Inspired by the fine folks at the Writers Water Cooler forums, I have taken on a reading challenge for this year, my first ever. As a writer, I tend to not read a lot of fiction when I’m working, but of course as writers we must read, just to see how other writers do things, and keep up with what’s current. And it’s enjoyable, a joy I admit I’ve forgotten.
So here is my list, 12 topics chosen from a suggested list of 40, with each book I have chosen.
- Coming to a theater near you: A book made into a major motion picture. (Stardust by Neil Gaimon)
- East meets West: A book taking place in Asia (anywhere in Asia; Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Indonesia) (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See)
- What you read: A book you loved as a child. (The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling)
- Loose ends: A book you started last year and haven’t yet finished. (Cinder by Marissa Meyer)
- No hablo: A translation. (The King of the Fields, Isaac Bashevis Singer)
- Out of the park on first at bat: A debut. (Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor)
- Huh, I never knew that: A book in a new-to-you genre. (The Aviary Gate, by Katie Hickman. It’s Historical Romance.)
- Rainbow warrior: A book with a color in the title. (Yellowtail, Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief, an Autobiography told to Michael Oren Fitzgerald)
- Who was that, again?: A book about a person you know little about. (The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire, by Jack Weatherford)
- God’s mansion has many rooms: A book based in a religion not your own. (Harm, by Brian W. Aldiss)
- Ye olde booke shoppe: A book written before 1700. (Gilgamesh.)
- Three-color mythology: A graphic novel or comic book. (Tiger Lung, by Roy Simon)
