There are a couple of new book challenges going on in the blogging world that I think I can join in on. The reason? They tie into something I am already doing and will help be a motivating factor!
One of my goals at the beginning of 2006 was to slow down on the purchase of new books and make some progress in reading the stack of books that I had piling up that have never been read. To that end I made shelf space down in the basement and made a pile of books that I have never read and one of books that I was wanting to read again. My progress towards that goal was more fruitful at the beginning of the year though throughout the year I have periodically pulled things off that stack to read. That will be a goal that continues next year and this latest challenge urges me to start on that pile again:
Michelle has issued the From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge. The rules are simple, ” for this challenge we would be reading 5 books that we have already purchased, have been meaning to get to, have been sitting on the nightstand and haven’t read before.” The dates for this challenge are November 1st, 2006 through January 30th, 2007. I think it sounds great, so here are my books:
1. Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (completed)
2. The Stolen Child: A Novel by Keith Donohue (removed)
3. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (completed)
4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (removed)
5. Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman (completed)
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi was substituted for The Stolen Child (completed)
Grayson by Lynne Cox was substitued for Moon is a Harsh Mistress (completed)
If you’ve been reading my blog or noticed my sidebar you will have seen that I am already technically reading Return of the King and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. However, since I’m barely in to Return and just started Moon a couple of days before the first of the month I am going to count these. They both have sat on my pile for over a year and I’m going to keep reading them through and count them for this challenge. Great challenge Michelle! I look forward to completing it.
Challenge 2 also plays into the idea (for me) of getting through books on the to-be-read shelf/list:
Kailana’s November Reading Challenge. The gist of this challenge is: “It will soon be the month of November, and I have been thinking about it a lot lately. In Canada, November is the month that Remembrance Day falls in, being November 11th. So, I got to thinking, I might do a reading challenge where I read books set in World War I and World War II.”
She is doing three although I am not sure if that is the exact challenge amount. What I propose to do is read two novels that fit roughly into this parameter and also get books off my list:
1. Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd
2. Watchers of Time by Charles Todd
These are the fourth and fifth installments of this series of novels by Todd featuring Inspector Ian Rutledge. Rutledge is a shell-shocked survivor of WWI whose execution of a soldier named Hammish has an interesting result: the voice of Hammish has stayed with Rutledge, causing continued mental anguish. It is an interesting idea, having an inspector with what would now be considered a diagnosable mental illness trying to go forward and do his job while also trying to make some sort of restitution to Hammish. These are great stories and I feel like they fit in the definition because so much of the stories involve flashbacks to WWI and portray the realities of that time period. I highly recommend these books. My friend Pat turned me on to them a few years ago and I actually have some of the later ones on my shelf so I need to get back into these and get caught up. A new volume comes out in January.
There we are, 2 more challenges that should keep me busy. Stay tuned for my promised easy Christmas Challenge as detail will be forthcoming. I hope you all join in.
Great list! Thanks for joining in.
Very cool of you to join in! I am going to do the stacks challenge too, but blogger won’t let me post! I will have to post later.
I have loved all of Charles Todd’s books and am excited to know that a new one will be out in January. It has been so interesting to watch this character develop and recover. Hammish has changed as well. I recently saw an article about the “rehabilitation” (I can’t think what else to call it) of the real men who suffered Hammish’s fate in WWI.
I’ve joined Kailana’s (posted my list of possibilities last Thursday) and Michelle’s (need to post my list for the one). I’m excited to learn more details about your Christmas Challenge. At this rate, I may read all my books in my lifetime!
“One of my goals at the beginning of 2006 was to slow down on the purchase of new books and make some progress in reading the stack of books that I had piling up that have never been read.”
Ha! Welcome to my world. And I bought three more over the weekend. I’ll just never manage.
Well, based on my (non)success with your RIP challenge, Carl, I’m probably going to pass on doing a reading challenge for Nov and Dec.
Not that I don’t want to. And not that I don’t have a tall enough TBR stack that keeps getting added to week after week…but…I just can’t hold myself up for such failure again.
Maybe I’ll make a New Year’s resolution.
Maybe not.
I like your lists, though.
Oh God, just noticed that pic of Aragorn on your header.
Loved him.
In fact, I just did an interview that will be on a “blog near you” in December, and when I was asked to name a favorite fictional hero, I had to list Aragorn as one of them.
Thanks for making my day.
Excellent! You can count me in on both challenges. It will take me a day or two to make my selections.
Ew, thanks for passing on the challenge news. My TBR stack takes up a couple of shelves! Incentive to stop bloggin’ and get to readin’!
Tell me I will be able to start reading again, please!
Tell me I’ll find the time again!
