Weekly Geeks 2009-23: Reading Challenges: 06/20/09

This week the Weekly Geeks site is asking us about reading challenges. If you look at the sidebar of my home page you'll see that I'm signed up for ten challenges. I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of challenges and doubt that I will be able to complete all of them.

I like the challenges because they encourage me to vary my reading. I don't really need them to keep me reading. I will read with or without the motivation of a reading challenge.

My favorite challenge, hands down, is The Decades Challenge because it gets people reading in at least nine different decades. None of the decades can be the current one. For the decades challenge I just need a book for 1900 and 1920 and then I'm done.

The remaining challenges I'm participating in are:

9 in 2009:

I almost have 3 of the 9 finished. There are nine themes and we have to read a book for each theme. So far I've finished two of them: "Free" with Valley of the Giants by Peter B. Kyne and "Used" with South Sea Idyls by Charles Warren Stoddard. Next Saturday I will be done with "Long" when I finish Ulysses by James Joyce and write up the final summary review. The book is so long and complicated that I've been doing a post for each episode.

The remaining themes I've been having trouble locating some of the books I had originally picked for my list. The problem is that they are in storage and I really don't want to go spelunking under my stairs to fish out some books. I will be using the library to fill in the blanks for the missing themes.

Non-Fiction Five:

Here we are supposed to read five non-fiction books in a six month period. I'm only just now getting started with reading for this challenge. I've finished two of my five books but haven't reviewed them yet. The two I've finished are All Meat Looks Like South America by Bruce McCall and Ambulance Girl by Jane Stern. If you have any questions about either book, please ask.

The remaining three I have on hand and will be reading soon. They are Poetics Of Cinema by David Bordwell, The Music of Black Americans: A History by Eileen Southern and Candy and Me by Hilary Liftin. At this time I don't have any plans to swap out alternate books for the original five.

Herding Cats 2:

Herding Cats is easily my second favorite challenge. I like it because we have to pick books from a participant generated list. Reading wise I'm almost done. I have four of the five read but only one of them reviewed, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The only one left to read is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

The books I still need to review are: The Shining by Stephen King, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

42 Challenge

Next up is the 42 Challenge which has its own blog where participants are encouraged to post their reviews or links to their reviews. The challenge isn't just for reading. Any form of science fiction is acceptable. I am for the moment sticking to novels and short stories. Most of my sources will probably come from the The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I'm currently at eighteen completed. So I'm almost half way done.

Read Your Own Book:

Read your own book is a fairly straight forward challenge. You read books that you already own. I set a goal of 100 books for this challenge. I haven't updated my list in a while but I'm either done or within a couple of being completed.

There is a Yahoo Group associated with the challenge where readers can send updates and encouragement to other participants.

2009 Science Book Challenge:

The Science Book Challenge is one of the ones I'm most at risk for not finishing. I will probably have to augment the list with books from the library. Most of the books I planned to read appear to be in storage.

So far I've only managed to read one book from my list, Mars, the Red Planet by Isaac Asimov.

Dewey's Challenge

I've read two of the five books on my list for the Dewey Challenge, Three Incestuous Sisters by Audrey Niffenegger and Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. I still need to read Gossamer by Lois Lowry, Nation by Terry Pratchett and Digging to America by Anne Tyler

What's in a Name:

The What's in a Name Challenge is a lot like the 9 in 2009 challenge. It also has themes that we have to find books for. So far I've read the "Profession" book, The Chemist by Janson Mancheski and the "Relative" book, The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig. I am currently reading the "Time of Day" book, Night Watch by Terry Pratchett.

The Book Thief Challenge

Like the Science Book Challenge, I've barely started and I think I probably won't finish. I have only read one of the twelve books I picked, A Rebel in Time by Harry Harrison.

So what about you? How are you doing in your challenges (if you're participating in any)?

weekly geeks

Comments (0)

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Comment #1: Saturday, June, 20, 2009 at 16:24:15

Melissa

That's an impressive list of challenges; I think that I would get discouraged by participating in 10! (Though, I think I'm up to 9...)

Comment #2: Monday, June 22, 2009 at 13:12:51

Pussreboots

After writing this long weekly geeks post I went through the books I've read and reviewed and found that I've read many that will qualify for the challenges. I'm now nearly done with the "9 in 2009" and the science books challenge (much to my surprise).

Comment #3: Saturday, June, 20, 2009 at 20:33:55

Vasilly

I signed up for some of the same challenges that you're signed up for. I'm doing so good in most and plan on dropping all of them in a little while. Keep up the great work.

Comment #4: Monday, June 22, 2009 at 13:22:55

Pussreboots

Same to you. Hopefully you can finish them instead of dropping them. My post has forced me to examine how I'm doing in all of them. To my surprise I found that I'm not doing as poorly as first thought. I have updated my progress on my original challenge posts.

Comment #5: Monday, June, 22, 2009 at 01:36:54

gautami tripathy

Thats a lot!

I am only seriously doing two!

Comment #6: Monday, June 22, 2009 at 14:37:45

Ten is a lot. Agreed. But it's not that dire. I have gone through my challenges and updated my states. As it turns out I'm farther along on most of them than I first thought. The only one I've made no progress on at all is the Book Thief Challenge.

Comment #7: Monday, June, 22, 2009 at 08:25:51

Gnoe

You go grrl! 10 challenges, wow!

Funny reading about the decades challenge: I did that on my own in 2005 (yay, time flies!)

I also like the idea of 'What's in a name': depending how strict the categories are I might coincidentally cross off 5 already...

But that would only be if a building's name is accepted (Brideshead Revisited), What came before he shot her is allowed as medical condition, 'emperor' is a profession and 'soul' a body part... You probably see why I want the rules to be flexible ;)

I guess 'The Remains of the Day' would be a 100% correct anyway ;)

Good luck with your golden 10!

Comment #8: Monday, June 22, 2009 at 14:41:15

Pussreboots

The What's in a Name Challenge is one of the more flexible ones. If you have time, you should join in with your choices. The Decades Challenge is my "gimmie" challenge. I read enough books from enough eras to get through the challenge without much extra effort.

Comment #9: Thursday, June, 25, 2009 at 12:57:21

Rikki

A lot of those sound really good. Especially the themed ones.

Commet #10: Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 16:46:12

Pussreboots

The themed ones can be fun; they can also be frustrating if it's hard to find books that match the theme.