Monday 1 October 2012

Three-Quarters of a Century of Books


Time for the third and final update on how A Century of Books is going!  Final update, that is, because in three months' time it'll all be over...


It is impressive - and unintentional - that at each juncture I have been exactly on target.  After three months I was on 25 books, after six months I was on 50 books, and now - at the nine month mark - I have read 75 titles for A Century of Books (including five which have yet to be reviewed.)   I've actually read 107 books so far this year, which leaves rather more duplicates and non-20th-century books than I was anticipating.

As before, here is how I'm doing, decade-by-decade...

1900s: 6
1910s: 6
1920s: 9
1930s: 9
1940s: 8
1950s: 8
1960s: 6
1970s: 8
1980s: 8
1990s: 7

No decade completely finished yet, but none suffering too much neglect either...

For a list of all the links up so far, click here.  More importantly - if you're doing A Century of Books, are some variant thereof, how's it going for you?

See you at the end of the year for the final count!  I'm feeling optimistic that I can do this...

13 comments:

  1. Very impressive! I'm at 70 right now, which means I need to do 10 per month to finish on schedule, which should be quite easy. I've read 169 books so far this year so the number of pre- and post-20th Century books plus duplicates is a bit absurd.

    Here's my break down by decade:
    1900s: 3
    1910s: 8
    1920s: 10
    1930s: 6
    1940s: 10
    1950s: 7
    1960s: 5
    1970s: 6
    1980s: 6
    1990s: 9

    Now I just need to catch up with my reviews!!! That is my challenge to myself for October.

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    1. Well done - even with nearly 100 which don't count! I thought I'd picked nearly all books for my century, when choosing what to read, so I was surprised even by my 30 non-applicable titles.

      And well dont on finishing two decades!

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  2. I'm close to my first quarter of the century (slightly behind), I know I'm not going to be finished by this year - but I already knew this! I'm still excited to find books for each year (I've now several two entries for the same year) that I would never have thought of, so it's still a win situation for me!!!

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    1. So glad you're enjoying it, Patty! I'll definitely be keeping better track of the years from which I read, even if I don't repeat this challenge next year.

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  3. Well done Simon. My Century of Books challenge is going very slowly as I get waylaid with too many other books but I am enjoying it. I didn't start it until May this year so am giving myself lots more time. Will keep plugging away. Pam

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    1. Keep enjoying it, Pam! The difficulty at the end of my year will be still reading books I *want* to read, rather than just plugging gaps.

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  4. I am in awe, Simon! I'm having visions of dishes piled high in the sink and socks simply thrown out in favour of new ones but well done!

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    1. Haha! Well, I manage to keep on with those, just ;)

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  5. Outstanding job -- you and Claire both! I've been "done in" by pre-, post- century books and duplicates - only 35 on my list of 123 books read. I'm really enjoying tracking my books read by publication year, though. Quite the eye-opening exercise.

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    1. I'm intrigued, now, as to whether you've mostly had pre, post, or duplicates in your non-applicable list...?

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  6. Completely off-topic, and you may have seen it already- but Nancy Pearl included Miss Hargreaves in her list of 'under the radar' reads.
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823435

    I was just reading through some of her various lists and came across it, thought you might be happy to see it if you haven't already :)

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    Replies
    1. I did see that, but it's lovely to be reminded! In fact, that's how I first heard about Nancy Pearl.

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  7. Yikes, I have only read 40 for ACOB, out of a measly 43 books total for the year so far. As you know, my problem was getting bogged down is awful books that I hated. Now that I have cleared up that mental log jam, I hope to make up some ground in the remainder of the year. But I know I won't finish until the end of 2013.

    I was surprised to see the 1950s has been my go to decade so far. I would have thought it would have been an earlier decade.

    1900s: 2
    1910s: 2
    1920s: 3
    1930s: 3
    1940s: 4
    1950s: 9
    1960s: 4
    1970s: 3 (plus a duplicate!)
    1980s: 4
    1990s: 6

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