Jeb's

I'm glad I found this group. I've been looking for ways to read more books from my own library, and now I found the solution.

In 2013 I would like to read all books of A-authors. It starts with Frank Adam and ends with Silvia Avallone. Only ten books, I know, but it's a start. Plus: I'll be TBR free by 2038 :-)

Hey, good luck to you!

That's an interesting way to tackle Mt. Tbr. Good luc with your challenge!

What happens if you get a new book for a past letter? Do you include those in the coming years? For instance does 2016 include A,B, and C as well as D?

If I buy a new A book this year, I will have to read it too. That will keep me from buying too much books :-)

I have already finished the first book: Confidenties aan een ezelsoor. Boek 2 by Frank Adam. It's the second book with 'confidences to a donkey's ear'. (I write 'ear' because he only has one) Fifteen funny stories, in a philosophical kind of way. One of the other unread A books is the donkey's fourth book, so that will go easily too.

Perhaps I should post a list of the books I intend to read:

Frank Adam - Confidenties aan een ezelsoor. Boek 2 (2007) - finished 05/01/2013
Frank Adam - Confidenties aan een ezelsoor. Boek 4 (2010)
Frank Adam - De Caïro cahiers (2006) - finished 01/04/2013
Pedro Almodóvar - Patty Diphusa (2008) - finished 19/01/2013
Stephen E. Ambrose - Band of brothers (2002)
Martin Amis - De pijl van de tijd (2009) - finished 26/01/2013
René Appel - Als broer en zus (2005) - this one is not really a book, but a novel that was a gift for some reading promotion week. It's in my book list, but not on the shelves. I guess I have left it behind when I moved. This one is uncertain.
Pieter Aspe - Zoenoffer (2001) - this one is uncertain too. Also left behind when moving. And I think I have better things to do than read Aspe.
Kate Atkinson - Oude zaken (2005)
Stefan Aust - Het Baader Meinhof complex (2008)
Paul Auster - De New York trilogie (2007) - finished 31/01/2013
Silvia Avallone - Staal (2010)

That's it. I'll be happy if I have read at least ten of them by the end of 2013. I don't know yet if I'll continue in 2014. B has over 20 entries. We 'll see ;-)

Hello Jeb,
i love your optimism, tbr free by 2038 ;-)
my first book is finished, watch my club read topic

I agree with the others about this being an interesting take on reading. Would you be reading authors this year that do not start with the letter A?

Hi, pcktlnt.
Of course I will. If not, it wouldn't be a challenge, but hell ;-)
Previous years, I read about 70 books. With 10 to 12 A books, I will be having enough time to read new books too. I probably should have an extra challenge: to leave no newly acquired book unread for more than a few months ;-)

I've finished Patty Diphusa by Pedro Almodóvar. I bought it on August 25th 2008 (shortly after it was translated into Dutch), probably because I like (most of) his movies, especially La Mala Educación.
Patty Diphusa is a Spanish porn star. The first part of the book is about her, with lots of sex and drugs, but also a bit of romance. Quite funny too, and in the end Pedro himself appears.
Some other stories are worth reading too, but most of them are - as Almodóvar states himself - meant for fans only. His first movie was released in 1978. I was an ignorant one year old then, so that part of the book wasn't very interesting to me.

Number 3: Martin Amis's Time's Arrow. Bought it on November 15th 2010 (7.20 euro). Extraordinary story, as it is told completely backwards. It starts in America and ends in Nazi Germany, with the main character working as a doctor in Auschwitz. Intreaging, but not as disturbing as I thought it would be.

Number 4: De New York trilogie by Paul Auster. In the summer of 2007, my favourite newspaper selected ten crime novels and let its readers buy them at reasonable prices. This was one of them.
It's a trilogy, but has the size of just one novel. So three stories on writers and detectives, on disappearances and mistaken identities. It's not bad at all, but I usually prefer one long story over three short ones.

A number of those ten crime novels are also still residing on my TBR pile ;-)
this one was read by me in the 999 challenge, got the same score.

Number 5: De Caïro Cahiers by Frank Adam I have it since 2006, when my father ordered it as a member of Davidsfonds (a flemish cultural organisation and publisher - you can pay the yearly contribution by ordering two of their books). I asked him to order this one, as I liked Adam's Confidenties aan een ezelsoor. He did, as he never finds anything he likes.

Seven years later, it appears I was right :-) It's a nice book about the time the author spent in Cairo, where he shares a flat with a young woman. It's partially about her life story, and reveals the differences between Eastern and Western culture. It's sometimes funny, with a bit of tragedy too, in the end.