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2022 Annual Reading Challenge
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***Michelle's 2022 List of Lists Challenge
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe over the weekend. I'm glad I finally read this mo..."Yyeess. It was required reading. I try not to mention it to her. She said she might have appreciated it better if it was not required.
I felt the same way about the little reading program that schools used when my kids were in elementary school. They had to read books from a list and take a quiz on them. They got so many points and the school usually rewarded points in some way. Teachers almost always made the points part of the grading system which made participation mandatory. This was OK if your child was already someone who loved reading but if they weren't it was more likely to make them hate it than love it. Sad. I hope they don't still do that in classrooms.
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My kids had that; but it was part of the library program during their middle school years and my kids participated for extra points. I believe the mandatory one they had here was in elementary school.
I have started The Last Picture Show. Too early to say whether I like it or not, but it is iconic Americana so I'm glad I'm finally reading it.
Completed
The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry. Best friends Sonny and Duane play out their final days of youth in a small Texas town. Whatever their adventures or misadventures they stick together and are protected by their youth and inexperience. As adulthood looms ever closer the harsh realities of life begin to cast their lives and their futures in a different light. Like all Larry McMurtry books this one is exquisitely written and terribly depressing. His characters are expertly drawn and always tragic. I would have to say personally that the level of writing was the only thing that kept me reading. Without that this was actually just a book about a bunch of horny teenagers. I can't say I enjoyed it but like the other McMurtry books that I have read I will remember it. I do think this book's status as classic Americana is deserved. I just think it would have been more interesting if less of it had happened in the back seat of the car.
3 Small town movie theater stars.
Favorite quotes:
“Is growin' up always miserable?" Sonny asked. "Nobody seems to enjoy it much."
"Oh, it ain't necessarily misearble," Sam replied. "About eighty percent of the time, I guess."
They were silent again, Sam the Lion thinking of the lovely, spritely girl he had once led into the water, right there, where they were sitting.
"We ought to go to a real fishin' tank next year," Sam said finally. "It don't do to think about things like that too much. If she were here now I'd probably be crazy again in about five minutes. Ain't that ridiculous?"
A half-hour later, when they had gathered up the gear and were on the way to town, he answered his own question. "It ain't really, " he said. "Being crazy about a woman like her's always the right thing to do. Being a decrepit old bag of bones is what's ridiculous.”
― Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show
“People he had known all his life were all around him, but they simply didn’t see him.”
― Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show
Michelle wrote: "3 Small town movie theater stars"Best rating ever!
Lillie wrote: "Michelle wrote: "3 Small town movie theater stars"Best rating ever!"
Thanks Lillie ;)
I'm currently listening to Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything and enjoying it a lot. I don't usually listen to podcasts but I'm thinking I might want to give this one a try. Anyone else listen to it or have an opinion?
Finished Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt. A look at some questions you probably never thought to ask from an economist's point of view. Economist Steven Levitt takes a look at a wide range of topics from sumo wrestlers, drug dealers and real estate agents to baby names. In each case he asks an interesting question and looks at the data available with an economist's eye for an explanation for the observed behavior. Highly entertaining. If you are looking for an interesting nonfiction read that will encourage you to think outside the box, you should definitely pick this one up. I enjoyed it a lot, but I did question the validity of some of his conclusions. I don't think we want economists to decide our weighty moral issues but after listening to this maybe there is a place for looking at big issues from a cause-and-effect standpoint. It was interesting enough that I will probably check out the podcast at some point.
4 correlated data point stars
Favorite quotes:
“Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
“The conventional wisdom is often wrong.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
“Levitt admits to having the reading interests of a tweener girl, the Twilight series and Harry Potter in particular.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
I just finished listening to Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. This classic coming of age story centers around a young boy growing up in New York. On the edge of manhood he struggles with his desire to do the right thing his environment and the secrets of his parents' past. He wants to be a good man but struggles to define what that means. The story is heartbreaking and at times cruel, but the writing is superb. The characters and settings are drawn with such precision that the reader almost feels they are present. The prose reads more like poetry. This book has impact. It is not one that I will soon forget.
4.5 singing in church stars.
