Why not? Maybe this year I will make it! Danielle's 2014 challenge

1. 1Q84 by Murakami
2. David & Goliath by Gladwell
3. Hidden in Plain Sight by Petrick
4. Talking Pictures by Riggs
5. The Guide by Narayan

At the rate of about 21 books per calender month = approx 252 books.

Per Week = 5 books ; Per Day = 1 book ( excluding Saturday & Sundayss )

Per Day: Number of Hours ( ??? )

Above 5 ( Five ) Titles In A Week. Quite a record.

From experience I would say a good page per book baseline is somewhere around 275 pages -- so you'd look be looking to read just under 200 pages a day to hit your goal. If you read an average of 50 pages an hour that puts you at an even four reading hours a day :)

Four Hours of Reading per Day : Very tedious ?
But, maybe
Reading rate: 50 pages per hour or 25 pages per hour ( For 200 pages book )
Reading Hour per Day: l Hour
One Hour breaking into two stages:(if you are working full-time)- 1/2 hr ( Free Time In The Day/Night) : 1/2 hr ( Before Sleeping)

Within A Week: (4 days) or approx (7 days) respectively: To Complete One Average Length of Fiction/Nonfiction.
Verdict: Not bad one book per week
Per Year: 52 books
Not a bad idea.

Average Fiction (Novel) Book: 50,000 to 80,000 words

Each page: 250 - 320 words,double spaced,font size 12,arial.1 inch margin and 25 lines per page

Book Length: 50,000 words or 200 pages / 80,000 words or 320 pages

Note: Just For Illustration.

Do you to know the exact word count of some famous novels?

http://www.indefeasible.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/great-novels-and-word-count/

Take for an example:

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy at the rate of 50 pages per hour per day = approx 46 days to complete.

Number of Word Count: 587.287 words ( 2.350 pages)
Number of Pages Per Day Per Hour: 50 pages x 250 words = 12,500 words
Number of Days To Complete: approx 47 days or approx 1 month and 17 days.
Verdict: Not Bad.
(This illustration is just of knowing how long an above average reader who finish reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

And this? Is exactly why I hang out here. Love that stats!

Time has been my enemy lately but next week I am moving and hopefully things will settle down after that. 21 books a month is definitely doable going forward barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Read short books!

6) Fault in Our Stars by Green
7) Hotel Du Lac by Brookner
8) Bleak House by Dickens
9) Jamrach's Menagerie by Birch

10) The Clothes They Stood Up In by Bennett

I know you are moving and that has slowed you down but it means for one month I am ahead of you by one book ...

I gotta get some reading done :)

11) Fork in the Road by Lonely Planet

12) Robinson Crusoe by Defoe

13) Stats Canada by Stats Canada

Tell me about "Stats Canada: Satire on a National Scale." Is it worth the read?

It's hilarious! Canadians poking fun at Canadians. And maybe a truth or two mixed in. :)

14) Toy Time by Byrne

15) The Kitchen House by Grissom

16) Lost Lake by Allen

17) Thank You, Jeeves by Wodehouse

18) The End of the Suburbs by Gallagher

My First Murder by Leena Lehtolainen
I have mixed feelings about it. I think Maria was in a difficult position dealing with her first murder with no direction from above except to solve it fast and not a lot of support from support officers. Having said that I think the author played 'the woman card' once to twice too often. Get on with the job, which Maria finally did. It certainly didn't end any way that I expected, except that I knew it had to be a choir member. The motive was a surprise. It dragged and could have done with better editing. I may read another by this other to give her a second chance but not right away.

19) Grumpy Cat by Grumpy Cat (counting this one feels a little like cheating).

20) Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Faulks

21) Branded Nation by Twitchell

22) Book of Brownies by Blyton - reliving my childhood one book at a time.

23) After I'm Gone by Lippman

24) Stuffocation by Wallman

How was #20?

25) Killer by Kellerman - had me until the end and then it went weird... really, really weird...

27 - I will firstly qualify my answer by saying that Thank You Jeeves (read last month as well) was my first Wodehouse book ever so I am hardly an expert but I found that Faulks had the overall flavour down pat. The language used seemed authentic and the antics were there. It was a light read that I think fans of the series will enjoy.

