rosalita (Julia) does the E Street Shuffle in 2014

I have never done a Category Challenge before. Truth to tell, I’ve always been more of a pantser than a plotter when it comes to choosing books to read (i.e., flying by the seat of my pants rather than plotting out a list). But as I looked over my list of books read for 2013, I realized that some of the vague goals I’d had at the beginning of the year did not happen. I wanted to read more nonfiction, which I have an affinity for as the owner of BAs in history and geography. I wanted to read fewer books but more challenging books. I’ll never give up my love for mysteries and thrillers, but I wanted to balance those quick reads with books that force me to slow down and think a little. And instead, I read more books than I read in 2012, including plowing through the entirety of several mystery series. I want that to change in 2014.

So, I’m going to set up some challenges. But what should they be? I’ve admired the very clever themes that people use to organize their challenges, but I could never really think of one that I could use that was meaningful to me. Then I realized there was prime theme material sitting right here inside my computer: Bruce Springsteen’s music. If you don’t know me, I love Springsteen. I’ve seen him in concert nearly 30 times, traveling to 7 states over the past 38 years. Once I started combing through his music catalog, so many possible themes leapt out at me that I had to leave some in the dust — perhaps a start on 2015’s challenges!

So, without further ado, here’s my 2014 Category Challenge, based on Bruce Springsteen song titles. With each category, I’ve linked to a video of the challenge title song. I have lots of ideas for some of the categories, and not so many for others, but I’d love any suggestions you might have for any of them.

1. Brilliant Disguise — books by pseudonymous authors
2. Growin’ Up — young adult fiction
3. Be True — nonfiction
4. Book of Dreams — fantasy fiction
5. Highway Patrolman — police procedurals
6. Dead Man Walkin’ — books about the death penalty
7. It’s Hard To Be a Saint in the City — books set in New York City
8. Reason to Believe — books with a religious theme
9. Spirit in the Night — ghost stories
10. She’s the One — female authors new to me
11. A Good Man Is Hard to Find — male authors new to me
12. The Ghost of Tom Joad — books by John Steinbeck
13. Local Hero — authors with a connection to the Iowa Writers Workshop
14. Worlds Apart — books set outside the U.S.

 
1. Brilliant Disguise — books by pseudonymous authors

Read

Possibilities
Anne Perry — real name Juliet Hulme
Mark Twain — real name Samuel Clemens
George Eliot — real name Mary Ann Evans

 
2. Growin’ Up — young adult fiction

Read

Possibilities
Code Name Verity
Liesl and Po
You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye
The President's Daughter

 
3. Be True — nonfiction

Read

Possibilities
Ratification (OTS)
Salt (OTS)
Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (OTS)
The Empress Dowager Cixi
Austerity Britain
Packing for Mars (OTS)
The Children (OTS)

 
4. Book of Dreams — fantasy

Read
1. His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik. (review)
2. Wolves of Calla, Stephen King.

Possibilities
Stardust (OTS)
Neverwhere
Lord of the Rings
Chronicles of Narnia (OTS)
The Shining Girls (OTS)

 
5. Highway Patrolman — police procedurals

Read
1. Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch. (review)

Possibilities
87th Street Precinct by Ed McBain (OTS)
DeLuca trilogy by Carlo Lucarelli (OTS)
Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri

 
6. Dead Man Walkin’ — books about the death penalty

Read

Possibilities
Burial Rites (OTS)
Autobiography of an Execution
Shot in the Heart
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (OTS)
The Name of the Rose
Change of Heart
Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on the Death Penalty

 
7. It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City — books set in New York City

Read
1. The Burglar On the Prowl, Lawrence Block. (review)
2. Three-Day Town, Margaret Maron. (review)

Possibilities
Edith Wharton
Dreamland
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Snow in August, Pete Hamill
Molly Murphy mysteries by Rhys Bowen
Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem

 
8. Reason to Believe — books with a religious theme

Read

Possibilities
The Testament of Mary
The Da Vinci Code (OTS)
The Confessions of St. Augustine
The Screwtape Letters
My Name Is Asher Lev
The Kite Runner
No god but God

