Cait's 1010 Challenge

I lasted about a week into the 999 Challenge, in part, I think, because I was new to LT and was overwhelmed by all the random new recs I wanted to read. For 2010, I'm going to try the "step" challenge of 1 book, 2 books, 3 books, etc. If I finish it early, I might do a second challenge. :)

Here are my categories:
1. One Huge Classic
2. Two Jane Austen Novels
3. Three Books Just-For-Fun
4. Four Books Set in Ireland
5. Five American Classics
6. Six Global Reads
7. Seven Cormac McCarthy Novels
8. Eight Margaret Atwood Titles
9. Nine Books By/About L. M. Montgomery
10. Ten Books from the Booker Longlist

These categories reflect my reading habits, and will give me a chance to focus on some of my favourite authors.

One Huge Classic
1. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Two Jane Austen Novels
1. Emma - Completed 3 January 2010
2. Mansfield Park

These two novels are the last Austen's I have left to read.

Three Books Just-For-Fun
1.
2.
3.

There is a time and place for everything, even Brain Candy.

Four Books Set in Ireland
1.
2.
3.
4.

My best friend and I are traveling to the Emerald Isle summer 2010, and I love reading about places I am going to visit.

Five American Classics
1. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
2. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
3.
4.
5.

As a Canadian, I am under-read in the literature of my southern neighbour.

Six Global Reads
1. Half of a Yellow Sun
2. No One Will See Me Cry
3.
4.
5.
6.

I really need to expand my reading away from all things Anglo.

Seven Cormac McCarthy Novels
1. The Crossing
2. Cities of the Plain
3. The Orchard Keeper
4. Suttree
5. Outer Dark
6. Child of God
7. Blood Meridian

I discovered McCarthy in 2009, and would like to read all of his works. These seven will complete that goal.

Eight Margaret Atwood Titles
1. Murder in the Dark - Completed 9 January 2010
2. Oryx and Crake
3. The Year of the Flood
4. The Robber Bride
5. Life Before Man
6. The Edible Woman
7. Dancing Girls
8. Bodily Harm

I also own Wilderness Tips, so this category could move to #9, and Montgomery could become #8. We shall see :)

Another of my favourite authors. Since Atwood writes novels, poetry, short stories, and non-fiction, this should be a diverse category.

Nine Books by/about L. M. Montgomery
1. Kilmeny of the Orchard
2. The Story Girl
3. The Golden Road
4. Further Chronicles of Avonlea
5. The Blue Castle
6. Jane of Lantern Hill
7. The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, Volume 1
8.
9.

I love the "Anne" and "Emily" books, and would like to read more of Montgomery in 2010. This list will include her novels, journals, and maybe a biography on Montgomery.

Ten Books from the Booker Longlist
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

I am reading my way through the 2009 list, and am really enjoying the journey, so I will do it again in 2010.

I really like your categories. I am becoming a fan of Margaret Atwood after reading some of her books recently, so I am curious to see what books you will be choosing by her.

You have some fun categories. I recently checked out The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and will be starting it in a few days. I'm glad to see that you enjoy her work so much, and hope that I do, too. (:

Great categories. I am a big Margaret Atwood fan and hope to attend her reading when she visits my area in a few weeks. I've got her new book, The Year of the Flood, on my own 1010 list.

I like Atwood too! I'll be reading The robber bride for my "Moldy ones" category, since it's strangely been sitting unread on my shelves for over ten years...Will that be one of yours too?

Yay for all the Atwood love!

Mathgirl, I'm hoping to see Atwood as well, either in Toronto or Kitchener, depending on when I can get tickets. She would be incredible to meet.

On my TBR for Atwood I have: The Robber Bride, Life Before Man, Dancing Girls, The Edible Woman, Bodily Harm, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood. I might read one or two this year, and the rest will be for next year. I would like to read some of her poetry and non-fiction as well.

If there's any consensus on an Atwood title, it would be fun to do a group read of one of her books. She always provides plenty of discussion material.

Never done a group read and they scare me a little. I'm pretty swamped at work at times plus I have a wee one. Do group reads have time limits a la "read 200 pages by friday"? Because I wouldn't be able to commit to something like that, especially not this long beforehand. I need the "three books one month, eleven books the next" flexibility.

That's one of the reasons I am staying away from any group read - my work has peaks now and then plus all the business trips and anything which takes less than a month is almost impossible for me in most cases.

We did one last year on the 999 of The Brothers Karamazov. We divided the book into sections and then each commented as they completed a section. Some people finished rapidly, but returned to see what others had said and to make additional comments, others (like myself) took awhile to finish, but really enjoyed reading what other people thought. There was also a place for general comments that did not give away the plot.

Nice to see so many Atwood fans here! Cait86, I'm hoping to get tickets for the Kitchener event. The tickets are being distributed at Kitchener Public Library starting Sept. 12 at 9am. I'd offer to get you one, but I already promised I'd pick one up for a friend. (It's max 2 per person.) Maybe I'll meet you in line. :)

I'd love to do a group read, but it might be hard to get consensus on a single book. Would there be any interest in doing a general Atwood group read (pick any title) during a particular month? March for Margaret? April for Atwood?

I like the idea of a Margaret Atwood month - we can still talk about her style, her treatment of gender (because that is always central to her books), etc.

Mathgirl, I'm hoping my best friend will get me the Kitchener ticket - I can't believe it's a free event!

I'm all up for an Atwood month! March or april would be fine by me.

Oh well - if everyone reads Atwood, I still have the bonus category and I will join - might as well read a few of her books at the end.

