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A brief history of the Book Barns Annual Reading Challenge Long ago, well before any of us without archives can access, ancient Book Barn scholars set out to test their knowledge and training by reading a certain number of books a year. Then came the rise of the booklord. In addition to challenging ourselves by reading a set number of books, the booklord created his own unique set of goals to encourage the brave to step outside of their comfort zone and expand their minds. This year I have ascended to the place of the booklord and will be issuing my own challenge with hopefully some fun additions (or just gimmicky bullshit). The rules Realistically, this is 100% about having fun and trying to push your reading further, so it is entirely up to you how you go about this. You can just stick to the traditional "read X number of books" challenge, or you can have fun with us and take the booklord challenge. Many of the categories are intentionally open ended (and even something like "history" doesn't specify whether it is fiction or non-fiction or what kind of history) so you can interpret as you like. I only request that you don't back out of something or shy away just because it is outside of your comfort zone. Again, it's up to you, but if you're in this thread then you are presumably here to challenge yourself, and I think you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not trying something new. Also, try to post something outside of just a list (I have been guilty of this too). You don't need to review every book you read, just call out favorites or even just talk about how much fun you're having this year compared to other years. With that said, onto the challenge: The 2018 Booklord Challenge I've kept to a similar style and length of list that we've had in the past, but decided to spice things up by adding bonus challenges. These can be attempted in addition to the normal goal or in place of or not at all. Some of these might be laughably easy for some while others might be way too hard, so feel free to engage and adjust as you see fit: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge1 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women.2 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white.2 bonus: Of these make sure half are by authors new to you 4. Read at least one book by an LGBT author. bonus: Make sure 10% of the books you read this year are by LGBT authors 5. Participate in the TBB BotM thread at least once in 2018 (thread stickied each month at the top of the forum). bonus: Participate in the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread 6. Ask another poster to issue you a wildcard, then read it.3 bonus: Similarly, get a wildcard from another thread in this forum 7. Get a recommendation from a friend or loved one. bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) 8. Read something written before you were born. bonus: Read a book written/published the exact year you were born 9. Read a book published in 2018 (or if you're eager to start early, the latter half of 2017). bonus: Read something that wins an award in 2018, but only after it is announced (i.e. don't apply retroactively) 10. Read something translated from another language. bonus: Read something that isn't in your primary language 11. Read something political. bonus: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in 12. Read a poetry collection. bonus: Read poems by at least 10 different poets 13. Read a collection of short stories. bonus: Read short stories by at least 10 different authors 14. Read a play. bonus: Read a play first published in the last 10 years 15. Read something involving history. bonus: Read something about a (nonfictional) war that didn't involve the U.S. 16. Read something biographical. bonus: Read something biographical about someone you've met/seen in person4 17. Read something about religion. bonus: Read a major religious text 18. Read something from a non-traditional perspective. bonus: Read something narrated in the 2nd person 19. Read something that has been banned, censored, or challenged. bonus: Read something currently banned, censored, or challenged in its country of origin 20. Read something about music. bonus: Read something about a genre of music you're explicitly not a fan of 21. Read something that involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs. bonus: Read something about hunger 22. Read something about the future. bonus: Read something about a future that takes place before the current year Clarification, errata and footnotes Try to read a different book for each challenge, but feel free to combine on the percentage based ones. Remember that failing at one of the challenges doesn't mean you have to give up on the whole thing, this is literally just a fun way to challenge ourselves, so have fun and don't take it too seriously! 1. Last year there were a few (myself included) who elected not to do the number challenge, so I added the "personal challenge" option for those who want to do the booklord challenge while customizing something for themselves. For example, I am going to try to do one reread per month, for a total of 12. 2. Repeating these challenges from last year, but feel free to adjust. I don't think 1 out of every 5 books (or 1 out of every 10, if you read a book by a non-white woman) is too crazy, but you can also feel free to try for more. 3. Last year someone wildcarded The Berserker with Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong which is 4 volumes and something like 2500 pages. I am hesitant to make hard guidelines here but I just ask wildcarders to be aware of things like time constraints, and wildcardees that you can always get re-carded if necessary (although please don't abuse that to get out of reading something you just aren't interested in). 4. This could be like a concert or speech or just someone you saw from a distance once. Again this is open-ended so have fun with it. Other fun stuff I am going to be issuing some kind of reward (likely a cert) to a random person who completes the challenge and writes a little something; details will be in a post below. I am also going to try and do theme weeks about some of the above challenges to encourage discussion and keep the thread exciting during the bulk of the year where it is usually just lists and wildcards. Anyone else can feel free to make effort posts about some of the categories or anything involving the challenge. Have fun and good luck!
