atlargeintheworld's 1010 challenge x2

ok, so this isn't really a whole separate set of books, but i'm going to be tracking the books i read for my first challenge (which is broken up by decades published) on this second challenge, which will have more typical themes. more than anything, during the 999 challenge, i liked seeing how my reading actually played out as opposed to how i thought it would play out, so i want to see the same thing this year.

Categories:

Books About Books
Kid Lit
Made Into Movies
Agriculture
Debut Novels
Recommended
Should Have Read Already
Fantasy
New-to-me Authors
Catch-all

check out my other 1010 thread



Books Per Quarter: i need to be averaging at least 25 books each quarter to finish

Average star rating:

January: 4.1 stars
February: 3.75
March: 3.83
April: 2.5
May: 2.75
June: 3.63
July: 3

YTD: 3.37

First Quarter: 24 books

January:

1. Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
2. Matchless by Gregory Maguire
3. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
5. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
6. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
7. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
8. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
9. The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge
10. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

February:

11. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
12. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos Papadimitriou
13. My French Whore by Gene Wilder
14. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
15. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
16. Galahad at Blandings by PG Wodehouse
17. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

March:

19. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
20. The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
21. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
22. Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
23. No Impact Man by Colin Beavan
24. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

Second Quarter: 7 books (terrible progress)

April:

25. Darcy and Elizabeth by Linda Berdoll

May:

26. A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters
27. Half Life by Roopa Farooki

June:

28. Peter and Max by Bill Willingham
29. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
30. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
31. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Third Quarter:

July:

# The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (reread)
# Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (reread)
32. Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving

August:

33. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
34. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
35. Extending the Table by Joetta Handrich Schlabach

September:
36. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
37. Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love by Chris Roberson

Fourth Quarter:

October:
38. The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire

November:
39. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
40. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama
41. Fated by SG Browne

December:
42. Fables: Witches by Bill Willingham
43. Home to Woefield by Susan Juby

(dates after books are their completion dates)
(books after the ---------- are books that are counting towards another category but overlap with other categories as well)

Books About Books:

1. Matchless by Gregory Maguire (1/5) 4 stars
2. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (1/17) 4.5 stars
3. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll (1/22) 3 stars
4. The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham (3/19) 4 stars
5. Darcy and Elizabeth by Linda Berdoll (4/20) 2.5 stars
6. Peter and Max by Bill Willingham (6/6) 4 stars
7. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (6/30) 3 stars
8. Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving (7/29) 3 stars
9. Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love by Chris Roberson (9/27) 4 stars
10. Fables: Witches by Bill Willingham (12/7) 4 stars
----------
11. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2/1) 4 stars
12. The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2/11) 3.5 stars

ideas:

Parnassus on Wheels, The End of Mr. Y

Kid Lit:

1. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1/8) 4 stars
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (1/10) 4 stars
3. The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge (1/26) 4.5 stars
4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (6/13) 3.5 stars
5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (5/25) 4.5 stars
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (11/11) 4.5 stars

ideas:

The Phantom Tollbooth

Made Into Movies:

1. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (1/12) 3.5 stars
2. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (1/29) 3.5 stars (TV Show)
3. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (2/7) 4 stars
4. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (11/11) 4.5 stars
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (3/24) 4 stars
12. No Impact Man by Colin Beavan (3/26) 4.5 stars

ideas:

Children of Men, The Kite Runner, Stardust, The Beach, Little Children, The Manchurian Candidate

Agriculture: Sustainability, Slow Food, Animal References

1. Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (1/6) 5 stars
2. No Impact Man by Colin Beavan (3/26) 4.5 stars
3. Extending the Table by Joetta Handrich Schlabach (8/31) 4.5 stars
4. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (9/8) 3 stars
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Home to Woefield by Susan Juby (12/9) 3.5 stars

ideas:

Debut Novels:

1. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2/1) 4 stars
2. My French Whore by Gene Wilder (2/4) 4.5 stars
3. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (3/30) 4.5 stars
4. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama (11/11) 3 stars
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll (1/22) 3 stars
12. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos Papadimitriou (2/3) 3.5 stars
13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2/25) 3.5 stars
14. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (3/4) 3 stars
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (3/24) 4 stars
16. Peter and Max by Bill Willingham (6/6) 4 stars (first novel)

ideas:

Brick Lane, The Virgin Suicides, Towelhead, Atmospheric Disturbances, The Well and the Mine, The God of Animals, Living Next Door to the God of Love

Recommended:

1. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos Papadimitriou (2/3) 3.5 stars
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2/25) 3.5 stars
3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (6/23) 4 stars
4. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (8/13) 4 stars
5. Home to Woefield by Susan Juby (12/9) 3.5 stars
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll (1/22) 3 stars
12. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2/1) 4 stars
13. No Impact Man by Colin Beavan (3/26) 4.5 stars
14. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (3/30) 4.5 stars

ideas:

Should Have Read Already:

1. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (2/20) 3.5 stars
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (3/24) 4 stars
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------

ideas:

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Jane Eyre, Decline and Fall

Fantasy:

1. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (1/16) 5 stars
2. The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2/11) 3.5 stars
3. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (3/4) 3 stars
4. Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore (3/25) 3 stars
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1/8) 4 stars
12. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (1/10) 4 stars
13. The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge (1/26) 4.5 stars
14. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (1/29) 3.5 stars
15. The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham (3/24) 4 stars
16. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (3/30) 4.5 stars
17. Peter and Max by Bill Willingham (6/6) 4 stars
18. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (6/13) 3.5 stars
19. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (6/30) 3 stars
20. Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love by Chris Roberson (9/27) 4 stars
21. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (11/11) 4.5 stars
22. Fated by SG Browne (11/22) 3.5 stars
23. Fables: Witches by Bill Willingham (12/7) 4 stars

ideas:
Living Next Door to the God of Love

New-to-me Authors:

1. Galahad at Blandings by PG Wodehouse (2/15) 3.5 stars
2. Half Life by Roopa Farooki (5/21) 3.5 stars
3. Fated by SG Browne (11/22) 3.5 stars
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
----------
11. Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (1/6) 5 stars
12. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1/8) 4 stars
13. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (1/12) 3.5 stars
14. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll (1/22) 3 stars
15. The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge (1/26) 4.5 stars
16. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (1/29) 3.5 stars
17. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2/1) 4 stars
18. Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis & Christos Papadimitriou (2/3) 3.5 stars
19. My French Whore by Gene Wilder (2/4) 4.5 stars
20. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (2/7) 4 stars
21. The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2/11) 3.5 stars
22. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2/25) 3.5 stars
23. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (3/4) 3 stars
24. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (3/24) 4 stars
25. No Impact Man by Colin Beavan (3/26) 4.5 stars
26. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (3/30) 4.5 stars
27. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (6/13) 3.5 stars
28. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (6/23) 4 stars
29. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (6/30) 3 stars
30. An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (9/8) 3 stars
31. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama (11/11) 3 stars
32. Home to Woefield by Susan Juby (12/9) 3.5 stars

ideas:

Catch-all:

1. A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters (5/8) 2 stars
2. The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire (10/22) 4 stars
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

ideas:

more than anything, during the 999 challenge, i liked seeing how my reading actually played out as opposed to how i thought it would play out

Me, too. I've been fascinated to discover how my reading falls into categories, even without intending it, and seeing patterns, that I didn't know existed, to my selections.

i'm feeling good so far about this year's challenge. 4 books in 10 days isn't bad at all, and i'm about 1/2 way through #5. if i'm going to finish the challenge this year, i've got to get as much done now before it gets warm as i'm hoping spring and summer will be VERY busy around the farm!

