Once Upon A Time Challenge Plans

Hey look! I just came back from the library with a bunch of books. And unintentionally, coincidentally and serendipitously (my word of the hour), I've picked up a bunch of stuff that will meet the Once Upon A Time Challenge criteria. Additionally, I am in the midst of some reading, which happily fit the task as well.

Carl V (the author of the blog) has issued a "reading challenge to celebrate spring, the time of rebirth and renewal, by experiencing the type of storytelling that connects us with our past." He has given out 4 Quests in his post, I have chosen to do Quest Two: "Read at least one book from each of the four genres of story-Mythology, Folklore, Fairytale, and Fantasy."

I mean, the other quests seemed soft, so I've not chosen them. Why, it's not a quest to me, unless I'm bound by duty to complete at least 3 different tasks!

Take Quest One: "Read at least 5 books from any of the 4 genres." It doesn't seem like 3 different tasks to me. Basically you're doing 1 task 5 times, if you're just reading from one genre. A Quest must be challenging at least! So I'm doing Quest Two: 4 different books, 4 different genres.

Anyway, he has defined each genre and suggested titles in his follow-up post Once Upon a Time, a beginning. Well, it's a looooooooong post and I admit I didn't read aaaaaallllll of it (I do get such headaches reading these black-background websites), but I sort of got the hang of how he defined the genres.

On to the books I've chosen:

For Fairytale, which he says are "books containing fairies, the fair folk, or have some contact with the realm of Faerie", I have chosen Faery Reel, which I am already in the midst of reading. Self-explanatory. It contains stories with fairies!

For Mythology, which is "all about the gods", I've chosen Lord of Light by Roger Zelany. This book has Buddha, Brahma, Kali, Krishna, I'm sure it fits the bill.

For Folklore, "the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of that culture, subculture, or group", Tales from the Arabian Nights.

Coincidentally, I'm starting on Adventures in Unhistory by Avram Davidson, so I'm including that for Folklore.

Finally for Fantasy, "Tales with knights, wizards, magical elements, castles, dragons", I've chosen the Abhorsen trilogy.

Yeah! Now I'm off to read.

What? Another Blog?

Am I mad?

I already have a doll blog and just started a scrapbook & art blog, so what am I doing with yet another blog?

But that's me folks. I'm anal in that way. I like to organise, compartmentalise and analyse. Which explains the Theoretical Linguistics degree that I have and the research job that I'm doing. Which explains the type of fiction-writing that I'm writing (trying to), the tv that I'm watching and the books that I'm reading.

So, another blog. Dedicated to my so-called "intellectual pursuits". Except, try to ignore the fact that I'm sloppy with my spelling and often grammatically incorrect. If I spot it, I'll attack it like a good language-Nazi but usually, I'm in too much of a rush to finish writing and have moved on to another idea before I see the errors.

It just so happens that the other day, while looking for something to read online, I followed the links (as it usually is) and landed on a splendid site, Stainless Steel Droppings. And how serendipitous that the blogger has just embarked on a Once Upon A Time reading challenge!

"The Once Upon a Time Challenge will take place beginning Thursday, March 22nd (I’m late, per usual) and will end on Midsummer Night’s Eve, June 21st. It is a reading challenge to celebrate spring, the time of rebirth and renewal, by experiencing the type of storytelling that connects us with our past."

Ofcourse I have to join in! For a person who has just come out of a minor but long-running episode of low-grade reading depression, where I was completely unable to read, I am now running around reading tonnes and tonnes of books again! I am happy to report that the genres that I have loved since I was a kid are able to tickle my reading fancy again.

So as I begin this new blog and also this challenge. You can come along for the ride if you want.