RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) discussion

Dear RMFAO'ers,

There are no rules, no timeline and no restriction for this challenge. Just go ahead and share your reads and TBR lists that you are planning to read in the next couple of months while the lockdowns and the quarantine lasts.

All books, fiction or non-fiction, are allowed for this challenge :)

I am so glad you created this challenge! I was just thinking that I had no YA nor graphic novels at home that I could read for April's Genre Challenge. My libraries are closed and I'd rather not spend money on ebooks that fit that genre challenge, if I don't have to. But now, any book I read will fit the Safe-At-Home Challenge. What a great idea, Heena!

Well, I’ve been unable to post every time I’ve tried, but I will try once again. I’ve set my 2020 personal reading challenge to 200 books. I’m fairly close at 43 so far. (Actually,I’m doing a bit better since reading books out of my complete works of Mark Twain in a single omnibus don’t automatically get counted.) I hope everyone else is staying safe and healthy. I may fall behind on my reading, since I will be moving to a new house and setting up my (large) hobby machine shop this spring and summer.

Peter wrote: "Well, I’ve been unable to post every time I’ve tried, but I will try once again. I’ve set my 2020 personal reading challenge to 200 books."

Looks like your post went through this time, Peter. I wonder if Goodreads is having a higher amount of people posting these days, and that could be slowing the site down and interfering with some actions?

That's a pretty impressive reading goal you've set! I hope you reach it, or at least get close to it. Good luck with your moving, and I hope all goes smoothly for you. I've moved a number of times, and know how challenging it can be. Best wishes to you during this time of quarrantine!

Cheryl wrote: "I am so glad you created this challenge! I was just thinking that I had no YA nor graphic novels at home that I could read for April's Genre Challenge. My libraries are closed and I'd rather not sp..."

Thanks, Cheryl. Even I was wondering about how to get a hold of books with the libraries and my local bookseller and even Amazon closing down. It will be a great relief to read anything and be able to count it!

I've been meaning to ask this to you for a while now so I'll do it now, can you please recommend some new authors, especially classic as their books can be downloaded from Gutenberg and Librivox?

Peter wrote: "Well, I’ve been unable to post every time I’ve tried, but I will try once again. I’ve set my 2020 personal reading challenge to 200 books. I’m fairly close at 43 so far. (Actually,I’m doing a bit b..."

I had no idea it was an issue. Hope it gets resolved soon though. And 200 books! Wow, that is challenging! All the best for it and for your new shop :)

I still work in a drastically emptier office and when I work in the evenings for the customer service I work for the traffic gets really slower an it leaves me alone in the office so I can actually read on the job, which is a bonus. (paid reading!)
And having my two daughters and wife at home it is also a nice getaway from all the noise and busy home.

Mark wrote: "I still work in a drastically emptier office and when I work in the evenings for the customer service I work for the traffic gets really slower an it leaves me alone in the office so I can actually..."

More reading time is definitely a good thing!

Cheryl wrote: "Mark wrote: "I still work in a drastically emptier office and when I work in the evenings for the customer service I work for the traffic gets really slower an it leaves me alone in the office so I..."
Especially the paid for version. ;)

Heena wrote: " I've been meaning to ask this to you for a while now so I'll do it now, can you please recommend some new authors, especially classic as their books can be downloaded from Gutenberg and Librivox? "

Well, I like Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabth Braddon ( M. E. Braddon ) for mystery-type stories. They usually have twists and surprising reveals/scandals (for Victorian times). I looked at some of my recently read classics ( I think all found at Project Gutenberg) and have listed some good ones below:

- The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (women's fiction)
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (adventure)
- Midnight by Octavus Roy Cohen (mystery)
- Locked Doors by Mary Roberts Rinehart (mystery)
- The Monk of Hambleton by Armstrong Livingston (mystery)
- Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (humor)
- The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon
Blackwood (horror)

What a great idea!! Thanks for starting. I have been checking out the What's Available section of my local library online listing and reading about a book a day so far. Just got done with Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, which was so emotionally raw. What an excellent writer. Right now I'm in the middle of The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, Last Boat out of Shanghai, and Some Assembly Required. With reading so much of the day, I've found I like to switch back and forth between different types of books.

