The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Anyone can join this buddy read, which was originated by Eileen and Roseanne.
I will keep adding names of anyone who would like to participate in the buddy read.
Happy reading!

I need to get back into reading. I took a year off. Would love to join in. Have always wanted to read the book.

Oooh, Cindy, welcome back! This will be fun!

I don’t know that I will be able to keep up but I’d love to do a reread of Monte Christo. It was my favorite for a very long time.

Oh wow so exciting that others want to join. Don’t worry about keeping up.

Yep, this will be a total low-stress thing! I love that others want to read this book too!

When is everyone planning on starting?

I think I want to start in January, but I'm okay with waiting for everyone else to start!

January is fine with me.

Would love to join but my library doesn’t have it 😢

That's too bad, Susy.

I would love to join this group. Will look forward to seeing the schedule.

January sounds great.

Oooh, yay, I love that so many people are going to be joining in on this one!

January is getting closer and closer! Do we have a schedule and what sort of timing were you all thinking of. This will be great!

I don't know, what would you suggest? I usually just sort of start and will take part in discussions but leave it mostly spoiler-free. I tend to read faster than most, but I'm good with following a slower schedule if everyone prefers. FWIW, there are 117 chapters in the book, lol!

We could maybe aim to have it read in January? If so, that would be something like 4 chapters a day.

I am totally fine with a schedule however I am not so good about following one. I don’t worry about being behind. There is enough things to stress about without worrying about keeping up with a book. I plan on starting on the first. With 117 chapters I can assure you that I will not be done by the end of January. If I had to ball park it I would say it’s going to take me 2-3 months to read something this long. So I would say 10 chapters a week would keep you ahead of me. Does that work?

In one of the other groups I'm in, we read David Copperfield at s rate of a chapter a day, which worked out really well for everyone.
Just a suggestion, since I won't be reading along.

I found the audiobook… It scares the hell out of me lol. Will probably take me all year long to finish it 🤯

I don’t think I could do it in a month either. I do think that working on one or two chapters a day would be ok. As long as we check in periodically and block possible spoilers from our comments it will work well. Happy reading in 2021 to all.

A good idea is to state which chapter(s) you're talking about at the beginning of your comments. That way the other readers can skip it if they haven't read that chapter yet.

Good idea, thanks Rosemarie.

Well, I have tried out 3 LibriVox recordings and finally settled on one. I’ve listened to the first 5 chapters. As usual with audiobooks it’s quite hard for me to focus. Really looking forward to the discussion as undoubtedly there will be certain details that I have missed.

I'm good with doing a chapter a day, which isn't too bad. We'll see what happens once I start listening. I'm finishing up a library book and then I will start listening. Susy, I look forward to discussions as I usually need help with literature, especially if they are a translation. Rosemarie, I think I'll put the chapter on my comments and use the spoiler tag to remove the rest, that way I can ask specific questions without spoiling it for anyone!

Good idea, Eileen!

I plan on doing the same as Eileen. Makes the most sense. I have only read the first chapter so far. For those listening, would love to know how that is. I think the audio would be too much for me to follow.

Just a suggestion for those seeking a copy of Monte Christo... I get a lot of books through my local library website. In addition to the physical copies you can get from the brick & mortar building, you may have access to online materials, like ebooks and audiobooks. You do have to check to see if they are abridged or unabridged but it might be worth looking into.

Yes, I'm a member of three different library systems and between the three of them, I can get most of the ebooks and audiobooks that I'm looking for. Audible is a good backup for me, lol. Roseanne, the audio I have is with Bill Homewood and there were a bunch of reviews that said he did such a great job with it that I decided to give it a try. But I'll have a digital copy of the Count as a backup. :)

I’m listening and reading too and I have the audio read by Bill Homewood. He is a wonderful reader. I go to the physical book to check names of people and places mainly. So far it’s very good but won’t comment yet on specifics.

Oooh, that's good to know, Penelope! I need to finish two books (almost done with Alex Trebek's memoir) and I'll get to start this! Looking forward to it!

