Intense Reading Challenges discussion

Hello all and welcome to the group! I'm still setting it up, so if you're reading this message, thanks for joining!

Introduce yourselves here. :)

Hey, I'm Imogen. I'm 19 years old and I live in the UK. I mainly read YA but I'm up to reading anything. My Favourite Books are Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars & Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The worst book I've read to date is Word Nerd even though I can relate to Ambrose a bit with doing what his mum's told and everything.

Divergent was so good! I finally got around to reading it this year!

Hello, thanks for inviting me :) My name is Nikki, I'm 27 (soon to be 28), and live in Louisiana.

I mainly read sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, and horror. Some of my favorite books are The Hobbit, The Secret Garden, Prey, Homeland, Hyperion, and of course the Harry Potter series.

If I had to pick a favorite book I've read this year it would be a tie between 1984 and The Graveyard Book

Would there be any interest in doing a challenge similiar to this one for the group? I've done monthly and then more long term like that one recommendation challenges in other groups and they are a lot of fun :)

Nikki (Nyx) wrote: "Would there be any interest in doing a challenge similiar to this one for the group? I've done monthly and then more long term like that one recommendation challenges in other groups and they are a..."

I was debating on opening a challenge like this, but that changes monthly. :)

Amanda Setasha wrote: "Nikki (Nyx) wrote: "Would there be any interest in doing a challenge similiar to this one for the group? I've done monthly and then more long term like that one recommendation challenges in other g..."

If you do I would for sure be interested :)

Hey everyone, I'm Clémence. I'm 28 and live in France.

I read pretty much all genres, but my favorites are fantasy, horror and classics. My favourite books I read this year are Sense and Sensibility, One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Fortune of the Rougons - I guess that was the year of the classics for me.

Clémence wrote: "Hey everyone, I'm Clémence. I'm 28 and live in France.

I read pretty much all genres, but my favorites are fantasy, horror and classics. My favourite books I read this year are [book:Sense and Sen..."

Welcome to the group :)

Thanks for inviting me Nikki ! :)

Hi I'm Fay, I'm 33 and I live in the UK. I will read anything and everything. At the moment I am working my way through the 1000 Definitive Books list from the Guardian so it's a lot of "proper" books but I take regular breaks :-)

:o That's an ambitious project, Fay !

Clémence wrote: ":o That's an ambitious project, Fay !"

It's going slooooooowwww!

Clémence wrote: "Thanks for inviting me Nikki ! :)"

Thanks for accepting :) It's a newer group so things are just getting started.

Fay wrote: "Hi I'm Fay, I'm 33 and I live in the UK. I will read anything and everything. At the moment I am working my way through the 1000 Definitive Books list from the Guardian so it's a lot of "proper" bo..."

That's really awesome!

Hi, my name is Mary and I am 27 years old and live in Tennessee in the United States. I am currently a graduate student and work part time, but I try and make time for reading. I pretty much read anything and everything.

Mary wrote: "Hi, my name is Mary and I am 27 years old and live in Tennessee in the United States. I am currently a graduate student and work part time, but I try and make time for reading. I pretty much read a..."

Welcome to the group :)

Hi Mary :-) I hope your new term/semester is going strong

Welcome everyone!

Mary wrote: "Hi, my name is Mary and I am 27 years old and live in Tennessee in the United States. I am currently a graduate student and work part time, but I try and make time for reading. I pretty much read a..."

What are you studying in grad school? :)

Ariel wrote: "Hi everyone! Thank you for accepting me, and hope to make new friends :). If you want to add me, please do. I always enjoy meeting new readers and getting recommendations on new books I may not be ..."

Welcome :D

Hi, my name is Manan. I'm 29 from India. I'm an Automobile Engineer by training but right now I'm studying to become Chartered Financial Analyst. I read world history, classic, modern and contemporary literary novels, books about books, busniess & finance, literary erotica. I'm also learning to sketch figures and to speak French & Italian. Right now I'm at about a book a week. But within 4-5 years, I want to reach a book a day.

Manan wrote: "Hi, my name is Manan. I'm 29 from India. I'm an Automobile Engineer by training but right now I'm studying to become Chartered Financial Analyst. I read world history, classic, modern and contempor..."

Welcome to the group :) I wish I could read that much!! I hope one day to get to at least a book every week.

Nikki (Nyx) wrote: "Manan wrote: "Hi, my name is Manan. I'm 29 from India. I'm an Automobile Engineer by training but right now I'm studying to become Chartered Financial Analyst. I read world history, classic, modern..."

Actually, I feel guilty that I am not able to read much. In a couple of years, I want to read as much as Fay does. Don't worry Nikki, you will someday. Trick is to read what you want to and not what you should. And yes, I can only read this much because I neither watch movies or tv nor go out.

Fay wrote: "Hi I'm Fay, I'm 33 and I live in the UK. I will read anything and everything. At the moment I am working my way through the 1000 Definitive Books list from the Guardian so it's a lot of "proper" bo..."

