Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Wow, here's another great shelf choice, can't wait to see what you guys come up with for March :0)

Mythology

This was actually one of my favorite topics in school and I have a bunch of books on my TBR pile here at home that fit onto the first page :0p
Can't wait to get started.
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Mythology
American Gods
The Lost Hero
Anansi Boys
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

This is my tenative list:

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
Grendel (A re-telling of Beowulf)
Oh. My. Gods. - looks like a YA Chick-lit about gods/goddesses similar to the percy jackson series
Goddess of Light - i've had this one on the TBR for a while - they are re-tellings of greek mythology/featuring characters set in the US - have a bit of a romance feel to them
Ice Land - pick this up on the sale table a while back, so might try it

I really don't read too much mythology and only some fantasy, so this is a bit of a stretch for me. Here are some I've had on my TBR for a long time, so I'll read them:

Eragon
The Iliad
Beowulf

So - here it is the 16th of the month, and I have not started a single book. I got rid of my other list as I will not be getting to any of those, lol. Here is my new list:

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
The Hunter's Moon by O.R. Melling
Bright Sword of Ireland by Juilene Osborne-McKnight
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

These four are on my "must be read soon" list, so they are a good place for me to start:

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente
The House of Discarded Dreams by Ekaterina Sedia

I might also fit in something more scholarly, such as:

Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung
When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
...and/or any of several surveys of mythology from various cultures (to be updated as I find some I'd like to read that the library also has)

Wow! Almost none on my TBR, but lots of good possibilities. Tough to choose.

First off, I want to read one of the Neil Gaiman books on the shelf, and there are lots. I just finished The Graveyard Book and loved it. I might be leaning towards American Gods or Neverwhere, which is one of his earlier ones. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Definitely The Amber Spyglass, the 3nd in a series I've already started.

Others that look appealing to me and are new to my list are:

The Night Tourist
The Book of Lost Things
Tattoo
Trickster (American Indian myths)
The Mabinogion (Welsh myths-the only version my library has)

Susan wrote: "First off, I want to read one of the Neil Gaiman books on the shelf, and there are lots. I just finished The Graveyard Book and loved it. I might be leaning towards American Gods or Neverwhere, which is one of his earlier ones. Does anyone have a recommendation? "

Susan - I loved American Gods, whereas I have yet to read Neverwhere, so I can't comment there.

If you are looking for something fairy-tale-like with a bit of romance, there's Stardust, which didn't do much for me but was beloved by everyone else I know who read it. (I think I am simply not a romantic.)

Another to consider (and, to be fair, I haven't read this one, but I intend to) is Odd and the Frost Giants. Because it's aimed at a YA audience, it seems like it might have an atmosphere more akin to The Graveyard Book (which I really enjoyed, as well) than does American Gods. The reviews seem to support this.

One suggestion of where to not start: Anansi Boys. It's not a direct sequel, but it deals with characters from American Gods, and I would strongly suggest waiting to read it until you've read that earlier book.

Really, most any Gaiman is a good Gaiman, so you can't actually go wrong by just picking the first one you come across. (The various Dreaming graphic novels are good, too.)

Susan wrote: "Wow! Almost none on my TBR, but lots of good possibilities. Tough to choose.

First off, I want to read one of the Neil Gaiman books on the shelf, and there are lots. I just finished..."

Susan I read Neverwhere not to long ago and it is now one of my favorite books, and I have to 100% agree with Candiss "most any Gaiman is a good Gaiman, so you can't go wrong" :0)

Maybe in March I will finally get around to finishing the last two in the Percy Jackson series:

* The Battle of the Labyrinth
* The Last Olympian
(Jeopardy had a question about Battle of the Labyrinth the other day.)

I would also like to read Odd and the Frost Giants to see if it is one I would like to read aloud to my library classes.

I have to say The Battle of the Labyrinth was my favorite Percy Jackson of all.

Thanks for the recommendation, Natasha. I've added it to my TBR. I also added her Voices of Dragons.

I want to definitely get to the last two Percy Jackson books, The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian.
I also want to read The Lost Hero.

Slayermel wrote: I have to 100% agree with Candiss "most any Gaiman is a good Gaiman, so you can't go wrong" :0)

Thanks, Candiss & Slayermel!

I think I'll just request all 3 of Neverwhere, American Gods, Odd and the Frost Giants from the library, and see what comes first.

