Progress report

Map showing author’s country of origin for the books I have read in 2018.

A third of the year has gone (how did that happen?) and it is time for me to look back on my reading so far. In total I have read 34 books in 2018, by 19 women and 13 men (and two anthologies). I have read books from eleven decades and by authors from twelve countries. Most of them have been very good so I’m happy with my reading year so far.

Best 2018 read so far

• Wind, sand and stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I feel I have talked a lot about Wind, sand and stars on this blog lately but it has been my best read so it deserves it. Recommended!

Honorary mentions

• The Boarding-School Girl by Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya. The Khvoshchinskaya sisters have been a great discovery for me this spring. I have greatly enjoyed both this one and City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya .
• Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena follows a Latvian mother and daughter whose relationship crumble under the Soviet rule. It was published by Peirene Press, an interesting publisher of translated fiction which I discovered in my effort to read novels by authors from a wider range of countries.

Best page-turner

• Into the Fire by Elizabeth Moon (Trading in Danger is the first book in this series). Elizabeth Moon’s novels would be my guilty pleasure if I felt the least bit guilty about reading them. Her SF and Fantasy series tend to keep me reading way past my bedtime…

 

Reading challenges for 2018

Finish the 30-20-20-10 challenge from 2017

In 2017 I managed to read books from (more than) 10 decades, written by (more than ) 20 men and (more than) 20 women and by authors from 21 (rather than 30) countries. In 2018 I want to finish this challenge by reading 9 books from countries I didn’t read any book from in 2017. So far I have managed to add 6 new countries to my list.

• La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri (Italy)
• Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda (Libya)
• The Lime Tree by César Aira (Argentina)
• Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (Japan)
• Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena (Latvia)
• Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda (Chile)

I also decided on the additional challenge of reading 12 books from countries I read no more than 1 book from in 2017, but so far the books from these two challenges completely overlap.

Read and blog about at least 12 books from my Classics club reading list

I’m falling slightly behind on this challenge, I have only read three books from my Classics Club list so far this year, bringing me up to a total of 8 out of 50 since my start in October 2017.

In 2018 I have read and reviewed the following classics from my list:

• Wind, sand and stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
• Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

I also joined the Back to the classics reading challenge

Apparently classics not on my Classics Club list are more tempting than the ones on the list.  I therefore joined a second classics challenge which allows me to count many of the classics I have read this year but didn’t list on my Classics Club list. Here I have managed to fill seven of the twelve categories.

• 1. A 19th century classic: City folk and country folk
  
• 2. A 20th century classic: Wind, sand and stars
• 3. A classic by a woman author
• 4. A classic in translation: The Boarding-School Girl
• 5. A children’s classic: Over Sea, Under Stone
• 6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction: Cat Among The Pigeons
• 7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction: Flight to Arras
• 8. A classic with a single-word title
• 9. A classic with a colour in the title
• 10. A classic by an author that’s new to you: La Vita Nuova
• 11. A classic that scares you
• 12. Re-read a favourite classic

Read at least as many of my unread books (including new books) as I buy in 2018

Probably the hardest of my challenges and one I’m currently falling behind on. I have bought 27 books this year and have only read 25 of my unread books (in total I have read 34 books but that include re-reads and library books). And that is despite buying eight new books in December with a January delivery which gave me a head-start. However, in my defence, a few of the books I have bought have not arrived yet so I obviously cannot read them.

The challenge has helped though, it has made me somewhat less likely to impulse buy books I’m not sure about as every buy mean I cannot buy a future book I might want more. It has also motivated me to read more from my unread books rather than searching for new ones. Not a large effect but every bit helps…