All About Books discussion

It's so exciting to start planning this. I need to collect my thoughts, and also various bits of paper I have jotted ideas on!

My current ideas as possibilities are:

*Read several Graham Greene books (maybe alternate months) See Message 2
1 The Power and the Glory Read May
2 A Gun for Sale Read June
3
4
5
6

*Have a break from 'chunky' books (unless there's something that really grabs my attention)

*My main challenge will be - read books (fiction and non-fiction) that relate to the main present-day countries that were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. If I've got it right, that's Austria, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, also I think parts of what was Yugoslavia. (My first job is to clarify which countries it involves!) See Message 9
13 countries, 13 books!
1 Austria Rock Crystal Read March
Also The Post-Office Girl Read March
2 Bosnia and Herzegovina Rose of Sarajevo Read April
3 Croatia
4 Czech Republic The Trial Read October
5 Hungary Brigitta Read February
Also Embers Read March
They Were Divided Read June
6 Italy - northeast
7 Montenegro Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (finished at end of 2014, but I'm still counting it!)
8 Poland
9 Romania
10 Serbia Skylark Read February
11 Slovakia Zoli Read November
12 Slovenia
13 Ukraine

*Continue with Rougon Maquart cycle by Zola, bimonthly
1 The Ladies' Paradise Read January
2 The Joy of Life Read April
3 Germinal Read May
4 His Masterpiece Read July
5 The Earth Read September
6 The Dream Unfinished November

*Read some of the many fiction books I have on my kindle, 20th Century and 21st Century. 1 per month
1 American Rust Read January
2 Independence Day Read January
3 Brigitta Read February
4 In Times of Fading Light: A Novel Read February
5 Chronicle in Stone Read February
6 Skylark Read February
7Lila Read March
8The Post-Office Girl Read March
9The Song of Achilles Read March
10 The Lay of the Land Read April
11 Rose of Sarajevo Read April
12 The Odyssey of Homer Read April
13 The Miniaturist Read April
14 The Bone Clocks Read May
15 The New York Trilogy Read June
16 The Way Of The Women Read June
17 The Velveteen Rabbit Read June
18 Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book Read July
19 Lamentation Read July
20 In Falling Snow Read August
21 Stardust Read August
22 The Gauguin Connection Read August
23 Kokoro Read August
24 At Swim-Two-Birds Read September
25,The Day of the Locust Read September
26 The Stranger's Child Read October
27 Quicksand Read October
28 Stone Mattress: Nine Tales Read October
29 Island of Wings Read October
30 The Sea Sisters Read October
31 The Little Grey Men Read October
32 Nora Webster Read November
33 A Multitude of Sins Read November
34 Marking Time Read November
35 Saints of the Shadow Bible Read November
36 Capital Read December
37 The Assistant Read December
38 Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories Read December
39 The Spectre of Alexander Wolf Read December
40 The Sound of Things Falling Read December
41 The Lovely Ship Read December

* Read some of the nonfiction books I have on my kindle.1 per month
1 Nothing: From Absolute Zero to Cosmic Oblivion - Amazing Insights into Nothingness Read January
2 H is for Hawk Read February
3How to Be Alone Read March
4 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Read April
5 The World of Yesterday Read June
6 The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays Read July
7 Ten Cities that Made an Empire Read August
8 The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages Read August
9 Boundless energy: 52 brilliant ideas for recapturing your bounce Read August
10 50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know Read November
11
12

Here are some notes trying to plan out which Graham Greene books I want to read. I'll select from amongst these for 2015.
Books I have read in the last few years:
The Comedians 1966
The Third Man 1949
The Quiet American 1955
The End of the Affair 1951 (possibly, I need to double-check this one)Yes, this is the one I've read recently.

Here is the list that I'm left with of books by Graham Greene, that I haven't read recently and that are available to me in an accessible form:

In chronological order:

The Man Within (1929) CD

Stamboul Train (1932) CD

It's a Battlefield (1934) CD

A Gun for Sale (1936) Calibre Large Print

Brighton Rock (1938) Calibre CD eaudiobook

The Confidential Agent (1939) CD

The Power and the Glory (1940) Possibly read a long time ago Calibre CD

The Heart of the Matter (1948) Possibly read a long time ago Calibre

Our Man in Havana (1958) Calibre CD eaudiobook Large Print

A Burnt-Out Case (1960) Possibly read a long time ago CD

Travels with My Aunt (1969) CD eaudiobook

The Honorary Consul (1973) Calibre CD

The Human Factor (1978) Calibre CD

Monsignor Quixote (1982) CD

The Captain and the Enemy (1988) CD

The Last Word (1990) (short stories) Calibre Large Print

Calibre also has 'The Fallen Idol' and 'A Sort of Life'

Library has on audio book of 'The Fallen Idol'

16 titles to select from. I'll be reading these for some time to come!

That sounds great! You should think of nominating Greene in some poll ( I would definitely vote for it).

