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Oh, this is hard to admit, but I think I failed at my own challenge. Ah well.

I came really close and read a lot of books I wouldn't have otherwise read, so not all is lost. I'm excited to try again next month!

Here's what I did get done:

Comedy Books:
Bottle Factory Outing
Cold Comfort Farm
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Crime:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Family and Self:
Ballet Shoes

Love:
The End of the Affair

Scifi/Fantasy
Wintersmith (for Discworld)
The Golden Compass (for His Dark Materials)

I'm half way through Cranford, which is one of the books for State of the Nation. I didn't do anything for War and Travel, but I have a lot of Tintin checked out from the library.

Overall, 8.5 books. Not too shabby. Not like I was eligible for any of the prizes anyway!

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Well, it's February 1st, and then end of the Guardian Challenge (you have until midnight your time) so, leave your link to your wrap-up post below! If you've already given your wrap-up post because you finished early, don't worry about it, but feel free to add it again.

There will be prizes drawn for those who finished!

Also, I had a lot of fun with this challenge and WILL be doing it again, but it won't start up again until March. There will be a few changes, but stay tuned! I hope you'll join me for Guardian 2.0.

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I apologize for the lateness of this roundup post. We're coming to the end of the challenge. Many of you have already linked to your wrap-up posts, and if you haven't, I'll have a final post in February for the finish line. (If you've already given me yours, no worries!) There will be more prizes, but not straight from England this time.

I had a great time with this challenge and am thinking about doing it again (with a few tweaks) next year? Is anyone else up for another round? Please let me know! In the meantime, leave your January links below!

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So, for my China Challenge, if you're doing the Silk Road Trek level, you have to do 3 out of 10 China-related tasks. I've done 2!

One involves making a Chinese recipe that you've never made before. Done and Done. I highly recommend the Green Tea Steamed Shrimp Dumplings from Ying Chang Compestine's new book, A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A Collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales.

Another one is to listen to some lessons on Chinese Pod and learn some Mandarin. I actually spent my birthday money this year to buy a subscription to this site because I haven't kept my Mandarin up at all and that makes me sad. When I signed up, they had a sale, so I was upgraded to the guided level, which means I have a teacher who tells me which lessons to study and the calls me once a week from Shanghai! This level is so great because that means I HAVE to study.

It's funny though, because one thing I've realized is that I remember weird idiomatic things, but not how to say the days of the week. It's interesting what sticks and what doesn't...

And look! I actually read a book for my Guardian Challenge!

The Golden Compass Philip Pullman

Can you believe I hadn't read this yet?! There's a reason I put it on my gaps list.

For those you don't know (which I certainly didn't. All I knew was that there was a talking polar bear, a girl named Lyra, an evil monkey, and everyone had these animal spirit things)

Lyra has been raised by the scholars of Jordan College, part of Oxford University. She pretty much has her run of the place and the town. Her uncle comes to visit and Lyra saves him from being poisoned. Kids start disappearing up and down the countryside and Lyra goes to live with the beautiful Mrs. Coulter. Lyra then discovers Mrs. Coulter is behind the disappearing kids AND she's the one holding Lyra's uncle prisoner. So, with a band of gyptians, she goes to Lapland to save the day.

Pretty good adventure story. Plus, there's lot of stuff about Dust and the role of the daemon (the animal spirit thing that everyone has.) I know Pullman wrote this as an atheist Narnia and I don't mind that one bit. But... when he starts trying to criticize the Church (because it's obviously based on the Catholic Church) that's where the story got weak and I got annoyed. Just like I get annoyed when authors impart LARGE MORAL LESSONS into their works, it annoyed me. Luckily, there wasn't *too* much of it. And usually, the Church bits read a bit like a Dan Brown conspiracy, which I happen to really enjoy. But, at the same time, if you really wanted to criticize the Church, reading a bit like a Dan Brown conspiracy while great for my reading tastes doesn't say much about your criticism.

I'm torn on whether or not to read the next two books. Someone I really respect told me not to and where I really liked this, I wasn't compelled to run over and get the next ones right away, probably because the bit at the back of the book where it tells you to read the next two says that it takes place in a different universe. That makes total sense in relation to the book, but lessens my desire to read further, for some reason I can't fully put my finger on. THAT'S JUST ME. I AM WEIRD.

But, I am really, really glad I read this. And while the Guardian list has "His Dark Materials" on its list, I'm thinking that I don't have to read this whole series, just this.

Book Provided by... my library

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Get your October links in down below!

*ALSO! THERE WILL BE A PRIZE DRAWING AT THE BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER!*
I picked up some prizes when I was in London last month, so I'll be drawing for those! There will be 4 prizes, two of which will be drawn from all reviews since the challenge opened, and two of which will be drawn from reviews posted since the last prize draw (so May-October). Every review you post gets you an entry, so get reading!

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Leave your links for your August reviews below.

As a sweetener, I'll be headed back to England in September and will pick up some more goodies for all reviews posted May-September. Every review gets you an entry, so get to it! I'll also be in Paris on my way to London, so there might be French stuff involved. YOU NEVER KNOW!

There's news on the Mr. Linky front, but I don't have time to wade through it to get it to work. So, I haven't updated July's review post yet, because I'm hoping that me and Mr. Linky will be friends again by tomorrow night. Just leave your comments and I'll Linky you up when I figure it out!

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How's your Guardian Challenge Reading going?

Leave a link too all of your reviews of the books you read in July down in the comments. I'll add them to the post probably when I do the August review-links post.

And, just for your enjoyment, I've made some more buttons for y'all to use.

Happy reading!

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Hey folks! Time to update your June reviews!

BUT! Mr. Linky is having some issues and disabled my favorite widget, so... leave me a comment and I'll update this post with your reviews. Or add them to Mr. Linky when they get their issues resolved.

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Finally! Here's your place for your May Reviews! Sorry for the delay! Also, below are the prizes and winners for February-April reviews...

It looks like Mr. Linky isn't behaving at the moment. Hopefully that's a temporary thing.






And... for the prizes that come all the way from England, we have...


First up, two magnets of London, both from the Tower of London. One is of some phone boxes and the other is of the a London Underground sign. goes to Semi Professional Muse for Hire's review in March of Tales of the City.

Next up are two book marks, also from the Tower of London. One is Lace and the other is a Warhol-ized version of Henry VIII. These are off to FleurFisher for the April review of South Riding.

And finally, we have a lined notebook with an image of classic Penguin spines, from Foley's Bookshop in London. It goes to A Hazra's April review of Catcher in the Rye.

If everyone who won could email me mailing addresses in the next week, that'd be great!

Keep reading, more prizes will be coming at some point!

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Hi all! Well, the Guardian Novels Challenge has started!

If you read and review something this month, leave your link below!

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Well, here I am, hosting my very first challenge!

The British paper, The Guardian, has come up with a list of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read Before They Die. (In case they take that link down, I've also posted the list here.)

So, the challenge is to read 10 and review read and review 10 books off the list (that's 1%) between February 1st of 2009 and February 1st of 2010.

Of these 10, you must read 1 from each category and, if possible, 1 should be a book you have never heard of until you saw it on this list.

Feel free to complain about certain books being included or not included.

Also, they have broken the list into smaller sections, with annotations, so you can see what a book is about before you check it out.

I'll have a post every month rounding up your reviews and it'll be lots of fun, so sign up below!

UPDATE There will be prizes! I'm not sure what yet, but at the end, there will be a prize drawing for everyone who finishes, and probably a drawing or two along the way...

Also, feel free to use these buttons!

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