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Poppyshake's Reading Year 2015


poppyshake

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Avoid blue at all costs!!!

 

 

Unless it's a double-bluff on Alan's part!  :giggle2:

I can't avoid as I'm not looking when I delve my hand in  :unsure: It could well be a double bluff or I might just be terrible at reading people  :blush2: 

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Have you been watching his reactions when you choose a book, you sly thing? Sounds like Alan needs to practice his poker face. :D

No  :blush2: He happened to mention it to me a few picks ago .. how he would know from the colour of the paper and I thought he looked a bit fidgety and more interested this time but I could be well wide of the mark. He would totally do that as well to make me think it .. but then .. as I'm not looking in the jar when I choose it's not going to make much difference. Be interesting to see if I'm right though .. I doubt it  :D 

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Great reviews poppyshake :)

Thanks Paula :)

Kay, I just bought the Dutch translation of Perils at End House last weekend. I hope you enjoy it :)!

I've finished it now .. Agatha is so easy and enjoyable to read. Hope you enjoy it too Gaia :)

At last, the jar has been kind!  Perfect curl up on the sofa reading for a wintry January afternoon. :friends3:   Make the most of it, CBTD might be next ...  :o 

Definitely Claire .. perfect for this weekend .. in fact I've gobbled it up too quickly  :blush2: CBTD is not next .. I have chosen already. I think perhaps I may have preferred CBTD :D One is never satisfied  :blush2: 

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Next book jar pick ...

 

The Hours by Michael Cunningham  :help:  :D 

 

This is going to be interesting .. I've already abandoned it before .. that is, I couldn't quite get it to stick in my head so shelved if for another day. This is that day!  :D I've seen the film and managed to half hold on but that was some time ago. I've read Mrs Dalloway and know quite a bit about Virginia so that .. in theory .. should help a bit. I'm in a bit of a tizz about it though .. it's the first one I haven't been able to find but then it turned up in the first place I looked so that was my fault for not trusting my instincts.  

 

Would appreciate any advice especially from anyone who has read it. I don't want to abandon as the subject matter is close to my heart but bit worried as couldn't get on with it before. I might have been extra stressed or something at the time though. I'll try and approach it in a cool and calm manner  :blush2: (how likely is that? :D

 

 

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If you enjoyed Mrs Dalloway, and enjoy Virginia Woolf generally (as I know you do), then this should be right up your street. As you probably know, it's based heavily on Mrs D: just compare the opening lines! It's also written in much the same style.

Do you know why you didn't get on with it last time? Personally, it's a favourite, and is what got me 'into' Woolf herself. As with Woolf, I just let myself go with the flow.

Edited by willoyd
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Thanks for the advice Will .. I read it this morning just before I picked the book up and it settled my mind a bit .. the result being I had no trouble at all and am enjoying it immensely. Baffling really but I think I tried to read it when I was hassled before .. and had my own stream of consciousness battling with Michael's characters. I'm blessed with very quiet reading days at the moment so can really just concentrate with no outside distractions. I'm not good at blocking out noise or people usually and if my mind is being particularly noisy too then my reading goes to the dogs.

 

It's an absolute treat .. the jar has been good to me :) 

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Very happy with my progress in January after such a poor year last year. I've read 18 books and listened to 2 so that's a vast improvement :) I can't pin much on it though as I often start the year well .. January's not a busy time for me and I have plenty of time to read. I need to try and sustain it. I'm enjoying it enormously too which is the main thing .. really into it and other things which I normally allow to distract me like TV, the internet and the fridge ( :blush2:etc are not getting a look in. Hope I can keep the momentum going in February .. it's more of a busy month for me (and it's short! :D) but I'll be happy if I can at least continue to enjoy my reading and look forward to it as much as I am at the moment  :smile: 

 

Happy February reading everyone! :hug:

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Aw, that's great! I'm so glad you're enjoying your reading.  :friends3: And those 20 books include at least a few biggies! Well done. xo

Thanks Kylie :hug: I cheated with one but I asked Claire and she said it wasn't cheating :D (the Mapp & Lucia books came in one omnibus .. but then the three stories were over 200 pages each .. so I counted them separately :blush2: ) It was 700 pages long in itself.  

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Baffling really but I think I tried to read it when I was hassled before .. and had my own stream of consciousness battling with Michael's characters. I'm blessed with very quiet reading days at the moment so can really just concentrate with no outside distractions. I'm not good at blocking out noise or people usually...

