JP's 2023 Challenge

[JP]

2022 was a delicious year for me...I'm going back to the buffet for seconds!

Completed Challenges:
Challenge #1 - Old & New TBR Challenge - 7/2/23
Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse - 4/4/23
Challenge #3.1 - Decade Challenge - 7/30/23
Challenge #3.2 - Century Challenge - 5/20/23
Challenge #3.3 - Millennium Challenge - 4/4/23
Challenge #4 - Members Choice Challenge - 3/6/23
Challenge #5 - Short Story Challenge - 4/9/23
Challenge #6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads Challenge - 6/27/23
Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors - 2/4/23
Challenge #8 –Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year - 6/6/23
Challenge #9 – Fiction/Non-Fiction - 6/17/23
Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult - 4/4/23
Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories - 5/12/23
Challenge #12 - A-Z Author Challenge - 7/30/23
Challenge #13 - A-Z Title Challenge - 7/31/23

[JP]

Challenge #1 - Old & New TBR Challenge

Completed: 12/12
Challenge Finished 7/2/23

1899 and earlier/Old School
✔️1. Zola: His Excellency Eugène Rougon (1876)
✔️2. Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️3. Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879)

1900-1999/New School
✔️4. Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️5. Benson: Queen Lucia (1920)
✔️6. Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)

My Wild Card Six
✔️7. Besson: Lie With Me (2017)
8. Everett: Telephone (2004)
9. Tidbeck: The Memory Theater (2021)
✔️10. Urquhart: The Butcher and the Wren (2022)
✔️11. Oyeyemi: Peaces (2021)
12. Ng: Our Missing Hearts (2022)

Alternates
✔️A-1. Melchor: Paradais (2021)
✔️A-2. Voetmann: Awake (2010)
✔️A-3 Huisman: The Book of Mother (2018)

[JP]

Challenge #2 - Second Place or Worse

Completed: 4/4
Challenge Finished 4/4/23

New School
✔️Waugh: Scoop (1938) - Aug 2022

Old School
✔️Aristophanes: Lysistrata, from Lysistrata and Other Plays (424BCE) - May 2023

Short Story/Novella
✔️Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927) - Oct 2022

Quarterly Long Read
✔️Irving: The World According to Garp (1978) - Q2 2022

[JP]

Challenge #3 - Decade/Century/Millennium Challenge

Decade Challenge
Completed: 10/10
Finished Challenge 7/30/23

✔️1920 - Benson: Queen Lucia
✔️1921 - Pirandello: Six Characters in Search of an Author
✔️1922 - Garnett: Lady into Fox
✔️1923 - Hemingway: Three Stories and Ten Poems
✔️1924 - Forster: A Passage to India
✔️1925 - Bulgakov: Heart of a Dog
✔️1926 - Firbank: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli
✔️1927 - Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space
✔️1928 - O'Donnell: "The Ghost Table," from Weird Tales February 1928
✔️1929 - Wodehouse: Summer Lightning

Century Challenge
Completed: 10/10
Finished Challenge 5/20/23

✔️1870 - 1879 Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879)
✔️1880 - 1889 Wilde: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)
✔️1890 - 1899 Wells: The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)
✔️1900 - 1909 Leblanc: Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (1907)
✔️1910 - 1919 Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)
✔️1920 - 1929 Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927)
✔️1930 - 1939 Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️1940 - 1949 Adler: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (1940)
✔️1950 - 1959 Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️1960 - 1969 Portis: True Grit (1968)

Millennium Challenge
Completed: 10/10
Finished Challenge: 4/4/23

✔️12th Century - Khanyám: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1120)
✔️13th Century - Dante: Vita Nuova (1292)
✔️14th Century - Anonymous, tr. Merwin: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1397)
✔️15th Century - Caxton (tr.): The History of Reynard the Fox (1481)
✔️16th Century - Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511)
✔️17th Century - Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611)
✔️18th Century - Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
✔️19th Century - Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️20th Century - Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)
✔️21st Century - Huisman: The Book of Mother (2018)

[JP]

Challenge #4 - Members Choice Challenge

Completed: 12/12
Finished Challenge 3/6/23

✔️1. 19th Century Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️2. 20th Century Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)
✔️3. A book originally written in a language other than your own Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511)
✔️4. Current or Past Group Read Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️5. An Author not read before Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️6. Diversity Classic Butler: Kindred (1979)
✔️7. Science Fiction/Fantasy Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927)
✔️8. Action/Adventure Portis: True Grit (1968)
✔️9. Childrens/Young Adult Wilde: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)
✔️10. Nonfiction Tyson: Vincent Van Gogh (Grt Achievr) (1996)
✔️11. Mystery/Thriller Buchan: The 39 Steps (1915)
✔️12. Horror or Humor Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879)

[JP]

Challenge #5 - Short Story Challenge
I'll try to do this with stories written before 2000, by 24 different authors. As with the monthly short story group reads, though, I'm going to include plays and essays under 130 pages.

