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This week’s Weekly Geeks is inspired by Sheri at A Novel Menagerie:

Reading Challenges: a help or a hurt? Do you find that the reading challenges keep you organized and goal-oriented? Or, do you find that as you near the end of a challenge that you’ve failed because you fell short of your original goals? As a result of some reading challenges, I’ve picked up books that I would have otherwise never heard of or picked up; that, frankly, I have loved. Have you experienced the same with challenges? If so, which ones? Do you have favorite reading challenges?

I really liked Caribousmom‘s questions for herself in this meme so I used them as well.

Do I feel stressed if I cannot finish a challenge?

A little.  I like to complete what I start, but I’ve started to relax a bit more in this area.

Why do I like reading challenges?

I love challenges.  They push me to read books that have long been on my tbr list as well as books I may never have read on my own.

What are my favorite challenges?

My favorite challenge for 2007 was the By the Decade Challenge because I read 18 books from 18 consecutive decades. I was very pleased with that accomplishment.  I had really wanted to read some of the classics and I was definitely able to do that in 2007.

In 2008, my favorite challenge was the Canadian I Challenge hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.  With all the Atwood, Shields, and other fantastic women Canadian novelists’ books I want to read, I foresee doing this challenge every year for quite a while.

Of couse, I also enjoy the challenges I host: 1% Well Read, Countdown, Decades, Pub, and Book Awards.

Which Challenges have I completed so far this year?

• Library Reading Challenge — COMPLETE
• Audiobooks Challenge — COMPLETE
• Young Adult Challenge — COMPLETE
• Latin American Reading Challenge — COMPLETE
• Jewish Literature Challenge– COMPLETE
• Book Awards II — COMPLETE
• 1% Well-Read Challenge — COMPLETE
• Japanese Literature Challenge — COMPLETE

Which Challenges am I still working on?

Some of the links below are broken due to my blog crash.  I am working to fix them, though. Sorry!

• 100 Shots of Short 6 of 100 (until completed)
• 101 Books in 1001 Days 56/101 (ends 12/28/2010)
• 1% Well-Read Challenge – 1 of 13 (ends 3/31/10)
• Perpetual Challenge Plans for 2009 17 of 42 (ends 12/31/09)
• German Reading Challenge – 1 of 6 (ends 12/31/09)
• Orbis Terrarum Challenge – 9 of 10 (ends 12/31/09)
• Decades Challenge – 7 of 9 (ends 12/31/09)
• Pub Challenge – 5 of 9 (ends 12/31/09)
• A-Z Challenge – 34 of 52 (ends 12/31/09)
• TBR Challenge – 10 of 12 (ends 12/31/09)
• Dewey’s Books Challenge – 2 of 6 (ends 12/31/09))
• 2nds Challenge – 2 of 12 (ends 12/31/09)
• ‘What’s in a Name?’ – 5 of 6 (ends 12/31/09)
• Casual Classics Challenge – 0 of 4 (ends 12/31/09)
• Herding Cats II – 2 of 5 (ends 12/31/09)
• Book Awards III – 0 of 5 (ends 12/1/09)
• Chunkster Challenge – 0 of 3 (ends 11/15/09)
• Countdown Challenge – 41 of 45 (ends 9/9/09)
• Southern Reading Challenge – 0 of 3 (ends 8/15/09)
• Themed Reading Challenge – 2 of 4 (ends 7/31/09)
• Canadian Challenge II – 12 of 13 (ends 7/1/09)

This week’s Weekly Geeks is a fun one. We were asked to provide a books-related gift guide for the holidays, and the more obscure the titles, the better.  Although I have two movies included in my selections, both of them were based on books, and foreign ones at that. I decided to choose just four titles for my guide, not because there weren’t many more to recommend, but because these four, in my mind, are sure-fire winners for almost everyone.  You’ve probably heard of my first two titles, but the latter two are much lesser known.

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A Redbird Christmas is just wonderful, and if you haven’t read it, this Christmas is the time.  Fannie Flagg is a great writer.  If you loved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe, you will love this one as well.

From the inside flap:

With the same incomparable style and warm, inviting voice that have made her beloved by millions of readers far and wide, New York Times bestselling author Fannie Flagg has written an enchanting Christmas story of faith and hope for all ages that is sure to become a classic.

Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it. Once you experience the wonder, you too will never forget A Redbird Christmas.

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Simply put, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a masterpiece and should be in every home.  Not just for children, this book will appeal to adults as well.  The book also gives a very unique glimpse into movie history.

From the official website:

ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo’s undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together…in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you.

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The Secret of Roan Inish is a film that I could watch every year.  It is so well-done.  You will feel as though you’ve been to Ireland.

From Amazon:

As one of the most respected American independent filmmakers, John Sayles has created a body of work as distinguished in its diversity as for its consistent quality and inspiring originality. He’s never been one to march to the commercial beat, but chooses instead to follow his creative impulse wherever it leads him.  The Secret of Roan Inish led Sayles to the beautiful and moody West Coast of Ireland; it is a tale of a girl who discovers that her family has been touched by myth and magic throughout the years. Following the death of her mother, young Fiona (Jeni Courtney) is sent to live with her grandparents on the Irish coast across from Roan Inish, the island where her family once lived. She’s told stories about the selkies–seals that can turn into humans–who have been connected with Fiona’s family over the ages. At first she’s not sure if the selkies are real or mythological, but she later realizes that they hold the key to reclaiming her family heritage.

What’s remarkable about this film (which Sayles adapted from Rosalie Fry’s novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry) is that it’s not told as a cute fantasy for children, but as a straightforward, unsentimental story of a young girl’s family history. That gives the film–which was beautifully photographed by master cinematographer Haskell Wexler–an understated charm that is completely absorbing in its atmosphere and subtle tone. There’s magic as well, to be sure–you could almost swear that the seals and seagulls in the film took direction from Sayles as well as any human actor.

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Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring together are my two favorite foreign films and are also on my top 25 movies of all time.  As in the previous movie, these two give a wonderful sense of place — this time in the French countryside.  The acting is superb, the scenery is superb — they are just great examples of outstanding cinema.  I waited for years for this set to be available on DVD.

Jean De Florette: Set in the beautiful French countryside, a farmland with an underground spring is inherited by a hunchback and his wife.  Two neighbors then devise various ways to take the land for themselves.

Manon Of The Spring: The second half of a two-film series that concludes the moving story begun in Jean De Florette.  You will definitely want to watch these together!

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