Skip to main content

I've joined a group reading challenge

OK, so I am already doing a challenge of my own, but the 52 authors challenge does not have any time constraints (although I would like to finish it before the end of 2007).

I discovered this one through Jenclair's (mostly) book blog,
A Garden Carried in the Pocket. The challenge was issued by Michelle and is called From the Stacks. The aim is to read 5 books that have been languising in the TBR stack before 30 january 2007. Click on the above link to read the rest of the rules and join in the fun (there's prizes).

Here are the books I picked and the reasons why (besides having been TBR for too long). To be fair I have not included any book that I plan to read as part of my own challenge:

Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb, because I started reading the In Death series in order of publication but have been stalled at this book for nearly a year.

The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley, because it's been on my night table for a year and a half and I have fond memories of the TV series.

Rhoda: A life in stories by Ellen Gilchrist, because it seems like a fun book to read. I'm going to make it my bedtime read and read one or two stories every night.

The Emperor's Babe by Bernardine Evaristo, because it's time I read some poetry (it's a novel written in blank verse).

My Journey to Lhasa by Alexandra David-Neel, because it's one of the oldest books in my TBR stack and I already read and enjoyed Magic and Mystery in Tibet.

Comments

Booklogged said…
Glad to see you joined the challenge. It such a helpful one, don't you think? I don't think anyone would mind if you combined the two challenges. Actually, I think that's fair game. Your titles look good. I look forward to reading your reviews.
Bibliophile said…
I like challenges like this - they can be invaluable in helping you to break out of a rut. I had mostly been reading the newest books in my TBR - this will get me reading some of the older ones that have been languishing at the back of the TBR shelves for too long.
Anonymous said…
Rhoda is quite a character! I have a dear friend who adores Rhoda and Ellen Gilchrist and sends me some of her old ones. Another friend loves the "In Death" series. A diverse and interesting list. We will see how well we do with this challenge; maybe it could become more of a habit.
Bibliophile said…
Agree on Rhoda. I have already read two stories about her childhood and she reminds me of myself as a child (except for the swearing).

I do hope this challenge will make me pay more attention to the books I already own.
Anonymous said…
Funny, I got stuck on the J D Robb series, too. I read about 20 of them for a strange reason too long to go into in a comment. Now I have a couple in my TBR pile and a couple more in my Amazon basket, but somehow can't bring myself to read them.
Bibliophile said…
I'm also stalled reading the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry.

I think I stopped reading the In Death series because I read too many in too short a time. Same with the Pitts. I have this unfortunate tendency to glom series until I make myself sick of them. It's like eating too much candy: you realise it all tastes similar and then it makes you queasy.

Now I have been reading nothing but cosies for a long time and I think I'm ready to start reading In Death again.
teabird said…
Flame Trees is as enjoyable to read as the series was to watch - I recently reread and re-watched both, and I was amazed at how well the series held up.
melanie
Anonymous said…
Good luck with the group challenge. I have a link to your blog on my blog. I'd love it if you'd link to my blog as well (up to you, though :-). I mostly review fiction books on my site, though there are a few nonfiction reviews, movie reviews, and some commentary. It is mostly about books, though.

Popular posts from this blog

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down

Icelandic folk-tale: The Devil Takes a Wife

Stories of people who have made a deal with and then beaten the devil exist all over Christendom and even in literature. Here is a typical one: O nce upon a time there were a mother and daughter who lived together. They were rich and the daughter was considered a great catch and had many suitors, but she accepted no-one and it was the opinion of many that she intended to stay celebrate and serve God, being a very devout  woman. The devil didn’t like this at all and took on the form of a young man and proposed to the girl, intending to seduce her over to his side little by little. He insinuated himself into her good graces and charmed her so thoroughly that she accepted his suit and they were betrothed and eventually married. But when the time came for him to enter the marriage bed the girl was so pure and innocent that he couldn’t go near her. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t sleep and needed a bath in order to go to sleep. A bath was prepared for him and in he went and

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove