Deal Me in Challenge 2023 and again, I stubbornly continue to participate, even though I finish less and less of the selections each year. Last year, I think I finished one selection (shame!) but even so, I was encouraged by my amount of reading in 2022. In 2021, I managed to finish 12 books but in 2022 I finished 32. I think I can keep up that pace and even improve it, so with that in mind, if I concentrate some of my energy on this challenge I should be able to read ….. well, at least more than one!
I kept the same list as last year to save time; better to spend the time saved reading, I think.
Peasants Playing Cards (1812) Alexander Laureus
~ source Wikimedia Commons
And now, 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 9th year of the challenge and if I read even a few of these choices, I’ve succeeded.
Here is my Deal Me In Challenge 2023 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
_(follower_of)_-_A_Young_Man_and_a_Girl_playing_Cards_-_NG1247_-_National_Gallery.jpg)
A Young Man and a Girl Playing Cards (1606-1669) Rembrandt van Rijn
~ source Wikimedia 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
Previous Deal Me In Challenges:
2023 ….just hours away! Chance to make new reading plans….you will succeed…I can feel it!
Thanks for your cheering and support, Nancy! I hope you have a good experience with your classics for 2023!
I’m concentrating on “yearly” challenges instead of monthly reading experiences. I feel in a “month” I feel more pressure to speed read! Deal Me In is a great challenge and I will see if I can participate….just to be there with you!!
That’s a good plan. I’m just trying to read as much as I can. Most challenges have gone out the window!
Yay, Nancy! Deal Me In is nice because the selections are relatively short. Looking forward to seeing what you choose!
2022 was definitely the year of blogging less, but reading more for me, too. Hmm…
Still there are some good-looking things on that list, so I hope you get to some of them! And good reading and a good new year to you!
I feel so badly about not being present on everyone’s blogs (and in some ways, including my own) but I wanted to see how many books I could read this year. Hopefully I will be able to get more of a balance next.
My plans are definitely to get through at least ¼ of this challenge.
Thank you for the wishes and you as well! I hope 2023 brings you and your family joy and happiness!! And lots of reading!
Lovely post. You got this!
Thanks, Silvia! I hope you and your family are doing well and that 2023 brings you blessings and most of all, peace!
I am going to try this challenge this year, too. 🙂 Good luck!
Oh great! I hope you put it on your blog so I can see your choices. Happy New Year!
I will, I just haven’t figured out the stories, yet.
Every year I plan to participate in your Deal Me Challenge and every year life gets in the way. I don’t even plan to create my own list because your list is always so great. But this year I am actively going to try , especially the essay challenge if nothing else!
I do hope you try. I get locked up because I plan to read and review each item but I think if I just READ, then it would be pretty easy.
It might be fun to do an essay challenge only one year. I must admit I think I get the most out of the essays (it should be the poetry …. Sigh ….. but I’m still a poetry Philistine. Hopefully one day that will change, lol!)