Spring Reading Thing 2009

**Challenge completed. See my wrap-up post here.**

Dates: 20 March through 20 June, 2009
Hosted by: Katrina of Callapidder Days

Guidelines:

• Make a list of the books you think you'll read
• Write a blog post and then sign-up using Mr. Linky on the challenge announcement page
• List can change over the duration of the challenge

See my original post about the challenge here.
See my challenge wrap-up post here.
See the challenge announcement page here.
See the challenge review page here.

MY READING LIST (books read):

1. Angels & Demons. Dan Brown [see review]
   
2. The Private Patient. P.D. James [review to come]
   
3. The Way Through the Woods. Colin Dexter [see review]
   
4. The Book of God and Physics. Enrique Joven [see review]
   
5. Brimstone. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child [review to come]
   
6. The Old Man and Me. Elaine Dundy [see review]
   
7. The Optimist's Daughter. Eudora Welty [see review]
   
8. Ellen Foster. Kaye Gibbons [review to come]
   
9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Robert C. O'Brien [see review]
10. To Dance with the White Dog. Terry Kay [see review]
    
11. The Unit. Ninni Holmqvist [see review]
    
12. Moon Tiger. Penelope Lively [review to come]
    
13. The Longshot. Katie Kitamura [see review]
14. The Valley of Fear. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [see review]
    

Once Upon a Time III Challenge

Dates: 21 March to 20 June, 2009
Hosted by: Carl V of Stainless Steel Droppings

Guidelines:

• Readings should come from these four genres: fantasy, fairy tale, folklore and mythology.
• Participants can choose one or more of the following levels (or Quests).

1. The Journey - Read at least one book from any of the four genres. No need to commit to any set number of books.
2. Quest the First - Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time III criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.
3. Quest the Second - Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology.
4. Quest the Third - Fulfill the requirements for Quest the First or Quest the Second AND top it off with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream OR a viewing of one of the many theatrical versions of the play.
5. Quest the Fourth - Read two non-fiction books, essay collections, etc. that treat any one or more of the four genres covered in this challenge.
6. Short Story Weekends - This quest involves the reading of one or more short stories that fit within at least one of the four genres during the course of the weekend. Ideally you would post about your short story readings on Sundays or Mondays, but this is not strictly necessary.

See my original post about the Challenge here.
See the Challenge Announcement page here.
See the Challenge Review page here.

I've chosen to join the Challenge at the Journey level, although I'm hoping to manage more than one book; and my reading will most likely be from the fantasy genre.

MY BOOK LIST

1. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Robert C. O'Brien [see review]
   

The 1% Well-Read Challenge

Dates: 1 March 2009-31 March 2010

Hosted by: Michelle of 1 More Chapter

All selections are to come from the lists in the book, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Peter Boxall, ed.). Participants can use either the original edition of the book, or the new revised edition.

Guidelines:

• Read 10 titles from the original list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
• Read 10 titles from the new list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
• Read 13 titles from the combined list (of almost 1300 titles) from March 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. In other words, “What were they thinking dropping titles from Dostoevsky and Jane Austen?”
• For all options, overlaps with other challenges are allowed, and you may change your list at any time.

See my original post about the challenge here.

See the challenge announcement page here.

READING LIST (books read):

1. Rabbit Is Rich. John Updike [see review]
   
2. The Lover. Marguerite Duras [review to come]
   
3. Contact. Carl Sagan [review to come]
   

Other Possible Choices:

Ada. Vladimir Nabokov
Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood
The Ambassadors. Henry James
American Pastoral. Philip Roth
Animal Farm. George Orwell
An Artist of the Floating World. Kazuo Ishiguro
Atonement. Ian McEwan
At the Mountains of Madness. H.P. Lovecraft
The Bell Jar. Sylvia Plath
The Big Sleep. Raymond Chandler
The Black Dahlia. James Ellroy
The Black Prince. Iris Murdoch
Black Water. Joyce Carol Oates
The Book of Illusions. Paul Auster
Brighton Rock. Graham Greene
Cause for Alarm. Eric Ambler
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
The Double. Jose Saramago
The Driver's Seat. Muriel Spark
Eyeless in Gaza. Aldous Huxley
Faceless Killers. Henning Mankell
Farewell, My Lovely. Raymond Chandler
Flaubert's Parrot. Julian Barnes
Foundation. Isaac Asimov
The Go-Between. L.P. Hartley
Good Morning, Midnight. Jean Rhys
The Heat of the Day. Elizabeth Bowen
The Hours. Michael Cunningham
If on a winter's night a traveler. Italo Calvino
Ignorance. Milan Kundera
Invisible Cities. Italo Calvino
The Long Goodbye. Raymond Chandler
Loving. Henry Green
The Moonstone. Wilkie Collins
Neuromancer. William Gibson
Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen
The Old Devils. Kingsley Amis
Party Going. Henry Green
Portnoy's Complaint. Philip Roth
Rabbit, Run. John Updike
Rabbit Redux. John Updike
The Reader. Bernhard Schlink
The Sea, the Sea. Iris Murdoch
The Secret History. Donna Tartt
Them. Joyce Carol Oates
The Third Man. Graham Greene
The 13 Clocks. James Thurber
The Virgin in the Garden. A.S. Byatt
The Virgin Suicides. Jeffrey Eugenides
Wide Sargasso Sea. Jean Rhys
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Haruki Murakami
Wise Children. Angela Carter