My 2008 Challenge Update

We have about a month and a half to finish up our 2008 Challenges. I did better so far than I thought I was going to a couple of months ago. I over-reached but I'll do that again next year, so obviously I learned not a thing. :-) I take that back! I learned that I have a ton of fun whether I finish the challenge or not. Quite a nice lesson!

Here is where I'm at with 2008 as of today:

1% Well-Read Challenge

6 of 10 finished, and I've started the seventh. I should finish this one.

100+ Book Challenge **FINISHED**

A-Z Reading Challenge

I'm officially abandoning this one. I know I won't do "X" before the end of the year due to lack of interest in this particular letter, so I'm going to let this one go and focus on some of the other challenges that have a better chance of getting done.

Anything Agatha Challenge

I love Agatha Christie, so the fact that I've only read 1 of 10 this year seems weird. I still might get this one finished though.

Bookmarks Magazine's "Best of 2007"

Ha! I forgot all about this personal goal. Oops. I'll probably use most of this list for the 2007 section of the Countdown Challenge.

Chunkster Challenge **FINISHED**

Decades Challenge **FINISHED**

Non-Fiction Five Challenge **FINISHED**

Pub Challenge **FINISHED**

Short Story Challenge

How hard can it be to read 10 short stories? Apparently I have a mental block in this category. I'm going to make more of an effort though, both to finish this challenge and try more short stories next year. Currently, I've read 6 stories that count toward the challenge, and I've got the other 4 picked out.

Spring Reading Challenge **FINISHED**

I don't think I'll do any of the seasonal challenges next year. Nothing against them, but it was just one more post to remember to link reviews to and I kept forgetting about it.

TBR Challenge

11 of 12 finished. It was harder to stick to the list than I anticipated! I'll finish this one though.

Triple 8 Challenge

Holy moly, did I make a mess of this one! I'm calling it officially abandoned as of today. I did learn how to make a better plan for a challenge like this, but not in time to salvage it for this year. This challenge will not run in 2009, but the Countdown Challenge has taken it's place. I should be able to handle that one.

So, out of 13 Challenges:

6 are Finished
3 are Almost Finished
1 is Questionable
3 are Abandoned

And I'm working on my Challenge plans for next year. For the 2009 100+ Reading Challenge, I'm considering a Personal Medal Plan: Bronze for 100 books, Silver for 125 books, and Gold for 150. The rest are the stepping stones to the Gold! :-)

Happy Reading, Everyone!!

Books Awards II Challenge

This challenge looked fabulous last year, but I was late to the blogging world, so I didn't sign up. Now's my chance! Michelle at 1 More Chapter is hosting Book Awards II! I have no clue what I'm going to read yet, but I have plenty of time to think about it, since it doesn't officially start until August. I'll be posting my choices and links to the reviews here, so stay tuned! Until then, here are the rules:

1. Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.

2. You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.

3. Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.

4. You don't have to post your choices right away, and your list can change at any time.

5. 'Award winners' is loosely defined; make the challenge fit your needs, keeping in mind Rule #2.

6. Have fun reading!

Now to think about what to read. . . (This is my favorite part!!) :-)

Completed: 10/10 as of May 5, 2009
**COMPLETED**

1. Roots by Alex Haley (Pulitzer Prize)
2. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (Booker Prize)
3. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Commonwealth Writers' Prize)
4. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (National Book Award)
5. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines (National Book Critics Circle Award)
6. The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe (Yomiuri Prize)
7. The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (Pulitzer Prize)
8. Day by Elie Wiesel (Nobel Prize)
9. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (James Tait Black Memorial Prize)
10. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee (James Tait Black Memorial Prize)



If you'd like to join in, click here to go to the Official Site.

1% Well-Read Challenge

Here's a Challenge I can easily get on board with, since I had wanted to read 50 off the list this year anyway! ;-)

From the Official Challenge site: The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009. You may change your list at any time and cross-posting to other challenges is permitted. The only requirement is that your ten book choices must be on the "1001 List".

