Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Challenge: Sunshine Smackdown -- Battle of the Prizes

Rose City Reader is hosting this new challenge that:
"...pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award. Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three great books!

DETAILS

Choose three books that you have not read before:

1) One that won both the Pulitzer and the National (here is a list of double dippers);
2) One that won the Pulitzer but not the National (Pulitzer winners are here); and
3) One that won the National but not the Pulitzer (National winners are here).

Read all three between May Day and Labor Day. Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged!"

I've got several of these books on my TBR pile, and this gives me some great motivation to read them. I especially appreciate the challenges that run for a part of a year and have smaller reading requirements since I tend to let the longer ones "go by the wayside" as I get distracted by all the "shiny" new titles that my eye comes across!

I will be reading:
  1. The Fixer by Bernard Malamud as my double dipper read
  2. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson as my Pulitzer read
  3. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison as National Book Award read

If you are interested in joining this challenge that goes from May 1, 2009 through September 7, 2009, visit Rose City Reader and sign up!

6 comments:

  1. OHHHHH NO! I don't think I'll be able to resist! I'm a sucker for prize winners and I just saw that Oscar Wao is a double dipper (I'll be reading it next month for book club). Oh why, Terri! WHY!! :D

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  2. Trish -- I hope you join the challenge. But Oscar Woa is not a double dipper. I had that wrong on my list and had to correct it this morning. Drat!

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  3. Trish: Bwwaahahahha! The challenges just keep appearing to suck us deeper into the reading vortex! So far I've shown great restraint this year. I'm saving room for the Japanese Literature Challenge (Bellezza) starting in July, and hopefully Carl V. will host the RIP challenge again in the Fall.

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  4. Well, my dear, I have to be honest--now that I know Oscar Wao isn't a double dipper I'm not quite as tempted. I'll have to see if I can find Fables by Faulkner, but otherwise I don't have much desire to read the others. Shipping News was a very "ick" read for me.

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  5. I have Gilead on my list to read for quite a few challenges, namely the one that comes to mind is Dewey's. We'll have to talk when you (and I!) finish it. I doubt I can add any more challenges to my list right now, but this one does sound wonderful! Also, I hope you are feeling better, Terri.

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