Y’all may have heard that C.B.’s TBR Double Dare is officially over as of April 1st. How’d I do?

As I’ve said recently, not as well as I’d hoped, even though I stuck to the rules. I did learn, though, what will make this more effective next year: a much smaller December 31st library holds list.

I also entered a number of other TBR challenges for this year. Here’s a quick update.

• I’ve successfully read two (of twelve) titles for RoofBeam Reader’s TBR Pile Challenge but have yet to post the reviews so they don’t qualify yet.

• I’ve counted six books for Evie’s TBR Challenge, but only three have been reviewed thus far.

• Bev helped me clarify what qualifies for the Mount TBR Challenge and I have six on that list, toward my goal of 50.

• And Bonnie’s Off-the-Shelf Challenge has easy-peasy rules, so I can count 13 titles completed there, out of 50.

The bottom line is: I’m off to a slow start on my reading and an even slower start on my reviews. I’m going to be drawing on my TBR pile for a while yet. Time for me to get cracking!

How are you doing?

Bev over at My Reader’s Block is calling for a mountaineering checkpoint – that is, progress on my Mount TBR Challenge.

Truth be told, although I stuck to the TBR Double Dare for these past three months, most of what I read were library books that had been on my Reserved list on December 31st.

Of the “owned” books I read, 3 were picture books, 3 were children’s literature for the Books That Made Me Love Reading challenge, 6 were e-books (do these count?) and 4 were review copies that I received in December. I may count these in this challenge or I may not.

But for now, the only books that I’m recognizing as “REALLY” part of my long-time mountain were:

1. My Financial Career and Other Follies by Stephen Leacock and
2. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I’ve committed to the Kilimanjaro level of this challenge, which means I have to read 50 books from my TBR pile. Whether I count the picture books, children’s rereads, e-books & review copies or not, I clearly need to GET CLIMBING! Thanks for the check-in, Bev!

It’s the last Tuesday of the month, and time for the monthly poetry blog-along. Since Nova Scotia is shivering today in a frigid early-spring storm with strong northerly winds and blowing snow, I thought I’d make a call for spring by sharing this lovely classic of medieval poetry.

Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow,
The small raine down can raine?
Cryst, if my love were in my armes
And I in my bedde again!

Wikipedia says that this poem was used as lyrics to an early 16th century song which first appeared with words in a partbook of around 1530. Historians believe that the lyrics are a few hundred years older (‘Middle English’) and the words are a fragment of medieval poetry. (Here’s a sung version).

In a Globe and mail column several years ago, Fraser Sutherland pointed out that “twenty-five of [the poem’s] 26 words (the exception is “Christ”) have Old English, ultimately Germanic roots […] Twenty-four of the 26 words have one syllable, and the longest word has only seven characters.”

But, oh, what the poet did with those few letters! I have spent over 40 years wondering why these lovers were separated, and arriving at different conclusions at various times in my life.

What about you? Why do you think the author was apart from his (or her) love?

Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting her sixth annual Spring Reading Thing. It’s a fun, low-pressure reading challenge open to anyone and everyone. It will take place March 20th-June 20th (which is, not-so-coincidentally, the spring of 2012).

To participate, I need to create a list of some books I’d like to read or finish this spring. I have to list specific books. I can feel free to set some additional reading, but that’s optional.

Until March 31st, I’m still participating in C.B.’s Double Dare where the rule is that from Jan 1 to April 1, 2012, I can read only books that were in my TBR pile on December 31st. (Library books were allowed only if they were in my possession or on my holds list at 12:00 A.M. on Jan. 1.)

But it’s that “Library Holds List Loophole” that’s kept this challenge from being as effective as I had hoped. I thought I thinned that list in December, but it seems that there’s always something (completely within the rules) from the library demanding my attention and keeping me from making any real headway on Mount TBR.

So for the Spring Reading Thing, I’m committing to read a number of books from my December 31st TBR pile. Two are chunksters; and since there are still a couple of books coming from the library, I’ve included those. AND I’m including some books that were wins since January and that I’ve been anxiously waiting to start.

Currently reading:
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

From Mount TBR
White River Junctions by Dave Norman
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Canadian Food Guide by Pierre and Janet Berton
Stephen Leacock: His Remarkable Life by Albert Moritz and Theresa Moritz
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs, Book 7) by Jacqueline Winspear
One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane

Library Books:
Broken Music: A Mystery by Marjorie Eccles
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
Th1rteen r3asons why by Jay Asher

New arrivals (wins, gifts & ARCs)
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
African Love Stories: An Anthology edited by Ama Ata Aidoo
Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman
Manners for Women by Mrs. Humphrey
Murder: A Crafty Business by Lila Phillips

I’m doing my level best to have these all read by June 20th. I’m also committing to keeping up with my personal Bible reading schedule. Let’s see how I do!

