Posts Tagged ‘popular penguins reading challenge’
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75 New Popular Penguin Titles
1To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Popular Penguin books, Penguin has released another 75 titles to bring the total number of books in this series to 174.
I’m a big fan of the Popular Penguins, particularly because they make classic and quality books available at an affordable price. The books are available at most Australian bookshops for around $9.95 and I have recently spotted titles at Big W for around $7. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing better than buying a good book, is buying a good book at a bargain price.
With the publication of the new titles, I’ve decided to revive my Popular Penguins Reading Challenge. It’s a perpetual challenge, so there is no time pressure. More than anything, I’m using this challenge as a way to motivate myself to pick up a classic occasionally and broaden my reading horizons.
If you would like to join in, you can sign up to the challenge at my Popular Penguins Reading Challenge post, where you can leave a link your sign-up post and come back to include links to any reviews you write of Popular Penguins titles. There is also a link to a spreadsheet that you can copy to keep track of your progress reading through the 174 Popular Penguins titles.
For a fun way to connect with the new titles, check out the competition running via the Australian Popular Penguins website. Match all 75 party guests with the book titles they represent and you’ll be entered into the competition to win 75 Popular Penguins of your choice plus a Mark Tuckey bookshelf to store them on. (Competition closes midnight, Monday 16th August 2010.)
How many of the 174 Popular Penguins have you already read? What’s your favourite book from the Popular Penguins titles and what authors/titles would you like to see them include in the future?
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Hour 5 – First Official Read-a-thon Update
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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!
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Books Bought – July 2009
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The Books Bought meme is hosted by Cindy at Cindy’s World of Books. It’s a weekly meme, but I’m going to post at the beginning of each month with a list of all the books I purchased the previous month.
Before I get started on what is going to be an embarrassingly long list of books, I just want to make sure that you all realise that I share most of the books I buy with Meredith, who doesn’t really buy any books. That means that I really only need to feel responsible for half of these books, right?
I blame Penguin Books for the majority of my purchases this month. If @PenguinBooksAus hadn’t tweeted the competition offering $2000 to the best tweet answer for the question “Why did the penguin cross the road?”, I would never have visited their Popular Penguins site and wouldn’t have had the brilliant idea of starting a Popular Penguins Reading Challenge.
Because I started the Challenge, I was then morally obliged to go and buy some Popular Penguin titles, both to read and to give me something to photograph for the PPRC button. See. I told you it was all their fault. I’m also contemplating a Penguin Classics challenge. I may have to hand my credit card over for safe keeping before launching that one.
Okay, I’ve rambled enough. Here, for the entire world to see, is the evidence of my book addition during the month of July:
Popular Penguins
- The Age of Reason – Jean-Paul Sartre
- The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
- The Getting of Wisdom – Henry Handel Richardson
- The Harp in the South – Ruth Park
- Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
- Perfume – Patrick Suskind
- A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
- The Lucky Country – Donald Horne
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
- Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Penguin Classics
- Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
- The Red and the Black – Stendhal
General Books
- The Best Short Stories – Guy de Maupassant
- A Wedding in December – Anita Shreve
- Usborne Children’s Book of Art
- 1-2-3 Magic for Christian Parents – Thomas Phelan, Chris Webb
- One-Piece Wearables – Sheila Brennan (sewing pattern book)
- The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (for Meredith)
- Beowulf on the Beach – Jack Murnighan
- The Night my Bum Dropped – Gretel Killeen (for Meredith – because she requested it, not because the title reminded me of her)
- Nothing but Ghosts – Beth Kephart
Okay. That’s it (I think). I did go a bit crazy this month, but since I have every household bill known to western society due in August, I’m guessing that the list at the beginning of September will be very short.
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13th July 2009 – Which? What? Who?
1Well, it’s taken me two weeks, but I have finally managed to get a Which? What? Who? post in on time. Yay me!
Book Discussions:
I have been greatly distracted over the past 4 days by a Twitter competition run by Penguin Books Australia. (@PenguinBooksAus) offering $2000 worth of Penguin book to the best answer for the question “Why did the penguin cross the road”.
There were some very creative answers (including some absolute winners from me, thank you very much) and I particularly enjoyed some of the photographic answers, particularly these from Jane Wills and James Tinniswood.
Sadly, Penguin Australia did not see the incredible wit of my replies and I didn’t even manage to score an honourable mention in the competition results. The experience was not a total loss however. I did create a Popular Penguins Reading Challenge thanks to the experience and am toying with the idea of a Penguin Classics Reading Challenge as well (but don’t tell Meredith or I will get a lecture on over-committing myself).
For those who missed out on the Penguin giveaway, you should visit Natasha at Maw Books, who is offering a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Full entry details are at her blog and entries close 23rd July 2009. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Tree Swing Reading also has a great Christian Book Giveaway, offering copies of all the titles nominated for the Christy Award. Visit the blog to put your name in the draw for any titles that interest you (or all of them if you want). Entries close on the 30th July 2009.
I know it isn’t book related, but I just have to include a link to my post at Oh, the Thinks you can Think about the new ad campaign for Perfect Italiano. It works for me.
Fave Book Blogs this week:
In no particular order, these are some blogs that have caught my attention this week:
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Popular Penguins Reading Challenge
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Penguin Books has just released the next 50 books in their Popular Penguins series.
I love these books. The retro simplicity of the covers and the knowledge that when I pick one up and I know that I am holding a small piece of the literary heritage of readers everywhere, part of the literary global consciousness.
Hmm. That does sound a trifle dramatic. For those turned off by such things, think of it more as knowing that the book will contain quality writing.
The recent Twitter competition by @PenguinBooksAus to celebrate their 2000th follower led me to the Penguin website and on to the Popular Penguins page. There are now 99 titles available and in a rush of blood to the head, I thought that a Popular Penguins Reading Challenge would be a great idea.
Follow this link to find the current list of 99 Popular Penguins books with all relevant information. I have also put together a spreadsheet listing all the Popular Penguins. Download a copy to keep track of your reading progress. **Note – I have updated the Popular Penguins spreadsheet to include the 75 titles added in 2010**
This will be a perpetual challenge, since it is not even within the realms of possibility that I would work my way through this list in the near future. I’d love for you to join me on this reading odyssey. You can count any titles that you have already read.
Sign Up for the Popular Penguins Reading Challenge
If you wan to join me, sign up with the Mister Linky box below. Make sure you link to your initial Popular Penguins Reading Challenge post. Feel free to copy the image above and add it to your blog with your Popular Penguins Reading Challenge posts.
Popular Penguin Reading Challenge Book Reviews
Once you’ve signed up, come back and link to any Popular Penguin Reading Challenge reviews using this Mister Linky. Include the book title in brackets after you name if possible. I’ll list mine here too as SusanRUD:
