RIP VII Reading

Halloween has come and gone and with that, I read some fantastically dark and suspenseful book for the RIP VII Challenge. I participated in Peril the Second: Read two books, any length, that you feel fits my very broad definition of scary. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between. I read three novels, all of which leaned heavily in the mystery/suspense genre:

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fford: Fford has created an alternate history in which the lines between reality and fiction become blurred and people can literally step into the pages of a book, meet its central characters, and experience the setting for themselves. With that they can also manipulate the outcome of the novel and even kidnap fictional characters. 

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler: This book was fun to read and knowing that it was one of the first of its kind, it's even more impressive. The novel has been adapted into film twice (1946, 1978) with the first staring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall - so you know it was a pretty big deal. Bogart of course plays Philip Marlowe, one of the more memorable characters I've read in while.

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield: Full review coming soon, but I'm sorry to report this one didn't blow my socks off as many of you predicted it would. It was entertaining but a little too straight forward for my taste. 

If you're interested in reading brief reviews of the books I read for RIP last year, you can find that here. The books I included for my probable reads came from my list below. I still plan to read the others listed eventually.

• Rebecca, Daphne DuMarier
• The Gun Slinger, Stephen King
• The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield 
• Case Histories, Kate Atkinson 
• The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fford
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
• We Have Always Lived In the Castle, Shirley Jackson 
• In The Woods, Tana French 

RIP VII: It's Here!

You guys! RIP is back! Which means my favorite season is upon us! I know every year around this time I gush about Fall but I can't help it! After a long, hot summer I just love the crisp air, apple picking, scarves, leaves... the list goes on! 

Anyhow, RIP. It starts September 1st and ends October 31st. To participate, you can read books that fall in the genre of: mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, Gothic, horror and supernatural. As always, there are multiple perils. This year, since I am a bit behind in my other challenges and I have a few ARC's headed my way that I'm really excited about, I am going to participate in Peril the Second:

Read two books, any length, that you feel fit (my very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between.

If you're interested in reading brief reviews of the books I read for RIP last year, you can find that here. The books I read this year will most likely come from the list below. 

• Rebecca, Daphne DuMarier
• The Gun Slinger, Stephen King
• The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield 
• Case Histories, Kate Atkinson 
• The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fford
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
• We Have Always Lived In the Castle, Shirley Jackson 
• In The Woods, Tana French 

Native Son by Richard Wright

"He felt that there was something missing, some road which, if he had once found it, would have led him to a sure and quiet knowledge."

Native Son is one of those classics that I was always curious about but never had to read in school. This made it a first-time read for me and I was blown away. The back of this book states this novel is "an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and what is means to be black in America." That description is spot it. This book turned out to be one of the most powerful novels I have ever read.

Native Son follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who has grown up in poverty in inner-city Chicago during the 1930's. Bigger is charged with the rape and murder of a white woman and we follow his story of remorse and guilt, fear and anger. The novel is split into three parts: Fear, Flight and Fate. Among other themes, Wright explores racial inequality, the meaning of freedom, racial divide in America, and the uncontrollable fate of inner-city black people after they were guaranteed "freedom". Bigger has felt as though he has been held down his whole life, restricted from the opportunities that were given to white people. His fear of white people eventually manifests itself as an uncontrollable anger, pushing him to ignore what is right and wrong.

He would have gladly admitted his guilt if he had thought that in doing so he could have also given in the same breath a sense of the deep, choking hate that had been his life, a hate that he had not wanted to have, but could not help having. How could he do that? The impulsion to try and tell was as deep as had been the urge to kill.

Not only is this an explicit and heart-wrenching account of the perils of the black man in 1930's America (and in some cases, they story is also relevant today), but it is truly a page-turner. Despite the brutal and affecting details, I was completely engrossed in this book. My heart went out to Bigger and the ways in which he was discriminated in a judicial system that was against him from the start. I can only imagine the controversy this book stirred up when it was first released in 1940. If you pick it up, it just might change the way you look at those less fortunate than you. Highly recommended.

