purple95

About two. I rarely abandon a book based solely on content as I research my TBR list rather well before beginning a book. But if the author's style displeases me, I rarely try more than two. As others have mentioned, so many books, so little time. Cheers, dan

I have four, all sentimental value only: A KJ version Bible and a Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, both presents from my fraternal grandmother. I also treasure an old dictionary which belonged to my father. An autographed copy of And Four to Grow On by my cousin Frances Palmer Goris. This book is about adopting four young children and of course involves close relatives and locations near my home. Alas, my parents and I are not mentioned in the book, or we would be famous. Mrs. Purple95 and I have a collection of autographed books that are special to us and certainly more valuable than these but I become more sentimental every day, ergo the above list. Cheers, dan

It was a great year, reading wise, for me. I completed by 1000th documented book in October and have read 119 books so far and will easily break the 120 mark by year's end. Cormac McCarthy's The Road, probably takes first place for me this year although I really enjoyed King's Just After Sunset. I discovered John Wyndham's works and was pleased. I discovered Margaret Atwood's works and was not pleased. As usual, I read a lot of non fiction in my areas of personal interest. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. May 2009 bless all of you. Cheers, dan

Perhaps this subject is so obvious to all of you as to not merit any comment or interest, but books with a connection to my personal life and/or locale have always been of special importance to me. Being an unabashed King fan, I've just started Just After Sunset. One of the stories takes place just a few miles from my home here in Florida. I've been to the location many times and drive by frequently. Another example was a book authored by my cousin about her family's experiences in adopting four small children. This book was set just a few miles from my home and of course involved close relatives of mine. An autographed copy is perhaps my most cherished book. I'll only bore you with one more example. The Yearling and all of Marjorie Rawlings' other books are set close to my home. I've visited her home and the surrounding park many times and hiked the area mentioned in her stories. Anyway.......books such as these are among my most enjoyable and memorable. I search them out and it's fortunate that numerous novels are set in Florida. It's an interesting and fascinating locale of course, as Mrs. Purple95 and I reside here. Do any of you have similar connections to your favorite books? Cheers, dan

My method? All of the above. I keep a pocket notebook listing the books I want to check out from the library and take it with me each time I go. I use the online reserve/hold service for specific books I'm interested in. (My library's service is great. They took a reservation for King's Just After Sunset 3-4 months prior to the publishing date. I just picked it up this week.) And of course I browse the stacks just for fun. I've found some of the most enjoyable books of my reading career that way. I always look in the New Books section first, however. Cheers, dan

Greetings Robson, The title aside, a history of erotic photography sounds rather interesting. I like the "1000" in the title suggestion. I'll look into that. Mrs. purple95 recently brought home a tattered copy of Childhoods End someone was going to throw away or some such silliness. The book is in very poor condition and has obviously served its readers well. A real trooper. Since A.C. Clarke is one of my favorite authors, and I've not read Childhood's End, I might rescue this book, read it, and give it an honored place on my shelves. Thanks all for your suggestions, any more? Number 996 will be completed tonight so a decision needs to be made soon. I'm planning a trip to a couple of book stores just to browse and see if anything jumps up demanding to be number 1000. Cheers, dan

beef, A lot of what I read is non-fiction. I have several lifelong interests and hobbies and try to read whatever I can in those areas. These are usually the only books I purchase and add to my library. I seldom, if ever, purchase fiction. Favorite authors include King, Turtledove, Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Clarke, Oates, and several others. I've recently started reading Cormac McCarthy although only two of his works so far. My scope is broad and my favorite shelves at the library are marked, "New Books". I just pick out a few that look good and wade in. Some make the cut, some don't. Cheers, dan

Many factors contributed to my prolonged absence form the forum these last months, hopefully I can return to your good graces. Anyway....... Next week or so I will set down in my favorite reading chair and begin my 1000th book. I have a database of all the books I've read and have been anticipating number 1000 for quite some time. I'm currently at 996. I'm sure many of you have read several times that amount but this will certainly be a milestone for me. I'm looking for suggestions as to what my 1000th book should be. Not being terribly creative at such things, the best ideas I've come up with so far is to find something by one of my favorite authors or something popular right now. I've even considered doing something I almost never do, go out and purchase a nice book as a keepsake of the occasion. Perhaps something mundane as picking at random from my most recent pile of library books setting on the shelf. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Cheers, dan

Many years ago I attempted to record all the books I've read over the years. This list has evolved into a database on my computer where I track title, author, date completed, F/NF, copyright date, and comments. I sometimes enjoy sorting the entries in different ways to see what and who I've been reading, and other parameters. 996 entries and counting. Cheers, dan

Janet, Indeed, it does make sense. Perhaps I was expecting a higher number because of the importance that I place on the book. I do feel that everyone should read the STORY, but you're right, the BOOK does bog down at times. Try being a GUY reading the diary of a young, teenage girl. Maybe we could get Tom Clancy to do a re-write. Anyway.........I think we agree that we're both a little better for the experience. Thanks for your thoughts. dan

Janet, Thank you for a nice review of an important classic. A "must read" for everyone. As I read your review, I remember having much the same feelings as you reported. Maybe that's why I said this was a "nice" review. You seemed to enjoy the book and were spot on in your review. But the 7 1/2 / 10 rating confused me. Did the subject matter itself lower your rating or.......? Just wondering. dan

