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Anna's Books for 2014


Anna Begins

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Since today marks the last day of the 6 month mark for the year, I decided to add everything up-

So far, I've read 40 books and 9 Kindle Singles.  A total of 17,716 pages!

That's great :exc:! Did you have a goal at the beginning of the year? It looks like you might be able to read 65-75 books for the whole year :).

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That's great :exc:! Did you have a goal at the beginning of the year? It looks like you might be able to read 65-75 books for the whole year :).

I'd love to do 80, but it seems like I'm reading a bunch of 500-600+ page books this year.  I'm not going through them as fast as I did in the beginning of the year (Feb. was a boom!) but I am taking off a few days of reading and that will hurt.  My goal is 80, but I think your estimate is more likely.  I'm getting BBC History Magazine tonight so it might break my reading drought.

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(5/5) Audiobook of Carrie, by Stephen King; narrated by Sissy Spacek, 322 pages (re-read).

 

This was my first devoted attempt at an audiobook and apparently, I picked the right one.  I managed to find the speed adjustment on my Kindle Fire and matched it almost to my reading speed (I did Amazons Immersion Reading, where it highlights the words as they are read). Through Spacek, I was constantly reminded just how good this book actually is and what a genius King really is. 

I was riveted to this audiobook from the beginning.  Spacek delivers a splendid reading, using tones and inflections perfectly to capture the story, but not going over the top with it... more like reading it in her mind, and in turn, how the reader probably might.  Much different than my first and only other audiobook attempt 13 Reasons Why.

At the end, I felt... so fulfilled , like after a really good read.  And I'm still thinking about it today!  If you are looking for a great audio reading, want to get started with audiobooks or just want a different reading experience, I would definitely recommend this version of Carrie (Cover above is same for Audiobook).

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I'd love to do 80, but it seems like I'm reading a bunch of 500-600+ page books this year.  I'm not going through them as fast as I did in the beginning of the year (Feb. was a boom!) but I am taking off a few days of reading and that will hurt.  My goal is 80, but I think your estimate is more likely.  I'm getting BBC History Magazine tonight so it might break my reading drought.

500 pagers .. they hamper one so :blush2: I'm reading one at the moment and I keep thinking 'this is not going to help my statistics at all' which of course is not the attitude. I should be so involved that the pages fly by  :blush2:  I think I'll also read about 80 this year which is well down on last year but there's no point in stressing .. it is what it is .. enjoying it is more important  :smile: Good luck anyway Anna  :smile: 

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500 pagers .. they hamper one so :blush2: I'm reading one at the moment and I keep thinking 'this is not going to help my statistics at all' which of course is not the attitude. I should be so involved that the pages fly by  :blush2:  I think I'll also read about 80 this year which is well down on last year but there's no point in stressing .. it is what it is .. enjoying it is more important  :smile: Good luck anyway Anna  :smile: 

Thanks!  I never set a goal before, I was curious to see what it would be like all laid out and I ended up with 40 and 9 or so Kindle shorts... so we shall see :smile: I'm just getting out of a slump which slowed me down, too.  Plus, I like reading the shorts for the read-a-thons.  :readingtwo:

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I really want to read Carrie! I'm not sure about audiobooks, I like the actual act of reading too much!

I felt the same way and just decided to give it a try.  Thought I might be able to read more or faster, but ended up just "reading" Carrie because it was so good.  I got a great suggestion on here to start with books you want to re-read, so that's what I did with Carrie and it was so fun!  I like to read too much too, so I chose to do Amazon's Immersion Reading, where it highlights the words as they are read- so you can read along and listen at the same time.  If you have a Kindle Fire, Android or IPhone, you can do Immersion Reading through Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000827761

They are kinda pricy, but cheaper if you buy the book, then buy the audio and do the Immersion.  They also have lots of classics for 99 cents to 2 dollars.

Oh- and Carrie is a great one to start with, although it is on the gory side :giggle2:

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(5/5) Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde (422 pages)

 

I read this book in two days.  15% in and I was crying.  This touching story, about the love people can have for each other and how they can be brought together, is one of Catherine Ryan Hyde's reoccurring themes and the best I have read of hers.  This is the third book of Hyde's that I have read this year and every one of them are touching and are lasting memories.  With her distinct writing, Hyde reaches down into you as you read, faster and faster- needing an emotional break but not being able take one. As I read this book, I kept thinking about her writing this book- where do these soul bearing books come from... I envision her ferociously typing away on a computer.  Hyde is definitely (and quickly) becoming one of my favorite authors.

 

From Muggle Not and Amazon:

 

Former Broadway dancer and current agoraphobic Billy Shine has not set foot outside his apartment in almost a decade. He has glimpsed his neighbors—beautiful manicurist Rayleen, lonely old Ms. Hinman, bigoted and angry Mr. Lafferty, kind-hearted Felipe, and 9-year-old Grace and her former addict mother Eileen.

 

But most of them have never seen Billy. Not until Grace begins to sit outside on the building’s front stoop for hours every day, inches from Billy’s patio. Troubled by this change in the natural order, Billy makes it far enough out onto his porch to ask Grace why she doesn’t sit inside where it’s safe.

