It's a little bit early, but I've noticed that folks are starting to put their 2012 Challenges out there and I want you to have time to put your thinking caps on. Once again, I will be sponsoring the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge--but with a bit of a twist. I wanted to mix things up a bit to keep it interesting for all of you who have joined me in Vintage fun for 2011. This year it's all about Vintage Themes. In order to participate, you will need to choose at least one Vintage Theme listed below (minimum 8 book commitment)**. Here are the general rules:
*All books must have been written before 1960 and be from the mystery category (crime fiction, detective fiction, espionage, etc.). Please remember that some of our Vintage authors wrote well after 1959--so keep an eye on the original publish date.
*You are welcome to count these books towards any other challenges as well.
*Challenge runs from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Sign up any time between now and November 30, 2012. If you have a blog, please post about the challenge and your theme commitment. Then sign up via the linky below. And please make the url link to your Challenge post and not your home page.
*I would love to see reviews of your challenge books, but it is not necessary to participate. If you do not have a blog, post to the comments what your challenge commitment will be and then post again at the progress site (see below) when you have completed your challenge (include a list of books read).
*No matter what theme you choose, please read from at least two different vintage authors.
*Everyone who completes their declared theme/s will be entered for a prize drawing at the end of the year. Anyone who completes two or more themes (16 or more books) will automatically receive their choice from a prize list.
*On January 1st, I will post a site where you can link up your reviews/progress.
Vintage Themes:
1. Colorful Crime: 8 books with colors in the title
2. Murder by the Numbers: 8 books with a number in the title
3. Occupational Hazards: 8 books with a "detective" who is not a P.I.; Police Officer; Official Investigator (Nurse Keate, Father Brown, Miss Marple, etc.)
4. Perilous Policemen: 8 books with a policeman as the primary investigator
5. Lethal Locations: 8 books that are all about place (for instance: country houses, hospitals, schools or even particular cities/countries)
6. Dangerous Beasts: 8 books with an animal in the title (The Bat; The Canary Murder Case; etc.)
7. Deadly Decades: 8 books, one from each time period plus one of your choice (Pre-1900s; 1900-09; 1910-19; 1920-1929; 1930-1939; 1940-1949; 1950-59)
8. Golden Age Girls: 8 books by female authors OR 8 books with female detectives
9. Cherchez le Homme: 8 books by male authors OR 8 books with male detectives
10. Murderous Miscellany: Choose your own theme. Get creative--surprise us! The only stipulation is that the theme cannot be reading books by a single author.
**Addendum: Mini-Challenge Level--for those who would like to participate at a lower commitment. Choose any theme for a commitment of 4 books. Challengers who complete this level will be eligible for a separate year-end prize drawing. Anyone who has already committed to an eight-book theme and would like to change levels may do so until the end of January. Please let me know by posting the new commitment on your sign-up post and in a comment below.
For those who are new to the Vintage Mystery field, you can find some great ideas for reading at the Progress Site for the 2011 Vintage Mystery Challenge. Participants have shared reviews for a wide assortment of authors.
52 comments:
Hi Bev
Though, I am yet to complete the current challenge, I have become excited about this one.
@neer: I'm glad it's sparking your interest. I'm hoping to see some creative themes!
Dear Bev,
the 2012 Challenge sounds really great - and I am still enjoying the 2011 Challenge!
I know what the themes will be but I haven't come up with a list of books yet - that may prove a bit more time consuming - however I will definitely be going for GOLDEN AGE GIRLS but that is all I'm prepared to say right now ... Post going up on my blog very shortly - and thanks as always for coordinating our fun.
Sergio
I'm in, but I'll have to think about what theme I want to go with.
Sergio's post on his signing up for this challenge reminded me that I had't posted about it after promising yu I would. I finally did so yesterday and posted it late last night. It's here. He also inspired me to tackle three separate categories. It seems as if we're all getting comeptitive amongst ourselves.
Very difficult deciding which themes to choose! Looking forward to participating.
I'm in, please! I've posted a tentative list for the Deadly Decades theme on my blog - the only trouble is, now I want to start reading them right away instead of waiting for 2012!
That is the problem with posting this so soon. I'm chomping a the bit as well. Hard to focus on the books I still have left on my 2011 challenges.
I'm in! It was difficult to decide what theme to choose, but I made a list for "Cherchez le Homme", although some of the titles may change depending on what I find in the library.
