Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Carpe diem! Take a page out of the Dead Poets' Society and read a book of poetry.

I'm not much in to poetry so I'm going to keep it elementary and select Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. Feel free to judge me lol!

Megan wrote: "I'm not much in to poetry so I'm going to keep it elementary and select Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. Feel free to judge me lol!"

No judging! I listed that for myself as well!

I am also trying to make my way through Goodreads' 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.

I might try to do double duty and pick something from here like The Raven.

La Divina Comedia ?

I'd count that, it doesn't say it has to be an anthology or collection :) I am going to read rotten beautiful mouth by a very talented up and coming new Canadian author

This is a tough one! I read part of In Memoriam in school and I've always meant to read the whole thing, but that's a commitment. I've tried before and failed.

Poems of New York is another possibility. It's a small book featuring many poets. Maybe some of the other pocket poem collections from Everyman's Library could be good for some of you out there!

My wife is an academic, and her field of research is contemporary American poetry. So our home is pretty much full of poetry books, mostly American, from 1900 on - much more so in any case than the average French apartment!

Which prompted me to go another way: I read a French poet from the early XXth Century, much less popular than poets like Mallarmé or Apollinaire: Valery Larbaud,Les Poésies de A.O. Barnabooth. This book was published in 1908 under the pretense of being the work of a mysterious American millionaire, while being actually very French; it is altogether beautiful and full of irony.

Since I made a wager to do the challenge twice (40 books is a bit light), I'll probably pick some American poetry the second way round. And I've got plenty of suggestions to the American readers around; you might for instance chose something by Gary Snyder, quite easy to read and whose deep environmentalism has strong resonances today; or something by William Carlos Williams; or something from the beat generation; or the Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson... So many possibilities!

There's two good ones for those who want a bit of supernatural or nonsense Phantasmagoria and Other Poems or A Book of Nonsense - More Nonsense

Has anyone read The Wind Blows through the doors of my heart by Deborah Digges or She walks in the beauty by Caroline Kennedy? I am considering one of these for this prompt.

I believe Beowolf is classified as an epic poem which totally counts! I haven't read it since 12th grade English class, but I did just pull out my Norton Anthology which contains a copy :)

Yes, Beowulf is written in verse.

Sara wrote: "Megan wrote: "I'm not much in to poetry so I'm going to keep it elementary and select Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. Feel free to judge me lol!"

..."

Me too, mostly because pretty much everyone I know has read this at some point but I haven't. I'm not a big fan of poetry in general.

Catharina wrote: "I'm looking into reading Beowulf for this prompt, it turned up on a list of poetry so I'm assuming it's written in verse? Which I think counts :)"

Beowulf is amazing and also a poem! I definitely recommend it!! ❤️❤️❤️

I highly recommend Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series. I've been a fan of Tyler Knott Gregson for years.
There is a new book out too but I haven't read it yet. All the Words Are Yours: Haiku on Love

Has anyone read The Wind Blows through the doors of my heart by Deborah Digges or She walks in the beauty by Caroline Kennedy? I am considering one of these for this prompt.

Tsum Tsum Book of Haiku

I'll most likely read this, or something by Bukowski.

The Complete Collected Poems by Maya Angelou

Kerri wrote: "I highly recommend Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series. I've been a fan of Tyler Knott ..."

I ran across "Chasers of the Light" at Barnes and Noble today, and I remembered that someone recommended it here, so I looked through it. Loved it enough to buy it and take it home with me! Thank you for the suggestion.

I finished Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein last night as my choice for this prompt. Definitely a book that fares better when read out loud.

I finished this challenge. It was a short book, but oh well!

Would Dante's Inferno count? I've been meaning to read that one.

I read Complete Poetical Works by Edgar Allan Poe for this one - a few poems at a time. I'm not a huge poetry fan, but this was mostly enjoyable.

I'm thinking of reading Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs for this one. That way, it'll also count for my Goodreads Choice Awards challenge.

I just finished Mary Oliver's Dog Songs, which is a collection of her poems about dogs (some had been published in other books) - it was a lot faster to read than I expected, I kind of sat down first thing this morning to read one poem with my coffee, and next thing I knew I'd finished the whole book! I really love dogs, so I was very happy with the theme, and several poems perfectly captured certain dog-like traits, but overall it was not quite as moving as I'd hoped.

"100 Love Sonnets" by Pablo Neruda

I read "Bicycles: Love Poems" by Nikki Giovanni. She has some terrific imagery for depicting various stages and aspects of love and relationships.

I just read Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty. It is based on fairy tales and quite amusing. I never expected that I would like it, but I do. For those who wants to just quickly get this prompt over with, this book may be perfect for you

Cher wrote: "I just read Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty. It is based on fairy tales and quite amusing. I never expected that I would like it, but I do. For those who wants to just qui..."

Thank you for this suggestion! I finished this one yesterday and it was quite enjoyable. Glad this prompt is over with.

I read Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay for this prompt. It's very free form and enjoyable. Poetry puts all kinds of pictures in my head. Love it.

The book won several awards.

Here's the Goodreads summary:
Winner, 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, poetry category
Winner, 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize
Finalist, 2015 National Book Award, poetry category
Finalist, 2015 NAACP Image Awards, poetry category

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude is a sustained meditation on that which goes away—loved ones, the seasons, the earth as we know it—that tries to find solace in the processes of the garden and the orchard. That is, this is a book that studies the wisdom of the garden and orchard, those places where all—death, sorrow, loss—is converted into what might, with patience, nourish us.

I read milk and honey for this, it's modern poetry about trauma, loss, love with a feminist slant. I'd really recommend it, I found it a lot more powerful than I'd expected. Please note it should have a trigger warning for sexual abuse (not the whole thing, just the first section).

The Odyssey--hooray for epics!

I just finished this one, "You Get so Alone at Times that It Just Makes Sense" by Bukowski and it was absolutely awesome!

My book of poetry may be the first book on my DNF list. I am at least setting it aside for the time being. Drudgery to me to continue it, but I don't like DNFs! We'll see...

I read the three o'clock in the morning sessions by Angie Martin. I'm not big into poetry, but this was free as a Kindle book.

Booked by

If anybody's looking for something short, varied, and free, there's 2016 Fourth Annual Battle of the Bards Poetry Contest: Winning Entries. On the Goodreads page for it, there is a link to a library website where you can download it and previous years' editions at no charge.

I'm counting it for my poetry read in the challenge. I hope that's not cheating, since I have a poem in it. :-)