prezzey's 101010 challenge thread. WHEEE!!

I completely reorganized the list and removed books I'm putting into the second list.

All books listed have already been read, I'm not putting planned reads here.

Short books are listed with a value of 0.5. The first number is the number of books that have been read in the category, the second is the value that book adds to the total.

Progress: 100/100 FINISHED!

1. Jewish religious books (again) - FINISHED

0.5 / 0.5 The Ten Wondrous Makos by Rabbi Dovid D. Meisels, April, in English
1 / 0.5 Shivchei haAri by N/A (trans. Chaim Bloch), April, in German
2 / 1 Sefer haBahir by (attrib.) R. Nechunia ben haKana (trans. and very extensive commentary by R. Aryeh Kaplan), July, in English
3 / 1 The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism by Daniel C. Matt, August, in English
4 / 1 Kabbalah - The Way of the Jewish Mystic by Perle Epstein, August, in English
4.5 / 0.5 Experiencing the Divine: A Practical Jewish Guide by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, September, in English
5.5 / 1 Body, Mind and Soul by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, September, in English
6 / 0.5 Journey of the Soul by Rabbi Shneur Zalman, September, in English/Hebrew (bilingual edition)
6.5 / 0.5 In G-d We Trust: A Handbook of Values for Americans Based on the Works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, September, in English
7 / 0.5 The Mitzvah to Love Your Fellow As Yourself by the Tzemach Tzedek, September, in English/Hebrew (bilingual edition)
8 / 1 Kitzur Shulchan Aruch vol. 3. Family Law by Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, October, in Hungarian
8.5 / 0.5 To Touch the Divine by various authors, December, in English
9.5 / 1 The Lights of Penitence, The Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, December, in English
10 / 0.5 The Radiance of Rosh Hashanah & The Radiance of Yom Kippur by Rabbi Dovid D. Meisels, December, in English

2. Nonfiction about society (again) - FINISHED

1 / 1 "Puszi Kádár Jánosnak" Munkásnők élete a Kádár-korszakban mikrotörténeti megközelítésben, by Eszter Zsófia Tóth, January, in Hungarian
2 / 1 The Dilbert Future by Scott Adams, January, in English
3 / 1 AK-47, The Story of the People's Gun by Michael Hodges, January, in English
4 / 1 Isten óvd a királynőt by Sándor Friderikusz, January, in Hungarian
4.5 / 0.5 Torlasz Ruandában by Klotild Szöllősi Nagy, February, in Hungarian
5.5 / 1 Malajzia árgus szemmel by Marianne Tharan-Trieb, February, in Hungarian
6.5 / 1 Baloghjóska by György Fábián, February, in Hungarian
7 / 0.5 Egy kezdő diplomata komolytalan feljegyzései by Kálmán Márky, February, in Hungarian
8 / 1 Lakótelepek - a modernitás laboratóriumai by Tímea N. Kovács (Editor), February, in Hungarian
9 / 1 Gypsies Under the Swastika by Donald Kendrick and Grattan Puxon, March, in Hungarian
10 / 1 Magdolna negyed by Zoltán Tábori, April, in Hungarian

3. Other nonfiction (popular science, biographies, etc) - FINISHED

1/ 1 Egy hipnotizőr vallomásai by Vladimir Levi, January, in Hungarian
2 / 1 A Nap leányai by Károly Kerényi, January, in Hungarian
2.5 / 0.5 A Király utcán végestelen-végig by Mátyás Sárközi, February, in Hungarian
3.5 / 1 A vizuális antropológia felé by András Bán, February, in Hungarian
4.5 / 1 The Mystique of Dreams: A Search for Utopia Through Senoi Dream Theory by G. William Donhoff, February, in English (don't be misled by the title, this belongs here and not in the "weirdness" category, it's a very levelheaded book)
5.5 / 1 The Scientific Study of Dreams by G. William Donhoff, February, in English
6.5 / 1 My Story by Lewis Hamilton, April, in English
7.5 / 1 21 Dog Years by Mike Daisey, April, in English
8.5 / 1 Az elvek csapodár természete by László Mérő, April, in Hungarian
9.5 / 1 Kitörők - interjú tizenöt cigány értelmiségivel by László Szále, April, in Hungarian
10 / 0.5 A Világbank zokniban by Mária Bonifert, May, in Hungarian

