Despite the fact that I’ve promised to keep my 2010 reading challenges to a minimum, I’ve decided to sign on for the longer version of this challenge, trying to fill in an A to Z of both authors and titles.

Full details of the challenge can be found at the A to Z Reading Challenge blog.

There will no doubt be some shuffling around as the lists start to fill up. I’ve included links to any reviews I’ve written in brackets at the end of each entry.

Authors

• A – Manhattan Dreaming by Anita Heiss (Suite101, RUD)
• B –
• C –
• D – Dog by Daniel Pennac
• E –
• F –
• G – Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang (Suite101, RUD)
• H –
• I –
• J – To A Distant Land by Julianne Jones (Suite101, RUD)
• K – Parenting by Kathy Walker (Suite101, RUD)
• L – E W Cole: Chasing the Rainbow by Lisa Lang (Suite101, RUD)
• M – The Greatest Blogger in the World – Andrew McDonald
• N –
• O – Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
• P –
• Q –
• R –
• S –
• T –
• U –
• V –
• W –
• X –
• Y –
• Z – Monstrum House #1: Locked In by Zana Fraillon (Suite101)

Titles

• A – After the Fall by Kylie Ladd
• B –
• C – Chess Nuts by Julia Lawrinson
• D –
• E – EJ12 Girl Hero #1: Hot & Cold (Suite101)
• F – Find your Tribe by Rebecca Sparrow (RUD)
• G –
• H –
• I –
• J – Jasper & Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle by Kevin Rudd & Rhys Muldoon (RUD)
• K –
• L –
• M –
• N –
• O –
• P –
• Q –
• R –
• S –
• T – Toppling by Sally Murphy
• U –
• V –
• W – We are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka (Suite101)
• X –
• Y –
• Z –

When I interviewed Australian Indigenous author Anita Heiss recently, she brought the Indigenous Literacy Project to my attention. I am hoping to help my children organise a Great Book Swap to benefit this organisation later this year, but I thought I might also start a reading challenge with the list of Indigenous books and authors offered in the ILP reading list.

There are 134 books on the list, so I will make this a perpetual challenge. Many of the books are picture books or children’s books, so the list isn’t quite as daunting as it seems. I’ve listed all the titles below, but you can also download a pdf list from the Indigenous Literacy Project website or follow this link for the Indigenous Literacy Project Reading Challenge spreadsheet.

If you would like to join in with this challenge, you can sign-up here with your introduction post and you can also leave links to any reviews that you write for books from the challenge.

If you have any other Indigenous authors or titles that you’d like to recommend to others, please leave the details in a comment on this post.

Happy Reading!

NB This reading challenge is not affiliated with the Indigenous Literacy Project. The only association is the use of the ILP book list.

