ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Completed challenges

2010

The Complete Booker (an ongoing challenge with no time limit.  I read three:

• 1972 G by John Berger; see my review
• 2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright); see my review
• 2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, see my review

Read the Nobels (another ongoing challenge with no time limit)

• 1929 Thomas Mann -  Buddenbrooks (doubling up with the Support Your Local Library Challenge below), see my review
• 1946 Herman Hesse
• 1973 Patrick White:
  • Voss, see my review
  • The Twyborn Affair, see my review
  • The Solid Mandala, see my review
• 1981 Elias Canetti Auto-da-Fe, see my review
• 1998 Jose Saramago The Double, see my review
• 2002 Imre Kertesz, Fateless/Fatelessness, see my review (doubling up with the Support Your Local Library Challenge)
• 2004  Elfriede Jelinek The Piano Teacher, see my review (doubling up with 1001 Books You Must Read above, and the Support Your Local Library Challenge below)
• 2006 Orhan Pamuk The Museum of Innocence, (doubling up with the Book Awards Reading Challenge IV),  see my review

 The 1% Well-read Challenge (10 from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)

1. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, (doubling up with the Support Your Local Library Challenge below), see my review (Oops, this one doesn’t count because the challenge runs from April 2010 to April 2011 and I read it in January 2010.)
2. The Double by Jose Saramago, see my review
3. G by John Berger; see my review (doubled up with The Booker, below)
4. At Swim – Two Birds, by Flann O’Brien, see my review
5. Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti, see my review
6. Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, see my review
7. Pére Goriot (Old Father Goriot) by Honoré de Balzac, see my summary (at Good Reads)
8. The Red and the Black by Stendhal, see my review
9. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, see my review
10.  The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek, see my review (doubling up with Read the Nobels and the Support Your Local Library Challenge below)
11. City of God by E.L. Doctorow, see my review (doubling up with the Support Your Local Library Challenge below).

The Classics Challenge was on between April 1-October 31, 2010, and I signed up for a Classics Snack (4 classics) because again I wanted to do an all-Australian list and the timeline is short. I finished in July.

• The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead, see my review.
• To the Islands by Randolph Stow, see my review.
• Trap, by Peter Mathers (doubling up with the Book Awards Challenge), see my review.
• The Harp in the South, by Ruth Park, see my review.

The Aussie Author Challenge.  It was a bit cheeky joining this as a challenge because I read so much Australian literature anyway, but on the other hand it would have been shabby not to support it.  I  signed up at the ‘Fair Dinkum’ level which meant reading 8 books between Jan 1 and Dec 31 2010, but I finished in less than three months!

1. January: Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville, see my review
2. January: Brief Encounters by Susannah Fullerton, see my review
3. January: Nothing Like a Dame, the Life of Dame Phyllis Frost by Bernadette Clohesy, see my review
4. January:  Joe Wilson and His Mates by Henry Lawson , see my review
5. February: The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard, see my review
6. February: Ransom by David Malouf, see my review
7. February: Appo, Recollections of a Member of the Sydney Push by Richard Appleton, see my review
8. March: A Body of Water by Beverley Farmer, see my review

Library Thing’s 75 Books in a Year was easy.  I didn’t read all the books I’d planned to but the plan was never intended to be followed slavishly anyway and the TBR has gone down a fair bit which is what I wanted.  I finished the 75 in August, and at the time of writing this I still have 6 weeks of the year left.  You can see the list of books I read here.  (Scroll down to comments). 

Then there was the What’s in a Name? challenge, and once again I completed  this with all-Australian titles. The What’s in a Name Challenge 3 was  completed between January 1 and December 31, 2010. This year, the criteria was:

• A book with a food in the title: Pickle to Pie by Glenice Whitting, see my review.
• A book with a body of water in the title: Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville , see my review
• A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: Nothing Like a Dame, the Life of Dame Phyllis Frost by Bernadette Clohesy, see my review.
• A book with a plant in the title: Trouble in Lotus Land by Charmian Clift, see my review.
• A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: Not Going to Vietnam by Garrie Hutchinson (out of print), see my review.
• A book with a music term in the title: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally, see my review.

The 2010 Support your Local Library challenge (25 titles checked out & read between January 1 & December 31st – these will be serendipitous choices) .

1. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, see my review.
2. Nothing Like a Dame, the Life of Dame Phyllis Frost by Bernadette Clohesy, see my review.
3. A Body of Water by Beverley Farmer, see my review.
4. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, see my review.
5. The Australian Long Story edited by Mandy Sayer, see my review.
6. The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam, see my review.
7. Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow, see my review.
8. The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong, see my review.
9. Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett, see my review.
10. The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster, see my review.
11. The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah, see my review.
12. The Second-Last Woman in England by Maggie Joel, see my review.
13. Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor, see my review.
14. Slow Journeys by Gillian Souter, see my review.
15. Glissando by David Musgrave, see my review.
16. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, see my review.
17. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, see my review.
18. The Infinities by John Banville, see my review
19. The Translator by Daoud Hari, see my review
20. Milk Fever by Lisa Reece-Lane, see my review
21. Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor, see my review
22. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek, see my review
23. Fateless/Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz, see my review (doubling up with Read the Nobels)
24. Ways of Escape by Hugh Mackay, see my review
25. City of God by E.L. Doctorow, see my review

2009

The Classics Challenge (April-October 2009)

The What’s in a Name Challenge 2009

Library Thing 2009  75 Books in a Year Challenge, see Lisa’s list of books read in 2009  or here

2008

The State Library of Victoria Summer Read Shortlist 2008

The Indigenous Literacy Project: Readers’ Quest 2008

The 1% Well-read Challenge 2008

Not quite completed challenges

2010

The Book Awards Reading Challenge IV. What is it about this challenge??  This is the second year in a row I’ve flunked it!  I’d aimed to read one book from each of the following awards to make up 10 between January 1, 2010 and November 1, 2010 – but I only got to four of them (and three of those were doubling up with other challenges anyway.)  Oh well, the books are still near the top of the TBR and I will get to them soon.    

1. Booker Prize UK; 2009 Wolf Hall  by Hilary Mantel (doubling up with the Booker Challenge) see my review
2. Commonwealth Writers Prize; 1989   The Carpathians by Janet Frame,
3. Giller Award Canada; 1996 Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood or 2005 The Time in Between by David Bergen;
4. The Governor-General’s Award (Canada); 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, (doubling up with the The Complete Booker)
5. The Dublin IMPAC Award; 2003 My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
6. The Miles Franklin Award (of course!); 1966  Trap, by Peter Mathers (doubling up with the Classics Challenge)
7. The National Book Award (USA); 2005 Europe Central by William T. Vollmann
8. The National Book Critics Circle Award (USA); 2005 The March by E.L. Doctorow
9. The Nobel Prize for Literature; Orhan Pamuk 2006 The Museum of Innocence, (doubling up with Read the Nobels) see my review
10. The Orange Prize for Fiction; 2008: The Road Home by Rose Tremain  see my review
11. The PEN/Faulkner Award (USA); 1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
12. The Pulitzer Prize (USA); 1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
13. World Fantasy Award: 2006: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2009

The Book Awards Reading Challenge II