What about you? What are your spring reading plans?

The Classics Reading Challenge hosted by November’s Autumn is the one I’m calling “Classics with a Twist” – the twist being that on the fourth of each month, Katherine posts a prompt to act as a basis for my discussion of the classic I’m currently reading.

This month, the prompt is LOCATION – and the classic I’ve most recently finished is Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

In 1845, Thoreau spent two years living in a small cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, Connecticut Massachusetts. (oops! See comments.) In his classic discourse, Walden, the author discusses in some depth the economic theory behind his experiment in living, as well as minute observations about nature, including the pond itself.

After the introductory essays, Thoreau doesn’t so much introduce the location, as he does analyze it throughout the book. In fact, location seems inseparable to the book. It is, after all, called Walden.

This is how Walden Pond looked about the time Thoreau lived there. It would have been nicer to see this in summer when there were leaves on the trees – that is how I imagined it even though Thoreau talks in depth about winter and spring at the pond.

Would the book have worked as well if Walden had been located somewhere else? The southern US? Above the Arctic Circle? The Australian outback? Surprisingly (to me, once I started considering this), I think the basic premise of the book – which was Thoreau’s experiment in opting out of established society – would be as strong no matter where it was set. Certainly, the description of the changing seasons would have been replaced by other observations of the natural cycles.

What do you think? Is Walden Pond inseparable from the book Walden?

Kailana at The Written World and Lu at Regular Rumination have started a monthly poetry blog-along. On the last Tuesday of every month, I’m going to join in and blog (very) informally about some of the poetry that I’ve read over the past month.

In January, I posted some of Shakespeare’s thoughts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This month, I thought I’d lighten the academic aspect of poetry by sharing some rhyme from the children’s book, There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen by Sherrie Fitch (illustrated by Sydney Smith.

The opening page features a picture of monkey bedlam and reads:

There were monkeys / In my kitchen
They were climbing / Up the walls
They were dancing / On the ceiling
They were bouncing / Basketballs

BUT…
Let me tell you
It was terrible
Hardest day
I ever had
So believe me / It was bad
IT WAS BAD.

So begins a wild tale of monkeys of all sorts throughout the house. And lest you forget that it’s Canadian:

I called the police / I called the RCMP
I was extra polite / I said “Pretty, pretty please”
As I shouted out, / “HELP!
Ch-ch-ch-Chimpanzees!”

Lots of fun!

How about you? When was the last time you read children’s rhymes?

For Canadian readers:
There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen

At the beginning of the year, our three-year-old grandson and his mom were living with us. That encouraged me to sign up for a couple of challenges that I would not have otherwise considered: the Picture Book Reading Challenge and the 3660 Minute Challenge for which I must read 10 minutes each day to a child.

But Laura and Steven left suddenly mid-month as an urgent family matter called them back to Vancouver. That left me with only 130 minutes of reading time logged with Steven – and a keening for him in my heart.

So I decided to have a story-time with Steven by phone every day, rain or shine (a new term he learned reading Madeline). His mom puts the headphones on him and he lies on his bed or the floor while we talk – because it isn’t just about reading, is it? It’s about asking questions, learning new things, and finding out what your child is thinking. Our times have ranged from 10-20 minutes and most days he’s fully engaged even though he can’t see the pictures in the books.

I’m pleased with the ongoing contact I’m maintaining with my grandson and hope that soon he looks forward to Gram’s story-time every day.

Here’s what we read together in January before he left, with links to reviews for all:

1. Dog in Boots written by Greg Gormley and illustrated by Robert Angaramo

2. The Market Square Dog written by James Herriot and illustrated by Ruth Brown

3. Giraffe and Bird written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender

4. I Want My Hat Back written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

5. Coyote Sings to the Moon written Thomas King and illustrated by Johnny Wales

I told myself on December 31 that I had signed up for all the reading challenges that I was going to do…”no more,” I told myself. But challenges continued to trickle in in January and weaken my resolve and I saw a few that I could do without adding more than one or two titles to my burgeoning 2012 reading list.

The ‘challenge’ part is becoming keeping track of all—wait for it—63 challenges I’ve entered. Yup – that’s right-sixty-three. It’s hard to believe, I know, but there some that I really wanted to join but just couldn’t this year (for example: African, Middle East, Eastern European, Irish, Edgar Winners, Read the Bible…and so on)

Anyway, I promise that this is it. All the sign-up posts are up today and that’s it. From here on in, I read and review.