I read this for the classics challenge, fulfilling a 20th century classic.

Publisher: Herper Perennial, 1940

Smooth Criminals: A Reading Challenge

Ben over at Dead End Follies is hosting the Smooth Criminals Reading Challenge: it includes eight different categories, all related to crime, in an effort to bridge the gap between literary and crime. I think it's a great project and since there are so many acclaimed novels in this genre that I am unfamiliar with, I signed up right away.

After much deliberation, my choices for each category are as follows:

1. Hardboiled Classic: Raymond Chandler/ The Big Sleep

2. Noir Classic: James M. Cain/ The Postman Always Rings Twice

3. Prison Book: Margaret Atwood/ Alias Grace

4. Book written by a writer who did time: Jean Genet/ Our Lady of the Flowers

5. Book with psychopath protagonist: Joyce Carol Oates/ Zombie

6. Gothic Novel: Shirley Jackson/ We Have Always Lived in a Castle

7. Classic where the plot revolves around a crime: Richard Wright / Native Son

8. The "Why the hell am I doing this to myself?" book: Fyodor Dostoyevsky/ Crime and Punishment

If you are interested in a challenge that may help you diversify your reading diet, head over to Dead End Follies to read the rules and sign up.

On 1001 Books

Last Christmas my wonderful sister gifted me one of my favorite books I own; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The book lists and reviews the best 1001 books ever written - which of course is never set in stone and in this case, the list is determined by the authors of this book. Then I signed up for the 1001 Books Challenge hosted by Pub Writes, in which I set a goal to read at least 16 more books from the books listed on the 1001 books list.

Well, I managed to knock out 20 (21 after I finish them) out of the 54 books I have read so far this year. I was on a roll at the start of the year and then waned a little, mostly because I started to read more new releases. Prior to January 2011, I had read 60 books total on the list. Ben from Dead End Follies encouraged me to bring that number up to 100 by the end of 2011 and clearly, that won't be happening. But, I'm happy to have completed my goal of 16 and then some.

The list of completed books for this challenge:

Paul Auster/ The New York Trilogy
D.H. Lawrence/ Lady Chatterley's Lover
Maya Angelou/ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Jhumpa Lariri/ The Namesake
Edith Wharton/ The Age of Innocence
Jonathon Safran Foer/ Everything is Illuminated
Joyce Carol Oates/ Black Water
Ernest Hemingway/ The Old Man and The Sea
Don DeLillo/ Falling Man
Kurt Vonnegut/ Slaughterhouse-Five
Emile Zola/ Therese Raquin
Margaret Atwood/ Cat's Eye
Jeffrey Eugenides/ Middlesex
Moshin Hamid/ The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Louisa May Alcott/ Little Women
Sylvia Plath/ The Bell Jar
E.M. Forster/ Howards End
Zadie Smith/ On Beauty
John Fowles/ The Collector
Jim Thompson/ The Killer Inside Me
Joyce Carol Oates/ them

Total books read from the list is now 81. (Sorry, Ben.) I'll continue to read titles from 1001 books. If I can average 20 a year, it will take me another 46 years to complete the list. So, if I'm lucky, I'll finish the whole list by the time I'm 72. (I don't actually plan on reading them all - there are a few on the list I have no interest in reading.)

So there you have it. I'll check back in next year!

The Classics Challenge is Back!

I usually participate one or two challenges a year and one of my favorite challenges that debuted last year, The Back to the Classics Challenge, is back again for it's second year! Hosted by Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much, the Classics Challenge 2012 will be a little different than it was this year. It will run January 1st through December 31st.

