Thursday 10 July 2008

A new challenge

Inspired by Robin at A Fondness for Reading I've decided on a new long-term challenge at last. It's The Book Awards Reading Challenge and it's being hosted by Michelle at 1more chapter.com.



The rules are:

1. Read 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.

2. You must have at least FIVE different awards in your ten titles.

3. Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.

4. You don't have to post your choices right away, and your list can change at any time.

5. 'Award winners' is loosely defined; make the challenge fit your needs, keeping in mind Rule #2.


I had a look through my tbr mountain last night and came up with a comprehensive pool of books to choose from. It's quite likely though (knowing me), that this will alter over the months. 'Changing my mind' seems to define me somehow...

Anyway, here goes:

BOOKER

The Seige of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
The Ghost Road - Pat Barker

GOVERNOR GEN. (CANADA)

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

CARNEGIE

The Little Grey Men - 'BB'
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
The Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliff

HUGO

The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

ALEX

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Year of Wonders - A novel of the plague - Geraldine Brooks

COSTA/WHITBREAD

The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney

COMMONWEALTH'S WRITER'S PRIZE

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

MYTHOPOEIC

The Ropemaker - Peter Dickinson
Tamsin - Peter S. Beagle

SUNDRY
Mortal Engines - Philip Reeve

THE NEWBERY AWARD

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

CWA GOLD/DIAMOND DAGGER AWARDS
A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine
The Reaper - Peter Lovesey
The Sedgemoor Strangler - Peter Lovesey
The Circle - Peter Lovesey

NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Books by:

Rudyard Kipling
John Steinbeck
V.S. Naipaul
Doris Lessing

So that's it. It'll be interesting to see how far I get with this as it's quite a challenge, but I feel like I'm really up for it.

16 comments:

DesLily said...

gads! You have all those books sitting around????!! holy-moley! hehehe of that whole list I've only read The 13th Tale (loved it). I have read a few books that won titles though.. like Bridge to Terribithia and Jonathan Strouds Bartimaeis trilogy did win the mythopedic award I know I have a few others (already read that is)
You are brave to take on another challenge! The only other one I know I'll do is Carl's Halloween one, and that is a challenge for me because I found I do like some gothic but not into vampires and such. (with the exception of the one in Gil's All Freight Diner...which was more a comedy than scary lol)
Good luck on this challenge Cath.

Juliet said...

Wow, that's some list. Good luck!!

I think I need to start my own one-woman Read All The Books in the TBR Mountain Challenge. Rules: (1) read all the books in the TBR mountain; (2) when finished (and not before) buy more books.

Simple really. Wonder why I've never thought of it before!!

Cath said...

No, I'll have to get four or five from the library, Pat. The rest of them I do have. I'm going to read The 13th. Tale for Carl's challenge this year so that'll make a good cross-over book - two birds with one stone kind of thing.

Yes, I saw the Bridge to Terribithia and Bartimaeis books while I was looking at the lists. I think it was the Mythopoeic awards. Some great titles on that list! I just bought Tamsin by Peter Beagle so it was great to see that I can include that one in the challenge. You've read that haven't you?

Well, I just have two challenges left now and those are casual and don't finish till the end of Dec. This one is over 10 months so I should be able to manage that I think.

Robin said...

That's a great list of books, Cath. I was disappointed that I didn't sign up for this one last year, so I've been keeping my eye on it for this year. I have so many award-winning books on my TBR shelf, so this is perfect.

Cath said...

Juliet: I keep trying to clear out a few books but so many of them are tbrs that that's not possible. I have easily two or three hundred on the pile. This new challenge will definitely remove a few. I even hope I don't love *all* the books so at least a few can go back to the charity shop or put on ReadItSwapIt.

Robin: I was really surprised at how many books from the award lists I had too. Very pleased in fact. There are several I'll need to borrow from the library like the Salman Rushdie and the Margaret Atwood but that's fine. I'm really looking forward to reading slightly out of my comfort zone.

BooksPlease said...

You've got me wondering - shall I do this too? It would help with reading some of my tbr books and it helps that you can change your mind - I'm good at that!

Cath said...

I'm good at changing my mind too, Margaret - especially when I start reading other people's reviews! For me this was a good way to get a few books off the tbr pile, especially a few of the more challenging ones.

DesLily said...

no I haven't read Tamsin Cath... it seems to be not published anymore.. it's on the list of "used" books.. it takes me longer to get those lol.. they are cheaper but I resent paying 4.00 for shipping LOL I do it but I have to be in the right mood hahahaha

Cath said...

My mistake, Pat. I just checked and it was Chris's blog I saw the review on a couple of months back. Liked the sound of it and just got it this last week. Very pleased to find I can read it for this challenge.

Tara said...

Good choices here! I loved Year of Wonders and A Fine Balance.

Nan said...

I love, I love Tom's Midnight Garden. We bought it when we visited England, and then I read it to the kids. Great book.

Cath said...

Thanks, Tara, hopefully it's a fairly eclectic mix and it's nice that I can change titles if I want to. I think I've had Year of wonders on my tbr mountain for *years*, so it's time I read it.

Nan, I think I'm the only person I know who has *not* read Tom's Midnight Garden. If it's as good as Minnow on the Say then I can't wait.

Danielle said...

This sounds like a fun challenge--and you probably can't go wrong with award winners. I want to read Pat Barker this year, too. And The Handmaid's Tale is great! So many good books to look forward to!

Cath said...

Hi Danielle. I really can't wait to start on this challenge. With my interest in reading about the two world wars, I'm ashamed of not having read anything by Pat Barker. Hopefully I can put that right. Also ashamed of never having read anything by Margaret Atwood! The nice thing is that I have a *lot* of good reading ahead of me.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Interesting challenge. I'm going to have to sit down and do this myself. Maybe start with a checking the award winning lists. Pulitizer, Edgar, Stoker, Nebula, Origin, Newberry, etc.

Cath said...

Hi Stewart. I think the nice thing about this challenge is the sheer variety of books to choose from. There's something for everyone, plus if you have eclectic tastes, which I do, it's perfect. I hope you decide to do this one!