Book Club Cognizant discussion
Reading Challenge
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
I have been participating in the reading challenge for about 4 years now. I usually completed it, often surpassing what I now feel were insane targets (about 50 books a year).
I joined CTS last year as a fresher and while everything is great work-wise I miss my zeal for reading. So far I have completed only 6 books this year out of planned 50. I hope I can reach closer to my target.
I may have to revise my goal in the end ;)
Hi Deepanker,I recently switched to India from USA, after staying in USA for almost 7 years. I had doubts if i would continue the habit of reading after coming to India. Reading has certainly reduced after coming to India. But i'm trying to not lose that habit. Goodreads challenge actually helps a lot in tracking the number of book read. Hoping to complete my goal of 30 books this year. now at 16.
For you to continue the habit i would suggest adding more variety. Based on your read books, it seems you already have read a variety of books anyway. Try completing some smaller novels which you can complete in one stretch on a weekend like Paulo Coelho, Murakami, etc. Or try something in your mother tongue. We always read faster if its in our mother tongue, at least according to me. Sometimes i also read just to read, so as to not to lose the habit and suddenly you will end up reading a masterpiece and you will appreciate yourself for maintaining the reading habit.
Mod
I sadly don't have an option to read in my mother tongue as it would be very difficult to come across a book in Kashmiri. Also I'm not very good at reading Kashmiri since the official script is Persian (the script used by Urdu, Arabic etc) and I'm comfortable with Roman followed by Devnagri.
But I loved your idea of reading just to read, so as not to lose the habit. I wish I had come across that piece of advice earlier. Anyway, I'll try to have sprint sessions on the weekends and hopefully that'll help.
Hi Elavarasan,I have been doing the Reading Challenge since 2016 when i first joined Good Reads and been completing the challenge each year. This year i have targeted for 40 books. I read Thamizh and English books mainly and at times Malayalam books too and regularly post reviews on them.
One main challenge that i face is I tend to read multiple books at same time and might lose track of one book if the other one is too absorbing.
Hi Praveen,Glad to hear you complete the challenge every year. A bit jealous too, because i'm unable to complete for the last 3 years. 2017: 7/25, 2018: 29/30 and 2019: 23/40. This year also i have challenged to read 40 books. Sometimes i also read multiple books simultaneously, but i don't choose two novels at the same time. Novels need continuous reading and if you stop reading for a while you will loose interest. So normally when i read a novel and feel its sometimes slow or i need some change, i start a short story collection or a non fiction. Short story collections i will read one story when i need a break from the novel. And BTW, how do you know to read Malayalam? I've been wanting to read one book in language other than Tamil and English for a while. So far i can only read Hindi in name boards, and movie posters etc. Planning to read a small Hindi book this year. Is Malayalam easy to learn to read/write for a Tamilian?
Elavarasan wrote: "Hi Praveen,Glad to hear you complete the challenge every year. A bit jealous too, because i'm unable to complete for the last 3 years. 2017: 7/25, 2018: 29/30 and 2019: 23/40. This year also i ha..."
I am a native of Suchindrum near Kanyakumari but settled in Trivandrum (its just near for us from Kanyakumari.. just 60 kms) for around 20 years. So i had to learn Malayalam as well as Hindi at school. So, i do read, write and talk Malayalam. Hindi i can read and write and talk decently but not too deep. I can manage if i go to Hindi speaking land.
But nothing can match Thamizh. Thamizh being a beautiful language and my mother tongue as well I relate easily to Thamizh books. The comfort level in both the languages can never match Thamizh and i feel difficult to connect to them. Even though there are good books, due to that lack of connect in most cases it becomes a slow read. Hindi book i tried reading. But many words i cannot understand and it is a very slow read.
Malayalam came from Thamizh and there are lot of similarities. But then to learn it is tough. Malayalam is one of the toughest to learn in Indian languages. There are many words and pronunciation is difficult. That being said, put in lot of efforts and one day you finally can. I struggled a lot but managed to just pass in Malayalam during school times in each tests. After all both are Dravidian and one is a subset of another. :) I was in bangalore working for 3 years. So i can understand some level of Kannada and talk on a basic level. But i cant read and write. Same with Telugu.
Planning to learn both at some point of time.
If you like to explore languages try learning from one end of the country and try to see the relations between the languages. That makes you realize the beauty of the languages and also the common things between different languages.
I have been taking up the reading challenge full-fledged since 2013 and have almost always beaten my target. Sometimes I have increased the target mid-year. I used to read Tamil books once in a while, but stick to English these days since I read from my e-reader only. And in Tamil, I have very strong biases compared to English. My worst year so far has been 2016 when I read just 42 books and the best was 2013 when I read 72. This year's target is 60, and I am already one book behind. I have been picking too many long books since the start of the year.
Rathi wrote: "I have been taking up the reading challenge full-fledged since 2013 and have almost always beaten my target. Sometimes I have increased the target mid-year. I used to read Tamil books once in a whi..."Good luck for this year!!!
Mod
Do share your thoughts
For the first discussion in this group, i thought we'll discuss about the reading challenge. I started the reading challenge in Goodreads last year and continuing till now and i think its one of the best decisions i made. It keeps track of the books i completed and reminds me that i'm behind these many books for this time of year. Any of you started a reading challenge? Please share your experience of reading challenge in goodreads ad your real challenge in Reading.