Bibliofreakblog

Two Challenges, at Least One with Much Overlap

I’ve been meaning to post about a couple of challenges for a while now.  

I have a thing for the end of the world.  I had this dream a few years ago about how inept I would be to survive if humanity had to start from scratch.  I’d like to write a book about that.  But I can never think of a disaster that fits what I want.  So in the mean time, I’ve been wanting to read more post-apocalyptic books.  

For this challenge, Becky, the hostess of the End of the World Challenge, says that it “includes both apocalyptic fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. There is quite a bit of overlap with dystopic fiction as well. The point being something–be it coming from within or without, natural or unnatural–has changed civilization, society, humanity to such a degree that it radically differs from “life as we now know it.” (Aliens, evil governments, war, plague, natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, depletion of resources, genetic manipulation, etc.)”  Four books are required, and it goes until Halloween.

I’m thinking of reading:

Oryx and Crake and/or The Year of the Flood
The Hunger Games
The World Without Us
The Fate of the Earth 

I’ve seen a great deal of people excited about Carl’s Once Upon a Time Challenge, which goes from March 21st to June 20th.  I wasn’t going to join because I’m already signed up for a different Once Upon a Time Challenge, which lasts the whole year.  But then I figured, hey, who cares?  I’ll do them both.  

I’m going to do Quest the First, in which we’re asked to read five books, that fit somewhere in the four categories of fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.  It doesn’t matter if it’s all in one category, or spread out.

I’m thinking of reading from the following list:

The Book of Lost Things
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby
The Titan’s Curse 
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
The Gathering Storm
Fables Vol. 3: Storybook Love 
The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists 

But then I’m also going to try to do Quest the Fourth, which is to read two nonfiction books that fit any of the four categories.  I’m thinking of reading:

Pregnant Fictions: Childbirth and the Fairy Tale in Early Modern France
A Short History of Myth