Paruline's 1010 challenge

I joined LT in 2009, too late for the 090909 challenge but I thought I'd try out for 2010. I mostly read during my commute on the bus, ie 45 min per day, and manage to read about 50 books every year. I've been reading some great books from the 1001 list so I'm hoping this challenge will help me make progress with that ongoing project.

So here are my categories. My aim is to read about five books in each category:

I should have read this by now
Look, something shiny - anything that catches my fancy
On the road - books with settings from around the world
Very British - British authors
En français - French authors
Books by women - women authors
On love, hate and everything in between - books with an emotion in the title
Outside the box - new-to-me authors or genre
Know-it-all - Non-fiction
Science-fiction and fantasy

Bonus point for the first one to pick out the secret code buried within my categories!

I should have read this by now
1- The shining - started April 29 2010 - finished May 7 2010
2- The graduate - started Oct 26 2009 - finished Oct 28 2009
3- Walden- started July 5 2010 - finished July 22 2010
4- Moby-dick - started October 18 2010
5- A Christmas carol- started April 26 2010 via Daily Lit - finished May 12 2010

Look, something shiny - FINISHED
1- Neuromancer - started Oct 30 2009 - finished Nov 10 2009
2- Les enfants sauvés - started Nov 11 2009 - finished Nov 11 2009
3- Tale of the bamboo cutter - started Dec 28 2009 - finished Dec 28 2009
4- The road - started June 17 2010 - finished June 20 2010
5- The shadow of the wind - started Sept 4 2010 - finished Sept 10 2010

Touchstones insist that The road is from Jack Kerouac and not from Cormac McCarthy.

On the road - FINISHED
1- On the road - started April 8 2010 - finished April 22 2010
2- God's bits of wood - started Oct 1 2009 - finished Oct 4 2009
3- Wild swans - started June 5 2010 - finished June 13 2010
4- Simon et les chênes (Simon and the oaks) - started April 3 2010 - finished April 10 2010
5- A short history of tractors in Ukrainian - started Oct 5 2009 - finished Oct 7 2009

Very British - FINISHED
1- Villette - finished December 5 2010
2- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - started March 1 2010 - finished March 4 2010
3- Wuthering heights - started Nov 25 2009 - finished Dec 6 2009
4- Robinson Crusoe - started May 17 2010 via DailyLit - finished Aug 5 2010
5- The mayor of Casterbridge - started Feb 5 2010 - finished March 10 2010

En français - FINISHED
1- Le premier jardin - started April 26 2010 - finished April 30 2010
2- Bonheur d'occasion - started June 19 2010 - finished June 30 2010
3- Jacques le fataliste - started March 19 2010 - finished March 26 2010
4- L'enigme du retour started May 24 2010 - finished June 1 2010
5- Le tour du monde en 80 jours (Around the world in eighty days) - started March 11 2010 - finished March 18 2010

Books by women
1- Emma - started July 12 2010 - finished August 9 2010
2- The robber bride
3- The house of mirth - started May 7 2010 - Interrupted May 24 2010 - Take 2 June 30 2010 - finished July 5 2010
4- Mrs Dalloway - started Oct 28 2009 - finished Nov 24 2009
5- Their eyes were watching God - started June 13 2010 - finished June 19 2010

On love, hate and everything in between
1- Stupeur et tremblements started June 13 2010 - finished June 13 2010
2- Pride and prejudice - started Jan 12 2010 - finished Jan 26 2010
3- L'amant
4- The grapes of wrath - started September 26 2010 - finished October 17 2010
5- I'm not scared - started March 27 2010 - finished April 2 2010

Outside the box
1- Delta of Venus
2- The death of Ivan Ilyich - started Nov 11 2009 - finished Nov 13 2009
3- The curious incident of the dog in the night-time - started Oct 23 2009 - finished Oct 25 2009
4- I know why the caged bird sings - started September 26 2010 - finished Sept 30 2010
5- Schindler's ark - started March 27 2010 - finished March 31 2010