The only changes I'll make for me personally is that I will end at the end of this year with the rest of my Challenges. Other than that, here is the list I plan to choose from, books read will be bolded as I finish them. (The full list I actually read is at the bottom of this post with a link to the review.)

Catch-22 -- Joseph Heller
Shindler's List -- Thomas Kenealy
Cry, The Beloved Country -- Alan Paton
Junky -- William S. Burroughs
The Power & The Glory -- Graham Greene
The Scarlet Letter -- Nathaniel Hawthorne
King Solomon's Mines -- H. Rider Haggard
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Mark Twain
Petals of Blood -- Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Theresa Raquin -- Emile Zola
Siddhartha -- Herman Hesse
Beowolf -- Anonymous
Pride & Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Crime & Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Jungle -- Upton Sinclair
The Master & Margarita -- Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of Hadrian -- Marguerite Yourcenar
Breakfast of Champions -- Kurt Vonnegut


Now let's see what *actually* gets read! Ha! :-)

Happy Reading, Everyone, and have a great weekend!
Lezlie

The "actually read" list:

Completed: 10 of 10 as of Dec. 11, 2008 ** FINISHED **

1. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
3. Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
5. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
6. Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
7. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
8. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
9. Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

Just the other day I was mulling over my reading list for the year and thinking that I was woefully short of any non-fiction. And along comes Joy with another challenge! I told her she was bad for me, but I meant it in the most "thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me an excuse to join yet another challenge" way! :-)

Here are the rules:


1. Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May - September, 2008

2. Read at least one non-fiction book that is different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help)

3. All choices need not be posted and may change at any time.

I can do that! Right? What's another 5 books? And I need a change from fiction every now and then. I am posting my list of potential candidates and here it is:

***FINISHED***
Completed: 5/5 as of August 28, 2008

1. John Adams by David McCullough
2. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
3. Homo Politicus by Dana Milbank
4. When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? by George Carlin
5. When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris


Alternates:

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Great Books by David Denby
How To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer Adler
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
The Murder Trials by Cicero
Essays by Plutarch
The Persian Expedition by Xenophon
Can I Keep The Jersey by Paul Shirley

Yup. I've got to give serious consideration to hosting that "Finish Your Challenges From Last Year" Challenge next year . . . :-)

If you'd like to join in, get all the info you need here.

Good luck, Everyone!
Lezlie

Spring Reading Challenge

After my dismal literary performance for February, I think the Spring Reading Challenge is just the thing to get my reading back on track! All we do is make a list of what we intend to read in the months of March, April and May. No minimums or limits. Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish as warmer weather draws near:

**FINISHED May 31, 2008** (See wrap-up post here.)

Achebe, Chinua -- Things Fall Apart
Achebe, Chinua -- Arrow Of God
Achebe, Chinua -- No Longer At Ease
Bass, Jefferson -- The Devil's Bones
Christie, Agatha -- Cards On The Table
Denby, David -- The Great Books
Dunant, Sarah -- In The Company of the Courtesan (Audio)
Eisner, Michael Alexander -- The Crusader
Goodkind, Terry -- Blood of the Fold (Audio)
Goodkind, Terry -- Temple of the Winds (Audio)
Goodkind, Terry -- Soul of the Fire (Audio)
Goodkind, Terry -- Faith of the Fallen (Audio)
Grahame, Kenneth -- The Wind In The Willows
Greene, Graham -- The Power and the Glory
Haggard, H. Rider -- Kind Solomon's Mines
Heller, Joseph -- Catch-22
Kalogridis, Jeanne -- The Borgia Bride
Kellerman, Jonathan -- Compulsion (Audio)
McCarthy, Cormac -- The Orchard Keeper
Obama, Barack -- The Audacity of Hope
Plaidy, Jean -- The Queen's Secret
Plaidy, Jean -- The Reluctant Queen
Plaidy, Jean -- The Lady In The Tower
Rice, Anne -- Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (Audio)
Twain, Mark -- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Verne, Jules -- Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Wilde, Oscar -- The Picture of Dorian Gray

Three months, twenty-seven books, seven of them audio. That should put me back on track!

