trace_by_echo

I liked doing this challenge in 2025, especially once I found the Tea & Ink Society's preexisting yearly challenges for classic books. In fact, I was disappointed that I hadn't found them earlier, as there's been a different thematic challenge for every month for several years now. Soooo.... in addition to taking on the 2026 monthly themes, I'm also hoping to tackle a book for each of the prior themes each month, which should work out to one book every week. We'll see if that's too much! I'll start out by putting in the prompts, then I'll fill in the titles as I find them.

( It is a truth, universally acknowledged... )

I enjoyed trying this out in 2025, so I am planning on doing it again in 2026. I already put together a list of pre-1980 films to watch for the first time; it's also at the bottom of the 2025 post. Subject to revision, of course!

( We have heard the chimes at midnight... )

There's no way this gets done in a year - I'll be delighted if I finish in 5 years - but I think it's a worthy endeavor, and a valid way to experience diversity in my fiction. I'll post tentative titles, and replace them as needed if the book is simply not available or a different one pops up.
General Rules: if I already coincidentally read something from a country, I don't have to find another book. Books must be legally available in English translation (there are some countries where you could count the translated books on one hand). I'll italicize completed rows/books.
I'll post a rating out of 5. 5 = terrific, 4 = I would be willing to read it again, 3 = worth one read, 2 = I begrudge the time I spent on this, 1 = as once said, "This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force".

( Boom De Yada )

Yes, I did not stop myself from signing up for this one. It does help with the re-reading challenge (I've read at least a third of the plays before) and potentially with the Classics challenge. The list of plays by month follows below the cut! I'm starting late as I received the list around 1/20. I'm putting initial impressions next to each play as I read it, and then a compiled ratings list at the bottom, which is subject to change as I read more and watch adaptations.

( The Quality of Mercy is not strained... )

MOVIE ADAPTATIONS:
For my own benefit, I also want to note movie adaptations for every play below. Some plays are certainly more popular in cinematic adaptations than others, and I won't include any that I've heard were terrible... but I live in hope that I will be able to find a good one for them all. Some of these are simply recordings of theatrical performances. If the title is unchanged, I will label the director/theatre company. I don't consider this part of the challenge, but rather an addition for my free time in years to come.

( Alas, Poor Blog-Reader... )

CUMULATIVE & COMPARATIVE RANKINGS:
These are sorted alphabetically within their ranking - which is subjective, obviously, so the half-points help to distinguish personal enjoyment from perceived quality. The scale is out of 5 points to make those distinctions more stark. To be clear, though, most plays above the halfway point of 2.5/5 are still ones I would willingly re-read, and most plays below that mark are still ones I would consider watching a performance of; only a hypothetical zero would not be worth any time spent with it.

( Subject to Revision )

I'm really enjoying setting up challenges for 2025... I feel that there's a lot of classic films I haven't watched, and it's also a good opportunity to spend time with older family members who want to re-watch some of their favorites. I'm starting with a simple goal of one classic film each month, with titles drawn from my own to-watch lists and from family requests. There's an emphasis on 1930s-1950s, as I'm also trying to find a film for every year I haven't seen a film. [Note: I'll allow 1970s films as classics, but I'm drawing a hard line at 1980 - no films from a decade in which I was alive can be "classics" yet!]

( It was his sled )

This would be the *other* literary challenge I've assigned myself. I don't know if there's a similar existing challenge out there; I know there are plenty that list specific classics to read, but I would rather come up with a list of classics that I am already interested in, as I think I will be more successful. In general, as I prefer adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and other related genres, I will lean in those directions. I also have specific authors who I have already read and liked, so I may expand on their works or look for ones that I've heard are similar. I'm going to start with very low stakes (12 classics in 2025) and if it goes well, I'll add more!

( A W.I.P. List of Potential Classic Reads )

I've never posted any challenges I undertake on this site, but as this particular challenge requires a personal post, it occurred to me that it's not a bad habit to start! This also dovetails nicely with one of two personal goals I already had for my 2025 reading.

The "Read it Again, Sam" Challenge is for books (I don't think the type matters), that you are re-reading. So the biggest qualification is whether the book was read before! It comes in 5 Challenge Levels, with the hardest being "Just Give Me a Time Machine Already" at 24 books reread in a year. Given my reading habits, Level 5 seem very doable! EDIT: and now that I'm doing the Shakespeare challenge, there should be no problem hitting this target as I've previously read at least a third of the plays.

This will be tracked strictly from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025. I'll give a star rating too, just in case it turns out that the Suck Fairy visited my shelves and I can't stand some of these (which will help in culling my collection). EDIT 2: "Read it Again, Sam" challenge requirements completed as of August; further tracking continues for my own benefit.

( Tracking My Progress )

Long time no see, Dreamwidth! I suppose I liked the tidy nature of having a non-fandom post at the top so much, I avoided making any new posts at all... In an effort to get back in shape for logging my fandoms, I'm starting off 2024 with another aggregate post - namely, if I look back at the rest of this millennium, which anime would be my favorites for each year?

