Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge

[Grumble]

6 minutes ago, Gemma said:

 

Dude I think you are reading too much into how you read read, if you read read as read you can just re-read read as read and read it right. No harm no foul, read me?  

 

I love the english language, but it is a mess.

To quote James Nicoll. "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, Grumble said:

 

I love the english language, but it is a mess.

To quote James Nicoll. "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."

 

I have an urge to join any random forum community out there I can find, just so I can have this as a sig.

 

Thank you, and thank you Gemma, those posts made my evening.  

[CourtnieMarie]

14 hours ago, Gemma said:

 

I'm stealing this, it looks amazing! Any of the Miss Marple's would have worked, but that is so much inside my comfort zone that it felt like cheating. This one will stretch me a little, and I expect to love it  

doesn't it! i think i got the suggestion off of book riot's page. the summary makes me think i might have a few things in common with good ol' britt-marie.

 

OH WAIT! this is a translated book from Swedish! I can has it count for both  

[Grumble]

I may have gone overboard. I have 4 books checked out simultaneously (which I am reading) and a fifth one I just bought.

[Gemma]

On 4/12/2018 at 11:30 AM, Grumble said:

I may have gone overboard. I have 4 books checked out simultaneously (which I am reading) and a fifth one I just bought.

 

That's not overboard, that's just sitting on the gunwale.  

I have a terrible chronic lifelong habit of always having at least four books in progress at a time, often more - with modern electronics it has resolved to generally: a physical non-fiction, a physical fiction, something on Kindle, and an audiobook.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

[Scaly Freak]

I am proud to announce that I finally have gotten around to starting this challenge. I checked out three of my listed books from the library and started with Rebecca this weekend. The movie made an unforgettable impression on me when I watched it back in high school, and I think it's helping me appreciate the book more.

 

The "leading lady" in the book is just the sort of timid and insecure main character that I have a very hard time caring about normally, even more when the story is told in the first person. Somehow, scenes from the movie keep super-imposing themselves over the chapters in the book and actually make the scenes and characters come alive and seem more real, especially when they involve Mrs. Danvers and Maxim. (Though the latter could be due fond high school memories of Laurence Olivier in his prime... )

 

After Rebecca, it's on towards the Bridge to Terabithia!

[Grumble]

https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world?ref=insider_ar_reading_wrldbkdywb

 

Cause we need more books, obviously.

[Scaly Freak]

22 minutes ago, Grumble said:

https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world?ref=insider_ar_reading_wrldbkdywb

 

Cause we need more books, obviously.

 

We really do. So obviously I claimed all of them.  

[Gemma]

10 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

I am proud to announce that I finally have gotten around to starting this challenge. I checked out three of my listed books from the library and started with Rebecca this weekend. The movie made an unforgettable impression on me when I watched it back in high school, and I think it's helping me appreciate the book more.

 

The "leading lady" in the book is just the sort of timid and insecure main character that I have a very hard time caring about normally, even more when the story is told in the first person.

 

I'm in the opposite boat - I have never seen the movie, but I finished the book not too long ago and loved it and now I can't wait to see the movie. The second Mrs. de Winter was a weak character, but she faded into the background for me and became just a narrator - like Nick Carraway in Gatsby. And I adored Mrs. Danvers. So rare to see a female villain done well. 

 

I just bought Fahrenheit 451 because it was on sale cheep at Target. I also picked up The Handmaid's Tale for the same reason, and I think that would also work for me for task 24. 

 

I am loving Britt-Marie was Here, I'm about halfway through and it is great. This is another one I would never have considered if not for this challenge but I'm glad I did. 

 

On the other hand, A Bollywood Affair is ... a typical romance novel. Meh. Not my deal. Unrealistic plotting and uneven character development, in the manner of, y'know, romance novels. But the cultural stuff is interesting. And it got me to Google the Ypsilanti water tower, so now there's an image I'll never get out of my head. 

 

 

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, Gemma said:

On the other hand, A Bollywood Affair is ... a typical romance novel. Meh. Not my deal. Unrealistic plotting and uneven character development, in the manner of, y'know, romance novels.

 

You mean, in the manner of bad romance novels.

 

One of my many pet peeves about the romance novel genre is that it's so very easy for writers to get away with poor character development and bad writing. Apparently there's a large number of readers out there who are willing to overlook both, as long as they get their guaranteed happy ending and some sex scenes to go with it.

[CourtnieMarie]

4 hours ago, Gemma said:

I am loving Britt-Marie was Here, I'm about halfway through and it is great. This is another one I would never have considered if not for this challenge but I'm glad I did. 

AWESOME! i can't wait to get that one

 

I borrowed i think 3 of the books on my list and started Beren and Luthien. I wish i had known it was written in the style of epic poetry because yeeeeesh this is not my jam. not to mention the in between conversations that Christopher has about the manuscripts he's excerpting from.

[Scaly Freak]

58 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

I borrowed i think 3 of the books on my list and started Beren and Luthien. I wish i had known it was written in the style of epic poetry because yeeeeesh this is not my jam. not to mention the in between conversations that Christopher has about the manuscripts he's excerpting from.

 

Scratching that from the list of potential titles. Thanks for the warning!

[Gemma]

On 4/23/2018 at 11:05 PM, Grumble said:

https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world?ref=insider_ar_reading_wrldbkdywb

 

Cause we need more books, obviously.

 

On 4/23/2018 at 11:28 PM, scalyfreak said:

 

We really do. So obviously I claimed all of them.  

 

I didn't, but I claimed several - thanks, @Grumble

 

On 4/24/2018 at 11:58 AM, CourtnieMarie said:

AWESOME! i can't wait to get that one

 

I borrowed i think 3 of the books on my list and started Beren and Luthien. I wish i had known it was written in the style of epic poetry because yeeeeesh this is not my jam. not to mention the in between conversations that Christopher has about the manuscripts he's excerpting from.

 

I'm not a huge epic poetry type either, but I bought it because I own everything else that Christopher has published since his father's death. So since I have it anyway, I'd rather deal with the poetry than try to slog through A Confederacy of Dunces again (now there was an assigned book I hated! Actually I don't remember if my Humanities teacher assigned it or just recommended it). Back when I felt compelled to finish a book if I'd started it, I got to the end of that one thinking "what the heck did I do with the last week of my life?" 

[Gemma]

For the "book of true crime" task - this just popped up in my Goodreads feed. I'm strangely intrigued. 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36978075-conan-doyle-for-the-defense

 

[CourtnieMarie]

16 hours ago, Gemma said:

For the "book of true crime" task - this just popped up in my Goodreads feed. I'm strangely intrigued. 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36978075-conan-doyle-for-the-defense

 

strangely?! i think you meant RIGHTLY intrigued. the book looks awesome!

[Scaly Freak]

On 4/29/2018 at 5:13 PM, Gemma said:

For the "book of true crime" task - this just popped up in my Goodreads feed. I'm strangely intrigued. 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36978075-conan-doyle-for-the-defense

 

 

SOLD.

 

My library had better have this one!

[Scaly Freak]

22 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

 

My library had better have this one!

 

To my great surprise, they actually do, but someone else has checked it out. I've submitted a hold request for when it comes back in.

[Scaly Freak]

I found a posthumously published novella that might appeal to someone else as well, so where we go: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

 

 

Written several years before he died, but not published until a few years after.

[CourtnieMarie]

12 hours ago, scalyfreak said:

 

To my great surprise, they actually do, but someone else has checked it out. I've submitted a hold request for when it comes back in.

wait! i thought it wasn't out until June this year?

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, CourtnieMarie said:

wait! i thought it wasn't out until June this year?

 

I have no idea. All I know is my library has it and allowed me to request it.

[Gemma]

Depending on how you look at it, this might meet the criteria for "A book of social science" if anyone's interested. I already checked that item off, but I can't wait to read this anyway.

 

 

[Grumble]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/classic-scifi-and-fantasy-books?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_7

 

Some ya sci-fi and fantasy, but fun reads nonetheless.

[Gemma]

If you haven't picked one for "A Celebrity Memoir" yet (I have) and you are into ravens or anglophilia or random British lore (I am a major corvids fan, m'self) - this just became available for pre-order on Amazon, scheduled for Oct 2 release.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37941731-the-ravenmaster

 

 

 

[Gemma]

21 hours ago, Grumble said:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/classic-scifi-and-fantasy-books?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_7

 

Some ya sci-fi and fantasy, but fun reads nonetheless.

 

Some good stuff in there! I haven't read any Zelazny in a long time, need to put him back into some regular rotation. 

[Scaly Freak]

22 hours ago, Grumble said:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/classic-scifi-and-fantasy-books?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_7

 

Some ya sci-fi and fantasy, but fun reads nonetheless.

 

If only they weren't all audiobooks...