Matryoshka Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) Happy New Year, everyone! So I managed to finish the book I was reading yesterday (The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester, in case anyone's wondering ;) ), so I can start the New Year fresh! Yay! I set up a Goodreads account - how much fun! I think my little book I was planning to use to record stuff is never going to get used, because Goodreads can do it all more easiily. :tongue_smilie: I love that it's so easy to find books in other languages, even reviews on them. I love that I can categorize the books in multiple different ways. Fun, fun, fun! I've got 65 books on my to-read list so far, which I know for most of you is less than half a year's worth of material, but I've set myself a hopefully very doable goal of 23 books (was going to do 24, but then Robin posted that prime number thing ;) ). I figure if I'm way ahead of pace, I can always move the goalpost higher, but I want to not set the bar too high - that's probably about double the reading I've done in past years. I'm taking it loose and easy, I'm just going to pick a next book at random from the longer list as my mood dictates, and also I'm sure keep adding to it liberally as I read along here. If all goes well this year, I may be up for trying the bingo type challenges. First step, get back in the habit and have fun reading. :D Had a great day yesterday. Dd asked if I would drive her and her friend who's visiting from the NL into Harvard Square for the day to visit the Natural History Museum. She bribed me with a trip to the foreign language book store. We had lunch at a Cafe Algiers, then went book shopping. They had an end of year 50% off sale! :svengo: I got Ein Mann namens Ove/A man called Ove and in a moment of crazy bought a copy of La Peste/The Plague by Camus. All this talking about reading has gotten me thinking about language and translations, and I was remembering that one of the reasons I'd wanted to read more in French was actually less about learning French than to be able to maybe someday read some of the many works of French literature in the original, as I've read a lot of translations especially of the older stuff are not that great. I read The Plague in high school and really liked it - I've often thought of rereading it, so why not in French? I found a cool edition that has difficult terms defined (in French) at the bottom of the page with some extra analysis and commentary. Dd bought a slim book of poetry in Catalán, and her Dutch friend bought Harry Potter in Latin. :lol: Oh, and I found out that Carlos Ruiz Zafón has written a fourth book in the Cemetery of Forgotten books series (I've read the first three and liked them), and it's like a zillion pages long. I'm waiting for paperback and buying it on Amazon. Oh, and they were out of The Hidden Lives of Trees/Das geheime Leben der Bäume which is on the bestseller list in the US so I wanna read it in German, but it was at the warehouse and they said they'd still give it to me at 50% off when it comes in. Yay! I had lots of fun looking through book lists I'd saved and of course all your book lists here and adding whatever piqued my interest. :) Now to figure out what to read next... BTW, how many of you have multiple books going at once? I've tended to be a one book at a time type, but I think that slows me down a lot in quantity, so I'm wondering if I should rethink that... Edited January 1, 2017 by Matryoshka 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) I set up a Goodreads account - how much fun! I think my little book I was planning to use to record stuff is never going to get used, because Goodreads can do it all more easiily. :tongue_smilie: I love that it's so easy to find books in other languages, even reviews on them. I love that I can categorize the books in multiple different ways. Fun, fun, fun! I've got 65 books on my to-read list so far, which I know for most of you is less than half a year's worth of material, but I've set myself a hopefully very doable goal of 23 books (was going to do 24, but then Robin posted that prime number thing ;) ). I figure if I'm way ahead of pace, I can always move the goalpost higher, but I want to not set the bar too high - that's probably about double the reading I've done in past years. I'm taking it loose and easy, I'm just going to pick a next book at random from the longer list as my mood dictates, and also I'm sure keep adding to it liberally as I read along here. If all goes well this year, I may be up for trying the bingo type challenges. First step, get back in the habit and have fun reading. :D Now to figure out what to read next... BTW, how many of you have multiple books going at once? I've tended to be a one book at a time type, but I think that slows me down a lot in quantity, so I'm wondering if I should rethink that... Glad you had fun with Goodreads. If you want to start adding friends, many of us here have connected over there. This is me. If you'd rather keep it private and just something for yourself to track that's understandable. I too have to figure out what I want to start off the year with. I won't be joining the group read of Norwegian Wood. Two Murakami novels were enough for me. :lol: I might start something for a bingo square. I'm one who often has multiple books going at once. Sometimes it helps me read more, and sometimes it slows me down. I don't know if it really makes any difference. I just like having a choice of what to pick up (or open in my Kindle as is usually the case) based on my mood. Some people have asked me how I can keep up with more than one story at a time but to me it's no different than being able to follow the story line on more than one tv show at a time. Edited January 1, 2017 by Lady Florida. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 BTW, how many of you have multiple books going at once? I've tended to be a one book at a time type, but I think that slows me down a lot in quantity, so I'm wondering if I should rethink that... I often do. There are the books I'm working through with DS for homeschool, a mystery or light fiction, and a nonfiction book. I always make sure I have one book in paper/hard back, as well as one book on my Paperwhite Kindle. Then I always have something to read with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) Still catching up with the thread ... but I think I've run afoul of the >200 pages rule; not with novellas but with some dense nonfiction. My current read is only 150 pp but is slow and thoughtful going; I would have counted that in the past. Oops. ETA: Just caught up to your happy news, Robin! Congratulations! Edited January 1, 2017 by Violet Crown 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Happy New Year, everyone! So I managed to finish the book I was reading yesterday (The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester, in case anyone's wondering ;) ), so I can start the New Year fresh! Yay! -snip- I had lots of fun looking through book lists I'd saved and of course all your book lists here and adding whatever piqued my interest. :) Now to figure out what to read next... BTW, how many of you have multiple books going at once? I've tended to be a one book at a time type, but I think that slows me down a lot in quantity, so I'm wondering if I should rethink that... Ah, that's a book from my shelf I should add to this year's TR list. But apparently we've broken goodreads, I can't get it to work this morning. Anybody else having trouble? I'd love to be goodreads friends with you, too! And yes, I've always got a ridiculous number of books going at the same time. I have a year-long book, one or two books I'm reading with each of my dds, a fun/brain candy bedtime book, and several "serious" reads - either pre-reads of things for school or general background reading in an upcoming topic for school. Oh, and an audiobook, always one of those going. The down side is distraction, and not feeling like you're making much progress on anything, sometimes. The up side is that there is always something on my stack I feel like reading, whatever my mood! I am going to try to focus better this year, but I find my current active reading stack ranges between 4-8 things. Four is better. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ethel Mertz Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Ah, that's a book from my shelf I should add to this year's TR list. But apparently we've broken goodreads, I can't get it to work this morning. Anybody else having trouble? Yes. Goodreads is exceedingly slow and also crashed on me at one point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) I used to be the type to have multiple books going at once. But, in the past couple of years, I no longer do that. I find that now I concentrate better being in just one story, immersed in only one author's style of writing (very important to me). It, in a way, forces me to make decisions about books -- keep reading in order to keep reading (can't start another one until this one is finished), or ditch it if I'm avoiding reading it. At least that way I don't feel like I have a book hanging over my head, waiting in the shadows for me to pick up again when I really don't want to. My numbers are smaller than many who plow through lots of books, but I'm ok with that & with reading just one book at a time. I feel like it lets me fully immerse myself in the author's world. Edited January 1, 2017 by Stacia 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 If you're on Goodreads, I see that the 2017 Challenge is up. I added my challenge for 107 books. I wanted to do 100 then I remembered Robin's prime number challenge. The only odd numbers I like are 5 and 7, and since 105 isn't a prime number I had to go with 107. No, I don't have OCD, just a thing about numbers LOL. Ah, that's a book from my shelf I should add to this year's TR list. But apparently we've broken goodreads, I can't get it to work this morning. Anybody else having trouble? I had trouble with it when I was typing my last post. I almost posted about it but when I went back it loaded for me. Maybe it's just going to be wonky today, and come and go throughout the day as people overwhelm it. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I tried in vain to finish my Big Danish Book yesterday, but ended up at page 512/574 (89%). And speed-read-with-low-comprehension through a climactic scene that I will have to go back and reread. I never paid much attention to Goodreads, even though I had an account. But now that I am actually using Goodreads, it bothers me that it will go on my 2017 list. :glare: Do you shelve books a certain way if they span years? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 I tried in vain to finish my Big Danish Book yesterday, but ended up at page 512/574 (89%). And speed-read-with-low-comprehension through a climactic scene that I will have to go back and reread. I never paid much attention to Goodreads, even though I had an account. But now that I am actually using Goodreads, it bothers me that it will go on my 2017 list. :glare: Do you shelve books a certain way if they span years? I shelve mine when I finish them, so in January there are always some carryovers that were partly read in the previous year. I figure it all evens out in the end. But you can shelve things however you want - either by creating a manual shelf and putting the book there, or you can change the finish date to Dec. 31 2016 so it will show up on last year's list. It's not like anybody outside of ourselves is keeping score, right? So I vote for you shelving it wherever you feel like it belongs. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 1, 2017 Author Share Posted January 1, 2017 Link to 2017 week one - please continue conversation in new thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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