What I Got for Christmas!

I don't know if I've mentioned that I have an awesome family. Christmas will stand me in good stead for the beginning of my book buying ban, I think. Altogether this christmas I received a grand total of twelve books!

Excuse the random Christmas paraphernalia in the photo! The books are:

Eternals by Neil Gaiman from my wonderful husband. Both of us love graphic novels, and our collection is steadily growing, which makes me really excited. I love them because they're so beautiful and so glossy and just generally exciting!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret  by Brian Selznick also from my husband. It has the most gorgeous artwork.  We saw the film just before Christmas and it was excellent. I'm halfway through the book at the moment, and I'm enjoying it. It will be very interesting to see how it measures up when I'm done though!

The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake by Mary Berry also from my husband (he knows me well!). 

Shakespeare by Bill Bryson from my mum. I'm a giant Bryson fan and I've yet to read this! It will tie in nicely with the year of reading Shakespeare.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz from my lovely sisters. I recently read this, but it was bought for me before I had, and I'm excited to own it as it was a library book and is one of those books which will probably benefit greatly from re-reading. 

From my father-in-law:

The Promised One by David Alric - a children's book that looks really interesting. 

Sourcery, Pyramids, Guards!Guards!, Eric, Moving Pictures and Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett - I plan to re-read the Discworld series in order, and these fill in most of the gap I had in the books I owned!!

I'm thinking that I will have to sign up for Hannah's Terry Pratchett reading challenge now. I've been umming and aahing about it, but now I have no excuse!

What did other people get?

Telling Tales Challenge Sign Up Post

I just realised I never got around to doing my own sign up post for the Telling Tales Challenge. Obviously there is some serious list making to be done! I'm attempting to find all the fairytale/mythology related stuff I have in the house as I'm not buying books next year, so it should be interesting! If you want to sign up for the challenge, you can do so here.

I'm signing up for Level 1 Classics, and level 3 Mix n' Match. For the classics I have to read five, which are going to be:

The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Aeneid by Virgil
Beowulf
The Collected Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen

These will also be included in the Mix n Match level, so I need another ten. I don't have all of my titles yet, but here are the ones I do have and I will add to the list as the year goes on:

1. The Magician's Nephew by C.S Lewis
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 
3. Ragnarok by A.S Byatt
4. Fables Volume 3: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
5. Fables Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham 
6. Fables Volume 5: Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham
7. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 
8. Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
9. Fables Volume 6: Homelands by Bill Willingham
10. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
11. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
12. Fables Volume 7: Arabian Nights (and Days) by Bill Willingham
13. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
14. 1602 by Neil Gaiman

I'm probably also going to watch some adaptations, but I'm not sure quite what or how many yet. The ones I currently have in mind are the recent version of Red Riding Hood, a rewatch of The Brothers Grimm, and several Disney marathons!

I'm super-excited about this challenge, and I hope I'll actually manage to complete it!

Get Steampunked! Challenge

After seeing Hugo the other day (which is incredible, if you haven't already go see it now!), I decided on something I've been wondering about for a while. I definiately need to read more steampunk, and so of course I signed up for a challenge!

Hosted by Bookish Ardour, the challenge runs from 1st January to 31st December, and can crossover with other challenges. The definition of steampunk from Steampunk Lab is:

it [steampunk] refers to a genre of fiction where steam power, spring gadgets and modern marvels of the 20th century are thrown back to Victorian aesthetics. Technology in a Neo-Victorian setting. The term has spread on to include not just books, but any real mashing up of technology with more classical style, where Verne-esque and Wellsian science is a reality. Some post-apocalyptic elements rise up on occation, depending on the portrayal.

I am going to go for the Geared level, which is five books. I've made my list already but I'm hoping that I'll end up reading lots more than this!

These are the books I plan to read:

• Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.P Dahlquist
• The Time Machine by H.G Wells

I may incorporate a re-read of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, as the challenge allows crossover books from the gaslight fantasy genre.

Another Challenge - Those Books I Should Have Read 2012 Reading Challenge

I keep signing up for challenges, but it's totally ok because this is another one that will help me with my book buying ban, and with the demolishing of my TBR pile! Hosted by Kelly at Reading with Martinis, the aim of this challenge is pretty self explanatory.

The books I should have read stare at me from my shelves every time I go in search of my next read. They're all the ones (Ulysses is the one that immediately springs to mind) that I have somehow managed to not quite get to despite being part of college/university courses or having been on the list of books I absolutely must read for years and years! Soooo this is going to be the definitive list of books I absolutely must read this year! Because I don't want to just end up saying I'll read them again and not (again), I'm going to sign up for level 1, which is just 6 books.

The six books I intend to read for this challenge are:

• Ulysses by James Joyce
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkein
• The Outsiders by S.E Hinton
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

If you want to sign up for the challenge, you can do so here.

The Telling Tales Challenge 2012!!

Picture credit: the Cheeseninja

Welcome to An Armchair by the Sea’s first reading challenge! Some of you may know about my love of/obsession with/totally crazed mania for all things fairytale and mythology based. While chatting with my sister Esther about our shared love of reading challenges and desire to set up a challenge of our own, we came up with an idea (inspired by the Once Upon a Time Challenge) for a challenge based around reading things to do with mythology, fairytales, legends and folklore, and so here it is!

The Telling Tales Reading Challenge 2012

Rules:

·         Challenge runs from January 1^st 2012 to December 31^st 2012. You may sign up to participate at any point between these dates.

·         Any genre counts as long as it is related to fairytale, folklore, or mythology in some way. If you’re not sure if it counts – as long as you can make a case for why it should, then it does!

·         You can re-read books for this challenge as long as the reviews you link are written during 2012, and the challenge can also overlap other challenges.

·         Whatever you read must either be a version of a fairytale or myth, or contain fairytale or mythological characters, settings, or sequence of events.

·         Every month there will be update posts either here or on my sister’s blog. Please link up your reviews for that month on this post.

That’s it!

Now, the important bit.

The Categories

These are the levels:

Level 1: Read 5 books

Level 2: Read 10 books

Level 3: Read 15 books

Level 4: Read 20 books

Level 5: Read 25 books

You can sign up for any level, and choose to read either purely the categories listed below, or to participate in the Mix n Match category, or the Adaptation Amalgamation category, or all of them if you're that brave!

Categories:

Twisted Fairytales – retellings or modern interpretations of fairytales or myths. For inspiration, look here.

Classics – Myth and fairytale from the classics genre (e.g. Homer, Grimm, Virgil, Hans Christian Andersen)

Graphics – Graphic novels and comics based around or containing elements of mythology and fairytale. Examples include Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Bill Willingham’s Fables series among others. For a list that barely scrapes the surface, go here.

Poetry & Drama – We’ve put this in because we’re sure there must be some. I've managed to find some, but if you know of any others please let us know!

Non- Fiction – Anything about myth, fairytale, folklore or fantasy in general that doesn’t belong to the fictional genre.

Extra Categories

Adaptation Amalgamation – Watch a film and read the book it is based on. This category can incorporate as many other categories as you like (i.e all your films do not have to be based on graphic novels, but some can be, and some twisted fairytale, some non-fiction etc)

Mix n Match – Exactly what it says. Sign up for a level and pick that number of books from any or all of the other categories.

As you can probably tell, Esther and I like to make lists. If this seems incredibly convoluted and off-putting, we apologise and take solace in the fact that we have each other, so neither of us will be doing the challenge alone! We do hope that other people will join us though, as it’s always fun to find out about new books, and the more people that do it, the more likely we are to finish it!

If you’d like to join, please leave a comment with a link to your sign up post. 

Participants:
1.Bex  (An Armchair by the Sea)
2.Esther (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)
3.Jennifer (An Abundance of Books)
4. Hannah (Once Upon a Time)
5. Kailana (The Written World)
6.Tom (Life, Love and the Universe)
7. Lindy
8. Alberta (Alberta Reads)
9. Nicola (Back to Books)
10. Kim (Page After Page)
11. K (Very Simple Secret)  
12. West Virginia Red (West Virginia Red Reads)
13. Tobe (Wading Through the Ocean of Life)
14. Michelle (The True Book Addict) 
15. Jenny (Stone Soup Books)
16. Jackie (Books n Tea)  
17. Mirjam
18. Ricki (Reading Challenged)  
19. Eden Mabee (A Garden of Delights)
20. Michele A (NinjaInk)
21. Lisa (Lit and Life)
22. Hanna (Booking in Heels)
23. Kristen (A Writer's Wife)
24. Sary (Some People Use Their Imagination)

  
Master list of reviews here.

