52 Books In 52 Weeks: Week One Underway Come Join Us! [Start With Old Man And The Sea]

Paprika
Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited January 2017 in For The Grown & Sexy
With the start of a new year, people always try to commit to new habits and are overwhelmed by the time needed to complete their new goal. In this thread you can set any amount of books you want to read for the year, as long as you’re reading. The mind is an amazing tool that needs exercise.

Support your local book shops, libraries, Amazon, Kindle, Kobo, Play Store and other places where you can buy books. We always carry phones around and are on them daily so a bit of reading here and there is only a positive use of time.

To fulfil the 52 Books in 52 weeks goal it’s best to aim for one book a week or more to give yourself room for periods where reading isn’t possible.

I accomplished 90 books last year reading 2-4 books a week. Keeping track I used a spreadsheet, but stopped updating around the 4 month mark. I’ll drop a spreadsheet in the second post along with other pieces of info.

Each month to keep this thread active I’ll hold a giveaway for a book of one’s choosing in paperback or official Epub formats.

If you need a starting point, The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a short and wonderfully crafted book. It contains the message of this thread and goal with grace.
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Comments

  • Paprika
    Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2017

    Everyone should be able to participate with local libraries, the spoiler provided.

    I'll edit this later to provide a Google Drive Account for this book challenge.
  • Paprika
    Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2017
    Just like your phone, bring a book with you wherever you go. It enforces discipline to keep reading, a lot of time during the day we are idle, waiting for someone to arrive or taking the train to work. 10 minutes outside of your daily set time to read keeps your mind going.

    If a book doesn't command your attention or you start to hate it stop reading it. I can't emphasise this one enough. In this instant gratification culture an oddity has occured, people sticking with shows and foods that don't make them feel good or offer a payoff. There definitely won't be one of you hate the book you read.

    To the person that hates a particular book, they may turn that anger into a disdain for the entirety of their reading approach.

    Set a goal that is attainable but one that isn't one without challenge. 90 books in 52 weeks may work for me but not for everyone. Your goal can always increase as the year goes on I think everyone can do 52 books, but there isn't anything less admirable in a goal of 25+.

    If you aren't naturally a note taker it may be too much to add to get yourself into.

    Have fun reading. Select books that garner your interest and won't have you quitting in frustration.

    Lastly, despite your progress, whether faster or slower than the rest of the group keep posting in the thread. There have already been a good amount of recommended books in here that might interest you. It also adds to the discipline you have for the reading cycle. And may just give you the inspiration needed to finish your book.

    Have fun and good luck to all who participate. To those wary of this, it's never too late to start reading. Literacy is all around us your reading may inspire someone to get back in it.
  • Paprika
    Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2017
    Recommended Reading List

    Fiction
    The Bell Jar
    The Gambler
    Catch-22
    Wuthering Heights
    Dark Places
    The Girl With All The Gifts
    Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
    Rosemary's Baby
    Notes From The Underground

    Non-Fiction
    Malcolm X
    Mrs. Hemingway
    The Rules of Work
    Revolutionary Suicide
    Stokely
    The Selfish Gene
    How To Win Friends And Influence People
    The Fourth Industrial Revolution

    More later.
  • Neophyte Wolfgang
    Neophyte Wolfgang Members Posts: 4,169 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Nah.....speed reading is not good for me, I have trouble retaining the information. I will try and read more mindfully and absorb more. What tricks do you have to retain more information?
  • yellowtapesport
    yellowtapesport Members Posts: 4,662 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Damn I need to read more post
  • silverfoxx
    silverfoxx Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 11,704 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Speed reading is a huge contradiction that I never got into. I rather take 5 months with a book like Mastery (I take notes, go back and study passages, research ) and process things deeply then just to read to say i read.

    That's me though, not judging the speed reading community or anything. I'm sure there is some benefits to it.
  • LordZuko
    LordZuko Members Posts: 2,473 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There's no purpose to speed reading just to say i read a book but what did you learn. Reading is an interactive process and your mind needs time to process information.

    When i was a shorty i was reading about 200 books a year but it was all fiction and didn't require anything from me so i could blaze through. What's the point in reading that many books if you don't learn anything from what you're reading?
  • 2stepz_ahead
    2stepz_ahead Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 32,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
    props bruh.

    read misty Copeland's book is a great read.

    ? an chicks need to read it to put things into perspective.

    ? had me glassy eyed
  • atribecalledgabi
    atribecalledgabi Members, Moderators Posts: 14,063 Regulator
    12 books a year, 1 a month is more feasible for me.
  • b'mer...
    b'mer... Members Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I brought in the new year with reading The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

    But to read 10 books in 10 months means nothing if the information isnt being retained...i usually read the same page twice before moving on. Whats a nice home library if you dont remember 50% of the information.
  • Paprika
    Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2017
    @silverfoxx
    @Neophyte Wolfgang
    @b'mer...
    @LordZuko
    @dallas' 4 eva

    All of your concerns about speed reading are true. Speed reading allows pieces of information to slip through the cracks, as often it is advertised as skipping words and paragraphs. That's not how I enjoy books.