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Dec 29, 2017 23:46
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Posters taking the challenge Name: Guy A. Person Personal Challenge: 12 rereads Booklord's challenge: yes Name: screenwritersblues Personal Challenge: 30 books Booklord's challenge: no Name: ToxicFrog Personal Challenge: 96 books, at least 10% nonfiction, at most 25% rereads Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Omne Personal Challenge: 24 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Tiggum Personal Challenge: 52 books for the year, of which at least 24 must be by women and 12 must be non-fiction (counting overlap) Booklord's challenge: no Name: The Berzerker Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Chazani Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: mdemone Personal Challenge: 100 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: cryptoclastic Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Orion2221 Personal Challenge: 52 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: nerdpony Personal Challenge: 100 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Jew it to it! Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: not committing yet Name: Gertrude Perkins Personal Challenge: 52 books total, with at least 1/3 by women and at least 1/3 by writers of colour Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Talas Personal Challenge: 60 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Groke Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: smug n stuff Personal Challenge: 52 books, at least 5 books published in 2018 and at least 5 out of copyright Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Ben Nevis Personal Challenge: 80 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Carlosologist Personal Challenge: 27 books, with the sub goal being at least 40% by women and 30% by Latin-American authors Booklord's challenge: no Name: Robot Mil Personal Challenge: 40 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: nipplefish Personal Challenge: 50 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: USMC_Karl Personal Challenge: 42 books, at least 12 nonfiction books and 4 different collections of poetry Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Hungry Personal Challenge: 52 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Franchescanado Personal Challenge: 24 books, including 6 books in the SHAMEFUL: The Greatest Books You've Never Read thread Booklord's challenge: yes Name: apophenium Personal Challenge: 50 books Booklord's challenge: first 6 parts of the challenge Name: Dr. Kloctopussy Personal Challenge: 50 books; at least 4 BotM books; 2 books from the shame pile; The Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Dostoevski works covered in Nabakov's lectures on Russian literature, and the lectures themselves; Bible chunks Booklord's challenge: not officially Name: Esme Personal Challenge: 52 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Chamberk Personal Challenge: 36 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: oscarthewilde Personal Challenge: 52 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Corrode Personal Challenge: less than 50 books in "unread" pile at the end of the year Booklord's challenge: yes Name: thatdarnedbob Personal Challenge: 80 books, and actually posting in the dang thread each month Booklord's challenge: yes Name: my bony fealty Personal Challenge: 60 books, at least 50% female authors and at least 10% LGBT authors Booklord's challenge: not yet Name: Stuporstar Personal Challenge: 52 books Booklord's challenge: yes Personal Challenge: Booklord's challenge: A human heart refuses to back my foolish plot to read some books Name: Magikarpal Tunnel Personal Challenge: 100 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Strong Mouse Personal Challenge: 20 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: Socialized Personal Challenge: 24 books, at least 18 of which are books they already own Booklord's challenge: wildcard only Name: lithium flour Personal Challenge: 24 books and to actually keep posting in this thread Booklord's challenge: picking and choosing Name: Milt Thompson Personal Challenge: 26 books, under 20% rereads Booklord's challenge: yes Name: idiot of the legal system Personal Challenge: 52 books, with at least ten poetry books and less than ten written by straight white dudes from dominant literary canons Booklord's challenge: no Name: Loutre Personal Challenge: 75 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: MuRLinn Personal Challenge: entire wheel of time series Booklord's challenge: no Name: Fellwenner Personal Challenge: 100 books, no rereads Booklord's challenge: yes Name: CestMoi Personal Challenge: 5000 books Booklord's challenge: not likely Name: Bitchkrieg Personal Challenge: 100 books Booklord's challenge: dunno Name: MockingQuantum Personal Challenge: 70 books Booklord's challenge: yes Name: ectoplasm Personal Challenge: 30 books totaling at least 10,000 pages Booklord's challenge: Guy A. Person fucked around with this message at 04:01 on May 18, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2017 23:46
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Booklord reward system This year you're working toward a (potential, random, and small) reward for all your hard work! In addition to the warm feeling of accomplishment you will receive for completing your challenge, you will also be entered into a random drawing for an SA gift cert. If you complete the booklord challenge to your own satisfaction (I mean, it's all on the honor system anyway), write a small paragraph/post about one of the books from your challenge or just the challenge in general and how it's helped expand your reading. Or hell, even if you think it's been totally pointless, write about that. Since I'm not qualified to judge anyone's writing I'm not going to reward based off best essay, I'll just enter your names into a spreadsheet or something then randomize it on new years day of 2019 and shoot the winner their choice of cert (excluding smiley). Just title it something like "Booklord challenge essay contest" or something, preferably in bold to catch my attention. Good luck and happy reading! Guy A. Person fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Dec 31, 2017 |
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Dec 29, 2017 23:46
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Updated second post with everyone who has signed up so far, and also updated third post with details about a prize for this year!
