Andi and Heather have come up with a flexible list of intimidating books for the "My Year of Reading Dangerously" Challenge. Since I've decided I'm truly meant to be a fickle reader and dislike lists, this is the only challenge I plan to participate in during the year of 2008. I'm making some substitutions because I also plan to read only from my TBR stacks - no buying in 2008. And, you believe I'll last an entire year without purchasing a book, right? Well, actually, there are some qualifications to that little personal goal, but we'll save that for another time.
The Twelve "Official" Novels by month and My Substitutions:
January: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens --- A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens
February: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison --- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
March: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood --- The Blind Assassin or Oryx and Crake by Atwood
April: Transformations by Anne Sexton (Poetry) --- Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems ed. by Nathaniel Tarn or Passions and Impressions by Pablo Neruda
May: Other Voices, Other Rooms, by Truman Capote --- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
June: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov --- yep, I've been wanting to read Lolita for years.
July: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier --- The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
August: Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman --- Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
September: The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy --- there's no substitute for this one; I'll reread it.
October: The Human Stain by Philip Roth --- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
November: A Month of Classic Short Stories, Various --- cool by me.
December: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck --- East of Eden or Of Mice and Men
Subject to change at my whims, as always, but I'm pretty happy with this list. I've already read Great Expectations (loved it!) and The Grapes of Wrath (not as terrifying as expected, actually). It's possible that I have a copy of Cat's Eye, but my husband has buried the room in which my pile of Atwoods resides, so I just don't know. Most of my choices are books that have been languishing on the shelves, either scaring the tar out of me or just in need of a reading; I don't always know why I put off the reading of a particular book. Simon's book, of course, is just so brilliant, moving and infinitely quotable that there's simply no substitute.
I think the biggest obstacle to this challenge will be making sure that I pack the right books in my suitcase. Wish me luck on that. If I leave a book behind, though, I've got some others I stashed at my mother's house. Of those, the most intimidating is the set of two volumes of The Forsyte Saga. Oooooh, scary.
Hawaii pic of the day:
Wishing everyone a calm and safe weekend!
Bookfool, who finally put a mini Christmas tree out on the table (but there's not much under it)
