Challenge Post! Read it Again, Sam 2025
Dec. 1st, 2024 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trace_by_echoI'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).
January Re-Reads:
1) Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. Her earlier work has a lot more of the uncomfortable implications regarding normalized sexual assault, but the rest is sound and the book is needed as the launching point for the rest of the series.
2) Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. RATING: 4/5. I like the overall plot and the characters, but just reading it isn't nearly as good as seeing a performance.
3) The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. RATING: 5/5, I reread this at least once a year. I find the POV compulsively readable and highly empathetic, and I love the steampunk Gilded Age reform fantasy world setting.
February Re-Reads:
4) Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. I appreciate that there are several layers of meaning, and I enjoyed seeing it performed last year, but it's a) a tragedy in the old-fashioned sense (in which the downer ending was avoidable) and b) a story that harps on the age of its underage female lead who certainly does have sex with her one-day-husband, so it's never going to be an absolute favorite.
5) Henry IV Part 1, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. Double posting is becoming too much! See my Shakespeare post for more detail.
6) Witness For The Dead, Katherine Addison. RATING: 4/5. I'm rereading this and the following, as part of the same universe as The Goblin Emperor, to prep for the publishing of the third volume in March. Collectively, the side stories may be a 5, but individually they are 4s so far.
7) The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison. RATING: 4/5.
March Re-Reads:
8) Henry IV Part 2, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more detail.
9) Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 3.5/5. In its favor, this has less problematic content than the first Pern book, but in terms of flow I think it's a mess. Call it sequelitis, call it middle-trilogy-syndrome, but this felt like five smaller plots in a trenchcoat. Even so, I still enjoyed it, but give me a week and I'll struggle to explain what happened.
April Re-Reads:
10) Henry V, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more detail.
I had a ton of new library books out this month, so re-reading really fell by the wayside. It's fine - I'm still well on track to 24.
May Re-Reads:
11) The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare. RATING: 4/5. See the Shakespeare post for more details.
12) The White Dragon, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 3.5/5 but I may be persuaded upward. Jaxom isn't a perfect protagonist, but he is believable. The issue is that this book begins to reveal something exciting near the end, but ends before the greater revelations I recall from having experienced the series before. It's a bit frustrating!
13) Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. The first in the Harper trilogy, it occurs before The White Dragon, but there isn't a great way to insert all three books of the trilogy there, so I usually do so after. It's very slight - more of a novella - and suitable for younger readers; it sets up the world of Pern fairly well and the heroine Menolly is sympathetic.
14) Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. Roughly equal to the prior Menolly book, it covers her first week at Harper Hall
15) Dragondrums, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. This is Piemur's book, and I have always enjoyed his adventure going to the Southern continent.
June Re-Reads:
16) A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more details.
17) The Book of Night With Moon, Diane Duane. RATING: 4.5/5. I am so pleased that this series holds up! I acquired the third book as part of an eBook package deal from the author's website, so I will be getting to it after re-reading the two prior novels.
18) To Visit the Queen, Diane Duane. RATING: 4.5/5. I'm looking forward to re-reading the Young Wizards series now - and finishing/keeping up with it, as while the original trilogy was available when I was a kid, it's ballooned out to 10+ books and counting.
July Re-Reads:
19) The Taming of the Shrew
August Re-Reads:
20) As You Like It
21) Much Ado About Nothing
September Re-Reads:
22) Othello
October Re-Reads:
23) Macbeth
November Re-Reads:
24) King Lear
December Re-Reads:
25) Hamlet
26) The Tempest
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).
January Re-Reads:
1) Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. Her earlier work has a lot more of the uncomfortable implications regarding normalized sexual assault, but the rest is sound and the book is needed as the launching point for the rest of the series.
2) Twelfth Night, Shakespeare. RATING: 4/5. I like the overall plot and the characters, but just reading it isn't nearly as good as seeing a performance.
3) The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. RATING: 5/5, I reread this at least once a year. I find the POV compulsively readable and highly empathetic, and I love the steampunk Gilded Age reform fantasy world setting.
February Re-Reads:
4) Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. I appreciate that there are several layers of meaning, and I enjoyed seeing it performed last year, but it's a) a tragedy in the old-fashioned sense (in which the downer ending was avoidable) and b) a story that harps on the age of its underage female lead who certainly does have sex with her one-day-husband, so it's never going to be an absolute favorite.
5) Henry IV Part 1, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. Double posting is becoming too much! See my Shakespeare post for more detail.
6) Witness For The Dead, Katherine Addison. RATING: 4/5. I'm rereading this and the following, as part of the same universe as The Goblin Emperor, to prep for the publishing of the third volume in March. Collectively, the side stories may be a 5, but individually they are 4s so far.
7) The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison. RATING: 4/5.
March Re-Reads:
8) Henry IV Part 2, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more detail.
9) Dragonquest, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 3.5/5. In its favor, this has less problematic content than the first Pern book, but in terms of flow I think it's a mess. Call it sequelitis, call it middle-trilogy-syndrome, but this felt like five smaller plots in a trenchcoat. Even so, I still enjoyed it, but give me a week and I'll struggle to explain what happened.
April Re-Reads:
10) Henry V, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more detail.
I had a ton of new library books out this month, so re-reading really fell by the wayside. It's fine - I'm still well on track to 24.
May Re-Reads:
11) The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare. RATING: 4/5. See the Shakespeare post for more details.
12) The White Dragon, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 3.5/5 but I may be persuaded upward. Jaxom isn't a perfect protagonist, but he is believable. The issue is that this book begins to reveal something exciting near the end, but ends before the greater revelations I recall from having experienced the series before. It's a bit frustrating!
13) Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. The first in the Harper trilogy, it occurs before The White Dragon, but there isn't a great way to insert all three books of the trilogy there, so I usually do so after. It's very slight - more of a novella - and suitable for younger readers; it sets up the world of Pern fairly well and the heroine Menolly is sympathetic.
14) Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. Roughly equal to the prior Menolly book, it covers her first week at Harper Hall
15) Dragondrums, Anne McCaffrey. RATING: 4/5. This is Piemur's book, and I have always enjoyed his adventure going to the Southern continent.
June Re-Reads:
16) A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare. RATING: 3.5/5. See the Shakespeare post for more details.
17) The Book of Night With Moon, Diane Duane. RATING: 4.5/5. I am so pleased that this series holds up! I acquired the third book as part of an eBook package deal from the author's website, so I will be getting to it after re-reading the two prior novels.
18) To Visit the Queen, Diane Duane. RATING: 4.5/5. I'm looking forward to re-reading the Young Wizards series now - and finishing/keeping up with it, as while the original trilogy was available when I was a kid, it's ballooned out to 10+ books and counting.
July Re-Reads:
19) The Taming of the Shrew
August Re-Reads:
20) As You Like It
21) Much Ado About Nothing
September Re-Reads:
22) Othello
October Re-Reads:
23) Macbeth
November Re-Reads:
24) King Lear
December Re-Reads:
25) Hamlet
26) The Tempest