Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Need a place to say hi to our friends here at Catching Up on Classics. Use this thread for your random comments & friendly hellos.

ok so:
a) who else is not getting any notifications atm?
b) who else hates the new (useless) Reading Challenge format?
let's hope both are New Year GR snafu's that will soon be fixed
(LOL)

edit: it appears that the new Reading Challenge changes are worse than useless - don't believe me? - try accessing any of your previous year Reading Challenges...
(or somebody else's...)

Darren wrote: "ok so:
a) who else is not getting any notifications atm?
b) who else hates the new (useless) Reading Challenge format?
let's hope both are New Year GR snafu's that will soon be fixed
(LOL)

edit: i..."




It did take some searching to find the old Goodreads Reading Challenges. I had to go to my books -> lower left Reading Challenges -> Old Challenges. It also said Challenges Beta Version on that page. It wasn't intuitive. I was guessing it would be in the reading stats somewhere.

I looked at your page Darren. I found the 2024 Challenge but none of the previous years.

I haven't been getting notifications since before Christmas. I have yet to figure out why.

I don't like the changes to the Reading Challenge either.

I'm trying to keep up with the notifications and discussion tabs, but I still feel like I'm missing a lot of the conversations that I used to participate in :/

I changed my notifications settings and now I'm getting far too many, need to undo some settings.

I am also getting a lot of notifications. There is no way I can read and respond to all of them. I pick and choose. Sometimes I forget when I’ve commented, and then don’t realize that someone has responded to my comment. So if I have failed or will fail to respond, please accept apologies.

I haven't had a single notification about comments on discussion threads (such as this one!) for 20 days and counting...

Darren, I wonder if you change your notifications, might that help spur the system?

I haven't trusted the notifications in a while and always use top menu Community->Discussions to view all the discussions I haven't read yet, ordered by the most recent. The ones I haven't read yet are marked.

The one thing that messes me up about not having good notifications is that when I comment on someone's review or someone's reading update, I don't know when they have responded. But the Community->Discussions at least helps me keep tabs pretty well on the group discussions.

I've checked my settings, and this thread post-dates when the blackout began and I've ticked (and un-ticked, and re-ticked) (what's supposed to be) the magic "Notify me when people comment" box, but... nothing.

fortunately, I'm only in 2 groups so it's easy enough to page down their discussions and spot new posts in threads I'm interested in,
but it's still yet another example of complete incompetence from GR

I used to get a lot of notifications from GR, now, none for days. I thought maybe I’d adjusted a setting wrong, but I don’t even get notifications anymore after commenting on a thread and making sure the “Notify me when people comment” box is checked.

I am finding this link increasingly valuable:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/unrea...

also re Reading Challenge, I found out that it still possible to view them in old-stylee, after I Liked a friend's challenge, then clicked on the link to that like in my own updates (visible in my profile)
this went to a link of the form:
https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...
the 8-digit number at the end is NOT one's user number but must be specific to the challenge,
so... I found an old update where a friend had liked MY challenge and I was able to see the 8-digit code for MY challenge...
BUT, when I tried the combined link it automatically REDIRECTED me to the generic https://www.goodreads.com/readingchal...
which just shows your new-stylee challenge
i.e. other people can look at my old-stylee challenge, but I can't
SIGH
YCMIU

I always use this one:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

I also use the one Lynn references.

my notifications started back up yesterday, so only down for 18 days, which is quite good for GR!

I'm still not getting any group notifications, no idea when it started but it hasn't been fixed yet :| .

I don't get them either, Wreade. I'm unsure if GR will ever get things straight again, but it puts quite a burden on us all.

Three books by Dorothy Whipple are available on Amazon for 99 cents:
High Wages, They Were Sisters and Someone at a Distance.

Thank you, Marilyn. I picked up High Wages...I had already bought the others at the higher price. Her books are hard to get a bargain on, so I hope others will take advantage of this!

If anyone is interested in reading The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne by Kate Winkler Dawson, we are putting together a buddy read at another group in May, if interested, message me.

My notifications are finally working again. Its been awhile since i went through all the motions but once again i switched everything on and off and logged out and back in and did the hokey cokey and it fixed itself.. for now ;) .

Still not getting anything. I have put this tread on Notify. Hope someone post something someday.

This notification malfunction in Goodreads is weird. It stops for no reason and weeks later resumes.

Still nothing....

Hi!

I had something i wanted to discuss or ask of the group aa a whole, but of course, I forgot it now. 🤦‍♀️

I DO want to write up a plan for the month, but being as March is half over, I think I will wait until April to start.

Oh, speaking of April! Yes, that's my name, dont wear it out! Haha! I keep seeing the April 1984 thread for next month's group read and keep thinking it is one of my threads! Ha! 🤣

Edit: i think maybe my question/comment was just the observation that the posts from last year in this section (and maybe the others too) must have been archived. Yeah? Its also very possible I asked this before, but i don't think i did.

