2024 Book and Movie Challenge

I didn't do a formal book or movie challenge last year, simply keeping a list that I would watch through the year. That didn't work. As with every time I've not had the formal list I blithely figured I'd get to everything "later." And never did.

So this year, I'm going to commit to a few challenging things.

 BOOKS

"Assigned Books"

As usual, I'll have some interesting reading coming my way just because of outside influences. For instance, Scott's choices for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast include a couple of books I'd never even heard of.

•  The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin 
•  The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany. 
  

My Catholic women's book club will be reading a book that I got so mad at I stopped when it first came out. But I'm willling to try again!

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.  
  

Unusually, the literary podcasts I listen to going to talk about a lot of books I already love. Also not challenging and I'm not sure if I'll read along on all of them — heck I practically have memorized The Haunting of Hill House — but they'd be fun rereading! 

Close Reads podcast:

• Summer Lightning — Finished. A lovely light beginning to the year. Listening to the audio enhances the enjoyment of Wodehouse's ingenious turns of phrase and his comedic plots.
•  The Hobbit
• Summer Book
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Viper’s Tangle - this is the one I haven't read

The Big Read:

• Dune
• Jane Eyre
• Team of Rivals - this is the one I haven't read
• Crime and Punishment
• The Haunting of Hill House
• Great Expectations

Miller's Book Review:

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Travels with Charley
• A Moveable Feast

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I hardly need to add to this list, do I? And yet ... I have a few that people keep pushing at me and I keep ducking. Let's see where an honest try takes me!

(When I finish a title then I mark it in red along with a few comments.)

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Personal Challenge Reading

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo — I wasn't prepared to have my understanding of this story turned upside down. It is so pervasive in our culture that I thought I already knew what I'd be reading, but not so. There were a lot of new elements that made it a real page-turner.
• Red Sphinx by Alexander Dumas — I read 200 pages before I stopped. There were too many characters and historical events for me to keep up with. I liked the main story but that wasn't enough to keep me going. 
• The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
• The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
• Beowulf transl. by Tom Shippey - I am unexpectedly turning into one of those people who has read multiple translations of Beowulf. An unexpected plot twist in my reading life!

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Movie Challenge

Some of these are still hanging on after several years. Time to watch them!

• Freaks directed by Todd Browning — Rose has long pushed this movie and after seeing Browning's direction of the original Dracula this Halloween I am finally on board.
  
  
• Throne of Blood directed by Akira Kurosawa — Lear, Japanese-style. I tend to like foreign adaptations of Shakespeare better than seeing English or American ones. I've explored Indian versions and now am going to see what the master in Japan did with the Bard.
  
  
• Ran directed by Akira Kurosawa — MacBeth, also by the Japanese master.
  
  
• Amadeus — I recall hating this film long ago but Rose has convinced me that it has some very deep themes so I'm going to try it again.  — Rewatching was a real delight. So much so that I've included it in my movie choices for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast this year.
  
  
• Marty — I know it's sad but I also know its a classic
  
  
• Anna Karenina — I finally read the book. Now I will finally watch one of the movies.
  
  
• The Leopard starring Burt Lancaster, because I read a compelling article
  
  
• Frank Capra movies — after reading a compelling essay about him in Popcorn Cathedral by Rod Bennett, I want to fill in the movies that I haven't seen yet:
  - Mr. Deeds goes to Town — similar to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in many ways but I appreciated Mr. Deeds' native shrewdness which allows him to see beneath smiling exteriors to the heart of those who are mocking or trying to swindle him. Every time you think that he's going to be conned, he exposes the underlying true intent.
  - Lost Horizon
  - You Can't Take It With You
  - Meet John Doe
  - State of the Union
  - Riding High