In a way this has been an accidental challenge.
I started logging books that I had read back in 2007; the year I turned 40.
I read 26. Some great ones in there.
So far with only 9 days to go, I have read 25 in 2008 and should tuck another away by Hogmanay.
I'm really enjoying this. I have read some fantastic books (Les Miserables) and also some mad ones (Ulysses).
I was going to set a 10 year 1000 book challenge, but considered that too daunting an probably unattainable.
Therefore I have set a long term literary goal which I hope to achieve by the eve of my 60th birthday - 1000 books read from when I started in 2007 until my 60th birthday in 2027.
I have logged my books read at
http://sites.google.com/site/meraciousin...All my books read since the beginning of the challenge are listed there.
Cheers and have a great reading experience in 2009!
Message edited by its author, Dec 21, 2008, 10:42pm.
Books Read So Far
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Reveries of the Solitary Walker - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
Autobiography - Gandhi
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
This book will save your life - Amy M. Homes
Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
How to be Rich - Felix Dennis
Carbon Calculator - Mark Lynas
Why Vegan: The Ethics of Eating and the Need for Change - Kath Clements
Questions Are the Answers: How to Get to Yes in Network Marketing - Allan Pease
Your First Year in Network Marketing - Mark & Rene Yarnell
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I can make you Rich - Paul McKenna
Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman
Rich Dad's Guide to Investing - Robert Kiyosaki
As a Man Thinketh - James Allen
Life's Missing Instruction Manual - Joe Vitale
The Richest Man in Babylon - George S Classon
Waverley - Sir Walter Scott
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland - Samuel Johnson
A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides - James Boswell
Free the Animals: The Story of the Animal Liberation Front - Ingrid Newkirk
Getting Things Done - David Allen
The Millionaire Mortgage Broker - Darrin Seppinni
How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling - Frank Bettger
Calum's Road - Roger Hutchinson
A Waxing Moon, The Modern Gaelic Revival - Roger Hutchinson
The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell
The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti - Charles William Russell
Why I Am Not a Christian - Bertrand Russell (r)
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
The Forgotten Soldier - Guy Sajer (r)
The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Chinese Cinderella - Adeline Yen Mah
The History of King Lear - William Shakespeare
Z for Zachariah - Robert O'Brien
In My Own Words - Dalai Lama
Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening - Stephen Batchelor
The Buddhism Handbook - John Snelling
The Path of Insight Meditation - Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield
Wisdom of the Buddha - F. Max Muller (ed)
Buddhist Meditation in the Southern School - G.Constant Lounsbery
Holy Cow - Sarah MacDonald
Ulysses - James Joyce
Becoming and Effective Teacher - Tony Fetherston
Educational Psychology - Anita Woolfolk, Kay Margetts
You have a great start! Good Luck.
This is so funny to me because I have been keeping a list of my reading since my sophomore year of high school. That was 1990. I am a dork, so I have them all in a spreadsheet now so I can sort by title, author, genre...yeah, it's a sickness. Please don't judge.
Anyway, just the other day I was looking at my spreadsheet and thinking that I hadn't hit 1000 yet and I'd better get on that! I'm at about 840 or so I think. I would like to hit 1000 by the end of 2010... which would be 1000 books in 20 years!
That's why I come to LibraryThing...to find kindred spirits.
Good luck to you, SD18888. Even if we don't make it to 1000 we will certainly enjoy trying!!
Message edited by its author, Dec 22, 2008, 12:33pm.
Isn't that amazing! :-)
I love reading what people have read about and reading what they hope to read about to boot!
I think 1000 is a challenge to me, but it's nice to set a long term goal, I reckon.
Okay so what are the 840?
Well, in less than 24 hours, I managed to sneak in book number 26 of the year. It was well worth it. What a great read about the hell of a Peruvian mountaineering expedition gone wrong. In
Touching the Void,
Joe Simpson gives us the harrowing recount of his adventure and the demons he faced as he and his friend
Simon Yates struggle to get back down to base camp following the successful ascent, of up till then, the undefeated west face of Siula Grande, in Peru.
Book 26 of 2008.
Book 52 in total.
52/1000
That one sounds really good; I will have to look for it. Have you read
Into Thin Air? Similar harrowing read about a climb up Everest.
