Sunday 18 July 2010

Reading Challenge - Half way done

So now that I'm half way done with this challenge, I decided to share some thoughts of what I've realised so far, as well as some statistics.

I've learnt that by reviewing each book I read, the way I rate them has changed. Now I feel like I have to justify why it is that rating, so I'm less benevolent. A book finished is not an automatic 4 out 5, I give it some thought why I liked it or not, which parts bugged me, and which parts I loved.

Also by reviewing a book right after I finish it I'm more likely to write a long review rather than a short one. With The Book of Lost Things as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories, I started by writing a short review, realizing, upon finishing it, that it was longer than I had thought to write. Guess I had more things to say than I thought.

The next challenge might be to write a proper review for every book I read. We'll see about that.

And now for some stats:

I've read 39 books so far, 1 of which was actually 4 very small books (The Catwings Set). I also read three graphic novels that didn't count toward the challenge, as they are usually much lighter and faster to read than a regular novel. They were Coraline and The sandman : preludes & nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. So in truth, I've read 45 books so far.

I tend to read long books, which makes this challenge a bit more, well, challenging. About 36% of the books I read this year had 400 or more pages. I've read 13192 pages so far. Of course this doesn't mean much, when most of the books have different page and font sizes, with some books having about 80 words per page, and others close to 600.

As for ratings:
4 books got the maximum rating (5/5), but 3 of them were re-reads of books by Juliet Marillier (an author that I love).

10 books were rated 4.5 (one of them a re-read).

The lowest ratings so far were 2 out 5, for Shadowmancer, followed by 2.5 for Secrets of Surrender.

The average rating is: 3.97 (the average rating disregarding re-reads is: 3.87)

This means I enjoyed most of the books I read. To tell the truth I read some that are on their way to become absolute favourites (to use an expression from the Percheron Series that I read this year).

What to read next
I asked what should I read next, and the responses were (3 votes, I know it's not much):
   2 votes for The Third God by Ricardo Pinto
   1 vote for Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

Because The Third God is a huge book (888 pages), I can hardly carry it around with me - it would probably dislocate my shoulder and cause severe back problems. I will start reading it, but only at home. While I'm out, I'll read Sense and Sensibility, that is of a much more sensible size, and fits perfectly in my handbag.

The poll is still open, so if anyone wants to vote, feel free to do it.

4 comments:

  1. Half way done, isn't that great...and we're exactly in June, in the middle of it(*jealous* you make me sick! xD :p)

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  2. Actualy,we are in July, more than half of the year has passed.
    But don't worry, the third god will take a long time to finish :)

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  3. xD yes, I laughed so hard when I realized I had written June xD

    Yes, it will take long, except that for you that means like...3 days.
    :p

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  4. I completely forgot to put the stats about how it takes me to read a book. Right now I'm at about 4.5 days per book, and 78 pages per day. The third god should take me 12 days to read, then. It will probably be more.

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