Looking Ahead: 2013 Challenges

It's that time of year when book bloggers start to think about next year's challenges. As if we all didn't have a million other things to think about during the holidays!

As much as I love book challenges and am tempted to join all of them that catch my fancy, I admit I took on too many in 2012. I am going to scale back in 2013, both for hosting and participating. I also have an idea for a personal challenge that I am keen on trying.

HOSTING

I am definitely going to host the European Reading Challenge again in 2013. The 2012 challenge runs through January 31, 2013. The 2013 challenge will start January 1, 2013. Check back here for the 2013 challenge page, coming soon, to sign up.

I'm going to take a break on the Battle of the Prizes Challenges, both the American and British versions. I've hosted both for a couple of years now, and I think they need a rest. They may revive in future years, but we'll go fallow for 2013.

PARTICIPATING

There are a handful of challenges that dovetail so nicely with my own reading habits, and that I get such a kick out of, that I can't pass them up. So, assuming the hosts are game for another year, I am going to sign up for the 2013 versions of the Chunkster Challenge, the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges, the Foodie Reading Challenge, and the Vintage Mystery Challenge.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE

According to my LibraryThing tags, there are 1,421 books on my TBR shelves. Even though I read good number of books every year, I never seem to make visual progress through my TBR books.

So I have latched onto the idea that I want to read all the books on at least one shelf. I want to see a gap grow on the shelf as I finish book after book. I have a wall of TBR books and I am going to pick one shelf from it at random on December 1 and then plan on reading all the books from that shelf in 2013.

The one limitation is that I am only going to read one book by each author on that shelf. So if I hit a series or patch of books by the same author, I am going to skip all but one of them.

There is no theme to this challenge other than an idiosyncratic, spacial one. But it will tie in with the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges.

Book Beginnings: Personal History

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

My parents' paths first crossed in a museum on 23rd Street in New York.

-- Personal History by Katharine Graham.

That is a disappointingly prosaic opening line for a Pulitzer-winning autobiography of the fascinating woman who ran the Washington Post through so many turbulent years.  But her story picks up soon enough.

Gobble! Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Review: May We Borrow Your Husband?

Short stories are hard. They are, legend has it, hard to write. They are certainly hard for me to read. I generally skip a short story collection for a novel every time because I usually find short stories either pointlessly atmospheric or gimmicky.

But Graham Greene's little collection of 12 stories, May We Borrow Your Husband?, won me over. The title story about two gay men who woo away a honeymooning husband is a pitch-perfect Mid-Century period piece on closeted homosexuality. The others range from wryly comic to tragic, but all share a nerve-twinging honesty.

"Cheap in August" about a wife seeking a fling and "Two Gentle People" about star-crossed lovers are probably the best of the bunch from a literary standpoint. But my favorites were "A Shocking Accident" about a father killed by a pig, which I found delightful all around, and "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen" about a self-absorbed young writer, which made me cringe and laugh at the same time.

May We Borrow Your Husband? made me reconsider the short story genre. And it raised Graham Greene even higher on my list of favorite authors.

OTHER REVIEWS

The New York Times (April 30, 1967)
My review of The Comedians

If you would like your review of this or any other Graham Greene book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I read this book for the Graham Greene Challenge and for the Books Written in the First Years of My Life Challenge.

Teaser Tuesday: Polite Society

  

Before turning in, she pads softly down the hall to her mother's door.  She peeks in and gazes at the sleeping figure that is such a stranger.

-- Polite Society, a charming debut novel by Colleen Sohn, illustrated by Maren Jensen. 

I think this is a great scene because the idea of a mother who is a stranger raises so many possibilities. 

There are still a few of the lovely, limited edition hardbacks left (see here for details). And, Polite Society is now available in a Kindle edition, with all the illustrations.



Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.