prezzey's 999 Challenge list!

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prezzey's 999 Challenge list!

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1prezzey
Redigerat: dec 30, 2009, 7:49 pm

After days of trying to make my mind up, here are my categories... this is my free time reading, so no work-related categories this time.

* Jewish religious literature
* Science fiction from the past 5 years
* Computers and culture
- stuff like "Power-Up: How Japanese video games gave the world an extra life" by Chris Kohler (can't get the title touchstone to work, but if you click on the author you can find it just fine). Nonfiction and fiction are both OK, though I want to read more of the former.
* African-American authors
* Russian authors (ie. authors who write in Russian. so Aitmatov is in but Kaminer is out)
* Books in German excluding manga
- I read a huge amount of manga in German, but I'm lazy to read actual books... I read slightly slower in German than in English or Hungarian and I find it annoying. But if I don't read more I'll never read faster! gah. Hence, the category.
* Popular science
* Nonfiction about society
- sociology, investigative journalism, interviews, etc. A really general category.
* Books useful for concultures/worldbuilding

I think that if I finish a category I'll swap it for something else, I have 2-3 spare categories in stock... =:O

Edited to add master list:
(note - these are the books I've already read, not my plans etc.)

Progress: 81/81

Jewish religious literature - FINISHED

1. Sabbath: Days of Eternity and Kabbalah and the Age of the Universe by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, January, in English (listed as one bc both are short)
2. The Physics of Kabbalah by Rabbi Pinchas Winston, January, in English
3. The Committed Life by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, May, in Hungarian
4. Wise Men and their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic figures by Elie Wiesel, May, in Hungarian
5. Mishkney Elyon by the Ramchal, November, in English
6. The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism by Norman Lamm, December, in English
7. Two Jews Can Still Be a Mixed Marriage by Azriela Jaffe, December, in English
8. Laisse mon Peuple savoir by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, December, in French :O
9. And Hannah Wept by Michael Gold, December, in English

Science fiction from the past 10 years - FINISHED

1. Jennifer Government by Max Barry, January, in English
2. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, February, in English
3. Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks, March, in English
4. Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan, April, in English
5. Gears of War: Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss, June, in English
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy, October, in English
7. Maul by Tricia Sullivan, November, in English
8. Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant by Karen Traviss, December, in English
9. Paradox by John Meaney, December, in English

Computers and culture - FINISHED

1. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland, January, in English
2. The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, March, in English
3. Válogatott kalandozásaim Informatikában by Győző Kovács, October, in Hungarian
4. Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic by Brad King and John Borland, November, in English
5. Teletext and Viewdata by Steve A. Money, November, in Hungarian
6. Writing for Video Games by Steve Ince, November, in English
7. Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, November, in English
8. Geek Chic by Sherrie Inness (Editor), December, in English
9. Headcrusher by Alexander Garros & Alexei Evdokimov, December, in English

African-American authors - FINISHED

1. The Wave by Walter Mosley, January, in English
2. Driftglass by Samuel Delany, January, in English
3. Tropical Fish, by Doreen Baingana, January, in English (I'm kind of on the fence about including this, see below)
4. The Intuitionist, by Colson Whitehead, February, in English
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker, February, in English
6. Sula by Toni Morrison, May, in English
6.5 Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now by Maya Angelou, June, in English (very short)
7. Love by Toni Morrison, December, in English
8. The Collected Stories by Alice Walker, December, in English
9. The Color of Water by James McBride, December, in English

Russian authors - FINISHED

1. Empire "V" by Victor Pelevin, January, in Hungarian
2. Homo Sovieticus by Alexander Zinovyev, January, in Hungarian
3. One Soldier's War by Arkady Babchenko, January, in Hungarian
4. Face Control by Vladimir Spektr, February, in Hungarian
5. The White Ship by Chingiz Aitmatov, February, in Hungarian
6. Macho ne Plachut by Ilya Stogoff, April, in Hungarian
7. When the Mountains Fall by Chingiz Aitmatov, April, in Hungarian
8. Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel, August, in Hungarian
9. The Last War by Kir Bulychev, September, in Hungarian

