I signed up for only two reading challenges this year. Sometimes challenges are hardly challenging but these two proved a bit hard to complete, given my rather dismal level of reading this year. I am still reading to complete my 100 shots of short.
The What’s In a Name? 4 is one of my favorite challenges; this is my second year of participation. Readers had to match the titles of books read to the following categories: a number, jewelry or gem, size, travel or movement, a form of evil and a life stage. The host of the challenge, Beth Fish, encourages participants to be creative in matching titles to her selected categories. Which is exactly what I did. I was facing the possibility of non-completion; I had not read any book with a size in the title. I had matched titles to 5 out of 6 categories after I interpreted oil as a gem. But then it occurred to me, rather desperately, that the word ‘distant’ could be considered a size. Distant is a qualitative measure relative to some other length. Viola, it’s a size. Challenge completed! Therefore, I read the following books:
- A number in the title: African Roar 2011 (an anthology of short stories)
- Jewelry or a gem in the title: love in the kingdom of oil by Nawal el Saadawi
- Size in the title: A Distant View of a Minaret (review coming)
- Travel or movement in the title: As The Crow Flies by Veronique Tadjo
- A form of evil in the title: We Killed Mangy-Dog and other Mozambican Stories by Luis Honwana
- A life stage in the title: fledgling by Octavia Butler
My thanks to Beth Fish for hosting the challenge. I will definitely do this challenge again next year.
Kinna Reads 
Just for fun, I might have been able to complete this challenge: Number: Two steps forward, by Irma Gold; Jewelry or gem: Cutting for stone, by Abraham Verghese (I think this works since you have to cut stone to make jewelry?); Size: All that (a short story), by David Foster Wallace (do you reckon all of that could be a size?); Travel or movement: That deadman dance, by Kim Scott; Life stage: Her father’s daughter, by Alice Pung.
That sort of challenge is fun if you can make it fit what you are reading anyhow!
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You should have signed up. It all works nicely. The gem category is a bit tricky but yes, how does one get a gem if not by cutting?
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I like this, the linkages one create from such challenges. If I don’t belabour myself next year I will join this challenge.
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I would urge you to join. This challenge is such fun and a bit frivolous, and we need for such stuff.
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