**The March/April Knights of the Roundtable Challenge

Ye, my knights are tasked with the following challenge:

Design a literary quest for a fellow knight. If you choose to participate, write a reading quest into your post*. By doing so you agree to accept a quest from a fellow knight. Quests and knights shall be paired highly unscientifically by drawing from a hat by my husband. The hat’s judgment is final and binding (in so far as a hat can be). After completion of the quest, report back to us here.

*This should rule out identical challenges.

Rules:
Knights shall not receive their own quest.
Your quest cannot name a specific book.
Your quest cannot involve travel or slaying of animals.
Your quest can involve coconuts.

Resources:
Avaland’s original proposal which is much more clear
The 75ers Take it or Leave it Wiki - Lots and lots of ideas there.

Bonus Points: Write your post in Old English (then translate it for me so I can read it).

ETA: Deadline for entry is Sunday, March 6th. Drawing will occur Monday, March 7th.

If someone wishes to join after the deadline, I will assign them a random challenge.

I’ll be participating as well. My quest is as follows:

Read a childhood favorite. Discuss what you noticed differently this time. What it better/worse than you remembered? Why?

I think I might be able to do this over the next two months.

My quest for another reader is as follows:

Read or reread the 7th book from the left on the 3rd shelf from bottom of the most crowded bookshelf in your home (you can judge degree of crowdedness visually, I think).

All right, I'll play. I'm a bit nervous about what challenge I might end up with, but I suspect that whatever it is, there will be a very high chance I'll be able to meet it with a book that's already on my TBR shelves, anyway. (This is even true of avaland's challenge above, since said TBR shelves are far and away the most crowded in my house.)

As for my quest request... I think I'll put in a word of encouragement for genre fiction and say: Read something from this list of the top 100 science fiction novels generated from an online poll.

Sounds like fun - I'm in.

Here's my quest:

read something from a genre you think you don't like. This might be a genre you've been put off in the past because you read something and didn't enjoy it, or it might be something you have an unrational prejudice against (for example, I "don't like" science fiction - but I've never actually read any). It might be poety, biography, crime novels, travel writing, short fiction, anything at all, the point being to see whether it's as bad as you think.

OK. I'm in.

My quest:
Read a novel by an Australian author. I am quite happy to supply the novel to you.

(Please tell your husband not to pick science fiction for me! I'll send him a book as well!!!!)

Me too.

I'd like my questor to read a book set in or from a country adjacent to the book you are reading when you accept the challenge.

Raedan a boc with onlicnessa.

(my crude OE attempt at “Read a book with illustrations”
via http://wandership.ca/projects/eow/)

Looking forward to this!

6 - See this is why the husband is drawing. He is not a reader so cannot be tempted by us. :)

Additional information added to the first post:

If someone wishes to join after the deadline, I will assign them a random challenge.

This sounds like fun, I think

My quest... Read a Shakespeare play that you have never read before (If you have read the complete works you are excused the quest)

Fun!

My challenge - read the book that has been on your TBR shelves for the longest.

Sounds like fun!

My quest is to read a book from an African author.

I'll play!

Read a book about a quest or about quests in general.

*incredulous that I thought of this first!*

>6 amandameale: bet I can find one you can tolerate...

#14 Yes, I'm sure. But why the frick are you avaland2? Have you just accidentally revealed your secret other life to all of us???? Does Michael know??? Well, he does now.

I'm a little nervous about the lack of control, so I guess that means I should go for it!

My challenge is: think of an author whose book disappointed you for some reason (obviously not one you really hated) and read another book by the same author.

(I wouldn't have read Helen Dunmore's spectacular The Siege without LT encouragement, because I had disliked her With Your Crooked Heart.)

OK, here goes:

Read a book that was published in the year you were born.

What the hell! I'm in.

My quest would be to read a nonfiction book on the theme of Nature and/or Science.

>14 avaland2: Couldn't get into my Jekyl account that day, so I went into my 'other' Mr. Hyde account.

There are some interesting challenges here!

Alrighty, last call here...let's say 8pm tonight (eastern/LT time). I'll do the drawing shortly after that and post the results.

