The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Hello! Here are the details of my Reading Challenge for 2014. I've been an avid reader since childhood, but I guess you could say I fell off the wagon in recent years. I'm trying to develop a consistent reading habit again.

I'm also a startlingly slow reader, so I'm doing 30 to ensure that I finish, heh.

I picked these books before 2014 even started. They are all physical copies because I keep buying books and then using my e-reader, instead. I hope that, by the end of the year, the percentage of "read" books in my physical library will be a lot higher. ;) They are a mix of books in Spanish (my first language) and English (second). It's not in the list, but I hope by the end of the year I'm able to read one of my favorite books, Kafka's The Metamorphosis, in its original German. Becoming fluent in German is another of my resolutions for 2014.

1. Adachi, Jiro – The Island of Bicycle Dancers
2. Carter, David – Stonewall
3. Cela, Camilo José - La Colmena
4. Chomsky, Noam – Keeping the Rabble in Line
5. Cisneros, Sandra – Caramelo
6. DeLillo, Don – White Noise
7. Dunn, Katherine – Geek Love
8. Feinberg, Leslie – Trans Liberation
9. Fey, Tina – Bossypants
10. Fitzgerald, F. Scott – Tender is the Night
11. Foer, Jonathan Safran – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
12. Forster, E. M. – Maurice
13. Herlihy, James Leo – Midnight Cowboy
14. King, Stephen – Needful Things
15. Klein, Naomi – No Logo
16. Kurlansky, Mark – The Basque History of the World
17. Mastbaum, Blair – Clay’s Way
18. Otsuka, Julie – The Buddha in the Attic
19. Renault, Mary – The Charioteer
20. Shakespeare, William – As You Like It
21. Smith, Zadie – On Beauty
22. Sōseki, Natsume – Botchan
23. Townsend, Sue – La Mujer que Vivió un Año en la Cama
24. Wharton, Edith – The Age of Innocence
25. White, Edmund – City Boy
26. Wolff, Tobias – Old School
27. Wolitzer, Meg – The Ten Year Nap
28. Winterson, Jeanette – ¿Por qué ser feliz cuando puedes ser normal?
29. Yourcenar, Marguerite – Memorias de Adriano
30. Yoyes – Desde su Ventana

I'm currently reading Botchan, and since I'm interested in all the books in the list, I'm using a random number generator to pick for me! Next up is Bossypants. :D

* This challenge is for books I own physical copies of, but whenever I finish a book early, I see if I can fit ebooks. These are, so far, ebooks I've read in 2014:
1. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
2. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
3. Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
4. The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer
5. The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston
6. Howards End by E.M. Forster

Good luck Aitziber - we have the same goal :)

Nice list! Good luck with your German studies!

Thank you both! Ola, I feel like aiming for only 30 books is making the challenge too easy. On the other hand, I plan on juggling so many things this year that it may be the only way.

Aitziber, I know, I feel the same about 30 - I know I CAN reach this goal if I consciously think about it, and perhaps I should aim for something that I'm not so sure I can reach (like 40 or 45). Then again, life gets so busy and I too will be juggling so many things that I decided to stick to 30 for now - I can always make it higher later :)

Botchan down, and since I finished with a few days to spare, I decided to pick up Berlin Alexanderplatz as a book outside the official challenge.

Berlin Alexanderplatz, along with other modernist books such as Manhattan Transfer (New York City), Ulysses (Dublin) or The Hive (Madrid) all focus on the cities in question so that you become as familiar to them as one of its citizens. I'm pretty excited to read it. :D

(If you know of other such books that focus on other cities, please let me know! I think Mrs Dalloway does the same for London, but I'm not completely sure. And certainly there should be a Paris book out there.)

Mrs Dalloway is a fantastic novel, but be warned. If you don't like stream of consciousness writing, any Virginia Woolf novel certainly isn't it you.

When you get round to reading it, let me know what you think of Stonewall. I've been meaning to read some LGBT lit, and I'm just not sure where to start!

