999 Challenge

As stated previously, I'm going to be keeping track of my 999 challenge here. This is actually going to be my second year of doing the challenge, which was the 888 challenge last year. (The whole thread can be found here.)

I'm using fairly different categories this year. One priority I had when designing the categories was devoting more time to reading books in Spanish. I only had one explicit category for books in Spanish last year, so I ended up reading less than I could have. So, this year I have two categories that are going to be full of books in Spanish, though the categories have been defined loosely enough to allow for substitution if I run into something else I really want to read. I've also added some easier categories to balance out some of the heavier things I'll be reading.

Without further introduction, here are the categories:

I. Gauchos y Porteños
Books by Argentine authors and about Argentina, with a minor emphasis on gauchesco literature.

II. Orientales y Otros Americanos
Orientales is an antiquated term for Uruguayos. This will be a more general category for Latin American authors and books.

III. Eastern European Authors
Nabokov, Kafka, Schulz, Babel, and other Eastern European authors. The seed for this was a passage I read somewhere regarding Kafka, Schulz, and Babel as three important Jewish writers. Since I had books I wanted to read of all three, I figured I'd branch out. Since there are several other Eastern European authors I've been wanting to read, I went that direction. (As opposed to seeking out more Jewish authors.)

IV. Obscure Works
Any work in my LibraryThing library that is shared with 10 or less people. I'll leave this category open, so what will matter is how many people list it at the time I start it.

V. Straight (NBSO) Horror: All the King's Men
VI. Queer (NBSO) Horror: Goths and Weirdos

NBSO = Not By Sexual Orientation. By straight horror, I'm thinking of mainstream contemporary horror, the best example of which is Stephen King, though I'll be trying to read a pretty broad range of authors within this area. The other category is for fiction that has a more marginal claim on horror, such as modern gothics (i.e. Shirley Jackson) and weird fiction (i.e. Liggoti, Aickman).

VII. Audiobooks

Because the library has a good selection and they're great for a daily commute or listening to while working out and they take some pressure off having to read 81 entire books.

VIII. Thugs, Templars, Illuminati
More of a broad secret societies category, with an emphasis on Thuggee. I'll even be attempting to read the Ramaseeana, which is challenging not so much for length as for being a googlebook, which I'll have to read off a computer screen.

IX. Lighter Fare

I was originally going to call this one Humor, but I figured I'd throw in YA, graphic novels, comic strip books, etc.--anything to balance my reading material out a bit. :)

Getting back on track in 2009

I've been pretty bad about updating the blog lately. This isn't so much for not writing anything as not writing anything that I'm posting here. So, in order to try to get back into the swing, I'm going to be keeping track of my progress on the 999 challenge on here. The 999 challenge is to read 9 books in each of nine categories. Each person picks the categories and books, so it's pretty much just a way of nudging oneself to read more and/or read a bit more selectively. The Librarything 999 Challenge Group is here. I'll post again shortly with my category choices.