2016 Doorstop Challenge

If you are like me, you have a daunting stack of literary behemoths making a shelf or two groan. Remembrance of Things Past by Proust, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, or A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Though regarded as classics, you groan at the thought of actually reading them.

To push myself, I've come up with a two-part challenge, which I've dubbed my "Doorstop Challenge." A book can be used either of two ways to block a door open. If the book is bulky enough, you just drop it on the floor beside the door's edge. If it is slender, you wedge it beneath the door's bottom edge. So my challenge has two divisions: Dead Weight and Wedge.

  A dead weight doorstop, to me, is a book of at least 601 pages. My challenge to myself is to read one such book each month. I'm not going to commit to reading a particular book in a particular month. Neither am I going to hobble myself by picking only 12 books. Instead, I'm going to line up 15 titles at the start of the year. Each month, I'll grab an unread book off the shelf—whichever book appeals to me at that moment.

To compensate for the high-bulk page-length of these dead weights and the extra time each takes to read, I'm going to pair each with a short book, one I can jam under the door edge as a stop.

  I figure a "wedge" is anything under 200 text pages—thus, 199 text pages or less. Such fiction pieces often are dubbed "novellas."

For every dead weight book, I'll pick a wedge. I'm not going to pair them. Just pick one that appeals at the moment from the list's unread books.

So there it is: Each month, I plan to read a dead weight and a wedge. I'm going to have a 15-book pool in each division to start, and the pool will diminish month-by-month until 12 have been read. The 3 left will be those that, well, I guess I just didn't want to read enough to, you know, read. I'll post my lists soon.

Join me if you like, in whatever configuration you like. Once a month, every other month, or quarterly… You know you want to!

I feel tempted to add, in light of the second picture, "no books were harmed in the fulfilling of this challenge"... :-)

I will do my best Bill!

I'm in. Oh, and have added this thread to the group wiki.

This sounds like a good one, Bill! Thanks for setting it up. I doubt I'll be able to read a Chunkster a month but, maybe every other. I am kicking the year off in Doorstop Style, with A Little Life, (720 pages) and then a couple weeks later, War & Peace, (10,000 pages), so that will keep me busy.

I do like your Wedge Challenge too. Love those shorties!!

I'll participate when I come across a book with over 600 pages, and I'll pair it with a less than 200 page group in that month. I'll probably read these chunksters:

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (734 pages)
The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth by Orlando Patterson (675 pages)
The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir (768 pages)
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey (656 pages)

I intend to read the Fanon biography for Black History Month and for the Reading Globally challenge (Caribbean authors) in February, so that will be the first month I participate here. I'll add other chunksters as I get to them.

Your challenge made me laugh - I especially like the wedge part! I'll join in when I come across a doorstopper that I'm in the mood to tackle. Trying to work on reading off my shelves this year, so this will work nicely with that. I'm starting with War and Peace and Mãn by Kim Thúy can be my wedge.

I'm in too! I don't think I can manage one per month, so my goal for now is one per quarter instead. I started reading and listening to The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday. I think the audiobook is 42 hours long! That's going to be my strategy though for the Dead Weight -- an audio/actual book combo.

I went through my shelves/Kindle yesterday, and these are the books that I have from which to choose:

Dead Weight
1. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
3. Middlemarch by George Eliot
4. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
5. The Magus by John Fowles
6. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
7. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
8. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
9. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
10. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
11. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
12. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
13. Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings by Mary Henley Rubio
14. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
15. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
16. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
17. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
18. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Wedges
1. Freya of the Seven Isles by Joseph Conrad
2. Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulic
3. The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald
4. A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert
5. Daisy Miller by Henry James
6. The Coxon Fund by Henry James
7. Even the Dogs by John McGregor
8. Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
9. Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje
10. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
11. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
12. The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
13. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
14. The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

Great idea- this might be the year when I pull my copy of A Suitable Boy out of my TBR pile

>3 PaulCranswick: If you do your best, Paul, we'll all be put to shame. :-) You can be the rabbit we'll all chase.

>4 drneutron: Thanks for put this challenge on the Group Wiki, Doc. And join in with whatever doorstops to want to read.