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Dec 31, 2017 03:52
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Got everyone who has posted so far. Going to wait a couple weeks for people to figure out their challenges and assign some wildcards before I post some more substantial stuff, but feel free to discuss stuff as you see fit in the meantime. Also I am in the challenge (gotta set a good example) and could use a wildcard.
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Jan 8, 2018 17:10
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Corrode posted:Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris. Thanks, this looks good!
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Jan 11, 2018 23:11
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Yeah I usually skip to the notes/appendix of any non-fic book when I start it to see what true percentage it ends at A little tip from your booklord
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Jan 12, 2018 05:28
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #1 - Challenge no. 11: Read something political So I decided to not do these in any particular order, and since in America it is 1) an election year, and 2) yesterday was the current American president's first State of the Union, I decided to make this first post about challenge number 11 - "read something political". My personal pick for this challenge was Michael Wolff's new trashy gossip book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. This was obviously not very literary and potentially full of some exaggerations but still offered some interesting insights into Trump's inner circle as well as organizing stuff I already knew about the first year of his presidency into a narrative. So much of that poo poo last year was like a fever dream, so it was helpful to get things straight in my mind reading about it with the benefit of hindsight and a clear progression. I'd recommend it as a good primer (at the very least if you're not that politically inclined it gives a pretty solid summary of the first year of Trump's events and scandals) and for a few insights which have probably since been reported on/fact checked anyway. Just read it with a grain of salt that the dude is probably shaping some things to fit his preferred narrative. Other recommendations: I am a pretty big fan of Rick Perlstein's trilogy on the rise of modern American conservatism: Before the Storm (2001), Nixonland (2008), and The Invisible Bridge (2014). These go chronologically through 3 of the bigger figures who shaped the modern Republican party platform, ideologies, strategies and what have you. I have yet to read Before the Storm but the other 2 were really good. For literature there's also classics like Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here which was featured in a BotM thread at the end of 2016. Bonus challenge: Read something political from/about a country you aren't from and don't currently live in I was totally hoping to do some research and have a few examples here or at least my own choice but then I totally didn't do that. So I am leaving that up to you guys, and hoping that we can get a discussion going and I can get my own recommendations. ---- So feel free to discuss your own choices or interpretations of the challenge or previous books you've read that could fit. Remember "something political" is pretty open ended and certainly doesn't have to do with government politics on the national level like the examples I posted.
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Jan 31, 2018 19:18
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Ben Nevis posted:I'm probably not going to get a political read in for Theme Week, unless I stretch to make it sci-fi. Oh yeah, just for clarification, definitely don't expect people to read their political book this early, especially in a single week. I happened to read mine because it was a hot topic but mostly I intend the theme weeks as being more about discussion of the challenges, rather than read-alongs or whatever. I just want to get people talking and giving suggestions/interpretations.
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Jan 31, 2018 19:57
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Milt Thompson posted:For me, the challenges are really what I'm interested in, and where the bonus is listed, that is the aim. Somebody issue me a wildcard! I think this got lost in the shuffle so: read White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi Hungry posted:I'm determined to do as many of the bonuses as I can, and unfortunately for me this one was triggered by my half-asleep husband mumbling "You're gonna read Gai-jin, right?" Which is, of course, a half-million word doorstop of a novel. Holy moley. I'm impressed you're sticking to the letter of the challenge and good luck!