Happy Reading, Everyone!
Lezlie

2008 Reading Challenges

This is my first year of blogosphere Reading Challenges, and what fun it has been! From this post you can access the list of the Challenges I have taken on, my personal reading lists for them and my progress. If you care to join in the craziness, follow the link to the list of Official Challenge Sites and jump right in!

My 2008 Reading Challenges

Official 2008 Reading Challenge Sites

Lezlie

2008 Official Challenge Sites

In case any of the Challenges you read about here strike your fancy or you just want to see what's out there, here are some of the Official Sites where you can sign up and join in the fun! Included here are all the challenges I've joined, plus a few others:

1% Well-Read Challenge

10 Out of 100 of 1001

100+ Book Challenge

A-Z Reading Challenge

Anything Agatha Challenge

Book Awards II Challenge

Chunkster Challenge

Classics Challenge

Decades Challenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Non-Fiction Five Challenge

Novella Challenge

Pub Challenge

Royalty Rules Challenge

Short Story Challenge

Southern Reading Challenge

Spring Reading Challenge

TBR Challenge

Triple 8 Challenge

My 2008 Reading Challenges

This is the list of all the Reading Challenges in which I am participating in 2008. Click the link to see my list of reading for that particular challenge and my current progress. Or click here to see them all at once! :-)


1% Well-Read Challenge **FINISHED**

100+ Book Challenge **FINISHED**

A-Z Reading Challenge (Abandoned)

Anything Agatha Challenge **FINISHED**

Bookmarks Magazine's "Best of 2007" (Abandoned)

Chunkster Challenge **FINISHED**

Decades Challenge **FINISHED**

Non-Fiction Five Challenge **FINISHED**

Pub Challenge **FINISHED**

Short Story Challenge **FINISHED**

Spring Reading Challenge **FINISHED**

TBR Challenge **FINISHED**

Triple 8 Challenge (Abandoned)

Anything Agatha Challenge

As I said on the Official Challenge site: Why not? The goal of this Challenge is to read 10 of anything by Agatha Christie: books, plays, short stories, whatever, in any combination. I'm already committed to 8 Agatha Christie books this year. What are two more? :-) Here are the ones I plan to read:

Completed: 10/10 as of Dec. 23, 2008 **FINISHED**

1. Cards on the Table
2. The Labors of Hercules
3. Dumb Witness
4. Death on the Nile
5. The Body In The Library
6. N or M?
7. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
8. The Moving Finger
9. Evil Under The Sun
10. Crooked House

After I finish up Proust, this will be a fantastic treat! :-) You can also see my progress on my personal Agatha Christie Project here. This Challenge will be a good assist!
Lezlie

100+ Book Challenge

Before I continue, I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words and thoughts both public and private regarding Cleopatra. The book blogging community is a special place full of great people. I'm glad to have discovered it. Time to dry my eyes and smile when I remember her . . .



And what better way to get back to life than to join another challenge! I have to be honest. I had every intention of reading 100+ books this year anyway, so it's not a huge stretch, but how fun to make it Official! I keep a running list of my books for the year at the bottom on my blog, so those interested will be able to keep track there. Good luck to everyone else who is taking part also!

UPDATE: Nov. 9, 2008 -- 100 + BOOK CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

In the meantime, I intend to read all the volumes in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time this year. I've started reading Swann's Way. I'm almost 100 pages in and I have to say I have no clue what this is about or what is going on, but it is some of the most stunningly beautiful writing I have ever encountered. I don't know if I have Proust himself or the translator to thank for that, but it's gorgeous. I find myself reading paragraphs two and three times just to experience them again.