Last year I read eight classics in six months for the Classics Challenge, and next year it will be 9 classics over a year. Below are the categories and my tentative selections for each:

Any 19th Century Classic: Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (1859)*

Any 20th Century Classic: John Steinbeck, East of Eden (1952)

Reread a classic of your choice: Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1985)*

A Classic Play: Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953)

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction: Daphne du Maurier/ Rebecca (1938)

Classic Romance: Bernhard Schlink, The Reader (1997)
 
Classic Literature in Translation: Elie Wiesel, Night (1960)*

Classic Award Winner: Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter (1973)*

Read a Classic set in a Country that you will not visit during your lifetime: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)*

I'll probably end up switching on or two titles, but I do own a good handful of these and have been meaning to read them for awhile. I tried my best to work in books that I already own. If you are interested in joining the challenge, you can sign up over at Sarah Reads Too Much.

*I already own these titles

RIP Challenge: Complete

Halloween has come and gone and with that, I read some fantastically dark and suspenseful book for the R.I.P Challenge VI. I particpated in Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fits my very broad definition of scary. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between. I read five, because I especially love dark books this time of the year:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008): Set in a delightfully macabre atmosphere we follow Nobody Owens, Bod for short, a human boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Bod is taught all of the things that the dead know and learns how to move around the graveyard just as a ghost does. He is granted freedom of the graveyard, visits the world of the ghouls, and befriends a dead witch who lives on unconsecrated ground.

The Collector by John Fowles (1963): The Collector explores the darkest of human behavior and obsessive love in a unique and compelling psychological thriller. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a novel that examines love, human nature and obsession at it's darkest.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (2011): I've heard people say that if you chose to read one book this year, you should read The Night Circus. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I will say this is a highly entertaining literary work of magical realism. Morgenstern's descriptions of the night circus go beyond imaginative; they are beautiful portrayals of a mesmerizing world.

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (1952): The Killer Inside Me falls under the roman noir genre, translated as "black novel". Functioning sociopath: check. Cheap woman: check. Unassuming victims: check. The Killer Inside Me is the first person account of a man conflicted between the person he thinks he should be and the killer he actually is. This book is not for the faint of heart.

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood (1972, review coming soon): "Part detective novel, part psychological thriller, Surfacing is the story of a young woman who returns to northern Quebec, to the remote island of her childhood, with her lover and two friends, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her father." Synopsis from the back of the book.

There it is. I'd have to say my two favorites were The Collector and The Night Circus.

Did you participate in the R.I.P. challenge? What did you read?

The Collector by John Fowels

"He's not human; he's an empty space disguised as a human."

I picked this one up for the RIP challenge and it turned out to be just what I was looking for - disturbing, sinister and haunting; a book that I won't soon forget. The Collector explores the darkest of human behavior and obsessive love in a unique and compelling psychological thriller.

Ferdinand Cleff, a long-time butterfly collector and curator, is a reclusive clerk who comes into a large sum of money. After paying off relatives as a way to push them out of his life, he buys a secluded home two hours outside of London. After securing the home and fending off curious neighbors, Cleff seeks to collect his ultimate prey, a young, blonde art student who he has been watching and obsessing over for years.

There were even times I thought I would forget her. But forgetting's not something you do, it happens to you. Only it didn't happen to me.

I struggled to put this book down. Fowles structures the novel in a way that grabbed me from the start. The first half of the book is told from Cleff's point of view and when I thought I would find out what would happen to his prisoner, the second half of the novel continues from Miranda's own point of view, starting with the evening she was abducted. (Yes Ferdinand and Miranda; an allusion to The Tempest.) Fowles managed to give these characters two distinct and unique voices. One of my favorite things about this novel is how Fowles made both Cleff and Miranda so unlikable that by the end, I had hoped they would just kill each other. I was always invested in the story, but as it unfolded I decided the dual characters were perfect for each other in their own messed up way. Cleff is a severely disturbed super creep and Miranda is so narcissistic and self-involved I can't help but think she deserves her misery. Each character deceives the other repeatedly, ultimately feeding their own agony.