26) Hollow City by Riggs. Book 2 of the adventures of Miss Peregrine and her band of peculiar children. These are really fun and the photos are awesome.

> 29

Thanks, I'll take a look if I see it.

If you don't have a full enough to-read stack, consider adding The Code of the Woosters and Very Good, Jeeves.

27) My Ox is Broken by Castro. After years of reading bits and pieces, I finally read it straight through. Good book.. awesome show.

31 - thanks for the suggestions!

28) Timbuktu by Auster. I don't often read books narrated by a dog but I love Auster so gave this one a try. Really enjoyable.

29) Oryx and Crake by Atwood. Re-read so I can finally finish the new one.

30) The Rosie Project by Simsion. Meh. Interesting story but not well written.

31) Concealed in Death by Robb. Bi-annually brain candy.

32) Good Luck of Right Now by Quick. Meh. Silver Linings was way better.

33) Winter People by McMahon. Spooky fun.

34) The Giver by Lowry. A re-read in honour of the movie coming out soon.

35) Gathering Blue by Lowry. Meh. I was hoping it would be more in the vein of The Giver but it wasn't there. I will continue with the series though.

36) Be Careful What You Wish For by Archer - brain candy. Archer is somewhat predictable but good for a non-taxing, enjoyable read.

37) Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Janzen. Started off good but got a little boring. Still, an interesting look at the Mennonite community from someone who left.

38) Maze Runner by Dashner. More YA dystopian fun.

39) Messenger by Lowry

40) Son by Lowry. A-ha! So that's how it all relates. I liked it.

Yes, I am excited about this year. I still feel a little guilty about the Agatha Christies, but I am getting over it!

41) There But For The by Smith. Still trying to figure out why the silly man was locked in the bedroom but I guess the point is that we will never really know. This was an odd book.

42) Something From the Oven by Shapiro. A look at how our way of looking at food has changed/not changed over the last 60 years. Quite enjoyable.

43) Atonement by Soucy. I love it when you buy a few books by an author you have never read but have a feeling you will like... and then after finishing one, think 'yippee, I have more to read!'

I have books all over the place that are half-read but managed to finally finish some this weekend. I just can't stay still long enough to get anything done this spring.

44) Forgotten Bookmarks by Popek. I neat little book about some of things that a bookseller has found in books over the years.

45) New York Trilogy - very different from his other stuff (at least the few that I have read so far). The book is basically three seemingly random 'detective' stories set in New York but as you progress, you realise that they are loosely linked in odd ways. I loved all the riddles hidden in there! I have always been one who enjoys a traditional story with a plot and a definitive ending but in this case, the story was so interesting, I forgot that I was left without a lot of answers.

46) Judging a Book by Its Lover - some of the other reviews describe this as fluffy (not sure if was meant to be anything more than that) but I thought it was awesome. I think I have met a kindred spirit! The first part is a tongue-in-cheek explanation of book lovers and all our weird and wonderful quirks. The second part is a little 'how-to-fake-it-when-you-haven't-read-something' and it was pretty much spot on.

47) End of the Affair by Greene - my first Greene (I now have Brighton Rock pending) and I really enjoyed it. This is about an affair that ended a few years ago but it reality, it never really ended for anyone involved.

I am really happy! Is your house settled and your favourite reading spot staked out?

House is slowly getting settled and reading spots are set up. If only RL would slow down a bit so I could sit for 5 minutes and actually finish a book! We are going to Florida for 2 weeks so hopefully I can get a few beach days in and maybe read something. You have left me in your dust this year :)

48) Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami

49) Scorch Trials by Dashner

50) Death Cure by Dashner

51) Jacob the Liar by Becker

52) The Quiet Game by Iles

53) Neuromancer by Gibson

54) Underrated by Abraham - short, cute book about a whole lot of underrated stuff.

55) Assisted Loving by Morris - a not so funny memoir

56) Brighton Rock by Greene

57) Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera. Do I love this book because Kundera has an amazing way of describing things? Or do I hate it because the main character is a womanising idiot who never truly appreciates what he has?