Books in German excluding manga - FINISHED

1. Auf der Mântuleasa-Straße by Mircea Eliade, January, in German (DUH!)
2. Ich bin kein Berliner by Wladimir Kaminer, February, in German
3. Ich darf das, ich bin Jude by Oliver Polak, April, in German
4. Es gab keinen Sex im Sozialismus by Wladimir Kaminer, April, in German
5. Alle meine Katzen by Olga Kaminer, April, in German
6. Hack//AI Buster 2 by Tatsuya Hamazaki, May, in German
7. Getürkte Weihnacht by Osman Engin, June, in German
8. Sprich langsam, Türke by Kerim Pamuk, July, in German
9. Alles roger, Hodscha by Kerim Pamuk, October, in German

Popular science - FINISHED

1. Catlore by Desmond Morris, January, in English
2. Farkasok a Kárpát-medencében by Zsolt Kovács, March, in Hungarian
3. Bioklíma by Angela Schuh, May, in Hungarian
4. The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey, July, in Hungarian
5. Egy geológus barangolásai Magyarországon by Tamás Báldi, August, in Hungarian
6. Cool it by Bjørn Lomborg, October, in Hungarian
7. Igaz-akták by Henrik Farkas, October, in Hungarian
8. Euclid's Window by Leonard Mlodinow, November, in Hungarian
9. Stiff by Mary Roach, November, in English

Nonfiction about society - FINISHED

1. Szemtől szemben a magyarországi cigánysággal by Ágnes Diósi, January, in Hungarian
2. Friderikusz - eddig by Sándor Friderikusz and Zsófia Mihancsik, January, in Hungarian
3. Az én mozim by Sándor Friderikusz, January, in Hungarian
4. Sikeres cigányok identitása identitása Angliában és Magyarországon by Kinga Dóra Tóth, March, in Hungarian
5. Cigány gyermekvilág by Zita Réger, March, in Hungarian
6. Ahmad Ibn Fadhlan's Journey, translation and commentary by Róbert Simon, March, in Hungarian
7. Dirty Dealing: The Untold Truth About Global Money Laundering by Peter Lilley, March, in Hungarian
8. Nomádok közt Afganisztánban by Jean and Danielle Bourgeois, April, in Hungarian
9. Az elittől a nómenklatúráig - az intézményesített káderpolitika kialakulása Magyarországon, 1945-1989 by Tibor Huszár, May, in Hungarian

Books useful for concultures/worldbuilding - FINISHED

1. Penetration by Ingo Swann, January, in English
2. Tactical Magick by Seth, January, in English
3. A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, April, in Hungarian
4. How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead by Barry Kemp, May, in Hungarian
5. Brainwash - The Secret History of Mind Control by Dominic Streatfeild, June, in Hungarian
6. Egyházi protokoll by Ildikó Gyarmati, July, in Hungarian
7. GURPS Imperial Rome 2nd Edition by CJ Carella, July, in English
8. Az igazi kommandó by Péter Ambrus, August, in Hungarian
9. Das Methusalem-Komplott by Frank Shirrmacher, October, in Hungarian

Books I read during the challenge which do not fit into any of my categories:
(These don't count, I'm just making a list)
- I stopped updating this months ago because it got ridiculously long. Sorry!

