Ten To Try 2023

 

KCLS Challenge: Ten To Try 

Progress:  6/10

Once again my fabulous library system is hosting their Ten to Try Challenge where you try to read books fitting ten categories, and if you succeed, you win happiness beyond compare. Also you may get a button. I love my buttons. Finally, it's an excuse to create a list on the library home page. Lists! Buttons! You see how easy it is for the library to give me happiness.

I'll keep a list and make it public when it gets big enough (four books, I think). Hmm, which library should I ask a staff for a recommendation from... Also that first one is a toughie, because how long is "always"... There are so many.

Anyway, this years challenge categories are:

1. Book that you always meant to read or reread Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy Sayers
2. In translation Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki
3. Features your favorite season Make Me, tessa Bailey?
4. About a disaster or weather event The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal
5. Focuses on a person with an illness or disability: Disability Visibility, ed. Alice Wong. Also Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal
6. Explores a culture other than your own: Milk in My Coffee, Eric Jerome Dickey
7. About a sport or sports figure Call Him Jack,  Yohuru Williams
8. About a friendship A Lady for a Duke, Alexis Hall
9. About art or an artist Juniper Harvey
10. Recommended by staff I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

Ten To Try 2022

KCLS Challenge: Ten To Try 

Progress:  10/10

Once again my fabulous library system is hosting their Ten to Try Challenge where you try to read books fitting ten categories, and if you succeed, you win happiness beyond compare. Also you get a button. I love my buttons. Finally, it's an excuse to create a list on the library home page. Lists! Buttons! You see how easy it is for the library to give me happiness.

I'll keep a list -- I just hit four so I can make it public (July 4th!). This year I'm going to make it harder by trying to pre-select my books, but I warn the world that if I have problems I'm going to panic in November and search through my year in books to try to fit something in.

Anyway, this years challenge categories are:

1. Cover is your favorite color: Sisters, Raina Telgemeier 2/3/22
2. Set somewhere you've wanted to visit: Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (if I like the place!)
3. Main character is over 50: Machine, Elizabeth Bear (Valley of the Shadow, Carola Dunn)
4. By an Asian or Asian-American author: Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki 1/19/22
5. About a library or set in a library Running the Books, Avi Steinberg (One For the Books, Jenn McKinlay)
6. Set in another century: Lent, Jo Walton (Risk, Dick Francis)
7. A one-word title Warcross, Marie Lu (Chalice, Robin McKinley)
8. Recommended by a friend: A Ghost in the Glamour, Elizabeth Hunter (rec by Kathleen) (Wall of Winnipeg, Jane Zapata)
9. Has won an award: The Library Book, Susan Orlean (California Book Award)
10. Recommended by staff Mapping Sam, Joyce Hesselberth 5/6/22

Maybe I'll try using the hashtag #10totry when I tweet the book. Probably not, because I tweet my books pretty late.

OK, I'll work on these later -- I might move Machine to spot 3 if the protagonist is old enough, and I need to ask a friend and a staff person for 8 and 10. (The author confirmed the protagonists age! Elizabeth Bear is the coolest.)

(I just edited to delete all the Success Markers left over from me copying everything from last years Ten to Try Post)

KCLS Library 10 to Try 2021

KCLS Challenge: Ten To Try -- SUCCESS

Progress:  10/10

Once again my fabulous library system is hosting their Ten to Try Challenge where you try to read books fitting ten categories, and if you succeed, you win happiness beyond compare. Also you get a button. I love my buttons. Finally, it's an excuse to create a list on the library home page. Lists! Buttons! You see how easy it is for the library to give me happiness.

I'll keep a list -- I can't make it public until it gets a few entries (which didn't happen until March) but I'll keep updating this post. 