Know-it-all - FINISHED
1- Small is beautiful - started Dec 22 - finished Feb 3 2010
2- Last child in the wood - started Dec 7 2009 - finished Dec 17 2009
3- The Maine woods - started July 22 2010 - finished July 24 2010
4- Eats, shoots and leaves - started Dec 22 - finished Jan 6 2010
5- In cold blood - started Oct 19 2009 - finished Oct 23 2009

Science-fiction and fantasy - FINISHED
1- The island of Dr. Moreau - started Oct 21 2009 via DailyLit - finished Nov 20 2009
2- The golden compass - started May 30 2010 - finished June 4 2010
3- The positronic man - started August 3 2010 - finished August 5 2010
4- The silmarillon - started Oct 8 2009 - finished Oct 18 2009
5- Cryptonomicon - started August 10 2010 - finished Sept 3 2010

Sorry! didn't mean to barge in in the middle of your list up there...

Great categories! And the secret is hidden in the initial letters, read vertically :)
Not a massive surprise here at LT perhaps, but a very nice touch indeed!

A novel take on the category selections. Good luck with your challenge.

#14 Thanks for pointing that hidden message out to the denser members of the audience! I'd never have noticed. Very clever.

I love books, too. Good luck with your challenge.

Thanks everyone for the good luck wishes :)

I like your categories, and will particularly be waiting to see what comes of your "En français" selections. Will you be reading them in the original French? Also, The Shining is a great book. :) I usually re-read it every year!

Hi moneybeets,

My mother tongue is French so yes I'll be reading them in French. As for The shining, I went through a Stephen King phase in my teen years and somehow managed to miss that one.

# 19 By the way, love your mouth-watering challenge!

"Look, shiny!" is pretty much how most of my reading choices get made. lol.

1- God's bits of wood

My own background may have coloured my reading experience of this book. I have lived in west Africa for a couple of years and this brought back many memories. While I was reading, I could feel the heat of the sun, and I could picture the colourful boubous, the sand, the houses, the marketplace.

Ousmane Sembene is one of West Africa's most acclaimed authors but since he writes in French, I don't think he is as well known as he should be.

As for the story, it's based on a real event (the strike of the Dakar-Niger railway employees). There are no central characters, rather it tells the story of how the community and the traditions are changed by the events. The hardships the people faced during the strike reminded me somewhat of Germinal. Recommended read for people interested in the colonial history of western Africa.

4/5

2- A short history of tractors in Ukrainian

A family too dysfunctional for my taste. I live in one so don't really want to read about them. Other people might like it though.

3/5

3- The Silmarillon

I am soooo glad Tolkien told me repeatedly how tall, noble and wise these characters were because the way they were acting, I just wanted to smack them behind the head and say 'Be an elf!'.

Disapointing.

2/5

4- In cold blood

Chilling true crime story told by a master storyteller.

4/5

#26 I read that book for the first time this year and loved it.

>26 paruline:, 27
I read it for the first time this last year too. Superb and timeless. Gave it 5 stars.

#28
You remind me that I should maybe explain my rating system. Here goes:

1/5 So bad I couldn't finish it. Almost never happens.
2/5 Waste of my time, may appeal to someone somewhere
3/5 Liked some aspects, disliked others
4/5 Liked it a lot
4.5/5 Liked it so much that I'm probably going to read it again some day
5/5 A revelation. I give this rating maybe twice a year in a good reading year.

25 Hahaha! Very funny little review there.

@26-28 I have In cold blood on my 1010 too! I really liked the film Capote, and look forward to reading it. Probably won't be among my early reads though.

5- The curious incident of the dog in the night time

Well this is a promising start to my 'Outside the box' category. Sweet, heartbreaking, interesting, unique.

4.5/5

6- The graduate

meh.

3/5

#32 Doesn't age well then? :-) I must admit I never liked the film..

#33 I haven't seen the movie and now don't plan to. I can't seem to decide whether Benjamin suffered from dissocial personality disorder, clinical depression or if he is only a stalker.

Anyway, I don't understand why this individual has become an icon for an entire generation.

@34 I kind of feel the same way about Holden Caulfeild from Catcher in the Rye. I just don't get that character at all, and I don't get why so many people feel connected to him. To me he just whines throughout the entire book, and I found little to nothing redeeming about him.

