CHALLENGE: Notable Book Challenge, Update

A Short History of a Reading Challenge:

Once upon a time, I met some bloggers who read books. All the books I liked to read - the ones you find on lists. I haven't decided if it's the books I like, or just checking off the lists, either way, I am having fun. Way back in once upon a time 2007, Wendy, at caribousmom, organized a challenge to read a number of books from the NY Times Notable Book list. *Historical note: She was probably one of the first people to set up a blog specifically for a challenge. She invited participants to post reviews to the group blog. I tiptoed around, reading their reviews, reading some of the books, and then finally getting brave enough to join in all the fun. I read a great group of books from the list that year:

• Half of a Yellow Sun - Aldichie *best of this list*
  
• The Echo Maker - Richard Powers
• The Translator - Leila Aboulela
• Arthur and George - Julien Barnes
• The Road - Cormac McCarthy
• Alentejo Blue - Monica Ali
• One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson

The next year, 2008, wendy expanded the challenge to include notable book lists from several sources besides NY Times. She made another blog, with all the lists available. Lots more people joined. Each time, she left the challenge parameters up to the reader, to set their own personal challenge. In 2008, I read:

• The Gathering by Ann Enright (NYT 2007)
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (PW Best Book)
• The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak (2007 IRA CL/R SIG Notable Books) *best*
  
• House of Meeting by Martin Amis (NYT 2007)
• Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (NYT 2007)
• In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (NYT 2007)
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (ALA 2007) *best*
  
• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (NYT 2007)

In 2009, she made it a perpetual challenge. I confess, I forgot about going to the blog but I still had the lists in the back of my mind. I made my own post that I use to keep track of the books I've read from the NY Times Notable books each year, copying the idea from Michelle at onemorechapter. (I copy lots of great ideas from Michelle, thanks!) I limited it to NY Times just for convenience - how many lists can I keep track of anyway? Many of the same books get listed anyway. It appears that 8 books is about my average each year to read from the list.

Today I saw an update from Wendy which made me remember this little personal challenge. While there are still two months left in the year, I have already read 8 books from the NY Times notable book lists over the years. I don't pick just from the latest year, I allow myself to pick from any of the lists because there are still tons of great books I've missed over the years. So the list from this year:

• The Road Home - Rose Tremain
• Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
• Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
  
• Dancing to Almendra - Maya Montero
  
• Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris *best*
  
• The View From Castle Rock - Alice Munro
• American Wife - Curtis Sittenfield
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
  

I can't see me reading anymore this year, but I'll try again next year, and keep reading these listed books. Thanks Wendy, for starting this whole challenge, and promoting good books and the community of book bloggers.