Anyway, this years challenge categories are:

1. Read a book that makes you laugh Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer 4/3/2021
2. Read a book with non-human characters Cog, Greg Van Eekhout 1/6/2021
3. Read a book about the future Shadows In Death, J.D. Robb 1/16/2021
4. Read an epistolary novel (written in letters) Piranesi, Susanna Clarke 6/21/21
5. Read a book by a Black author Punching the Air, Ibi Zoboi & Yuseff Salaam 2/13/21
6. Read a book published this year Wild Sign, Patricia Briggs 3/21/21
7. Read a book about pop culture Take a Hint Dani Brown, Talia Hibbert 1/28/21
8. Re-read an old favorite : Penrics! Finished reread of Lois Bujold's series 4/7/21
9. Read a book set where you were born Class Act, Jerry Craft 3/15/21
10. Read a book recommended by staff Persephone Station, Stina Leicht 8/7/2021

Maybe I'll try using the hashtag #10totry when I tweet the book. Probably not, because I usually read the book first and then try to see if it fits.

2020 Ten to Try Challenge

KCLS Challenge: Ten To Try

Progress:  10/10

Once again my fabulous library system is hosting their Ten to Try Challenge where you try to read books fitting ten categories, and if you succeed, you win happiness beyond compare. Also you get a button. Finally, it's an excuse to create a list on the library home page. Lists! Buttons! You see how easy it is for the library to give me happiness.

I've been knocking off the easy ones in January -- here's the link:

Anyway, this years challenge categories are:

1. Read a Retelling of a Fairytale or Myth : Finding Baba Yaga, Jane Yolen 1/3/20 
2. Read a Book That Teaches You a New Skill ConCom: Conflict Communications, Rory Miller 1/18/20
3. Read a Book About a Journey Apollo 8: The Mission that Changed Everything, Martin Sandler 2/26/20
4. Read a Book with a Friend The Cats Came Back, Sofie Kelly 3/8/20
5. Read a Book About a Person You’d Like to Meet Shout, Laurie Halse Anderson 3/23/2020
6. Read a Book About Nature I Survived the Eruption of Mount St Helens 1980, Lauren Tarshis 1/8/20
7. Read a Book About Music or a Musician The Orphan Band of Springdale, Anne Nesbit 6/10/20
8. Read a Book About Current Events The Witches Are Coming, Lindy West 5/17/20
9. Read a Book Recommended by KCLS Staff The Bone Witch, Rin Chupeco 12/19/20
10. Read a Book by an author whose gender is different from yours Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Tony Cliff 1/2/20
    

2019 KCLS Ten to Try Challenge

SUCCESS!



And the King County Library System is once again hosting their 10 To Try Reading Challenge, with a new podcast to help promote it. And since I'm all about the library, I'm signed up.

I even have a Library List chronicling my progress. Of which so far there is sadly very little, so you can't see it (lists can't be published until they hit 4 books). I think the only category I've accidentally completed this year is Children's Book. Although come to think of it, I did read a children's historical fiction book. And it was about an immigrant family.

Update -- As of mid-May I've crossed off four books and can publish my LIST! I think. Can someone let me know if that's right? It works for me.

I think I'll just declare everything read before April as off limits and start from here. So I'd better get started!

This year the Chosen Ten are:

• Read a book about history (KCLS Recommends: Historical Fiction | KCLS Recommends: History and Politics) Uprooted, Albert Marrin 
• Read a children’s book (Staff Picks and more):  Ghost Dog Secrets, Peg Kehret
• Read a book about a subject that can be difficult to discuss (Homelessness | Sports and Politics | #MeToo | Race in America) The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin 
• Read a book of poetry (Washington State Poets | 2018 National Book Award for Poetry) Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds 9/7/10
• Read a book by a journalist (Nonfiction by Journalists) Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson 4/12/19
• Read a book recommended by KCLS Staff (Best Books | Staff Picks blog | BookMatch) Hunger, Roxane Gay 8/3/19
• Read a book by an LGBTQ+ author (Memoirs by Queer Men | Books by Queer Writers of Color) Serpentine, Laurell K Hamilton
• Read a book about a crime (KCLS Recommends: Mysteries | KCLS Recommends: True Crime) Split Second, Catherine Coulter
• Read a book about family (Dysfunctional Fictional Families) You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Sherman Alexie 
• Read a book by an immigrant author (Fiction by Immigrant Authors | Nonfiction by Immigrant Authors) Walkaway, Cory Doctorow.  This seems like cheating, because Doctorow is from Canada.