I've thought of an idea for a reading challenge: see how many challenges you can sign up for. I think I could do really well at one like that. The problem is that I make a list of books I'd like to read, not that it is feasible or remotely possible. As I check my list of books to read, I 'hmm, nodding, I want to read it' or 'yes, I can't wait to get to that one' and when I try to make a list of books that are priority, there's 6 or 7. So I am continuing to sign up for challenges, and dream that I'll read all those books, and in reality, I'll read what I want and what seems to be next and I'll finish a few challenges along the way. The point is to have fun and enjoy myself. No stress. Are you getting stressed by reading challenges or keeping it all in perspective?
Reading wise, I am in Ireland gathering the family and the memories for the funeral of a brother. Now and then, I pop into Brooklyn to see how that tree is growing. And I've started a new book today, 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa that I plan to read slowly, maybe a story a day, so as not to be overwhelmed. This could be a tough read.
Where is reading taking you today?
I'm in 1920s California, right in the thick of an oil strike, but I'm also in Oxford, applying advanced theories of mathematics to try and solve a murder.
ReplyDeleteOil - Upton Sinclair
The Oxford Murders - Guillermo Martinez.
I really love this feature on your blog!
Oh it's its maxing out on challenges I must be a contender!
ReplyDeleteReading wise I have just started Blackstock College in my novel in America somewhere and am just settling in to my dorm. I will at some point be dragged in to the Scottish Ballad Tam Lin but having only just started my adventure I will have to wait and see how...
I'm so with you on the challenges! I may not finish them all, but they opened up a whole new world of books to me that I may not have looked at otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI am in Civil War Spain hanging around with an orphan girl and her disturbingly dysfunctional extended family -- Nada by Carmen Laforet.
I'm under the floorboards in Great Aunt Sophy's house with Pod, Homily and Arietty. I'm thoroughly enjoying re-reading Mary Nortons's The Borrowers for the Heart of a Child Challenge.
ReplyDeleteNow there's a challenge I would love. Join up, make all those luscious lists, but not to worry about reading them all. I need to stop doing challenges because I have too many books from publishers that I need to get reviewing.
ReplyDeleteSo - where am I? I'm in Smalltown, Utah where I discovered a dead body in my Grandmother's house that's been locked up for 20 years, and which I've just inherited.
Also in Hawaii where a child's dead body was just discovered at the Pearl Harbor Memorial
And I'm excavating in Egypt with Amelia Peabody and family.
You may have noticed that I'm no longer in Newfoundland. Finished that book last night.
bybee - they both sound excellent. A math novel? awesome. and thanks
ReplyDeleterhinoa - I love the anticipation of starting a new epic novel. Have fun
lezlie - I haven't heard of your book, but then I havent' heard of many in today's comments
suziq - I dont' think I ever read The Borrowers as a child. I should get one for my daughter to read.
booklogged - it's a pretty good problem to have too many books to read, isn't it?
How do you decide which book to pick up next with such different book choices on the go? They all look very interesting.
Not a bad challenge idea. Or as a slightly different take on it, try to find a single book that meets that criteria for as many different challenges as you can.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm in the U.S. after being kicked out of Nova Scotia. (Longfellow's Evangeline)
Let's see. I've been all over today.
ReplyDeleteFirst I was in various different worlds in the Amber Spyglass (too complex to try to come up with anything clever here...)
Then I was in Scotland while my husband was trying to free his men from Spencer Prison. (Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon)
Then back with Will and Lyra in the Amber Spyglass.
Then I was loading a strange trunk onto the Never Land in Peter and the Starcatchers.
I'm getting ready to be in Venice, where I have just been proposed to by a prominent member of society (The Venetian Mask by Rosemary Laker).
Surprisingly, I don't feel like I've done much reading, as The Amber Spyglass and Dragonfly in Amber (oh, how weird, I just realized I'm reading two books with "amber" in the title) are audiobooks, and I only read a chapter of Peter and the Starcatchers for bedtime...
Oh dear--28 stories of Aids sounds heavy! I'm in 19th century China (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan). It is MUCH better than the drug rehab in Minnesota I was in last week! :)
ReplyDeleteI am in the middle of the Crimean war (Russia in the 1850s in The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon) and spending time with a mermaid (Sleeping with the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson).
ReplyDeletejohn - probably not the best visit to the Maritimes
ReplyDeletesomer - I liked both your Amber books. That is a strange coincidence
trish - it's not too bad, but I've only just started. It's certainly a view of a different life.
marg - When I hear Sebastapol, I think of The Eyre Affair and Thursday Next, becasue the Crimean War hasn't ended in that book. Or else the Inspector Monk books by Anne Perry; Hester nursed in the Crimea.
I'm in Virginia; the American Civil War is raging around me. I also hitch-hiked all over Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, last night. That was fun. And, I've been at a camp in Maine with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. Plus, I dipped my toes into a fantasy world, the name of which currently escapes me. I love it when you ask where reading is taking us. That's such a fun question. :)
ReplyDeletebookfool - You've had a busy week reading, all over the States like that.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to hear how people describe their reading.
Yes, I'm great at joining challenges, love making the lists and then read what I want and wonder if it'll fit in one or more of the challenges.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I'm in Bali, with Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), in Edinburgh with Inspector Rebus (Ian Rankin), in France with M Madeleine(Les Miserables)and in Bascom, North Carolina - is this a real place? - with the Waverley sisters (Garden Spells).
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