2014 Challenge Goal Complete: Read One Million Pages

Julie over at Smiling Shelves has developed a blog-version of the Read One Million Pages Challenge that she found out on Goodreads.  This is a perpetual challenge with one simple goal: to read one million pages during your lifetime.  If you'd like to join us on this ultimate quest, then please click on the link above to sign up on Julie's page.

My pledge is to read at least 40,000 pages each year in order to count the challenge complete for my challenge list. As of November 30, I have read 43,558 pages in 2014--so I've got my quota for the year. I won't fill in the grand total until I see how many more pages I can get under my belt in December....

Starting Page Count: 206,286

2013 Page Count: 43,939                   Grand Total: 250,225

2014 Page Count: 43,558  (Nov)         Grand Total:

The Wonder Chamber: Review

Despite the fact that my library has The Wonder Chamber by Mary Malloy shelved on the mystery "New Arrivals" shelf....a real mystery it is not.  In fact, for a good long while (try 214 pages out of 265 total) there isn't a terribly good indication that there's going to be a mystery at all--beyond the mystery of a missing Michelangelo candlestick.  But certainly not the kind of mystery that crime fiction fans are used to.  And when the mystery shows up it doesn't take anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention much brainpower to figure out A. who the mummy really is; B. who killed the person who became the mummy; and C. who turned the victim into a mummy.  But...I get ahead of myself.

So...what we have here is Professor Lizzie Manning, professor of St. Patrick's College in Boston, who has just landed the assignment of a lifetime.  She will have full access to an art and cabinet of curiosities ("Wonder Chamber") belonging to family related to the college founder.  This is a collection dating back to the Renaissance which holds everything from natural treasures ("unicorn" horns and "dragons") to a beautifully preserved Egyptian sarcophagus.  Professor Manning has already written a book about the college founder and now the college president and the family want her to oversee the organization of a special display of the family treasures in time for the centennial celebration.

She goes to Italy to survey and catalogue the proposed exhibit pieces and becomes interested in the Gonzaga family's history--particularly in Maggie, wife of Lorenzo Gonzaga and daughter of the college founder.  Her interest takes her through the turbulent years of World War II and she becomes aware of events that will require a modern day explanation.  For when she examines the sarcophagus, instead of an empty coffin she finds a very real mummy.  But the mummy is not as old as its container.  Who is it? And how long has it been hidden in the sarcophagus?


As I mentioned above...as a mystery, this story falls short of a mystery lover's expectations.  It take forever to get to the real puzzle.  And when you get there, there isn't much of a puzzle.  There's no real build-up; there's no real conflict; and the denouement leaves a bit to be desired.  If this had been billed as a straight fiction story (with a bit of mystery flavor), then it would rate higher.  There is a lot of interesting historical information about Italy during the Second World War.  There are some fascinating passages about curiosity collections.  There are some fine character interactions between Lizzie Manning and the modern day members of the Gonzaga family.  For the most part I like Lizzie and the descriptions of her researches are well done.  I do find it difficult to believe that someone as smart as she is would not have seen the implications of the monologue (for lack of a better description without giving away what little mystery there is) which she recorded and the effect it might have on the person who translated it.  There's no way she could be that obtuse.  Given that I was expecting a mystery--and an academic mystery at that!--I'm afraid that The Wonder Chamber rates a less-than-wonderous two stars--an okay read that could have been much better.



Challenges Met:  100 Plus Challenge, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Bingo, Cruisin' Thru the Cozies, Eclectic Reader, How Many Books, Library Books Challenge, Million Pages, Outdo Yourself, Women Challenge, European Reading Challenge, 

Angels & Spaceships: Review

Fredric Brown was a master of the science fiction short story form...and even more so of the short short form.  Angels and Spaceships is a fantastic collection of stories--over half of which were published in Astounding & Unknown between 1941 and 1949.  The book starts out with an absolute stunner--a work of supreme science fiction irony that does its magic in a page and a half.  Brown does more with that page and a half than a lot of writers could do with an entire novel.  He goes on to tell us about the linotype machine (a printing line casting machine used until the 60s/70s) that comes alive and makes a slave of the printer. And how the earth was surrounded by aliens that fed off of electricity and forced everyone to go back to the horse and buggy and steam-powered engines.  And the little boy who defeated Satan with a water pistol--and some very special water.  And the spaceman who kills an alien and finds that the death sentence isn't quite as bad as he first thought. Oh...and the heavenly typesetter who missed a typo or two and made things difficult for Charlie Wills.  All this and more in one place!