>5 msf59: Welcome, Mister Mark. I don't think I know A Little Life, but I sure I will before long, oh Gifted Warbler. I must say that your copy of War and Peace, at 10,000 pages *ha ha* is longer than the two copies I have combined!

>6 kidzdoc: Good plan, Darryl. It's great to have you aboard.

>7 Crazymamie: Hey, hey, Mamie. No laughing; this here is serious bidness. Ah ha ha ha ha.

Welcome, and keep on smiling. War and Peace is a serious read, a serious start. I've signed on for the group read. Have you?

>8 Cait86: Great lists, Cait. I've read a few of them—Winter's Tale and 11/22/63, which was an easy read, and East of Eden. And I have several on my TBR list—The Ghost Writer and Middlemarch among them. I see a couple of Steinbecks on your wedge list; I didn't realize they were so short. Food for thought, thank you very much.

>9 torontoc: Hello, hello. Good to read you are interested.

>!1 Well, I haven't made an official appearance on the thread - just lurking so far, but I am definitely in.

Well, I'll certainly be joining in but most likely not monthly. I have several doorstops on my 1001 list and want to read at least Middlemarch, Vanity Fair, and The Woman in White this year. I also have A Suitable Boy that I meant to get last year (and the year before..) so we'll see how that one goes.

I've got two door-holder-openers going now:
-Don Quixote
-The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian

I've aspired for awhile to read Moby Dick (yikes, touchstones are a mess), which I have in e-version so it'd slip right under the door, but page-wise it qualifies. The accompanying "wedge" is Spark Notes: Moby Dick. I very much doubt I'll complete it this month. Maybe this quarter.

I have wanted to read, A Little Life, (720 pages), for most of '15, so now is the time. I am listening to it on audio and after an hour in, I think it will work just fine in this format.

Did anyone read her last book, The People in the Trees? I have not but have heard good things.

I felt sure I'd left my mark on this thread, but I see now it was all in my mind. Happens all the time!

I'll be back. I'm inspired to make a list. Must work on that, long and hard. Not really. But must first walk the dog and start on War and Peace and stuff.

I'm in for the doorstops. Here's my list of potentials, the first 3 are "in progress":

Moby Dick, Melville (am about 200 pages into this)
Clarissa, Richardson (a 1900+ page behemoth--probably could hold open 3 doors--thank God it's on my tablet--have read about 50 pages of this)
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (have read about half the stories)
The Prime Minister, Trollope
The Duke's Children, Trollope
The Way We Live Now, Trollope
Lonesome Dove, McMurtry
Waverly, Sir Walter Scott (OK, so it's 575 pages, close enough IMHO)
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas
Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens
Dombey & Son, Charles Dickens

I'm aiming for at least 6 from this list in 2016 (one every other month or so).

I LOVE doorstops. There is nothing like getting into a good book and knowing you can keep reading for a LONG time. I was hoping to read Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth this month, and also Wolf Hall. (which I had queued up for December, but didn't get to.)

Mark, I read People in the Trees. It was brilliant, but uncomfortable.

Yay! I just finished Sacred Hunger and, at 630 pages, it qualifies as a doorstop. It was so good I could have kept on reading another 630 pages! Now I need a wedge. I am picking up Ru at the library in the next few days, and I think it will qualify. This is a fun challenge that is right up my alley because I love to wallow in long books.

This is another challenge I can probably enter as I have plenty of doorstops and I like the idea of wedges to balance. I will report back when I have my first completed.

Started to read Gulag Archipelago last night and discovered I'm either going to have to read it with a magnifying glass or find an edition with larger type. What I have is a mass-market paperback. The footnotes are about 6 point type. Oh Lordy...

>22 weird_O: That one is on my list and has been for ages. I'll get there eventually. Best of luck with that small print!

I ordered De graaf van Monte Christo as I have wanted to read that book for ages.
From our own books I might read Oorlog en vrede (War and peace) or Anna Karenina and maybe.. maybe the complete De man zonder eigenschappen (The Man Without Qualities), 4 tomes!

Ooh, I like the idea of this! I'm going out of my way to not acquire any books published post-2000 with more than 400 pages this year (there's context here, I promise), but I do have 3 or 4 on my to-read shelf already. I'm working on The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton right now, which definitely qualifies as a dead weight doorstop!

