2010 Flashback Challenge

After my health and consequently my reading imploded this year, I swore I wasn’t going to join any challenges for 2010. But…

The fact is I’m weak and tempted by shiny ideas. Aarti’s Flashback challenge is just too good to pass up. All the same, I have learned one lesson from this year and that is that realistically I have to consider challenges to be guidelines rather that hard and fast demands. If I do the latter, I stress myself to the point of taking all the fun out of it – not to mention making myself sick.

The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010. If you're super-excited and want to reread a book before that, feel free, and let me know. If many people do so, then I'll do a December challenge linky post and you can all link to it here. Otherwise, we can hold them over to January.

You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm - Up to three books
Scholar - Four to six books
Literati - Over six books

Within these levels, we have mini-challenges! These are:

1. Re-read a favorite book from your childhood
2. Re-read a book assigned to you in high school
3. Re-read a book you loved as an adult

Thus, if you sign up for the Bookworm level, you could ostensibly choose to read one book from each mini-challenge. Or you could choose to do none of the above (though, granted, not sure what you could have possibly read that does not fit into either childhood, high school or adulthood).

Also, would just like to make clear that this isn't specifically limited to books you loved reading previously and want to reread. It could also be a book you don't remember enjoying. Or just don't remember reading. It might be interesting to see how your perceptions may have changed.

Rather than picking a level, I’m going to sign up for the challenge in general and just see how far I get.

I always have a long list of books I wish I had the time to reread, but I never seem to manage to do it. So here come two very long lists and one very short one (I can barely remember what I read at high school and the ones I can remember I don’t wish to reread). Obviously I won’t be reading all of these, but it’s fun to have a long list of old favourites to choose from.

Potential Rereads from Childhood (up to the end of high school)

1. Wraiths of Time – Andre Norton
2. The 101 Dalmations – Dodie Smith
3. The Starlight Barking – Dodie Smith
4. The Changeling Sea – Patricia A. McKillip
5. The Riddle-Master of Hed – Patricia A. McKillip
6. Children of Morrow – H. M. Hoover
7. Children of the Dust – Louise Lawrence
8. The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
9. Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham
10. Beauty – Robin McKinley
11. The Blue Sword – Robin McKinley
12. The Hero and the Crown – Robin McKinley
13. Magic Flutes – Eva Ibbotson
14. Restoree – Anne McCaffrey
15. The Blue Castle – L. M. Montgomery
16. Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in November)
17. The Warriors Apprentice - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in November)
18. The Vor Game - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in November)
19. Cetaganda - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in December)
20. Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in December)
21. Brothers in Arms - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in December)
22. Mirror Dance - Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in January)
23. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle (reread in January)
24. A Wind in the Door – Madeleine L’Engle (reread in February)
25. A Swiftly Tilting Planet – Madeleine L’Engle (reread in March)
26. Many Waters – Madeleine L’Engle
27. An Acceptable Time – Madeleine L’Engle
28. The Ring of Allaire – Susan Dexter
29. Can I Get There by Candlelight – Jean Slaughter Doty
30. The People Collection – Zenna Henderson
31. A Walk Out of the World – Ruth Nichols
32. The Outlaws of Sherwood – Robin McKinley
33. The Thirteen Problems – Agatha Christie
34. Jaran – Kate Elliott
35. The Gate of Ivory – Doris Egan
36. The Outcast – Louise Cooper
37. Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls – Jane Lindskold
38. Last Act – Jane Aiken Hodge
39. Fool’s Run – Patricia A. McKillip
40. Tea with the Black Dragon – R. A. MacAvoy
41. Shapechangers – Jennifer Roberson
42. Daddy-Long-Legs - Jean Webster

Potential Rereads from High School (assigned books)

1. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
2. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Potential Rereads from Adulthood (after high school)

1. Primary Inversion – Catherine Asaro
2. Daughter of the Blood – Anne Bishop (reread in December)
3. Heir to the Shadows – Anne Bishop (reread in December)
4. Queen of the Darkness – Anne Bishop (reread in December)
5. Dreams Made Flesh - Anne Bishop
6. Moon Called – Patricia Briggs
7. Memory – Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in March)
8. Komarr – Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in March)
9. A Civil Campaign – Lois McMaster Bujold (reread in April)
10. Diplomatic Immunity – Lois McMaster Bujold
11. The Compass Rose – Gail Dayton (reread in January)
12. The Barbed Rose - Gail Dayton (reread in January)
13. Agent of Change – Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
14. Slave to Sensation – Nalini Singh
15. Alien Taste – Wen Spencer
16. Endless Blue – Wen Spencer
17. Persuasion – Jane Austen
18. Changer – Jane Lindskold
19. Lord of the Fading Lands – C. L. Wilson
20. New Moon – Midori Snyder
21. The Heavenly Horse form the Outermost West – Mary Stanton
22. Firebird – Kathy Tyers
23. Stone of Farewell – Tad Williams
24. The Summer Tree – Guy Gavriel Kay
25. The Last Dancer – Daniel Keys Moran
26. The Mirror of Her Dreams – Stephen Donaldson

Those lists are subject to my vague memory of when I read things, but they are probably not wildly inaccurate. Obviously I read a lot more when I was in high school (and some of those titles in the first list may have been read when I was at university; I can’t exactly remember and I’m much too lazy to check copyright dates). Or perhaps, it’s just longer ago and more reason I want to reread them. Or that all that “childhood” reading was done before I developed CFS. Anyway, it’s an interesting history of my reading life and I hope I manage to reread some of them.

ETA: I have set up my list for this challenge and you can find it here.
ETA: List updated 26-3-10