Reading challenge

Another book/reading-related post. I know it’s late (you’re supposed to do this before 1 January), but I reckon it’s still early enough in the new year to join in: the To Be Read challenge (thanks Kathryn for the tip!).

The idea of this challenge is to list in your blog twelve books that have been on your To Be Read list for more than six months (I’m sure most avid readers have these lists – whether in your head, in your bookcase, or that tottering pile next to the bed). Then, you read one per month. Kathryn reports that the blogger from whom the challenge emanated, MizB, is also offering a prize:

Every 3 months, for the duration of the challenge, I will pick one challenge participant’s name from a “hat”. That person –if they’ve read the amount of books for that time (ie: 3 books in 3 months; 6 books in 6 months, etc)– will receive a small gift (via snail-mail) from me.

Prize or no prize, this sounds like an interesting challenge. My list:

1. My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk
   
2. Patrick White: A Life, David Marr
3. Empires of the Word, Nicholas Ostler
4. Immortality, Milan Kundera
5. Aké. Ìsarà. Memoirs of a Nigerian Childnood, Wole Soyinka
6. Patah Sayap Terbang Jua, Abdul Samad Ismail
7. Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban
8. The Memoirs of a Survivor, Doris Lessing
9. The 158-Pound Marriage, John Irving
10. Belonging: Australians, Place and Aboriginal Ownership, Peter Read
11. The Unconscious Civilization, John Raulston Saul
12. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Depending on time and inclination I might also attempt:

1. Babel-17, Samuel R Delany
2. Beat of the City, H.F. Brinsmead
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison
4. Brightness Falls from the Air, James Tiptree, Jr.
5. Vanity Fair, W. M. Thackeray

I also hope to continue my reading of Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past: Swann’s Way (yes, I finally started, Prof Leddy!).