The fact that June will be another month of rampant travel prompts me to set out some reading goals (for packing as much as reading) for the next months. I will arrange it by challenge/reading group:

• Once Upon a Time Challenge (which is almost over! Alas, this means it is almost "midsummer.")
• "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius - I started this last night; it is very modern and lively in Robert Graves's translation.
• "Metamorphoses" by Ovid
• "Morphology of the Folktale" by Propp - I only have about 40 pages left in the dryest of my Once Upon a Time choices, but I had to leave it in Connecticut when I came west for the month, so alas I may not finish it until the very last moments of the challenge.
• And, if I can get to one of my "extra credit" reads for the challenge, John Gardner's "Grendel"
  
• New York Times Notable Book Challenge (I have fallen rather behind in this challenge, so now I need to step up the pace and read more than my anticipated one per month)
• "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai - one of the many books which I have started for the challenge, but not (as of yet) made much headway in.
• Elias Khoury's "Gate of the Sun" - I just ordered this online, and am all a-quiver with anticipation.
• Non-fiction Five Challenge (I haven't yet begun this challenge, although it has been running for about a month. Luckily it has rather a long time scheme.)
  
• "1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" by Shapiro - given to me by my grandfather last summer.
• Capote's "In Cold Blood"
  
• Year of Down Under
• "Alice Springs" by Nikki Gemmell, recommended in Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust"
• "The Cardboard Crown" by Martin Boyd, also a Nancy Pearl rec.
  
• 52 plays 2007 Challenge
• I am dreadfully behind in this one, but haven't packed any plays to read in CA. So I will try to read 6 this month (as a catching up effort - the normal pace would be 4 a month), but can't anticipate what they will be.
  
• Chunkster Challenge (also in its final phases, and I have two yet to go)
• "David Copperfield"
  
• "Cloudsplitter" by Russell Banks
  
• Reading Groups (all on Yahoo!)
  
• Inimitable Boz - "David Copperfield" (see above)
• Book Awards - "The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields
• 20th Century World Lit - "Cloudsplitter" (see above)
  
• Non-Challenge, non-reading group books:
• "Housekeeping," Marilynne Robinson's first novel
  
• Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" (I know, I know - I am filled with shame about not having read this earlier. The same is true of "Housekeeping.")
• "Booked to Die," the first book in John Dunning's series about a homicide detective who becomes a professional rare book trader/amateur sleuth.
• "The Farthest Shore," the third in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series.
  

Now that I look at my goals set out in such an orderly fashion, I realize how ambitious they are. Not including the as-of-yet-undecided-on plays and the one optional book, there are 15 books set out here. I will let you know how much of this list I have covered by the end of the month.