Also on my list:
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Magus - John Fowles
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt - TJ Stiles
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

I like this idea. My goal this year was to read a massive amount of pages. This challenge should help. I'm starting off with Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I'll update my list in the next week or so.

Dead Weight:

1. Reamde by Neal Stephenson
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K Rowling
6. Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
7. Visitors by Orson Scott Card
8. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
9. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
10. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
11. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
12. Noble House by James Clavell
13. Whirlwind by James Clavell
14. Gai-Jin by James Clavell
15. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Wedges:

1. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
2. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Elmear McBride (205pg, close enough)
3. Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
4. Pinball by Haruki Murakami
5. The Knight of the Swords by Michael Moorcock
6. The Queen of the Swords by Michael Moorcock
7. The King of the Swords by Michael Moorcock

Dead Weight for me in January will be : A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (688 pages) & I will have
The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Theriault (117 pages) amongst others.

My first pairing of the year: The Bone Clocks (714 pages) and Fast Girl (255 pages).

^I finished A Little Life! I finished A Little Life! I am free! I am really glad I read this book. It is a one of a kind experience but I am also glad to put it behind me. We all know I like dark and edgy books but this meat-grinder approach really left me exhausted.

I thought there might be a bit more "sunshine" in the final chapters but no such luck. More bruised clouds and troubled waters.

I think I am in the mood for something "light".

No time for a wedgie, this time around...

I wasn't planning on joining another challenge, but then I went and read a doorstop and my resistance broke down. I read Mark Z. Danielewski's The Familiar, Volume 2: Into the Forest: it's 829 pages of heavy paper and Danielewski's usual weird page design. It looks like a monster but the paper-wasting layout and generally unchallenging writing meant that I got through this sucker in a day and a half. Now, off to find a wedge.

Dead weight: currently reading War and Peace. Have set myself a pace of 20 pages/day so I can read and complete other books in the meantime, so I should complete it in the next 4 weeks or so, no I have 300 pages plus under my belt. I completed Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (640p/22 hours audio) last week and highly recommend it.

Wedges: completed The Last Friend by Tahar Ben Jelloun (147 pages) and Ru by Kim Thúy (160 pages).

OK, the title of this group caught my eye. :-)

I have tried on many occasions to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and I get bogged down everytime! It is one of my younger son's favourites and he REALLY wants me to read it. I will try it again, and, at 1090 pages, it certainly qualifies as a Deadweight!

And to counterablance that, for my wedge choice, I have started Ira Levin's Sliver which is the first book that I found in my booklist that had under 200 pages. Loved the stuff of his I read years ago including Rosemary's Baby and A Kiss Before Dying.

Sliver has already hooked me in after just a few pages!

I read Sacred Hunger for my doorstopper; and Ru was the wedgie. I liked them both.... Sacred Hunger was a 5 star read for me.

I just finished Sliver by Ira Levin in three days. Fast read! At 190 pages this was a `wedge`selection for January.

I found this novel totally gripping!

I appreciated Levin’s sparse prose, the way the words kept the action moving rapidly forward without sacrificing character development. Definitely creepy and I could not put it down.

For 185 pages I was mesmerized. Everything seemed to me to be totally believable and then something happened 5 pages from the end that almost ruined the whole book for me. It just left the realm of plausibility and entered the realm of complete unbelievabllity.

However, I have decided that the suspense of those first 185 pages was well worth the read and am giving this a 4.5 star rating since, honestly, I could hardly put it down. The ending keeps it from getting a 5.0 as one of my all time favourites, although it is certainly close.

4.5 stars

I'm in the middle (pretty much literally) of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (about 1000 pages) thanks to the big storm last weekend, so that's my latest doorstop. I'm pairing it with The Bad Seed (230 pages), source of the more well known classic horror movie, that I ripped through earlier today on a flight across the US.

Hmm, I think the longest book I've read so far this year has been One of Us by Asne Seierstad, at 544 pages. Not shirking; that's just the way things have turned out. I doubt that qualifies compared to some of these chunksters, though!