58) Hawksmoor by Ackroyd - spooky! He does a good job transitioning between the past and present.

59) The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov - loved it! Although it has made me a little suspicious of my black cat.

60) Diary of a Nobody by Grossmith. This was kind of a pre-cursor to Seinfeld - a book about a bunch of little things (and funny to boot!)

61) Michael Kohlhaas by von Kleist. Neat little story about what happens when you piss off the wrong person.

62) Wild Swans by Chang - wow.

63) Kraken Project by Preston. Interesting premise but stupid story.

64) Bear by Cameron - not sure how I feel about this. It's supposed to be written from the perspective of a 5-year old but I didn't really think it rang true (but since I really don't remember what I thought when I was five, you knows).

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden is worth the read, it just is not as funny as his first book. It could do with a good edit as it is quite long, more than it need be. So many books need better editing

65) The One and Only by Giffin. Stupid. She is usually good for a light fluffy read but this one was just dumb.

66) Little Women by Alcott. Much like I remembered.

67) Time Machine by Wells

68) The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonasson. Meh... it had some funny moments but I was rather bored by the end.

69) Therese Raquin by Zola - spooky fun :)

70) The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by O'Neill - like her last one, sad and depressing yet filled with hope.

71) Life and Death of Harriett Frean by Sinclair. I just wanted to shake this woman and tell her to start living her own life!

72) The Gathering by Enright. From all the mixed reviews I have read on this book, I really wasn't sure what to expect with this one but I quite liked it. But, I seem to be drawn to books on dysfunctional families (especially ones far more dysfunctional than my own family) so maybe that it why I liked it. Family secrets bubble to the surface when a member of a large family dies.

73) Return of the Soldier by West. I think this is a book that would have been better if it were a little longer. It's about a soldier who returns from battle with amnesia and doesn't remember the last 15 years of his life. It's an intereting premise but the ending was really rushed.

74) Inheritance of Loss by Desai. This is one that I have pulled off the shelf many, many times but for whatever reason, never read until now. And I am mixed: it is a beautifully written book but, it jumps around too much and I found it rather confusing at times. There are two stories playing out but I found that I really didn't care about the cook's son Biju living in America. I would have preferred a story just about Sai.

75) Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys. I am trying to get to all the ones that I have meant to read forever but keep passing by and this was definitely one of those. I love Jane Eyre so I have always been curious about this one. And I must say, by the end, I wasn't sure who I felt more sympathy for! Very well done.

76) The Afternoon of a Writer by Handke. Meh. Is he a writer? Isn't he a writer? Not sure I really care to be honest.

77) The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith - a rather non-descript tale of someone who loses it all and then gains it back and more. Will have to read the blurb to see why this is on the list - is it because this is the start of the rags to riches/riches to rags storyline?

78) Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas by Thompson. Interesting in a train wreck kind of way.

79) Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Atkinson. Not really sure what to say... I really didn't enjoy this one when I started it. The first chapter is the main character narrating her own birth and I found that to be really bizarre and kind of dumb. As I got going, the story improved but the footnote sections, while interesting, were confusing and detracted a lot from the main story for me. By the end, I found a rhythm and got more into the story.

80) The Position by Wolitzer. Someone once told me that they didn't like Wolitzer's books so despite having a couple in the shelf, I never felt all that compelled to read one. But, it's Orange July so I decided to give this one a go and am now kicking myself for waiting so long. The plot in a nut shell: mom and dad write a sex manual and featuring themselves as the participants. It's now 30 years later and the publisher wants to reissue an anniversary edition and then now-grown-up-kids reflect on how growing up in the shadow of this book changed them in ways they never expected.

81) Bunner Sisters by Wharton - gotta say, this was gripping little tale. But so, so sad...

82) Ethan Frome by Wharton - good grief, another depressing tale.

83) Wittgenstein's Nephew by Bernhard. A sad but beautifully written story/memoir. Bernhard is in one wing of the hospital after having lung surgery and his friend Paul is in the mental ward across the field. As he plots a way to try to visit, he reflects on their friendship.

84) Niagara Falls All Over Again by McCracken. I quite liked this story. It's about two actors who team up to perform vaudeville and it chronicles all the ups and downs in their long career together.

85) Alif the Unseen by Wilson - honestly one of the strangest books I have ever read. But fascinating...

86) The Year of the Flood by Atwood

87) MaddAddam by Atwood. Finished the trilogy and loved every minute of it.

88) The Newton Letter by Banville. Short but rather depressing.

89) Gilgamesh by London.

90) A Long Time Gone by White. Meh

91) The Skin Collector by Deaver. Why can't a write just write a basic story anymore? Why does it have to continue on and on and on and get more and more improbable?

92) Intuition by Goodman. A story about a man who thinks he has found a miracle drug to fight pancreatic cancer and a co-worker who isn't so sure that the results are accurate. Interesting look at ethics and human relationships.

93) Worstward Ho by Beckett - short but since I had to read it aloud a few times to make sense of it, not short. I understood enough to get the general idea but not enough to ever try to explain it to someone (but maybe that is the point?)

94) Rashomon by Akutagawa. What neat stories! Very enjoyable.

95) History of Love by Krauss. Much better than the other one of hers I read.

96) Silk by Baricco. Not bad, not great.

97) Essex County by Lemire. Still not a huge fan of graphic novels but this one was interesting.

98) Problems with People by Guterson. Not much of a short fiction fan but these stories were quite good.

99) The Body Artist by DeLillo - I liked this one better than Falling Man (the only DeLillo I had read before). The problem I have with this type of book is that I find myself obsessing about all the unanswered questions. Some, like whether Mr Tuttle exists or not, I can accept and all the other little unanswered things drive me nuts. I guess this is why I prefer a fatter, more straight-forward novel.

100) China Dolls by See. Yippee! 100 at last! An okay read about three Chinese (well, 2 Chinese and 1 Japanese) showgirls set around WWII.

101) The Girls of Slender Means by Spark. Much better than Prime. I loved the letters to writers - that made me laugh. Wasn't expecting the ending though.

102) The Marriage Plot by Eugenides - loved this one! It's about books (awesome), psychology (awesome but sad) and travel (awesome). Oh, and there is a story in there as well.

103) The Driver's Seat by Spark - I think she is starting to grow on me. This was a creepy little read.

104) Under the Dome by King. Wow, over 1000 pages and that is the ending? As stupid as the mini-series is, at least it's interesting.

105) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce. My first Joyce. Quite liked the beginning but as he grew, I think he became much smarter than me because a lot went over my head. Will need to reread at some.

106) The Graduate by Webb. The movie was definitely better. How creepy and manipulative was Benjamin? He didn't come across this creepy in the movie.

107) July's People by Gordimer. Finally, a good one! Short but quite powerful.

108) Cat and Mouse by Grass. I guess I should have read Tin Drum first? Might need to move it up the pile a bit... This one was an interesting book on its own. The cat is the Great Mahlke, a loner child who becomes everyone's hero and the mouse is his extra long Adam's apple (and penis apparently). Those symbols come up quite a bit throughout the book as a group of children come to terms with war and themselves.

109 & 110) Quicksand by Larsen & Passing by Larsen. I was quite excited to find both novellas in one novel (both are in the 1001 list) and even more excited to find out how awesome they are. Quicksand is about a young mixed race woman who struggles to belong. She moves between both worlds and becomes frustrated when she doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. Passing is similar and looks at race as well but this time it's about being fair enough to fit into a white world but the consequences of being discovered.

I got the Larsen book, sound very interesting.

I have never read her before but my library 'found' the missing copy that I put on hold forever ago so it was a surprise read. Very good stories!

111) Slow Man by Coetzee. A different type of story for him. Not sure I like meta-fiction that passes itself off as real. If I am going into the absurd, I am going all in.

112) A Pale View of Hills by Ishiguro. I think this was his first novel and it was quite good. There are so many layers to this novel - it's about a woman who reminisces about a friendship she had years ago but then it also looks at the affects of war, status etc. Very well done.

113) The Immoralist by Gide. Odd book. At times, quite disturbing but oh so beautifully written.

