A. Reading the World Challenge. Hosted by Papertigers.
I signed up here both for A and for myself. We had to complete six books each, based in/about different countries or written/ illustrated by people from different countries. 3 of which had to be from different continents. At least one from your country/state/city. There had to be at least one each of fiction, non-fiction, poetry.
For A: Status- complete.
*The Wolves in the Walls. Written by Neil Gaiman. British. Fiction.
*Ajoba-my grandfather. Written by Taruja Parande. India. Non-fiction.
*Hana's Suitcase. Written by Karen Levine. Czech Reublic. Non-fiction.
*Oranges in no-man's land. Written by Elizabeth Laird. Fiction.
*A Kick in the Head. Anthology by Paul B Janeczko. Poems sourced from Britain, USA, Canada, Australia. Poetry.
*On my Honor. Written by Marion Dane Bauer. US of A. Fiction.
The continents represented are Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
For myself: Status- complete.
*Anne Frank- Diary of a young girl. Holland. Non-fiction.
*The Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler romance triology. Historical fiction.
*A Poem for CRY. Anthology. India. Poetry.
*The boy who harnessed the wind. Malawi, Africa. Non-fiction.
*Dear Zari. Written by Zarghuna Karghar. Afghanistan. Non-fiction.
*Nanberry: Black Brother White. Written by Jackie French. Australia. Historical novel.
The continents represented are Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and North America.
B. 2011 South Asian Challenge. Hosted by S. Krishna's books.
I signed up here for the South Asian Explorer level, which required me to read at least 5 books. The books had to be by a South Asian author or set in a South Asian country or about South Asians living elsewhere.
According to the UN and the World Bank classification, the countries of South Asia are Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives.
Status: Complete.
*The Groaning Shelf and other instances of book love. Written by Pradeep Sebastian. India.
*A Poem for CRY. Anthology of poems recommended by famous Indians. India.
*The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Written by Urvashi Butalia. India/Pakistan.
*Dear Zari. Written by Zarghuna Karghar. Afghanistan.
*Belonging. Written by Sameem Ali. Pakistan.
C. 2011 Global Reading Challenge. Hosted by Dorte.
I signed up here for the easy level. For which I had to read one novel each from each continent, and include a seventh continent of my choice, which could be science fiction, future, past or fantasy.
I did not fare very well in this challenge, as I realised halfway through the year that I tend to favour reading non-fiction for myself, although I read a lot of fiction with A. Consequently, I did not really read 'novels' for this challenge, unless one counts those read under North America, Australasia and the seventh continent. Also, I have not yet got through my book for South America, though the year is over. I will be finishing the book in due course, though, and linking it up here.
Status: Incomplete. For both the above reasons- not finishing, and not being able to stick to the rules.
Asia : The Groaning Shelf and other instances of book love.
Africa : The boy who harnessed the wind.
Australasia : Nanberry- Black Brother White.
Europe : Anne Frank- diary of a young girl.
North America : The Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler trilogy.
South America : (to be finished)
Seventh continent : Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
D. 2011 Read-a-Myth challenge. Hosted by Bibliojunkie.
I signed up here for the Athena level, for which I had to read 2 books based on mythology.
I have read the two requisite books, but have not yet reviewed them. Which I will this year. They are
*In Search of Sita: revisiting mythology. Written by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal.
*Women of the Mahabharata: the question of truth. Written by Chaturvedi Badrinath.
Both these books take a look at these women from the two great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, in that order, from a fresh perspective.
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A few observations:
*My reading is centred mostly around Europe, Asia and North America. Maybe a few stray books from Australia and Africa. I am hard-pressed to find any good books from South America, and cannot name any writers/illustrators/books from there off the top of my head. Something I should look into.
*As a corollary to the above statements, I can cite this map which shows countries around the world where English is the de jure (official)/ de facto (commonly spoken) language.
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| map courtesy wikipedia |
*I tend to favour non-fiction over fiction, at least among the contemporary books.
*In fiction, I favour classics, historical fiction, fantasy fiction. Am not very enamoured of contemporary fiction. I'm sure there is plenty of good stuff that I am missing out on, so I must learn to look beyond the tottering piles of the current best-sellers at bookstores.
*I do a lot of reading about conflict in any form. I wonder what that says about me!?
*I have very exacting standards for what I pick up for A- one could call it the Saffrontree standard!:)
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I have certainly enjoyed, and learnt a lot from my reading journey in 2011. Another post will soon be coming up on my reading plans for 2012.
