2010 Reading Challenges - April Update

1. Olympic Challenge - 50 books


I really need to pick up my game here as I am under target so far.
Top reads-
The Singapore Grip 
Girls of Riyadh 
Being Here: Modern Short Stories from Southern Africa

 2. 1001 Books - 52 books

 
I am on track, though had hoped to have been further ahead as will be travelling for some months this year.
Top reads -  
The Siege of Krishnapur
The Singapore Grip 

3. Get Mt. TBR down to one page (at least one time during the year)
Still on 3 pages!   I am trying to read up all the books I have here in Portugal, some of which have been on Mount TBR for a long time, but still keep receiving more books!

1010 Challenge: 2/3 Done!

I have had a bit of a reading spurt recently, and am trying to make the most of the slack time around Easter.  
I read Invisible  in January, but it didn't fit into my categories, but it was included in the 2010 edition.



Group 1: 1001 Books 7/10
1. The Grass is Singing
2. The Successor  ** Olympic
3. Embers ** Olympic
4. The Plot Against America
5. Blue of Noon
6. Invisible
7. The Red and the Black

Group 2: Spain and the Spanish speaking world 9/10
1. Paradise Travel 

2. Captain Alatriste 

3. Purity of Blood 

4. The Old Man and the Sea **1001 Book
5. The Scarlet Cloak 

6. The Return 

7. The Queen's Sorrow 

8. The Book of Murder 

9. Our house in the Last World
 

Group 3: British Writers 6/10
1. Sexing the Cherry  ** 1001 book
2. Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ** 1001 book
3. The Book lovers' Appreciation Society 

4. Black Dogs  ** 1001 book
5. Vile Bodies ** 1001 Book
6. The Nine Tailors ** 1001 Book

Group 4: Books not written in English 2/10

1. D. Maria II
2. Praça de Londres
 

Group 5: Travel 3/10

1. Attention. Deficit. Disorder

2. River Town
3. In the Heart of the Sea

Group 6: History 9/10
1. Castle Rackrent  **1001 Book
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society 

3. Very Interesting People Queen Victoria 

4. The Alienist 

5 The Lost Daughter of Happiness
6. The Lady Elizabeth
7. Mademoiselle Boleyn
8. The Concubine of Shanghai 
9. Vengeance Is Mine: A Novel of Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Lady Rochford--the woman who helped destroy them both.

Group 7: Myths and Legends 5/10

1. The Lusiads   **1001 Book

2. Politically Correct Holiday Stories
3. The Snow Cow

4. Stardust (this is the audiobook read by the author)
5. Branca de Neve

Group 8 - Made into Film COMPLETE

1. A Kestrel for a Knave **1001 Book
2. The Midwich Cuckoos **1001 Book
3. The Shining **1001 Book
4. Watchmen **1001 Book
5. Riddle of the Sands **1001 Book
6. The Piano Teacher **1001 Book
7. The Tin Drum **1001 Book
8. Brideshead Revisited **1001 Book
9. The Cave of the Yellow Dog
10. Les Miserables **1001 Book

Group 9: Olympic Challenge 8/10

1. Homo novus - valik hüperboole Estonia 

2. The Eye of the Leopard Sweden / Zambia 

3. This Body Guyana

4. Kisses in the Nederends Tonga
5. Being Here: Modern Short Stories from Southern Africa
Swaziland, Botswana
6. Baking Cakes in Kigali Tanzania
7. Hungry Ghosts Greece
8. Children of the Revolution Ethiopia

Group 10: Asia 8/10
1. Sacred Games
2. Inheritance 

3. The Siege of Krishnapur ** 1001 Book 

4. Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos  ** Olympic

5. Tale of a certain Orient ** Olympic

6. Girls of Riyadh ** Olympic

7. Funny Boy

8. The Singapore Grip ** 1001 Book 

South Asian VBB

Another virtual bookbox hosted by ApoloniaX  , to get a few books moving before May.  The idea is that all books must be about, set in or written by South Asian authors.  For this box, ApoloniaX has chosen the SAARC countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan (its latest member).   I hope that a couple of Olympic Challenge books will be added.
Click on this book to find the journal entries:Unaccustomed Earth

I was first up and have picked:
Lakshmi Holmström (ed.): The Inner Courtyard. Stories by Indian Women put in by ApoloniaX

Manju Kapur: Home  put in by ApoloniaX
ApoloniaX  sent me the list a second time and I have chosen   Interpreter of Maladies  added by   Dancesports

I have put in 3 books, one I had here in Portugal (TBR):
Shyam Selvadurai: Funny Boy Sri Lankan author - picked by Annimanni

and two that I had already read which arrived in a bookbox:
The English Patient  by a Sri Lankan author and picked by Dancesports
Julia Gregson: East of the Sun set in India, I added this as an extra with a view to choosing another book later on.  Picked by Tsjara

Another book registered by me was added by ApoloniaX  , Vikas Swarup: Q and A .

Wings! and 1001-Library

I am flying again thanks to 1001-library , I entered their prize draw last month.  You had to donate a wishlist 1001 book to enter, so now I am flying for 3 months, thanks so much!
soffitta1

I also managed to pass on some 1001 books which were cluttering up my spare room.
Totje requested :To the Lighthouse ,Black Dogs  ,The Old Man and the Sea-1001-Library Book  ,The Grass Is Singing
Gwenindil requested   Sexing the Cherry,  The Plot Against America,  A Morte de Ivan Ilitch, and The Piano Teacher

That still leaves me with quite a few books here in Portugal, but hopefully more requests will come in.

South African Catch after 2 years!

I left   Last Orders  in Backpackers Paradise backpackers' hostel in Oudtshoorn while on a visit with my sister and my very young nephew.  The book is now on its way to New Zealand, though it seems the reader didn't enjoy it.  Hopefully it will keep travelling.