Indigenous Literacy Project Book List Reading Challenge

• A Home for Bilby – Grace Fielding
• A is for Aunty – Elaine Russell
• A New Kind of Dreaming – Anthony Eaton
• Aboriginal Stories of Australia – A W Reed
• About This Little Devil and This Little Fella – Albert Barunga & Stephen Muecke
• Albert – Damien Kamholtz
• An Australian 1,2,3 of Animals – Bronwyn Bancroft
• An Australian A,B,C of Animals – Bronwyn Bancroft
• Angela – James Moloney
• Animals: An Indigenous First Discovery Book – Debbie Austin
• Anna the Goanna – Jill McDougall & Jenny Taylor
• Art, History, Place – Christine Nicholls
• Arthur Corunna’s Story – Sally Morgan
• Bajrigga the Turtle – Trevor Fourmile
• Bardi Counting Book – Lucy Wildagoo Dann
• Bat and the Crocodile – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• Bawoo Stories – May O’Brian & Sue Wyatt
• Big Rain Coming – Katrina Germein
• Bilby and the Bushfire – Grace Fielding
• Binna Binna Man – Pryor & McDonald
• Bip the Snapping Bungaroo – Narelle McRobbie & Grace Fielding
• Bittangabee Tribe – Beryl Cruse et al
• Cocky the Crow and the Hawk – Dolly Daniels Granites Nampijinpa
• Collecting Colour – Kylie Dunstan
• Croc Bait – Leonie Norrington
• Crow and the Waterhole – Ambelin Kwaymullina
• Dabu Grows Up – Selena Solomon
• Deadly Unna – Phillip Gwynne
• Desert Cowboy – Pat Lowe
• Desert Dog – Pat Lowe & Jimmy Pike
• Desert Dreamings – Deidre Stokes
• Djomi Dream Child – Christopher Fry
• Do Not Go Around the Edges – Daisy Utemorrah
• Dougy – James Moloney
• Dunbi the Owl – Pamela Loftus
• Eagle’s Nest Warlawurra Manngutjarra – June Walkutjukurr Richards
• Echidna and the Shade Tree – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• Enora and the Black Crane – Arone Raymond Meeks
• Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo – Alison Lester
• Even More Tales of my Grandmother’s Dreamtime – Naiura
• Father Sky and Mother Earth – Oodgeroo
• Flying Emu & Other Australian Stories – Sally Morgan
• From Little Things Big Things Grow – Paul Kelly
• Gelam and the Man from Moa – Anne Abednego Gela
• Gracey – James Moloney
• Growing up at Uluru – Stan Breeton
• Gudjal Book of Animals – William C Santo
• Gudjal Book of Birds – William C Santo
• Home to Mother – Doris Pilkington
• How the Kangaroos Got their Tales – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• How the Cassowary Got its Helmet – Trevor Fourmile
• How the Birds Got their Colour – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• Kuiyku Mabaigal Waii and Sobai – Aidan Laza
• Jalygurr – Pat Torres
• Jirrbal Rainforest Dreamtime Stories – Maisie (Yarrcali) Barlow
• Joshua and the Two Crabs – Joshua Button
• Kakadu Calling – Jane Christopherson
• Kangaroo and the Porpoise – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• Kootear the Echidna – Cindy Laws
• Kupi Kupi and the Girl – Daphne Puntjina Burton
• Leaving Barrumbi – Leonie Norrington
• Life in the Great Sandy Desert – Pat Lowe & Jummy Pike
• Little Platypus and the Fire Spirit – Mundara Koorang
• Lizard Gang – Kirra Liscia Somerville
• Loongie the Greedy Crocodile - Lucy and Keifer Dann
• Love Like Water – Meme McDonald
• Lowitja – Lowitja O’Donoghue
• Luumpa The Magical Kingfisher – Bai Bai Napangarti
• Macquarie Aboriginal Words – Various
• Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia – Bill Arthur
• Magic Fire at Warlukurlangu – Matingali Napanangka Mudgedell
• Malu Kangaroo – Judith Morecroft
• Mark of Wagarl – Lorna Little
• Maybe Tomorrow – Pryor & McDonald
• Molly the Grey Kangaroo – John Lewis Clark
• Moonglue – Daisy Utemorrah
• More Tales of My Grandmother’s Dreamtime – Naiura
• My Country – William C Santo
• My Girragundji – Pryor & McDonald
• My Home in Kakadu – Jane Christopherson
• My Place – Sally Morgan
• Nana’s Land – Delphine Sarago-Kendrick
• Nardika Learns to Make a Spear – Chris Fry
• Nargun and the Stars – Patricia Wrightson
• Njunjul the Sun- Pryor & McDonald
• Old Frangipani Tree at Flying Fish Point – Trina Saffioti
• Old Tucker Man – Debbie Austin
• On Country: The Stories of Nyrlotte – Fiona Doyle
• Our Pet Pelican – Carol Mooka
• Outback – Annaliese Porter
• Pangkarlangu and the Lost Child – Molly Tasman Napurrurla
• Papunya School Book of History and Culture – Various
• Patterns of Australia – Bronwyn Bancroft
• People and Places an Indigenous First Discovery Book – Debbie Austin
• Possum and Wattle: My Big Book of Australian Words – Bronwyn Bancroft
• Rabbit Proof Fence – Doris Pilkington
• Rainbow Bird – Eric Maddern
• Sacred Cows – Anita Heiss & Danny Eastwood
• Sally’s Story – Sally Morgan
• Shack that Dad Built – Elaine Russell
• Sisi and the Cassowary – Arone Raymond Meeks
• Spirit of Barrumbi – Leonie Norrington
• Spotted Cat – Molly Tasman Napurrurla
• Stories from the Billabong – James Vance Marshall
• Stradbroke Dreamtime – Oodgeroo & Bronwyn Bancroft
• Tales of My Grandmother series (3 volumes) – Naiura
• Tangara – Nan Chauncy
• Tell Me Why – Robyn Templeton & Sarah Jackson
• The Barrumbi Kids – Leonie Norrington
• The Burnt Stick – Anthony Hill
• The Dream – Rae Harris & Beryl Harp
• The Flytrap – Meme McDonald
• The Magic Colours – Cecilia Egan
• The Other Side – Sally Morgan
• Tiddalik the Frog – Faundez
• Tjarany Roughtail: the Dreaming of the Rougtail Lizard – Gracie Greene
• Tom Tom – Rosemary Sullivan & Dee Huxley
• Turtle Egg Day – Ruth Thompson
• Two Hands Together – Dianna Kidd
• Two Hearted Numbat – Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
• Two Wallabies – Henry Cook Jackamara
• Unna You Fullas – Glenyse Ward
• Walking with the Seasons – Diane Lucas
• Wandihnu and the Old Dugung – Elizabeth and Wandihnu Wymarra
• Warnayarra – the Rainbow Snake – Pamela Loftus
• When I Was Little Like You – Mary Malbunka
• When the Snake Bites the Sun – Mung Mung Lirrmiyarri
• White Clay and the Giant Kangaroo – Cecilia Egan
• Who’s That Jumbun in the Log? – Narelle McRobbie & Grace Fielding
• Willy Willy and the Ant – Cecilia Egan
• Winin Why the Emu Cannot Fly – Mary Carmel Charles
• Yolngu Aboriginal Spirit – Mununggurr & Yunupingu
• You and Me, Marrawee – Kerri Hashmi
• You and Me, Our Place – Leonie Norrington & De Huxley
• Yumba Days – Herb Wharton

