Billiejean's 888

I have only been a member of LT for about a month, but I had been following this group unofficially since January. I have been tracking my reading, and now that I am a member of the group, I would like to post my 888 challenge. My eight categories are:
1. 1001 Books
2. Children's Literature
3. Poetry
4. Suspense
5. Spy (Fiction and Non-fiction)
6. Science/Exploration
7. Religious
8. Biography/Diary

I am keeping my categories somewhat loose in book selection because once I chose the categories, I found that I was restricting my reading in some ways. Plus, I am including short books as this will be an increase in reading for me. I completely changed the first category, so it is a short list for now. I think that I am on track to finish by the end of the year. Maybe my reading speed will increase over the year, too!
--BJ

1. 1001 Books

1. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.
2. Contact by Carl Sagan.
3. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
5. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
8. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. (From the 2nd Edition)
Bonus: Bleak House by Charles Dickens;
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham;
The Trial by Franz Kafka;
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Well, this category is really empty because I just changed it. Actually, I am not really sure if I can even count this book, because it is 4 volumes and I read the first volume in December. I do have some other 1001 books listed elsewhere and I hope that I will get a ninth one read in this category before the end of the year. By the way, I really enjoyed this series following Nick Jenkins and his friends from after the Great War until the 60s.
--BJ

2. Children's Literature

1. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
2. Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson.
3. House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne.
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
5. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.
6. Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery.
7. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson.
8. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J. M. Barrie.

Well, this category is coming along nicely. I know that these books are easy to read, but I enjoy them. Winnie-the-Pooh makes me happy. I was thrilled to learn about the Moomintroll books. I will have to find some more to read. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass remind me of my grandfather.
--BJ

3. Poetry

1. The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
2. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.
3. Paradise Lost by Milton.
4. Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake.
5. The Complete Poems for Christopher Robin by A. A. Milne (No Touchstone)
6. Inferno by Dante.
7. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
8. Purgatorio by Dante.

I guess this category is going ok. The first book is quite a stretch for the poetry category. But there are some poems in it and I wanted to read it, so I just went ahead and counted it. Under Milk Wood is officially a play for voices, but it is also considered poetry by some, so I counted it here. Paradise Lost is something that I had always wanted to read. The Blake book was unfamiliar to me although I did recognize some of the poems. He both wrote it and illustrated it. Blake also illustrated my copy of Paradise Lost. I wonder what I will pick next from this category?
--BJ

4. Suspense

1. Silent Justice by William Bernhardt.
2. The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge.
3. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
4. Light on Snow by Anita Shreve.
5. The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov.
6. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
7. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
8. Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Well, I am halfway throught this category. This first book was a door prize, but I liked it as it had a legal theme to it, like A Civil Action. The second book was lent to me by my dad. It was a real quick read. Rebecca was terrific and I am planning on reading more of du Maurier soon. I bought the last book, Light on Snow from the bargain table. It was not as suspenseful as I thought it would be, but I did like it.
--BJ

5. Spy (Fiction and Non-fiction)

1. Ill Met By Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss. (Wrong touchstone on title.)
2. Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming.
3. The Double-Cross System by J. C. Masterman.
4. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene.
5. The 39 Steps and The Power House by John Buchan.
6. The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
7. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers.
8. Tamar by Mal Peet.

I used to read alot of spy books years ago and decided to read some more this year. The first and third books are non-fiction from WW2 and really interesting. The .007 book was about like them all. I loved Our Man in Havana. I want to read some more Graham Greene. The 39 Steps and The Power House are early spy books. Some of the lucky breaks and coincidences are a little bit of a stretch, but I did enjoy seeing some of the precursors to the modern spy book.

--BJ

6. Science / Science Fiction Fantasy

1. A Short History of Time by Leofranc Holford-Strevens.
2. Einstein's Universe by Nigel Calder.
3. The Radioactive Boyscout by Ken Silverstein.
4. Relativity by Albert Einstein
5. Shadow & Claw: The First Half of the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
6. The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss.
7. Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
8. Beyond Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss.
Bonus:
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

These books have proved to be a challenge! I read the Calder book to get ready for Einstein's book. Einstein's book was going pretty well until I got to the appendices, then forget it. I actually think that I learned more from Calder's book. The book on time truly confused me in parts and I was surprised by how complicated it was. I loved The Radioactive Boy Scout. Of the 4 books for the layman, this liberal arts major understood this one the best. Plus what an amazing story! I have heard that Darwin is easier and I think that I will head there next.
--BJ

ETA Touchstones quit loading.

7. Religious

1. The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian.
2. Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul by Tony Hendra.
3. Pocket Book of Catholic Novenas by Rev. Lawrence G. Lorasik, SVD
4. The Apochrypha.
5. Confessions by St. Augustine.
6. The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood by Mark I. Miravalle.
7. St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works.
8. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori.

I am halfway through this category. The first and second books were gifts. I enjoyed them both, but I especially loved the second book. The third book was short, but I got it because I wanted to learn about novenas. The fourth book was illustrated beautifully. It was the King James Version of these parts of the Bible in a stand alone volume. Some of it I knew, some I did not. I hadn't read much Old Testament in a while. It had some quite violent parts. I plan to read more parts of the Bible in sections like I did this part. However, for now, I am moving on to St. Augustine.
--BJ

8. Biography/Diary

1. Ramones: An American Band by Jim Bessman.
2. Ivy Briefs: True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student by Martha Kimes.
3. Momsense by Vicki Marsh Kent. (No touch stones.)
4. Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank.
5. If This is a Man by Primo Levi.
6. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read.
7. Woodbrook by David Thomson.
8. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind by Diana and Michael Preston.

Wow, this was a lot of work to type all this in at once! I am glad to be on the last category. The first book was a gift from my daughter, and I really enjoyed reading it. I had no idea that CBGB's started out as a place for country and blue grass music! The second book was loaned to me since I went to law school (not ivy league). It all started coming back to me. Yikes! The third book is from a collection of newspaper columns about her family and child rearing. It might be a bit of a stretch for this category, but I wanted to include it. The fourth and fifth books were powerful holocaust stories. I had previously read The Diary of A Young Girl but wanted to reread it. Levi's book was a first read for me and it was incredible. I will need to move to something lighter next time for this category, though.

I think that I am close to halfway through. I lost a little by changing the first category, but I think that I can catch up. Well, back to reading!
--BJ

Thanks for sharing your books! You have some similar interests to me and I'm excited to read A Dance to the Music of Time and also Ramones: an American Band and to check out some of your spy reads.

Hi, jennyifer24!
One interesting thing that I learned about the Ramones from my daughter's book about U2 was that when U2 was first auditioning for a producer and the producer asked them to play some of their music, they actually played Ramones music. They actually took credit for the music. So U2 got their start from the Ramones whose music the producer really liked. I thought this was funny as U2 is so famous now and has written so many wonderful songs of their own.
--BJ

I have added two more books to my challenge. To the category of Suspense, I added The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov. (The Touchstones don't work on this one.) This was a murder mystery -- definitely different from other Russian works which I have read. I did enjoy it. The other book I added was Confessions by St. Augustine. At first I found this book tough going, but it got much better as I went along and I enjoyed it very much. Next I am going to try another book of writings by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron saint of my church!
--BJ

By the way, I am not sure what is wrong with the touchstones.

Thanks for the encouragement (reassurance?) about changing my categories. I think I might change my mind -- again -- and turn either the planned "library book" or "potpourri" category into an ARC category. I get them from work fairly regularly and SHOULD read them asap. Just picked up Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson today. It releases 8/5. Yikes. So maybe I should be happy I didn't get an Early Reviewers book this month. :-/

I checked out your library -- man do you have a lot of Library of America titles. (Including some I covet, like Jefferson's writings.) Was that a book-of-the-month type club, or do you just REALLY like LoA?

p.s. -- As far as the Touchstones go, maybe you know this already but just in case: if the one that defaults when added is not the correct Touchstone, just click on "(others)" and it'll give you a list of other books that might match what you typed. Find the listing that matches your book, then click it. Et voila!

