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2008: A Reading Year in Review

  • Dec. 31st, 2008 at 2:11 PM
So here we are, on the last day of 2008.  Time to sum up the year, which was a good one!  I read 81 books in 2008, totalling 25,593 pages (precisely!).  In a typical month I read 6 books, plus or minus one.  My average rating was 3.6 on a scale of 1 to 5, and there were 5 books I just couldn't finish.  Do you like statistics?  I do!  Here's a graphical view:

 

I also tend to be goal-oriented and organize my reading to meet various challenges.  During 2008 I completed six time-based challenges:
As the year progressed, I began to crave a bit more flexibility than the time-based challenges allowed, and I focused more of my reading on perpetual challenges.  I'm happy with my progress on these, also:
  • Complete Booker : my goal was to read 6.  I nailed this one!  By reading 11 Booker Prize winners, I doubled my total number of Bookers read, and am now halfway to completing the list.
  • Pulitzer Project : I wanted to read 8-10, and managed to read 8.
  • Orange Prize Project : my goal was to read 4, and I read 5.
  • Read the Nobels: I wanted to read 8-10 and came in right in the middle, with 9.
  • Reading Across Borders : I wanted to repeat my 2007 goal of "visiting" 20 new countries during the year.  And I did it!!  I've now visited 52 of the world's 192 countries.
  • Virago Modern Classics: I began collecting VMCs late in 2007, and by April 2008 I decided I really should read more of these delightful works by women authors.  I set a goal to read 6, and read 8.
And, just to prove to myself that my life is not as ridiculously regimented as some would think (LOL), I even read 10 books just for fun, not for any challenge at all!  And whaddaya know, I liked that.  After two years of reading driven heavily by challenges, I've found I really need to provide more flexibility and spontaneity along with some specific reading goals.  I've also found that I most enjoy books by and/or about women and while I certainly read male-authored books, after reading a few I find myself craving the feminine voice.  This will definitely influence my reading choices in 2009.
 
I’ll close this year in review with my Top 5 for 2008:
  1. Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri (review)
  2. The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville (review)
  3. A Death in the Family, by James Agee (review)
  4. Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton (review)
  5. All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West (review)
I hope your reading year was as good as mine.  Best wishes for a happy, book-filled, 2009.

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Reading Across Borders – 2008 Goals & Progress

  • Nov. 28th, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Reading Across Borders – Progress as of December 31, 2008 (52 countries visited)
create your own visited country map 

I “visited” 20 new countries in 2007, mostly through the New York Times Notable Books challenge. In 2008, I will use my Read the Nobels project to kick-start my journey. Overall I’d really like to visit 20 more new countries this year. These include:
  1. Italy - The Leopard, by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (completed 1/27/2008 - review)
  2. Sweden - Astrid and Veronika, by Linda Olsson (completed 1/28/2008 - review)
  3. Turkey - My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk (DNF 2/23/2008 - review)
  4. Haiti - Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (completed 3/1/2008 - review)
  5. Morocco - Stolen Lives, by Malika Oufkir (completed 3/7/2008 - review)
  6. New Zealand - The Bone People, by Keri Hulme (completed 3/30/2008 - review)
  7. Somalia - Links, by Nuruddin Farah (completed 5/16/2008 - review)
  8. Algeria - Women of Algiers in their apartment, by Assia Djebar (completed 6/16/2008 - review)
  9. Austria - The Piano Teacher, Elfriede Jelinek (DNF 8/16/2008 - review)
  10. Portugal - Baltasar and Blimunda, by Jose Saramago (DNF 8/2/2008 - review)
  11. Sri Lanka - Mosquito, by Roma Tearne (completed 8/20/2008 - review)
  12. Iceland - Independent People, by Halldor Laxness (completed 8/29/2008 - review)
  13. Hungary - Embers, by Sandor Marai (completed 9/13/2008 - review)
  14. Brazil* - A Death in Brazil, by Peter Robb (completed 10/30/2008 - review)
  15. Denmark - Smilla's Sense of Snow, by Peter Hoeg (completed 11/14/2008 - review)
  16. Spain - The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (completed 11/20/2008 - review)
  17. Argentina - My Name Is Light, by Elsa Osorio (completed 11/28/2008 - review)
  18. Saudia Arabia - Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea (completed 12/2/2008 - review)
  19. Kenya - Unbowed, by Wangari Maathai (completed 12/20/2008 - review)
  20. Albania - Broken April, by Ismail Kadare (completed 12/9/2008 - review)
Complete List of Countries Read (with links to reviews where available)
All "visits" are based on author's nationality, unless marked with an asterisk, which indicates "sense of place." 
 