4. Anglo-Saxon YA/children's fiction - FINISHED

1 / 1 The Butterfly Tattoo by Philip Pullman, January, in English
2 / 1 The Gas-Fitters' Ball by Philip Pullman, January, in English
3 / 1 Angel Blood by John Singleton, February, in English
4 / 1 Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, September, in English
5 / 1 What I Was by Meg Rosoff, March, in English
6 / 1 Genesis by Bernard Beckett, March, in English
7 / 1 Private Peaceful by Scott Morpurgo, December, in English
8 / 1 Pretties by Scott Westerfeld, September, in English
9 / 1 Feed by M. T. Anderson, August, in English
10 / 1 Godless by Pete Hautman, August, in English

5. Authors from European countries which are underrepresented in my library - FINISHED

1 / 1 Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić, January, in Hungarian (Serbia)
2 / 1 When I Forgot by Elina Hirvonen, February, in Hungarian (Finland)
2.5 / 0.5 Famine by Tom Murphy, March, in English (Ireland)
3.5 / 1 Tízparancsolat - kortárs skandináv novellák by various authors, April, in Hungarian (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
4.5 / 1 Der Rom und der Teufel - O Rom taj o beng by Dieter W. Halwachs (Ed.), April, in German/Romani (Austria)
5.5 / 1 A kikötő by Antun Šoljan, May, in Hungarian (Croatia)
6.5 / 1 Lodgers by Nenad Veličković, May, in Hungarian (Bosnia)
7. / 0.5 Égből pottyantak by Ray Loriga, May, in Hungarian (Spain)
8. / 1 Kerzen und Limonen - Momelija hem limonija by Petra Cech (Ed.), May, in German/Romani (Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia)
8.5 / 0.5 Tüdőkása by Torgny Lindgren, June, in Hungarian (Sweden)
9.5 / 1 Betonéjszaka by Pirkko Saisio, June, in Hungarian (Finland)
10 / 0.5 Štefica Cvek u raljama života by Dubravka Ugrešić, June, in Hungarian (Croatia)

6. Authors from non-European countries which are underrepresented in my library - FINISHED

1 / 1 A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, February, in English (Sierra Leone)
2 / 1 Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, March, in English (New Zealand/Aotearoa)
2.5 / 0.5 The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories by Amos Tutuola, March, in English (Nigeria)
3.5 / 1 Bones by Chenjerai Hove, March, in English (Zimbabwe)
4.5 / 1 Allah is not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma, April, in Hungarian (Ivory Coast)
5 / 0.5 My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola, April, in English (Nigeria)
6 / 1 Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono, April, in English (Cameroon)
6.5 / 0.5 M'Hashish by Mohammed Mrabet, April, in English (Morocco)
7 / 0.5 The Beggar by Naguib Mahfouz, April, in English (Egypt)
8 / 1 Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo, May, in English (China)
8.5 / 0.5 Dalok vándorúton by Şêrko Bêkes, May, in Hungarian (Kurdistan / Iraq)
9.5 / 1 The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me by Calixthe Beyala, May, in English (Cameroon)
10 / 0.5 Women are Different by Flora Nwapa, May, in English (Nigeria)

7. Speculative fiction by women authors - FINISHED

Reorganized this a bit so the months are off.