 
9. Spirit in the Night — ghost stories

Read

Possibilities
Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson
Ghost Story
The Turn of the Screw (OTS?)
Heart Shaped Box (OTS)

 
10. She’s the One — female authors new to me

Read
1. Death Comes For the Archbishop, Willa Cather. (review)
2. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt. (review)

Possibilities
Eudora Welty
Rose Tremain
Ursula LeGuin
Donna Tartt
Lauren Beukes

 
11. A Good Man Is Hard to Find — male authors new to me

Read
1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, John Godey. (review)
2. Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian.

Possibilities
John Updike
Philip Roth
Robert Penn Warren
Walker Percy (OTS)

 
12. The Ghost of Tom Joad — books by John Steinbeck

Read

Possibilities
The Grapes of Wrath
Travels With Charley
Tortilla Flat
The Pearl
Cannery Row

 
13. Local Hero — Authors with a connection to the Iowa Writers Workshop

Read

Possibilities
Kent Haruf
Elizabeth McCracken
W.P. Kinsella
John Irving (OTS)
Kurt Vonnegut (OTS)
Raymond Carver
Andre Dubus
T.C. Boyle
Ann Patchett
Peter Heller
William Lashner (OTS)

 
14. Worlds Apart — books set outside the U.S.

Read
1. A Week In Winter, Maeve Binchy. (review)
2. The Panther, Nelson DeMille (review)
3. Frederica, Georgette Heyer. (review)

Possibilities
The Leopard
Brunelleschi's Dome
Broken Harbor
Troubles (OTS)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Game of Kings
The Luminaries
Faces in the Water
The Blind Assassin
The Tenderness of Wolves (OTS?)
The Rosie Project (OTS)

Welcome to the challenge and great theme!

Thank you, Lori!

Great theme, looking forward your Steinbeck category.

Fantastic theme!! It makes me want to change my boring categories now.... :)

Hello Julia. Great theme! I understand the panster bit, so I hope your plans work out okay for you. But hey, we've all (well most of us) changed our categories around to match our reading better, so if you need to do so!

Lots of great themes based on music this year. I see a few authors/books I'll be waiting to see what you have to say.

Nice theme, he's a great artist :)

Welcome to the challenge! I love Highway Patrolman. Great song :)

Ooooh! A whole category for books set in NYC! I strongly recommend Motherless Brooklyn!

Oh, visitors! How marvelous to see you all stop by. Thanks for all the good wishes, and glad to see at least a few Springsteen fans among you. :-) I'll be sure to look for "Motherless Brooklyn" at the library — thanks for the suggestion!

Welcome to the challenge. May The Boss inspire you!

Oh he does, every day! :-D

Great theme idea! You've got me curious about the categories you had to leave out. That happens a lot around here!

Thanks, Carrie! I ended up with about 25 possible categories, which I guess gives me a head start on 2015. :-)

Yay, love your theme! You have lots of interesting reading ahead. I loved Code Name Verity, and Neverwhere is great too! I recommend Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song for your "death penalty" category. It's a very long book, but in my opinion it's worth the time!

Hi Julia, great to see you here. You should check out the GeoCat, MysteryCat and RandomCats that are set up here. They are challenges that you can participate in or not, and some of our chosen themes could fit in nicely with your categories.

As always I am looking forward to following your reading.

Christina, I have already read "The Executioner's Song" which is the only reason I didn't list it as a possible read in that category. Otherwise, it would have been perfect, as you say.

Thanks for the welcome, Judy! I will check out those Cats and see if any of them are purring at me. ;-)

Yay for Bruce! And yay for pretty pictures of Bruce :) Now I need to go listen to one of his cd's :P

Also, welcome to the challenge, and good luck with your reading :)

Welcome to the challenge! I also fall into the category of pantsers and hope to put a little structure to my reading. Can't wait to see how that turns out!
Great songs, enjoy the books that go with it.

Welcome to the challenge, Julia!! Holy moly, you have some creative categories!

