I should be locked in a cabin with just books and NO internet. Or my computer should block all book blogs. What happened? I joined another reading challenge! Like I need one… with those other 3 I already have going on :\
Well, at least Dolce Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge shouldn’t be too difficult for me: I need to read one work of Japanese origin before the end of January 2010. Hey, I can do that, right? I read three in the first half of 2009 and I have several waiting on the shelf anyway! For example:
Butterfly in the Wind (Rei Kimura), in Dutch
Dreaming Water (Gail Tsukiyama)
The Language of Threads (Gail Tsukiyama)
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (Gail Tsukiyama)
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami), in Dutch
The Unconsoled (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Nocturnes (Kazuo Ishiguro)
But first I should make sure I finish my current book because it is taking waaaaaaaay too long!
So, thanks a lot to another cookie crumbles who pointed me in the direction of this challenge… Maybe it provides me with a good excuse to join the 24 hours read-a-thon in October as well? ;)
Edited to add: I was thinking… The Pillowbook by Sei Shonagon is not on my bookshelf yet, but it IS on my other challenge lists already. I should make things easy for myself and try to get my hands on a copy!
Graasland 
6 reacties
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donderdag 20 augustus 2009 bij 18:59
Joseph
I suppose the rules for your Japanese challenge are flexible so it doesn’t matter if Gail Tsukiyama is American and Kazuo Ishiguro is British. But what about something short like Rashomon and (if you have time) other stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. There is a translation available from Penguin. You can read a story in 10 minutes. :-)
donderdag 20 augustus 2009 bij 21:49
gnoegnoe
Thanks for the tip: this challenge is getting easier by the minute! LOL
I’m not too fond of short stories (just when I get into it, the tale ends…) but you’ve got to try something new sometime, don’t you? I’ve never read anything by Akutagawa yet, so I might just do that.l Of course I have heard of Rashomon, the movie ;)
The literature challenge seems to be flexible indeed. I guess it wouldn’t be fair to pick authors only because of their Japanese name — but Ishiguro and Tsukiyama definitely have something Japanese in their writings. And I mean more than a story set in Japan. A Pale View of Hill by Ishiguro seems VERY Japanese to me (being Western ;) and so does The Samurai’s Garden by Tsukiyama.
vrijdag 21 augustus 2009 bij 01:43
Bellezza
It’s so nice to meoet you, gnoegnoe, and I’m very excited to have you join the challenge.
vrijdag 21 augustus 2009 bij 07:22
uncertainprinciples
Enjoy! I haven’t read any of the books you’ve listed, but reckon after reading your reviews, I’ll be adding a couple to the TBR. :)
That’s the beauty of this challenge – keeps it nice and simple, and, it goes beautifully with most other challenges!
dinsdag 25 augustus 2009 bij 21:53
velvet
hi, you’ve reminded me that i have a street of a thousand blossoms in my tbr pile. i might have to add it to my challenge. the one requirement is quickly changing to one plus. and, yes, let’s pillow book together. yeah, we need to do the read-a-thon. ;-D
woensdag 26 augustus 2009 bij 00:25
Suzanne L.
Welcome to the challenge!! I went to thebookdepository.com and ordered YOUR suggestion on my blog – Strangers! It sounded so good! It’s so funny that you went there to check out Be With You! :D Of course I have quite a few in my TBR pile, but I’m going to have to check out the titles on your shelf already!
Suzanne