The Literary Blog Hop -- November 11-14

This week the question is the following:  What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read? What made it so difficult?

That's an easy one.  A few years back I read two books, both called Dictionary of the Khazars, by Milorad Pavic.  The trick was that one edition of the books was labeled "male" and one was labeled "female,"  and between the two books everything was the same except for one paragraph.  The difficulty came in trying to find the paragraph in question, and that meant reading line for line through both books.  The book itself is excellent, but it took so much time to find this one paragraph.  In case anyone wants to read it, I won't give away the show, but it was definitely a chore to finish!  I suppose I could have cheated, but I just couldn't do it.

G'day...I'm joining the Aussie Author challenge

I was going through the closet I converted into the unread fiction shelves last night, sorting to see what's what, what's there, etc. and found a giant stack of books by authors from Australia. I'm like 4 months late joining, but better late than never, eh?

The challenge is being hosted by a real Aussie, bookwordlover, and here's the page where you can sign up.  I happen to really enjoy books from down under so this will be an easy challenge.

March: A Decade of Prize-Winning Fiction

 

This month will be fun, but also a bit challenging. My focus is on books that have won literary awards and prizes between 2000 and 2009. I've chosen from several genres including literature, science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

Here's what I've planned to read:

Disgrace, by JM Coetzee, Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2000

A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss, Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery in 2001

Spies, by Michael Frayn, Winner of the Whitbread/Costas Award in 2002

Fox Evil, by Minette Walters, Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award, 2003

This Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, which won the Dublin IMPAC Award in 2004

The Time In Between, by David Bergen, Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2005

Seeker, by Jack McDevitt, Winner of the 2006 Nebula Prize

The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore, Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 2007

Blood Kin, by Ceridwen Dovey, which won the 2008 South African Sunday Times Literary Award

The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford, which won the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2009.

That's a pretty decent sampling of different award winners, and I'm happy with my choices. Plus, I voluntarily put myself on a 2-month book-buying moratorium, and I had these here at home already.

Why the moratorium? Did you ever reach the point where you feel like you have so many books you can't possibly ever read them all? I  need to at least try to plow through some of the books I own to make myself feel better about spending the money on them in the past. I figure that 2 months is enough time. Plus, I have some preorders I've already done, so it's not like I won't be getting books over that time period, I just won't be buying books over that time period. Hopefully my willpower is strong enough...I don't know about that part!

time to get reading, then....

The Last Train From Hiroshima -- an FYI

Whoa. I am going to read this book, which I bought when it was first released, and caught wind of this discussion via Amazon.com.  So this is just a heads-up. It's not like the whole book is in question, just a few pages, but you may want to read this article before reading it.

The Typically British Reading Challenge

Once again I enter into the world of reading challenges, although this one is a no-brainer, since most of what I read is by British authors.  You'll find the Typically British Reading challenge at Bookchick City, here.

You'll find my entries by looking at the label on the side of my page. Go check it out, and cheerio!

Something new today...

I've been working on a new project for a while, and that is to accurately catalog every single book I have in the house. So far I've finished the UK crime collection, and put it all on a nifty website called Listology. Their motto is "Enabling your OCD. One post at a time." This took some time, but it's something I can easily add to as I continue to buy & trade books.  Next up are the regular mystery/crime fiction novels, which will take some doing as I have very little idea as to what I own. But it's all going to be so worth it in the long run!

Valentine's Day Contest at Bookreporter.com

There's a nifty little contest at bookreporter.com where you can win a gift basket with lots of goodies (including Godiva chocolates) and books.  The link is here, so why not go try?

The Time Travel Reading Challenge

here's the challenge

I've already picked my books (5):


The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov
The Year of the Quiet Sun, by Wilson Tucker
The Big Time, by Fritz Lieber
Guardians of Time, by Poul Anderson
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons

I just ordered the Asimov to be downloaded to my Kindle, so I'll get going on that one soon!

I'm really excited about this one...I've read a TON of time-travel novels in the past and really liked them.

for those of you who loved Catcher in the Rye,

its author, JD Salinger, passed away today. 

Wednesday random thoughts

 subtitled: I haven't read anything new yet, but feel like writing something.

Robert B. Parker
I went to the torture queen early this morning (my personal trainer) and was greeted upon my homecoming with the news of Robert B. Parker's death. My husband Larry has probably read the entire Spenser series, which he likes, and he says that Spenser and his girlfriend Susan had a relationship like ours. Hmmm. Having not ever read the series myself ( I only really own The Godwulf Manuscript which is as yet unread) I can't swear that that's the case. But Larry loved his books;and Parker will definitely be missed in this house.

The Edgar Award Nominees Have Been Chosen and I have a favorite

This year, one of my favorite books ever has been chosen as a nominee: Nemesis, by Jo Nesbø. Nesbø's main character is Harry Hole (pronounced Hole-ah) -- and his adventures start in the book Redbreast.  It's hard to say which is the better of the two, but they both are fantastic. If you're looking for an intense read by an amazing Scandinavian author, I highly recommend both books.  I haven't read the third book in the series, The Devil's Star, yet, because I started with the Harper hardbacks with the first two and due to some quirk of my nature, I must have matching books in each series.  More about that another time. Anyway, the Harper hardcover edition of The Devil's Star will be arriving in March, so I've had that sucker pre-ordered with Amazon forever.  It will actually get here right after I get home from my March cruise, so that's sweet. You can see what's been nominated here. I like Harry Hole better than Kurt Wallander, and if you knew me, you would know that that statement says a lot.


Another take on the Frankenstein classic, but this time from a very distinguished (and favorite) author.


Today I start a book called The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, by Peter Ackroyd. I'm a fan of Ackroyd's fiction -- sadly (and quite shamefully, I'm sure), I've never read any of his nonfiction. Books I've read by this author are

• The Trial of Elizabeth Cree -  (my edition is this one), a combination of a mystery, historical fiction and subtle social commentary all set in the Victorian period. 
• Hawksmoor  (my edition) - a novel about an architect in 18th century London who builds several churches and then a time switch to the present, when several murders have been committed at the churches the architect built.  This one is more of a postmodern novel, but very readable and enjoyable. 
• Chatterton - (my edition) another historical novel, about Thomas Chatterton, who lived during the 18th century and was a master forger.  This one also spans the centuries and is again another postmodern piece of writing. It's mystery-ish, but one to read slowly. It was also nominated for the Booker Prize in 1987.
  
• The House of Doctor Dee (my edition) about a modern-day guy who comes to live in John Dee's home, where strange things start to happen to him. John Dee is one of my favorite real-life fictional characters.
  

So anyway, I bought Casebook of Victor Frankenstein when it first came out in 2009 and have yet to read it, so I'm really looking forward to it.

That's about it. I'm busy thinking up possible reading topics for February, going through what's available for pre-order from Amazon without putting my AMEX on overload, trying to not step on all of the books on the floor waiting to be shelved, and yada yada yada. Hopefully I'll be back soon with my review of Ackroyd's new book.

looking for something new to read? Check this out

from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-14-winterbooks14_ST_N.htm.  Some writeups on new books.  They all look excellent!