my book challenge (2010)

I won't make this hard anymore. I've never completed this challenge since I started it in 2007. I started with 12 and increased it to 24 books and failed, so this time, I will just stick to the previous challenge.

12 books in a year maybe a small number for (voracious) readers but it remains to be a challenge for someone like me who always lacks the time and opportunity to sit and finish a whole.

But I will try to get this before the year ends. 12 books in a year! More than that will be heaven of course.

JANUARY
1. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

This book is thin. Good for one-sitting. Love how RJ Waller weaves the story. I have not seen the film, only because Clint Eastwood was in it. So I was able to conjure a different image of Robert Kincaid in my mind. Not the face of Eastwood. I don't know what to think about the affair but I was sure it was "genuine" more than the heart can tell. Honestly, I love the sentiments. I have underline every nice quotes in the book so that I would not forget.


FEBRUARY
2. Elizabeth Costello by JM Coetzee

There is an intellectual discourse in every page of this book. I was entangled. Coetzee has really a way with words. The book is so intelligent. I had to go back to some pages because I have lost for awhile. But disgressing is far from the mind of Costello. It's focused. It made me question a lot of things...issues that never bugged me before. It did now. The first Coetzee book I've read was YOUTH. A nice coming of age story. Very enticing.

3. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima

I've always see myself reading a Mishima book. I've been curious about him since the time I've read a Kawabata's book. A teacher and a protege...with one fate. Quite drastic if you think about it but then again, at least we know now where all these intransigent of ideas are coming from. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea is the first Mishima book I have ever read. I have 4 of his books in my shelf but I have never come down to actually sit and read one. One thing I can say, nothing will prepare me for a Mishima book. The Sailor is perverse. So strange in fact that it opened a pandora of questions in my head. But the ingenuity of his style is there. I just can't seem to digest the words fairly well. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe for the next book.

MARCH
4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I have been meaning to read this book for the longest time. This is only the second Gaiman book I have read after Anansi Boys which I genuinely liked. I like the ability of Gaiman to weave seemingly "unreal" creatures and situations and make (feel) them real to the eyes of the readers. And I was hooked to this book. I would have not put the book down but I had to eat and sleep so I could continue reading. I love the juxtaposes of "reality" versus the world of the gods and the creatures he created in my mind. It's like, to me...they were real.


APRIL-JUNE
5. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

An officemate saw me reading this book. He said: "You're only reading it now?" I said "Why have you read it already?" He gave me a quick smirk and chortle. "A long time a go. I think you were the only one who have not read it." That was a spite of course. I never liked his attitude but then again, such attitude inspired me to finish that hefty book. It took me 3 weeks though. Time...I wish I have more of that these days.


JULY - OCTOBER
5. Random House Guide to Good Writing by Mitchell Ivers

Someone let me borrowed his copy. I had to read. I need to read and finish.


Currently, I am reading this book: