Shinyone's 888 Challenge

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Shinyone's 888 Challenge

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1shinyone
Bearbeitet: Nov. 25, 2008, 7:22 pm

I've never done a challenge like this before, but it seems like a great way to carve a whole lot off my TBR list. So here goes...

Books numbered with "X" are crossovers from other categories.

8 from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
1. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
X. Things Fall Apart
X. The Portrait of a Lady
X. The Vicar of Wakefield
X. Oliver Twist
X. The Devils

8 Mysteries DONE!!
1. Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
2. The Spy Who Hated Licorice by Richard L. Herhatter
3. Suspense and Sensibility by Carrie Bebris
4. North by Northanger by Carrie Bebris
5. Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton
6. Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton
7. Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil by Nancy Atherton
8. Aunt Dimity Digs In by Nancy Atherton

8 Historical Fiction
1. Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield
2. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
3. Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig
4. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
5. O'Hara's Choice by Leon Uris
6. Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
7. A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron
X. Memoirs of a Geisha

8 Hugo Winners or Nominees
1. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
2. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
4. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
5. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
6. Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
7. Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer
8. Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

8 SF/Fantasy DONE!!
1. Eater by Gregory Benford
2. Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
3. Allegiance by Timothy Zahn
4. Iron Man by Peter David
5. The Incredible Hulk by Peter David
6. A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
7. D.A. by Connie Willis
8. Against the Tide of Years by S.M. Stirling

8 Non-Fiction DONE!!
1. The Know-it-All by A.J. Jacobs
2. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
3. The Brontes: A Life in Letters by Juliet Barker
4. Philip Pullmans's His Dark Materials: A Multiple Allegory by Leonard F. Wheat
5. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
6. I am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
7. Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene (audio)
8. Where God Meets Man by Gerhard Forde

8 Classics - New Reads
1. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
2. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
3. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
4. The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
6. Dubliners by James Joyce
7. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
X. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

8 Classics - Rereads
1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
3. A Room with A View by E.M. Forster
4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
5. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
6. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

I edited this to show only the books I have completed (less confusing that way).

2fannyprice
Dez. 30, 2007, 9:15 pm

shinyone, are those Carrie Bebris books Jane Austen mysteries or something? I couldn't help but wonder, given the titles.

3xicanti
Dez. 30, 2007, 9:25 pm

Ha, at first I looked at the ones by Carrie Bebris and thought, "But those aren't mysteries!" Then I read the titles a little more carefully. :)

4fannyprice
Dez. 30, 2007, 9:39 pm

Ok, not to answer my own question, but I checked the book pages, xicanti, and they are apparently about Darcy and Elizabeth solving mysteries together! :)

5shinyone
Dez. 31, 2007, 12:01 pm

Yes, they are about Darcy and Elizabeth. I have already read and enjoyed Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries, which are about Jane Austen solving mysteries. I have not read hardly anything else in the mystery genre, so I am attempting to branch out a bit this year. If anyone has suggestions for other mysteries that are really good, I would love to hear them!

6shinyone
Jan. 6, 2008, 7:59 pm

I finished The Portrait of a Lady and started on Cryptonomicon today.

7undeadgoat
Jan. 7, 2008, 10:07 pm

For mysteries, there's always The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, and sequels. They're not my favorite Alexander McCall Smith, but my favorites don't fall into any of your categories . . . Well, Sunday Philosophy Club pretty much counts as a mystery, although it shouldn't probably be shelved as such, considering that each sequel progressively drifts away from the "mystery" idea, and it is so nice when series are shelved together. However, libraries and bookstores being what they are, the not-a-mystery-at-all-but-starring-a-lady-who-once-played-detective books get shelved with the most hardboiled genre fiction out there . . .

8shinyone
Jan. 20, 2008, 5:49 pm

Thanks for the suggestions, undeadgoat. My friend and I listened to part of The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency on a road trip a couple of years ago and were enjoying it very much but couldn't finish it because some of the CDs were badly scratched.

I finished Cryptonomicon yesterday, so that is one down from my 1001 Books to Read Before I Die list, and I have just a few pages to go in Persuasion which will be my first classic re-read of the year. I can already see that with the new Austen movies on PBS I will be re-reading a lot of good old Jane this year.

9shinyone
Feb. 17, 2008, 9:06 pm

One more book to go, and I will have finished my first set of 8! So far I have read:
The Portrait of a Lady – Classic
Cryptonomicon – 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
Persuasion – Classic Reread
The Know-It-All – Non-fiction
Eater – TBR SF/Fantasy
Last of the Amazons – Historical Fiction
Pride and Prescience – Mystery

I am now reading The Diamond Age – Hugo Winner

The plan is to cycle through the categories, in that order, until I have competed the challenge. Honestly, this is hard! Usually I just pick up whatever book strikes my fancy when I finish my current book. I still have a lot of choices now, even though I have to stick to a certain category, but I am concerned that this is going to really start feeling like homework as I get closer to the end!

