My bookshelves groan under their own weight. My budget positively squeals with protest when I log on to Amazon or walk into the local book store. Mt TBR grows ever higher at an astonishing rate and threatens to bury me, my reading chair and my computer desk under an avalanche of as yet unread paper.
But I see a new reading challenge and I still rise to the bait. 3M posted the challenge on her blog and I simply couldn't resist. The idea was to experience time and literature by reading an example of a novel from as many consecutive decades as possible. What a great concept! Thank goodness, she had the courtesy to set the rules to allow books that we'd already read this year and to let cross-over titles from other challenges count as well.
Here's the link to her blog for the detailed explanation of the rules and a list of participants.And, of course, here's my tentative list. Completed titles appear in red italics.
1870 The Law and the Lady - Wilkie Collins
1880 A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1890 The Well at World's End - William Morris
1900 First Men in the Moon - HG Wells
1910 The Poison Belt - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
1930 Burmese Days - George Orwell
1940 The Robe - Lloyd C Douglas
1950 The Voyage of the Space Beagle - AE van Vogt
1960 The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
1970 Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
1980 West of Eden – Harry Harrison
1990 Plum Island – Nelson DeMille
2000 Ptolemy's Gate – Jonathan Stroud
8 comments:
Welcome to the challenge! My boys just finished reading Ptolemy's Gate and loved it. We saw your review at Amazon and voted "yes" a few days ago.
Great list.
Thanks for the kind words. And especially thanks for the great challenge idea.
You have a great list there! I don't think I've read any of them, but I am eager to see what you think of several of the titles you've yet to read. Maybe my wish list will grow some more.
See...it wasn't so hard to find books for each decade!! And wasn't it fun looking them up!
Great List!
Well, I haven't even *heard* of half those books, let alone read them :-) But based on the titles alone, all sound very intriguing. I look forward to seeing reviews! And, of course, to seeing pictures of Switzerland in July, which will once again prompt Travel Envy to rear its ugly head.
Hey, Aarti, don't even start with travel envy. New Zealand and Australia are probably numero uno on my world travel wish list so I'm positively drooling with greener than green jealousy at your upcoming trip.
Maybe what we ought to do is agree to live vicariously through each other's eyes.
P.S. to Aarti:
You ought to try some contemporary science fiction. Perhaps you could find some literary heroines who meet with your approval.
Classic sci-fi probably wouldn't be a good place to look for heroines. They tend to be pretty stereotyped male sexist heroines for the most part.
Do you know, I haven't really given science fiction in general much of a look? I feel that I should start- maybe. But I don't know if I will :-) If I do, though, I've always thought I'd start with Lois McMaster Bujold.
As for travel envy, my friend and I have set up a competition of one-upping each other on our trips! Therefore, we're always either planning a trip, going on a trip, or coming back from a trip. Rather than wasting time being jealous! Though really, my bank account will be pretty near zero when I return to Chicago, which is when you're most susceptible to travel envy!
I should write a thesis.
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