***OFFICIAL Misc 2024 52 books in 52 weeks thread***
Since no one else has started it, here we go.


Link to the 2022 thread.
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=180915203

*What is the challenge*
The goal is to read 52 books in 52 weeks. 1 book a week is an aggressive, but doable, pace.

*Why is the challenge*
To improve your brain, be entertained, and anything in between. In this digital age, reading improves focus and memory, doesn't screw with your sleep like the blue light from your TV, and if you have a library card, is totally free. Plus, once you have the habit it's a very enjoyable pastime.

*WHO is the challenge*
The challenge is every miscer who wanted to make a better version of himself or herself. Everyone who's in this thread, trying to read a little more and set a personal best on brain power curls.

*What if I don't want to read 52 books, can I still participate in the challenge*
Of course! We all have different goals for physical fitness, the same is true of our mental gains. Read for pleasure, read to learn. Read 1 book or 100, you're welcome in this thread. You should probably push yourself A LITTLE, whether in amount you read or trying out a new subject matter, but do you.

*What should I read?*
You'll find tons of recommendations ITT, and here's a link to the 2019 thread and Time's 100 greatest Novels list to get your juices flowing.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/...ime_100_Novels
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=176593311

*Are audiobooks reading?*
Different people have different opinions, but if you're asking me: No. Reading is moving your eyes across a page or screen, looking at a graphic image of words. Audiobooks are not the physical act of reading. What most people are ACTUALLY asking is do audiobooks "count". I say yes - you're moving the ideas/story from the author's brain, into yours. That's the end goal of physically reading a book, accomplished by a different means. For what it's worth I avoid non-fiction audiobooks since I personally can't retain as much of the author's ideas and arguments. But I actually PREFER fiction in audio format - if you get a good narrator (Ray Porter, Bronson Pinchot, Scott Brick) the performance really pulls you in.


*The Book brahs thread was started by Invictus. He handed me the reigns in 2020, but respect always to our founder and OG. 'Mirin.

*Check if your local library has "Overdrive" or "Hoopla". Both are free loans of digital books - ebooks or audio, straight to your device. If you have a Kindle, Overdrive will deliver loans straight to it - GOAT way to read a lot for free.

*How can I read a book a week?
The simplest pacing method is to look at the page count of your book and commit to reading 10% a day. For an average 200 page book this is 20 pages a day. This should take 15-20 minutes for an experienced reader. 10% a day is a book every 10 days, or 36.5 books a year. Read a little more on weekends, airplanes or vacation, and you are nearly there. Otherwise, 15% of your book each day kills 54.75 books a year. You can do this.


This is one of the friendliest, most positive threads on this board, so if you have any questions, just jump right in.

*Use spoiler tags to post your reading lists

In on the new thread. Thanks for making it.

Thanks.

I think we need to ask people to post how many years they have been participating in the challenge and then how many books they have read during that time. There is no wrong answer since the goal is just to get people reading and talking about books.

In! Finished The Voyageur on Monday. Reading about guys that paddle at 40+ strokes a minute for 12-15 hours a day in birchbark canoes is humbling for anyone who canoes or kayaks. These guys were impressive.



1 The Voyageur by Grace Lee Nute

Alright

I've done it 2 years i think (did not record before that), but i came in late the first year
2022: 53 books
2023: 105 books

goal for 2024 is probably 75, i think i'll exceed it though but we'll see what happens, i don't like rushing myself with reading (goal was 52 last year lol)

Finished 1 book this year, Robert Harrises 'Lustrum' which is the 2nd in his Cicero historical-fiction series. 5/5 It basically tells Cicero's life story through the eyes of his slave Tiro and is based on various sources and factual information, Tiro in real life actually wrote a biography about Cicero as well which has been lost, but is referenced by other sources. Fun fact about Tiro is, he is credited with inventing a shorthand system so he could record cicero's speeches as fast as he dictated them, using various symbols to represent latin words & phrases etc, and it became popular in the medieval ages. The ampersand (&) is a legacy from Tiro's shorthand system we still use today. Currently getting through 'dictator' which is the last in the series, and covers the fall of the republic with Caesar crossing the Rubicon etc, from the aforementioned perspective.

Will rep who i can on rc

Spoiler!

Mirin how you guys can devour books fast. I used to when I was younger, now not so much.

Reading old fantasy books I haven't read yet, though bought a new DragonLance novel.

out.

I think my first year doing this was 2013. I might have been somewhat involved in 2012, but going off my book log, 2013 was when I really started tracking it.

My best year was 62 books and my worst year was 6. If my count is correct, I've read 278 books since 2013.

I mostly try to use this thread to motivate me to read more and for recommendations.

I have participated and completed the challenge every year since 2012 with a total of 776 books read since we began this.

I wanted to add my 2 favorite books from 2023:

The Last Orphan (Book 8 in the Orphan X series, by Gregg Hurwitz. 5/5 from me. Book 9 will be out February 13th.

The 6:20 Man, by David Baldacci. This is probably my overall favorite for 2023. Just a great thriller with lots of surprises and interesting characters. 5/5. I'm reading book 2 of the series right now. These are my first Baldacci books but definitely not my last.

Innn! I read 54 books in 2023. I'll have to look back, I don't remember when I started posting in the reading threads. I think my first year I read 30something books and 2022 was way worse. I'm really happy with my 54 last year. I'll say my goal for this year will be 52.

2020 -34
2021- 34
2022 -11
2023 -54

Robert Bennet Jackson Trilogy, The Founders Trilogy

A psychic thief girl who gets herself in a mess of trouble with very powerful entities and beings. She develops her abilities further in the book. But reading this book gave me psychic ESP vision in my imagination. I pictured being in a two story house and seeing lights illuminate through the ceiling where the characters are. It was really cool to visualize this book.

