Zoe's 2007 Challenge

I'm planning to read 52 books this year, and I decided to actually make a list of 52 books and see how much I stick to it. I'll cross books off the list as I finish them, as well as making a list of the books I actually read.

Planned Reading List

YA Fiction
Terrier
Bloodhound
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Specials (Completed Jan. 14)
Peeps
The Last Days
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Completed Aug. 1)
Sorcery and Cecelia (Completed Feb. 8)
The Giver (reread) (Completed Feb. 18)
Messenger
Gathering Blue (Completed Feb. 22)
The Book Thief
plus 8 discussion group books:
American Born Chinese (Completed Feb. 21)
Looking for Alaska (Completed June 4)
Feed (Completed Aug. 11)
The Hollow Kingdom (Completed Aug. 27)
Twilight (Completed Sept. 9)

Adult Fiction
The Historian
The Prestige
Fabrizio’s Return
Books 2-7 of the Pelbar series by Paul O. Williams
Apple: New Crimson Petal Stories
The Courage Consort
Amerika
Courtesan (Completed Aug. 20)
Brave New World
Natasha and Other Stories
The Song of Kahunsha
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Science
The Sleepwalkers
Incompleteness
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution
The Book Nobody Read
Flatland/Sphereland
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
Innumeracy
Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics (Completed Feb. 15)

Classics
Lives of the Twelve Caesars
The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome
Scribes and Scholars
Libraries in the Ancient World
Cleopatra

other
Voices from Chernobyl (Completed June 11)

I left out all the touchstones because I'll be editing this post as I read the books, so I don't want to have to check them all every time.

edit: I keep thinking of more I want to read! Here's my list of alternates, so that I have a bit of flexibility in my choices:

Candide
The Phantom Tollbooth (Completed Apr. 9)
The Grand Tour
Fractured English
Over Sea, Under Stone

1001 Books

Looking at the list of 1001 books to read before you die, I calculated that I need to read 14.2 of those every year in order to finish by the time I'm 90. I already have 3 on my list, so here are 11 more:

Gulliver's Travels
The Fall of the House of Usher (I can't actually remember whether I've read this, and it's too short to count toward my 50 books anyway, but it's an easy one for the purpose of the 1001 list)
The Pit and the Pendulum (another easy one that I'm *pretty* sure I've already read)
A Christmas Carol (I read this so long ago that I'm not sure it wasn't an abridged version)
Wuthering Heights
The Time Machine
The Island of Dr. Moreau
We
The Trial
Of Mice and Men
Remains of the Day

1. So far this year, I've only read Specials by Scott Westerfeld. It was the third book in the Uglies trilogy, which is post-apocalyptic/dystopian YA. I thought this was the worst of the three, but I'm still glad I read the series overall. The series as a whole raises a lot of interesting issues, but I thought this one wasted a lot of time on random action scenes that didn't add to the plot at all.

Next up is Sorcery and Cecelia, which I just barely started last night. I'm also partway through The Prestige; The Sleepwalkers; Gödel, Escher, Bach; Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution; The Exact Sciences in Antiquity; Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics; The Classical World; and Voices from Chernobyl. So for me, this challenge isn't so much about spending more time reading as about finishing the books I start. I have a week off in February when I hope to finish at least three of these.

I had to put The Book Nobody Read on my TBR just because I love the title. :)

Hehe let me know what you think of it! The back says the title is based on Arthur Koestler's claim in The Sleepwalkers that no one really read Copernicus. Since I had actually gotten that far in The Sleepwalkers, and thought it seemed a bit strange, I decided I definitely have to read The Book Nobody Read!

Good luck to all of you! There's no way I could read 50 books this year. Couldn't stand the sacrifice, since I read 133 last year and am on my 13th since January 1/07. Is there such a thing as reading too much?

Nope, no such thing as reading too much! For me, 52 is just a minimum number. I'd be happy to read more, and a lot of people have set much larger numerical goals. Even in the few hours since I posted my list of books to read, I thought of another that I should add, but I don't think I'll have enough time! The other book that I'd like to read is Candide, since I want to keep up my French if possible.

Good luck! I really liked Brave New World, very engaging. Amerika was alright. I really can't say too much about it since ironically I haven't read The Castle yet, but I didn't like it as much as The Trial or his short stories. Still, if you're a big Kafka fan it's definately a worthwhile read.

I've actually only read his short stories, but I thought I'd go through the novels in chronological order. But the others somehow didn't make it onto my list for this year - and I even purchased The Trial just last month. That's yet another book that I really should have included on the list.

