All About Books discussion

Consisting of several parts, here's my challenge
for next year so far.

Continue the Zola-Project https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... reading one of the novels of the 'Rougon-Marquart' series every other month. (5/6)

1. January The Sin of Father Mouret ✓
2. March His Excellency (Son Excellence Eugène Rougon) ✓
3. May The Drinking Den ✓
4. July A Love Episode ✓
5. September Nana✓
6. November Pot-Bouille

Each month edit: bimonthly, read one book that won the National Book award. (5/6)

January: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) ✓
February: The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (1950) ✓
March: The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty (1983) ✓
April: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1953) ✓
May: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1981)
June: The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012)✓
July: The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959)
August: JR by William Gaddis (1976)
September:Europe Central by William T. Vollman (2005)
October: The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter (1961)
November: From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1951)
December: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (1977)

edit: I've realized that this is more than I really want to keep up with, so I've cut it down to 6 NBA's for this year

Each season read at least two collections of poetry (11/8)

Winter:
Gedichte by Anna Akhmatova ✓
Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts ✓
extra:
Evening: Poetry of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova ✓

Spring:
Selected Poems by Robert Frost ✓
Vom Schnee by Durs Grünbein ✓
extra:
Gedichte by Günter Eich ✓
Return to My Native Land by Aimé Césaire ✓

Summer:
And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2013 by Samuel Hazo ✓
A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa ✓
extra:
The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight ✓
Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog by Paul Monette ✓


Autumn:
Soy Realidad by Tomaž Šalamun ✓

Each month read 2 books I already own and one book from my TBR (not owned yet)

Edit: owned can appear in other challenge categories, while TBR can not. The respective book has to be on my TBR for more than 3 month .
own (20/24)
TBR (10/12)

January:
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (own) ✓
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (own) ✓
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (TBR) ✓

February:
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (TBR) ✓
The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (own) ✓
The Grass Harp by Truman Capote (own) ✓

March:
The Spire by William Golding (own) ✓
The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty (own)
The Third Man by Graham Greene (TBR) ✓

April:
Independent People by Halldór Laxness (TBR) ✓
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (OWN) ✓
Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes (OWN) ✓

May:
Stoner by John Edward Williams (OWN) ✓
The Drinking Den by Émile Zola (OWN) ✓
Vertigo by Sebald (TBR) ✓

June:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (OWN)✓
Gedichte by Günter Eich (OWN) ✓
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (TBR) ✓

July:
Between Friends by Amos Oz (TBR)✓
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (OWN)✓
The Collector by John Fowles (OWN)✓

August:
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (TBR) ✓
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald (OWN) ✓

September:
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf(TBR)✓
Kruso by Lutz Seiler (own) ✓
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (own) ✓
Speedboat by Renata Adler (own)✓

October:
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (TBR)✓
One Day a Year 1960-2000 by Christa Wolf (own)✓
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (own)✓

November:
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame (TBR)
Pensées by Blaise Pascal (own)
The Infatuations by Javier Marías (own)
December:

Spaceholder for Philosopher's project:

reading my way through Philosophy (beginning from Descartes) by reading

- one original work by the philosopher

- one critical book about his philosophy or a biography regarding the philospher

- one work of fiction that is related to either the person or the philosophy

focus on a different philosopher every 6 month.

The Philosophy project has it's own thread, as it can more easily be moved into 2015, 2016 and.... you see where this is going. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

However here's the progress so far: (1/2)

René Descartes ✓
Blaise Pascal

I especially like the philosophy idea, Jenny.

Me too Gill, I guess I will have to open a new thread for it though, as - like our Zola-Project - this will probably keep me busy for more than one year ;)

Philosophy section looks interesting......
I will be more eager to see what books you will be choosing in this category.

A separate thread for the philosophy section seems good, you may well find me dipping in occasionally to your reads!

Wonderful challenges, Jenny. My boyfriend studied philosophy to Masters level and I always feel like I should know more about it. I will definitely read your thread with interest and possibly join in with a few works

Interesting challenge, I really like the philosophy challenge. Good Luck with it.

Looks good, Jenny! I like the way you have left blanks to choose as you go along.

Jenny, a website I would recommend for your philosophy challenge is The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. I used it when I is a study module on philosophy of medicine and I know my boyfriend used it a lot. If you get stuck on any of the works this site helps explain them!

Thanks a lot guys, and Heather thank you very much for the tip, it sounds like it could be great help.

Also, Gill and Heather, you are more than welcome to join me in as many books as you like, suggestions are always welcome too, as the fiction part for some philosophers might be the tricky bit, or finding a good biography as often there are so many.

Will mull over that particular part of the challenge a bit more, and then open a new thread for it once I have a clearer idea for what to read.

I think even picking a work to read could feeling quite challenging! It's certainly very thought-provoking and I think as long as I can fit the books around my other reading plans I would like to join you in this challenge. I think philosophy lends itself to discussion, I particular enjoy disagreeing with philosophers!

I like the way your plan is developing.

Jenny wrote: "Each month read 2 books I already own and one book from my TBR (not owned yet)...."