It's strange what characters end up being icons for a generation. *shrug*

# 35 I also gave The catcher in the rye 3 stars, and I agree with you about Holden.

7- Neuromancer

Will have to think about my review. Ok here goes.

This novel introduced the concepts of cyberspace and as such holds an important part in the development of sci-fi. A lot of people see it as the precursor of the Matrix, for example.

It's clear that the author has a very clear picture of the world he created. But is it too much to ask that he shares that picture with us? Characters make reference to events, corporations and software without explanation. There is a lot of slang and techno-babble. For the first 200 pages, I was just trying to figure out what was going on. After that, I started to really enjoy it.

Ultimately I am glad I read it but I wish it hadn't been so much work.

3.5/5

8- Les enfants sauvés

A graphic novel with eight true short stories, each telling how a Jewish child survived The Holocaust. Some were saved by strangers, others by friends, some stories ended rather well (ie. reunification with long lost family members) but most contained heartbreaking moments.

Each story was drawn in a different style but all were visually arresting.

4.5/5 Highly recommended

9- The death of Ivan Ilych

A quick, easy read. I wasn't particularly blown away but that maybe because, unlike me, he is the other man, and it is natural he should die (those who have read it will understand).

I need to quit procrastinating and finish Mrs Dalloway already!

3/5

10- The island of Dr. Moreau

Interesting concept but the biology is *so* wrong, it kind of distracted me. The war of the worlds was much better imo.

I don't know why, I kept thinking about Crake in Oryx and Crake while reading.

4/5

I picked up Wuthering Heights at a used books sale and I'm thinking about reading it instead of Northanger Abbey. Decisions, decisions...

11- Mrs. Dalloway

Woohoo! I am no longer a Woolf virgin!

I wanted soooo much to love this book but it left me a bit cold actually. I really wish I knew why.

3.5/5

12 - Wuthering Heights

Miscommunication, revenge and drama, oh my!

4/5

13- Last child in the woods

Isn't it wonderful when you read a book where the logic is so flawless and the narrative so tight that you can't help agreeing with everything the author says?

Unfortunately, this is not such a book.

I picked this up because I am already sold on the idea that children benefit from being exposed to nature and I was looking for ways to make this easier. I didn't need to spend half the book subjected to bad arguments about the importance of nature for children development.

Why am I saying bad arguments? Because the author relies on anecdotes, cherry-picking and appeal to common sense. For example, his hypothesis is that exposure to nature makes children more creative. No problem with this, it's a fine hypothesis. But to support it, he searches through biographies of creative people and notes every instances of contact with nature.

He selects biographies of artists and inventors. Again, no problem with this. But why not scientists? They are creative. Why not engineers? They have to solve problems. Why not politicians? They have to beat their opponents, that takes creativity. And what about criminals? Surely they have to be inventive to succeed. I guess there would be less enthusiasm for getting children in nature if it was found that criminals were exposed to nature as children.

If an author asserts that exposure to nature makes children more creative, s/he first has to define the terms "exposure", "creative" and "more". If not, the arguments fall flat. So many times, I read something like: "of course we can't prove that... but it stands to reason... it must be... common sense tells us... etc etc". He could have written the same book by replacing "exposure to nature" by "exposure to the arts" or "having a pet".

2.5/5

#45 That book really does sound awful. Hope your next 2 are wonderful to make up for it!

I guess my expectations were just too high. :( Thanks for the good wishes :)

Sound awfully thin and insubstantial to me. Great review though! But I'm curious - what made you feel that the book still merited 2,5 stars, almost average?

ETF typo

#48 See my rating system 29. I focused on the negative in my review, but there were some nice suggestions for getting kids outdoors in the last third of the book. Plus, I still think children need to experience the outdoors and for parents who don't have a clue where to begin, this book might be useful. It just didn't speak to me.

14- Tale of the bamboo cutter

Read this in twenty minutes on Google books; it's a charming Japanese folk tale about a beautiful maiden from the moon who is adopted by a poor bamboo cutter.

4/5

15- Eats, shoots and leaves

Who knew that a hyphen could be both sexy and un-American? Or that a comma could get a man hanged?

I really enjoyed this book; I thought it was witty and engaging, and it made me more aware of punctuation (especially my own). I particularly enjoyed the discussions about the way punctuation has changed over the centuries.