Happy reading, everyone!
Lezlie

2008 Short Story Challenge

I need my head examined. Didn't I say just yesterday that the two (two!!) challenges I joined yesterday would be it? Here's my new thinking: I'm going to join 100 challenges this year. That should cover any other lapses in judgment I may have over the next 11 months. :-) As if I need to explain myself to other book addicts, here is my reason for joining the Short Story Challenge: Sometimes a person just wants to read something really short. Enough said.

Since I'm a short story extreme novice, I will choose Option #1 -- 10 short stories by 10 different authors. I won't include the Edgar Allan Poe story I read earlier this month, as I was not officially in the Challenge at the time. I will, however, list the ones I read here:

Completed: 10/10 as of Dec.. 21, 2008 **FINISHED**

1. "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison
2. "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield
3. "The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted" by Elizabeth Berg
4. "God Sees The Truth But Waits" by Leo Tolstoy
5. "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner
6. "Up In Michigan" by Ernest Hemingway
7. "The Destructors" by Graham Greene
8. "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty
9. "Blue Winds Dancing" by Tom Whitecloud
10. "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain

This will be fun!!
Lezlie

2008 Pub Challenge

OK. This is it. My last challenge for the year. (Now you can laugh. . .) At least 8 books published in 2008. The cool part? I plan on all audiobooks so I can keep up with some of the authors and series I've read that are still currently publishing. The list may change depending on what is actually released. Sadly, publishing omniscience is not one of my fortes. Wouldn't that be cool if it was, though? :-)

**FINISHED**

Completed: 8/8 as of July 8, 2008

The Serpent's Tale -- Ariana Franklin
The Devil's Bones -- Jefferson Bass
The Road To Cana -- Anne Rice
The Romanov Bride -- Robert Alexander
Compulsion -- Jonathan Kellerman
Mistress of the Sun -- Sandra Gulland
Stealing Athena -- Karen Essex
The Aviary Gate -- Katie Hickman

Potentials:

The Broken Window -- Jeffery Deaver
Phantom Prey -- John Sandford
Killer View -- Ridley Pearson
Revelation -- C.J. Sansom
Chasing Darkness -- Robert Crais
Devil's Bones -- Kathy Reichs

I'm thinking I might need to host a challenge next year. I'll call it The "Finish Your Challenges from Last Year" Challenge. Ha!

Lezlie

2008 Chunkster Challenge

OK. I'm in. I have a rational reason though! Stop snickering. I really do have a rational reason. This will not add any new books to my list. It will only give me another reason to read the bigger ones that are on there instead of only picking up the smaller ones for a quick finish. The rules are at least 4 books of a minimum of 450 pages. My choices are:

Completed: 3/4 as of August 13, 2008

The Borgia Bride -- Jeanne Kalogridis
The Courts of Love -- Jean Plaidy
Mistress of the Revolution -- Catherine Delors
The Queen's Lady -- Barbara Kyle

There. Now I have to read them! :-)

Keep warm everyone!
Lezlie

Triple 8 Challenge

The object of the Challenge is to pick 8 categories of your choosing and read 8 books in each of those categories in 2008. I opted for no cross-overs within this Challenge*, but most of them are included in other Challenges and Projects. Here is my list:

11/22/08 -- What a mess I've made here! In order to focus on other Challenges with a better chance of not making my head hurt, I am officially abandoning this challenges as of today. I've signed up for the 2009 version, The Countdown Challenge, which is a nice straight-forward plan that I can't wreck with topical indecision. See you there!

