SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion
Retired Challenges
>
The Mzansi Challenge
date
newest »


Kiff



Bakgat


Schweet!


The real Mzansi

8/10
My Planning Thread:
Bakgat
1. Spud: The Madness Continues
2. Spud: Learning to Fly
✔3. Deadlands
✔4. When the Sea is Rising Red
5. End Time
✔6. Unbreakables
✔7. The Kennaway Woman
✔8. The Shining Girls
5/5
Bakgat
1. Spud: The Madness Continues
2. Spud: Learning to Fly
✔3. Deadlands
✔4. When the Sea is Rising Red
5. End Time
✔6. Unbreakables
✔7. The Kennaway Woman
✔8. The Shining Girls
5/5

Kiff
1.Saturday night at the Palace: A play in one act
2. Flamingo Feather
3. Mafikeng Road And Other Stories
Bakgat
4. Unto Dust and Other Stories
5. Cold Stone Jug
6. How Graham Weir has accidentally managed to stay alive: stories and plays by Graham Weir
This sounds fun, but how do you know which books are Kiff?

Or rather, your reading is kiff. Or you've reached the kiff stage, etc.
Oh sorry, I had a moment there :)

3/10
Kiff:
Moxyland
In a Different Time: The Inside Story of the Delmas Four
Bakgat:
The Man in the Brown Suit
A Quilt of Dreams: A Novel
Schweet:
Ladysmith
A Beautiful Place to Die
The real Mzansi:
The Innocence of Roast Chicken
Riotous Assembly
Age of Iron
Just realised how many South African books are lurking in the to be read piles around here, so I'd like to join.
Kiff:
Completed Fighting for Justice
Completed Like Clockwork
Completed The Bang Bang Club
Bakgat:
Completed Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider
Completed The Unlikely Secret Agent
Schweet:
Completed Stones Against the Mirror: Friendship in the Time of the South African Struggle
Completed The Native Commissioner: A Novel
Real Mzanzi
Completed Final Deadline: The Last Days of the Rand Daily Mail
Completed Infanta
Completed Onsigbaar
Kiff:
Completed Fighting for Justice
Completed Like Clockwork
Completed The Bang Bang Club
Bakgat:
Completed Sometimes there is a Void – Memoirs of an Outsider
Completed The Unlikely Secret Agent
Schweet:
Completed Stones Against the Mirror: Friendship in the Time of the South African Struggle
Completed The Native Commissioner: A Novel
Real Mzanzi
Completed Final Deadline: The Last Days of the Rand Daily Mail
Completed Infanta
Completed Onsigbaar

Completed Mafeking Road: and Other Stories



I went through the other posts and updated the top post as well.
Come on Carolien, just one more book! You can do it!
Lauren wrote: "Cool!
I went through the other posts and updated the top post as well.
Come on Carolien, just one more book! You can do it!"
Busy with Onsigbaar. Will hopefully be finished next weekend!
I went through the other posts and updated the top post as well.
Come on Carolien, just one more book! You can do it!"
Busy with Onsigbaar. Will hopefully be finished next weekend!

I obviously enjoyed it, so I would vote yes. I would suggest that we maybe make it Africa in general so that there is a wider choice of books so either written by an African or predominantly set in Africa.
What about the same 10 book structure, but covering 10 different African countries?
Another alternative would be to stay with the South African theme, but go for 9 books, each set in a different province plus a bonus 10th book if we want to.
What about the same 10 book structure, but covering 10 different African countries?
Another alternative would be to stay with the South African theme, but go for 9 books, each set in a different province plus a bonus 10th book if we want to.

We've just had 2 others starting, so give this one for 1 Oct - there's nothing else exciting as far as I am aware off and let it run until at least 31 Dec 2014.

Given our conversation here, I thought you may find this interesting.
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/201...
There's definitely no shortage of material. It took me about 9 months last year to read the 10 books. I had a look now and there's probably about 15 that I can use for the challenge lurking about, but they're not necessarily easy reading. We'll probably only have a few people doing this again, so let's try and get a few more books read. What about 30 June as end date then it's just more than a book a month which most people can manage to fit in.
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/201...
There's definitely no shortage of material. It took me about 9 months last year to read the 10 books. I had a look now and there's probably about 15 that I can use for the challenge lurking about, but they're not necessarily easy reading. We'll probably only have a few people doing this again, so let's try and get a few more books read. What about 30 June as end date then it's just more than a book a month which most people can manage to fit in.

30 June is a good date - it's a nice easy schedule and I don't think we have anything else starting or ending then, except MishMash.
That's exactly it - I have a pile, but it includes 5 serious biographies and some fairly literary stuff - Zakes Mda etc. I can read about one of those a month.




Also Death of a Saint by Lily Herne, but you'll have to read Deadlands first.
I also recommend:




And my first book for the challenge will be

Books mentioned in this topic
Death of a Saint (other topics)Deadlands (other topics)
The Beggars' Signwriters (other topics)
Kabu Kabu (other topics)
Exhibit A (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Sam Roth (other topics)Jackson Spence (other topics)
Joan De La Haye (other topics)
Sarah Lotz (other topics)
Lily Herne (other topics)
More...
You have to read books that are either written by South Africans or set predominantly in South Africa (a few scenes in SA don't count). You can read both fiction and non-fiction.
The challenge:
Read 3 books - that's kiff
Read 5 books - that's bakgat
Read 7 books - Schweet!
Read 10 books - that's the real Mzansi!
Kiff
Katherine
Lu
Bakgat
Claudia
Schweet!
Lauren
The Real Mzansi
Carolien