Mount TBR 2021 discussion

Natália, Kate, Lianne and I are planning to read Dune during March 2021. Please feel free to join us! I've already roped in my other half too ;)

Based on replies to the Looking for Buddies thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Oh this is a great idea! If I'm free enough, I'll join you.

Oh! Sounds great!

I just got this for Christmas so I will try to join!

Great news everyone :)

I’d love to read Dune with you in March!

I'd like to read Dune with you, too.

Omg yes finally somebody wanna buddy read this

Hooray, we've got a good little band going!

This buddy read is going to be great! :-)

When will we start this in March

I will try and start early on as it might take me a little longer than usual as I have a lot of uni work on but happy for others to start when they want.

In terms of discussions/spoilers, just make sure to mention where you're up to and use spoiler tags.

I will probably start reading on March 3rd.

Ok I will start next week

I've just started today as I've got the day off work :)

I'm starting today as well!

I've just read the frist two chapters

I'm about 70 pages in and enjoying it so far- not as dense as I was expecting it to be!

What are you thinking about Dune so far? I'm on page 82 (of 800). The start is a little slow, but it wasn't bad.
Though I'm a little bothered by how important sex/ gender is so far. (view spoiler)[ Also so far all the bad guys seem to be man with feminine traits (Feyd-Rautha's uncle, Dr. Yueh's high voice). Or is this just the German translation? (hide spoiler)] But maybe Dune just needs to be read as a book of its time.

I'm on page 160 now. The book got more interesting. (view spoiler)[ I was impressed how Lady Jessica opened that door and found the hidden message. (hide spoiler)]

I’m on page 170. I read this years ago, but I had forgotten a lot. Really enjoying the story!

One question I did have - with total page count who is including the appendices on the ecology of Dune? I was just going to aim for the 530 page (in my copy) of the main story, at least to start with.

I definitely will just go for the end of the book and then if I'm interested may do the appendices.

superawesomekt wrote: "I definitely will just go for the end of the book and then if I'm interested may do the appendices."

That's what I will do, too.

OK, I was delayed by an overdue library book that took me way too long to finish, but I am finally starting Dune! I read it back in high school, liked it enough to start buying the rest of the series, and now have almost all the books and haven't read them. So I need to reread Dune and finally get to the rest of the books! Maybe some of us will want to continue the series this year. :)

My edition only has 489 pages of the actual story, not including appendices. I was going to say we should reference chapters, since page numbers don't line up, but there are no chapters?! I just noticed this lol.

I noticed that too! I think I'll include page numbers and a %age as I reckon the percentages might be a little closer across different versions.

great idea!

I've persuaded my partner and my dad to also read it this month (both have read it before) but neither really use GoodReads. Dad thinks he hasn't read it since the mid 80's but is enjoying the re-read.

how fun! I am still in the first 100 pages and it is a little tough to follow all of the names, etc. but I know I'll hit my stride soon.

I'm on page 342 of 742 (46%) (not including the appendices). I found the first 100 pages tough to follow too, but I'm getting better with the names now. Thankfully Rai's comment about the appendices made me realise, that my copy includes a glossary. It's super helpful.

I will look in my copy to see if it has a glossary! I think that would really help me! Thank you!

I'm at about 25% (view spoiler)[ where they've just seen their first sandworm (hide spoiler)] and my other half has already caught up with me despite not starting it til 2 days ago! I think I'm doing OK with names, although still occasionally confusing Halleck and Hawat.

A comment from the OH:
"I love this book and universe and how densely packed it is, and then how it all, on reflection, unfurls."

I'm at 71% now. (view spoiler)[Jessica just became a Reverend Mother of the Fremen. (hide spoiler)]

My partner and I has finished 'book one', whereas my dad's finished the whole thing and has bought and started Dune Messiah already!

I've not gone as fast as I normally might as I've had a lot of reading to do for uni, which has burnt me out a bit. Hoping to push ahead with Dune this week though.

