Thursday, December 1, 2011

European Reading Challenge


TAKE THE GRAND TOUR

Rose City Reader is hosting the European Reading Challenge – where participants tour Europe through books. And win prizes. 2012 is the first year for this challenge. Please join Rose City Reader & me for the Grand Tour!

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

There are various participation levels and prizes for the levels. Reviews are not required, but if you want to be eligible for prizes then you must post reviews for the books you read. I'm going to commit to:

Five Star (Deluxe Entourage): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

1. The Doctor Dines in Prague by Robin Hathaway (set in Czech Republic) [3/12/12]
2. Morgue Drawer Four by Jutta Profijt; trans. by Erik J. Macki (German author/set in Germany) [4/7/12]

3. Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City by Anna Quindlen (2/10/12)
4. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (Royale-les-Eaux, France) [3/3/12]
5. The Rose Window & Other Verse from New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke (born in Prague; died in Switzerland; poems originally written in German) [3/22/12]


Commitment Complete 4/7/12--but still reading!

6. File No. 113 by Emile Gaboriau (French author/set in France) [7/11/12]
7. The Fire Engine that Disappeared by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (Sweden) [4/9/12]
8. The Foods of North Italy by Luigi Veronelle (10/27/12) [Italy]
9. DeKok & Murder on the Menu by A. C. Baantjer (7/13/12)(Holland)
10. The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas (France)

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

Now don't do these things to me! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, when you know I'm over-committed on 2012 challenges as it is! :)

Bev Hankins said...

@JNCL: If you don't have more than 17 challenges lined up (and, no-o-o-o, I can't think of ANYONE who does), then don't talk to me about over-committed. :-)

Gilion at Rose City Reader said...

Thanks for signing up! I am already intrigued by your list, even with just one book.

I must sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge. That's my weekend blog project.

Anonymous said...

You know, every time I sign up for a new challenge for 2012, I tell myself "this is the last one!"

So uh...this will be the last one!

Gilion at Rose City Reader said...

Great choices! I fear this challenge is going to greatly expand my wish list!

cessie said...

I joined the European Reading Challenge as well and am browsing a little through the participants list.
You already choose your books, cool :)
I'm very curious what you'll think of DeKok. I didn't even know that his books were translated.
So I will come back :)