Completed: 17/64 as of Nov. 19, 2008

1. Jean Plaidy's "Queens of England":

The Courts of Love
The Queen's Secret
The Reluctant Queen
The Lady In The Tower
The Rose Without A Thorn
In The Shadow of the Crown
Queen of this Realm
Loyal In Love

2. Agatha Christie Mysteries:

Cards On The Table
Dumb Witness
Death On The Nile
Murder In The Mews
Appointment With Death
Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Murder Is Easy
And Then There Were None

3. Christoper Moore v. Tom Robbins:

Practical Demonkeeping -- Christopher Moore
Coyote Blue -- Christopher Moore
Island of the Sequined Love Nun -- Christopher Moore
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove -- Christopher Moore
Another Roadside Attraction -- Tom Robbins
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues -- Tom Robbins
Still Life With Woodpecker -- Tom Robbins
Jitterbug Perfume -- Tom Robbins

4. I, Me, My (1st Person POV):

The Historian -- Elizabeth Kostova
The Borgia Bride -- Jeanne Kalogridis
The Queen of Subtleties -- Suzannah Dunn
In The Company of the Courtesan -- Sarah Dunant
Junky -- William S. Burroughs
The Praise Singer -- Mary Renault
I, Claudius -- Robert Graves
Tides of War -- Steven Pressfield

5. Bookmarks Magazine's Best of 2007:

American Youth -- Phil LaMarche
What Is The What -- David Eggers
In The Country of Men -- Hisham Matar
Nada -- Carmen Laforet
Then We Came To The End -- Joshua Ferris
Black Girl/White Girl -- Joyce Carol Oates
After Dark -- Haruki Murakami
The Raw Shark Texts -- Steven Hall

6. Penguin Classics:

The Power & The Glory -- Graham Greene
The Scarlet Letter -- Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Tale of Two Cities -- Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Mark Twain
Petals of Blood -- Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Theresa Raquin -- Emile Zola
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- James Joyce

7. Barnes & Noble Classics:

Siddhartha -- Herman Hesse
Beowulf -- Anonymous
Pride & Prejudice -- Jane Austen
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz -- L. Frank Baum
Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Narrative of an American Slave -- Frederick Douglass
The Jungle -- Upton Sinclair
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde -- Robert Louis Stevenson

8. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die:

Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe
Time's Arrow -- Martin Amis
The Master & Margarita -- Mikhail Bulgakov
The Old Man & The Sea -- Ernest Hemingway
Cry, The Beloved Country -- Alan Paton**
A Farewell To Arms -- Ernest Hemingway
Memoirs of Hadrian -- Marguerite Yourcenar
Zeno's Conscience -- Italo Svevo

Whew. Polish up those reading glasses!
Lezlie

Added 5/5/2008:

Possible alternate catagories:

Tudor England:

The Lady In The Tower by Jean Plaidy
Rose Without A Thorn by Jean Plaidy
In The Shadow of the Crown by Jean Plaidy
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson
The Concubine by Norah Lofts
The Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory

Historical England:

Duchess by Susan Holloway Scott
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer
??
??
??
??
??

Library Books:

The Crusader -- Michael Alexander Eisner
Travels In The Scriptorium -- Paul Auster
Allah Is Not Obliged -- Ahmadou Kourouma
The Romanov Bride -- Robert Alexander
The Swallows of Kabul -- Yasmina Khadra
The Nature of Monsters -- Clare Clark
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters -- Julian Barnes
The Rossetti Letter -- Christi Phillips

Audio Books:

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King
Roots by Alex Haley
Heat Lightning by John Sandford
Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
??
??

Non-Fiction:

John Adams by David McCullough
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
Homo Politicus by Dana Milbank
When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? by George Carlin
When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
Naked by David Sedaris

Advance Reader Copies

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes
The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner
The Queen's Lady by Barbara Kyle
The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson
The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
Devil's Brood by Sharon Kay Penman


Published in 2008

The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman
Phantom Prey by John Sandford
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais
Killer View by Ridley Pearson


* As the year progressed, I realized that this was terribly unrealistic. There are cross-overs included now, but not too many.
** Changed selection on 1/26/08 as I found I may not be able to aquire a copy of my original selection of Exercises In Style by Raymond Queneau. If I do get my hands on a copy, I will still try to read it this year.