just finished Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. it was WONDERFUL! i've read all of Fforde's other books and loved them, but this was the best. this is one of the most superb examples of world building i've read in a long while. the characters are instantly compelling and the plot is the perfect balance between gripping and Fforde's characteristic meandering-and-seemingly-mundane-but-really-essential. i highly, highly recommend this book and hope that the others in the series come out soon.

just finished The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge. it took me a bit to really get into it, but once i did i wasn't disappointed. it was really quite good. the plot was perfectly paced so that i was never drug through tedious explanations and yet never felt like the story was rushed. i figured out a few of the "mysteries" before the characters did, but that didn't make me enjoy their fulfillment less. there were times when i felt some characters weren't quite as fleshed out as i would have liked, but then i started to get the feeling that that was deliberate- it gave the correct amount of haziness and intrigue. all around, a very good young adult novel.

i kept having this feeling that aspects of the story felt familiar to me, but couldn't put my finger on it. then i read the acknowledgments at the end and realized that Hardinge did a lot of her research in New Zealand, where i lived for a little while. she even thanks some of the volcanoes i've been to see and acknowledges a beloved Maori myth as one of her inspirations. i wouldn't say that the knowledge of those kinds of things made me enjoy the book more, but they certainly didn't hurt! i think, more than anything, that feeling of familiarity gave the book a particular voice that i connected with- something rare, yet important, in a work of fantasy.

I see that The Kite Runner is one of your ideas for Made Into Movies. Did you see the movie? I read the book late last year, and although I have to say it was a good book, it was a difficult book, a painful book. I haven't seen the movie myself - I don't think I could now. If you choose to read it, it will be interesting to see what you think.

i did see the movie and, yes it was both difficult and painful. but also heartwarming somehow. the main reason i wanted to read the book is that, in the movie, the section that is actually about the main characters as children, running kites, seems a little.... short. i am hoping to get more of that in the book. i'm steeling myself up to start it soon...

just finished The Shadow of the Wind. it was really good but not at ALL what i was expecting. i guess that, in itself, can sometimes be a good thing.

i'm torn, however, on where this one really belongs. i had been recommended this book from last year's challenge for Books about Books, which i thought it fit into completely until about the 1/2 way point. the story starts as a book about a book, but the book becomes just a detail in the end. so now i'm feeling like it might belong in debut novels since it's Zafon's first book for adults and i'm thinking that might be what's most impressive about it.

>18 leahbird: I'm currently reading (and loving) it. I love the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books."

>19 thornton37814: i think i really loved the first 1/2 and was a little underwhelmed by the second 1/2. not because it wasn't good, but because it wasn't what i expected. i still thought it was good enough to give it 4 stars but i don't think it will be one of those books that i gush about. the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" was really wonderful.

read a graphic novel and a short novel in the past 2 days.

Logicomix was on of my SantaThing books. it was very interesting, but way over my head, technically. i'm just not into Math. i LOVED the correlation of logic and human behavior though. would have liked to see more of that side and less of the technical math side.

My French Whore was a used bookstore impulse buy. as much as i hate to admit it, book covers really do have an impact on whether i pick up books i don't know anything about and the cover of this one brought me in. as soon as i realized it was by Gene Wilder i had to buy it.

i was not disappointed in the least. this was a beautiful (albeit brief) story and the imagery was perfect. Wilder manages to create the perfect tone and pacing in a story that is only 192 pages in a small format book. that in itself is amazing. the characters, however brief they are with us, are instantly clear and fully realized.

my only complaint was that is too short. i want more. not because the story isn't complete, it certainly is, but... i could have read 1000 pages of Wilder's prose and probably still have wanted more.

after finishing The Painted Veil yesterday, i fell asleep on the sofa watching HBO. when i woke up, the movie based on the book (with Ed Norton and Naomi Watts) had just come on... it was weird. HBO has been (repetitively) showing total crap lately so i was very surprised to see that movie showing at all, much less on the same day i finished the book! for a moment i was sure i was dreaming it, but it was actually on. i watched it (i'd seen it before) and enjoyed it, even though i was a little creeped out that HBO is now scanning my brainwaves... ;)

