June Goals - a Clear-Eyed Assessment

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.)
So, a grand total of 5 books. Sigh. Well, I blame the almost ceaseless travel this month. That's right, astonishing new places and people I encountered, it's your fault I didn't read more in 2007. How can you live with yourselves? I'm looking at you, Hawaiian turtles and Californian otters.*

P.S. Why is this post written in uncharacteristic black font? To express my shame at having met only a tiny fraction of my goals.**



*Pictures of the latter coming soon.
** Actually, blogger's font settings are acting up a bit for me. I may just stick to my same-old, same-old style from this point foreward. Trying to highlight the titles of my goals caused nothing but trouble.

One Response so far.

  1. kookie says:

    Blogger's been acting strange for about a week for me. What's the deal?

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