Thursday, January 3, 2008

Dystopian Challenge

COMPLETE!

The eighth and final challenge I'm beginning this year is the Dystopian Challenge (DY). I find books about dystopian societies absolutely fascinating. The challenge is to read 5 dystopian books by the end of the year.

A little background on the subject (taken from wikipedia):
A dystopia is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. It is usually characterised by an oppressive social control, such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government. In other words, a Dystopia has the exact opposite of what one would expect in a Utopian society.

An excellent list of dystopian literature can be found here.

DY reading in 2008: (currently reading)
Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake
Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle in Time
Richard Matheson: I am Legend
Robert O'Brien: Z for Zachariah
George Orwell: Animal Farm

TBR books that qualify for the DY challenge:
Note: Books in italics have been read.
Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake
Pierre Boulle: Planet of the Apes
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (re-read)
William S Burroughs: Naked Lunch (ebook)
Isobelle Carmody: Obernewtyn
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (ebook)
Aldous Huxley: Ape and Essence (ebook)
Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go (ebook)
Stephen King: The Stand
Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle in Time
Cormac McCarthy: The Road (ebook)
Robert O'Brien: Z for Zachariah
George Orwell: Animal Farm (re-read)
Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged
John Wyndham: The Chrysalids
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (ebook)

Other DY books I'd like to own and read:
Note: Books in italics have been bought/downloaded.
Richard Bachman: The Long Walk
Richard Bachman: The Running Man
Anthony Burgess: 1985
Anthony Burgess: The Wanting Seed
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle
Harlan Ellison: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
William Gibson: Neuromancer
Stanislaw Lem: Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
Ira Levin: This Perfect Day
Vladimir Nabokov: Bend Sinister
Philip Roth: The Plot Against America
Kurt Vonnegut: Welcome to the Monkey House
HG Wells: The Sleeper Awakes

3 comments:

That Hank said...

Hey, I'm looking forward to seeing your take on some of these.

Anonymous said...

Where did you get 1985? I've been looking all over the place for one.

Kylie said...

I just got very, very lucky! I didn't think I'd ever find it anywhere, but good old ebay turned up the goods when I did a search one day. I really didn't expect to find anything, but there it was! And quite cheap too.

I was a very happy chappy :)