>35 drneutron: I read and enjoyed Strange 'n' Norrell last summer. My chunkster for January was The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (729 pages). I saw it on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels (20th century) years ago (at # 87, I believe), and came into possession of a copy last year when I bought a collection of Heritage Press books via e-Bay. Turned out to be a pleasant read.

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas last night - over 45 hours on audiobook! Today I'll start Mrs. Dalloway as my Wedge.

I started on A Dance with Dragons on audio a couple of days ago. I predict I will (and have already) made lots more listening time during the days to get through this one within the next week or so. Some 50 hours of audio! Fun to be back in this alternate world for a while.

I just finished Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger (629 pages). A fantastic book that never dragged.

My tally for the month:

Doorstops
The Familiar, Vol. 2: Into the Forest by Mark Z. Danielewski (829 p)
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (629 p)
Total: 2 books and 1458 pages

Wedges
The Small Hand by Susan Hill (146 p)
The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill (185 p)
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (138 p)
The Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton (179 p)
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (97 p)
Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse (158 p)
Plague Ship by Andre Norton (149 p)
Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton (68 p)
Star Hunter by Andre Norton (87 p)
Straight James / Gay James by James Franco (57 p)
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (112 p)
Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine by Diane Williams (86 p)
Total: 12 books and 1462 pages

I see I've jumped a bit ahead in the wedge category...have to see if I can even up the numbers a bit.

Made no progress at all on my Deadweight choice ... NOT ONE WORD!!

However, I did read 3 Wedges:
Sliver by Ira Levin - 190 pgs
The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lilian Jackson Braun - 192 pgs
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun - 192 pgs

For January I read War and Peace and Ru, so hooray for that. Currently I am reading City on Fire, which has just over 900 pages, so it definitely qualifies. Not sure what will be my wedge yet.

Ha HA! I did get my Doorstop Challenge books read in January.

In the Deadweight division, I read Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale, a 729-page novel published in 1908, and ranking at #87 on Modern Library's 100 best 20th-century, English language novels. I completed it on 1/15/16. My comments on it, along with some of the drawings included in the Heritage Press edition I read, are here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/210740#5458883

My Wedge was The Quiet American by Graham Greene. That I finished 1/7/16. My thoughts on it are here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/210740#5439120

For February, my picks are Dickens' David Copperfield and Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Haven't started either one, being locked on completing more of War & Peace.

Finished my reread of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, clocked in at 1000 pages. Got some funny looks and questions about it when I took it with me to read over breakfast or lunch.

>44 drneutron: Was it as good the second time around? Pick up anything you missed last time? I liked it a lot when I read it last summer.

Better, I'd say. There were lots of little things I picked up this time as I went along, which added to the enjoyment. Though, in fairness, it was 10 years ago I read it the first time - so I may be forgetting much about the experience then. :)

I read another wedge (144 pages):
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin - short, creepy social commentary, well written horror theme.

Understandable how the term "Stepford Wife" became part of our social / cultural lexicon

My comments are here

>44 drneutron: - did you watch the mini-series? I got halfway through and had to return it to the library but it was quite interesting. I haven't read the book yet but it's on the pile.

This is a challenge I can join! Doorstoppers: I have read Moby Dick by Melville (oh,wait, it's a little too short to count), The Luminaries by Catton and The Goldfinch by Tartt so far this year and I am halfway through War and Peace by Tolstoy (finished!). My aim this year is quality over quantity so I am focusing on the doorstoppers (but keep getting sidetracked with all the other pretty books lying around).

Wedges: Hector and the Search for Happiness by Lelord, So Long a Letter by Ba and Hour of the Star by Lispector.

>48 Yells: Not yet! Hadn't thought to look at the library...

Well, I'm calling Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo my first doorstop. At 550 pages it is the longest I have read in a while. My wedge is a New Zealand classic, The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson.

Now reading The Patriarch, a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy. Not a nice guy, but the author's great. At ~750 pages, it qualifies as a doorstop, but is going fast!

I finished my first door wedge Joe and Azat, a less than 100 page graphic novel loosely based on the author's Peace Corp experiences in Turkmenistan.

This gives me my first combo for the year
Doorstop Kristin Lavransdatter - 3 volumes approx. 1300 pages finished in January; Door Wedge Pat & Azat - 96 pages.

