Wednesday, January 17, 2007

2007 TBR Challenge & a little Chunkster chat









As promised, here are my picks for the 2007 TBR Challenge:

January: Vanity Fair (fiction) [look forward to a blog entry about this novel. I love it!] FINISHED

February: Agnes Grey (fiction) FINISHED

March: Andersonville (fiction) FINISHED

April: Starvation Heights (non-fiction)

May: BUtterfield 8 (fiction)

June: The Hungry Ocean (non-fiction)

July: The Laments (fiction) FINISHED

August: Round Ireland With A Fridge (non-fiction)

September: How To Cook A Wolf (non-fiction) FINISHED

October: Of Human Bondage (fiction) FINISHED

November: The Secret Life Of The Lonely Doll (non-fiction) FINISHED

December: Watership Down (fiction)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Eats, Shoots And Leaves (non-fiction) [I'm an English teacher & I haven't read this yet?] FINISHED
Murder In Coweta County (non-fiction) [Manfred, Jr. speaks: "Good book!"] FINISHED
Haiku (poetry)
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (non-fiction) [I really should knock this out soon. It's Pablo's and I've borrowed it for almost 2 years now.]
A Distant Mirror (non-fiction)

Chunkster Chat:
One of my Chunkster Challenges was to complete the Bronte sisters' canon. I mean to do just that, but up till yesterday, I was laboring under the strange delusion that the Brontes weren't so Chunkster at all.
Wronggggg!

To recap: I've read Jane Eyre (Charlotte) and Wuthering Heights (Emily).
Here's what's left with the page count:
The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall (Anne) -520 pages
Agnes Grey (Anne) -248 pages FINISHED
Shirley (Charlotte) -750 pages FINISHED
Villette (Charlotte) -672 pages
The Professor (Charlotte) -320 pages

So, if I count the Bronte canon as one Chunkster, it comes out to a whopping 2,510 pages. Whoo! My 6-week vacation finally starts Friday at 3:11 p.m., and none too soon. I gotta go read!

11 comments:

Literary Feline said...

That's an impressive list! I wish you luck with the challenges. Enjoy your holiday! Six weeks . . . Oh, wouldn't I love that? :-)

MissMiller said...

That's a phenomenal chunkster count! Enjoy the holidays...

Isabella K said...

That's VERY ambitious. I'm a great fan of Maugham — Of Human Bondage isn't my favourite, but I've been considering rereading it.

I also thought the Brontes were much slighter than that.

Lotus Reads said...

What a great list for the 2007 TBR challenge, Bybee! I first read "Of Human Bondage" when I was 14 or 15. It was the first unabridged classic I ever read and to date it remains my favorite, so I really do look forward to hearing what you have to say about it! I love that you have so many non-fiction titles on your list - I'm very partial to the genre but haven't read any in a while.

Good luck and happy reading!

薛霏 said...

oh, How to cook a wolf, i read Fisher's Consider the Oyster, like it very much, I finally got her omnibus culinary writing, the art of eating. Hope you enjoy the book.

Sycorax Pine said...

I am very interested to hear what you think of "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" which I just read and reviewed for the Chunkster Challenge in the last few days ( what a relief to have a chunkster behind me!!!). Completing the Bronte canon is such a brilliant idea - Charlotte Bronte is really the one standing between me and that goal, since (of hers) I have only read "Jane Eyre," whereas I have now read all of her sisters' novels. By the by, have you been watching the new television version of "Jane Eyre," starring Toby Stephens as Mr. Rochester? If so, what do you think?

Henry Finn said...

Hey thanks for the good wishes.
I like your blog, but the reading looks a little out of my league. I don't have much of a chance to read fiction, especially when I am in school. I really enjoy biographies, especially on businessmen (Rockefeller, Conrad Black, ect..) I am also a huge fan of Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged).
Any recommendations along those lines? Have you come across some interesting books on Korea?

Sarah said...

Happy holidays, and good luck with your list. I'm glad you enjoyed Vanity Fair as it's always been a favourite of mine- I love Thackery's tone. As for the Bronte canon, I'd heartily recommend The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which I feel is underrated.

Bybee said...

Henry,
I have a book called "Korea Bug" by J. Scott Burgeson. It came out a couple of years ago. It's a compliation of zines that he did over the years about life in Korea. He covers some really fun and quirky subjects. Two that I can think of just off the top of my head are visiting a fortuneteller and an interview with a bbondegi manufacturer. It's a rather thick book, but the type you read around in, not cover to cover. Another book is a graphic nonfiction called "Korea Unmasked" about why Koreans are the way they are. The author's last name is Rhie, I think. Also kind of big, but also fun for skipping around.

Sarah,
I'm intrigued about "Tenant" because I read that Charlotte Bronte said that it was a bad idea on her sister's part to write the novel, that it was too extreme. So now of course I MUST read it!

Sarah said...

Charlotte wrote: 'The choice of subject was an entire mistake. Nothing less congruous with the writer's nature could be conceived. The motives which dictated this choice were pure, but, I think, slightly morbid.' and tried to stop it being reprinted.

I was shocked when I read it because I thought it was such a well written and enjoyable novel, yet it was relegated to the minor canon and mainly read by Bronte completists! I suppose its attitudes were too radical.

Anonymous said...

I very much enjoyed 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' so I hope you get around to that one.

Murder in Coweta County - I'd never heard of that book before but guess what county I'm now living in? Yup! Guess I'll have to look into this bit of local history.

As for pour of tor's question about the recent production of Jane Eyre starring Toby Stephens - I thought it was marvelous and that he was a perfect Mr. Rochester.