{"id":12915,"date":"2019-12-02T10:35:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T23:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=12915"},"modified":"2019-12-02T10:35:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T23:35:43","slug":"2019-reading-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=12915","title":{"rendered":"2019 Reading Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of this year I took up a reading challenge set by the ACT library. The challenge was to read through the list below by the end of 2019. Here are the books I read, all but one finished.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A genre you’ve never read before: Coeurs barbel\u00e9s<\/em><\/strong> by Claudine Jacques (fiction based on the modern history of New Caledonia, currently translating it)<\/em>
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Something that makes you laugh: La Baleine de Jonas<\/em><\/strong> by Claude Aveline (humorous twist on the story of Jonah and the whale, in French)
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Has a one-word title: Castaway<\/em><\/strong> by Robert Macklin (a new version of a true story. Yes the truth can have many versions.)<\/em>
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Features time travel or time slip: Maya<\/strong> by Jostein Gaarder (not bad, but a good translation)<\/em>
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Written under a pseudonym: Oliver Twist<\/strong> by Charles Dickens (took me 52 years to read this after first seeing the film)<\/em>
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That celebrates diversity: The Adventurous Princess and Other Feminist Fairy Tales<\/strong> by Erin-Claire Barrow (lovely book of fairy tales by my illustrator)
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Set in an imaginary or alternate world: Esme’s Wish<\/em><\/strong> by Elizabeth Foster (good book, first of three so I don’t know how the story ends)<\/em>
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Crime (non-)fiction: The Tatooist of Auschwitz<\/em><\/strong> by Heather Morris (incredible story stumbled upon by the author. I added the -non to fiction here.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Features food: The Land Before Avocado<\/em><\/strong> by Richard Glover (very good nostalgic review of Australian ways in the 60s and 70s)<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Something you can read in a day: The Golden Cockerel<\/strong><\/em> by Alexander Pushkin (beautifully illustrated Russian story)<\/em>
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Has a green cover: Wind in the Willows <\/em><\/strong>by Kenneth Grahame (totally excellent book my father gave me as a child but which I never read till now)<\/em>
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An eBook or eAudiobook: The Birth of Bran<\/strong> by James Stephens (a funny Irish tale illustrated by Arthur Rackham)
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Set in Africa : Tea Time for the Traditionally Built<\/strong> by Alexander McCall Smith (one of a collection about the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency set in Botswana)<\/em>
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A gothic story: Princesse d’Italie<\/em><\/strong> by Jean Lorrain (dark story about a Salom\u00e9 <\/em>play, in French)<\/em><\/p>\n

Something you want to re-read: The Woodlanders<\/em><\/strong> by Thomas Hardy (great story set in 19th-century Dorset)<\/em>
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Something you regret not having read yet: The Magic Pudding<\/em><\/strong> by Norman Lindsay (I don’t regret it any more)<\/em>
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Recommended by family or friend: All Quiet on the Western Front <\/em><\/strong>by Erich Maria Remarque (I know now why it was recommended)<\/em>
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From\/about antiquity (before Middle Ages): Trimalchio’s Feast<\/strong> by Petronius (decadent decadence, couldn’t finish it…)<\/p>\n

Epistolary (letter or diary format): It was snowing butterflies<\/em><\/strong> by Charles Darwin (not bad but not my thing)<\/em>
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Recommended by [pop-up] library staff: Ripening Seed<\/em><\/strong> by Colette (excellent descriptions but surprisingly for a female author the boy has more fun)<\/em>
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*<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many more books I’ve read this year in categories not included in the ACT Library challenge. My favourite this year, not mentioned above, was A Fortunate Life<\/strong> by A. B. Facey.<\/em><\/p>\n

Albert Facey reaffirmed my own fortunate life. Not fortunate in the fortune sense, but in the blessed sense.<\/p>\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of this year I took up a reading challenge set by the ACT library. The challenge was to read through the list below by the end of 2019. Here are the books I read, all but one finished.   A genre you’ve never read before: Coeurs barbel\u00e9s by Claudine Jacques (fiction based … <\/p>\n

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