Sunday, April 18, 2010

Pre-Printing Press Challenge 2010

The Pre-Printing Press Challenge
May 1st 2010-April 30th 2011
The Pre-Printing Press Challenge
May 1st 2010-April 30th 2011

I've seen a lot of challenges for reading romances, fiction, award winning books and many more. Challenges on various themes (King Arthur etc.) and challenges to fit certain criteria, such as the What's In A Name Challenge.

What I haven't seen is a challenge for reading books that pre-date the Printing Press. There's so many good pieces of writing that fit in this category (and I'm not asking you to read them in the original language unless you want to). So, for my first reading challenge, the pre-printing press challenge, I'm asking people to give these ancient and medieval books a try.

This is the second year for the Pre-Printing Press Challenge. I started running this one last year as I said.

I'll admit that I'm more familiar with the European books, but if you know of something that fits the qualifications of the challenge from other parts of the world, feel free to include it.

Just some rough examples of the sorts of books that count, both histories and fiction:
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
Herodotus The Histories
Homer The Iliad and The Odyssey
Greek Tragedies and Comedies
Virgil
Ovid
Plutarch

Beowulf
Norse Sagas
Geoffrey of Monmouth The History of the Kings of Britain
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

The lists could continue on and on.

The rules of the Pre-Printing Press Challenge:
  1. All books must have come out before 1440, when the printing press was first invented.
  2. Books chosen for this challenge can overlap with other challenges.
  3. Books can be translated into the language of your choice.
  4. All the books you've chosen must be read by April 30th 2011.
  5. You can read 1-3 books, 4-6 books, 7-9 books or 10 or more books if you're feeling particularly ambitious.
  6. The choice of books is up to you. There are no set reading lists, and you don't have to set one when you join.
  7. Post your blog address where you'll be posting your comments on your choice of books in the comments of this post when you join, and tell me how many books you've chosen. I'll set up a link to participating blogs from here.
  8. Above all, Have fun.
The challenge starts May 1st.

8 comments:

J.G. said...

This was fun last year so please count me in again. 2011 sounds so do-able right now!

Post to follow with my (non-ambitious) list.

Elena said...

Glad to see you here again, J.G. A whole year does sound so do-able right now, but it sure flies by!

Mel u said...

Ok this sounds like fun and might motivate me to read some older Japanese works or Ovid

Elena said...

Welcome to the challenge, Mel.

J.T. Oldfield said...

I finally did my sign up post!

http://bibliofreakblog.com/challenges/challenges-started-completed/

Elena said...

Glad to see it. Good luck this year at getting those books read.

J.G. said...

Straggling across the finish line with a reviews/wrap-up post at last. I finished the reading in time, but went no further, til now.

http://hotchpotcafe.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-for-four.html

Thanks for hosting, Elena! This was fun!

Elena said...

Congratulations on getting the challenge done, J.G.

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