Aitziber wrote: "Botchan down, and since I finished with a few days to spare, I decided to pick up Berlin Alexanderplatz as a book outside the official challenge.

Berlin Alexanderplatz, along with other modernist..."

Ohh, I own a copy of Berlin Alexanderplatz but haven't read it yet.

Holly, I know. Mrs Dalloway was required reading my first year of uni, and I tried reading it in English. It was a mistake, because even though I was fluent then, I wasn't ready for stream-of-consciousness. I was tested on it, and I passed, and I still don't quite know what it's about. ;) I have to re-read it at some point.

LGBT lit is one of my areas of research! It's non-fiction, but I recommend And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic as a starter point.

Danielle, I like my e-reader, but I hear such good things about kindles. I want one. :) Maybe it'll be my present to myself if I complete the 2014 challenge. I'll keep track of your bookshelf, because I love historical books too.

Faye, I'll let you know what I think of it!

I finished Bossypants by Tina Fey. I was surprised that, even though the book has received no shortage of accolades and has a fairly high Goodreads rating (as well as a Goodreads award), a lot of the higher rated reviews of the book are negative. Is that something that happens a lot on the site? Highly-rated books with highly-rated negative reviews? I only signed up for GR a couple months ago.

At any rate, I enjoyed the book. I thought it was funny and a quick read. It was a fresh breath of air after slogging through Berlin Alexanderplatz (which I still haven't given up on).

The thing about Döblin's book which I hadn't realized before picking up the book is that it chronicles the last few years of the Weimar Republic before Hitler took over. I didn't expect the book to be quite so bleak. And I feel that, on some level, Döblin could see what was coming. The protagonist actually joins the Nazi Party (for a while? At my current point in the book, he seems to be less vocal about it, at any rate). Poverty and unemployment and thieving are a constant. Franz, the main character, is fairly unlikable, even leaving aside the Nazi membership . . . Still, I want to finish, but it's going to take me a while.

I'm still following the self-imposed rules to my challenge, but since I finished Bossypants early, I can participate in the Northanger Abbey read-along with the group. :)

I'm doing pretty well so far, with four books total (two of them ebooks). March is when I'm going to get crazy busy though, so we'll see how that affects my streak. :)

done! I'm done ahead of schedule and feel that I can breathe for today. :D I think I'll read Maurice next.

done! I rated it five stars, and will post a review soon. I don't have a lot of free time atm. :)

may i'll try to cover you... i'm proud of you bro

Aitziber, I'm really tempted to read Maurice now!

Sandy wrote: "Aitziber wrote: " done! I rated it five stars, and will post a review soon. I don't have a lot of free time atm. :)"

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on this one. :)"

Holly wrote: "Aitziber, I'm really tempted to read Maurice now!"

Holly, Sandy, my review is here. Please keep in mind that I've rated it five stars for its historical value, rather than quality of writing. My review was long enough, but if either of you end up reading it, I would love to discuss other aspects I didn't touch on. :D

And Sandy, I'm more than open to buddy reads! I'll send you a private message whenever I start with either of those.

Aitziber wrote: " done! I rated it five stars, and will post a review soon. I don't have a lot of free time atm. :)"

I badly wanted to read Maurice ever since I saw the movie but couldn't find a physical book in India despite of all the searching so I kinda gave up. Your review made me want to get to it again. I got my Kindle recently so it would be easy to get a copy now. Have you read Giovanni's Room It is set a little closer to our time than Maurice and a very different take on LGBT relations.

Shreya wrote: "I badly wanted to read Maurice ever since I saw the movie but couldn't find a physical book in India despite of all the searching so I kinda gave up. Your review made me want to get to it again. I got my Kindle recently so it would be easy to get a copy now. Have you read Giovanni's Room It is set a little closer to our time than Maurice and a very different take on LGBT relations."

No, I haven't read Giovanni's Room yet, but it's on my to-read list. :) I have a physical copy of Maurice, and an ebook of the Baldwin novel. :D

I own Giovanni's room. Really must get round to reading it, considering it's so short.