I'd like to join in too (even though I haven't even managed to start my thread yet).

Given everything that's been in the news about the Middle East and North Africa over the last few weeks - read a book written by an author from this region.

The results:

janepriceestrada – Miela’s quest: Read a book from an African author.

avaland – janepriceestrada’s quest: Read a childhood favorite. Discuss what you noticed differently this time. What it better/worse than you remembered? Why?

bragan – stretch’s quest: Read a nonfiction book on the theme of Nature and/or Science.

rachbxl – detailmuse’s quest: Raedan a boc with onlicnessa. (“Read a book with illustrations”)

amandameale – baswood’s quest: Read a Shakespeare play that you have never read before (If you have read the complete works you are excused the quest)

wandering_star – ReeC’s quest: Given everything that's been in the news about the Middle East and North Africa over the last few weeks - read a book written by an author from this region.

detailmuse – rebeccanyc’s quest: Think of an author whose book disappointed you for some reason (obviously not one you really hated) and read another book by the same author.

baswood – janeajones’s quest: Read a book that was published in the year you were born.

Cait86 – rachbxl’s quest: Read something from a genre you think you don't like. This might be a genre you've been put off in the past because you read something and didn't enjoy it, or it might be something you have an unrational prejudice against (for example, I "don't like" science fiction - but I've never actually read any). It might be poety, biography, crime novels, travel writing, short fiction, anything at all, the point being to see whether it's as bad as you think.

Miela – amandameale’s quest: Read a novel by an Australian author. I am quite happy to supply the novel to you.

Poquette – bragan’s quest: Read something from this list of the top 100 science fiction novels generated from an online poll.

rebeccanyc – avaland’s quest: Read or reread the 7th book from the left on the 3rd shelf from bottom of the most crowded bookshelf in your home (you can judge degree of crowdedness visually, I think).

janeajones - wandering_star’s quest: I'd like my questor to read a book set in or from a country adjacent to the book you are reading when you accept the challenge.

stretch – Poquette’s quest: Read a book about a quest or about quests in general.

ReeC - Cait86’s quest: Read the book that has been on your TBR shelves for the longest.

Phooey! I found my way to this thread at 8:00 Pacific Standard Time. No problem, I'll just choose a quest for myself. The toughest one for me? A variation on rachbxl's quest: Read a poetry book that wasn't written for children.

Ha! It figures I'd get the one challenge that's basically telling me to do what I normally do anyway. Well, the ER book I have lined up to read next definitely counts in the science/nature category, to begin with... It should be interesting to see how many qualifying books I end up reading in the relevant time period, actually.

(Uh, my apologies to those who got really difficult challenges!)

bragan -- you are my new best friend! I got your challenge. It's ironic, because I've read beaucoup science fiction books and stories. In fact, I've read almost half of the top 50 books on that list. But I am very red-faced to report an embarrassing gap in my literary education: I have NOT read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Been meaning to for years. But now is the time . . . So that's it! A full report to follow . . .

Oh! I am happy with my quest. Very interesting

Yay! I have Shakespeare!!
So I have to read this by the end of April????

Well done, Jane and all! I went to bed without checking the matches here and woke up with a secret-Santa feeling :) For mine from rebeccanyc (read another by an author whose book disappointed you for some reason), I'll read Jo Ann Beard's stories/essays The Boys of My Youth which has been multiply recommended and in my wishlist for a couple years. I just finished Beard's debut novel In Zanesville and was disappointed that it felt more like teen angst than coming-of-age.

Thanks, Jane. Did you have an age range in mind when you thought 'childhood favorite'? Will have to think on this one and check the shelves. I'm inclined to reread Pippi Longstocking in my original, yellowed 1964 edition (35¢!). If I'm thinking a bit older, say, 12, then I'm reading very different books...

Thanks, Jane. Did you have an age range in mind when you thought 'childhood favorite'? Will have to think on this one and check the shelves. I'm inclined to reread Pippi Longstocking in my original, yellowed 1964 edition (35¢!). If I'm thinking a bit older, say, 12, then I'm reading very different books...

