bfertig digs a hole at the top of Mt. TBR

This challenge has intrigued me for a while, and I've been warming to the whole Challenge idea lately, so I'll throw my hat in the ring, though I will be unlikely to finish by the end of the year. Since I am starting so late, I will count books I have read this year thus far.

I really like some of the more unique categories that many have come up with. I have selected a few relatively broad categories that I hope will push me to complete my other challenges as well, complement my current and projected reading lists, etc.

I'll be leaving the lists themselves open until I finish (or get close enough to post) the book. I like the flexibility to change my mind.

We'll see if these categories actually get completed by the end of this year...

Cheers!

Africa - ideally to increase my knowledge about the continent, I'll try to pick books about or by authors from different countries. This is to help me fulfill my 'African safari challenge' - http://www.librarything.com/topic/66411. It's rather broad: fiction/non-fiction, from/about each country, no time limit.

1. The no.1 ladies detective agency: Bostwana
2. Purple hibiscus: Nigeria
3. What is the what: Sudan
4. We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: Rwanda
5. A long way gone: Sierra Leone
6. Things fall apart Nigeria
7.
8.
9.

US Presidents - biographies to help complete the US Presidents Challenge, which fortunately has a 4 year time-frame. http://www.librarything.com/groups/uspresidentschalleng

1. John Quincy Adams
2. John Quincy Adams and American Continental Empire
3. Mr Adams Last Crusade
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Dewey Decimal Challenge - To help broaden my reading and fill in the Dewey Decimal Challenge, the books listed will provide me with another of the 1000 categories. http://www.librarything.com/topic/63957

1. Wordy Shipmates - 974 General history of North America: Northeastern United States
2. The art and politics of science - 610 Medical sciences: Medicine
3. The worst hard time - 978 General history of North America: Western United States
4. The case for democracy - 321 Systems of governments and states
5. The honest broker: making sense of science in policy and politics - 174 Economic and professional ethics
6. Kafka on the shore - 895 Literatures of East & Southeast Asia
7. Dearest Friend: a life of Abigail Adams - 920 Biography, geneology, insignia
8.
9.

Reviews! - These books are related to LT review for me. Either they've been selected for me by the Go Review That Book! group, or I received them as an Early Reviewer, or I picked it up based on a review I read here on LT. Alternately, I've felt strongly enough about the book one way or another to take the time to coalesce my thoughts into a review.

1. Wildebeest in a Rainstorm - Early Reviewer: Review
2. The Good Doctors - Early Reviewer: Review
3. A history of the world in 6 glasses - F2F book club, reviewed on LT: Review
4. Long Walk to Freedom - Go Review That Book! group: Review
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Note to self: Potentials to keep in mind
In Reckless Hands, read review at http://www.librarything.com/topic/71451, message 29
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade For America by Douglas Brinkley - nonfiction group: http://www.librarything.com/topic/72249, message 20

Bookmooch - Books I've received for free via Bookmooch! Yay Bookmooch!!

1. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
2. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius by Dave Eggers
3. Alanna: the first adventure by Tamora Pierce (a reread for me)
4. In the hand of the goddess by Tamora Pierce (reread)
5. The woman who rides like a man by Tamora Pierce (reread)
6. Ghosts by Cesar Aira
7. Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce (reread)
8. Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce (reread)
9. Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce (reread)

WOW! I actually finished a category!

Galileo - ...and other scientists. The facts behind the people behind the facts.

1. Einstein: his life and universe
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3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Native Americans - I've been fascinated by pre-Columbian existence, and I'd like to learn more, as well as about those still amidst us.

1. I, Rigaberta Menchu
2.
3.
4.
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7.
8.
9.

Birds and the Bees and all those Trees - natural history, nature, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, landscapes, earth history, ecology, evolution, environmentally-themed books, etc.

1. A fish caught in time
2. The beak of the finch
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Audiobooks - because I spend a lot of time commuting when not biking to work.

1. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas
2. The story of Chicago May
3. Blood diamonds
4. The Supreme Court - the personalities and rivalries that defined America
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

So far, of this list, my top three have definitely been What is the What, Beak of the Finch, and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas. All three are excellently written, and are full of what I feel is important content.

Welcome!

It's never too late to start, and you have over four months of reading ahead of you. I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Thanks for the welcome Victoria, and the vote of confidence RidgewayGirl! I'm looking forward to it. With the motivation of embarking on yet another challenge, I dusted off A long walk to freedom and reread the first 50 pages. It had been so long since I've picked it up, I felt it worthwhile to start in again. Mandela really does write well, and he uses stories from his childhood to point out lessons he learned and the disparities that as a child he just accepted as the way of life. What is amazing though is his description of his changing perceptions as his situation and life station changed, moving from one place to another as his father's status changed, and again when his father died. it's often too easy to let those moments of realization, those eye-widening experiences go unnoticed or undocumented, and to forget them as if to say 'Oh yes, I've always been this way'. Sometimes we fool ourselves into illusions of constancy, and it's nice to read about someone who can recognize and articulate otherwise.

Welcome to the group! I read and loved Cry, the Beloved Country this year. I also read Ah, But the Land is Beautiful by Alan Paton a few years ago it was just wonderful. And for Native Americans, I have Indian Givers on my list to read next year. It sounds really good.

Well this is fun - I found photos to go along with my categories. Not much to add yet - last week was swamped with work and not much time to read at nights. Am expecting to finish A history of the world in six glasses tonight, but am not sure where to put this in terms of 999 challenge - probably either Dewey Decimal Challenge (if it gives me another category) or I'll go review it and stack it under Reviews!. If not, whatever. It's a Book Club read (in person, what a concept!).

Welcome to the 999 Challenge. It is indeed fun. I love the pictures you chose! That makes me want to go back and add pictures to my own 999.

For some suggestions on Africa reads, go back to the Reading Globally group where we completed a month of books with the theme of Africa. I know you're a member of that group but do not see that you participated in the Africa discussion that month.

By the way, when the year ends you may cross reference the same book to fill different categories. You may yet complete this challenge in 2009. Don't give up too soon!

I'm in love with the photos! (especially the reading cat). I think I'm gonna have to come up with something like that for my 1010 challenge!

Hi Squeaky!
Thanks!, I had fun searching around for the pics and trying to piece together the HTML for posting them.

I noticed the Africa theme in the Reading Globally group - but haven't participated much since I've been reading mainly nonfiction this year --

it looks like there are some really interesting books recommended though, and some, like the Half of a yellow sun and other Ngugi wa thiong'o books are on my bookmooch wishlist anyway. another thread I've read for suggestions is charbutton's african summer, which I have starred as an excellent reference. Alas, I am a slow reader!

I think I may actually create a thread referencing various Africa themed threads on LT in the All Things Africa group that way i can keep them together - I am a member of so many groups, honestly, I can't keep track who says what where.

Thanks cmbohn!
Indian Givers does look interesting - I've added it to my bookmooch wishlist.

I listened to Cry, the beloved country last year, and thought it was alright, a bit depressing that racism wins, and that the movie was better - I had a better sense of the characters and personalities, and actually thought the acting was magnificent.

I took a look at Ah but your land is beautiful, and wasn't sure what to think. It appears a bit messy, with so many perspectives to provide. I will think about it, but at the moment, there also seems to be so much to read about South Africa, and I would like to try to read about the rest of the continent as well.

Thanks ladygata!

In case anyone cares, I've added in links to my reviews for the Review! category as well.

You're local. Are you coming to the National Book Festival in DC this year? We're doing a 4th Annual joint Bookcrossing and LibraryThing meet-up. Want to join us?

Welcome to the group - good idea to keep your categories open at this stage. For your Africa read I recommend Say you're one of them by Uwem Akpan, it's a short story collection, and was a finalist in the best first book of the Commonwealth Prize this year.

Thanks for letting me know about that Squeaky. I'll put it on my calendar and try to swing by.

And thanks for the recommendation avatiakh, I don't think I'd heard of that one yet.

