Sunday, December 14, 2014

The Pre-Printing Press Challenge - 2015 Edition

A new one to me.  Sounds like fun.  Will try to read between 1 to 4 books, maybe more.  Sign up here. Details below:












The Pre-Printing Press Challenge
January 1st 2015-December 31 2015

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.

I started running this challenge back in 
2009 and ran it again in 2010. Since then, I haven't run it, but I'm going to give it another try this year.

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

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 December 31, 2015.
  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 January 1st.

Here is what I am reading:

  1. Beowulf
  2. Antigone--Sophocles
  3. The Homeric Hymns
Challenge completed on January 10

1 comment:

Elena said...

Thanks for joining in, and I hope you enjoy the reads.