Comments on: A Book a Day

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:13:52 +0000

Yeah, anything over a couple hundred pages would tax me pretty badly, even on weekends.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:38:16 +0000

I think a month is about the longest I’d want to go, unless I was doing some sort of grief therapy like the woman in the article. I’ve got a lot of hulking tomes on my shelves. Even split into segments (like Neal Stephenson’s BAroque Cycle is actually 9 smaller novels) they’re still too big for a day. Or at least a day in my life.

By: Memory

Memory — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:02:42 +0000

I’ve managed book-a-day months, but I doubt I could do a whole year unless I ignored all the longer books I want to get to. I’ve managed those months solely because I chose to read shorter books with less complicated narrative styles. Most of the books I have left don’t match up with either category.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:52:04 +0000

Cool. And I agree, no new purchases. It’s not like I don’t have anything to read already on the shelves!!!

By: girldetective

girldetective — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:15:04 +0000

I think it should be flex-y, so read or re-read, just so it’s a book a day for the first two weeks, posting the day after. And preferably for those of us with book-buying issues, not new purchases.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:13:42 +0000

I think the fortnight of the new year would be a perfect time to try it. Are you going to have the same rules she did, or just read a book a day? I have some books on my shelves I haven’t read in 20 or more years that I’d like to re-read. Some young adult, but as I recall, she included those in her repertory.

By: Maureen E

Maureen E — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:37:27 +0000

I’ve actually done it. 2004 and 2005 I read at least 365 books. But I’m a very fast reader, and in recent years, between moving and going to college I haven’t been able to keep that up. I still average about 200-250 books a year though. (I do count re-reads because part of my personal reading philosophy is that each re-read is actually introducing you to a new book.)

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:46:27 +0000

Good point, Kerry. Funny how that detail about her sister’s death–so huge to her–seems small in the context of the profile.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:33:24 +0000

She’s basically reading instead of drinking herself to death in grief–I’ve done it too, and it is preferable to have that lousy coping mechanism in your arsenal rather than alcohol. It’s as if she’s not doing it for pleasure, but to shield herself from stress and emotion and work out her feelings in a safe way.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:25:54 +0000

What I noticed was her comment about giving up complicated cooking, since that’s been such a big part of my life since getting our farm share. But that ends this week, yay! And then we’re in winter, and there will be less fresh stuff overall.

What about the first fortnight of the new year? I do have a lot of short books on my TBR shelves. That would be the biggest sacrifice for me–not having the choice to read big books.

But that would give a nice kickoff to my plan to read 25 shelf books next year.