Rebecca, you should have a crowded bookcase (or two or three) from which you can find the book for my challenge:-)

>25 Poquette:: Thanks, new best friend Poquette! I'm very glad mine went to someone who doesn't hate it, but will also get something out of it. And Frankenstein is very much worth reading, especially as the story is very different from most adaptations. I'll be very much looking forward to hearing what you think!

OK, mine ("Read or reread the 7th book from the left on the 3rd shelf from bottom of the most crowded bookshelf in your home") will be a bit of a challenge since I've packed up a lot of books temporarily, but I have several shelves still unpacked of books I hope to read "soon," so I will work from that!

Thanks Jane for putting this together. I think I got the perfect quest book in my tbr pile and this may be just the push I need to get it done. Bragan it's too funny that you got my challenge. I'd be happy to modify or change it if you feel its a bit too mundane for a challenge.

>33 stretch:: It is funny, especially as I looked at it when you posted it and thought, "How much you want to bet I get that one?" Heh. Not that it's not a great challenge topic, but, yes, probably a little mundane for me. If you have a modification in mind that would make it a little more challenging, I will happily accept. I probably shouldn't get off quite this easy!

I've had to adapt my challenge a bit. I've never tagged my books as TBR on LT so I haven't got an accurate record of how long boooks have been on the list. So instead I picked a particular bookcase and tried to work out which of the books I'd bought had remained unread for longest - I ignored anything that I was pretty sure my husband would have bought in the first place. I've decided the winner is probably Regeneration by Pat Barker although I can't be 100% sure. So I'm going to read that.

Sadly, Bragan I have no creativity for these kind of things and looking at your library exhausted my ideas I came up with this afternoon, you even have a critique of the postmodern critque of science. That was my shoe in!

So borrowing from Poquette's challenge, read a book about a person or group people in quest of discovery (doesn't have to be in science). Whether that be a laymen's attempt to understand the unfamilar or an expert in a particular field pushing the boundaries of what is known or thought to be known.

I hope that is a bit more challenging. Otherwise, I'm going to have to start from sctratch and steal some ideas from the interweb.

>36 stretch:: I guess I'm just hard to set challenges for! Heh. And you had such a good idea, too... (You're thinking of Sokal, right? Although I've probably got a few other books that at least touch on the subject, too.)

Well, "in quest of discovery" sounds like a cool idea, and it's definitely narrower. I know I've got TBR books that should fit that description, but it'll be interesting going through and finding one. So, challenge accepted, with thanks!

I will be reading King Richard the Third by Shakespeare. I chose it last night and discovered that famous first line: "Now is the winter of our discontent...". Never knew where that line came from.

I hope you enjoy it amanda

Well I Thought that reading a book published in the year I was born would be a cinch. Not so easy. I could not find any lists on the net that would tell me the best books of 1950 (I suppose its a bit early for "best of" lists. There is a best seller list but these seem to be out of print today. Never mind I thought George Orwell or Graham Greene are bound to have published something in 1950, but no it seems to be a year that everyone has avoided.

I have found a couple of possibilities now and its off to Amazon to get them delivered.

Well, I just finished reading Was by Geoff Ryman today, mostly set in Kansas, so I guess that means I should read a book from Canada or Mexico. Klee Wyck by Emily Carr has been sitting next to my bed for a year -- I think I shall read that.

Thanks, Jane, for an interesting challenge.

Barry - here is a page at Wikipedia that includes 1950 in literature. Maybe this will give you some ideas.

I will be reading The Forgotten Garden for my Quest. I've had it for a while and am happy to have found a reason to read it.

#42
Thanks for the list Suzanne, It is not an inspiring selection of books is it? On a positive note I have not read any of them. One book however does shine out like a beacon for me and that is The story of art by E H Gombrich. I have read a couple of his books and would be quite interested in this although it is "an introduction." I might be tempted

23 - Ah, sorry. Glad you found a challenge to participate though.

29 - I would say anything junior high and younger. Those are the books I've read that I don't remember so well I guess was my thoughts when writing it.

44 - Here is a historical bestseller list though I'm not sure that's much better. Also here is the NY Times lists for that year.

Hmm...this is going to be a good challenge for me. I don't think I have anything by an African author in my TBR. Any recommendations?

