Fall 09/Winter 10' Challenge: Tasks, Questions, & Discussion

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Silvia..you can definitely change anything at any point! I frequently change books just based on my moods or what becomes available to me.

[jessi]

So, I figured out how many days I have to do this, and how many pages I will need to read total, and I have determined that I need to read at least 120 pages a day on average in order to read my goal. I hope that is doable :)

[Emily]

I think I might start with The History of the End of the World first, thought I really want to start with The Martian Chronicles if I can get a copy quickly.

[Silvia]

Thanks Jamie :P Thats just what I needed to hear!

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Did anyone finish any tasks yet?? :)

[Anna]

would My Life in France and Julie and Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen work for the pair of books (task 25.3)?

[jessi]

Jamie wrote: "Did anyone finish any tasks yet?? :)"

Yes! Today I finished a book I was supposed to read in high school, The Alchemist. I hated it lol. I think I actually might have kind of liked it if I had read it when I was supposed to, but oh well. Ten points down!

I just started reading Revolutionary Road and it seems much more promising.

[Jen]

Jamie wrote: "Did anyone finish any tasks yet?? :)"

Not yet, I'm about halfway done with my first book for the challenge.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Annashu wrote: "would My Life in France and Julie and Julia 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen work for the pair of books (task 25.3)?"

Yeah, I think that works!

[Tami]

I am so busy right now, I can't even start making up my list. Get me past the 15th deadline and things will clear up! Yay for deadlines. :)

[Emily]

I've started 2 books so far, The History of the End of the World, which is really slow due to the poor writing style, and Halloween Tree by Bradbury, which is absolutely great.

[Edina]

I'm so excited for Halloween! I might try reading the Shinning a couple days before it. Then play a scary video game. And then trick or treat!

[paulabits]

I'm about to finish El Si De Las Ninas (The Maidens' Consent) because is an assigned reading for my 19th century spanish class and is quite good so far, I'm enjoying it.

Although in my updates it looks like I'm about to finish Into the Wild, my edition has 408 pages so I haven't reach the middle yet.

I want to finish this 2 task before next week!!

[jessi]

I finished Revolutionary Road last night, and it is now one of my favorite books! I'm so glad I read it.

Then, today, I read The Notebook, and it was awful lol. Can't say I was expecting much, but I liked the movie so I thought it might at least be decent.

I'm not sure which book I want to pick up next.

[Lindsay]

I have a questions about the random word task. My word that came up was "sex" so I was wondering if Middlesex would count, of if I need to pick a different book! Thanks!!
xoxo
Lindsay

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Lindsay,

The word should be a stand alone word. If you absolutely cannot find anything else with that one or your other words..I'll take it.

[Lindsay]

Ok I have one more question, when we complete more tasks, do you want us to re-post our lists on the official board or just edit the ones alredy posted??
Thanks!

[Tahleen]

Hi, my first question of the challenge! For the challenge with two books sharing a synonym, can I use the words "tells" and "speak"? The books are Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and Speak. If not I can find something else, no problem.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Lindsay..you can just edit the post on the official point board.. that's all that really needs to be done. Alot of us do come on here and share what tasks we've finished.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Tahleen: That's fine.

[jessi]

How is everyone coming along on the challenge!

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

I feel like I'm doing horrible to how I thought I would be doing at this point. I thought I would be having alot of time to do the challenge..but my time lately hasn't included much reading. :(

[Emily]

I'm going really slowly too. A lot of the books aren't as good as I thought they would be (The History of the End of the World, The Kite Runner) so I'm reading more slowly than I thought I would. Also I've been busy.

[Kayla]

I'm actually doing better than I thought. Last year, I read all of two novels during the school year, but now because of the Challenge I'm making more time for my reading. I've read four books so far, and it's only the first month of classes.

Oh, and I have a question about the random word task as well. My word was irony. Would Life's Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy count for that?

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Kayla: That's fine.

[Jacqueline]

ok, so I cannot for the life of me get the one book i've finished so far crossed out! Everytime I enter the html code it strikes through the remainder of my list :(

I know I am doing something wrong and it's probably something simple, but I am html challenged, haha...

[Kayla]

What you have to do is put the strike through right before the title of the book and then put the strike through right after the title (with a slash before the s). Are you remembering to put the slash in front of the second s? That might make a difference.

[Jacqueline]

Thank you so much Kayla!! When I tried the first time, I think I put the slash after the s, lol!

[Chelsea]

a myself am suprised. i think i read half of a fun book last year in college. all of my reading was over breaks. i am estatic at how much reading i have done and how much better i feel.

