What's on my nightstand?

What's On Your Nightstand

I am one day too late, but anyway, joining this for next time as it is on the fourth Tuesday of each month - with the firm project of taking a picture of it.

Just for fun (I won't take any picture now), my nightstand, currently a brown cardboard box, has these books on it:

- Tracy Chevalier, The Lady and the Unicorn [currently reading]
- Robert Tallant, Voodoo in New Orleans [currently reading]
- Y.G. Ovsiyenko, Russian for beginners [working through]
- Steinunn Sigurdardóttir, Le Cheval Soleil [started, but not continuing]
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye [not started, waiting to bring back to library as no time to finish it until moving out]

Joined Arthurian Challenge


Becky is hosting this challenge and set it from April 2009 to March 2010. I've put myself in the category of one to three books as I prefer not to push it too hard at the beginning - I am not even set on the challenges I am going to participate in!
I decided that I would not re-read something, as for me the point of challenges is getting to know new books. Re-reading is okay for me only in challenges concerning authors' whole works (oh, need to think about that, maybe Oscar Wilde or Austen?) or series challenges (maybe a Harry Potter month?).
Hence I am not going to read any Marion Zimmer Bradley but on the contrary, I am looking for suggestions!

Here a few I am thinking about:

1. Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
Indeed, why not simply start with the essential work that I have not read yet?

2. Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave (Merlin Trilogy Book 1)
#2 of the "Best Arthurian Fiction" list on Goodreads, suggested in the Arthurian Challenge itself.

3. T.H. White, The Once and Future King
#3 of the "Best Arthurian Fiction" list on Goodreads, suggested in the Arthurian Challenge itself.

Some other maybes:
Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur
Nancy Springer, I Am Mordred: A Tale from Camelot

List building

So I guess I will have to put some work in building my reading lists for the challenges I am interested in, even if I am a late joiner. I hope that nobody will chase me during this, as I'm somewhat busy with schoolwork (yep, exam time!) and will be content with my own pace.
However, even the simple list building will be a challenge, as I absolutely love making lists, but have tons of books I want to read and will never be able to decide what to put on the "Fill in the gaps"-list, where I am restricted to hundred. On the other hand, it will keep me focused of what I want to have achieved and I will be able to actually finish a list - better than having a vague amount of books in my head. I am more and more sympathizing with the challenges, as long as they stay either small when short term, or long term when large.

Constantly changing places is inherent to my life. Books have always been steady friends which I could bump into wherever I was all over the world.
Stumbling upon Kaminer's German stories of "Die Reise nach Trulala" in Reykjavík's city library is as moving as meeting the Icelandic sagas in Boston's Borders.
To see a book again, that I've read thousands of kilometers away makes me smile "Hey I know you.." and shake hands by thumbing through it for a while.