Deesiring's 999 Challenge

I expect I'll have a lot of overlap between categories. I read 60 books in 2008, so 81 seems a little ambitious, as I expect to have less free time to read in the upcoming year than in the last year. I've left most spot blanks but have filled in titles I have a serious intention of reading soon. We'll see how it goes.

9 categories of books to read 9 of in 2009

I. En français

1. La grosse femme d'a côté est enceinte
2. Le goût du bonheur, tome 2, Adélaïde
3. Charles le téméraire, tome 1, un temps de chien

(I will likely want to read Vol. 3 of Le goût du bonheur as well (Florent) but these are lengthy novels, so it will depend whether I am actually aiming to finish the 999 challenge, in which case I may have to pick shorter books. I will also likely want to continue reading the Charles le Téméraire trilogy.)

II. Red Dress Ink (may be broadened to include chick lit generally)

(I plan to mainly read Red Dress Ink books I already own.)

III. Oprah's Book Club authors

1. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

(I have more than enough of Oprah's book club books on my shelves to fill out this category -- plenty to choose from, even if I stick to actual Oprah picks, as opposed to additional titles by the same authors.)

IV. Memoir / biography / non-fiction with a personal touch

1. One Red Paperclip
2. Fat Girl

(I will likely also want to read at least one of the Frank McCourt memoirs I have on my shelves and perhaps more depending on how much I like the first one I read.)

V. By Canadian authors

1. The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson
2. Mercy Among the Children
3. Fruit by Brian Francis
4. The Outlander by Gil Anderson

(Of the books I already have listed, my 3 picks "en français" fit in here, as does One Red Paperclip. I will also likely add The Book of Negroes as I'd like to read all the Canada Reads picks but it is the one with the longest waiting list at the library, so I don't know whether I will get to it.)

VI. Bought or acquired in 2008

(The first two priorities in this category are advanced readers copies I got here on LibraryThing that are already included in two above categories: The Great Karoo and A Mercy by Toni Morrison. I have oodles and oodles of books to choose from in this category.)

VII. Law-related (including fiction involving lawyers, courts, trials, as well as law textbooks, etc.)

(I'm not sure about this category and I've tried to make it broad enough to include both some serious non-fiction and some light fiction.)

VIII. Recommended

(I'm not sure how broad I want to go here; in a sense, any award-winning book, any 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, etc. could be considered "recommended" but I primarily had in mind books recommended by my spouse and friends or other recommendations that are made directly to me rather than to readers in general. I'll see how it goes as the year progresses.)

1. Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai. Richler

IX. To Be Determined or Hodge-Podge

(In my draft list of categories, I had Graphic Novels as a category, in part to have something shorter that would increase my chances of completing the challenge. Now I am reconsidering. I can certainly include Graphic Novels if I have a hodge podge category. Or if I see that I am progressing toward a ninth theme, such as 1001 Books or Classics, then I may determine a last category.)

I have a Canadian Authors category too and find that the four books you listed I haven't heard of. Will you be posting reviews (or general impressions) of the books you read? I am eager to see what you think of your Canadian reads as well as Solomon Gursky was Here.

So far, a very slow reading year. Not boding well for completing the challenge (or coming anywhere near completion)...

June 30: Halfway through 2009, yet nowhere near halfway this challenge... I'm changing the category Law-Related to Travel, as I cannot envision actually reading 9 law-related books cover to cover before the year ends (I'll have a multitude of articles and chapters to read for classes and that will be more than sufficient for "law-related" thank you very much).

I. En français

1. Et ci c'était vrai... Marc Lévy
2. Maria Monk by Sylvie Ouellette
3. Impostures : le journal de Boris by Dany Rossignol

II. Red Dress Ink (may be broadened to include chick lit generally)

1. Sleeping Over by Stacey Ballis
2. Out of the Blue by Isabel Wolff
3. The Night I Got Lucky by Laura Caldwell
4. Starting From Square Two by Caren Lissner
5. Speechless by Yvonne Collins

III. Oprah's Book Club authors

1. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
2. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
3. Open House by Elizabeth Berg
4. Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
5. Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
6. While I Was Gone by Sue Miller

IV. Memoir / biography / non-fiction with a personal touch

1. Learning to Float: The Journey of a Woman, a Dog, and Just Enough Men by Lili Wright
2. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan
3. Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky
4. He's Just not that Into You by Greg Behrendt
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro
7. The Boxer's Heart by Kate Sekules
8. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

V. By Canadian authors

1. One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
2. The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson
3. Fruit by Brian Francis

