Thanks to raidergirl3 for bringing ANOTHER challenge to my attention.
http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/2008/03/challenge-once-upon-time-2008.html
Another challenge! My second to last one to join for this year....but as this one covers an area I'm already reading in many other challenges, this is easy to join, and fun! I love fairy tales and myths. Fantasy is one of the main categories of books I read, along with mystery. I write fantasy. So....this was almost a no-brainer for me, as soon as I saw the title I was done for (as my English husband likes to say).
Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings is hosting this challenge at http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/?p=863
Here are the rules:
"The Journey
This is really as simple as the name implies and is to Once Upon a Time as the experience was to The Sci~Fi Experience. It means you are participating but not committing yourself to any specific number of books. All reading is a journey, perhaps none more so than reading fantastical fiction. By signing up for The Journey you are agreeing to at least read one book within the four categories during March 21st to June 20th period. Just one book. It has always been of utmost importance to me that the challenges that I host be all about experiencing enjoyable literature and sharing it with others. I want you to participate. Hence, The Journey.
Quest the First
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 the Second
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. This proved to be one of the more difficult quests last year merely because of the need to classify each read and determine which books fit into which category. I am not a stickler, fear not, but I was fascinated watching how folks worked to find books for each category.
Quest the Third
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. Love the story, love the films, love the idea of that magical night of the year and so this is my chance to promote the reading of this farcical love story.
Three is a magical number, a number of portent in fantastical tales, and so three quests seems about right. "
See what I mean? It is a fun challenge, and YA books apply, children's fairy tales, mythology books, all kinds of fantasy books.....and, since I have not yet chosen my Shakespeare play for the Shakespeare challenge, I have just found my answer: A Midnight Summer's Dream. Thus, I fulfill another challenge by joining this one! And I like Carl's idea of reading A Midsummer's Night Dream at midsummer - June solstice night. One of the most magical nights of the year, when the sun is up for the longest time, and the night time is the shortest. And right now, as we plow through a very chilly Easter weekend here in Ottawa, June with its scented evenings and warm nights and windows open and NO SNOW and warm air.....*sigh* I am beginning to long for signs of spring!My list for the Once Upon A Time Challenge:
I am joining Quest the Third. Again, this will be easy as I already have books in almost every section, in other challenges. I could quite easily read fantasy for most of the year! And fairy tales! I am combining Quest the Second with Shakespeare:
Mythology : The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell - DONE
Fairy Tales: The Classic Fairy Tales - Iona and Peter Opie - DONE
The Fair Folk - ed Marvin Kaye - DONE
Folktales: British Folktales - Katharine Briggs - not doing
Fantasy: A Princess of Roumania - Paul Park - DONE
Inkheart - Cornelia Funke - DONE April 6 2008
Shakespeare: A Midsummer's Night Dream (tbr June 20) - DONE June 20 2008
Alternate: Folktales: Goblins - Brian Froud (picture book of goblins) - little folk rhyme on back of book: "Where thorn-trees abound, there Goblins be found." DONE
I know, this looks like a heavy reading list. Nothing like a challenge to get me going! I had picked up A Princess of Roumania and The Fair Folk in January, and was looking for a way to incorporate them into my challenges! So I am very excited about this list, and this challenge. There were so many more books I could have chosen, but I have to be realistic, especially as I haven't begun reading any books for the Banned Book Challenge which runs in the same time frame. I love this one, and now have to finish May Sarton so I can get going on Inkheart.....or the Folktales....
6 comments:
I joined in this one too - I couldn't resist. I'm only doing the first quest though but hopefully this year I'll get through it. Last year I was one book short.
Looking forward to your reviews of the books you chose!
Nice to meet you!
I look forward to seeing your reviews too. I am so glad this challenge exists, because fantasy has so many good stories and in my humble opinion, not enough people read it. So anything that promotes genre reading is good!
The only book I recognize is Inkheart, and it was good. I haven't read the next one in the trilogy, but someday...
Have fun with the challenges!
I'm so glad you found out about the challenge and joined in! Wonderful list, by the way. I have the first 3 Park books in that series and have only read a bit of Princess but really liked what I read. I look forward to your reviews. Now all I have to do is convince you to break your own rules and join us for the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge in September. Dark fantasy certainly fits in with that challenge! :)
Hi Carl - I did join the RIP challenge last year, but I'd just gotten this blog and had no idea how to link etc! so you never knew - I read most of the books on my challenge, too! So, even though I've said 'that's all', in my mind I know I'm joining RIP 3!! I read too much horror/dark fantasy not to....!! Thanks for liking my list, I see from your site I'm one of the few to pick non-fiction to do....there is so much to read, it was hard to pick only those books! Thanks for promoting fantasy, by hosting this challenge :-)
Raidergirl3 - Are you going to see the INkheart movie when it opens? My 5 year old daughter is already counting down, so I have to hurry and read the book to see if it is too dark for her (plus see why it's banned in some schools here in Canada, can you believe it??). See you in the challenges! Now we have to get reading....
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