The Categories

1. Story of Their Lives :: biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs
2. Once Upon a Time :: fairy tales, myths, and legends
3. The Twentieth Century :: classics of the last century
4. I Spy :: secret agents, intelligencers, and master spies
5. The Butler Did It :: mysteries
6. All Aboard :: ships and scallywags
7. The Play's the Thing :: famous plays
8. The Austen Marathon :: Austen-related books
9. On the Shelf :: books I own but haven't read yet
10. Gallimaufry :: whatever I want!

edited 9/7/09 :: Discworld deleted, All Aboard added
edited 11/4/09 :: Law and Order deleted, The Butler Did It added

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2009, 10:33pm.

Story of Their Lives

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The Twentieth Century

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I Spy

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The Butler Did It

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Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2009, 10:33pm.

All Aboard

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Message edited by its author, Sep 7, 2009, 4:23pm.

The Play's the Thing

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On the Shelf

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Gallimaufry

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Love your categories, but what kind of word is "gallimaufry"?

edit spelling

Message edited by its author, Aug 12, 2009, 12:32am.

An explanatory note:

I've decided to aim for a 10x10 challenge in 2010; a list of 100 books seems just about doable to me. Although I've enjoyed my 999 categories, I'm changing most of them because I want to move on to different things! I'm keeping On the Shelf, though, in the (probably futile) hope that someday I will actually have read all the books I own. I've tried to choose a nice mix of "fun" and "work" categories, and I'm very excited for next year! Should finish my 999 first, though.... :)

Below are the books I'm considering right now for each category. Asterisks (*) denote books I own. The list is subject to change at my despotic whim!

Story of Their Lives
1. John Adams by David McCullough
2. Marie Antoinette by Hilaire Belloc*
3. A biography of William Wilberforce
4. Ditto Alexander Hamilton
5. Ditto Elizabeth I
6. Harriette Wilson's Memoirs: The Greatest Courtesan of Her Age*
7. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography*

Once Upon a Time
1. Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
2. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
3. Hood by Stephen Lawhead*
4. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier*
5. Prospero's Children by Jan Siegel
6. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart*
7. The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart*
8. The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart*
9. The Forestwife by Theresa Tomlinson
10. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

The Twentieth Century
1. The Stranger by Albert Camus
2. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
3. The Trial by Franz Kafka
4. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
5. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell
7. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
8. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
9. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
10. Night by Elie Wiesel

I Spy
1. Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen
2. Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow
3. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
4. The Laurentine Spy by Emily Gee
5. A Sundial in a Grave: 1610 by Mary Gentle*
6. Beneath a Silent Moon by Tracy Grant
7. All Other Nights by Dara Horn
8. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
9. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig

Law and Order
1. The Republic and The Laws by Cicero
2. Commentaries on the Laws of England v. 1 by William Blackstone*
3. The Spirit of the Laws by Montesquieu
4. Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
5. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
6. Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
7. The History of Freedom and Other Essays by Lord Acton
8. The Gulag Archipelago by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn*
9. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

Discworld
1. The Light Fantastic*
2. Equal Rites
3. Mort
4. Sourcery
5. Wyrd Sisters
6. Pyramids
7. Guards! Guards!
8. Eric
9. Moving Pictures
10. Reaper Man

The Play's the Thing
1. Clouds by Aristophanes
2. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
3. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
4. The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe
5. Tartuffe by Moliere*
6. Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
7. The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan*
8. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
9. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
10. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

The Austen Marathon
1. North by Northanger by Carrie Bebris
2. Flirting with Pride and Prejudice by Jennifer Crusie, ed.*
3. The Improvement of the Estate by Alistair Duckworth*
4. Jane Austen and the Theatre by Penny Gay*
5. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith*
6. Colonel Brandon's Diary by Amanda Grange
7. Jane Austen: Her Life by Park Honan*
8. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye*
9. Jane Austen and Her Times, 1775-1817 by G. E. Mitton*
10. Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners by Josephine Ross*

edited to fix touchstones

Message edited by its author, Aug 17, 2009, 6:54pm.

@12 :: sjm - according to dictionary.com, a gallimaufry is a hodgepodge, jumble, or confused medley. I just like the word. :)

Message edited by its author, Aug 12, 2009, 12:39am.

What a great assembly of things to read and then have read. I hope you will find the time to report out on them. I am going to wishlist some of your fun reads.

It looks like a few of us have Briar Rose picked out for next year. Would you like to try a tandem read? And I loved Wildwood Dancing. I want to read the next one Cybele's Secret now.