Mary J Starry wrote: "What a great idea!! Thanks for starting. I have been checking out the What's Available section of my local library online listing and reading about a book a day so far. Just got done with Joan Didi..."

Good idea, Mary, about switching types of books. It could get a bit confusing, otherwise.

Cheryl wrote: "I am so glad you created this challenge! I was just thinking that I had no YA nor graphic novels at home that I could read for April's Genre Challenge. My libraries are closed and I'd rather not sp..."
I believe that Amazon allows people to "lend" books from their personal libraries of Kindle editions. Any RMFAO who wants to poke through my books list (currently 2400+ books) can ask me to lend them one of the books. We will explore how to make that happen.

Audible has set up a free list of titles to download, during this time when schools are closed. it's a limited selection but they do have both a teen (YA) section as well as classics.

Great information, Peter and Fran!

Kindle book lending is only allowed if the publisher okays it. Most don't, but if it does I think it will say so on the detail page.

Lend Kindle Books
Share eligible Kindle books for up to 14 days with your friends or family.

During the loan period, you're not able to read the loaned book.
Go to the Kindle Store and locate the title you'd like to loan.
Select the Actions button then select Loan this title on your eligible title.
Enter the recipient's personal email address and optional message then select Send.
Select Send now and a book loan notification is sent to the recipient.
Loans not accepted within seven days become available again in your content library.

Also, if you have Amazon Prime, there are a ton of books you can borrow for free. (This is a separate program from unlimited.) Also, this link is US specific.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/...

Also, if your library does Hoopla, you may have access to a ton of online comics for next month.

Lots of good information. Unfortunately, I have neither an Amazon Prime subscription nor does my library use Hoopla (only uses RB Digital). I have plenty to read, just not YA or comics. Maybe things will stabilize, health-wise, over the next month and the library will open the end of April? I could get in at least one book/comic then.

Here is a link to national emergency library. Older stuff, but could be some goodies.

https://archive.org/details/nationale...

Great idea, Heena! In these days at home, I'm fishing from my physical library and Kindle archive (bought and Prime Reading).
I would like to finish some series, so these books, for example:

Last Argument of Kings
Queen of Fire
Babylon's Ashes
Persepolis Rising
Tiamat's Wrath
Witcher novels

I don't know if I can read everything, but I have time, I have books, so I'll try. :)

I am working on reading some book I own and some ebooks if I can get them for free. I have more time now as I am working from home and no longer have a long commute. I am trying to stick to the same schedule for when I go back into the office, so I now have an hour to read in the morning and an extra hour at night. After work, I fit in some exercise before dinner. I am working on some challenges so I changed what I reading as the library is not open and I am limited to what I can get.

If you need free books, never forget Project Gutenberg. Plain text mostly when I was reading there regularly, but they have other formats these days.

gutenberg.org

Free, but a little donation when you can keeps them that way.

Thanks. I will look into it.

Saw this on FaceBook:

Friend: How are you filling your time with these stay-at-home rules?

Me: Reading.

Friend: But, what if you run out of books?

Me: {laughing uncontrollably}

EDIT: I now know that if you enclose text in angle brackets, it doesn't show.

Cheryl wrote: "- The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (women's fiction)
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (adventure)
- Midnight by Octavus Roy Cohen (mystery)
- Locked Doors by Mary Roberts Rinehart (mystery)
- The Monk of Hambleton by Armstrong Livingston (mystery)
- Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (humor)
- The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon
Blackwood (horror) "

Thanks a lot, Cheryl! I really appreciate it :)

Mary J Starry wrote: "What a great idea!! Thanks for starting. I have been checking out the What's Available section of my local library online listing and reading about a book a day so far. Just got done with Joan Didi..."

