My Thoughts: A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

My brother has been trying to get me to read Bill Bryson for ages but I always thought that he enjoyed hem because they where written about places he had been to (he's travelled the world twice - I've been to 3 countries outside England!). I tried Byrson's book on Shakespeare, thought it was ok but I didn't learn much as I studied Shakespeare so often I've pretty much got the gist of the little bit of information there is to no about him.

So, when I saw that this was a bookring on Bookcrossing and I could read it just for the price of postage I signed up for it. And I'm so glad I did! I hadn't even heard of the Appalachian Trail that Bryson and his friend hike up across several states of America, I have no interest in hiking (well I hadn't when I started) and I'm not much of a non-fiction fan so it was a great surprise to enjoy this.

Bryson charts his trail, the problems, boredom, his annoyance at fellow hikers alongside an entertaining account of the history and nature of the trail. He writes so well that I felt that I could see the woods surrounding him, feel his frustration at Kratz his fellow hiker and at theAmerican government for not keeping the trail as well preserved as it should be. He comes across as a really interesting guy with a lot to say but with the ability to keep it short and focused.

I will certainly be digging out the copy of The Short History of Nearly Everything that has been lurking on my bookshelves since it got brought.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Read the Nobels

The challenge: to read books authored by Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature.This blog is dedicated to reviews about the individual books, and your thoughts on the laureates themselves.There is no time limit. You may post your old reviews.Interested in joining?See here. A few rules of labeling your posts:
Label with the year and the name of the laureate (e.g. 2006: Orhan Pamuk)
Also label with your name
Do not label with the book title as there are just too many books!Have fun and here's to our adventure in reading!

I'm looking forward to participating in this as I am already part of the Nobel Spiral at bookcrossing where I recieve a book by a Nobel winning author about once a month. I have just recieved my second book for this which is The Plague, Camus.

The Authors List, I have highlighted in red the authors I have read with the title of the book next to it, unfortunately as I'm a fairly new blogger I don't have many reviews at the present time.

2007 - Doris Lessing
2006 - Orhan Pamuk - Snow (****)
2005 - Harold Pinter
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek
2003 - J. M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians (****), Disgrace (**)
2002 - Imre Kertész
2001 - V. S. Naipaul
2000 - Gao Xingjian
1999 - Günter Grass
1998 - José Saramago
1997 - Dario Fo
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska
1995 - Seamus Heaney - The Collected Poems
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe
1993 - Toni Morrison Beloved (****) Sula (****)
1992 - Derek Walcott
1991 - Nadine Gordimer
1990 - Octavio Paz
1989 - Camilo José Cela
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1986 - Wole Soyinka
1985 - Claude Simon
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert
1983 - William Golding - Lord of the Flies (***)
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude (*****)
1981 - Elias Canetti
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz
1979 - Odysseus Elytis
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre
1976 - Saul Bellow
1975 - Eugenio Montale
1974 - Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
1973 - Patrick White
1972 - Heinrich Böll
1971 - Pablo Neruda
1970 - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1969 - Samuel Beckett -Waiting for Godot (***)
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias
1966 - Shmuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
1963 - Giorgos Seferis
1962 - John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men (*****)
1961 - Ivo Andric
1960 - Saint-John Perse
1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1957 - Albert Camus - The Plague
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955 - Halldór Laxness
1954 - Ernest Hemingway
1953 - Winston Churchill
1952 - François Mauriac
1951 - Pär Lagerkvist
1950 - Bertrand Russell
1949 - William Faulkner
1948 - T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land
1947 - André Gide
1946 - Hermann Hesse - Siddartha
1945 - Gabriela Mistral
1944 - Johannes V. Jensen
1943 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1939 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1938 - Pearl Buck
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard
1936 - Eugene O'Neill - Long Days Journey into Night
1935 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1934 - Luigi Pirandello
1933 - Ivan Bunin
1932 - John Galsworthy
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930 - Sinclair Lewis
1929 - Thomas Mann
1928 - Sigrid Undset
1927 - Henri Bergson
1926 - Grazia Deledda
1925 - George Bernard Shaw - John Bull's Other Island
1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont
1923 - William Butler Yeats
1922 - Jacinto Benavente
1921 - Anatole France
1920 - Knut Hamsun
1919 - Carl Spitteler
1918 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1917 - Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam
1915 - Romain Rolland
1914 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz
1904 - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme

The Pulitzer Project: My Reading's from the list

The Pulitzer Project is being held by 3M, this is an ongoing project to try and read all 81 books from the list.