Shakespeare Challenge & Support Your Local Library!

I just wanted to mention another couple of challenges. As these two are both currently quite small, and really will help me towards my book buying ban, I thought I'd just do a mini post about both of them! I really will start posting proper content again soon!

Reading Shakespeare: A Play a Month in 2012

I’ve not read any Shakespeare since graduating over three years ago, and I think it’s time to rectify that! Risa at Breadcrumb Reads is hosting a Shakespeare Reading challenge, which I have signed up for. There was a poll, and these are the results. We are going to read a play a month in 2012!

• January — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• February — Macbeth
• March — Henry V
• April — Much Ado About Nothing
• May — Antony and Cleopatra
• June — Richard III
• July — As You Like It
• August — King Lear
• September — Cymbeline
• October — Twelfth Night
• November — Othello
• December — Pericles

Yay for Shakespeare! 

Support Your Local Library Challenge 2012

In keeping with my attempt to sign up for challenges which will help me to keep to my 2012 book buying ban, I’m signing up for the Support Your Local Library challenge, which does exactly what it says it does. Hosted by The Eclectic Bookshelf, the challenge runs from 1^st January 2012 to 31^st December 2012. Re-read don’t count, and obviously the books must all be library books! You don’t have to have a blog to participate, so go sign up for it!

With libraries so much talked about lately, and with the threat of closures looming large in my local area, as well as in the rest of the UK, it’s more important than ever to support your local library if we want them to be there for future generations. Personally I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been like without the library, so I’m quite vocal in my support for the saving the libraries!

There are four levels for this challenge which are as follows:

Level 1: Read 12 library books

Level 2: Read 24 library books

Level 3: Read 36 library books

Level 4:  Read 37+ library books

Originally I thought I’d come in at about level 2, but I’ve decided to be brave and dive in at the deep end, so I’m signing up for Level 4! 

Here are the library books I have read:

1. Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller was Dad and LIfe was a Catch 22 by Erica Heller
2. Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky
3. A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
4. Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan
5. The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
6. The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith 
7. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua
8. The Lost Art of Gratitude - Alexander McCall Smith
9. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian - Rick Riordan
10. The Cookbook Collector - Allegra Goodman
11. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
12. Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams - Jenny Colgan
13. Fairytale Ending - Gigi Levangie
14. The Borrower - Rebecca Makkai
15. The Resourceful Mum's Handbook  - Elen Lewis
16. Secrets to Happiness - Sarah Dunn
17. Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers - Marika Cobbold 
18. Let's Pretend This Never Happened - Jenny Lawson
19. The Meryl Streep Movie Club - Mia March
20. I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Reflections on Being a Woman - Nora Ephron
21. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading  - Nina Sankovitch
22. Last Christmas - Julia Williams
23. The Pi**ed Off Parents Club - Mink Elliot
24. Peaches for Monsieur le Cure - Joanne Harris
25. Moranthology - Caitlin Moran
26. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

You can sign up here. Libraries are an awesome thing! 

Mixing It Up Challenge 2012

I’m a challenge addict. I can’t help it. I am still desperately attempting to only sign up for challenges which help me read the gigantic pile of books I already own, or library books. I also want to apologise for the blog being pretty much nothing but sign up posts lately, I will post some reviews soon I promise! Anyway, here’s another. Ellie from Musings of a Bookshop Girl is hosting the Mixing it Up Challenge 2012, encouraging us to broaden the genres we read!

