Vintagecoats’s “Use The Sofa For More Than Video Games, Silly!” 11 in 11

So, I’ve only recently joined up with this website, but, I’ve been lurking, and I think that this would be a fun way to be involved in the coming year AND have yet another reason to expand my personal library ^_^

I themed the categories after the traits of various video game consoles, since that’s something that can eat up a lot of sofa time; I thought this would lead to some fun names and selections!

Categories:

1. Great Granddaddies Tales (Pong) – Books from the literary canon
2. Elegant. Small. Packs A Punch. (TurboGrafx-16) - Novellas
3. Now You’re Playing With Power (Super Nintendo) – Young Adult Fiction
4. Strength Through Superior Engineering (Neo-Geo) – Steampunk, Clockpunk, Biopunk
5. Welcome to the Real World. The Game is Never Over (Sega Saturn) - Cyberpunk
6. Adventuring In A Faraway Land (Playstation) – Fantasy
7. Walking Headfirst Into Disaster (Atari Jaguar) – Highly controversial books OR failed on release
8. Recess! (Neo-Geo Pocket Color) – graphic novels / Manga / comic anthologies
9. It’s Thinking… About The Future (Sega Dreamcast) – Science Fiction
10. These Books Have Quirks (Wii) – Experimental Fiction
11. Expansion Packs – overflow / “doesn’t fit anywhere else” category

Naturally, this all is subject to change!

December 31st, 2010 Edit:
Category titles and genres edited into their final forms for the challenge!
Added some books to the lists!

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I. Great Granddaddies Tales (Pong) – Books from the literary canon

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Potentials:

There may not be anything here yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it! :-p

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II. Elegant. Small. Packs A Punch. (TurboGrafx-16) - Novellas

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Potentials:

There may not be anything here yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it! :-p

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III. Now You’re Playing With Power (Super Nintendo) – Young Adult Fiction

1. The Looking Glass Wars (Book 1 of The Looking Glass Wars) by Frank Beddor
2. Seeing Redd (Book 2 of The Looking Glass Wars) by Frank Beddor
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Potentials:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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IV. Strength Through Superior Engineering (Neo-Geo) – Steampunk, Clockpunk, Biopunk

1. Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters
2. Mainspring by Jay Lake
3. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
4. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
5. Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
6. The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
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Potentials:

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V. Welcome to the Real World. The Game is Never Over (Sega Saturn) - Cyberpunk

1. Accelerando by Charles Stross
2. Glasshouse (loose sequel to Accelerando) by Charles Stross
3. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
4. Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott
5. Burning Chrome (Cyberpunk short story collection), by William Gibson
6. Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
7. Hackers (Cyberpunk short story collection), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
8. Neuromancer (Sprawl Trilogy, Book 1) by William Gibson
9. Count Zero (Sprawl Trilogy, Book 2) by William Gibson
10. Mona Lisa Overdrive (Sprawl Trilogy, Book 3) by William Gibson
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Potentials:

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VI. Adventuring In A Faraway Land (Playstation) – Fantasy

1. The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (Finished 1/3)
2. The Music of Razors by Cameron Rogers
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
5. Anno Dracula (Book 1 of Anno Dracula) by Kim Newman
6. The Bloody Red Baron (Book 2 of Anno Dracula) by Kim Newman
7. Dracula Cha Cha, AKA Judgment of Tears (Book 3 of Anno Dracula) by Kim Newman
8. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
9. Forever by Pete Hamill
10. Fiends of the Eastern Front: Operation Vampyr by David Bishop
11. Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

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VII. Walking Headfirst Into Disaster (Atari Jaguar) – Highly controversial books OR failed on release

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Potentials:
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

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VIII. Recess! (Neo-Geo Pocket Color) – graphic novels / Manga / comic anthologies

1. Watchmen by Alan Moore
2. Batman, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
3. Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America by Geoffrey Canada
4. Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen
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IX. It’s Thinking… About The Future (Sega Dreamcast) – Science Fiction

1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
2. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
3. Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
4. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
5. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
6. The New Space Opera (short story compilation) edited by Gardner Dozois
7. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
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X. These Books Have Quirks (Wii) – Experimental Fiction

1. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
2. Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
3. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
4. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
5. The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
6. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
7. Ticknor by Sheila Heti (Finished 1/5)
8. 253 by Geoff Ryman
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XI. Expansion Packs – overflow / “doesn’t fit anywhere else” category

1. Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons For Making It Work by Tim Gunn (Finished 1/18)
2. The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan
3. All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka
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Adventure Forward, And Best Wishes To Us All!

Welcome to the Challenge! I think you will find that LT is a very helpful place for adding to your library and your 'To Be Read' pile of books! You have a nice mix of categories and I will be following your novella category with interest next year!

Will be very interested to see what you put into

VIII. Walking Headfirst Into Disaster (Atari Jaguar)- Spectacular author failures, controversial, etc
and
XI. These Books Have Quirks (Wii) – Books with unusual and non traditional construction styles, reading methods, etc

and what you think of them!

A nicely themed and well put together challenge. I've hardly read any graphic novels but some are interesting me quite a lot so will be interested in that one as well as the SF&F categories especially.

Welcome I love your categories. Novellas are definately underated so I will be keeping an eye out for recommendations.

What interesting categories! I especially like the "spectacular failures" category and can't wait to see what you put in it.

