Thank God you guys are here!

[lemondrop]

May 16, 2012 11:30:52 GMT -5 imoan said:

Already I love this board over the old NBC. You guys actually understand the quality over quantity thing. I was starting to feel like I was alone on that board and that's why I stopped participating. It looks like there were plenty of other people who were keeping silent about the same issues.

And I don't think anyone was necessarily picking shorter books to make their goal... but I do think that a lot of the people with those goals have tastes that tend to run towards the shorter (YA) books... so it made it easier for them to reach 200 books per year than it would some of the rest of us.

And I have the EXACT same problem sparrowsong... like I gravitate towards expensive shit without realizing it's expensive, I too gravitate towards large ass books!

I think you are correct that it was a matter of their tastes running towards shorter books rather than deciding to read shorter books for the sole reason of reaching a high number.

Quality is definitely my top criteria. I even have a relatively low quantity goal because I know I'm going to read minimal fluff.

[msmerymac]

May 16, 2012 11:25:16 GMT -5 sparrowsong said:

May 16, 2012 11:11:11 GMT -5 imoan said:

MrsMeryMac- that's the hard thing with the quantity book goals. I could read 112 children's book... and technically I met my goal. I definitely believe that it's quality over quantity. Yeah, I might not have as many books read on my monthly list when they used to post them on the old NBC, but I felt they were worth taking the extra time. Maybe start having a goal where you'll read 112 books, but X number of those will be a difficult classic that you feel you should read.

You TOTALLY should read War and Peace. Like I said, I was terrified by it and at the end was SO glad I had read it. It's honestly not a difficult read... it's just the length that intimidates people. But you don't need to read it BY a certain time... so who cares how long it takes. I gave myself a goal of reading 10% of the book a day and that personally really helped me.

That's why I could never get into all the challenges either. I don't see the point when I really do believe in quality over quantity. Maybe if they challenges were by # of pages instead of # of books. I have an uncanny ability to gravitate towards books that are 400 pages or more, often lots more. But then reading on kindle it's hard to keep track of pages too.

I just read, and read what I want when I want. I don't feel the need to prove I read a lot by reaching 100 books a year. I really don't mean to be snarky on that - I understand and respect the fun of having a goal, I really do. Those who are into it, read on soldier! I assume most aren't purposely choosing short books, but reading stuff they'd want to read anyway. I hope anyway. Life is too short to read anything you don't really want to read.

Yes, totally! I would see people who read 15-20 books a month and think, "Well, yeah, I could do that if most of my books weren't around 400 pages." Last year I read Nixonland for one of the seasonal challenge categories which took me like 10 days. It was great, it was highly recommended, I'm glad I read it, but it was 700 pages. And I know full well that people intentionally pick books that are 200-300 pages for a lot of those challenges. Not so much because they were short and quick, but I can definitely see how someone would pick a 300 page book OVER a 700 page book if the point was to read X number of books. I would bet that I read as many pages as some of the women who read many more books than I did. I mean, I read A Dance with Dragons last summer.

I love nothing better than getting lost in a huge book, with well developed characters and great plot. I do love George RR Martin. I love the HP series. I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Nice long books seem like an adventure to me!

[charlatti]

May 16, 2012 11:30:52 GMT -5 imoan said:

And I don't think anyone was necessarily picking shorter books to make their goal... but I do think that a lot of the people with those goals have tastes that tend to run towards the shorter (YA) books... so it made it easier for them to reach 200 books per year than it would some of the rest of us.

I have a natural, pre-numbers-challenge tendency to flip between longer or heavier stuff and fluffy stuff. Sometimes I'll have a run of fluff and then I'll spend a long time on something that requires more brain power; sometimes I'll have a few weeks of books that are somewhere in the middle. For the past couple years that I've been aiming for a number (112 this year), I am just more conscious of those flips to keep myself on track.

But it's all just for fun. So what if I don't read as many as I hoped, no big deal if I spend a month reading fluff. I just read what makes me happy at the time.

[Deleted]

But page length isn't really a good indicator. I can breeze through 700 pages of non classic fiction easy peasy but 700 pages of non-fiction on the rise and fall of the Tudors and their effect on world history . . . . ha! Not so much.

[2curlydogs]

May 16, 2012 11:30:52 GMT -5 imoan said:

And I don't think anyone was necessarily picking shorter books to make their goal... but I do think that a lot of the people with those goals have tastes that tend to run towards the shorter (YA) books... so it made it easier for them to reach 200 books per year than it would some of the rest of us.

This is why I like this place hella better than the NBC. It feels like the level of quality books is much higher here. Much more my speed.

Also it seemed like whenever book recommendations were requested, it was the same old titles/series over and over - Outlander, Harry Potter, The Other Boleyn Girl, etc. It's like really? I LIKE all of those books but in all the wide world of literature, these are the best recommendations you can come up with? *sigh*

[lemondrop]

May 16, 2012 13:28:53 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

May 16, 2012 11:30:52 GMT -5 imoan said:

And I don't think anyone was necessarily picking shorter books to make their goal... but I do think that a lot of the people with those goals have tastes that tend to run towards the shorter (YA) books... so it made it easier for them to reach 200 books per year than it would some of the rest of us.

This is why I like this place hella better than the NBC. It feels like the level of quality books is much higher here. Much more my speed.

Also it seemed like whenever book recommendations were requested, it was the same old titles/series over and over - Outlander, Harry Potter, The Other Boleyn Girl, etc. It's like really? I LIKE all of those books but in all the wide world of literature, these are the best recommendations you can come up with? *sigh*

I'm really interested to see the types of books people recommend. There were a few times on NBC when books other than the ones you wrote were suggested, but it wasn't often.

[msmerymac]

May 16, 2012 13:25:36 GMT -5 @habbsies said:

But page length isn't really a good indicator. I can breeze through 700 pages of non classic fiction easy peasy but 700 pages of non-fiction on the rise and fall of the Tudors and their effect on world history . . . . ha! Not so much.

True. And I've had 200-300 page books trip me up for over a week before. Like All the Pretty Horses. (Don't tell Copz.) Then I get nervous over whether or not I'm "on track" for my goal, since I don't plan a short book to take me so much longer than average. Which just goes to show that I need to throw the numbers goal out the window next year. (I'm on track for this year, though!)

[writingwithheld]

I'm glad we have a variety of people/taste differences here. We can always have multiple discussions for people who aren't interested in reading WH/classics. I am on the quality over quantity ship, too.

[aurora]

May 16, 2012 10:45:11 GMT -5 imoan said:

Awwww... THANKS! I'm a compliment whore (I love that I can type "whore" here), so... not weird at all! I'm having a REALLY tough time making my way through my current book (Don Quixote). I'm not sure what it is about it. The language in the book isn't difficult or anything... I'm just having a hard time concentrating on this one for some reason. I think I still have vacation brain. I just have to force myself to finish this one.

I also had a really hard time with Don Quixote, even though I have enjoyed a lot of the books in its class (long, translated, historic; Les Miserables is one of my favorites). I think it's because I couldn't relate to any of the characters.

[mrshandy]

Yay! I love this post and this new board.

I feel the same way about quality over quantity. I really don't care how many books I read. As long as I'm reading something interesting and learning new things, I'm happy!

[qbert]

I love this board already! Swoon!

[imoan]

May 16, 2012 15:30:36 GMT -5 sexycarrot said:

and imoan, I LOVED your blog post about your famous airplane encounter. DH and I are going through Supernatural on netflix, and I read him your post word for word--he loved it too!

THANKS! I still can't believe it even happened to me. The odds that I was on a flight with someone from Gilmore girls still blows my mind. I'm on like the 5th episode of season 4 of Supernatural. LOVE! If I ever meet Jensen Ackles, I will just pass out. He's too adorable!

[PinkSquirrel]

I've never kept track of how many books I've read before this year and now that I have goodreads I am keeping track of numbers I think it has definitely swayed some of my choices. Most I would have read anyway, but there are a few where I got a case of the "ohh it's short"-s

[BlackCanary]

I love your siggy.

Copper boom!
Oy with the poodle's already!

[imoan]

May 16, 2012 16:28:38 GMT -5 BlackCanary said:

I love your siggy.

Copper boom!
Oy with the poodle's already!

Heehee! It's funny you say that... my blog post today mentioned both of those quotes!

[lemondrop]

May 16, 2012 14:20:59 GMT -5 writingwithheld said:

I'm glad we have a variety of people/taste differences here. We can always have multiple discussions for people who aren't interested in reading WH/classics. I am on the quality over quantity ship, too.

All aboard the SS Quality over Quantity! Toot toot!

[BlackCanary]

May 16, 2012 16:36:21 GMT -5 imoan said:

May 16, 2012 16:28:38 GMT -5 BlackCanary said:

I love your siggy.

Copper boom!
Oy with the poodle's already!

Heehee! It's funny you say that... my blog post today mentioned both of those quotes!

Yeah...I did steal the coppor boom from your blog, but thought of the poodle one myself. ;D

[imoan]

May 16, 2012 16:47:01 GMT -5 BlackCanary said:

May 16, 2012 16:36:21 GMT -5 imoan said:

Heehee! It's funny you say that... my blog post today mentioned both of those quotes!

