Book Challenge 2010
For this year's book challenge, I have decided to do something different. Instead of reading X number of books or X books in Y genres, I will challenge myself to write more reviews of what I read. My goal for 2010 is to review at least 80% of the books I read all year.
In order to make the reviews interesting, I have to read interesting books - and the corollary to my review goal is to reread books that I read years ago, that I remember because they made me think. I want to revisit these books (many of them classics) and think about them again. Most of them I read as a teenager, and I'm interested in finding what more there is to discover in these books. I'll list a few of them below, for my own reference.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
Idoru, William Gibson
Nightwatch, Sergei Lukyanenko
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
The Giver, Lois Lowry
I'm sure this list will grow...
I'll conclude with my first review of the year, Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters.
This book is the fourth in a series of mystery novels set in Victorian-era Egypt. Archaeologist Amelia Peabody Emerson is happily married, engaged in excavating a pyramid, and occupied with keeping her overtalkative genius son out of trouble, all the while investigating a series of murders which may or may not be involved with the illegal trade in antiquities.
This isn't exactly heavy reading, which was just what I was looking for when I picked it up. Peters keeps the dialogue witty, and half the fun is guessing which of the unreliable narrator's statements are self-deception. The strong personalities of the protagonist and her family, all larger than life, make the plot take a back seat to the antics of the characters. I don't read a lot of mysteries, and as a reader who can't be bothered to try to piece together the clues as I go, I appreciate the character-driven plots.
The first book in the series was enormous fun, but I found the second dull, and the third reasonably entertaining. This one, in my opinion, was up to the standard of the first - a vastly enjoyable romp. I have the next one around here and plan to pick it up as my next mystery.
In order to make the reviews interesting, I have to read interesting books - and the corollary to my review goal is to reread books that I read years ago, that I remember because they made me think. I want to revisit these books (many of them classics) and think about them again. Most of them I read as a teenager, and I'm interested in finding what more there is to discover in these books. I'll list a few of them below, for my own reference.
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
Idoru, William Gibson
Nightwatch, Sergei Lukyanenko
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
The Giver, Lois Lowry
I'm sure this list will grow...
I'll conclude with my first review of the year, Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters.
This book is the fourth in a series of mystery novels set in Victorian-era Egypt. Archaeologist Amelia Peabody Emerson is happily married, engaged in excavating a pyramid, and occupied with keeping her overtalkative genius son out of trouble, all the while investigating a series of murders which may or may not be involved with the illegal trade in antiquities.
This isn't exactly heavy reading, which was just what I was looking for when I picked it up. Peters keeps the dialogue witty, and half the fun is guessing which of the unreliable narrator's statements are self-deception. The strong personalities of the protagonist and her family, all larger than life, make the plot take a back seat to the antics of the characters. I don't read a lot of mysteries, and as a reader who can't be bothered to try to piece together the clues as I go, I appreciate the character-driven plots.
The first book in the series was enormous fun, but I found the second dull, and the third reasonably entertaining. This one, in my opinion, was up to the standard of the first - a vastly enjoyable romp. I have the next one around here and plan to pick it up as my next mystery.