Lisa Hill's 75 books (or more) for 2010

I haven't decided on any other Challenges yet...the Complete Booker and the 1% Well-Read Challenges are ongoing, and I will be reading the ANZ LitLovers schedule for 2010, but I think I might make this the Year of European Literature and finally get round to reading some of those classics & Nobel Prize winners that beckon from the TBR.
Tentative titles are:
FRANCE
1. Germinal by Emile Zola
2. Wandering Star by J.M. Le Clézio (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008)
GERMANY
3. Faust by Wolfgang von Goethe
4. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
5. Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann and I've also got
6. Siddharta by Herman Hesse
ITALY
7. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
8. The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano (winner of the Premio Strega Award, akin to the Man Booker)
9. The Divine Comedy by Dante Aligheri
10. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
GREECE
11. Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
ALBANIA
12. The Concert by Ismail Kadare (winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize 2005)
TURKEY (not exactly European, but...)
13. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2006)
PORTUGAL
POLAND
14. Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski
15. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Then some Booker winners, from my collection, some oldies and a couple of recent ones that I somehow skipped. I'm aiming for 4:

1. Holiday by Stanley Middleton
2. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer

Then, there are the books I'll be reading for the other challenges I've signed up for - some of these overlap with the above list:

* Support Your Local Library (25 books, serendipitous)
* The Book Awards Reading Challenge (flunked this one, I got distracted and forgot that it had a shorter timeline that the other challenges.)
* The What's in a Name Challenge
* The Classics Challenge - finished, July, see http://tinyurl.com/2dvg2t5

I listed my choices for these at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/challenges/

I want to read some non-fiction too. I'm aiming for at least 25 off the N/F TBR which tends to be a bit negelcted. Plans are tentative, novels take priority!

1. Flaws in the Glass by Patrick White
2. The Fanfrolico Press by John Arnold
3. The Landmark Herodotus edited by Robert B Strassler
4. The Battle for Spain, The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor
5. Ochre and Rust, Artefacts and Encounters of Australian Frontiers by Philip Jones
6. Enid Lyons, Leading Lady to a Nationby Anne Henderson
7. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson, read in conjunction with The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire by Nigel Dalziel
8. Christina Stead, a Biography by Hazel Rowley
9. Doing Life, A Biography of Elizabeth Jolley by Brian Dibble
10. Life Class, The Education of a Biographer by Brenda Niall
11. Daphne Du Maurier by Margaret Forster
12. Beatrix Potter, The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius by Linda Lear
13. The Rite of Spring, 75 Years of Music-Making by Martin Buzacott
14. The Vietnam Years, From the Jungle to the Australian Suburbs by Michael Caulfield
15. The Life You Can Save, Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer
16. Australians, Origins to Eureka by Thomas Keneally
17. The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
18. Other People's Words by Hilary McPhee
19. Great Pioneer Women of the Outback by Susanna de Vries
20. Judy Cassab, a Portrait by Brenda Niall

It doesn't look as if 2010 is the year I get to David Marr's mammoth bio of Patrick White, but you never know....

My Biggie for the year (after I finish James Joyce's Ulysses on Bloomsday 2010) is to start reading the Bible from beginning to end, and I'll be using James L. Kugel's How to Read the Bible to do it. I want to buy a nice copy of the old King James version for this; I like the old fashioned language best.

I'll also source some of the very early titles from 1001 Books You Must Read, probably from Project Gutenberg, I'll read some more of Balzac's short(ish) stories, and I'll continue reading Australian literature old and new as it comes along. Top priority for these are already on my TBR. I'm aiming for 20 of these:

1. Water under the Bridge by Sumner Locke Elliott
2. The Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee (shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Ward)
3. Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan
4. The Children's Writer by Gary Crew
5. The Rose Leopard by Richard Yaxley
6. Ocean Road by Glyn Parry
7. Sunnyside by Joanna Murray-Smith
8. The Sooterkin by Tom Gilling
9. The God of Spring by Arabella Edge
10. An Accidental Terrorist by Steven Lang
11. Heaven Where the Bachelors Sit by Gerard Windsor

Hmm, if I add all these up that's over 100 books, and although I did read 100+ in 2009, some of these are challenging books so I may not get there. Oh well, it's more important to read them and enjoy them than worry about a magic number...

BTW I have deleted touchstones because I can't get LT to behave. It's too clunky.

My progress, month-by-month, can be seen in comments below.

Hi Lisa, I host The Complete Booker and follow your blog as well. I didn't realize you were on LT! Your 2010 plans look interesting and now I've starred your thread so I can keep up with your progress!

Welcome to the group, Lisa!

What is the 1% Well Read Challenge if I may ask?

Welcome! Interesting list!

