Book Awards Reading Challenge
After at least a month of hardy resistance to the temptations of online reading challenges, I have succumbed again. But who could resist this one, I ask you??
The "Book Awards" challenge that finally broke through my resolve was created by 3M, who explains the rules thus:
So, on to my (provisional. VERY provisional.) choices. I have tried to choose a number of Australian works, to fit in with my Year of Down Under Challenge (indicated by an asterisk in the list below). After December, the list may change to take into account the country I will be focusing on in 2008. I have also tried to spread my list of 12 evenly through a number of prizes, choosing at most 2 works from any single prize (although some of the works won more than one prize, and I am tricksy about this). But because I can never be truly strict with myself, I have also included a list of works that can serve either as alternates for my main list (should any book prove unappealing) or as "extra credit" reads. Here is the first draft of the list:
The "Book Awards" challenge that finally broke through my resolve was created by 3M, who explains the rules thus:
1. Read any 12 award-winning books from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Please look on the sidebar for eligible books from the Pulitzer, Booker, etc. prize lists. Also feel free to pick non-fiction books or other prize winners not listed.You can find the blog for the challenge (or join it, for that matter) here. At the blog, 3M has posted her provisional list, a longer set of challenge rules (there are prizes!), and a wonderful list of possible awards and works you can choose from.
2. Books may be cross-posted with other challenges.
So, on to my (provisional. VERY provisional.) choices. I have tried to choose a number of Australian works, to fit in with my Year of Down Under Challenge (indicated by an asterisk in the list below). After December, the list may change to take into account the country I will be focusing on in 2008. I have also tried to spread my list of 12 evenly through a number of prizes, choosing at most 2 works from any single prize (although some of the works won more than one prize, and I am tricksy about this). But because I can never be truly strict with myself, I have also included a list of works that can serve either as alternates for my main list (should any book prove unappealing) or as "extra credit" reads. Here is the first draft of the list:
- The Bone People by Keri Hulme - BOOKER
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE
- *Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey - MILES FRANKLIN
- *Dirt Music by Tim Winton - MILES FRANKLIN
- *The Secret River by Kate Grenville - COMMONWEALTH
- *Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan - COMMONWEALTH
- Small Island by Andrea Levy - ORANGE
- Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin - WHITBREAD
- Citizen Vince by Jess Walter - EDGAR
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons - HUGO
- Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler - NEBULA
- *The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
- *Cloudstreet by Tim Winton - MILES FRANKLIN
- A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - COMMONWEALTH
- *The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey - BOOKER
- Home Truths by Mavis Gallant - GOV. GENERAL'S
- Neuromancer by William Gibson - HUGO/NEBULA
- English Passengers by Matthew Kneale - WHITBREAD/MILES FRANKLIN
- The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones - NBCC/PULITZER
- Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald - NBCC
- Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem - NBCC
- Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin - NEBULA
- Waiting by Ha Jin - PEN/FAULKNER
- March by Geraldine Brooks - PULITZER
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo - PULITZER