Reading Challenge 2018

Now that 2018 is here, it's time to set the new reading challenge! I didn't manage to finish the 2017 Reading Challenge, but this year I'm determined to make it! I really enjoy this challenge, although it's a tough one, so for the 2018 reading challenge I'm going to keep more or less the same categories. 

So, in 2018 I will read:

1. a novel from Europe: Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
2. a novel from Middle East: The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
3. a novel from East Asia: Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
4. a novel from North America: Artemis, by Andy Weir
5. a novel from South America
6. a novel from Oceania: The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
7. a novel from Africa
8. a novel that won the Man Booker Prize
9. a novel than won the Pulitzer Prize: Maus, by Art Spiegelman
10. a novel written by a Nobel Prize recipient: Nocturnes, by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. a play: The Firebugs: A Morality Without a Moral, by Max Frisch
12. a book of poetry: Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women, by Maya Angelou
13. a collection of short stories: Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
14. a manga: Cat Street (8 Vol.), by Yoko Kamio
15. a superhero comic: Daredevil: Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
16. a non-superhero comic: My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips
17. a classic: Heart of Darkness, and Selected Short Fiction, by Joseph Conrad
18. a non-fiction book: Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels, by Gwen Hayes
19. a memoir/biography: The Reason I Jump:The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism, by Naoki Higashida
20. a novel that won the Nebula Award

So, this is it! This is the third year that I'm doing this challenge, and I'm really happy that it will "force" me to read more diverse books. Feel free to join me!

Reading Challenge 2017

So, 2017 is officially here and it's time to set the new reading challenge! I fell short on the 2016 Reading Challenge, but this year I'm determined to make it! The 6 weeks break that I took in August-September was crucial to the challenge results. But I really enjoyed the challenge itself, so for the 2017 reading challenge I'm going to keep more or less the same categories. 

So, in 2017 I will read:

1. a novel from Europe: Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
2. a novel from Middle East: Arabian Nights and Days, by Naguib Mahfouz
3. a novel from East Asia: The Life of a Stupid Man, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
4. a novel from North America: The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
5. a novel from South America: Havana Is Waiting and Other Plays, by Eduardo Machado
6. a novel from Oceania
7. a novel from Africa
8. a novel that won the Man Booker Prize
9. a novel than won the Pulitzer Prize
10. a novel written by a Nobel Prize recipient
11. a play: Havana Is Waiting and Other Plays, by Eduardo Machado
12. a book of poetry: Ariel, by Sylvia Plath
13. a collection of short stories: Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman
14. a manga: Hirunaka no Ryuusei (Daytime Shooting Star), by Mika Yamamori (12 Volumes)
15. a superhero comic: Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
16. a non-superhero comic: The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Jacques Ferrandez
17. a classic: Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
18. a non-fiction book
19. a memoir/biography: Letters to Milena, by Franz Kafka
20. a self-published book: The Nobel Prize, by Mois Benarroch

This is it! It's quite staight-forward and manageable. This year I'm going to make it!

But I like challenges and this year I'm adding an extra challenge. This one will be more genre driven and it will be monthly. So a book that I will read every month must be of the genre or theme that I will specify here.

1. January: Historical: Arabian Nights and Days, by Naguib Mahfouz
2. February: Romance: Secrets of a Summer Night, by Lisa Kleypas
3. March: Horror: Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill
4. April: Humour: Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
5. May: Coming of Age: The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
6. June: Chick-Lit: Cinderella Screwed Me Over, by Cindi Madsen
7. July: Time Travel
8. August: Mystery
9. September: Magical Realism
10. October: Epic Fantasy
11. November: Western
12. December: Streampunk

I believe that these too challenges can be easily combined. I hope you'll be tempted to join me!

Happy reading 2017! 

The Classics Club Spin #9

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read. This is the first time that I am taking part in the Spin and I'm really excited about it.

So here is my Spin list:

1. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
4. Howards End by E. M. Forster
5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
6. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
7. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
9. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
10. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
11. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
12. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
13. The Strange Case of Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
14. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
17. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
18. Nana by Emile Zola
19. La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas-fis
20. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

This is my list of 20 books. I haven't read any of this books and I've been meaning to for quite some time. Of course, there are some titles that I'm dreading, like Nana, Lorna Doone, Little Dorrit and La Dame aux Camelias. I hope that I will be lucky in my first Classics Club Spin. 

Challenge's details

The rules are simple: Read and enjoy the books. In case a book is already been read then reread and reconsider it. At the end of each book gather the impressions it left on you and write about them. 

Reading Challenge

The first challenge for this blog will be to read all of David Mitchell's novels in chronological order. New Year's, then, will find me reading Ghostwritten, which was first published in 1999. Six novels by the same author is a challenge in itself, but I'm rather intrigued by this one, although I have to confess that I have already read Cloud Atlas. There is only to check if the magic is still there.

So, to make a complete list of the books included in this challenge, I will read:

• Ghostwritten (1999)
• number9dream (2001)
• Cloud Atlas (2004)
• Black Swan Green (2006)
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010)
• The Bone Clocks (2014)

I hope you'll join me in this Reading Armchair.