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I did 66 books last year, 33 of them were graphic novels or whatever and the other 33 were actual books. So I will go for 35 non-comics and won't post about my comics here. I will also try to do the Booklord challenge thing. I have already read 2 books this year (John Darnielle - Wolf in White Van and Amy Poehler's autobiography) and I generally read a lot of books written by women and POC, I also have some post-modern and absurdist stuff waiting to be read so that's not bad. I wouldn't mind some recommendations for philosophy or poetry as I haven't gone down either of those paths too much. For poetry, I'd prefer recommendations of a collection rather than just one specific poem. I'd also appreciate some suggestions for something banned or censored. A quick google shows me that Lolita was banned in Canada at one point and I've never read it so maybe I'll read that, it's on my shelf.
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Jan 5, 2015 04:35
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Stravinsky posted:There was someone asking about something about the color red category but I can not find you but its an intentionally vague and broad category kinda like the love/hate one. Anything that you can think or someone can think of that can go into that category. Like you can read a book on communism or that one grr martin book with the wedding. Or maybe something a bit more literal. It is meant to generate some book talk and suggestions. I will be kind of disappointed if everyone picks like where the red fern grows, the red badge of courage, or the scarlet letter though I liked the vagueness of this category. I am probably going to read a book on color theory for it. thehomemaster posted:What are people's thoughts on not finishing books, say getting through 4/5 and then quitting (because it's bad/you get the gist)? I rarely get 4/5 through a book and stop. If I'm going to quit on a book it's usually before the halfway point. That said, there are only a few books I've ever given up on. One was a crappy Stephen King book (The Dark Half), another was my re-read of Catcher in the Rye (which I read in my late teens originally). The Berzerker fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 01:32
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I've never read any philosophy really, at all, so I don't have a clue where to start or what to say I'd be interested in. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Jan 6, 2015 03:34
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anilEhilated posted:About halfway through my first challenge book House of Leaves, as far as I'm concerned, Johnny Truant can go eat a dick. Hoonestly, I think that book could've done with an editor doing some clipping, except they probably didn't want to disrupt the whole THIS IS ART thingy. Sure, it's playing with layout and sturcture, I get it, now let me get back to the house. Weird - I just took this out of the library too for my list. I haven't started it yet, though.
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Jan 17, 2015 17:16
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First update: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. - went with 35, though I'm at 7 already so perhaps I aimed low. 2. Read a female author - Amy Poehler's Yes Please (there will be others) 3. The non-white author 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. An essay - I read A Mathematician's Lament which I recommend if math or math education is of any interest to you - available online if you google for it. (I also read David Sedaris' Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls which is a collection of essays so this challenge is definitely complete) 7. A collection of poetry 8. Something post-modern 9. Something absurdist 10. The Blind Owl 11. Something on either hate or love 12. Something dealing with space 13. Something dealing with the unreal - Currently reading House of Leaves for the first time to knock off this challenge 14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read) 15. Something published this year or the past three months 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. A play 18. Biography - I could use Poehler's book again here, but I know I will read more biographies and books by women this year anyway, so I'll wait to check this off. 19. The color red - I read Josef Albers' Interaction of Color, a sort of textbook on color theory and how perception can cloud it. It was a little over my head since I don't have much background on this stuff, but it was interesting and certainly out of my element. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery I also know what I'll be reading for 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, and 20, so I'm off to a good start. If someone else taking the Booklord challenge would like to give me a wildcard, I'm game for it now - something funny would be appreciated.