^I finally dove into City on Fire. Yes, it is a doorstop, a bona-fide chunkster, clocking in at 900 pages. I am doing it on audio and, so far, it is working well in this format. Just trying to keep the characters straight. I am joining Kim & Mamie, on this one, although they both have a healthy head-start.

Finished a second doorstop this week: Marissa Meyer's Winter at 832 pages. I listened to it on audio - all 19 discs. I'll pair it with the doorwedge Gift From the Sea (140 pages) which I finished the end of February.

I'm almost done with War & Peace - and after that I will be done with doorstoppers for a while, although I'm hoping to read Les Miserables later this year.

> 54 I finished War and Peace last month and am 85% through Les Miserables. Hopefully you will like both as much as I did/am.

I always have several doorstops in progress. If I finish one a month, I'll do better than I expect to. On the other hand, the wedges don't attract me, so I doubt if I'll manage even one. I'll list them and check in when I finish one.
Lamentation by C. J. Sansom - 643 pages, and I should finish it this month. ETA: I did!
Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell - 716 pages
Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley - 736 pages, but I won't read but one appendix. The rest are descriptions of the reptiles and fishes (!) that she collected.
To Green Angel Tower: Book 1 by Tad Williams - 796 pages
To Green Angel Tower Part 2 by Tad Williams - 780 pages that I counted
The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch - 711 pages
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins - 649 pages
When All the World Was Young by Ferrol Sams - 610 pages
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - 867 pages

(Obviously a page of Tad Williams or C. J. Sansom is not equal to a page of D. MacCulloch.)

And I found a Wedge: Sleepless Nights - less than 150 pages, but I'll have to check!

Neglectful me; not keeping up with my doorstop thread here. Even Mister Mark is roaring through some real deadweights. Kudos! Kudos also to Danielle and Rob, Jim, Peggy, Janet...oh, and anyone I am overlooking.

I completed War & Peace about a week ago, and I'm scoring it as my March DwD. I posted The Weird Report^TM, I you are interested, here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/220240#5525299

My wedgie for March was Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. I liked it, and I'm pretty sure I'll tackle his DwD Tree of Smoke later this year. No report on TD, alas.

My February doorstops were David Copperfield and The Thirty-Nine Steps. Copperfield is an excellent book and I enjoyed reading it. No report, though. The Weird Report^TM on John Buchan's novella, the basis of several cinematic versions, is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/210740#5511708

I haven't settled on doorstops for April. Yet. Soon.

PS: I see Touchstones are on their "504 Gateway time-out." Good for them, less good for us.

I finished A Brief History of Seven Killings (not my favorite, but for some reason I really wanted to finish it. ) I followed it up with My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor -- not a great book, but super-interesting.

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg 3.6 stars

New York City: Summer of 1977. It was a season of sweltering temps, blackouts and a killer named Son of Sam.
The city was a powder-keg. It is also the backdrop to this massive novel, which is centered around the shooting of a young girl in Central Park and a wealthy family named, Hamilton-Sweeney. There are a multitude of characters. Shifting narratives and twisty, time-lines.
This was one of the most buzzed about books, last year, and the publisher paid an ungodly advance. 2 million? Obviously they pushed it like crazy. Honestly, I don't get it. I was very impressed by the author's ambition and scope and the writing was pretty solid but the story never really took off for me and that's too bad, considering, that at 900 pages, it was a major commitment.

My doorstop reading continues to lag behind my wedge reading, but I have managed one brick of a novel in the past couple of months.