Shreya, do you use an e-book cataloguing system like Calibre? If so, I can send you an e-book of Maurice.

down! (review) :)

read. Yikes, it took me almost a week. I hope school doesn't slow me down much more.

I'm not dead, school has just gotten the best of me!

read. I do not recommend it.

read. :) I already said this in my review, but this was simply a delightful book.

Aitziber wrote: " read. :) I already said this in my review, but this was simply a delightful book."

Woah! Sounds like an ace book!

I might be way off here, but sounds like their might be a touch of Dead Poets Society about it? Or maybe even a hair of The History Boys? Both of which are amazing, imo, so if it's along that vein then I am definitely interested!

Mayme wrote: "Woah! Sounds like an ace book!

I might be way off here, but sounds like their might be a touch of Dead Poets Society about it? Or maybe even a hair of The History Boys? Both of which are amazing, imo, so if it's along that vein then I am definitely interested!"

That's a good question, Mayme. I've only watched bits and pieces of Dead Poets Society. I'd say Old School is more focused on an individual rather than a whole group of boys, and the teachers' impact on the characters is more indirect. There's no teacher here getting up on tables to recite poetry. ;)

That said, Old School is definitely part of that "private school boys who really love literature" genre, so you should absolutely check it out.

Aitziber wrote: "That said, Old School is definitely part of that "private school boys who really love literature" genre, so you should absolutely check it out. "

Thanks, I'll look it up (:

read in just three months. :P Review is here.

read. Review is a bit of a mess because I had a lot of thoughts while reading, and I wanted to include them all.

Posting the remaining August books.

Quick and dirty review here.

I am the one who added this book to the site, the only one who's started or finished reading it, and the only one to review it, in English.

Review here.

While I read the book in Spanish, the review is in English. Please check the status updates as well, because I had a good conversation with Sandy in the comments to one.

I think my reviews are getting increasingly nonsensical, but nevertheless, it is here.

Thank you! Likewise. :D

My September books. :)

Amazing book. Review here.

Review here.

Didn't like it as much as other Stephen King books, and now I fear I may have outgrown him. Review of a sort here.

Part of my quest to become more familiar with Spanish literature! Review here.

Woohoo, The Charioteer!!

My plan for this month was to read the remaining LGBT books in the list I posted in January. I did that and also started on the nonfiction theme for November.

I wasn't impressed. It tried and failed to be funny. Review here.

In-depth look at the causes and consequences of the Stonewall Riots, as well as myths around it. Recommended. Review here.

Somehow I suspect the movie was better, but this novel is so unrelentingly miserable that I don't think I could stomach watching it. Review here.

Plain terrible. Don't bother. Review here.

I feel this is the kind of book that you keep coming back to because it can literally teach you how to live your life. It is beautiful. Review here.

Helpful book about major brands such as Nike, McDonald's, Shell, Starbucks and so on, and how they profit from slave labor and underpaid service workers. I found it very informative and a good gateway to becoming active in your own community. Review here.

I wish I'd gotten a bit more reading done for November. I am particularly sorry not to have made time for I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. If possible, I'll try to read them in December or next year.

My November books:

This book tied up surprisingly well with No Logo (from last month) and On Beauty. Highly informative, as it's to be expected of Chomsky. Review here.

A solid novel, which also tied up with one of my other books this month, Howards End. Review here.

A novel by a first time author that will probably not get to write a second novel. :P Review here.

Read the sections that concern the human Ebola cases, and skip the Ebola Reston stuff that only affects monkeys. Review here.

This book spent too much time on a detestable character (Mr. Wilcox) for me to rate it as highly as Maurice. Regardless, it is a surprisingly modern novel. I'll be reading more Forster. Review here.

Sandy wrote: "You did a lot of reading in October, Aitziber. Soon your list will be completely ticked off. Well done! It sounds like Stonewall and Memoirs of Hadrian were the highlights."

Memoirs of Hadrian was THE highlight, and I'd even go as far as to say it was the most affecting book I read this year. I liked Stonewall and No Logo too. :D

Okay, so I'm extremely (and I mean extremely) into charts and lists. I'm not a math whiz, but statistics I enjoy. I'm a book away from meeting my goal and leaving on a jet plane, so I decided to post some data about my 2014 books ahead of time.

Aitziber's 2014 Challenge
36 books
30 physical books
11,905 pages

Books by author's gender
Male 20
Female 15
Trans 1

Books by Author's Sexuality
Heterosexual 21
Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual 11
IDK 4 - Sandra Cisneros, Katherine Dunn, William Shakespeare, Sōseki Natsume

Books by POC
POC 5 - Jiro Adachi, Sandra Cisneros, Ernest J. Gaines Julie Otsuka, Zadie Smith

Ultimately this statistic is pretty complicated, as 'whiteness' is a concept that varies from country to country. For my purposes, I use POC as a person who is a racial minority in the country they live in or write about.

Books by Language
Read in English 29
Read in Spanish 7

Books by Genre
Fiction 26
Nonfiction 10

Alright, from this point on, I've started making charts and lists based on things that might be of little interest to anyone else. Under the spoiler cut, how many books I read each month, how I rated them, how Goodreads rated them, and how popular they are on Goodreads.

(view spoiler)[Read Each Month
January 2
February 4
March 3
April 2
May and June :)
July 1
August 6
September 4
October 6
November 5
December 3

My Rating
***** 2
**** 14
*** 12
** 5
* 2
Unrated 1

---

For these last two charts, I have taken the ratings up until today and will not be updating them when 2014 is over. If one of these books suddenly rises in popularity, then the chart will not reflect it. :P

By average Goodreads rating

4.24 Memoirs of Hadrian

4.17 The Normal Heart

4.07 The Hot Zone
4.06 The Charioteer
4.06 Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution

3.99 Geek Love
3.98 Maurice
3.97 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
3.95 Circle of Friends
3.94 Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue
3.94 Howards End
3.92 Keeping the Rabble in Line
3.92 The Age of Innocence
3.92 Bossypants

3.89 A Lesson Before Dying
3.89 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
3.87 Midnight Cowboy
3.85 No Logo
3.85 White Noise
3.83 Tender Is the Night
3.83 Caramelo
3.82 As You Like It
3.82 Needful Things
3.81 The Basque History of the World

3.79 Old School
3.76 Northanger Abbey
3.75 La Colmena / The Hive

3.62 On Beauty
3.58 City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s
3.56 The Buddha in the Attic
3.53 Botchan
3.40 Clay's Way
3.31 The Island of Bicycle Dancers
3.00 Desde Su Ventana

2.90 The Ten-Year Nap
2.88 The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year

By number of ratings (Popularity)

387,563 Bossypants

234,340 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

160,981 Northanger Abbey
122,610 Needful Things

79,498 The Age of Innocence

58,688 Tender Is the Night
53,112 The Hot Zone

49,916 White Noise
47,279 As You Like It
41,069 Howards End

35,902 On Beauty
33,994 Geek Love
33,839 Circle of Friends
30,402 A Lesson Before Dying

23,404 The Buddha in the Attic

15,152 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
14,619 No Logo
12,406 Maurice

7,018 Old School

6,660 Caramelo
6,481 Memoirs of Hadrian

5,651 The Ten-Year Nap
5,402 The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year

3,611 Botchan

2,243 La Colmena / The Hive
2,130 The Charioteer

1,917 The Basque History of the World
1,106 The Normal Heart
1,008 Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

943 Midnight Cowboy
580 City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s
335 Clay's Way
321 Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution
123 Keeping the Rabble in Line
81 The Island of Bicycle Dancers
1 Desde Su Ventana (hide spoiler)]

Phew. :D

Challenge completed.

Great job Aitziber, congrats on completing your challenge!

Congratulations!

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling the pride right now as I had to work hard to finish. :D Here are my last reviews for this challenge:

Superior to The Great Gatsby, in my opinion. Review here.

Kind of blah. Review here.

Gothic fiction to finish the year. Review here.

All done! :)

YAH!!! Congratulations! Happy New Year to you also! :D

Congrats! Nicely done.