The north east of Italy was also part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Check out Miramare Castle, in Trieste ( that's where I live and the city is just a wonderful) https://www.google.it/search?q=castel...

Miramare Castle was Maximilian ' s residence. He was Franz Joseph ' s brother. He was also emperor of Mexico for a short while.

Good luck, Gill

Giorgia wrote: "That sounds great! You should think of nominating Greene in some poll ( I would definitely vote for it).

The north east of Italy was also part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Check out Miramare Ca..."
Giorgio, there's a readalong of Our Man in Havana next month, November. Hope you'd like to join in.

Thanks for the info re northeast Italy. I'll bear that in mind, but I think I'll only read something if I can find something that links to that area of Italy.

Thanks Gill, I'll check it out. Good luck with your 2015 challenge ;)

Love your challenge Gil.

Diane S. wrote: "Love your challenge Gil."

Thanks, Diane. I've still got lots of it to sort, but it's nice to start planning it out.

My main challenge is to read books (fiction and non-fiction) that relate to the main present-day countries that were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. If I've got it right, that's Austria, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, also I think parts of what was Yugoslavia. (My first job is to clarify which countries it involves!)
Also Northeast Italy (thanks Giorgia!)

I'm going to add books here which I'm interested in reading. Even if I add more than one for a country, my intention is to only read one book per country (at least initially).

Austria
The Post-Office Girl

Bosnia and Herzogovina
Rose of Sarajevo

Croatia

Czech Republic
Prague Winter

Hungary
They Were Divided
Brigitta
Embers
Italy - northeast
Italo Svevo
Trieste?

Montenegro
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Poland

Romania

Serbia
Skylark

Slovakia
Zoli

Slovenia

Ukraine

Looks like a very interesting challenge Gill!

Very interesting challenge! I like the historical background of it. Good luck!

Loving the Austro-Hungarian empire bit of your challenge. If I may I would like to join the ride on some of them.

I'd definitely like to read some more Graham Greene, so I'll be looking out for these updates :)

Jenny wrote: "Loving the Austro-Hungarian empire bit of your challenge. If I may I would like to join the ride on some of them."

That would be good, Jenny. I'll be reading one each month I think.

Pink wrote: "I'd definitely like to read some more Graham Greene, so I'll be looking out for these updates :)"

Good, it'll be nice if I have some company!

I've updated Message 1 with my January reads.

As you can imagine I've bought more books for my Kindle since I drew up the list of the books I have on it (and read some of the new ones). I've decided to concentrate on the ones I owned up to the end of 2014 for this challenge. (It's giving me a bit of an impetus to resist buying more books, by the way.)

Gill wrote: "I've updated Message 1 with my January reads.

As you can imagine I've bought more books for my Kindle since I drew up the list of the books I have on it (and read some of the new ones). I've decid..."

Good thinking!

I have that problem, Gill! And it would take too long to update my list of unread books so I'm just going to have to keep working at the old one and trying not to buy more!

I've updated message 1 with my February reads.

Poor old Graham Greene! I still haven't managed to read anything by him. Maybe I'm going to need to leave them till later in the year.

Re reading books on my Kindle, well I'm not sure whether it counts as progress or not! I've read five of them, but I've bought nine more of them this month. On the other hand I haven't bought any at all since February 5, and nearly all of the ones I bought were ones that I was absolutely definite I wanted to read.

I've managed two books for my Austro-Hungarian Empire challenge: Brigitta for Hungary, and Skylark for Serbia.

Poor Graham Greene!

Well done with reading 5 of your kindle books, I'd say buying another 9 counts as limited progress!

I think the stress might be on the word 'limited' rather than on the word 'progress', Pink!

Well, I think that depends on how many you usually buy and read each month :)

I've updated message 1 with my March reads.

I know now that I will start on this year's Graham Greene reads in May, with The Power and the Glory.

Re reading books on my Kindle, there's a little bit of progress!:
* I'm bought 4 books for my Kindle this month, including 1 for my Austrohungary challenge.
* I've read 4 books, 3 fiction and 1 nonfiction
* I've abandoned 3 books, all nonfiction.
* Hence I now have 3 less books on my Kindle than at the start of the month!


I've read three books for my Austro-Hungarian Empire challenge: Rock Crystal and The Post-Office Girl (both for Austria), and Embers (a second book for Hungary).

I'm wondering whether I could use Trieste for both Italy, location, and Croatia, author, in my Austro-Hungarian Empire Challenge?

I've updated Message 1 with my reads for April.

I read 1 book for my Austro-Hungarian Empire Challenge - Rose of Sarajevo, for Bosnia-Herzogovina. I wasn't very impressed with it, but finished it because of fitting in with the challenge.

I've bought 2 books for my kindle this month.
I've read 4 fiction and 1 nonfiction books on my kindle, and abandoned 1 nonfiction book.
Net reduction: 4 books!

You are doing well with your categories Gill!

Having the categories has certainly directed my reading this year, Leslie. The incentive of clearing some space on my kindle book list has been much more effective than I expected!

