Paruline's tiny challenge

Hi everyone, welcome to my thread! I am very much looking forward to reading great books in great company. Once again, I am going to mostly follow the 1001 books to read before you die list.

I usually read between 40 and 50 books a year. Even so, I am aiming really low for 2012, the reason being that I'm expecting (another!) bundle of joy in early June.

Here are my categories with my goal for each:

Classical classics (1) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Dead white males (2) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Non fiction (3) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
En français (4) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Sci-fi (5) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Women authors (6) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
In translation (6): books not originally written in English or French - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
New authors (5) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Africa (4): books by African authors or with an African setting - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Next in a series (3) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
Unfinished business (2): books I set aside in previous challenges - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
TBR before I die (1) - CATEGORY COMPLETED!

Bonus category: book bullets

This should give me a manageable 42 books to read in 2012.

Classical classics - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
1/1 read

1- The golden ass

Candidates:
Metamorphoses

Dead white males - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
2/2 read

1- The scarlet letter
2- A room with a view

Candidates
Cakes and ale

Non fiction - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
3/3 read

1- Silent spring
2- Notes from a big country
3- Notes from a big country

En français - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
4/4 read

1- The devil's pool (La mare au diable)
2- The lover (L'amant)
3- Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (20 thousand leagues under the sea)
4- Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (20 thousand leagues under the sea)

Candidates
The roots of heaven (Les racines du ciel)
Les mandarins

Sci-fi - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
5/5 read

1- The time machine
2- The chrysalids
3- Rendezvous with Rama
4- Le Bateau-Sabre
5- Orlando

Candidates
A wrinkle in time
A journey to the center of the Earth

Women authors - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
6/6

1- Love Medicine
2- Love Medicine
3- The red queen
4- The red queen
5- My Antonia
6- The stone diaries

Candidates
Delta of Venus
House of the spirits
Possessing the secret of joy
On beauty - abandoned
Small Island - abandoned
Cat's eye

In translation - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
6/6

1- Silk
2- Measuring the world
3- The twins
4- The twins
5- The burning plain
6- The summer book

Candidates
Land by Kyung-ni (touchstones not working)
The quest for Christa T

New authors - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
5/5 read

1- Cloud Atlas
2- The reluctant fundamentalist
3- The reader
4- Bonk
5- Three day road

Candidates
The bell jar
The poor mouth

Africa - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
4/4 read

1- So long a letter
2- Out of Africa
3- Out of Africa
4- The dark child

Candidates
Midaq Alley

Next in a series - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
3/3 read

1- Foundation and empire
2- The eye in the door
3- The ghost road

Candidates
The subtle knife second in His dark materials trilogy

Unfinished business - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
2/2 read

1- Moby-dick
2- Moby-dick

Candidates
Where angels fear to tread
The feast of the goat

TBR before I die - CATEGORY COMPLETED!
1/1 read

1- The great Gatsby

Bonus category: Book bullets
2/? read

1- Le mur by Peter Sis (thouchstones not working properly)
2- The Uncommon Reader

LOL - I love your bonus category - I may have to add one of those myself as it seems I am not very good at dodging the book bullets around here!

Neither am I, neither am I...

Found, starred and ready to follow..... and congrats on the bundle of joy you are expecting!

ha book bullets - I guess we all take them reading LT ;-)

congratulations!

Congratulations! Nice pictures and categories.

Thanks everyone! I'm going to add my candidates for each category in the next few days.

Doh belated congrats which I missed in my post above!

No worries :) and thanks!

#20 Most of the pictures are some of my favorites from the (can you guess it?) 1001 paintings you must see before you die list.

I've added some candidates for each category.

Good luck with your expected new little reader! They do have a way of cutting into one's reading time. I loved how you used a Pollock for the random bullet category.

Yay for the new baby coming in june! I'll fail miserably with my 11 in 11, and our little bundle of joy no. 2 (who came in september) definitely played a part in that. So setting the bar lower seems rather sensible.

I'm a fan of Flann O'Brien, and happy to see him in your "New authors" category. I personally wouldn't start with The poor mouth though. My recommended first read would be The third policeman.