 

It's not really you, it's the human mind.  I'm reading a fascinating book - The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin - where he rips into the idea of multi-tasking (rather we depend more on rapid switching, which is very tiring for the brain). He highlights the fact that the mind has only a limited amount of 'bandwidth', and that focusing on something like reading needs to avoid anything that might distract (our attentional filters are sensitive to change and importance, meaning that either will see the brain switching away from a task you might be trying to do, so if you've got something bothering you, or something in the background changes, you can't sustain attention); for instance those youngsters who reckon they can revise in front of the TV or with a radio on are deluding themselves, in that it affects attention and means the brain stores in the wrong way.  Writing like The Hours, as complex as it is, demands more bandwidth....

 

A lot of that might sound really obvious, but it's the way he's putting it together and explaining it that makes it both fascinating and highly pertinent - explains why I'm so useless at keeping my car keys for instance, and why I keep struggling to stay organised at work (and home!).  It's helping me work out what I need to do.

 

Anyway, am delighted you're enjoying The Hours so much more now!

Edited by willoyd
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It's not really you, it's the human mind.  I'm reading a fascinating book - The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin - where he rips into the idea of multi-tasking (rather we depend more on rapid switching, which is very tiring for the brain). He highlights the fact that the mind has only a limited amount of 'bandwidth', and that focusing on something like reading needs to avoid anything that might distract (our attentional filters are sensitive to change and importance, meaning that either will see the brain switching away from a task you might be trying to do, so if you've got something bothering you, or something in the background changes, you can't sustain attention); for instance those youngsters who reckon they can revise in front of the TV or with a radio on are deluding themselves, in that it affects attention and means the brain stores in the wrong way.  Writing like The Hours, as complex as it is, demands more bandwidth....

 

A lot of that might sound really obvious, but it's the way he's putting it together and explaining it that makes it both fascinating and highly pertinent - explains why I'm so useless at keeping my car keys for instance, and why I keep struggling to stay organised at work (and home!).  It's helping me work out what I need to do.

 

Anyway, am delighted you're enjoying The Hours so much more now!

Very interesting. I always thought that it differed depending on the person. That some people were much better at it I mean. But I suppose we are all affected .. whether it's to a lesser or greater degree. I wish my brain would send me regular messages telling me when I'm exceeding or about to exceed my bandwidth .. that might keep me on the right track. Like I said though I've made changes this month .. concentrated much more on creating a quieter environment when I read and things have improved greatly but I'm still prone to having a busy mind .. I find it hard to switch off  :blush2: 

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You've read more books than me!  I've read 16 books (and six of those were Malory Towers :giggle2:) and listened to one audiobook.  Glad you've had a good month of reading, but now it's time for me to call you a reading machine. :lol:

I'm at home much more than you Claire .. considering you've got a full time job you do outstandingly well (a lot of mine were MT too.) Plus you're an efficient and consistent reading machine. I'm more your all or nothing type  :blush2:  

Yikes, I thought I was doing well with 12 books! :thud:

Twelve books is very respectable .. I would have given my eye teeth to have read twelve in any one month last year .. the nearest I got to it was nine but I had to hammer the books to my head to get them read :D 

I think the jar is helping too .. it's actively urging me on at the moment. It probably won't last .. January is often my best reading month. I get so stressed in December that people leave me alone in January .. like it's some sort of recuperation time :blush2:  

Edited by poppyshake
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I'm at home much more than you Claire .. considering you've got a full time job you do outstandingly well (a lot of mine were MT too.) Plus you're an efficient and consistent reading machine. I'm more your all or nothing type  :blush2:  

Twelve books is very respectable .. I would have given my eye teeth to have read twelve in any one month last year .. the nearest I got to it was nine but I had to hammer the books to my head to get them read :D 

I think the jar is helping too .. it's actively urging me on at the moment. It probably won't last .. January is often my best reading month. I get so stressed in December that people leave me alone in January .. like it's some sort of recuperation time :blush2:  

 

I usually do so well in January coz it's about 11 months since I last read anything :lol:

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I've copied Claire and counted the pages read. I've read 5593 pages .. but then 1058 of those I listened to .. so 4535 of actual pages read. That makes (just chat amongst yourselves  :blush2: ) ... approx .. 146 pages read a day with a further 34 listened to. Not bad. Target is generally 100 but I sometimes don't get anywhere near that so very pleased.

