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Advent To Candlemas Reading Competition (2013-2014)


AnneLine

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Not The Philosopher

City of God can be designated as my challenge book. It's been taking me so long to get through it...

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Chrysophylax

Sorry, I have been busy.. I'll have to get back to reading again!

Over New Years I read Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, 224 pgs (It is a graphic novel though, I don't know if that counts) And unfortunately my other reading things I have been doing are not in the form of 'books'. I do intend to try to catch up though! ;)

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I have two questions for you as I count up this page count:

 

1) do we let Not A Philosopher have his 137 pages of The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy?  He has said he has gotten tired of it and stopped.... in the past I haven't given credit for unfinished books.  What say you?

 

 

2) My friend "T" and I are reading a book outloud together over the telephone, about 15 to 20 minutes a few nights a week.  I think we might be done by Candlemas!!!!

 

(And... I'm trying to get her to come onto Phatmass, so we want to be nice to her -- Hi "T"!!!!)

 

 

 

I know I can claim the book (Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman, 288 pages!) if we finish by Candlemas.  And so I am putting it on my list.

 

But here is my question:  can I claim double credit since I am encouraging/forcing someone else to read it with me???????   If so, imagine what we can do with this -- reading to small groups of children could get you 6 or 7 x pages.... this has POSSIBILITIES, my friends!!!!!!

 

What say the voting members of the Book Challenge????

 

 

Edited by AnneLine
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Just finished The View from a Monastery by Brother Benet Tvedten, 193 pages.  

 

St. Thomas has officially been declared "lost in process" by the Post Office.  I'll have to order again.  Sigh.  Still working on my theological commentary about him.

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Coming Back, it's pretty obvious to me where St. Thomas is...  he's hiding in a library!

 

Monk.jpg

 

 

But in all seriousness, you will get him when the time is right.... maybe he's going to be a Lenten book for you!  Maybe he knows that the Shorter Summa isn't the stuff for a fast read for a reading competition?  But I bet all the other reading you are doing will set you up to REALLY be able to enjoy the SS...!

 

Not a Philosopher, I'll be happy to add The Hunger Games for you, but I just can't do the partial on the Black Dahlia unless you finish to the book... that's been the rules all along.   Last time I counted partial pages as people went along, but we didn't count 'em at the end.... and this time to make it easier on me (because I really do have a life outside of Phatmass and Book counting, really I do!) I am just putting down the names of 'books in progress' but only counting the pages after completion.  So.... if you decide to go for it before the end of the month.... we'll be happy to include the book.   But I think you have more than enough to occupy you with a double-count on City of God -- a VERY impressive goal, I might add.....

 

Saw all the other books and will include them in my count later today or this evening!

 

 

 

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Star Trek:  The Fall:  Peaceable Kingdoms  by Dayton Ward (372 pages)

 

The conclusion of "The Fall" event and in desperate need of adequate editing.  Off the top of my mind I can recall two rather blatant wrong words being used, wrong in the sense they didn't mean what they were used for, and I think similar words were intended.  At one point a character meant "meaning" and said "meeting" and at another point when talking about the rest of a political "term" the author used "turn".  Good triumphs, the conspiracy is exposed, and goes all the way back to the ending days of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. 

 

Picard gets a good discussion in, which I'll show part of below, that addresses what's happened with the Trek franchises over the last decade or two, with a focus on action and war instead of exploration (as well as offering a parting shot on their use of this series as a metaphor for post-9/11 America's trading of liberties for security):
 

 

"Starfleet's mission has always been to see to the safety and security of the Federation," Akaar said, returning his stern gaze to Picard.  "That has been the case for more than two hundred years."

 

"Agreed," Picard said.  "That is one of its missions, but Starfleet's charter also sets out for us another mandate:  one of exploration and the expansion of knowledge.  For two centuries, we were able to balance the need for security against our desire to push outward, to see what unknowns await us.  When did that change?  When did we allow it to change?"

 

--

 

"Yes," Picard said, "and now it's time for all of us to champion those principles, not simply because it's required to deal with one crisis, but because it's who we are.  I believe that our defenses must be strong to answer whatever threats we may one day face, but we cannot sacrifice that which has defined us from the beginning.  When I travel to another world and to meet for the first time the leader of another species, I want to present myself, and the Federation, as someone who wishes to be their friend, rather than someone who needs them to be our ally against some other foe."

 

 

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ChristinaTherese

I read:

Pride and Prejudice as a challenge book (I didn't like it last time and wanted to give it a second chance, and I wanted to read it in not much more than a week): 354 pages

Saint Jeanne Jugan: God's Tenderness for the World: 53 pages (She's a fantastic saint, and founded a fantastic order.)

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Catholicterp7

Finished A Daughter's Inheritance at 384 pages as well as The Lawman Claims His Bride at 281 pages.  

 

Totals 10 books and 3,311 pages.

Also in progress The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

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Catholicterp7

I forgot Destiny Bay: My Little Runaway which is 247 pages which brings my totals to

11 books and 3,558 pages done.

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Chrysophylax

The Guardian by Dee Henderson, 275 pgs.

The Protector by Dee Henderson, 322 pgs.

The Rescuer by Dee Henderson, 344 pgs.

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The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove  (561 pages)

 

General Robert E. Lee has just lost his right hand, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and it has become apparent that the armies of the Union will win by attrition alone, if nothing else.  Then he receives a telegram from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, that he is to meet with some men from Rivington, NC.  The Rivington Men offer him a new weapon for his armies and as much ammunition as they need, it's called the AK-47.   The South manages to win the Civil War, with Lee accepting Lincoln's surrender at the White House and forces the Rivington Men to share their secret...that they come from the future.  Lee and other Confederate leaders are told that they lost the Civil War, and that the slaves were placed in control of the South, and other lies.  Eventually, Lee runs against Forrest (who in the real world went on to found the KKK) for President, only to have the campaign mainly focus on how he's too soft on slaves and is out to take away people's slaves.  He wins, much to the Rivington Men's ire and soon, Lee finds himself fighting these mysterious men from the future, with Forrest at his side, and a growing realization that slavery can't be sustained and that if his new nation is to continue without its own civil war, he must become an abolitionist. 

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