Oh No, Not Another Challenge!

Published on by Margaret

I really cannot resist this challenge – mainly because I like the title and the picture in the banner. The promise of a good story will always tempt me to open a book and start reading.

This is Carl’s Once Upon a Time Challenge. It began on Friday, March 21st and runs to Friday, June 20th: Midsummer Night’™s Eve. Joining this challenge means you are participating but not committing yourself to any specific number of books. I’m aiming to complete “Quest the First “
which is to read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time II criteria of fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology’¦or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.
These books are on my to-be-read list already and fit into these categories:
  1. Dante’™s Descent into Hell, translated by Dorothy L Sayers
  2. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
  3. The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
  4. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
  5. Star Wars by George Lucas
  6. Helen of Troy by Margaret George

I was intrigued to read in this Wiki link that Dante’s The Divine Comedy is categorised as Bangsian fantasy. I had never heard of this but according to Wikipedia it is named after John Kendrick Bangs, whose novels deal with the afterlives of various famous people. Whilst I do intend to read The Divine Comedy I doubt that I’ll finish it all before 20 June, so the short version by Dorothy L Sayers seems a good choice for this challenge.

The other books are a mixture of science fiction, fantasy and mythology and I’ve owned them all for a while. Like other unread books I was keen to read them when I bought them. It is time to open them soon. I have actually read the Gormenghast books before, when I was at college, when I borrowed them from the library, but I haven’t read the copies that I own, which are wrapped in sellaphane!

6 thoughts on “Oh No, Not Another Challenge!”

  1. I am so glad you are joining in. I have the first of the Gormenghast trilogy that I bought for last year’s Once Upon a Time and still haven’t gotten to! Shame on me. Hopefully soon.

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  2. This is an irresistible challenge – I was just starting to compile my list when I saw you had posted yours. I’ve always meant to read the Sayers, what an interesting choice.

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  3. ‘The Chrysalids’ has always been my favourite Wyndham novel. It terrified me as a child because I thought then and still do that his depiction of human nature was so frighteningly accurate and not especially nice.Did you have a good weekend away? I hope all was well.

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  4. Carl, thank you. I hope you get to read the first Gormenghast book soon.Geraniumcat, I really shouldn’t have signed up to another challenge, but the books are ones I want to read! The Sayers book is a result of the talks on Dante’s Florence that I’ve been to recently.Table Talk, I’m looking forward to The Chrysalids even more now.We did have a good weekend – I’ll be writing about our visit to the Eden Project soon, a very tiring experience but enjoyable too.

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  5. I couldn’t pass up this challenge either! I’m very curious about the Gormenghast books–I’m looking forward to what you have to say about them. That’s interesting about Dante, too. I think it’s so cool you are reading him now!

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  6. I finally broke down and joined, as well. I can’t wait to hear how you like Cloud Atlas. I’ve had this one on my radar for quite some time but haven’t found the time to read it.

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