Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

These are my personal reading challenges. Some are ongoing from year to year. Others reset at the beginning of the calendar year.

Classic Bingo Challenge 2016
Books finished between Jan 1- Dec 31, 2016
19/24 Completed

Books must:
a) have a main page genre of "Classics", or
b) be a "classic-in-waiting" (eg major literary prize winners), or
c) be a Group Read in this GR Group, or
d) first published before 1940

Previous progress: Completed the 2015 Bingo Classic Challenge here.

Current progress: I'm tracking my progress in the 2016 Classic Bingo Challenge thread here.

Dickens Novels
Read 20 novels/novellas by Charles Dickens
8/20 Completed

Previous progress:
4 books finished to 31/12/15
1 book finished in 2016
0 books finished in 2017

Progress this year: 3
9/5/18 The Pickwick Papers
15/8/18 Oliver Twist
24/11/18 Nicholas Nickleby

(Linked books = finished)

1. The Pickwick Papers
2. Oliver Twist
3. Nicholas Nickleby
4. The Old Curiosity Shop
5. Barnaby Rudge
6. A Christmas Carol
7. Martin Chuzzlewit
8. The Chimes
9. The Cricket on the Hearth
10. The Battle of Life
11. Dombey and Son
12. The Haunted Man and the Ghosts' Bargain
13. David Copperfield
14. Bleak House
15. Hard Times
16. Little Dorrit
17. A Tale of Two Cities
18. Great Expectations
19. Our Mutual Friend
20. The Mystery of Edwin Drood

And the odd short story:
Hunted Down: the detective stories of Charles Dickens read 16/11/16
George Silverman's Explanation finished 27/11/16
The Battle of Life A Love Story finished 12/12/16 not sure whether this is a short story, or a novella
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain finished 3/11/17

Baileys/Orange Prize Shortlist
Read books shortlisted for the Baileys/Orange Prize for fiction by women writers
42/132 Completed

Previous progress:
15 books finished to 31/12/15
7 books finished in 2016
10 books finished in 2017

Progress this year:
10 books finished in 2018
The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville (1998 shortlist)
Property by Valerie Martin (2003 winner)
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar (2018 shortlist)
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (2018 winner)
Sight by Jessie Greengrass (2018 shortlist)
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014 shortlist)
When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy (2018 shortlist)
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (2012 shortlist)
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2018 shortlist)
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (2014 winner)

Current progress: I'm tracking my progress in the Bailey's/Orange Women's Fiction group here.

Nobel Prize Winners
Read something written by each of the Nobel Literary Prize Winners
19/114 Completed

Previous progress:
11 authors read to 31/12/15
3 authors read in 2016
2 authors read/added in 2017 (2017 winner Ishiguro, already read prior to announcement)


Progress this year: -

1909 Selma Lagerlof Jerusalem
2014 Patrick Modiano In the Café of Lost Youth
2015 Svetlana Alexievich Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future

Read authors:

1907 Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories
1925 George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion
1946 Hermann Hesse Siddhartha
1954 Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms
1957 Albert Camus The Outsider
1962 John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer The Family Moskat
1982 Gabriel Garcia Marquez Chronicle of a Death Foretold
1983 William Golding Free Fall
1993 Toni Morrison Beloved
1998 Jose Saramago Death at Intervals
2001 V S Naipaul In a Free State
2007 Doris Lessing The Fifth Child
2009 Herta Muller The Fox Was Ever the Hunter
2013 Alice Munro Too Much Happiness
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

A-Z Classic Author Challenge 2016
Books finished between Jan 1- Dec 31, 2016
13/26 Completed

Classics only. My definition of classic is given under the Classics Bingo Challenge above.

Previous progress: 16 letters read in 2015 (here)

Progress this year:

A. Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin
B. Anne Bronte Agnes Grey
C. Albert Camus The Outsider
D. Charles Dickens Hard Times
E. Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex
F.
G. Elizabeth Gaskell Cranford
H. Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms
I.
J.
K. Rudyard Kipling Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads
L.
M. Alan Melville Death of Anton
N.
O.
P.
Q.
R. Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things
S. Johanna Spyri Heidi
T.
U.
V. Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five
W. H G Wells The Island of Doctor Moreau
X.
Y.
Z.

A-Z Classic Title Challenge 2016
Books finished between Jan 1- Dec 31, 2016
15/26 Completed

Classics only. My definition of classic is given under the Classics Bingo Challenge above.

Previous progress: 14 letters read in 2015 (here)

Progress this year:

A. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
B. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
C. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
D. Death of Anton by Alan Melville
E.
F. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
G. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
H. The Hog's Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts
I. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H G Wells
J.
K.
L. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
M. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
N. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (NB the edition I read had Hugo's original title of "Notre-Dame de Paris")
O. The Outsider by Albert Camus
P.
Q.
R.
S. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
T. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
U.
V.
W. Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
X.
Y.
Z.

A-Z Any Author Challenge 2016
Books finished between Jan 1- Dec 31, 2016
18/26 Completed

Any author counts, not just Classics.

