Looking back: my 2008 reading list and challenges

Books I’ve read this year… (2008)
Een plaats voor wilde bessen (Jagodnye mesta / Wild Berries), Jevgeni Jevtoesjenko (ring)
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing (challenge book) reading along with online experiment!
De jacht op het verloren schaap (Hitsuji o meguru bōken / A Wild Sheep Chase), Haruki Murakami
Obasan, Joy Kogawa
Isaac Israels in het ziekenhuis, Merel van den Nieuwenhof
Meneer Pip (Mister Pip), Lloyd Jones (ring)
Let Them Call It Jazz, Jean Rhys
Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh (La petite fille de monsieur Linh), Philippe Claudel
The Teahouse Fire, Ellis Avery
De liefde tussen mens en kat, W.F. Hermans
Na de aardbeving (Kami no kodomotachi wa mina odoru / After the Quake), Haruki Murakami (re-reading)
Ik heet Karmozijn (Benim adim kirmizi / My name is red), Orhan Pamuk
Met de kat naar bed (Travels with my cat), Mike Resnick
Jennie, Paul Gallico
Anna Boom, Judith Koelemeijer
Possession, A.S. Byatt (challenge book)
The gathering, Anne Enright
The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (challenge book)
Het vergeten seizoen, Peter Delpeut
Kermis van koophandel: de Amsterdamse wereldtentoonstelling van 1883, Ileen Montijn (non-fiction)
I haven’t dreamed of flying for a while, Taichi Yamada
The truth about food, Jill Fullerton-Smith (non-fiction)
Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov (challenge book)
New York Trilogy, Paul Auster (challenge book)
Migraine voor Dummies (non-fiction)
The bone vault, Linda Fairstein
In Patagonië, Bruce Chatwin (challenge book)
De thuiskomst, Anna Enquist
Dagboek van een poes, Remco Campert
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan

I sent one of this year’s favourites to my dear friend Loes for BAFAB week = Buy A Friend A Book. It’s Phillippe Claudel’s Het kleine meisje van meneer Linh (La petite fille de monsieur Linh), shown in the picture above. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to — now!

Personal challenges for 2008
ETA: prolonged into 2009, 2010
Read 12 books of 13 of the longlist of the Dutch election for Best Foreign Book that were already on my wishlist:

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
✔ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon
✔ Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
✔ New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Sea, the sea by Iris Murdoch
✔ In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
✔ The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
✔ Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Chosen by Chaim Potok

With 6 books read in 2008 I’m right on track :)

I also had my own Bookcrossing museum challenge: I visiting 6 exhibits in 2008/2009 and releasing appropriate books. Those exhibitions were not random but followed a lecture course I took. I posted about them in Gnoe’s Museumlog (sorry, it’s in Dutch).

Special rings and challenges I participated in this year…
Special rings & rays
De Aziatische boekendoos

Challenges
The SIY (Set It Yourself) Challenge, 3rd edition. Ibis3 made us a nice challenge page on which you can see that I completed my mission in time!
The SIY (Set It Yourself) Challenge, 6th edition. The challenge page will tell you that I succeeded again!

Bookcrossing Four Seasons Release Challenge with a total of 14 books:

• 3 books in spring
• 3 books in summer
• 2 books in autumn
• 6 books in winter

Last but not least…

Find my releases on Gnoe’s Bookcrossing Releases map!

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Gnoe’s reading in 2007

The 42 books I’ve read in 2007…

• Rosalie Niemand, Elisabeth Marain (stopped reading)
• The Geographer’s Library *ring*, Jon Fasman
• Poppy Shakespeare, Clare Allen
• Max Havelaar, Multatuli
• Publieke werken, Thomas Rosenboom
• Dance with death, Barbara Nadel
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Arthur & George, Julian Barnes
• Narziss en Goldmund (en andere verhalen) *slow ray*, Hermann Hesse (stopped reading)
• Het huis van de moskee, Kader Abdolah
• Het Bureau (deel 1): Meneer Beerta, J.J. Voskuil
• The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
• De brug, Geert Mak
• De ontdekking van de hemel, Harry Mulisch
• En dan zou jij zeggen, Elisabeth Keesing
• Never let me go, Kazuo Ishiguro
• The shape of snakes, Minette Walters
• Greenwich Killing Time, Kinky Friedman
• Het zijn net mensen, Joris Luyendijk
• De lijfarts, Maria Stahlie
• A cool million, Nathanael West
• Het geheim van de krokodil, Alexander McCall Smith
• De grote bocht, Peter Delpeut
• Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
• De uitvreter, Nescio
• The inheritance of loss, Kiran Desai
• Nooit meer slapen, W.F. Hermans
• Helpless, Barbara Gowdy
• Heden mosselen, morgen gij (kort verhaal), Hans Vervoort
• Gods ingewanden (Métaphysique des tubes), Amélie Nothomb
• Een heel huis vol, Boudewijn Büch
• Everyman, Philip Roth
• Bougainville, F. Springer (thank you for this RABCK to Linniepinnie!)
• Black dogs, Ian McEwan
• Een stoomfluit midden in de nacht (Yonaka no kiteki ni tsuite), Haruki Murakami (with special thanks to maupi!!!)
• De Donkere Kamer van Damokles, W.F. Hermans
• Met angst en beven (Stupeur et tremblements, ring), Amélie Nothomb
• A place of hiding, Elizabeth George
• Death in holy order, P.D. James
• Asta’s book, Barbara Vine
• In the country of men, Hisham Matar
• In search of the distant voice, Taichi Yamada

Personal challenge for 2007
YES! On the 3rd of December I’ve accomplished my personal challenge to read all books of the Best Dutch Book shortlist that I hadn’t already read!

(Look at this earlier post to view bookcovers :)

✓ Het huis van de moskee, Kader Abdolah PC
✓ De Donkere Kamer van Damocles, W.F. Hermans PC of Maaike
✓ Nooit Meer Slapen, W.F. Hermans PC of BX-er wolfram-nl
✓ De ontdekking van de hemel, Harry Mulisch BX-copy
✓ Max Havelaar, Multatuli PC
✓ De uitvreter, Nescio PC of BX-er nokawa
✓ Publieke werken, Thomas Rosenboom PC of Maaike
✓ Het Bureau, J.J. Voskuil PC of BX-er wolfram-nl

Books on the shortlist that I had already read before this challenge started:
Hersenschimmen, J. Bernlef
Titaantjes/Dichtertje, Nescio
De avonden, Gerard Reve

With this challenge I was participating in The SIY (Set It Yourself) Challenge. Ibis3 has made us a nice challenge page. I am not sure if I would have been able to accomplish my goals for 2007 without participating in the challenge!

Special rings and challenges I have participated in…
Special Bookcrossing rings & rays
De Bookcrossing theedoos
Het Nederlandse BookCrossers Kattenjournaal

Bookcrossing challenges
Breng wat kleur in de wereld in januari!
De Nederlandse Release Challenge
Movie Books Release Challenge
Four Seasons Release Challenge
2007 History Challenge
‘Words to Release By’ Challenge
The SIY (Set It Yourself) Challenge, 1st and 2nd edition. You can also find them at Ibis3’s readalong blog.
Hiroshima Anniversary Peace Challenge.