2016 Reading Challenge
Jan. 2nd, 2016 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI've seen this book challenge from Modern Mrs. Darcy making the rounds, and after some waffling (how many challenges do I want to lard my New Year with, after all?), I found that I couldn't resist. I love book challenges and reading lists, and this one has the added bonus of flexibility, so unlike with fixed reading lists I won't end up stuck with That One Book that I just don't want to read.
I wanted to include the cute graphic, but the site just won't work with me on this (in fact, it barely wants to work at all), so I'm just going to type up the categories here.
- a book published this year
- a book you can finish in a day
- a book you've been meaning to read
- a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
- a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF
- a book published before you were born
- a book that was banned at some point
- a book you previously abandoned
- a book you own but have never read
- a book that intimidates you
- a book you've already read at least once
Twelve challenges for twelve months! Nifty, right?
And I decided to start from the bottom, so I'd come to "a book published this year" in December and have plenty of choice.
Some of these were pretty easy to choose a book for. "A book you own but have never read," for instance, clearly needs to be Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square. (I very, very rarely buy books I haven't read, so there weren't many to choose from.) "A book I previously abandoned" will be A. S. Byatt's Possession, and what could "a book that intimidates you" be but War and Peace? (War and Peace will clearly take longer than February. I'll start it then and pair it with "a book you can finish in a day," so I'll have a February post, and then post about War and Peace whenever I finish it.)
However, for a while I got stuck on "a book you've already read at least once." I have read a lot of books at least once. How to choose?
I'd almost made up my mind to reread one of Kate Seredy's books, because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asakiyume mentioned a Seredy book in her Christmas card, and I loved The Good Master when I was a child (the sequel The Singing Tree, IIRC, somewhat less, although the title is clearly superior). But when I went to look for it, I couldn't find the book.
But thinking of The Good Master got me thinking about tomboys, which got me thinking about the Little House books - which seemed unsuitable, because 1) there are nine of them (eight if you ignore Farmer Boy, which I generally do), and 2) I've read most of the others lots and lots of times and it seemed a bit unsporting to choose a book that I already know so well. Plus, surely a challenge is an opportunity to pick a book that you might not otherwise (re)read.
And then I hit on it: Caddie Woodlawn. Another important tomboy, and a book that I haven't read in years. So that will be book number 1!
I wanted to include the cute graphic, but the site just won't work with me on this (in fact, it barely wants to work at all), so I'm just going to type up the categories here.
- a book published this year
- a book you can finish in a day
- a book you've been meaning to read
- a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
- a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF
- a book published before you were born
- a book that was banned at some point
- a book you previously abandoned
- a book you own but have never read
- a book that intimidates you
- a book you've already read at least once
Twelve challenges for twelve months! Nifty, right?
And I decided to start from the bottom, so I'd come to "a book published this year" in December and have plenty of choice.
Some of these were pretty easy to choose a book for. "A book you own but have never read," for instance, clearly needs to be Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square. (I very, very rarely buy books I haven't read, so there weren't many to choose from.) "A book I previously abandoned" will be A. S. Byatt's Possession, and what could "a book that intimidates you" be but War and Peace? (War and Peace will clearly take longer than February. I'll start it then and pair it with "a book you can finish in a day," so I'll have a February post, and then post about War and Peace whenever I finish it.)
However, for a while I got stuck on "a book you've already read at least once." I have read a lot of books at least once. How to choose?
I'd almost made up my mind to reread one of Kate Seredy's books, because
asakiyume mentioned a Seredy book in her Christmas card, and I loved The Good Master when I was a child (the sequel The Singing Tree, IIRC, somewhat less, although the title is clearly superior). But when I went to look for it, I couldn't find the book. But thinking of The Good Master got me thinking about tomboys, which got me thinking about the Little House books - which seemed unsuitable, because 1) there are nine of them (eight if you ignore Farmer Boy, which I generally do), and 2) I've read most of the others lots and lots of times and it seemed a bit unsporting to choose a book that I already know so well. Plus, surely a challenge is an opportunity to pick a book that you might not otherwise (re)read.
And then I hit on it: Caddie Woodlawn. Another important tomboy, and a book that I haven't read in years. So that will be book number 1!
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Date: 2016-01-03 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 01:33 am (UTC)Have you ever read Rosemary Sutcliff's The Shining Company? It also features a white stag. (I'm not sure it bears any other similarity to anything, I just made an associative leap.)
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Date: 2016-01-03 01:37 am (UTC)Yeah, I do think you read it--I think I remember your posting about it.
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Date: 2016-01-03 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 03:04 am (UTC)So many loveable and infuriating characters! So much sneaky humor and so many stupid hijinks and sudden crushing realizations and moments of inexplicable beauty! I love everyone in this
barnovelcareful exploration of Tolstoy's theory of history!This is a good reading challenge and I might steal it. I am already reading a book that intimidates me this year, In Search of Lost Time.
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Date: 2016-01-03 02:04 pm (UTC)Yes, do steal the reading challenge! It looks like fun.
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Date: 2016-01-03 06:29 pm (UTC)So someone other than me should answer the question. Or: flip through a few pages and see how much French there is. My lost translation had just a light dusting; some versions translate more of the French into English and some less.
Sorry this is not a very useful comment.
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Date: 2016-01-04 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-04 03:32 am (UTC)I hope you find good translation advice!
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Date: 2016-01-03 12:27 pm (UTC)I love Possession so I hope you love it! I'm hopelessly intimidated by War & Peace though. In fact, I am intimidated by all the Russians...
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Date: 2016-01-03 01:55 pm (UTC)If you're looking to get started with the Russian novelists, I always recommend The Master and Margarita as a good place to start. It's comparatively short and not at all depressing. Very unusual for a Russian novel.
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Date: 2016-01-04 10:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-04 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-04 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-04 03:15 am (UTC)