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#1 Apr 03 2005 at 2:13 PM Rating: Good
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This year I challenged myself to reading 100 books, since I easily surpassed the 50 book challenge last year with 76 books.
I also added the 15000 pages challenge (which might turn out to be no challenge at all).

This is how far I got until now.

Read in 2005 so far:

1. Mercedes Lackey - Exile's Valor438 pages
2. Laurell K. Hamilton - Schattenkuss 574 pages
3. P.Gable - Die Siedler von Catan 796 pages
4. R.A.Salvatore - Nachtvogel (Dämonendämmerung 1) ca 300 pages
5. R.A.Salvatore - Juwelen des Himmels (Dämonendämmerung 2) 443 pages
6. R.A.Salvatore - Das verwunschene Tal (Dämonendämmerung 3 ) 410 pages

7. R.A. Salvatore - Straße der Schatten (Dämonendämmerung 4) 317 pages
8. R.A. Salvatore - Der steinerne Arm (Dämonendämmerung 5) 379 pages
9. R.A. Salvatore - Abtei im Zwielicht (Dämonendämmerung 6) 316 pages
10. Robin Hobb - Fool´s Fate (Tawny Man 3) 805 pages
11. Carol Berg - Guardians of the Keep (The Bridge of D´Arnath 2) 544 pages
12. Carol Berg - The Soul Weaver (The Bridge of D´Arnath 3) 480 pages
13. David Farland - The Runelords (Runelords 1) 624 pages
14. David Fa[/sm]rland - Brotherhood of the Wolf (Runelords 2) 672 pages
15. David Farland - Wizardborn (Runelords 3) 480 pages
16. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - Conflict of honor 320 pages
17. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - Agent of Change 320 pages
18. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - Carpe Diem 336 pages


Now reading:
Ed Greenwood - Spellfire 266 of 416 pages
Debbie Macomber - 44 Cranberry Point 38 of 377pages
Spadafori and Pion - Cats for Dummies 137 of 408 pages

18/100 books (18% done), 8955/15000 pages (59,7% done) so far

Any of you doing something like this? I am curious ;)
#2 Apr 03 2005 at 2:31 PM Rating: Good
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I like to read, but I have never done anything like a challege since grade school. I have never really thought of reading to meet goals like that, so I could only guess that I have read ~100 books in the last two years combined. Unfortunately I have probably bought 200 in that span so I am way behind.

Anyway reading is much more entertaining than people realize. It is good for the soul^^

I do have goals like that for rowing, like meeting a certain time in 1k or 10k or marathon, etc. To me, knowing that I have increased my times is a tangible way of measuring improvement.

Last read: The Fabric of the Cosmos- Brian Greene

Edited, Sun Apr 3 15:33:28 2005 by ntxen
#3 Apr 03 2005 at 5:28 PM Rating: Default
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You might find it more challenging if you read real books and not a bunch of twaddle that probably takes just as long to read as it did to write.

But hey, its great that you love to read.

#4 Apr 03 2005 at 11:23 PM Rating: Excellent
Quote:
You might find it more challenging if you read real books and not a bunch of twaddle that probably takes just as long to read as it did to write.


I'm sorry you feel this way. Maybe one day you too will be able to understand a plot that is not in the Sunday funny pages.

A good book doesn't have to be something recomended by the N.Y. Times or the Atlantic Journal.
#5 Apr 08 2005 at 11:14 AM Rating: Default
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I'm sorry you feel this way. Maybe one day you too will be able to understand a plot that is not in the Sunday funny pages.

A good book doesn't have to be something recomended by the N.Y. Times or the Atlantic Journal.



So which is it that you are alleging I consider to be the only good plots? Those in the Sunday funny pages or those recommended by the NY Times or Atlantic Journal (which I've never heard of, did you mean the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)? I ask because those would represent opposite ends of the literary spectrum, and as such both don't support each other in your allegations regarding my literary tastes.

Think it over and come back and reply when you're a little less confused.
#6 Apr 11 2005 at 2:18 PM Rating: Excellent
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Let's add a "How Many Times Have You Re-read A Song of Ice and Fire in Anticipation of a Feast for Crows Release?" challenge!
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#7 Apr 15 2005 at 10:59 AM Rating: Decent
I've never actually considered doing a challenge like that, nor have I kept track of what I have read in a certain period. It might be interesting actually.

