Historia Brittonum by Nennius (Review)

Title: Historia Brittonum
Author: Nennius
First published Written: 833
Add it: Goodreads, The Book Depository
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Nennius's opus, thought rather short, is epic. He documents the history of Britain from Adam (every decent history should start there, right?) until 9th century. He traces the lineages of the peoples of Europe, talks about migrations and conquests... well, collects everything known to him, I guess :) But his focus is on Britain, first on its conquest by the Romans, and then on the Saxon invasion.

It was very interesting to read about numerous Roman undertakings in Britain and remember the facts I heard at British history lessons in the university. Then I was reminded of the fact that the Britons actually invited Saxons to live on their shores as a buffer from invasions. Who knew they would get OUT OF CONTROL? :) King Vortigern who invited them is an awesome character: he's portrayed as a coward, a tyrant and the one who would sleep with his own daughter and give the resulting (grand)son away. After becoming a hated figure for allowing Saxons take over he seeks refuge in Wales. Nice guy, eh?

As was usual at that time, Historia Brittonum contains not only more or less dependable facts, but also legends and rumors. Some of them are Christian, as for example the miracle of St. Germanus, and some of them are inherited from Welch mythology, as the story of Arthur's boar hunting with his legendary dog. The chronicle ends with the descriptions of the curiosities found in Britain beginning with hot springs in Bath and ending with flying stones.

Historia Brittonum is largely regarded as the first written source to document the life of king Arthur. However, he takes very little place in it, as he is only mentioned as a guy who battled Saxons twelve times. Not that is was something unusual at that time, but he was surprisingly successful in all of them. That's basically all that we get to know about him from this chronicle. He doesn't even fit in the story very well, because for every other known ruler Nennius gives his lineage from a god, or a Roman emperor, or some such famous character, and Arthur gets no such background.

In my book:
A nice example of an early history, although not very informative. Reads more or less as a legend collection, with the addition of some long tiring lineages.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman (Review)

Title: The Princess Bride
Author: William Goldman
First published: 1973
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Rating: ★★★★★

Another choice for Coursera Fantasy and Sci Fi book club has quite unexpectedly become a huge success with me. It's rather surprising, because really, if you read the premise it sounds like a typical Disney story. Don't let it mislead you! Even though “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.” are all present, as promised, it's also very, very funny.

The book is subtitled as "S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure. The "good parts" version abridged  by William Goldman", and it starts with an introduction in which the fictionalized Goldman explains how he came to love this book and why it needs abridging. The problem with the "original Morgenstern" is that he was writing a satire, and some satirical parts are better left out if the reader is not particularly interested in Florinese history and politics. So Goldman is doing what his father was doing when he read his son from the book - skipping the boring stuff. He actually substitutes it with his own commentary, justifying his omissions and commenting on their content. Sometimes the commentary also tells the reader about Goldman's experience when he was first read the book by his father. So, this way, with the additional awesomeness of Morgenstern's and Goldman's commentary, the story is told.

And the story itself is rather potent: not only does it have all the elements of a great narrative (fencing and true love, dudes!), it is also very ironic, with some twists of the plot rather unthinkable and some purely ridiculous. Yet, all of them pertaining to the style.

With all this complexity, the story holds together surprisingly well and is read in one breath. It took me only two nights, and that with all the impending exams. That says something about it!

In my book:
A great story: engaging, humorous, comforting. An unusual format adds to the appeal and doesn't distract :)

2014 TBR Pile Challenge

I was pondering if I want to join Adam's TBR challenge this year, because I failed miserably in it last year. You see, I'm really bad at planning ahead, so sticking to the list was really difficult. However, I guess I made it so difficult myself, as I chose some really daunting books. This year, I'm listing only the books from my TBR I'm really looking ahead. I hope that will help!

Books to read:

1. Historia Brittonum by Nennius
2. Historia regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth 
3. Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (what? I'm really looking forward to these three!)
4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (this one is supposed to be amazing and I'm surprised I'm putting if off)
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (I own these two in print, and they are calling to me from the shelf)
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (there are movies that I want to see!)
8. Paradise Lost by John Milton (I started it yesterday, and I need some extra motivation)
9. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (no reason whatsoever, only let's throw more Spanish guys here, maybe?)
10. Platero y yo by Juan Ramón Jiménez (this I have in Spanish, and in Spanish I must read it)
11. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
12. Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (I have these two on my reader already, so why not?)