Hi Fay. I'm Manan from India. I saw that you read Ada, or Ardor this year. I want to read it too. How was it? How did it fare compared to Lolita? In style, story, vocabulary? Did you enjoy it?

Lastly, I admire your voraciousness. I hope to read as much as you do.

"Hey there new guuuyssss" (channels Sloth from the Goonies).

Thanks Manan. I'm actually pretty slow this year because I've changed my normal reading genres. The last couple of years while I was tracking on Goodreads I was reading 200+ books a year. However this year I've started reading more Classics and the different syntax and the subject matter means I have to concentrate more than when I was reading a lot of YA and genre fiction.

Which leads me to some questions for everyone: what's more important to you personally as a reader - quantity or quality? What is quality for you? Are you ever ashamed of what you are reading? Is it better to read for pleasure or to better yourself? What are the books that gave you pleasure and made you a better person? Why do you like to do reading challenges as opposed to just read?

Hope it's ok to get a conversation started :-)

For me I think quality is more important, but I would like to read more books because I enjoy reading and I want to make more time in my schedule to do things I enjoy. I would much rather read less books that I enjoy more than a bunch of books that are ok or not really enjoyable. I read for pleasure mostly. I read stories and topics that catch my interest and I like to do reading challenges because I am a very indecisive person and they help me narrow down what to read/give me more of a guide to plan my reading. I suppose since I do like to read nonfiction for fun I also read for the betterment of myself. I love to learn I also watch documentaries for fun lol.

Great questions Fay !

I used to read a lot, about 100+ books a year - still far from Fay's score, but still. ^^ But with time, I realized that I was forgetting the content of what I read rather fast. I was able to say if I liked it or not, but I could not remember the story well. So now that I'm older, that I don't read that much anymore and is getting on more classics, I read more slowly but more in detail. I think I get more from the reading this way.

I still indulge myself with more light or even bad readings once in a while. I don't really feel shame for it. We all happen to enjoy some stuff which is objectively bad, because it tickles something inside us. Also, getting pleasure and getting better as a person are not always in opposition : in my opinion, the best books do both.
You can get better from a bad book though : sometimes, what you need to understand at some point in your life can be found in some light and silly books.

Not sure if I can say which books made me better while giving me pleasure, although I know which one helped me to understand the art of writing better, I have to think about that.

Not sure why I always join challenges. I guess I like to reach goals. And I also love talking about books and reading other people doing it.

Both quality and quantity are important but I would not deteriorate quality for the sake of quantity. I would like to increase my quantity of books with keeping quality in tact. In fact, I own only Game of Thrones and The 100 box sets in YA genre. I read Literary Novels (Classics, Modern & Contemporary Classics), World History, Politics, Religion, Finance, Self-Help, Erotica (Literary Fiction & Non-Fiction), Books about books, Biographies. I read them for pleasure as well as to gain knowledge. They are one and the same to me. Even when I read Erotica, it is partially with an eye for contemplating style, nuances & prejudices of the period. And I read a lot of Erotica. There is always one I am currently reading.

I had tried some Popular Fiction by a few Indian writers in English a long time back. Although I could read them in one go, I was never satisfied with simplified stories with mostly banal urban lives of youngsters without any subtext. I like to read literature to recognize deeper meanings and allegories, which in turn satisfy me. I had read The Old Man & the Sea way back in college. I had loved it back then but now I know it is nearly perfect parable for Jesus Christ. Wonder Woman movie had some Homeric elements. TV series Midnight Texas, based on YA novel series, is again an allegory for Jesus Christ.

I am never ashamed of what I read. I also don't care what others would think if they knew what I'm reading, even in public.

The most impactful books are the ones I'm reading right now. On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft and How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer. In fact, I bought The Complete Works because of the latter. I will keep reading all 1500 pages of it continually throught my life.

The most impact I had immediately after reading 1984, Of Human Bondage and Atonement. I will certainly re-read them.

I like to do reading challenges mostly to increase my reading quantity by comparing myself to the likes of Fay & Clemence.

Clemence, don't worry about forgetting stuff you read. I subscribe to philosophy of your country's foremost literary figure, probably rivelled only by Proust, Michel de Montaigne; Read a lot and forget most of what you read. By the way, I am a huge fracophile. I would like to learn half a dozen languages in lifetime with proficiency in French & Italian up to native speaker level. I even aspire to study management in HEC, Paris in the next 4-5 years. Where are your from in France?

Hi Maggie. Welcome to the group.

Hey All!
Thanks for letting me join! I love to read, write and to daydream!
I am a mother, wife, have 2 full time jobs and have published 2 books, working on the rest of the series!
I have always loved to read as it has always been my outlet and my safe place. Unfortunately it is very rare that I find people that share the same joy and excitement for books that I do.