I heard about it here. It's to read one 450-page every three months. I have to check my shelves to see if I have any books that are that long - I might top out closer to 400. I also made a list of all the books on my shelf that are more than 400 pages so I can check them off as I go.

I think I could handle doing that. I'm glad it isn't every month though. :blink:

yeah that would be waaaay too much!!!

I'm not sure about actually challenging myself officially, but I will take a cue from you, Jillian, and make a list of my chunky books just to see what I have, and go from there. :D

I did the FAT book challenge one year - to read & release 10 books of 600+ pages for the year. It netted me about 2 feet of shelf space but was tough going at times :wacko:

The first book I finished this year was over 600 pages.

On my immediate TBR (Owed books) there is 578 pages, 528 pages, 548 pages, & 444 pages. (Well, and 313 & 403, but they don't count.)

On mount TBR there are another 17 books with more than 450 pages (6 over 600 pages) and 5 with between 400 and 450 pages.

I think maybe it's because fantasy books tend to be longer, but I don't even think of a book as long until it gets up over 600 pages. *shrugs* 300 page books are short, and around 400 is about average in my reading, I think.

Which is not at all to say that it's not a worthy challenge and that people shouldn't feel accomplished if they complete it or in any way belittle anyone who is competing/thinking about competing.

I was mostly commenting on how our choice of preferred genre(s) affects what we think of as "long," which is a distinctly relative term.

If you are used to reading books between 200 & 300 pages long, 450 is long, and 600 a huge challenge. If you're used to reading books around 450 pages, it doesn't seem that long, it's just "normal."

yeah I dont think i'm going to sign up and actually commit (commit?? noooo, never that!) but now that I've separated them out I can make an effort to get to them sooner rather than later. A lot of them I had forgotten how much I wanted to read.

I am so not into the thick books right now. I hardly want to read a book over 300 pages. The lists of bests site seems interesting, I may need to check that out.

Actually I've had a 600+ page book on Mt. TBR that I've owed to Joanne for the longest time. It started out as a ring from woosang, but it was only me and Joanne (NeedSun) on it so she eventually said she didn't want it back anyway. Now everytime I go to pick it up, and notice the small print and the 600+ page count, I just can't do it!! :whip:

That said, I'm one of those people who needs goals to get me motivated and get stuff done. Or at least a To Do list.... so perhaps having a loose goal such as this will help me to get those biggies cleared out! Besides the one I've mentioned, I know I've got a few more of Laurell K. Hamilton's latest which are definitely over 400 pages. (I recall that Incubus Dreams was close to 700 so I'm assuming all the ones after that, which is where I left off in the series, are definitely over 400.)

So yeah, definitely something to check out, though with so much else going on in my life this year, you know, like packing up my life and driving it cross country, I'm not gonna kick myself if I don't do it either. But it gives me something to shoot for. :grin:


ETA - the link from the first post I get a page not found, and going to the main site (blog) I can't find reference to the post about chunky books? :erm:

I got a 404 :shrug:

Try here
Quite a few of my books are over 450 pages - I should read them! I have started 'It' by Stephen King and I think it is over 1000 pages! :yikes:

Ahhh okay! Got it! Thanks! :hug:
And of course, I had to compare the URLs to see what was wrong with the first one and it's just that Fantasy left off the ending L (.htm instead of .html) so I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm gonna go fix that now for her.

Thanks again for finding the right URL Lucie! :kiss:

I grabbed a few titles off my hardcover shelf last night (mostly 'cause I could quickly eyeball a chunky book there) and started a list.

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/47710

I have some long paperbacks, and I know a few more long hardcovers, but I'll make a more accurate list after I go through my books, which I'll start on again this weekend.

I'm doing this challenge, and a lot of others. I try to pick books that count for multiple challenges, or ones that I owe to someone. For instance, one of my "Chunkster" books is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell which I'm also counting towards the following challenges: What's in a Name, Book Awards, Man Booker (shortlist)

This sounds like fun!

I agree Pepper, 450 doesn't seem so big when you're used to reading Fantasy. :giggle: This might be a good excuse to buy the latest releases from some of my favorite authors. :whistle:

I'm with some of the others that I won't sign up officially but I might have a crack at this one. Heck my first read of the year was a 483 paperback. 1 down, 3 to go :P

ETA: Just looked and found 8 books over 450 pages (I don't read fantasy very often).

yeah I knew I hadn't copied the l and meant to fix it when I made the link, but of course I forgot. Thanks for fixing it. There's a couple of other challenges on that site that seem interesting. I'm drawn to the 888 challenge as well, but that might be something I do on my own and very loosely rather than actually joining.

I like the What's In a Name? challenge. I think I will just add that one to my list and do it "unofficially".

What's In A Name?" Reading Challenge

Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008

The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a color in its title. Examples might include: The Amber Spyglass, The Red Pony, Blue Blood

2. A book with an animal in its title. Examples might include: The Hound of the Baskervilles, To Kill a Mockingbird, Julie of the Wolves

3. A book with a first name in its title. Examples might include: Jane Eyre, the Harry Potter books, Anne of Green Gables

4. A book with a place in its title. Examples might include: From Russia with Love, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Out of Africa

5. A book with a weather event in its title. Examples might include: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Red Storm Rising, Tornado Alley

6. A book with a plant in its title. Examples might include: Where the Red Fern Grows, The Name of the Rose, Flowers for Algernon

--You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category. (For example, you can use The Red Pony for either a "color" book or an "animal" book, but not for both.)

I am participating in 3 challenges right now. Stacks, What's in a name and Number challenges. The Stacks challenge ends Jan 30 so I might as well add Chunkster as I have a fair number of big books lying around

My first read this year was 592 pages -- do I get to count that one? :D I can already think of a bunch of yummies for this year that will be at least 450 pages, I bet...

Let's see...

Rogue by Rachel Vincent will be 512 -- Stray was about that too.
Betcha Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer will be at least 500.
Lover Enshrined by J R Ward will be 528. (All her books but the first one are over 450)
2 of the 4 books I have left to read in the Miles Vorkosigan series are over 450.

Yeah, OK, done deal! :lol: Except I don't have most of these books yet, so a fat lotta good it'll do Mt TBR! :rolleyes:

This one sounds fun -- maybe I'll do that one too!

Ooh many of those are on my own TBR for this year. Like I'm determined to start on the J.R. Ward series so that's one or two at least, and Rogue is near the top of Mt. TBR (I didn't realize it was that long). So yeah, without even having to go and check book lengths (well it is in my software too), it looks like I can accomplish this goal without even trying too hard. Thanks Kyri! :hug:

I haven't officially joined any but I'm gonna try the Chunkster, What's in a name?, and Read Around America (1 book that takes place in every state) on my own.

I added some categories of my own, and am trying to incorporate another one of my own personal challenges into it.

If you want to see my "Name" list, here is the link:

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/47761

I am currently in the process of trying to determine a book for each category now.

1. 7 possibilities on Mount TBR

2. Already read - Wolf Speaker by Tamora Pierce. Either 4 or 6 more possibilities on Mount TBR, depending if Dragon counts or not.

3. 3 possibles on Mount TBR

4. Does it have to be a REAL place? For example, would Perdido Street Station count? If so, I'm done with that one too. If not I have 6 possibilities on Mount TBR, 5 of them in Agatha Christie books. :giggle:

5. 2 possibles on Mount TBR

6. 2 possibles on Mount TBR

Um... I'm not joining, but I have the feeling I may complete the challenge anyway... :lol:

When I added Kel's Categories here's how many I have for each category:

Color: 6
Animal: 9
First Name: 15
Place: 9
Weather Event: 2
Day of the Week: 0 :cry: (I guess I'll have to find one via trade/swap :whistle: )
Number: 8
Occupation: 5

Ideally, I want to have 12 categories, one for each month. I need to finish my list! :)

Let me know when you come up with the other categories.

A couple trends I saw on my TBR (you don't have to use these :D ):

A measure of time (i.e. day, hour, month, etc.) in the title - Examples: A Year and A Day, Big Night Out, Alphabet Weekends

A family member (i.e. father, mother, sister, brother, etc.) in the title - Examples: Brother Odd, The True & Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, Animal Husbandry

A language/nationality in the title - Examples: French Women Don't Get Fat, Spanish Disco, Going Dutch

A food in the title - Examples: How To Cook A Tart, I Love You Like a Tomato, Blessed are the Cheesemakers

A question in the title - Examples: Lucy Blue Where Are You?, Who Wants to Marry a Heartthrob?, Ready or Not?

Wow! I have 39 TBRs that are over 450 pages.

Are you folks actually looking through all your TBR's for long books to come up with these counts or am I missing something? That would take me ages and waste too much time....

All I did to begin is eyeball the fattest hardcovers on my bookshelf and take a quick look at the last page.

I have some fat paperbacks but I haven't gone through them yet.

I was in the middle of reorganizing my bookshelves so as I reshelved them, I just took a look at the thicker ones and made a note in my TBR spreadsheet of the ones over 450.

I think I got all my choices done. I know goddess isn't really a royal title, but in greek mythology it kinda is. :)

Plus, since this is not an "official" challenge to me, I'm open to interpretation. LOL

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/47761

How about a re-read? I've been wanting to read the Outlander series again............

I copied the challenge from someone else, so I'm not signed up for it "officially". If you want to make yours re-reads, feel free! :)

What's a waste of time for one can be an interesting diversion for another :wink:
Since I dont read many large books I was able to go through my BC shelf and pick out the ones most likely to be over 400 pages. Then I would just confirm the page count on Amazon before adding it to my list.

It was easier for me to just look at the last page of the book! :lol:

Oh definitely! I meant only a waste of time to me - not to imply it was for anyone else! If you saw my bookcases, you would probably understand..... I'm quite sure the 450+ page books number in the 100's..... :lol: :ph34r:

One of the data points that BookCat pulls down when I add a book to my library is the number of pages. I just created a filter/search for books with pages > 450 and it told me exactly how many fit the criteria and which books they were.

I was actually surprised by some of the books that were on there because I wouldn't have guessed that they were 450 pages. I even went to my bookshelf to double check the results for a few of them.