Hi Stasia - love your profile page:)
Members undertaking the 1% Well-Read Challenge aim to read 10 titles from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die each year (i.e. 1% of 1001). Of course, you'd have to do this every year for 100 years to read 'em all LOL. For links, see
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/challenges/the-1-well-read-challenge/
Lisa (ANZ LitLovers)

Hi Jim, wow I've never chatted with someone designing space craft before!
Lisa

#5: Thanks for the info, Lisa.

Welcome to the group. The 1001 list is looming for me, as I am a list reader. I have four 100best lists I have been chipping away at for a few years now, and one of the other 75'ers kept posting great books from the 1001 list. I downloaded a list and am trying to finish up my other lists first.

Hello BDB, thanks for the welcome:)

In January I've also read two short stories by Balzac: Another View of Women, and La Grande Breteche, but these are too short to count in this challenge. I'm just noting them here so that I don't forget which ones I've read, because Balzac wrote so many!
Lisa

#10: I have never read any of Balzac's short stories. How are they, Lisa?

Hi Lisa, just saw your thread on here!
Loved your review of Wolf Hall, and loved the book too. I have a Place of Greater Safety on its way over here - have you read any of her others?

I like them: I'm not really a fan of short stories, but Balzac recycles so many of his characters, there is more character development than you can usually enjoy in a short story. They've been a good introduction to classic French literature for me too.
You can find them all online through Project Gutenberg.

Hi Cushla,
I read Beyond Black the year that it was shortlisted for the Booker, and thought it was terrific. I like her black humour.
BTW, do you know if there's a way to get email notifications if someone posts to a thread on LT? I'm a bit embarrassed at the delay in replying to you here because I hadn't checked LT since going back to work...

Oh, I *wish* there was a way to be notified of changes to various threads! Haven't found one so far, so I tend to just "star" threads I'm interested in and then make sure I check the Talk page regularly. (It's my morning tea break at work. ;)

PROGRESS SO FAR:
January
1. Escape by Anna Fienberg http://tinyurl.com/yc3a6dd
2. The Umbrella Club by David Brooks http://tinyurl.com/yjctad6
3. Nothing Like a Dame by Bernadette Clohesy http://tinyurl.com/yg59f9f
4. 3908807::Joe Wilson and His Mates by henrylawson::Henry Lawson http://tinyurl.com/ydycebq
5. 9209435::Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel http://tinyurl.com/ybgnged
6. 3413601::Searching for the Secret River by grenvillekate::Kate Grenville http://tinyurl.com/yctonfm
7. Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia 1836-1939 by fullertonsusannah::Susannah Fullerton http://tinyurl.com/y9pzcxw
8. 5057::The Iliad (the Fagles translation) in preparation for Ransom http://tinyurl.com/y95s7sj
9. 7865989::Sanditon by Jane Austen http://tinyurl.com/y9nn9xx
10.29896::Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann http://tinyurl.com/yzmfe92

Progress so far
February
11. Ransom by davidmalouf::David Malouf http://tinyurl.com/ycxcptq
12. The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard http://tinyurl.com/ylzld3s
13. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk http://tinyurl.com/ykg65gl
14. Appo, Recollections of a Member of the Sydney Push by Richard Appleton http://tinyurl.com/yajla88
15. A Body of Water by Beverley Farmer http://tinyurl.com/yl7czzg

Progress so far
March
16. The Road Home by Rose Tremain http://tinyurl.com/yjjnqqb
17. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann http://tinyurl.com/yce797h
18. The Australian Long Story edited by Mandy Sayer
19. Literary Melbourne, A Celebration of Writing and Ideas edited by Stephen Grimwade http://tinyurl.com/yausjyq
20. The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam http://tinyurl.com/y9hoz5y
21. Sons of the Rumour by David Foster http://tinyurl.com/y9dwhul
22. Homer and Langley by E.L.Doctorow http://tinyurl.com/y8f94vn
23. Lovesong by Alex Miller http://tinyurl.com/ycmcffe
24. The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong http://bit.ly/asrtrl
25. Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith http://tinyurl.com/y9v4vgb
26. An Unlikely Leader, the Life and Times of Captain John Hunter by Robert Barnes http://tinyurl.com/y9mr444

Progress so far
April
27. Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi http://tinyurl.com/ya4lreq
28. Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett http://tinyurl.com/y93afcl
29. The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster http://tinyurl.com/ykcyb6k
30. The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson http://tinyurl.com/ydxh2ou
31. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt http://tinyurl.com/yenca9z
32. Figurehead by Patrick Allington http://tinyurl.com/y2qkxyt
33. The China Garden by Kristina Olssen http://tinyurl.com/y2txdg2
34. Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest http://tinyurl.com/35bvep7
35. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey http://tinyurl.com/2866mtn