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Jan 19, 2015 04:33
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High Warlord Zog posted:Black Ajax by George MacDonald Fraser. There's a lot of period vernacular in this one, but if you can get get through stuff like the Aubrey/Maturin books or Huck Finn with no problems then you should be fine. If not, I suggest Arthur Conan Doyle's Rodney Stone as an ease in read (it's also worth reading since Ajex is Fraser's response Doyle's treatment of the regency era, and, because you asked for something humorous, a big influence on the work of PG Wodehouse). I'll read both - Rodney Stone appears to be (partly) classified as a mystery, so I can use it for that challenge. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Jan 19, 2015 17:45
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I upped the "Read a book by a female author" challenge to "Read 10 books by female authors" because 1 isn't much of a challenge, and I made a spreadsheet to track my challenges.  Green means the challenge is complete, yellow means it is in progress or I'm waiting for those books to arrive at the library because I've put them on hold, anything else I've filled in is just the book I plan on reading to complete that challenge, when I get to it. I've been posting my thoughts on the books I've read in the "What Did You Just Finish Reading?" thread so I won't paste it all here, but the nine books I've read so far are: John Darnielle - Wolf in White Van Amy Poehler - Yes Please Brad Dukes - Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks David Benioff - City of Thieves Amy Stewart - Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities Josef Albers - Interaction of Color David Sedaris - Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls Mark Z Danielewski - House of Leaves Robert C O'Brien - Z for Zachariah I'm currently reading a book about the band Teenage Head, then I will likely try to squeeze in the Douglas Coupland book on the list before my library books show up.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:20
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I've been posting my thoughts on the books I've read in the "What Did You Just Finish Reading?" thread so I won't paste it all here. As of the last update I was at 9 books, but after February I am now at 16. Since my last update in this thread, I've read: Geoff Pevere - Gods of the Hammer Douglas Coupland - Worst Person Ever Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman - Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us Janet Mock - Redefining Realness Nick Cutter - The Deep Emma Donoghue - The Room Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 16/35) 2. Read 10 books by female authors (Currently at 4/10) 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. A collection of poetry 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. Something dealing with the unreal 14. Wildcard 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. A play 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery I'm currently reading Nick Hornby's latest book as well as a collection of poetry and a play. I took my assigned Wildcard out of the library (Black Ajax by George Macdonald Fraser) but the book was so old and beat up that it kept making me sneeze every time I opened it. Luckily, I found a clean copy in the used bookstore up the street yesterday, so I'll likely get to that sooner than later as well.
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Mar 3, 2015 04:30
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RedTonic posted:(Wicked Plants looks promising). I read this earlier this year and did not like it too much. There were some very interesting plants but nothing gets more than 1-2 pages, so the majority of the book was stuff like "If you eat this kind of grass, you could get sick, so don't eat your lawn if you have this kind of grass!"-type of nonsense.
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Mar 18, 2015 16:03
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I've been posting my thoughts on the books I've read in the "What Did You Just Finish Reading?" thread so I won't paste it all here. As of the last update I was at 16 books, but I am now at 20 - been a busy month. Since my last update in this thread, I've read: Patricia Lockwood - Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals Neil Simon - The Odd Couple Nick Hornby - Funny Girl David Brin - The Postman Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 20/35) 2. Read 10 books by female authors (Currently at 5/10) 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. Something dealing with the unreal 14. Wildcard 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery I'm currently reading Exit by Nelly Arcan, not sure what I will read after that but my wildcard is on top of the pile. I will probably read more poetry later this year (maybe something more traditional, or uh, older) and I really enjoyed reading the Neil Simon play. I'm going to read more of his plays because The Odd Couple was genuinely hilarious.
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Mar 25, 2015 17:28
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Had a slow April because I was reading the entire run of Preacher (which was great, but comics don't count in my totals), also work was busy. I doubt I will finish anything else by tomorrow so since my last update I've read: Nelly Arcan - Exit Heather O'Neill - The Girl Who Was Saturday Night Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 22/35) 2. Read 10 books by female authors (Currently at 7/10) 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. Something dealing with the unreal 14. Wildcard 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery Currently reading a book on urban cycling and also slowly making progress through my wildcard.
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Apr 29, 2015 15:31
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Another slow month due to work. Thankfully, all of my deadlines were this week so I'll have more time to read over the summer. Since my last update I've read: Yvonne Bambrick - The Urban Cycling Survival Guide: Need-to-Know Skills and Strategies for Biking in the City Margaret Atwood - The Year of the Flood Monica Heisey - I Can't Believe It's Not Better Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 25/35) 2. 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Wildcard 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery I'm still working on my wildcard, although the guy who assigned me it hasn't posted here since. I wonder if he's still doing the challenge. Anyway, next priority is to finish my drat wildcard finally, and also to finish out Atwood's Maddaddam trilogy.
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May 30, 2015 20:02
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Since my last update I've read some comics, but also: Margaret Atwood - Maddaddam George Macdonald Fraser - Black Ajax Nick Cutter - The Acolyte Black Ajax was my wildcard, and it took me 3 months to read. Yeesh. Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 28/35) 2. 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery My goal last month was to finish my wildcard and the Maddaddam trilogy, and I did, which is great. This month I want to knock off a couple more challenges, maybe #16 and #20.
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Jun 29, 2015 22:35
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I've decided to read A Confederacy of Dunces since I've never read it. Some places refer to it as absurdist, others don't. Booklord (or anyone), would this book qualify for the Absurdist challenge? I'm going through a lot of books that I've always meant to read as part of this challenge - I just started Fahrenheit 451 for the first time yesterday too.
