Self-challenge - 50 books in 5 months?

[Jud]

I think I'll save myself for the last couple nights just.

[Andrew]

Dodger? Nice one - would love to do some Pratchett, but I suspect our company is a little too conservative. Every time I suggest a show, they all ask if I'm going to direct it, which I just don't have time for, so I think we'll have to stick with panto, Dickens adaptations and the occasional meaty drama.

I usually try and save my partying for the Friday and Saturday at the end of the run, but I usually end up behaving pretty disgracefully most of the evenings.

[Tim]

Briggsy adapted, and is directing as per usual. I think he knocks out the stage adaptations in the tea breaks while narrating the audiobooks... ;)

It's the same here if you suggest a production - there's some expectation that you'll want to direct it too.

[Andrew]

I was involved with an amateur youth theatre production of Wyrd Sisters years ago, but only to unofficially keep tabs on the director. I was constantly consumed with bitterness that I didn't get to act in it - my brother played Felmet, my sister had a small part, it was really annoying.

The guy playing Verence bunked off the dress rehearsal (yeah, his acting career's flourished...) so I got to play the Fool just once. On stage that is, in real life I've been playing the Fool for 33 years and counting...

I'd love to direct, but the way my job's going? No way...

[Andrew]

Blimey, I'm way off the pace now, aren't I? Learning lines and a bunch of proofreading for work has really eaten into even my commuting reading time. And I left my Kindle at home this morning!

Still, with Candide and Nights at the Circus in my recent reads, at least I'm keeping the standard high!

[Jud]

How many books are you into the challenge?

[Andrew]

Thirteen full books, and two Rosen Trevithick shorts :)

[Jud]

Yay!

[Andrew]

A very long way to go though. I don't want to start looking at speedy reads just to meet a goal, feels like cheating, but I need to up my page rate :)

[R.J.]

Andrew wrote: "A very long way to go though. I don't want to start looking at speedy reads just to meet a goal, feels like cheating, but I need to up my page rate :)"


Hmmmm, it is dawning on me that these reading challenges might be a great thing for novella writers!

[Andrew]

Sadly your novella isn't designed to be skimmed, though, rather savoured.

That's what I thought, anyway!

Another book added, a Darren Humphries Man from UNDEAD - sadly I didn't feel it was quite as polished as its predecessor. I was left thoroughly underwhelmed by Dying To Get Published though, give me Pompomberry House any time!

[Andrew]

Well, I think it's fair to say the 50 books by Christmas target is starting to look a little unlikely. I've notched up 24 or so on my list, and some of them are far too short to count as a full book. There may be a bit of a flurry over the next few days as I get to the end of various non-fiction texts I've been reading as research, but even so...

Must try harder next year ;)

[Andrew]

Finally got to the end of the Grimaldi biography, which was a big old read for short story research purposes. I'm not going to make it to 50 after all, that's pretty clear now, unless I start counting very short stories and that sort of thing.

But never mind - when I started this challenge I didn't think I was going to be doing a panto, and I certainly didn't think I was going to be writing about one. It's been a strange and eventful year, and though I'd normally be pretty angry about losing reading time, I'm pretty happy with the stuff I've been doing instead!

[Andrew]

OK - I'm now up to 22 different authors, and if you count Rosen's four short story titles as one just-about novel length work, I think I've notched up 28 books. As we have just one month left of 2012, I'm quite clearly going to fall a long way short of the target, but that's not so bad. I've never really bothered to list the books that I've read in this way before, and it's nice to see a decent balance of literature (Candide, Nights at the Circus, Boneland), fan stuff (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Indie books (Rosen Trevithick, Darren Humphries, James Calbraith and more), and even a bit of non-fiction. I had such a slow start to my reading year thanks to a big acting commitment, and I'm in the middle of panto now, but I'm doing less drama next year, and hope to read well over 100 books.

That list again:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15) The Occasional Diary of a Transtemporal Adventuress
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25)
26)

[Andrew]

Well, a bit of a dismal failure in terms of actually hitting the target of 50 books, but I don't think the 30 odd above is a bad haul, and it's nice to look back at the variety of stuff I've read even fairly recently.

Amusingly, I've read very few of the Jasper Fforde, Paul Magrs and Alastair Reynolds books - my TBR pile is just as large as when I started this little challenge months ago...

Will I start another challenge thing for 2013? Perhaps, but it seemed like a good time to round this one off.

[Elle]

Still did really good Andrew.

Good luck for 2013 challenges :D! Doo ittt!

[Elle]

How are the Torchwood books by the way? I was not a huge fan of the Doctor Who one I read.

[Andrew]

Thanks, I'll try and think of some sensible targets! ;)

I've only read a couple - I'm a huge fan of Sarah Pinborough in general, so I'm not totally objective. I quite enjoyed that one Torchwood book. The current Doctor Who novels aren't a patch on the good old days of the Virgin New Adventures, most of the writers for which have now worked on the TV series!

[Lorraine]

It's a reasonable amount of reading over 5 months, Andrew :) So many things get in the way of reading, don't they ;)

Good luck with the challenge for 2013 !

[Philip (sarah)]

Well done with your 2012 challenge Andrew and good luck for next year!

[Andrew]

Cheers Lorraine, Adam and Philip! Still thinking of a new challenge for the year ahead!