Plans for 2020

By -
The New Year is fast approaching, and I haven't done any wrap-ups or sign-ups or anything.  I've gotta get moving!  So I'm going to take a page from other posts I've seen and cram a few things in together.

Every year I think about cutting back on challenges, and every year challenges pop up that are irresistible to my very greedy book-loving heart.  However, all the challenges I want to join are in line with my existing goals, which are:
  1. Continue to work on Reading ALL Around the World and my Classics Club list;
  2. Read as much history as I can cram into my brain (favorite things: UK and Russia/Eastern Europe);
  3. Also and at the same time, read whatever I want.
 Totally doable, right?  So, here are two events coming up soon, and two of the challenges that I plan to sign up for (but not all, because I'm still hoping some favorites will appear):

My favorite way to kick off a new year, the Vintage Sci-Fi Not-a-Challenge, is hosted by Little Red.  I've been hoarding up tattered old paperbacks all year!  And this year, she's included a bingo card!  Finally, a bingo card I can do!





















Dolce Bellezza is hosting a Japanese Literature Challenge that runs just from January to March and involves reading as much Japanese literature as you want.  I will probably just go for one title: Amrita, by Banana Yoshimoto -- but I do have a couple of others available to me as well.



Rachel at Hibernator's Library is hosting a history reading challenge, which is excellent news.  It's the History Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2020, and as Rachel says:
After scouring the archives of challenges in the past, I discovered a paucity of history challenges. I plan on reading a lot of history next year, and think it would be interesting to see what others are reading too. I will post a linky on the first day of every month so you can include any nonfiction history books you’re reading. The rules are not strict – if you consider the book to be history, then go ahead and post it.

That's just what I need!



And, Erica at The Broken Spine is hosting a new classics challenge, whee!  This is The Reading Classic Books Challenge, and the rules are as follows:

1) ALL books must have been first published in 1960 or earlier
2) Books must be read between January 1st and December 31st
3) Books may be used for up to two prompts

There are 12 prompts: 
1) Read a classic over 500 pages
2) Read a classic by a POC and/or with a POC as the main character
3) Read a classic that takes place in a country other than where you live
4) Read a classic in translation
5) Read a classic by a new to you author
6) Read a book of poetry
7) Read a classic written between 1800-1860
8) Read a classic written by an LGBT author and/or with an LGBT main character
9) Read a classic written by a woman
10) Read a classic novella
11) Read a classic nonfiction
12) Read a classic that has been banned or censored
Yep, that's a good one too.  Looking forward to a new year of happy reading!  I now have lots of relatives in town for Christmas, so I'll sign off until afterwards.  Happy holidays to you!

Comments

  1. Deb Nance at ReaderbuzzDecember 24, 2019 at 8:39 AM

    Wow. These sound lovely. I think I should do a post about all the great challenges out there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanDecember 24, 2019 at 11:08 AM

    Good idea! Spread the word! I know I'm always missing out because I don't hear about things until too late.

    ReplyDelete
  3. amanda @ simplerpastimesDecember 24, 2019 at 12:34 PM

    That sounds like a nice and reasonable group of challenges. I'm thinking I'm probably going to end up participating in Erica's Reading Classic Books Challenge, as I definitely need some added incentive to read from my Classics Club list (instead of whatever I feel like at that moment). Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Erica @ The Broken SpineDecember 24, 2019 at 9:11 PM

    Hi Jean, I'm glad your joining the Reading Classic Books Challenge. I can't wait to see what books you choose for the prompts. I just might have to check out The Vintage Sci Fi Challenge, it sounds interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BronaDecember 25, 2019 at 3:14 AM

    How lovely that we will be reading along with several of the same challenges in 2020 :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. RachelDecember 27, 2019 at 9:40 AM

    Thanks for reminding me about Erica's challenge. I had been considering it, but hadn't decided fully upon it yet. Maybe I'll take a peek at it again and see how possible it is with my current set of goals.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to know what you think, so please comment!

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Ages of Poetry

By -
Image
  "The Four Ages of Poetry," by Thomas Love Peacock I am becoming fond of Thomas Love Peacock.  Besides his unbeatable name, he was a lot of fun.  Peacock was a minor literary figure of the early 19th century; he tried his hand at poetry but mainly succeeded in satire.  I read his short novel Nightmare Abbey last year, but at the time I didn't know that the young hero of the story, Scythrop, was modeled on Peacock's good friend Percy Shelley.  He and Shelley were quite close and Peacock was the executor of Shelley's will. Thomas Love Peacock Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Four Ages of Poetry," a tongue-in-cheek essay on the history and development of poetry, was published in 1820 in a new magazine called Literary Miscellany , which promptly died.  It would probably have been completely obscure and unknown--it nearly is anyway--but for Shelley.  Peacock sent a copy to his friend, who I guess didn't really have much of a sense of...
Read more

A few short stories in Urdu

By -
Image
 Back in August, I got hold of a book of Urdu short stories translated into English.  It's a large book, so I wanted to read just the women authors for WIT, and that would still be a good amount.  August got away from me, and I only read one or two stories back then, but I've continued reading them since.  I've now finished all the short stories in the book that were written by women (luckily for me, there are short biographies in an appendix, since I could only tell from the name about half the time).  I'll just highlight a couple: "The Wagon," by Khalida Asghar, is a hallucinatory, apocalyptic story.  The narrator meets three strange men who are watching the evening sky and point out that it has become red.  No one had noticed until they said so, but the sky is now strangely red.  Then a smell arrives, so offensive and sickening that it causes real pain -- but only once it's pointed out.  And finally, a mysterious wagon, which may be the s...
Read more

Faerie Queen Readalong I: Redcrosse, the Knight of Holiness

By -
Image
I did it, I read all of Book I!  My minimum requirement was two cantos a day, but I managed three a couple of times.  I'm hoping to read ahead, because I'll be gone for two weeks in the middle of this event and I'd like to be able to prep a post ahead of time...but the schedule is already pretty demanding.  The reading is not terribly difficult, but it is slow.  I keep thinking that I've read a large chunk, only to look back and realize that in fact I have read six verses.  So here we go with analysis... Each book in the Faerie Queene features a knight, and a story, about a particular virtue.  The Redcrosse Knight, to be known as St. George after he accomplishes his feats, is all about Holinesse .  This does not mean that Redcrosse already exemplifies holiness; he doesn't.  Holiness is what he's working towards and struggling with.  His foes symbolize various forms of unholiness, and he falls into their clutches at least as often as he ...
Read more