Yeah...I did steal the coppor boom from your blog, but thought of the poodle one myself. ;D

I saw a pic on tumblr the other day that was of a tattoo that said Copper Boom! I contemplated it for a second. LOL!

[bookbunny]

1) I want to make out with this post! I love it and agree with everyone!

2) A feew weeks ago, I told H that I want to change my reading habits and start reading more books with substance. I meant to say that I wanted to be intellectually challenged by some of my reading. What actually came out was "I don't know, I just want to be like... mentally challenged." So embarrassing!

[imoan]

May 16, 2012 17:28:57 GMT -5 bookbunny said:

1) I want to make out with this post! I love it and agree with everyone!

2) A feew weeks ago, I told H that I want to change my reading habits and start reading more books with substance. I meant to say that I wanted to be intellectually challenged by some of my reading. What actually came out was "I don't know, I just want to be like... mentally challenged." So embarrassing!

This is awesomesauce!

[sporklemotion]

May 16, 2012 10:45:11 GMT -5 imoan said:

Awwww... THANKS! I'm a compliment whore (I love that I can type "whore" here), so... not weird at all! I'm having a REALLY tough time making my way through my current book (Don Quixote). I'm not sure what it is about it. The language in the book isn't difficult or anything... I'm just having a hard time concentrating on this one for some reason. I think I still have vacation brain. I just have to force myself to finish this one.

I loved Don Quixote when I read it for a class in college (many years ago), though I don't remember it well and I'm not sure if I'd still like it if I read it today. If I remember, it wasn't so much about the plot, but about the narrator's voice and his interruptions into the flow of the narrative. And also the parodying of the chivalric tradition with a hero who has bought into the idealism of the age, but who lacks the skill and opportunity to enact true heroism. The humor's probably pretty broad and juvenile (picturing some dude misreading the situation he's in, to comic effect), but at the time I definitely thought it was refreshing and fun. I've been meaning to reread it but haven't, so I'm probably oversimplifying it or misrepresenting it. I think the quality of the translation probably matters, too-- I have a free version on my Kindle but haven't tried it yet because the translation's gotten mixed reviews (free is free, though .
If I remember, it's pretty episodic, too, and it doesn't necessarily build to anything. But maybe if you don't expect it to and just go with it, you'll get through it?

[imoan]

May 16, 2012 17:58:09 GMT -5 sporklemotion said:

May 16, 2012 10:45:11 GMT -5 imoan said:

Awwww... THANKS! I'm a compliment whore (I love that I can type "whore" here), so... not weird at all! I'm having a REALLY tough time making my way through my current book (Don Quixote). I'm not sure what it is about it. The language in the book isn't difficult or anything... I'm just having a hard time concentrating on this one for some reason. I think I still have vacation brain. I just have to force myself to finish this one.

I loved Don Quixote when I read it for a class in college (many years ago), though I don't remember it well and I'm not sure if I'd still like it if I read it today. If I remember, it wasn't so much about the plot, but about the narrator's voice and his interruptions into the flow of the narrative. And also the parodying of the chivalric tradition with a hero who has bought into the idealism of the age, but who lacks the skill and opportunity to enact true heroism. The humor's probably pretty broad and juvenile (picturing some dude misreading the situation he's in, to comic effect), but at the time I definitely thought it was refreshing and fun. I've been meaning to reread it but haven't, so I'm probably oversimplifying it or misrepresenting it. I think the quality of the translation probably matters, too-- I have a free version on my Kindle but haven't tried it yet because the translation's gotten mixed reviews (free is free, though .
If I remember, it's pretty episodic, too, and it doesn't necessarily build to anything. But maybe if you don't expect it to and just go with it, you'll get through it?

I definitely appreciate the points you make about the story. It's not a bad book... I know it's me, not Cervantes. I'm just having SUCH a hard time concentrating on it.

[dorothyinAus]

May 16, 2012 13:28:53 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

This is why I like this place hella better than the NBC. It feels like the level of quality books is much higher here. Much more my speed.

Also it seemed like whenever book recommendations were requested, it was the same old titles/series over and over - Outlander, Harry Potter, The Other Boleyn Girl, etc. It's like really? I LIKE all of those books but in all the wide world of literature, these are the best recommendations you can come up with? *sigh*

I tried to recommend other books and series, but it seems my voice was getting lost. And since my MIL is a voracious reader, she has introduced me to all kinds of books that were never widely published in the US. Minette Walters, Kerry Greenwood, and Shane Maloney are some of the authors she has introduced to me that I never really saw in the US bookstores. I can also recommend Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin series, though to get them all you will have to branch out to Amazon.co.UK or check out ABE.

I am so glad there are a good number of voices here that ate recommending books that are not THE book of the moment. I tend not to read bestsellers -- at least not until years after they are bestsellers. There are gems of books out there if you look.