27 December 2014: I finished both challenges! :D
Original post: Due to a change in life circumstances, I’m now able to tackle my massive mountain of fun books, aka non-academic related shinies. In the last two months, I’ve read 22 fun books—twenty-two! This is super exciting because ever since I decided to get serious about English literature, I never got to actually enjoy English literature as a reader, and not as an academic or researcher or someone-with-their-brain-perpetually-turned-on-while-words-are-present.
I’ve been keeping track of these books along with my general thoughts on them, and instead of hogging all the ranting and the gushing, I’m going to share them with the big, bad, scary Intermenet. And, seeing as I’m doing all this reading anyway, I thought it’d be fun to sign up to two rather funky challenges—so here we are!
The Colour Coded Challenge (hosted by My Reader’s Block)
1. A book with “Blue” or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc) in the title.
2. A book with “Red” or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgandy, etc) in the title.
3. A book with “Yellow” or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.) in the title.
4. A book with “Green” or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc) in the title.
5. A book with “Brown” or any shade of Brown (Tan, Chocolate, Beige, etc) in the title.
6. A book with “Black” or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title.
7. A book with “White” or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title.
8. A book with any other color in the title (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).
9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).
1: “Blue”: Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie
2: “Red”: Written in Red by Anne Bishop
3: “Yellow”: The Golden Bowl by Henry James
4: “Green”: Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
5: “Brown”: Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
6: “Black”: The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
7: “White”: White Oleander by Janet Fitch
8: “Other”: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
9: “Implied”: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
The Alphabet Soup Challenge (hosted by Escape With Dollycas Into a Good Book)
A:
Arabella by Georgette Heyer
B:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
C:
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
D:
Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider
E:
Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche
F:
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
G:
The Golden Bowl by Henry James
H:
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
I:
An Intelligent Life by Julian Short
J:
Julia’s Chocolates by Cathy Lamb
K:
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki (trans. Meredith McKinney)
L:
Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
M:
Midnight’s Children by Salmon Rushdie
N:
Nicomachean Ethics (
part two) by Aristotle
O:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
P:
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Q:
The Queen’s Captive by Barbara Kyle
R:
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
S:
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
T:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
U:
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
V:
A Very Accidental Love Story by Claudia Carroll
W:
Weeping Waters by Anne Maria Nicholson
X:
The Xenophobe’s Guide to the English by Antony Miall and David Milsted
Y:
You & I by Emily Gillmor Murphy
Z:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
I’ll keep this list updated as I devour the books, and will also post my reviews/thoughts/analyses/ramblings related to the pleasures of reading funfunfun books!
I know it might be a little late to make this a “proper” reading challenge, but I’m going to try to hold an “improper” one anyway (whatever that means). If you’re interested in joining me, please sign up using the “Add a Link” thingy below—participants who read at least one text will be in the running for a book prize at the end of the month!