Friday, February 8, 2008

The 888 Challenge

I had the plan to read a book a week outside of school reading this year. so far it's going...okay. I've read three, so not stellar I guess. But I saw on Library Thing the 888 Challenge which sounds cool. Basically you read 8 books in 8 categories in 2008. That's a lot of books but I want to at least try. So here are my prospective reads for the year and I'll add more as I think of them. And I'll put the date next to something when I finish it.

History
1. A Brief History of Canada Roger Riendeau
2. India: A History John Keay
3. Spain: A History
4. The Aztecs (Peoples of America) M. E. Smith
5. Druids
6.
7.
8.

Middle/Near East
1. A New Introduction to Islam Daniel Brown 2/29
2. No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam Geneive Abdo 2/22
3. Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafis
4. What Went Wrong: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East Bernard Lewis 3/5
5.
6.
7.
8.

Current Events
1. The End of Faith Sam Harris 1/11
2. The Republican War on Science Christopher Mooney 2/17
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Fiction
1. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf Mona Khaf
2. Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey
3. Giraffe Ledgard, J. M.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Nabakov --because I have a bunch of Nabakov that I want to read and that I have not read!
1. The Gift
2. The Eye
3. Look at the Harlequins
4. Pale Fire
5.
6.
7.
8. Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabakov) Stacy Schiff

Foreign fiction: in translation or in the language (so far it's all Egyptian...)
1. The Yacoubian Building Al Aswany 2/6
2. Palace Walk Naguib Mahfouz
3. Palace of Desire Naguib Mahfouz
4. Sugar Street Naguib Mahfouz
5.
6.
7.
8.

Linguistics
1. The Language Instinct Steven Pinker
2. Kant and the Platypus Umbert Eco
3. Language and the Internet David Crystal
4. The Linguistics Wars Randy Allen Harris
5. The Rise and Fall of Languages R. M. W. Dixon
6. Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language Ilan Stavans
7. In Search of the Indo-Europeans Mallory, J. P.
8. Language in Thought and Action Hayakawa and Hayakawa

Lite Reading (fiction and non-fiction)/misc
1. Lamb Christopher Moore 1/20
2. The Professor and the Madman Simon Winchester
3. Neuromancer William Gibson 3/16
4. Mirror Mirror Gregory Maguire 3/22
5. Count Zero William Gibson 3/26
6. Shadowplay Tad Williams 5/7
7.
8.

2 comments:

  1. 64 books in a year? That's a tall order. I would have tried something like 5-5-5, which has that nice commercial ring to it, and is two weeks per book. Of course, it doesn't match up with 2008, but I'd hardly let that stop me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Also how serendipitous I checked your blog today!

    ReplyDelete