I know...it's an old thread but I just had to jump in here. I read "The Road" in just three sittings last weekend. I enjoy post-apocalyptic and "survival" stories in general. I've read a lot of them. While some find them depressing, I feel just the opposite. The good ones such as this always have a theme displaying the best characteristics of mankind. This was my first book by McCarthy. I'll read others. dan

I've read a couple or so of his works. "A Walk to Remember" is by far my favorite. I easily related to the high school aged characters. His works are worth searching out. dan

I enjoyed Settling Accounts: In At The Death by Harry Turtledove. The last book of a long series about a continuing civil war in North America. Another "find" was On Hitler's Mountain by Emgard A. Hunt. This is a NF book of the life and times of a young girl growing up in Germany prior to and during WWII. Excellent read! And, as always, some great stuff by Stephen King: Carrie Blaze The Colorado Kid I posted this list in another thread but it also fits well here. Merry Christmas dan

Stressed? No. Frustrated? Yes. My frustration comes from the oft repeated scenario of learning of a book that sounds interesting, putting it on my "To Be Read" list, and then discovering that it's out of print or otherwise unavailable. I have access to books from two very large county library systems, a smaller county system, and the entire University of Florida library collection. Still........sometimes I just can't find that special book. My TBR pile of books is usually very small, maybe two or three at one time. I can't imagine two or three HUNDRED books here in my study yelling "READ ME!" Merry Christmas dan

My reading was down a little this year; will only total out to around 69-70 books. I enjoyed Settling Accounts: In At The Death by Harry Turtledove. The last book of a long series about a continuing civil war in North America. Another "find" was On Hitler's Mountain by Emgard A. Hunt. This is a NF book of the life and times of a young girl growing up in Germany prior to and during WWII. Excellent read! And, as always, some stuff by Stephen King: Carrie Blaze The Colorado Kid Merry Christmas everyone! dan

A dear friend used to keep four or five going at one time. He would read the one that best fit his mood when he wanted to read. I tried that for a while but just could not get comfortable. One at a time for me. dan

Supergran... Yep. About 45 deg F this AM. Anyway...I've finished my chores. And now I have a date with Joyce Carol Oates this afternoon in my reading chair. Cheers, dan

It's cold in Florida this morning and I have outside chores to do. I'm stalling........... Just for fun I looked back at my have-read list for 2006 and 2007 and found that only 35% of the books I read in that time were fiction. I would have guessed that number to be much higher. I have several life long interests and hobbies. I search out and read books on these and strive to learn from them. While I derive great satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from this, it does not provide the guilty pleasures associated with devouring a novel by King, Oates, Turtledove, et al. Perhaps I thought the percentage of NF to be higher that it actually was is because I derive more "guilty pleasure" from fiction than I do from non-fiction. What say you? What are your percentages of Fic vs. N-F? I get the impression from reading the posts here that most of you are reading far more fiction as a total percentage that I am. Are you too perhaps reading more non-fiction than you suppose but enjoying it less? Merry Christmas, dan

Sedge, When I saw your thread title I was reminded of a course I took as a freshman in college entitled "Speed Reading" or something like that. It was one of those freshman level courses designed to help you survive in college. The classroom had desks equipped with a machine that projected a narrow, horizontal beam of light that you could focus on the individual lines of text in the book. The speed at which this light moved down the page could be adjusted. The theory was to increase the speed thereby increasing your reading speed. While an easy "A", I didn't really increase my reading speed during the course. I remember reading 1984 and Animal Farm and that's about it. Now to your question, sorry for the thread drift.... Being semi-retired, I have the luxury of reading at will as much or as little as I wish. Usually the amount of reading is determined by how "into" a given book I am. Greater interest/pleasure equates to more reading per day. I average around 35 pages per day. Cheers, dan

OK y'all here ya go.... Cross Creek, The Yearling, or any other works by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Rawlings lived just a few miles from my home. I have hiked the park now located at her residence. I can just "feel" her characters and descriptions as I sit on the shore of Orange Lake. She simply is spot on about the culture of this area. When you visit, stop by "The Yearling" restaurant and have some fried 'gator. dan

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I went to the library yesterday and used my old pocket notebook system. It works okay, but I want a system that works perfectly. Still searching. Yep, I was right. This is a nice place with nice people. dan

Roland and Adam, The comic books are sorted, individually packaged and stored in A/C. I would really like to sell them and let them "live" again as they just sit now. Honestly, Mrs. purple95 and I have been thinking about setting a lot of our books free for someone else to enjoy. Adam, Love your avatar. Liston fight in the late 60's, right? My father and I followed Ali's career closely in those days. Good times. dan

Good Evening, Between Mrs. purple95 and me we have approximately 1500. Plus; I still have around 500 of my comic books dating back to the late 1940's. I started reading early as I'm sure all of you did. dan

Good Evening, I'm the new guy with his first post. I've been lurking on book forums for several years but just never joined. This one appears to be one of the more interesting. Mrs. purple95 and I are both semi-retired and living the good life in Florida. We are both avid readers. I average around 100/yr while she trails that a bit. I hope to contribute here from time to time. My first question: How do you all manage your TBR lists? I have tried several methods but find some fault with all of them. My two "best" so far are a pocket notebook that I keep updated and a Word document that I regularly edit and print out. Besides keeping a list of the books themselves of course, I take the list with me to the library for use there. Anyone have a wonderful, user friendly, TBR list method? Thanks, dan