Hello. I'm interested in quite a few of your categories and books, so I'll be following you next year. I like your choices of artwork, too. My two cents' worth is to strongly support Silent Spring for the non-fiction category. It really is great, and I have it my own list as a re-read this year.

#26 - Thanks for the good luck wishes. I plan on taking at least 8 months of maternity leave and hopefully that will help with the reading time (of course everything depends on the sleeping pattern of the little one). Pollock's work always seemed kind of random to me, and I guess that's why I like it so much.

#27 - Thanks for the suggestion. My local library has his completed works in one volume, so I may try The third policeman first.

#28 - That book has been on mount TBR for over ten years. I feel like I will finally get to it in 2012.

I'm looking forward to following your reading. And... 8 months maternity leave! Congratulations, but I'm jealous :)

# 30 Thanks antqueen! We feel very lucky that we'll get so much time with our little one. My husband is also going to take all of his paternity leave and he'll probably end up taking 4 months of parental leave (we get to split 1 year between the two of us). That's the plan anyway!

Looks like you have the makings of a great challenge! I'll chime in with Anders and say don't start with The Poor Mouth and, although At Swim-Two-Birds is my favorite O'Brien, I too would recommend starting with The Third Policeman as it's quite a bit less complicated but equally funny.

I can't believe I finally finished a book! I might steal others' idea on the group and count books in chunks of 300 pages (i.e after 300 pages it counts as 2 books, after 600 pages, as 3 books etc...).

Anyway.

1- Cloud Atlas
528 pages
Category: New authors
Alternate categories: Sci-fi, Unfinished business

This was a great start to the challenge! Layers upon layers of nested stories, each told in a different style: 19th century travelogue, epistolary, adventure∕mystery, picaresque, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic dystopian. For me, the predominant theme was that of hunger. Hunger for truth, for fame, for power, for knowledge, for self-determination, for youth. Highly recommended!

5∕5

Good to see that your first one was such a good one and as it already resides on my tbr shelves it's not a book bullet for me this time. Don't know when I'll get to it though as I don't think it fits in with my categories this year.

I have heard great things about Cloud Atlas and your recommendation reminds me I should consider reading it some time soon! What a great first book for your challenge.

31> Wow, your husband too. That's wonderful!

And Cloud Atlas has been on my list for a while... I really need to get it one day.

#34-36 I hope you all enjoy it! I get a little bit nervous when people read certain books based on my comments; I don't want you guys to be disappointed!

2- Une si longue lettre (So long a letter)
131 pages
Category: Africa
Alternate categories: En français, Women authors, New authors

It took me two days to get through this book, which means it should take most of the 12-in-12 challengers about 20 min ;-) Even though it's slim, it packs quite a punch. Written as though it's a letter to a far away friend, the book explores the meaning of maternity, marriage, polygamy, Islam, love, education, politics, self-determination, traditions, divorce. I came to care about the main character very much.

3.5∕5

Cloud Atlas sounds really interesting! Thanks for your review. And congrats too!

Thanks!

It took me two days to get through this book, which means it should take most of the 12-in-12 challengers about 20 min ;-)

That is so funny! I realized a while back that I no longer describe myself as being a fast reader because I always feel like one of the Slowskys around LT!

Just saw your message on my thread, I am definitely going to be following your 12 in 12. I have already got my first idea from it and will be adding Cloud Atlas to my wishlist!

3- The Great Gatsby
186 pages
Category: TBR before I die
Alternate categories: Dead white males, New authors

Rich people and those who want to be rich are boring jerks. Well written. That is all.

3.5∕5

->43 paruline:
LOL! I agree 100%.

4- Soie (Silk)
121 pages
Category: In translation
Alternate categories: New authors

The repetitive writing brings an hypnotic and fairy-tale quality to the story of a happily-married man powerfully tempted by a sensuous and erotic affair.

I had a sense of déjà vu while reading and it's only at the end that I remembered the movie Same Time, Next Year with Alan Alda.

4∕5

5- La mare au diable (The devil's pool)
167 pages
Category: En français
Alternate categories: New authors, Women authors

With a title like that, I was expecting something gothic or depressing. Not so! It was a sweet love story.

However, it also at times felt forced, a bit like if George Sand was telling her audience: 'See, these peasants are not brutish and coarse. They too can be literary heroes with lives of adventure and deep feelings. Furthermore, *I* am going to record their traditions before they are gone forever and *YOU* are going to like it!'.

