Challenges 2014

Have been unable to sign up for 3 different challenges on Blogspot blogs that didn’t use Mr. Linky.   My comments just are whooshed off into a mystical parallel universe never do be seen again.    And there seems no way to notify these blog owners that I can’t contact them.    I’ve tried with Chrome and with Firefox.   You would think Chrome would work.   Doesn’t Google own blogspot?  It doesn’t work when signed in at Blogger either.    Bah!

I believe I need a way to keep track of challenges throughout the year.   I seem to be quite giddy at the prospect of these and am going to sign up for too many probably.

Readalong in March hosted by Fariba of Exploring Classics

I’m not promising anything except that I will give The Warden a try.   If I like it, I may go on with the rest.

March: The Warden – 5/13/14

April: Barchester Towers – Not going to happen.   Opened it up, saw the name, thought “Not him again!” and closed it.   Need more time.

May: Doctor Thorne

June: Framley Parsonage

July: The Small House at Allington

August: The Last Chronicle of Barset

Because I’m unable to limit myself on challenges, I will limit myself on level chosen

Student : read 1 to 3 books

Careless People

• Level one: 1 – 3 books
• (The clever thing here is that if I finish Eugene Onegin I’ll have at least met this challenge)
• Eugene Onegin

450 pages or more.

There are no levels.  I’m not sure what a challenging but reachable number for me is.  Six?  We’ll see.

Bleak House – 788 pages (at this rate, six is not going to happen)

Moby Dick – 556 pages

The Goldfinch – 775 pages

Morte Darthur – 1131 pages

Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict – 470 pages

Nope, 5 1/2 was reachable.

• 1 – 4 books — Tourist

The Supernatural Enhancements

• 

Golden is pre-1960

Silver is 1960-1989

This is the truly insane one.    I probably won’t make it.   But it is, for me, a definite challenge.

Pike’s Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s

A Moveable Feast

Moby Dick

Mrs. McGinty’s Dead!

A Murder is Announced

Crooked House

Green for Danger

Dead Man’s Folly

There is a Tide

Utz

The Case is Closed

&

Unexpected Night

Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

I’m so excited I want to start now, but really I need to wait and finish Ulysses.

And another one

1. A 20th Century Classic  – A Moveable Feast
2. A 19th Century Classic – Bleak House
3. A Classic by a Woman Author – Sense and Sensibility
4. A Classic in Translation  If English is not your primary language, then books originally published in English are acceptable.  You could also read the book in its original language if you are willing and able to do so.  Eugene Onegin
5. A Wartime Classic  2014 will be the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.  Any book relating to a war is fine — WWI, WWII, the French Revolution, the War of the Worlds — your choice.  All Quiet on the Western Front
6. A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You This can be any author whose works you have not read before.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be an author you’ve never heard of. Candide

Optional Categories:

1. An American Classic – Moby Dick
2. A Classic Mystery, Suspense or Thriller – Five Red Herrings
3. A Historical Fiction Classic.  This is any classic set at least 50 years before the time when it was written.  For example, Margaret Mitchell publishedGone with the Wind 70 years after the end of the Civil War; therefore, it is considered a historical novel.  A Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Letter are also historical novels.  However, older classics set during the period in which they were written are not considered historical; for example, the novels of Jane Austen.  Scarlet Pimpernel
4. A Classic That’s Been Adapted Into a Movie or TV Series.  Any period, any genre!  This is practically a free choice category.  However, it’s a separate category than the required categories.  The Great Gatsby
5. Extra Fun Category:  Write a Review of the Movie or TV Series adapted from Optional Category #4.  The Great Gatsby (2013)

Just A Keek (a little look): 1-4 books read

Five Red Herrings

1-3 Books written before 1440

History of the Kings of Britain – Geoffrey of Monmouth

Could not comment on this blog and therefore not officially signed up.

And another one:

Going for 7-12 Investigator level

The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie

Easy to Kill – Agatha Christie

Green for Danger – Christianna Brand

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux

Five Red Herrings

There is a Tide

Whose Body?

Death-Watch

Couldn’t resist because I liked the categories (one from each):

Here are the 14 categories:

1. Visit The Country: Read a book that has setting in a country that you really want to visit in real life. Make sure the setting has a big role in the book and it can make you know a little bit more about your dream destination.