Renee

Hi, ReneeMarie!
As you can see, I changed Science to Science/Exploration. I am reading The Quest for the Northwest Passage which is not really science, but it is really long and I want to include it. Plus upcoming I have Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle which I think is also more exploration than science. Anyway, I need the flexibility.

Thanks so much for the advice on the touchstones. I used it for this post! I am not that great at computers, so I appreciate any advice that I get.

I actually do subscribe to the Library of America. I love their books and their mission of keeping all of these books in print. When I first resubscribed (I was briefly a member formerly), I kept getting extra books. Now I just get them about one every six weeks. And then I went and subscribed to the LOA American Poets Project. Those books come about every other month. Then when I joined LibraryThing, those books were all organized, so they got put into my library first. Then I sort of ran out of energy. So my library looks tilted toward LOA. They have a couple of new books coming out that I am anxious to get: one on writings about Lincoln and one of environmental writings.

Thanks for your comments and good luck with your 888 challenge as well!
--BJ
Edited to correct typo.

I have added three more books to my list. I added Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery to my list of Children's Literature (which I also include Young Adult). This book was recommended to me on LT and I read it on vacation. I could not put it down. I just loved it and I love a happy ending. Yea! I added two books to my 1001 Books category. The first was Contact by Carl Sagan. At first I did not really like this book. I liked the movie better. My daughter kept telling me to hang in there and it would get better. She was right. About 2/3 of the way through, my opinion changed and I liked it all the way to the end. The second book was Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I enjoyed this book all the way through. And to think that I thought Scarlett O'Hara was selfish!

I think that I am on track, but not ahead. I guess that I better get reading!
--BJ

I have added a few more books to my lists. To my 1001 category, I added Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This was a quick read and a fairly interesting study on human nature. To my Children's Literature category, I added Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson. I loved this book. I thought that it was powerful and beautifully written. The author did use dialect which I know some people do not like, but it did not bother me. To the Poetry category, I added The Complete Poems of Christopher Robin by A. A. Milne. This is usually published at two separate volumes. I loved this as well. Now I have read all of my Winnie-the-Pooh books. To my Religion category, I added The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood by Mark I. Miravalle which I did not really care for and St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works which I liked better. Finally, to my Biography/Diary category I added Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. This book was difficult to read, and I will not read it again.

I am at least halfway through all my categories. A couple of the categories are almost finished. I am working on 1001 and Science right now, but the books are rather long, so it might be a while before I can update again.
--BJ

Did you find _Alive_ a difficult read because of the way it was written, or because of the subject matter?

Hi, ReneeMarie,
It was the subject matter. I knew going into the book that the rugby team that crashed in the Andes spent three months without food before finding a way out. They survived due to eating those who died in the crash and during a subsequent avalanche. This happened when I was a girl, so I did know about it going into the book. My daughter had to read this book in school, so I decided to read it, too. I just found that there was too much information. The author said that was important because otherwise people would imagine worse things, but I don't know. Anyway, that is why I followed it up with Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh always cheers me up!
--BJ

Well, I haven't added to this in a long time because I have been juggling so many long books -- and only finished a couple of them. I think that I will still finish the challenge, but I might have to watch that I don't read too many long books which don't count for my categories.

I added 2 books to my 1001 category, which really needed it! The first was Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. This was a tough book to read, especially at first, because of the writing style. I am glad that I read it. I thought that the ending was really good. The second book was The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I really loved this book, and I cannot believe that I had never read this famous book before. I will be looking for more by Fitzgerald.

I added one book to my Suspense/Mystery category. That was The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. I really enjoyed rereading this book. I read it when I was in high school long years ago. I would like to do some historical detective work myself! To the Spy category, I added The Quiet American by Graham Greene. I wanted to read this after seeing the movie and I liked it.

