Once Upon a Time...

[byslantedlight]

...I followed read_warbler down a wee rabbit hole, via Stainless Steel Droppings on the Once Upon a Time Challenge! I've never done a reading challenge before (well, not unless you count the MS Readathons I did when I was in primary school *g*), and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and read various books and short stories that I might not have got around to reading amidst the thousands of books that are out there waiting to be read, so yeay. I also watched some fantasy for one of the challenges, but I didn't actually post about it, so I'm not sure whether that counts...

The first part of my quest was this:Read at least one book from each of the four categories. In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology. I managed lucky thirteen books - though they were slightly unevenly balanced... *g*
Fantasy
Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Eric by Terry Pratchett
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
A Case of Possession by K.J. Charles
Fairs' Point by Melissa Scott
Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
Point of Knives by Melissa Scott
Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett

Folklore
Thursbitch by Alan Garner

Fairy tale
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Among Others by Jo Walton

Mythology
Runemarks by Joanne Harris

Actually there were a few more that I thought I was reading, that turned out to be more adventure (Lemony Snicket), or supernatural (Widdershins and Dark Matter), and there was one that I tried to read - and would have been a second for the Mythology list - Kraken by China Melville. I couldn't quite get into this one - I think because I couldn't feel the characters in any way that appealed to me, it was all coming over a bit clever-clever author rather than the type of story I like to read. Never mind - maybe it'll be right for me another time!

The next part of my quest, was this part...
Fulfill the requirements for ... Quest the Second AND top it off with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream OR a viewing of one of the many theatrical versions of the play. I really wanted to do this, because I haven't actually read the play all through, and I don't actually think I've seen it in its entirety either. Only I wasn't quite organised enough... In theory - or perhaps in the spirit of the attempt, perhaps this counts a bit? Perhaps I shall try again next year, because I rather liked the idea of it!

Then... This quest involves the reading of one or more short stories that fit within at least one of the four genres during the course of any weekend, or weekends, during the challenge. I started off well, and managed:
Fantasy - The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Neil Gaiman
Folklore - Bells by Hugh Lupton
Fairy tale
Mythology - Wildfire in Manhattan by Joanne Harris
Mythology - The Crevasse by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud

And oh no! I completely forgot fairy tale! How could I have forgotten Fairy tale! So close, but I didn't quite make it... Short stories have never been a favourite genre of mine, so I'm not surprised I trailed off, although I found books of short stories on purpose, ready and waiting... (Oh, and actually I realise now that I did read a fairytale story, but I didn't post about it - it was by Neil Gaiman, and based on the billy goats gruff, and the troll under the bridge... Well, I feel better that I know I read it, anyway!)

Finally:
I didn't post about this once, but I did actually watch rather alot of Once Upon a Time. My list includes:
Fantasy - Beautiful Creatures
Folklore - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Fairy tale - Grimm
Mythology - The Almighty Johnsons
Hmmn - I'm sure there was more, but I'm not writing this at home, so I will have to edit it in later...

So there - that's it! My first reading challenge, and I enjoyed it enough that I might just come back for more next year. And see what other challenges might be on offer in the meantime... *g* I see that there's an RIP (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril) challenge from 1st September to 31st October... *g*

Comments

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Wow, you did exceptionally well. Your first challenge and you've not only 'finished' (you'd be amazed how many people don't) you went above and beyond requirements. Excellent.

My wrap-up is here: http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/ I didn't put it on LJ as I wasn't sure how many would be interested in how I did. *g* I put it there on Saturday thinking I *might* put in onto LJ on Sunday. Sunday I fell flat on my face in our backyard and ended up in A&E so that's put an end to any thoughts of blogging for a few days as my shoulders are quite painful and thus so is too much typing. It does give me an excuse for extra reading though. Every cloud etc...

The RIP challenge is great fun too, an excuse for lots of creepy reading of all kinds.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh nooooo - so sorry to hear about your fall, that's horrid. I hope you're more just thrown about than broken (if you know what I mean). There is always reading as a consolation, but much as I adore reading I know what it's like to fall down in a fairly serious way, and I'm not sure that even having more time to read is worth it... take care, and feel better soon.

And thank you! I really enjoyed doing the challenge, so thanks for introducing them to me! I've seen you doing the RIP one before too, and am definitely fancying it this year. I did see your blogspot wrap-up too, but being me I've not yet sorted out my own blogspot again so that I could reply. (I was sort of hoping your post might come up on lj too... *g*) When June-Job-Madness is done (hopefully by the second week of July) I must see about sorting my blogspot - I could have commented properly on other people's blogs for Once Upon A Time if I'd managed it before...

ETA - oh, just noticed that I can comment on blogspot via my lj identity now, and I was just about to when I realised that you might want to keep lj and blogspot separate, or at least to the extent of books and slash ljs... So I shan't try out commenting there yet, and shall say well done for completing the Once Upon A Time challenge yourself! And I do like your chose favourite - I didn't think to do that, from my list! Mind you, I'd probably only get caught on the Points books again if I tried, so... *g*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Yes, more thrown about than broken. Thank goodness. My face is a bit of a mess, I've very sore shoulders and a few bruises but nothing broken. Could've been a *lot* worse. Sadly the sore shoulders thing means too much prolonged typing is painful so I'm having to limit my time at the pc.

No problem. I find them a lot of fun and this year the 5 or 6 I'm doing have helped me a lot to read my own books. Oh yes, do try the RIP one as that's good fun as well. The spectrum is well covered from hard-core horror to gentle stuff and crime and anything inbetween... some folk even read fantasy for it.

You're right I do tend to keep my LJ persona well away from my Blogspot one. I think of LJ as my slashy place if I feel like it... or just plain fanish... Blogspot is mainly for books. That said, I don't think many of my commenters there would necessarily click on your name link to look at your LJ and find me via that. At least, I don't think so.

and shall say well done for completing the Once Upon A Time challenge yourself!

Thank you!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hope you're feeling still more better by now...

I'm wondering about finding another challenge for the next couple of months, just because it was quite fun to... I'm not sure, sort of feel like I've fulfilled something, as well as just enjoying the reading! Though it's not as if I don't have lots of books to read just because they're on my shelves... *g*

I know what you mean about lj being your slashy place - that's what I thought too (about mine, natch... *g*) I just struggled to actually keep up two blogs, even if they were both about different things... Perhaps too because sometimes I wondered what people on my lj-flist would think about something, which would have meant cross-posting, and then... I don't know - there must be a way of getting my head around it! *g*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

It seems the fall has caused my cervical spondilosis to flare up. Which can be nasty but usually goes after a few days. Annoyingly it hasn't so I'm seeing the dr. on Monday. *Sigh*

I did a quick update of my challenges so far, here: http://read-warbler.blogspot.co.uk/ if you fancy a look. There are a lot of different ones out there. A Canadian lit one has just started I notice. I was tempted *g* but think I have enough going on atm.

I must admit that when I copy and paste book posts from Blogger to LJ I check to see if anything needs changing for the different audiences. Sometimes it does, for instance if I'm thanking, say, *you* for a book rec. That's fine for LJ but not for Blogger people who you might not want wandering over to your LJ and poking around. (I know I certainly wouldn't want them wandering round mine!) So then I would just say 'a friend' on Blogger instead of your user name etc.