I finished. Although it seemed to start slow, it really picked up. I thought it wrapped up incredibly fast ( rather too fast) Maybe because there are sequels? However, although I’m a little interested in the other books, I feel this book can stand alone and I’m very satisfied.

I'm finished, too.

I'm also hoping to finish over the weekend; my partner is about 20 pages off the end (I'm more like 240 left) and my dad has already gone ahead and finished Dune Messiah (I don't think he's read this much in *years*).

Rai wrote: "I'm also hoping to finish over the weekend; my partner is about 20 pages off the end (I'm more like 240 left) and my dad has already gone ahead and finished Dune Messiah (I don't think he's read th..."

Rai, that is so fun! My parents bought the book between my brother and I talking about it and the movie trailer coming out. I'm hoping to get my husband to read it after I finish but he generally prefers audiobooks.

I've made it to 'Book 3' so should be on track to finish before the end of the month.

So, to everyone, what / who do you 'like' most about Dune?

Would you call it purely Sci-fi or 'Science Fantasy' (mix of Sci-fi & Fantasy)?

It seemed to be purely Sci-fi to me. I think I got through the first five books (that's all there were at the time.) Never did go back to continue.

Finished (just in time). I think I can see why people do describe it as Science Fantasy as things like the political structure, the great houses infighting and the religious/legend/myth elements are the type of thing you see in fantasy books.

I'm not sure what I liked best, I think I'll need to digest a bit more for that. One thing I did find unique was reading while already knowing what was going to happen, or roughly, because of the quotes at the start of each chapter. It gives the reader a bit of prescience, a bit like Paul, and I thought that was clever and certainly not something I've see before.

To me it seemed like Fantasy in a Sci-fi setting. The mind powers of the Bene Gesserit felt particularity fantasylike to me.

I loved the desert and the ideas on what a society in a world with almost no water would look like. The worms were super cool, too. Also the concept of manipulating a culture by inserting myths into their religion was interesting.

Is it just me or does Dune have some Star Wars vibes? (Or is it the other way around?)

I think there was a lot left unsaid with the Bene Gesserit, the breeding programme they had, the conditioning and so on, and how the product of all their scheming is going to bring (possibly) their destruction.

Dune does precede Star Wars by 13 years I think and I have heard Dune fans comment on how Lucas 'borrowing' a lot from Herbert.

My participation in this buddy read really fell apart, lol. I've been doing the pre-readathon challenge in the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon group and it's got me reading all kinds of other books. But, I am slowly but surely still reading Dune! I'm enjoying it as much as I remember from high school so far!

Are many of us planning to continue with the series? I'm hoping to do so without too long of gaps in between, so that I don't forget everything I've read. I have another 15 Dune books on my book shelf that I've never read before!

Lianne, you are not alone! I think my eyes were too big for my stomach when I committed to buddy reads this year. :) I am still slowly reading it, too.

@Lianne @superawesomekt I'm still reading through this too! I'm only at about 45% ish :)

@Lianne, it did take me all month to read while not taking on anything else, which was pretty slow for me. I think the prose isn't the easiest to read so it slowed me down a lot. I'd say taking your time will help you absorb it a bit better.

As for sequels, my dad went on to read 3 of the sequels and raced through them. they're a bit shorter I think. my partner has bought Dune Messiah but not started it yet. My dad said he liked Messiah best of the 3 he read last month. I might pick up Messiah later in the year but I've had 2 buddy reads for April to start on ;D

I'm a bit behind in reading Dune, though I started with you guys. I have to say, I'm almost 60% in and I'm not sure I'm enjoying it. I'm finding it to be slow and a bit confusing at times. Whenever Paul starts musing about his training, and his newfound powers and all...it loses me a bit. There are things I'm enjoying, though, so I'm intrigued enough to continue.

Natália, I didn't finish it bc I wasn't into it and so was reading it quite slowly, but I may try again sometime. I'm going to let my husband read it first and see what he thinks of it before I pick it up again... (my brothers love it and recommended it and I usually like their recommendations.) please report back when you finish!