2008 TBR Challenge

I promised myself (and Peter) that if I decided to commit to these reading challenges, I would use the opportunity to clean off some of my "to be read" shelves rather than just to create reasons to go to the bookstore. I hesitated on the actual TBR Challenge only because I was so focused on the 1001 Books Project. But there are more books in the world! (And on my shelves . . .) Therefore, here we go:

** FINISHED **
Completed: List 7/12, Alternates: 5/12 as of Dec. 23, 2008

The List:

The Orchard Keeper -- Cormac McCarthy
Mrs. Dalloway -- Virginia Woolf
Catch-22 -- Joseph Heller
The Power & The Glory -- Graham Greene
Beowulf -- Anonymous
Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe
The Courts of Love -- Jean Plaidy
The Historian -- Elizabeth Kostova
The Borgia Bride -- Jeanne Kalogridis
The Praise Singer -- Mary Renault
I, Claudius -- Robert Graves
Tides of War -- Steven Pressfield

Alternates:

Light In August -- William Faulkner
Outer Dark --Cormac McCarthy
Shindler's List -- Thomas Keneally
Petals of Blood -- Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Siddhartha -- Herman Hesse
Cry, The Beloved Country -- Alan Paton
The Queen's Secret -- Jean Plaidy
In The Company Of The Courtesan -- Sarah Dunant
The Queen of Subtleties -- Suzannah Dunn
Practical Demonkeeping -- Christopher Moore
Another Roadside Attraction -- Tom Robbins
Cards On The Table -- Agatha Christie

Some apply to the 1001, some I've had sitting around forever and it's time to make room for a new batch. :-) I'm also considering the 888 Challenge to help clear my backlog. Hmmmmm. . .

I'm in!
Lezlie

Bookmarks "Best of 2007"

In the Booksmarks Dec./Nov. 2007 issue, they listed books that received some of the best overall reviews of 2007. One of my goals for 2008 is to read at least 10 books off the "literature" section of that list, not including the one I already read. Here is the complete list, and I will link the ones I decide to read to my reviews for them:

11/22/08 -- I have no excuse. I forgot all about this personal challenge. As of today, I am officially abandoning it and will use many of these titles for the 2007 section of the Countdown Challenge. See you there!

Completed: 3/10 as of May 18, 2008

The Aneid by Fagles Translation 5
After Dark by Haruki Murakami 4½
Against The Day by Thomas Pynchon 4½
American Youth by Phil LaMarche 5
Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates 4
I'll Steal You Away by Niccolo Ammaniti 4
In The Country Of Men by Hisham Matar 4
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon 4
*Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin 4
My Holocaust by Tova Reich 4½
Nada by Carmen Laforet 5
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult 4½
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski 4½
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson 4
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall 4½
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 4
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini 4½
What Is The What by Dave Eggers 4½

* Already read. Great book!!

The "rating" number following each book is from Booksmarks. They look at a number of reviews of the same books from different sources and then give an average. It's one of the aspects of the magazine that I really like. It's not just one opinion.

Happy Reading!
Lezlie

2008 A-Z Reading Challenge

As long as I've jumped in already, why not make it two official challenges? You can catch the details of this challenge from the "Official Reading Challenge Sites" link in my side bar. I will keep track of my personal progress here, easily accessed by the "My Challenges" sidebar link. I'm having way too much fun with all of this!!

Lezlie

2/1/08 -- I made my spreadsheet to organize myself now that I've committed to so many Challenges, so I can now list nearly everything I plan to read. I'm undecided about a Q author at the moment. Amanda Quick and Daniel Quinn are the current front-runners. Thankfully, I don't have to decide right now. :-)

11/22/08 -- I've made the executive decision to abandon this challenge. I could fill in a lot more letters right now with what I've read, but I know I won't do "X". I'm just not interested. Nothing personal, X. It's not you, it's me. :-) I just have some other challenges I want to finish up instead. This one has been fun, but I don't think I'll pick it up for 2009. There are a bunch of there Challenges I want to try instead. I may come back to it some other year though!

