Okay, I’m somewhat of a loser when it comes to my 2007 challenges. Of course, two of them weren’t official challenges. They were just challenges I created for myself that I then went and posted: 13 adult classics and 13 children’s classics. Despite revising the adult one half way through the year, I still failed to complete either one.
However, it’s not as though I wasn’t busy reading classics. After all, I read Gone with the Wind this year. Its length rivals War and Peace, the book that seems to be best known for its length than anything else. Surely, Gone with the Wind should count for at least three classics, being over 1000 pages long. I listened to Lolita. Everyone knows that listening to a book takes much longer than reading it, so that ought to count for at least two classics. On top of that, I also listened to Dracula (2 more), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (okay, okay. That one is so short, it really shouldn’t be allowed to count as two), and The Turn of the Screw (ditto Jekyll and Hyde). I would bet that everyone else who’s read The Man Who Was Thursday for the outmoded authors challenge would agree that it’s a classic. Rose Macaulay’s They Were Defeated, which I also read, is most absolutely a classic (who cares if it’s nearly impossible to find in this country?). According to these numbers, I definitely surpassed my goal of thirteen classics for the year. I merely fooled everyone into thinking I was going to be reading different classics. Just call me a magician.
Magician that I am, I also managed to make everyone think that I had 13 children’s classics on my list to read. Actually, there were only six, and I read every last one of them. They were all excellent, and in 2008 I just might have to read, oh, I don’t, seven more sounds like a good number, huh? But then, I probably don’t need to bother with another children’s classics challenge, since I succeeded so well this year.
The other two challenges I took on in 2007 were the nonfiction five and the outmoded authors ones. Outmoded authors continues into 2008, and I’ve already read and posted on two. I’m halfway through the third, so this one just might make it. I’ve read and posted on three of my nonfiction five. I’ve read the fourth and will be posting on it soon. The fifth will be finished by the end of the year, but its post just might have to wait until 2008. We’ll see…(it’s the holiday season and all, you know). However, even if I don’t post on all five this year, I will actually have read 17 nonfiction books by the end of the year (not counting manuscripts for work, which would tip that number to well over 25). That should count for something, right?
So, you be the judge. Did I live up to my blogging goal of not being so afraid of challenges this year? Stay tuned for 2008, when I just might create a challenge of my own for everyone that I will, I’m sure, complete with flying colors.
3 comments:
Magician indeed! I'd say you did just fine with your blogging goals :)
I think you did quite well. I tried the 13 classics challenge too and I read only seven on my list, although I read classics that weren't on the list. I didn't finish other challenges either -- oh, well; I like to think that challenges get you to read new things and that's what matters, not that you finished the challenge itself.
Stef, well, thanks!
Dorr, I'm thinking we ought to have carry-over books the way we have carry-over vacation days at work.
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