That is probably my all-time favorite movie adaptation. I always get so annoyed watching movies after reading books, but I loved that one. I loved the book first of all, but the movie was so true to the book- and the acting, storyline, scenery, everything is great. What a lucky coincidence to get to see the movie just after reading! Or creepy brain-scan :-)

i seem to usually prefer whichever one i experienced first, probably because that is the one that "feels" right in my head.

i saw the movie before i read The Painted Veil so, naturally, i prefer it slightly over the book. i think the only disappointments for me in reading the book after watching the movie was...

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

that they don't reconnect before he dies and that she succumbs to Townsend at then end. i was impressed by her behavior after that, but i loved in the movie how she completely disregards him on the street as "no one important." that was beautiful.

finished The Magicians, which i had been eagerly anticipating for a few weeks, earlier today.

this is the grown up (well, college) version of all those classic magical fantasy tales, Harry Potter set in college meets Narnia if CS Lewis was a much more demented individual.

this book breaks up pretty neatly into two major sections- what i would call the Harry Potter section and then the Narnia section. the Harry Potter section covers the character's getting their education at a college of magic. it really is quite wonderful. since 4 years have to be fit into 220 pages, there tends to be a lot of leaping forward narratively, which can be a tad annoying when you are really enjoying what is there and want more of it. but that is made up for by the wonderful imagery that Grossman achieves. i could have kept reading that section for many many more pages.

like with The Shadow of the Wind, i was really, really enjoying the story and then there came a point where i just thought, "huh?" the second half of this book, the Narnia section, just goes off in a totally different, and strange, direction (not that the first 1/2 wasn't a little strange...). granted, there is a decent chunk of fairly unnecessary relationship and life angst to slog through in transition from HP to Narnia, but once the adventure really starts in the Narnia section, i almost didn't care what happened.

almost. i was still pretty invested in the characters (and the plot) up until nearly the end, but not because of what was going on at that time. i was just hoping for an interesting resolution, something that managed to bring back the wonderful spark that the first 1/2 had. i didn't find it. if anything, it just spiraled into more strange, pointless territory until a rather bizarre and underwhelming ending.

25> I kind of felt the same way about The Magicians. It was like 2 books were smooshed together and made to "fit". That being said, I loved Lev Grossman's writing style and I will be reading Codex this year and the sequel to The Magicians whenever it comes out.

have you ever rated a book, then gone to review it and realize you have rated it wrong?

right after i finished The Magicians i rated it 4 stars. i then wrote my review above and realized it definitely didn't deserve 4 stars. i think i'm overly generous when it comes to clicking the stars, but i'm much more realistic when it comes to reviewing...

if The Magicians had maintained it's promise from the beginning i would have happily given it 4.5 stars. as it sits though, 3.5 will have to do- all earned in the first 250 pages.

Actually I read it, then decided I didn't like it. Then a week later decided I did. So, I completely understand.

>26 Belladonna1975:

i will probably pick Codex up sometime soon. i, too, think Grossman's writing style is good, i just think he lost the thread in the second 1/2 of The Magicians.

i will probably also read a sequel if it comes out (i hadn't heard one was planned, although i kinda figured with that ending). i'm just too much of a completist not to read sequels unless i really hated the first book.

I keep going back and forth on my rating of The Magicians as well.

I was having so much trouble maintaining enthusiasm at the end that I completely missed the fact that a minor character returned at the very very end. I just assumed it was someone new and random until my fiance (who enjoyed it much more than I did) remarked upon it.

I did pick up Codex (as a remainder) anyway.

i liked LisaMorr's idea of giving a running star average for the year, so i figured mine out!

January: 4.1 stars
February (to-date): 3.9 stars

combined: 4.03 stars

good reading year thus far!

A Handful of Dust was not nearly as thrilling for me as Vile Bodies or Brideshead Revisited. i love love love Evelyn Waugh's dark humor, but i just didin't feel it in this book. and it didn't have the weight of Brideshead to make up for that lack of humor.

of course, there were some funny moments and some brilliant moments, but this one felt too indulgent... which is difficult to say about an author who is harshly exposing those who are too self-indulgent.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was a strange book. compelling in a way, but strange.

average star rating

January: 4.1 stars
February: 3.75 stars

YTD: 3.93

hm. how do i feel about The Forest of Hands and Teeth? i'm not exactly sure. the premise is amazing. even most of the plot is really great. but there are some major flaws.

the love story could have been left out completely, or drastically modified, and the story would have benefited. there just wasn't any kind of basis for this overwhelming love Mary feels towards Travis. i mean, we go chapters before he even physically makes an appearance and speaks a single line. it just wasn't strong. and all the ANGST! i mean, maybe the author, Carrie Ryan, thought it was necessary to create the correct emotional response of being trapped, but it wasn't. they are so obviously and fully trapped that the angst is just overkill.

and Ryan seems to struggle with pacing a bit. she spends an unusually long amount of time building up something which ends abruptly and to little effect and then she rushes into something that has huge consequences. sure, life isn't perfectly paced, but a novel, especially this novel, isn't life. there needs to be at least some sort of understanding of pacing to make a novel successful.

the ending was also a disappointment. i know this is the first book in a planned trilogy, but the second book, Dead-Tossed Waves (which comes out this month and of which there was a preview in my edition) does not pick up where this one so abruptly ended. it picks up with Mary's daughter, who seems to be about 15-16 (no indication of who her father is). perhaps Ryan will get around to tying up some of the loose ends from The Forest of Hands and Teeth in the new one, but she shouldn't have had to. a good series will find a way to wrap up the plot of the particular book and yet still leaving you wanting more- not needing more just to make sense out of the previous one.

i don't know if i would recommend this to friends. maybe someone who is really into zombies or dystopian fiction (although i'm really into dystopian fiction and don't really love it) but not someone who is a casual reader of either of those. this is definitely not a "must read."

March has been a bad reading month. i'd like to blame it on the book i'm reading, The Kite Runner, because it's depressing and i can't bring myself to read many chapters at a time, but i know that's not really it. it's starting to get warm and i'm getting cabin fever, which just doesn't seem to be solved by reading. i just want to be outside!

almost done with The Kite Runner so the next thing i pick up is going to have to be light and fun!

finished The Kite Runner last night and then read Bite Me: A Love Story today.

The Kite Runner was depressing and hard to read. don't get me wrong, it's superbly written. but it's a tough subject matter. it was also touching in heartbreaking ways. i'm glad to have read it, but i'm profoundly glad to be done with it.

had been looking forward to Bite Me: A Love Story for a while, since i love Chris Moore and the first 2 books in the series were quite good. as is usually the case, however, this series has lost some of it's charm by the third book. this one just wasn't as... well, as anything as the first two. it's not as funny. i mean, there are funny moments, but the humor isn't even close to reaching the first two. it's not as exciting. it's not as well thought-out. it's just not as good.

this one feels more like Chris had a moment where he realized he had to write another in the series since he just left the story hanging at the end of You Suck and then realized he didn't have anything to really say about it any more.

i think admitting to myself, and posting it on here, that i was sucking at reading this month had the correct effect: i've finished 3 books this week and i'm nearly done with #4 (that's 2 WHOLE books in 2 days). it helps A LOT that the weather has been ugly the past few days and i've had nothing to do but read- that or stare mindlessly at the tv.

finishing the current book will put me at 23 books so far, just 2 shy of my target of 25 for the quarter. that would leave me with 5 days to get through 2 more books to reach my first goal. i'm going to give it my best shot!

I've gotten more reading done since I've been feeling bad. I guess there's always a plus side!

silver lining!