Thanks for the kind welcomes, everyone! Britt, if you click on each challenge's title, it goes to a YouTube video of that particular song. Just in case you're looking for more of a Bruce fix.

>36 rosalita: oh, lovely :) I'm currently on holiday, so naturally I do not have all his cd's with me :P Fortunately my brother brought a couple (E-street shuffle included), so I think we'll be fine... My dad, brother and I are fans of Bruce, we always go to his concerts together whenever he visits the Netherlands, it's nice to see a Bruce-challenge around here :)

It's always great to have another Bruce fan hanging around! It's very cool that you get to share that with your dad and brother, too. Enjoy your holidays!

I LOVE your categories, Julia, and I am so thrilled to see you over here! HOW FUN!! I think I will join you on some of those Steinbeck reads - actually, I see a lot of books listed up there that I have sitting on my shelves...

I just read Cannery Row last week, and I picked up Tortilla Flat from the library Friday, and will hopefully get my husband to pick up Sweet Thursday from the uni library in the not so far off future, yay Steinbeck! ;P

I love your categories Julia! I like Mamie may join you on some of the Steinbeck reads. He has some nice short sweet ones.

#40 by @PolymathicMonkey> Marvelous! I have only ever read Of Mice and Men, I'm ashamed to say, so I'm looking forward to correcting that in 2014.

#41 by luvamystery65> Wonderful, Roberta! I would love to have you both along for the ride. Shenanigans will be inevitable. :-)

Hi Julia, now that I sorta kinda know you better I can appreciate your choice of categories. Nice way to combine Bruce with your challenge. Very clever!
You're going to love the Steinbeck's, I read most of them last year and you're in for a treat.

Lynda, I think it was your Xmas Swap choice of Runaway Dream that inspired my challenge idea! I was sitting here smiling at it waiting on the coffee table and it just hit me that I might be able to use song titles as categories. Then I started thinking about Bruce songs and realized how many there were that I could use. So thanks for the inspiration.

I'm so happy to be finally correcting my Steinbeck deficit. I didn't find out about the year-long Steinbeckathon in the 75er group until it was over or I would have been all over it.

Glad I was able to help out :0)

Hi Julia and welcome to the category challenge. I have done these and never plan my books just make my categories and see which books fit into the categories. I love how creative you are (and others) with using songs, or poems or some other way to come up with your categories.

Thanks, Monica!

>42 by rosalita, That was me, too, until just recently! I hadn't intentionally avoided him but never sought him out. But I'm trying to actively (as opposed to the randomly that I've been doing until recently) read more off the 1,001 list and as I was walking the aisles in the library I noticed that one, which a member of the 1,001 group had recently read so it was in my mind, so I plucked it up. :D It made me realize how fabulous an author he was so now I'm wanting to read them all, haha.

#48 by @PolymathicMonkey> I haven't decided which Steinbeck to start with. I was toying with the idea of Travels With Charley, but my local library doesn't have that one so I may go with Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat myself.

Welcome--and, I love your categories :) I'll be lurking and serving as a target for book bullets...

I will try to aim true, Jennifer. :-)

I thought Cannery Row was great, not a bad place to start!

Oh, good!

I've finished the first two books of my challenge (click the image to go to my review):

Challenge #7: It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City (books set in NYC)


Challenge #11: A Good Man Is Hard to Find (male authors new to me)

..."click the image to go to my review..."

Okay. That is beyond cool - how DID you do that?

Here is the HTML code to make the image a clickable link, substituting parentheses for the customary "caret" brackets normally used in code:

(a href=”URL of destination site page”)(img src=”photo URL”)(/a)

If you go to a book's page and scroll down to your review, there is a little image of a link that goes to your review's URL. You copy that URL into the first bit of code where it says "URL of destination site page", then copy the image link into the second bit of code where it says "photo URL". Remember to keep the quotes around each URL, and that's it!

And now if I may ask YOU a question: What is the Category Challenge etiquette for listing a book in more than category? Allowed? Forbidden? Frowned upon? Or to put it another way: What Would Mamie Do?

