Kathy's 2020 Big Fat Books

Charlas2020 BIG FAT BOOK CHALLENGE

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Kathy's 2020 Big Fat Books

1kac522
Editado: Oct 15, 2020, 2:15 am

I'm new to this challenge, so I have a modest list of possible Big Reads in 2020. If I read 4 of these in 2020 I'll be ecstatic:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte --COMPLETED 14 Jan; 534 pages
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens --COMPLETED 17 Aug;
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens --COMPLETED 20 May; 926 pages
Felix Holt, George Eliot
Romola, George Eliot
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
Castle Richmond, Anthony Trollope --COMPLETED 13 Feb; 500 pages; also listened to the Audiobook in Jul-Aug.

and two possible re-reads:
Little Dorrit, Dickens
Daniel Deronda, Eliot

Added: Mansfield Park: an annotated edition, --COMPLETED 24 May; Jane Austen; 544 pages
Added: Orley Farm, Anthony Trollope--COMPLETED 14 October; 825 pages

2connie53
Dic 30, 2019, 3:52 am

Welcome to the BFB's, Kathy.

3Andrew-theQM
Dic 30, 2019, 5:46 am

Welcome Kathy, and good luck. 👍

4kac522
Dic 30, 2019, 3:58 pm

>2 connie53:, >3 Andrew-theQM: thanks, and I'll definitely need the "good luck" part...

5MissWatson
Ene 2, 2020, 11:00 am

Hello Kathy, and good luck. I hope you enjoy the Tenant of Wildfell Hall!

6kac522
Ene 2, 2020, 12:18 pm

>5 MissWatson: Thanks--me, too--I am leading the discussion of the book for my RL book club. Of course, that's assuming anyone shows up :) The group is not quite used to 19th century lit, so I'm taking a leap.

7MissWatson
Ene 3, 2020, 12:05 pm

>6 kac522: Well, it is slow-paced, but the subject matter is still relevant, I think.

8kac522
Ene 3, 2020, 12:35 pm

>7 MissWatson: OK, good to know--thanks.

9johnsimpson
Ene 10, 2020, 4:10 pm

Hello Kathy my dear, I hope you have a good year on here dear friend.

10kac522
Ene 10, 2020, 8:42 pm

>9 johnsimpson: I'm doing well, John. I am about 150 pages into The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so sometime next week I should have an entry in our Big Books.

11kac522
Ene 15, 2020, 4:02 am

First BFB DONE! The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte, 534 pages.

12kac522
Feb 14, 2020, 2:54 am

BFB #2 Completed: Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope, 500 pages (1860)

13kac522
mayo 21, 2020, 2:44 pm

Finished my third BFB: Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, 925 pages (1848). This will not be my favorite Dickens. The middle seemed to drag a bit. As with any Dickens there are all kinds of mysterious side stories that don't seem to be related, but in the end, they all come together. The first third (from the point of view of little Paul) & last third (lots of action) of the book were the best.

14kac522
Editado: mayo 24, 2020, 11:11 pm

Another done: # 4 Mansfield Park : an annotated edition by Jane Austen; 544 pages. I actually listened to the audiobook (read by Juliet Stevenson) and then went back to the beautiful over-sized edition to read the intro, annotations and Appendices.

15kac522
Editado: Jul 2, 2020, 4:45 pm

Mid-year stats:

I'm ecstatic that I've finished 4 BFBs so far this year, which was my lowly goal. I hope I can finish 4 more before year's end.

I'm most likely to read from these:

Barnaby Rudge, Dickens
Orley Farm, Trollope
Wives and Daughters, Gaskell
Waverley, Scott
South Riding, Winifred Holtby
The Crystal Cave, Stewart

16johnsimpson
Jul 2, 2020, 5:02 pm

Well done Kathy my dear.

17kac522
Jul 2, 2020, 6:07 pm

Thank you, John!

Looks like the group have surpassed your goal of 100 books. I was wondering: do you ever count the number of pages we have all collectively read? That would be an impressive number!

18MissWatson
Jul 3, 2020, 3:12 am

>15 kac522: Some of my favourites in that list. I love The Crystal Cave.

19kac522
Jul 3, 2020, 11:38 am

>18 MissWatson: Thanks! I plan to read it for the "Arthurian Britain" Reading through Time Challenge.

20johnsimpson
Jul 4, 2020, 4:10 pm

>17 kac522:, Hi Kathy my dear, i used to facilitate a group to read more than 15,000 pages as i used to aim to read 25,000 pages but my target is now 40,000 pages but folks drifted away so i haven't done it for the last three years.

