Category: Discussion posts

My 2020 Reading Challenges: Progress Update

whatcathyreadnext7 Comments

With less than a month to go until the end of the year, it’s time to take a final look at how I’m progressing with the reading challenges I set myself this year.

Ongoing Challenges

What's in a Name? 2020What’s In A Name? 2020

This challenge is hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook and involves reading books with titles that match each of six categories. Thanks to a handy ampersand in a book title I’ve now managed four of the six so far. If I’m to complete it, I need to read a book with a four letter title and a book whose title is an antonym. The book I have lined up for the latter is quite a chunky read.

The Classics ClubThe Classics Club

Create a list of 50 classic books you would like to read within five years and work your way through them (with the help of the occasional Classics Club Spin where a book from your list is selected for you) to earn yourself a place on the Wall of Honour. My deadline is December 2021 and so far I’ve read 42 of the books on my list so I’m heading for the home strait. However, it has to be said that some of the books I’ve read are also part of my Buchan of the Month reading project, of which more below.

Buchan of the Month Banner 2020.jpgBuchan of the Month Reading Project

Now in its third year, this is a personal challenge involving reading a different book by John Buchan – fiction or non-fiction – every month. You can find my reading list for the year and links to my reviews of the eleven I’ve read so far here.

Completed Challenges

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2020

I set my target at 120 books this year and achieved that when I finished A Conspiracy of Silence by Anna Legat back in October.

When Are You Reading? 2020 (hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words)

20 Books of Summer 2020 (hosted by Cathy at 746Books)

Are you taking part in any reading challenges? If so, how are you getting on?

Buchan of the Month: Introducing… The King’s Grace by John Buchan #ReadJB2020 #nonficnov

whatcathyreadnext

20201108_125639-1This month’s Buchan of the Month is The King’s Grace. It seems appropriate to be reading one of John Buchan’s works of nonfiction to coincide with Nonfiction November but also because we have recently marked the 100th anniversary of the interment of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, a ceremony attended by King George V.

The King’s Grace was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton on 4th April 1935 and in the US by Houghton Mifflin (with the title The People’s King) on 1st May 1935. It was published in Canada by The Musson Book Company, bound up from sheets imported from England. A signed limited edition of 500 copies was also produced.

The King’s Grace was commissioned by Hodder & Stoughton to celebrate the 25th anniversary of King George V’s accession to the throne. Buchan’s first biographer, Janet Adam Smith, is anxious to point out the book is not a piece of “royal tushery” but a history of the events of the reign. She also quotes John Attenborough of Hodder & Stoughton, who worked with Buchan on the book, and recalls “He wrote the book at great speed, and we made great demands upon him as an author, for different versions of it were produced at different times, including special editions for school authorities, who wanted to give it away to their pupils as a memento of the anniversary.”

20201108_125702-1My own copy (complete with bookplate) is one of those school editions, in this case published by University of London Press. The frontispiece states “In accordance with the wishes of Mr. John Buchan, this School Edition of The King’s Grace has been specially prepared and edited by Dr. F. H. Spencer”. (Although he was still Mr. John Buchan at the time of publication of the book he would shortly become Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, in preparation for taking up the post of Governor-General of Canada.)

Look out for my review of The King’s Grace later this month.

Sources:

Janet Adam Smith, John Buchan: A Biography (OUP, 1985 [1965])
Kenneth Hillier and Michael Ross, The First Editions of John Buchan: A Collector’s Illustrated Biography (Avonworld, 2008)