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Feb 3, 2018 02:52
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Continuing to set a bad example as booklord, here's my January update: 1. The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington 2. John Dies at the End by David Wong 3. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff 4. This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong 5. J R by William Gaddis I had started Carrington's stories as a light thing to read over the holidays but was still too busy to read more than one so I reread that one and the rest in January. They were great, full of really wonderful surrealist imagery and logic. I'm happy I decided to buy it, I can definitely see picking it up at random to read a surreal short story when I'm feeling whimsical. I also read JDatE and the sequel since there's a third book in the series that just came out and I wanted to refresh my memory. Just about to finish the third book as my first book in February. They're not the best lit but they're fun, quick reads full of really inventive ideas. I already talked about Fire and Fury above. JR took up the bulk of my month, it was a long and pretty difficult book, but well worth it. I read it for the SHAMEFUL The Greatest Books You've Never Read which is good and you should all check out since it's one of the bonus challenges anyway! I also just got this challenge in a meeting at work: Guy A. Person posted: bonus: Read literally the first in-person book recommendation you get in 2018 (solicited or not) ...and it's Atomic Design by Brad Frost! I kind of figured it would be one of my friends telling me to read some fantasy book (I think he's reading the Kingkiller Chronicles?) so I didn't have super high hopes anyway, this was an interesting twist. MuRLinn posted:My father passed away in December, he left me numerous books. I'm talking two full Ikea book shelves full of nothing but Sci Fi and fantasy, plus a few cookbooks. Since I've gathered all of his books together and place them in my home I decided to read the ENTIRE Wheel of time series, all twelve of them. My father loved that series and its only fitting that I read the books he enjoyed. That is my challenge for the year, to finish the Wheel of Time series. Sorry about your loss, and good luck on the challenge
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Feb 5, 2018 17:38
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Hey just wanted to check in and give an update on my new plan for theme weeks. The way I originally envisioned these was just as a week to discuss a certain challenge topic and trade recs and interpretations, but it seems like a few people actually wanted to read a book for that theme during the week, which uh makes a lot more sense and makes me feel dumb. So what I am going to do is announce the upcoming theme weeks in advance so everyone can pick a book and read along, combining the recommendations/idea trading alongside actual reviews and stuff. I might likely end up creating a full schedule to post, but for now we are going to start our second theme week on Monday, March 5th and the topic will be women authors, in honor of Women's history month. That should also be a super broad (heh) topic and shouldn't be hard to find something in your reading list. I'll once again do an effort post full of my own recommendations and what I plan on reading, and encourage anyone else to post their thoughts. Keep on trucking, reading-wise.
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Feb 21, 2018 23:03
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February update, picked up the pace a bit this month: 6. What the Hell Did I Just Read by David Wong 7. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi 8. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall 9. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan 10. The Little Book of Black Holes by Steven S. Gubser, Frans Pretorius 11. The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova 12. The Great Movies by Roger Ebert The third of David Wong's John and David series continues its downward trend, but it still had some fun sequences and ideas. Helen Oyeyemi's books always delight me, I need to space those out a bit more because I am running out. I actually read the Doll's Alphabet based on a recommendation from the book store clerk when I was buying another Oyeyemi, and it was similar to her style while being a bit more macabre so it was enjoyable. The two physics books were a little heady for my bus rides, but still full of some really interesting information. I wish the one had more dinosaurs and less dark matter tho. Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore came together a bit at the end but still felt super amateurish. The fascination with Google as a company was extremely dumb. The Great Movies is a series of essays by Ebert about what he considers the 100 most influential/important movies in history. It's extremely interesting and makes me want to read the sequels and watch a bunch of these movies, which might cut into my ability to finish my own challenge. ------- Also a quick reminder to get your books written by women ready for our upcoming theme week starting on Monday, March 5
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Mar 1, 2018 18:43
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Hungry posted:Gah, that's disappointing to hear. I was really hoping he'd somehow picked back up again in the third book. I'm almost tempted to just reread the first rather than bother with the next one. tbf I reread the first two to refresh my memory for the third since they're quick reads, and I enjoyed the second one a lot better the second time around, since I wasn't waiting for it to attain the level of the first one. The third is more of the same and it probably would have been better to just read it fresh though. But yeah the first one was obviously years of his best ideas serialized and then refined for publishing, while the follow ups have some cool ideas they're never going to seem as fresh unless he abandons the world he's already created and goes someplace totally new with it.
