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miércoles, 31 de diciembre de 2008

2008 Orbis Terrarum Challenge Wrap-Up

Dear Readers:

My book-blogging amiga Bethany has asked all participants in her 2008 Orbis Terrarum Challenge to write a wrap-up post about the challenge with links to books read for it and answers to some survey questions about our participation in the challenge. Since I really enjoyed this challenge (my first completed and still the most interesting one I've seen offered to date) and read some of my favorite books of the year during the course of it (the top two from the list itself are starred in red below), I encourage you to check out a preview of the 2009 Orbis Terrarum Challenge on Bethany's blog here. Meanwhile, read on--or don't--for the info that was requested about the 2008 challenge.

Books Read (title/author/author's country of birth)

Orbis Terrarum 2008 Challenge Survey (Bethany's questions in bold red)

  • 1.) What did you like about the challenge? I liked that the challenge was international in focus and that the countries were represented by their authors' birthplaces rather than just the settings where the works took place. I don't understand many U.S. book bloggers' obsession with American and U.K. authors to the exclusion of almost everyone else, so this was a nice way to see what people thought about writers from some other places in the world.
  • 2.) What would you like to see change for next year? I like the challenge just the way it is/was. The only change I'd root for in the future is making it 12 books in 12 months rather than 9 books in 9 months. However, I'm glad it was shorter this year since I discovered it so late in the game!

  • 3.) About the rules, or the non-existent rules...did you like that? Yes, I did. It's kind of a turnoff seeing some of these challenges where they start with a nice idea and then ruin it by attaching 50 rules at the end. Challenges should be fun--not exercises in observing somebody else's obsessive-compulsive ways.

  • 4.) Are you going to join us next year? Definitely. I'm looking forward to it--unless the rules change too much. See #3 above!

  • 5.) Pretty please give me any suggestions for changes, the betterment of the challenge, or just anything that you would like to see changed for next year. OT is fine as is. Don't mess with success! Don't fix it if it's not broken!!

  • 6.) Would you like the challenge to be more involved? What if we read books together sometimes? Would that interest you? I wouldn't mind reading one novel or a bonus book together as part of a group as long as I reserved the right to maintain my other choices intact. Might be fun. However, I'd hate to have to give up somebody like Roberto Bolaño to read some hack like Stephen King instead!

  • 7.) Would you be interested in helping somehow next year? How would you like to help? I'd be happy to help. I have a few books in mind that I could see offering as giveaways, but feel free to shoot me an e-mail, Bethany, if you have anything else in mind. By the way, thanks again for hosting the challenge--it was a lot of fun, and I appreciated your enthusiasm!

4 comentarios:

  1. Thanks so much for joining this!! You read really fast too. I am thinking about having an "in spanish" option for next year...let me know if you have any ideas.

    Great wrap-up post!

    happy reading to you.

    ResponderBorrar
  2. Thank you, Bethany, it was my pleasure! An "in Spanish" option sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if you're looking for book suggestions or other ideas. Semana.com has a list of the 100 best novels published in Spanish in the last 25 years, though, so that might be a nice resource to link to on the new challenge. In the meantime, ¡hasta pronto!

    ResponderBorrar
  3. hey, yeah I was thinking it would be cool to do a mini-challenge (ie read 3 out of the total 9 for OT in the language they were written in)it would give it new dimension. The only problem is that I don't know how many can read in another language. I thought it would be a neat option for the challenge though.

    Any ideas on that??

    ResponderBorrar
  4. I think that mini challenge would be a great idea, and I don't see any downside to offering it as an option even if you didn't have many takers (it's not like it's excluding anyone or anything). From a few comments I've seen on other challenges and blogs, I think there's at least some interest out there for doing challenge reading in books' original languages...and maybe more than one would suspect given the numbers of non-native English speakers posting in English on their blogs. Anyhow, I'd sign up for that mini-challenge if you offer it and would be happy to help if you can think of a good way for me to contribute (prizes or otherwise). Btw, thanks for all the comments tonight!

    ResponderBorrar