Wow... a book a day! That is huge! Do share book recommendations :)

Dagny wrote: "Yea, saved by Heena and RMFAO. Adding my thanks also. What a great idea, Heena. "

You are welcome! Thanks for the kind words. It felt like we all needed to stick together in these times :)

Great info everyone! I do have some audiobooks that I downloaded so I can share those via a Goggle Drive link. I'll need time to do that as they are on my external drive, so I'll try to do it ASAP.

I haven't been able to concentrate on reading as much as I'd like. I did finish this one:
Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol
My review can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Okay, so I tried uploading the books I have and it ended up exhausting my Google Drive space. So here's what I have done, I am uploading only the ebooks as audiobooks take a lot of time. Here's the list fo Ebooks on my Google Drive. I've left the link at the bottom, just go there and download the book you want.
For audiobooks, I'm thinking, I'll just share the names of the books and you can send me your email and I can mail them to you. It'll be easier that way.

For now, I've added the following ebooks to my drive:

- CHASING CASSANDRA by Lisa Kleypas
- SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid
- GOLDEN IN DEATH by J.D. Robb
- THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris
- THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett
- THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes
- THE LAST WISH by Andrzej Sapkowski
- COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER by Joanne Fluke
- LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng
- WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens
- AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins
- THE WARSAW PROTOCOL by Steve Berry
- BLINDSIDE by James Patterson and James O. Born
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
- The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
- The Road Through the Wall (The Other Side of the Street) by Shirley Jackson
- The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
- The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
- Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
- Come Along with Me- Classic Short Stories and an Unfinished Novel by Shirley Jackson
- Haruki Murakami's Books

Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Let me know if there is any problem with the link. I'm doing this for the first time, so don't know if there will be any.
Enjoy reading!

Heena wrote: "Okay, so I tried uploading the books I have and it ended up exhausting my Google Drive space. So here's what I have done, I am uploading only the ebooks as audiobooks take a lot of time. Here's the..."

Wow! Great list Heena. When I click on the link iI have a page to request the authorization. Is it correct? I have to indicate the reason and proceed?

Dagny wrote: "Just finished the last of my physical library books Off the Shelf
Not to worry though, I still have plenty of books on my own shelves at home. Especially thankful now for all the f..."

You were smart to stock up at the library, Dagny. And aren't you glad you have a large tbr pile of physical books? I usually go to my community library first for a book, and then go to my stack of physical books for when I can't find anything I want to read at the library. I am greatful to have them.

I am the last of my kind - I downloaded my first book on my kindle last night. I did it, though I'm not promising to finish it anytime soon. Like Dagny, I stocked up with physical books from the library before it closed and got at least 2 dozen books on CD!!!! So blessed! Now, this is not to say that once I finish my library items that I have no books, but it will certainly make me sad to see this selection go:( I easily have 3 dozen books on my shelves I haven't read and dozens more belonging to my eldest 3 children! And then, maybe I'll try out this kindle thing...lol! Stay safe everyone and lose yourself in a great book.

I am the exact opposite Fran, I mostly read on my kindle and supplement with physical books. (My kindle is easier to hold when my arthritis is bad.) The Seattle City library has TONS of great ebooks, so I felt no need to stock up. I also have a lot of books and comics sitting around that would like to be read.

Adelaide wrote: "I am the exact opposite Fran, I mostly read on my kindle and supplement with physical books. (My kindle is easier to hold when my arthritis is bad.) The Seattle City library has TONS of great ebook..."

You are fortunate, Adelaide, that your library has tons of great ebooks. My library has alot of ebooks, but the variety of authors isn’t that great. It seems like they will get the new releases in physical book form long before they are put in the ebook app. I guess they save money that way, as publishers are very stingy with the number of copies of a book (ebook included) a library can have. Plus, I found this info about library ebooks on a website:

“Plus, there are terms to the licenses. Check out this PDF made available by the American Library Association. Macmillan, one of the Big Five publishers, allows titles to be available for a two year or 52-lend period—whichever comes first. And they're more expensive than traditional retail—$60 for titles less than a year old, $40 for titles more than a year old. “

Wow! Great list Heena. When I click on the link iI have a page to request the authorization. Is it correct? I have to indicate the reason and proceed?."