There are sixteen categories which are:

Classics - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

Biography - Dear Fatty - Dawn French

Cookery, Food and Wine

History - Anything Goes - Lucy Moore

Modern Fiction - The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson

Graphic Novels and Manga - Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

Crime and Mystery - One Good Turn  - Kate Atkinson

Horror

Romance - The Patchwork Marriage - Jane Green

Science Fiction and Fantasy - Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Travel - Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry

Poetry and Drama

Journalism and Humour - I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman - Nora Ephron

Science and Natural History

Children’s and Young Adult - Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan

Social Sciences and Philosophy - Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua

There are five levels, named after baking type things, and the one I’m going to go for is the second highest: Two – Tier Cake, which means I need to read 13-15 books from the different categories. The books listed are the ones I intend to read, and as I finish them they will be linked to the reviews. Last year I decided I wanted to read more non-fiction, and managed to stockpile a fair amount of non-fiction books which I’m hoping to read for this challenge. There are no genres in this challenge that I’ve never read before, but there are a lot that I’ve not read much of.

Books in blue are the ones I've read - they will be linked to reviews when I get around to writing them!!

If you want to sign up for this challenge you can do so here.

New Author Challenge 2012

When I said I was going to sign up for less reading challenges in 2012, I may have inadvertently been lying... However, what I am doing is signing up for more manageable challenges (I'm not sure what's up with the italics.. I'm an italic-ey mood today I guess). Instead of getting completely carried away in a sea of lists, recommendations, and books I absolutely must read now, I'm trying to be calmer and going for challenges that incorporate a lot of the books I already own, along with library books, and which can all be used to help each other. As I love to expand my list of authors I love, I am really excited by the idea of the New Author Challenge, hosted by Literary Escapism. The rules are fairly simple:

• The challenge runs between January 1st, 2012, and December 31st 2012
• You can use books from other challenges but the authors must be new to you, and only a third of your total reading for this challenge can come from anthologies. The rest must be from novels.
• Either pick 15, 25, or 50 new authors to try during 2012
• After reading a new author, add the review to the linky on the website

Because I don't want to be too mad, I'm going to go for 25 new authors to start off with. This hopefully shouldn't be too difficult as I know there are a fair few I've not yet read on my list for the Mount TBR Challenge to start off with, plus it gives me an excuse to browse the library even more than usual!

These are the new authors and books I have read in 2012:

1. Yossarian Slept Here by Erica Heller
2. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
3. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
4. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
6. Kick Ass by Mark Millar
7. A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
8. Dear Fatty by Dawn French
9. Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen 
10. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 
11. Ragnarok by A.S Byatt
12. Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
13. The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
14. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
15. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
16. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
17. French Lessons by Ellen Sussman
18. We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
19. The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
20. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
21. Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
22. One Moment One Morning by Sarah Rayner
23. The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan
24. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
25. Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel
26. The Resourceful Mum's Handbook by Elen Lewis
27. Fairytale Ending by Gigi Levangie
28. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
29. Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn
30. Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers by Marika Cobbold 
31. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
32. The Meryl Streep Movie Club by Mia March
33. I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
34. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch
35. The Politically Incorrect Parenting Book by Nigel Latta
36. Last Christmas by Julia Williams
37. The Pi**ed Off Parents Club by Mink Elliot

A Classics Challenge

Continuing with my plans for reading my own books and library books only for as long as possible in 2012, I’ve signed up for what seems like it will be an awesome challenge. Katherine at Novembers Autumn is hosting A Classics Challenge, for which all you have to do is make a list of 7 classics you plan to read in 2012. On the 4^th of every month, she will post questions on her blog, and the idea is for participants to answer these questions which will be broad enough to apply to whatever book people happen to be reading. Also, you only have to commit to question answering during three months of the entire year, which is great for people who are a bit rubbish at consistently remembering about all the challenges they’ve signed up for, like me!

So here is my list of the seven classics I’m hoping to read in 2012:

1.       The Odyssey – Homer

2.       The Awakening – Kate Chopin

3.       Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.       Shirley – Charlotte Bronte

5.       The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte

6.       North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell

7.       A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway

All of these are currently on my 'Classics' shelf, and all of them are books I've been trying to get to for a while!

Sorry about all the challenge sign up posts going up at the moment, I’m getting them out of the way and will get back to the reviews soon I promise!