Thursday, January 13, 2011

2011

Oh, the predictability of beginning the new year with resolutions and good intentions. But here I am, starting a blog and hoping that there is some magic dividing line between one year and the next! The goal here is to be a little more thoughtful and intentional about my reading and to force myself to write something--anything! After the flurry of graduate school and teaching, I am finding that I actually--dare I say it?--miss the idea of required reading. Reading "for fun" is wonderful and liberating, but I want to push myself a bit. So, in the spirit of resolution, I decided to sign up for some reading challenges (idea courtesy of Laura Miller at Salon). I'll be trying to post reviews of these books here as I read them.

Shakespeare Reading Challenge: How have I not read King Lear? I'm hoping that promising to read four Shakespeare plays this year will help me atone for the fact that this "Master" of English has a pretty threadbare knowledge of Shakespeare. Plus, one of the four can be substituted for a performance--perhaps R will again have one too many and order season tickets to the Shakespeare Theater?

The Complete Booker Challenge: Reading at least six Booker Prize winners or nominees. I have really enjoyed the Booker winners I've read in the past--Wolf Hall, The Inheritance of Loss, The Line of Beauty--and I'm interested in reading some of the short-list candidates as well.

Foodie's Reading Challenge: The perfect way to combine reading and cooking! I'm going to go with the "Gourmet" level of 10-12 books here, as cookbooks count and I have an unhealthy obsession growing on my shelves...

Chunkster Reading Challenge: An old wish-list for Santa requests "Lots of Fat Books". I think I was about 8, but some tastes never change. I'm going to try for six books over 450 pages long.

To 2011!

6 comments:

  1. I love it! I had the image of Kara's painting in my head as I read it. Wonderful. Strange coincidence - less than a week ago I hatched an idea to start a book club blog (my attempts at starting a real book club have always failed, thought i'd try a different angle). However, decided it would be better if YOU suggested the books and led the discussions. Think about it? I still want your list of top 100 books (subject to change I realize). Loving Cloud Atlas though.

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  2. Welcome to the Shakespeare Challenge! I did the Chunkster last year but didn't sign up again this time.

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  3. I am very excited about this Bridge. For as well as I know you I hardly ever get to read your writing. Get 'em Masters!

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  4. I'm so glad you decided to join us in the Foodie's Reading Challenge. I'm impressed with your determination to reach the Gourmet level. I look forward to reading your thoughts as you read your way through the food books. Good luck with all your challenges.

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  5. You've inspired me! I think --unofficially--I am going to try for 4 chunksters with one being over 800 pages. I was also tempted to try and limit myself for the year to reading only books that are in my "to be read" stack -but then I thought, "Nah, that wouldn't be fun!"
    Question -- on the Foodie Challenge --with a book that is a cookbook-- does this just entail reading text pre- and post- recipes? Do you read all the recipes? As you can tell, I haven't spent much time with cookbooks!

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  6. Hi Mary Ellen! I know, sounds like fun, doesn't it? As far as the Foodie Challenge, I'm thinking that I will read all of the text and skim the recipes. The cookbooks I like always seem to have a lot of introductory material. And books about food also qualify--if you haven't read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking I highly recommend those!

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The Illiterate Peanut by Bridget Rector is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.