This year, we're going for 25,000 pages—50,000 proved to be a bit steep for me, but 25,000 is slightly more than I read last year but imminently doable. Hopefully this will put a good dent in my To Be Read list...
1.
Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman – 280 pgs.
Total: 280 pgs.
Good luck with your reading challenge!
--BJ
What did you think about Lost in Translation? I really loved the first 2/3's of this book, but got bored with hearing about her adult life.
BJ: Thanks!
bonniebooks: I didn't think too terribly much of Lost in Translation at all; the language aspect was interesting and there were a couple things here and there that were intriguing (I was hoping for the childhood romance-thing to pull through), but overall, I wasn't that thrilled. Nothing bad, just... forgettable.
There are times when I just want a good romance, but with good writing, and I'm disappointed when a book goes another direction. I remember that
Intuition was billed as romance, and I felt very shortchanged! :-) This year I was going to re-read some favorites, but your comments make me wonder if I'll feel the same way about them. I feel like, sure, there is a consistency to me in terms of my values and beliefs, but I've also changed a lot too--based as much on the direction and content of my reading as my real life experiences. So, will I like these books as much? I'll have to test it out on
Lost in Translation then get back to you. :-)
5.
The Box Man by Kobo Abe – 178 pgs.
Total: 1134 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:48pm.
Hi, raistlinsshadow!
What did you think of
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I was planning to buy this on my last book order, but then I had too many books on my list! :) Both my daughter and I want to read this one.
--BJ
I really enjoyed it—apparently it's really different from the movie Bladerunner, but I'm not able to make a comparison since I've never seen it. I read it for a craft class, and the discussion that it spawned tended to highlight its flaws (clunky writing on a sentence level, fairly poor character building), but they're not so bad as to keep anyone from reading and enjoying the book.
Actually, Bladerunner is a fairly interesting movie. I like to watch it ever so often. Thanks for the info. It is such a great title for a book I think. :)
--BJ
12. Boy With Flowers by
Ely Shipley – 71 pgs.
Total: 2590 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:46pm.
I thought it was interesting, but the research might be a bit outdated—the edition I read was from 1986. A lot of it was more the philosophy of language and psychology rather than psycholinguistics, which is what I had been hoping for, but it was good nonetheless.
15.
Home Land by
Sam Lipsyte – 229 pgs.
Total: 3190 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:45pm.
16.
Diary by Chuck Palahniuk – 261 pgs.
Total: 3451 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:44pm.
18.
Introduction to Psychology by Edward E. Smith et al. – 768 pgs.
Total: 4396 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:43pm.
19.
Candide by Voltaire – 118 pgs.
Total: 4514 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 11, 2009, 1:43pm.
So, did you like Watchmen?
--BJ
I'm also curious about what you think of Watchmen. :)
I really enjoyed it. The style took a bit for me to get used to, both because it was the first graphic novel I've read and because it seemed to be formatted uniquely—"voiceovers" and a storyline that intersected with a fictitious comic and bits of... stuff at the end of each chapter—but I did really enjoy it.
22.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by
Thad Carhart – 281 pgs.
Total: 5584 pgs.
23.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas – 545 pgs.
Total: 6129 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2009, 4:18am.
How was The Three Musketeers? I have been wanting to read that one for a while.
--BJ
I loved it—Dumas has a great sense of humor, and the translation that I have seems to be really excellent. It was even better because I read it while in Paris, so there were points where I could sort of... follow them around. Dumas is brilliant. I'd also recommend The Count of Monte Cristo, but it's also a lot longer (A LOT) and more gloomy.
How wonderful to read it while in Paris! I did not realize that The Count of Monte Cristo was so much longer. I think that there is going to be a reading group for that book this summer. I have also been wanting to read that one. Who was your translator? I have my daughter's copy of the book (3 Musketeers) which is the Modern Library copy translated by Jacques le Clerq. Have a great day!
--BJ
I have the Bantam edition, and I don't have it with me to check the translator. But when I get to it, I will check the name for you.
Monte Cristo is around 1600 pages for the usual editions (or, if they prefer, a couple volumes); the Wordsworth edition that I have is around 850 pages with around 2.5 times the normal text per page and teeny-tiny print.
Yeah, that teeny tiny print is killer at my age! :D My copy of War and Peace has that little bitty print and is still so long. But it's a good one! My copy of Count of Monte Cristo is actually my daughter's book. I am not sure exactly where it is, but I think it is one paperback volume. She insists that abridged it not the way to go! :)
--BJ
Never thought my reading would slow down so much in the summer...!
31.
Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier – 596 pgs.
Total: 9459 pgs.
Did you read
Generative Phonology for a class? Could you tell me a little bit about it? The title sounds interesting.
I read it as my own supplementary material for a class—it's essentially 121 pages worth of phonological theory, primarily for English, with a lot about the technical sound markers and points of articulation and rules of phonological transformation. It's pretty dry stuff, but it was nice to get a technical look at what the textbook went over in brief.
36.
The Dragon of Despair by Jane Lindskold – 754 pgs.
Total: 12,242 pgs.
37.
Syntactic Structures by Noam Chomsky – 120 pgs.
Total: 12,362 pgs.
Message edited by its author, Today, 4:11am.
39.
Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay – 285 pgs.
40. Mental Imagery and Affect in English/French Bilingual Readers and Karen A. Krasny & Mark Sadoski – 29 pgs.
41. Object Categorization in Bilinguals by Panos Athanasopoulos – 10 pgs.
42. Linguistic, Academic, and Cognitive Benefits of French Immersion by Wally Lazaruk – 23 pgs.
43. Lexical-Grammatical Interdependence in Bilinguals by Gabriela Simon-Cereijido & Vera F. Gutiérrez-Clellen – 12 pgs.
44. Chinese-English Biliteracy Acquisition by Min Wang, Chen Yang, & Chenxi Cheng – 23 pgs.
45. Second Language Phonology as Redeployment of L1 Phonological Knowledge by John Archibald – 29 pgs.
Total: 13,136 pgs.
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