Super Challenge III Wrap (2016-2017)
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:33 am
Super Challenge IV might (or might not) be just around the corner - but we never officially closed the last round with a wrap-up discussion.
So here we go: what were your experiences with the last Super Challenge?
I like to keep discussions open ended, but for those who prefer a template:
1. What was your challenge?
2. How far did you get?
3. What were the highlights? (or even low-lights)
4. What are your final thoughts?
Challenge: Romance Languages, Double Challenge
Final Results: 145 books ; Over 200 audio (I stopped counting at 200)
Reading Highlights
Marcel Proust. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Beautiful writing, but exhausting. I'll be taking a break from Proust for awhile.
Honoré de Balzac. Illusions perdues. I found this far more interesting than his more famous Père Goriot.
Michel Houellebecq. Soumission; La possibilité d'une île. Houllebecq is controversial (to say the least), and his views on male-female relationships are straight out of Cro-Magnon days ... but he's a brilliant writer.
Patrick Modiano. Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue. I love Modiano's style, and have a few more of his books waiting for me on the shelf.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale; La storia del nuevo cognome; Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta. Excellent series about the lives of two childhood friends from Napoli. I'm currently finishing up the fourth, final novel.
Dante. Purgatorio. I relied heavily on an English translation to help me ... and it still took forever. Kind of like the 'real' Purgatory. It's an amazing work, and one that I'd like to read again one day. Far more enjoyable than the Inferno.
Javier Cercas. Soldados de Salamina. A modern journalist tries to solve a mystery from the end of the Civil War.
Julio Llamazares. La lluvia amarilla. Haunting and beautiful work about the last inhabitant of a small village in the Pyrenees.
Mario Vargas Llosa. Travesuras de la niña mala. The first native language Spanish novel I read!
Victor Hugo. Notre-Dame de Paris. Technically I read this in the interim period between challenges, but I wanted to mention it because it is one of my favorite books of all time.
Hans Ørberg. Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. This is a Latin textbook that is 100% in Latin. It sounds impossible, yet somehow it works.
TV Highlights
Gomorra. I usually don't like crime series, but this one was riveting. The main characters are all horrible, and there is no one to root for, but it's still a completely addictive show.
Le Bureau des Légendes. Drama about the French secret service. Very well done; far better than any comparable American or British shows.
Dix pour cent. Really fun comedy / drama set in a Paris talent agency. Marketed as Call My Agent! on Netflix.
Final Thoughts
I'm really glad that language families were a category this round, even if it meant that I didn't make as much progress as I would have if I only focused on one language. It helped me maintain my French and slowly push forward with Italian and Spanish. I added Latin later in the year, and am considering including it if we (or I) do another S.C.
I got to put everything to the test in the fall when I spent close to three months on the Voie du Puy and the Camino Francés (two sections of the Camino de Santiago). That probably deserves it's own post ... but the short version is I went from feeling like I understood nothing and wondering why I even bother with language study to being able to chat with folks in all three languages.
I'm also glad I aimed for a double-challenge. I don't have the time these days to really commit to reading that much, and knew early on I wouldn't finish, but I like aiming high.
So here we go: what were your experiences with the last Super Challenge?
I like to keep discussions open ended, but for those who prefer a template:
1. What was your challenge?
2. How far did you get?
3. What were the highlights? (or even low-lights)
4. What are your final thoughts?
Challenge: Romance Languages, Double Challenge
Final Results: 145 books ; Over 200 audio (I stopped counting at 200)
Reading Highlights
Marcel Proust. Sodome et Gomorrhe. Beautiful writing, but exhausting. I'll be taking a break from Proust for awhile.
Honoré de Balzac. Illusions perdues. I found this far more interesting than his more famous Père Goriot.
Michel Houellebecq. Soumission; La possibilité d'une île. Houllebecq is controversial (to say the least), and his views on male-female relationships are straight out of Cro-Magnon days ... but he's a brilliant writer.
Patrick Modiano. Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue. I love Modiano's style, and have a few more of his books waiting for me on the shelf.
Elena Ferrante, L'amica geniale; La storia del nuevo cognome; Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta. Excellent series about the lives of two childhood friends from Napoli. I'm currently finishing up the fourth, final novel.
Dante. Purgatorio. I relied heavily on an English translation to help me ... and it still took forever. Kind of like the 'real' Purgatory. It's an amazing work, and one that I'd like to read again one day. Far more enjoyable than the Inferno.
Javier Cercas. Soldados de Salamina. A modern journalist tries to solve a mystery from the end of the Civil War.
Julio Llamazares. La lluvia amarilla. Haunting and beautiful work about the last inhabitant of a small village in the Pyrenees.
Mario Vargas Llosa. Travesuras de la niña mala. The first native language Spanish novel I read!
Victor Hugo. Notre-Dame de Paris. Technically I read this in the interim period between challenges, but I wanted to mention it because it is one of my favorite books of all time.
Hans Ørberg. Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. This is a Latin textbook that is 100% in Latin. It sounds impossible, yet somehow it works.
TV Highlights
Gomorra. I usually don't like crime series, but this one was riveting. The main characters are all horrible, and there is no one to root for, but it's still a completely addictive show.
Le Bureau des Légendes. Drama about the French secret service. Very well done; far better than any comparable American or British shows.
Dix pour cent. Really fun comedy / drama set in a Paris talent agency. Marketed as Call My Agent! on Netflix.
Final Thoughts
I'm really glad that language families were a category this round, even if it meant that I didn't make as much progress as I would have if I only focused on one language. It helped me maintain my French and slowly push forward with Italian and Spanish. I added Latin later in the year, and am considering including it if we (or I) do another S.C.
I got to put everything to the test in the fall when I spent close to three months on the Voie du Puy and the Camino Francés (two sections of the Camino de Santiago). That probably deserves it's own post ... but the short version is I went from feeling like I understood nothing and wondering why I even bother with language study to being able to chat with folks in all three languages.
I'm also glad I aimed for a double-challenge. I don't have the time these days to really commit to reading that much, and knew early on I wouldn't finish, but I like aiming high.