Anticipated reading events

Dolce Bellezza's The Japanese Literature Challenge 7
1 June 2013 to 30 January 2014



Winstonsdad's Thomas Bernhard Reading Week
1-7 July 2013



Caravana de recuerdos's 2013 Russian Reading

Spanish Language Lit Month

Stu of Winstonsdad's Blog and Richard of Caravana de recuerdos, two of the most discriminating readers that I know, will be hosting a month-long festival of Spanish language literature.

July is the golden month of opportunities for encountering Spanish literature in the original or in translation. The line-up of reading/film viewing is as follows.

• Week 1, 6-8 July: Group viewing of the 1976s classic film Cria Cuervos, written and directed by Carlos Saura
• Week 2, 13-15 July: Reading of A Brief Life by Juan Carlos Onetti
• Week 3, 20-22 July: Reading of Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas
• Week 4: Link round-up

The Vila-Matas week is a shoo-in for me. And I'm eyeing other enticing titles as well. 

You can register for this challenge at Stu's or Richard's post.

Japanese Literature Challenge 6

Dolce Bellezza just announced the 2012 cycle of Japanese Literature Challenge (JLC). Now on its 6th year, the JLit challenge starts every June and runs for eight months till the end of January of the following year. It has become a hub of JLit readers for its showcase of critical book reviews and its enabling of blog conversations.

One of my groups in LibraryThing focuses on Japanese writing the entire year so this is a happy duplication. It's my third year of participation in JLC. I started reading translated Japanese books only in 2009. My exposure to Japanese fiction prior to that was through the work of English novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. But in the past three years I've collected and read some excellent modernist Japanese writers. My favorite writers are Natsume Sōseki, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, Kobo Abé, Ryū Murakami, Kōno Taeko, and Yūko Tsushima. With this challenge, I'm sure the list will be expanded.

You can join JLC6 here.

The 2011 challenge ends

¡Feliz año nuevo!

THE 2011 ROBERTO BOLAÑO READING CHALLENGE is now officially ended. I'm thanking all the participants - 30 readers! (with blogs or without, in Twitter or not, with book reviews or none) - who joined, even some of you late in the day. It has been a splendid year reading the great Chilean writer's works and reviews of his books.

The anticipated extension to this challenge is this month's THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES GROUP READ, hosted by Richard (Caravana de recuerdos) and me. Join us in reading, reviewing, and discussing this tome at the end of the month.

My special thanks to the following readers who submitted reviews to 15 of Bolaño's books.

Vapour Trails
Caravana de recuerdos
The Parrish Lantern
seraillon
Shifting Sands
Winstonsdad's Blog

Congratulations to those who did well in the challenge. For those who fell short of their goal, worry not. One can still complete it anytime, and there's no more deadline! :) I will still be interested to know when you finally achieve the level of "Mesmerist"/"Critic"/"Vagabond"/"Poet"/"Detective"/"Worm" and of course the "Godzilla status" (at least 13 books) at some point in time. Feel free to contact me, via comment or email, when you do finish your target level. We'll celebrate.

This challenge blog celebrated its 1st year anniversary four days ago (Dec. 28). In the course of the year, it has adopted a new name, Bifurcaria bifurcata, and has published more than 100 blog posts. I intend to let it continue life as a general blog about international literature and about translation, focusing on an expanded list of excellent writers, Latin American or otherwise. Stay tuned.

Thanks once again for your participation.

-Rise

The 2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge

The Black Sheep Dances just announced The 2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge.

The qualified countries to read from are: Algeria, Albania, Tunisia, Spain, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Monaco, Slovenia, Crete, Cyprus, and Malta.

There are three levels of participation (Tourist-Explorer-Scholar, corresponding to 3-6-9 books).

You can sign up at this link.

Ficciones - 2011 Argentina Reading Challenge

Is it too late to champion a reading challenge for this year? Definitely not. If it's as good, as enticing as this, then we'll certainly make the time for it.

The Ficciones (2011 Argentina Reading Challenge) will cover Argentinean literature in Spanish and in translation. The challenge will end in February 14, 2012. So there's still a good six months to pad up the reading list with great books (Borges! Cortázar! Aira!). The challenge is hosted by Jen (Jen and the Pen).

Readers can sign up at this link. And check out the reading suggestions.

I just signed up!


http://argentinareadingchallenge.blogspot.com/