What Katie Read (2011)

[Abcinthia]

This is my big gripe about the way books are taught in schools. Students shouldn't read books only to write dumb essays about symbolism or characterization etc. Instead, class should be more of an open discussion about the book where students can talk about what interested them and such. I had one class like that and the teacher made sure we didn't BS by giving us a quiz at the beginning of every class on the prior night's reading.

Oh yes I agree. It really put me off reading for ages during my GCSEs and A Levels because I did English Language and Literature and I could never read for pleasure. I could only read to look for certain things relating to exams. All through the book, I'd be asking myself questions about why that technique is used, what other books does it relate to, what does the choice of language say about when the book is written etc etc. Last year I started getting back into reading for the pleasure of it.

I feel your pain there. The public library in my town is pretty awful. I decided to check it out this semester when I was writing a research paper. They had a grand total of five books on Ancient Rome in their history section. Don't worry though, if you want to read about Hitler or grab a Danielle Steel book, you've hit the jackpot.

Sounds just like Wycombe library! Added to that, the staff at Wycombe library couldn't even be bothered to put the books back in the right places and just dumped them in any old place. But even when a book was in the right section it was impossible to find because they had so many sections. Eg Fiction was split into Classics (what consitutes a classic? Pre-20th or just books people like?), Fiction, City Lit (chick lit set in cities), Chick Lit, Black Fiction (for books containing Black main characters or written by Black authors), Crime, Supernatural, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural Horror, Family Saga, Historical Fiction and several other sections I have fogotten. It was impossible to find anything. They have it on the computer that the book is in the library... somewhere.

Surrey library is so well thought out in comparison. We have crime, fiction, non-fiction (in order!!!!!!) and several "quick picks" sections.

Not a bad idea lol.

Have to find out everyone who is interested and what sort of reading challenge people would like to do. Whether it's a challenge to read x amount of books in 2012 and is then edited like the exercise thread or a different type of challenge (eg on my book forum people are doing a 2012 genre challenge where people choose 12 books from at least 6 different genres, that they don't usually read)

 

[HK]

Have to find out everyone who is interested and what sort of reading challenge people would like to do. Whether it's a challenge to read x amount of books in 2012 and is then edited like the exercise thread or a different type of challenge (eg on my book forum people are doing a 2012 genre challenge where people choose 12 books from at least 6 different genres, that they don't usually read)

I'd be interested, but it'd be difficult for me to get a lot of new books - if we could do something that's flexible about what you read and more about how much you read then that'd be perfect

I don't know what's decent for other people though. A book a week, read 52 books in 2012? I could do more than that and I suspect you could too haha but I don't know about other people.

 

[dancingpotato]

I would be up for trying to read a book a week. That would be a challenge for me!

 

[Abcinthia]

Yeah a book a week sounds like a plan.

 

[anathelia]

Yeah a book a week sounds like a plan.

:shesaid if I can't get through 52 books in a year, then I've lost my game..haha

 

[Natasha]

Wow, that's awesome!!! I really wish that I could just MAKE myself sit down and read like I want to...but I never do. I'm the type of person, though, that I want complete quiet when I read and I can't make myself try to do it while at work b/c I have to stop too much to answer the phone or radio.

Just report the post when you need it edited and one of us will take care of it for you.

 

[HK]

Started a thread based on Abcinthia's idea!

 

[Abcinthia]

I read a lot of books in 2011. And I kept a list because I'm a saddo. Well also because I am a member of a book forum and Goodreads where this sort of thing is interesting to people. I figured it might be interesting to someone on here too.