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Mar 1, 2018 21:20
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Challenge takers -- the BotM for March poll is up if you want a hand in deciding your fate: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3850667
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Mar 2, 2018 22:47
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #2 - Read something by a woman So in honor of the first full week of Women's history month, this next theme week is all about reading something written by a woman. As a bonus, this can give challengers ideas for their ongoing challenge number 2. This week I am reading Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. I had previously read her book The Round House which was great, this one has started out as more of a pre-apocalypse novel which is pretty intriguing. I also need to generate a broader list of new-to-me female authors for the bonus challenge, so I am counting on your help for ideas. I'm thinking the next challenge will be in a few weeks and be a play in honor of World Theatre day near the end of March. I'll probably rough up a full schedule so people can schedule their books around it, but of course this is just a fun thing to fill the time and give people more suggestions and generate conversation, so no pressure. Happy reading!
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Mar 6, 2018 04:05
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Bitchkrieg posted:I read this and Alderman's "The Power" back-to-back and enjoyed both for different reasons. Ultimately, my criticism of Future Home of the Living God was that - despite so much potential - there just wasn't enough exploration of politics / racism / misogyny / etc. It was gripping and entertaining, but fell short. Please post your impression of it when you're done. Will do! I hadn't had The Power on my radar either, I will add that. Thanks!
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Mar 7, 2018 04:12
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Awesome posts guys, I am adding a bunch of these to my to-read shelf. I will try to do a larger effort post of my own recommendations later tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I just dropped in to announce that this month's BotM is Lincoln in the Bardo. If you haven't read it yet (or even if you have) you definitely should, and fulfill a challenge at the same time.
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Mar 7, 2018 19:42
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Bitchkrieg posted:Ultimately, my criticism of Future Home of the Living God was that - despite so much potential - there just wasn't enough exploration of politics / racism / misogyny / etc. It was gripping and entertaining, but fell short. Please post your impression of it when you're done. I agree with this criticism although my bigger one was the redundancy toward the end: "they're hiding, she's captured, they're hiding again, she's captured again". I get the idea but I also feel like there could have been more opportunities to explore the themes you talked about or even just find out more about what was going on with the outside world. It was good but dragged toward the latter half and was a little underwhelming.
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Mar 18, 2018 21:01
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #3 - Challenge no. 14: Read a play Next Tuesday, March 27 is World Theatre Day, so this (and next) week's theme week is to read a play! Plays are typically light reads, so my personal plan is to read one on the actual day (and probably one or two more in the surrounding days) but obviously again this is just to encourage discussion of what everyone is planning to read. My main challenge pick this year is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I haven't ever read any Wilde and this was one I've had my eye on for awhile. I also wanted to do something a little older to contrast with the Bonus challenge: read a play first published in the last 10 years for which I just did the maybe obvious thing and hit up the list of Pulitzer winners in drama: http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/218 So I checked out The Humans by Stephen Karam and also put a hold on last year's winner Sweat by Lynn Nottage. I also went a little past the 10 year window and checked out Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks. So I will be reading some combination of those on/around next Tuesday and in the coming weeks. For other recommendations, these are some plays I've read and enjoyed in past years challenges: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Death of a Salesman Waiting for Godot John by Annie Baker A Number by Caryl Churchill Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
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Mar 20, 2018 21:52
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I read the Tempest last year and it rocked. As a bonus a few months later I read a Margaret Atwood book called Hag-Seed which was about a dude putting on the play at a prison, so it was cool knowing everything about it. I've also picked up more references from it here and there in shows/movies/books. I read this Cambridge Press version that had the text of the play on one side and contextual/historical notes on the opposite side, which was kind of annoying at first but once I got used to it gave a lot of cool extra info. My local library has a whole collection of those so I'll probably pick up something else for next week as well. Maybe I'll just do a full week of plays!