I’m up for another reading challenge. In fact I had a Star Trek reading discussion with a friend on Friday night and I pulled off USS Titan book 2 off TBR shelf that night and I’m already 50 pages in. Yippee! I also have been really good about not buying many books this year. I would say 90% of my book purchases this year have been for others than myself ( with well over half my purchases being for my kiddos ). In fact I recently picked up something for a friend who has a birthday coming up sometime this month. 🙂
I’ll work on a list of 5 books though and get it in this week. Now do graphic novels count? I’ve been reading quite a few of those the last two months and I have picked up more. I’m not sure if they truely qualify as ” books ” though. I don’t really think so but what’s your opinion?
What a fun project. I have a few books that are sitting on my nightstand – started but only by a couple chapters. I even started one for the boys (Cricket in Times Square) but have only got into it by a chapter. Julian loved me reading to him, but I can’t seem to find the time. We need to get them in bed earlier to read to them.
This encourages me to at least try to finish that book for the boys!
I’ll pass on these latest challenges.. as I’m always working on my TBR pile anyway.
But I’m looking forward to your Christmas challenge…
A Christmas challenge?! Oh no, stop the challenges! ha,ha…. Ah we’ll do anything to maintain the book addiction won’t we 🙂
Anne, I’ll never manage either but its fun to pretend.
Colleen…Aragorn is indeed fantastic. I’d have to say that he, played by Viggo of course, is probably my favorite fantasy character on film.
Cool Suzanne!!!
You’re welcome Maggie.
FM, you have a new baby! Nothing will ever be the same!
Jeff, I’ve been in a sci fi kick lately too. I have a few Trek books on my pile that I haven’t gotten to. And oooo….is the present for me, perhaps?!?!? 😉
I love Cricket in Times Square, Karen. Great book.
Hmm. Perhaps I will have to have a look at my shelves and see what is unread there…this challenge sounds fun. 🙂
Great lists, Carl! I must find the Charles Todd books – they sound fascinating.
Yes, the winter reading challenge has come along at a great time! I look forward to seeing the next one you come up with.
You go, Carl! I am very impressed with your downstairs shelf space. Very creative.
I am trying to get into a mystery writer I can hang out with. I find contemporary writers that I’ve read so far to be be very violent, graphic and over-the-top gratuitous with not terribly compelling writing or stories where the threads all come together in the end. Example: Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen. (I got this book as a freebie, so I took a spin. Didn’t care for how it handled.) Would you say Charles Todd is an author I should look at? Do you or your readers have any other recommendations?
Charles Todd is definitely not of that ilk. Since his mysteries are set right after WWI they have that feel to them. Though whatever mystery he is investigating is part of the story, so much more of the story is about him and the trauma he is going through internally.
I think you would like the Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas. The first 4 are great and form a complete story arc. Years later she started with the character again and I don’t really like what she’s done with these books but the first 4 are great. They used to be titled (and can be found used as) Good Night, Mr. Holmes; Good Morning, Irene; Irene at Large; and Irene’s Last Waltz. They have since been retitled and reprinted and I’m not sure what they are called now but they are very enjoyable.
Hey, thanks. I will check out the Irene series, if I can find the first four.
Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger is a book you might want to check out for Kailana’s WWI/II challenge. I really enjoyed it even if it was about baseball, World War I and told from a 9 year old boy’s point of view. A client recommended it to me, I basically politely rolled my eyes at him but picked it up anyway and I’m glad I did.
LK, I feel the same way about American mysteries; too violent for my tastes. So I started reading British mysteries; that’s how I doscovered Charles Todd. I think I’ll pass on the other challenges, although I am tempted by the WWI&II. I am looking forward to your Christmas one, Carl.
Hello! I am also doing the winter reading challenge and am busy wandering blogland looking for everybody else who is doing it. Sounds like fun to me. Here are my books:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Possession by A. S. Byatt
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Ring of Bright Water Trilogy by Gavin Maxwell
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
I will get right on these as soon as I finish my current read (Lancelot by Walker Percy). Happy reading!
I have read a few of the Todd mysteries and really liked them. I need to pick up where I left off with that series. I wish I could break myself of buying new books so often (must work on self control). I am going to try and keep up with the From the Stacks Challenge, but I am already fizzling on my first book!
i’m slowly coming back to blogger… i dig your site… i also have many, many books to read… i think i’ve become more of a book collector than a reader… my attention span for reading one book at a time has dwindled a lot in the past year. right now i’m reading “Life of Pi”… tried finishing Everything is Illuminated, too, but haven’t finished… i have this stack of books on Mayan archaeoastronoomy i’ve been meaning to read…. i plan on trying your Christmas challenge! 😮