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Hi there,

Just wondering, if I read a 100-page book over two weeks, would I treat that as one or two books for the challenge?

Thanks,

Shaun.

Shaun2021 wrote:Hi there,

Just wondering, if I read a 100-page book over two weeks, would I treat that as one or two books for the challenge?

Thanks,

Shaun.

Doesn't matter how long it takes you to read them. 50 pages = 1 book, so count it as two books.

I just noticed that the Super Challenge is 75% completed. Just four (oops) five months left!

How are you doing with your personal challenges? Me, I've dropped my Hindi and German half challenges to focus on my French full challenge. I've completed the Film portion, but I'm continuing to watch and listen. I'm only 47% finished with the reading portion, but I've been reading a lot more lately so I have a good chance of catching up.

My three film SC's are complete. Italian reading is complete. German won't happen. Romance languages (mostly Portuguese) is on track to be completed by the end of the year.

jeffers wrote:I just noticed that the Super Challenge is 75% completed. Just four months left!

How are you doing with your personal challenges? Me, I've dropped my Hindi and German half challenges to focus on my French full challenge. I've completed the Film portion, but I'm continuing to watch and listen. I'm only 47% finished with the reading portion, but I've been reading a lot more lately so I have a good chance of catching up.

I'm trying to finish the entirety of my French SC and the film portion of my Spanish one. I gave up on the Spanish reading completely to focus on the other parts.

I still have a ton to do... I think I need around 130h of TV/film and read another 2400 pages or so. I do think I can do it but it's gonna be a lot of work for sure! I only seriously started tackling the reading portion a few months ago and the film portion only at the start of the year so I've been making up for losing a lot of time earlier and spreading my attentions a little thin.

(Also, five months left, not four )

rpg wrote:I still have a ton to do... I think I need around 130h of TV/film and read another 2400 pages or so. I do think I can do it but it's gonna be a lot of work for sure! I only seriously started tackling the reading portion a few months ago and the film portion only at the start of the year so I've been making up for losing a lot of time earlier and spreading my attentions a little thin.

I still have 2512 pages left to read, so we're in the same boat. That comes to about 17 pages per day, just so you know. I'm realizing that it may be time to focus on some easier and fun reading. I'm finding that in an hour's reading of the current serious book I'm reading, Métronome by Lorant Deutsch, I get around 5-6 pages read. I have a lot of lookups per page, but also the book gets me checking locations on google maps and streetview. On the other hand, I read Petit Nicolas at about 30-35 pages per hour because there are few words I need to look up. I think the easier reading is a lot more beneficial, as I get more real French passing through my brain per minute, although I'm not learning much vocabulary from them anymore. On the other hand, I'd get bored if that was all I read, and I'll never get better at more "grown up" books if I don't read them! So I guess I'll probably continue to read half and half. However, any time I feel I need to improve my number of pages read in a short time, Petit Nicolas will be there to help.

rpg wrote:(Also, five months left, not four )

Oops! Thanks, I fixed that.

jeffers wrote:I still have 2512 pages left to read, so we're in the same boat. That comes to about 17 pages per day, just so you know. I'm realizing that it may be time to focus on some easier and fun reading. I'm finding that in an hour's reading of the current serious book I'm reading, Métronome by Lorant Deutsch, I get around 5-6 pages read. I have a lot of lookups per page, but also the book gets me checking locations on google maps and streetview. On the other hand, I read Petit Nicolas at about 30-35 pages per hour because there are few words I need to look up. I think the easier reading is a lot more beneficial, as I get more real French passing through my brain per minute, although I'm not learning much vocabulary from them anymore. On the other hand, I'd get bored if that was all I read, and I'll never get better at more "grown up" books if I don't read them! So I guess I'll probably continue to read half and half. However, any time I feel I need to improve my number of pages read in a short time, Petit Nicolas will be there to help.

I can definitely relate to that. On the flip side I think this is why my reading has always been pretty anemic the past few years and why I'm grateful for the SC for forcing me to reconsider: I always wanted to read adult literary fiction, since I'm an adult and that's the kind of stuff I like to read and (especially in Spanish) I felt that I was advanced enough that I should be able to handle it, but they end up being too difficult to read comfortably--I can muddle through but I run into a whole bunch of unknown words per page and I either have to skip them and muddle out what's going on (which I almost reflexively hate doing) or look them all up (slows reading down so much to be painful).

Recently I recontextualized my reading as being primarily a form of language study (as opposed to a pleasure activity that had the side-effect of being language study). Viewed through this lens, children's books are just a useful tool to use. I started reading HP in French a few months ago, something which I've always been very reluctant to do (too clichéd, I don't actually like the books all that much, etc) but which, by dint of all of the pages of text I've gotten through (far more than when I was trying to read adult stuff), has been improving my reading speed and vocabulary quite a fair bit. Simply finishing the series (I'm on book 5 now) is going to get me pretty close to the 5000 pages already.

jeffers wrote:How are you doing with your personal challenges? Me, I've dropped my Hindi and German half challenges to focus on my French full challenge. I've completed the Film portion, but I'm continuing to watch and listen. I'm only 47% finished with the reading portion, but I've been reading a lot more lately so I have a good chance of catching up.

I started late, but have almost finished the listening/movies challenge. I have just under 30 hours remaining and planned on finishing that before the end of the year (this was a personal challenge, '100 movies' in 2021 months).

My reading is very much behind, since I was originally focusing on listening, but I'd like to see how far I can get. So far my personal tracker is at 738 pages That being said, I only track finished books and I am half way in a few books so you could probably add 200 pages or so to that.

I'm finding that in an hour's reading of the current serious book I'm reading, Métronome by Lorant Deutsch, I get around 5-6 pages read. I have a lot of lookups per page, but also the book gets me checking locations on google maps and streetview. On the other hand, I read Petit Nicolas at about 30-35 pages per hour because there are few words I need to look up.

I found I had to drop down to fiction for children. It's not as dry and boring like graded readers and there are some good books out there.

I went from reading 2-5 pages in my 30 minute commute to 20+ just from changing sources. Not having to lookup words all the time is great and whilst you may not be picking up as much vocabulary, the exposure to structure and grammar is likely to be just as beneficial.

I always thought of double posting as a forum "no no", but no-one seems to be updating their progress! I hope you guys haven't thrown in the towel!

I have about 9 hours left before finishing the listening challenge, so that should be done soon

In September I really started getting through some children's novels. I had a lull in October, I think the book I chose just wasn't a fit for me -- I didn't want to read it, not a good sign! Thankfully I managed to get through it and my pace has increased once again, that just shows how important it is for content to be not just comprehensible but interesting!

I don't think I can manage the 100 books, my pace has picked up, but unless I go in hermit mode I don't see myself reaching it! Still, I only am counting 12 months and not the full 20. I'll give it a real go next time I guess reaching 2500 will be a good personal goal.

Listening: ~141 hours

Reading: ~1723 pages / 34.5 books (from Jan 1st)

With just over two months to go, how is every one else doing?

I finished my Arabic super challenge sometime over the summer. Briefly, I considered going for a double challenge, but that only seemed to push me into not reading at all. I have something like 2000 pages left for my French double challenge. My German half challenge is sad and neglected and unlikely to progress at all.