2010 Book Blogger Recommendations Challenge

The 2010 Book Blogger Recommendations Challenge is being hosted by Reading with Tequila.   The full rules are at this link to the challenge.   Basically a list of the 250 most often recommended by book bloggers books has been compiled and you are asked to read from 5 to 20 books on the list in 2010. 

To help me track my challenges I created a special post for Reading Life 2010 Challenges. The Book Blogger Recommendations Challenges  is also a good challenge for those seek guidance in their book selections.   I really can think of no better guides than the members of the international book blogging community.

Mel u

"Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Cat's Eye (1988, 565 pages) is the third novel by Margaret Atwood that I have read.   My first of her works was The Handmaiden's Tale which I liked a lot for the  dystopic vision of a future America and the finely crafted alternative universe the book offers.   I then read The Penelopiad a retelling of the story of Odysseus from the point of view of his left behind wife Penelope.    In the recent 43rd Bookworms Carnival there were four reviews of The Penelopiad, mine among them.   Of four reviewers, I seemed to have liked the book the most.  I like the concept of the retelling of myths in the Canongate's Myth Series of books.    I wanted to read a 3rd Atwood before the year ended.   Readers in Manila do not always have as many options as those in some other countries.   There are no public libraries, Amazon.com charges too much to ship and the Bookdepository will not ship here at all.   We have many big beautiful ultramodern book stores in which you can always find lots of wonderful books.   However, if you want to go to a store and find all 20 or so of Atwood's books for sale you are out of luck.    Anyway I really wanted to read her Oryx and Crake.   I could find only The Blind Assassin and Cat's Eye.

Cat's Eye is a story mostly about the childhood memories of a woman who as an adult is a highly regarded artist.   The story is told in the first person from her perspective.   The strongest part of the book to me was in its showing how childhood experiences shape a person in ways few of us will ever really understand.   It makes very good use of different ways of viewing remembered experiences.   It is also the story of friendship of young girls and a story of awaking sexuality.   The narrator is partially at least, unreliable and we have to take an active role in figuring out what really happened.    It is well written.   I would not say it is as beautifully written as say a work of Kristy Gunn or Jeannette Winterson might be.   I would characterize this as a clever book by a very creative writer.  

I will eagerly read her two Dystopic tales and will try Alias Grace if I come upon it.   

Mel u

Our Mutual Reads: A Victorian Reading Challenge

Amanda of The Blog Jar is hosting her first reading challenge,  The 2010 Our Mutual Reads:   A Victorian Reading Challenge.  The challenge rules are on the link.

As soon as I saw this challenge I was reminded of my love of the Victorian novel.     I will for sure read some short stories if there is a minichallenge on them.   I watch a lot of old movies on the Turner Classic Movies Channel (Both that and the MGM Channel are available on cable TV here in the Philippines) and would probably find a movie mini challenge fun.   I recently saw movies of The Portrait of Dorian Grey and The Woman in White.   I will for sure commit to level one and with any luck will complete level three.  Clarification is being sought as to whether only period books written in England count.   For Example, can you count The Bostonians?  Is  War and Peace a Victorian Novel?   The  Constance  Garnett Russians all read like them!    Is A Sentimental Education among the very best of the genre?   This is up to Amanda, of course.   Overlaps with other challenges are fine.   
 
This makes the 25th reading challenge I have signed up to for 2010.   I hope a lot of people will sign  up.   I thank Amanda for hosting it and look forward to reading the posts that wil result from it. 

My Favorite Reads 2009-Part 1-

One reason for doing a Best Reads of the Year posts is to kind of clarify things in our own mind and hopefully have something to look back on many years in the future.

  Part I of my post on this topic will be about the books I read from January 1 to July 6, 2009. My blog began on July 7,2009.   The lists are in order by publication date.

