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#2026 Personal Reading Challenge

Challenge #1 Old and New Novels

  1. A Harlot High and Low -1838
  2. Lost Illusions – 1843 – READ
  3. The Old Curiosity Shop – 1841
  4. The Power and the Glory -1940 
  5. Our Man in Havana – 1958 
  6. The Honary Consol – 1973
  7. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter – 1977
  8. Trilogy – Jon Fosse (3 novellas) – 1968
  9. East of Eden- 1952
  10. Four Plays: Little Sheba-Picnic-Bus Stop-Top of the Stairs 1964
  11. Foucault’s Pendulum – 1988
  12. Shōgun – 1975 

 

Challenge #2 – Non-fiction

  1. 18th Century or Older – Age of Reason – Thomas Paine
  2. 19th Century – On Liberty – John Stuart Mill 
  3. 20th Century – Road to Serfdom – F.A. Hayek
  4. 21st Century – How Democracies Die – Levitsky and Ziblatt 
  5. Biography: Genre – A Certain Idea of France (C. De Gaulle)
  6. Memoir: Genre – Memoir – Off to the Side: A Memoir 
  7. Politics: Genre – The Election Game and How To Win It 
  8. Essays: Genre – New Gilded Age: The New Yorker 

 

Challenge #3 New Authors

  1. C.P.Snow – The Masters
  2. J.B. Priestly – The Good Companions
  3. Richard Phillips Feynman – The Pleasure of Finding Things Out 
  4. Milan Kundera – The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  5. Javier Marías – Between Eternities 

 

20 Short Stories from The New Yorker 2025

  1. Prophecy – Kanak Kapur -READ
  2. A Visit From the Chief – Samanta Schweblin
  3. Chuka – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  4. Keuka  Lake – Joseph O’ Neill
  5. Five Bridges – Colm Tóibín
  6. Techniques and Idiosyncrasies – Yiyun Li
  7. The Frenzy – J.C Oates
  8. Hatagaya Lore – Bryan Washington
  9. Elias – Jon Fosse
  10. The Queen of Bad Influences – J. Shepherd
  11. Any Human Heart – YiYun Li
  12. The Silence – Zadie Smith
  13. The Bridge Stood Fast – Anne Enright
  14. An Unashamed Proposal – Kiran Desai
  15. The Corn Woman, Her Husband, and Their Child – Annie Proulx
  16. Voyagers! – Bryan Washington

 

Challenge #5 Decade Challenge

  1. 1960: Within the Walls – Giorgio Bassani
  2. 1961: The Making of the President – Theodore H. White
  3. 1962: The Red Hot Vacuum – T. Solotaroff 
  4. 1963: The Shoes of the Fisherman – M.L. West
  5. 1964: Herzog – S. Bellow
  6. 1965: Dune – F. Herbert
  7. 1966: The Soldier’s Art – A. Powell
  8. 1967: The Battle for Rome: September 1943–June 1944 – R. Katz
  9. 1968: The Selected Works – Cesare Pavese
  10. 1969: Slaughterhouse-Five – K. Vonnegut 

 

Challenge #7 – Series Books – Start, Continue, Complete

  1. Start: The Vatican Series:
  2. The Shoes of the Fisherman – 1963 – Morris West
  3. The Clowns of God – 1981 – Morris West
  4. Lazarus – 1990 – Morris West
  5. Continue: Disco World Series:
  6. The Light Fantastic – 1986 – T. Prachett
  7. Equal Rights – 1987 – Terry Pratchett
  8. Sorcery – 1988 – Terry Pratchett
  9. Complete: George Smiley Series: 
  10. The Looking Glass War: 1965 – John Le Carré
  11. Legacy of Spies – 2017 – – John Le Carré 

 

Challenge #8 – Travel the World

  1. The Great Railway Bazaar – P. Theroux – Asia
  2. Impossible Country: Last Days of… – B. Hall – Yugoslavia
  3. In Search of Ireland – H. V. Morton – Ireland
  4. A Spy in Rome – Peter Tompkins – Italy
  5. Sovietistan: A Journey – E. Fatland – Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
  6. Is a River Alive? – R. Macfarlane
  7. Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe – A. Weymouth
  8. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

 

Challenge #15 – Award Winners

  1. Baillie Gifford: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998 – H. Garner 
  2. Pulitzer: To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause – B. Nathans 
  3. National Book Critics Circle: Soldiers and Kings  – J. de Leon
  4. National Book Award Poetry: The Intentions of Thunder – P. Smith
  5. Nobel Prize 1988 : Baltasar and Blimunda – J. Saramago

 

Challenge #20 – French Reading Balzac 

  1. Un Début dans la vie 
  2. La fille aux Yeux d’Or 
  3. César Birotteau 
  4. Le Colonel Chabert 
  5. Le Cabinet des Antiques 
  6. L’Auberge Rouge 
  7. La Rabouilleuse 
  8. Eugénie Grandet 
  9. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes 
  10. La Peau de chagrin