The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life | 
Andy Miller decides to atone for the number of times he's said he's read books which in fact he hasn't by reading the books on the List of Betterment he compiles.
Variable. I suspect there are stylistic jokes which are going over my head for the books I don't know. The author's pop music world isn't mine so some names mean nothing to me. But where we share points of reference he is a genial companion talking about his life and reading.
so-soSome books about reading focus mainly on the stories while others focus on the profound impact the stories have made on the reader. This one felt like a slow pinball machine…glancing off of each of these options to head down various rabbit holes. It was ok but I wanted it to be fabulous.
Finally started this with just 4 days until the group meet!!! Think it's going to increase my TBR list... 🤔😆😉😉😙
pickThis was okay as these books go. I often find them to be more autobiographical than I want and not enough attention is given to the actual books. Miller doesn‘t actually write about all 50 books.
But he did make me really want to read War and Peace, so mission accomplished! 😀 And how can I not give a thumbs up to someone who also loves Douglas Adams and agrees that Beyond Black by Hillary Mantel is brilliant?
#FabulousFebruary - book three
pickI wasn't sure how I'd feel about this as essentially its a non fiction about a guy reading fiction and i wasnt sure that this would be something I'd enjoy in book format but i did.
Andy has a List of Betterment, 50 books (pretty much all classics apart from one Dan Brown) and he reads dangerously for one year, joins a book club, ropes his wife into reading War and Peace and starts a blog.
I added so many books to my TBR, really enjoyed this.
pickPart memoir, part homage to books, “The Year of Reading Dangerously“ isn't is a set of book reviews, or a definitive set of criteria that define Literary Greatness. Andy Miller, quoting another Miller -- Henry, notes that what defines greatness is that a book speaks to him. That criterion is going to play out differently for each of us, and that's the point: we all need get to define “great“ for ourselves. We just keep reading and refining.
“Somebody once described the Internet as a library where all the books have been taken off the shelves and dumped in the middle of the floor. Disorganization, however, is not the issue. The Internet is the greatest library in the universe; unfortunately someone has removed all the ‘no talking‘ signs.“ _pp 215 - 216.
“On two occasions we crossed over to East Berlin, which I much preferred to the decadent West. Yes, it was dour and repressed — but I was too.” __p 56
This book is subtitled in some editions as “How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life”
#HowToSaveALife
#SeptemberSins
@jenniferw88
Completed in 2018 thanks in part to the great #NashvilleLittens I have met this year!!! Here‘s to 2019!!!!
pickAndy Miller found himself in somewhat of a reading slump after his son was born. We‘ve all been there at one point or another. For me, Litsy was what got me back into reading, after having two kids in two years seriously wiped out the amount of reading I typically accomplished. For Miller, it was his List or Betterment. 50 books that he wanted to read in one year. These are his musings as he tackles the list. I found myself relating to him.
This is me every year as books and you lovely littens help to keep me sane. Love you all 😘❤️📚📖
When I first began this book last year, I seem to recall enjoying it. But for some reason, I stopped reading it a little over halfway through. This was when I was trying to read more than one book at a time. Now I‘m finding it somewhat tedious and have started to skim. I will finish it soon and use it as a reference book, I think.
This was my reading list from May, all of which I really enjoyed! A very successful month of reading, as was June, which I‘ll be posting soon 😊A Skinful of Shadows was a favourite, as was A Court of Frost and Starlight, and The Year of Reading Dangerously was a great read about reading. All excellent, all 4 or 5 stars! #reading #list #May #monthly #updates
pickIt can't but come across a bit snobbish, but Andy Miller's chronicles of reading for betterment is still inspiring, funny, and honors the importance of literacy and culture in our lives.
OMG! I love my #2018NFBE books and goodies. Thank you so much @guinsgirlreads , you nailed it! My favorite genres (books about books and books about Paris!), post-its and cute wine bottle caps!! And the Paris book is include recipes. Can't wait to read these.
so-soI liked the concept of the author‘s project, and occasionally he hits on something profound about what classic texts can do and mean and why reading them still matters. But too often, he just comes off as being smug and pretentious.
Oddly, I read 18 more books than last year but 2,000 fewer pages. I think I fell into reading ruts more frequently and had to use graphic novels and audiobooks to hoist myself out. Hopefully this year will feature more novels.
#2017stats #Goodreads
I did not meet my Goodreads reading challenge of reading 1 more book than last year but I did read quite a few great books this year. The tagged book has inspired me to add some classics for 2018. I‘m going to use Serial Reader for that so I can read in small, less overwhelming segments. Happy reading to all in 2018!
“...I always preferred indoors to outdoors because indoors was where the books were kept.”
“When I was a boy, I loved reading in just the way Alex does now. But life had separated me from that boy; books had got in the way. Because if I had learned one thing from the List of Betterment, it was that a love of reading and a love of books are not necessarily the same thing.”
Next up - this looks fascinating and might be good inspiration to tackle some of the classics in 2018 (I almost can‘t believe that we are almost finished with 2017).
Here's my year in reading...so far! Hope to add a few more to the list before 2018!
Serious reading can be #dangerous. To ignorance, to arrogance, and other assorted ills. #reindeerreads @Jess7
One chapter in. I can already tell I‘m going to love this book of books. I just hope it doesn‘t expand my tbr too much. 😂
“I stole away to the spare bedroom when the Pictionary came out. This was not just a great book; it was a great book I could love. Of course, I love my family too, never more so than when in another part of the house, reading about someone else‘s family, long ago and far away.” What reader hasn‘t felt this way?
“However, although The da Vinci Code did a whole heap of things defectively, it did one thing stupefyingly well. It was as though Brown had jettisoned all traces of style and credibility from his novel because he had realized, in a flash of Leonardo-like scientific insight, that style and credibility were the very properties preventing his theoretical story balloon from taking flight....
“I would like Donald Trump‘s billions, without necessarily committing myself to his hair style.”
pickJust like my new friend, Andy Miller, I decided to seriously get back into my reading this year. I definitely related to almost all he had to say about the life of a serious reader. So, again, like in many of my favorite books lately, he has helped me really feel less alone. There were some parts I had to skim but when he was hot, he was hot, expressing the reader‘s life, profoundly and eloquently. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What was it I got from reading as a child? It fired my imagination and provided me with an escape. Everything in the world of stories was harmonious and fair and I often found it easier to spend time there than in the muddy, idiotic, confusing world of other people.
I think I will keep this theme going a few days. 😍
#Bookhaul #TbrListExplosion #BookSale awesome books all 10.00 or less and some great editions- sigh, no rest for the weary!
pickBooks about books 👌🏽
And with the tagged book, I completed my #LitsyAtoZ! Here's a collage of the 26 books I read for the challenge.
pickWhile I didn't agree with Miller's assessment of the books all the time, I do agree with the premise that reading good, or great, books changes you, and that reading is a muscle that gets stronger with use. And the chapter on Dan Brown alone is worth the price of admission. Some of the books on his "List of Betterment" I would not count as "great books" but most are recognized classics. Funny & insightful. #LitsyAtoZ #LetterY @BookishMarginalia
But do not read, as children read, for fun, or like the ambitious read, for training purposes. No, read for your life. --- Gustave Flaubert
so-soIt wasn't what I expected. I wanted more about the books and less memoir but he did talk me into trying Moby Dick again. And maybe War and Peace.