2. I finally read Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, which is this month's discussion book in the Read YA Lit Group. It's also been in my TBR pile for a very long time, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. The way it was written is really interesting: it consists of letters sent back and forth between two girls, and the authors actually wrote them to each other without discussing the plot beforehand. It works much better than I would have expected. 4 stars overall.

3. I just finished Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics by Asger Aaboe. It was a short book and very interesting, but still slow going at times. The mathematics was presented pretty clearly, and there was lots of good historical information, including details of the transmission of the various texts. I also found parts of it really funny; he says things like "This is a very elegant proof (despite Schopenhauer's foolish remarks)" or "Mercury has always been a bothersome planet". I'm very glad I read this one.

4. I re-read The Giver after at least 10 years and found it just as good as I'd remembered. It's a YA dystopian story, a genre I always enjoy. I'm looking forward to reading the two related books, Gathering Blue and Messenger, which I haven't read before.

Hi Zoe

I just decided to write my own 50 book challenge list, and I put three of your books on my list - Lives of the Twelve Ceasers, The Classical World and The Book Thief.

I've already read Godel Escher Bach, Innumeracy and Flatland (never heard of Sphereland, though) and I plan to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Giver.

Actually, all of the books on your list sound interesting . . . I guess you have good taste ;)

Akiyama,

I'm glad you made a list--I always love looking at more lists of books :)

I've already read Flatland too, but I've never seen Sphereland (which is by a different author) on its own, so when I saw it and Flatland together I decided to buy it. I sort of doubt that I'll get actually around to reading it this year, though, since I just re-read Flatland less than a year ago. But when I made the list I was trying to include books I had recently purchased.

Now, time to go look at your list....

5. American Born Chinese - I stopped in the middle of Gathering Blue to read this. It's the first graphic novel I've read, and was very entertaining.

6. Gathering Blue - I was sort of disappointed in this one. It didn't really draw me in until at least halfway through; the first 20 or so pages were interesting but it sort of faded after that. The main character sometimes seemed a bit slow to realize important things, and some little details also bothered me. For example, names in the society increased from one to four syllables as a person aged (so Annabel eventually became Annabella), but it seemed like all the characters were at a stage where they had what are currently common names: Christopher, Bartholomew, Kira, Jamison, etc. It was still a nice story, though, and for some reason I feel almost guilty for criticizing it.

I think I've been spending too much time making lists.... I started to edit my original post, but it was too much trouble. So here's the new and revised version:

YA
Terrier
Bloodhound
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Specials (Completed Jan. 14)
Peeps
The Last Days
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Completed Aug. 1)
Sorcery and Cecelia (Completed Feb. 8)
The Giver (reread) (Completed Feb. 18)
Messenger
Gathering Blue (Completed Feb. 22)
The Book Thief
The Phantom Tollbooth (Completed April 9)
The Grand Tour
Over Sea, Under Stone
8 Group Reads:
American Born Chinese (Completed Feb. 21)
Looking for Alaska (Completed June 4)
Feed (Completed Aug. 11)
The Hollow Kingdom (Completed Aug. 27)
Twilight (Completed Sept. 9)

Adult Fiction
The Historian
The Prestige (Completed Sept. 1)
Fabrizio’s Return
Pelbar 2
Pelbar 3
Pelbar 4
Pelbar 5
Pelbar 6
Pelbar 7
The Courage Consort
Amerika
Courtesan (Completed Aug. 20)
Brave New World
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Science
The Sleepwalkers
Incompleteness
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Theories of the World from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution
The Book Nobody Read
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
Innumeracy
Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics (Completed Feb. 15)

Classics
Lives of the Twelve Caesars
The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome
Scribes and Scholars
Libraries in the Ancient World
Cleopatra

Other
Voices from Chernobyl (Completed June 11)
Fractured English

French
Le Petit Prince (reread)
Candide
Les Misérables Vol. 1
Les Misérables Vol. 2

1001 Books
The Secret History
Fingersmith
Gulliver’s Travels
The Passion
The Name of the Rose
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Midwich Cuckoos
We
The Island of Dr. Moreau
(The Pit and the Pendulum (reread?))
(The Fall of the House of Usher (reread?))

I eliminated a few books that I don't already own, completely rethought my 1001 selections, and rearranged a bit. I'm trying to focus on quality books that I already own and really want to read. This one is really going to be the final list... really....

Zoe, I've read both The Phantom Tollbooth and The Book Thief and you are in for two really good reads! But, I wouldn't call The Book Thief YA fiction.