1. Vertraute Fremde by Jirō Taniguchi, January, in German (manga)
2. Matilda by Roald Dahl, January, in English
3. Rising Stars volume 1 by JM Straczynski, January, in English (comic)
4. Rising Stars volume 2 by JM Straczynski, January, in English (comic)
5. Rising Stars volume 3 by JM Straczynski, January, in English (comic)
6. Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara, January, in English
7. Jappán - retró útikalandkönyv by Sándor Badár and János Horváth, January, in Hungarian
8. Biomega Bd. 1 by Nihei Tsutomu, January, in German (reread in different language) (manga)
9. Eden volume 17 by Hiroki Endo, January, in German
10. Dreams of Being Eaten Alive by David Rosenberg, January, in English (thanks to LT user break!)
11. Rising Stars: Visitations by JM Straczynski, January, in English (comic) (forgot to list)
12. Mushishi volume 1 by Yuki Urushibara, February, in English (manga)
13. Rules by Cynthia Lord, February, in English
14. The Uncomfortable Dead by Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, February, in English
15. The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith, February, in English
16. Extra(ordinary) people by Joanna Russ, February, in English
17. Fullmetal Alchemist Bd. 12 by Hiromu Arakawa, February, in German (manga)
18. A némaság könyve by Károly Bari, February, in Hungarian
19. Tűzpiros kígyócska by Károly Bari, February, in Hungarian/Romani
20. Collected Works vol. 17 by Carl Gustav Jung, February, in Hungarian
21. Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood, February, in English
22. Stardust by Neil Gaiman, February, in English (thanks LT user AdamDobay!)
23. A lélek halhatatlansága by Attila Grandpierre, February, in Hungarian
24. Problemski Hotel by Dimitri Verhulst, February, in Hungarian
25. The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martínez, February, in Hungarian
26. Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick, March, in Hungarian
27. Out on the Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block, March, in Hungarian
28. Mushishi vol. 2 by Yuki Urushibara, March, in English (manga)
29. Mushishi vol. 3 by Yuki Urushibara, March, in English (manga)
30. Mushishi vol. 4 by Yuki Urushibara, March, in English (manga)
31. Weight by Jeannette Winterson, March, in Hungarian
32. Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith, March, in Hungarian
33. A kárókatonák még nem jöttek vissza by Nándor Gion, March, in Hungarian
34. Apáimnak, fiaimnak by Tamás Jónás, March, in Hungarian

Books I started to read for the challenge but ended up disliking and did not finish::

1. jPod by Douglas Coupland, January, in English; gave up after 160 pages or so.

2break
jan 1, 2009, 11:39 pm

Looking forward to the actual books you'll read as your categories look interesting. (And half of them out of my league.)

re African-American authors
I am sure you know Toni Morrison. I am reading James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain right now and so far pretty good.

re Russian authors
Are you going for classics, or moderns (i.e Pelevin)

re concultures/worldbuilding
I had to look it up as I had no idea what it meant. Sounds second lifeish

Sok sikert!

3prezzey
jan 3, 2009, 7:16 pm

> 2

African-American authors:

Yup I've just read The Bluest Eye by her last week or so. I wanted to save it for the challenge but it was short and I really really felt like reading it.

Right now I'm reading Driftglass, a short story collection by Samuel Delany for the category. I love Delany and want to read everything by him (with the possible exception of his pornographic works... :D ). And also Kindred by Octavia Butler. (I tend to read several books at the same time)

Russian authors:

Both, really. The newest Pelevin novel just came in the mail the other day (I've read all the others), that will make its way to the list I'm sure :) and I'm currently reading One Soldier's War by Arkady Babchenko. But I also have A Hero of our Time lined up and I've just bought two of the three big Tolstoy novels, Anna Karenina and Resurrection on a sale.

I also read Russian nonfiction (I've just finished a book on Gazprom before starting the challenge) but I haven't made up my mind whether that should count toward this category or "Nonfiction about society". (One Soldier's War is autobiographic but I'd classify it as literature, not as a memoir.)

Concultures:

I was thinking of fictional worldbuilding in general... though in my case I like doing it for the sake of itself, not just for using it as a setting for fictional works.

I suppose Second Life also qualifies, though I personally hate Second Life, it's possibly the most awfully coded MMO in existence. It's kind of broken by design. But I suppose I should save that rant for the video gaming website I frequent! :O

4prezzey
jan 3, 2009, 7:18 pm

I think I'm going to rename "Science fiction from the past 5 years" to "Science fiction from this decade", I've just realized today that many of the books I've been meaning to read for this category were 6 or 7 years old! gah.

5ShannonMDE
jan 4, 2009, 12:00 pm

My husband studied Russian in college and had me read Death and the Penguin. For me not knowing much about Russia, it was very readable.

6LisaMorr
jan 4, 2009, 1:25 pm

prezzey - what was the book about Gazprom that you read? Any good?

7prezzey
jan 4, 2009, 2:09 pm

> 5

I loved that book! There is also a sequel, Penguin Lost. I have at least two books by Kurkov lined up in the "Books in German" category. (I'm unsure if I should put them in the Russian authors category, because Kurkov is Ukrainian, though he writes in Russian and is an ethnic Russian AFAIK. But since they are in German, I will just put them in that category, I'll have fewer books in that category anyway... it will probably be a struggle just to finish 9 books in German ;) )

> 6

"Gazprom, Russia's Weapon" by Valeri Panyushkin and Mihail Zigar. I read it in Hungarian, I think there is also a French edition, but it's not out in English yet, it's a fairly recent book.

It was an OK read, and very informative, though at the beginning the authors seemed to be in love with Chernomyrdin. One should not read it standalone, but it provides lots of background (one version of it, anyway) and ever since then, as I'm reading the daily news with the latest edition of Gas Wars in full swing, I can't help thinking of it.

I'd say it's a solid 4 stars.

8RidgewayGirl
jan 4, 2009, 4:48 pm

I know what you mean about reading in a foreign language -- I have a Books in German category and have filled it with mystery novels as they keep me reading, rather than interrupting a worthy German book dozens of times to read something more compelling in English and eventually abandoning the German book altogether. I look forward to seeing your choices.

9prezzey
jan 8, 2009, 3:31 pm

> 8

Well for me English is "reading in a foreign language" too, I'm not a native speaker! :O But I read completely effortlessly in English and these days most of my reading is in English.

As for my choices... well there is a short story collection and a novel by Andrey Kurkov, I loved his books in English, so I hope I can muddle my way through in German. Then there is a YA fantasy book, a collection by Wladimir Kaminer (I love his stories! My favorite German author... yes I know he's Russian... LOL!), a nonfiction book about national security services in Austria, another nonfiction book about policemen in Germany, umm stuff like that. I buy books impulsively (I'm a huge bargain bin fiend) and then, if they happen to be in German, they usually sit on my shelf for awfully large amounts of time without actually getting read. I'm working on remedying this :D

10RidgewayGirl
jan 8, 2009, 3:42 pm

Wow, Hungarian. There's a language I will never learn! But I know what you mean - so much is available only in English, especially technical or academic information. It keeps us English speakers happily monolingual out of sheer laziness. Next year I'm going to add a "books in French" category.

11prezzey
jan 8, 2009, 3:53 pm

In the meanwhile I've read 3 books and gave up on one.

Microserfs was a really pleasant surprise, even though the plot was practically nonexistent (but I guess that was one of the points... with Coupland I never know what is 'author's intention' and what is plain old shabbiness). And I was surprised geek/nerd culture was so similar even back in 1994, it was just um, I guess, not as evenly distributed geographically as it is now.

I also started to read the sequel, JPod, but it was... I don't know, unbearably superficial and none of the characters were even remotely likeable. But maybe that was one of the points Coupland wanted to make... the dotcom crash and the new millennium made jerks out of nerds or something along those lines? I just couldn't bring myself to suffer through the entire book trying to guess that.

I read Catlore for my popular science category because a discussion with a friend made me realize that I wanted to read books on animal behavior, and this was lying around. It was a quick fun read (especially since my brother has a cat, so if you have cats this book might be worth checking out) though Desmond Morris is one opinionated biologist! But that's not really news I suppose. My only substantive gripe is that the book has absolutely no references... I mean even popular science books should have a few unobtrusive references because now I don't know where to go next if I want to read up on some of the details. And some of his opinions could use some backing up beyond "I'm a biologist, believe me" ;)

It's actually a sequel to his previous book about cats but I don't have that one.

And then I read Szemtől szemben a magyarországi cigánysággal, which is a book about Hungarian Gypsies, supposedly written as an introductory Romology textbook, but it doesn't read like a textbook at all. Still, it was a pleasant surprise, though I have a few gripes with this one too, I just don't know if anyone here would be interested by them...? *blinks*

12prezzey
jan 8, 2009, 3:57 pm

> 10

I've been trying to convince myself to add a Books in Norwegian category, maybe next year if I survive my Books in German category (and that's a big "if" LOL!). I have a few books in Norwegian which look fascinating (Gud er norsk!) and my almost nonexistent Norwegian could use the practice.