Additional Recommendations

• Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937 – Anita Heiss
• Lenny and the Big Red Kinan -Faith Baiden (RUD review)
• Fair Skin Black Fella – Renee Fogorty (RUD review)

My goodness, I should have come up with a shorter challenge title. I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.

NB This reading challenge is not affiliated with the Indigenous Literacy Project. The only association is the use of the ILP book list.

ILP Book List Reading Challenge Sign-Up

If you’d like to join me on my quest to read more Indigenous Australian authors and books with Indigenous Australian themes and settings, please grab the button from this post and add your name and a link to your introduction post in the Mr Linky below.

ILP Book List Reading Challenge Reviews

If you write reviews for any of the books you read for this challenge, please make sure you come back and add a link to your review post.

Before I give all the facts and figures, I’d like to share a wonderful quote from Reading by Moonlight by Brenda Walker, a book that I’ve started during the Read-a-thon.

A good book laces invisible fingers into the shape of a winter armchair or a hammock in the sun. I’m not talking about comfort, necessarily, but support. A good writer might take you to strange and difficult places, but you’re in the hands of someone you trust.

Final Update

• Hours read since last update: 2 hours
• Pages read since last update: 122
• Total hours read: 6 hours 15 minutes
• Total pages read: 328 + 75 minutes of an audio book and a children’s picture book

Final Post Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I’ve had numerous distractions since the read-a-thon began. The first few hours went well, but after a few hours sleep there were early morning distractions with the kids and then a BBQ lunch with my husband’s family that took 7 hours out of my day. So, no specific hour was daunting but the many interruptions were

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? An engaging book is such a subjective thing – what interests me might not suit everyone. My suggestion would be to always include a variety of books – something serious, something fun, some non-ficion – and to make sure that at least a few of the books in the Read-a-thon pile are reasonably short so that you can get that wonderful sense of achievement that comes from completely finishing a book.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Read-a-thon is already awesome. How do you improve on that?

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The Read-a-thon blog is great. It’s wonderful to have a central point with all the links and information. The cheerleaders and mini-challenge hosts also do a great job.

5. How many books did you read? One complete book, 3 partial books, one picture book and half of an audio book on CD.

6. What were the names of the books you read?

• Conspiracy 365: February by Gabrielle Lord (complete – 185 pages)
• Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (partial – 104 pages)
• Reading by Moonlight by Brenda Walker (partial – 22 pages)
• Macquarie Pen Anthology of Aboriginal Literature (partial – 12 pages)
• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales (1 of 2 story CDs)
• Nursery Time with Thomas (Thomas the Tank Engine picture book read with son)

7. Which book did you enjoy most? I particullary enjoyed Before I Fall and Reading by Moonlight and I’m looking forward to finishing both in the next couple of days.

