27.Apr.2008 10 out 100 out of 1001 Books YMRBYD Challenge
Update 2 Nov 2008
See the wrap-up post here.
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If you’re like me, and you haven’t read many of the books in the 1001 Books YMRBYD list, the list could become overwhelming to you and you’re not sure how to “conquer” it, then you may want to join me in this challenge.
I have an idea of how to sweep through the books in the list reasonably. Most of us wouldn’t be able to read all 1001 books in our lifetime, especially with all the new books coming out every year. So let’s not even try :). What I want to attempt is to read 100 books out of this list, which is distributed as evenly as possible. But chances are, if you haven’t read many books in the list, you’re probably a slow reader like I am, so even 100 books is far too many. So to start, let’s just have 10, one for each month. I will start from book #1 to 100.
The rule is, pick one book for every group of 10 books. So pick one book from book #1-10, then another one from book #11-20, and so on. If you have read one book from the group in the past, you can skip that group, or you can pick another book that you haven’t read in that group.
This is my list:
[01-10] #1 Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro read 12/05/08 (review)
[11-20] #19 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon read 01/07/08 (review)
[21-30] #28 Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
[31-40] #40 Platform – Michael Houellebecq
[41-50] skipped – I’ve read #42 Atonement and #49 Life of Pi
[51-60] #51 An Obedient Father – Akhil Sharma
[61-70] either #63 The Blind Assassin or #64 After the Quake
[71-80] skipped – I’ve read #78 Sputnik Sweetheart. Might read #80 Intimacy.
[81-90] skipped – I’ve read #90 Veronika Decides to Die. Might read #85 Tipping the Velvet.
[91-100] skipped – I’ve read #93 Memoirs of a Geisha. Might read #92 The God of Small Things or #95 Enduring Love.
Looks like I have 6 books that I have to read, and the rests are optional.
Well initially, I’d like to have the challenge going on for 10 months, so if anyone hasn’t read any book from the first 100 books, they would actually have time to read 10, assuming a month time to each. But I’m being optimistic and assume other people most probably have read quite a few from the first 100 books. So let’s have this challenge for 6 months! You can join anytime but finishing date is 31 October 2008. Who knows, if all goes well, we can continue to book 101-200 :)
Update 4 May 08
I posted this on goodreads forum but didn’t get any response. I posted it on Bookcrossing website and (as usual) people are responding (BC people are the most book-crazed bunch I’ve ever met). So we got quite a few people that are up for the challenge. See the discussion here. I’m thinking to put people’s list at somewhere more organized if I have the time.On the other hand, I found this other challenge that could be done in conjunction with this challenge: 1% Well-Read Challenge. I would probably join, since it starts at exactly the same time with mine (1 May 08).
I’m using Mr. Linky for auto linking below. Please add the link to your specific blog post containing the list of your books (this should be where you update your progress too). It’ll be interesting to see what books that people choose to read out of a group and what books that most people have read.
Happy reading!
mee 
Jenny 
Lindy 