10Morphidae
Feb. 17, 2008, 9:27 pm

I mix in "fluff" reads as I go. I just finished my first chick-lit, Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. Fun.

11shinyone
Feb. 26, 2008, 10:55 pm

Well, Pride and Prescience was pretty much a fluff read. Definitely not much substance there.

Out of my first complete set of 8, my favorite was Cryptonomicon. It took me two weeks to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. He goes off on lengthy tangents sometimes, but they are so entertaining I didn't mind. One of my favorites was the detailed mathematical description of one of the characters eating a bowl of Cap'n Crunch cereal.

The Diamond Age comes in second. I am lovin' Neal Stephenson.

My least favorite? Probably The Know-It-All. I enjoyed his little nuggets of learning from the Encyclopedia Britannica, but after a while it got a little bit boring.

The runner-up for least favorite would have to be Pride and Prescience. I'm a sucker for all things related to Jane Austen, and I enjoyed this book just because I got to revisit characters from Pride and Prejudice, but as the book went on the characters became less and less like themselves. I still plan to read the other books in the series, though, for the fluff factor. Maybe the series will improve as it goes along, and if not they will at least give me a quick, light break from some of the heavier books on my list.

12Gooberdink
Mrz. 14, 2008, 1:55 pm

Thanks so much for this list. I love getting suggestions

13Nickelini
Mrz. 14, 2008, 2:47 pm

Well, Pride and Prescience was pretty much a fluff read. Definitely not much substance there.

-----------

I read this and thought you wrote Pride and Prejudice, and thought "what?!" I've heard it called soap opera, but never seen it dismissed as fluff. I really need to read more closely! Let us know if the series gets any better. Sometimes we just need those fluff reads, don't we!

14Gooberdink
Mrz. 15, 2008, 11:05 pm

Guess I am just a "fluff reader" and not as well read as some.

15shinyone
Mrz. 18, 2008, 9:35 am

13, That is so funny. I would never dismiss Jane Austen as fluff. In fact, I am a bit obsessive about good old Jane.

14, There is nothing wrong with fluff. I read for pleasure, and sometimes War and Peace (for example) is pleasurable, while other times it is not a pleasure to make my brain work that hard!

The last couple of weeks have not been a good month for reading. Life keeps interfering. I am halfway through my second set of 8, though:

The Vicar of Wakefield - Classic
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - 1001
North and South - Classic Re-read
The Meditations -Non-fiction

Hmm...3 really short books and a book I'd already read twice! My non-fiction was supposed to be The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche. I struggled through to page 29 and gave up in despair. If anyone can offer me a good reason to torture myself with the rest of that book, please do. Otherwise I fear Friedrich and I must part ways. (-:

16undeadgoat
Apr. 6, 2008, 12:42 pm

Well, on Friday me and some friends of mine who I don't see outside school enough were hanging out in a bookstore, and they are all much more the sorts of people who wade through 19th-century European literature than I am, and we had a long discussion about why there is no point in reading Nietzsche in full because it's (1) incomprehensible and (2) repetitive so unless you're planning on becoming a scholar of him you might as well read a book *about* him. Then we read random passages of Nietzsche and also of Marx to each other, because we were high school students in a bookstore and so we amuse ourselves that way.

17lbucci3
Apr. 7, 2008, 10:40 pm

I took a class on Nietzsche, and it made my head hurt daily. I feel like to be a Nietzsche scholar it may also be a good idea to be a bit of a masochist.

18shinyone
Apr. 16, 2008, 8:54 pm

Undeadgoat, you are so right that Nietzsche is incompehensible and repetitive. It just didn't seem to be worth my time to try to figure out what his point was. My brother has a book called Marx for Beginners that is in comic book form. Maybe there is a book like that about Nietzche!

I finally finished my 2nd set of 8. The final four were:

Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien
The Spy Who Hated Licorice by Richard L. Hershatter
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Amazingly, Green Mars was my favorite book out of this set of 8. I was surprised because I read Red Mars about 9 years ago and hated it.

My least favorite of this set would have to be A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I guess. I found it to more interesting than enjoyable, if that makes sense. It is an important book in terms of the development of the novel and the beginning of stream-of-consciousness narrative, but it definitely felt like something to be read "because it's good for you" rather than because it's fun.