Progress so far
May
36. The Comfort of Figs by Simon Cleary http://tinyurl.com/2cadfjp
37. Boy on a Wire by Jon Doust http://tinyurl.com/27uvwuc
38. 88 Lines about 44 Women by Steven Lang http://tinyurl.com/2d88uzy
39. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo http://tinyurl.com/2etsdvr
40. The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah http://tinyurl.com/378qyrg
41. The Red and the Black by Stendhal http://bit.ly/8ZDnaY

Progress so far
June
42. The Second-Last Woman in England by Maggie Joel http://tinyurl.com/26kh7me
43. Fabled Shore, from the Pyrenees to Portugal by Rose Macaulay http://tinyurl.com/24nj3mf
44. The Book is Dead by Sherman Young http://tinyurl.com/2d8sslw
45. With Stendhal by Simon Leys http://tinyurl.com/23natwy
46. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Phillip Pullman http://tinyurl.com/2cyzhq8
47. Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor http://tinyurl.com/243uvxu
48. Slow Journeys by Gillian Souter http://tinyurl.com/23tnfvd
49. Brief Lives: E.M.Forster by Richard Canning http://tinyurl.com/2aegppo
50. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead http://tinyurl.com/269zqpu
51. Glissando by David Musgrave http://tinyurl.com/28o728y
52. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi http://tinyurl.com/33wbbhv
53. To the Islands by Randolph Stow http://tinyurl.com/3afwbjz
54. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje http://tinyurl.com/33r4ukl
55. The Family Law by Benjamin Law http://tinyurl.com/25qyq6a

I finished Ulysses too, but since I'd been reading it, a chapter or two each month, since last year, I'm not counting it for this challenge. See all my posts about it at http://tinyurl.com/25vsrqh

Wow! You have done some great reading, Lisa. Congratulations on passing the halfway point of the challenge!

Nice to see you here again, Lisa! You've really read a lot of books so far -- and some ambitious ones, too. Do you have any favorites ?

Hi Stasia, I see you do some great reading too!
One day I must find out how to do that WikiThingy that you have, it looks great:)
Cheers
Lisa

Hi Lindsay, my favourite is usually the last book I read *grin*.
I must get onto reading the Booker winners I picked for this year's challenge - I have set aside 4 to do but haven't got anywhere near them yet! Maybe during the coming school holidays, I hope:)
Cheers
Lisa

#24: Lisa, trust me, if I can do the WikiThing, anyone can!

I shall have to give it a try!

Progress so far:
July
56. Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor http://tinyurl.com/2f9qw7h
57. The Infinities by John Banville http://tinyurl.com/255m899
58. Novel about My Wife by Emily Perkins http://tinyurl.com/2cepy6w
59. The Well at the World's End by A.J. Mackinnon http://tinyurl.com/2ap79w7
60. Trap by Peter Mathers http://tinyurl.com/2amwtpa
61. The Harp in the South by Ruth Park http://tinyurl.com/2buau5a
62. Good to A fault by Marina Endicott http://tinyurl.com/24gzznp
63. In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield http://tinyurl.com/26kkuuu

#28: Lisa, the link for the book is not working - it keeps coming up as 'this work has been flagged as spam.' I am pretty sure that the book you read is not spam!

I think Lisa meant to type: Indelible Ink.

I've been tempted by it in the shops, but am holding off on any new book purchases until Mt TBR is under more control!!

Yes, I had a seniors' moment and typed the wrong word! I've fixed, it should work ok now:)
Lisa

Hi Tania - would you like me to send Indelible Ink to you?
Lisa

Lisa, if you have no further use for it, I'd love to be your willing recipient of the book! Will send you a msg. I'm curious about it, it had a very interesting SMH review where it went on about real estate in Sydney.

And I remembered that almost every dinner part I've been to of late, I've been stuck down the end with the people who talk nothing but real estate.

I'm totally over real estate now, but I'm hoping she captures the Sydney zeitgeist. :)

Progress so far
August
64. The Possessed, Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman, http://tinyurl.com/2f3b8u5
65. Between Sky and Sea by Herz Bergner http://tinyurl.com/2crdsqu
66. G. by John Berger http://tinyurl.com/24pfcc4
67. The Vintage and the Gleaning by John Chambers http://tinyurl.com/24kmas4
68. Come Inside by G.I. (Glenys) Osborne http://tinyurl.com/285fmmg
69. King of Tuzla by Arnold Jansen op de Haar http://tinyurl.com/24xlezv
70. Over There With the Australians by Capt R. Hugh Knyvett http://tinyurl.com/28n9ly6
71. Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti http://tinyurl.com/26zs4rh
72. Room by Emma Donoghue http://tinyurl.com/yddslwk
73. Disquiet by Julia Leigh http://tinyurl.com/2a7rk22
74. Reading the OED by Aamon Shea http://tinyurl.com/2exsbon
75. Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd http://tinyurl.com/26f4zkl
76. An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján http://tinyurl.com/28ns3vn

#34: Thanks for the review of the Batuman book, Lisa. I will look for it.