13RidgewayGirl
jan 8, 2009, 4:03 pm

I just finished a book translated from the Norwegian and found the German translation far better than an English translation of another book by that author. I wonder if I could convince my one and only that Norway would be a good place to live (a hard sell--he said no to Canada based on the climate alone) so that I could learn Norwegian.

14prezzey
jan 8, 2009, 4:15 pm

> 13

For what it's worth, I used to live in Northern Norway (just for a semester - I was an exchange student) and it was great!!

15break
jan 13, 2009, 1:41 pm

Thanks for writing a few lines about the books you read. I may not read these ones, but at least it is good to know about them.

The title of JPod reminded me of a design idea for "K-Pod" I had two years ago.

In another timeline "Szemtől szemben a magyarországi cigánysággal" probably would be an essential book in my library. At one point I was trying to get into Sociology at ELTE and plenty of my friends did, who ended up working in this area.

16prezzey
jan 15, 2009, 3:51 pm

OK then, two more books... (and about 4 almost finished, halfway to go, etc... I'll save those for later)

I read The Wave by Walter Mosley for my African-American authors category. I absolutely LOVED his YA SF novel 47, I read it sometime in December, and now I want to read all of Mosley's SF (haven't made up my mind yet about his mystery novels). This one was a decent read, with slight autobiographical overtones, I'd say 4 stars - the parts and themes I really liked in it are much more prevalent in 47. I've managed to get ahold of Futureland in the meantime so that'll be the next book by him to read I guess. I love short story collections so YAY!

I also finally got around to read Empire V - I'm a huge Pelevin fan so I had high expectations, but he didn't disappoint this time either. His previous novel was about therianthropes and this one is about vampires, does he spend his free time browsing Otherkin websites?! He probably does, LOL!

I usually don't care much for vampires (the vampire novels I end up reading are almost always recommendations by friends), but this novel was great and it also presented a believable alternative vision of cosmology (some of his other novels didn't really 'work' for me in this respect, but this one really did) with lots of nasty humor ;) I want to say a lot about it but I don't want to give anything away, you'll have to read this one yourselves. 5+ stars.

17break
jan 16, 2009, 4:19 pm

Thanks for the Wave recommendation. It sounds my kind of book. That's what I will listen to on my flight to Hungary.(My local library had it on CD.)

Speaking of African-American authors: You might enjoy Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker. Her mom is Alice Walker author of The Color Purple.

18prezzey
jan 17, 2009, 3:21 pm

I finished Driftglass (mentioned above) and read Friderikusz - eddig by Sándor Friderikusz and Zsófia Mihancsik. (I did say my "Nonfiction about society" category was very broad - it apparently also includes this volume on Hungarian TV shows ;) )

> 17

Yes, that certainly sounds like something I'd enjoy! Thanks for the rec :)

BTW - I said The Wave was good but I also said 47 was much better, so if you have a choice by any chance...

19prezzey
feb 25, 2009, 9:27 pm

I've been reading and updating my list, I just haven't had the time to sit down and post about it. Now is the time!

So far I'm enjoying my African American authors and Russian authors categories the most... in fact if I finish all the books I am currently halfway through, I will probably finish my African American category altogether. These kinds of books used to be hard to obtain here, but not any longer! I managed to buy several in rapid succession. I guess I owe this to Barack Obama - Austrian and Hungarian bookstores now dare to order African American authors for their English-language shelves. Thank you! (Hmm I guess I should actually read something from Barack Obama too, I've had my eyes on The Audacity of Hope for a while now. But first I need to get through the books I've already bought!)

I'll start summarizing my reads from the beginning (and the non-category reads I will probably skip altogether unless someone asks me a specific question), but if you have any questions about specific books, ask away and I'll get right to it.

Sabbath: Days of Eternity and Kabbalah and the Age of the Universe by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, January, in English

- These were two booklets, both quite short, which is why I counted them as one. The Shabbat book is a really good intro, I didn't find it that useful because I'm already shomeret Shabbat and have been so for a very long time, but for someone who is new to the whole thing, this is probably a great place to start (I think Aryeh Kaplan is great in general and this book didn't disappoint either).

