Sunday, January 24, 2010

Books of the Century Challenge

 
***Challenge not active*** 

Dates: This is a perpetual challenge, beginning in 2010
Hosted by: Tim (A Progressive on the Prairie)

Guidelines:
  • This challenge is based on Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website.
  • The challenge provides an opportunity to "combine some excellent and classic reading from the history of popular American reading."
  • Given the number of books, this will be a perpetual challenge.
  • Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
At least for the first year, the levels of participation will be:
  • Popular Literary Culture 101 -- Five books from the entire list.
  • Popular Literary Culture 201 -- Ten books from the entire list.
  • Popular Literary Culture 301 -- One book from any of five different decades on the list.
  • Popular Literary Culture 401 -- One book from each decade on the list.
  • Master's in Popular Literary Culture -- Twenty books from the entire list, with at least each decade represented once.
  • Doctorate in Popular Literary Culture -- Two or more books from each decade on the list.
See my original post about the challenge here.
See the challenge announcement page here.
See the challenge blog here.
See Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website here.

I'm going to start off at the first level: Popular Literary Culture 101; so I'll be reading a total of five books from the list.

MY READING LIST:
  1. Contact. Carl Sagan (published 1985) [See Review]
  2. Animal Farm. George Orwell (published 1945) [Review to come]
  3. The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart (published 1906) [See Review]

List of Possibilities:
  • 1900-1909:
    The Golden Bowl.
    Henry James
    The House of Mirth.
    Edith Wharton
    The Man in Lower Ten
    . Mary Roberts Rinehart
    The Old Wives' Tale. Arnold Bennett
    The Wings of the Dove. Henry James
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum
  • 1910-1919:
    The Ambassadors. Henry James
    The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington
    Swann's Way. Marcel Proust
    The Window at the White Cat. Mary Roberts Rinehart
    Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson
  • 1920-1929:
    Babbitt. Sinclair Lewis
    The Bishop Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
    The Enchanted April. "Elizabeth"
    Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos
    Good-bye to All That. Robert Graves
    The Greene Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
    The Hotel. Elizabeth Bowen
    Jalna. Mazo de la Roche
    The Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann
    Main Street. Sinclair Lewis
  • 1930-1939:
    Appointment in Samara. John O'Hara
    The Big Sleep. Raymond Chandler
    Call It Sleep. Henry Roth
    Invitation to the Waltz. Rosamond Lehmann
    Seven Gothic Tales. Isak Dinesen
  • 1940-1949:
    Animal Farm. George Orwell
    Father of the Bride. Edward Streeter
    The Human Comedy. William Saroyan
    Mistress Masham's Repose. T.H. White
    Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Eric Hodgins
    Random Harvest. James Hilton
  • 1950-1959:
    The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Sloan Wilson
    Peyton Place. Grace Metalious
  • 1960-1969:
    Portnoy's Complaint. Philip Roth
    Rabbit, Run. John Updike
  • 1970-1979:
    Angle of Repose. Wallace Stegner
    The Best and the Brightest. David Halberstam
    Captains and the Kings. Taylor Caldwell
    Condominium. John D. MacDonald
    The Day of the Jackal. Frederick Forsyth
    The Dead Zone. Stephen King
    Evergreen. Belva Plain
    The Greek Treasure. Irving Stone
    How to Save Your Own Life. Erica Jong
    If on a winter's night a traveler. Italo Calvino
    The Passions of the Mind. Irving Stone
    Play It As It Lays. Joan Didion
    Rabbit Redux. John Updike
    Time and Again. Jack Finney
    Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. John Le Carre
    Touch Not the Cat. Mary Stewart
    Travels With My Aunt. Graham Greene
  • 1980-1989:
    ". . . And the Ladies of the Club." Helen Hooven Santmyer
    The Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum
    Contact. Carl Sagan
    Lake Wobegon Days. Garrison Keillor
    The Parsifal Mosaic. Robert Ludlum
    The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follet
    Texas. James A. Michener
  • 1990-1999:
    The Celestine Prophecy. James Redfield
    The Hours. Michael Cunningham
    September. Rosamunde Pilcher

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