4.5/5 Highly recommended.

>51 paruline:
I'm glad to hear it was good, because I'm looking forward to reading that one.

16- Pride and prejudice

This was a really good read. My third Austen, and I liked it more than Sense and sensibility but less than Persuasion. It was the funniest of the three though.

4/5

17- Small is beautiful

I am really ambivalent about this book.

For:
- inspired workplaces to be more people-oriented and environmentally friendly
- was prescient about peak-oil
- in the context of the reconstruction work in Haiti, a lot of insightful ideas
- encouraged local consumption

Against:
- dry, difficult prose
- essays were disjoincted, no logical flow
- rejection of much of science, particularly evolution
- too many religious references, which was really grating
- out of date

3/5

Since I did not have a chance to go to the library last week and I was facing a commute without a book - shock, horror - I grabbed the first book on my tbr pile at home. So I will be reading The mayor of Casterbridge instead of Tess of the d'Urbervilles for my challenge.

Well, my reading-fu has been very weak in February. I hope March will be much better.

18- The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

A gothic story about avoiding responsibility and about the evil that resides in all of us. Wonderfully dark and gloomy.

4/5

19- The mayor of Casterbridge

Well, the mayor of Casterbridge is indeed quite a character. I alternated between contempt, sympathy and pity for this man throughout the book. However, I don't know if the author attempted to draw Farfrae in a positive light, but I thought him more loathsome than the mayor.

Ultimately, even though I enjoyed reading the book, I don't know how much of it I'll remember in a few months.

4/5

I started Around the world in eighty days this morning. I'm putting it in my Look, shiny category for now but it may be moved to my En français category.

I really enjoyed Around the World in Eighty Days. I look forward to seeing your comments on it.

20- Le tour du monde en 80 jours (Around the world in eighty days)

Great adventure story. I was familiar with most of the film versions but it was nice to read the real thing.

There were lots of cliffhangers at the end of chapters and this makes sense since Verne published the book serially. Supposedly, the reading public even made bets as to the likelihood of Fogg completing his journey on time.

All around, a good fun read.

4/5

Next up, probably Jacques the fatalist.

21- Jacques le fataliste (Jacques the fatalist)

Since I read this while battling a head cold, a lot probably went over my head. But I couldn't help thinking that this guy was 150 years ahead of his time. A great read.

4/5

22- Schindler's list

A gripping, unputdownable read. Even though I saw the movie years ago, I was still mesmerized.

4/5

Half-way challenge summary

Since I started in October, I am now at the half-way point. With 22 books read, I am a bit behind.

Best books:
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Les enfants sauvés
Eats, shoots and leaves

Worst book:
The silmarillon

Books by women authors: 4

Books by men authors: 18

I noted (with surprise) the opposite tendency in my reading so far this year. Over 80% of the books I've read have been by female authors. I wonder if we'll both have things evened out by the end of the year.

# 66, I hope to redress this imbalance somewhat in the coming months. My reading has been influenced by what's available at the library, and I have a tendency to try to organize my reading (shocking, I know) by earliest publication date. In the last few months, this has resulted in lots of dead white guys.

23- Je n'ai pas peur (I'm not scared)

A coming-of-age story with a lot of gothic elements. Told beautifully and realistically from the point of view of a nine year old boy, this story deals with the ugliness that can lie underneath benign-looking surfaces.

4∕5

@65-67 Nice to see others who are also keeping track of this ratio. For me, I made a very conscious decision to read 50% female authors some eight years ago and have stuck to it since. It's been a great thing for me, "forcing" me to discover many great authorships and books over the years. These days things tend to balance themselves out by the end of the year, but for this challenge I made sure to have the math in order already in the choosing of my titles.

Oh, and you mini review of The silmarillion remains one of my favourites. Sometimes two sentences are enough :)

Ok, so I couldn't resist and joined a book club at my new work place. This means that I am going to shuffle my titles around a bit in the next few months to accommodate this new project.

24- Simon and the oaks

This is the story of Simon and his family, from the time of Simon's childhood to his late twenties. It is set in Sweden just before, during and after WWII and we see the effects of this terrible time on the lives of the characters.