The other is an essay on how to put Judaism and what we know of the age of the world from science together... he used a different line of argumentation than I expected, but this made it interesting. (And in case you were wondering, this is not Young Earth Creationism or anything of that sort. That's a Christian tradition, Orthodox Jews seldom interpret Genesis that way.)

The Physics of Kabbalah by Rabbi Pinchas Winston, January, in English

- This was a disappointment. The book had precious little to do with the title. Don't expect much by way of physics here...

Jennifer Government by Max Barry, January, in English

- This was a fun fast-paced read and a pleasant surprise, with several laugh-out-loud moments. (I've also recently read The Space Merchants and I was amused in the way it made a cameo in this novel.)

I decided to read it because the same guy developed NationStates, which some of my friends used to be into, back in the day (I also found it interesting but I was afraid it would EAT all my spare time! So I never registered). So when I saw a cheap copy I picked it up. Apparently he's also quite good at writing, not just developing video games.

Tropical Fish, by Doreen Baingana, January, in English

I was on the fence about including this book, because while the author is African (Ugandan to be more precise) and lives in the US, she is a recent immigrant to the US and most of this book is set in Uganda. If I had an African authors category I'd probably put it there. Maybe for the next challenge, it feels like a good idea to have such a category, because I liked this book too.

This is a loosely knit collection of stories, some of them I really liked and some of them were quite meh (there were more of the former than the latter). The scenes set in the US had quite an impact on me (even though I've never been to the US... but I've been in that kind of situation myself).

It was also good to read something about Entebbe which is NOT connected to the raid on Entebbe!

Very interesting interview with the author:
http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/literature.asp?ID=475

The Intuitionist, by Colson Whitehead, February, in English

- I was BLOWN AWAY by this book. It took some effort - I started to read it twice, but I never really had the time to sit down and read, and it does not lend itself to this pick up and read a little type of reading. I finally sat down and read it in one sitting.

So many layers in there. This is what postmodernism should be about and what it usually is NOT about. :( I think I even noticed something in there most reviewers didn't. (After reading the book I raided the Intarwebz for reviews and read everything I could find.) But I'd rather write a review instead of a few rambling sentences.

OK, more tomorrow B"N.

20VictoriaPL
feb 26, 2009, 9:30 am

Glad to hear you enjoyed Jennifer Government. I recently acquired it, though I'm not including it in my 999.

21RidgewayGirl
feb 26, 2009, 2:15 pm

The Intuitionist looks intriguing. I'll have to look for it.

22prezzey
dec 30, 2009, 7:52 pm

OK I finished the challenge earlier today (Dec 30).

Things I've learned ;) -

* I should commit myself not only to reading books, but to reading the challenge forums as well
* I tried to space out the books and then I realized in December that I still had a bunch to go. Oops!
* I read a huge amount of books which did not fit into any of my categories, so I'll need more general categories next year

23avatiakh
dec 30, 2009, 10:30 pm

Hi Bogi - I also read a lot of non-challenge books during the year and finished my challenge in December. I've learnt to make my 1010 challenge categories more general and open to change. I'll have to have a look at your 1010 thread and see what you are planning to read.

24prezzey
dec 31, 2009, 3:44 pm

Happy new year everyone!

Oh hm I think I should link to my new thread for convenience -
http://www.librarything.com/topic/80488

I finished adding my challenge books to LT. I've really neglected my catalog, I think next year I'll also have to make a challenge of adding bookcases. I didn't end up participating in Secret Santa because the chances of someone buying me books I already have (they are just not in my catalog) were really high!

I still need to add a bunch of non-challenge reads for Nov/Dec and I'm afraid I'll miss a few because I did not put them on a specific list... I have to use LT more regularly in the future!

wahhh I've just checked and three of the 999 challenge books are missing. I'll have to go through the list again! ooooops.

avatiakh:
I'm OK with finishing in December - I don't want to finish early because then I'll spend months trying to figure out my categories for next year etc., LOL! I'm kind of obsessive when it comes to making lists of things. But I don't want next December to arrive for me to realize "oops, I still have a million books to go!"
But yes, I will try to make my categories very general. I thought that maybe I should just read 100 books and come up with categories retroactively! :D But that feels like cheating...