All About Books discussion

I am going to try something different in 2014, inspired by some challenges I have seen over at LibraryThing. This is a challenge to read books in 14 categories in 2014. I have designed my challenge to be a pyramid which gives a total of 105 books.

2014 Category Challenge




1. Apex Big Fat Classic:
Read 1 long classic - War and Peace (or maybe Don Quixote)

2. Second Tier Nonfiction: read 2 nonfiction books
possibilities - Life of Johnson, The Black Count

3. Third Tier The Real Classics:

Read 3 works from ancient Greece
- The Birds by Aristophanes, Medea by Euripides, and one other TBD

4. Fourth Tier French Classics:

Read 4 classics originally written in French (hopefully from the Guardian's list)
likely possibilities:
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola
The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere
or something by Balzac, Proust,Colette, Guy de Maupassant

5. Fifth Tier Charles de Lint :
, ,
Read 5 new-to-me books from this author, especially from the Newford series
-Moonheart, Someplace To Be Flying, Yarrow, Greenmantle, The Little Country

6. Sixth Tier Lymond series

Reread the 6 book Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett

7. Seventh Tier Humor - Satire:

Read 7 satires (preferably from the Guardian list and off my shelves!)
possibilities - Changing Places
Porterhouse Blue
Lucky Jim
Vile Bodies
Pnin
Crome Yellow
The Diary of a Nobody

8. Eighth Tier Science Fiction & Fantasy:

Read 8 sci-fi or fantasy books (hopefully from the Guardian's list or off my shelves)
- Isaac Asimov's Robot series
Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The True Game by Sheri S. Tepper
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series

9. Ninth Tier Foreign mysteries:

Read 9 mysteries originally written in a language other than English
- one or more by Arnaldur Indriðason (Iceland)
something by Jo Nesbo (Norway)
one or more Martin Beck book by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Sweden)
The Blue Room by Georges Simenon (France)
Andrea Camilleri (Italy)
Special Assignments by Boris Akunin (Russia)

10. Tenth Tier Audiobooks:

Listen to 10 audiobooks (that are not rereads)
possible choices - Behind the Scenes at the Museum
An American Tragedy
Moll Flanders
The Phantom of the Opera
The Good Earth
The Scarlet Letter
Interpreter of Maladies
Nicholas Nickleby
Silas Marner
The Mysterious Howling
Letter from Birmingham Jail




11. Eleventh Tier Mysteries off my bookcases:

Read 11 mysteries already owned in paperback
- in particular: Michael Innes, Cyril Hare, Rex Stout, John D. MacDonald

12. Twelfth Tier Group Reads:

Participate in at least on group or buddy read each month (from either GR or LT)
Jan: Middlemarch {LT}
Feb:
Mar: Lorna Doone {GR}
April:
May: Foucault's Pendulum {LT}
June: The Brothers Karamazov {LT}
July: Mary Barton {LT}
Aug: Pale Fire {GR}
Sep:
Oct: Madame Bovary {LT}
Nov: Shirley {LT}
Dec: Anna Christie {GR}

13. Thirteenth Tier Plays:

Read 13 plays (separate from those in category #3)
- Moliere, Eugene O'Neill, George Bernard Shaw, Thorton Wilder...

14. Fourteenth Tier Read the USA mysteries:

Read mysteries from 14 different states in the U.S.A. for my ongoing 'Read the USA' cozy mystery challenge

Good luck! I enjoyed The Phantom of the Opera when I read it about two years ago. I read that one before I viewed the Dwight Little 1989 film which was good and is a good film adaptation of the book besides the lon chaney one.

Ooh this challenge looks amazing - I'm jealous! Will be putting my thinking cap on to do something similar next year as well :)

This looks great!

This is brilliant, Leslie! Good Luck!

I'm thunderstruck Leslie!!!
I think I'll copy this pyramid structure, I LOVE it; I may also copy some steps, and some other I'll "invent" for myself. If you don't mind, of course!!!

