The Lambda Challenge

Dates: No time restraints. :)

Host: Adventures in Reading

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read as many Lambda Literary Award winners as you want.

My list:

Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeny (Lesbian Debut Fiction)

Name All the Animals by Alison Smith (Autobiography/Memoir)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (Humor)

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvaduai (Children's/Young Adult)

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Lesbian Memoir)

Harry Potter Reading Challenge

Date: August 1st of 2009 through July 31st of 2010

Host: Michelle

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read the Harry Potter series. (As an added bit of fun, I'm going to try to watch all the movies, too.

The list read, as I complete them:



The list watched, as I complete them:

1% Well-Read Challenge Round 2

Dates: March 1st of 2009 through March 31st of 2010 (each are the dates for option #3)

Host: 3M

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): There are actually 3 different options, but basically it involves reading 10-13 books from "the list."

Notes: Despite the fact that I totally suck at finishing challenges, I'm going for option three which involves 13 books instead of 10. Simply because then I don't have to pay attention if they are from the "old" list or the "new" list. Yes, this boils down to pure laziness.

My list consists only of books which are currently in my house.

I wish I could include rereads as a.) I know I'll be rereading a few on the list because we'll be using them for school, and b.) there's some others I'd just really love to read again (like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and some of the Vonnegut). But I know that's not the point of the challenge.

My list of possibles:

*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
*The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
*The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
*Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
*Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
*Life of Pi by Yann Martel
*The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Marakami
*The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
*Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
*Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
*The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
*Neuromancer by William Gibson
*Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
*Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
*Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
*The Lords of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (because I still haven't read The Return of the King yet)
*The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
*Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
*The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
*Out of Africa by Isak Dineson
*All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
*Orlando by Virginia Woolf
*We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
*The Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
*Kim by Rudyard Kipling
*The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
*The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
*Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
*Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
*Walden by Henry David Thoreau
*Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Arthurian Challenge 2

Dates: April 1st of 2009 through March 31st of 2010

Host: Becky

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read as many books as you'd like that in one way or another involve Arthurian legend.

My list:

*King Arthur and His Knights of The Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

(O.K., O.K., calling this a list is a stretch. But being completely ignorant of all things Arthur, I thought I'd get my feet wet and see where it goes from there.)

What an Animal 2

Date: July 1st of 2009 through February 28th of 2010

Host: Kristi

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read six books that have an animal in the title, on the cover, or playing a major role in the book. Fiction or non-fiction.

My list (to be announced as I go):
*Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog by Kitty Florey Burns

Japanese Literature Challenge 3

Date: July 30th of 2009 through January 30 of 2010.

Host: Bellezza

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read at least one book of Japanese origin. Yep, that's it. And dammit, this year I'm actually going to do it! I am!

My list of possibles (I will count myself a success if I read just one of these, but really, truly I hope I manage more than that!):

*Basho: The Complete Haiku

*Grotesque and/or Out by Natsuo Kirino

*some manga (possibly some Fruit Baskets by Natsuki Takaya)

*The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami