Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Introducing the "Back to School" Challenge!

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The geeky side of me always gets jealous this time of year as I browse the tables of Barnes & Noble. Why am I jealous? High school reading lists. Unlike 95% of high school students, I waited for our school year reading assignments with anticipation and excitement. And also unlike 95% of my fellow students, I actually read the books. Get graded for something I did in my free-time anyway? Perfect!

I loved my high school, but English was not its strong suit. I guess that's the price you pay when you attend a Math and Science-focused school. As I browse through bookstores today and converse with people my age, I discover how many classics I was never required to read, and I want to amend that.

Thus is born the "Back to School" Challenge! The rules are simple:
  1. Choose! Any four reading-list books [ones you never got around to reading or ones you want to re-read].
  2. Sign up! Sign the Mr. Linky, grab a button, and write a post detailing the books you have chosen for this challenge. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment here!
  3. Read! Between September 1, 2009, and December 31, 2009 [only one book a month!].
  4. Post! Your comments/reviews on your blog or in the comment section of this post.
  5. Check back! Read other blogs and discover what others have to say.
Need some ideas?

15 comments:

Salvatore said...

Good deal. I think I'll choose:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' (an excuse to re-start and finish it)
Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' (sad that I've never read this)
Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Interpreter of Maladies'
EL Doctorow's 'Ragtime'

Tam @ Bailey's and Books said...

OMG, this is fantastic. I had planned on doing a Back to School challenge with the same idea of books I meant to read, or wanted to re-read, but decided to hold off hosting for now - so this is PERFECT for me!

And your buttons are beautiful!

I'll think about my list and sign-up when I get my first post together, which will probably be Thursday.

J.T. Oldfield said...

O.K., I'm in, but I'm totally cheating.

Kathleen said...

What a great challenge. I had already planned an informal book club with my 15 year old son. I agreed to read the books with him for his Honors English course. This challenge comes at a perfect time!

Kari said...

Kathleen - I'm sure you son wouldn't believe that people would actually WANT to read those books when they don't have to!

Kristen said...

I loved reading the classics in school. This is the perfect push to get me back to that.

Christy B said...

This is great challenge to get me to read some books that I've been wanting to read for a while! :)

Anonymous said...

Great challenge,

Here's my list
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray

I look forward to seeing what everyone else reads!

Wendy said...

Fun challenge! Wanted to let you know I posted about it on A Novel Challenge.

Also, glad to have discovered your blog today...and I subscribed!

Anonymous said...

I'm in! Sounds like a great challenge!

Here's my list:
1984 - George Orwell
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Watership Down - Richard Adams

Anonymous said...

love this!!! i wallow in the pleasure that is summer reading every year because i teach high school english.

there's something a bit groundhog-dayish about my life...every fall i get to go 'school supply shopping' and each june i go to graduation...but never get to actually LEAVE school. i keep reliving it over and over.

sounds like a nightmare for some people, right? :)

Anonymous said...

I'm posting this and my choices on my Challenges page on my blog, a home between the pages. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to read yet, but I figured this is a great challenge for me since I'm actually going back to school this month (Children's Literature, what, what!!)

Karen K. said...

Great idea -- I LOVE browsing through the back-to-school tables and seeing all the books I never read. I managed to finish high school and college without ever reading Hemingway, Steinbeck, or Fitzgerald, so I've been trying to catch up now. I have tons of classics on my to-read list.

Anonymous said...

I posted my review of the first book I finished for this challenge: Pride and Prejudice.

Anonymous said...

Hi all - I've posted my thoughts on the second book I've read for this challenge: 1984.