May Group Challenge 2020

I hope everyone is keeping well and safe and that your reading is proving to be a comfort and distraction.
I must admit to purchasing a few (well, quite a few!) books online this month. It is always a joy to open a parcel of books!

Continuing with the 'keep it simple' theme, this month's challenge is to read a book title with the least number of words. So if you have not read all the one word titles (and you can access one of them), read a one word title. If not, move on to two word titles. And so on.

Happy reading!

Good idea for a challenge. I will go for the Vassilis Vassilikos’ unbeatably brief title Z!

>2 puckers: Definitely the winner for the shortest title. Lucky you hadn't read it yet - you are getting so close to the end of the list!

I think I will go with either Voss or Shirley.

>3 JayneCM: if someone wants to equal the shortest title there is also John Berger’s G.

Loving by Henry Green is on my list. I'll try to get to it in May.

Excellent challenge! I am going to read Tarr by Wyndham Lewis. It's a book I've kind of been dreading, based on the last book I read by him, the memorable yet overwhelmingly annoying Self Condemned. At least this one has.... a short title.

>4 puckers: Two single letter titles - I didn't know that! I really need to sit down and read through the entire list more thoroughly. I haven't been looking for any of the more obscure titles yet. I'm sure there are some that I will have trouble finding.

>4 puckers: But G. (and V. ) have a period/full stop so they are two-character titles. :)

I will probably read either Nadja or Nana.

I read G earlier this year so maybe I'll give Z a go.

I am going to go with We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

I think I'll read Cost.

I'm thinking Voss, Pnin, Trawl, or Fury. I have all of those ready to go.

I have not read G, V, or Z, but G is only one that I already have a copy of in my home library.

I noticed that Marya is coming out on audiobook 4/28. I have it on hold through overdrive. I no longer have a 3 hour commute now, so audiobooks aren't as convenient.

>12 BentleyMay: I too no longer have a commute and it's really eaten into my "reading" time! I miss my audiobooks.

Finished Cost today and it was worth the read. Roxana Robinson's use of language is skilled and evocative, and while I definitely felt the Northeast/WASPiness of the characters, they also were complex and deep. For a novel about addiction, it didn't feel agenda driven.

I finished Crossfire yesterday - not the usual 1001 fare in my mind - a book about a young Japanese woman who uses her power of pyrokinesis to kill bad people who escape justice. It was pretty good, although some things seemed a bit unbelievable (if you can accept the premise of pyrokinesis to begin with!), like the relationship that develops between Junko and a young man she meets who can 'push' people to do what he wants.

I completed my read of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I was intrigued by the fact that this book was published before Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four and obviously influenced both authors of those books. I wasn't overly impressed by the story however. I read both Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four at a much younger age, and they made more of an impact on me.

And I am currently reading two books with one word titles. But it is a little bit of a cheat as they are both from the 1001 Childrens' Books list. With the boys at home, a lot of my reading has changed to reading aloud to them.
So we are reading Inkheart and Pinocchio at the moment.