Gill wrote: "Having the categories has certainly directed my reading this year, Leslie. The incentive of clearing some space on my kindle book list has been much more effective than I expected!"

I hope that's a good thing! :)

I have found my Kindle catch up category pretty effective as well. Of course, it hasn't stopped me from getting new Kindle books so the clearing has been of less space than I had hoped!

Well, it doesn't count as reading, more as tidying up! I've identified 6 non-fiction books and 5 fiction books for my Kindle that I don't intend ever to read. So currently I have 72 fiction books and 24 non-fiction books for my Kindle that I intend to read some time. This doesn't include any 'classics', by which I mean downloaded free from Project Gutenberg, or similar.

I've updated Message 1 with my May reads.

Finally I've got round to a book by Graham Greene, and I intend to read another this month A Gun for Sale.

I didn't read anything for my Austrohungary challenge.

I read 1 book, fiction, from my Kindle, but also bought 1 book, fiction, to go on my Kindle. But as I said in Message 29, I 'eliminated' 11 kindle books, so that's a bit of progress!

I look forward to hearing what you think about A Gun for Sale!

Leslie wrote: "I look forward to hearing what you think about A Gun for Sale!"

I got it from my library in large print, Leslie. It looks quite a quick read.

Gill wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I look forward to hearing what you think about A Gun for Sale!"

I got it from my library in large print, Leslie. It looks quite a quick read."

Yes - I think I read it in a single day!

I've updated Message 1 with my books for June.

I read 1 book by Graham Greene A Gun for Saleand another book for my Austrohungary challenge ( but not for a new country They Were Divided for Hungary). Looking at how far I've got with both of these challenges, think I'll need to carry on with them both into 2016. We'll see.

Re my kindle books,
I abandoned 1 book
Read 3 fiction books
Read 1 nonfiction book

And I bought 1 fiction book and 1 nonfiction book.

I have 68 fiction books and 26 nonfiction books still to go. (This doesn't include the free classics that I also have on my kindle) Reading these may slow down a bit, because I have started to find some large print books and ebooks in the county library system that I'm interested in reading.

I'm starting to look at how I've been managing with my challenge in July. I've read 3 books from my Kindle, 2 fiction and I nonfiction, and I've bought 2 more kindle fiction books. So I'm slightly ahead!

More to follow about the month later in the week.

Oops, just bought 1 more fiction book for my Kindle, so I bought 3 and read 3 in July. Even Stevens!

I've updated Message 1 with my July reads.

I've decided to put my Austrohungary challenge on hold till 2016. I am very involved in side readings of books, relating to a 2015 group read of The Novel: A Biography in a different Goodreads group, and I can't possibly do both.

But, of course, I'm continuing with the Zola challenge!

I've updated Message 1 with my August reads.

I can see that I'll need to continue with my Graham Greene read in 2016.

This month for my Kindle:
I bought 4 books. 2 of them were poetry, 1 fiction for a readalong and 1 nonfiction.
I abandoned 3 nonfiction books.
I read 4 fiction and 3 nonfiction.
Net reduction of 6 books!
I have 66 fiction and 17 nonfiction books on my Kindle still to go.
It still seems a lot, but it's getting more manageable!

I've updated message 1 with my September reads.

This month for my Kindle
I bought 1 fiction book
I abandoned 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction book.
I read 2 fiction books.
Net reduction of 3 books!
I have 64 fiction and 17 nonfiction books on my Kindle still to go.

I've recently realised that 8 of the kindle fiction books I have, I have already read in book format. So I've re- categorised them as 'maybe read again', and lo and behold, I now have 8 less fiction books to read!

I've updated message 1 with my October reads. I'm very pleased with the progress I made with my kindle books:

I bought 1 fiction book
I abandoned 8 fiction books
I read 6 fiction books
I re-categorised 8 fiction books, read in book format previously, as 'maybe read again'

Net reduction of 21, yes 21!, books.
I have 44 fiction and 18 nonfiction books to go.

In October, I also, after several months gap, read a book for my Austrohungary challenge - The Trial, for the Czech Republic.

I've updated message 1 with my November reads.

I read another book for my Austrohungary challenge - Zoli for Slovakia.

I read 4 fiction and 1 nonfiction books on my Kindle, and abandoned 3 fiction and 1 nonfiction books. But I bought 5 more books for my Kindle, 4 fiction and 1 nonfiction (plus another copy of Ulysses!). Net reduction of 4 books!

I now have 36 fiction books and 18 nonfiction books to read on my Kindle.

I've updated message 1 with my December reads.

I read 6 fiction books on my kindle this month, and abandoned 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction books.
The 12 days of Christmas kindle book sale, has led to my buying 5 fiction and 4 nonfiction books. Net increase of 1 book.

I have ended the year with 35 fiction books and 20 nonfiction books to read on my kindle. This seems loads more practical than at the start of the year.

I have read 51 kindle books this year, , re-categorised 8, and 'abandoned'/ decided not to read 35 more books. Oh yes, I've also bought 33 kindle books this year.