Completed: 24/24
Finished Challenge 4/9/23

✔️1. Capote: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️2. Wilde: "The Selfish Giant" (1888)
✔️3. Kipling: "The Last Term" from Stalky & Co. (1897)
✔️4. Fitzpatrick: "The English Aunt" from The Weans at Rowallan (1905)
✔️5. Buchan: The 39 Steps (1915)
✔️6. Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927)
✔️7. Beerbohm: "The Mote in the Middle Distance" from A Christmas Garland (1912)
✔️8. Hemingway: "Up in Michigan" from Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923)
✔️9. Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
✔️10. Saki: "The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope" from The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)
✔️11. Dostoevsky: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
✔️12. Greene: "Awful When You Think of It" from May We Borrow Your Husband? & Other Comedies of the Sexual Life (1967)
✔️13. Lawrence: The Fox] (1923)
✔️14. Firbank: Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (1926)
✔️15. Proulx: Brokeback Mountain (1997)
✔️16. Garnett: Lady into Fox (1922)
✔️17. Rose: Twelve Angry Men (1954)
✔️18. Dante: Vita Nuova (1292)
✔️19. Freud: The Ego and the Id (1923)
✔️20. Van Camp: The Lesser Blessed (1996)
✔️21. Plato: The Symposium (381 BCE)
✔️22. Aristophanes: Lysistrata (424 BCE)
✔️23. Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611)
✔️24. Bulgakov: Heart of a Dog (1925)

[JP]

Challenge #6 - Group Reads and/or Buddy Reads Challenge

Completed: 12/12
Finished challenge on 6/27/23

✔️1. Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958) - Jan 2023
✔️2. Rose: Twelve Angry Men (1954) - Jan 2023
✔️3. Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879) - Jan 2023
✔️4. Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511) - Feb 2023
✔️5. Calvino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979) - Feb 2023
✔️6. Buchan: The 39 Steps (1915) - Feb 2023
✔️7. Taylor: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) - Feb 2023
✔️8. Dostoevsky: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877) - March 2023
✔️9. Butler: Parable of the Sower (1993) - Buddy, Mar 2023
✔️10. Proulx: Brokeback Mountain (1997) - Apr 2023
✔️11. Bulgakov: Heart of a Dog (1925) - Apr 2023
✔️12. King: Children of the Corn (1977) - June 2023

[JP]

Challenge #7 - Expand Your Horizon With New Authors

Completed: 6/6
Finished challenge on 2/4/23

✔️1. Rose: Twelve Angry Men (1954)
✔️2. Khayyam (tr. FitzGerald): Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1120)
✔️3. Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️4. Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879)
✔️5. Butler: Kindred (1979)
✔️6. Buchan: The 39 Steps (1915)

[JP]

Challenge #8 –Most Popular Goodreads Books Listed by Year

Completed: 5/5
Finished challenge on 6/6/23

10 Books of Interest for 1923
✔️1. Freud: The Ego and the Id
2. Salten: Bambi
✔️3. Lawrence: The Fox
✔️4. Wodehouse: The Inimitable Jeeves
5. Gide: Dostoevsky
6. Toomer: Cane
7. Colette: The Ripening Seed
✔️8. Hemingway: Three Stories and Ten Poems
9. Cocteau: Thomas the Impostor
✔️10. Doyle: The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
* Burroughs: Tarzan and the Golden Lion
* Odle: The Clockwork Man

Books Read
✔️1. Hemingway: Three Stories and Ten Poems
✔️2. Freud: The Ego and the Id
✔️3. Wodehouse: The Inimitable Jeeves
✔️4. Lawrence: The Fox
✔️5.Doyle: The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

[JP]

Challenge #9 – Fiction/Non-Fiction

Completed: 5/5 Pairs
Challenge Finished 6/17/22

Van Gogh
✔️Fiction - Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️Non-Fiction - Tyson: Vincent Van Gogh (Grt Achievr) (1996)

Renaissance Classics
✔️Fiction - Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611)
✔️Non-Fiction - Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511)

Psychology/Mental Illness
✔️Fiction - Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
✔️Non-Fiction - Freud: The Ego and the Id (1923)

Oscar Wilde
✔️Fiction - Wilde: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)
✔️Non-Fiction - Wilde: The Decay Of Lying (1889)

NYT Bestsellers June 11, 1978
✔️Fiction - Irving: The World According to Garp (1978)
✔️Non-Fiction - Bombeck: If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1971)

[JP]

Challenge #10 - The Half a Millennium Challenge with a Sour Lemon Twist of Difficult

Completed: 5/5
Challenge Finished 4/4/23

✔️16th Century - (1510 - 1519) -Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511)
✔️17th Century - (1610 - 1619) - Shakespeare: The Tempest (1611)
✔️18th Century - (1710 - 1719) - Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
✔️19th Century - (1810 - 1819) - Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️20th Century - (1910 - 1919) - Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)

[JP]

Challenge #11 - Old and New Linked Categories

Completed: 5/5 Pairs
Challenge finished 5/12/23

Foxes
✔️Old - Caxton (tr.): The History of Reynard the Fox (1481)
✔️New - Lawrence: The Fox (1923)

British Humorists
✔️Old - Jerome: Three Men in a Boat (1889)
✔️New - Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)

Short Story Collections by Gay Authors
✔️Old - Wilde: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)
✔️New - Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

Mental Illness
✔️Old - Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
✔️New - Tyson: Vincent Van Gogh (Grt Achievr) (1996)

Dramatic Comedy
✔️Old - Aristophanes: Lysistrata (424BCE)
✔️New - Coward: Hay Fever (1925)

As alternates, or as ideas for next year...