                                                                  Classics

1. Emma by Jane Austin  1816
2. Old Goriot by  Balzac 1836-because his productivity is so huge I find reading him intimidating.  The standard cliche  is that he is the French Dickens and vice versa but this is probably an as taught to students dictum and it seems  to represent a shallow understanding of either writer.  
3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville-1851-read this work with an open mind-forget that it was forced on you in a class room and you had to write a 20 page paper on what the white whale stood for!-just let the majestic prose go into your mind as you read it.
4. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert-1857-often claimed to be the world's best novel.   It is an ice cold work of perfection but I prefer A Sentimental Education.
5. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 1869 -new trans 2007-don't let the size keep you away and don't worry about keeping all the characters straight as they will begin to stand out as you read.   
6. The Bostonians by Henry James-1886-early James, has all the basic themes-a good first Henry James-
7. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald-1925-the last ten pages are simply stunning in the beauty of the writing.   There are annoying tics in the work but just ignore them. 

                                                 21th Century Top Reads

1.  Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano -trans 2006-read this before 2666 if you can
2.  2666 by Roberto Bolano  2008 trans.
3.  Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon-2006-I know this is long and not much read.

                                                       Non Fiction

1.  Queen Victoria by Christopher Hibbert-2000-good popular biography
2.  Alexandra:  The Last Tsarina-Carolyn Erickson-2001-a good easy to read bio
3.  Flaubert:  A Biography by Frederick Brown-2006-simply a great book
4.  The Last Mughal-The Fall of a Dynasty-1857-Delhi-William Dalrymple-reminded me of how little I really know of Indian History
5.  Waltzing the Dictator:   Marcos and the Making of US Foreign Policy  1987 -by Raymond Bonner-a brilliant book that explains in detail how the Marcoses were able to do what they did to the Philippines.   It explains this better than any other  source.    A good bit of the success of  Marcos came from the fact that, say whatever else you want about him and his wife, he was able to use the needs and the vanity of several American presidents (mainly Reagan) to obtain his ends.  Ronald Reagan and Nancy were pretty much putty in the hands of Imelda.   The Marcoses began to cultivate Reagan when he was governor of California.  

This post was inspired by a recent post on Wuthering Expectations on Best of  2009 Lists

Mel u

2010 Reading Challenges-Tracking Page

11/17/2010-44 challenges-2 go until 2011

45 Challenges Completed

1  not started

3 challenges  begun with at least one book read  

So far I have signed up for 46 reading challenges  2010.   I have already explained why I am doing so many challenges (and may well commit to more as the new year approaches).   Appearances possibly aside, I am not simply signing up for all the challenges I can find.   I only will sign up for a challenge that will basically allow me to fully direct my own reading.   I am not attracted to what I have called "gimmick" challenges and have explicitly stated this is just a personal preference not a slam on some great challenges.    To me one of the challenges of all these challenges is just keeping track of them.   I have created this web page for that purpose.   I will update it  as I go through the year and I will also list what I have read on the individual challenge posts.  

1. Japanese Literature Challenge 3--ends Jan 31, 2010-completed
2. China Challenge  8 of 5-ends June 30, 2010-completed
3. Women Unbound Challenge 17 of 8-ends Nov 30, 2010-completed
4. Really Old Classics-1 of 1-Ends Feb 28, 2010 1-completed Jan 1, 2010

Challenges running from Jan 1 2010 to December 31, 2010

1. Awesome Authors-3 of 3- (read books by great new to you authors) 3-completed
2. Bibilophilic Books-3 of 3 (books about books and reading) completed
3. Take Another Change Challenge-3 of 3-completed  4
4. Centuries Reading Challenge-completed
5. 18th and 19th Century Women writers-3 of 3 completed
6. Wilkie Collins Mini Challenge 2 of 2  completed
7. A Woman in White-Read Along 0 of 1
8. Chunkster Challenge 6 of 6  completed
9. All About the Brontes6 of 6 completed-highest level
10. Flashback Challenge 4 of 4 -reread books you have read before completed
11. GLBT Challenge 4 of 4   -completed  6
12. Fantasy Reading 3 of 3 completed
13. Second Reading-read a second to you book by an author 3 of 3-completed-
14. Wish I had Read that-read a book you always have wanted to read  3 of 3--completed
15. Books to Read Before I die-12 of 12 -completed
16. South Asian Challenge 3 of 3-completed-4
17. Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge -one book and one movie-1 of 1--done
18. Mutual Read:  A Victorian Reading Challenge 6 of 5-completed
19. Book Blogger Recommendations Challenge 2 of 5-
20. Global Reading Challenge-6 of 6-completed
21. TBR Challenge 10 of 10  completed
22. New Author Challenge (new to you) 19 of 15  completed
23. Typically British Challenge 8 of 8  completed
24. A Tournament of Reading  (Medieval) 3  of 3 completed
25. Aussie Author Challenge3 of 3  completed
26. Speculative Fiction Challenge 3 of 3 completed
27. Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge 4 of 4 -completed
28. Historical Fiction 3 of 3  completed
29. Themed Reading Challenge-5 of 5-Flaubert and Friends-completed
30. French Reading Challenge  3 of 3-completed-going for higher level-5
31. Scottish Challenge-1of 1-completed
32. Jewish Reading Challenge feb 27 to Sept 14 1 of 1
33. POC challenge 16 of 16 completed highest level
34. 52 books in 52 weeks-completed 
35. 451 Challenge 1 of 1-Completed 
36. Classics Challenge 6 of 6 april 1 to oct 31-completed
37. Gothic Novels-5 of 5 completed
38. What An Animal Challenge 6 of 6  completed
39. Irish Reading Challenge 2 of 2 completed
40. Spring into Short Stories 2-completed but will do more
41. 1930s Reading Challenge 3 of 1 completed
42. Rebecca Du Mauier 3 0f 3 completed
43. Pre-Printing Press Challenge-0 of 3-end May 1, 2011
44. Japanese Literature Challenge 4-4 completed
45. D H Lawrence Challenge-2 of 4

Reading what I want to read and reading nothing I do not see as a quality book I  I feel I can complete all these challenges by December 31, 2010

updated on Nov 26-2011

Mel u

"Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids" by Kenzaburo Oe

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe is his  first novel, written  at age 23. 
(1958, translated from Japanese by Paul St John Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama in 1985, 189 pages)    

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids was the first full length novel by Oe that I have read.   Prior to this I posted on four of his novellas, his non-fiction work Hiroshima Notes and
I posted extensively concerning the stories in his collection of works by other writers, Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath.  I have already placed Oe on my "read everything they have written tbr list".   As I started my first read of one of his longer works I did fear that perhaps my reaction to his shorter works would not be carried over to his longer ones.   My fears were very much misplaced.   Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is a wonderful novel, not just a wonderful first novel.   We are never told when or really where the story is set but it is clear that it is intended to be seen as Japan in WWII.   I think the setting is not precisely particularized so it can be viewed as a story of war anywhere and of  the throw away victims of war.   This includes children and in too many cases the morals of  the survivors are also essentially a casualty also. 

The novel centers around a group of teen age boys from a reform school sent to work in a near by village and is narrated by one of the boys.   No cares at all for these boys.   The residents of the village they are sent to think they are plague carriers.   The boys have only the most primitive of values.   Their world exists as a counterpart to the adult world which moves history and time.  The live surrounded by  dark forest.   The boys fear the forest and will not try to escape detention because of it.   If we want,  we can see the forest as the imprisoning effects of enculturation or perhaps as the total reverse of this,  or for that matter both of these views can be sustained at the same time. We could see the captivity of the boys as civilization and the  forest as freedom.   There is a lot in this book.   I endorse it without reservation.   Based on my limited knowledge of Oe's works I would recommend first reading the marvelous short novels collected in Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness .   The stories in this collection do not feel somehow like works created by a modern writer but deep stories of wisdom from a civilization and time we will never understand but have somehow been fortunate enough to come upon.   Maybe we can figure them out in part and we will be wiser for the effort.   On the back of the book Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is compared to Lord of the Flies.   I think this comparison downgrades Oe's work but I understand the publishers, Grove Press, needed to link this book to a work that lots of people could related to.

Bookphilia.com has an extremely good post on Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids" that goes into some of the literary background of Oe and relates this book to Oe's vision of the conduct of Japan's Military leadership toward the common people of Japan.   Just like Animal Farm and Gulliver's Travels can be read with no knowledge of the particular forms of their day that they mocked while accepting the knowledge that knowing who Trotsky is may help us relate to the events in Animal Farm in more depth  likewise it is useful to place Oe's work in its historical context.   Oe gives us a lot of freedom in our reading of his works.   You can go very deep in your reading of this book, peeling off layers of art and civilization as you go in.

                         

Mel u

Reading Challenges and The Reading Life

When I began my blog July 7, 2009 I had never heard of Reading Challenges.   I soon saw they are a fairly big part of the book blogger community.   The first challenge I saw that intrigued me was the Japanese Literature 3 Challenge.   I realized I had never read a Japanese novelist.   If asked on a quiz show to name  two Japanese novelists I would have been stopped after Haruki Murakami.   I read the rules of the challenge and saw you had only to read one book.      So far I have read about 45 Japanese literary works and have placed three Japanese authors on my "read everything they have written list".   As I began to read an increasing number of book blogs (maybe 350 or so now) I came upon other challenges involving reading books in translation and books by authors from different countries.   The host of these challenges said any book read in 2009 counted so I completed these two challenges without a strain.   Then I joined a challenge revolving around reading some books on WWII and completed it almost at once.   I have also joined the China Challenge and  have one book to go and the Women Unbound Challenge for which I have read five of eight.   Both of these challenges carry over into 2010.   I also joined two other challenges that I did not complete because I more or less lost interest in them.   If I was doing it now I would not join either of these challenges as I am not drawn to what I now see as gimmick based challenges.  (This is just me-it is not a slam on gimmick based challenges-by which I mean something like "Read a book whose title has the same number of letters in it as your middle name").    I also completed the Rest In Peace Challenge and the November Novella Challenge and the Elizabeth Gaskell Mini Challenge in 2009.

As 2010 approached I knew I wanted to finish the two challenges I have yet to complete that overlap into 2010 and join some new ones.  I have now committed to 32  for 2010.   I only will commit to a challenge that allows overlaps with other challenges as any other course seems over directing to me and most challenge hosts explicitly state they allow it.    One of the Challenges asks you to read 52 books in 52 weeks.   I will if all goes well do this in the first four months or so so it is really not a factor in what I read.   For fun I pondered how many books will I have to read to complete these 20 challenges, setting aside the challenge to read 52 books.  (I will sign up for more I am sure and maybe in spring commit to 100 books).   These  20 challenges can be completed by reading from 25 to 30 books that I want to read anyway.   I remain fully in charge of what I read.   If there are  more challenges that interest me I will join them also.   The biggest to me challenge will be keeping track of them.  I plan to create a challenge tracking post to follow it all.    There are lots of ways to find challenges that will interest you.   A very good place to get information on the various reading challenges going on and future ones also is at A Novel Challenge.   There are really challenges for all sorts of readers.  

My question to myself is why join so many challenges?   My answer is that it is fun for me, I am supporting the book blogging community, I make some new contacts, and I also learn about a lot of new books from reading the posts in the challenges I join.    If it all seems a bit crazy to some that is ok perhaps it is!- 

As to personal reading perpetual challenges I will continue to read the novels of Henry James and Edith Wharton and I hope somehow I can host a read along of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End if a few others would want to join in.   I will also join the Japanese Literature Challenge 4 when it begins in 2010.   I will post more on my 2010 reading hopes and plans later as the year ends.  My thanks to all who host challenges.   I will continue to join more challenges as the year begins.   I see no reason other than the work involved in keeping track of them (which also will be fun for me) not to join 50 challenges.  
Anyway those are my thoughts on Reading Challenges-

what are your reasons for joining a reading challenge or why do you avoid them-?

Mel u