Happy New Year and welcome to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. Welcome back to all those who are joining me for another round and to those joining in for the first time.
The rules are very simple. Read 52 Books. That's it. How you get there is up to you. We have several optional challenges which are listed in the link bar above to stimulate your imagination and help you on your reading journeys. Beside the perpetual A to Z, Well Educated Mind challenge, Dusty/Chunky books, and another journey Around the World, new this year are the Literary Nobel Prize Winners and 52 BaWer's recommendations from 2013. I've also come up with some fun Monthly Themes and Readalongs.
Mrs. Santa was quite nice to me this past Christmas and gave me Nancy Pearl's Book Lust to Go, Tom Nissley's A Reader's Book of Days and Peter Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I was completely blown away by 1001 books because I had seen the lists on line, but never the book itself. It is huge and besides the book descriptions, it is chalk full of pictures, artwork and posters for the majority of books. Absolutely beautiful and I'll try to share some pictures soon. I can already tell these books will be beneficial to all of us because they are already helped spark my imagination to help with weekly posts, plus making my already really long wish list even longer. Not to mention my teetering TBR stacks.
To start off our journey, we are going to begin our Around the World tour in Japan. Join in on a readalong of Haruki Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicles or choose one of his other books if you've already read it. To make life interesting, I'm also starting a personal Centuries Challenge beginning with the 12th century (1101-1200). So - to make life fun for the month of January, go find some books written by Japanese authors, set in Japan and/or set in the 12th century. Although I went a little nuts and found books from several different centuries. *grin*
Currently in my backpack besides Murakami's Wind Up is his A Wild Sheep Chase, the first volume of The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki (Waley Translation), Shinju (1st book in her Sano Ichiro series) by Laura Joh Rowland, Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn and the novella The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.
We are going with a short week one in order to avoid a short week 52 and no one having time to do wrapup's. It all works out in the end so don't panic over finishing a book this week.
Cheers to a happy, fun, entertaining and educational reading new year!
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Link to your reviews or year end wrap up posts: Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.
