So, while I work on some longer posts incorporating my pictures from the California coast, I thought I would take a long hard look at how many of my (admittedly ambitious) June reading goals I actually accomplished. The works I actually finished are in italics.

• Once Upon a Time Challenge - FINISHED
  
• "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius
  
• "Metamorphoses" by Ovid - alas, not even started
  
• "Morphology of the Folktale" by Propp
  
• (Optional) John Gardner's "Grendel" - my replacement in the Challenge for the Ovid
  
• New York Times Notable Book Challenge - I am even farther behind now than I was at this time last month, so I will have to give this challenge some serious attention this month.
  
• "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai
• Elias Khoury's "Gate of the Sun"
  
• Non-fiction Five Challenge - I still haven't finished a single book for this challenge (gulp), although they all look so appealing, gazing at me from the shelf. Another must-do project for this month. I am, however, halfway through another chunky selection for this challenge, "Watching the English" by anthropologist Kate Fox.
  
• "1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare" by Shapiro
• Capote's "In Cold Blood"
  
• Year of Down Under - For a long time this was the only challenge I was caught up on. Well, no more.
  
• "Alice Springs" by Nikki Gemmell
• "The Cardboard Crown" by Martin Boyd
  
• 52 plays 2007 Challenge
• 6 this month - Well (ha ha!), no. But I feel confident that now that I am really getting down to work this month (chortle), reading drama shouldn't be a problem.
  
• Chunkster Challenge - (God, what a grim parade of non-accomplishment) Well, this challenge is officially over, and I only completed 4 of the 6 I promised to consume. I am halfway through two others, though, ("David Copperfield" and "Watching the English") so maybe I will be lenient with myself and allow a purely indulgent one month extension.
  
• "David Copperfield"
  
• "Cloudsplitter" by Russell Banks
  
• Reading Groups (all on Yahoo!) - nope, nope, and nope.
  
• Inimitable Boz - "David Copperfield"
  
• Book Awards - "The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields
• 20th Century World Lit - "Cloudsplitter"
  
• Non-Challenge, non-reading group books: (Ha! here, in the realm of non-required reading, is where I really shone. That is, where I accomplished a whopping 50% of my goals)
  
• "Housekeeping," Marilynne Robinson's first novel
  
• Isaac Asimov's "Foundation"
• "Booked to Die" by John Dunning
• "The Farthest Shore," the third in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. (I am halfway through this as we speak. Or rather, as I type and you read. If you are reading at the beginning of July.)