Happy New Year to all of you who use the Gregorian Calendar. š
Seems I have some sort of lung infection thing as Iāve been coughing my guts out (quite literally) for the last few weeks and for the last few days havenāt been able to go up or down the stairs without having a coughing fit/ not being able to breathe for a few seconds.
Iām rooting for my lungs to get better as itās put a damper on the festive period.
Enough doom and gloom! Itās time to roll out a list of reading challenges that look epic and that Iām going to try to make time for this year!
First of all, Rose City Readerās European Reading Challenge, which I’ve already done a post about, but am excited enough to mention multiple times. š
The aim of this is to read and review a minimum of 1 book thatās either set in Europe (irrespective of where the authorās from), or whose author is from a country in Europe.
Iām aiming for the āhoneymoonerā level, which entails reading and reviewing 4 books that comply with the above guidelines. Thatās one book every 3 months, which is do-able.
The 2nd challenge is The Eclectic Reader 2014 Challenge, the aim of which āis to push you outside your comfort zone by reading up to 12 books during the year from 12 different categories.ā
Iām not entirely sure which books Iāll read for it, but if I can get my hands on a copy of any of the books in the AdĆØle Blanc-Sec series, then Iāll definitely read it for the āGraphic Novelā category.
Or should I read Sandman?
Everyone recommends the latter and I do enjoy Neil Gaimanās writing style, but then AdĆØle Blanc-Sec has got a really strong female character (namely AdĆØle) and strong female characters are always a pleasure to read.
Decisions, decisionsā¦
The 3rd challenge that looks really exciting is Words and Peaceās āBooks on France 2014ā. The rules are simple: read any book related to France.
So essentially any book that is;
it can be set in France,
written by a French author,
written in French (not Canadian French), by authors from any country
about a French theme: French cuisine (how the French influenced American cuisine is accepted for instance), French fashion, etc.
it can be a book read for another challenge
There are 5 levels and Iām going to aim for level 3, called āpassionnĆ©mentā, for which one has to read and review 12 books.
The final challenge that really grabbed my interest is caffeinatedlifeās Everything EspaƱa: a 2014 Reading Challenge.
As caffeinatedlife points out, even though Spain has produced some very fine writers, there arenāt as many challenges based around their works. Iām also taking part in this because although I read a fair amount of journal articles about Hispanic socio-linguistics, I tend to forget to read books that are set the country or written by a Spaniard as opposed to a Latin-American.
That will change this year as Iām going to read between 1-4 books in Spanish that are written by a Spanish author or set in Spain.
NB. If you want to take part in the challenge, you donāt have to read a book thatās actually written in Spanish, Iād just prefer to read books written in Spanish.
It sounds like very few books, especially when compared to the 12 French books Iām aiming to read and review, but I feel less confident reading fiction in Spanish, so even reading 3 feels pretty darn daunting right now.
I’ll officially sign up to the challenges and catch up with peoples’ blogs in the next 24 hours: have many things around the house to do before I go back to Uni. for the semester. DX