I enjoyed the language, the settings and most of the characters, but they rarely felt real to me. And I kept feeling like the author was preaching to me about something really Important, something Big, but it just made me feel like a doofus for not understanding.

All in all, I enjoyed reading the book but I didn't really connect with it.

3.5∕5

#69 Thanks!

25- On the road

Interesting from a historical perspective, but it became dreary after a while.

3∕5

Yay, I'm at the half-way point! Next, either Fear and trembling, I know why the caged bird sings or The tin flute.

@74, well that plan didn't work out. When I arrived at the library, all these titles were out; so I picked up Le premier jardin (The first garden) and The shining instead.

26- Le premier jardin (The first garden)

An aging actress revisits the city where she grew up in order to look for her missing daughter. While searching for her daughter, she imagines the lives of women throughout the city's history. This slim book is basically a tribute to these pioneers, merchants' wives, nuns and house maids.

3.5∕5

27- The shining

Jack Torrance is hired to be the caretaker of a remote hotel during the winter's off season. He brings his wife and 6 year-old son. Madness and murder ensue.

I kept rolling my eyes while reading (topiary animals, really?), but I was fascinated and creeped out. Good read.

4/5

28- A Christmas carol

Very nice.

3,5/5

I had to bring back The house of mirth to the library before I had finished; someone else had requested it.

I hate it when I have to do that.

Thanks for stopping by, cmbohn. I've put my name back on the waiting list.

In the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying The golden compass.

29- L'enigme du retour

Wow, just wow. I read this for my group read and didn't expect to put it on my 1010 challenge, but it is my first 5 star read of the year. So there.

After his father's death, a writer goes back to his home in Haiti. That's it really, exept it is written beautifully in a mix of haiku and prose. In turn contemplative, funny, touching, and horrifying, Laferriere touches upon exile, beauty, family, life, poverty, hunger, death, writing, books, politics, art, nature and self.

One of the best book I've ever read.

5/5

30- The golden compass

A quest, a spunky heroine, gypsies, warrior bears, particle physics and theology. What's not to love?

4.5∕5

I recall really liking The Golden Compass when I read it last year. It was a quick read, but I wish I remembered better now what the story really dealt with. I just have vague rememberings of the series now, unfortunately, including an awed shock at how atheist he managed to be in the background, without actually seeming like he was trying to rub anyone's nose in it... unlike some of the stridently negative, no-hope-for-you-ever authors I've run into in my YA fiction forays. I quite enjoyed the story, though.

#84, based on this book, the controversy seems pretty silly. The book wasn't moralizing except in the broad 'do what is right, but the end doesn't justify the means'.

First category completed!

31- Les cygnes sauvages (Wild swans)

This book chronicles three lives (the author's grandmother, her mother and herself) through the rise of communism in China. I learned a lot about the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, AND it was a page turner.

My only minor reservation is that I didn't find the author very likable. There were a lot of little details like she writes how she was horrified by the Cultural Revolution (but she was a Red Guard), how she got a scholarship based on her own merit (but her mother interceded for her and a friend examiner gave her an easy question), and how reeducation as a peasant was so hard (but she seemed to have been discharged very early compared to others).

4∕5

32- Stupeurs et tremblements (Fear and trembling)

A young Belgian woman is hired by a Japanese firm. Hilarity ensues.

A very quick and funny read.

4∕5

Phillip Pullman's trilogy does become more clearly anti established religion later in the series. I think that a secure faith system would be happy for the opportunity of debate, but we all know that it's much easier to get offended than to defend one's beliefs.

Wild Swans impressed me. You're right, she wasn't altogether blameless, but she was aware of her position in that society and she had deep regrets about some of her actions. I find it hard to be too critical, considering what she was up against.

88, I was also impressed with Wild swans; as I said, it was really a minor reservation. I think that since the last chapters dealt more with her life, these impressions were the most vivid ones I had when I wrote the review.

It is an important book and I'll recommend it to friends and family.

33- Their eyes were watching God

Janie goes on a journey of self discovery. Just wonderful.

4∕5

34- The road

A man and his young son try to survive in post-apocalyptic America. Good read.

I'm putting it in my Look, Something shiny category, but it could also go in my Outside the box category (since it's a new author for me) or in my Science-fiction and fantasy category.

4∕5

I loved The Road, in all it's bleakness. An apocalypse that seems to be moral more than anything else, was rare and special to me. And it's a beautiful description of father and son.

@92
Me, too. I thought it was wonderful, and I loved the simplicity of the writing style.

@92-93, yes, the writing was beautiful and the father-son relationship really touching.

35- Bonheur d'occasion (The tin flute)

A family tries to survive in the slums of Montreal while WWII looms. Wonderfully written, and with shifting points of view between characters. So many topics are discussed insightfully and timelessly in this gem of a novel. For example, for many men living in the slums, the only way to somewhat provide for their family is to become cannon fodder. Have the times really changed since this was written? Anyone? Bueller?

I was mostly taken with the long-suffering mother; I've seen her described on LT as a 'passive-agressive enabler' but I respectfully disagree. Her actions were constrained by a time in which divorce and contraception were unthinkable, religion coloured every aspect of life, the French-speaking population was subservient to the rich Anglophones, and a married woman wasn't even expected/allowed to have friends.

Warning: there is a child with leukemia. The novel is set in 1939. 'Nough said.

4/5

June recap

This was my best reading month of the challenge with seven books read and without a bad reading experience (all books rated at least 4/5). And I finished my first category!

I should have read this by now - (0)

Look, something shiny - (1)
The road 4/5

On the road - (1) and CATEGORY FINISHED
Wild swans 4/5

Very British - (0)

En francais - (1)
Bonheur d'occasion (The tin flute) 4/5

Books by women - (1)
Their eyes were watching God 4/5

On love, hate, and everything in between - (1)
Stupeur et tremblements (Fear and trembling) 4/5

Outside the box - (1)
L'enigme du retour 5/5 Highly, highly recommended

Know-it-all - (0)

Science-fiction and fantasy - (1)
The golden compass 4.5/5

Favorites of the challenge so far:
The curious incident of the dog in the night time
Les enfants sauves
Eats, shoots and leaves
L'enigme du retour
The golden compass

Books by women authors: 4
Books by men authors: 3

The Tin Flute is a book I love and reread every few years. It reminds me a lot of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

The Tin Flute has been on my wish list since I began the Canadian challenge. I've already got that province covered though so I'm hoping to just read it sometime. Hoping to locate a used copy at McKays the next time I take a bunch of books in for trade value.

98, I hope you enjoy it!

36- The house of mirth

This novel follows Lily Bart with a riches-to-rags story. I don't know why, but I did'nt really connect with the story or the characters even though it's beautifully written.

3/5

37- Walden

Finally finished this. Free at last!

Two comments:
1- Thoreau was one of the first to propose that Nature was not only utilitarian but could restore and inspire the soul. As such, he was a big influence on the conservation movement. Kudos.
2- He was also really worried about something (anything really) tainting his precious, precious bodily fluids.

2.5/5

I'm now going to concentrate on Emma because I deserve some Austen.

Yeah, I'd choose Austen over Thoreau any day.

I read House of Mirth back in college and wasn't impressed. Wharton is off my list of folks to reread.

I've been distracted lately by several shiny books that were not originally candidates for my categories.

I'm going to try and include them in the challenge; this means that other books that looked tempting last October but now make me gag a little leave me cold when I think about reading them are going to be replaced.

38- The Maine Woods

Henry David Thoreau visits the Maine Woods with two others. They kill a moose. The end.

This was much more enjoyable (relatively speaking) than Walden: there was a plot, atmosphere, and humour. All in all, I'm glad I read it.

3.5/5

39- The positronic man

This book describes a robot's quest for becoming human and to discover what is humanity. Here's one of my favourite passage:

"How can you harm someone with a book? Well, by hitting him over the head with it, I suppose. But not otherwise. Ideas can't do harm - even wrong ideas, even foolish and vicious ideas. People do the harm. They sieze hold of certain ideas, sometimes, and use them as the justification for doing unconscionable, outrageous things. Human history is full of examples of that. But the ideas themselves are just ideas. They must never be throttled. They need to be brought forth, inspected, tested, if necessary rejected, right out in the open."