My February-April tally:

Doorstops
Middlemarch by George Eliot (908 p)
Total: 1 book and 908 pages

Wedges
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson (191 p)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (196 p)
Sons of the Devil Vol. 1 by Brian Buccellato ((136 p)
Girl Meets Boy: The Myth of Iphis by Ali Smith (164 p)
Wessex Poems and Other Verses by Thomas Hardy (61 p)
Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson by David Grossman (155 p)
Doctor Who: Terrorformer by Robbie Morrison (128 p)
Doctor Who: Fractures by Robbie Morrison (128 p)
Doctor Who: Hyperion by Robbie Morrison and George Mann (128 p)
Doctor Who: Revolutions of Terror by Nick Abadzis (128 p)
Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels of Mons by Robbie Morrison (128 p)
Doctor Who: The Fountains of Forever by Nick Abadzis (136 p)
The Swoop! & The Military Invasion of America by P. G. Wodehouse (144 p)
Total: 13 books and 1823 pages

I had the opposite problem in April, Amanda. I read 2200+ pages in April, but only four books. Couldn't get a Wedge in anywhere. My Deadweight Doorstop for April was Lonesome Dove. But no Wedge. For May, I'm looking at Don Quixote and a couple of wedges, The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter by a series of authors.

So today I finished my easiest Deadweight Doorstop at 796 pp, To Green Angel Tower Part 1. Yay!

May tally:

Doorstops
Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers (688)
Total: 1 book and 688 pages

Wedges
Weapons of Past Destruction by Cavan Scott (128)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (150)
Total: 2 books and 278 pages

I finished reading The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, 595pages, so that is two tomes off the shelf for me this year. I thought this would take me a while to read but it was quite a page turner, so only 5 days. I need to hunt out some wedges... and my wedge is The Commitments by Roddy Doyle.

With the Reading Year nearly half over, I thought I'd update the list of books I've read for my Doorstop Challenge

DwD (5 Books + 1 pending in 6 months)
Jan: The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (729 pages) Finished 1/15/16
Feb: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (729 pages) Finished 2/27/16
Mar: War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1442 pages) Finished 3/22/16
Apr: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (945 pages) Finished 4/28/16
May: Truman by David McCullough (992 pages) Finished 6/2/16
June: The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner (635 pages) [Current Reading]

     

Wedgies (9 books in 6 months)
Jan: The Quiet American by Graham Greene (189 pages) Finished 1/7/16
Feb: The Thirty-Nine Steps (108 pages) and The Powerhouse (84 pages) by John Buchan Finished 2/16/16
   Our Town by Thornton Wilder (103 pages) Finished 2/3/16
   Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (139 pages) Finished 2/27/16
Mar: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (116 pages) Finished 3/8/16
Apr: none
May: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (180 pages) Finished 5/3/16
   The Stranger by Albert Camus (123 pages) Finished 5/6/16
June: Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (196 pages) Finished 6/19/16
   The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (180 pages) Finished 6/13/16

        

Nutz! My reading of Stegner's The Big Rock Candy Mountain is going into July.

June tally:

Doorstops
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence (700)
Total: 1 book and 700 pages

Wedges
Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad (176)
The Golden Key by George MacDonald (136)
Total: 2 books and 312 pages

So my mid-year count is 3,754 pages from my 5 doorstops and 3,875 pages from 29 wedges.

Yesterday I finished Seveneves for ER, a doorstop of 867 pp. I enjoyed every one of them!

I read Grapes of Wrath, which was over 600 pages, but it didn't feel like it.

July tally:

Doorstops
The Magus by John Fowles (671)
The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain by Mark Z. Danielewski (841)
Total: 2 books and 1512 pages

Wedges
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells (105)
James Bond: Vargr by Warren Ellis (168)
Doctor Who: The Endless Song by Nick Abadzis (128)
Total: 3 books and 401 pages

I have completed The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. At jusy under 600 pages this falls in to this challenge for me. An excellent read which also fulfills my Pulitzer Prize challenge.

August tally:

Doorstops
The Fabliaux translated by Nathaniel E. Dubin (982)
Total: 1 book and 982 pages

Wedges
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire (192)
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (178)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: A Spoon Too Short by Arvind Ethan David (100)
Total: 3 books and 470 pages

I have completed The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. All books over 500 pages qualify for me in this challenge as I tend to avoid them. The author and prize challenges have aided me in confronting some of these. I will read The Misunderstanding by Irene Nemirovsky as my wedge.

September tally:

Doorstops
It by Stephen King (1138)
Total: 1 book and 1138 pages

Wedges
Horn of Huon by Andre Norton (160)
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing (133)
Doctor Who: The School of Death by Robbie Morrison (128)
Total: 3 books and 421 pages

Kudos to Amanda and Helen especially who have kept this thread alive. And who have steadfastly addressed the challenge. Here is my own accounting. Curiously, the wedgie part is easy, the deadweight part not so much.

