"Official" Wolves Badge
(Designed by Frances)
With the hectic end of the year, I kind of forgot to mention the group read line-up that my smart but occasionally trash-talking blogging buddies Claire, E.L. Fay, Emily, Frances, Sarah, and I (a/k/a "The Wolves") have come up with for 2011. In the hope that you'll consider joining us for a discussion of at least one of the following works, here's a list of the titles that we'll be taking a look at during the course of the year. The name of the selector and hence the nominal host/hostess for each month's read appears in parentheses.
- January: Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers (E.L. Fay)
- February: Rosalind Belben's Our Horses in Egypt (Emily)
- March: Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral (me)
- April: Paul Glennon's The Dodecahedron, or a Frame for Frames (Sarah)
- May: Gabriel Josipovici's What Ever Happened to Modernism? (Frances)
- June: Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Claire)
- July: Orhan Pamuk's Snow (E.L. Fay)
- August: Lydia Davis' The End of the Story (Frances)
- September: Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian (me)
- October: Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves (Sarah)
- November: Nathalie Sarraute's The Planetarium (Emily)
- December: Gao Xingjian's Buying a Fishing Rod for My Father (Claire)
Rejected Wolves Badge
(Discovered by Emily)
A little secret: Although it took dozens of e-mails to finalize this year's reading list, it only took one to nix the fashionista wolf image!
The TBR Dare
Moving on to something completely different, I've decided to accept C.B. James' counterintuitively appealing TBR Dare. Yeah, the one in which known print junkies are urged to masochistically limit themselves to only reading books from their own TBR stockpiles for a certain period of time. Since I have enough books stockpiled to get me through two or three years of no new books privation but probably only enough willpower to last a week or two at best, I've challenged myself--even though, like the man says, this is a dare and not a challenge--to go all of January without reading anything that's not currently part of my TBR and/or already checked out from the library. Naturally, I took advantage of one of the loopholes in the rules to stock up on some last minute library books and make two 12/31 purchases (Conrad's The Secret Agent and Proust's In the Shadow of the Young Girls in Flower) to help me make it through the end of January and possibly longer. The TBR Dare sign-up page is here for those wanting a little more information about C.B. James' reverse Fantasy Island.
The 2011 Roberto Bolaño Reading Challenge
While the vast majority of reading challenges are easily as lame/uninteresting as adult YA bloggers bragging about reading below their grade levels all the time, Rise of in lieu of a field guide has baited a very different type of challenge hook with his 2011 Roberto Bolaño Reading Challenge. I haven't joined yet, but it's probably only a matter of time before I give in given the circumstances and the Bolaño-loving company (Stu of Winstonsdad's Blog, another international lit fave of mine, is also participating). Ok, hell, I give in: please sign me up at the Godzilla level, Rise.
I notice "The Bread Givers" is at my library, on the TEEN shelf. You can't imagine how that made me smile.
ResponderBorrarAnd speaking of smiling, I love the rejected badge. Can't you all have TWO badges?!!
many thanks for the kind mention richard ,hope to join you for some wolves reads but can't for jan library not got bread givers ,and look forward to your bolano reviews sill you be reading in Spanish ? all the best stu
ResponderBorrarGlad you took the bait, Richard. Godzilla, it is.
ResponderBorrarHAHAHAHA oh man I can't look at that image without cracking up. The eyes that go off in different directions! The drunk pose! It's too good. Looking forward to that year of reading!
ResponderBorrarAhahahahahhahahaa you posted the picture! Hahahahaha! (I took the TBR Dare too, all up to April Fools. And man, that Bolaño challenge is tempting. Resist. Resist. Resist.)
ResponderBorrarMy first time here and I love the list of books you have come up with. Most of them in my top 100 reading list. Great... would be following.
ResponderBorrarGodzilla? Whoa, that is caving in a big way. But I have a feeling not much of a sacrifice for you. :) I do have four unread Bolano works on my shelf. Hmmm.
ResponderBorrarAnd who talks trash? Only the man who lives amongst the highest concentration of Dunkin Donuts in the country. I wonder if they will deliver to you for me in March and April?
And that lecherous wolf looks great here. Maybe you should consider a second official badge?
*Jill: I can only hope that your library's teen shelf doesn't feature more than one book with "moon babs" in it if you catch my drift. In the meantime, I'm not sure that anyone, uh, "appreciated" the rejected Wolf badge enough to slap it on their blog for non-cheap humor purposes!
ResponderBorrar*Stu: Reading along with you and Rise was one of the big selling points for the Bolaño challenge for me, so the mention seemed necessary (will be reading those books in Spanish and posting dual language reviews on them in all likelihood)! In any event, I hope you'll be able to join us for as many of the Wolves reads as you see fit. Cheers!