It's despair at the lack of feeling, of love, of reason in the world. It's despair that anyone can even contemplate the idea of dropping a bomb or ordering that it should be dropped. It's despair that so few of us care. It's despair that there's so much brutality and callousness in the world. It's despair that perfectly normal young men can be made vicious and evil because they've won a lot of money. And then do what you've done to me.

As far as psychological thrillers go, the ending did not disappoint. It wasn't over-the-top gruesome, but I was disturbed and intrigued all at once. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a novel that examines love, human nature and obsession at it's darkest.

This is John Fowles first novel.

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 1963

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

"Can you imagine how fine a drink the black ichor that collects in leaden coffins can be?"

As far books go, this one was a gem. I've had my eye on it since this time last year, when many bloggers were reading it for RIP. Then I received it as a birthday gift from my generous friend Ben and couldn't wait to read it. The Graveyard Book sucked me in immediately; set in a delightfully macabre atmosphere we follow Nobody Owens, Bod for short, a human boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Bod is taught all of the things that the dead know and learns how to move around the graveyard just as a ghost does. He is granted freedom of the graveyard, visits the world of the ghouls, and befriends a dead witch who lives on unconsecrated ground.

The story is a coming of age novel related in a unique and compelling way. Though the book incorporates the fantastical; ghouls and ghosts, mist walkers and high hunters, it also works didactically, highlighting the importance of seeing the world and living a fulfilled life. All in all, it turned out to be a really fun read, especially for this time of year. It was straightforward without feeling simple; fanciful without feeling contrived.

In Gaiman's acknowledgments that follow the novel, I found a particularly interesting tidbit: "Artist and author Audrey Niffenegger is also a graveyard guide, and she showed me around the ivy-colored marvel that is Highgate Cemetery West. A lot of what she told me crept into Chapters Seven and Eight." If you have read Her Fearful Symmetry, you know how vast and intriguing Niffenegger's descriptions of cemeteries can be. Even though the two novels are very different, I couldn't help but smile after learning each were influenced by the famed Highgate Cemetery.

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2008

R.I.P Challenge VI

Woohoo! The R.I.P challenge has arrived! This is my favorite challenge of the whole year, probably because autumn is my favorite season and Halloween is my favorite holiday. Anyhow, it begins September 1st and ends October 31st. To participate, you can read books that fall in the genre of: mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, Gothic, horror and supernatural. As always, there are multiple perils. I am going to participate in Peril the First:

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (my very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between.

If you are interested in checking out what I read for the challenge last year, you can find that here. Tentative titles for this year include:

• Untouchable by Scott O'Connor
• The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
• In the Woods by Tana French
• Pussy, King of the Pirates by Kathy Acker
• I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti
• Night Waking by Sarah Moss
• The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
• American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Prince of the Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• The Collector by John Fowles
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen

Back to the Classics Challenge Complete!

Hosted by Sarah from Sarah Reads Too Much, the Back to the Classics Challenge began in January and ends June 30th. (Sarah later pushing the end date back to December 31st, but I wanted to try and stick to the original date.)

8 goals to complete:

1. A banned book

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (1928)

2. A book with a wartime setting (any war)

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

3. A Pulitzer Prize (fiction) winner or runner up

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)

4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868)

5. 19th century classic

Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola (1867)

6. 20th century classic

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1927)

7. A book you think should be considered a 21st century classic

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides (2002)

8. Re-read a book from your high school/college classes

Passing by Nella Larson (1929)

*review coming soon

Done, done and done! Cheers to a summer of reading whatever my little heart desires.

image via Booklover

Dewey's Read-A-Thon: I'm in!

I just signed up for Dewey's 24-Hour Read-A-Thon and I'm really excited! This will be my first read-a-thon. The read-a-thon begins at noon GMT, which is 7:00am in my timezone. I'm going to hit the bookstore later this evening to stock up on some new titles and then get a good nights sleep to wake up at 7. I'm not going to go crazy and not sleep on Saturday night, but I do plan on staying up as long as I can and reading as much as I can in the 24-hour period.