>44 baswood:
Or browse the books published in 1950 according to LT’s Common Knowledge. (To search CK, click on the Common Knowledge link at the bottom of any page, then use the search fields in the upper-right corner.)

Following avaland's instructions for picking a book from my most crowded shelves, I came up with The Fierce and Beautiful World, a collection of stories by Andrei Platonov. I've been meaning to read him for a while, and it will go well with my slow nonfiction read, Gulag.

>47 rebeccanyc: how interesting!
>45 janemarieprice: Thanks, Jane. Pippi Longstocking it is then!

#46
Wow! thanks detailmuse. No shortage of books on the common knowledge pages

#46, Well, my TBR shelves are the most crowded, because I just shove the books onto them instead of organizing them, so your instructions to choose my most crowded shelves meant that I was going to pick something I was hoping to read soon anyway!

I meant to sign up for this, but have been sick, sick, sick for over a week. The kind of icky-sinus-sick that's not serious but makes you wonder if you'll ever feel like reading or looking at a computer screen again.

Now that I'm feeling better, please assign me a random quest!

Ha! Haven't been around for a while so have only just checked the challenges. I got detailmuse's - read a book with illustrations. Sounds so simple...but I have nothing suitable on my TBR shelves at all! Thanks, detailmuse, for setting me off in another direction!

51 - Your challenge is to read a book where a main character is non-human - this could be an animal, fantastical creature, someone you find so freakish you think they may not be human, etc. Good luck!

Miela (or anyone else with ideas), do you have any African author recommendations for me?

>53 janemarieprice: I have endless recommendations for African authors (it's a big continent!), anything in particular you might be interested in? region? type of book? classic or contemporary? novel or short stories?

>53 janemarieprice:: Oh, thank you; this is great! I hardly ever read books like this and am looking forward to the experience.

ETA on April 21: I decided on To Visit the Queen by Diane Duane.

All of the main characters are cats. They speak in a cat language, Ailurin, which made reading the first in the series, Book of Night with Moon, difficult for me.

It was a wonderful book, though, so since I'll be on spring break next week and have the time to keep referring to the glossary, I'll complete my quest with the sequel!

ETA on April 30 at 10 pm: finished! Now to see if Duane ever got around to writing a third book in this series ....

53> Nadine Gordimer Burger's Daughter (South Africa), Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart and Wole Soyinka The interpreters (Nigeria), Assia Djebar Fantasia, (Algeria), Sundiata, an Epic of Old Mali (Mali), Tsitsi Dangarembga Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe)

Adding to #56, Wizard of the Crow (and other novels) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kenya), Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Zanzibar) (recommended to me by Lois/avaland).

56/57 - Thanks!

54 - I'm not very picky. Do you have any suggestions of things from French West Africa?

>58 janemarieprice: The only thing that I have read that comes to mind is The Abandoned Baobab by Ken Bugul (pseudonym for a woman but I can't remember her real name just now). I believe she called it a fictionalized memoir (though the subtitle uses the word autobiography) and tells of her life in Senegal and her immigration and experiences later in Belgium. Andy (depressaholic) read The Dark Heart of Night by Leonora Miano and reviewed it for Belletrista here. As for other francophone Africa writers, there is The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah set in Mauritius (reviewed here by rachbxl), and many North African writers.

I also concur with all of the recommended authors above from Jane & Rebecca (I believe the version of Sundiata I read was titled The Epic of Son-Jara {Mali}).

I also enjoyed The Last Brother.

Thanks guys. I sat on the floor in Idlewild Books for a half hour tonight with several of these and decided on Wizard of the Crow.

I've been away, so I just found my quest, and I think I will try to read a classic American novel. I have a bit of a prejudice against American authors (no idea why; it may stem from the fact that the profs who taught American lit at my university were horrible), and I've really only read The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Of Mice and Men. I really didn't enjoy any of these, except the Fitzgerald, but I'm going to try again - I shouldn't have this uninformed dislike of American authors, otherwise I am no better than my colleague who despises Can Lit, despite never reading any. I have Cannery Row and A Farewell to Arms on my TBR, and will try to read both - maybe a Faulkner too, since I've never read anything by him.

I think I've decided what to read for stretch's "science/nature" challenge with added "quest for discovery" proviso: A Passion for Mars by Andrew Chaikin. Seems like it ought to fit the bill perfectly. Hopefully I'll get to it soonish. Maybe after the ER book I've got lined up next.

Looking forward to seeing what everybody else ends up reading!

I was supposed to be reading Richard the Third for my quest . I own The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare but at c.50lb it's not very portable. So, I accidentally ordered Richard the Second and now I will be reading that one.

I've tried to get into The forgotten garden, but haven't succeeded. Could someone else reccomend a good Australian author for me to read?

Have you read The Secret River yet? Or any of Kate Grenville's other books?

#65 Yes, The Secret River or any of Kate Grenville's books. I also like Gail Jones very, very much. (Sixty Lights, Dreams of Speaking, Sorry.) OR The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey OR Cloudstreet by Tim Winton.

65> For a real change of pace, you might try The Monkey's Mask by Dorothy Porter.

Oh, I absolutely love The True History of the Kelly Gang! Why didn't I think of that first, considering it's one of my favorites. Secret River is more about the English coming over and appropriating the land for themselves, while The True History of the Kelly Gang is more about the Irish vs. the English in Australia.

I have finished my quest, O fellow knights! And a most excellently successful quest it was, too! For the "Read a nonfiction book on the theme of Nature and/or Science" challenge, with added "read a book about a person or group of people in quest of discovery" stipulation, I finished A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet by Andrew Chaikin.

Shall I repost my response/review here? Why not? Here you go, and I hope everyone else's challenge is as rewarding as mine was:

A look at the ideas, work and interplanetary dreams of real explorers of Mars: the people who design the spacecraft, do the science, and advocate for a human future on the Red Planet. (This includes the author himself, who before becoming a science journalist studied planetary geology and worked as an intern on the 1976 Viking 1 mission.) I was already familiar with a lot of the science presented here, but Chaiken's emphasis on the human perspective makes for a fresh and powerful new take on the subject. He captures the fascination and excitement these folks feel about our neighboring world extremely well, and by the end of the book that feeling becomes utterly infectious. I may actually have gotten a little choked up. But then, I get like that when it comes to this topic. Like many of the people featured here, I've been looking up at the sky and wanting to go there since I was a little kid, too. How wonderful to know that, however slowly, we are doing it.

Rating: 4.5/5

Wow, Bragan, that sounds like a book that's right up my street. I'll definitely check that out.

I definitely recommend it for those interested in the subject matter. I also have Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, about the Apollo program, and am hoping to get to it soonish.

Lords and ladies of the quest, I have finished my challenge, set by bragan, which was to read a book from the specified list of 100 best science fiction novels. I chose Frankenstein for a number of reasons which, if interested, you can read about on my thread here, and the review of the book follows it.

Well done, O noble questor!

A Passion for Mars sounds like a great book. I'm glad you were able to find something enjoyable for a modified challenge.

I've decided to read Don Quixote for my challenge about questing. I wanted to clear my reading list before I started.

Thanks for providing me the impetus to read it sooner rather than later!

I'll be interested to see what you think of Don Quixote. I remember finding it interesting and occasionally amusing, but a bit much to get through.

Well here am I champing at the bit to start my quest. Anxious after seeing that Sir bragan and Sir poquette have already completed theirs with a month to go. Today an Awesome Amazon (the post lady) drove up on her yellow steed to deliver the details of my quest: I have two books published in the year of my birth; The story of Art, E H Gombrich and Strangers on a train, Patricia Highsmith. I hope to read both by the end of April; so that will be two quests in half the time.

janeajones - wandering_star’s quest: I'd like my questor to read a book set in or from a country adjacent to the book you are reading when you accept the challenge.