My list is now up and I'm ready to go. Love the idea of themes, and had great fun deciding on mine. Can't wait to tackle this challenge and read everyone's reviews.
Hooray! And what a fine collection of themes, Bev. I will enter "Deadly Decades." A full list (well, the seven "assigned" time slots) is on my blog, plus that "free agent" slot to be assigned at a later date. I'll probably do eight weekly reviews beginning mid-to-late January. Really looking forward to seeing other people's entries!
I just posted this on Les Blatt's website, but then a luminous light bulb appeared above my head that suggested to click on the link he provided. So here's it again:
I want to participate in this Vintage Mystery Challenge with a Murderous Miscellany category entitled Dutch Delinquencies (need to work on a better title), but the problem is that a vintage Dutch mystery is defined by its style and not its publication date – which makes it kind of hard to compile a list without post-1960s books. With the amount of vintage mysteries I read on a yearly basis, the other categories hardly pose a real challenge to me.
TomCat: I realize that pre-1960 is an arbitrary date on my part (and I'm not sure what I'd say if I had to defend it...), but I'm pretty much a stickler for the rules I've established for the challenge. I will offer this compromise...you are absolutely welcome to join in and post your reviews of "Dutch Delinquencies" mysteries in a Murderous Miscellany category and expose us to those types of mysteries. I am curious what exactly makes a vintage Dutch mystery. However, if you would like to be eligible for the prizes that will be on offer, then you will also need to complete at least one theme (and it can be miscellaneous as well) that absolutely meets the criteria I've set out. One qualified completed theme = entrance in the end-of-year prize drawing; two qualified completed themes = automatic prize.
Bev,
It's OK if I don't qualify for any prizes. I only need the motivation provided by this challenge to finally immerse myself in this particular nook of the genre without prolonged distractions. Expect my list for Dutch Delinquencies to pop-up on my blog over the weekend.
TomCat: Sounds good!
I'm definitely in, Bev, but it will take me a bit to think of an interesting theme! I'll post soon!
Col: will look forward to seeing what you decide to do!
Bev,
My list of Dutch Delinquencies has been posted and can be found here.
If you want to know what to expect from this category, I suggest taking a look at look at my reviews of Books' The Last Chance and Aafjes' The Trampled Peony.
I hesitated, but an hour of research gave me book titles I could get my hands on and that would fit the theme I had in mind. :)
Okay Bev, I've got my list all worked out and I am going to daring this time and do three themes!
Golden Girls
Cherchez le Homme
and one of my own making:
Authors born in Ireland/Scotland
Will post list soon on my blog!
Can't wait to get started!
I signed up for the Golden Girls as I really want to try out Dorothy Sayers and some other female authors of that era.
This looks like it will be a ton of fun :)
I edited my post and decided to double up and do the Golden Girls and Cherchez le Homme.
Peggy - You are so adventurous with three themes :)
Oh, how exciting! I have to ponder my TBR shelves to see which eight books fit into a theme. I'll get my post up ASAP.
Sharon: "Vintage Via Nook" is a perfectly acceptable category--as long as the books meet the two major stipulations: originally printed pre-1960 and by at least two authors. I have no rule against e-readers (or audio-books).
What are your rules for books that were written before the end-date, but edited/reviewed after that date? John Dickson Carr did it with "Devil Kinsmere", and his revision, "Most Secret", came out in 1964, just 4 years after your due date. It was one of the books I thought of doing for my theme, but I ended up finding enough devilish titles to fill the rest of the list...
@Patrick: if there is good evidence that books/stories were written prior to 1960, then I'm willing to count them. For instance, last time around, I accepted a few Christie collections where the short stories had all appeared in print separately prior to '60, but the collection was published later. Also--a couple of collections of various authors that contained pre-1960 stories in a post-1960 book.
Hi Bev
Count me in. Here's my post:
http://inkquilletc.blogspot.com/2011/12/reading-challenge-1.html
Bev,
I wanted to inform you that due to a preemptive strike, Tjalling Dix's Een kogel voor Oedipus (A Bullet for Oedipus) had to be replaced with W.H. van Eemlandt's Dood in schemer (Death at Twilight).
When the package, containing the book, arrived in the mail, all of a sudden, temptations levels all around the house sky rocketed and I felt compelled to read it before greeting the New Year. I'm hopeless like that.