    Like silverfoxx, I prefer to take my time with books, take notes to research and re-read pages at a time and even restart chapters. Upon completion of a book I review the whole thing using quotes I've written down and more that I go back into the book for.

    This challenge isn't about speed reading, rather time allocation. Under pressure to resd, people can't focus on the information they see and thus can't retain it.

    One book a week. With 168 hours in that week and 1 hour with a book a day, everyone can get a book finished.

    Literacy is one of the greatest gifts in life and not enough people get to utilize it. The brain, much like the body isn't supposed to be sedentary, it needs to be challenged through excercise and consistency. With a set time for one to put everything down and read, you become consistent, in turn, a book you've read in piecemeal over 6 months is done in a week or two.
  • Paprika
    Paprika Members Posts: 2,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    props bruh.

    read misty Copeland's book is a great read.

    ? an chicks need to read it to put things into perspective.

    ? had me glassy eyed

    I'll put this down on my list. My first two books this week are Revolutionary Suicide and #Girlboss.
  • silverfoxx
    silverfoxx Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 11,704 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Paprika wrote: »
    @silverfoxx
    @Neophyte Wolfgang
    @b'mer...
    @LordZuko
    @dallas' 4 eva

    All of your concerns about speed reading are true. Speed reading allows pieces of information to slip through the cracks, as often it is advertised as skipping words and paragraphs. That's not how I enjoy books.

    Like silverfoxx, I prefer to take my time with books, take notes to research and re-read pages at a time and even restart chapters. Upon completion of a book I review the whole thing using quotes I've written down and more that I go back into the book for.

    This challenge isn't about speed reading, rather time allocation. Under pressure to resd, people can't focus on the information they see and thus can't retain it.

    One book a week. With 168 hours in that week and 1 hour with a book a day, everyone can get a book finished.

    Literacy is one of the greatest gifts in life and not enough people get to utilize it. The brain, much like the body isn't supposed to be sedentary, it needs to be challenged through excercise and consistency. With a set time for one to put everything down and read, you become consistent, in turn, a book you've read in piecemeal over 6 months is done in a week or two.

    I can respect this man.
  • Lou Cypher
    Lou Cypher Members Posts: 52,521 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm definitely gonna read more this year. Probably can't do a book a week, but atleast 2 weeks maybe 3. I'll be active in here and share what i read
  • Cabana_Da_Don
    Cabana_Da_Don Members Posts: 7,992 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Best thread made.Congrats to TS.I would advice also buying books that teach other languages.Move on to semetic languages that read from left to right to make your brain switch up.Also if the book get´s too heavy stop and read another one and then come back later on.
  • BEAM
    BEAM Members Posts: 2,560 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I read 125 books this past year, going for 150+ this year.

    Speed reading has always worked just fine for me; But I didn't learn to skip over any words or info, only to read entire lines at a time and to not need to repeat the words in my head as I'm reading.

    ? aren't too busy to read, they just don't / aren't good at it.
  • zzombie
    zzombie Members Posts: 11,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Depending on the size and content of the book finishing it in a week at regular speeds should be easy so hopefully this shouldn't be much of a challenge for me.
  • blacktux
    blacktux Members Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I side with schopenhauer when it comes to reading for the sake of reading.
  • Cabana_Da_Don
    Cabana_Da_Don Members Posts: 7,992 ✭✭✭✭✭
    zzombie wrote: »
    Depending on the size and content of the book finishing it in a week at regular speeds should be easy so hopefully this shouldn't be much of a challenge for me.

    Come on now.How many pages is this book.I would like to know which book is this?
  • Undefeatable
    Undefeatable Members Posts: 1,970 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That's an admirable goal, but it is only realistic if you're reading certain things.

    50 or more books a year if you're reading books like this


    latest?cb=20131018072815


    not books like this


    foundations-of-social-theory.jpg

    or this

    6157.jpg?v=1400097488


    With all due respect, FOH b.

  • zzombie
    zzombie Members Posts: 11,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    zzombie wrote: »
    Depending on the size and content of the book finishing it in a week at regular speeds should be easy so hopefully this shouldn't be much of a challenge for me.

    Come on now.How many pages is this book.I would like to know which book is this?

    wft are you asking me???
  • LordZuko
    LordZuko Members Posts: 2,473 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I suggest you all read this book. It's forecasting the next era, the next fifty to one hundred years.

    bgcoeev05l9t.jpg

    The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres” – Professor Klaus Schwab.
  • LordZuko
    LordZuko Members Posts: 2,473 ✭✭✭✭✭
    My place is like 60% books 30% ? I've bought based on the books I've read and the last 10% a sex dungeon.