Day 1

So today was the first day of my not-so-little challenge, and I came out of it alive. (At least, I'm assuming that I came out of it alive. I think my husband would have said something if I were a zombie.)

Anyhow, here's a summary of what I started reading today (the official list can be found here, if you want to look ahead and/or follow along):

1) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein. Technically this is a cop-out, because the Lord of the Rings trilogy was the official list-topper. However, while The Hobbit was ineligible due to being a children's book, The Lord of the Rings would never have existed without it, so I think it's worth the inclusion. Also there's the part where I love this book and its sequels bore the ever-living daylights out of me and I'm looking for a way to soften the blow.

Progress: 29/265 pages. I'm not really that slow of a reader, it's just that the introduction has runes in it and I took the time to squint and read them. Yes, I know the Elder Futhark script. I wrote my journal in runes during high school. Judge me if you wish.

2) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I'm really not sure what to say about this one that hasn't been said before. I don't know how many times I've read the first book already, but I always got distracted during the sequels so I haven't actually read any of them. However, I was given an omnibus of the whole trilogy a couple of years ago, so they're easy access.

Progress: 19/143 pages. This time the introduction had no runes for me to read. What it did have was an exceedingly convoluted story that I had to read twice to make sense of. Also it didn't help that I was interrupted more than a few times.

3) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I've been meaning to get around to reading this since I was in, oh, sixth grade? I'm planning on reading the original quartet (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind).

Progress: 15/324 pages. Another book, another introduction, and this one is long. Considering how fast and easy the actual book is to read, you would think that Orson Scott Card would know how to keep things concise, but no.

4) Dune by Frank Herbert. Unlike Ender's Game, I've never really wanted to read Dune. At all. And then I tried last summer and wanted to pull my own eyeballs out over it. I know it's influential and a lot of people like it maybe just a bit too much, but I don't understand why. It's the kind of thing that I wrote when I was thirteen-- too much pseudo-philosophical nonsense and too many words of gobbledy-gook with little to no explanation. Blegh. Seriously, this is the most bombastically stupid book in the world and unless it gets better quickly, I'm probably going to spend a good deal of time banging my head against a wall.

Did I mention that I'm going to be reading all six books written by Frank Herbert himself? Good grief.

Progress: 31/762 pages. No introduction, no author's note. Just oodles and oodles of self-inflated, bad, bad writing. If I keep at this pace, I'll be stuck with Dune (only one of six, mind you) for five weeks, and by then I'll be crying myself to sleep.