19shinyone
Apr. 16, 2008, 8:54 pm

Diese Nachricht wurde vom Autor gelöscht.

20CarlosMcRey
Apr. 18, 2008, 1:15 am

shiny, I remember reading Portrait in high school and finding it pretty dull, which was a bit surprising since the previous year we had read The Sound and the Fury and I had really liked the stream-of-consciousness there. I sometimes wonder if Joyce would be worth revisiting.

21shinyone
Apr. 24, 2008, 6:51 pm

Carlos, I have Dubliners on my TBR list for this year, too, and maybe I'll like that one better; who knows? I've never read The Sound and the Fury, but really enjoyed Light in August when we read it in college. Maybe I should try to read some more Faulkner.

22shinyone
Bearbeitet: Mai 12, 2008, 9:52 pm

My 3rd set of 8 is coming along:

Oliver Twist (classic)
Memoirs of a Geisha (1001)
A Room with A View (Classic Reread)
The Brontes: A Life in Letters (non-fiction) no luck with touchstones
Allegiance (Random Sci Fi)

I have deviated from my list a bit. Allegiance was purchased in a moment of weakness, but since most of the books I put on my list for Random TBR SF are in storage at the moment (since we are trying to sell our house) it worked out well as a substitute.

In another moment of weakness, I bought and read the novelization of Iron Man. I can't quite decide whether to count it as another random SF. It feels like cheating for some reason. I am just having a really hard time reading these books in rotating category order, which was a self-imposed rule that I am now regretting!

Today I started my next historical fiction book, which is another substitution. I just didn't feel like reading Cold Mountain, and I went to the library today and couldn't resist checking out Rhett Butler's People, so I am swapping one Civil War era story for another.

Sadly, the point of this was to read a whole lot of books I already had. I should have known I couldn't stay out of bookstores and libraries for a whole year!

23detailmuse
Mai 13, 2008, 8:29 am

Ease up, Shiny! :) The goal is to read 8 books in 8 categories in 2008. It's a challenge -- "a stimulating task" -- it can be inspiring and energizing rather than hard. I vote to reward your inner militant -- fold those Hugo winners into other categories and create a juicy category of "Cheaters"!

24hailelib
Mai 13, 2008, 8:36 am

We are allowed to change our rules mid-year so if that makes your challenge more fun that's what you should do.
After all, this shouldn't feel too much like homework!

25shinyone
Mai 15, 2008, 10:00 pm

Thanks for the encouragement, guys!

26shinyone
Mai 15, 2008, 10:16 pm

I just edited my opening post to show only the books I have already read, and not the ones I am trying to guilt myself into reading. This already feels less like homework.

And I'm counting Iron Man. I changed the category to Random SF/F so it doesn't have to be books from my TBR list. Problem solved.

27jennyifer24
Mai 15, 2008, 11:09 pm

I'm so glad you mentioned Iron Man. I've always loved the superhero movies, but have never actually read any novelizations (or comic books either). I'll have to check it out, thanks!

28medievalmama
Mai 16, 2008, 7:45 pm

I just saw the Iron Man movie last night -- I knew there was a comic book series from the 1960s, but I didn't know there was a "real" book. Sounds fun. And I love your list as edited. Joyce has to grow on you. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is my favorite, followed by Dubliners; if I were trying it again, I'd bet that Ulysses by Joyce would end right back up on my Can't Finish list -- right next to Gone With the Wind. I've started both of them two or three times each and can't get through either. Maybe Nietzsche could??? ;-)

29shinyone
Mai 18, 2008, 10:58 pm

medieval - Gone with the Wind is on your "can't get through it" list? That is ironic since I just finished reading Rhett Butler's People, the story from Rhett's point of view which was apparently commissioned by the Margaret Mitchell estate. I tend to get sucked into reading these "sequels" to books I liked...though I know that they are almost always disappointing. At least I can say that this one was much better than Scarlett, which I hated.

30shinyone
Jul. 4, 2008, 6:35 pm

The year is officially (slightly more than) half over, and I am over half-way through my challenge. With crossovers, I can actually be done with 1001 Books, if I want to be done. I have read at least 4 books in all the other categories, and amazingly I have read 6 non-fiction books already.

31shinyone
Jul. 9, 2008, 9:51 pm

I realized today that out of 35 books I have read for this challenge so far, only 14 were from my TBR mountain.

Here's the breakdown:
14 TBR from before 2008
9 library
5 rereads
2 borrowed
5 I bought this year

So, I decided to make another category change. I am changing my Hugo Winning Novels categories to Hugo winning OR nominated novels so that I can read a couple more from my TBR and have them count toward the challenge. And with that I am off to read Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey!

