2019 Time Traveler Challenge

[CBRetriever]

thanks, that i did not know

[CBRetriever]

For some reason I thought this challenge was, in part to read books from at least 12 different decades. I'm up to 15 now:

1720
1730
1810
1850
1860
1870
1880
1930
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010

with the 1720 and 1730 ones being the two different versions of Gulliver's Travels.

What's interesting is which books still hold up today. The 1930s War with the Newts was a very enjoyable read and makes me wonder if Max Brooks had read it before writing World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War as it was written in a somewhat similar style (as a history).

The 1860s books (Jules Verne) were good if a bit wordy and reminded me a bit of Tom Clancy with all the technical explanations.

Both the 1850 (Alexandre Dumas's The Wolf-Leader about a werewolf) and the 1810 Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus books commented on humanity and dealt with the morals of the main characters.

the 1860 & 1870 books were by George MacDonald and would still be decent reading for a child/preteen enthralled by fairy tales. I enjoyed them.

the first 1950, 1960 & 1970 books were both by Andre Norton and were both good reads

I've enjoyed this challenge so far and have managed to take 95 books off my TBR pile even though 15 of them were purchased this year. I had to buy books for these decades:

1720
1730
1860
1870
1880
1930

I hope to add an 1890 book from H.G. Wells to make it 16 decades. Then I'll look for books to meet these decade criteria

1740-1790
1800
1830-1850
1900-1920
1940

I had a 1666 book chosen but it was only 94 pages and I couldn't bring myself to add it: The Blazing World

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

This is wonderful! Yes, I was hopeful folks would read at least 12 different decades. I love the things that have surprised you and am adding a bunch to my own tbr :)

[CBRetriever]

I read 4 from the 1890s and one from 1910 to make it 17 decades. Those H.G. Wells books: The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Time Machine and The First Men in the Moon (1901) were all fairly short and also quite entertaining. I was surprised at how much humor was in them, especially for The Invisible Man.

I'm more inclined to finish this Delphi Collected Works than I am the Jules Verne one.

I plan to read two Edgar Rice Burroughs books for 1910 and 1920 plus Silverlock for 1940.

[Gabi]

I just updated my publishing date list. So far my year was as follows:



1860 - 1
1870 - 1
1890 - 1
1920 - 2
1930 - 1
1940 - 1
1950 - 4
1960 - 4
1970 - 8
1980 - 21
1990 - 15
2000 - 20
2010 - 52

This would make for 12 decades, yet I wanted to read some more decades, if I can pull myself together.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

wow! great work! excited to see what else you find!

[Anna]

I'd never heard about this dystopia from 1926, written by a woman in response to some of her contemporaries. I've got the 1920s covered for this challenge, but I think I'll add this to my TBR for later.

The Question Mark

[CBRetriever]

Finished my 1940s book Silverlock yesterday. It was very entertaining and those who love characters from literature, folklore and fairy tales will love it. There's even a companion book A Silverlock Companion to help you identify the characters who show up in it. I only recognized about 50% of them. Loved it

[CBRetriever]

Made my goal of 20 decades

A Princess of Mars = 1910s
The Moon Maid = 1920s

I enjoyed A Princess of Mars, but The Moon Maid wasn't nearly as good. Also, I suspect Edgar Rice Burroughs had a hand fetish as he's always commenting on the little hands of his main female characters (except for the one who was a Thark). I'll probably finish a few more of the John Carter of Mars books in the future

1720 & 1730 = 2
1810 = 1
1850-2010 = 17

anyway, now that's I've reached that goal, I'm off to see if there are any big point other than decade books to read in my TBR pile.

[Meredith]

I hit 12 decades (plus one more that was a short story). It has been fun seeking out books to fit all the decades.