Hi! I also just wanted to say that I really like your pictures and themes. It makes all your catagories very interesting!

Very cool idea - I too may borrow it!!

Thanks Jenson and bookaholic! Feel free to share and steal away! I just searched on Google Images for the photos.

I like it when I find connections between the books I read, and sometimes I do this deliberately anyway, so this challenge is good for that. Anycase, as you can tell, I had to find something more descriptive than 'nonfiction'!

Read The Prophet - perhaps way way too quickly. There's lots in there that would be good quotes to remember. It reminded me a little bit of the song 'Best of all possible worlds' in Candide(?) where this one know-it-all explains his unrelenting optimism.

A heartbreaking work of staggering genius - I liked it, despite the overstatement of the title (on both counts). I liked the frenetic pacing, the cathartic rambling peppered with the immediacy of random observations/musings interrupting but not derailing the train of thought, the postmodernist(?) arguments with the character John, and yes, even the solopsism.

I'm sensing a pattern of fascination with fictionalized/amalgomized personal tragedy by Eggers, between this, What is the What, and his (newest?) book on Katrina victims, which I am interested to read now.

Hola bfertig. I love the way you've set up your categories using photos. I'm going to do that for my 1010 Challenge next year. I also like the Quiet Trees Working sign. And my, you are in a LOT of groups. I'm also married, two cats.

Thanks! I found that sign on a hike somewhere on Maui during my honeymoon, and just had to get that photo. I like being in a lot of groups as I have a lot of random interests, and am always out to learn more.

Hi, just wanted to drop a message to say that I've also borrowed your category photo idea for next year's challenge. Thanks for the inspiration.

I am just about done with Long Walk to Freedom, close enough to consider putting it on the list, since I'll probably finish it tonight.


Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela

Though Nelson Mandela wrote these words about his colleague Oliver Tambo, they are fitting to him as well: "He too epitomized Chief Luthuli's precept: 'Let your courage rise with danger.'"

Nelson Mandela's autobiography is simply a must read. Mandela's writing captures your attention and dares you to disbelieve that he is not in the room telling you these things himself. Though a thumper of a book at over 600 pages, it was impossible for me to read less than 50-75 at a time. I highly recommend it to everyone.

He wrote the first draft while in prison on Robben Island, and it eloquently and deftly tells his story: his noble birth and legal training, the rise of his political consciousness and activism, his struggles against the apartheid regime, his trials for treason and his decades of political imprisonment on Robben Island. No matter the challenge, Mandela's courage rises to meet it: going underground, representing fellow prisoners for grievances for color-blind food rations and clothing, and being separated from his wife and family with visitations separated by years.

Mandela recounts numerous anecdotes to point out lessons learned, disparities impossible to ignore, changing perceptions of the political and social world (both inside and outside prison), and what is required of a leader. “Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed.” His cognizance and candor about what his re/actions represent and symbolize to others amazes me. As a person who possesses the inner strength, self-control, and follow-through, Mandela fits the billing of a real-life superhero, on the scale of Gandhi and Moses.

I am putting Long Walk to Freedom under the Reviews! category rather than the Africa category because 1) a review was requested from the Go Review That Book! group, and 2) because there are so many recommendations for books from South Africa that I would like to read, for instance, The Power of One, to name just one. So I am leaving that open for right now.

Currently reading, among others, we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families on the rwanda genocide and I, Rigoberta Menchu which is a (translation) of interviews with the eponymous indigenous Quechu Guatemalan. Both are really interesting. The latter will let me put something on the board for my Native Americans category (finally!). I've also got bury my heart at wounded knee waiting in the wings for that one. looks like i will likely finish at least a third, and possibly half of this challenge!

That's a great quote from Mandela. You've almost tempted me.

There are tons of great quotes sprinkled throughout. Towards the end it occurred to me that I should go back and collect them, but I'm afraid that would take more effort than I can afford at the moment. Some day I may go back to reread it or at least skim it looking for those pearls.

Likely though, someone has already done that work for me, it's just a matter of finding it.