Since Spring has sprung I have been pretty busy and have let my reading fall by the wayside. This is the perfect excuse to drop everything for a little while and get back to reading. I'll post updates throughout the read-a-thon and hop around to check on other participants. If you'd like to join me, head over to here to sign up.

Classics Challenge Check-In

I didn't even think about it until Beth at Bookworm Meets Bookworm posted her check-in, but today is the half-way point for the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much (if you are sticking to the original end date of June 30th, like I am).

Finished: 4 of 8 books

A banned book: Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence (1928)
A Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction: The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway (1951)
19th Century classic: The Age of Innocence (book one) (book two), Edith Wharton (1920)
20th Century classic: The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thorton Wilder (1927)

In reviewing these titles I realized that I failed to actually chose a 19th century classic for the 19th century classic category. I don't really know what happened there, and I'm not sure why no one pointed it out to me when I posted my Classics Challenge breakdown. So, I'm going to scratch The Age of Innocence from my list (sigh) and seek out an actual 19th century classic. I'm thinking Thérèse Raquin by Zola since I've already got it on my shelf.

Of the four classics I have read so far, my favorite one was Lady Chatterley's Lover. It's fantastic and I plan on incorporating more D.H. Lawrence into my reading diet.

The other 4 (or now 5) titles I've got left to read:

A book with a wartime setting: Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
A children's classic: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (1868)
A 19th century classic (grrrrr...): tentatively Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola (1867)
A book I think should be considered a 21st century classic: Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides (2002)
A reread from highschool/college: The Awakening, Kate Chopin (1899)

If anyone sees any discrepancies in the titles I've yet to read, please let me know!

Classics Challenge Breakdown

Back in November I signed up for the Classics Challenge. It started January 1st and I've recently finished compiling the list of books I will read for it.

1. A banned book: Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawrence) This book has always intrigued me because of the scandal behind it. First published in Italy in 1928, it wasn't allowed to be published in the UK until 1960. Apparently it's pretty racy.

2. A book with a wartime setting: Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut) I'm a huge fan of Vonnegut but believe it or not have never read this one.

3. A Pulitzer Prize (fiction) winner or runner up: The Old Man and the Sea (Earnest Hemingway) I have only read The Sun Also Rises. The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer and was the last major work Hemingway published.

4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic: Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) I can't believe I never got around to reading this when I was younger. I guess I was too caught up in The Babysitter's Club series and everything Roald Dahl ever published. I'm really excited for this one.

5. 19th century classic: The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton) I read Ethan Frome a few months back and loved it.

6. 20th century classic: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thorton Wilder - reading now) I'm obsessed with trivial pursuit. It's my favorite game ever. The Bridge of San Luis Rey makes a few appearances in the arts and literature category, and that is the main reason I am reading this book.

7. A book you think should be considered a 21st century classic: Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides) I've heard fabulous things about this Pulitzer Prize winner and already own a copy.

8. Re-read a book from your high school/college classes: The Awakening (Kate Chopin) I loved this book in high school but don't remember much of it, which calls for a reread.

There it is. So exciting!

Yet Another Challenge

So far I've only signed up for one 2011 challenge (The Classics Challenge) because I'm not a huge challenge girl. Until I stumbled across the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die Challenge, hosted by Pub Writes:

The challenge is simple – read some books from the list! If you don’t own the actual book, you can find a simple list online. For the most basic, check out the Listology list. There are spreadsheets outs there that you can look at too that are more complex.

Levels:

High Schoo Diplomal: 5 books from the list
Bachelor’s Degree: 6-10 books from the list
Master’s Degree: 11-15 books from the list:
PHd: 16+

I am going get ambitious and aim for the PHd level, 16+. I'm pretty confident I can complete it. I counted, and from list I have already read 60:

2000's
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster
Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
1900's
Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
White Noise – Don DeLillo
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Rabbit, Run – John Updike
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Passing – Nella Larsen
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
1800's
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot
Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
Middlemarch – George Eliot
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Silas Marner – George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
Adam Bede – George Eliot
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lonely – Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
1700's
Pamela – Samuel Richardson
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
Love in Excess – Eliza Haywood

Ok so that leaves me with 940 titles to choose from. I am more than confident that I can find 16 or more titles I want to read from a list of 940. I already own some of them as well, so this should be fun.