Lol. I just decided to splurge on the Bill Homewood version as well. I hope the total is as good as the sample promises. :)

I used one of my credits for the Bill Homewood version! I did the same thing with Les Miserables, Don Quixote, and Anna Karenina (I think it was)! A good reader makes all the difference with these classics!

I have the free LibriVox version by David Clarke. So far so good...
Tried 2 other versions that were horrible! One lady sounded just like when the computer reads something out loud....

I tried the computer sounding one too. Thank heavens for samples!

Penelope wrote: "I tried the computer sounding one too. Thank heavens for samples!"

Hahaha, indeed!

Susy wrote: "I have the free LibriVox version by David Clarke. So far so good...
Tried 2 other versions that were horrible! One lady sounded just like when the computer reads something out loud...."

LOL, I tried listening to something like that one time--this was before I consciously started training my brain and ear to be receptive to audiobooks. I thought most of them was like that and I kept feeling bad for people who were blind and who had to experience books that way! Thank goodness they have fantastic voice actors that do many books now. One of my favorites has become Edoardo Ballerini. Also Lorelei King is fantastic for urban fantasy and mysteries, especially cozy mysteries.

Oohh thanks I will make a note of Eduardo Ballerini. Last year I listened to two Thomas Mann novels read by David Rintoul. Just fantastic. I searched in Audible for him as a reader and came up with lots of promising titles, including Sir Walter Scott..... One day!
I know Lorelei King. Does she read the Janet Evanovich books among others. Perfect for that genre.

I usually listen to audios of much lighter reads. Something like this I am not so sure I could do. I belong to 2 libraries. I always check the library first.

Yes, Lorelei King does the Janet Evanovich, Darynda Jones, and Patricia Briggs, among others. She's quite prolific and I haven't heard a bad recording from her. I recently listened to him read two of Andrew Gross' books and then listened to him do Robert McCammon's Speaks the Nightbird and was absolutely riveted the whole time. He is also very prolific. I'll have to check out David Rintoul! Were the ones you were listening to The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks?

Yes! I have a copy of the Magic Mountain which I was reading but the writing was so small I couldn’t cope. The translations of the audio and the book were by the same person. I just loved Buddenbrooks and will probably reread before too long.

I'm impressed! I will put them both on my audible wishlist and will consider pulling it out in the future!

How is everyone going? I’m finding with the short chapters (another book I’m reading at the moment has 1.5 hour long chapters) and the exciting story I am loving it and can’t wait to see what happens. I’m just finishing chapter 17.

I’m on chapter 2. I haven’t read much but I’m very interested to see where this is going. I am getting a slow start because I’m trying to finish up another book. Good to know the chapters are short.

I haven't had the chance to start yet, but will give it a good start this weekend! This week has become super busy with students, and I'm also trying to finish 2 other books!

I’m on chapter 15. Liking it but sometimes having a hard time figuring out what is going on and who’s on which side. I will try and look up the characters today, print that out, that might help. Like I believe it was chapters 6 and 11, I’m not sure, I was like, who are these people and what the heck are they talking about?
I’m also still trying to understand how Dante was set up. I mean I get the main points in the story, but am missing the details because of it being an audiobook and I have a hard time maintaining focused. Like who gave him that letter?

I have this week off from work so have listened quite a bit but I suspect my progress will slow down next week when I go back to work...

Yes I agree. I love the audio but have been referring to the text to straighten out a few points, especially names of characters. I also googled some basic French history for that time. It straightened out some finer points as well. Read on!

I found a chart with all the characters and their relationships, helped tremendously. Also each character has a little story but since I’m afraid there may be spoilers, I didn’t read those (yet).

I googled for a character chart and stopped looking. Maybe I found the chart you are talking about. Way too much on it. I know it is helpful but I would wait to look at it in this case.

Roseanne wrote: "I googled for a character chart and stopped looking. Maybe I found the chart you are talking about. Way too much on it. I know it is helpful but I would wait to look at it in this case."

No, it’s actually only the main characters, with a colour to signal if it’s a friend or foe.

What I saw definitely had spoilers on it. I immediately stopped looking but I saw one thing that I’m now waiting for. Instead I am jotting notes when a new character comes up. I am into chapter 4 now.