104 Read
2 Unfinished though both of them I forced myself to get halfway thorugh before abandoning. I hate not finishing books, so you can all assume I thought those two books beyond awful.
3 books currently reading one of which is very nearly finished so I will need a mod/admin to edit this post in a couple of days. If you don't mind :thumbup

Total pages read: 47, 507 or there abouts. I didn't add up the pages myself, Goodreads automatically adds up my pages for me when I finish a book

1. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
3. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
4. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
5. The Stand - Stephen King
6. Elizabeth The Queen - Alison Weir
7. The Bachman Books - Stephen King
8. Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir
9. It - Stephen King
10. The Host - Stephenie Meyer

11. To Kill A Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
12. Cell - Stephen King
13. The Dreams In The Witch House and Other Stories - HP Lovecraft
14. You Are Next - Katia Lief
15. The Gods Of The Greeks - Karl Kerényi
16. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
17. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
18. She - H. Rider Haggard
19. Gave Sight - Charlaine Harris
20. Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

21. The Trial - Franz Kafka (Unfinished)
22. Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris
23. An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris
24. Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris
25. 'Salem's Lot - Stephen King
26. Tales From The Tower Of London - Daniel Diehl and Mark P. Donnelly
27. The Man In The Iron Mask - Alexandre Dumas
28. Breathless - Dean Koontz
29. Mary Tudor: England's First Queen - Anna Whitelock
30. The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

31. The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold
32. Murder Of The Romanovs - Andrew Cook
33. Blaze - Stephen King
34. She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England - Elizabeth Norton
35. Under The Dome - Stephen King
36. Les Liaisons Dangeruses - Choderlos de Laclos
37. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner - Stephenie Meyer
38. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
39. Needful Things- Stephen King
40. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

41. A Study In Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
42. The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
43. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
44. Different Seasons - Stephen King
45. Catherine Of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen - Giles Tremlett
46. Jamaica Inn - Daphne Du Maurier
47. The Shining - Stephen King
48. The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë
49. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
50. Gone With The Wind - Margarent Mitchell

51. Cujo - Stephen King
52. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII - David Starkey
53. The Green Mile - Stephen King
54. Marked - P. C. Cast
55. Betrayed- P. C. Cast
56. Chosen - P. C. Cast
57. The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
58. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
59. Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë
60. The Romance Of Tristan - Béroul

61. The Princesse De Cléves - Marie-Madeleine De Lafayette
62. Untamed - P. C. Cast
63. Manon Lescaut - Abbé Prévost
64. Hunted - P. C. Cast
65. Tempted - P. C. Cast
66. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
67. The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
68. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - Jules Verne
69. Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden
70. Emma - Jane Austen

71. The Sweet Forever - George Pelecanos
72. Karl Marx - Francis Wheen
73. The Feast Of All Saints - Anne Rice
74. Villette - Charlotte Brontë
75. Rose Madder - Stephen King
76. The Unpredictable Queen - E. E. P. Tisdall
77. Deception Point - Dan Brown
78. The Greek Myths - Robert Graves
79. Sons and Lovers - D. H. Lawrence
80. Last Of The Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper

81. The Red Room - Nicci French
82. A Handful Of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
83. 1984 - George Orwell
84. Queen Of This Realm - Jean Plaidy
85. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
86. The Rendezvous And Other Stories - Daphne Du Maurier
87. Shirley - Charlotte Brontë
88. The Ghosts Of Sleath - James Herbert
89. Sylvia - Bryce Courtenay
90. Chocolat - Joanne Harris

91. The Dead Women of Juárez - Sam Hawken
92. Still Life - Joe Donnelly
93. Brother Grimm - Craig Russell
94. Frenchman's Creek - Daphne Du Maurier
95. Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
96. Just Before Sunset - Stephen King
97. The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir
98. The Grave Tattoo - Val McDermid
99. Past Mortem - Ben Elton
100. The Russian Concubine - Kate Furnivall

101. Memoirs Of A Woman Of Pleasure: Fanny Hill - John Cleland
102. The Glass-Blowers - Daphne Du Maurier
103. Spiral - Paul McEuen
104. Dead In The Family - Charlaine Harris
105. Deeper Than The Dead - Tami Hoag
106. The Book Of Human Skin - Michelle Lovric (Unfinished)
107. The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher: Or The Murder At Road Hill House - Kate Summerscale
108. Autumn - David Moody

 

[Abcinthia]

I finished another book this afternoon but it was a short zombie novel. I don't think I'll finish either of the books I am currently reading before the new year.