8. Which did you enjoy least? I didn’t have any books that I struggled with.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn’t a cheerleader this time around, but I think I’ll put my name down as as a cheerleader for at least some of the next Read-a-thon.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I’m really hoping that I will have the weekend free for the next Read-a-thon. I’ll register as a reader, but I think I’ll skip taking part in the mini-challenges and use that time to be a cheerleader instead. I’ve missed having time to visit the blogs of some of the readers taking part in the Read-a-thon this weekend or chatting with other readers on Twitter.

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I’m still soldiering on with the read-a-thon. After losing 7 prime reading hours during the day at a family lunch, then getting busy organising the kids for the evening and getting them to bed, I now have two more hours reading time left.

I’d love to take part in more mini-challenges and want to send a big THANK YOU out to all the great bloggers that have hosted them, but I want to get some more reading done and I can’t do both. So sorry.

To all the wonderful cheerleaders who have called in to encourage me over the past 24 hours. THANK YOU. You are all awesome. The read-a-thon is so much more fun because you are all part of it.

I’ll post a final round-up once the read-a-thon is over, but for now it’s back to the books.

We’re at hour 13 and I’ve missed the deadlines for quite a few mini-challenges, but I thought I would go back over the ones that have been announced since I went to sleep and take part in some of them anyway.

Mini-Challenge: Rebecca at The Booklady’s Blog - The #Pantyworthy Challenge

Authors as rock stars? Why not. The way to take part in this challenge was reasonably flexible, so I’m choosing to list the authors that I think are “pantyworthy” – the one’s that have written books I can’t wait to recommend to others and those whose books have stayed with me. For more details about what it means to be “pantyworthy”, check out Rebecca’s original Pantyworthy blog post.

• Jasper Fforde – Love, Love Love the Thursday Next series and Fforde’s latest book Shades of Grey
• Chris Cleave – Finished The Other Hand in record time and couldn’t stop myself from underlining sections as I went because I thought they were so amazing.
• Jane Austen – A devoted Austen fan here. How could I not include her on my list?
• Douglas Adams – The Master
• Shakespeare – I’m a traditionalist at heart and I just can’t resist The Bard. Heavens forfend that I would leave him off my PW list.
• Alain de Botton – modern day philosopher
• Terry Pratchett – there’s nothing like a Discworld novel to make me smile. I loved his latest stand-alone novel Nation as well.
• George Eliot – I’ve only read one of Eliot’s books, Daniel Deronda, but I loved it and was absolutely amazed that a woman of her generation could display such a broad general knowledge plus write such an amazing book.

OK. I could go on all day. I’m obviously just a serial author groupie. No doubt I’ll come back and add more names to this list, but I should move on to more mini-challenge catch-ups.

Mini-Challenge: Carrie at Nomad Reader - Where in the World have you Read Today?

Carrie asked readers to visit this Google Map and mark where they had travelled in their reading during the read-a-thon so far. For me, that means Richmond, Australia, Africa and Conneticut in the US. I’m obviously still a bit sleepy, because I can’t work out how to add my markers, but I will head back to the map and do so later.

Mini-Challenge: Joy Renee at Joystory – Reading is Fundamental

This challenge involves reading with a child and I am planning to this later today with my daughter, who is reading The Tale of Despereaux for her school book club. I’ll come back and post some details once we’ve spent our time reading.

If I don’t stop now, I won’t get a chance to get some more reading done before I have to head out to lunch.

Happy Reading Everyone. Hopefully I’ll be able to udpate again soon.

Ok, so it was probably a bit unrealistic to think that I’d only sleep for 3 – 4 hours. Thanks to some ongoing neck/back pain, it took me at least half an hour to get to sleep and then Islept for 5 hours. Since waking up I’ve managed to have breakfast and get some more reading done. I’ve only got about 1.5 hours before I have to head out to a family lunch, so this will be a quick update so that I can grab a shower and hopefully get another hour’s reading done before I have to leave.

Update

Title of book(s) read since last update:

• Conspiracy 365: February by Gabrielle Lord

Number of books read since you started: 3 (partially)

Pages read since last update: 102 pages

Running total of pages read since you started: 206 pages and 75 minutes of the audiobook.