Favorite quotes:
“EVERYONE HAD ALWAYS said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father. It had been said so often that John, without ever thinking about it, had come to believe it himself. Not until the morning of his fourteenth birthday did he really begin to think about it, and by then it was already too late”
― James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
“It’s a long way,” John said slowly, “ain’t it? It’s a hard way. It’s uphill all the way.”
― James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
“The Lord had given her what she said she wanted, as was often, she had found, His bewildering method of answering prayer.”
― James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
Currently reading A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Really enjoying this one so far. We still have a little time but I think this will probably be the last one from the list that I finish (assuming I finish it 1500+ pages). That will put me at 15 books. Not what I hoped for but not bad. Also, this list had been a list of winners. I don't think there is anything I have just hated.
Michelle wrote: "4.5 singing in church stars"Again, I love your rating system. And, I agree Baldwin’s book is fantastic. I think I ended up giving it 4.5 stars too. Loved it so much that when son asked me what his free read for AP Lit should be, I aggressively pointed to it from the list. And then I went a bought a copy of it for him.
Your current book is 1500 pages?! That should count as at least 2 books, if not 3.
Lillie wrote: "Michelle wrote: "4.5 singing in church stars"Again, I love your rating system. And, I agree Baldwin’s book is fantastic. I think I ended up giving it 4.5 stars too. Loved it so much that when son..."
Yes. I wish I had read it when I was younger. Baldwin captures those mixed up emotions and the time of life when you feel everything deeply so well.
Kindle says it is 1500+ pages. I was hoping that was kindle sized pages but I don't think so.
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It doesn't get much better than that. I am glad you enjoyed your list.
I have a confession to make here. I have actually been planning for the 2023 challenge already. I usually don't like to think about it until New Year's. I should be good to go when it opens up but the problem is I have so many good ideas and so many books it may take until New Year's to pick one.
Michelle wrote: "I have a confession to make here. I have actually been planning for the 2023 challenge already. I usually don't like to think about it until New Year's. I should be good to go when it opens up but ..."Yes! Same problem here. Still have 11 books to finish and all I want to do is read a couple of books I have listed for 2023. It’s madness, lol
So one of my goals today is to wrap up 2022 on Goodreads. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do that on this thread. I decided to spend the last week of 2022 with a mild case of COVID, so everything is a little behind and moving slowly. As you can see above I started A Suitable Boy some time ago but it was gargantuan. I still had hoped to finish in 2022 but life and everything got in the way. I am about halfway through the 1500+ pages and I will report on it here when I finally finish it up. Other than that, this has been a great challenge and I have really enjoyed it. I finished 14 of the 16 books on the challenge. All of the ones I read were either 4- or 5-star books. The one exception was The Last Picture Show which I gave 3 stars. Three was generous but I've given my opinions about that one above. I was so pleased by my challenge in 2022 that I came up with two 12 +4 challenges for 2023. I hope that they go as well as this one did.
Sorry to hear you had Covid, hopefully you recover quickly. Congrats on getting halfway through A Suitable Boy. I'm going to read it someday too. Just not today. :-)
Thanks Lea! I think I'm on the mend and I'm soldiering on with A Suitable Boy.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Last Picture Show (other topics)A Suitable Boy (other topics)
A Suitable Boy (other topics)
Go Tell It on the Mountain (other topics)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Vikram Seth (other topics)James Baldwin (other topics)
Steven D. Levitt (other topics)
Larry McMurtry (other topics)
Chinua Achebe (other topics)
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I can see how your daughter might feel that way. You could not really like the characters of the story but you could recognize the eternal patterns of life represented in the story and enjoy the practical wisdom of the author. If this book was required reading for your daughter, (rather than a curious need to read books that others have raved about and to understand what they saw in them as it was for me) then I can definitely appreciate her feelings. This was not a feel-good book and required reading has turned more than one fine piece of classic literature into a hated forever book. For me that book would be The Red Badge of Courage. During my school years I had to read it three times. A tiny book but I hated it and could hardly make it to the end. I read it a fourth time voluntarily to see if I just misjudged it. Nope. Still hated it. Hate thinking about it now. Sorry your daughter feels that way but I get it.