Below is a copy of the list. In Red I have highlighted the books I have already read, with a star rating and in Blue the books I hope to read from the list this year, 2008

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2007 - The Road (McCarthy)

2006 - March (Brooks) ****

2005 - Gilead (Robinson)

2004 - The Known World (Jones)

2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides) *****

2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)

2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)

2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)

1999 - The Hours (Cunningham)

1998 - American Pastoral (Roth)

1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)

1996 - Independence Day (Ford)

1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)***

1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)****

1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)

1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)****

1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike)

1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)

1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)

1988 - Beloved (Morrison)

1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)

1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)

1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie)

1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy)

1983 - The Color Purple (Walker)*****

1982 - Rabbit is Rich (Updike)

1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)

1980 - The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)

1979 - The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever)

1978 - Elbow Room (McPherson)

1977 - None given

1976 - Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)

1975 - The Killer Angels (Shaara)

1974 - None given

1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)

1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)

1971 - None given

1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)

1969 - House Made of Dawn (Momaday)

1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)

1967 - The Fixer (Malamud)

1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)

1965 - The Keepers Of the House (Grau)

1964 - None given

1963 - The Reivers (Faulkner)

1962 - The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)

1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)*****

1960 - Advise and Consent (Drury)

1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)

1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)

1957 - None

1956 - Andersonville (Kantor)

1955 - A Fable (Faulkner)

1954 - None

1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

1952 - The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)

1951 - The Town (Richter)

1950 - The Way West (Guthrie)

1949 - Guard of Honor (Cozzens)

1948 - Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)

1947 - All the King’s Men (Warren)

1946 - None

1945 - Bell for Adano (Hersey)

1944 - Journey in the Dark (Flavin)

1943 - Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)

1942 - In This Our Life (Glasgow)

1941 - None

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)

1938 - The Late George Apley (Marquand)

1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)

1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)

1935 - Now in November (Johnson)

1934 - Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)

1933 - The Store (Stribling)

1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)

1931 - Years of Grace (Barnes)

1930 - Laughing Boy (Lafarge)

1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)

1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)****

1927 - Early Autumn (Bromfield)

1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)

1925 - So Big (Ferber)

1924 - The Able McLauglins (Wilson)

1923 - One of Ours (Cather)

1922 - Alice Adams (Tarkington)

1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)****

1920 - None

1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)

1918 - His Family (Poole)

11/81 Read

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge

Just after I pledged not to join another challenge this year I end up signing up for one. As this is a year long I feel that quite a bit of the reading for it will be done in the new year.

The 2nd Canadian BookChallenge runs from July 1st 2008 for a whole year. The challenge requires participants to read 13 books by Canadian authors or books about Canadians. There are a whole bunch of different ways that the 13 can be choosen, I am participating using the 'free spirit', in which I can pick 13 random Canadian books, as I know very little about Canada and I'm hoping this will give me some idea of the place.

I'm not picking a definitive 13 as I always change my mind when I read others reviews, but here are some I may include:

Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery

Saul Bellow- Humboldt’s Gift

Anne Michaels- Fugitive Pieces

Michael Ondaatje- In The Skin Of A Lion

Coupland, Girlfriend in a Coma

Jack London- Call of the Wild

Jen Sookfong Lee - The End of the East

Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace/ The Tent

Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey

Ondaatje - Anils Ghost

Urquhart - The Stone Carvers

Carol Sheilds - Larry's Party

Baldwin - The Tiger Claw

Lisa Moore - Alligator

Alice Monro - Runaway

Mary Lawson - The Crow Lake

Holly Kennedy - The Tin Box

The ones highlighted I'm going to aim to read by the end of the year.

