Tag Archives: reading challenge

Fifteen Countries 2011

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It’s kind of a challenge, and kind of not. Who wouldn’t want to read globally? But the challenge aspect gives a little perspective. Last year, rather surprisingly, I didn’t read any French authors at all, nor anything African. I notice that Hungarian authors seem to be enjoying a resurgence, and I also have a Dutch author in mind.

There is a Haruki Murakami on the shelf, but I am also discovering a taste for less well known Japanese authors.

Translation inspiration is to be found at many book blogs, but the prize has to go to Stu, of Winstonsdads Blog, who in 2010 challenged himself to go Around the World in 52 Books. Astonishingly Stu exceeded his target of 52 countries, and his archives (which continue to expand towards world domination) contain a treasure of translations.

The Chunkster Challenge 2011

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Yay! The Chunkster Challenge. Not as if I needed an incentive to read chunky books, but it is an excuse to gloat at the end of the year. Apologising in advance! For the purist, the challenge runs from Feb 1st 2011 to Jan 31st 2012, but I always forget about that extra month…

Here is the challenge, as defined by Wendy, and there are a few changes this year. You have to read more chunksters! Again with the ‘yay!’
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Never More Than Three Books Away From a Rat

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My second, (and let us hope last,) personal reading challenge, the pièce de résistance, ‘Never More Than Three Books Away From a Rat.’

When I started reading war novels last year I noticed that four books in a row had a rat presence. Once I started looking, the vast majority of books featured rats to a greater or lesser role. So this is more in the nature of an investigation really. Pinning down literary rodentialism.

Technically I should be looking for one in four books to contain a rat. (A reference to a rat, that is. I prefer not to find actual rats in my literature because they have a habit of eating it.) But I am confidently expecting to find rather more…

I don’t have a snazzy picture yet because my five furry friends are not co-operating. Usually opening a book in their presence will guarantee an instant response, perching atop said book with hanging tail like an animated (and not very useful) bookmark. But produce a camera and… de nada. They climb on the camera instead.

Edit: Challenge has moved to here, and normal rattie bookmark service is resumed!

The All Women Challenge

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Not content with eyeing up a host of reading challenges, I may also issue several challenges to myself. Not least of all, because I get to design some funky buttons!

Firstly, the imaginatively named ‘All Women Challenge.’

Slightly dubious about this one (and the rest, to be honest.) It stinks a little. I am not a big fan of positive discrimination. For instance, the all women candidate lists beloved of politicians. Eugh. Wrong. However, I noticed last year that I had read significantly more male authors than female. And I wonder if that matters. I am sure that quality of writing is independent of gender, but are there areas that one sex can address/access better than the other? I have set myself an arbitrary target of reading ten women authors whose work I have not previously encountered.

Likely authors are: (struck out as read)

Lorrie Moore
Flannery O’Connor
Angela Carter
Joyce Carol Oates
Carol Shields
Carson McCullers
Alice Munro
Penelope Fitzgerald
Elizabeth Bowen
Agnes Humbert
Elizabeth Taylor
Amelie Nothomb (And this is the one I really, really want to read…)
Virginia Woolfe (Or maybe not)

 

And a list, which may grow, of those I forgot initially:

Edith Wharton
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Mary Gaitskill
Elizabeth Gaskell