3.5∕5

6- The time machine
53 pages
Category: Sci-fi
Alternate category: Dead white male

The first time-travel story is really a critique of the English social class system at the time of writing.

3.5∕5

7- The Chrysalids
200 pages
Category: Sci-fi
Alternate category: Dead white males

Well, this one is now tied for favorite by Wyndham with The Day of the Triffids. Believable world building, where any difference is rooted out from the population. Highly recommended!

4.5/5

been quite a while since I've read Wyndham but that was one of my favourites as well as the midwich cuckoos

8- Rendezvous with Rama
274 pages
Category: Sci-fi
Alternate category: Dead white males

So I've been on a sci-fi binge lately. When an alien ship approaches Earth, a human crew is sent to explore and make first contact. Of course, this being Arthur C. Clarke, the crew is competent and the science is plausible. The only thing that quite didn't work for me is that the aliens or their ship did not seem alien enough.

4/5

Hi Psutto! I felt that The Chrysalids aged a lot better than The Midwich Cuckoos but of course, you can't really go wrong with Wyndham.

I've only ever read Triffids and Chrysalids by Wyndham. Loved them both and do intend to read more at some point. Trouble with Lichen currently sits on the tbr shelves and will more than likely be the next one I read from him.

Oh Zadie Smith! I wanted so much to like On Beauty. But it was not to be. Life is too short. I'm moving on.

9- Out of Africa
330 pages - counts as two books
Category: Africa
Alternate category: Women authors, New authors

Prepare yourselves for some gushing. I loved this book! It felt like drinking lemonade on a porch swing during a warm summer night while having the most interesting conversation with the author. Just an example of her lovely prose:

'The flamingoes... have incredibly long legs and bizarre and recherché curves of their necks and bodies, as if from some exquisite traditional prudery they were making all attitudes and movements in life as difficult as possible.'

But, do not expect a love story like the movie of the same name. It's mostly an account about a very specific time and place: a coffee farm in Kenya at the beginning of the 20th century.

4,5∕5

Happy to see you loved Out of Africa! I haven't read the book but thoroughly enjoyed the movie when I saw it a number of years ago!

I hope you like it when you get around to reading it :-)

11- The reluctant fundamentalist
232 pages
Category: New authors
Alternate category: none

Well, I finished this book last week and I'm still not sure what to say about it. This is the story of a young successful Pakistani who studied and worked in the US until 9/11 forces him to 'go back to the fundamentals'.

The structure is unusual; it's written as a one-way conversation between the main character and a visitor to Lahore. Less thought-provoking than I expected, it might have had more impact for Americans right after 9/11.

3,5∕5

12- Orlando
251 pages
Category: Sci-fi
Alternate category: Women authors

Orlando lives through centuries and experiences changes in gender through unexplained means. It took me quite some time to go through this slim novel but every sentence was worth it. I also got a much better feel for Woolf's sense of humour in this book than in Mrs Dalloway.

4/5

13- Le Bateau-Sabre
40 pages
Category: Sci-fi
Alternate category: En français

I can never resist a new installment in the Thorgal series. Here, we follow Thorgal while he chases after his son's kidnappers. He gets hired to protect a merchant's ship, gets involved in the plight of slaves, and helps rescue a sunken treasure. Never a dull moment. And it was interesting to see how the Vikings' ships moved about in ice-choked waters.

4/5

I have just read your thread and added a few books to my wishlist based on your comments. gotta love LT!

I do love it. Welcome to my thread!

14- Le liseur (The reader)
202 pages
Category: New authors
Alternate category: In translation

A teenager falls in love with a war criminal and has to reconcile himself with that fact.

4/5

15- L'amant (The lover)
142 pages
Category: En français
Alternate categories: Women authors, New authors

An old (unreliable?) woman remembers when she had, as a teenager, an affair with an older man and how that helped her deal with her dysfonctional family.

Very interesting how, in that relationship, it was the man who was lovesick while the woman was in control and seeking sexual pleasure for its own sake. However, I needed almost the whole book to get used to the style: non-linear and jumping from first to third person narrative.