Completed: 26/52 as of August 11, 2008
Finished books are linked to my review

BY AUTHOR:

A -- Aesop (The Complete Fables)
B -- Burroughs, William S. (Junky)
C -- Christie, Agatha (Hercule Poirot's Christmas)
D -- Dunn, Suzannah (The Queen of Subtleties)
E -- Eisner, Michael Alexander (The Crusader)
F -- Follett, Ken (World Without End)
G -- Grahame, Kenneth (The Wind In The Willows)
H -- Huxley, Aldous (Brave New World)
I -- Ishiguro, Kazuo (Never Let Me Go)
J -- Joyce, James (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
K -- Kostova, Elizabeth (The Historian)
L -- LaMarche, Phil (American Youth)
M -- Milbank, Dana (Homo Politicus)
N -- Naipaul, V.S. (A Bend In The River)
O -- Oates, Joyce Carol (Black Girl/White Girl)
P -- Proust, Marcel (Swann's Way)
Q -- Quinn, Daniel (After Dachau)
R -- Ryman, Geoff (Was)
S -- Stevenson, Robert Louis (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)
T -- Thiong'o, Ngugi Wa (Petals of Blood)
U -- Updike, John (Rabbit, Run)
V -- Verne, Jules (Journey to the Center of the Earth)
W -- Woolf, Virginia (Mrs. Dalloway)
X -- Xenophon (The Persian Expedition)
Y -- Yourcenar, Marguerite (Memoirs of Hadrian)
Z -- Zola, Emile (Theresa Raquin)


BY TITLE:

A -- After Dark (Haruki Murakami)
B -- Borgia Bride, The (Jeanne Kalogridis)
C -- Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
D -- The Devil's Bones (Jefferson Bass)
E -- Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (Tom Robbins)
F -- Finn (Jon Clinch)
G -- The Gospel of Judas (Simon Mawer)
H -- A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (Julian Barnes)
I -- In The Company of the Courtesan (Sarah Dunant)
J -- Jungle, The (Upton Sinclair)
K -- King Solomon's Mines (H. Rider Haggard)
L -- The Last Wife of Henry VIII (Carolly Erickson)
M -- Mistress of the Revolution (Catherine Delors)
N -- Nada (Carmen Laforet)
O -- Odd Hours (Dean Koontz)
P -- Picture of Dorian Gray, The (Oscar Wilde)
Q -- Queen's Secret, The (Jean Plaidy)
R -- The Romanov Bride (Robert Alexander)
S -- Swallows of Kabul, The (Yasmina Khadra)
T -- Timbuktu (Paul Auster)
U -- Untouchable, The (John Banville)
V -- Virgin Suicides, The (Jeffrey Eugenides)
W -- Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The (L. Frank Baum)
X -- X-Wing: Rogue Squadron (Michael Stackpole)
Y -- Youth (J.M. Coetzee)
Z -- Zeno's Conscience (Italo Svevo)

2008 Decades Reading Challenge

OK. I've changed my mind. And anyone who knows me gets pretty used to that in a hurry!

I've decided to plunge in and officially sign up for the Decades Reading Challenge. I don't know why this makes me nervous. It can't be the commitment to read. Making reading lists is pretty much a necessary life function for me. Kind of like breathing. A girl has to have goals, right? :-) It's probably just this newness to the whole blogging world.

So here's the Official List. Books I've finished are in bold.

CHALLENGE COMPLETED!!!
Completed: 8/8 as of May 13, 2008

1860s
Journey To The Center of the Earth
Jules Verne

1870s
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain

1880s
King Solomon's Mines
H. Rider Haggard

1890s
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde

1900s
The Wind In The Willows
Kenneth Grahame

1910s
Swann's Way
Marcel Proust

1920s
Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf

1930s
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

Most of these are also on the "1001 Books" list also. That will help with my goal of 50 for this year on that project.

Good luck everyone!
Lezlie