What's amazing to me, and sad to say I barely noticed the irony at the time, is the crazy juxtaposition of what was happening in South Africa and Rwanda in the mid 90s - the end of apartheid in one and the genocide in the other - was essentially happening at the same time!

Weird to jump from Long Walk to Freedom to We wish to inform you.

Will be interesting to look back at the continent for the 00s. I am looking forward to The fate of africa for that reason.

> 32, AHS-Wolfy, you're welcome to it!

Since you were reading about Rwanda, have you read the novel A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche? How about seeing the movie "Hotel Rwanda" or even reading the nonfiction book An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina? All three are excellent.

ETA: In the past we did the whole continent of Africa on Reading Globally as a theme. You might like to skim that thread to look for more interesting African reads. Those were generally fiction, though many were based on fact.

I've seen Hotel Rwanda, which was an amazing movie, and scenes from it flash in my head while reading We Wish To Inform You. I thought they did an excellent job of showing the horror while still telling a story and not turning away the audience, a really fine line to walk, but they managed admirably. I had the opportunity to see Paul Rusesabagina speak at a Save Darfur rally in DC a year or two ago, but haven't read his autobio. The novel you mention looks interesting.

Though I came to it a bit late, I have read the Africa theme thread on the Reading Globally group, and have also read Charbutton's African summer thread from this summer - both are excellent threads with lots of great suggestions, and many have been added to my wishlist, and will likely include some of them for my African safari.

I do tend towards nonfiction rather than fiction, but I'm becoming more open to the idea of reading more fiction, especially if it involves a culture or region I am less familiar with. That way I can still feel like I am learning something or getting a feel or sense of life in those areas.

Wow! It must have been amazing to have had the opportunity to hear Paul Rusesabagina speak. I think you would really like his biography. I listened to it on audiotape. He seems to be a very humble man who did just what he felt was right at the time.

One thing about reading world fiction (well-written, I must add) is that it gives emotional insight into life in other countries. While plots may be fictitious, a lot of details are based on fact. One amazing book I recently read was the about Valentin Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee. Although What is the What was written by Dave Eggers as a novel, most of what happened in the book was real. If you haven't read it yet, run to get it. No kidding!

ETA: A fun thing to do with global reading is to pair a nonfiction book with a novel with the basis of both books in the same geographical area.

"During the genocide, I didn't know - I thought so many people did as I did, because I know that if they'd wanted they could have done so." - Paul Rusesabagina

Wow.

About halfway through the we wish to inform you the author makes a few very simple, should-be-obvious, yet completely overlooked points about the genocide that I think are central to understanding what happened:
1) that the causes were not as straightforward or pithy or about nothing as was commonly described by outsiders or the develped world
2) that essentially the genocide was political strategy, and that it was not simply a case of descent into an anarchic scramble for power, nor was it an end but rather a means.
3) that Rwandans, especially the Hutu Power refugees, are not babes in the wilderness, or naive, and have self-motivations and strategies, and have been able to manipulate and utilize the international community for their own benefit.

The author lays the groundwork for a compelling argument that the international community has a moral imperative to take the side of preventing loss of human life and should be able to committ troops - really commit troops - to do so.

Further, that justice, as of 1998, had not prevailed and was not on a course to do so.

A stronger case for internationalism could be made from the example of Rwanda and its contrast to the Holocaust in Europe.

I am really curious to read something on Rwanda and the aftermath of the genocide in the last decade to bring me up to speed.

>42 SqueakyChu: Squaky, yes, I've read What is the what and also highly recommend it. Based on that and his memoir, and a newer book on Katrina, I'm sensing he has a fascination with trauma. He's a decent writer (though I thought his book on Sudan was better than his memoir), so I think I'll go for the one on Hurricane Katrina at some point.

The idea of pairing a fiction with nonfiction is a good one. I think I will be doing that for the Indai themed month, or at least try.