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Mar 21, 2018 01:25
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Corrode posted:I thought Hag-Seed was a great take on the play and managed to use the basic elements really creatively. Yeah, I thought Hag-Seed was actually really great, especially because I had been on a run of underwhelming Atwood stuff (I thought The Heart Goes Last sucked and the last two books of the MaddAddam trilogy didn't live up to the potential) and it seemed like a return to form for her. Also, I'm a little late on this but for those of you doing the #9 bonus challenge (read a book that wins an award in 2018), The National Book Critics Circle Award winners were awarded last week: http://bookcritics.org/awards
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Mar 21, 2018 16:57
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Just finished reading The Importance of Being Earnest, going to read The Humans tomorrow in honor of National Theatre day, and I also checked out Othello from my library. Still waiting on a few other holds I placed for play. Earnest was a lot funnier than I anticipated, even tho I knew it was supposed to be funny. Nearly every line contains some sort of clever wordplay or humorous irony, I was smiling most of the time reading it. Very glad I read it, and it made me want to check out more of Wilde's stuff.
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Mar 27, 2018 00:26
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Finished The Humans last night. It was alright, I did enjoy the way some of the notation helped you to envision the dialogue being acted out more, with the side-by-side segments and the "/" being used to indicate that another character cuts in. It also seemed to have some really cool imagery and a handful of resonant ideas. On the whole it seemed like a typical struggling middle-class family narrative which didn't exactly wow me, but I wouldn't mind seeing it on stage, the end scene especially seems like it would be really powerful to see. Started Othello this morning which is good so far. Looking forward to seeing if it has some of the classic archetypes that appear in other stuff like I noticed with the Tempest; Iago is the obvious one. I enjoyed the gag where Desdemona's father is abusing the dude who shows up to talk to him at the beginning of the play, saying he's not good enough for his daughter, until he finds out she eloped with a black dude and then he's all, "oh woah is me, if only she'd married you".
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Mar 28, 2018 16:01
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Yeah I kind of regret the 10 year cutoff because it leaves out a bunch of stuff between super old "classic" stuff and effectively brand new stuff. But I encourage people read more modern era plays in general.
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Mar 28, 2018 16:25
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MockingQuantum posted:I just found this thread, is it kosher for me to join the challenge, do the booklord, and mark off whatever booklordy challenges I've already done? I track everything I read on Goodreads, but I haven't gone through and determined if I've actually accomplished any of the booklord challenge. I'll make this one exception, but I swear to god if you tell anyone...
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Mar 28, 2018 20:02
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MockingQuantum posted:Thread judgement: would The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao count for 15. Read something involving history? It has a lot to do with Trujillo's reign in the Dominican Republic, which was a part of history I knew pretty much nothing about before reading the book. The challenge is intentionally left up to personal interpretation. If you feel in your heart that you learned something about history and that is enough to fulfill the challenge, then I am not going to dispute that. If you think the intent of the challenge is to get you to consciously choose a book that fits the criteria, and thereby broaden your reading, that is also valid. I've honestly done it both ways in past challenges. There were times I was pleasantly surprised when a book seemed to meet a challenge and slotted it in, other times I decided I wanted to explicitly do research. It's a year long challenge so your mood is probably going to shift around at points. Just do whatever works for you, I only ask that you make a good faith attempt to push your reading at least some small amount over the course of the challenge.
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Mar 30, 2018 21:54
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Picked up the pace this month but a bunch of these were shorter plays. Have some longer stuff coming down the pipe in April, and going to read my wildcard and start looking more seriously at some of the challenges. 13. Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith 14. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende 15. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich 16. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh 17. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 18. The Turner House by Angela Flournoy 19. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 20. The Humans by Stephen Karam 21. Othello by William Shakespeare 22. Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks 23. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters Don't Call Us Dead was phenomenal, highly recommend if anyone is looking for poetry recs. Also enjoyed rereading Lincoln, and the Turner House was another highlight. Honestly lot's of good stuff this month but those were the ones that stood out. I got the Spoon River Anthology as a companion to Lincoln since that was apparently an influence. Working on a more complete tentative schedule for theme weeks and going to post that later tonight or tomorrow. I figure that will be a better way to make sure people are able to prep in advance. Again tho, even if it's mostly just me taking part, I am happy with the discussion and suggestions they've generated so far.
