I guess it’s time to share my 5 Book Challenge experience.
Firstly, I’d like to list down the books I selected for the challenge:
- Adriana Trigiani Brava Valentine (Contemporary American Fiction/Romance)
- Wilbur Smith The Seventh Scroll (Historical Fiction/Adventure/Mystery)
- Bibish The Dancer from Khiva (Memoir) (just in case Bibish’s Memoir genre wouldn’t count towards the Popular Team choice)
- Santa Montefiore The Affair (Saga)
- Dexter Palmer The Dream of Perpetual Motion (Science Fiction/Steampunk)
- Seth Grahame-Smith Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Horror)
Secondly, I’d like to contemplate on the mode I was reading these 5 (6) challenging books. Instead of picking up the one genre I’ve never read before or liked to read the least, I’ve decided to throw my fishing net over the huge amount of a variety of New Titles we are receiving daily. My efforts were not in vain and I’ve pulled out quite an impressive amount of new titles (The Affair, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), or even new authors (!), like Dexter Palmer, or Bibish.
My choice of: “Let it be one book from each particular genre” was really paying off during my reading hours and this is why: if I found some authors to be extremely challenging, like Dexter Palmer, for instance, to the point when I wanted to return the book back unfinished (sounds like a real blasphemy for the librarian!), I would simply switch onto reading a book from a more pleasant genre to me, like Adriana Trigiani’s Brava Valentine, which is considered by many literary critics, including me:), “the tiramisu for the soul”. After having a slice of a “tiramisu for soul”, I’d return back to the least favourite author. This method worked very well for me, saving me from committing a real crime of throwing the least favourite reading back into Returns boxes before actually finishing with them!
Brava Valentine is the second in the series of Valentine books. What I really enjoyed about this book is that one can find everything (or almost everything) in it: family, drama, love story, adventure, contemporary American fiction in its best embodiment! If you are a big fan of Jane Austen translated into today’s environment plus a bit of You’ve Got Mail movie type of person, then, Valentine is your next stop.
All in all, I’ve greatly enjoyed myself during the 5 Book challenge, practically, because you turn your attention to the writers, titles or genres you’ll never think of reading first place and, when you are finished with these readings, you cannot help the feeling of complete satisfaction with yourself, similar to the Olympic champion’s feeling when he finishes his marathon. Bouquet to Bronwyn – now I am not feeling uncomfortable when I hear the mysterious word Steampunk any more! I would gladly take part in the next 5 Book Challenge. Would you?
Read more of Victoria’s Challenges.