bookgazing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bookgazing) wrote2009-05-28 09:07 am
bookgazing) wrote2009-05-28 09:07 am
Sick Day and New Challenges
I’m taking a sick day today so proper thoughts on Cinderella will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead let’s hear some more about my ridiculous challenge load. If you remember, I mentioned joining some new challenges this month. I’m now ready to unveil my tentative, probably to be disregarded lists for ‘The Printing Press Challenge’, ‘Diversity Rocks’ and ‘The Non-fiction Five’. Please try not to laugh openly at my lofty ambitions.
The Printing Press Challenge
This challenge asks you to read literature written before the printing press. I took classics in college so I’ve already read quite a bit of the surviving literature from early Greece and Rome. This means my options are a little bit more limited and that I want to try and steer clear of just filling up my list with early Greek and Roman non-fiction writing because that feels like an easy option. ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ was part of a medieval course I took in university and while only a few tales were assigned I had to read it from beginning to end, because I am anal like that. I had planned to read ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ by Thomas Mallory but it turns out this was produced after the printing press appeared so my giant illustrated copy will have to spend some more quality time with the shelf. So the proposed list is:
‘Satires’ – Juvenal: We read three of the satires in college, during one of my favourite modules. More please.
The Illiad – Virgil: The last time I tried this I got waylaid by the long listing passage of people who begat other people. This time I won’t feel guilty about skipping this part.
The Divine Comedy – Dante: Yes I know, I am mad, but the Divine Comedy seems like a book made for me. Discussions on hell and purgatory sound disturbingly yummy.
Bonus Books:
The Tales of the Genji - Murasaki Shikibu: I’d like to read this to add some diversity to my early reading and because it sounds like a fun adventure tale.
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio: Feel free to laugh, I’m not sure even I believe this will happen. When I read a review of the newest version of this it sounded vital and malevolent and woodsy, so I live in hope.
Diversity Rocks Challenge
For this challenge I committed to reading all the books in our house by authors who are a different race from me. There were a few, but not that many – we tend to have more books by authors from other European countries. I wasn’t sure about some of these authors so if any of these authors are actually white could someone who knows better point it out?
Bitter Sweets – Roopa Farooki
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
In the Country of Men – Hisham Matar
Zorro – Isabelle Allende
My Revolutions – Hari Kunzru
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers – Xiaou Guo
Brick Lane – Monica Ali
Literature from the Axis of Evil
My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh
Blonde Roots – Bernardine Evaristo
The Garlic Ballads – Mo Yan
Last Evenings of Earth – Roberto Bolano
The Non-Fiction Five Challenge
This list includes quite a few picks from other challenges, but I don’t see the point of doing a new challenge if I don’t have some books that are not on any other challenge list:
Planet Earth -Alastair Fothergill: On both the Eco Reading Challenge and the Planet Earth Challenge. I will start this soon.
Arthur and George – Julian Barnes: Everyone raves about Barnes so I hope to read at least one book by him this year.
The Anatomy of Melancholy – Richard Burton: So many challenges depend on this book that surely I will read it.
Romans Journey – Roman Halter: This was going to be the first book I read for ‘The World Citizen Challenge’ but I’ve now started the enormous ‘Penguin History of China’ because of ‘The Painter of Shanghai’ (oh no I’m not above blaming books for my reading decisions).
Chronicles, The Writing of History in Medieval Times – Chris GivenWilson: Left over from a splurge at my history bookclub.
Have you signed up for any new challenges recently? If you have please share your challenges lists in the comments and make me feel better about my new challenge joining.
Now off for a little sick day reading. I want to read a chapter of ‘The Penguin History of China’ a day but I think a little bit more of the fun ‘Magyk’ might be better for a sick day.
The Printing Press Challenge
This challenge asks you to read literature written before the printing press. I took classics in college so I’ve already read quite a bit of the surviving literature from early Greece and Rome. This means my options are a little bit more limited and that I want to try and steer clear of just filling up my list with early Greek and Roman non-fiction writing because that feels like an easy option. ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ was part of a medieval course I took in university and while only a few tales were assigned I had to read it from beginning to end, because I am anal like that. I had planned to read ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ by Thomas Mallory but it turns out this was produced after the printing press appeared so my giant illustrated copy will have to spend some more quality time with the shelf. So the proposed list is:
‘Satires’ – Juvenal: We read three of the satires in college, during one of my favourite modules. More please.
The Illiad – Virgil: The last time I tried this I got waylaid by the long listing passage of people who begat other people. This time I won’t feel guilty about skipping this part.
The Divine Comedy – Dante: Yes I know, I am mad, but the Divine Comedy seems like a book made for me. Discussions on hell and purgatory sound disturbingly yummy.
Bonus Books:
The Tales of the Genji - Murasaki Shikibu: I’d like to read this to add some diversity to my early reading and because it sounds like a fun adventure tale.
The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio: Feel free to laugh, I’m not sure even I believe this will happen. When I read a review of the newest version of this it sounded vital and malevolent and woodsy, so I live in hope.
Diversity Rocks Challenge
For this challenge I committed to reading all the books in our house by authors who are a different race from me. There were a few, but not that many – we tend to have more books by authors from other European countries. I wasn’t sure about some of these authors so if any of these authors are actually white could someone who knows better point it out?
Bitter Sweets – Roopa Farooki
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
In the Country of Men – Hisham Matar
Zorro – Isabelle Allende
My Revolutions – Hari Kunzru
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers – Xiaou Guo
Brick Lane – Monica Ali
Literature from the Axis of Evil
My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
Sea of Poppies – Amitav Ghosh
Blonde Roots – Bernardine Evaristo
The Garlic Ballads – Mo Yan
Last Evenings of Earth – Roberto Bolano
The Non-Fiction Five Challenge
This list includes quite a few picks from other challenges, but I don’t see the point of doing a new challenge if I don’t have some books that are not on any other challenge list:
Planet Earth -Alastair Fothergill: On both the Eco Reading Challenge and the Planet Earth Challenge. I will start this soon.
Arthur and George – Julian Barnes: Everyone raves about Barnes so I hope to read at least one book by him this year.
The Anatomy of Melancholy – Richard Burton: So many challenges depend on this book that surely I will read it.
Romans Journey – Roman Halter: This was going to be the first book I read for ‘The World Citizen Challenge’ but I’ve now started the enormous ‘Penguin History of China’ because of ‘The Painter of Shanghai’ (oh no I’m not above blaming books for my reading decisions).
Chronicles, The Writing of History in Medieval Times – Chris GivenWilson: Left over from a splurge at my history bookclub.
Have you signed up for any new challenges recently? If you have please share your challenges lists in the comments and make me feel better about my new challenge joining.
Now off for a little sick day reading. I want to read a chapter of ‘The Penguin History of China’ a day but I think a little bit more of the fun ‘Magyk’ might be better for a sick day.