You're welcome, Stasia!

Lisa, I read your review for Between Sky and Sea - it sounded like a fascinating read. I'll keep my eyes open for it!

Tania, I can send it to you if you like...

Lisa, I would love to, but I am drowning in books at the moment (what a way to go!). While I've stopped buying new books for the time being, I'm still getting books elsewhere. Fourteen library books. When am I going to find time to read *14* library books??

So, thanks very much, but I think I'd better say no for my sanity.

*chuckle* Oh don't I know the problem! I haven't been game to go to the library lately because (like you, I see) I tend to go overboard there, and then the TBR at home gets even more out-of-control...

September
77.Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert http://tinyurl.com/289ny3x
78. Reading Madame Bovary by Amanda Lohrey http://tinyurl.com/23c7hv6
79. The Double by Jose Saramago http://tinyurl.com/2c4dkqy
80. Ancient Shore, Despatches from Naples by Shirley Hazzard http://tinyurl.com/23skvna
81. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant http://tinyurl.com/2dn2hcg

One of these centuries I will get around to reading Madame Bovary. . .

It's on Mt TBR!! A fairly new addition too, but I can't see me making time for it any time soon. *sigh*

October (Not a bad month, considering I was travelling overseas throughout it.)
82. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff http://tinyurl.com/23bw4ej
83. The Shell Country Alphabet by Geoffrey Grigson http://tinyurl.com/26o73oj
84. The Barracks by John McGahern http://tinyurl.com/2bcd7lj
85. Ulysses and Us, by Declan Kiberd http://tinyurl.com/2esxeut
86. Barcelona by Robert Hughes http://tinyurl.com/25toa87
87. At Swim -Two Birds, by Flann O'Brien http://tinyurl.com/234bxzf

November
88. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell http://tinyurl.com/25p8jm4
89. Fall Girl by Toni Jordan http://tinyurl.com/2bxzxca
90. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe http://tinyurl.com/2datsob
91. The Translator by Daoud Hari http://tinyurl.com/27axlfm
92. The Gathering by Anne Enright http://tinyurl.com/259qxpa
93. The Women in Black by Madeleine St John http://tinyurl.com/2a9a9ar
94. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally http://tinyurl.com/2vdztuz
95. Pickle to Pie by Glenice Whitting http://tinyurl.com/267ax6e
96. Not Going to Vietnam by Garrie Hutchinson http://tinyurl.com/2633933
97. Milk Fever by Lisa Reece-Lane http://tinyurl.com/25n6ddv
98. Trouble in Lotus Land by Charmian Clift wp.me/phTIP-2aG
99. Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones http://tinyurl.com/27ndb38
100. Like Being a Wife by Catherine Harris http://tinyurl.com/262qs8r

Glad you made it back home safely from overseas, Lisa!

Thanks, Stasia:) If you want to browse my blog about it, it's at http://hillfamilysoutherndivision.wordpress.com - I love to travel!

I will check the blog out. Thanks!

December
101. The Philanthropist by John Tesarsch http://tinyurl.com/29n9yta
102. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier http://tinyurl.com/26louma
103. Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor http://tinyurl.com/2ebw4d7
104. The Piano Teacher, by Elfriede Jelinek http://tinyurl.com/29hu7jv
105. Fateless by Imre Kertész http://tinyurl.com/2cecwjg
106. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith http://tinyurl.com/yddslwk
107. A Promised Land? by Alan Collins http://tinyurl.com/22tvt46
108. Ways of Escape by Hugh Mackay http://tinyurl.com/29wgrd4
109. City of God by E.L.Doctorow http://tinyurl.com/2dqz8jy
110. Mary Poppins She Wrote by Valerie Lawson http://tinyurl.com/2daxzko
111. On Beauty by Susan Johnson http://tinyurl.com/23fkr4g
112. Ekaterinburg, The Last Days of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport http://tinyurl.com/24mhg2o

I really enjoyed Remarkable Creatures. I hope you did as well Lisa!

Not as much as some of her others, but still an enjoyable read:)
(And a fresh reminder how lucky we women are to be living in this century, not theirs).

#51: a fresh reminder how lucky we women are to be living in this century, not theirs

Boy, isn't that the truth!

Gosh, I've read 100+ books but look how many I didn't read off that list! The TBR is just as bad as ever it was!

Lisa, I do hope you will be joining us again for 2011. The new group is up and running here: http://www.librarything.com/groups/75booksin20111