Comments on: 52 books in 25 weeks…

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:34:27 +0000

I wouldn’t limit 52 in 52 to fiction either! I’ve just heard some people say they can’t find enough non-fiction books and that’s the only type of thing they like to read. I’m also trying to sucker my historical non-fiction friend into reading Outlander

I’ve been deterred from reading some of my longer tomes as well, hopefully now that I’ve hit 52 I’ll relax a little and catch up on the other books I have leering at me on the shelf.

By: Nicholas Tam

Nicholas Tam — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:12:13 +0000

Congratulations. Good post, too.

I did this from June 2008 to May 2009 and got through a little over 40, although I took a few weeks off (I know, I know… tortoise, meet hare) and didn’t bother to log or write about my old re-reads. It was still an extremely worthwhile experience, and I plan to resume it sooner or later. The weird thing about reading is the subtle creep of withdrawal – you often don’t notice how much you miss doing it until you sit down and do it.

Just two things: 1) I don’t think the challenge need be limited to fiction, although I agree that people who “don’t like fiction” usually just haven’t discovered the kind they like. 2) I did find that doing this and trying to keep myself on pace had the unfortunate side effect of deterring me from reading the longer books on my shelf (meaning the ones above the 500-600 page mark). I think one could be excused for falling short of 52, even in a challenge like this, if the benefit is immersion in something very rich.

Keep it up!

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:50:53 +0000

DO NOT start with ‘Wizard’s First Rule’. It’s a great story, but a darn long book.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:51:50 +0000

I’ve been attempting 50 books the last few years, and usually get fairly close to finishing, but this year I’ll be lucky if I finish half. At the moment I’ve finished 14, total. It just hasn’t been in the cards. I was kind of frustrated earlier on when I realized that I couldn’t be serious about this goal this year, because last year was my closest yet—I got to 48 books, at least—but c’est la vie. I guess I could have rearranged my TBR pile in order of shortness… haha But I didn’t want that stopping me from reading the things I really wanted to read, either.