 
Mexico - The Book of Lamentations (review) - Rosario Castellanos 

Central American and the Caribbean
Haiti - Breath, Eyes, Memory (review) - Edwidge Danticat

South America
Argentina - My Name is Light (review) - Elsa Osorio
Brazil* - A Death in Brazil (review) - Peter Robb
Chile - Daughter of Fortune (review) - Isabel Allende
Colombia - One Hundred Years of Solitude (review) - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Peru - Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (review) - Mario Vargas Llosa

Africa 
Algeria - Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (review) - Assia Djebar
Congo/Brazzaville* - The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Egypt - The Yacoubian Building (review) - Alaa Al Aswany 
Kenya - Unbowed (review) - Wangari Maathai
Morocco - Stolen Lives (review) - Malika Oufkir
Nigeria - Half of a Yellow Sun (review) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Sierra Leone - A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (review) - Ishmael Beah 
Somalia - Links (review) - Nuruddin Farah
South Africa - A Long Walk to Freedom (review) - Nelson Mandela
Sudan - The Translator (review) - Leila Aboulela
Zimbabwe - Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller

Europe 
Albania - Broken April (review) - Ismail Kadare
Austria - The Piano Teacher (review) - Elfriede Jelinek
Denmark - Smilla's Sense of Snow (review) - Peter Hoeg
France - Suite Francaise (review) - Irene Nemirovksy
Germany - Night - Elie Wiesel
Hungary - Embers (review) - Sandor Marai
Iceland - Independent People (review) - Halldor Laxness
Ireland – At Swim, Two Boys – Jamie O’Neill 
Italy - The Leopard (review) - Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Netherlands* - Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
Norway - The Bookseller of Kabul (review) - Asne Seierstad
Poland – The Pianist – Wladislaw Szpilman
Portugal - Baltasar and Blimunda  (review) - Jose Saramago
Russia - The Master and Margarita (review) - Mikhail Bulgakov 
Spain - The Shadow of the Wind (review) -  Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Sweden - Astrid and Veronika (review) - Linda Olsson 
United Kingdom - Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

Middle East
Afghanistan – The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Israel - A Woman in Jerusalem (review) - Abraham Yehoshua 
Saudia Arabia - Girls of Riyadh (review) - Rajaa Alsanea
Turkey - My Name is Red (review) - Orhan Pamuk

Asia
Bangladesh - Alentejo Blue (review) - Monica Ali
China - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Daj Sijie
India - The Inheritance of Loss (review) - Kiran Desai
Japan* - Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Myanmar* - The Lizard Cage (review) - Karen Connelly
Pakistan - The Reluctant Fundamentalist (review) - Mohsin Hamid 
Sri Lanka - Mosquito (review) - Roma Tearne

Australia and Pacific
Australia - The Book Thief (review) - Markus Zusak
New Zealand - The Bone People (review) - Keri Hulme

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Complete Booker – 2008 Goals & Progress

  • Nov. 9th, 2008 at 1:30 PM
I’ve followed the Booker Prize for several years now, and started The Complete Booker to encourage others to join me in reading works by these great authors. I read 4 Booker winners in 2007, so I’ll begin 2008 having read 11 of the 41 winners. Not that I need any motivation, but I’m also going to participate in Dewey’s Man Booker Challenge!
 

Before the year is out, I’d like to read at least 6 Booker winners, including:
Complete List of Booker Winners Read (with links to reviews where available):
2007 - The Gathering (Enright) 
2006 - The Inheritance of Loss (Desai)
2005 - The Sea (Banville)
2004 - The Line of Beauty (Hollinghurst)
2002 - Life of Pi (Martel)
2001 - True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey)
2000 - The Blind Assassin (Atwood)
1998 - Amsterdam: A Novel (McEwan)
1997 - The God of Small Things (Roy)
1996 - Last Orders (Swift)
1992 - The English Patient (Ondaatje)
1992 - Sacred Hunger (Unsworth)  
1990 - Possession: A Romance (Byatt)
1988 - Oscar and Lucinda (Carey)
1985 - The Bone People (Hulme)
1984 - Hotel du Lac (Brookner) 
1981 - Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
1978 - The Sea, the Sea (Murdoch)
1977 - Staying on (Scott)
1975 - Heat and Dust (Jhabvala)
1974 - The Conservationist (Gordimer)
1971 - In a Free State (Naipaul)

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Pulitzer Project - 2008 Goals & Progress

  • Oct. 12th, 2008 at 6:30 AM
I joined The Pulitzer Project because I love reading prize-winning books. I read 5 Pulitzer winners in 2007, which was a lot less than I hoped. I’ll start 2008 having read 12 of the 81 winners. Before the year is out, I’d like to read another 8-10, including:
Complete List of Pulitzers Read (with links to reviews where available)
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Díaz) (DNF)
2007 - The Road (MacCarthy) 
2006 - March (Brooks)
2004 - The Known World (Jones)
2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides)
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)
1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)
1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)
1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1988 - Beloved (Morrison)
1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee) 
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)
1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)
1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)

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Orange Prize Project - 2008 Goals and Progress

  • Oct. 9th, 2008 at 11:00 AM





I love reading prize winners, so when Wendy (aka Caribousmom) announced The Orange Prize Project, there was no question about my participation. I have an aggressive reading plan for 2008 already, so my goal before the year is out is to read at least 4 Orange Prize winners or shortlisted works, including: 

  • 2007 - A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, by Xiaolu Guo (completed 8/10/08 - review)
  • 2004 - Small Island, by Andrea Levy - WINNER (completed 5/24/08 - review)
  • 2004 - Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (completed 9/10/08 - review)
  • 2002 - Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters (completed 12/26/2008 - review)
  • 2001 - The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville - WINNER (completed 10/8/08 - review)

Complete List of Orange Prize Fiction Winners & Shortlists Read (with links to reviews where available):

2007
Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - WINNER (review)
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai (review)
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, by Xiaolu Guo (review)

2006
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith - WINNER
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

2005 
We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver - WINNER (review)
Old Filth, by Jane Gardam (review)

2004
Small Island, by Andrea Levy - WINNER (review)
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (review)

2003
Unless, by Carol Shields

2002
Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett- WINNER
Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters (review)

2001
The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville - WINNER (review)
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

2000
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

1999
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise, by Toni Morrison

1998
The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve

1996
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan
Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler
 

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Read the Nobels – 2008 Goals & Progress

  • Aug. 17th, 2008 at 7:40 AM
Like The Complete Booker and The Pulitzer Project, Read the Nobels is an opportunity to read award-winning authors. I read 3 Nobel winners in 2007, which is pretty pathetic progress. In 2008 I’d like to read another 8-10, several of which will also count for my personal Reading Across Borders challenge. These include:
  1. 2006 - Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red (DNF 2/23/2008 - review)
  2. 2004 - Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher (DNF 8/16/2008 - review)
  3. 2002 - Imre Kertész - Kaddish for a Child not Born (completed 10/24/2008 - review)
  4. 2001 - V.S. Naipaul - In a Free State (completed 4/23/2008 - review)
  5. 1998 - Jose Saramago - Baltasar and Blimunda (DNF 8/2/2008 - review)
  6. 1991 - Nadine Gordimer - The Conservationist (completed 11/25/2008 - review)
  7. 1955 - Halldor Laxness - Independent People (completed 8/29/2008 - review)
  8. 1954 - Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea (completed 8/9/2008 - review)
  9. 1938 - Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth (completed 10/23/2008 - review)
Complete List of Nobels Read (with links to reviews where available):
2007 - Doris Lessing - Love, Again
2006 - Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red (review)
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher (review)
2003 - J. M. Coetzee - Elizabeth Costello
2002 - Imre Kertész - Kaddish for a Child not Born (review)
2001 - V.S. Naipaul - In a Free State (review)
1998 - Jose Saramago - Baltasar and Blimunda (review)
1993 - Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon, Beloved, Paradise, Love
1991 - Nadine Gordimer - The Conservationist  (review)
1983 - William Golding - Lord of the Flies
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude (review)
1962 - John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath (review), East of Eden (review)
1955 - Halldor Laxness - Independent People (review)
1954 - Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea (review)
1938 - Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth (review)

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A Novel Challenge Yahoo Group - 2008 Mini-Challenges

  • Aug. 9th, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Sponsored by group owner, Wendy (caribousmom)
 


As a member of the Yahoo Group A Novel Challenge, I'll be participating in this fun set of mini-challenges throughout the year!

1. Complete all twelve mini-challenges from January 1st through December 31st of 2008 and become eligible for some fun prizes at the end of the year. DO NOT start this challenge prior to January 1, 2008.
2. Challenges may be completed in any order and may overlap other challenges. Work through them at your own speed.
3. Participants must EITHER post their progress (and reviews if appropriate) to their blog with links to the Yahoo group OR directly to the Yahoo group.
 

Here are the challenges:
 
1. Read a short story - review it - Completed 5/16/2008.  I read Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, a fantastic colleciton of 5 short stories and a novella.  The title story and the novella were my favorites (read my review).
2. Read a children's book - review it - Completed 8/9/2008 with the YA Novella, The Old Man and the Sea (review).
3. Read a poem - tell us about it - Completed 1/6/2008.  In a collection of poetry by Langston Hughes, Comment on War was particularly powerful. I wrote about it here. 
4. Read a banned book - review it - Completed 10/2/2008.  I read The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall (read my review)
5. Give a book away (you may donate to charity, give a book to a friend, leave a book "in the wild" to be found by another reader...as long as you do not sell it!) - post why you chose the book you did and where it went. Completed 2/27/2008.  I recently read The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch.  An online reading friend expressed interest in her work.  I had two of her books that I was prepared to give away.  She asked for only one, but I sent both as a little surprise (The Sandcastle, and The Accidental Man).  She was thrilled!
6. Read two (2) articles from any one magazine - tell us about them - Completed 2/10/2008.  I read the February issue of The Sun, a literary magazine.  Read about it here.
7. Read a classic (for this challenge a classic is defined as a piece of literature which has stood the test of time, has literary merit, is widely read, and was published prior to 1970) - review it - Completed 1/17/2008.  I read two classics back-to-back:  Cry, the Beloved Country (review) and Things Fall Apart (review).
8. Go to a book event and then tell the group about your experience (book events may be library events, author readings, seminars/lectures pertaining to books or reading, etc...)
9. Read an essay - tell us about it
10. Read something inspirational - tell the group why it inspired you - Completed 4/13/2008.  I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  My review describes why I found it so inspiring.
11. Read a book written by a "new-to-you" author - review it - Completed 2/3/2008.  I read The Secret River, by Kate Grenville (review).  This was also my final book for the Unread Authors Challenge. 
12. Participate in a group or buddy read and discussion (this can be either a face to face book club, an on line group, or a blog/buddy read). Tell the group what you read and with whom; give us a review!  Completed 3/31//2008.  I participated in two theme reads on LibraryThing.  The "Reading Globally" group read and discussed books by Haitian authors.  I read Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory (read my review).  There was a lively discussion about Haiti's culture and literature.  In the "Girlybooks" group, which reads books by and about women, the March theme was "social class" and for this I read Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us (review).  Themed reads are becoming more prevalent on LibraryThing and I'm looking forward to participating in others!

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Reading the Prizes - 2009

  • Feb. 4th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
I'm participating in a number of long-term reading projects reading from lists of prizewinners.  This is a master list of sorts with links to the project blog and to my goals / reading list for each prize:

2009 Goals:Archives:

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