3,5/5

16- Le mur by Peter Sis (touchstones not working properly)
50 pages
Category: Book Bullets

Lovely.

3,5/5

17- Les arpenteurs du monde (Measuring the world)
259 pages
Category: In translation
Alternate category: New authors

Wonderful historical fiction that focuses on the life of two of the leading 19th century scientists: Humpbolt and Gauss. Funny, interesting and touching.

4/5

The first time your thread has been at the top when I glance through LT! Most people have enough turnover that I catch them about every week or so, but it's been since April since I've read you. You've had some things that catch my attention in the meantime -- especially that Virginia Woolf book. I only ever hear people talk about Mrs Dalloway, but now I suspect Orlando might be a better fit for me to start in on her. It's good to see you again.

Thanks pammab. As you can see, I only comment sporadically on LT these days. Reading is slow and when I'm done with a book, I can't seem to put my thoughts together in a coherent way. But I'm still here and enjoying reading other people threads!

So, I've been MIA these last few weeks. I've spent my time gestating, napping, nursing the beginning of a cold, cooking and reading (but not reviewing).

Since June 3rd though my time has been spent taking care of the newest member of our family: Émilie (3.5 kg, 52 cm).

She likes nursing, sleeping, the colour red, nursing, waving her arms, looking at faces, and nursing.

She dislikes loud noises, waiting to be nursed, dirty diapers, and being cold.

Pictures will probably be posted on my profile in the next few days.

Congratulations on your new arrival, Emilie is a beautiful name.

Congratulations on the new addition to the family!

Congratulations!

Thanks!

Congratulations on your new family addition! Emilie is indeed a beautiful name. Enjoy your time with this precious baby. I will eagerly check back for pics

Congrats, paruline!

Congratulations on your new arrival!

Congratulations on your new little girl! I love your description of her likes and dislikes!

congratulations on your new tiny challenge :-)

Thanks everyone! Pictures of Émilie have now been posted.

Adorable!

Awe..... What a sweetie!

She's as pretty as her name.

Congratulations...Émilie is lovely.

Thanks everyone! I think she's pretty but I'm a bit biased :-)

18- Silent spring
297 pages
Category: Non fiction
Alternate category: Women authors

A classic of the environmental movement with crisp prose and a still-relevant message about chemicals. I found it interesting how she played on the fear of radiation that was prevalent back then.

4/5

19- Livre d'un été (The summer book)
188 pages
Category: In translation
Alternate categories: Women authors, New authors

A child and her grandmother spend their summers on an island. I want to move back near the sea.

3.5/5

20- The red queen
325 pages - counts as two books
Category: Women authors
Alternate category: New authors

The ghost of the red queen, after recounting the story of her life, looks for someone that will make her story widely known. Gripping, especially the first part.

4/5

22- Les jumelles (The twins)
427 pages - counts as two books
Category: In translation
Alternate categories: Women authors, New authors

Two sisters, separated when they were young, attempt to reconcile after a chance meeting 50 years later. I didn't quite get why one sister was so angry and why the other one was so set on being understood.

3/5

24- Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty thousand leagues under the sea)
437 pages - counts as two books
Category: En français
Alternate category: Sci-fi

Well, obviously, I have no idea what a league is because I was under the impression that they would go to a depth of twenty thousand leagues but they actually travel twenty thousand leagues *while* under the sea. Great fun.

4/5

26- Foundation and Empire
272 pages
Category: Sci-fi

The Foundation faces new challenges, one of which even Seldon couldn't predict. And, OMG, a strong female character!

4/5

A couple of good reads since I last posted

27- My Antonia
196 pages
Category: Women authors
Alternate category: New authors

An old man remembers his coming-of-age years in Nebraska during the pioneer days. I loved the descriptions of the landscapes and of all the immigrants trying to make it in the new land.

4/5

28- Three day road
351 pages
Category: New authors

After surviving World War I, a young Cree hunter returns, maimed and addicted to morphine, to the Canadian bush to die. During the journey home, his aunt Niska keeps him alive by recounting her life story. A wonderful read.

4/5

29- Le Llano en flammes (en: The burning plain; es: El Llano en llamas)
169 pages
Category: In translation
Alternate category: New authors

Abject poverty, unforgiving climate and man's inhumanity to man are the threads linking this collection of short stories. Very good but better taken in small doses because, dear me, soooooo depressing.

