Let's read: 2018 Reading Challenges

Wednesday, 16 January 2019

2018 Reading Challenges - Wrap-Up

I took part in five reading challenges (Emma's Book Club, Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2018, The "Piggybank" Challenge 2018, TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2018, and Travel the World Through Books), and added books to several other lists.

100 Books by the BBC
This is an old challenge, I added two more book to the list.
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Plath, Sylvia "The Bell Jar" (Die Glasglocke) - 1963

The 100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by The Guardian
I added another two books to this list.
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Grass, Günter "Die Blechtrommel. Danziger Trilogie 1" (The Tin Drum) - 1959

A Century of Books
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943

Best European Literature
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Remarque, Erich Maria "All Quiet on the Western Front" (Im Westen nichts Neues) - 1928

Bildungsroman
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943
Tremain, Rose "The Gustav Sonata" - 2016

Children's Books

I read these books ages ago when my children were small but I wrote a review this year to four more books from the list.

Carle, Eric "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
McBratney, Sam "Guess How Much I Love You"
Numeroff, Laura "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"
Seuss, Dr. (=LeSieg, Theo) "The Cat in The Hat"

Dutch and French Books

Word cloud made with WordItOut

2 French books, 7 Dutch books this year.

French
de Beauvoir, Simone "L'invitée" (She came to stay/Sie kam und blieb) - 1943

Dutch
Benali, Abdelkader "Bruiloft aan zee" (Wedding by the Sea/Hochzeit am Meer) - 1996
Boom, Corrie Ten "De Schuilplaats" (The Hiding Place. The Triumphant Story of Corrie Ten Boom/Die Zuflucht) - 1972
Hertmans, Stefan "Oorlog en terpentijn" (War and Turpentine/Der Himmel meines Großvaters) - 2013
Marbe, Nausicaa "Mândraga" (Mandraga/Mandraga) - 1998
McLeod, Cynthia "Hoe duur was de suiker?" (The Cost of Sugar) - 1987
Unigwe, Chika "Fata Morgana" (On Black Sisters' Street) - 2007

Emma's Book Club

An ever growing list of books about and for women, a group started by Emma Watson (better known as Hermione Granger), UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador. I added only one book to that list.
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943

German Books

Since German is my mother tongue and I can easily obtain books in that language, I read 37.

