A to Z Challenge

Well, I'm not always good at sticking with these, but I'm joining the A to Z challenge for 2010. I have both a list for Author or Title picked out, but I haven't decided which I'm doing yet. Check it out here: http://2010atozchallenge.blogspot.com/2009/09/sign-up-for-2010-to-z-challenge.html

Take a Chance Challenge: Random Book Selection

For my random book selection, where I had a plan on where to go in the library, I ended up with "Every Good Boy Does Fine" by Tim Laskowski. Admittedly, I finished this quite awhile ago, but completely forgot about posting it. I REALLY enjoyed this book and don't think I would have picked it up on my own. The main character had been a concert pianist in his "real life." That is, the time before his brain injury. In his early twenties, he had gone rock climbing, fallen, and lost most of his short term memory, inhibitions, and some physical function. His struggles to deal with his new "real life" were fascinating, and based off of the author's relationship with a brain-damaged patient in his own life. Grade: A

Take a Chance Challenge

So, the next challenge I plan to participate in is the Take a Chance Challenge. This involves new and innovative ways of either finding a book, or reviewing it. I figure I'll just do the challenges in order. So task number 1:

Random Book Selection. Go to the library. Position yourself in a section such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, Mystery, Children (whatever section you want). Then write down random directions for yourself (for example, third row, second shelf, fifth book from right). Follow your directions and see what book you find. Check that book out of the library, read it and then write about it. (If you prefer, you can do the same at a bookstore and buy the book!)

My plan: I will find a shelving unit and select the bottom row, 10th book. I'll let you know what I end up with!

The World Without Us

Well, the Challenge is now over, with my total only being around 6.5 hours. Didn't finish The World Without Us, but have been enjoying it, and I'll write up the review to where I've reached.





The World Without Us was turned into a television special, which I've seen a few times, and may have done a better job. I'm thoroughly enjoying the book, but it does sometimes go off on tangents, or get bogged down in facts. I'm a complete dork, though, and appreciate it. Can't say I think it would be for everyone. I was laughing, though, as Chris was writing a paper for class on urban stream management, and I was reading a chapter on how Manhattan's rivers that had been forced underground, would likely be an early factor in the city's deterioration after humans disappeared. I will finish the book, and will enjoy doing so, but you have to remember that we have an environmental, hippy bent to us, and so it may be of interest to a narrow group of people. Grade: B+.

Last Night at the Lobster

So, the challenge has not gone well. I was getting sick trying to read in the car, then the wedding, then went and played wiffleball with friends once I got home. So...at a grand total of 3.5 hours so far, I have one book done.



Last Night at the Lobster was a wonderfully written book. Not really something you want to read if you are looking for "light and happy", though. The book centers around the manager of a Red Lobster, that has been slated to close the next day. It is how he faces the last night of the restaurant, the last time he'll see a former girlfriend who waitresses there, and a snow storm to boot. It is touching, and you can't help but love, respect, and pity Manny throughout the last hours he works. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Grade: A.

48 hour book challenge kick off!

I will be starting around noon today once I pick up Chris and we're driving to Pittsburgh for his cousin's wedding. I won't be able to read for much of the 48 hours, but so be it. It'll be fun with what I manage. I also won't be in front of a computer to blog until after we get home tomorrow afternoon. Packed in my bag are:

Last Night at the Lobster by: Stewart O'Nan

The World Without Us by: Alan Weisman

48 hours to the 48 hour challenge

So, I'm getting excited! I haven't felt like reading much at all recently, though, so this is slightly odd. Anyway, we are officially 48 hours away from the 48 hour book challenge . I decided to just try and read books that have been sitting on my shelf untouched. I know, no theme, I should be ashamed. Hopefully, the fact that I liked them enough to buy them will make them interesting enough!

Shortened list

Ok, already put in more thought. Here are the top 8 I want to read both that I've not seen and seen. Haven't decided which is better yet. And 8 seems like the most I'm going to get through.

Have not watched:
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
Watchmen - Alan Moore & David Gibbons
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Thousand and One Nights – Anonymous

Have watched:
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

Book Challenge Theme

So, in thinking about what I'm going to read in June, I wanted a theme, but nothing too closely related, so that it wouldn't be boring, and I came up with the idea of reading books that have become movies. I started with a list of 1001 books to read before you die (so they're at least decent) and eliminated any books that I'd already read (fortunately, such as American Psycho - DON'T want to read that again....unfortunately, such as Hitchhiker's Guide). Right now, there are still books that I've seen the movies of. Don't know if it's better or worse going in with a pre-conceived notion. For example, this wasn't even on the list, but I've read the "Bourne" books by Ludlum. Great books, great movies, but NOTHING alike. However, I don't want to read something that will match word for word. Here are the books that are being debated. Feel free to comment on any you think should or should not be included:

Atonement - Ian McEwan*
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides*
Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy
Watchmen - Alan Moore & David Gibbons
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez
The Cider House Rules - John Irving*
The Shining - Stephen King*
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
The Godfather - Mario Puzo*
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote*
The Graduate - Charles Webb
Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote*
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Casino Royale - Ian Fleming*
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell*
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs*
The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
Dracula - Bram Stoker*
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells*
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson*
Ben-Hur - Lew Wallace*
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne*
Les Misérables - Victor Hugo*
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas*
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo*
Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper*
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Dangerous Liaisons - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
The Thousand and One Nights - Anonymous

*I've seen the movie

MotherReader: The Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

I am super psyched to be participating in the 48 Hour Book Challenge! I will have to delay my start time because of a wedding, but we'll see how dedicated I can be, and knock out some of the books I've been meaning to read. Maybe I'll come up with a theme. Feel free to go over and commit yourself!

MotherReader: The Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge