100 Books In A Year Reading Challenge

Alright -- another reading challenge. Since I read 126 books this year, 145 the year before, 155 the year before that, and 204 in the year before that1, I reckon this is also doable.

This challenge is hosted by Book Chick City and the rules are as follows:
  • Timeline: 01 Jan 2011 - 31 Dec 2011
  • Rules - Read 100 or more books in 2011
  • All books can crossover into other challenges you have on the go.
  • Only print books and ebooks count (no audiobooks).
  • You can also follow each other's progress and chat about the VC books you read on twitter too - just use #100BooksInAYear :)

And since today is the last day of 2010, I guess I'll start tomorrow :)

1Records do not exist before 2007. But I hate to think how many books I must have read in my entire life.

Review: The Picts and the Martyrs

The Picts and the Martyrs (or, Not Welcome At All)

by Arthur Ransome

[N.B. If you haven't read Swallows and Amazons, go read it first. This will not make sense otherwise. Or there's a rather good audiobook version read by Bernard Cribbins, if you'd prefer.]

Dick and Dorothea arrive at Beckfoot, the home of Amazon pirates Nancy and Peggy Blackett, to find that Uncle Jim has taken his sister, Mrs Blackett, on a recuperative sea voyage. The Amazons have been left to their own devices, under the watchful eye of Cook. Although strict promises have been made of no camping or adventures, the four have planned a fun fortnight of sailing Dick and Dorothea's brand-new boat, the Scarab.

A spanner is thrown in the works by the unexpected and unwanted appearance of the dreaded Great Aunt: Nancy and Peggy's Aunt Maria. The G.A. is a regular tartar who disapproves severely of the way Mrs Blackett handles her daughters. That they have been left alone is bad enough, but Nancy and Peggy know that she would be even more appalled to find that they had visitors staying. In order to spare Mrs Blackett from further wrath, Dick and Dorothea must relocate.

Nancy's solution seems simple; there is an abandoned hut nearby, and Dick and Dorothea are to move there for the duration. They are to become Picts, '[c]hased out, you know, but keeping alive underground. At least not exactly underground, but in secret.' Meanwhile, the Amazons become Martyrs to the cause of placating Aunt Maria: wearing best frocks, playing the piano, reciting poetry and being proper young ladies under their full names of Ruth and Margaret.

This is the first time that Dick and Dorothea have lived by themselves and the learning curve is steep. With the help of a boy from the neighbouring farm, a cookery book, and Dorothea's recollections of the excessively competent Susan Walker, they go from accidentally letting the milk go sour, to preparing and cooking a rabbit from scratch. As Dorothea muses to herself, '[h]ousekeeping was not as simple as people thought who had other people to do it.' Although the housekeeping falls automatically to female Dorothea, it is only 1943 and Dick does do his fair share (including gutting the rabbit, which was fairly traumatising).

Despite some initial problems -- and a minor instance of very necessary burglary -- all seems to go well. But as with all of Nancy's schemes, things do not always go quite as planned. As their uncle's friend Timothy says, '[t]he trouble with Nancy's velvet glove is that it's usually got a knuckleduster inside it. And you never know who's going to get hit.'

Rating: 3 – worth reading / watching

Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2011

This year (by which I mean 2011) I am determined to be all literary and write stuff. Like reviews of books. For improvement of the mind, you know. (And to stop my brain from melting into mush, which it kind of has after three years of law school. I used to have a better vocabulary than this. But I digress.)

Observe -- a relevant picture!!
Thus: in pursuit of this noble aim, I am going to take part in the Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2011 hosted by Floor to Ceiling Books.

The rules are very straightforward: read 12 "speculative fiction" novels between 1st Jan 2011 and 31st Dec 2011. The definition of "speculative fiction" is very broad -- she says:
[f]or this first attempt at a reading challenge, I'm not going to be strict! Speculative fiction for me includes anything from the realm of science fiction, fantasy or horror - doesn't matter what subgenre, or whether it is tie-in fiction. I'm aiming to make this as inclusive as possible.
So, given as how SF/fantasy is my genre of choice, I reckon this is doable. (Besides, if all else fails, I own 24 Bujold books which I could stand to reread another 3 or 4 times (though that would seem like cheating just a little bit...))

Relevant books on my want-to-read include China Mieville's Kraken, the two new Connie Willis books (and I would like to read To Say Nothing of the Dog again), Blake Charlton's Spellwright, the new Gail Carriger book that's coming out some time next year, and so on.

Yay being literary!