Previous progress: 19 letters read in 2015 (missed Q, U, X, Y and Z)

Progress this year:

A. Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin
B. Sara Baume Spill Simmer Falter Wither
C. Albert Camus The Outsider
D. Kamel Daoud The Meursault Investigation
E. Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex
F.
G. Laurent Gaude Death Of An Ancient King
H. Siri Hustvedt The Blazing World
I.
J. F Sionil Jose Dusk
K. Maylis de Kerangal Mend the Living
L. Attica Locke Pleasantville
M. David Mitchell Slade House
N.
O. Helen Oyeyemi What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
P. Max Porter Grief Is the Thing with Feathers
Q.
R. Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things
S. Johanna Spyri Heidi
T. Kate Tempest The Bricks That Built the Houses
U.
V. Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five
W. H G Wells The Island of Doctor Moreau
X.
Y.
Z.

A-Z Any Title Challenge 2016
Books finished between Jan 1- Dec 31, 2016
21/26 Completed

All books count, not just Classics.

Previous progress: 18 letters read in 2015 (missed J, K, V, X, Y and Z)

Progress this year:

A. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
B. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
C. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
D. Death Of An Ancient King by Laurent Gaude
E. Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh
F. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
G. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
H. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H G Wells
J. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
K.
L. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
M. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
N. NW by Zadie Smith
O. The Outsider by Albert Camus
P. Pleasantvilleby Attica Locke
Q.
R. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain
S. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
T. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
U.
V. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
W. The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
X.
Y. Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers
Z.

There are a couple more challenges in other GR groups that I am doing. Not sure yet how seriously I will take them, so I'm saving a couple more spaces and will add them in if they turn into more than wishful thinking.

That is a nice group of challenges. Good luck and happy reading.

Thanks, Kathy. Hopefully having them written down in one place will help keep me focussed.

LOST 2017
Read the 10 books that have been on my TBR the longest
2/10 Completed

1. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
2. Bring Up the Bodies finished 14/4/17
3. Flight Behavior
4. Seeing
5. Burnt Shadows finished 13/2/17
6. Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
7. Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family
8. Life After Life
9. The Headmaster's Wife finished 14/11/17
10. Acts and Omissions removed from TBR, replaced with
11. Mary Reilly finished 15/11/17

Good luck with your 2017 challenges :)

Pink wrote: "Good luck with your 2017 challenges :)"

Thanks, Pink. Most of them are left over from previous years!

I know that feeling! I hope you get a few more crossed off your lists this year :)

Lagullande wrote: "LOST 2017
Read the 10 books that have been on my TBR the longest
1/10 Completed

1. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
2. [book..."

What an excellent idea for a challenge category - think I'll be copying this!
however, on the first day I started adding books onto Goodreads I added 330(!)
having said that, I have just done a quick count and there are 11 that are "most overlooked" (i.e. that I have least excuse for not having firm plans to read) - so that is one of my 2018 challenge categories sorted already - Thanks!! :o)

Darren wrote: "-...so that is one of my 2018 challenge categories sorted already - Thanks!!..."

Hah! I can't claim the credit for this idea - it's one of the challenges in the Pick-a-Shelf group.

And, Darren, it's really not to late to start in 2017. Why wait til 2018??

er... you haven't seen the state of my current 2017 challenges have you!?! ;o)
I am "booked solid" for 2017!

Darren wrote: "er... you haven't seen the state of my current 2017 challenges have you!?! ;o)
I am "booked solid" for 2017!"

I've just been to have a look. Surely you wouldn't notice a few more sneaked in there?! Crazy 88 could become the Completely Barmy Just Less Than 100!

I have decided on my 2018 Goals. I'll be tracking them here.

1. BAILEY'S/ORANGE: Read the 2018 shortlist, plus 5 other winners of the Women's Prize for Fiction Prize. (Bailey's Shortlist Challenge)

2. BOOKER: Complete reading the books shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 3 years.

3. NOBEL: Read something written by 3 Nobel Literature Laureates new to me.

4. DICKENS: Finish Little Dorrit, and read at least one 2018 Group Read in The Old Curiosity Club

5. TBR: Reduce my TBR shelf to 25 books. Currently at 55. (These are books I have on hand in the house. Not the same as my "Wishlist" shelves which are books I don't have copies of yet.)

6. GUARDIAN: Read 1 of The Guardian's "Books of the Week" per month (because I want to read more newly published works).

7. GROUP READS: Ensure that I have read 25% of the 2018 Group Reads in all my GR groups.

8. LOST 2017: Complete reading the 10 books that had been on my GR shelves the longest at 1/1/2017 (LOST 2017)

9. LOST 2018: Read the 10 books that have been on my GR shelves the longest at 1/1/2018 (after those on LOST 2017).

This looks like about 125 books. I usually manage 100 a year, so I will have to be clever about doubling up with some.

Big challenge! Good luck!

Awesome challenge!

Goid luck ,Lagullande!

Oh I like the sound of all of your challenge ideas! Good luck :)

These challenges are great. I especially like the Baileys/Orange list. You read all of this year's which is wonderful. Good luck with your challenges!

Wow! Very ambitious!
I like your "Lost 2017." I'm trying to decide if I'm going to finish my 2017 list (books I didn't get to) or just start fresh in 2018. But I hate to leave things unfinished -- and I have some pretty good books that I never got to! So I'm guessing that I'll try to work them into my 2018 plan. Maybe they'll fit into a challenge! ;)