:-)

>55 Crazymamie: It's just HTML. <a href="REVIEW URL"><img src="IMAGE URL" /></a>

Heh crossposting, but mine is formatted! :P Haha.

Re: multiples categories, well, it's up to you, there's really no rules for the challenge at large, it's up to everyone whatever they want to do. That said, almost no one will put them in more than one. Most of us reserve the right to shuffle as we see fit, if a category winds up lacking later on, or whatnot, but we won't count a book more than once. But if you want to, that's your choice, nothing "wrong" with it or anything.

#58> You got to the point much more quickly as well!

Thanks for the feedback about categories. I think for now I'll leave them listed in multiple place just to remind myself of what they are "eligible" for, so to speak, but plan to whittle them down to just category at the end of the year.

Oh, thanks for that - both of you! And I agree with the Monkey - I just put the book into one category, but I reserve the right to shuffle them as I see fit. SO, just because it starts out in one category doesn't necessarily mean that it will stay there.

>8 rosalita: wow, young Bruce was quite the looker!
I really thought I had visited you here already, Julia. And now I see that I have not? Is there a glitch or is it just me.
Hm

Click on the image to go to link, that is cool. But I need to look more closely at how as it looks tricky from first glance.

#61> Wasn't he, though? :-)

I don't think you had visited before but I'm sure glad you're here now!

The tricky part is tracking down both URLs so you can plug them. I use TextExpander, which is a program that lets me type a few keystrokes and it "expands" into a full phrase or whatever. I set one up so that when I invoke it by typing ",ilink", it throws up a dialog box with fill-in boxes for the URLs. That way I don't have to worry about remembering and typing the code every time, and I can just copy and paste the URLs in and presto!

I forgot to star your thread Julia. Well that is remedied.

I love to learn new tricks! Very cool.

I'm glad you found me over here, Roberta! I had to Google the instructions for how to make the images clickable because I haven't done it in so long. But it is a cool trick to learn.

You're off to a roaring start, Julia, and teaching us some new tricks as well. I love Lawrence Block but I haven't read that series yet, here I go off to Amazon to see if I can load a couple into my Kindle.

I try to keep things interesting around here, Judy, to keep people coming back! Yes, do look for the Burglar books; they are great fun.

I have added the first book of the series to my Kindle collection, Burglars Can't Be Chosers. I haven't read anything by Lawrence Block in quite some time, looking forward to this.

I'm sorry to hear about your plumbing and furnace woes, but I'm glad they were fixed before the situation became really bad. I hope your week gets better from a rocky start.

#67> Oh, I do hope you enjoy it, Judy! I bet your husband would enjoy them too.

#68> Thanks, Carrie! There's nowhere to go but up, right?

I read all the Burglar books last year and loved them. And where do you go when you finish a series? - I found I also really enjoy 'The Good Thief's Guide to ____' series by Chris Ewan

Max, I've never heard of that Ewan series but I will definitely check it out. Thanks for the tip!

My pleasure, hope you enjoy them. I hunted up your thread when I saw you tell someone (DeltaQueen?) 'you're killing me, smalls'. I am sitting here in my sweatshirt, Christmas present from eldest daughter, with those exact words. Loved that movie.

Oh, I'm so glad someone got that reference! You never know when it's not face-to-face whether references are clear or not. I love that movie, too. I should look it up on Netflix and see if they have it on streaming.

I haven't seen that movie in "FOUR-EH-VER!!" ;)

I had such a crush on Mike Vitar (Benny) after that!!

Ha! I bet you weren't the only one, either.

Squints sort of had my heart! When he kissed the lifeguard - that was great.

All these memories of "The Sandlot" — I definitely have to watch it again!

Hi Julia, love the categories but, especially, all the Bruce pics. Wow!!

Thanks, Linda! Always nice to have a little eye candy in a thread. :-)

No Bruce at Wrigley Field pictures? That was the best Bruce of them all.

That was prime Bruce for sure!