I did get the authorization message and approved it, Hope you are able to access the books now :)

I am having trouble getting any group notifications today. The little "bell" notification icon shows a number in a red circle, telling me I do have notifications. But when I click on it to see my notification list, nothing new is there. The only way I can see my group notifications is to go to the group webpage and look for the red "new" printed next to the title of the unread message board. Is it just me, or is it a site glitch? This happens on both iOS and Android Goodreads apps, too. I've sent Goodreads an email for help with this, but who knows if anyone is even there now?

Cheryl wrote: "I am having trouble getting any group notifications today. The little "bell" notification icon shows a number in a red circle, telling me I do have notifications. But when I click on it to see my n..."

Ok, it looks like I am getting my Notifications now. The "bell" notification icon is showing the number of notifications in the red circle, and when I click on the icon the new notification appears in the list. Also, all of my missing notifications now appear there.

With the extra time I have without a commute, I have no finished Memoirs of a Geisha. I wasn't really sure about this book at first, but ended up enjoying it, for the most part. Some of the characters were annoying, and some annoying at parts, but the overall story was good even with the topic.

Cheryl wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "I am having trouble getting any group notifications today. The little "bell" notification icon shows a number in a red circle, telling me I do have notifications. But when I click on..."

I was also having this trouble yesterday, but it seems to be working fine today. Maybe it was a technical glitch after all.

Heena wrote: "Wow! Great list Heena. When I click on the link iI have a page to request the authorization. Is it correct? I have to indicate the reason and proceed?."

I did get the authorization message and app..."

Now, it's ok! Thanks, Heena. :)

Andrew wrote: "Now, it's ok! Thanks, Heena. :)"

Pleasure :)

Just finished reading Doctor No by Ian Fleming. I rate it 2 stars. Not as good as the movie and it has a heck of alot of info about the bird guano business. Disappointing.

Dagny wrote: "Looks like my "mystery" month will be continuing over here. I'd never really explored the Internet Archive site before except for public domain books. What a surprise to find that they have so many..."

Dagny,

What's it like to set up an account to borrow books there? I see they ask for an email address. Do they send alot of spam because of it? And when you sign in, do the other formats appear on that book's page (just like the public domain books)or is it a long involved process?

Thanks for the info, Dagny! I'm always a bit leery of my "sign up" email being sold for spam. I know what you mean about trying to search for books on that site. It's kind of overwhelming, especially if your not looking for a specific book. I'll give it a try.

I read No Exit by Taylor Adams. Two and a half stars. An ok thriller that was very violent and a bit longer than it needed to be. One of the "bad guys" seemed unbelievably indestructible - almost like Jason in the Friday the Thirteeth movies. A quick, action-packed read, but nothing special.

I totally forgot posting about the books I read here. Here's what I read since the lockdown:

1) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Lewis Stevenson - 4/5
2) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - 5/5
3) The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - 4/5
4) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - 4/5
5) Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - 4/5
6) Breaking Free: How I Escaped My Father-Warren Jeffs-Polygamy, and the FLDS Cult by Rachel Jeffs - 3/5
7) The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson - 4/5
8) The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis - 3/5
9) The Optimist by Roy E. Schreiber - 3/5

Hello dear friends. (No really I mean it, and I do miss you all). My anxiety is in full tilt at this point, so anything techie makes me even more irritated and confused. Lol...I'm definitely more a pen and paper kinda person. So that being said, and since this is truly non-threatening I will strive to do better because I really miss this. I'll try to list the books beginning from the end of March to my most recent completions. (They are coming I promise). I'll use the format that is widely used in our monthly challenges. Hope you all are well and staying sane. Stay strong.

Fran wrote: "Hello dear friends. (No really I mean it, and I do miss you all). My anxiety is in full tilt at this point, so anything techie makes me even more irritated and confused. Lol...I'm definitely more a..."

Fran,

Don’t worry about listing your books if it stresses you out. If you’d rather just mention a book that really stood out for you, instead, please do so. Try to relax (easier said than done, I know) and just pop in to the group when you feel ready.