The Art of Series Challenge

Canceled 5/07/08

Okay. I've seen several 2008 reading challenges emerging on the blogs that I read. Most of them are collected on A Novel Challenge.

I have yet to find one that I'm interested in undertaking. The The Shakespeare Challenge looks good. I'd read his plays and not bios. I'll know in a few days if I'm going to do it.

Anyway, I was thinking about what really mattered to me; what kind of challenge could I issue that I'd also like to take part in. It would have to be a challenge that would help better myself as a writer and a reader.

My wife has been reading a copy of The Art of Attention: A Poet's Eye by Donald Revell. She really likes it. I've read a lot of writing 'How-tos' and 'what-have-yous,' but nothing from this new series.

So, here goes. If you choose to except it, your mission is to read all of the books in The Art of Series that is being put out by Graywolf Press.

I'm going to timeline them in this post and then post a response on the due date for a discussion of the book in comments. This might take more than a year, because some of the titles are still unpublished with no expected date. However, here is how this challenge will get under way:

Out Now:
The Art of Attention: A Poet's Eye by Donald Revell (Read by Feb. 28, 2008)
The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot by Charles Baxter (Read by April. 30, 2008)

Out Dec 26, 2007:
The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach (Read by June. 30, 2008)
The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again by Sven Birkerts (Read by Aug. 30, 2008)

Planed but not Published Yet:
The Art of Narrative by Howard Norman
The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber
The Art of Description by Mark Doty
The Art of Endings by Amy Bloom

Good Luck!