21johnsimpson
Jul 4, 2020, 4:28 pm

>17 kac522:, Hi Kathy my dear, my page total so far is 12,175 from 14 books.

22kac522
Jul 4, 2020, 8:07 pm

Well, if I can find my calculator, I am going to total all the pages reported on the BFB list through June 30, for a mid-year total of pages of all 202 books read by the group as of June 30. But I may need an auditor to check my math....

23johnsimpson
Jul 5, 2020, 4:06 pm

>22 kac522:, Hi Kathy my dear, i have just calculated the books, two are missing totals and one is duplicated so i have ignored those. I will not put a figure here yet but will see what you come up with, good luck.

24kac522
Jul 5, 2020, 7:53 pm

OK, challenge on!

25kac522
Editado: Jul 6, 2020, 2:19 am

drumroll.....

I come up with 130,123 pages for 202 books through June 30. This comes out to an average of 644 pages per book.

Thanks for the heads-up re: duplicate #.

This represents pages for 200 books because I see that message >87 jenknox (https://www.librarything.com/topic/314361#7097504) listed 2 books, but did not record pages. I was thinking of going to that person's catalog to see if I can get a page counts for those books.

I am working on a few other stats, like number of books/pages read each month; breakdown # of books by pages (i.e., 500-599; 600-600, etc.), and I'm thinking of counting how many individuals have posted.

Also, I count 25 readers who have read at least 1 book through June 30. And we have a new BFB reader, JayneCM, but her first book was recorded in July.

26kac522
Editado: Jul 6, 2020, 2:22 am

I couldn't come up with page counts for the 2 books in https://www.librarything.com/topic/314361#7097504.

So here is the breakdown by months:

Jan: 36 books/ 23,189 pages
Feb: 28 books/ 18,486 pages
Mar: 21 books/ 12,483 pages -- lowest month (books + pages)--note: does not include pages for 2 books that pages read weren't reported.
Apr: 35 books/ 22,050 pages
May: 37 books/ 24,403 pages
Jun: 45 books/ 29,512 pages -- best month (books + pages)

Clearly, June was our best month and March was our worst. I attribute the lowered reading in March to the beginning of the major impact of the corona virus on all of us. In fact we read more in February (29 days) than in March (31 days).

Number of books read by page counts:

*Books with:
--500-599 pages = 113 books read
--600-699 pages = 39 books read
--700-799 pages = 17 books read
--800-899 pages = 12 books read
--900-999 pages = 6 books read
--1000+ pages = 13 books read

*does not include 2 books that the reader did not report pages read).

Man, I'm feeling like old Wakefield Paul....;)

27bryanoz
Editado: Jul 6, 2020, 12:10 am

Hi Kathy, thanks for calculating the group's stats.

I track my reading on an Excel spreadsheet, which makes page totals and average pages per book easy, currently I am on 69 books finished, total pages 29,715, average pages 430.6, with 4 on the go, hope this helps and happy reading !

PS. Using Excel means you can quickly generate all kinds of flashy graphs, I don't but you might be more imaginative...

28kac522
Jul 6, 2020, 2:16 am

>27 bryanoz: Yeah, after I was half-way done with paper, pencil and calculator, it occurred to me that Excel would have been easier. I am clueless with graphs, however. But it was good for my brain to do some math.

After John double-checks the numbers I'll post a summary to the main thread.

29johnsimpson
Jul 6, 2020, 3:59 pm

>28 kac522:, Hi Kathy, our totals match my dear, 130,123 pages for the first six month of BFB reads.

>27 bryanoz:, Hi Bryan, i am only reading BFB books this year and currently i have finished 14 books for a total of 12,175 pages.

30kac522
Jul 6, 2020, 6:47 pm

OK, later I'll transfer all the stats to the main thread.

31kac522
Editado: Dic 11, 2020, 1:06 am

BFB#5: Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens (1841); 768 pages. This was so much better (for me anyway) than Dombey. Especially excellent writing describing the riots and the atmosphere of London during riots. It's not popular, and doesn't have a particularly convincing romantic plot, but it is mysterious and a page turner. And the essential Dickens plot twist: a character's secret biological parent is revealed near the end.

32kac522
Editado: Dic 11, 2020, 1:06 am

BFB #6: Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope (1862); 825 pages.

33kac522
Editado: Dic 11, 2020, 1:10 am

I won't read anothere BFB this year, but I am happy that I completed 6, which exceeds my original goal of 4.

I think 6 is a good number for me (every other month or so) and will keep this thread going in 2021 to track my reading.

34connie53
Dic 25, 2020, 9:42 am



Happy Holidays from the Netherlands!