Good sci-fi is second only to non-fiction in being thought-provoking, imho.

4/5

@103 Just de-lurking because you comment made me laugh. I am bemused by my choices for the 1010 I made last year! I so do not want to read them :)

106: Delurk away! I'm always glad to see comments on my thread. After slugging through both The house of mirth and Walden lately, I've decided to have a bit more fun with my reading.

A lot of my categories were designed to force me to read books that I've owned forever without getting around to and it's not really working.

I got a little derailed when I got sick recently and I can't seem to get back into 'serious' reading. I am so close too! Oh, well. It's only August.

I'm pleased with my balance between hot-new-numbers and you-really-should've-read-this-a-long-time-ago for this challenge. The only category that I'm dubious about is my Moldy ones - books bought more than 10 years ago. It, um, hasn't really been the triumphant How could I've been so blind not to have picked it up for all these years! i perhaps was hoping for.

I love your ultra-short reviews. The ones for Thoureaus books were both simply hilarious.

108: yeah, me too.

109: hope you feel better now!

@110: Thanks!

40- Robinson Crusoe

Ok, I don't really know what to say about this. It was pretty meh for me. Although I'm beginning to think that Defoe was a closeted agnostic because of the way he portrays religious people. Now this would put an interesting perspective on both Moll Flanders and RC imo.

2.5/5

41- Emma

Finished this August 9 but forgot to add it here. Definitely not my favourite Austen, but it had some good bits. I especially liked Emma when she was clueless; by the end of the novel, she seemed to have lost all of her backbone and sparkle. Plus, she became a snob.

3.5/5

42- Cryptonomicon

What a 1100+-pages fun ride! Every other page had a hilarious one-liner.

Even though the book is nightmarishly long, I do wish some of the characters' stories had been more developed. For example, The Dentist is set up to be this fantastic villain but half-way through the book, he kind of disapears. And Rudy spends more than a year on a raft and we get nothing? And what about Wing? He survives The Long March and the Cultural Revolution, and becomes a general. I mean, that could have been a fascinating book by itself.

But this is a minor quibble. There are already 125 reviews on LT and they capture pretty well my feelings about the book.

4/5

43- The shadow of the wind

Coming-of-age gothic mystery love story. With books. Needless to say, it was better than kittens chasing yarn.

4.5/5

44- I know why the caged bird sings

In this autobiography, each chapter covers a memory (going to church, reading books, playing with a best friend, a visit to the dentist, getting a first job...) while growing up in the deep American South in the 30s.

I'm glad I read this during Banned Books Week. There are some difficult passages (child rape) but they are handled with sensitivity and bravery.

4/5

Challenge recap:

Well, this is it for me since I started in October 2009. I managed to read 44 books, which is less than what I had hoped for but is still a pretty good reading year for me. Putting books in categories was a great way to push myself to read some books that have been on mount TBR for years.

Some stats:

Category completed: 5
New authors: 32
Books by women: 14
Books by men: 30
Books that I didn't have time to finish: 6
Books that were pushed aside by shinier ones: 8
Favorite category: En français and Outside the box

Lessons learned for future challenges:

- I experienced some challenge fatigue in July and August, after a few challenging reads. Next time, I'm going to read some of the more challenging books at the beginning of the year, when I'm still full of enthusiasm.

- Eight books were pushed aside for shinier ones and by the fact that I joined a book club. Next time, I'm going to allow myself to not feel guilty when this happens and I'm going to try and make my categories more wide.

I'm going to wait until January 1st for the 11 in 11 Challenge. In the mean time, I'll try and read some of the books that were pushed off this challenge.

My challenge recap as well as my reviews for The shadow of the wind and I know why the caged bird sings are up!

Message 2 isn't loading properly so I'm reposting it here:

I should have read this by now
1- The shining - started April 29 2010 - finished May 7 2010
2- The graduate - started Oct 26 2009 - finished Oct 28 2009
3- Walden - started July 5 2010 - finished July 22 2010
4- Moby-dick - started October 18 2010
5- A Christmas carol - started April 26 2010 via Daily Lit - finished May 12 2010