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Apr 2, 2018 01:32
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So this is the tentative schedule for the challenge weeks, to give anyone who wants to participate time to check out books or ask for recs: week beginning... April 9 - short story April 23 - poetry May 7 - biography May 21 - a book published before you were born June 4 - LGBT author June 18 - something involving music July 8 - translated work July 23 - something about the future August 6 - something about history August 20 - something from non-trad perspective September 10 - something about religion September 24 - banned book October 8 - something involving Maslow's hierarchy October 22 - something published 2018 Also new BotM poll: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3853305&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
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Apr 2, 2018 17:38
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #4 - Challenge no. 13: Read short stories A day late on this one. Technically the challenge is "read a collection of short stories" with the bonus challenge being "read short stories by at least 10 different authors" so you can start on either (or both, depending on the collection) this week. Tons of authors have short story collections or else just one-off short stories floating around. Here is a newly discovered Kurt Vonnegut short story the Atlantic published last year, and here's a bunch by forum favorite George Saunders (scroll down to the "Fiction" tag). I've always enjoyed the Best American series, which includes collections of short stories, science fiction and nonrequired reading (which has a mix but typically has a few short stories), and has featured in recent years authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Louise Erdrich, Karen Russell and the aforementioned Saunders. I am going to be reading the latest of their short story collections this week in between chapters of heavier novels. As always, just talk about what you're planning to read and any good stuff you've read in the past. -- Next theme week is going to be poetry on April 23rd
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Apr 10, 2018 19:54
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nerdpony posted:I haven't read them yet, but my partner has recently read and loved Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova. Read the Doll's Alphabet in February and enjoyed it. It was actually recommended by a book store clerk when I was buying What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, which was similarly really good (and was cool in that there were certain throughlines to the stories which was different from most short story collections) Ben Nevis posted:Last year the winner was Was it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah. Most of the stories focus on recent immigrants or divided families. There's a touch of magical realism running through it all. They're very good. I actually just had my hold release on this, which I didn't think would happen since I was like 8th in line earlier in the week. So it looks like I am going to be reading this along with the Best American one. Glad to hear it's good!
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Apr 11, 2018 22:48
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For those of you planning on doing bonus challenge 9, the Pulitzer Prizes were announced today: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/business/media/pulitzer-prize-winners.html quote:FICTION
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Apr 17, 2018 00:40
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #5 - Challenge no. 12: Read a poetry collection April is National Poetry Month so for the last full week, let's read some poetry! I don't have a ton of experience with poetry myself although thanks to these challenges I've started reading more. My first foray was with Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red which I really dug and since then I've checked out several of her collections and not been disappointed. Earlier in the year I also read Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith which I thought was powerful and sad. For this week, I picked up The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded by Molly McCully Brown as well as Aniara by Harry Martinson, which I'm pretty sure I saw recc'ed somewhere on this subforum. There's also a brand new Poetry thread to discuss and get suggestions which I recommend checking out
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Apr 23, 2018 15:22
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MockingQuantum posted:Any recommendations for: Will let anyone chime in with actual recommendations, but just wanted to remind that these are heavily up to personal interpretation and what you want to get out of the challenge. For the hierarchy you can choose something that actually involves discussion of the theory itself, or break it down to a specific need and read a novel covering that. Which uh, should be pretty easy since I would say you'd be hard pressed to not find a novel about surviving, making friends, finding safety, getting recognition, self-actualizing, etc Same with hunger. You can read a non-fic book about food preparation, a novel about people trying to find food or "hungering" in a more symbolic way, or one of the several literal books entitled "Hunger"
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Apr 27, 2018 16:41
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FYI the other one I was thinking of was Hunger by Roxane Gay
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Apr 27, 2018 18:18
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24. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer 25. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco 26. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah 27. The Best American Short Stories 2017 28. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist 29. The Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded: Poems by Molly McCully Brown 30. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes 31. Aniara: An Epic Science Fiction Poem by Harry Martinson 32. Delicious Foods by James Hannaham 33. The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett Pretty solid month especially once I finished up Focault's Pendulum. Heavier non-fic with Half Has Never Been Told and Coming Plague, both of which were really informative and had a good deal of depth. I always enjoy the Best American series as well and I highlight a few authors to check out later. Also reminder for anyone still following along with the bi-weekly challenges, next week will be biography.