>37 leahbird: I felt the same way about The Kite Runner. In the categories of my mind it fell into "amazing" and "important" -- but I find it hard to say that I "liked" it. I did like A Thousand Splendid Suns better, though in a slightly different way it's just as difficult and heart-wrenching, but I didn't think it was as fine a book as The Kite Runner.

well, i made it to 24 books by the end of the first quarter, so i only missed my goal by 1. i was hoping to knock that one book out today, but i don't have any convenient novellas laying around and i already read my graphic novel for the month...

so, i'm closing March out with a 3.83 average star rating.

where i stand so-far

Books About Books: 4
Kid Lit: 3
Made Into Movies: 3
Agriculture: 2
Debut Novels: 3
Recommended: 2
Should Have Read Already: 2
Fantasy: 4
New-to-me Authors: 1
undecided: 0, naturally

so, i noticed that 17 of the books i've read this year so far are by authors i'd never read before. i hade debut novels and new-to-me authors lumped together, but i felt like they needed to be split. now that i've got them split, i'm realizing a flaw in the system. there aren't going to be that many books that i read BECAUSE i've never read the authors before. i mean, of the 17 listed, only one wasn't used primarily in another category. usually, you come upon a new author because a book of theirs is recommended or you've seen the movie version of their book or you're really into their genre... or it's their debut and that's what is intriguing. anyway, i'm going to leave them split for now and see what happens. i was hoping to have my two "undecided" categories figured out by now, but i'm just going to play it by ear.

i have been dragging myself through Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley, the second book in Linda Berdoll's Pride and Prejudice Continues series. i didn't really like the first one, but i just have to finish things once i start them... it's a curse.

there isn't really a story here. what little story there is isn't particularly interesting. she keeps introducing these new (and rather pointless) characters and then spending chapter after chapter detailing what they are up to. yawn. i'm on page 332 of 429. i barely know how i'm going to get through the rest of it. but, since i've given this book 15 days already, i'd hate to not finish it and have all those days be more of a waste than they already have been...

i've got to remind myself that, if there is a third book, i won't read any more of this drivel.

thank god i'm finally done with Darcy and Elizabeth. FINALLY i can read something worth the pages it's printed on.

i was going to start the 2 ER books i've got to review, but i need something good and, most importantly, funny. no idea what that will be but i've really got to pick up the pace to make up for how long this drivel took me to finish.

this has been a TERRIBLE couple of months for reading, just like i knew it would. man, i've seriously got to pick up the pace!

reading Peter and Max by Bill Willingham right now, which is pretty good. up next is Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. hopefully these will get the reading ball rolling again.

just checked my list from last year and i'm pretty disappointed. by this time last year i had read 45 books... and this year i've only managed 33 so far. this is not boding well for hitting 100.

i was 19 books shy of 81 last year (only reading 62) and being this far behind already... that means that i've got 5 more books LEFT TO GO than i read ALL OF LAST YEAR!

so, i need to be averaging 3.35 books a week (about half a book a day) for the rest of the year. wow. i'm gonna need to find some shorter books!

Good luck! I have both books 1 and 2 in that Darcy and Elizabeth series, but their sheer size is intimidating me! (Plus, the reviews I've read haven't been too glowing, just a lot of "okay"s.) Kid Lit is always good for shorter books that are usually relatively easy to read, and if you're looking for another debut/new author book, can I recommend The Quickening by Michelle Hoover? It's really quiet and wonderful, and it's sticking with me even though I last picked it up a week ago. (Really, I just don't want to be done reading it.) I was lucky enough to meet her and hear her reading from the book a couple of weeks ago, and it was a wonderful experience. And, as a bonus, she's really nice!

