My Day Was So . . . Linear

When I took a break from an avalanche of e-mails to do a little blog surfing, the next thing I knew I'd been pulled right into the intriguing pathways of the internet.

First I found out about another challenge, the Colorful Reading Challenge over at Lost in Books. Now, I need more books to read like I need more shoes (not strictly necessary, but always a nice indulgence), but motivation via deadline is always a plus. Who was it that said if there were no deadlines, nothing would ever be finished? Somebody famous, I'm sure. And because this challenge doesn't end until 12/31/09, I have plenty of time to zoom through these babies after I knock off the Themed Reading Challenge.

The Colorful Reading Challenge requires 9 books with 9 different colors in the title. The required colors are blue, red, white, black, silver, and gold. The other 3 are your choice. Selections can overlap with other challenges, and at least 6 of the books should be new to you (I guess this means no re-reads).

I thought of the books for white, black, and yellow right away (thanks to the To Be Read stack) and then the hunt was on! The hardest part? I'm a major book snob. I'm not willing to read just any old book with a colorful title. For me, it's classics or future classics, or books by known authors, which usually means prize-winners, or at least books that have received outstanding reviews and accolades.

Not so easy, then, to do the color thing with a relatively limited supply. And of course, I wanted them to sound like I would want to read them, too. There were a few candidates that didn't make the cut, simply because they didn't sound interesting to me. Yes, I know: picky, picky.

I spent quite a bit of time using the advanced searches on PaperbackSwap and ABE, developing the names of candidates, and then Googling them to read reviews beyond what Amazon had to say. I wandered far afield, click by click getting farther and farther away from my original page. Isn't the internet great for such wandering?

During that process, I found this terrific blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, and a fantastic review that convinced me I'd discovered my "silver" book. I also found this wonderful picture, courtesy of Treehugger.


Note to self: when you want info on a book called The White Tiger, it helps to include the word "novel" in your Google search.

Or not.