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May 1, 2018 22:34
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Ben Nevis posted:I'm curious as to how you liked What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky WiMWaMFftS was great, the title story in particular was super inventive and well done, and none of the magic realism ever gets in the way of telling good human stories. I was dividing it between the Best American Short Stories and another one I really liked was one in which a mother is constantly running insurance scams, which I forgot was in this collection instead of the other until I looked it up. MockingQuantum posted:I absolutely love Foucault's Pendulum. I read it when I was 15 or 16 when I was a little obsessed with the occult and secret societies, and it was an eye-opening book in the way it treated those sorts of things in a simultaneously po-faced and wry way. It's crazy to me how old FP is because I feel like I've read several worse takes on the same type of story, but it is also satirizing that kind of story as well (the books I'm thinking of are of course the lovely Dan Brown ones but also Crash Gordon and the Mysteries of Kingsburg and also more recently Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store). Borne was good for what it was, I picked it up after watching Annihilation which was extremely my poo poo. It did feel a little long and at times redundant, but it had more surreal post apocalyptic imagery that I usually see which was a nice change of pace. The antagonist being a massive genetically engineered bear that I guess used to be a person was uhhh interesting to say the least Broken Monsters wasn't as good as Beukes other magical crime thriller The Shining Girls, but I did very much enjoy the whole art angle of it.
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May 2, 2018 02:11
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2018 Reading Challenge Theme Week #6 - Challenge no. 16: Read something biographical This one is pretty straightforward, read a biography or autobiography. This loosely coincides with National Biographers day which is next Wednesday, May 16 so feel free to read it on that day as well. I don't have a ton of recs myself, although someone linked this resource at one point which is a blog of a guy posting what he thinks are the best (American) presidential biographies: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/ I personally am going to spend this week reading Hunger by Roxane Gay (which unfortunately takes it out of the running for bonus challenge #21) and that Notorious R.B.G. book which I decided on when cruising the book store the other day. --- In other news, The PEN/Faulkner award for fiction was announced over the weekend, and it's Improvement by Joan Silber: http://www.penfaulkner.org/award-for-fiction/ Also, news came along that there won't be a Nobel prize in Lit this year, but we still have the National Book Award and Booker prizes to look forward to later in the fall. Happy challenged reading!
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May 8, 2018 23:35
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Corrode posted:Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris. Just finished this the other day and it was great. Particularly liked how the author was able to convey his characters insecurities particularly Sam and Alison, who both love someone and are afraid that this person doesn't really love them back -- even tho it is obvious to the reader that the girl is into Sam and that Alison's son is pretty desperate to impress her by acting grown up. The payoffs were a little on the nose with each situation being directly and openly resolved, but because the characters were so well realized it worked because this is what you were hoping for the whole time. Also really loved how these two characters' stories in particular intersected toward the end. So anyway, thanks for the rec!
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May 8, 2018 23:44
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Ben Nevis posted:This year I grabbed Eat the Apple by Matt Young. It's a memoir of his basic training and 3 tours in Iraq. Rather than being a more traditional narrative, it changes POV, at times being in first, second and third person, and even branches into other formats. A brief screenplay, a how to guide, packing checklists, and cartoons are a few of the methods used to get across points. In some interviews I've read, Young credits this to "flash nonfiction" which creates short vignettes and may be experimental. Young's focus isn't always directly on what he did or experienced, but as using those experiences to look at how those systems can take troubled teens and spit out broken men. Those diversions and changes provide some necessary distance as Young looks back over what were obviously traumatizing times for him, and it also allows some humor to run through what otherwise could be a very grim read. In that sense it's a more "literary" memoir, in that it's heavily stylized and in some regards experimental. It's also a good, compelling read, even if it is a bit of a hard one at times. This sounds incredibly cool, I am going to add it to my list. Finished Hunger by Roxane Gay last night. It was a tough read, she gets really intimate about her abuse and how it echoed through her life and has lead to her issue with eating, as well as a super honest take of being fat in America in the 20th century. Highly recommended but also brace yourself. Just started the Notorious R.B.G. today and it is cool, much lighter obviously, they use a lot of graphical asides and stuff which makes it fun but they still hit some of the heavier parts of her life and struggles being one of the handful of women lawyers when she was first practicing.
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May 10, 2018 23:59
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