114) Music of Chance by Auster. Love Auster but man, what an odd book.

115) Summer Book by Jansson. I really can't say whether I liked this one or not. It's a series of vignettes of a grandmother and her granddaughter and their adventures on an island one summer. The language and descriptions were wonderful and brought the novel to life. But the characters were awful. The granddaughter, at times, was a crabby, whiny child. And grandma wasn't much better. I really tried to be patient with them as they were dealing with death but I they just lost me.

Thanks, I am pleased! I wouldn't be so far ahead of you except for the Agatha Christie's. I feel a little guilty about them but I do enjoy them.

Have you seen the page numbers of some of mine?? A book is a book regardless of how long/short it is :)

116) O Pioneers! by Cather. A rather short read but beautifully written. Alexandra is the oldest child and inherits her parent's farm when they die. Instead of selling out, like her neighbours, she buys up more land and makes quite a nice life for herself and her siblings. Mixed in to the story is love, murder, jealousy and just about everything else one would want in a novel.

117) Kafka on the Shore by Murakami. This is my third Murakami and definitely not my last. But honestly, how does one describe any of these novels without others thinking you are strange for liking them?

118) Accidental Apprentice by Swarup. Meh. I think Slumdog Millionaire was his big novel and the others are poor imitations.

119) The Breast by Roth. Okay then... A short story about a man who turns into a breast. Very odd yet well written.

120) Written on the Body by Winterson. As usual, her writing is wonderful. She packs a lot into a sentence, paragraph, page... but I really didn't like the main character. I get that Winterson purposely doesn't reveal his/her sex and I liked that part. But the over-the-top obsession with Louise was more creepy than romantic.

121) Close Your Eyes, Hold Eyes by Bohjalian

122) Skipping a Beat by Pekkanen. Okay, now I am legal again! Silly, fluffy read with a sad, sad ending.

123) In the Heart of the Country by Coetzee. I think that this is my least favourite Coetzee novel so far. I liked the story, as uncomfortable as it was, but I am not a fan of poetry or experimental prose so the style rather bugged me.

124) The Pigeon by Suskind. What a neat little book! And my first Suskind. It chronicles the day when Jonathan Noel's life literally fell apart and was rebuilt in the span of 24-hours. Now some could say that a pigeon shouldn't cause such chaos but I don't think it would have mattered what it was; when you live your life the same way every day and find comfort in that sameness, it can be easy to have life knocked out of balance by something different and unpleasant. It was a little over-the-top but at the same time, I could totally relate.

125) The Sense of an Ending by Barnes. And another great book. This one was very different from Flaubert's Parrot (the only other Barnes book I have read) but just as good. It reminded me a little of The Talented Mr Ripley for some reason. And the best part, even though I thought I had it figured out from the start, the last page threw me for a loop. Didn't see that coming at all.

Ha! It's already the beginning of September and I am only halfway there. I think 200 might be the magic number this year. Life keeps getting in the way!

Did you mean to count In the Heart of the Country twice, # 122/123?

D'oh.. cheating already! I will have to finish my current book fast and replace 122. Thanks :)

126) Sweetland by Crummey. Moses Sweetland is a resident of a remote Newfoundland community and the lone holdout when the government offers everyone a re-settlement package. Crummey offers another raw look at human nature, madness and the need to belong somewhere.

127) The Passion by Winterson

128) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Murakami

129) The Confabulist by Galloway. After watching the Houdini mini-series, this one came in at the library so I was able to continue with my Houdini fascination.

130) Top Secret Twenty-One by Evanovich. Why don't I just stop... she's not even funny any more.

131) Money by Amis. Good but rather exhausting

132) Watchmen by Moore. Not a big graphic novel fan but I kind of liked this one

133) Perfume by Suskind. What a creepy novel! I really didn't expect that ending but it summed the book up perfectly.

134) The Princess Diaries by Cabot. Not sure why it's on the Guardian 100 list but it's short and sweet.

135) After the Quake by Murakami. Hunh, he can write good short fiction as well.

136) Tell by Itani (not the right touchstone). I love Itani. This one is about a small town and the aftermath of WWI.

137) The Lover by Duras. Not bad.