Letters from Iceland

2. Cover Lust: Pick a book from your shelf that you bought because you fell in love with the cover. Is the content as good as the cover?

The Supernatural Enhancements

3. Blame it on Bloggers: Read a book because you’ve read the sparkling reviews from other bloggers. Don’t forget to mention the blogger’s names too! – The Human Factor

4. Bargain All The Way: Ever buying a book because it’s so cheap you don’t really care about the content? Now it’s time to open the book and find out whether it’s really worth your cents.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

5. (Not So) Fresh From the Oven: Do you remember you bought/got a new released book last year but never had a chance to read it? Dig it from your pile and bring back the 2013.

The Goldfinch

6. First Letter’s Rule: Read a book which title begins with the same letter as your name (for me, Astrid means A, and I can read anything that started with the letter A). Remember: Articles like “a”, “an” or “the” doesn’t count 

A Pocket Full of Rye

7. Once Upon a Time: Choose a book that’s been published for the first time before you were born (not necessarily has to be a classic book, just something a little bit older than you is okay. You can read the most recent edition if you want to)

The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie

8. Chunky Brick: Take a deep breath, and read a book that has more than 500 pages. Yep, the one that you’ve always been afraid of!

Bleak House

9.  Favorite Author: You like their books, but there are too many titles. This is your chance, choose a book that’s been written by your fave author but you haven’t got time to read it before.

Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse

10. It’s Been There Forever: Pick up a book that has been there on your shelf for more than a year, clean up the dust and start to read it now 

Moby Dick

11. Movies vs Books: You’ve seen the movie adaptation (or planned to see it soon) but never had time to read the book. It’s time to read it now, so you can compare the book vs the movie.

Green for Danger – Christianna Brand

12. Freebies Time: What’s the LAST free book you’ve got? Whether it’s from giveaway, a birthday gift or a surprise from someone special, don’t hold back any longer. Open the book and start reading it now 

The Last Detective – Peter Lovesey   No review

13. Not My Cup of Tea: Reach out to a genre that you’ve never tried (or probably just disliked) before. Whether it’s a romance, horror or non fiction, maybe you will find a hidden gem!

The Underground Man

14. Walking Down The Memory Lane: Ever had a book that you loved so much as a kid? Or a book that you wish you could read when you were just a child? Grab it now and prepare for a wonderful journey to the past  Comic books or graphic novels are allowed!

Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

Clearly I am addicted to challenges

Beginner: 1-3 translated books

Eugene Onegin

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux

Candide

Dilettante – Read 1-5 nonfiction books

A Moveable Feast

Careless People

Postcard Level:   Read and review 4 books with a postal theme.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Supernatural Enhancements

Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Letters from Iceland

I’m going for 5 star on this.   Surely I can read books set in 5 different European countries in just over a year.    I think I would’ve managed it (and may yet) in 5 months if Ulysses hadn’t gotten in the way.

The Human Factor – UK

Eugene Onegin – Russia

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux – France

Letters from Iceland – Iceland

All Quiet on the Western Front – German author, partly set in Germany

have categorized works by date into Old (pre-1800),  Modern (1800-1950), and Recent (1950+)

Morte Darthur

History of the Kings of Britain

Page:  read 2 works, one of which may be Recent.

As usual, Level one ‘un peu” – 3 books

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Gaston Leroux

Candide – Voltaire

The Man in the Boulevard – Simenon

My reading is way too America/UK centric I’ve realized recently so I specifically looked for a challenge in addition to European reading to get me to read books from more other countries.  I found a few, but didn’t like any of them for one reason or another (fiction only?  why?)   Also I don’t really care if the book focuses on the country or not, just to read something by someone from another country.  I think I’ll say the author has to be from the country rather than someone from somewhere else writing about the country.   And it’s okay if they moved later on.  After all, the idea is to get a different perspective and it’s less likely to be as different if it’s an American, say, writing about Egypt than an Egyptian.  I may need to amend these rules later on.   6 books, one from each continent, excluding Antarctica.

Completed:

1 book probably – so hard to choose.   Beautiful and the Damned?  Everybody Was So Young?   Careless People isn’t out yet 😦

A Moveable Feast

The Great Gatsby

Wow.   There’s a free audiobook of Stephen Fry reading this.  I can’t believe it.  http://fryreadsonegin.com/

Finished 2/13/14