I have to say the difference between all three books is scaling of shear power. Power is control. Control of everything even erasing things out of existence. The books do a good job to give you a scale of what power really is. Its top notch.

I have to say, I'm re-reading this series right now, and I'm picking up on so many clever foreshadowing the author made for the story. It seems like all 3 books were planned together at once. Because the story is very fluid in transitioning of story. It's a thrilling series with a lot of cool fight sequences that are cleverly written. I highly recommend this series.

Dang, I stopped reading books around October or so of 2023. I still have a bunch of books left to read but can't find time. Also I was maybe halfway to the 52 book goal too, lmao.

Maybe 2024 will be better

I liked the Will Robie and ___ Puller series. Puller is ex-Military-Police like Jack Reacher.

This. If 6:20 Man is your first Baldacci novel, you're in for a treat. Puller, just like Payton said, is fantastic. Similar character to Reacher. For Baldacci, I highly recommend the Will Robie series, Camel Club series, and Memory Man (Amos Decker) series.

I just looked at the Goodreads review on this. It looks awesome. So many books . . . so little time

Thanks to you and AMxxAchillesxx, I'll definitely check out more Baldacci books. The ones you guys mentioned look good.

IN

Haven't read a full book in quite some time.

How do most of you track your book lists?

I used Goodreads years ago but got tired of the crappy web interface. I've never used the app so maybe that is better.

I exported my Goodreads data and started tracking things in markdown tables, but recently I've been using Openreads on Android which is an open source (and awesome) Goodreads alternative.

If anyone is interested:
https://github.com/mateusz-bak/openreads-android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...v.bookstracker

(Also on F-Droid)
https://www.f-droid.org/packages/sof....bookstracker/

I don't get the whole, 52 books in 52 weeks. Like, just say a book a week.

At first I thought it was ridiculous but than realized I finished a 250 page book in 5 hours which averages out to be about 1-2 mins a page.

I just made a word document and update that with each book and score.

1. The Iliad by Homer

Pretty interesting reading a book with “gods” meddling and interfering in the story so much. Good battle scenes (except when a god spirited away someone before they could be killed. And Achilles killing so many people and throwing them into the river that it clogged the flow and pissed off a god so much it tried to kill him was a pretty epic way to demonstrate how much damage he’d done.

Started the Odyssey today. Hopefully, it’s as good as this.

That's such a small goal OP. I'm gonna be doing 366 books in 366 days (not srs).

Just finished a reread of LaHaye and Jenkin's Left Behind book which is a good read for anyone wanting to be entertained by one possible unfolding of Bible prophecy. I'm now on to one of the many Jack Reacher books that my wife bought me for Christmas. I like to read when I can and listen to the same book when I'm traveling, and my Libby library loan only had Without Fail (Reacher #6) available so that's where I'm starting

Completed:

1. A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman

Currently Reading:

2. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance - Ron Chernow

I'm going to check out the Orphan X series next, starting with the first book. I like good solid series that have a decent number of books in them I can bounce around between depending on my mood. I like some really good standalone nonfiction books, but if I end up finishing one and don't really have anything else major on my radar, I'll jump into my go-to series':
- Virtually anything Baldacci
- Virtually anything Stephen King, but moreso his smaller universe books based on small towns, limited but great characters, etc.
- Clive Cussler Sam and Remi Fargo series, just for good old fashioned fun action
- James Rollins Sigma Force series, same deal. Good science and history (and action) fun
- Craig Johnson Longmire series
- Jack Reacher
- Mitch Rapp
- Brad Thor

Those are usually the ones I jump back into in between standalone books that are worth it.

I'll be finishing up One Second After pretty soon. Really good semi-apocalyptic book about what would happen if an enemy hit us with an EMP (or really, if our power grid went down for any legitimate reason). I really like that, although third person, it's told from the perspective of a relatively small, relatable town and you really only have the info as to what happened as the people in the town see and receive it, not at all a 30,000 foot view. Really well done.

4 books down in 2024

Finished since last posting -
Christian Meier - Julius Caesar - 5/5 - by far the best biography on Caesar i've read… extremely in depth and takes many pains to examine the situation in Rome with Sulla etc that made Caesar possible, and dives deeply into Caesars psychology
Robert Harris - Dictator - 5/5 - Finished Robert harrises series now. Wow, amazing hoenstly. Anyone interested in Rome should read the cicero (Imperium) series by Robert Harris.
Ovid - Ars Amatoria - 3.5/5 - A tongue n cheek guide on how to smash women and get away with cheating, by a Roman degenerate poet during Augustus's reign. A lot of fun and gives a solid insight into the feeling of the time.

Started:
Cicero - Political speeches
Stephen Dando-Collins - Caligula

Spoiler!

Two down so far.

1. Gone (6th in Michael Bennett series) by James Patterson
2. Burn (7th Michael Bennett) by James Patterson
3. Alert (8th Michael Bennett) by James Patterson- reading now

In.
1/52

Re-read The Wise Man’s Fear because I thought the third book was finally going to be coming out relatively soon but who knows.

Hit my goal last year but only because I read so many technical books. Gonna get back to reading for fun as well

Spoiler!

2. The Odyssey by Homer

I really liked this. But it was a little jarring how unbothered the characters are about slavery. Ulysses’s pig farmer explained how he was sold to him. When he was a child his mother was seduced by a pirate and she suggested they sell her son. Crazy. Was also a little surprised by the killing of the disloyal female servants. But still a good story with a happy ending.