April wrote: "Hi!

I had something i wanted to discuss or ask of the group aa a whole, but of course, I forgot it now. 🤦‍♀️

I DO want to write up a plan for the month, but being as March is half over, I think ..."



Yes, April. Our threads can reach thousands of posts. They reach a point where there is just so much that it is unwieldy. At the beginning of 2025 we did some reorganizing and the extremely large threads were archived. Also threads from previous years' challenges were archived. Nominations threads more than a year old are archived. The actual votes in the polls area stay forever.

Did the notify thing ever get figured out? I never get notified about posts that are replied to or if anyone comments on my reviews? Just curious.

Franky wrote: "Did the notify thing ever get figured out?"

No, still not getting anything. I put a notify on this tread a while back. Just now I saw it on the top of most recent active for this group (this page: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/ <-- this is my start page for goodreads). So there has been 3 posts and not a single notification. Even if they are only send every 24 hours April post on the 15th should have got me a notification.

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Franky wrote: "Did the notify thing ever get figured out?"

No, still not getting anything. I put a notify on this tread a while back. Just now I saw it on the top of most recent active for this gr..."

Huh! Weird! Mine have been working! Now that i mention it though, they could stop. Unfortunately has happened on other apps for me (no, not the talking anout it and stopping, but usually after i make some settings change and then try to change it back. It is like the system gets confused. 🤷‍♀️)

Still not getting any notifications. The bell icon on the top in Desktop version shows I have not received a single notification in 2 months.

I have checked the “ Notify me when people comment” for this tread a while back, and never got a thing. Is anyone getting notifications now?

Now, that is funny. After 2 months of no notifications, I suddenly got one from a tread in the Librarians Group.

my notifications tripped out earlier this month and came back a couple of days ago - what a dog's breakfast!

Hey! I got one more notification!! The second one in two months

Yay you guys! Yea mine have been working all this time. Maybe when GRs did that update at the start of the year things got affected? 🤷‍♀️

Best wishes to everyone for World Book Day. Here are my thoughts on it:

https://youtu.be/xNMT-ixjQzQ

And here I thought it was Earth Day! 😉

June's short story Zero Hour by Ray Bradbury is a free download from Gutenberg:
www . gutenberg . org/ebooks/64264

J_BlueFlower wrote: "June's short story Zero Hour by Ray Bradbury is a free download from Gutenberg:
www . gutenberg . org/ebooks/64264"

good spot! thanks JBF :o)

I just completed reading At The Back of North Wind by George MacDonald. Here is my review on it:

https://youtu.be/Si8LX1qc1fg

At another group, we're doing a buddy read of Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. We had a buddy read of that book here, so can use that old thread. If feeling you want to with people, not after people, message me.

Vonnegut readers might be interested in this article:
https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/0...

Hi All, Here is my review on Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss:

https://youtu.be/1iHD12hpf4Y

Here’s a fun challenge to try some year— perhaps there is already one like it and a name for it? The idea is to start with a book you want to read, then take one word from that title, and find another book you want to read with that word in the title. Repeat, repeat, repeat, etc., each month for a year. The idea is to take yourself on a somewhat random journey through a given year. 12 books complete the challenge.

Example:
1. The English Patient
2. The Silent Patient
3. These Silent Woods
4. A Walk in the Woods
5. A Walk to Remember
6. Elephants Can Remember
7. The Elephant Whisperer
— I think it’s okay to add or delete an S.
8. The Horse Whisperer
— I think it would also be acceptable to use Whisper.
9. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
10. The Fox Wife
— If I had chosen Fox, it would have ended in only ten.
11. The Time Traveler’s Wife
12. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Some of these may be classics, some are nonfiction, there’s an Agatha Christie mystery and a children’s book, and a lot of literary fiction. It would make for an interesting year!

That is an interesting challenge, Terry. I am going to copy it and might add it to my next year's set.

Sara, I may do it too, starting or working in The English Patient early on, although I won’t plan the whole year in advance. Part of the fun is to see where it leads.

I would play it the same way, Terry. Just enter my first book and see what comes of it.

Terry wrote: "Here’s a fun challenge to try some year— perhaps there is already one like it and a name for it? The idea is to start with a book you want to read, then take one word from that title, and find anot..."

That looks like a fun challenge, Terry! I think I'll try that next year :)

done one:

little fadette
little boy lost
midnight cowboy
variations on night and day
day lasts more than 100 years
light years
lighthousekeeping
house of the seven gables
seven madmen
a madman's diary
diary of a provincial lady
lady in the van

9 I have planned for next year anyway, and could fit in the other 3, hmmm...

I’m so glad this challenge appeals to you all! I hope you have fun with it! It needs a name, though. Any ideas?