Since I read a translation, I'm thinking that lots of subtleties were lost. Just looking at the Spanish title (El Llano en llamas), there is a rhythm there that is not conveyed in the French or English titles.

4/5

Nice string of good reading Paruline! I have yet to pick up My Antonia or Three Day Road. Your reviews concur with others I have read so I may need to see about pulling those books forward for reading.

Hope your enjoy them!

My Antonia is one of my favorite books! Will this nudge you to more of her books? I can recommend Death Comes for the Archbishop which takes place in the southwest.

Mamzel, definitely! I think my local library carries The professor's house but I'll keep Death comes for the Archbishop in mind.

Although I do have this thing where I try not to read books by the same author two years in a row. I find it allows me to experience new authors and not to burn out on favorite ones. So Willa will have to wait until 2014.

30- The eye in the door
277 pages
Category: Next in a series
Alternate category: Women authors

I think I waited too long to get back to this series. Too many characters and story threads for me to get back easily into the flow of the story. WW1 is stalling and the British authorities are looking for scapegoats: homosexuals and pacifists.

3.5∕5

31- Bonk
336 pages - counts as two books
Category: New authors
Alternate categories: Women authors, Non fiction

A hilarious and sometimes cringe-inducing read (penis operations anyone?) about the science of human sexuality.

4∕5

33- Love medicine
400 pages - counts as two books
Category: Women authors
Alternate category: New authors

This is the story of two families on a reservation, each led by a strong woman, and the man caught between them. Some magical realism, or surreal?, elements add depths to the story.

3.5/5

35- The dark child
221 pages
Category: Africa
Alternate category: New authors, En français

What comes to mind when we think about African children? Poverty, malnutrition, disease, right? Well, in this novel based on his early life, Laye shows an happy childhood, where he was surrounded by loving friends and family, in a land of plenty. It is also a novel full of gentle humor.

Much emphasis is put on the initiation rites he goes through, the first ones organized by the tribe to help young men conquer fear and pain, followed by the challenges that real life provides such as loneliness and death.

Although his family is Muslim, their religion is full of ancestral customs and beliefs (humans changing into animals, prophetic dreams, animal sacrifices, incantations...). In fact, I was struck by the resemblance between cultural elements of the Cree found in Three Day Road and Love Medicine and those of Laye's caste, the Malinke. For example, both people do not say the name of the dead out loud and both have family totems.

4/5

36- The ghost road
276 pages
Category: Next in a series
Alternate category: Women authors

In the third part of the Regeneration trilogy, we come back to Dr. Rivers, especially memories of his anthropological studies on the Natives of Melanesia. We also continue with Billy Prior and his return to the front.

I enjoyed very much the Dr. Rivers sections but less the parts about Prior. Or there may have been some allegory that I missed.

On a related note, I visited the Canadian War Museum a couple of weeks ago. Tucked between a reconstruction of a trench (complete with fake floating body parts) and a display on horse veterinary care during wartime, there was a television set with videos of shell-shocked soldiers. Seeing the facial ticks, the hysterical paralysis, as well as the obvious self-consciousness of these soldiers, made this trilogy all the more powerful.

4/5

Wow, almost two months since I posted a review! Looks like my summer was busier than I realized. But let's not forget to blame Pinterest - that site is almost as addictive as LT!

I'm still reading, if slowly. Today I made it all the way to page 2 of The scarlet letter before being interrupted by the infant. So I don't know if I'm going to complete my challenge. I would need to read about one book a week, which is highly unlikely. Oh well, there's always next year, right?

*scurries off to read everyone's thread*

You're right, there's always next year! :)

On the other hand, if I count books with more than 300 pages as two books, I would only need to read four more books before the end of the year. Mmmmmmh...

I just posted my reviews for The eye in the door and Bonk. I'll try to review the remaining books in the next few days.

My reviews for Love Medicine, The dark child and The ghost road are up!

Ok, so I'm way behind my reviews. BUT! I creatively reorganized my books in my categories while giving books with more than 300 pages a weight of two books.

I'm midway through Moby-Dick and that 600+ pages would cover my Unfinished business category. All I need is one Classical classic before December and I would complete the challenge.