*Rise: Thanks, but it was impossible to resist the Bolaño/Rise tag team!
*Emily: I'm not sure why, but I find it hysterical that you find that badge so hysterical. "Whatever, man." Way looking forward to another year of reading with y'all, though (esp. if Claire comes out of retirement)!
*Claire: Ha, you should know by know that I have no shame and I'm therefore not above a cheap stunt like posting that photo! Will be interested in seeing whether you, Frances or I will be the first to crack in the Dare (I already feel my resolve weakening, though). Cheers!
*Nana: Thanks and welcome to the blog! I look forward to seeing what else will appear on your Top 100 list. Cheers!
*Frances: I think I only have to read 5 more Bolaños to reach that coveted Godzilla status, 3 of which I already have waiting for me--so no, it shouldn't be all that taxing! As for the trash talking, I should have clarified that that mostly transpires in e-mails...other than what takes place here, of course (although you were encouraging it recently on Nonsuch, as I recall). P.S. Your Wolves badge is too classy to permit low class company in the way of other badges (i.e. I prefer the official one).
Thanks for introducing The Roberto Bolano Reading Challenge, as my 2666 just came through. See:
ResponderBorrarhttp://bibliojunkie.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/look-what-i-have-found-between-the-books/
I second Jill, Why can't you have the rejected wolf badge? that wolf looks like a She-wolf don't you think so? You can have Shakira's song with same title to go with the wolfish reading challenge!! lol
May join you for Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Thanks for pinging me. ;)
I hope to join The Wolves for at several of those books. Boy, that Bolano Challenge is tempting...
ResponderBorrarGlad to see another Bolano fan enslaving themselves for the cause.
ResponderBorrar*JoV: Glad to hear that you might join us for Pamuk, and I hope to see you over at Rise's Bolaño challenge as well (B = one of my favorite writers). As for the rejected wolf badge, ha ha, I think Emily might have been the only one crazy enough to want to post that one on her blog (it does like a she-wolf indeed, though). Anyway, thanks for discovering and visiting my blog--I had added yours to my blogroll before introducing myself over there, so sorry if I startled you with the surprise "ping." Cheers!
ResponderBorrar*Gavin: So nice to hear from you--it'd be great to have your company on some of these group reads and/or over at that Bolaño challenge. Cheers!
*Parrish: Yeah, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it, right? Cheers!
Hoping to join in on a few Wolves reads, very interesting and most I've never heard of! Also I'd love to participate in the Cairo Trilogy Readalong (I read the first book last year), hope it's okay if I'm late to the party!
ResponderBorrar*Libellule: Awesome--it'll be great to have you join us for a few of the shared reads and the rest of The Cairo Trilogy readalong! Look forward to having your input on the discussions. Thanks for dropping by!
ResponderBorrarFound you via Bibliojunkie/JoV ;) I will most likely join in with reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and the Gao Xingjian book in December. Looking forward to it!
ResponderBorrarVargitas Rules
ResponderBorrarI love this post. My favorite endorsement of The TBR Dare to date. Glad to have you on board.
ResponderBorrarI may join in on some of the Wolves reads. A few are on my TBR shelf, in fact.
I just read Nazi Literature in the Americas. I'm not sure I enjoyed it, but I admired it. So, I may join in the Bolano challenge...
I have never joined in a reading challenge because my own TBR list is so long I don't want to take on any more "lists". I like the TBR dare idea however. We are currently doing something similar with our freezer - we are not buying any more food until we have eaten the contents of our freezer which has been far too full since Christmas
ResponderBorrarI can't comment on this blog without using my google account. I am Tom of www.acommonreader.org
*Chinoiseries: Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but it'll be great if you're able to join us for a read or two. Cheers!
ResponderBorrar*Leox: ¡De acuerdo! ¡Saludos!
*C.B. James: Thanks, glad to hear that, although I've been struggling trying to uphold my TBR Dare vow for the month of late (temptations, temptations)... It would be cool to have you join us for any of the Wolves reads, and I'll keep my eyes out for you over at the Bolaño Challenge as well. Cheers!
*Tom: Sorry about the comments problem--I've been experimenting with blocking "anonymous comments" on non-post days because of a huge upswing in spam on the blog (all left by anonymous users), but I understand that inconveniences many people who don't have a Blogger account. Not sure what to do at this time, but I'm fed up with deleting multiple spam comments each day. Anyway, thanks for going through the hassle of leaving a comment through your alternate blog and for sharing your TBR Freezer Dare--too funny! I agree it's difficult to want to devote time to challenges when you have books on your TBR that are calling out for attention. Cheers!