@15 :: Thanks! :) I'm planning to post my thoughts on my Challenge books at this thread.

@16 :: I'm definitely up for a tandem read. Apparently VictoriaPL is also reading Briar Rose, so maybe we can start a group thread when the time comes! :)

Message edited by its author, Aug 12, 2009, 5:44pm.

>16, 17 I'd like to join in, too, with Briar Rose!

All of your Once Upon a Time books look great! The only ones I've read are the Mary Stewart books, which I enjoyed very much.

Apparently I own Briar Rose and I can't remember whether I've read it... so maybe I'll join in the group read too! That's one book for my Fairy Tales etc. category.

@18 and 19 :: As far as I'm concerned, you're both welcome to join in...I think we have a group read on our hands!

And ivyd, I'm glad you liked the Mary Stewart books...I got them cheap at a library book sale, and I like her suspense/romance novels, so I'm looking forward to the Arthurian trilogy!

I so nearly picked up Hood today when I was in a charity shop. I'd already picked out a couple of others to bring my total bought for the day to 5 (and picked up another from the Post Office as well) so I didn't bother. If it's still there next time I think I'll nab it.

Yea for group reads!

Briar Rose - count me in for group read.

Love how clean your double colons look as separating marks. I will be stealing that idea, I hope you don't mind. Also considering stealing the gallimaufry category name. I love that word. Looking forward to hearing about your Austen read next year. I just brought P&P&Zombies today.

@24 :: Double colons are for everyone! I'm psyched about my Austen category too...not sure how I'm going to like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies though! Will be interested to see what you think.

Hey. My M / A / B list is soooooo long, I have to pick the 10 I want to read for this challenge. Plays I think will be harder for me to find. I'll be checking in on yours too.

@26 :: I had the opposite problem - plays were easy for me to find, since I've hardly read anything outside Shakespeare. I'm trying to get more into the m/a/b genre, so it's the harder category for me!

Help-help. Translation please. M /A /B ? Thought she was the Queen of Fairies. ;-)

Haha, it took me a minute too. We're talking about Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Biographies. I don't think it's actual recognized jargon...it was just necessity-induced shorthand because we're both doing that category! :)

Thanks. I look forward to seeing what (who) you choose and what you have to say about them.

As I read through the presidents, in order, I occasionally find an interesting character and hope to read more about him or her. Henry Knox, the patriot bookseller, is one. Alexander Hamilton is another.

For Hamilton, I will probably read the Ron Chernow book, Alexander Hamilton. I'd love to find a shorter alternative but will probably just read this one. I'd be curious to see whether you have something else in mind for him.

@31 :: Thanks so much for the rec! I had no idea where to start looking for good biographies, so I've been hoping people will just tell me what's good. :)

I see that you have John Adams by McCullough on your list, too. I read that back in April or May of this year and it's probably my favorite book so far this year.

I loved the John Adams book too! Next year I'm planning on reading Theodore Rex.

@33 and 34 :: I'm really excited to read John Adams! Everyone has said such great things about it...and after I read it, I'm going to watch the miniseries, which is also supposed to be excellent!

#35 The miniseries IS excellent!

I've had John Adams sitting on my shelf for a while, maybe I should read it in the coming year too.
christina_reads you have some great categories especially your Austen Marathon and Gallimaufry {learn a new word every day}.

I'm 2/3 of the way through John Adams and it's quite good. Adams was probably a bit difficult to be around (opinionated, verbose, NOT shy), but his devotion to seeing our country survive as a nation was unsurpassed.

@37 :: Thanks Retrogirl! If you decide to read John Adams next year, maybe we could do it in tandem (and see if anyone else wants to join us).

@38 :: Yeah, apparently Adams really irritated a lot of people...but I'm interested in finding out why! :)

christina_reads - That would be great!

I'm toying with the idea of changing a category. I have a lot of books on my TBR list that deal with boats and ships, partly because I was originally thinking of doing a "pirates" category for next year's challenge. So now I'm thinking maybe I'll substitute an "All Aboard" category for the Discworld one. On the other hand, I did read and enjoy The Color of Magic, and I'd love to read the rest of the series...argh, I can't decide! Thoughts?

If I do decide to change categories, here are the books I'm thinking of for All Aboard:
1. Gideon Defoe, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
2. Debra Doyle and James MacDonald, Land of Mist and Snow
3. C. S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (a re-read, but it's been a long time)
4. Jerome K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat
5. Naomi Novik et al., Fast Ships, Black Sails
6. Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander
7. Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood
8. Sherwood Smith, Inda
9. Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
10. Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out

Definitely do pirates! Someone needs to have a pirates category in this challenge.

You could sub it in for your On The Shelf category since anything you'd read in that one could also go in Gallimaufry.

Great choice of categories and books, especially the Austen marathon!

@42 :: Unfortunately, not all the books I'm considering are specifically pirate-oriented, though most of them are. But pirates would be an awesome category! ... I don't want to get rid of On the Shelf, because Gallimaufry is meant to be fun books, rather than books I feel obligated to read because I bought them. But I am still considering scrapping Discworld temporarily. There's always 2011!

@43 :: Thanks mathgirl!

There's always 2011 ... I am cheered and amused that people are already thinking about 2011, one way or another. It's the right attitude. Looking at your challenge list, I think you are absolutely right to protect your "fun books" category. Lots (and lots) of interesting but non-trivial material there. I look forward to keeping current with your reading.

@45 :: Thanks! And frankly, I'm a little disturbed that I'm already thinking about 2011, but that's what's great about LibraryThing...I know I'm not alone. :)

It's official - I'm switching my Discworld category to an All Aboard category! Pirates ahoy!

yay!

Arrrr!

You should aim to finish the pirate category on 19th September to coincide with International talk like a pirate day.

Yarrrrr! (sorry had to join in) I love the Pirates! series. My fav is the 3rd one: The Pirates! In an adventure with communists but the 1st one is still great. You have also reminded me I really need to read Treasure Island!

Haha, glad everyone likes the new category. :) Wolfy, that's not a bad plan - I'll see how it goes! And clfisha, thanks for the input - I've been wanting to check out the Pirates! series for a long time, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Can't wait to get started!

I'd never heard of The Pirates! series, but that sounds like fun indeed. Thus your swapping a category, christina, meant additions to my wishlist...

@53 :: Haha, it's a vicious cycle!

I'm also thinking about 2011 as well, and am SO GLAD that I have kindred spirits here at LT!

For your All Aboard category, you could add Silver: My Own Tale as Written By Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder by Edward Chupack to your list of maybes. I got my copy through PaperbackSwap and though I have yet to read it, it sounds nice and entertaining. It's about Long John Silver and some of the gang from Treasure Island, though it's not a retelling. It's always interesting to see where new authors take old classics when they rework them.

Good luck on the 1010, fellow Landlubbers!

LauraBrook, thanks for the rec! Haven't read Treasure Island yet, obviously, but if I like it, your suggestion is the next logical step. :) The "goodly amount of murder" bit sounds promising!

re #41: Master and Commander

I loved Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and read all 21 books in (I think it was) 2006. I got started on them because a friend gave me the first 3 books for Christmas, along with one of the companion books (which helped me greatly with the nautical terms), and the advice not to decide whether or not I liked them until I had read the first 3 books. It was really good advice: I found the first book somewhat interesting, started getting into it in book #2, and was hooked by the end of book #3. I think that Master and Commander was my least favorite of all the books, and my favorites were later in the series.

@57 :: Thanks for the tip! Even if I don't love Master and Commander, I'll be sure to read the next couple of books in the series before making up my mind.

If you haven't already read Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques, it would be perfect for your All Aboard category. It's a YA book so it's a very easy read but it is very well-written and the characters are sensational.

@59 :: Ooh, sounds fun! I've actually never read anything by Brian Jacques before, so this might be a good opportunity. :)

I'm thinking of changing yet another category for next year. My 999 is starting to get pretty onerous, and I don't want my 101010 to be the same way...plus, I've been getting some exciting mystery recommendations lately!

So I'm going to scrap my Law and Order category. I feel guilty, since I really do want to read all those books at some point in my life! But I can see that category blighting my entire year and taking up way too much of my time. Hence, I'm going to get rid of it and insert the new mystery category, The Butler Did It.

Book possibilities:
1. Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
2. Edmund Crispin, Holy Disorders
3. Jeffrey Deaver, The Bone Collector
4. Charles Finch, The Fleet Street Murders
5. Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man
6. Erin Hart, False Mermaid
7. Tamara Siler Jones, Ghosts in the Snow
8. Gilbert Morris, The Mermaid in the Basement
9. Elizabeth Peters, Borrower of the Night
10. Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs

>61 Excellent solution: it's still Law and Order. You'll probably enjoy the reading more, too.

@62 :: Haha, good point! And yes, that was my motivation - the law & government books are more intellectual, but the mysteries will be much more fun. :)