Outside of a Dog

One of the most interesting things I have found recently found in the blogosphere are book challenges. Now in the old days a book challenge meant that someone was trying to have book taken off the shelves of a library. Today the term has taken on a new meaning: it is a challenge to read a specified number of books over a limited period of time. They can also include restrictions such as a certain genre, or author. Some of the challenges I have seen in the past year are the Notable Book Challenge to read 20 books from the NY Times Notable book list; the 48 hours Challenge to read and blog about your reading for 48 hours straight; The Young Adult 2008 challenge to read 12 YA novels during 2008; and the Expanding Horizons Challenge to read books by authors of other ethnicities. The challenge I decided to take up is the 888 Challenge. This challenge required the reader to read 8 books from each of 8 categories (the readers choice) during 2008. This will be a total of 64 books but the reader may have up to 8 books in more than one category for a total of 56 books. I chose this challenge because it will require me to stretch beyond my usual reading habits. Choosing my categories was difficult, I wanted to expand beyond my usual mysteries and historical novels but I still want to enjoy all of the books. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to reread some books from my past and to read some books I would not usually choose. After I determined the categories, I had to find books I thought I would like in each of them. Here is my list as it stands today. I still need to add a few titles to three lists and some others may change later.

Favorites from my youth

• The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
• The Matchlock gun by Walter D. Edmonds
• The guns of Bull Run by Joseph A. Altsheler
• The catcher in the rye by J. D. Salinger
• Betsy Zane by Zane Gray
• Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
• Little women by Louisa May Alcott
• Drums along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds

Global Reading

• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
• Certainty: A Novel by Madeleine Thien
• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
• Wash This Blood from My Hands by Fred Vargas
• The kitchen god’s wife by Amy Tan
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Cold War Thrillers

• Manchurian candidate by Richard Condon
• The spy who came in from the cold by John Le Carre
• Year of the tiger by Jack Higgins
• Saving the queen by William F. Buckley
• The Tristan betrayal by Robert Ludlum
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
• Eye of the needle by Ken Follett
• The Honorable Schoolboy by John Le Carre

NPR Books

• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
• The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman
• Tenth Muse by Judith Jones
• This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
• Wash This Blood from My Hands by Fred Vargas
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan’s
• Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska by Lou Ureneck
• Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’nan

Historical Mysteries

• The Janissary Tree: A Novel (Edgar) by Jason Goodwin
• A murder on the Appian Way by Steven Saylor
• Dragon’s Lair by Sharon Kay Penman
• Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison

Young Adult

• The Absolutely True diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• The White Darkness (Printz) by Geraldine McCaughrean
• I am the messenger by Markus Zusak
• The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Born to rock by Korman, Gordon

2007 Award Books

• The Absolutely True diary of a part-time Indian (National Book Award) by Sherman Alexie
• The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) by Anne Enright
• Certainty: A Novel (Canada First Novel Award) by Madeleine Thien
• The Janissary Tree: A Novel (Edgar) by Jason Goodwin
• The Road (Pulitzer) by Cormac McCarthy
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Caldecott) by Brian Selznick
• The White Darkness (Printz) by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Sacred Games (National Book Critics Circle) by Vikram Chandra

Non-fiction

• This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
• Three Cups of Tea Mortenson
• Tenth Muse by Judith Jones
• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
• The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman
• The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan

Strike through indicates books I have finished.

If you would like to join the challenge go to 888 Challenge to read the complete rules and submit you list.