Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Wednesday, February 04, 2015 - No comments

Nose in a Book: 2015 Reading Challenges


When I was in Grade Four, I had a crush on a boy named Neil.  And Neil had an older brother, who was our paper boy.  I didn't know whether to be honoured or mortified when, one day at school, Neil called me "Bookworm."  Apparently his brother had told him that he'd often see me arriving home from school, getting out of the car and walking slowly across the parking lot with my nose in a book. Maybe it's an only-child thing or an introvert thing.  I'd like to think it's more of a vivid imagination thing.  But there's a reason my mom's best ever punishment was banning me from taking out library books for two weeks when I lied to my teacher.  I was - and very much still am - a bookworm.

This week I'm going to make a very exciting purchase:  a new bookshelf.  My current one-and-a-half are filled to overflowing, and now that my old roommate's bed has found a new home at our gardener's house, I have a wide open space to play with.  Thankfully, IKEA delivers.

Even though I've had a Kindle for several years, I am still much more of a "feel the book in my hand" type, and a good percentage of my luggage allowance coming back from Canada is always taken up with new paperback friends.  Books always seem to grab my attention in airports - all that English, all in one place! - and I'm always grateful that they put the bookstores after security when they're not going to weigh your carry-on again.  Then there are the bookstores in Istanbul - fifty times as many as there are in my city, and oodles more variety.  Now that I'm teaching Turkish history classes to foreigners, I can always find an excuse to pick up "just one more local author's account of such-and-such."  The speed of my reading in Turkish had better improve quickly if I'm ever to finish them all!

Every year around this time, I make myself a big long list of all the books I plan to read by the end of December.  I usually only get through half of them - not because I'm a slacker, but because they get pre-empted by so many others along the way.  This year, though, since much of my reading list is informed by which decades of history I have to teach, what I'll actually read is easier than usual to predict.

To help keep me on track, I've decided to join two online reading challenges - the Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge (where you read one book for every letter of the alphabet - a little creativity for Q, X and Z allowed) and the The Book Date: Full House Reading Challenge, where you read by category and cover spots on what looks like a Bingo card, as seen below.  (The latter has some fun quarterly prizes from Amazon which is a definite motivator!)  

Who else is up for the challenge?  



My (Probable) Book List for the Full House Reading Challenge

Library Book - 
Novella - Babette’s Feast
Author Outside Your Own Country - Out Stealing Horses
Won or Borrowed - Justice Hall
2nd Book (or More) in Series - Paris Encore (Bodie Thoene)
Top Book of 2015 for You - 
Setting that you Now Want to Visit - In Xanadu (William Dalrymple)
Book by Author you Really Like - Forty Rules of Love (Elif Shafak)
Book Set in Northern Hemisphere - 
Been on your TBR Forever - Little Women
You Heard About the Book Online - The Art of Creating (Paul Perkins)
Award Winning - Cellist of Sarajevo
Free Choice - 
Debut Novel by Author - 
Published in 2014 - 
Set in Southern Hemisphere - Master's Call
First in a Series - 
Published 2000-2013 - Hope Beyond Disappointment (Dave Hess)
Published Pre-2000 - Silent House (Orhan Pamuk)
Type of Book You Never/Rarely Read - 
Published in 2015 - Cupid is a Procrastinator - Kate Hurley
A Keeper - Keep Your Love On (Danny Silk)
Outstanding Hero/Heroine - The Imam's Daughter
Author New to You - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
You Love the Cover - Affet Bizi Marin

Working List for the Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge

A - Art of Creating
B - Babette’s Feast
C - Cellist of Sarajevo/Cupid is a Procrastinator
D - Dostluk Ekmeği (Darien Gee)
E - Etiquette and Basic Ballroom Dance
F - Forty Rules of Love (Elif Shafak) (or Flea Palace)
G - Getting Things Done (David Allen)
H - Hosting the Presence (Bill Johnson)/Hope Beyond Disappointment (Hess)
I - The Imam’s Daughter
J - Justice Hall
K - Keep Your Love On (Danny Silk)
L - Little Women/Life in a 17th Century Coffee Shop
M - Master’s Call
N - 
O - Once There Was, Twice There Wasn’t (Mike Shelton)/Out Stealing Horses
P - Paris Encore (Thoene)
Q - 
R - Reset (Kinzer)
S - Silent House (Orhan Pamuk)
T - Turkey Unveiled (Hugh Pope)
U - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Rachel Joyce)
V - A Vision of the Possible
W - The Wishing Season
X - In Xanadu
Y - Yaşamın İçindeyiz (Photo Lessons in IST)
Z - Affet Bizi Marin (Orhan Miroğlu)

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