I've finished my quest!! When I accepted the challenge, I was reading Was by Geoff Ryman, set in the USA, so I moved on to Canada -- into the wilds of British Colombia --

Emily Carr is renowned Canadian artist, most noted for her paintings of British Colombia, particularly the remote areas and Native culture. Klee Wyck, whose title comes from the name -- Laughing One -- the Natives gave to Carr, is a series of 21 descriptive essays about her forays into the wilderness and the friendships she developed. She is particularly taken by the totems -- especially those of D'Sonoqua, the wild woman of the forest who is feared for stealing children and revered for her gift of knowledge:

"Like the D'Sonoqua of the other villages, she was carved into the bole of a red cedar tree. Sun and storm had bleached the wood, moss here and there softened the crudeness of the modelling; sincerity underlay every stroke....
I sat down to sketch. What was the noise of purring and rubbing going on about my feet? Cats. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing right, and counted a dozen of them. They jumped into my lap and sprang to my shoulders. They were real -- and very feminine.
There we were--D'Sonoqua, the cats and I -- the woman who only a few moments ago had forced herself to come behind the houses in trembling fear of the 'wild woman of the woods: -- wild in the sense that forest-creatures are wild -- shy, untouchable."
Highly recommended.


Emily Carr, Zunoqua of the Cat Village, 1931

My quest, courtesy of Lois/avaland, was to "Read or reread the 7th book from the left on the 3rd shelf from bottom of the most crowded bookshelf in your home. That book turned out to be The Fierce and Beautiful World by Andrei Platonov, a collection of a novella and several short stories. I also own another collection of Platonov, Soul and Other Stories, and while I was reading The Fierce and Beautiful World I realized that the novella entitled "Dzhan" in that collection is the one called "Soul" in the other collection. I became curious and pulled Soul and Other Stories off the shelf, and discovered that it is a newer translation of many of the same works, and is based on text versions that became available in the 1990s, rather than the Krushchev-era versions the translator of the earlier collection was using. I have just read the very insightful introduction by one of the translators, Robert Chandler, to Soul and Other Stories and have started reading his translation of "Soul." Just in the first few pages, there are astonishing differences. So I will report back here on The Fierce and Beautiful World when I finish Soul and Other Stories so I can comment on them together.

I have completed my quest, set by baswood, which required me to read a Shakespeare play which I had not read before.
I read Richard II and enjoyed it very much. Also, I learned from the Introduction to my Arden edition that this play was a groundbreaker in several ways. One of these was the way Shakespeare looked at both Richard II and Henry IV as human beings. Charles Forker writes: "...he excavated new soil, exposing the roots of the fateful conquest for power by showing them not merely to lie in the factionalism of kinship or party but also in contrasts of sensibility, temperament, emotional predisposition and philosophical outlook."

This quest was a revelation for me. I thought I knew my Shakespeare but, once given this quest, realised that the last of the plays I read was King Lear and that was about ten years ago. Thanks to baswood I have ordered four more of Shakespeare's plays which I hope to read this year.

THANK YOU BASWOOD!!!

OK, as promised in #79, I've now read both, overlapping collections by Andrey Platonov and definitely people should read Soul and Other Stories rather than The Fierce and Beautiful World. I posted my review on my reading thread and also on both book pages.

Hi amanda, Glad you enjoyed your Shakespeare read. They are a delight to go back to and I plan to read them all again at some time.

I have also completed my quest, which was to read a book published in the year that I was born. I chose Strangers on a train by Patricia Highsmith, which I finished appropriately enough on my birthday this year. A thoroughly enjoyable read which I have reviewed on my thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/106807

I still hope to read The story of Art by E H Gombrich before the end of the month. Thanks janeprice for organising the "knights of the round table" and thanks janeajones for the quest.

I also finished my challenge -- thanks to rebecca (Think of an author whose book disappointed you for some reason (obviously not one you really hated) and read another book by the same author) I finally read The Boys of My Youth, Jo Ann Beard’s wonderful collection of coming-of-age essays. I’ve posted comments here on my thread.

I'm glad that worked out for you, detailmuse!

I've finished Don Quixote for "Poquette’s quest: Read a book about a quest or about quests in general"

I can't believe I finished this book in less than a month. Don Quixote and Sancho are now easliy the best literary couple of all time in my estimation. It had a strange ebb and flow to it, where I would be bored out of mind and then I would get sucked back in and wouldn't put it down until the wee hours of the morning. I loved how it could be absolutely hilarious and sad at the same time. Needless to say I will be coming back to this one again and again.

Stretch - what a delightful choice for your quest, and I'm so pleased you enjoyed Don Quixote. I think people who have not read it don't realize how funny it is. Maybe it's time for a reread!

I completed my quest by Miela to read a book by an African author - the excellent Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa'Thiong'o (thanks, rebeccanyc for the rec), comments soon on my thread.

85 - Don Quixote is one of those that was so good and there was so much to say that I never managed a review. It does have a sort of underwater quality to the pace.

Glad you enjoyed the book AND your own challenge!

Alright, so my quest was to read something from a genre that you think you don't like. I decided to read Cannery Row, because I have an unexplainable prejudice against American Classics. Well, halfway through it I decided life was just too short, and gave up.

However, I didn't want to totally throw away this challenge, so I am opting for another genre that I think I don't like - non-fiction. I am a faithful fiction-only reader, but I am casting out into mostly-unknown waters by reading Patti Smith's memoir, Just Kids. In about two hours I managed to read almost half of it, so I think it is safe to say that I absolutely love it. I think, for me, non-fiction needs to be human - I'm not sure if I would be so enthusiastic about a history book, or a non-fiction book about an issue, but I am warming up to memoirs and biographies.

>89 Cait86: Sorry the challenge didn't do away with your prejudice against American Classics! (Though if it confirmed it then at least you won't waste any more precious reading time on them). Good news on the non-fiction. I used to read only fiction but have been reading a wee bit of non-fiction the last few years - but same here, it has to be human. (The reason I set this particular challenge was that I have always 'hated' science fiction. About 18 months ago I had to read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, apparently a seminal work of SF (what would I know?), because I was doing a voice-over for a dance production based on it and the dancers - reasonably enough - wanted me to know the background. And you know what? I really enjoyed it. Not that I've read any more SF since, but now I know I could).

I've completed my own challenge, set by detailmuse - read a book with illustrations. Not a single book on my TBR shelves has illustrations (I tend to avoid them, no idea why) so I got myself a copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I've heard people raving about him recently so was glad to be nudged into trying him (thanks, detailmuse!) I won't be rushing to read any more of his books because there are other things I'd rather read, but The Graveyard Book was a really charming little story about a living boy, Nobody Owens, adopted by the inhabitants of a graveyard and given the freedom of the graveyard. I think I can safely say that if I'd read this aged 10-13 or so I'd have loved it.

>90 rachbxl: - I'm not going to totally give up on American authors, and I'm even going to try Steinbeck again - I just think Cannery Row wasn't for me.

It's hard to imagine not liking Cannery Row. I remember reading it by the pool during summer school at Berkeley many moons ago and laughing my head off. Different strokes . . . ;-)

>90 rachbxl:: yay rachbxl! I had a similar response to Gaiman (Coraline) yet your comments make me a little bit interested in trying that one...

I read Regeneration by Pat Barker as Cait86’s quest to read the book that has been on my TBR shelf the longest. This is based on a true story of the 1st World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was sent to a psychiatric hospital dealing with soldiers suffering from shellshock, after protesting against the conduct of the war. Several other real-life characters make an appearance: Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen in particular.

I didn’t really take to this book. I can recognise why it is well regarded but somehow the characters didn’t grab me. Part of this may be that Pat Barker seems to have been very successful at getting inside what the mindset of her characters might have been which perhaps makes them less sympathetic to a current audience. I’ve always found the 1st World War fairly incomprehensible in terms of the motivation in terms of the people involved and this may have been part of the problem for me.

A belated posting to say that I read and enjoyed Out Of Egypt, a family memoir by André Aciman, for my/ReeC's challenge to read a book from the Middle East or North Africa.

A very belated post to say that for the challenge (to read a book I had loved as a child) I read Pippi Longstocking (back in early March!). I was actually surprised at how much of the story and character of Pippi came flooding back before I was a few pages in. I think I last read this in the late 80s when my girls were small, but it still holds up remarkably well over the decades. Some people had Nancy Drew, but I had Jo March and Pippi Longstocking!

I was a big Pippi fan too! I've barely thought about her.the books since the 60s, though.