I'll suggest an Atwood month in the group-read thread. It'll be great to read Atwood with other fans!

Sorry, but this post is not about Margaret Atwood. :) Cait, I was wondering what you're planning to read for the "novels set in Ireland" category. If you like mysteries, you might enjoy Haunted Ground by Erin Hart, which is a book I really enjoyed from my 999 Challenge.

Hey Christina, thanks for the rec! I'm not 100% sure which books I'm going to read for that category. I have a lot of suggestions from the 75 book challenge, but I will probably just go with whatever comes up over the year. I would like to read at least one non-fiction history, and some Seamus Heaney.

For all of you Atwood fans, there is an Atwoodian group here at LT. We've done group reads for Surfacing and Robber Bride. There is lots and lots of lead in time to get the book read before discussion starts, so nothing to be afraid of!

Here's the link to the Atwoodian home page: http://www.librarything.com/groups/atwoodians

Thanks for the link, Nickelini! I didn't know there were so many Atwood enthusiasts here.

I changed a category - my King Arthur became a Global Reads category. My reading is very Canada and UK centred, and I want to change that.

I'm jealous of everyone who has started already! I'm holding off until January, but just barely!!

I like your categories.

I'm holding off until January to start as well.

Hi, Cait, just stopping by to let you know I have your thread here starred!

#26 I second the recommendation of Erin Hart--the third book in her series is coming out next March, and I'm so excited. She's one of my favorite newer authors.

I want to suggest Cooking with Fernet Branca for your Booker Longlist - very fun read.

I like your L.M. Montgomery category too. I haven't read any of her books since childhood and it may be time for a few re-reads.

#35 - It is definitely time for a reread! Her books are timeless.

#34 - Thanks!

#33 - Thanks again!!

You've got my favorite Austen on the list - I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

Like your stepping method! Good luck with the challenge.

I was wondering if you were considering Fitzgerald for your American category. If so I would like to suggest one of his short story collections, Flappers and Philosophers

Since January is just around the corner, here are my intended 1010 Reads for the month:

Murder in the Dark - Atwood Category
Half of a Yellow Sun - Global Category
No One Will See Me Cry - Global Category
Emma - Austen Category

Hopefully I can get through them all!

Good luck with your January goals! I'm making monthly reading goals too. Otherwise, I get too distracted by random books I find. By the way, I loved Emma.

Book #1: Emma - Jane Austen

1010 Category #2: Jane Austen (1/2)
Source: My TBR Shelves!
Pages: 453

Emma is the Austen novel that gave me the most trouble. This is my third time attempting it, despite loving Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. The character of Emma is, to me, far less interesting than Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot, and far more annoying. Austen said that when she sat down to write Emma, she wanted to create a heroine that no one but herself would like. After about the first third of this novel, I thought Austen had certainly succeeded. However, Emma began to grow on me, and by the end I was caught up in the romantic dramas of the novel. So, despite a slow start, Emma eventually moved up in the ranks of Austen's novels to surpass both Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey.

4 stars

Book #2: Murder in the Dark - Margaret Atwood

1010 Category #8: Margaret Atwood (1/8)
Source: My TBR Shelves!
Pages: 87

I truly love Margaret Atwood - I find her writing to be compelling, imaginative, and complex. She is the master of so many genres, and I enjoy her novels, poetry, and short stories with equal measure. Murder in the Dark is a rather odd collection, genre-wise, as it can be considered an anthology of short stories, or a book of poetry. Personally, I am going to take the middle, non-decisive ground, and call it an offering of prose-poems. Each selection is written in prose, not verse, but they contain a quality of language found only in poetry. Consider this entry, "Mute":

"Whether to speak or not: the question that comes up again when you think you've said too much, again. Another clutch of nouns, a fistful: look how they pick them over, the shopper for words, pinching here and there to see if they're bruised yet. Verbs are no better, they wind them up, let them go, scrabbling over the table, wind them up again too tight and the spring breaks. You can't take another poem of spring, not with the wound-up vowels, not with the bruised word green in it, not yours, not with ants crawling all over it, not this infestation. It's a market, flyspecked; how do you wash a language? There's the beginning of a bad smell, you can hear the growls, something's being eaten, once too often. Your mouth feels rotted.

Why involve yourself? You'd do better to sit off to the side, on the sidewalk under the awning, hands over your mouth, your ears, your eyes, with a cup in front of you into which people will or will not drop pennies. They think you can't talk, they're sorry for you, but. But you're waiting for the word, the one that will finally be right. A compound, the generation of life, mud and light."

Odd, certainly. But brilliant - something I want to read over and over. Murder in the Dark will probably become one of my go-to books, when I need a quick bit of literary inspiration. Each section, like "Mute", offers so much.

However, and this is a big however, there are sections of Murder in the Dark that I will never read again. As much as I love Atwood, it is so obvious that she lived through the intense feminism of the 70s and 80s. Some of her stories contain a bitterness towards men that I find jarring. Now, Murder in the Dark was first published in 1983, and so I can contextualize her feelings, and see how applicable they once were. I just cannot apply these ideas to my own life - growing up in today's society, I am lucky enough to have never felt disadvanged due to my gender. The thing with Atwood's more recent work (like Alias Grace or The Blind Assassin), is that while issues relating to femininity and gender are still present, much of that bitterness is gone. Reading Atwood's earlier writing is always tough for me, because of this difference. Luckily, I can see the hope in Murder in the Dark, as well as the bitterness.

So, in the end, I recommend this work for Atwood's skill with language, but with the warning that it is a bit dated in regards to gender attitudes.

3 stars