Three this month: The Once and Future King by T.H. White, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and Ransom by David Malouf

Hard to narrow myself down, there are so many that look good! Here's what I've come up with:
The Odyssey
The Mists of Avalon

And a few more if I'm really ambitious!
Helen of Troy
The Iliad
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

hey there, what a great pick......i am not familiar with many mythological books, however, i have read many of these in skool and enjoyed them

i will look thru the list

i am trying to read the books that i have stacked everywhere.......we had to move, and i dragged my books along, i had to bite the bullet and give many away, but this is sooooo hard for me to do if i have not read them yet......this was where the cover and description of the story really mattered; if it didn't hit me just right, it was put in the give away box......

chat at ya later

k

Susan wrote: "Wow! Almost none on my TBR, but lots of good possibilities. Tough to choose.

First off, I want to read one of the Neil Gaiman books on the shelf, and there are lots. I just finished..."

I recommend Neverwhere Susan. I started American Gods a while ago, but had trouble getting into it, so I set it aside. Neverwhere was great!

I am going to read The Lightning Thief and if I have time, I am going to read The Book of Lost Things.

I will read

I've tried to steer clear of paranormal romance mythology type books this month as PA is one of my favourite genres, so I've chosen:
The Alchemyst
Preludes and Nocturnes

How have I fared?

Went to the library yesterday and checked out a bunch of books. Here they are in no particular order:

The Red Pyramid
Over Sea, Under Stone
The Castle of Llyr
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
Pegasus
Beowulf - Graphic Novel
Saint George and the Dragon
The Complete Fairy Tales (Wordsworth Classics)-currently reading


Don't be impressed. Most of these are children's books.[

I've been slack with my group reads, but now that I've managed to squeeze down my to-read shelf, I can join in again! I'm going with The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Some of my friends have recommended it to me, so I look forward to reading it.

I'm not going to finish The God Delusion in February, so I'm putting it down for March, since it's on both the Science & Mythology shelves

Pick-a-Shelf March
Mythology

The God Delusion
Valley of Silence - will finish off the Circle trilogy
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

If there's any month left, I'm going to try for one of the books about myths - maybe the Welsh or Irish myths

I have so many books that are on this shelf! I am so excited for this month. I am going to start by reading Helen of Troy and I am hoping to get some of the Sandman series in by Neil Gaiman. I own so many of his books (Neil Gaiman is my favorite author!) and I might even use this as an excuse to re-read some of them!

While looking for a fitting book for this month, I noticed that there was a classic by Dante Alighieri on the list that I have never read:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8800

We'll see if I just read Inferno (which I saw on the Mythology list) or if I read all three parts of La Divina Comedia / The Divine Comedy.

Alternatively, if I get tired of it before I finish, I'll probably just settle in to some Fairy Tales -- it looks like most are considered Mythology for the list, though I've never considered them equal. Since I'm a bit of a fan of fairy tales, though, that's not really stretching myself at all.

When I was a young I thought I was a fan of mythology. It turned out that a lot of it can be a bit dry and boring. As an adult I've accepted my love of fairy tales -- provided they don't have morals.

I don't know. It would be a convenient excuse to finally reread Beowulf. I started reading it for fun in Highschool, but we ended up moving and I somehow never got back to it.

I wanted to explore Japanese mythology to better understand some references in the other books I'm reading. So, I picked up Japanese Tales to read this month. I'm looking forward to learning about something beyond just Greek mythology.

Starbubbles wrote: "I wanted to explore Japanese mythology to better understand some references in the other books I'm reading. So, I picked up Japanese Tales to read this month. I'm looking forward t..."

I'm adding it to my TBR list. It sounds very interesting (and the cover is gorgeous!).

I have also added it to my wishlist and I agree with LynnB the cover is gorgeous.

I am reading The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds. It feels like cheating reading a graphic novel of it, but I read a s-l-o-w-e-r version long ago in college, so this seemed like a fun way to do it.

I've just found that A Midsummer Night's Dream is on this list, I've been having trouble finding time to read recently but I should be able to fit that in this month.

Whispers of the Flesh appears on mythology shelves, as well as erotica, so I think I'll give it a bash as my pick-a-shelf book for this month.

This is a clip from Cherise's review:

Enter into the Château de la Grotte Cachée (the castle of the hidden grotto), a secluded castle in France. It is the administrateur's job to provide carnal nourishment for the immortals or Follets, which live there; a djinni (shape shifter), a Nordic elf, the Goddess of the new moon and a satyr.

quick question - i just noticed that one of the books i'm reading for another challenge - Marked as mythology listed as one of its shelves in the top 100, but i can't find it on the mythology shelf here without going through over 12 pages (I think I gave up there) - can I still count it, or does it have to fall within a certain number of shelf pages?

It does not have to be on any specific page for the monthly read. As long as it is on the shelf, which you can see from the book page itself. It only has to be on a certain page of the shelf for the Mini SAT.

got it...just wanted to check ;)

I only know because I have asked the same question myself, and had to remind myself about the difference in the rules for ROAR usage, lol.