In discussing our anticipation of this year’s OUAT earlier this week with another reader, I mentioned that I didn’t mind having spent so much time on my list of possibilities for last year’s event, because it was still there, a useful resource from which to pluck titles for 2013’s event.

Image links to Challenge Announcement
Image by Melissa Nucera

But now that I have spent more time with that list, I am reminded of how dramatically a subtle shift in reading mood can alter my choices.

In the year between, I have added more books to my GoodReads shelves of fairy tales, folklore and mythology, and I have added more books to my own shelves at home as well (largely thanks to other readers’ enthusiasm for these additional titles): that many new temptations.

So, for this year’s event, I am arranging my bookish thoughts about Once Upon a Time differently than last year — for Quest the First, with some short stories and viewing alongside — because I am not concerned about getting one book from each category, but would rather allow for a more whimsical approach.

In which I list those books I have considered reading so many times that it is now full-on embarrassing:
Marina Warner’s From the Beast to the Blonde
✔Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin
Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks
Terri Windling’s The Wood Wife
Walter Wangerin Jr’s The Book of the Dun Cow

In which I eye the books in the current stacks which will likely distract me from the above, yet again:
✔Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride
Margot Lanagan’s Tender Morsels (YA) and Brides of Rollrock Island (YA)
✔Neil Gaiman’s Stardust (for the read-a-long!)
G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen
Philip Pullman’s Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm

In which I admit that, despite wholeheartedly made and sincerely received recommendations, I have yet to read:
Peter S. Beagle’s Tamsin
✔Martin Millar’s The Good Fairies of New York
✔Donn Kushner’s Book Dragon
Monica Furlong’s Juniper, Wild Child
Sergei Lukyanenko’s The Night Watch

In which I set aside readerly guilt and think of lovely artwork:
✔Bill Willingham’s Fables series
Susan Lendroth’s Maneki Neko: The Tale Of The Beckoning Cat
Rina Singh’s Forest of Stories: Magical Tree Tales from Around the World
Robert D. San Souci’s The Faithful Friend
Joseph Bruchac’s The Boy who Lived with the Bears and Other Iroquois Stories

In which I peruse the children’s bookshelves:
Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose
Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle
Ursula K. Le Guin The Beginning Place
Barbara Sleigh’s Carbonel
Ron Koertge’s Lives, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses (YA)

In which I consider the fact that I have begun far more series than I have finished:
Holly Black’s Valiant and Ironside (Books 2 and 3)
Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting (Book 2)
Charles de Lint’s Newford Series (✔Book 2, onwards)
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Voices and Powers (Books 2 and 3)
Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing series (Books 2, 3, and 4)

In which I re-adopt an old (bad?) habit:
Marissa Meyer’s Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, Book 1)
Catherynne M. Valente’s In the Night Garden (The Orphan’s Tales, Book 1)
Diane Duane’s So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, Book 1)
Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda (Flora, Book 1)
O.R. Melling’s The Hunter’s Moon (Chronicles of Faerie, Book 1)

In which I consider what one can accomplish on a commute:
Terri Windling’s The Green Man (stories)
Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners (stories)
Lord Dunsany’s Wonder Tales (stories)
✔Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife (poems)
Catherynne M. Valente’s A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects (anthology)

In which I consider the anti-commute reads:
Elizabeth Moon’s The Deed of Paksenarrion
Tad Williams’ The Dragonbone Chair
G.R.R. Martin’s Storm of Swords
Mervyn Peake’s Gormanghast Trilogy
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home

In which I am bitten by the possibilities of new projects:
Andrew Lang’s collections
Frank L. Baum’s Oz books
Margery Sharp’s Rescuers series
Gregory Macguire’s Oz retellings
Datlow and Windling’s short story collections

As you might have guessed by now, I really have no idea what I’ll be reading over the next few weeks, but I know I’ll have fun.

How about you?

Actually Read:
1. Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride (1993)
2. Bill Willingham’s 1001 Nights of Snowfall (2006)
3. Charles de Lint’s The Dreaming Place (1990)
4. Neil Gaiman’s Stardust Illus. Charles Vess (1997; 2007)
5. Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife (1999)
6. Martin Millar’s The Good Fairies of New York  (1992)
7. Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin (1991)
8. Donn Kushner’s Book Dragon (1987)
9. Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2006)

Update Posts: Beginnings, Middles

Sampled: Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners (2005)