1 / 1 Dervish is Digital by Pat Cadigan, March, in English
2 / 1 Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, May, in English
2.5 / 0.5 My Death by Lisa Tuttle, June, in English
3.5 / 1 Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, July, in English
4.5 / 1 UFO in her eyes by Xiaolu Guo, July, in English (China)
5 / 0.5 The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough, August, in English
6 / 1 The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia, August, in English
7 / 1 Voices by Ursula K. Le Guin, January, in English
8 / 1 Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, July, in English
9 / 1 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, March, in English
10 / 1 Enchanter's Glass by Susan Whitcher, June, in English

8. Books by/about members of ethnic minorities (preferably "by") - FINISHED

1 / 1 Mint a felszabadítók by Nándor Gion, January, in Hungarian (Hungarian in Yugoslavia/Serbia)
2 / 1 Don Osman auf Tour by Osman Engin, January, in German (Turkish in Germany)
3 / 1 Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi, February, in Hungarian (Finnish in Sweden)
3.5 / 0.5 Fekete korall by various authors, February, in Hungarian (Gypsy poets anthology)
4 / 0.5 Holtak arca fölé by Károly Bari, February, in Hungarian (Hungarian Romani)
4.5 / 0.5 Nap, édesapám by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, February, in Hungarian (Sámi)
5 / 0.5 The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, March, in English (African American)
5.5 / 0.5 Bentlakás by Tamás Jónás, March, in Hungarian (Hungarian Romani)
6.5 / 1 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, March, in English (Pakistani in the US/UK)
7.5 / 1 Kehinde by Buchi Emecheta, March, in English (Nigerian in the UK)
8.5 / 1 Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri, March, in English (Nigerian in the UK)
9.5 / 1 Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead, March, in English (African American)
10 / 0.5 Paberist maailm by Aarne Puu, March, in Hungarian (Estonian in Poland)

9. Books by/about members of other minorities (preferably "by") - FINISHED

0.5 / 0.5 Én, fájdalomherceg by Gábor Karinthy, January, in Hungarian (Mental illness)
1 / 0.5 Pókháló by Erzsébet Galgóczi, February, in Hungarian (Lesbian author)
1.5 / 0.5 The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman, in English (Gay Latino Jewish author)
2 / 0.5 Elkezd a dolgok végére járni by Ádám Nádasdy, in Hungarian (Gay author)
2.5 / 0.5 A rend, amit csinálok by Ádám Nádasdy, in Hungarian (Gay author)
3.5 / 1 Angels in America by Tony Kushner, July, in English (Gay Jewish author)
4.5 / 1 The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant by Dan Savage, August, in English (Gay author)
5.5 / 1 Tiptree Award anthology #1, September, in English
6.5 / 1 Tiptree Award anthology #2, September, in English
7.5 / 1 Tiptree Award anthology #3, September, in English
8 / 0.5 Fast Speaking Woman by Anne Waldman, September, in English (American Buddhist author)
9 / 1 Magyar karrier by Erzsébet Galgóczi, October, in Hungarian (Lesbian author)
9.5 / 0.5 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby, October, in Hungarian (Physically disabled author)
10 / 0.5 Blasted by Sarah Kane, April, in English (Mental illness)

10. Fringe or unusual topics - FINISHED

1 / 1 Bibliai csodák by Milan Rýzl, January, in Hungarian
2 / 1 Unbelievable by Stacy Horn, January, in English
3 / 1 The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, January, in English
4 / 1 The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard, April, in English
5. / 1 The Gold Leaf Lady by Stephen Braude, April, in English
5.5 / 0.5 Stealing the Fire from Heaven by Stephen Mace, April, in English
6 / 0.5 Shaping Formless Fire by Stephen Mace, June, in English
7 / 1 Mandala - képek a tudattalanból by Carl Gustav Jung, September, in Hungarian
7.5 / 0.5 The Book of Enoch (trans. Béla Hamvas), September, in Hungarian
8 / 0.5 Invisible Friends by Alan Ayckbourn, October, in English
9 / 1 The Poltergeist Phenomenon by John and Anne Spencer, October, in English
10 / 1 A szellem jelensége a művészetben és a tudományban by Carl Gustav Jung, October, in Hungarian

Previous entry (moved here)

Just finished the 999 challenge, it was fun, so I'm definitely doing another round :D

Last year my categories were much too specific, so I think I ended up reading more non-challenge books than challenge books over the year (I haven't actually counted them yet, but I strongly suspect this to be true). Oops! I'm OK with reading lots of non-challenge books, but this felt a bit, I don't know, inefficient? ^^;

I was also very inactive here in the LT groups, so I'll try to post more in the future both in other people's threads and my own. I'm sorry! If you have any questions about books in my previous thread, go ahead and ask!