 

I haven't read 146 today though .. I've read about 80 so I hope Feb isn't already going down the swanny but there is still time yet .. the night is young :D Most of those 4535 pages were highly enjoyable. The only ones that were a trial were those contained in A Strange Eventful History but Iris's letters/journal entries were also a bit .. taxing :D To counteract that the Malory Towers books practically read themselves ... I can take no credit for it .. apart from the page turning :D

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I've copied Claire and counted the pages read. I've read 5593 pages .. but then 1058 of those I listened to .. so 4535 of actual pages read. That makes (just chat amongst yourselves  :blush2: ) ... approx .. 146 pages read a day with a further 34 listened to. Not bad. Target is generally 100 but I sometimes don't get anywhere near that so very pleased.

 

I haven't read 146 today though .. I've read about 80 so I hope Feb isn't already going down the swanny but there is still time yet .. the night is young :D Most of those 4535 pages were highly enjoyable. The only ones that were a trial were those contained in A Strange Eventful History but Iris's letters/journal entries were also a bit .. taxing :D To counteract that the Malory Towers books practically read themselves ... I can take no credit for it .. apart from the page turning :D

 

You're sounding awfully competitive, Kay - at least with yourself. Do be careful - that way lies self-induced stress.  After all, there's pages and pages......taking the last book I read, if I had counted the number of pages in my hardback copy, there would have been 421 pages. The paperback copy took up 527 pages, some 25% more.  So those 4535 pages you've read could have been around 3600, or perhaps 5600, or anything in between!

 

Your lower figure could, of course, be because your reading is slightly more challenging?  Cunningham does demand rather more than Blyton or Benson after all.

 

As long as you're enjoying your reading (which you patently are)..... :readingtwo:  :smile:

Edited by willoyd
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18 books?!  :thud:  I only managed six - and one of those was a Roald Dahl! 

 

Well done.  :)

 

I read five.  It was a good month, with three of them at 5* or 6*, and I'm very happy with that.  :smile:

 

I'm so pleased Kay that you've got your love of reading back in full swing - that's great news.  Long may it continue.  :D

Edited by willoyd
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You're sounding awfully competitive, Kay - at least with yourself. Do be careful - that way lies self-induced stress.  After all, there's pages and pages......taking the last book I read, if I had counted the number of pages in my hardback copy, there would have been 421 pages. The paperback copy took up 527 pages, some 25% more.  So those 4535 pages you've read could have been around 3600, or perhaps 5600, or anything in between!

 

Your lower figure could, of course, be because your reading is slightly more challenging?  Cunningham does demand rather more than Blyton or Benson after all.

 

As long as you're enjoying your reading (which you patently are)..... :readingtwo:  :smile:

I know .. it's only a bit of a fun .. I don't usually count pages at all. I'm just delighted that I'm having such a better year (very early days I know) .. it's not the fact that I'm reading more but that I'm enjoying it so much. Last year .. on the whole .. I didn't enjoy my reading ... so my disappointment was with that and not the amount of books read. I've made some changes as I said, to the way I organise my time etc and reading has become very pleasurable once again. This month is much busier for me, so I probably won't get as much time to read .. I was really indulged on that front in January .. but if I can keep up the enthusiasm I'll be happy :)

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18 books?!  :thud:  I only managed six - and one of those was a Roald Dahl! 

 

Well done. 

Thanks Janet :hug: It's very unusual for me too but, as I said to Claire, it's different for me. I haven't got your busy lives .. and I've been alone a lot in January. Basically it was either read or start turning to crime :D

I read five.  It was a good month, with three of them at 5* or 6*, and I'm very happy with that.  :smile:

 

I'm so pleased Kay that you've got your love of reading back in full swing - that's great news.  Long may it continue.  :D

Thanks Will :) 

Well done Kay :)! I'm happy your mojo has been a lot better in January.

 

(I read 30 books and 8169 pages :hide:, but almost half of those were children's books with illustrations.)

Thanks Gaia :) I can always count on you to make my figures look modest :D Hope you enjoyed your reading too. Well done!

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Thanks Gaia :) I can always count on you to make my figures look modest :D Hope you enjoyed your reading too. Well done!

Thanks Kay, I did :). I hope I don't come across as mean or arrogant :blush2:! I think it is absolutely wonderful you've really enjoyed your reading this month, after not really enjoying reading much the past few months before January :hug:.

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Thanks Kay, I did :). I hope I don't come across as mean or arrogant :blush2:! I think it is absolutely wonderful you've really enjoyed your reading this month, after not really enjoying reading much the past few months before January :hug:.

Thanks Gaia .. it is a turn around for sure and one for the better :) No .. I was getting a bit of flak from Will :D I think he knows I tend to crash and burn .. so you saying you'd read more took the pressure off a bit  :blush2: 

Edited by poppyshake
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