I’ve had a few new projects swirling around in my head and this seemed like a good time to pin them down.
I am just about finished my A-Z CanLit project, and declare it a success. Not so much for the books I read, but for the all the other books they inspired me to read (and the reason it took me so long to finish the project!). I’ve only got one more book to go.
A couple of years ago, I added an ongoing project to read more books from Atlantic Canada. I will continue with this, as well as with my Halifax Explosion project.
In addition to those, I’m starting two projects that I’ve been thinking about for a while, and that fit in nicely with some of my other reading:
1. The Thomas Raddall project, which can be found on my menu under Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Reading List. I hope to eventually read all of Raddall’s own books as well as the books that have been awarded the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award each year since 1991.
2. I also hope to read through all the books/poems that have been made into Bookmarks by Project Bookmark Canada. This can be found on my menu under Project Bookmark Canada.
While I’m at it, I’m also signing up for Doing Dewey’s Nonfiction Reading Challenge. I have accumulated quite a few nonfiction books over the last few years and I want to read them! I tend to gravitate toward fiction (which I don’t have a problem with, in general), but I would welcome a little nudge to get to some of these fantastic nonfiction books. So… I will make it easy for myself… my goal is to read just 5 of these books (easy, right?):
- Born to Walk by Dan Rubinstein
- The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
- Atlantic by Simon Winchester
- Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
- The Tiger by John Vaillant
- Sisters in the Wilderness by Charlotte Gray
- Alone Against the North by Adam Shoalts
- Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin
- Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote
- Life on the Ground Floor by James Maskalyk
- Redemption Songs by Jon Tattrie
- The Massey Murder by Charlotte Gray
- Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
I’m looking forward to another year full of good books. Happy Reading everyone!
Consumed by Ink 
Will you let me know when/if you decide to read The Invention of Nature? I’d love to do a buddy read, if you are interested. (If not, that’s fine. No pressure!)
Ditto — I have a copy of it on the shelf that I’ve been meaning to read, and this year I want to focus on biographies and read one per month.
(Claire Tomalin’s biography of Hardy is great.)
I also loved the Tomalin biography!
I will let you know! 🙂
I’ve read only one Raddall – His Majesty’s Yankees from which I learned a LOT about NS history. Though I’ve meant to continue with his work, I keep forgetting about him. To remedy that, I’ve just reserved The Nymph and the Lamp at the library, something I intended to do when I read your glowing review. Thanks for the reminder!
Have fun with your reading in 2018!
I’m really curious to hear what you think about The Nymp and the Lamp! That was the first one I read, and I fell for it hard. But no pressure if you don’t like it as much as I do! 😉
I have read 5 and highly recommend it. A riveting read. I want to read 3 and 9, but who knows if and when.
I’m impressed by your reading plans. I don’t make any. I have soft goals – mainly to tackle the TBR – but I don’t actively pursue it, hence I make little inroads. This year I have a second soft goal which is to right the fiction-nonfiction balance a little as I felt the proportion of nonfiction I read – much as I love it – was a bit our of kilter with my reading preferences.
Thanks for visiting my blog throughout the year. I always enjoy your thoughtful comments, Naomi.
Likewise, thank you for visiting mine! 🙂
I am so glad to hear you liked Isaac’s Storm! That one doesn’t seem to get as much love as some of his other books, but I love reading about storms, so I feel drawn to it. My mother gave it to my husband for his birthday, and I was way more excited about it than he was. 🙂
I seem to have a lot of reading plans, but really they’re not hard – I gravitate to those types of books anyway and want to read them all. And I plan to take as long as I want – otherwise it’s not as fun!
I have White City on my Kindle and home to read it one day too. But I just loved the storm one! I’ll watch for your review.
Re plans, I know you’re right but right now I prefer to not think about plans, if that makes sense.
Perfect sense! Enjoy your planlessness. 🙂
I am so happy and excited to hear about your Project Bookmark project!! Also, great idea to combine reading Raddall’s books with reading the novels that have won the Raddall award. I admire you for taking on these ambitious new projects and I’m looking forward to reading along.
I’m excited about them, too! I’ve been thinking about both projects for a while, and finally just made myself sit down and write them out. It would be extra fun to have you read along (when you want)!
I’m also hoping that reading the Bookmark books will bring a little bit more attention to it. Even just a little…
Even though I don’t read as much nonfiction, I’ve read several of these, and they were all good. That is, The Professor and the Madman, Isaac’s Storm, and Thomas Hardy. I would recommend pretty much anything by Erik Larson or Claire Tomalin. I haven’t read as much Winchester, but I think he wrote a book about zero, which was good.
Good to hear, Kay! Maybe I’ll even get more than 5 of them read! I’m very curious to find out which ones I choose… they all sound so good!