Here's an idea. If you want to do the fiction/non-fiction pairing idea (which I truly love - if I read the books back to back so as not to forget details), read the book by Erik Larson called Isaac's Storm when you read the Hurricane Katrina book. That hurricane in Galveston, Texas in 1900 (which really happened) comes alive in all its terror in Larson's book. :O

Another idea: the fiction/non-fiction pairing would make a good group - but not one I want to start. :D

I would join a group like that were it suddenly to appear.

heh heh so would i...

:)

i finished we wish to inform you last night. if i havent said it before, this was one of those books where reading just a few pages was not really an option. I liked this book because the first half tells the story of what happed during the Rwandan genocide, and the second half tells why it happend. Philip Gourevitch doesn't flinch at pulling punches, he doesn't shy away from saying 'x screwed up', or from taking sides, and he isn't afraid to said that intolerance is intolerable or that Rwandans are people with motives and politics, rather than some backward primordial tribal people.

This is not a dry book, but nor is it a weepy book - it presents personal stories through the genocide, profiles of how Rwandans see themselves and the time 'Before' and up to 1998, but also a sharp look at the West and developed nations.

Overall highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart reading at teatime.

I've been switching back and forth between I, rigoberta menchu, bury my heart at wounded knee, and now dearest friend: a life of abigail adams, and am 50-100 pages into each of them.

Dearest Friend reads really quickly, like a novel, with insights into personal thoughts, emotions, and motivations drawn from letters and diaries of Abigail and John Adams. It puts Revolutionary events into human perspective from Braintree and Boston, specifically, how Abigail and John viewed them. These events come across as more open-ended, without forgone conclusions, importance, or names as later histories account them. Though summarized briefly, the events seem more like what one might read from newspapers or letters than the concise event neatly put into context by a historian. Nonetheless there are a number of typos in the text, outside of the retained contemporary spelling, which distract from the narrative flow.

Dearest Friend is a nice contrast to Rigoberta Menchu's story, which is much more chunked out, largely due to the interviewer, I think. Despite interesting content, the pacing is choppy, sometimes repetitive, and I feel that the interviewer felt a need to compartamentalize Menchu's life into somewhat artificial stages in order to provide both a description of daily life as an Indian and the individual story of Menchu. Frankly, Rigaberta's individual story is more interesting, more compelling, and less dry, less trying to explain herself to the completely uninitiated. While the idea of maintaining Rigaberta's voice and interview answers as completely as possible is a nice and respectful idea, straight off answers to interview questions makes for a somewhat choppy narrative - especially with the short chapters devoted to very specific topics -that could otherwise be smoothed with some major editing and more judicious use of quotations.

Yay! I finished I, Rigaberta Menchu, an Indian in Guatemala, and so that gives me at least one book in each category, which I am counting as an accomplishment. Yay me!

I, Rigaberta Menchu: an Indian woman in Guatemala

“I’m still keeping secret what I think no-one should know. Not even anthropologists or intellectuals, no matter how many books they have, can found out all our secrets.” Indian society in Guatemala is filled with secrets. How many and what they are *about*, much less *are* is merely alluded to by Rigaberta as she recounts her life story and struggles. The narrative reads quite literally as if Rigaberta were telling her story directly to the reader. In so doing, she really tells us three stories: 1) Indian community life cycles, 2) Rigaberta’s life and work and 3) the history of the Guatemalan peasant revolution in the 60s-80s.

At the time of the telling, Rigaberta had only been speaking Spanish for three years, and deliberately learned it to better unite separate Indian communities with distinct languages and dialects against her and their common enemies: the Guatemalan government and rich finca landlords, who readily practiced discrimination, hostility, rape, land takeovers, massacres, and torture. She was never trained to read or write.

I expect that this (effective) primary source will be excellent fodder for many secondary sources that may make it more digestible. I recognize the need for Rigaberta’s voice to come through, but perhaps it could help broaden her audience by having a professional writer or biographer assist with smoothing the organization and clarity and such.

The raw power and emotion evident by what Rigoberta has to say makes this an important resource in bringing these issues to the international community. Though many secrets are still kept, this book is rich for curiosity seekers, social scientists, folks interested in labor and peasant movements, Latin American Indians, etc.

