By all rights, I ought to be telling you about five books I’d finished in May. There is no excuse for why I haven’t finished The Book Thief, except that it takes place during World War II, we’ve reached 1943, and I’m afraid. It’s hard not to be worried when your book is narrated by Death. So, instead, I keep plodding along, a few pages at a time, and offer you my reviews for the books I *have* finished.
I think I’m going to join two new reading challenges:
Maggie Reads is hosting the second annual Southern Reading Challenge. I intended to sign up for it last year and failed miserably, so I want to make up for it this year. The challenge is to read three Southern works between now and August 15.
My selections will be (with the option of switching out books):
The second challenge is the Non-Fiction Five Challenge, which runs through September.
Again, with the option of subbing in other selections, I’m hoping to read:
Conveniently, I owe a blog review on the advance reader copy of the Levy book, so that should get read shortly, and I’m supposed to be reading Walden with Karen as we speak, so this should spur me to alleviate the guilt I feel every time I see my copy of it sitting on my desk.
Sooner or later, someone is going to notice that I haven’t posted about books since the end of last year. (Or, conversely, no one will notice because no one cares. Unfortunately, I notice and I care, because I constantly refer back to my past book posts, so I just feel guilty with each day that passes without a book post.) So today, we’re just going to say, screw it and go with what we’ve got. This post will be ridiculously long because it covers the first four months of the year. So, feel free to skip it and come back tomorrow if you aren’t into the reading thing. I promise my feelings won’t be hurt.
The Telegraph has come up with the 110 books they claim will constitute the perfect library. As with any list like this, I don’t do well. But I enjoy examining them and seeing what specific entities (in this case a British newspaper that focuses on European classics) think I ought to have read.
Here’s how I fall out with their list:
Classics: I’ve read four completely (Austen, Bronte, Trollope, and Swift); two more are on my to-read list for this year.
Poetry: This is the hardest category, as I’ve definitely read snippets of at least all of the poets they’ve include. I’d have to look at the specific works to see which ones I’ve read completely. I know it’s at least one, but it could easily be more.
Literary Fiction: Thank god for Toni Morrison. Otherwise I haven’t read any of these, although I’ve read other work by some of the authors.
Romantic Fiction: I’ve read two (Rebecca and Gone with the Wind and two others are on my list to read soon.
Children’s Books: At last! a category in which I do well! I’m not sure if I’ve read Treasure Island all the way through or if I’ve just read snippets. I do know I didn’t like it (although I can see its merits). Otherwise I agree with and have read the lot.
Sci-Fi: It strikes me that usually you’re either a fantasy reader or a sci-fi reader and I definitely fall into the former category. I’ve read 1984 and am in the middle of listening to the Librivox version of Frankenstein through CraftLit. Should I bother with any of the others? It seems like I ought to read Jules Verne at the very least…
Crime: I haven’t read any of these, although I have read some of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Collins, Christie, Chandler, Doyle, and Hammett are all on my list.
Books that Changed the World: I’ve read excerpts of nearly all these works, but was turned off by de Tocqueville’s introduction the only time I ever attempted to read any of them unabridged. This category, in particular, would seem to be a weak link in my literary creds. Any suggestions on where to start first?
Books that Changed Your World: Mayle’s work is a favorite and I read A Child Called ‘It’ back in middle school, I think. I gave up on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from disinterest. Truss, Schott, Adams, and maybe Gladwell are all on my list.
History: I think it’s a bad sign that I’ve hardly even heard of any of these books…
Lives: I started Gaskell at one point…
Hmmm… looks like I’d better hit the non-fiction section of the library sometime soon…
Since I’m a bit stalled on the classics readalong that Karen and I are supposed to be working on (I just don’t feel like reading Walden right now), I thought I’d join some other readalongs, reserving the right to change my mind as I go along. The first one started last week:
Once Upon a Time II (hosted by Carl)
Once Upon a Time…
For me these four words conjure images of four classifications of story: Fantasy, Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Mythology. These four classifications, or genres, or subgenres of story can exist separately or in various combinations but their one common factor in my mind is that they can all very easily begin:
Once Upon a Time
Carl offers a number of options, but I think I’m going to pursue Quest the Third:
Fulfill the requirements for … Quest the Second* AND top it off with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The challenge runs from the first day of spring through the last.
*Quest the Second: Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology.
The books I’m hoping to read are:
Don’t those sound like interesting choices? Any other takers? Karen? Grey Kitten? Jenn?
This book review, which The Morning Times pointed me to, has me intrigued.
Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain sounds fascinating and I can’t wait to add it to my list of books to read in 2008.
(Speaking of which, my Into the Shelves feature will return on April 1 with what I’ve been reading since the beginning of the year.)