Park - I just finished up this at lunch, it's my book set in the decade I was born. It was just ok for me. I think it was well written, and I might have loved it as a teenager. It was just a little TOO relationship centric for me, with way too much teenage drama. I like there to be more plot, even in romances. Heck even my vampire smut books usually have some sort of overall story arc amongst them, beyond the immediate relationship.
Currently reading: Next up is Girl in the Blue Coat which will be my ATY Edgar Award winner. I don't think it fits into popsugar but I guess I'll see as I read. I suppose it could be favorite color, but purple is my actual favorite color. Just been having trouble figuring out what to read for it.
I am also about halfway through the audiobook for Britt-Marie Was Here which i'm really loving so far. It's my book about sports. I was a little nervous going in, after I DNFed Beartown. But I loved My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and this one has a character from that as the main. I didn't particularly like her in that book, but in this one she's much more endearing. I also appreciate the perspective of a non-sports fan being surrounded by the sports obsessed. It'll also count for Read Harder's book with a female protagonist over 60.
So I know in the group there's a lot of different reading speeds. For some people, the reading challenges are all the books they'll be able to read in the year, maybe even more than they think they can read. Others will finish the challenge easily with lots of books to spare. How does everyone decide how to manage your TBR lists in relation to challenges? Do you warp challenge prompts until the books you want to read fit in? Skip ones you don't like in favor of reading books you DO want to read? Only do a reading every other year so you can alternate free reading vs challenge reading? For those who aren't doing a formal reading challenge, do you set other goals? For those who have no problem filling books in, do you rush through the challenge to have free time, or spread out books you want to read in between challenge books?
For me, I'm a pretty voracious reader. Finishing the number of books isn't a problem, it's more my attention span. So I like to finish the challenge as quick as I can, while I have momentum. Then I have the rest of the year to read what I want. I do a certain amount of whatever reading as books I had long term holds on come up, or I just need a break, but for the most part I like to march on through. That's also why I'm counting books across challenges, even though I'm sure i COULD read read an individual book for each one. I want to have time to read what I want to read on a whim, not just challenge reading.