2016 Reading Challenge

[osprey_archer]

I'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 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!

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Too bad you couldn't find it! By the way, here's the cover art I was talking about:

[ursula]

War and Peace is actually pretty fun, if you skim the parts about how history is inevitable. Have read twice; would read again.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

WAR AND PEACE IS THE BEST EVER. Or maybe not the best, but I love it with galaxies of love. I'm so excited that you're reading it! It's one of the books I have to be careful about opening because if I open it to any page that is not an Author Lecture about History it will drag me right down into its ridiculous emotional roller coaster again and then there goes the rest of the month.

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 bar novel careful 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.

[littlerhymes]

This sounds like an awesome challenge. :)

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...

[silverusagi]

This looks like a fun challenge!