I see that my poetry and science/exploration categories need some attention. Unfortunately, I am reading a number of long books, none of which will fit these categories. I do have a couple of ideas in mind for these categories. I guess I just need to get motivated!

Hope to add more books sooner next time!
--BJ

I've read Tey's _Daughter of Time_ twice now, thanks to having to read it for one of my book groups recently. We liked it so much, we read her _Brat Farrar_ shortly after. I intend at some point to read more Tey. (So many books ...)

But I was really writing to suggest that if you liked _The Daughter of Time_, you might want to try a similar if less ambitious novel: The Wench Is Dead, by Colin Dexter. It's an Inspector Morse book in which the detective attempts to solve a 19th century murder mystery.

Renee

Hi, ReneeMarie!
Thanks for the suggestions! I don't think that I have ever heard of Brat Farrar before and I haven't read any Inspector Morse books either. I will definitely check out The Wench is Dead. I am ordering a book from Amazon.com for another group read, so I will add this on, too, in hopes of getting the supersaver shipping. I never can find the books I want at the local bookstore anymore. I try to support them, but then Amazon always has what I need and no gas to get it.

I have decided to add on to one of my categories (Science & Exploration and Science Fiction -- I know, a bit of a stretch!) so that some of my group read books can be added. Now I feel somewhat better about finishing the challenge. I think that it will be all the way to the end of the year to finish.

Thanks again for the suggestions!
--BJ

Well, I am so excited that I have finished two categories! :) I never did finish one of my exploration books yet, and I have another one coming up, but I have been reading a lot more science fiction these days for group reads, so I added SFF to my science category. And now it is finished! I also finished my Religion category. Plus I added one to my 1001 Books category.

For 1001 Books, I read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for a group read. It was a really fun group. Parts of the book, I loved. Other parts were more history lesson than story, and I did not like those parts as much. I do like to read history, but it was a drastic shift for me for this book. However, I am really glad that I read this book at last.

For the Science/SFF Category, for the science fiction reading group, I read the four books of The Book of the New Sun in two volumes Shadow & Claw and Sword & Citadel by Gene Wolfe. This group read sparked some lively discussion as some people loved the books and some hated them. I found that although I did not seem to care a lot about the main character, I felt myself drawn to these books, and I found that I liked each succeeding book better than the previous one. There were references in the books that I did not catch, so I will have to reread sometime. I don't read that much SF, but I guess I liked these books. I finished off the category with two science for laymen books (that's me). They were both written by Lawrence M. Krauss. I got them when I went to hear him speak. The books were The Physics of Star Trek and Beyond Star Trek.

By the way, ReneeMarie, I looked on Amazon.com and found Brat Farrar and ordered it. I was not able to get a new copy of the Inspector Morse book The Wench is Dead and the used one did not qualify for the super saver shipping, so I will get that one later. I think the Tey book should arrive this week. For my Suspense/Mystery Category right now I am reading The Thirteenth Tale.

And I must say, that the touchstones never work twice the same way. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

--BJ

I finished another category: 1001 Books. For this category, I read Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, which is from the 2nd. edition list. This is a novel about medieval Norway. Although it was 1150 pages long (it is a trilogy), it held my interest. In fact, the more I read the harder it was to put down. I had never heard of this book, so I was glad that it was chosen for the literature group read.

I read two books for my poetry category, so now it is looking better. Both books were epic poetry chosen for my October spooky theme read. The first book was Dante's Inferno, which I had not read in about 30 years. I read the notes to help me catch all the allusions. I am also planning to read his Purgatorio soon. The next one was Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This book included both part 1 and part 2. When I try to change the touchstone, it does not always work. I found the changing meter and rhyming schemes interesting and was surprised to see that one of the characters was actually St. Bernard, who I have been studying some. He also appeared in Kristin Lavransdatter, above. He is a lot more famous than I realized! I was pleasantly surprised to find a happy ending to Faust. Both books of poetry had very nice illustrations.