I did a little challenge for 2014 too. don't have much on it yet but it's a start. Good luck with yours leslie.

Woah... That's seriously impressive. I shall have to think long and hard about this now.

Thanks everyone! The ones at LT are so much more impressive, with lots of graphics and stuff...

Laura, feel free to copy as much as you want! I wanted to include a fair amount of less "serious" reading as I am beginning to feel like I am so busy reading classics that I have no time for fun books.

Great challenge, Leslie! Lots of thought put into it.
Vous inspirez!

Chris wrote: "Great challenge, Leslie! Lots of thought put into it.
Vous inspirez!"

Thanks Chris :) Clearly I have too much time on my hands!

What an imaginative challenge! Got to get my thinking cap on

What a good idea, Leslie! I'm impressed!!

I'm still thinking about 2014, but you have challenged me to think outside the box!

Thanks Shirley & Heather! I am still tweaking the categories but I want to leave room for BoTM - maybe that should have been a category - and readalongs.

Holy cow: Remember when we were talking about how we both had already started thinking about challenges for 2014?! Well I am realizing that there's thinking about and then there's THINKING ABOUT! This looks great Leslie! Let me know when you get to Silas Marner, I would quite like to join you for that actually.

WOW. This challenge looks amazing, good luck Leslie! I'm looking forward to watching how you and everyone else progress next year. I always have good intentions that never actually come to fruition with reading challenges like this.

Sigourney wrote: "WOW. This challenge looks amazing, good luck Leslie! I'm looking forward to watching how you and everyone else progress next year. I always have good intentions that never actually come to fruition..."

Yeah, it is hard to follow through sometimes... but even so, the planning can be fun!

@Jenny - I actually started idly thinking about this during the summer! There were books I have been wanting to read (and actually own!) that I just haven't been able to get to so I wanted to make sure that next year I would have more chance of getting to those (tiers 6, 7, 8, 11 all were part of that).

Leslie wrote: "Sigourney wrote: "WOW. This challenge looks amazing, good luck Leslie! I'm looking forward to watching how you and everyone else progress next year. I always have good intentions that never actuall..."

Definitely! :)

You should definitely check out Clive Barker's short story collection Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3 for your short story collection challenge. I actually enjoyed the short stories He wrote in that one Leslie and one of them was based on Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue short story. My sister actually gave me that one as a Christmas gift last year and read it in January. It was pretty good.

Amber wrote: "You should definitely check out Clive Barker's short story collection Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3 for your short story collection challenge. I actually enjoyed the short stories He wrote in that one ..."

I'll think about it, Amber. I actually have a lot of short story collections on my Kindle already :/

Okay. Well you can always get it from the library. ^_^

I am thinking that I will replace my current 12th or 13th tier with books for readalongs/group reads... that would include books from post #21 and give me some flexibility.

The question then becomes: which do I keep - the short stories or the plays?

I missed this Leslie sorry it looks like an amazing challenge to set yourself. I hope you enjoy it and I can't wait to read Lorna Doone in March with you. :)

Leslie wrote: "I am thinking that I will replace my current 12th or 13th tier with books for readalongs/group reads... that would include books from post #21 and give me some flexibility.

The question then becom..."

I'd keep the plays, because you seem to like them, and it's easy to fit in some short stories if you have time...

I have just logged on to see your amazing challenge Leslie - oh wow!! I wish you luck and determination. No, I think you have that... Stamina? Time? Whatever you need anyway. It will be soooo satisfying to complete something like this. I've honestly never seen anything like it :) :)

Shirley wrote: "Leslie wrote: "...The question then becomes: which do I keep - the short stories or the plays?"

I'd keep the plays, because you seem to like them, and it's easy to fit in some short stories if you have time ..."

I am leaning that way. Thanks for the input Shirley!

Complicated!!!