Deadweight Doorstop Reads [8 as of 10/1/16]
January: The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett (729 pages)
February: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (729 pages)
March: War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1672 pages)
April: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (945 pages)
May: Truman by David McCullough (992 pages) [started in May, finished June 2]
June: n o n e
July: The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner (635 pages) [started in June, finished August 31]
August: Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (752 pages)
September: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (760 pages)
October: ____________?
November: ____________?
December: ____________?

Wedge Doorstop Reads [13 as of 10/1/16]
January: The Quiet American by Graham Greene (189 pages)
February: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (103 pages)
    The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (108 pages)
    Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (139 pages)
March: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (116 pages)
April: The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (180 pages)
May: The Stranger by Albert Camus (123 pages)
June: Nobody Move by Denis Johnson (196 pages)
July: The Short Reign of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck (151 pages)
   Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (181 pages)
August: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates (160 pages)
September: My Movie Business by John Irving (170 pages)
    The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (133 pages)
October: ____________?
November: ____________?
December: ____________?

Another month, another stack of books.

October tally:

Doorstops
The Stand by Stephen King (1141)
Total: 1 book and 1141 pages

Wedges
The Saga of the Volsungs (145)
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor. Vol 1, A Matter of Life and Death by George Mann (128)
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor. Vol 5, Arena of Fear by Nick Abadzis (128)
The Game by Diana Wynne Jones (179)
The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (124)
Charles Keeping's Book of Classic Ghost Stories edited by Charles Keeping (142)
Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler (71)
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: Wild Card by Jim Butcher and Mark Powers (154)
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, translated by Daniel Donno (166)
Total: 9 books and 1237 pages

November tally:

Doorstops
Tower of the King's Daughter by Chaz Brenchley (600)
Total: 1 book and 600 pages

Wedges
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (77)
The Gothic Tradition in Supernatural: Essays on the Television Series edited by Melissa Edmundson (193)
Doctor Who: The American Adventures by Justin Richards (180)
Bloodchild and other stories by Octavia E. Butler (145)
Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler (140)
Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler (168)
Total: 6 books and 903 pages

Impressive reading here! I finished Master of the Senate by Robert Caro, and also Arguably by Christopher Hitchens

I have been a lurker all year, but I use the "wedge" system myself. I find after reading a tomb, I *need* something light, easy and frivolous to clear the brain palate ("brain sorbet"). I have slogged through mein kampf (uncapitalized intentionally). It will take a great deal of sorbet to get it out of my head. I'm not finished by will be in time to count it for 2016 - some books are not just BOG but they are a drag on the soul. I felt it was important to read this and reading it through the 2016 presidential campaign make it even more terrible. It came in just under 700 pages, but some big books are wonderful to read (Diana Gabaldon comes to mind), others...each page feels like 5.
I'm looking forward to my next tomb being more...IDK, positive.
I'm thinking about "Simple Justice" by Richard Kluger.
Happy end of the year dear Tomb-Dedicatees!

>79 mickeycat: Wow! After slogging through *that* book you definitely deserve something frivolous!

Started Great North Road yesterday evening. It's a mix of British police procedural and alien contact science fiction set about 150 years in the future. At 945 pages, I think it counts as a doorstop. :)

>81 drneutron: Boy, does it ever!

I didn't manage to get to any doorstops in December, but I did read a few wedges.

Wedges:
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton (48)
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler (168)
The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (159)
The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes (99)
Half Magic by Edgar Eager (192)
Westmark by Lloyd Alexander (190)
A Rose for Winter: Travels in Andalusia by Laurie Lee (128)
Total: 7 books and 984 pages

If my math is correct, my year-end total is 9,127 pages from 11 doorstops and 8,291 pages from 60 wedges. I don't usually keep track of how many pages I read, so it's been interesting comparing different sized books. There have been doorstops I've skipped through in a few days and wedges which took me ages to get through; some massive tomes had very little substance despite their bulk and some physically slight volumes had great depth. Thank you for this challenge weird_O!