I lagged behind with other lists/challenges because they don't have specific deadlines, so I think I'll include a category "Other reading lists" this year.

I'll probably put the categories in a separate comment, I don't really have a finished list yet...

----------------

Categories I'm considering...

* Jewish religious books (again)
* Books in German (again)
* Nonfiction about society (again)
* Other nonfiction (popular science, etc)
* Speculative fiction by women authors
* Speculative fiction from the past 10 years
* Books by/about members of ethnic minorities (preferably "by")
* Books by/about members of other minorities (preferably "by")
* Anglo-Saxon YA/children's fiction (This one because those books weren't really available in my country when I was a child. When my American friends say "A Wrinkle in Time" I just go Huh. I want to catch up a bit)
* Northern European authors (Nordic & Benelux countries. Yes, the Benelux countries count this time - I have a friend from the Netherlands and she says she is from Northern Europe. So why not?)
* Authors from the Balkans
* Hungarian authors
* Fringe or unusual topics
* Books from my other reading lists

Uhhh how to pick!!!

Don't pick - just combine? :)
Get the Balkans, Hungarians and Northern Europe together, both non-fiction categories together and the last two together and you are done;)

Yeah but I know from experience I will read more than 10 books by Hungarian authors alone just reading recent releases and my friends' recommendations... :D And last year I think I read about 15 Serbian books even without having Serbia as a category (and most of the books I could not put anywhere!). Many of those were Serbian Hungarian authors, though... this year I could put them into the ethnic minorities category as well as the Balkans category... hmmm.

Still, combination is a good idea, I just don't know which ones to combine. (YET.)

Also, it occurred to me in the meanwhile that I should have a category for "everything else"... (knowing myself, that one would be finished first!) but it's also kind of bland and feels like a cop-out.

Argh I read your English 101010 thread and it reminded me of something... I also wanted to have an African books category! Last year I had an African American books category, I liked it a lot! and in the process I also ended up with lots of *African* books I have yet to read.

So now I have *even more* categories... LOL!

>I will read more than 10 books by Hungarian authors

So what? Make them open categories (min 5 books, max how many you read) and you are all set. Or cheat nicely as I did and make two challenges (if you can read enough books in non-English) ;)

Yes, I agree with AnnieMod - make your 10 categories very open and perhaps do subcategories within them. eg: Europe: Balkans, Hungarians and Northern Europe (min of 3 of each)

I'm not setting an upper limit on my reading as I read more than 100 books in a year anyway and it sounds like you do too. I've given myself 4 bonus categories with no minimum/maximum limit to catch the off challenge reading I already know I'll be doing.

AnnieMod -

"Or cheat nicely as I did and make two challenges (if you can read enough books in non-English) ;)"

That's kind of tempting... but at the moment I have five reading lists, I'm not sure I want to add a sixth! I think I'll wait a month and see how well my categories work.

avatiakh -

yeah I do. I think I'm going to use the bonus categories idea.

---

At the moment I'm thinking of these categories --

* Jewish religious books (again)
* Nonfiction about society (again)
* Other nonfiction (popular science, biographies, etc)
* Anglo-Saxon YA/children's fiction
* Authors from European countries which are underrepresented in my library
* Authors from non-European countries which are underrepresented in my library
* Speculative fiction by women authors
* Books by/about members of ethnic minorities (preferably "by")
* Books by/about members of other minorities (preferably "by")
* Fringe or unusual topics
Bonus: Speculative fiction from the past 10 years

Augh, I've been very busy and haven't had much time to update this... I also owe some of you private messages... I'll try to get back on track!

I've read 16 books in the challenge but many of them were short reads I've been meaning to read for a while now... like Voices, or the German books.

Overall I read less in January than I usually do, but as I've said, I was busy. I'll try to do some catching up in February!

I've also started to read some great nonfiction books which I haven't finished yet, so, hopefully in February.

Best read so far: Hazaviszlek, jó? by Krisztina Tóth. A collection of short-shorts originally published in newspapers, women's magazines, etc. I know that sounds awful, but this is an amazing book. If you speak any Hungarian, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. She is originally a poet but I like her prose better (though I also enjoy her poems).

Worst read so far: hesitating between two in my fringe category. But that category is for taking risks ;)

"I expected more": Voices by Le Guin (Annals of the Western Shore #2). I wonder if I'm the only one who didn't particularly like this book. The "OMG this has a Political Message" feel didn't help either, especially since the main antagonists who were vilified for the most part were culturally similar to... um... me? (I get it they are supposed to be Muslims, even the cover blurb pushes this interpretation with "Current Issues" etc. But I'm Jewish and that's close enough.) It kind of felt like, you take the War on Terror and put all the bad stuff you see on both sides to one side and make them the antagonists. And then when some of the antagonists are revealed to be not Made of Pure Ebulz after all, it comes as a revelation! OMG! They are not ALL bad! Who'd'a thunk! *facepalms* (Sheesh I hope this doesn't qualify as a spoiler.)

Anyway this was disappointing. I wanted to read fantasy that's not based on Western European traditions, and I managed to find this book which was superficially inspired by Eastern cultures, but it only served to make me feel uncomfortable because the antagonists were these very religious and quite warlike desert people who worshipped their singular deity, familiar much? The only thing that did not fit was that instead of venerating the written word they vilified it. Uh. If this is an attempt at trying to deconstruct the "scary Middle Eastern people" trope, then it's a quite perverse one at that. I'm a huge fan of Le Guin's, but... I disliked Gifts, I disliked Voices, Powers is up next, I really really want to like it... *sigh*

(I liked the negotiations aspects of it, though...)

More later IY"H, I can rant about Voices all day long I'm afraid, so let's just leave it at that unless someone else feels like discussing this particular book.

I discovered a few shelves full of Hungarian travelogues / expat books / etc. at the public library in Győr and they looked interesting... many of them are published by small presses or even vanity presses so I guess that explains why I haven't seen these in bookstores. But the ones I've read so far were not disappointing.

Torlasz Ruandában is a semi-fictionalized account of Hungarian and Austrian geologists on a research project to map Rwandan rivers shortly before the genocide. (I wondered whether to file it in "Nonfiction about society" since I wasn't really clear on whether the author intended it as nonfiction or fiction. But I think the epilogue makes it clear that this is a novelization of real events, so I'd say it can fit.) It's really really short but quite interesting.

Malajzia árgus szemmel is by a Hungarian expat in Malaysia, it's a general introduction to the country... I think sometimes the author of the book finds Malaysian people annoying ^^; so the book has some value judgments (obviously Hungarians are better than anyone else... :/ ) but that aside it's quite detailed and the coverage is broad. I've just read an English-language story set in Singapore - this one - and this book was quite informative about burial customs, etc. in that area so I understood the background of the story better.

***

Something else, I read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah since I know very little about Sierra Leone. It was a good book, the contents were really infuriating, as in "how can this happen"...

Though I think the chronology was slightly confusing and the map which should've been informative only added to the confusion. I know some people dispute the accuracy of this book (and I can understand why), but I think this is understandable if you are a child who gets caught up in a war (I don't think anyone disputes he was indeed in the war). And the personal attacks on his family are uncalled for.

Anyway this book should be read by those people who seem to think civil war is a great idea (I've met a few >_

I finally took the time to reorganize the list, I also removed books over the limit and put them into a second list, which I will post shortly IY"H.

Huh, I only have 6 books to go, I'll try to finish it this week or the next (I have several books half-finished which would fit the remaining categories).

After reorganizing my two lists several times (which accounts for the messed-up sequence, December before August, etc.), I finally finished this one earlier today, and still have two to go on the other. Yayness! I hope everyone else is also doing well.

Congratulations. I see a lot of really good YA and scifi titles in these lists. I completed my 1010 last week, it's a good feeling.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on finishing!

Yay thanks everyone!

Actually I just got a heap of new YA from the library so there'll be even more coming. :)