Hi Julia-
Just swinging by again on my way around. Still loving the 'click on book to see review' feature. Just saying.
I click on it every time I pass just to see. Yes, I an technologically stunted, so I like to see that it still works :L

In 3, 8 and 10 Bruce looks a little but like Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, imo. He is pretty too :)

You may be reassured to know that I also click on them as I scroll by, just to make sure they are still working. Silly us.

That 1970s look of Bruce's is pretty yummy, Megan! He was just so very much my type back then. Sigh.

LOL
Not just me then....
Good to know :)

I keep trying to persuade my lovely other to keep his "holiday beard", but he went back to work yesterday and off it came.

Oh, how sad. A well-grown beard is a thing of beauty.

Nice categories - wishing you a great challenge!

Thank you ,Eva!

Another challenge book that I forgot to post! Click the image to go to the review.

Challenge #14: Worlds Apart (books set outside the USA)

I've finished two more challenge books. As always, click the images to go to my reviews.

Challenge #14: Worlds Apart (books set outside the USA)



Challenge #7: It's Hard To Be a Saint In the City (books set in New York City)

Hi Julia, do you possibly have the two above books listed in the wrong categories? I think the Margaret Maron one is set in New York City and the Georgette Heyer would better fit the category for books set outside the USA.

I sure did, Judy! Thanks for catching that. I pasted my image codes in the wrong places.

So glad you liked Frederica! Heyer is so fantastic.

It was only my second, Christina, but I'm already busy figuring out which one to try next. Great fun reads.

I would recommend The Grand Sophy!

Thank you for the recommendation, MissWatson. The Grand Sophy was actually the first Heyer I read last year, and it was so good I decided I wanted to read more!

It's one of my favourites. But there are so many others to enjoy!

That's what is so fun — I know I have lots of good reading ahead of me!

Very belated welcome! Looking forward to the Steinbeck...

Thanks, Pete! I am looking forward to it, too. I think my first will be Travels With Charley if I can track down a cheap e-book.

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping my challenge thread updated. It's been more of a ... challenge ... than I expected to tend to both this thread and my regular reading thread in the 75-Book group. Here are some updates (as always, click the image to go to the review):

For Challenge #4: Book of Dreams (fantasy)



For Challenge #5: Highway Patrolman (police procedural)

Challenge #11: A Good Man Is Hard to Find (male authors new to me)

Challenge #10: She’s the One (female authors new to me)

Challenge #14: Worlds Apart (books set outside the USA)

I love the Temeraire series. I hope you did too. This one by Cather is a favorite as well. looks like you've been reading some excellent books!

I am quite looking forward to reading Broken Homes! :) Peter Grant makes me so happy.

#104> Mamzel this was a re-read of His Majesty's Dragon and yes, I adore Temeraire! I've read them all but the first one is still the very best in my opinion.

#105> Broken Homes was really excellent, rabbitprincess. One of my favorite new series by far.

I think I liked the one that took place in China best since Temeraire gained such self awareness and a feeling of self worth there.

Yes, that one was good, too!

I've done a little housekeeping and switched Broken Homes from the Book of Dreams (fantasy) category to the Highway Patrolman (police procedural) category. It appears I am going to have plenty of fantasy reads this year, and I've not yet managed a police procedural other than this one.

I love Temeraire too, I've just read the first two so far but I wouldn't have know about this one if not for LT members. My sister has read the third one and is waiting for me to catch up :) The thing is that there's too many new-to-me series. Like for instance Master and Commander, this one seems action-packed and fun, so on the BB list. I've seen that there's 21 books. I don't know if I'm happy or not ;) Oh and I've just the first of Rivers of London, it was really great so ...

Oh, I know! I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I keep getting hit with book bullets for new series on every thread I visit!

>101 rosalita: Master and Commander has been on the TBR pile for a couple of years. Your review notches it up a couple of spots :)

>112 paruline: I had it lingering in my TBR plans for years before I finally got around to listening to the audiobook. I'm glad it was worth the wait. I hope you like it too!