1860s: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869)
1900s: Sultana's Dream (1905; short story)
1910s: Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
1920s: Lud in the Mist (1926)
1930s: Once and Future King (1938, for Sword in the Stone)
1940s: Little White Horse (1946)
1950s: Day of the Triffids (1951)
1960s: Catseye 1961, also Dune (1965)
1970s: Swords and Deviltry (1970)
1980s: War for Oaks (1987)
1990s: Sabriel (1995), Red Mars (1992), A Night in the Lonesome October (1993)
2000s: All you Need is Kill (2004), Storm Font (2000), Kushiel’s Dart (2001)
2010s: many, many books here

[CBRetriever]

In addition to my goal of 20 decades, I'm hoping to reach 1000 points by the end of the year as I'm at 992 at the moment

I just want to verify my thinking:

Decade points =
..... 10 for first book in each decade so 20 decades = 200 points
..... 1 point for a decade per author no matter how many times an author published a book in that decade, but only one point per omnibus/collection unless it spans multiple decades

Woman author points
..... 5 points per book, but only one point per omnibus/collection

Author is known or (posthumously) widely believed to be LGBTQIA
..... 5 points per book, but only one point per omnibus/collection

Book was purchased before 1/1/2019
..... 5 points per book, but only one point per omnibus/collection

Author is of color
..... 5 points per book, but only one point per omnibus/collection

Reading as part of a buddy or group read
..... 5 points per book, but only one point per omnibus/collection

Book was written from a viewpoint not belonging to a colonial power
..... no points as this was too much work to figure out what fit this category

edit to change after to before - thanks, Allison

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Clarifications: for books owned BEFORE 1/1/2019

Colonial powers: by authors who are not from the UK, USA, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, China or Japan.

There is some room for discretion if the author is an immigrant or native person, or has some other cultural background fighting against colonizers (eg. Butler's works would largely be written from a non-colonial POV)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Other than that, how exciting that you're so close!!

[CBRetriever]

Allison wrote: "Clarifications: for books owned BEFORE 1/1/2019

Colonial powers: by authors who are not from the UK, USA, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, China or Japan.

There is some room for..."

I meant before not after - I'll change it

the Colonial bit, I'll forget about those points

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

okie doke!

[CBRetriever]

Made my 1000 with The Quantum Thief which is a rather odd little book. If it's a series, I'll stop here as it seems to have a good stopping point

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Woohoo!! Congrats, that's very impressive!!

[CBRetriever]

Retirement helps

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Haha, well it's good on you for using it wisely ;-)

Anything stand out to you about "norms" or popular ideas or what shook the boat in the decades you read?

[CBRetriever]

I was surprised by how much more I liked H.G. Wells as compared to Jules Verne. Edgar Rice Burroughs still holds up as does Karel Capek.

I was interesting to see the rise of feminism / alternative sexual orientations come into being in the 70s and then slide downward for a decade or two and then rise upwards recently.

And people think of early SFF as being very male dominated character-wise, but there were a lot of female main characters even back in the early years of the 1900s: C.L. Moore (Jirel of Joiry), Burrounghs (some of the John Carter series had female main characters), and Andre Norton of course.

I mentioned quite a bit in post 204 about my impressions of some of what I've read for this challenge

[CBRetriever]

Final figures

163 SF&F books
438 total books read this year (non-SFF = predominantly mysteries with a few history/biography/non-fiction books in the mix)

1089 points

Decade Number of books from the Decade

1720 1
1730 1
1810 1
1850 1
1860 4
1870 1
1880 1
1890 4
1900 1
1910 3
1920 4
1930 2
1940 1
1950 3
1960 6
1970 15
1980 17
1990 15
2000 26
2010 55

20 Decades

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Wow! Super cool, Chessie! How awesome that we have that the genre goes back that far!

[CBRetriever]

there is a 1666 book, but as it was far too short to be eligible, I didn't list it. I'll use it for the short story/novella contest this year though

The Blazing World

[Anna]

I was just contemplating starting the short fic challenge with Blazing World :D But I decided to go with something shorter, since I'm starting the year with a TV binge.