Jay at Bibliophiilopolis used to host the Deal Me In Challenge every year however 2020 seemed to be the end of the challenge. But since it was one of my favourite challenges, I’ve continued on my own. Last year was almost a complete bust, but I’m going to try again this year, if only for the value I received from stretching myself to read writing I wouldn’t normally choose. So here is my Deal Me In Challenge 2022!
Card Players (1645) Joos van Craesbeeck
~ source Wikimedia Commons
The rules? Choose short stories to correspond to each card in a deck of cards. Then draw one card each week and read the story that corresponds.
My categories are different from the usual straight short story category, as I made my own version of the challenge from the beginning: Clubs: Short Stories; Spades: Essays; Diamonds: Poetry & Hearts: Children’s Classics. This is now my 7th year of the challenge and if I read even a few of these choices, I’ve succeeded.
Here is my Deal Me In Challenge 2022 List:
♣️ Clubs – Short Stories:
A♣️ – The Honest Thief – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2♣️ – The Shot – Alexander Pushkin
3♣️ – The Story of A Farm Girl – Guy Maupassant
4♣️ – Quench the Spark – Leo Tolstoy
5♣️ – Le Chêne et le Roseau (The Oak and the Reed) – Jean de la Fontaine
6♣️ – A Warning to the Curious – M.R. James
7♣️ – The Unpresentable Appearance of Colonel Crane – G.K. Chesterton
8♣️ – The Happy Family – Hans Christian Andersen
9♣️ – Bezhin Lea – Ivan Turgenev
10♣️ – The Maiden Without Hands – The Brothers Grimm
J♣️ – L’Enfant et le Maître d’Ecole (The Boy and The Schoolmaster) – Jean de la Fontaine
Q♣️ – A Cup of Cold Water – Edith Wharton
K♣️ – The Diary of a Madman – Guy Maupassant
♠️ Spades – Essays
A♠️ – A Modest Proposal – Jonathan Swift
2♠️ – Once More To The Lake – E.B. White
3♠️ – Letters from Birmingham Jail – Martin Luther King, Jr.
4♠️ – The Man Who Thinks Backwards – G.K. Chesterton
5♠️ – The Art of Political Lying – Jonathan Swift
6♠️ – Employments of A Housewife in the Country – Samuel Johnson
7♠️ – Of The Feeling of Immortality in Youth – William Hazlitt
8♠️ – Of The Inequality Between Us – Michel de Montaigne
9♠️ – The Tyranny of Bad Journalism – G.K. Chesterton
10♠️ – Psycho-analysis and Literary Criticism – C.S. Lewis
J♠️ – Self-Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Q♠️ – Reflections on Gandhi – George Orwell
K♠️ – Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community – Wendell Berry
The House of Cards (1736-37) Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
~ source Wikipedia Commons
♦️ Diamonds – Poetry
A♦️ – From Milton [Jerusalem] – William Blake
2♦️ – To A Mouse – Robert Burns
3♦️ – Love Sonnet XIII – Pablo Neruda
4♦️ – Gesang Der Geister Über Den Wassern – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5♦️ – Ode III – Fray Luis de León
6♦️ – Sonnet 57 – William Shakespeare
7♦️ – A Sea Dirge – Lewis Carroll
8♦️ – I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud – William Wordsworth
9♦️ – The Tiger by William Blake
10♦️ – The Lake Isle of Innisfree – William Butler Yeats
J♦️ – Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
Q♦️ – Sonnet XXIII – Garcilaso de la Vega
K♦️ – Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare
♥️ Hearts – Children’s Classics
A♥️ – The Phantom Tollbooth – Norman Juster
2♥️ – Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink
3♥️ – Three Greek Children – Alfred J. Church
4♥️ – All Sails Set – Armstrong Sperry
5♥️ – Theras and His Town – Caroline Dale Snedecker
6♥️ – A World of Girls: The Story of a School – L.T. Meade
7♥️ – Flip, the Story of an Otter – Joan Wanklyn
8♥️ – The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare
9♥️ – Girl of the Limberlost – Gene Stratton Porter
10♥️ – The Spartan – Caroline Dale Snedecker
J♥️ – The Little Bookworm – Eleanor Farjeon
Q♥️ – City of the Golden House – Madeleine Polland
K♥️ – A Triumph for Flavius – Caroline Dale Snedecker
I’ve already had a late start but I’ll try to cover at least ¼ of the list this year. It doesn’t look like anyone is hosting this challenge but that’s okay because it’s too good to pass up. Does anyone else care to join me?
Previous Deal Me In Challenges:
I never have done this one, though one year I made a list… Good luck, there’s some fun-looking things on there.
You should do it! I would love to see your choices. Thanks for the wishes!
almost all of those i’ve never heard of! encouraging to know there are lit worlds beyond my comprehension, sort of like quantum mechanics, lol…
And here I thought you were the “all-knowing” Mudpuddle (is that the omniscient Mudpuddle? 😂) You should pick one you don’t know and read it, just to expand your horizons into quantum literature …. 😉
Neat. Every year, I think I should do this one! Good luck, you’ve got a great list
You should do it! Short reads and interesting. Thank you! I’ve already started ….
As I was reading through your list, I was like oh! I want to read this. Oh! I must read that, till I realize that I decided to practically read everything especially in your poetry and essay categories. I like you will try and cover as much as possible; if not everything, something for sure! Thank You for sharing and encouraging me to read things outside my usual booj habitat.
Maybe you can choose one or two to read during the year. I will do my best. I have to fight to read now but I’m doing it. One person said they read 10 pages at breakfast, 10 at lunch, 10 at dinner and 10 before bed. They get through lots of books this way so I’m trying to emulate them, but I only manage about half of that so far. But I’ll keep trying!
I love the spin you put on this including children’s classics, essays, and poetry! I tried this challenge at the beginning of 2020 and well, it was a bust for me that year too. So I dropped it. But I did read a handful of short stories and that was nice! I’m trying very hard to reign in my inner urge to participate in all kinds of challenges.
I like this challenge because the selections are reasonably short and so easy to read (well, except for the children’s classics). About challenges, I know! I just saw an Art challenge that’s tempting me. And one year I’d love to do a children’s classics challenge and a fairy tale challenge. Not to mention I’d love another Shakespeare and Russian lit challenge. So many good challenges we could think of, huh?
So many…….. 🙂
I didn’t do this one, but last year I completed a short story challenge in a GoodReads group. I’ll post it on the blog soon. I was debating whether to wait until I have some other posts ready, but… maybe not. I do want to start blogging again, but I’m pretty burnt out right now. And I will be reading The Songs of Innocence & Experience sometime this year, so that will include “The Tiger;” I think I’ve actually read most of the poems before, but never cover to cover, for some reason.
Yay, Beth! At least you completed something, which is more than I can say for myself. There is so much negative things going on in this country right now that I’m having trouble blogging. But I am reading so that’s good.
I started Songs of Innocence and Experience while ago and was enjoying it but I must finish it. Hope you’re well!
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