Caveats include the following: I didn't actively watch anime in a furlough between 2008 and 2016, and was slow to get into seasonal anime until 2018, so many of these were not watched in the season they aired; it will become very obvious when I started to get more into anime. Furthermore, my tastes run towards slice of life and adult conflicts rather than the most popular battle shounen of the day, so there are many shows I didn't even give a chance to that are near the top of the popularity lists. I'm not planning to write too much about the shows or movies I select, although I might tally up common genres and themes near the end; I'll provide a little description for the less-well-known ones. ***Perpetual WIP***

( Let the navel-gazing commence! )

I loved the idea of this challenge the moment I read it. In brief, one chooses one favorite anime for each letter of the alphabet; titles must be consistently either in the original style or in the official English translation (I picked the original titles), substitution is allowed on a limited basis for missing letters, and explanations with pictures if possible are preferred. While I can't embed pics, the rest is doable.

In general, shows with completed plots beat out incomplete but excellent shows, personal taste beat out objective quality, and the ability to watch a show with friends and family beat out solitary enjoyment - although all of these had exceptions. I've added runners-up and honorable mentions when I felt it necessary, as well as translated titles when available for clarity. I've excluded movies, shorts and OVAs from consideration, and marked singular seasons and particular versions as needed. EDIT April 2022: I've watched quite a few more anime in the last two years, so I'm adding (and occasionally subtracting) recs - they will be at the end of a letter marked with EDIT.

( A is for... )

I'm backdating this to be just before the Recommendations post, as I like the idea of my first 50(!) large fandoms sticking together.

This is a Chinese donghua, a soon-to-be-released-in-English novel, and a blockbuster live action TV show, so you know MDZS has serious fandom behind it. Some of the plot twists differ among the adaptations (ex. the Yin Iron is strictly from The Untamed), but the core story is the same: a mixture of epic tragedy, coming of age during a war, fantasy horror, martial arts that lean heavily on use of magical talismans and musical instruments, homoeroticism, found families, betrayal, murder mystery, a romance that lasts beyond death... honestly, it would be difficult to pin MDZS into just one genre.

I have a few favorite characters (why hello, Nie Huaisang, I do see your machinations that lay undetected for years and raise a glass to you), but MDZS is appealing as an ensemble work, so I tend to look for a variety of Gen fic and pairings. Unless marked otherwise, expect canon Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji to exist in the background. Fics will be marked Gen unless/until the pairing(s) become part of the plot. Note: when he's being a good/reformed character, I call him Meng Yao below; when he's evil, he's Jin Guangyao.

EDIT: Updated 9/24 to add a few fics and tidy up those which are completed.

( I don't know, I really don't know )

Backdated from a year later, to hang out with the other fandom posts. I got into this fandom for the supremely petty reason of wanting to watch a "Q" anime for an alphabet challenge. The joke was on me, because I loved learning about the Chinese e-sports world, and the characters of Team Happy have grown on me like a fungus.

( Running away from home & using my twin's ID to play video games )

This, like Blue Exorcist, has also been backdated; I first began reading in this fandom in July 2020, and while it hasn't been long, I've been enjoying my dip into wuxia parody and deconstruction. If you liked isekai in theory but thought the plots had gotten stale, switching to older protagonists and a fantasy China setting might be just the ticket. Well, and it's extremely gay, which is part of the appeal. EDIT: last updated August 2023.

( Fans oneself dramatically )

While I've backdated this to come before my recommendations pileup, in truth I watched this anime in May 2020, skipping the anime-original episodes from season 1 (roughly 18-ending) but including season 2... and I just loved it, enough to immediately buy manga volumes 1-8 at a bargain bookstore.

( Ready to kick Satan's ass! )

This show has eaten my mind, since I binge-watched it last week and fell in love with the characters, their terrible sibling dynamic and all. Plus, the soundtrack is terrific.
Generally, I've been looking for adventure, good characterization of Klaus, and some successful timeline fix-its, since that's actually canonically possible. While incest is also canonical, I'm neither searching it out nor avoiding it - Allison/Luther is of very little interest to me, but various Klaus pairings don't bother me.

( I think we're alone now... )

I'm so pleased that one of my first fandoms has, with the release of its miniseries in May 2019, captured the attention of so many talented authors. I also love that everyone's being so cordial - there's no disagreement that the point of this story is the love between an angel and a demon, and the only room for nitpicking has to do with where they are on the asexuality-sexuality spectrum.

( The Plan? It's... ineffable )

As a middle-schooler, I used to run (badly) in cross-country and track & field. This anime hits all of my nostalgia points, and makes me want to go running again. It's been a joy to watch, and I genuinely haven't been able to predict nearly any of the plot, which is a rarity for sports anime. Perhaps being set at a college with older characters has made it more accessible - there's very little traditional high school antics here. The characters have been endearing - by being so realistic and balanced, while also gradually falling into place as a team united by a single goal: the Hakone Ekiden. It's a real-life relay-style race for college students only. It takes place over two days, 5 legs per day, with each leg around 20km for a total of roughly 218km. Not only that, but they have to run up and back down one of the steepest mountains in Japan. It's not a course for rank beginners, but we can see through the two-cour anime just how our guys are going to make it there... and how much we want them to succeed.