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Jul 2, 2015 16:09
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I kinda went down a Marvel comics rabbit hole this month, and I'm not counting comics or graphic novels towards my challenge, so not a lot of progress. But besides comics, I also read the following in July: Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451 Heather O'Neill - Daydreams of Angels I'm using Fahrenheit 451 as my banned/censored book, and the other is my collection of short stories. Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (Currently at 30/35) 2. 3. 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. A mystery I'm now tackling challenge 16. I've had Legs McNeil's "Please Kill Me" on my shelf for years and have never cracked it open so I just started that. Guy A. Person posted:Likewise "hate or love" can easily default to a love story which are a dime a dozen, although I saw The Berzerker chose a book about the science of annoyance which is pretty cool. Mr. Squishy posted:It's the colour red that has me worried (that Stavinsky will track me down and beat me up for failing the challenge) I've tried to go a little outside the box on some of the challenges, like my love/hate challenge. For the color red, I read a book on color theory, which is probably the most literal interpretation I could think of but it was more interesting to me than reading the Scarlet Letter or something about communism.
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Jul 30, 2015 16:14
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So, one day after my last update, I got hit by a car. I also got an e-reader. As a result of these two things, I read a ton in August: Patton Oswalt - Silver Screen Fiend John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids Aziz Ansari - Modern Romance Brian Keene - Darkness on the Edge of Town Daniel Bryan - Yes!: My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania Ursula K. Le Guin - Rocannon's World Brian Keene - The Rising Ta-Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me Elizabeth Gillan Muir - Riverdale: East of the Don Moshe Kasher - Kasher in the Rye Brian Keene - City of the Dead I was on painkillers and generally read a lot of "easy" crap, at least at the start of the month. I gave Brian Keene 3 chances to not be a horrible writer but all 3 were strikes, so he's out. Horrible. The Elizabeth Muir book counts as my history book - it's a history of Toronto, specifically my neighborhood. I'm still working on "Please Kill Me" for my #16 challenge. Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. 2. 3. 4. Philosophy 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time (in progress) 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. A mystery
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Aug 28, 2015 05:31
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I don't think I will finish anything else this week so here's my September update: Jon Ronson - So You've Been Publicly Shamed Legs McNeil - Please Kill Me (booklord challenge #16) Richard H. Popkin - Philosophy Made Simple (booklord challenge #4) Jon Morris - The League of Regrettable Superheroes: Half-Baked Heroes from Comic Book History Tana French - In The Woods (booklord challenge #22) Ronson's book was really interesting and I'm going to read some of his other work this year. Please Kill Me was great, I'm glad I finally read it after owning it for years, but it really made me lose some respect for some people who I had tangential knowledge of previously. The philosophy book was just a basic primer but as someone who has never studied anything related to philosophy it was the basics. The Jon Morris book was a dud. The Tana French book was great, I loved it and have ordered the next couple of books in the series, so that was a nice surprise! Here's my progress on the Booklord challenge: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. I only have one more booklord challenge to finish, and I know what I am reading for it (A Confederacy of Dunces), so I guess I will probably finish the booklord challenge in October. Currently reading The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and after that I intend to start Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson - then I'll likely move to my last booklord challenge book.
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Sep 27, 2015 15:45
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Chamberk posted:104. In the Woods - Tana French I read this a few months ago and loved it. I guess it's part of a series, where a non-POV from one book becomes the POV character of the next. I bought the 2nd and 3rd books but I haven't dived into them yet. Also congrats on the kid! October update: Stephen King and Peter Straub - The Talisman Michael Lewis - Moneyball Sarah Vowell - Assassination Vacation The Talisman is now one of my favorite King books, just a great adventure story. Moneyball was surprisingly interesting, I think I will watch the movie mostly because I'm curious how they're going to turn that into a movie. Assassination Vacation was kind of a dud. I still have one booklord challenge to finish, but I'm 2/3 through A Confederacy of Dunces so I will finish that in the next week or so. My work schedule combined with post-season baseball really sidetracked my reading in October. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. The Berzerker fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Nov 1, 2015 |
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Nov 1, 2015 17:18
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Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book. I think you could keep some of the broader categories (history, poetry, collection of short stories) and tweak some of the others (the color green instead of red, or something).
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Nov 26, 2015 17:53
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November update: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Mindy Kaling - Why Not Me? Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams Slow month, I have been doing 2 jobs at work since mid-October and when I do get free time I generally spent it playing Fallout 4 this month, so... either way, I have completed the ~*~ BOOKLORD CHALLENGE ~*~ which is great. I will definitely participate again next year. A Confederacy of Dunces was hilarious and I am glad it came up on a list of 'absurdist' books because it pushed me to read it. Mindy Kaling's book was something I read on the bus to work, it was just popcorn. The King collection is probably his worst short story collection, avoid it unless you're like me and read basically everything he puts out anyway. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
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Nov 30, 2015 04:58
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