The Sunday Salon: Giving Up and this weeks reading.

I was just wondering what peoples views are on giving up books you are not enjoying. I was speaking to a friend earlier this week and he claimed that he has never started a book then not finished it, even if he really dislikes it! Personally I give books 50 pages - if I'm not interested by then I'm not willing to waste anymore time on it. I have about 300 books on my tbr pile so I would rather go off and tackle one of those than struggle with a book that fails to hold my attention. This week I gave up on 'I am Charlotte Simmons', the book seemed well written but I just didn't care what happened to her and the pretentious students she seemed to be surrounded by, certainly not bothered enough to read another 600 pages. Giving it up meant I had plenty of time to read the fantastic Paulo Coehlo novel, The Alchemist.

This week is half term, so as a teacher I get a blissful week with plenty of time to read (hopefully if the weather picks back up, I'll be reading in the garden).

I'm planning on finishing A Walk in the Woods, Bryson and Daughters of Fortune, Allende. I then will be reading The Plague, Camus and Sour Sweet, Mo and potentially starting Gravity's Rainbow.

The Classics Challenge: July - Dec 2008

Trish has set up The Classics Challenge - yet another challenge that I can't resist!

RULES (keep reading for the bonus):
OPTION 1: Read FIVE classics.
OPTION 2: Read FIVE classics from at least TWO different countries
OPTION 3: Read FIVE classics with any combination of at least TWO different countries and TWO different genres (see above for genres).
Cross-posting with other challenges is allowed (and encouraged!); Audiobooks are fine; books must be finished after July 1st to count for the challenge although re-reads are acceptable.
Lists don't have to be set in stone; you can change your selections at any time.
Have Fun. Oh ya...there will be a drawing for a prize or two. To be entered you must complete any one of the above options. You do NOT need a blog to participate.
Am I going to define what a classic is? Nope! There are lots of definitions offered on the Internet, but essentially we all have different opinions so don't stress too much--and see the bonus below.
BONUS!!
As you can see, I'm requiring FIVE classics for six months. For the sixth book, I would like the participants to offer suggestions for books that may not be considered classics but that you think should be or books that you think will be a classic one day. Leave your suggestions in the comments below. I'll compile a list of the suggestions and you choose a book from the list and make that your sixth read. I realize this means you may have to wait to make your list if you choose to participate in the bonus round, but I'm hoping this is a modern twist on the old classics challenge.
For example, I am going to suggest The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro.

I'm going to be doing Option 2 as I feel that otherwise I will fall into inly reading English classics which I have read a lot of in my studies.

At the moment I'm not coming up with a definitive list just possibilites, I will definately be poking around others sites looking for inspiration.

So far I'm thinking:

Bleak House

Jude the Obscure

The Awakening

War and Peace

Les Miserable

Gone With the Wind

The Sound and The Fury

The Water Babies

And as for the bonus it could be any of these:

Gilead

Poisonwood Bible

American Gods

Cold Mountain

All the Pretty Horses.

The Books I have actually read:

Junky, Burroughs (Cult Classic)

Siddartha, Hesse

Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote

Gone With the Wind, Mitchell

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Kids Classic)

Neverwhere, Gaiman (Fantasy Classic)

My Thoughts: The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

This is the second novel I have read by Paulo Coelho and I have loved them both, its a shame I didn't discoved his works earlier in life!

'The Alchemist' is a short novel about the journey of a young shepherd to follow his dream to discover treasure in the Eygptian desert. The novel covers his journey from Spain across Africa and the Sahara. As with The Devil and Miss Prym the novel includes lots of philisophical thoughts and arguments, a belief in the self and some great descriptions.

I particuarly loved the boy's spirit, and the way he was free to follow his dream.

For a different opinion see here.

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.