138) Stone Mattress by Atwood. Loved some stories but others were a little meh. It was fun revisiting The Robber Bride and I love what happened to poor old Bob.

139) Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. If I had more patience, I think I would have enjoyed this better. But Elizabeth Costello is just one of those ornery people who seem to argue about everything so she annoyed me to no end.

140) Festive in Death by Robb. Brain candy...

141) The Paying Guests by Waters. Not my favourite Waters but an enjoyable read. Basically dad dies so his widow and her daughter have to take in boarders to pay for his debts and the upkeep of the house. Add in a love affair, a little murder and you have a fun way to spend a lazy afternoon.

142) Moving Forward Sideways Like A Crab by Mootoo. It is Giller time again so I am working my way through the long list. Very excited to see Mootoo on the list as I love her stuff. This is one about a man who decides to find the father who abandoned him years ago. Jonathan travels to Trinidad and finds out that dad has now become a woman. As the story unfolds, we find out what lead to the decision and a host of secrets bubble to the surface. A wonderful read.

143) Us Conductors by Michaels. This is another Giller nominee. It is a fictionalised account of the inventor of the Theremin. This is fascinating look at science and music with a little Russian spy action thrown in for good measure. Another good read.

144) Man by Thuy. By the same author as Ru this is a short yet powerful book about a Vietnamese woman who moves to Montreal to be married, discovers the joy of cooking and then falls into a doomed love affair with a fellow chief. Beautifully written.

145) The Ever After of Ashwin Rao by Viswanathan. I wanted to like this book. She has a wonderful way of connecting words and describing things but the story itself meandered all over the place, there were way too many characters being introduced and her obvious anger bled through everywhere. This is a novel about a psychologist who returns to Canada to interview families who lost loved ones in the Air India bombing for a book he is writing. It focuses on one family in particular and shows how, many years later, they are still impacted by that fateful day. The author uses this as a platform to express her anger and frustration at the Canadian government and how they handled the affair. She seems to be pissed off at everyone and this ruined the book for me.

146) Franny and Zooey by Salinger. Teenage angst turns to adult angst.

147) My October by Rothman. Awesome book. It is 30 years after the FLQ crisis and the family is still feeling the aftereffects in Montreal.

148) Walt by Wangersky. Awesome, awesome book. This is right up there with the Wasp Factory in terms of creepy psychological thrillers. The man can write extremely well.

149) Watch How We Walk by LoveGrove. Disturbing yet good. It's about a young girl growing up as a Jehovah Witness. Dad is overly religious, mom seems to go along for the ride but never really fully connects with it, older sister is rebellious and constantly tests the waters and Emily, the main character, is trying to make sense of it all.

150) All My Puny Sorrows by Toews

> # 165. When I joined this group in 2010 I thought it would be easy to read 250 books in a year but it is not. The highest I got was 198 in my first year. and it was downhill from there, the lowest point was 82 in 2011. I didn't leave the group because I like the people I read with and I always had this faint hope lurking in the back of my mind. This year thanks to perseverance and Agatha Christie I have nearly made it. I may never do it again so I will have to pick a special book for # 250. And I still have November and December to add to my total ... wow!

I know I won't make it this year (200 might be a stretch) but I too stick around because I like the company. I made it the first two years I tried but my life was a lot simpler back then so who knows if I make it again. I say we enjoy the process and if we get there, great, if not, oh well. :)

I agree enjoy the process and the company!

151) American Innovations by Galchen. Meh. Not bad stories but the Jenny Craig Centre (sic)' part really pissed me off.

152) Stuffed by Cardello. Me.. he doesn't really have much to say.

153) Shopaholic to the Stars by Kinsella. Brain-candy. About all I have the mental capacity for these days.

154) The De-Textbook by Cracked. Hunh.. didn't know a lot of that!

155) Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami. Not his best but entertaining nonetheless.

156) Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami

157) Hundred Foot Journey by Morais

Congratulations and Happy New Year!

Thanks! This year kicked my butt in more ways than one. Here's to 2015 being a much better, more relaxing year with lots of good reading!

I will read to that, I already have one done and another nearly done.