Amanda is running a Summer Reading Challenge and it’s interesting. I’m not sure what such a challenge would be, for me. 28 books is not all that many, probably about what I’d read when it wasn’t summer, ya know? The other problem is that while some people have more time to read in the summer, I tend to have less. Maybe what I should do is create a list of a certain type of book? That doesn’t seem like it would work well either though because of how I choose books in general – and because almost all of my books come from the library so my reading is based on the speed at which others return books that I’ve reserved.
Updated on May 23rd: I’ve decided what my challenge is – only 20 19 books but these will definitely be a challenge for me since I’ll also be trying to keep up with the “normal” reading we’ll be doing aka keeping up with TW’s normal reading:
Updated June 26: Only 2 down, I’ll never make it!
Updated July 2: Cloud Atlas, Crucible and the Mark Twain – done!
Updated July 15: Kindred, The Ancient Child – 7 finished, just 7! Ack!
Updated: July 21: Vanity Fair – DONE! Taking a break for something GOOD! Heh.
Updated July 23: The Shadow of the Wind – Done! From the “meme section”. 10 down and starting the scarey stuff now…
Updated August 2: Kristin Lavransdatter – finished. 10 down, more scarey stuff on tap!
Updated August 6: 2 more finished, 175 pages of Gravity’s Rainbow but I’ve given up, for now. I might make it after all… maybe… 12 0f 19 finished.
Updated August 13: 16 of 19 finished (plus 1/3 of Gravity’s Rainbow, which I’ve given up on in favor of another Pynchon novel…)
Updated August 19: 17 down, finished The Crying of Lot 49 which I substituted for Gravity’s Rainbow. I have Possession on audio and am ordering Odd Women now, hopefully it will arrive quickly and I can finish before the end of the month. I’m almost impressed with myself!
Updated August 31: Yea! I’m done, I did it! Well, sort of. I am listening to the last book right now, on audio. I’m on cassette 5 (there are 16 cassettes). So I won’t really finish by midnight tonight but I will finish it in a week or so. I’m pretty pleased that I managed to complete this challenge. It was much harder than I thought it would be, too.
Read 1 book I own but haven’t read – 5 (thanks Sassymonkey) Here are the 5: The Girls, The Land of Women, Midwives, Mrs Shakespeare, The Effect of Living Backwards Done 8/13/6
Read The doggone Moonstone – Done 6/6/6
Read The doggone Dragonriders of Pern – Done 6/20/6
Read a classic that I haven’t read before 5. Here are the 5 I’m going to read (thanks to Jules and Sassymonkey for assisting in the creation of this list!) : Odd Women Vanity Fair, The Diaries of Adam & Eve, The Crucible, Kindred –Done 8/30/6
Read the books on this meme that I haven’t read (3) (2) (1)- problem, it appears I have read all three of the books in His Dark Materials. I reserved the one I don’t own/thought I hadn’t read and it turns out, I have read it after all!
Read books from the Teachers First’s Lifetime Reading List that I have not read 5 (the list: The Woman Warrior, The Ancient Child, Gravity’s Rainbow (substituted The Crying of Lot 49, Kristin Lavrandsdatter)
Technorati Tags: summerreadingchallenge, readinglists, summer
Hm.
Make a list of all European countries (25 EU members). Choose an author from each country and then choose one or two books by that author.
or
Find yourself an author you don’t know yet (or not well) and read ALL his/her books (Murakami?)
or
Choose one author for every letter of the alphabet and then pick one book by each author.
or
Challenge yourself by NOT reading for two whole months. :). Walk the dogs instead.
Read the Moonstone? We both know that’s a challenge in and of itself. And then you could cross that off your list too. 😉
Lies, some of those are good suggestions but that not reading thing? That’s just wrong! sheesh
Monkey – you’ve done it, the perfect suggestion! The Moonstone! I can do that! Or try! Maybe I should read all of Wilkie Collins books (re-read the ones I’ve already read?).
Play it by ear! Do the challenge- set a goal- and do it haphazardly with the library books- if the books you want aren’t in- then choose something different- who knows you might explore new authors, a new genre…. the possibilities are limitless! My list will be compiled by what I get at the library also- That’s what makes it interesting for me is that I have a handful of books to start, after that… who knows where my book path will lead me. EXCITING isn’t it!
Well, you *could* read all the Wilkie Collins books but umm I’d burn out quickly (of course I never did finish the Moonstone…).
Don’t you have something on your 101 things list about reading classics? Why don’t you make a list of the ones you want to read and decide to read x-amount of them over the summer along with the Moonstone?
Lies, some of those are good suggestions but that not reading thing? That’s just wrong! sheesh
I know. I was just teasing you.
I really like sassymonkey’s challenge list. I’ve got some ideas and am going to try and get a real challenge created this weekend.
Lies, are you playing?
Cool. I’ve been wondering when you were going to update this. That Teacher’s Lifetime Reading List scares me and it has since the first time you ever linked to it. There are too many books on it that I haven’t read, i.e. most of them.
And the more I think about my summer challenge the more scared I’m getting. What was I thinking saying I’d read three science books???
I’ll stand in the sidelines and cheer all you reading challenge people on. It sounds too much like work to me. But the Moonstone, never read it, maybe that’ll be my concession.
Katie, I’d love it if you joined us in the Moonstone. I can use all of the help I can get, lol.
Don’t worry, we’re not the only ones that are behind. lol People keep telling me that they are behind too. We’ve got excellent company. 😉
Good luck with Gravity’s Rainbow. It was just slightly easier to read and understand than Ulysses. It’s a monster!
Oh man, I wish I had known that before I picked it. I keep looking at this stack I’ve chosen and think I must have been insane. I should take a photo of the stack. Scarey.
7 done. Yay! That’s 7 books you hadn’t read at the beginning of the summer. 🙂
That reminds me, I need to find a copy of the Crucible at the library.