Hmm. After I wrote my review, I read the others, and one of them mentioned something massaging certain details of her narrative. Curious, I looked her up on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberta_Mench%C3%BA (yes, yes, not a truly *authoritative* source, I realize, but good enough as a first pass at info gathering)

Apparently David Stoll wrote that up in his 1999 book, Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans.

Since I haven't read that book, my info is just based on the Wikipedia article. But it seems to me that the details altered are relatively minor to the story. Given that the interviews that were the basis of the book were conducted over the course of a week, I think it fair that some details would get messed up, and the article admits that Stoll didn't interview Rigoberta herself. The way the Wiki article is worded and from what I read, there are alternate explanations for several of the contentious details, so it's not entirely clear that either side is completely wrong and Stoll does not claim the story to be a hoax.

Another thing I would add to my review would be that until reading the Wiki article, I wasn't aware that this struggle was part of the larger Guatemalan Civil War, and that I would have liked more historical/political context to put Rigoberta's story into since my knowledge and familiarity with Guatemalan/Latin American history is minimal at best. I'm reading to learn, after all.

Added in Dearest Friend and Alanna: the first adventure. The latter, I have to admit, was one of my favorites as a kid, and I really enjoyed reading it aloud to my wife!

I'm glad to hear that Alanna was one of your favourites! I never had much success convincing male friends or family members to read those books, even though I loved them myself.

The Song of the Lioness Quartet is a really good series, and it stands up to time well! Really quite comparable to the quality of Harry Potter series, if not even better, in my mind.

On another note, I read 'Ghosts' by Cesar Aira, but it doesn't seem to fit into any of my categories. Hmm.

Also, I read about half of A long way gone on the plane back from a conference this week, and expect to finish it this week, so have posted that.

Yeah, I really don't understand why the Alanna series wasn't/isn't more popular than it is. It is really well written, with cool characters, witty dialogue, and it stands up well reading it as an adult. I'm reading the series aloud to my wife and we have finished In the hand of the goddess (book 2), and The woman who rides like a man (book 3), and we'll prolly start Lioness Rampant (book 4) tonight. I've decided to count the series under my Bookmooch section, even though I didn't technically get it from Bookmooch, the copies we got were used.. so same idea to some extent. I'm also putting Ghosts under there because I got it from my university library, so it is also 'used' and 'free'... so I'm bending my own rules... yeah yeah yeah.

Finished Lioness Rampant and also went ahead into the next series about the magical realm of Tortall, with Wild Magic and Wolf-Speaker. The first one was good and stood up to the Lioness Quartet, but the wolf one got weaker. Oh well. Dunno if we'll actually get around to finishing The Immortals quartet.

I have added reviews for several books today:
Dearest Friend
The Prophet
Heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Ghosts by Cesar Aira http://www.librarything.com/work/6669455/reviews
A long way gone
I, Rigoberta Menchu

You've been busy!

bit of a hiatus due to a busy month, but somehow managed to finish Things fall apart while sick. 2nd half went much more quickly for me, but that was since I had more time. 1st half was an interesting look at tribal Nigeria, but I didn't really get a sense of plot or where the story was going, just vignettes about life and customs. I think its important as it shows what completely different worlds the Igbo people and the missionaries were coming from.

To me, it raised an important question: If two societies want to deal fairly with each other (which was not the case in the book) but have entirely conflicting values and practices how can they reconcile differences? Learning each others languages would probably be the first step, but beyond that, in an example where one culture rooted in Judeo-Christian values that include 'thou shalt not kill' and another kills twins by exposure at birth due to evil spirits, how can they even begin to reconcile when each is doing what they find is right and logical?

37/81 = 46% completed. not bad! I sure wasn't expecting to make it to 81 books in a year.

Hope you're feeling better!

Much, thanks. Food poisoning while on vacation the day before New Years... not great. But now, I'm fine.

thats the worse that could happneed i guess

could always be worse. at least I was with family, and I don't usually do too much for New Years anyway.. I often feel its a bit of a anti-climactic holiday... fireworks are nice and all, and the day off is nice, but really, there's nothing substantial behind it for me.