{"id":5832,"date":"2015-11-04T02:20:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T07:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=5832"},"modified":"2015-11-04T04:38:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T09:38:28","slug":"read-harder-update-the-first-ten-months-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=5832","title":{"rendered":"read harder update: the first ten months of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back at the beginning of the year, I decided<\/a> to do Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge. Then I stopped reading much of anything, which makes completing any book-based challenge more difficult. I thought I’d take today to assess where I am in the challenge in order to see what I need to request from the library or pull from my TBR stacks.<\/p>\n

No one will be surprised by some of the categories I’ve managed to leave until the end (foreign, non-fiction, sci-fi):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25:<\/strong><\/del> Nimona<\/em> by Noelle Stevenson, age 23, was long-listed for the NBA in YA this year.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65:<\/strong><\/del> 68-year-old Dave Barry’s middle-grade book about an 8th-grade field trip gone awry: The Worst Class Trip Ever<\/em> <\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people):<\/strong> POSSIBILITY: In the Company of Sherlock Holmes<\/em> (edited by Laurie King and Leslie Klinger)<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. A book published by an indie press:<\/strong> TO FINISH: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen<\/em> was put out by Graywolf Press.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. 0″>A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ<\/strong><\/del>: The Lover’s Dictionary, which I’d hoped to like far more than I did, is both written by a gay man, David Levithan, and features a gay protagonist.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  6. A book by a person whose gender is different from your own:<\/strong><\/del> Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude<\/em><\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  7. A book that takes place in Asia:<\/strong> POSSIBILITY: The God of Small Things<\/em><\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  8. A book by an author from Africa:<\/strong> POSSIBILITY: Something by Veronique Tadjo, perhaps.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  9. A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.):<\/strong> TO FINISH: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em> by Sherman Alexie<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  10. A microhistory:<\/strong> POSSIBILITY: I think I have one of Simon Winchester’s books in the other room… Or maybe Rebecca Skloot’s book’s book about Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cells.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  11. A YA novel:<\/strong><\/del> Ana of California <\/em>by Andi Teran.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  12. A sci-fi novel:<\/strong> POSSIBILITY: The Martian<\/em> or Ready Player One<\/em> (I’ve taken both books out several times this year; I’m starting to doubt my actual interest in reading either.) <\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  13. A romance novel:<\/strong><\/del> Katie Fforde’s Practically Perfect <\/em>was adorable and just what I wanted for a Valentine’s Day read.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  14. A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade:<\/strong><\/del> Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See<\/em> won the Pulitzer earlier this year.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  15. A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.):<\/strong><\/del> Breadcrumbs<\/em>, by Anne Ursu, takes on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the Snow Queen.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  16. An audiobook:<\/strong><\/del> I listened to Mr Churchill’s Secretary<\/em> by Susan Elia MacNeal on audio.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  17. A collection of poetry: <\/strong><\/del>Jane Hirshfield’s The Beauty<\/em><\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  18. A book that someone else has recommended to you:<\/strong><\/del> George<\/em> by Alex Gino, was recommended to me by the children’s librarian at the Georgetown library.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  19. A book that was originally published in another language:<\/strong> TO FINISH: Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol (Translated by Ruth Whitehouse) was originally published in Turkish. <\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  20. A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind:<\/strong><\/del> Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal<\/em>, by G. Willow Wilson, is the collection of the first five comic books that tell how a nice Muslim girl in New Jersey becomes a superhero.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  21. A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over):<\/strong><\/del> I’m putting Jeff Goldberg’s Unrivaled: UConn, Tennessee, and the Twelve Years that Transcended Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Basketball<\/em> here. I don’t feel guilty about the things I read, but this book fell so far of my hopes for it that I felt bad sticking with it when I had so many other books I wanted to read.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  22. A book published before 1850:<\/strong> TO FINISH: Mansfield Park<\/em> by Jane Austen, published in 1814, was the last of her completed novels I hadn’t read.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  23. A book published this year:<\/strong><\/del> Career of Evil<\/em> by Robert Galbraith<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  24. A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered \u00e2\u20ac\u0153self-improvement\u00e2\u20ac\u009d):<\/strong><\/del> Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer<\/em> by Heather Lende<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So I still have nine categories to finish, but several books are in progress and\/or in my possession at the moment, so here’s hoping. If anyone has alternative suggestions for those categories where I’ve put down possibilities (as opposed to ones where I have books to finish), I’m open to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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