The stories range from screwball fantasy to hardball science fiction and everything in between.  Brown's writing is delightfully straightforward until the clever curve ball that he manages to throw at the end of every story.  A fun and intriguing collection.  Four stars.

Dangerous Visions #3: Review

Harlan Ellison is an author who likes to shakes things up.  He is well-known for his own dangerous visions and his skill at twisting the everyday and making it thought-provoking. And just when you think you've figured out what kind of writer he is...science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, black comedy, psychological...he throws you a curve ball and does something completely different.  Those qualities made him the perfect person to collect and edit the Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions collections back in the 1960s.

Dangerous Visions #3 is the paperback version of one-third of the stories which appeared in the original hardback collection, Dangerous Visions. In it you will find stories by SF greats such as Theodore Sturgeon, Roger Zelazny, Norman Spinrad, J. G. Ballard and Samuel R. Delaney.  You will also find names that may not be quite as well-known to you (this was at least the case with me): Kris Neville, Jonathan Brand, Sonya Dorman.... A total of fourteen stories which are every bit as disturbing and thought-provoking as when Ellison first tossed them out to the reading public in 1967.

My personal favorites:

"Judas" by John Brunner: where a man thinks he's defying and dismantling the mechanical "god" of his times...only to find that he's playing right into the myth.

"Test to Destruction" by Keith Laumer: A rebel leader is tested to the limit--both by his opponent and by alien forces.  He manages to use one against the other...but at what cost to his own humanity?

"Encounter with a Hick" by Jonathan Brand: A young man's explanation to the court about why an elderly man dropped dead in a hotel bar.  Some people just can't take the demolition of their cherished beliefs. 

The stories are a mixture of styles and subject matter...as well as producing a mixture of reactions.  There were a generous portion that I enjoyed and found interesting and through-provoking as well as those that just didn't touch a chord with me.  And one that I just sat and thought "What?" the entire time I was reading it.  Good solid science fiction selected by a master...three stars.


Challenges Fulfilled:  100 Plus Challenge, A-Z Reading Challenge, Book Bingo, Bookish TBR, Eclectic Reader, How Many Books, Million Pages, Mount TBR Challenge, Outdo Yourself, Science Fiction Experience, Vintage SF Month, Out of This World, 

One Million Pages in a Lifetime

Julie over at Smiling Shelves has developed a blog-version of the Read One Million Pages Challenge that she found out on Goodreads.  This is a perpetual challenge with one simple goal: to read one million pages during your lifetime.  If you'd like to join us on this ultimate quest, then please click on the link above to sign up on Julie's page.

We are welcome to use page counts that we have already documented to give us a launching pad to boost us towards our goal.  According to Goodreads, I have read 206,286 pages from 1975 (my earliest sure date) through 2012.  I'm quite sure that's a little shy of the mark--there are lots of books that I didn't have a date for when I logged my books on Goodreads (my lazy, good-for-nothing younger self didn't seem to think putting a date read by the books in my reading log was necessary most of the time) and those books don't seem to be counting towards the total--but at least what I've got will give me a good start.  I'll keep a running total of pages below. And...in order to count this toward my yearly challenge goals, I will pledge to read at least 40,000 pages each year to merit counting the year's goal as complete.

Update (1/1/17): After two years in a row where I did not meet my 40,000 page goal, I am going to reduce my challenge commitment. In 2017, I will need to read 35,000 page to count the challenge as complete for the year. We'll see if I meet that before making it my standard goal.

2nd Update (12/31/17): The older I get, the fewer hefty tomes I read. For 2018, I'm lowering the goal to 30,000. If I make that again, we'll make it the standard goal till I can't do it anymore. 

3rd Update (1/3/26): Didn't make my goal in 2025 😔I really don't want to have to lower my goal again. Going to aim for 30,000 again.

Starting Page Count: 206,286

2013 Page Count: 43,939           Grand Total: 250,225

2014 Page Count: 43,558           Grand Total: 293,783

2015 Page Count: 37,873           Grand Total: 331,656

2016 Page Count: 34,390           Grand Total: 366,046

2017 Page Count: 32,727           Grand Total: 398,773

2018 Page Count: 31,512           Grand Total: 430,285

2019 Page Count: 34,408           Grand Total: 464,693

2020 Page Count: 36,998           Grand Total: 501,691

2021 Page Count: 49,357           Grand Total: 551,048

2022 Page Count: 54,990           Grand Total: 606,038

2023 Page Count: 48,001           Grand Total: 654,039

2024 Page Count: 38,801           Grand Total: 692,840

2025 Page Count:  28,320          Grand Total: 721,160

2026 Page Count: