Unlike the other challenges — and I hope this doesn’t get me kicked out — I am looking at this one as one that I may, accidentally complete. I think it’s a ridiculously fun idea and the last time I was in the library (I say that like it’s not a daily occurrence, like every now and then I go there, instead of virtually every single day) I found myself making alphabet notes with this challenge in mind. But, I also have so many other challenges in mind that I don’t think I’ll have the reading time to go and chase down an errant ‘X’ or special order a tricksy ‘Z’ from Zambia. (Although I’m relieved to see that the host has some relaxed rules about those harder-to-find letters.)

Still, I am stupidly excited about giving it a go.

Update: By the end of April, I had completed 43/52 but it took me the rest of the year to fill the remaining letters. And, I did not accidentally complete it after all. By the time December rolled around, I realized that I had only two letters left to complete, so I went hunting for them.  The “tough” ones were authors, filled by Ithimaera, Witi and Quick, Matthew, and the fact that I loved both novels proved to me that even “forcing a challenge” can have a happy ending.

TITLES (status 52 out of 52)
Anne of Ingleside (by L.M. Montgomery, novel, January 2010)
Bondwoman’s Narrative, The (by Hannah Crafts, novel, February 2010)
Century (by Ray Smith, novel, February 2010)
Down a Dark Hall (by Lois Duncan, YA novel, January 2010)
Ethel Wilson (by Desmond Wilson, literary criticism, February 2010)
Fall on Your Knees (by Ann-Marie MacDonald, novel, March 2010)
Generation X (by Douglas Coupland, novel, February 2010)
Hetty Dorval (by Ethel Wilson, novel, January 2010)
Innocent Traveller, The (by Ethel Wilson, novel, February 2010)
Jade Peony, The (by Wayson Choy, novel, February 2010)
Kappa Child, The (by Hiromi Goto, novel, May 2010)
Liza’s England (by Pat Barker, novel, March 2010)
Making Conversation (by Christina Longford, February 2010)
Necessary Secrets (by Elizabeth Smart, Journals, February 2010)
On the Side of the Angels (by Elizabeth Smart, Journals, February 2010)
Poor Caroline (by Winifred Holtby, January 2010)
Queen of the Tambourine (by Jane Gardam, novel, November 2010)
Rainbow Valley (by L.M. Montgomery, novel, January 2010)
So this is the world and here I am in it (by Di Brandt, essays, March 2010)
To Bed with Grand Music (by Marghanita Laski, novel, March 2010)
Unit, The (by Ninni Holmqvist, novel in translation from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy, March 2008)
Venous Hum (by Suzette Mayr, novel, November 2010)
White Woman on the Green Bicycle, The (by Monique Roffey, novel, April 2010)
X Except the Dying (by Maureen Jennings, novel, July 2010)
You comma Idiot (by Doug Harris, novel, September 2010)
Z for Zachariah (by Robert C. O’Brien, YA novel, February 2010)

AUTHORS
Atwood, Margaret (Negotiating with the Dead, essays, January 2010)
Baszile, Jennifer (The Black Girl Next Door, memoir, February 2010)
Christie, Agatha (The Mysterious Affair at Styles, novel, January 2010)
Dickner, Nicolas (Nikolski, novel in translation by Lazer Lederhendler, January 2010)
Endicott, Marina (Good to a Fault, novel, February 2010)
Ferris, Joshua (The Unnamed, novel, April 2010)
Gunnars, Kristjana (The Rose Garden, cross-generic prose, March 2010)
Hurston, Zora Neale (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, novel, February 2010)
Ithimaera, Witi (The Whale Rider, novel, December 2010)
Jones, Sadie (Small Wars, novel, April 2010)
Kaufman, Andrew (The Waterproof Bible, novel, April 2010)
Livesay, Dorothy (Journey With My Selves, autobiography, January 2010)
Marshall, Paule (Brown Girl, Brownstones, novel, February 2010)
Nixon, Joan Lowery (The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore, YA novel, January 2010)
Ostenso, Martha (Wild Geese, novel, March 2010)
Panter-Downes, Mollie (Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, stories, May 2010)
Quick, Matthew (Sorta Like a Rock Star, YA novel, December 2010)
Robertson, Ray (Moody Food, novel, February 2010)
Smart, Elizabeth (Autobiographies, February 2010)
Tyler, Anne (Noah’s Compass, novel, February 2010)
Urquhart, Jane (L.M. Montgomery, biography, January 2010)
Vassanji, M.G. (The Book of Secrets, novel, March 2010)
Waterston, Elizabeth (The Magic Island, literary biography/criticism, April 2010)
Xiques, Donez (Margaret Laurence: The Making of a Writer, literary biography, September 2010)
Yi, Nu Nu (Smile as They Bow, novel in translation from the Burmese by Alfred Birnbaum and Thi Thi Aye, March 2010)
Zoran Živković’s (Impossible Encounters, novel in translation by Alice Copple-Tošić, April 2010)