37- The stone diaries
304 pages
Category: Women authors

We follow the life of Daisy Stone from birth to death. I feel like I should have liked it more than I did; there is some real craft in the writing. Very good beginning, some surprises along the way, and some meditations on aging and death, but mostly uninspiring (to me anyway).

3.5∕5

38- The scarlet letter
272 pages
Category: Dead white males

Oh for Pete's sake, Dimmesdale, get over yourself already! I felt very impatient with all the characters, except Pearl, she seemed exceptionally bright and delightful.

3∕5

39- Notes from a big country
318 pages - counts as two books
Category: Non fiction

Series of short essays about life in the United States. Let me just say that Bill Bryson should be on the list of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Loved it!

4∕5

41- A room with a view
222 pages
Category: Dead white males

Lucy falls in love in Italy but denies it to herself until the end of the novel. Well, another book where I didn't click with the main characters. Or it might have been the writing style or the strange-to-me social situations - I was never sure if something was meant to be funny or tragic (or tragically funny maybe?).

I thought the villain Cecil had the most interesting character arc. I liked him. Oh, and I liked Old Emerson. I'd like to have a conversation with either of them.

3∕5

42- Moby-dick
672 pages - counts as two books
Category: Unfinished business

What can be said about this book except one's own enjoyment of it? I absolutely loved the beginning, loathed the middle part and appreciated the ending.

3∕5

43- An uncommon reader
124 pages
Category: Book bullets

A perfect antidote to Moby-dick. What would happen if the Queen became an avid reader? Thoughtful hilarity (does such a thing exist?), that's what.

4∕5

44- The golden ass
343 pages
Category: Classical classics

I decided to have this category because of last year's visit to the Prado in Spain. To my untrained eyes, there seemed to be three major subjects covered: monarchs and nobles, biblical scenes and classical texts. Hence, this year's category.

Lucius' attempt at magic have the unfortunate consequence of turning him into an ass (subtle I know). Who knew that classical literature could be so readable and fun?

4∕5

I'm all caught up with my reviews.

Aaaaannnnd I completed my challenge! Thanks everyone for your comments and for reading my thread, hope to see you in the 2013 category challenge.

Congratulations on completing your challenge.

Adding my congratulations over here too! :)

Congratulations!

Woohoo, congratulations!

Brava!

Congrats!

Thank you everyone!

Congratulations!

Just joining in with all the others: Congratulations!

Congrats!

Congrats!

CHALLENGE RECAP!

Total books read: 37

Favorite books: Cloud Atlas, Out of Africa, The Chrysalids

Least favorite books: The twins, Moby-dick, A room with a view, A scarlet letter

Abandoned books: Small Island, On beauty

Favorite categories: Sci-fi, Africa

Most beautiful cover: The summer book (simple and classy), The ghost road (makes me think of the last scene in the movie All quiet on the western front), Out of Africa (artwork by the writer, very beautiful and fitting)

Ugliest cover: The lover (just a blank page with the title), Measuring the world (what the ?), The Dark Child (makes it look like a silly children's book, which it's not), The Chrysalids (although it's so ugly, it's kind of cool)

New authors: 26

Women authors: 15

Men authors: 22

Random thoughts:

I was surprised that I could not get into two books I had been looking forward to reading: Small Island and On beauty. It might have been the timing: with a new baby, I felt uninterested in the characters' dysfunctional families and extramarital affairs. On the other hand, I read and enjoyed Silk, The Great Gatsby and So long a letter. Me? Inconsistent? What makes you say that?

This year, it has also been my privilege to introduce my oldest to some of my childhood's favorite 'bandes dessinées' : Asterix, Chick Bill, Marsupilami and The Smurfs have been hits. I've even caught him reading secretly past his bedtime. I was so proud, I could not even pretend to disapprove. Next year, I'm hoping he'll enjoy Les tuniques bleues, Tintin and Olivier Rameau.

Thanks everyone for reading my rambling thoughts and hope to see you in the 13 in 13 challenge!

"caught him reading secretly past his bedtime"
That can't be a punishable offence. :)

Great round-up! See you next year!

Buy him one of those headlamps for Christmas so he doesn't strain his eyes.