chasing bawa

Well, this year has FLOWN by amidst the gazillion challenges in which I participated. I don’t know why I was complaining as I’d made lists of all the books I was planning to read anyway, but I guess I’m just not used to planning my reading and sticking to the plan. So let’s see how I did, shall we?

Thriller and Suspense 2010 Challenge: 19/12 – finished
Terry Pratchett 2010 Challenge: 4/4-5 – finished
South Asia Authors Challenge: 6/5 – finished
Women Unbound Challenge: 5/5 – finished
Once Upon A Time IV Challenge: 4/1 – finished
1930s Reading Challenge: 1/1 – finished
R.I.P. V Challenge: 7/4 – finished
Paris in July Challenge: 1/1 – finished
Flashback Reading Challenge: 1/3 – FAIL
TBR 2010 Challenge: 9/12 – FAIL but will be ongoing
Japanese Literature Challenge 4: 2/1 – ongoing

OK, so what I learnt this year is that I’m no good at re-reading except on holidays home where I’m surrounded by books I’ve already read. I had every intention of re-reading Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and have my original copy on my shelf and Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself (which I had promised Aarti that I would try again), but alas, my head was turned by too many other enticing and new titles. I am so weak. I didn’t even re-read one Terry Pratchett book either!

So next year, I’ll probably cut back on some of the challenges so that I can have a less-structured, whim-based reading experience. Of course, there will be some challenges that I will be participating in anyway as there will be certain types of books from which I cannot keep away: mysteries, Japanese, South Asian and feminist. But I have already seen a number of challenges sprouting all over the book blogosphere and am severely tempted… What to do?

I am also planning to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace and embark on a Yukio Mishima reading explorathon. So I think that’s going to keep me pretty busy. And of course tackle the ever-growing volcanic Mt. TBR. Hmm, did I mention I wanted to read more on a whim?