LibriVox Forum

Me too. I need to set a more reasonably goal next year. I think I kind of lost track of all the books I read, and I don't know the complete number any more.

I think I am, but I'm so bad at keeping track that I've only got around 100 listed. Those 100 are only since about June, though, and I know I've read more than that, so I have to try to remember what I've read.

I track mine on goodreads as it's very convenient. But if goodreads did not exist, I'd have an excel sheet... I just wish I had started keeping tack of books earlier... *sigh* about 20 years of reading will never be recovered... I would start a list one for my kids - if I had any

I started early, at age 12, tracking the books I read. I'm now 59, and 1,650+ books later (average 35 books per year), I'm still adding to the list (first manually; with the advent of PCs it's now with a spreadsheet). Looking back, it's interesting the yearly ebb and flow of the number of books, depending on the influence of various external factors in RL over that time period.

Don

Wow, Don, I so wish I'd been that organised! I only have the last 14 years. That does include The Infamous 2005, where I only read one book the entire year! Though, no coincidence that that was the year I first got internet at home.

I keep quick notes in a spreadsheet, along with a few other metrics based on each year's New Year's Revolutions, and then transfer them every few months to a long-term reading log.

I didn't achieve the "one book a week" goal for October, but did read (or listen to) several things. For several nights the internet entertained me with some old radio program mysteries and ghost stories. They were pretty corny, but the dramatic organ music was fun.

I also started a book, but after several chapters decided it wasn't my thing so stopped reading it. I used to read a book all the way through whether I liked it or not, but decided life's too short and there are too many good books to read!

I read several short stories, but am listing just a few that caught my fancy. They were all from Gutenberg:

"The Outstation" by W. Somerset Maugham
"Government Goat" by Susan Glaspell
"The Literary Remains of Thomas Bragdon" by John Kendrick Bangs

The only "real book" that I read was "Samuel Brohl and Company" by Victor Cherbuliez. A somewhat unusual, entertaining book. It might be a good one for LibriVox.

Cori wrote:New Year's Revolutions

Down with the regime! Long live the books!

(We got Internet in '97 )

It looks like my months-long reading drought may be over. I've just finished reading a whodunit by Leena Lehtolainen, namely one of the books about detective Mario Kallio. Another police procedural it waiting, this time set in Praha, the Czech Republic. I've never read a Czech crime novel and don't know much about the life there despite the Czech Republic being our neighbour. Looking forward to it.

These are the books that I read in November. A fairly good assortment. I started “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens, but gave up on it. A great LibriVox recording by Mil Nicholson, but I could not get into the story at all.

The books that I did read were:

“Some Faces in the Crowd” by Budd Schulberg. Hoopla download from library. It had been several years since I’d read any of Schulberg’s books. I’d forgotten what a good writer he is. The first story “A Face in the Crowd” was made into a movie. (Schulberg also wrote the script.) The story is good, but the movie more fleshed out and (my opinion) much better. A bit of trivia: One of Mr. Schulberg’s sentences from the movie “On the Waterfront” made it into the top 100 movie quotes: “I coulda been a contender.”

“October Vagabonds” by Richard LaGalliene. LibriVox recording very nicely read by Roger Melin. Short, pleasant little travel book of two friends who spend part of October walking through New York State in the early 1900s.

“The Rainbow Comes and Goes” by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. Library e-book download. Excellent memoirs by celebrity mother and son. If only all of us could sit down with our parents to find out some of the whys and wherefores of their lives

“The Brand of Silence” by Johnston McCulley writing as Harrington Strong. LibriVox recording. Nothing special, but entertaining detective story from the 1920s. The type that was made into “B” movies in the 1930s. Mr. McCulley was the creator of the character Zorro.

“A Great Reckoning” by Louise Penny Library audio book download. 12th book in the Inspector Gamache series. Beautifully written, well crafted book

“The Summer Before the War” by Helen Simonson Library ebook download Very good, entertaining book about people in a small town in England prior to and at the beginning of WWI. Would make an excellent movie or TV series.

That's it for this month - gosh, already this is already the last month of the year! Time to wish all LibriVoxers Happy Holidays!

Little Internet connection = more reading
I've just read yet another book with 'commisario' Montalbano. The second one in two days. Fun, though Montalbano is getting older and more brooding. Even so, his appetite for seafood remains voracious and neither of those facts prevents from pulling off a James Bond-style stunt in the book finale.

I always wondered how James Bond went down east of the Curtain. I've also noticed a LOT of Alistair MacLean audiobooks in Polish translation on YouTube.

I remember an elderly Ukrainian immigrant to Australia telling me pre-1991 that Gregory Peck was "very big in Soviet Union". Perhaps something to do with "The Guns of Navarone"?

I was looking for any more of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May stories on Amazon, when the system pointed me to Elly Griffiths's Ruth Galloway Mysteries.

So I bought "The Crossing Places". It's the first in a series about a lecturer in forensic archaeology in Norfolk (England). It's quite an interesting story, but I found it very hard to get involved in the lives of any of the characters. One of the main stumbling blocks for me was that the author uses what I tend to think of as "narrative present tense". Here's an example: "After about half an hour, maybe more, she thinks she sees something." For me, it's almost as if I'm reading in a foreign language that I know reasonably well, but where I'm still aware of the translating mechanism within my mind. It damages the flow of meaning between the page and my mind. The book would have been so much more comfortable to read if it had been handled in the past tense: "Afer half an hour, maybe more, she thought she saw something."

I will not be reading any more of this series.

Peter

I'm working on the New Year's LV Community Podcast, if anyone would like to share their stories for the One Book a Week Club 2016, and their goals, feel free to make a segment on that.
(link in my signature)

Kangaroo

I just updated my list - I have been in a bit of a reading burn-out this past month... I still like the 'idea' of reading, but actually picking up a proper book or listening to an audiobook... meh...

I have read a couple of short-ish stories... mainly PWP smut... they are so terrible... really, really terrible... worse than romance novels...

and I have read loads of manga (=japanese comics) lately. Haven't done that in years. I forgot how much I used to enjoy them - some of those stories really pull at my heartstrings...

but, yeah, proper books - nope... I finally have the new Peter Grant as an audiobook... had it for a couple of days now and it is starting to tempt me. I hope the new year brings a renewed need for reading

That was 50 fiction and 19 non-fiction for me, with an aim of 52 books. I'll have to aim a bit higher this year!

Peter