Chaos Reading challenge 2018?

[Whitney]

For female in power; Parable of the Sower has been on my re-read list for awhile, I was going to go with that. Other possibilities The Girl With All the Gifts, Ancillary Mercy, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Or any other bio of a female political type. And there's always the classics: The Devil Wears Prada.

For chemical weapons, I was going to read Robert Graves autobiography, Goodbye to All That. Any WWI book would probably work, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Wars both have horrific mustard gas scenes.

I am going to try and read all the categories! I'm hoping this will help lesson my internet addiction.

[Marc]

THANK YOU!!! I've been hoping to get to Ancillary Justice or The Girl With All the Gifts sooner rather than later. They were on my TBR, but I didn't remember what their plots involved. I kept blanking when trying to think of options or coming up with super long books. Might be time for All Quiet on the Western Front. Loved Parable, but I'm going for no re-reads during this challenge.

That would be wonderful if the challenge helped break your internet addiction.

[Marc]

Would The Mists of Avalon count in the woman in power or coming to power category? It sounds like a bit of a stretch, but I only know the story based on reviews and synopses.

[Whitney]

Marc wrote: "Would The Mists of Avalon count in the woman in power or coming to power category? It sounds like a bit of a stretch, but I only know the story based on reviews and synopses."

I think it would. Since reading books by reprehensible people just came up in another thread, I'll add that Mists came off my TBR when it came out that Bradley was a serial child sex abuser.

[Marc]

Damn! This has been an eye-opening series of exchanges. I read up a bit on Bradley. Pretty horrendous/disgusting. This type of information would prevent me from buying or promoting an artist/writer... Can't say I know what to do with a used copy of a book already in my possession... (read, recycle, burn... )

[Whitney]

I've seen an article revisiting some parts of Mists that become pretty creepy in light of the allegations. I vote for recycle...

Sherman Alexie looks like the next one to come off his pedestal. There are numerous allegations of sexual harassment and threats which will probably break in the mainstream media in a couple days :-(

This thread has become a bummer.

Three days until the challenge, woo-hoo!

[Marc]

I think I read that same article about revisiting Mists in light of such news...

I'm pretty excited for what I still consider my non-controversial selections, such as HHhH, The Epic of Gilgamesh, City of Saints and Madmen, etc.

What book are people most excited to read for the challenge?

[Whitney]

I'm actually pretty stoked for Paradise Lost, as read by Simon Vance.

[CD]

By the way, can we reread a book (not during the challenge) that we have previously read and have it count?

[Marc]

Sounds like a good one, Whitney!

CD, as long as you finish the reread during the challenge window and it fits one of the categories, it counts.

[Whitney]

I found Faux Pas: A No-nonsense Guide to Words and Phrases at the library today, which I am going to use for my reference book. I have already learned that a cappella means "in the church style" and alibi means "elsewhere". In addition to a definition and usage example, there's also has a pretentiousness index for each phrase.

As this is one to peruse, expect annoying interjections of interesting phrases throughout the challenge.

[Marc]

I look forward to these interjections!

I was browsing options for the chemical weapons category and stumbled upon this list of fictional toxins (note: some of these are movies or video games, but there's quite a few books in there, as well):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_toxins

[Whitney]

The phrase of the day is "agitprop". It's obvious roots are agitation and propaganda, but it specifically comes from the Russian Agitpropbyuro, a Soviet era bureaucracy using said agitation and propaganda to spread communist ideals.

[Marc]

All scoring, trash talk, questions, cheerleading, etc. should now go in the official Treasure Hunt IV thread. As the hunt has officially begun, you should be able to "sign up" on the home page (use a browser and not the GR app)--simply scroll to the bottom of the treasure hunt categories where it will allow you to set a goal for the hunt, and name a new GR shelf that will help keep track of the books you read.

May the most chaotic reader win!