Alternates:

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Shore by Yuri Bondarev (Review)

Title: The Shore
Author: Yuri Bondarev
First published: 1975
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Rating: ★★★★☆

When my mom and I were preparing a list of Russian war books (see how I'm building up your suspense, although only half of the list is translated yet? :)), I put off some I wanted to read, and began with this one, as I've never read anything by Bondarev before. He was very young when he went to war, and thus has had a lot of prolific writing years after it. This is not the most famous of his books, but it's certainly quite unique, as it is set long after the war.

Two writers, Nikitin and Samsonov, are invited to Germany in 1971 to give a talk about Nikitin's famous books. They were both in the war, and now they observe with interest how Germany has evolved since its defeat. Some of the things they see are just curious, come seem revolting for them. They meet a few representatives of the intelligentsia, and all goes well, until one of the receiving women tells Nikitin she is the girl he had an affair with for a couple of days in the end of the war, in a small town near Berlin, where their artillery battalion was quartered. Nikitin starts to remember those days, when years of hardships were nearly all behind, the victory was close, the spring was in full swing, and he was in love with a German girl, although this was, of course, severely punished if discovered. Now, 26 years later, they are both changed and have a lot behind them, but this feeling still lingers somewhere deep inside them, now bitter and sorrowful.

The book seems to be about love, but it's not. It's about the permanent changes war makes in individuals and nations, how decades after it's finished it's still the main factor in the lives of those who have survived it. It's a very sad book, which leaves a lot to think about, and it's also very psychologically precise: you will not find one-dimensional characters here. There is not a lot of descriptions of military operations in this book, so if you don't particularly enjoy them, it's a plus.

In my book:
A difficult book, with a lot of essence in it, but still gripping and beautifully written.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (Review)

Title: The Mysteries of Udolpho
Author: Ann Radcliffe
First published: 1794
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Rating: ★★☆☆☆

20 pages into this book I already regretted putting it on my Classics Club list. OK, it's an iconic Gothic novel, which has inspired a lot of followers since it was written, but it's very, very tiresome to read. Seriously, I was wondering how come Catherine Morland found it so exciting and how could Henry Tilney have read it in three days? It took me three months, on and off.

Let's be a little more organised than usual today and make a bullet list of things that I didn't particularly enjoy in the novel.

• The first problem of the book is, of course, the abundance of cumbersome poetry. The reader is lucky if there are only epigraphs from Milton or Shakespeare, as they are quite bearable, but sometimes it's real crap, which I can't even make sense of. Moreover, some of the heroes write "their own" poetry from time to time, which is even more horrible. Sorry, Mrs. Radcliffe, you are no Shakespeare.
• Second thing that bothered me was the descriptions of nature. They are everywhere and occupy nearly one third of the book, or so it seems. Imagine a heroine being led through the dark forest by a couple of ruffians at night and then just stopping to admire the stars. Yep, that's what happens here.
• It's slow! It's so slow that the castle of Udolpho is first mentioned only on page 188 out of 650. Argh!
• All the FEELINGS! The main heroine is particularly sensitive and is always fainting, blushing, crying, trying to find words, shocked, etc. I know, I know those were the times when it was considered desirable, but really?
• All the characters are either unreasonably evil or are saints. The only well-developed character in the book is Annette, Emily's maid, who is generally good, but talkative, shallow and superstitious. Her voice is the only one that is different from others.

Maybe for its time it was a super exciting novel, and there are some twists of the plot that liven it up a bit, but for a modern reader, even the one familiar with some old classics, it's a bit too much

In my book:
The only reason to read it is to get acquainted with the source of the genre. If you are not famous for your patience, skip it!

2014 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction is a genre I've always wanted to read more of. I have Wolf Hall lying on my desk for months, and this year I will also be joining some discussions at Plagues, Witches and War Historical Fiction Book Group. So this challenge is perfect for me! The full rules can be found here.

I'm joining for Renaissance Reader level, which means I aim for 10 HF books in 2014.

Books read:

1. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
2. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5. A Burnable Book by Bruce Holsinger
6. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
7. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
8. Seduction by M.J. Rose
9.  
10.  

Pre-Printing Press Challenge 2013-2014

The idea of this wonderful challenge is to read books that came out before 1440, when the printing press was invented. The full rules can be found here. As for me, I'm aiming to read 10 books that count, which is totally doable, I think!

Books read:

1. Historia Brittonum attributed to Nennius (833)
2. The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1136)
3. Life of Merlin by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1150)
4. Erec and Enide by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
5. Cligès by Chrétien de Troyes (1176)
6. Yvain, the Knight of the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
7. Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes (1170)
8. Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes (1190)
9.  
10.  