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 1 hour

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 4 hours 15 minutes

I’m about to do a mini-challenges catch-up post, so I will include a list of the mini-challenges I have taken part in with my next update post. I haven’t visited any other readers since my last post either. I’m feeling a bit frustrated by all the interruptions and I’m wondering whether anyone would notice if I disappear into the corner with a book at the BBQ lunch today. It’s probably worth giving it a try.

Happy Reading Everyone.

It’s just hit 3am Sunday morning local time and I think I might head off to bed for a few hours sleep before the kids wake up and the day officially begins.

Before I go to sleep, I thought I would post an update of my progress so far. After getting off to a delayed then slow start, I’ve actually managed to get some reading done in the past couple of hours.

Title of book(s) read since last update:

• Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales
• Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver

Number of books read since you started: 2 (partially)

Pages read since last update: One CD of the Mandela set and 104 pages of Before I Fall.

Running total of pages read since you started: 104 pages and 75 minutes of the audiobook.

Amount of time spent reading since last update: This is my first official update. So far I have spent 3 hours and 15 minutes reading.

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 3 hours 15 minutes

Mini-challenges completed:
• Intro Challenge
• The Kick off of Champions Challenge

Other participants you’ve visited: So far I’ve left 6 comments. Not many, I know, but I’ve been trying to get as much reading in as I could before I fell asleep. Of the blogs I’ve visited, I’m really keen to go back and have a good look at Allie’s A Literary Odyssey. I love the idea of working through a list of classics, which I guess is what I’ve tried to inspire myself to do with the Popular Penguins Reading Challenge here at Reading Upside Down as well as a few other perpetual reading challenges I have in the pipeline.

OK. Now that I’ve posted an update, I’m off to bed for 3 – 4 hours sleep. I’m really enjoying Before I Fall, but may try something else for a while when I wake up.

Happy Reading Everyone!

We’re in the final minutes of the second hour of the Read-a-thon as I write this. It’s almost midnight here and I’m looking forward to making myself a cup of tea and curling up with a book in just a few minutes.

First, I want to take part in The Kick Off of Champions, the Hour 2 mini challenge hosted by Miss Remmers at Miss Remmers’ Review. I’m afraid it will have to be a boring text post. At the moment, I’m using my laptop and I’ll have to wait for a few hours before I can download some photos to add.

At the moment, I’m sitting in our loungeroom in my pyjamas (an attractive green and hot pink ensemble emblazoned with the phrase ‘boys have cooties’).

I have my books in a pile next to me with my iPod resting on top playing Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales. The current tale is being read by Matt Damon. Does that mean I can say that Matt Damon and I are curled up on the lounge together enjoying the Read-a-thon? Sounds good to me.

Back to reality. I have to be very careful where I put my feet, as my younger son has an elaborate train track set up on the loungeroom floor and will chastise me in the morning if I move anything.

Once this post is finished, I will go make myself a cup of tea (probably a nice mug of peppermint and English toffee) and I’ll probably start my reading with Lauren Oliver’s If I Fall.

Time to get on with some reading.

OK. So, technically I’m already past ‘Hour 1′ with nary a page read, but since this is my first Read-a-thon as a reader, I’m trying to join in the community fun as well as reading some great books. Besides, I’d hate for all those wonderful cheerleaders to be bored when they call in to visit.

So, here’s my answers to the Hour 1 questions at the Read-a-thon blog:

Where are you reading from today? Newcastle, Australia.

3 facts about me …

• I’ve returned to university this year and am studying for an Arts degree majoring in a Critical and Cultural Studies subject stream.
• I don’t drink coffee, but I love tea. 
• I believe that it isn’t possible to have too many books (despite the fact that my husband thinks I passed that point long ago). 

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? I have 11 books (including one audio book) plus my university notes.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? I don’t have any definite goals. I’m just looking forward to having an excuse to ignore all my other commitments for 24 hours so that I can indulge in some reading.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? This is my first read-a-thon as a reader. Last time I was a cheerleader, which was lots of fun. So, no advice from me except have a good time and enjoy this chance to connect with the great reading community out there.

While I’m catching up with these early posts and getting myself organised, I’m listening to my audiobook choice, Nelson Mandela’s Favourite African Folktales. I’ve just listened to Alan Rickman read a story and now I’m enjoying Whoopi Goldberg. Excellent.