You can do it! You can finish this challenge! Just tell your boss that you're working on a VIP project - they don't have to know it's reading!

thanks for the encouragement Laura!

reading those 2 Darcy and Elizabeth books was probably not the best idea. they are LONG, as you said, and are so bad that it took me forever to slog through them. why do i have to be such a completist?

i'd love to be able to tell my boss i was working hard and secretly read instead, but my boss would never believe me... i'm my own boss, you see. ;) having an atypical job (farming) can really be a blessing in a lot of ways, but there are some things you just can't put off. animals need feeding and fences need mending no matter what. and they don't wait.

i knew my reading rate would take a major crash over the summer when things are really busy around here, but i wasn't prepared for it to be this drastic. i'm hoping that the reading can pick up once it gets cold and i don't have a garden to manage on top of everything else.

Ah yes, I understand, I'm basically my own boss too. I'm kind of crap at it really, I let myself get away with too many shenanigans and with spending entirely too much time here on LT. I should fire myself.

Your reading rate will surely spike once fall starts to taper into winter - and what better use of cold-weather-time is there than reading lovely books? None that I can think of!

so, i did what i really shouldn't do and ignored everything that needed doing (other than animal feeding) for a whole day while i read Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series.

ok, so it wasn't exactly what i had expected. and there were some pacing issues. and it would have been nice to see Katniss in a bit more of the rebel action. and it was really dark and sad. but, in the end, it was really wonderful.

Collins really casts aside the protective bubble that she'd somewhat built around the violence from the first two books and throws us straight into the gore and mayhem that war really is. characters' actions get messier and their motivations more complex and a bit suspect. the comfortable love triangle that probably drew many readers is smashed up pretty good, and we're all the better for it. Collins is artfully showing that, in times of war, nothing is really as you think it will be, even victory.

i'm probably going to be a little haunted by this one for a while. but i'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

As macro studies of agriculture throughout history go, An Edible History of Humanity is engaging and accessible. Standage does a very good job of showing the numerous connections between agricultural advance, economic shifts, cultural exchange, and populations. The history of various crops- spices, corn, wheat, rice, potatoes- is very informative and, I think, very important.

The problem that I had was that it was ONLY a macro study of food throughout history. Standage chooses to glance over the actual lives of the people within the system he is looking at, which puts him at a great disadvantage when talking about what these systems really mean to humanity and our way forward. In the latter part of the book, he spends a lot of time talking about how the agricultural advances of the "green revolution" freed up the labor force to move into industry, ushering in the Industrial Revolution.

What he ignores, however, is that many, if not most, of those who moved to cities and began factory work did not go willingly and gleefully. They were forced from their land because of falling crop prices, torn from their communities and families, and forced into the factories as their only option of making money. He discusses the recent resurgence of Asia in the global economy, attributing it to their more recent "green revolutions," but he ignores the human impact that this shift has caused, namely the massive waves of "country peasant girls" who are being forced to move to the cities to work in the sex trade or extremely low paying industrial jobs.

The most glaring problem, for me, is that Standage makes very, very little effort to conceal his personal point-of-view on the local/organic vs industrial agricultural debate. He seems to be genuinely mistrusting of people who believe that the world CAN survive on a more locally centered food supply. Standage's arguments about the necessary success of the current industrial model seem very similar to classical social evolution, a social theory that Anthropologists have discarded as reductionist and Western-centric.

Still, I gave it 3 stars, which probably seems strange since I had such problems with the last few chapters. I think it was because the title, to me, suggested more of a look at the people involved when Standage is really talking about the economies involved. I would recommend the first 1/2 of this book as a great overview of the "how" and the "when" of agriculture, but if you are looking for something about the people in the system, perhaps this isn't the book for you.

i completed a section! not surprisingly, it was the Books about Books section. now, if only i could manage to read 58 books in the next 3 weeks to actually finish the challenge.....

Well, that shouldn't be a problem, assuming you don't have to work, or talk to other people, or eat food, or sleep, or...

exactly! that's the spirit!

hehehe. i'm not letting myself get too bothered about being so far from finishing. it's been a busy and fulfilling year and reading has been the icing instead of the cake. that is a good thing.