Happy reading!
The Project Bookmark sounds like a great thing! I might start a campaign for Scotland to do something similar. Most of our famous authors are best known by which pub they got drunk in… 😉 Hope you enjoy your reading in 2018!
All your Bookmarks could be *inside* the pubs! 😉
I have SUCH a problem with acquiring nonfiction. When I get a fiction book and I don’t read it within a few years, I can easily tell myself that it’s time to let it go, I didn’t want to read it that badly in the first place, and it’s fine to cull it. But with nonfiction I always think I’m going to find time. It’s not like I stop wanting to know everything! I still want to know everything!
Yes, exactly! I want to know everything! I always think people who read a lot of nonfiction must be so smart. And great conversationalists! Not that I think I should be reading all nonfiction – not at all – just a few of these good ones I’ve got around the house. Since making my list, I’ve even come across a few more I’d like to add!
Congrats on completing the A-Z Can Lit project. It’s interesting how these challenges and projects can open us up to new reading
It really turned out much better than I expected because of that! Despite the fact that it took me 4 years to get through the alphabet. 🙂
Good on you!
Sounds like a great year ahead 🙂 I really should make an effort to read more nonfiction too, I have loads stacked up that I’m interested in, but somehow I always end up reading a novel!
That’s how I am, too! We’ll see if this “challenge” helps me at all…
Some interesting projects, Naomi. I’ve not heard of Thomas Raddall before so thanks for bringing that author and the prize to my attention. Good luck with your non-fiction project too. I highly recommend The Tiger… I bought it using a gift certificate KevinfromCanada sent me in 2010 when I lost my job and decided to go travelling. He insisted I buy some Canadian books to read on the road! 😊
Good to hear – I was hoping someone would recommend The Tiger!
What a sweet thing for him to do. 🙂
I’ve not read as many of the Project Bookmark books as I would like to; I do have a page on BIP for them, but I am thinking, now that I look at your page (which is lovely – I tried to leave a comment there, but here will do the trick!), that I am missing the most recent ones (so now I have read even fewer of course – *laughs*). Your non-fiction titles intrigue me. I’m especially curious: are you a Thomas Hardy fan, or a Claire Tomalin fan? Or is there another reason to have included that one in particular?
I’m a Thomas Hardy fan. But I don’t really know why I – I’ve only read 2 of his books. But something about them makes me curious about the writer, I guess. A similar feeling I had when I read The Nymph and the Lamp.
I’ve also read so little of the Project Bookmark books! The books chosen are not always the popular, mainstream books – which is one thing I like about it.
I will see if I can figure out how to get the comments working on the page…
What amazing reading plans, Naomi! I love your constant focus on Canadian writers and find it inspiring how dedicated you are to them. Also, I love Project Bookmark! My friend worked there for a few years and found it so fulfilling. Happy to see them represented here :). Also, Miranda Hill is so wonderful. Good luck with all your plans! I will watch happily as you complete them this year!
I bet that was a great place to work! I do wonder how Miranda came up with the idea…
I doubt very much that I’ll complete the projects this year, but I’ll have fun working on it. 🙂
These all sounds like great upcoming projects, good for you! I like your efforts to read local too, I think it’s really important, and helps us develop a grounding for where we really ‘live’ 🙂
I don’t know why, but I just really love it! I’d go back to school and study it if I could.
I love the sound of your projects. The Bookmark thing is so cool. I also tend towards fiction so this year I am trying to be more conscious about reading nonfiction. Best of luck and happy reading, Naomi!
Good luck to us both, then! Either way, it’ll be fun. 🙂
Ahhh Simon Winchester is good. Somehow I have 2 copies of the Adam Shoalts’ book but I have still yet to get to it. Perhaps this year! good luck on your list.
Someone else with Alone Against the North! I’ve had mine for a while now, too.
What an interesting list of non-ficton books, Naomi! I’ve found that the older I get, the more I like non-fiction, so I’ll save your list for my future self 😉
Maybe that’s happening to me, too. I’m reading a NF book about Alzheimer’s right now and loving it! (Of course, it’s not from this list…)
You always have such great projects on the go! Good luck with them all. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
I really love that you’re planning on reading all the books by one author too! It just seems like such a fun project and so far, I’m really enjoying my doing the same with Ellen Ullman 🙂
I didn’t know you were doing that, too! I just looked her up and her books sound interesting. Hopefully we both enjoy our projects! 🙂
I’ve read 4, 12, and 14 on your list. All good reads. I like your themed challenges!
Thanks, James! So far I’ve read more nonfiction than usual this year, but none of them have been from my list – ha! But it’s only May. 🙂