Monday, December 17, 2007

Yes, I must be insane.

I've convinced myself that I can handle two more reading challenges. If I overlap my challenges, I should be able to complete them all in less than 20 books. That doesn't seem too daunting a proposition. I'll still have plenty of time to read at whim, don't you think?

First, the Africa Reading Challenge. Six books, at least three different countries.

My reading pool:

Half of a Yellow Sun
Flame Trees of Thika
Story of an African Farm
What is the What
Frankie and Stankie
The Darling
Brazzaville Beach
Cry, the Beloved Country
No Longer At Ease
July's People
A Sport of Nature
Before I Forget
So Long a Letter
The Camel Bookmobile
Ladysmith
West With the Night

Next, the Nineteeth Century Women Writers Challenge. Six books.

Pool of authors:

Olive Schreiner
Mary Haddock Foote
Isabella Lucy Bird
Charlotte Bronte
George Eliot
Elizabeth Gaskell
Sarah Orne Jewett
Margaret Marshall Saunders
Anna Sewell

I wish I could get away with giving everyone on our Christmas list a reading list for next year. It'd save me a trip to the mall and sure would be a lot more fun.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Pages Turned! Welcome to the Africa Reading Challenge! I hope you don't mind; when I saw your list here, I went ahead and linked you from the ARC main page. (let me know if you'd rather not be linked!) if you write about the books you read, feel free to let me know in a reply on the ARC page and I'll put a link; I think people would enjoy what you had to say.

    i will say, i read the darling and didn't like it very much (here are my thoughts on it). but i just read So Long a Letter and enjoyed it (my thoughts here) and I loved Half of a Yellow Sun (again, my thoughts here). Okay, enough promotion of my views. But I love finding a community of readers to exchange views with. I'll be very interested to learn your thoughts on some of these.

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  2. Susan, I honestly do not see how you can read this much, but I admire that you can do it.
    I really do, and I wish that I could do the same.
    Oh I wish I wish I wish that I had more reading time.
    Heaven to me, is a pile of books, and eternity.
    Time, with the parentheses removed!

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  3. Cip, do you realize that next year both my kids will be in college? And that the head of our area of the library won't even get us the equipment we need to do our jobs let alone work to find the funds to make my position full time? I am ~not~ going to spend all my free time on the treadmill next year--even though I should!

    Dave, thanks for linking to me. I'll be sure to let you know when I comment on books for the challenge.

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  4. I love your lists for both challenges. I think I will be doing a challenge or two in the new year.
    My resolutions will involve books, and like you I will probably avoid the treadmill. Although I *really* shouldn't.

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  5. Anonymous4:01 PM

    Crazy. Brave, but crazy. May I highly recommend Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway?

    I like the idea of a reading suggestion list. It's easier for you, and gentler for the recipient.

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  6. Good luck with the challenges. They are good ones but I am not as optimistic about being able to do them all like you are. I am reading Country of the Pointed Firs right now and absolutely loving it.

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  7. Considering how well I usually do on my own reading priority lists, I've slated for spectacular failure. But, for some reason (my kids will both be in college!), I'm feeling awfully optimistic about it all. What's 20 books compared to making it through Ulysses?

    Monique and the Mango Rains has now been added to my wish list.

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  8. I think overlapping is the key to completing challenges! ha.ha. I need to do that because I've been joining several and more to come still. Oh boy.
    Good luck with your challenges.

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