ALWINN 2014 CHALLENGE

After much debate I have finally came up with my categories for 2014. Im going to do a step challange this year and my main concentration will be on authors that are really popular on the 1001 list and well the 1001 list in general.

1. The Arbian Nights I down loaded this gem on my kindle and it says around 5500 pages so this will be a year long read.

2. Virginia Woolf

3. Thomas Mann

4. George Eliot

5. Kings and Queens

6. Out of the TBR Jar

7. Marcel Proust- In Search of Lost Times (All 7 volumes)

8. Catch-all

9. Family Saga's

10. WAR!!!!!!

11. Charles Dickens

12. 1001 Continues

13. Emile Zola

14. Group Reads

1. Arbian Nights

2. Virginia Woolf
1.
2.

3. Thomas Mann
1.The Magic Mountian
2.
3.

4. George Eliot
1.
2.
3.
4.

5. Kings and Queens and Noble
1. Elizabeth I: A Novel by Margaret George
2. The Countess: A Novel of elizabeth Bathory by Rebecca Johns
3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory
5.

6. Out of the TBR Jar
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7. Marcel Proust- In Search of Lost Times (All 7 Volumes)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

8. Catch-All
1. Agnes Gray Anne Bronte Re-read
2. The Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Re-read
4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
5.
6.
7.
8.

9. Family Saga's
1. World's End
2. Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
3. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
4. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
5. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
6. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
7.
8.
9.

10. WAR!!!!!
1. Birdsong
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

11. Charles Dickens
1. Oliver Twist
2. Hard Times
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

12. 1001 CONTINUES
1.Bouvard and Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert
2.The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
3.The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4.The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
5.The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Ann Bronte
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

13. EMILE ZOLA
1. The Sin of Father Mouret
2. The Fortune of Rougons
3. The Ladies Paradise
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

14 GROUP READS
1. Bleak House by Chalres Dickens
2. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
3. Gosta Berling Saga by Selma Lagerlof
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

Proust AND Zola? You're a brave, brave man :-)

Isn't Johnny's list great? Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your choices.

Well we shall see what happens on the home front. I got alot of things thrown at me this year that really threw me off my reading.

Very impressive list! Good luck!

That is indeed a very impressive list! Looking forward to following along.

Wow, Proust. Have you checked out How Proust Can Change Your Life?

Joining the rest in saying how impressive your 2014 challenge is! I love the Woolf books I have read so far - which is only To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway - so hoping to get a couple of book bullets off of you.... which is not something I would normally admit to! ;-)

You've set up a great challenge for next year with some very interesting books lined up.

Hope you enjoy the Welsh trilogy! Looking forward to your thoughts for whenever I decide to read more Penman. (I've enjoyed the group reads this year very much, but I need a break!)

Since my local library doesnt have them I will have to hunt them down so they may be later on in the year.

You have an ambitious list for 2014!

Yes I do and I will try as hard as I can to reach my goal this year.

1. Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I have to say that the Magic Mountain gave me alot to think about on the lines of death and what it would be like laying around knowing that your dying. 3.5 stars

2. The Sin of Father Mouret by Emile Zola. My first Zola of the year. Loved how Zola was about to give such a vivid vision of the garden. A priest fighting against the human beast called Lust. Wonderful. 4 stars

3. Elizabeth I: A Novel by Mararet George. Loved old Queen Bess just wished the novel started at the beginning of her life instead of in the middle. 4 Stars

4. World's End by T.C. Boyle Read this one because it was on the Unread list for the 1001 Books but since it was also kinda of a family history I put it until Family Saga's for now. The main character was just an azz. Your family ancestors may determine what you are, but your the only one responsble for who you are. 3 Stars

5. Agnes Gray by Anne Bronte. Was watching a movie on the Bronte sisters and wanted a nice and easy. This is a re-read for me so I put in the catch all but still loved the story. 4 stars

>28 ALWINN: Hi Ann, glad to know that The Sin of Father Mouret is good. I'm set on reading the Rougon-Macquart saga in the chronological order in the near future. I have the first one La Fortune des Rougon-Macquart on the shelves. Same thing for Magic Mountain, I've started it a few times but never finished it :(

Yeah I have read a couple of them already but from here on out I really want to read them in order but of course that mean I may actually have to go to a real book store and buy the set because I have been looking and for some reason Zola is kinda hard to find.

>33 ALWINN: Ah, maybe it's available in free ebook ?

Yes some of them are but not all of them Im afraid.