 

Her answer: “If I sit inside, then nobody will know I’m in trouble. And then nobody will help me.”

 

Her answer changes everything.

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(5/5) Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde (422 pages)

 

I read this book in two days.  15% in and I was crying.  This touching story, about the love people can have for each other and how they can be brought together, is one of Catherine Ryan Hyde's reoccurring themes and the best I have read of hers.  This is the third book of Hyde's that I have read this year and every one of them are touching and are lasting memories.  With her distinct writing, Hyde reaches down into you as you read, faster and faster- needing an emotional break but not being able take one. As I read this book, I kept thinking about her writing this book- where do these soul bearing books come from... I envision her ferociously typing away on a computer.  Hyde is definitely (and quickly) becoming one of my favorite authors.

 

 

Good review and description of the book.

 

I am glad you liked the book. Maybe we can get more people reading Catherine Ryan Hyde and enjoying her writings. :)

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Good review and description of the book.

 

I am glad you liked the book. Maybe we can get more people reading Catherine Ryan Hyde and enjoying her writings. :)

Thanks on the review.  People are SO missing out :P

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I just wanted to have this note in my thread. 

*******

I finally got Microsoft Word (Office) for school, so I am deleting this post of notes; these will be used in my review of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

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Quotes from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

 

"Architecture is primarily a utilitarian conception, and the problem is to elevate the principle of pragmatism into the realm of esthetic abstraction.  All else is nonsense."

 

...we could be true to history only in heeding her law, which demanded that we plat the roots firmly in the reality of our own life.

 

"It's like the shadows some say we'll see of the Earth in that other world.  Maybe that's how I'll see the rest of it.  I'm learning."

 

"Do you understand the difference?  Your house is made by it's own needs.  Those others are made by the need to impress.  The determining motive of your house is in the house.  The determining motive if the other is I the audience."

 

"You know, I never open again any great book I've read and loved.  It hurts me to think of the other eyes that have read it and what they were."

 

"...Why I always feel, when I see you, that you're the most life- giving person I've ever met."

 

Peter Keating had never felt the need to formulate abstract convictions.  But he had a working substitute.  "A thing is not high if one can reach it; it is not great if one can reason about it; it is not deep if one can see its bottom."

 

"There's so much nonsense about human inconstancy and transience of all emotions.  I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place.  There are books I liked at the age of sixteen.  I still like them."

Edited by Anna Begins
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  • 2 weeks later...

Found out that reading vertically instead of horizontally on my Kindle, goes much faster.  Breezing through The Fountainhead now.  It is no longer killing me.  I think I will be done in 2-3 days.

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I didn't know you could read on the Kindle in two different ways, mine is just set to default I think (which I think is vertical). It's great to read you read faster this way, I hope you enjoy the last part of the book :).

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I didn't know you could read on the Kindle in two different ways, mine is just set to default I think (which I think is vertical). It's great to read you read faster this way, I hope you enjoy the last part of the book :).

I think it's just on the Kindle Fire that you can read horizontally.  I plan to spend most of the day reading it (Vertically ;) ).

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I can read my Kindle both horizontally and vertically - works just as well if I lie down as if I sit or stand up! :giggle2: Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

Seriously, I have an old keyboard Kindle and I can change the text to horizontal if I want to, but I suspect, like most people, I prefer to read it in the vertical format, as it closely resembles the book format. On my iPad using the Kindle app though, if I turn the iPad through 90 degrees, it automatically changes to the appropriate format, which I imagine is similar to the Kindle Fire. :)

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I can read my Kindle both horizontally and vertically - works just as well if I lie down as if I sit or stand up! :giggle2: Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

 

:P

I like the horizontal, as it makes me feel more like I'm reading a book!  But it seems to take for- ever!  I mean, seriously- 12 days for a 750 page book?  I will probably only do 3 books this month.  :cry:  

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Maybe it also depends on the writing style? For me it does. I find some books just fly by a lot quicker than others. Books that are easy to read and require less thinking go faster for me than books that have difficult sentence structures and so on (ie. some older classics).

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Maybe it also depends on the writing style? For me it does. I find some books just fly by a lot quicker than others. Books that are easy to read and require less thinking go faster for me than books that have difficult sentence structures and so on (ie. some older classics).

Yes, as I will state in my upcoming review, The Fountainhead has a ton more philosophy in it than Atlas Shrugged.  But it's moving along- I'm at 60% now,  10% in one day.  It moves, just not a page turner.  Plus, it is a lot different than the last book and books I've been reading so it's a change in genres.  I mainly read it and surf the net at the same time :typing:   :readingtwo:

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I can read vertically or horizontally on my Kindle. I prefer reading vertically (ie. Kindle is the longest up and down - not left to right). I have tried reading horizontally but it just doesn't feel right. :doh:

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If I get one more recommendation for that stupid Prey series I dunno what I'm gonna do!  Field of Prey, ya ya thanks, I get it.  Ugh.  I mean, seriously, novel 24????

Edit: Sorry to any John Sandford fans, maybe it gets better.

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