Abarbanell, Stephan "Morgenland" (Displaced) - 2015
Bánk, Zsuzsa "Schlafen werden wir später" [We will sleep later] - 2017
Bauer, Thomas "Die Vereindeutigung der Welt. Über den Verlust an Mehrdeutigkeit und Vielfalt" [The Unification of the World. About the loss of ambiguity and diversity] - 2018
Berlin, Peter "So sind sie, die Schweden: Die Fremdenversteher von Reise-Know-How" [This is how the Swedes are] - 2017
Bode, Sabine "Kriegsspuren: Die deutsche Krankheit - German Angst" [War Traces] - 2008
Bohlmann-Modersohn, Marina "Hamburg. Eine Stadt in Biographien" [Hamburg. A Town in Biographies] - 2013
Böttcher, Jan "Am Anfang war der Krieg zu Ende" (Y) - 2016
Busch, Nikki "Dies ist kein Adventskalender" [This is not an Advent Calendar] - 2012
Erpenbeck, Jenny "Aller Tage Abend" (The End of Days) - 2012
Feuchtwanger, Lion "Jud Süß" (Jew Suss) - 1925
Grass, Günter "Die Blechtrommel. Danziger Trilogie 1" (The Tin Drum) - 1959
Hahn, Ulla "Liebesarten" [Styles of Love] - 2006
Heidenreich, Elke "Also… - Kolumnen aus Brigitte 4" [So … Columns from the newspaper Brigitte 4] - 1988
Kaminer, Wladimir "Ausgerechnet Deutschland. Geschichten unserer neuen Nachbarn" [Germany of all. Stories of our new neighbours] - 2018
Kalisa, Karin "Sungs Laden" [Sung's Shop] - 2015
Kästner, Erich "Als ich ein kleiner Junge war" (When I was a little boy) - 1957
Kerkeling, Hape "Der Junge muss an die frische Luft. Meine Kindheit und ich" [The boy needs some fresh air] - 2014
- "Frisch hapeziert. Die Kolumnen" [Freshly "hallpapered"] - 2018
Kermani, Navid "Dein Name" [Your Name] - 201
Kermani, Navid "Zwischen Koran und Kafka. West-östliche Erkundungen" (Between Quran and Kafka: West-Eastern Affinities) - 2014
Kohl, Walter "Das leere Land" [The Empty Land] - 2011
Montasser, Thomas "Das Glück der kleinen Augenblicke" [The happiness of the small moments] - 2017
Nietzsche, Friedrich "Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft/Zur Geneologie der Moral" (Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future/On the Genealogy of Morality) - 1886
Orth, Stephan "Couchsurfing in Russland. Wie ich fast zum Putin-Versteher wurde" (Couchsurfing in Russia: Friendships and Misadventures Behind Putin’s Curtain) - 2017
Precht, Richard David "Anna, die Schule und der liebe Gott. Der Verrat des Bildungssystems an unsere Kinder" [Anna, the School and the Good God] - 2013
Roth, Martin "Widerrede! Eine Familie diskutiert über Populismus, Werte und politisches Engagement" [Contradiction (Talk back)! A family discusses populism, values and political commitment] - 2017
Rávic Strubel, Antje "Gebrauchsanweisung für Schweden" [User's Guide for Sweden] - 2008
Remarque, Erich Maria "All Quiet on the Western Front" (Im Westen nichts Neues) - 1928
Schami, Rafik "Die dunkle Seite der Liebe" (The Dark Side of Love) - 2004
Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Am anderen Ende der Nacht" (The Far Side of the Night) - 2016
Steghöfer, Marie-Helene "Ein Jahr in Schweden" [A Year in Sweden] - 2017
Tau, Max "Ein Flüchtling findet sein Land" [A Refugee Finds His Country] - 1964
Walser, Martin "Ein fliehendes Pferd" (Runaway Horse) - 1978
Weidermann, Volker "Ostende - 1936, Sommer der Freundschaft" (Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936) - 2014
Wimschneider, Anna "Herbstmilch. Lebenserinnerungen einer Bäuerin" [Autumn Milk. Memories of a Farmer's Wife] - 1985
Wolf, Christa "Der geteilte Himmel" (They Divided the Sky aka Divided Heaven) - 1963
Zeh, Juli "Corpus Delicti. Ein Prozess" (The Method) - 2009
- "Die Stille ist ein Geräusch. Eine Fahrt durch Bosnien" [The Silence is a Sound] - 2002

Migraine Books

and Links 2011, 2014, 2016

Word cloud made with WordItOut

I started a new list in 2016. You can find all the links here.

My Favourite Books Ever

Every year I find some more books I can add to my list of favourite books. 20 this year.

Abarbanell, Stephan "Displaced" (Morgenland) - 2015
Abulhawa, Susan "The Blue Between Sky and Water" - 2015
Bánk, Zsuzsa "Schlafen werden wir später" [We will sleep later] - 2017
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" - 1850
Ephron, Nora "When Harry Met Sally ..." - 1990
Frazier, Charles "Varina" - 2018
Jason, David "Only Fools and Stories: From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost" - 2017
Kalisa, Karin "Sungs Laden" [Sung's Shop] - 2015

Kennedy, Emma "Shoes for Anthony" - 2015

Kerkeling, Hape "Der Junge muss an die frische Luft. Meine Kindheit und ich" [The boy needs some fresh air] - 2014
MacGregor, Neil "Germany. Memories of a Nation" - 2014

Montasser, Thomas "Das Glück der kleinen Augenblicke" [The happiness of the small moments] - 2017
Orth, Stephan "Couchsurfing in Russland. Wie ich fast zum Putin-Versteher wurde"
[Couchsurfing in Russia: Friendships and Misadventures Behind Putin’s Curtain] - 2017
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Labyrinth of the Spirtis" (El laberinto de los espíritus - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #4/Das Labyrinth der Lichter) - 2016
Rutherfurd, Edward "Russka. The Novel of Russia" - 1991
Sansom, C.J. (Christopher John) "Dominion" - 2011
Schami, Rafik "The Dark Side of Love" (Die dunkle Seite der Liebe) - 2004
Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Am anderen Ende der Nacht" (The Far Side of the Night) - 2016
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943
Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens. Anne Boleyn. A King's Obsession" - 2017

Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books

Word cloud made with WordItOut

This is another list to which I could add seven more books.
Crwys-Williams, Jennifer (ed.) "In the Words of Nelson Mandela"
Grass, Günter "Die Blechtrommel. Danziger Trilogie 1" (The Tin Drum) - 1959
Ishiguro, Kazuo "The Remains of the Day" - 1989
Kross, Jaan "Professor Martens' Departure" (Professor Martensi ärasõit)
Lagerlöf, Selma "Sancta Lucia. Christmas Stories" (Kristuslegender) - 1893-1917

Oscar Winning Books

I added four more books in this category.
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Grass, Günter "Die Blechtrommel. Danziger Trilogie 1" (The Tin Drum) - 1959
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943
Williams, Tennessee "A Streetcar named Desire" - 1947

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (German: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)

Four books from authors in this category.
Kermani, Navid "Dein Name" [Your Name] - 2011
Kermani, Navid "Zwischen Koran und Kafka. West-östliche Erkundungen" (Between Quran and Kafka: West-Eastern Affinities) - 2014
Tau, Max "Ein Flüchtling findet sein Land" [A refugee finds his country] - 1964
Walser, Martin "Ein fliehendes Pferd" (Runaway Horse) - 1978

The "Piggybank"Challenge

This challenge goes officially from 1 March 2016 to 1 March 2017 but it's easier to wrap this up now with the rest of the challenges. This year, I read 129 books which resulted in €258 to spend on something I'd really like. You can find the whole list with links here.

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2018

I read 28 books with more than 450 pages, 6 of them were more than 750 pages, the reading challenge calls them "chunksters". You can find the whole list with links here.

The non-western books that every student should read

A friend sent me an article from the Guardian by Sunny Singh, lecturer at London Metropolitan University and author of "Hotel Arcadia". It's a wonderful list of books that are not that common in the Western world but that teach us so much about other parts of our globe.

Before 2018, I read:
Bâ, Mariama "So Long a Letter"
Mahfouz, Naguib "Palace Walk"

I added in 2018:
Buddha "The Dhammapada"

Unigwe, Chika "Fata Morgana" (On Black Sisters' Street) - 2007

TBR Pile Challenge 2018

Another old challenbge where the participants try to read as many books from their To Be Read Pile as possible. I managed 38 books that had been on that stack for a while. This doesn't mean that my TBR pile got any smaller since I also bought more new books. You can find the whole list with links here.

Top Ten Tuesday

I didn't participate in this challenge this year, however, I managed to read 4 new books that I mentioned on those lists.

Backman, Fredrik "A Man Called Ove" (En Man som heter Ove) - 2012
Carey, Peter "A Long Way From Home" - 2017
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" (David Copperfield) - 1850
Kaminer, Wladimir "Russian Disco" (Russendisko) - 2000

Travel the World Through Books

After reading the book "Die Ländersammlerin" [The collector of Countries] by Nina Sedano, I thought it would be great to read a book from every country in the world. I managed 82 until now, added four more this year: Albania, Belgium, Morocco and South Korea. If you have a good suggestion for those countries I haven't "visited, yet, please let me know.

Albania:
Kadaré, Ismail "The Fall of the Stone City" (aka Chronicle in Stone) (Albanian: Darka e Gabuar) - 1971

Belgium:
Hertmans, Stefan "Oorlog en terpentijn" (War and Turpentine/Der Himmel meines Großvaters) - 2013

Morocco:
Benali, Abdelkader "Bruiloft aan zee" (Wedding by the Sea/Hochzeit am Meer) - 1996

South Korea:
Han, Kang "The Vegetarian" (채식주의자/Ch'angbi/Die Vegetarierin)

What's in a Name Reading Challenge