I never know how much I will read in a period nor could I say that I have to read a certain amount of books, I tend to switch between a reading mood and a slightly lesser interest in reading quite frequently. Meaning that I can either read 5 or more books in a week, or just two in a month.

I'm pretty certain that I've read well over 30 books already, including rereading several older books.

Reading 15000 pages is indeed a lot easier than reading 100 books, lol, as every book only has to be 150 pages thick. And we all know that the average thickness of a fantasy book is quite a lot more than that :)

I must admit that I haven't read a single book of your list. I never did like Salvatore much I'm afraid. Last new book I read was 'Amber and Ashes' by Margaret Weis, an immense improvement over the previous Dragonlance trilogy btw.

#8 Apr 16 2005 at 4:49 AM Rating: Good
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19. Ed Greenwood - Spellfire 416 pages
20. Ed Greenwood - Crown of Fire 373 pages
21. Rachel Caine - Ill Wind 352 pages
22. Rachel Caine - Heat Stroke 349 pages
23. Rachel Caine - Chill Factor 340 pages

Now reading:

David Farland - The Lair of Bones 9 of 480 pages
Debbie Macomber - 44 Cranberry Point 53 of 377pages (bathroom book)
Spadafori and Pion - Cats for Dummies 137 of 408 pages (couch book)
23/100 books (23% done), 10785/15000 pages (71,9% done) so far

Edited, Sat Apr 16 05:54:20 2005 by Nachtstern
#9 Apr 16 2005 at 12:59 PM Rating: Good
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Deathwysh it strikes me that you are very annally retentive about the books you read, get a feaking grip.
#10 Apr 16 2005 at 4:55 PM Rating: Good
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Only 100 books in a year?

Come on! Most weeks I finish between 2 to 5 books, most over 300 pages.

I read alot of SF and Fantasy, but don't limit myself to some fav authors or genre.

Right now I've started both a David Weber, Honor book - The Shadow of Saganami, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Toms Cabin.

I try to read at least one classic a year. You know the books we all know, but never read.

Next trip to the library will have Jonwin and iI fighting of who gets to read David Weber and John Ringo's The Few first. Since I finish books faster then he does, I normally win.



____________________________
In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair! -ElneClare

This Post is written in Elnese, If it was an actual Post, it would make sense.
#11 Apr 17 2005 at 3:06 PM Rating: Good
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ElneClare wrote:
Only 100 books in a year?

Come on! Most weeks I finish between 2 to 5 books, most over 300 pages.

I read alot of SF and Fantasy, but don't limit myself to some fav authors or genre.

Right now I've started both a David Weber, Honor book - The Shadow of Saganami, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Toms Cabin.

I try to read at least one classic a year. You know the books we all know, but never read.

Next trip to the library will have Jonwin and iI fighting of who gets to read David Weber and John Ringo's The Few first. Since I finish books faster then he does, I normally win.


I guess being at work for 9 hours and commuting for another hour does not leave me enought ime to finish 5 books a week, plus taking care of my household, my kitty, my friends and my FFXI and internet addiciton ;)

I normally finish 1-2 books a week though ;)
#12 Apr 17 2005 at 6:17 PM Rating: Default
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Quote:
Deathwysh it strikes me that you are very annally retentive about the books you read, get a feaking grip.



Nope. I just don't like drivel.
#13 Apr 18 2005 at 10:51 AM Rating: Good
Quote:
Nope. I just don't like drivel.


Then what type of books don't you consider drivel?

#14 Apr 18 2005 at 4:57 PM Rating: Default
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Quote:
Then what type of books don't you consider drivel?


Well tons and tons of them, but since we're discussing Sci-Fi and Fantasy specifically here, I'll tell you what I do consider drivel, since its a much shorter list.

Salvatore: drivel
Jordan: drivel
Eddings: drivel
Weis: drivel
Hickman: drivel
Lackey: drivel
Feist: drivel

The list goes on but I'm too lazy to continue it just now. The important thing is that all of the above writer's are pale imitations of earlier fantasy authors like Tolkien, Moorcock, Howard, deCamp, and LeGuin. They are unoriginal, derivative, incapable of coming up with an interesting plot, and have poorly developed, cardboard cut-out, one dimensional characters.(Except for the leather clad sadistic torturer chick... she was hot). Overall Robert Jordan is the worst of the lot, because he steals his ideas from EVERYONE.

The quality of fantasy writing took a huge nosedive after D&D got very popular and sparked a lot of interest in the genre. Now everyone and his brother thinks that they can write a good fantasty story. Many of them are very, very wrong. But since most of you have never even heard of the old masters (except for Tolkien), let alone read them, then the opinions you have formed about how terrific the new writers are largely invalid.

There is hope however. I was impressed with two authors I've read lately, both women (ostensibly anyway, one can never tell if a pen name is being used); Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and Jacqueline Carey. Carey created a very memorable character in Phedre, and Thornton's writing and story telling are top notch. And more importantly... BOTH WERE ORIGINAL! Also Dave Duncan writes some entertaining adventure stories without ripping off everyone who preceded him in the process.


#15 Apr 20 2005 at 12:19 PM Rating: Decent
Quote:
The important thing is that all of the above writer's are pale imitations of earlier fantasy authors like Tolkien, Moorcock, Howard, deCamp, and LeGuin


Agreed, but even those mentioned above are far from original. And LeGuin is on the border of being boring if you ask me.

Howard wrote adventure stories, no real depth of any character at all.

DeCamp's Enchanter stories are excellent, his Conan stories (after Howard ofcourse) are nice to read but have the same problem as Howard: pretty shallow.

Tolkien: epic, but at times boring. His originality is dubious too, you have to admit, he based his stories on mythology from Northern countries, the Bible, ...

I've never heard of Moorcock though, I'll try and find something by him.

Quote:
Salvatore: drivel
Jordan: drivel
Eddings: drivel
Weis: drivel
Hickman: drivel
Lackey: drivel
Feist: drivel


Salvatore I only read one book by, his Star Wars book. That one wasn't all bad actually, but the fact that he distanced himself completely from that book by telling that he 'had' to write it, does diminish my opinion of him.

Jordan I agree on.

Eddings had one good idea and then constantly repeated that same idea, basically the same story over and over again. But the Belgariad is a good read.

Weis & Hickman. Debated often, but they write excellent fantasy. Dragonlance stories by Weis & Hickman are a good Tolkien rip-off, written perfectly with human characters instead of ideological characters Tolkien wrote. Raistlin is a lot better 'villain' than Saruman or Sauron. It is not original and they do not claim it to be, they refer often to the fact that for a load of elements they based themselves on the Middle Earth and Tolkien. (the map of Ansalon was drawn by Hickman using Middle Earth as the basis for instance)

Apart from the War of the Souls trilogy, I immensely enjoyed the Dragonlance stories of W&H. (amber and ashes, the latest, picks up the pace again and is a good story)

Their other work include the best fantasy I've read (Deathgate cycle, the first four parts anyway; Sovereign stone, the first part in particular although the second one isn't bad either) but they wrote some pretty bad books imo too (Darksword nonsense, Rose of the Prophet disaster). They tend to have problems ending a story properly and not just let everything crash and end suddenly.

I enjoy Feist, but it does seem to get repetitive.

Never read Lackey.


In short, darn few original fantasy writers, darn few indeed as even the classical writers are far from original. Dave Duncan I've read, seems like another Feist writer to me.

Originality is overrated, it's how you work with a topic and how good you can write that matters truly.
#16 Apr 23 2005 at 11:45 AM Rating: Default
hy im in 7th grade and i beat your "goal" i read from september to February 142books.The smallest book was The Hobit by J R R Tolkien and that has aroun 400 pages i read a book every 3 days and the book is around 450-900 pages and i include documentaries on my list cause those are at least 600pages.In my school you have to read 25 books by february and sadly i dident get first place because some girl Ivana read 156 and the irony in this is that my school considers 125 pages a book and if you read 250 pages it's 2 books LOL i forgot to put down on my school entry the #of pages...And wait theres more...3 magazines are considered one book and 12 internet articles are considered 1 book ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh im like ok this thing was riged but look on the brightside the prize was frea cafeteria food and i bring food from home.

P.S. I read 1 book in around 3 days, I read 3.5 pages per min. and when i go to the library i have to have my dad drive me cause my regular 5 books weigh 20 pounds.Ps i read like 1hour and a halph + 4 hours on the weekends so i have time.

"CHEARS" (tilts glass of DR.Pepper)*cling*
#17 Apr 23 2005 at 11:47 AM Rating: Default
P.S. #2 im 13 and in one day il have a list of all the books i read just give me some time.I cant remember everything curently im am reading the wizard of Ozzzzzz my mom made me she sais it's her favorite book. .....Stupid Dorothy
#18 Apr 23 2005 at 3:23 PM Rating: Good
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Ovib, you sound like me at yor age.

Back then I spent my summers either reading on the job (I was full time babysitter) or at the bookstore. I call it the summer of 1994, my summer of 100 books. that summer I added 101 books to my collection, many which I still own. The 101th book Tolkien's World, was the only hardback I bought at $9.95 new. Last year I found a copy being sold for $15.00 by a use book seller. Unfortantly I lost my copy of a book by Lin Carter on Tolkien.

The one reason the parents of the 2 girls didn't mind me reading all the time, was their girls became readers too. I'm sure I read more then 100 books that summer, but the memory of seeing 100 paperbacks on my bookself, that I didn't have to return to family or library stays with me to this day.

____________________________
In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair! -ElneClare

This Post is written in Elnese, If it was an actual Post, it would make sense.
#19 Apr 23 2005 at 3:32 PM Rating: Default
I hope i turn out like you only a guy.
#20 Apr 23 2005 at 3:36 PM Rating: Default
Oh and I would recomend the shogun books of the Samurai they are awesome that's why in FFXI ofter i became taru redmage lvl75 I chose the path of the samurai.It's truly inspiering and when im 18 im buying samurai swords to cut watermelons in to smily faces. :)
#21 Apr 23 2005 at 3:46 PM Rating: Default
cool i finaly got to see some of PIkkos replys im a gardener my self only i dont get great results often any tips on a recepy to make gil ohhhh great Pikko???
#22 Apr 24 2005 at 1:50 PM Rating: Good
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update 24.04.05

Read in 2005 so far:

24. Bernhard Hennen and James Sullivan - Die Elfen 911 pages

Now reading:

David Farland - The Lair of Bones (Runelords 4) 29 of 480 pages
Debbie Macomber - 44 Cranberry Point 62 of 377 pages (bathroom book)
Spadafori and Pion - Cats for Dummies 137 of 408 pages (couch book)

24/100 books (24% done), 11696/15000 pages (77,97% done) so far
#23 Apr 24 2005 at 4:32 PM Rating: Default
David Farland - The Lair of Bones

That's a good book
#24 Apr 25 2005 at 4:08 PM Rating: Default
nobody reads these so long folks.
#25 May 05 2005 at 8:23 AM Rating: Good
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662 posts
25. David Farland - The Lair of Bones (Runelords 4) 480 pages
26. Mercedes Lackey - Arrows of the Queen (Heralds of Valdemar 1) 320 pages


Now reading:

Mercedes Lackey - Arrow´s Flight (Heralds of Valdemar 2) 70 of 318 pages
Debbie Macomber - 44 Cranberry Point 72 of 377 pages (bathroom book)
Spadafori and Pion - Cats for Dummies 137 of 408 pages (couch book)



To be read pile:

Mercedes Lackey - Arrow´s Fall (Heralds of Valdemar 3)
Wolfgang und Heike Hohlbein - Elfentanz
Wolfgang und Heike Hohlbein - Märchenmond
Terry Pratchett - Weiberregiment
Eric Maron - Die Fürstin
Tad Wlliams - Shadowmarch
Mercedes Lackey - By the sword
Margaret Weis - Mistress of Dragons
Charlotte Link - Am Ende des Schweigens
Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory - The Outstretched Shadow
Elizabeth Haydon - Requiem for the Sun (Symphony of Ages/Rhapsody 4)
Dave Duncan - Sir Stalwart (King´s Daggers 1)
Dave Duncan - Silvercloak (King´s Daggers 3)
Philip Athans - Baldur´s Gate II Shadows of Amn
Pratricia Briggs - Raven´s Shadow


26/100 books (26% done), 12496/15000 pages (83,3% done) so far
#26 May 15 2005 at 5:08 PM Rating: Decent
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8,619 posts
Pick up Katherine Kerr's Deverry books or Kate Elliots Crown of Stars series, there a pretty good read.
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