Here's the review.
I'd love to take part. Sad thing is, I signed up for the 2011 challenge and didn't read a single mystery/crime book this year!...I suspect it might be the same... at least, I have a couple of such books in mind for 2012, but 8?.... I'll see...
Hi,
I've just discovered your blog and am enjoying reading it. I'm also looking forward to joining the 2012 Vintage Mystery Reading challenge.
I'm in...Deadly Decades. I'll read a book from each decade, then a collection of pre-1960s stories in a post-1960 anthology.
Ummm, I'm going to come back to this one at a later time, another year. Have gotten cold feet.:) Thanks for understanding.
@Tea: I do understand. Hope to see you back another year.
I'm now officially signed up. I was very tempted by Deadly Decades, but want to read books already on my TBR shelf, so went with Golden Age Girls. I may add the male version as well if I get on a roll.
I will get my sign up post done within a few days. I am definetly on baord for the new year.
Hello! I've signed up and am looking forward to this challenge. My link didn't show up in the linky list above...guess it will? My post for the challenge is here:
http://abookwormsjourney.blogspot.com/2011/12/vintage-mystery-reading-challenge.html
I'm going to do Murderous Miscellany. My challenge will be to read 1 book from each of your categories!
Ellie Oberth
Attempting Golden Age Girls and Cherchez le Homme.
Got my post linked and I'm going for 4 different challenges. I'm doing Occupational Hazards, Golden Age Girls, Cherchez le Homme, and my own challenge of short story collections. I just need a cool name for it now.
Signed up! Looking forward to this one!
How about I go with #9 at the very least. Cherchez l'Homme.
Oh, what the heck, I'll do Cherchez La Femme as well, No. 8.
Can I count rereads? I'm especially planning on Dorothy Sayers this year.
I'd also like to do 8 Books Set in England for Perilous Locations.
Can they overlap? For instance, if the book set in England has a male detective, that sort of thing.
If not, that's okay too.
As you can see, I'm a very ambitious sort.
I can't give you the list of books I'll be reading except for the current five which I actually have in hand at the moment.
How's that?
I'm in! Very far in. I'm tackling Colorful Crime, Murder by the Numbers, Dangerous Beasts, Golden Age Girls, Cherchez l'Homme, and my own Miscellany, "A Year of Death" - 8 mysteries published in 1937. It was a busy year, apparently.
Maybe we should have a category for Death By Being In Up To Your Neck?
@Yvette:
I actually intend the themes to be separate--using different books...(thus my comment that anyone completing at least two themes--"16 or more books" would be eligible for a prize). Sorry.
Re-reads are fine. I'm doing a couple myself. I like to do that with a few every year so I can get real reviews done for books that I read in my pre-blogging days.
I've decided on numbers 8 & 9. We'll see how I go
Thanks for offering the Mini-Challenge! I "downsized" my Deadly Decades commitment from 8 to 4: keeping the 3 titles I own plus the one I already checked out from the library for this challenge. I loaded 2 others on eReader apps, so I may yet read 6.
Completed the Cherchez le Homme challenge so I've decided to try the Murderous Miscellany challenge. Since I have a lot of unread smaller-sized paperbacks that I'd like to make my way through, I'll call my theme for this challenge "Pocket-sized Murder".
This challenge looks fun! Count me in (even though I'm coming late to the party). Right now I've just signed up for the Golden Age Girls theme, but may add some more themes of my own down the road. Will be putting reviews up on my new blog:
http://crackedleatherarmchair.wordpress.com/
Thanks, Bev!
Hi! I think this would be great. I read old mysteries! I know joining late is fine. May I count what I've read since January, even though I hadn't found you until right now? I still have a sleugh of reviews to compose and much more to read. www.CMRiedel.WordPress.com
Can we do 1960 on the nose? 60s & 70s are a breeze for me but I have plenty older. Adhering to categories beyond that is tricky! www.CMRiedel.WordPress.com
@cmriedel: I'm sorry, but no. My dates may be arbitrary, but they are the dates I've chosen as the guide for this challenge. All mysteries must have been originally written before 1960.
Depending on what you have...you could do an "alphabet of crime"--8 books with authors with first or last names in alphabetical order (A-H or whatever combination works) or titles in order.
@cmriedel: Oh, and yes...anything read in 2012 counts.
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