Challenges

2012 Challenges

Award-Winning Reading Challenge

-Toe-Dippin’.

Nobel Winners:

• Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw (1925) Complete

• The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy (1932)

• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1949)

• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1953) Complete

• Endgame by Samuel Beckett (1969)

Pullitzer Winners:

• All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1947)

• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1986)

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2001)

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2003)

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2009) Complete

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011) Complete

-Genre-Buster. Hey, there are other awards besides literary awards. Read one book from each of the following lists: the Hugo Award (sci-fi/fantasy); Nebula Award for Novels (sci-fi/fantasy); World Fantasy Award; Bram Stoker Best Novel Award (horror); Aurealis award for best horror novel; Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger (crime fiction); Mystery Writers of America; RITA awards (romance–fuck yeah, we’re going there).

-Extra Credit. Read one book from these random-ass awards that we found around the internet. This particular challenge may be subject to change as we find more oddball awards, but when/if I update, I’ll include the date so that you know if they were part of your original challenge or not: Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year; Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award; Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award (chosen because Theakston’s is a brewery with its own book award–badass); Gaylactic Spectrum Awards (because I love the word “Gaylactic” so much I want to marry it–but I’d have to move to New York for that, fucking anti-gay activist bastards).

Back to the Classics Challenge 2012

• Any 19th Century Classic: Bleak House by Charles Dickens Complete
• Any 20th Century Classic: Endgame by Samuel Beckett OR The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Reread a classic of your choice: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• A Classic Play: Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw Complete
• Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde OR Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Classic Romance: The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
• Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to your languange: The Stranger by Albert Camus
• Classic Award Winner – Endgame by Samuel Beckett OR The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (Both winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature)
• Read a Classic set in a Country that you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime: The Iliad by Homer (Ancient Greece)

A Classics Challenge

Read seven works of Classic Literature in 2012. Only three of the seven may be re-reads.

Instead of writing a review as you finish each book (of course, you can do that too), visit November’s Autumn on the 4th of each month from January 2012 – December 2012.

You will find a prompt, it will be general enough that no matter which Classic you’re reading or how far into it, you will be able to answer.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens Complete

The Iliad by Homer

Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw Complete

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson OR The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

What’s in a Name 5

Between January 1 and December 31, 2012, read one book in each of the following categories:

1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title: Black Hills, Purgatory Ridge, Emily of Deep Valley
2. A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title: Moon Called, Seeing Stars, Cloud Atlas
3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title: Little Bee, Spider Bones, The Witches of Worm
4. A book with a type of house in the title: The Glass Castle, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Ape House Bleak House by Charles Dickens Complete
5. A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title: Sarah’s Key, The Scarlet Letter, Devlin Diary
6. A book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title: Day of the Jackal, Elegy for April, Freaky Friday, Year of Magical Thinking

Charles Dickens Month-hosted by Fig and Thistle

The premise is basic: every Tuesday in January (there are 5 Tuesdays) post something about Charles Dickens. It can be a book, short story, or film review. It could be about his life. It could even merely relate to his time period. Basically just have something relevant about Charles Dickens in your blog post (heck, it could even be a rant about how much you hate Charles Dickens). On his birthday, Tuesday 02/07 there will be a big wrap-up!

Reading in January 2012: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The Dark Tower Reading Challenge

Timeline – January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012

The books in the series are:

1. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982) Complete
2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) Complete
3. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991) Complete
4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)
5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)
6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)
7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)
8. The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) – BONUS!

2011 Challenges

Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge–Complete, October 2011

Seasonal Reading Challenge: Fall 2011

Click here for a link to the task descriptions. Incomplete