I honestly thought I’d be able to claim the Reader badge straight away. Reading is a huge part of my identity, I read very widely, and I’m a pretty fast reader. However, the badge criteria includes some challenging tasks such as writing a review of a book and taking part in a book club. Which is all good – these badges are all about challenging yourself!
Over a period of three months read at least six books. If you want more of a challenge, aim to read a book a week.
The basic criteria for this badge is to read at least 6 books over the course of 3 months, but I decided to go for the more challenging task of at least 1 book per week. I took 1 January 2022 as my start date for this challenge, and my list of qualifying books is as follows (you can see my full list on Goodreads):
Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone – Diana Gabaldon
The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones
The Ice Child – Camilla Läckberg
The Quiet American – Graham Greene
Assembly – Natasha Brown
A Head Full of Ghosts – Paul Tremblay
Sanctuary – William Faulkner
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
The Last House on Needless Street – Catriona Ward
The Good Companions – J.B. Priestley
Lean Fall Stand – Jon McGregor
Shackleton – Ranulph Fiennes
The Last Samurai – Helen DeWitt
Madhouse at the End of the Earth – Julian Sancton
Include at least one fiction, one biography and one non-fiction book in your list.
Most of the books I read were fiction, but I did read Ranulph Fiennes’ biography of Shackleton, and a book about the Belgica expedition to Antarctica.
Write a review of a book
The Last Samurai - Helen DeWitt I really wanted to love this book. I found it on a list of unusual books and I thought it sounded intriguing. It really sounded like something I would be interested in. An intellectual and intelligent single mother raises her son Ludo, a genius who read Homer's Iliad in the original Greek at four and can tackle complex mathematical problems, showing him Kurosawa's masterpiece The Seven Samurai repeatedly, hoping that he will find fatherly role models in the film's characters. However this does not dent Ludo's curiosity as he still wants to know about his father, and when the real thing doesn't live up to his ideal, he seeks out other potential candidates in the manner of the seeking out of the Seven Samurai. The book is full of digressions and snippets of information and while this is the sort of thing I usually love, here I found it a bit tedious. The first narrator and mother, Sybilla, and her son, Ludo, were rather insufferable. Some of the book is very funny, especially the section devoted to the reactions of the general public to seven-year-old Ludo reading his Greek and Arabic on the Circle Line. I also liked some of the parts relating to Ludo's prospective fathers, especially the last, the journalist who was kept prisoner and cannot forget the atrocities he witnessed. Other reviews I have read suggest that the book is about the limits of intellectual intelligence when it comes to human relationships. I can see this and I only wish it had increased my enjoyment of the book. But unfortunately it didn't quite hit the spot for me.
Critique someone else’s review of a book
Publishers Weekly review of Shackleton by Ranulph Fiennes I disagree with many of the points made in this review. It describes Shackleton as "somewhat dry" which I didn't find at all - I thought the book was hugely readable and engaging. The review also argues that "frequent asides about his [Fiennes'] own expeditions are more distracting than insightful", while I felt that they helped to illuminate the book and offer extra insight into what it is like to organise and execute a polar expedition. The review does comment that the biography is sympathetic to Shackleton and is a thorough record of his successes and failures, which is something that I agree with.
Take part in a book club
I took part in the Rebel Readers book club on Facebook, reading Helen Russell’s The Year of Living Danishly. This is not a book I would have picked up myself (despite my interest in Scandinavian crime fiction) but I did enjoy it. Our discussion was held over Zoom on the evening of Friday 29 April and I really enjoyed hearing others’ perspectives on it.
Date completed: 29 April 2022