( The mountains of Hakone are...? )

For those unfamiliar, Natsume Yujin-cho (anglicized as Natsume's Book of Friends) is about a teenager who has been able to see spirits his whole life, and who has consequently been passed off from one relative's house to another's as they grow tired of dealing with his reactions to the invisible world around them (naturally, no one believes kiddie-Natsume when he claims to see youkai and ayakashi). Natsume has just been taken in by the Fugiwaras, who may qualify as some of the best parents in anime, and now lives in a small town... the same small town that his similarly-talented grandmother Reiko grew up in. This matters, as she was known for defeating spirits and collecting their names as payment; the ayakashi and youkai start showing up near Natsume, and either demanding to get their names back or begging for his help with their problems.

This series is known for being equally heartwarming and prone to bittersweet episodes (some youkai are very tragic). Even if you don't care about the supernatural, the true bones of the story are how a previously unwanted child learns how to accept being loved by his new friends and family. Most stories in this fandom play with that dynamic in some way. The recommendations below are mostly gen, with a handful of romance fics thrown in.

( Everyone needs a Nyanko-sensei )

Somewhat unusually for me, I went from not having seen a solitary minute of this anime last Wednesday, to binge-watching all 16 episodes off of a library DVD set on Thursday, to trawling eBay for my own DVDs on Saturday. Baccano! is a bit gorier than I like, but I can close my eyes as needed, and there's so much to like about it, from the Highlander-meets-the-Mafia plot, to the excellent relationship dynamics, to the wacky side characters and the high proportion of interesting female characters (I don't think it technically passes the Bechdel Test, but Baccano! manages to have enough proactive and identifiably different women in it that I'll let it off the hook). Warnings for gore, period-accurate criminal behavior, and hilarious character names like Jacuzzi Splot.

( Well, no matter. )

I've been fascinated by Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun (or, as often translated, "Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun") since I first saw a clip from the fourth episode of the anime about a year ago. This series is about a girl, Chiyo, who's been crushing on Nozaki for months without getting closer to him; once she tries to confess, he mistakes it for an offer to assist with his girly manga. You see, Nozaki is a teenage male manga-ka who uses his friends as plot-fodder and unpaid labor, and once Chiyo gets dragged in there's no end to the ridiculousness of the situations the ensemble cast end up in. The core highlights for me are the subversions of gender tropes (essentially, if it's a stereotypical male behavior, it will be done by a female, and vice-versa).

I started with the anime, and have recently been acquiring the manga in its Yen Press translations. The anime has only had one season as of 2017, and it was several years ago; thus many of the manga storylines were never adapted. In the recs below, I will try to mark any that rely on manga-only spoilers.

( You love fireworks? Me too! )

The world-building is great - a universe in which people have been developing Quirks, which are essentially mutations, for a few generations and so have been changing society at the same time - and there are some very talented authors working in the fandom. It's a young fandom, so many of the recommendations are WIPs. Quick note: I find Bakugou Katsuki to be somewhat but not deeply problematic (I prefer fics where he gets some character growth and stops being 100% a dick - which I hear is happening canonically as well, so it's not OC for him to change) so there are a few stories about him in this list, and like much of Western fandom I prefer not to read the canonical version of Mineta Minoru (although I don't read bash!fic).

LAST UPDATED: 6/19/20. The cracks in the canon world-building are yawning wider now, although it's hard to tell whether the manga-ka intended Japan-with-Quirks to have dystopia implications. Also, BnHA is becoming less of a deconstruction of shounen than a typical example of one (with the attendant problems regarding female characters). I may be ditching canon soon, but keeping up with WIP fics. EDIT 12/27/22: I've lost patience for most WIPs, as they haven't updated in years. I'm keeping only the ones I like well enough even if they're never finished.

( It's fine now. Why? Because I am here )

Challenge Post! Catching up on Classic Literature [2026]

Challenge Post! Watching Classic Films [2026]

Challenge Post! A Book for Every Country [ONGOING]

Challenge Post! A Year of Shakespeare [2025]

Challenge Post! Watching Classic Films [2025]

Challenge Post! Catching up on Classic Literature [2025]

Challenge Post! Read it Again, Sam 2025

Annual Anime Favorites: 2000 Onwards!

Recommendations Special: Railgunfan75's Anime Favorites A-Z Challenge

Fandom #50: Mo Dao Zu Shi (a.k.a. The Untamed)

Fandom #49: The King's Avatar (Quanzhi Gaoshou)

Fandom #48: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Fandom #47: Blue Exorcist

Fandom #46: The Umbrella Academy

Fandom #45: Good Omens

Fandom #44: Run With The Wind

Fandom #43: Natsume's Book of Friends

Fandom #42: Baccano!

Fandom #41: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun

Fandom #40: Boku no Hero Academia

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February 2025

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