No, I haven't read that one. I just had a look at the reviews: it looks harrowing!
Notes from the Underground by
Fyodor DostoyevskyI have just finished this modest book: my first Dostoyevsky book, actually. What a fantastic read. I was completely hooked and stayed up late to finish it.
Wasn't there a little something in all of us that could be found in the main character? - or am I betraying myself! Really glad I read that!
Book 28 of 2008.
Book 54 in total.
54/1000
Just changed my username to LesMiserables (from sd18888)
Message edited by its author, Dec 30, 2008, 6:59am.
Managed to devour Kim by
Rudyard Kipling in the last couple of days: and I really enjoyed it to boot!
Kipling manages to weave a mysterious thread throughout the novel centered around a few main characters but mainly focusing on Kim and the Buddhist monk on their quest for enlightenment.
Well that's 2008 over!
I finished 29 books this year, three more than the year before, making a total of 55 since I started keeping a record of books read.
If I had to pick a favourite for 2008 it would be
All Quiet on the Western Front by
Erich Maria RemarqueBook 29 of 2008.
Book 55 in total.
55/1000
Bliadhna Mhath Ùr
What a great read!
Midnight's Children by
Salman Rushdie. An epic quest of chutney and pickle, noses, ears, and knees. You can tell you have read a good book by the amount of impromptu 'oohs' and 'aahs' and 'gasps' and spontaneous laughter it drags out of you.
Fantastic.
Book 2 of 2009
Book 57 in total
57/1000
I've just finished reading
The White Tiger by
Aravind Adiga.
It isn't a long book, which is quite welcome after reading
Midnight's Children but it is a funny book. What is surprising about the book, and especially so being the Booker 2008 winner, is how simple an idea it was: then yet again aren't all great ideas?
I was constantly reminded as I read this book of
The Prince by
Niccolo Machiavelli, which I pored over whilst reading philosophy at University.
I mean you've got to hand it to the author, it's a chilling tale of rags to riches with a twist.
Really good read.
Book 3 of 2009
Book 58 in total
58/1000
It hardly seemed that I had started Steppe by
Chekhov than I had finished it. Longer than a short story, this work is classed as a Novel and can be read in a day. A nice pleasant read about a journey through Ukraine by a peasant wagon train.
Book 4 of 2009
Book 59 in total
59/1000
The Duel by Chekhov is for me, validation of his reputation as the greatest of the short novelists. Again, this work is too lengthy to be a short story but just long enough to be classed by the literary buffs as a Novel.
This is so much an enjoyable read that it is one i will return to again, no doubt.
Excellent!
Book 5 of 2009
Book 60 in total
60/1000
The Story of an Unknown man - Anton Chekhov
The third of five short novels by Anton Chekhov.
Book 6 of 2009
Book 61 in total
61/1000
Message edited by its author, Jan 19, 2009, 2:15am.
Three Years - Anton ChekhovBook 7 of 2009
Book 62 in total
62/1000
Not sure why, but didnt get into this one as much as the previous Chekhov novels.
Message edited by its author, Jan 19, 2009, 2:15am.
My Life - Anton Chekhov
Book 8 of 2009
Book 63 in total
63/1000
Well, those five novels certainly merit another comment. It has been my first taste of Chekhov and to have all five of these novels in one volume
Chekhov Complete Novels by Everyman's Library. This has been nothing short of impressive. I had always thought it very vogue to drop Chekhov or some other Russian writer into conversations without the commentator actually knowing much about Chekhov's works. Well, I can only say that these writing are masterly and I wondered for a second if Chekhov had a secret key to my innermost thoughts. What a master of the human condition. He nails our joy and misery, hope and fears completely on the head. I would heartily recommend this volume to all.
Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2009, 5:30am.
Book 9 of 2009
Book 64 in total
64/1000
Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
by
Vicki RobinI watched Jeopardy last week, and one of the contestants has logged every book he's read since high school (I think). I told my husband I hate to think how many notebooks would be filled if I'd kept track of everything read since high school. But I'm intrigued, and may just start this year. A spreadsheet sounds like a good idea, although I really do like pencil and paper. I read just about anything except westerns and, including a lot of children's and ya lit (school librarian), so my list will be pretty eclectic.