32ReneeMarie
Bearbeitet: Aug. 1, 2008, 8:45 pm

18 > There's an "in 90 Minutes" series of books on philosophers. They summarize the philosopher's life, influences, and thought. I've only read the one on -- Plato, I think, but I have the one on Kant in my mountain range of a TBR pile. I'm pretty sure there's a Nietzsche in 90 Minutes (and hey, so is the touchstone sure :-). BTW, the one I read was funny, so I'm guessing they probably all are.

Renee

33shinyone
Aug. 10, 2008, 10:55 pm

Thanks, Renee. I will have to look for that Nietzsche book. Sounds much more entertaining than The Birth of Tragedy. (-;

I have finished some books again finally, but am debating whether they "count" toward this challenge.

I listened to a non-fiction audio book last weekend on a long drive, so that could count as one of my non-fiction selections. It was really good and I listened to the whole thing without any of the zoning out that I am prone to when listening to books on CD.

I also read a couple of very short (126 pages and 76 pages) science fiction(y) books. They were so short they seem like cheating, although I did count them over at the 50 book challenge, where I am actually going for 80 and need all the help I can get!

Finally, I finished Gone With the Wind yesterday, which is definitely long enough to count (!!) and makes re-read #5.

But the others? To count or not to count?

34detailmuse
Aug. 12, 2008, 8:54 am

Count!

There's no extra credit for GWWW, so why a ding for a short book? Books of poetry would count, even with an abundance of white space. Books of illustrations would count, even with an absence of words.

I ignore pages/words and think more in terms of ideas, emotions. If I call it a "book" (ie vs "pamphlet," etc), I count it.

35shinyone
Aug. 12, 2008, 8:53 pm

You convinced me, detailmuse. I added them! That puts me at a very respectable 39, and I have lots of crossovers if I need them toward the end.

OK, I'm going to go read now.

36shinyone
Aug. 13, 2008, 9:33 pm

I just finished Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern which was a Hugo nominee. That brings me up to 40.

Not including any crossovers, I have:
1001 Books... 3/8
Mysteries 4/8
Historical Fiction 4/8
Hugo 5/8
Random SF/F 7/8
Non-fiction 7/8
Classics - New 5/8
Classics - Rereads 5/8

Next up: Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton

37shinyone
Aug. 24, 2008, 8:26 pm

I finished a category!!! My random SF/F category is now complete, since I finished Against the Tide of Years. Looking back at the categories to pick a favorite, I realized that I didn't rate any of the ones I own about 3 1/2, and the ones that I borrowed would not rate any higher. Unfortunately, there were no real stand-outs in this category, although I enjoyed all the books with the possible exception of The Incredible Hulk, which I could have skipped.

38shinyone
Sept. 4, 2008, 8:51 pm

Since my last post I finished Dubliners and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Dubliners was great! I don't know why I waited so long to read James Joyce. These are extremely well-constructed short stories that are thematically related. I don't read short stories very much, but this book renewed my interest in the form.

To Kill a Mockingbird is, or course, a wonderful book. I had read it about 20 years ago and I can't believe it took me this long to reread it!

39shinyone
Sept. 4, 2008, 8:55 pm

My progress so far (not counting crossovers)

1001 Books... 3/8
Mysteries 5/8
Historical Fiction 4/8
Hugo 5/8
Random SF/F 8/8
Non-fiction 7/8
Classics - New 6/8
Classics - Rereads 6/8

I am currently reading Where God Meets Man which will complete my non-fiction category, and the Hugo-winning Blue Mars.

40shinyone
Sept. 20, 2008, 9:03 pm

My progess for September so far:

I finished Where God Meets Man, completing my non-fiction category.

While taking breaks from Blue Mars, I finished two more mysteries. Now I have just one more mystery to go. I am really enjoying the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton; they are fun quick reads.

I finally finished Blue Mars today. After flying through Green Mars, I didn't expect it to take me almost 3 weeks to finish Blue Mars. It just dragged on and on...I'm glad I finishd the series but it was a struggle.

41shinyone
Okt. 4, 2008, 8:15 pm

I finished my last mystery book! I have now completed 4 of my 8 categories and am close on the others. I am excited to be done with this so I can get back to my mounting TBR pile and read whatever I want!!!!

42shinyone
Okt. 27, 2008, 2:16 pm

I am currently reading The Scarlet Pimpernel. Once I finish that, I have only 1 reread and 1 Hugo winner or nominee to go and I will be done!! Maybe by the end of the year I will replace a few of my crossovers, too. I haven't been letting myself read non-challenge books, so I look forward to revelling in my freedom.