Hurrah! Carl has revived the Once Upon a Time Challenge for a second go. I love a good annual challenge; it lends such a sense of stability to my reading life. This is why I am thinking of reviving the Unread Authors Challenge for a second go round later in the summer. At any rate, last year I had a rare challenge success with the Once Upon a Time Challenge, combining the fun with the virtuous to read Grendel, The Golden Ass, Something Rotten, Morphology of the Folktale, and A Wizard of Earthsea. All were delightful and rich with new knowledge, and I am now eager to plunge back in to my mountain of fantasy-tinged unread books.
To see the rules, or join the challenge, go to Carl's site. Here they are in brief:
There are three quests you can follow in your journey through the four relevant genres of fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
- Quest 1: Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time II criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.
- Quest 2: Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology.
- Quest 3: Fulfill the requirements for Quest the First or Quest the Second AND top it off with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
This year I am again going for Quest 1. Here is a short list of five, with a few alternates thrown in:
- Ovid Metamorphoses
- Octavia Butler Parable of the Talents
- Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
- Joseph Campbell The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- Susanna Clarke The Ladies of Grace Adieu
- Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
- Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
- A Sudden, Wild Magic by Diana Wynn Jones
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
- The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles II (Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra & Philoctetes)
Welcome back, so glad to have you! I saw a theatrical presentation of Metamorphoses a couple of years ago that was just amazing.
A good friend sent me that Joseph Campbell book not long ago and I may add that to my list as well. My list...still in my head at this point...is getting overwhelming just from all of you who've signed up so far today! :)
I heard wonderful things about that production, Carl (the Mary Zimmerman one, right?). I wish that I had seen it!
What an awesome list! I loved The Ladies of Grace Adieu...it's like reading an old school fairy tale book. Really enjoyed it! Love that you have Ovid and Sophocles on your list too...nice touch ;)
I just love your list. I have been meaning to read The Metamorphosis for so long. I absolutely adore Ursula Le Guin, and even though The Left Hand of Darkness was a book I struggled with, in the end I found it very rewarding.
What a great list! I love that you included Joseph Campbell.
I like that you added Sophocles and Ovid onto your list. I wanted to read Medea this year -- the urge just caught me. Maybe I could add some Greek plays into the (huge) mix.
Thanks, Chris, Nymeth, Robin and Orpheus: hopefully I will have as much sticktoitiveness this year as I did with the last Once Upon a Time Challenge (when "The Golden Ass" was my classic choice and "Morphology of the Folktale" was my academic one)!
Yay, you are joining in as well. I had so much fun with last year's challenge. One of my favorite books was Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I should read the next one. Hmm, I just put up my list but it's not set in stone :)
Nice list and much more ambitious than mine. And thanks for reminding me about 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu'. I forgot to add it to my list of possibles.