Elgatoazabache's 2020 TBR challenge

2020 To Be Read List

I have attempted this challenge twice before (2014 and 2017) and twice I've failed miserably.
I will make the third and last attempt this year! If I get 12 done I will be very happy.

Main List

1. A Journal of the Plague Year – Daniel Defoe
   A gift from my partner, I read about a third a couple of years ago but now I want to finish it.
   
2. The Odyssey - Homer
   This is perhaps cheating a bit in that I've already read 19 out of 24 songs, but I've also been reading it on and off for years...
   
3. Speak Gigantular - Irenosen Okojie
   This is another one that I've read half of, but this one I didn't particularly like, so I'm putting it on here in the hope that I will finish it now and get rid of it.
   
4. La sombra del viento - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
   Again, I've read about a fourth of it maybe ten years ago...so it's time to restart and maybe finish it this time.
   
5. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
   
6. Native Life in South Africa - Sol Plaatje
   
7. Circles in a Forest - Dalene Matthee
   
8. Code Girls - Liza Mundy
   A gift from last year that I want to get to.
   
9. Triomf - Marlene van Niekerk
   
10. The Grass is Singing – Doris Lessing
    A left over from 2014 challenge.
    
11. Swede Hollow - Ola Larsmo
    
12. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

Alternative List

1. Go Tell it On the Mountain - James Baldwin
   Another left over from 2014 challenge.
   
2. The New African: A Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo – Tim Couzens
   
3. Blame Me on History - Bloke Modisane
   
4. See Now Then – Jamaica Kincaid
   A gift from last year.
   
5. Nalle Puhs stora klokbok – Janette Marshall
   A gift from last year.
   
6. The Book of Margery Kempe – Margery Kempe
   A gift from my partner.
   
7. And a Threefold Cord - Alex la Guma
   
8. Middlemarch - George Eliot
   Another one I read half of years ago. This one I really like though so it would be nice to finish it.
   
9. The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper 1894-1985 - Charles van Onselen
   
10. Stora döden – Dick Harrison
    2019 christmas gift from my partner.
    
11. Taduno’s Song – Odafe Atogun
    2019 Santathing gift.
    
12. Cartas de un cazador – Horacio Quiroga
    One of my favourite Uruguayan authors.

Lots of ambitious stuff here. We both have Margery Kempe on our challenge this year, although sorry to say I'm not super excited about that one, lol.

Wow - that's quite an intimidating list. I'd be thrilled to get through twelve of those too. Good luck!

Oh no! Not good to hear that I've constructed an ambitious list! I was hoping it would be less ambitious so that I might get through it...:p but looking at it again you guys might be right...

We'll see if I get to Margery Kempe...I kind of doubt it. Will have to read what your take on it is Cecrow!

I've finally read one of the entries on this year's TBR list!

Speak Gigantular is a collection of short stories taking place mostly in London, the main character is usually a young black woman struggling with love, life, work, or injustices/deprivation, and incorporating plenty of fantastical elements (often in a magical realist style where they are part of everyday life). I bought this book on a whim because it looked like it might appeal to me with its topics and setting. But I wasn't really a fan. The stories are well-intentioned and you can feel that the author is engaged and committed. But! They are so overwritten. Not every sentence needs a metaphor or a simile. The fantastical elements are also a bit overdone - they pop up everywhere and as such become too commonplace and lose their power. The collection is not awful, but I'm not going read anything else by this author.

And that's the Odyssey down! What do you say about such a classic? It was entertaining, interesting, and smooth and easy to read (I really liked the Swedish translation I read it in).

You're on a roll!

>6 elgatoazabache:, you could say it's more fun than the Iliad, lol. I'd re-read the Odyssey, less sure about slogging through the other again.

>6 elgatoazabache: I enjoyed my read of the Odyssey last year too. And like you, it's so hard to know what to say about such well loved classics.

>8 Cecrow: I have to admit I have no intention of reading the Iliad :p
>9 Narilka: But the Odyssey was indeed fun :)

>7 Petroglyph: The roll was very very short lived :p We'll see if I get back into it again. I think I just have to realise that I'm not very good at setting a list of books to read. I kind of need to go with whatever I feel like at a particular moment :)

Middlemarch read! It was amazing. I really loved it. And the narrator is great, so snarky. Especially about people who expect others to adore their spoilt children :p

Since it's November and I've only read three books on my list, it's pretty safe to assume I won't manage to finish the challenge on this, my third, attempt either. But maybe I will get one or two more read at least. I probably have to accept that, sadly, challenges are not for me.

>12 elgatoazabache:, glad you liked it, a lot of people seem to really get attached.

It's not always about completing, a challenge is also good just for reminding you of some of the reading goals you have.

>13 Cecrow: Thanks for those kind words :) I think because I read for my job (as an academic) having reading goals for my spare time just doesn't work. Trying to do this challenge has made me realise my spare time reading has to be completely open and free, to allow me to cope with the more circumscribed work-related reading.

Despite Middlemarch clocking in at more than 900 pages, I didn't want it to end. When it did end, I was first very sceptical about the "epilogue" (as someone who was not a fan of the Harry Potter epilogue!) but even that she pulled off. I completely agree with Virginia Woolf's opinion that it is a book written for adults, it treats its readers like adults and it takes no short cuts in portraying life (which is what I was then afraid the epilogue would undo, but I think she got away with it!).

>14 elgatoazabache:, I really liked it, thought she made some wonderful points and explored a huge number of things very well, only I found her a bit on the preachy side. The narrator was a bit too present for me, I guess. I can well understand people reading it multiple times though.

>15 Cecrow: I enjoyed the opinionated narrator, lots of little snarky barbs delivered to all sorts of people and behaviours :) but I can definitely understand how it could get on your nerve and feel a bit preachy!

Congrats on at least finishing three from the list. It's three more books that are no longer sitting around waiting for you to read them.

Plus, Middlemarch should almost count for two books based on it's length. :)

>17 LittleTaiko: Thanks a lot! And that's a good way of looking at it, these books are off the shelves at least :)

Taduno's Song finished. A quick and easy read. Thematically, it's fine, dealing with speaking up against oppression. I really didn't like the plot though which uses the old and tired sexist structure of a man, together with his male helpers and friends, setting out to rescue a kidnapped woman. The book is all about male artists and geniuses finding their voices, and women basically only feature as almost silent side characters or as the silent, beautiful "damsel in distress" that motivates our hero on his quest for personal development.