VI. Bought or acquired in 2008 or earlier

1. Fat Girl by Judith Moore
2. Lawyerland by Lawrence Josephs
3. Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton

VII. Travel

1. Walk to New York by Charles Wilkins
2. Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across American's Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks by Bill McKibben
3. Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica by Brian Bouldrey

VIII. Recommended

1. The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield (Read for bookclub - recommended by book club members)
2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Recommended by book club members. We'll be reading the new Dan Brown for our January pick.)
3. The Moment Between by Nicole Bart (Recommended in the sense that I received this from Early Reviewers.)
4. The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory (Read for bookclub -- recommended by book club members)
5. City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare (Read for bookclub -- recommended by book club members)
6. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

IX. To Be Determined or Hodge-Podge

1. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
2. The Lazy Girl's Guide to Good Sex by Anita Naik
3. It's Obvious you won't Survive by your Wits Alone. A Dilbert Book by Scott Adams
4. Journey to Cubeville by Scott Adams
5. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
6. Multiple Choice by Claire Cook

Well, I'm having a slow reading year and it's likely to stay that way. This fall will be consumed with readings for my Master's and I suspect there will be little time for pleasure reading.

I never really thought I would complete the 999 challenge but I did think that I would come closer than I am likely to get.

Yet, still, I will keep updating my reading list and see how close I can get. Half-way? I think that is the best I can realistically expect at this point and that will only happen by picking short books (which I have already been doing, though The Great Karoo made up for that by being extra-long.

Of late, most books I have picked up have not really drawn me in. I've even had one I decided I would not finish, it was so dull to me Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun.

Earlier this year, though, I did have quite a few books that I was absorbed in, mostly non-fiction, like Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky and even One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald. I'm due for something that engrosses me. My current book club read, The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory is certainly not doing it. It seems like quite the soap opera at this point, about midway through the book.

So it's come to this. The only book I've been able to finish in weeks is a Dilbert comic strip book. Even with such additions to my list of books read, I have read far fewer books this year than in the past two years.

I'm mostly doing readings for my Master's courses of late -- as expected. While most of these are articles, one prof. did assign 3/5 of a book as required reading and I hope to go back and read the other two chapters in December so that I can that book to my list of books read.

My book club meets next Tuesday and despite the fact that we are reading the Young Adult bestseller City of Bones and that I started it right after our last book club meeting (and was actually really enjoying it), I've put it aside and will be scrambling to finish it in time.

Books that I ordered from the library because I was particularly interested in reading are going unread.

Intrusion into my pleasure reading time is yet another reason I cannot wait to be done my Master's. Only two more months to go!

The December Dozen:

While I'll clearly not read all 81 books that comprise a 999 challenge, I'd like to end the year with a bit of a reading bonanza. With that in mind, I am hereby resolving to read a dozen books (or more!) this month.

Good luck!

Tomorrow is Do Nothing But Read Day and I am so in! Woo-hoo! I'm so glad I found out about it in time!

999 Wrap-Up: This year in reading...

Well, all told, I'd have to say 2009 wasn't the greatest reading year for me. Due to tumoultuousness in my personnal life, I wasn't very interested in reading for at least the first 3-4 months of the year. Later, in the fall, when I was very much interested in reading, my schedule was consumed with school work for my Master's. On November 30th, I breathed a very significant sigh of relief when that was done, and pledged that I would read a December dozen. I came close, reading 11 books in December (I'm calling it the non-baker's dozen). But they were generally very short books.

I read 43 books in 2009. That includes two Dilbert books but it does not include all the books I read partially for school. It certainly isn't anywhere near the 81 books I'd wanted to read to complete the 999 challenge.

But aside from quantity, 2009 was also a generally disappointing year for me in terms of quality of reading. Books I picked out from the library shelves because they spoke to me at that time didn't wind up being what I'd hoped; the book club I belong to included picks I wasn't particularly interested in; books I won from Early Reviewers (one in particular) were long and getting through them took tenacity; the chick lit I picked was generally just average. Overall, a lot more duds than I would consider an average for a group of that size.

Jeannette Wall's The Glass Castle stands out as my absolute favourite read of the year. It engrossed me. It fascinated me. It made me ponder all sorts of questions. It entertained me. It stayed with me.

Other books I really enjoyed this year are the following:
Open House by Elizabeth Berg
Fruit by Brian Francis
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky.

I also rated Bee Season and Water for Elephants really high, having thoroughly enjoyed them when I read them, but they haven't seemed to have stuck with me as memorable since I've put them down.

Thus ends my attempt at the 999 challenge. So long 2009!