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

Colorful Reading Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Rebecca

For details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 9 books with a color in the title. There are six required colors (red, white, blue, black, silver, and gold), and the other three are reader's choice.

My tentative list:

Red: Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech

White: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson.

Blue: The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

Black: Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden

Silver: The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett

Gold: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Green: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Yellow: The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic that Shaped Our History by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Rose: Rose Madder by Stephen King

Young Adult Challenge '09

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: J.Kaye

For Details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 12 young adult books.

My list of possibles:

*An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

*Paper Towns by John Green

*A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti

*Nation by Terry Pratchett

*How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

*The Hollow People by Brian Keaney

*Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

*Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

*The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

*Gossamer by Lois Lowry

*Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

*Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones

*Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

*The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

*Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

*Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

*The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

*The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

*The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

*American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett

*Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

*Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

*Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin

*The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

*The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

21 Cultures Challenge

Dates: January 1st through December 31st of 2009

Host: Lost in Books

For Details: Click here.

The Challenge (put simply): Read 21 books about 21 different cultures, modern or traditional. Books can be fictional, but must not be about a fictional culture.

My list of possibles:

*The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost (Tarawa)

*Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost (Fiji and Vanuatu)

*The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma by Thant Myint-U (Burma)

*The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly (Thailand)

*Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang (China)

*Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China)

*Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino (Japan)

*Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP (Korea)

*A Taste of Earth and Other Legends of Vietnam by Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnam)

*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)

*In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD (Saudi Arabia)

*The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Iran)

*I’jaam by Sinan Antoon (Iraq)

*A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti (Israel/Gaza)

*The Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)

*Antipode by Heather E. Heying (Madagascar)

*Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell (Sierra Leone)

*They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein (Sudan)

*House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-Torn Zimbabwe by Christina Lamb (Zimbabwe)

*ZenZele by J. Nozipo Maraire (Zimbabwe)

*Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)

*Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Kenya)

*A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche (Rwanda)

*King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (Congo region)

*No More Strangers Now interviews by Tim McKee (South Africa)

*Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Sweden)

*Winterwood by Patrick McCabe (Ireland)

*The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (England)

*The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (England)

*The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Germany)

*Fax from Sarajevo by Joe Kubert (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

*The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie (Nicaragua)

*The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Chile)

*A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet by Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela (Chile)

*The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)

*Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston (Haiti and Jamaica)

*Almost Heaven by Martin Fletcher (rural U.S.)

*The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Puritan New England)

*Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden (Cree of northern Ontario, Canada)

*Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson (Haisla of British Columbia, Canada)

*Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee by Dean Cycon (many indigenous cultures around the world)