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge 2014

Last year I really enjoyed Giraffe Days' Around the World challenge in 2013, but it was quite... challenging, and I wasn't able to keep up. So I was very happy when Shannon announced that the rules would be more relaxed in 2014. So gladly I join for Casual Tourist level, which means I'll read 6 books set in different areas this year. I've chosen mine as following:

1. North America: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
2. South America: Dead Man's Tale by Joanna Chmielewska
3. Africa: 
4. Asia: 
5. Europe: The Shore by Yuri Bondarev
6. Australia, Oceania and Antarctica: At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

Here I'll link the books I read for the categories, and I hope this year I'll cover all of them! :)

The First Post of the New Year

Hi everybody!

Congratulations on all the past holidays! I haven't been around much since December 20th, as I went home for Christmas holidays, so I had too much real life to spend time online. Then my BF and I did a bit of travelling together, and yesterday I came back to my dull student life full of exams and deadlines :) Which means I'll probably not be very active in January too, but at least I'll catch up on all your posts. There are 300 unread items in my RSS! That's a lot of work!

Soon I'll post some more sign-ups that I haven't had time to do before and then I'll get back to normal reviewing routine. Also, my mom, my BF and I have prepared a list of must-read Russian war books for you, so I only need to find English translations to present it. I hope you are excited :)

Meanwhile, I have finished The Mysteries of Udolpho, which was not very rewarding, and now I'm reading The Shore by Bondarev, which is quite good. The reviews will be up soon!

And here, the cute one is serving as an apology for my long absence:

Have a nice day!

2013 Challenges Wrap-Up

2013 will soon come to an end, and it's time to wrap-up all the challenges I have participated in this year. It was my first full year of blogging, so I had no idea what would work for me. Thus so many challenges I failed in. So here they go in no particular order:

2013 TBR Pile Challenge

It seems challenges in which I have to stick to the list don't work well for me... So this one is rather a failure... But I've still read 5 books, and it's a win anyway! :)

My list:

1. Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
2. Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
3. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude
4. Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
5. Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
6. Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose
7. Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
8. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World
9. Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby
10. Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
11. Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
12. Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables

Alternates:

1. Maugham, W. Somerset: Of Human Bondage
2. Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

What's in a Name Challenge 2013

This year I've discovered I don't like choosing books according to their titles... So all the challenges that require something in the title were failures too... But I was really productive in terms of emotional titles :)

Categories:

1. A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt
2. A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs
3. A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness
4. A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire
5. A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy
6. A book with lost or found (or equivalent) in the title: The Book of Lost Fragrances, The World We Found, A Discovery of Witches

Books read:

1. 
   
2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
6. 
   

The Colorful Reading Challenge 2013

Faaaail, 5 instead of 8 books read...

Books read:

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
4. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
5. Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
6.  
7.  
8.  

Narrative Poem Reading Challenge 2013

Here I'm really ashamed: I was so excited with narrative poems, and wanted to read all of them, but this mood has disappeared and never came again for the whole year... I hope I'll read them sometime, though!

Books I plan to read:

1. Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
2. Ovid: Metamorphoses
3. Milton, John: Paradise Lost
4. Scott, Sir Walter: The Lady of the Lake
5. Virgil: Aeneid
6. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
7. Turold: The Song of Roland
8. Re-read some Scandinavian mythology or Tolkien (?)

Around the World in 12 Books Challenge

I really liked it in the beginning, but then some difficult countries came, and I couldn't find anything inspirational set in them, so I dropped it in summer. I'm going to join 2014 challenge though, which has easier rules.

List of countries: 

JANUARY = France: The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard
FEBRUARY = Sudan: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
MARCH = Wales: Mabinogion
APRIL = South Pacific Islands: Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
MAY = Belgium: The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
JUNE = South Korea
JULY = Israel
AUGUST = Palestine
SEPTEMBER = Brazil
OCTOBER = China
NOVEMBER = Egypt
DECEMBER = Argentina

Books On France 2013 Reading Challenge

One book short of my level! Well, I've done well anyway! :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
2. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
3. Germinal by Émile Zola
4. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
5. Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire
6. 
   

TEA & BOOKS Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This challenge was one of my most favourite ones! I love big books, and monthly check-ins were encouraging. I hope I'll finish one more book for the challenge in the next two days, but I've completed it long ago anyway!

Books read:

1. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (774 pages)
2. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (653 pages)
3. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (720 pages)
4. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (1074 pages)
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (851 pages)
6. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (713 pages)
7. The Thousand and One Nights (3624 pages, around 1500 of them read this year)
8. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman (704 pages)

2013 Genre Variety Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

I completed this challenge long ago, but I didn't enjoy it. Genres are fuzzy, and if you want, you can fit anything anywhere. 

Genres:

1. Children's fantasy: The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
2. Autobiography: The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard
3. Coming of age: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4. Southern gothic: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
5. Sea story: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
6. Detective: A Study in Scarlet & The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. Science fiction: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
8. Epistolary: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
9. Social criticism: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
10. Speculative fiction: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
11. ...

7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books - Reading Challenge 2013

This was fun in the beginning, but then all the participants and the host him/herself disappeared... It's not fun when there is no crowd, right?)

Books read:

1. From the 7 countries with the most population: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (USA)
2. From the 7 highest countries in the world: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Pakistan)
3. From the 7 oldest countries of the world: Aesop's Fables by Aesop (Greece)
4. From one of the 7 megacities of the world (Tokyo, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Seoul, Shanghai, Mexico City, Delhi)
5. From the 7 countries with the most immigrants (USA, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France, Saudi Arabia, Canada)
6. From the 7 richest (or poorest) countries (Richest: Luxembourg, Qatar, Macau, Norway, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong; Poorest: Congo, Liberia, Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone)
7. From the 7 most rainy (or dry) countries (Rainy: Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Burma, Malaysia, Guyana; Dry: Peru, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Erimates, Kuwait, Syria, Djibouti)

The European Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This one I liked a lot, but I can't say it made me choose books I wouldn't normally choose. I was just lucky my reading fit so well :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard - France
2. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - United Kingdom
3. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl - Spain (Well, actually it happens ALL AROUND Europe, but I had to choose one, so I chose the place of their first business success)
4. Oedipus the King by Sophocles - Greece
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Italy
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Germany
7. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier - Belgium
8. The Seagull by Anton Chekhov - Russia
9. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas - Norway
10. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson - Sweden
11. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Switzerland (Okay, only one of the stories is set in Switzerland, but it's one of the most important and the most well-known ones, and the scenery plays an important role in it, so I think it counts :))
12. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig - Austria

P.S. I've changed my UK book, because I've just noticed the books must be by different authors. Anyway, I've read gazillion of books set in UK :)

2013 Books in Translation Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

This is not even a challenge for me, as I read in translation A LOT... Some of the translations here may seem crazy, but there are a lot of them :)

Books read:

1. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard (French -> Russian)
2. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Japanese -> Russian)
3. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos (French -> Russian)
4. Oedipus the King by Sophocles (Classical Greek -> Russian)
5. Germinal by Émile Zola (French -> Russian)
6. The Mabinogion by Anonymous (Medieval Welsh -> Russian) 
7. Harry Potter y la cámara secreta by J. K. Rowling (English -> Spanish)
8. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Italian -> Russian)
9. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost (French -> Russian)
10. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier (English -> Russian)
11. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (English -> Russian)
12. Radost pro duši by Margaret Silf (English -> Czech)
13. Aesop's Fables by Aesop (Classical Greek -> Russian) 
14. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish -> Russian)
15. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian -> Russian)
16. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Swedish -> Russian)
17. Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire (French -> Russian)
18. The Thousand and One Nights (Arabic -> Russian)
19. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius (Latin -> Russian)
20. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino (Italian -> Russian)
21. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (German -> Russian)
22. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (German -> Russian)

2013 Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge

I can't say I'm a fan of detective stories, so I probably shouldn't have signed up for anything with this topic

Books read:

1. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
5. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
6. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
7. 
   

  Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013

The same... Although the categories were fun!

Scattergories:

1. Colorful Crime: a book with a color or reference to color in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: a book with a number, quantity in the title
3. Amateur Night: a book with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Leave It to the Professionals: a book featuring cops, private eyes, secret service, professional spies, etc.
5. Jolly Old England: one mystery set in Britain
6. Yankee Doodle Dandy: one mystery set in the United States
7. World Traveler: one mystery set in any country except the US or Britain
8. Dangerous Beasts: a book with an animal in the title (The Case of the Grinning Gorilla; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
9. A Calendar of Crime: a mystery with a date/holiday/year/month/etc. in the title (Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Holiday Homicide, etc.)
10. Wicked Women: a book with a woman in the title--either by name (Mrs. McGinty's Dead) or by reference (The Case of the Vagabound Virgin)
11. Malicious Men: a book with a man in the title--either by name (Maigret & the Yellow Dog) or by reference (The Case of the Haunted Husband)
12. Murderous Methods: a book with a means of death in the title (The Noose, 5 Bullets, Deadly Nightshade, etc).
13. Staging the Crime: a mystery set in the entertainment world (the theater, musical event, a pageant, Hollywood, featuring a magician, etc)
14. Scene of the Crime: a book with the location of the crime in the title (The Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
15. Cops & Robbers: a book that features a theft rather than murder
16. Locked Rooms: a locked-room mystery
17. Country House Criminals: a standard (or not-so-standard) Golden Age country house murder
18. Murder on the High Seas: a mystery involving water
19. Planes, Trains & Automobiles: a mystery that involves a mode of transportation in a vital way--explicitly in the title (Murder on the Orient Express) or by implication (Death in the Air; Death Under Sail) or perhaps the victim was shoved under a bus....
20. Murder Is Academic: a mystery involving a scholar, teacher, librarian, etc. OR set at a school, university, library, etc.
21. Things That Go Bump in the Night: a mystery with something spooky, creepy, gothic in the title (The Skeleton in the Clock, Haunted Lady, The Bat, etc.)
22. Repeat Offenders: a mystery featuring your favorite series detective or by your favorite author (the books/authors you'd read over and over again) OR reread an old favorite
23. The Butler Did It...Or Not: a mystery where the butler is the victim, the sleuth....(gasp) the criminal....or is just downright memorable for whatever reason.
24. A Mystery By Any Other Name: any book that has been published under more than one title (Murder Is Easy--aka Easy to Kill [Christie];Fog of Doubt--aka London Particular [Christianna Brand], etc.)
25. Dynamic Duos: a mystery featuring a detective team--Holmes & Watson, Pam & Jerry North, Wolfe & Goodwin, or....a little-known team that you introduce to us.
26. Size Matters: a book with a size or measurement in the title (Death Has a Small Voice, The Big Four, The Weight of the Evidence, etc.)
27. Psychic Phenomena: a mystery featuring a seance, medium, hypnotism, or other psychic or "supernatural" characters/events
28. Book to Movie: one vintage mystery that has appeared on screen (feature film or TV movie).
29. The Old Bailey: a courtroom drama mystery (Perry Mason, anyone?Witness for the Prosecution...etc.) 
30. Get Out of Jail Free: This is a freebie category. One per customer. You tell me what special category the book fits ("It's got an awesome cover!"..."First book I grabbed off my shelf") and it counts. Only thing I won't take is "It's a Vintage Mystery!"--that's a given. :-)

Books read:

1. Colorful Crime: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. Murder by the Numbers: The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Repeat Offenders: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Scene of the Crime: Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
5. Dynamic Duos: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Game of Thrones Reading Challenge 2013

OMG, I don't even know why I signed up for this challenge, as I wasn't going to read more than one anyway!

Books read:

1. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
2.  
3.  

2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge
COMPLETED!

I read 92!! I outdid myself by much more than I dared expect! I'm awesome.

Number of books read in 2012: 61

Number of books I plan to read in 2013: 70
  

New Authors Challenge 2013
COMPLETED!

I stopped counting at some point, because I read new authors all the time anyway :)

Books read:

1. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame 
2. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 
4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
5. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
6. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
7. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
8. Wool and Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey
9. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
10. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
11. Germinal by Émile Zola
12. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
13. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
14. Murder in Two Flats by Roy Vickers
15. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
16. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
17. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
18. Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost
19. The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
20. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
21. Radost pro duši by Margaret Silf
22. Aesop's Fables by Aesop
23. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
24. Light in August by William Faulkner
25. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
26. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
27. Beloved by Toni Morrison
28. ...

2013 Ebook Challenge
DROPPED

Here I also stopped counting, as I read everything on my ereader. I'm just not rich enough to buy real paper books :)

Books read:

1. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame 
2. The Story of My Misfortunes by Peter Abelard 
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami 
4. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 
5. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville 
6. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick 
7. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
8. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
9. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
10. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
11. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
12. Wool and Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey
13. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
14. Oedipus the King by Sophocles

OK, that's all! I wrote a separate wrap-up post for Back to the Classics challenge in August, so I'm done with all of them :) I have not been very clever with signing up this year, and I hope I'll be more successful in 2014!

Happy New Year and some nice challenges to everyone!!