2012 Reading Challenges

     We have big plans for 2012 and our blog! If nothing else, we hope to surpass our 2011 numbers of books read.

Frances ~

I'm feeling ambitious for 2012 so I've decided to participate in five challenges.

I read 100 books in 2011 so I'm shooting higher and going for the 2012 150+ Reading Challenge.

I really love losing myself in massive novels so I'm committing to the Tea and Books Challenge and planning to read 8 or more books of at least 700 pages for the Sencha Connoisseur level.

I am doing a classics challenge again this year, The Classics Reading Challenge - Level Five (13-15 books).

There are some books that I have started in the past and never finished so I'm participating in the Books I Started But Didn't Finish Challenge.  The first two I plan to tackle and actually complete are Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.  Wish me luck!

Finally, I plan to revisit old favorites in the Contentment Reading Challenge and re-read at least 5 books that I have read before and loved for the Floating Level.

Rose ~ 

I didn't do a mystery challenge last year, so I've decided to try this Victorian/Edwardian eras challenge. At the moment, I'll keep my pledge to a humble 5 books set in/written during 1837-1910.

This challenge is simple enough - read books by European authors/set in Europe. As the highest level only requires that I read at most 5 books, I'll be reading at the Five Star level. Hopefully, I'll be able to find some qualifying books that I've been looking for at the library (especially the third book in Jan Guillou's Arn trilogy).


Since I plan to read several Nordic books, anyway, I might as well sign myself up for this Nordic Challenge!






I haven't read a book about India, Pakistan, or China in months! For this challenge, I can read novels by South Asian authors/about South Asians. I'm not sure which books I will read, but I want to try Aravind Adiga's Last Man in Tower.

We all have books that we never finished. Maybe I'll finish the ones I started in 2011 this year.









I love the concept of this challenge. The goal is to read a 700+ page book. While the prospect of reading such a long book isn't personally daunting, deciding which tome to read is. If I only knew of a book as engrossing as Shantaram, the decision would be easy.




If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them. And what are you reading in 2012?

Bookish Quotes #29

"The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones."
     ~ John Wooden

"Everything in the world exists to end up in a book."
     ~ Stephane Mallarme

Waxing Poetic: A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas

     "A Child's Christmas in Wales" is a prose poem describing Christmases past in an anecdotal retelling of Christmas from a child's point of view. For the full text, click here. Thomas recorded the poem for BBC Radio, and this recording can be heard in the video below.

Bookish Quotes #28

"I have lived a thousand lives lost within the pages of a book."
     ~ Robert Cormier

"I have a real soft spot in my heart for librarians and people who care about books."
     ~ Ann Richards

Waxing Poetic: Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning

Porphyria's Lover

The rain set early in tonight,

The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

And did its worst to vex the lake:

I listened with heart fit to break.

When glided in Porphyria; straight

She shut the cold out and the storm,

And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

Which done, she rose, and from her form

Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,

And laid her soiled gloves by, untied

Her hat and let the damp hair fall,

And, last, she sat down by my side

And called me. When no voice replied,

She put my arm about her waist,

And made her smooth white shoulder bare,

And all her yellow hair displaced,

And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,

And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,

Murmuring how she loved me — she

Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor,

To set its struggling passion free

From pride, and vainer ties dissever,

And give herself to me forever.

But passion sometimes would prevail,

Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain

A sudden thought of one so pale

For love of her, and all in vain:

So, she was come through wind and rain.

Be sure I looked up at her eyes

Happy and proud; at last I knew

Porphyria worshiped me: surprise

Made my heart swell, and still it grew

While I debated what to do.

That moment she was mine, mine, fair,

Perfectly pure and good: I found

A thing to do, and all her hair

In one long yellow string I wound

Three times her little throat around,

And strangled her. No pain felt she;

I am quite sure she felt no pain.

As a shut bud that holds a bee,

I warily oped her lids: again

Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

And I untightened next the tress

About her neck; her cheek once more

Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:

I propped her head up as before,

Only, this time my shoulder bore

Her head, which droops upon it still:

The smiling rosy little head,

So glad it has its utmost will,

That all it scorned at once is fled,

And I, its love, am gained instead!

Porphyria's love: she guessed not how

Her darling one wish would be heard.

And thus we sit together now,

And all night long we have not stirred,

And yet God has not said a word!