Book Challenge - Year 1 Completed

“When something is bothering me, I seek refuge. No need to travel far; a trip to the realm of literary memory will suffice. For where can one find more noble distraction, more entertaining company, more delightful enchantment than in literature?”

Muriel Barbery -- The Elegance of the Hedgehog

It took me a little over a week longer than my one year 'deadline' to finish the book challenge I started last May when I came into the field.  And I have to say I'm incredibly glad that I did it.  I had 2 goals:  read more in general and read more diversely (i.e., get out of my reading rut of 'no-brainer' commercial fiction only).  I ended up with 30 books for the 'year' which may not seem like a lot given what I used to read, but is far more than I've managed in a year for almost a decade.

“Loneliness: there is no organ that can take it all.” 

Nicole Krauss -- The History of Love 

I knew going in, which categories were going to be the hardest for me -- and they were some of the last ones that I finished (e.g., a play, a book you started but never finished).  But I was surprised to find how hard the 're-read' category was.  Like most, I have this list of all-time favorite books. They are the ones that I will always recommend to anyone that will listen and the ones whose copies I will never ever get rid of.  I have wanted for some time to go back and start re-reading them.  But you know....there are SO. MANY. BOOKS and so why take the time to re-read?  This challenge was the perfect opportunity.  And yet I kept looking at that square, picking up one of those books and the putting it back down again.  Was there another reason that I haven't gone back to these favorites?  Would a book that I loved in my 20s still affect me the same way now -- was it the age or the situation that made it a favorite such that reading it now, the magic would be gone?  Because of this fear, I decided to pick one that was a 'recent' favorite for this challenge.  And found that I enjoyed that book as much the second time as I did the first.  Perhaps more.  I'm still hesitant on the whole idea of re-reading but as you'll see below, I've added that square back in for this year...with the plan to re-read one that impacted me in my 20s. 

 "That I could bear the unbearable.  These realizations about my physical, material life couldn't help but spill over into the emotional and spiritual realm."

Cheryl Strayed -- Wild

Because of this challenge, I delved into new genres that I now want to explore even more.  Graphic novels is a great example.  The one I read did not have what I consider to be great art, but it had some pages of drawings that show very clearly how sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  There is a panel showing just how difficult it can be for a person who suffers from depression to get out of bed and then to do more than just move to the couch.  To say that panel was powerful is an understatement.  The other category that I want to explore further are biographies and memoirs.  As you'll see, both of these squares show up again...

"You can stoop down and pick a fallen petal, crush it between your fingers, and you had there, in the hollow of your hand, the essence of a thousand scents, unbearable and sweet.  All from a curled and crumpled petal."

Daphne du Maurier -- Rebecca

One of the best things about this challenge though was that it got me back to 'literature'.   I certainly enjoy and read a lot of commercial fiction but it's startling to read just one page of a book like Rebecca or The God of Small Things and to remember what literature really is.  These are the books where even if nothing happens at all, at the end you feel deeply affected just because of the language.  The kind of book where at the end, you can't bear to pick up another for days because you know it will pale in comparison.

"...that attention came with expectations that -- like snow -- drifted and settled and crushed you with their weight."

Celeste Ng -- Everything I Never Told You

I think that the only thing that was negative about using a challenge like this to read is that I found myself going long stretches of time without reading anything because I 'wasn't in the mood' to read something that would work for the challenge.  This was particularly true toward the end.  

"The air was gray, sunless just before dawn, it was only light enough to take the darkness from her room."

Millen Brand -- The Outward Room

Below you can see 25 of my 30 finished reads and what categories they fell in for the challenge.  As usual, if you want any more detail on my thoughts, head to goodreads where I do write reviews for everything.  And also below you can see my new challenge that I started a few days ago. [Click photo to make it bigger].  I've added some squares that will be even more challenging for me (e.g., poetry), duplicated some that were particularly tough for me but I ended up enjoying (e.g., play, non-fiction), duplicated some that I want to explore even further (e.g., graphic novel, memoirs) , and added new ones (e.g., with the 100th birthday of a beloved author when I was a child, I thought it would be fun to re-read one of my favorite childhood books). 

"I might have formed human attachments, rather than spending my affection on the sky, the waves, the elephant seals, the mist, and the cold."

Abby Geni -- The Lightkeepers

For anyone that was playing along with me even in part, how far have you made it thus far?  What did you like/dislike about working off a set list of categories?  And tell me, what are your thoughts on re-reading books?  Who else is up for round 2?

"He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing unfriendly in his silence.  I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters."

Ediith Wharton -- Ethan Frome