Back to the Classics Challenge

Hosted by Sarah at Sarah Reads Too Much, this challenge spans from January until June 2011 and will push me to read more classic literature! I try to be good and mix it up by throwing in classics here and there, and I'm thinking this challenge will ensure that I keep it up. I've been on a contemporary kick lately so this should help me out.

So, there are 8 goals to complete:

1. A banned book
2. A book with a wartime setting (any war)
3. A Pulitzer Prize (fiction) winner or runner up
4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic
5. 19th century classic
6. 20th century classic
7. A book you think should be considered a 21st century classic
8. Re-read a book from your high school/college classes

I'm really excited about challenge. I was dreading the children's/YA goal until I remembered Hans Christian Anderson and Lewis Carol. If you are interested go sign up on Sarah's blog.

R.I.P. Challenge - Complete

This was my first time participating in the R.I.P. challenge and I loved it. I participated in Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fits my very broad definition of scary. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between. I read five, because I especially love scary books this time of the year:

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Secret of Lost Things - Sheridan Hay

Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

My very favorite of the five was Stiff, followed closely by The Turn of the Screw and The Book of Lost Things. 

I Jumped In My Skin For Terror

Reading Now: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The neighborhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlour floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at my hand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror. 

This is the first book I chose to read for the R.I.P challenge because it's been on my TBR pile for quite awhile, I've been saving it for the Fall and because I loved The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I'm going to wait until I finish the book to voice any reservations, but so far I'm enjoying myself. Good choice for R.I.P! 

R.I.P V Challenge

I'm really excited about this challenge! Mostly because Fall is my favorite season - hands down - and Halloween is in the top 3 of my favorite holidays. Anyhow, this is the 5th annual R.I.P. Challenge (Reader's Imbibing Peril) and is hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. "It is time to celebrate things that go bump in the night; that favorite detective that always gets his man, or woman, in the end; that delicious chill of a creak on the stairs, of the rogue waiting in the dark, of the full moon and the flit of bats wings." Yes, yes it is!

I will be participating in Peril the First: Read four books, any length, that you feel fits my very broad definition of scary. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe…or anyone in between.

Tentative titles:

Treasure Island - Robert Lewis Stevenson

The Book of Illusions - Paul Auster

In the Woods - Tana French

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Turning of the Screw - Henry James

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach

Something by Agatha Christie (gasp - I've never read her)

2010 Summer Reading Challenge - Complete

I started this back in June and am finished! Hosted by Coconut Library (now Unputdownables ) this challenge just asked it's participants to read 3,000 pages in three months. I liked this challenge because my reading tends to slow down in the summer and this helped keep me motivated.

What: A challenge to get you reading all through the season.

Why: So that you will have motivation to keep those pages turning!

When: 12 a.m., June 1st - 11:59 p.m., August 31st

Where: On your couch, at the beach, on a plane or a train... anywhere you can read. Check back here to let us know your progress. We can keep each other motivated by doing it together!

How: This season your goal is to finish 3,000 pages in the course of three months.

So, here is what I read, June 1st - August 31st:

Wurthering Heights: 400 pages

Memories of My Meloncholy Whores: 128 pages

The Angel's Game: 544 pages Rabbit, Run : 274 pages

Water for Elephants: 335 pages

Glamorama: 546 pages

Bonjour Tristesse: 130 pages

Driving With Dead People: A Memoir: 323

Washington Square: 264

The Woman Warrior: 209
Oryx and Crake: 389
Zeitoun: 325

Total: 3,867 pages. Yay!