Rhea's 2024-25 Categories

Bit early but thought I'd transplant this thread here.

My top level categories are:

1. Classics by Women
2. New Books
3. Moderate Reading
4. Literary Influences on Categories 1-3
5. Light Reading
6. Started Series
7. NF on Reading/Media and Critical Theory

I've subdivided all of these categories. Idea is to read ~equal numbers of books in Categories 1-3, and read influences on each of them (Category 4) before I move on. I also want to read a nonfiction book related each book I pick for Category 1.

I'll read as many books in Categories 5-7 as I want, and expect to read way more books in Category 5 (Light Reading) and Category 6 (Started Series) than in any of the other categories.

I'm thinking that this might be a bit too structured, but if it doesn't work out for me I can always rework the categories.

Category 1: Classics by Women

---Subcategory B: Corvey Women Writers on the Web
Queued: Disobedience (next up) and Plain Sense by Eugenia de Acton

---Subcategory C: Classic Gothic Fiction
Queued: The Fashionable Friend by Elizabeth Bonhote, The Two Mentors by Clara Reeve

---Subcategory D: A Library of Medieval Women
Queued: Hildegard of Bingen on Natural Philosophy and Medicine and Women Saints' Lives in Old English Prose

---Subcategory E: The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe
Queued: Florentine Drama for Convent and Festival by Antonia Pulci and Autobiography of an Aspiring Saint by Cecilia Ferrazzi

---Subcategory F: Books from a classics TBR list
Queued: Lady Murasaki's Diary, and Sarashina Diary

---Subcategory A: 18th c UK authors
Queued: The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister and Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride by Elizabeth Bonhote

Finished: Hortensia, or, The Distressed Wife by Elizabeth Bonhote (A, in 2024) and its related NF Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era by Hannah Doherty Hudson (in 2024)

Category 2: New Books

---Subcategory B: Translation Database Books
Queued: The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Life After Kafka by Magdalena Platzova

---Subcategory C: Graywolf Press
Queued: The Hormone by Tilsa Otta and Anima by Kapka Kassabova

---Subcategory A: Less Common Library of Congress Call Numbers
Queued: The House of Edrisis by Ghazaleh Alizadeh and If Only by Vigdis Hjorth

Finished: Ghostroots by 'Pemi Aguda (A, in 2024)

Category 3: Moderate Reading

---Subcategory B: Books I Own
Queued: Hotel Silence by Adur Ava Olafsdottir and The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

---Subcategory C: International Reading TBR #1
Queued: Frontier by Can Xue and Republic of Dreams by Nelida Pinon

---Subcategory D: International Reading TBR #2
Queued: An Algerian Childhood: A Collection of Autobiographical Narratives by Leila Sebbar and Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalade by Assia Djebar

---Subcategory E: Books that Got Put on Hold Earlier, Etc.
Queued: Poems by Emily Dickinson and The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein

---Subcategory A: Authors I've Read Before and Liked
Queued: Origin and Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber

Finished: Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber (A, in 2024)

Category 4: Influences

---Subcategory A: Influences on Category 1 (Classics by Women)
Queued: Caught up.

---Subcategory B: Influences on Category 2 (New Books)
Queued: Caught up.

---Subcategory C: Influences on Category 3 (Moderate Reading)
Queued: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (on Arabian Jazz)

Finished: The History of Lady Julia Mandeville by Frances Brooke (A, on Hortensia, in 2024), What it Means When A Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah (B, on Ghostroots, in 2024)

Category 5: Light Reading

---Subcategory D: Books I Own
Queued: Madam, will you Talk by Mary Stewart

---Subcategory A: Classic SFF
Queued: An Uncrowned King by Sydney C Grier and Huon of the Horn by Andre Norton

---Subcategory B: Authors I've Read Before and Liked
Queued: The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan

---Subcategory C: Modern Gothic
Queued: The Lucky Lawrences by Kathleen Norris and Second-Hand Wife by Kathleen Norris

Finished: The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris (A, in 2024), and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (B, in 2024), and Gabrielle by Kathleen Norris (C, in 2024)

Category 6: Series I've started

---Science Fiction
Started Series: Solar System by Leigh Brackett (1), Witch World by Andre Norton (27), Federated Sentient Planets by Anne McCaffrey (47)

---Historical / General Fiction / Contemporary
Started Series: Plantagenet and Tudor by Philippa Gregory (2), Prairie Trilogy by Willa Cather (2), Tripych by Eva Baltasar (2), Alberta Trilogy by Cora Sandel (1), Olav Audunsson by Sigrid Undset (4), Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy (13)

---Horror / Paranormal Romance
Started Series: African Immortals by Tananarive Due (3), Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward (31)

---Fantasy
Started Series: Eternal Sky Universe by Elizabeth Bear (6), Deryni Novels by Katherine Kurtz (14)

---Mystery
Started Series: Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton (10), Inspector Gamache by Louise Penny (17)

---Books by CJ Cherryh (throwing in everything by this author in here)
Queue: Rusalka Trilogy ('89-'91), Tripoint ('94, Alliance-Union), Finisterre ('95-'96), Fortress ('95-'06), Lois & Clarke ('96), Finity's End ('97, Alliance-Union), Gene Wars ('01-'04), Regenesis ('09), Alliance Rising / Alliance Unbound ('19-'24), Foreigner ('94-'23)

Finished: Lover Unleashed by JR Ward (in 2024), Sword of Darkness, Knight of Darkness, and Daemon's Angel by Sherrilyn Kenyon (in 2024), and The Secret of Sinharat / The People of the Talisman by Leigh Brackett (in 2024), and The History of Charles Mandeville by Frances Brooke (in 2024), El Dorado by Emma Orczy (in 2024).

Category 7: NF

---Subcategory A: NF on Reading / Media (Citations from 'Reading Bestsellers' by Danielle Fuller)
Queued: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua (next-up)

---Subcategory B: NF on Critical Theory (Citations from 'Critical Theory Today' by Lois Tyson)
Queued: Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory by Carolyn E Brown

---Subcategory C: NF on History (Book on the first one I get wrong via this game
Queued: Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles (Tolland Man)

Finished: Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba (B, in 2024)

Placeholder for any Extra Categories

Currently Reading:

Category 4: Influences: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Arabian Jazz)
^Must be finished before I can start any more Category 1-3 books.

Category 5: Light Reading: Madam, will you Talk by Mary Stewart and The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan.

Category 7A: NF on Media/Reading: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua Green
Category 7B: Open but I'm not currently reading anything.

Reading Diary 1:

Dec 21st: Finished up Charles Mandeville (Cat 6: Series), the sequel to Julia Mandeville by Frances Brooke (Cat 4: Influences). Julia Mandeville is a romance melodrama but Charles Mandeville veered off into the utopian genre (and is very dated in how it went about it), which was unexpected. Bizarre novel.

Also read some stories from What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). They were okay but they have that stale MFA-polished feel. And finished Arabian Jazz (Cat 3: Moderate Reading), which I've been reading for a while.

Dec 22nd: Finished What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). Wished I'd DNF'd it. DNF'd Space Oddity (Cat 6: Series), first few pages irritated me and it seems like an unnecessary sequel. Finished listening to El Dorado by Emma Orczy (Cat 6: Series) and made 5 granny squares. I want a blanket, so at the size that they are I'll need >200. This'll be awhile.

Dec 23: Started up High Sorcery by Andre Norton. Annoying that there's no audio version of this one and the next in the series, likely because they're short fiction. I think I'm going to pick up Camber of Culdi as my next audiobook even though I have that book in paper.

Dec 27: DNF'd The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt (Cat 5: Light Reading). Recently I've been trying to avoid child POVs. One of the reasons I hate them is that they're used to hide things from the reader, and that's how this one is trying to build suspense - there's some dramatic family history the adults aren't telling the child. So unspeakably boring. Shame because I like Holt's writing style. Replacing it in the queue with Gabrielle by Kathleen Norris.

Dec 28: Finished Gabrielle (Cat 5: Light Reading). Picking up The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (Cat 5: Light Reading) again, I'd paused it. Immediately DNF'ing The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Gabrielle isn't a masterpiece of writing but it makes The Girl Who Chased the Moon read like slop, the contrast is too grating. I have a tag for this category and I'm picking by random number - landed on Karen Miller but decided that I don't really want to read any more of their books, then landed on Catherynne Valente, who shouldn't be in that tag group because I DNF'd their last book. So 4th time's the charm. Decided on The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan.

Oh shoot, after all that switching I got my subcategories mixed up. The Brennan novel is subcategory B, not D, I need a book I own for D, which random numbers out to Madam, Will you Talk by Mary Stewart. Think I'll continue with The Waking of Angantyr for now tho, I can go find Madam, Will you Talk later.

Wow. You are very organized in your reading plans.

" Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory" by Carolyn E Brown

Interested in this. Hope you indeed get to reading it and it has worthy insights.

>12 lowelibrary: The plans are fun to make, I've never actually stuck to them. ...But maybe this time? Lol