[paulabits]

I think I'm doing ok.
I don't have much time but I've complete some tasks, though some have been college assigned readings.
But the books I chose haven't been that good, as Emily, I'm a little disappointed.

[Lindsay]

I'm doing pretty good, although a few books I've read lately haven't fit into the challenge, so I haven't accomplished as much as I should have by now.... lol. It's just too hard to resist the pull of some books on my list!!

[jessi]

I have started to fall behind the pace I set for myself, but thankfully I picked up a book that sucked me right in and is very easy to read, so I should be back up to where I need to be soon.

[Tahleen]

I have a quick question--can I use The House on Mango Street for a challenge even though it's only a little over 100 pages? It's on the new classics list, but I remember from previous challenges that we had a minimum amount of pages. I forget if we did that for this one too.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Yeah..we do..it's 150..but sometimes I know it's hard to find things so I've been taking it kind of case by case. If it's for a 5 or 10 point task, go for it. If not, I'm going to have to be mean and say no :(

[Tahleen]

It's fine! That's what I thought. I'd feel bad counting it anyway, I just noticed it was on that list and I was reading it at the time.

[Emily]

I just got a new book today, Snow Crash, and I should be starting it soon. I can't make myself get into The Kite Runner. I'm about half way done and I'm hitting a mental road block of just hating it too much to read any more. Possession A Romance started getting better, but then it went to someone else's point of view and it started slowing down again, mostly because the new narrator is a jerk. I still can't get more than 20 pages into The History of the End of the World. It's an interesting topic, but the writing is terrible.
Also, I have the swine flu (no, really) and I've had too much of a headache to read recently.
Eh.

[Tahleen]

Emily I love Snow Crash!! I was actually thinking about it today. It's listed as a new classic I saw... and I definitely think it deserves to be there. It's crazy to think that Stephenson's book gave the guy who invented Second Life the idea to create the virtual world. Let me know what you think of it. (Just a warning though, it took me a while to finish.)

[paulabits]

I'm reading On the Road and I'm starting to hate it, really, I've only read like 100 pages, but is terribly slow for me. I'll finish anyway just because I'm curious.

[Lori]

Paula, I ran into the same thoughts when I read that one a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely like having a conversation with someone that's completely strung out on drugs, which can be interesting but also very frustrating. I ended up not finishing it because I let this one title dropper (you know the type: they've read every book known to man and God and think they know what's really worth reading) talk me out of finishing. I hope to pick it up and finish someday. Good luck!

[jessi]

Paula wrote: "I'm reading On the Road and I'm starting to hate it, really, I've only read like 100 pages, but is terribly slow for me. I'll finish anyway just because I'm curious. "

I started that earlier, and I agree, it sucks. I don't understand what the big deal is about it...

[Tahleen]

Me either!! I tried to read it last summer and just disliked the characters all so much I couldn't finish.

[paulabits]

After reading your comments I feel less guilty for hating it so bad. This is my first "Beat generation" reading so I'm kinda disappointed, I was expecting a lot of crazyness. Although I haven't started the second part of the book because I'll stop for a few days and I'm going to read something else.

This is a dramatic change but I want to know if I can use A Muggle's Guide to the Wizarding World Exploring the Harry Potter Universe for task 10.8, I became obsessed with HP this year and I want to know more about how a small idea got into a 7 books series.

[Lori]

Everyone, I heard that The Dharma Bums by Kerouac is better than On the Road.

[Lori]

I'm starting to really really wish I had joined in this challenge. Even if I'd get my butt kicked, I think it has a way of keeping people connected. Oh well...next time.

[Emily]

I finished the stupid Kite Runner finally!
I'm still reading Possession: A Romance, and it's definitely getting better again. I'm also reading Snow Crash, and I just got The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, Beloved, and Never Let Me Go in the mail, so I'm excited about reading all of those. I love paperbackswap.
I still haven't gotten anywhere on The History of the End of the World. Oops.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Paula that works if it is more than 150 pages.

[Tahleen]

I finished my romance book. It was called--brace yourselves-- My Own True Love. But honestly I enjoyed it, it was written in the 90s and the main character is a girl from 1994 who gets sucked back in time to 1811 by a magic ring.

[Jamie (The Perpetual Page-Turner), The Founding Bookworm]

Ahh! I need to find some time to read! Like a whole day!! I have just been tooo busy and it's irking me!

[jessi]

Jamie wrote: "Ahh! I need to find some time to read! Like a whole day!! I have just been tooo busy and it's irking me!"

I love when I have whole days to just sit and read :)

[Emily]

Would The Complete Maus work for 15pts #7, for the fiction one?