2011 LT Reading Challenge

We are now in the 6th month of 2011, which feels wholly unnatural to me.  Time has alternately been dreadfully slow or moving by super fast.  Either way, I can't keep up.  Since the year is nearly half over I thought I would do a quick check-in to let people (someone? anyone?) know how I was doing on my 11 in 11 challenge over at Library Thing.  The idea is to read 11 books in 11 categories for 2011. Now I didn't exactly do that b/c it would be way too many my list is staggered so that category 1 has only 1 book, cat. 8 has 8 books.... you get the picture.  I tried to structure it so that the categories I knew I would be reading more of any (like sci-fi/fantasy) had a higher # of books, whereas my category "Ukrainian" has only one. 

Well, as far as book challenges go, it has always been clear that I never finish them.  I try really hard, but I just end up reading other things, or not finishing books, or getting distracted.  I don't know, there is some perversion in my head that stops me from reading books I say that I will read.  In other words, I have been saying for years I would finish The Brother's Karamazov, but I never touch it.  This does not mean, however, that I'm not reading books, just not the ones I'm "supposed" to read.  Whatever.  Ultimately, compared to my previous attempts at this themed challenge (I tried it for 2008 and 2009), I'm doing ok I think.  Overall though I've read less than half of the books on my list; roughly 30%. 

I've started reading about 10 on the list, not exaggerating.  The problem is that I tend to try to read too many things at once, and then I see a new book someone posted about on some blog and then I want to read that one too, so I get it from the library, but then it sits on my shelf and sometimes I renew them, but usually they just get late fees.  Yeah, you see.  Anyway, the silver lining is that I'm not traveling this summer so theoretically I will have time to read.  However, I'm also supposed to be rewriting grant applications this summer.  (But at least to help motivate me w/that I joined a writing group). 

In case you are curious, the list is below of what I intend to read vs. what I have actually read.  Feel free to point and laugh at me if you want. 

1.      1. Ukrainian

1.

2.      2. Theory/Philosophy

      1.

2. Heidegger (bro.) 

3.   Tomes

      1. War and Peace (own)

      2. Don Quixote (own)

      3. Drood (own)

4.   Books from the Family (own all)

      1. Decolonising the Mind

      2. Wizard of the Crow

      3. Parlor Politics

      4. Planning the Past or the Invasion Within

Bonus: Ashes of Waco

5.   Left Behind

      1. The Brothers Karamazov (own)

      2. Dead Souls (own)

      3. The Windup Girl (own)

      4. Landscape Painted with Tea  (UW)

      5. Lanark (MPL)             

Bonus: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (MPL)

6.   Listed

      1. Iron Council (started) (own)

      2. Ash (UW?)

      3. Life of Pi (own)

      4. Gulag Archipelago (own)

      5. Beloved (own)

      6. Old Man’s War (MPL) (Tor’s list)

7.   South

      1. Sound of Building Coffins (MPL)

      2. All the King’s Men (MPL)

      3.  The Missing, Tim Gautreaux (MPL)

      4. A Confederacy of Dunces (MPL)

      5. Antarctica, Robinson

      6. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (MPL)

      7. The Reavers are the Angels by Alden Bell

      Bonus:  The Strange Career of Jim Crow C Vann Woodward,  Kaleidoscope Odessa

8.   Its New to Me

      1. North and South (MPL)

      2. Light, Harrison

      3. Storm Front, Butcher

      4. Perfume, Suskind

      5. Equations of Life, Morden (MPL)

      6. The Dervish House

      7.

      8.

9.   Science Fiction/Fantasy

      1.Vivia by Tanith Lee

      2. Tomb of the Undergates Sam Sykes

      3. The Half-Made World Felix Gilman

      4. Titus Groan (own)

      5. Habitation of the Blessed Valente

      6. The Cardinal’s Blades

      7. Nights of Villjamur

      8.

      9.

10.  You Tell Me  (MPL)

      1. The Yawning Heights

      2. Pastel City, Harrison

      3.

      4. The Book Thief

      5. World War Z

      6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera

      7. 2666, Bolano 

      8. Detective Story by Imre Kertesz

      9. Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

      10.

11. Ongoing Faulkner Challenge (Own)

      1. Pylon

      2. Absalom Absalom

      3. The Unvanquished

      4. If I forget Thee Jerusalem

      5. The Hamlet

      6. Go Down Moses

      7. Intruder in the Dust

      8. Requiem for a Nun

      9. A Fable

      10. The Town

      11. The Mansion

Bonus: Collected Short Stories

2011 Book Challenge

 1.         1. Ukrainian

         1.

                         2. Theory/Philosophy

           1.

           2.

3.   Tomes

      1. War and Peace

      2. Don Quixote

      3. Drood

4.   Books from the Family

      1. Decolonizing the Mind

      2. Wizard of the Crow

      3. Parlor Politics

      4. Planning the Past or the Invasion Within

5.   Left Behind

      1. The Brothers Karamazov

      2. Dead Souls

      3.The Windup Girl

      4. Landscape Painted with Tea

      5.

6.   Listed

      1. Iron Council

      2. Ash

      3. Life of Pi

      4. Gulag Archipelago

      5. Beloved, Morrison

      6.

7.   South

      1. Sound of Building Coffins

      2. One Hundred Years of Solitude

      3. North and South, Gaskell

      4. A Confederacy of Dunces

      5. Antarctica, Robinson

      6. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers

      7.

8.   Its New to Me

      1.

      2.

      3.

      4.

      5.

      6.

      7.

      8.

9.   Science Fiction/Fantasy

      1. Vivia, Tanith Lee

      2.

      3.

      4.

      5.

      6.

      7.

      8.

      9.

10.  You Tell Me

      1. The Yawning Heights

      2. Pastel City, Harrison

      3.The Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey

      4. The Book Thief

      5. World War Z

      6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera

      7. 2666, Bolano

      8. Detective Story by Imre Kertesz

      9. Lady Oracle, Atwood

      10.

11. Ongoing Faulkner Challenge

      1. Pylon

      2. Absalom Absalom

      3. The Unvanquished

      4. If I forget Thee Jerusalem

      5. The Hamlet

      6. Go Down Moses

      7. Intruder in the Dust

      8. Requim for a Nun

      9. A Fable

      10. The Town

      11. The Mansion

Explanations:

1. Ukrainian: Read a book in Ukrainian, this will take me all year

2. Theory/Philosophy: General Philosophy or some Anthropology theorist I should have already read

3. Tomes: Is it huge? I'm gonna read it! (But only three).

4. Book from the Family: Actually just books from my brother, I am embarrassed by the number of books he has bought me that I have not read.

5. Left Behind: Books I started, but never finished.

6. Listed: If its on a list -- of any kind -- it goes here.

7. South: Everywhere is south of somewhere, right? But really focused on the U.S. South and South America.

8. Its New to Me: New in 2011, or new author.

9. Science Fiction/Fantasy:

10. You Tell Me: Recommendations? I'll just pick books to read for this category based on any sort of recommendation - personal, Amazon, LT, blog, etc.

11. Ongoing Faulkner Challenge: Once upon a time I was supposed to read 8 Faulkner novels for 2008. That didn't happen, so now I'm just going to read all of them.