Book 10 of 2009
Book 65 in total
65/1000
Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals - Marilyn Friend & Lynne Cook
SD,
Were we separated at birth? I've the same interests, similar goals and have read similar books at a similar rate. I'm also on a 500-600 pace for 20 years.
I don't see that pace picking up. I bet, like people in similar situations, that I won't be retiring within the next 2 decades.
Hi Sandydog: separated at birth? TeeHee; possibly! But I've had a look at your profile pic and you look nothing like me! ;-)
You should try those white linen suits. 'Worked for Tom Wolfe too.
Are we going to keep this thread going for 20 years?! Wow, we've got a lot of faith in LT.
Yeah, that's one thing I hadn't considered: the longevity of LT.
Hopefully both of us will be still here in 20 years ;-)
I think I'll stick with 50-Book challenge, year, after year, after year...
'Less of a commitment. Remember the George Burns comment that went something like, "I'm so old I don't buy green bananas anymore."
Book 11 of 2009
Book 66 in total
66/1000
Silas Marner - George Eliot
Message edited by its author, May 21, 2009, 3:26am.
Book 12 of 2009
Book 67 in total
67/1000
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Message edited by its author, May 21, 2009, 3:26am.
During a critical and intense period of my post graduate and my reading has suffered, alas!
Managed to sneak in Lolita and Silas Marner, both excellent, but had to postpone and temporalily abandon Xavier Herberts, Poor Fellow My Country just short of finishing book 1, due to the daunting size of it, with no hope of competing until after my studies have finished by mid year.
Book 13 of 2009
Book 68 in total
68/1000
To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2009, 2:56am.
Book 15 of 2009
Book 70 in total
70/1000
The Outsider - Albert Camus
Book 20 of 2009
Book 75 in total
75/1000
Poor Fellow My Country - Xavier Herbert
I'm not sure how to feel after finishing this huge novel - one of the biggest books ever written; certainly the largest Australian novel.
So much was wrapped up at the end; so many unexpected events. The book finished very strongly and the last 400 pages were worth the effort.
This book has been with me so long, it feels strange to be looking to a new challenge!
Book 21 of 2009
Book 76 in total
76/1000
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Wonderful Gothic Erotic 19th century Mayhem
Message edited by its author, Aug 10, 2009, 12:20am.
Book 22 of 2009
Book 77 in total
77/1000
A Memoir of the 'Forty-Five - James Johnstone
I have been keeping track of the books I've read since 1987 when I was 37. I'm up to 894 which I thought was pretty good, but some LibraryThing members seem to be able to read way more books than I can.
I wish I knew how many books I've read since I was a kid. I was reading adult books since I was 10 or eleven.
Yes I similarly wish I had noted all of those long forgotten books of my youth :-)
#44 LesMiserables and others:
I did something really stupid in the middle '90. Because my house is fairly small I weeded out about half of my books, keeping a record of ones I might want to read again. I thought--what a dummy!--I could always find them again in a library or buy them. That ain't so. The classic books, yes, many others, no. I'm a Don Robertson fan and his books are now very hard to find. I have some. Wish I had all of them.
Book 24 of 2009
Book 79 in total
79/1000
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
>45
I am not inclined to throw any books out: rather I horde in boxes, thinking at some point I'll use them again ;-)
>13
....and successfully ran it! :-)
Book 25 of 2009
Book 80 in total
80/1000
Catriona - Robert Louis Stevenson
Book 28 of 2009
Book 83 in total
83/1000
Woodbrook - David Thompson
Book 30 of 2009
Book 85 in total
85/1000
The Aeneid - Virgil
Book 33 of 2009
Book 88 in total
88/1000
The Iliad - Homer
Book 34 of 2009
Book 89 in total
89/1000
The Witches - Roald Dahl
Book 35 of 2009
Book 90 in total
90/1000
The Twits - Roald Dahl
Book 40 of 2009
Book 95 in total
95/1000
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Book 44 of 2009
Book 99 in total
99/1000
Tam O'Haggis: The Life and Times of Robert Burns - Fiona Morton
Book 46 of 2009
Book 101 in total
101/1000
The Overcoat - Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
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