I hope you’ve had a great start on your reading year!

FAILED TO COMPLETE

Of all 63 reading challenges that I took on this year, the one is the one I’m saddest about not completed. Herewith, my January remarks:

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t read and didn’t love it.

My brother was born when I was 13 months old and my mother read to me to keep me occupied while she nursed him. I was reading when I entered kindergarten just before my fifth birthday, and in first grade I was called out of class once a week to read a story to my brother’s kindergarten class. (He was not impressed since he was already a reader himself.)

Dave & I spent many summer afternoons in the children’s section in the basement of the old library in St. Thomas. We could take only four books at a time and so we were there several times a week, replenishing our stock of entertainment. Dave favored Freddy the Pig books, although I could never get into them. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and Trixie Belden.

The Books That Made Me Love Reading Challenge, hosted by Emlyn Chand, allows me to re-read the books that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

I’ll also reflect upon what made me love them the first time around and discuss how my impressions changed upon reading them again.

I haven’t determined yet which books I’ll read for this challenge (one per month is required), but I’m enjoying searching my memory and finding old friends.

January: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

February: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery

March: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

April: A Place for Johnny Bill by Ruth Juline Bishop

Entering the Color Coded Reading Challenge, hosted by Bev over at My Reader’s Block required that I add a number of books to my already long reading list for 2012, but I just couldn’t resist. I love category challenges!

Here are my tentative choices:
1. A book with “Blue” in the title: Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
2. A book with “Red” in the title: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell
3. A book with “Yellow” in the title: The Mystery Of The Yellow Room by Gaston LeRoux
4. A book with “Green” in the title: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewllyn
5. A book with “Brown” in the title: TBD – any suggestions?
6. A book with “Black” in the title: Crime at the Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
7. A book with “White” in the title: The Woman in White by Wilkie Colllins
8. A book with any other color in the title : These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. A book with a word that implies color: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

To see how I really did, see my challenge wrap-up page.

FAILED TO COMPLETE

So, yes, I’ve already entered Library of Clean Reads’ Short Story Reading Challenge which requires me to read entire collections of short stories.

But the Short Story Reading Challenge hosted by Dead Book Darling asks me to read 12 individual short stories. This will allow me more latitude to find a variety of authors. I’m looking forward to this!

1. A Lesson on the Links by Stephen Leacock
2. The Landlady by Roald Dahl
3. The $64 Tomato by William Alexander

Alas, although I read many more short stories and certainly in excess of 12 authors, I failed to blog about them.

COMPLETED

Over the past year, I’ve started following a number of bloggers who promote Australian literature. I must admit that my exposure to authors from down under has been somewhat (although not entirely) limited.

To stretch myself this year, I’ve decided to join this Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge, created by Elizabeth at The Devoted Eclectic. I’m just going in ‘casual’ this year at the ‘Stella’ level of 3 books and I’m going to ‘dabble’ in more than one genre. Here’s my tentative reading list (although the first two are pretty firmly set because they are next in the pile on my bedside bookcase):

1. The Secret River by Kate Grenville

2. Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville

3. Bush Studies by Barbara Baynton

Do you have any other suggestions for me?

COMPLETED

What books were published the year you were born, or the birth year of someone special to you? The Birth Year Reading Challenge encourages you to find out, and then read some of them.

I really couldn’t get excited about anything published in my birth year, so I decided to do an Honors Challenge and read books published in 1973 – the year my beautiful baby girl came into the world. (Love you, Jen!)

A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek

Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

The BYRC is hosted by the Hotchpot Cafe.

Emmanuelle at Words and Peace is hosting the Books Published in the First Years of My Life Challenge.

What is this challenge-that’s-a mouthful all about?
Easy: pick up and read a book that was published in the first years of my life; 1 book per year.

I originally thought I would complete this challenge (at the Toddler level) by reading adult books, but the challenge logo puts me in mind of snuggling up with a book as a child – and so I think I’m going to read some of the books I might have read then. Here’s my list:

1954 – Horton Hears A Who! by Dr. Suess
1955 – Eloise by Kay Thompson
1956 – Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Kristen at Strawberry Splash Reviews is hosting another A – Z Reading Challenge. I say ‘another’ because I’ve already joined one of these.

Kristen, however, has a ‘double whammy‘ category that takes this ‘eh’ to ‘zed’ experience to another level: not only must I read books with titles that start with the letters of the alphabet, but also I need to read books by authors whose last name start with A to Z. FUN!

A. Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
B. Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
C. Collins, Wilkie: The Moonstone
D. DeWitt, Patrick: The Sisters Brothers
E. Edugyen, Esi: Half-Blood Blues
F. Ferguson, Will: 419
G. Gowdy, Barbara: Mr. Sandman read Dec 2012
H. Hemingway, Ernest: The Old Man & the Sea read Dec 2012
I. Innes, Michael: Death at the President’s Lodging
J. Johnston, Wayne: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
K. Kurelek, William: A Prairie Boy’s Winter
L. Llewellyn, Richard: How Green Was My Valley
M. McKay, Ami: The Birth House
N. Norman, Dave: White River Junctions
O. Ondaatje, Michael: The Cat’s Table read Dec 2012
P. Philips, Lila: Murder is a Crafty Business
Q. Quinn, Spencer: The Dog Who Knew Too Much
R. Rushdie, Salman: Midnight’s Children
S. Shakespeare, Wiliiam: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
T. Trudeau, Pierre Elliott: Memoirs
U. Urquhart, Jane: The Underpainter read Dec 2012
V. Vanderpoole, Claire: Moon Over Manifest
W. Wolfe, Inger Ash: The Calling
X. foX, Ian: Promise Me Eternity
Y. Young, Cybele: A Few Blocks
Z. Zion, Gene: Harry, the Dirty Dog

COMPLETED

Cassandra over at Wickedly Delicious Tales is hosting the 2012 Amazon Best Books of 2011 Reading Challenge.

Since four of the books on my 2012 reading list are Amazon editors’ picks for last year, I’m going to enter this at the Novice level which requires me to choose another, for a total of five books.

Here’s the Amazon list.

Here are my original choices for this challenge and my YEAR-END UPDATE:

1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

2. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

3. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

4. A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor

4. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

5. The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje

COMPLETED

In completing the second annual Criminal Plots Reading Challenge, I’ll be reading six books between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2012. One book should be read that fits into each of the following categories:

1. Novel with a weapon in the title: Sign of the Broken Sword by G.K. Chesterton

2. Book published at least 10 years ago: Crime at the Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

3. Book written by an author from the state/province/etc. where I live: Murder: a Crafty Business by Lila Phillips of Truro, Nova Scotia

4. Book written by an author using a pen name: The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn, a pseudonym used by Peter Abrahams

5. Crime novel whose protagonist is the opposite gender of the author: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia deLuce) by Alan Bradley

6. A stand-alone novel written by an author who writes at least one series: Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

The Challenge: Read any non-fiction book, adult or young adult. That’s it. I can choose anything. Poetry? Yes. Memoirs? Yes. History? Yes. Travel? Yes. You get the idea? Absolutely anything that is classified as non-fiction counts for this challenge.

So – I’m going in at the Master level which requires me to read 16 – 20 non-fiction books this year.

The Dewey Decimal System Reading Challenge is hosted by Jen over at The Introverted Reader.

1. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

2. Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville

3. A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek

4. Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo & Robert Llewellyn

5. Chickens, Mules, & Two Old Fools by Victoria Twead

6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

7. A Small Furry Prayer by Steven Kotler

8. White River Junctions by Dave Norman

9. Winnie & Gurley by Robert G. Hewitt

10. Notes to My Mother-in-Law by Phyllida Law

11. Manners for Women by Mrs. Humphrey

12. Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place by Lawrence Scanlan

13. The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

14. UContent by Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo

15. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

16. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

17. The Canadian Food Guide by Pierre & Janet Berton

18. Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau

19. Mordecai: the Life and Times by Charles Foran

This Books In Translation Challenge, hosted by The Introverted Reader, is pretty self-explanatory. The goal is to read translations of books.

Any genre and any age range qualifies. Crossovers with other challenges are fine. Any format that I choose is also acceptable.

Since I’m already committed to reading Montaigne’s essays this year, this seems like a good fit. And who knows what else I might run across that’s been translated?

I didn’t get to Montaigne but I did read The Stranger by Albert Camus (translated from the French) Completed Nov 2012

Kailana at The Written Word and Lu at Regular Rumination have started a monthly poetry blog-along. I haven’t posted my sign-up yet, so I’m combining this month’s post with that.

On the last Tuesday of every month, I’m going to join in and blog (very) informally about some of the poetry that I’ve read over the past month.

For January, I thought I’d share some of Shakespeare’s thoughts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In Act III, scene ii, Hermia has awakened to find her love, Lysander, gone without explanation. She accuses Demetrius, his rival, of harming him:

Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou driv’st me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Has thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numb’red among men.
O, once tell true: tell true, even for my sake
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake!
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?

I can just feel the pain, anger and contempt in Hermia’s words!

My favorite lines from this play, though, are Helena’s in Act 1, scene i:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.