I love Goodreads. I really do. But according to that site (said with disdain), I’ve only read 50 books this year. Considering part of my job is reading, that’s a pretty pathetic number. Of course, most of my work reading is excerpts from books, so a lot of my time is spent reading a small part of hundreds of books. There’s really no easy way to count those, so I don’t even try.

I thought about finding a reading challenge to help me boost my numbers, but all of the ones that focused on quantity seemed to be about getting to 100 books. I don’t think doubling my reading output next year is in the cards, so I decided to create my own reading challenge.

How to Participate:

• Figure out how many books you read in 2010. Estimate if necessary.
• Add 11 to that number. Read (at least) that many books in 2011. Only books started and finished in 2011 count.
• Keep us up-to-date on your progress by commenting on this blog post, on our Facebook Page, or at the +11 in ’11 discussion folder on our Goodreads group.
• Feel free to use the above image on your site, if you’d like!

Simple, huh? As Ann pointed out, 11 additional books works out to one extra book per month, with a month off for good behavior!

Beyond the basic idea of upping your 2010 number by 11, you are free to structure this challenge as you’d like. Maybe you’ll try to read 11 authors you’ve never read before. Or maybe you’ll commit to 11 short story collections, or 11 works of fiction, if you’re mostly a non-fiction reader, or vice-versa. It’s entirely up to you. Me? I think I’m just going to try to get to that magic number of 61.

Welcome to DystopYA:  the Books on the Nightstand reading challenge for Dystopic Young Adult fiction.

If you’ve read any of my posts or listened to our podcast lately, you know that I’m going through a ‘dystopic fiction’ phase. Some of the best books have been published as young adult novels. I find that they can stand side by side with the best adult fiction, and in many cases the stripped down language and precise writing fit the landscape of the book itself.

What is dystopic fiction? Wikipedia defines it as:

The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres, and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction.

Suggested title list:
Here are some suggested titles in the category of Dystopic YA Fiction. These are books that we have read or that have been recommended to us by trusted booksellers. We talk about several of these books in Episode 47 of the Books on the Nightstand podcast.

 Feed by M.T. Anderson
Candor by Pam Bachorz
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (the sequel to The Hunger Games)
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Gone by Michael Grant
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
House of Stairs by William Sleator
Uglies by Scott Westerfield

The Rules:

There are always rules in dystopic societies. We will be benevolent despots in the running of this challenge. Your participation is voluntary and we will be deactivating the Reading Challenge Police, so you are on the honor system.

1. You must do as you are told. You are hereby commanded to read 3 works of dystopic fiction that were written or published primarily for young adults. A partial list of titles is above; you may choose other books that are not on this list. Books must be read between October 5, 2009 and December 31, 2009 in order to count for the challenge.

2. Secret activities are forbidden in dystopic societies. You must post your reading list and/or your review(s) of the books that you’ve read. Reviews can be formal or informal, as you like. You may post them one at a time or all at once, it’s up to you. If you have a blog, please post there. If you do not have a blog, there are two options:

• A. (Preferred) – use one of the special discussion threads we’ve set up on Facebook or Goodreads. Note: Facebook membership is required to post there, but anyone can read the messages. Goodreads requires you to be a member to post or read on the discussion board. Membership to both Facebook and Goodreads is free.

5. Dystopic governments can track the identities of community members. Post the URL of your list/review in the Simply Linked box below. If you posted at Goodreads or Facebook, include the URL of the discussion post.

If you’ve chosen to post your list/review in the comments section below, you can still use the Simply Linked feature. Just type your name in the “Link Title” box followed by the word “comments” in parentheses, like this: Ann Kingman (comments) so that readers know that your reviews are at the end of this post. You can put anything in the in the URL box, it just can’t be left blank.

This will give everyone an easy way to read your reviews, and will make the random drawing for the contest prize easier.

Need a button for your blog? Grab this one:

Our community begins on October 5, 2009. Will you be one of us?

(note: I just learned of another Dystopian YA Fiction Challenge over at Bart’s Bookshelf. That meanst that you can knock off two challenges at the same time, though Bart’s starts on October 15th. Go check out his challenge and sign up over there, too!)

So many of you have left comments about the books you’ve chosen for the Beowulf on the Beach Reading Challenge. I’m impressed at all of the reading that has already occurred and is being planned for the rest of the Summer. At the urging of a BOTNS listener, I’ve set up a couple places for you to discuss your reads.

Goodreads – I’ve set up a folder for any discussion threads on particular books. I’ve started a thread on Moby Dick already. For more info check out this post.

Facebook – Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t allow you to group certian topics in a folder like Goodreads does, so check out this post to see how to format new topics.

and now, without further ado, here’s this week’s video!

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Okay, I admit it. I’m probably not going to get through four classics this Summer. I think I was a little ambitious in my planning. Work reading is taking up the bulk of my time right now. I’m still reading Moby Dick when I’ve got a spare moment, and will be taking it with me on vacation (to the beach) next weekend. But it looks like I’ll be sticking to the true letter of the reading challenge rules and reading at least ONE book from Beowulf on the Beach. (Though I’d really still love to get to Great Expectations this summer…)

All that being said, I know I’m not alone. For one thing, I keep asking Ann how she’s doing with War and Peace and, oddly, she always changes the subject. And then, there’s this article from The New Yorker’s Book Bench column, which says that most people’s major summer reading projects are destined to fail.

What about the rest of you? Use the comments section below to let me know how goes the challenge.

In the meantime, here’s this week’s video of Jack reading a favorite line, this time from King Lear.

[If you click through to the New Yorker article you'll notice that I "borrowed" the image they used to illustrate their column. It was just too perfect to pass up! Thanks so much to Joseph Robertson for taking such a great photo and for posting it on flickr!)
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Presenting the first ever Reading Challenge from Books on the Nightstand! (Since it’s our first, I’m still a little unsure of the do’s and don’t's of creating a reading challenge, so I hope all of you RC veterans out there will look kindly on our freshman effort!)

A new book arrives in U.S. stores today, May 19th; Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan is an accessible, funny and extremely readable guide to 50 great works of literature, as chosen by the author. You can hear me rave more about this book on episode 31 of the podcast, which goes live May 20th.

Long story short, I was embarrassed at how few of the 50 books I had read, and have committed, this summer, to reading 4 classics I’ve never read before. Want to join me? The reading challenge is very flexible, but here are few “rules:”

• The reading challenge runs from May 25 – September 7, 2009 (Memorial Day to Labor Day)
• Read at least one book featured in Beowulf on the Beach, though you can, of course, read more.
• Write about your challenge and reading experience (on a blog, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, etc.)
• Feel free to use one of our beautiful reading challenge buttons on your blog (see above and below)

Pretty simple, huh? Click into this widget to see the Table of Contents, listing all of the books covered:

and now, for some free books:

Win one of FIVE signed copies of Beowulf on the Beach!

There are four different ways to enter:

1. Comment on this blog post, telling us what your favorite classic is
2. Comment on the discussion at Goodreads
3. Comment on the discussion at Facebook
4. Tweet the following on Twitter: “BOOKS ON THE NIGHTSTAND is giving away five signed copies of BEOWULF ON THE BEACH! To enter, tweet this! http://is.gd/Bn7A”

We’ll pick two winners from the blog comments and one from each of the other three “venues.” We’ll announce the winners on Sunday May 31st, so you’ll still have plenty of time to participate in the challenge… Good Luck and Good Reading!

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