What a great idea! I didn't include poetry in my categories so I might adopt your seasonal idea!

awesome challenges jenny! good luck. ^_^

Thank you Amber! And Leslie, I just opened a new topic in 'The Monday Poem' to see whether people might be interested in having a 'seasonal poet'-readalong regularly.

You're really brave!!!
Philosophy, poetry, more than a challenge looks like good proposition to gain the paridise of proficient readers!!!!

Great looking challenge so far. I'm impressed by your philosophy goals too! Good luck with it :)

Try contemporary and post modernist thinkers.......Medieval and modern thinkers can be very tough to read.........But they are not totally incomprehensible. They can be read too.....Just a passing remark.....

Dhanaraj, thanks for your remark, I had heard that before occasionally. However, being a stubborn German I have actually already sort of picked my path on my way to postmodern/contemporary. I am going to skip medieval and ancient for now (I've read my way through those mostly reading secondary works) but there are a few post-medieval/modern philosophers that I would love to read. I guess apart from being interested in the philosphy I am also really interested in how philosophy developed corresponding to the developement of historical events and politics and I feel I might get a better understanding of that reading the ones I've picked sort of chronologically.

However, if in a years time you see me being a crying bundle of incomprehension in this thread, I hereby give you full permission to say: I told you so! LOL

Nice definition "stubborn German"!!!
p.S. Invisible Man is really a great book. Rowena and I have read it at the beginning of this year!

I just came across this link and it seemed interesting and I remembered that you had a challenge centered around it and so wanted to share it.
Try this link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012...

Thank you so much Dhanaraj, looks like a great source!

January

National book award
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann ✓
One book from my TBR
(The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar) ✓
or
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner ✓

Zola Project
The Sin of Father Mouret✓

Two books I already own
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe ✓
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann✓

Poetry
Gedichte by Anna Akhmatova ✓

(total: 5/5)

Oh, I like the way you're setting out your next month's reading and linking it to your categories. I might try to do something similar, Jenny.

Yes Jenny, that's a great idea!

Very well structured, Jenny!

Ps Daniel Defoe, Jenny! William Defoe is the actor.

LOL. You are right! (though I'd be curious to read his version of it! ;))

Gill wrote: "Oh, I like the way you're setting out your next month's reading and linking it to your categories. I might try to do something similar, Jenny."

Me too! ;)

Edit:

just re-arranged the National Book Award section a bit, since Europe Central by William T. Vollman is a group read in another group in September/Oktober, so I've replaced March with: The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren.
Looking forward to also watching the movie with Frank Sinatra.

I've also added JR by William Gaddis which I will be reading in August, again a National Book Award winner read in another group.

I've changed my poetry challenge to 2 instead of 1 collections of poetry a season. Particuarly looking forward to that part of the challenge.

Jenny wrote: "I've changed my poetry challenge to 2 instead of 1 collections of poetry a season. Particuarly looking forward to that part of the challenge."

:) I look forward to seeing what you choose!

I have 3 at home already: Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts for review (Laurel posted a poem by him last year), Nox by Anne Carson and The Weight of Oranges / Miners Pond / Skin Divers: Poems by Anne Michaels.

I am also dying to finally get around to The Selected Poems by Osip Mandelstam

Mission complete for January. :)

What an amazing number of books you have digested already, Jenny - and with time to spare too! You deserve to do a little victory dance, I think :D

Thanks Jean. I am on a bit of a reading frenzy at the moment, and the little notebook I keep for my books and my literary musings is filling ridiculously quick. Mind you, I always have at least one or two sluggish reading months during the year, so I guess it keeps it nicely in balance ;)

Jenny wrote: "Mission complete for January. :)"

I'm envious! I'm not close to complete yet, although I am slowly making progress.

I'd like to see video of the victory dance!!

I was too tired yesterday to burst into dance, but should I feel a second wind of victory, I shall make a little video especially for you! ;)

This is amazing progress Jenny! Wish I had your energy!

Jenny wrote: "I was too tired yesterday to burst into dance, but should I feel a second wind of victory, I shall make a little video especially for you! ;)"

lol! I'll hold you to that.

LOL!

Thanks Charbel, and Leslie and Jean: be careful what you wish for! ;)

Oh, I also sort of randomly decided on the rest of my missing NBA-books in message n°3.
I don't know what it is, but the National Book Award and I have been getting along very very well until now, I think almost 80 percent of the ones I've read so far where 5*, so I am curious to find out whether that streak will continue. Certainly not something I could say about Booker Prize or Pullitzer winners.

Let me know what 'Drysalter' is like Jenny! I put it on my Christmas list but no-one got it for me :( I think I am probably going to get myself a copy if I have any money left at the end of the month.
And good luck with the challenges!

It is because of the great poem you've posted last year, that the book went onto my list in the first place. Are you a netgalley member? I got it there as a review copy!

No I'm not a netgalley member but it's cool you managed to get a copy of the book that way! I'm just going to bite the bullet and order it cos I keep coming back to look at it (I think my book ban lasted about halfway into Jan 1st, oh well there's worse things I could be addicted to...)