For your "these books have quirks" category, you might like Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. I've only read snippets of it, but it is definitely constructed in a non-traditional manner! Also, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (which I loved!) might fit in this category, depending on what you're looking for.

Clever categories! For #11, you might consider Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell or Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr. Both are excellent and have amazingly original construction.

There's definitely some quirks in The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall.

For the eighth category, you could try The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. It was definitely controversial. This is what I got from good ol' Wiki:

"In the Muslim community, however, the novel caused great controversy for what many Muslims believed were blasphemous references. The book was banned in India, was burned in demonstrations in the United Kingdom, and was the subject of a violent riot in Pakistan. In February 1989, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill or help kill Rushdie and his publishers. Following the fatwa, Rushdie was put under police protection by the British government. As of early 2010 Rushdie has not been physically harmed, but 38 others have been killed in violence against those connected with the book. Individual purchasers of the book have not been harmed."

Just a thought :P

I have been a very good LibraryThing lurker these past couple of months, so trust me everyone, I didn't forget about this ^_^

Given the size of this challenge (121 books!), and the fact that I am going into my second semester of graduate school, I've been privately working out my gameplan for making sure I make it to the end of this without going crazy! So, I'm not preplanning EVERYTHING - I have a few dozen books listed for now, and the gaps will fill in over the next few months as I go through living the challenge! Also, I want to have room for various things that WILL catch my eye in the next year, so I can pick something up in, say, July, and still include it in my reading even if I never heard of it as of this day in December!

Any book currently listed is subject to either a moving into another category by popular demand (there's some tricky crossover!), or being outright removed from the challenge and replaced with something else. Once I START reading a book though, it WILL be finished! And reviewed!

It all begins in less than 24 hours now ^_^

We have many of the same categories. I look forward to seeing what you read and increasing my mammoth TBR pile.
:)

> #23 We do have several of the same categories! Well hopefully there won't be any competition, and maybe I can steal a few ideas for additional books in the process ^_^

Review #1. The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin

Rating: 4 / 5

Originally published as a part of a short story compilation decades ago, back when Martin was still known primarily for his Science Fiction writing, the version here has been released as an illustrated stand alone work. According to the dust jacket it is being pushed as a children’s book. Having never read the original, I can not speak for any story differences that may exist between them.

That said, the book is a very enjoyable read for an adult – Martin’s world building is extremely effective in getting a keen sense for the landscapes and issues that make up the setting. Inversely, and perhaps because of all the attention on world building, there is extremely sparse dialogue – all of it could be collected onto a single page of the book, with room to spare.

I find it interesting that it’s being promoted as a children’s book – it is wonderfully illustrated with dozens of sketches (which the story text is placed around, rather than being set on a different page, which I like). To me this would tend to suggest a very young “picture book” audience. But I don’t think that age group would enjoy it by themselves, due to Martin’s descriptive choices. I think it would make for a great fantasy book for a parent to read to or with a child though. I read it by myself, and still enjoyed it!

I would have given it five stars, if not for the epilogue. It felt tacked on and rushed, and does a huge disservice to climax and the end of the story. I would not be surprised if an earlier version actually ended one chapter sooner.

Review #2. Ticknor by Sheila Heti

Rating: 4 / 5

The arc of my overall opinion of this book went from “enjoyable” to “ugh” to “enjoyable” again. So the good definitely outweighs the bad!

The narrative structure of this work is presented as a series of vintages and remembrances of our narrator, George Ticknor, who at the start is off to visit his friend William H. Prescott at his home for a dinner party. A given chapter however will jump scenes and decades multiple times over, so what follows is not a linear sequence of events, and much of it is highly emotionally charged by Ticknor, who is full of self-loathing. Additionally, no obvious sense of the timing of these scenes is presented – several times, events that I had personally placed in the “past” of the running timeline I was creating inside my head I would only later, through additional context clues, learn were actually in the future, and vice versa.

A perfect view of the overall timeline is not essential to enjoyment of the story though – if the excerpts were all taken as short stories and prose pieces of varying length with the same characters, the reader would likely enjoy the book just as well!

The “ugh” from my initial description comes mainly from the writing style used by Heti – she does a wonderful job mimicking the style of mid 18th century literature. As a result, everything sounds quite Dickens-like. While it’s all good writing, it can be very cumbersome with the shotgun narrative structure here, and resulted in a lot of places where I was tripped up and faceplanted by the story. But it was never enough to keep me from dusting myself off and going back in!

Interesting review of Ticknor. I was intrigued enough to search my local library and they have a copy. Well that did it: I placed a hold and look forward to checking this book out when it is ready for pick-up.

> #26: I'm glad you fancied the review! Now here's hoping that I haven't led someone astray and into a dark and terrible place XD
It's a good piece of work, even if one has to trudge through the middle of it.

Presently, I'm reading through Gunn's Golden Rules; I'd received it as a Christmas present, so I'd rather it not get piled too deep into the TBR pile, and I do enjoy Tim Gunn's television work on Project Runway, so, it should make for a good change of pace from Ticknor.

Also, here was a surprise: in the December 2010 batch of Early Reviewer books, I actually snagged something! So I'll at some point in the future need to read and review Dare... To Try Kama Sutra once I receive it. Good thing I have that 11th category for this kind of situation!