Classics Considered

For this recap, something a little different.  I was mighty pleased with the little mountain of to-be-reads I climbed, so everyone's a winner - and they all get awards!  Thanks to Bev for hosting this challenge! *** The Unexpected New Favorite Award ***   An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro This was a thrift store find I bought on a whim.  I was greatly moved by this fictional historical memoir, written by Ishiguro (of The Remains of the Day fame).  An aging Japanese man realizes his past is not creating the bright legacy he had envisioned.  Subtly written, yet incredible. *** The Finally, Finally Read It Award *** The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane I liked the beginning of this book a lot.  That made the ending somewhat disappointing.  However, I had to admit it is a worthy American classic, with good writing and thought-provoking scenes. *** The History Is Disturbing Award *** Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron - Nicholas...

When I joined this challenge a year ago, I had every intention of branching out and reading books from multiple counties.  As it turns out, I stayed in familiar territory and read London for all three books (Level 1). The Mint was a fitting sequel to Seven Pillars of Wisdom .  For some reason I went into it expecting a novel, but it's actually a journal-like memoir of T. E. Lawrence's peacetime experiences in the military.  After his campaigns as "Lawrence of Arabia" - and, as importantly, after his attempts to deal with politicians - T.E. was sick of being a leader and wanted to disappear from the public eye.  He joined the service under an assumed name, and that is where he found a place of security and camaraderie, the R.A.F.  The Mint is a coarse novel, written in a modern voice (for the times) and full of all the profanities and vulgarity that Lawrence encountered around him.  I found myself unable to rate the book, because it came across as an hones...

The Reading England challenge is coming back next year, and I'm pretty excited for it!  I'll be committing to Level 1 (1 – 3 books), though I haven't decided if I'll focus on one county or read from multiple.  So far, I know I want to read The Mint by T. E. Lawrence, which is a London book...after that, anything goes (though I'm reserving a spot for Conrad on the list :)). 1/2/16 update : at the risk of excluding Conrad, I've decided on multiple counties, since I feel most of my British reading so far has been London-centric 8/6/16 update: Leaning back towards London now, since I've read two London books this year. London: The Mint (T. E. Lawrence) ✓ London: The Man Who Was Thursday (G. K. Chesterton) ✓ London: T he Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) ✓

Despite my truly abysmal record at reading challenges (basically, I failed every one I ever tried), I still haven't got the sense to give up.  ;)  One popular challenge that comes around every year is the Mount TBR Challenge .  Essentially the goal is to read books that have been on the stack for a while, especially ones you own and have never read before.  This is kind of ideal...I own an embarrassing number of unread books.   But I do own them, which means I do want to read them eventually. In customary fashion, my goal is the tiniest mountain, Pike's Peak (12 books).  (That's factoring in real life and Camp Nanowrimo and possibly other reading challenges, so not quite as sad as it looks!) These are my current ideas:  Pinocchio - Collodi ✓ Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker - Hoffmann, Dumas ✓ Memories of the Future - Krzhizhanovsky ✓ Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words ✓ The Silent World - Cousteau (another to-finish) ✓ ...