6. Bouvard and Pecuchet by Gustave Flaubert. I have to admit very disappointed in this book. I loved Madame Bovary but this was a real let down. Two older clerks that met in a park and notice they have a few things in common strike up a friendship. One of the clerks comes into some kind of money (sorry cant really remember right now) and the other one just retires and they buy this house out in the country. They find something that interest them and spend large amounts of money on it and lose interest to find something else and the cycle continues until they are back to where the were at the beginning of the story BROKE. The best I can give this is maybe a 2 1/2 stars.

7. Bleak House by charles Dickens. Im on a Dickens mission this year and what a perfect book to start out with. I shed a few tears for poor Jo and Lady Deadlock, felt for poor peppie and also laughed a few times at him. And actually cry tears of joy for Esther. 5 stars

8. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I was not always a Austen fan but I found a bio of her life and now knowing her life I realize she was very tongue and cheek about girls being on the 'Marriage hunt" and just the nosely habits of "polite" society make reading her books alot easier. 3.5 stars.

You're on a roll!

Trying to be with a 4 month old baby its a challange in itself.

Reading Dickens and keeping up with a 4 month old? Impressive. Which Dickens are you planning on reading next?

Either Little Dorrit or Nicholas Nickeby havent decided yet. But my lil monkey is a sleeper and so at night I read the book and at work if I can find a good audio I will also listen here at work.

@ 42 -- I haven't read Nicholas Nickleby, but I liked Little Dorrit a lot (and there's a good miniseries with Matthew Macfadyen, too!).

9. The Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincey. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm knowing that de Quincey was actually written about his own addition I just find it really sad. I just have to shake my head just how much different addition is looked at today compared to the early to middle 1800's. This will only get 21/2 stars at the best.

> 43 I always thought that both Little Dorrit and Arthur are the most amazing doormats, the worst in Dickens' oeuvre. Nicholas Nickleby is a bit spunkier, and there's a fantastic TV version with Charles Dance as the wicked uncle, on a par with his turn in Bleak House. I liked Our Mutual Friend, both the book and TV versions....

Im not going to lie I have seen both BBC mini series and yes Charles Dance does a very nice job in both Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby. So I dont know which one Im going with or if I choose one completely different. Where ever the wind blows I guess.

@ 45 -- MissWatson, you definitely have a point about the doormats! But Dickens' heroes and heroines are hardly ever that interesting; it's the secondary characters that make the book worthwhile! That said, I did really love Our Mutual Friend as well (the book...haven't seen any TV/film versions).

>47 christina_reads: Yes, very true. I read Dickens for the secondary characters, too.

Really enjoyed Nicholas Nickelby but haven't read Little Dorrit yet. Sounds like there is quite a difference in the characters.

>44 ALWINN: - Have you read Murder as a Fine Art? Thomas DeQuincey is suspected of a rather horrific murder that mimics a murder depicted in an essay he wrote. Made for an interesting if depressing character. Not surprised I guess that his real life tale of opium addiction would be sad.

I have heard about it but thing I had enough of DeQuincey for a while maybe in couple of months.

10. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Im just not a big fan of sci fi stuff but it was a quick read and another one I can mark off the 1001 list. 3 stars

11. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Yet another book that I would have never picked up on my own without the 1001 list and loved it. I have so many thoughts on this book I honestly dont know where to start. Just reading about the conditions that these men had to live in had me saying MY GOD MY GOD more then once and I almost felt guilty for complaining about my so called problems and for the comforts in my life. I could of done without the modern day part of things I dont think Elizabeth really added that much to the story except at the very end when she was told who her Grandmother really was. 4 stars

12. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood I know many people love this book but Im just not a big fan of dystopia stuff I guess. The book was very readable and just drilled the idea if life really came down to this just kill me off. 3 stars

13. Oliver Twist by Chalres Dickens. My 2nd Dickens book this year and never disappointed yet. The characters just comes alive plus the BBC movie was not bad either. Now really have to pick up my reading Im falling behind already. 4 stars

14. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins. I dont know why but I feel like this is cheating just alittle by being able to mark this one off but here it is. This poor woman and her decline into madness. This book backs up my theory If I am able to ask myself am I going insane then I am still at least okay. Since most people that are truely mad think they are normal. (Does that make sense at all) 4 stars

15. The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola is the first book in Zola Rougon –Macquart series. This book is to introduce us to the family and how the two families are linked to one person Adelaide Fouque and explains how and why the two side split apart. Pierre Rougon is the only legitimate son that talksh is mother out of her home and property to secure his family. Ursule and Antoine Macquart are the 2 illegitimate children that Adelaide has with a lover. Antoine Macquart is very much like his father a lazy freeloader that will lead the lower class of the Macquart family. Ursule will marry Mouret and this branch of the family will be a mixture and more balance of the other two family. Im really looking forward to the other books and how the different families branch out. 3 1/2 stars

16. The Countess: A Novel of Elizabeth Bathory by Rebecca Johns. I found this movie over the weekend and so of course I had to find the book (since we all know the book is always better then the movies). The book begins and end with The Countess locked away in her tower writing to her youngest son and heir Pal. The Hungarian Countess tells her son her life story and really down plays the torture, abuse and killings of many young girls that come into her house has maidservants. In her eye she doesnt understand why everyone including an old lover as turned against her because in her eyes she has done nothing wrong. I see Elizabeth as a very vain woman that is afraid of growing old and when she finds out that her husband and lovers has taken a younger girl to replace her all her anger really comes out. I was alittle dissapointed in the book because I was not expecting her to be trying to explain herself the whole time, but more of the facts around how she got her name "The Blood Countess" or "The Female Dracula". But the books was still very readable. 3 1/2 stars

17. Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson. This book about family and relationship within the family really made me think about my own family and where did I fit in. 4 stars

>58 ALWINN: I love her books; they're so quietly thought-provoking. Have you read Gilead yet? If not, read it soonish -- same characters, roughly the same time period, but this time narrated by John Ames.

I loved Gilead and still need to get around to reading Robinson's other books, like Home.

Well now I really want to go back and read Gilead to get some of the back story.

18. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Ann Bronte. Really really enjoyed this book. Having read alittle about the lives of the Bronte Sister I know that Helens husband was actually the Bronte sisters brother. I admired Helen very much that she found the strength to take her young son and leave her husband and life of comfort to save her son from her husbands influences. But then had enough heart to go back and care for the husband that used and abused her so in his hour of sickness and death. 4 stars

19. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Finally done the first half was full of boys romping around flashing swords, but the 2nd half really picked up with the story of Milady. the Musketeers is by far not The Count of Monte Cristo. The biggest question is why is the book called The Three Musketeers when there were actually 4???? 3 stars

>63 ALWINN: - The only reason I can think that Dumas called his tale The Three Musketeers is only because d'Artagnan doesn't become a Musketeer until the very end. Still, since the story is focused on d'Artagnan, one must wonder about a title that implies it is about his three 'fellow men at arms'. ;-)

20. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope Oh this book proves how a little bit of jealously and two people been hard headed can not only destory a marriage and a young family but make one lose their mind. I see where man and wife could have done to something to solve the problem. The wife could of told the gentleman not to call on her and stop all communication with him because that is what her husband wished or the husband could of went man to man and told the gentleman himself stop coming to my house and stop all communications with my wife. Over all 4 stars

21. Hard Times by Charles Dickens This is my 3rd Dickens this year and I just love his characters and the names he gives them. Hard times falls on all of us poor or riche, good or evil. But at the end of the day everyone reaps what they sow in life. 4 stars

Unfortually my reading rate will go way down since I had to start a 2nd job. So probably will not reach my goal but I will keep plugging away and any book that is finished can still be crossed off plus I can still listen to audio books.

22. Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola This is my 3rd Zola so far this year. I did find the 1st season of the BBC series Ladies Paradise and fell in love with it but now they have blocked the series on youtube so I will just have to order it on amazon or somewhere. The book is just as good as the series even if some of the characters dont really match up but that is okay I know they had to do what they did for the show. This is still a very charming read and cant wait for the next in the series The Masterpiece which I do believe continues from the Paradise. 4 1/2 stars

23. Gosta Berling Saga by Selma Lagerlof 31/2 stars
24. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh 4 stars

25. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Re-read now that I understand Austen I loved this book the 2nd time around.

26. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Yes believe it or not a non 1001 book. Loved this book an old house and dark family secret what more can you want. 4 stars

27.Cinder by Marissa Meyer. The is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles and Yes everyone this is a book that is so unlike me I know but I actually enjoyed this one believe it or not. Im not a big dystopian type of person but I thought they would be interesting because they are classic fairy tales with a twist. Cinder was Cinderella, the 2nd book is Scarlet and this is based on Little Red Riding Hood, The 3rd is Cress and that is based on Rapunzel and the 4th is Winter and this one is based on Snow White. So it will be interesting to see how these works out. Cinder was a fast and easy read didnt take a lot of brain power so who knows. 3 1/2 stars

28. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. This is the 2nd book of the Lunar Chronicles and again I really enjoyed this as well. And Im hoping to start the 3rd book Cress on audiobook today. 3 1/2 stars

29. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. 4 stars