Robinson Crusoe
✔️Old - Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719)
New - Coetzee: Foe (1986)

Sleepwalkers
Old - Spyri: Heidi (1880)
New - Wentworth: The Ivory Dagger (1951)

[JP]

Challenge #12 - A-Z Author Challenge

Completed: 24/24
Challenge Finished 7/30/23

✔️A - Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️B - Butler: Kindred (1979)
✔️C - Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️D - Dante: Vita Nuova (1292)
✔️E - Erasmus: Praise of Folly (1511)
✔️F - Freud: The Ego and the Id (1923)
✔️G - Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
✔️H - Hemingway: Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923)
✔️I - Irving: The World According to Garp (1978)
✔️J - Jerome: Three Men in a Boat (1889)
✔️K - Khayyam (tr. FitzGerald): Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1120)
✔️L - Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927)
✔️M - McCloskey: Make Way for Ducklings (1941)
✔️N - Nesbø: The Bat (1997)
✔️O - Oyeyemi: Peaces (2021) <- TBR Challenge
✔️P - Pratchett: The Last Continent (1998)
✔️Q - Quin: Berg (1964)
✔️R - Rose: Twelve Angry Men (1954)
✔️S - Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️T - Tyson: Vincent Van Gogh (Grt Achievr) (1996)
✔️U - Ungerer: Otto : autobiographie d'un ours en peluche (1999)
✔️V - Voetmann: Awake (2010) <- TBR Challenge
✔️W - Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)
Below Only One Letter Needed for Successful Challenge
X -
Y -
✔️Z - Zola: His Excellency Eugène Rougon (1876)The Bat

[JP]

Challenge #13 - A-Z Title Challenge

Completed: 24/24
Challenge Finished 7/31/23

✔️A - Voetmann: Awake (2010) <- TBR Challenge
✔️B - Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories (1958)
✔️C - Lovecraft: The Color Out of Space (1927)
✔️D - Dostoevsky: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
✔️E - Freud: The Ego and the Id (1923)
✔️F - Lawrence: The Fox (1923)
✔️G - Condé: The Gospel According to the New World (2023)
✔️H - Collins: The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice (1879)
✔️I - Calvino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979)
✔️J - Dahl: James and the Giant Peach (1961)
✔️K - Butler: Kindred (1979)
✔️L - Stone: Lust for Life (1934)
✔️M - Taylor: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971)
✔️N - Pratchett: Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (1999)
✔️O - Ungerer: Otto : autobiographie d'un ours en peluche (1999)
✔️P - Wodehouse: The Prince and Betty (1912)
✔️Q - Wodehouse: Quick Service
✔️R - Khayyam (tr. FitzGerald): Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1120)
✔️S - Austen: Sense and Sensibility (1811)
✔️T - Rose: Twelve Angry Men (1954)
✔️U - Pratchett: The Unadulterated Cat (1989)
✔️V - Dante: Vita Nuova (1292)
✔️W - Irving: The World According to Garp (1978)
Below Only One Letter Needed for Successful Challenge
X -
✔️Y - Emer: Yesterday (1935)
Z -

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I love a man with a healthy appetite, JP. Enjoy!

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Perfection does exist. Excellent planning and terrific book selections, well done. Good luck and enjoy!

[JP]

Haha, thanks. The millennium and half-a-millenium challenges are the hardest for me, as I rarely read anything written before 1800. I guess those are really my expand-your-horizons challenges

[JP]

Woot! I just finished my last book for this year's challenge buffet. So much fun!

...and tomorrow, the Booker longlist is announced, so I'll have plenty of new books to add to my shelf.

[Wobbley]

Bravo! And only about halfway through the year. And ... my goodness ... did you do every single buffet challenge? Amazing! What were the highlights for you?

[JP]

I've come late to Austen and Dickens, so reading a couple of each of their books was great.

I also really enjoy the decade and century challenges. They're great for getting me to read beyond one or two favorite authors. I think that next year I may challenge myself to do both completely within the 19th century, though I have a couple of other "themes" in mind, too.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

WOW, JP, very impressive!

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

An amazing job!! Well done.

[JP]

Thanks!

[Kathleen]

Wow, this is a lot. Congrats! I'm inspired. :-)

[Lynn, New School Classics]

Wow JP you finished them all - even the A-Z!! Very nice. I love how you numbered 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.

[JP]

Thanks, Lynn!