I am trying to read more from my own bookcases & less from the library in 2014 (as in tier 11), so I decided to participate in the 2014 Mount TBR Challenge - I'm going to read 25 paperbacks in 2014 that I already own:




Sadly, the tickers don't work with GoodReads' html... ☹

1. "The Rubber Band" by Rex Stout
2. "The Red Box" by Rex Stout
3. "Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh
4. "Hamlet, Revenge!" by Michael Innes
5. "From Russia With Love" by Ian Fleming
6. "Middlemarch" by George Eliot

Yay! Awesome Leslie. ^_^

Amber wrote: "Yay! Awesome Leslie. ^_^"

Thanks Amber!

I want it!!!!

Tracey wrote: "I missed this Leslie sorry it looks like an amazing challenge to set yourself. I hope you enjoy it and I can't wait to read Lorna Doone in March with you. :)"

Just noticed Lorna Doone for March. Please can I join in for that. The Doones make me go weak at the knees!

Leslie wrote: "LauraT wrote: "I want it!!!!"

I had too much fun decorating my challenge! In fact, I am tempted to copy it to make it the most recent post...
and the tickers are fun & easy to do!"

Tried to look in the website, but didn't manage to understand how it works!!!

Leslie wrote: "Here are some books that I have committed to reading in 2014 - feel free to join me!

Year-long: Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold (8th tier)

Jan: Middlemarch, ..."

I'll joyin you in some of those, April's both for istance

Leslie wrote: "I am trying to read more from my own bookcases & less from the library in 2014 (as in tier 11), so I decided to participate in the 2014 Mount TBR Challenge - I'm going to read 25 paperbacks in 2014..."

Nearly all of my planned 2014 reads are made up from my bookshelf. I'm going to try very very hard to finish those and not buy/borrow/download too many other books next year...we'll see if it works.

Your challenge page is looking fantastic by the way!

That is a fantastic challenge Leslie. Looking forward to following you on this in 2014

Thanks Paul & Pink :)

Pink - I have no willpower when it comes to the library! After all, it is free - but then I find that I don't have the time to get to my own books! Hopefully the Mount TBR challenge will help me overcome this...

I love the way you've organised your challenges, Leslie. I've only seen it on the ap before and now I've actually got round to logging on to a computer!

I really need to tackle Mount TBR but the readalongs in this group are getting more and more appealing and none of them are on my TBR already!

Oh dear Mount TBR. You think you've got to the top and then see there's another little rise to climb (another bookshelf or case you'd forgetten about.) You drag yourself up painfully... only to be confronted with another, hidden slope (Kindle!!!)....

Thanks Heather! Group reads & readalongs have definitely added to my pile!

Jean - I have no thought of actually reaching the peak! Just would like to climb a little higher on the slope ☺

Hey Leslie how'd you get the graphics on your thread anyway? just curious.

Amber wrote: "Hey Leslie how'd you get the graphics on your thread anyway? just curious."

Click on the tab at the top right of the comment box where it says "(some html is ok)" - it gives you tips on html including how to do images. Or you can read message 2879 in the 'General Chit-Chat' thread...

Okay thanks. I'll figure it out. ^_^

I just realized that I can count Nightmare Abbey in my CAT #7, Satires!

And sadly, the tickers don't seem to update properly... I am replacing the nice visuals with links.

Leslie wrote: "I just realized that I can count Nightmare Abbey in my CAT #7, Satires!
"
You're right!!!!

2 done, 2 in progress, and 101 still to go...

;)

Finished my first book for CAT #14, Read the USA mysteries, which was Dog River Blues. It turned out to be more of a thriller than a mystery...

CAT #13: Plays
Finished my first play for this category, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. After the first scene, I really found this a fairly easy Shakespeare to read (I had a hard time with the opening scene though!! Almost quit). I found some aspects of the plot surprisingly modern, while others were so mediaeval as to be almost unbelievable ((view spoiler)[the part about Isabel's preferring to die than to lose her chastity (hide spoiler)]).