For my Suspense/Mystery category, I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, another spooky October read. This was a Gothic novel/ghost story and I could not put it down! I also liked that it involved books. This book was recommended on LT and I am so glad that I heard about it!

Now I am beginning to think that I may finish this challenge. It will be close. I have finished 3 categories; I have one more book to read in 3 categories, and need 2 more books in two categories.

As a bonus book for the Science/SFF category, I also read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This was part 1 of a trilogy. I loved it and don't know how I will wait for the next installment.
--BJ
Edited to correct author name.

Well, I read three bonus books for my 1001 Books category which does not advance my challenge very well! The first one was Bleak House by Charles Dickens. This book was funny in parts and interesting to me because of the law angle. There were quite a few storylines which got confusing after I put the book down for a while. However, I am glad that I picked it back up as the storylines all came together at the end. It could, however, have been a little bit shorter! The second book for this category was The Day of the Triffids. I had not realized that this was a book when I saw the movie long years ago. (I don't really read that much SciFi.) I have always wanted to see the movie again, so I was excited to see that it was a book on the list. I really enjoyed reading this book! My third one for bonus for this category was The Trial by Franz Kafka. This book was like reading a nightmare. In fact, it reminded me of a nightmare that I used to have about finals when in college. It was a pretty interesting book, and it made me remember how much I appreciate the legal system we have. :)

I finished the Children's/Young Adult Lit category reading Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J. M. Barrie. This was a book that I had not heard of so I enjoyed reading about this part of the Peter Pan saga. The illustrations were wonderful, too.

I also finished the Poetry category with Purgatorio by Dante. I had never read beyond Inferno before, so I especially wanted to read this book. I enjoyed it immensely and also liked the illustrations for this book, too.

I need to stay on task to finish on time. I need two more books for the Diary/Biography/Memoir category, but I am currently reading two books for it now. I need two books for the Spy (Fiction or Nonfiction) category and I have two possibilities ready to go. I need one more book for the Suspense/Mystery category and I have one book ready to go for this one, too. I just need to stay focused and cut down on those bonus books. :)
--BJ

Now I am really getting close. Yea! I read two books for my biography/diary/memoir category which finished it. The first was Woodbrook, a memoir of the author's time spent in Ireland plus some history of Ireland thrown in. The second was A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, about William Dampier who was an explorer and naturalist who also happened to be a pirate!

As another bonus to the 1001 books category, I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, another book taking place in Ireland.

I finished my suspense/mystery category with the ghost story Beloved. Wow, what an amazing book! One of the tops of the year!

I added one to my Spy -- Fiction or Nonfiction category. The book was The Riddle of the Sands, a spy book from the turn of the 20th century. I only need one more book in this category to finish the challenge. I have started the book Tamar. It is sort of long, but the story is moving along nicely. I hope that I finish before Christmas.
--BJ

Well, I finished Tamar by Mal Peet as the last book for my Spy (Fiction or Nonfiction) category. This is a young adult combination espionage and mystery. This book was great! And that is the last book for my 2008 888 Challenge. I finished! Yea!

Now for my award winners for each category:

I. 1001 Books (Old or New List)
~A Dance to the Music of Time
~Honorable Mention to Kristin Lavransdatter and The Day of the Triffids.

II. Children's Lit / Y. A.
~Tarka the Otter

III. Poetry
~Paradise Lost

IV. Suspense / Mystery
~Beloved

V. Spy (Fiction or Nonfiction)
~Tamar
~Honorable Mention Our Man in Havana

VI. Science / SFF
~The Radioactive Boy Scout

VII. Religious
~Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

VIII. Biography/ Memoir / Diary
~If This is a Man

For my overall winner, I have a tie:
Beloved and If This is a Man, two incredible books.

Wow, what a great year of books. I hope that I meet lots more terrific books next year.

Happy Reading, everyone!
--BJ

Congrats on finishing the challenge!!

Thanks! :)
--BJ