I’m wrapping up Sarah’s Art History Reading Challenge for this year, and am going to go right ahead and sign up for it again. This turned out to be one of my favorite challenges of the year. I really enjoyed the books I found, and I loved reading about art and the lives of artists. Here’s my list of books completed this year:
- The Forest Lover, by Susan Vreeland
- The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Donna Dean
- The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, by Jonathan Harr
- Still Life, by Louise Penny
- “Monet Refuses the Operation“, a poem by Lisel Mueller
- The Matisse Stories, by A.S. Byatt
- Marc Chagall, Painter of Dreams, by Natalie S. Bober
- Breaking Tradition: The Story of Louise Nevelson, by Natalie S. Bober
Nomadreader has kindly volunteered to host this challenge for 2010, and she has set up some new choices.
This year there will be four levels of participation:
- Curious – Read at least 3 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
- Fascinated – Read at least 6 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
- Enamored– Read at least 9 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
- Utterly enchanted – Read at least 12 books about art, either fiction or non-fiction.
There will also be at least four extra credit assignments throughout the year to challenge you to take your curiosity, fascination, adoration and enchantment even higher. These will be completely optional, and you don’t have to be signed up for the challenge itself to complete them. Either way, subscribe to this blog so you won’t miss out!
I’m going to sign up at the FASCINATED level, and plan on reading 6 books…but I may end up at the ENAMORED level, or even the UTTERLY ENCHANTED level since I enjoy this genre so much. I have a number of books already on my shelf waiting for this challenge, but I also want to leave room for those wonderful discoveries I find in the library when I wander through the art and biography sections, so I will post my choices as I go along.
Thanks, Nomadreader, for hosting this fun challenge for us this year!
A Fondness For Reading 
I’m so glad to hear you’re signing up again! I’m really looking forward to 2010 reading!
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Robin, what a great thing – a fascinating challenge!
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Congrats on finishing! I wouldn’t mind doing this challenge, but I have too many going on as it is!
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I read The Madonnas of Leningrad and really enjoyed it. It was quite a learning experience. I had no idea that people were starving in Leningrad during WWII.
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Thanks for hosting, Nomadreader! I’m so glad it’s going another year because I have so much I want to read that fits with this challenge.
Nan, I absolutely loved this challenge this year and am really looking forward to continuing reading about art and artists.
Thanks, Kailana! I know…I’ve still got a number of 2009 challenges to finish up. School gets out in 2 more days and then I can read..read..read.
Nancy, I really enjoyed that one, too, and had no idea what the Leningrad experience was during WWII. It was a fascinating story, I thought.
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