The 50 book challenge.

[Neoma]

You see this challenge in a lot of other places, I've done this since I was a teenager. The concept is this: Read 50 books within a year. It doesn't have to be the beginning of the year. You start the day you finish the first book on the list (write down the date,) and just add the next book when you finish reading it. I don't only put non-fiction books on the list, but it does keep me motivated to keep reading more, and everyone needs a little push. It would be awesome if everyone here would stick with non-fiction. Share your list when you're done, or even just half-way done. If you want to have more of a challenge and read 100 books within a year, feel free to do so.

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[SheilaT]

1. I've been keeping a book list for years.

I typically read from 60 to 80 books a year. My all time record, I think was, about 120 books, but I don't know where the notebook with those old lists is.

And that's fiction and non-fiction. For me personally, I'm not going to cut out the fiction just to read 50 non-fiction books in a year. I'd say that about two-thirds of what I read is usually non-fiction.

[Neoma]

2. You could just label which ones are non-fiction then.

[SheilaT]

3. I could, but that would actually require I do

a little work!

At the moment, the books I have checked out of the library are half fiction, half non-fiction.

[bemildred]

4. I don't keep lists. I read 50 books most years, but 100 seems a bit more than I do.

I used to read mostly fiction, now I tend more to non-fiction of various sorts, history, esaays, authors from quite other places, times, and social categories from the ones I know.

This is a selection from my current to-be-read pile:

"On Writing Well" William Zinsser
Tacitus "The Histories" (2nd time)
Some Edward Said (re-reading)
Petronius Satyricon
Procopious "The Secret Histories"
Xenophon "A History of My Times"
Susan Cain "Quiet"
John Ruskin "Sesame & Lilies" (probably soon to add "Unto This Last" and "Praeterita"
John Dos Passos "Manhattan Transfer"
Lawrence Durrell "The Bitter Lemons of Cyprus"
Patrick Fermor "The Travellers Tree".

Just finished "Dinner with Persephone" by Patricia Storace (quite good).

[Neoma]

5. Lists help me remember where the hell I've read certain things.

You'd be amazed at how handy it's gotten over the past 7 years.

[bemildred]

6. I have on several occasions ...

read a book as new, only to realize some 2/3 of the way through that I'd read it before and forgotten it. This was particularly a problem with cheap pulp fiction of the various genres I used to consume.

I do colllect little lists of quotations to shamelessly bandy about on the internet, so I'm not really pure anyway.

And I know just what you mean about helping you remember things.

[SheilaT]

7. O! M! G!

I'm embarrassed to admit how often I do exactly that. In my defense, I read lots and lots of books, and now that I'm sixty-four, it's not impossible to pick up a book I originally read fifty years ago, so it's no wonder I might not remember it.

More than once, only a little way into the book I can tell I've read it before, but I cannot for the life of me remember any details, and so I need to keep on reading to find out what actually happens.

I also love rereading books. Right now I have several books that are on my "Must reread as soon as possible" list.

So many books, so little time.

[Neoma]

8. Want a depressing fact?

"If you read one book a week, starting at the age of 5, and live to be 80, you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books, a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of the books currently in print."

[bemildred]

9. I like to think of it as a rich feast you can never finish.

[SheilaT]

10. In my early years of reading, when

the books I was reading were a lot shorter than most of them are now, I typically read five plus books per week. Even now, I read more than a book a week, so I am making a reasonable dent in what's out there. I wish.

[bemildred]

11. Yeah I remember going to the library every two weeks when I was ten.

Take an armload down there, bring an armload back. Fairy Tales, Freddy The Pig, Juvenile SF, etc. Even then there were not enough hours in the day. And the teachers would get so pissed at me becasue I didn't study.

[closeupready]

12. I absolutely LOVE reading, all things, but I am super slow at it.

I read typically about a book a month. Obviously, I read lots online, too, but that doesn't count, since books typically have a purpose or plot - online is just about snippets here and there.

Currently, I've got "About Time" by Adam Rich which I'm making a dent in. I should be done with it by the end of October, if I enjoy it. If I don't enjoy it, I'll put it down and give it away, probably. But I like the first few pages I've read so far.

[kag]

15. I have the same problem, closeupready

I read very slow. Plus I always seem to pick thick, dense books that take me FOREVER to get through. Right now I'm plodding through Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time". I think she wrote it faster than I'm reading it .

[closeupready]

16. Aha, that's funny - I see people zipping through books, and

I can't understand how people can read that fast, and still get what's going on.

For example, Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr - both of them wrote books that were intricately plotted in the extreme - how, I've often wondered, could anyone figure out, say, "A Murder Is Announced" reading in a normal fashion, let alone zipping through it like a potato chip? But people do.

I don't know - maybe I'm brain damaged or something, lol. Anyway, I still enjoy it.

[kag]

17. I just started volunteering at my local library once a week...

and I'll see people bringing in stacks of books, and then talking about them because they ACTUALLY read them all. I can't remember the last time I checked out more than one book, and actually finished them all before having to turn them in.

[Chemisse]

26. Maybe they just spend more of their time reading.

I only read my books at night, when I am in bed. Consequently it takes me about 2 weeks - sometimes more - to read a book.

[closeupready]

27. Me, too. :-)

When I'm feeling more low-key and thoughtful (or if I'm reading something I really enjoy), I will occasionally spend time on off-days just reading.

[closeupready]

13. I'm going to do this, this year.

Postcards from the Edge is going to be first on my list.

[Neoma]

14. I usually start and stop by the month I finish reading fifty books.

I'm reading towards April.

[oldandhappy]

18. lists

I have never kept lists but like the idea. I do read more than 50 books a year. Recently read Prague Winter by Madeline Albright and enjoyed her long view of the history of her life and times. Like the long view perspective. Wonder what the long view of our times will be!

[davidpdx]

19. If I wasn't a doctoral student I'd do it

I miss leisure reading so much.

[LuckyLib]

20. Don't give it up. The last 15 minutes of the day, read something pleasurable.

It reminds you that reading is not always about work.

[davidpdx]

21. Thanks

I did actually find one book that came out recently that I got my hands on and was able to read it in less than a week (it was only 322 pages). It was really nice for once to read something non-academic.

[rhett o rick]

22. Speaking of lists, are there lists somewhere in DU of recommended

fiction, non-fiction, and political?

[SheilaT]

23. If you scroll through the Fiction group you will definitely find

lists of recommended books. Over the years people have posted a fair number.

There are probably some also here in the non-fiction group.

Or, you can put up a thread requesting recommendations.

[rhett o rick]

24. THanks. nm

[dem in texas]

25. I used to read 50 to 75 books a year.

I still read every night before I fall asleep, but only read a few pages before I fall asleep. Reading about the Lucchese boot family right now. Finished the book about Michael Rockefeller going missing last week. Don't like fiction anymore.