The Africa Reading Challenge 2008 is here courtesy of Siphoning off a Few Thoughts.  The rules in short are:

• Read at least six books on anything about Africa.
• Write a post on your blog with a preliminary (or final) list of books to read for the challenge.  Reply on Siphoning off a Few Thoughts (or me so that I can become his friend and we’ll roll like that) with the name you would like to use and the link to the list.
• When you read a book, write a review of it and post it on your blog.   

Here are my reviews so far:

• Measuring Time
• Getting Rid of It
• Sometimes when it Rains: Writings by South African Women
• The African Dream: Diaries of a Revolutionary in Congo
• Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Life of a Desert Nomad
• God’s Bits of Wood

 

For anyone living in Kampala and interested in the challenge, I have a small, but growing collection of books on Africa that.  Some of the books on this list I have kept because I loved, but for others, well … let’s just say they were too horrible to be given away and were not even worth throwing in the trash.  Holler if you’d like to borrow any of them.  All I want in return is a meal of South Indian food and a bottle of chardonnay. 

• A Walk in the Night and Other Stories – Alex La Gumma
• Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful – Alan Paton
• Allah is not Obliged – Ahmadou Kourouma
• Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter – Pamela Jooste
• Dark Train Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town – Paul Theroux
• Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Life of a Desert Nomad – Waris Dirie
• God’s Bits of Wood – Sembene Ousmane
• Green Hills of Africa – Ernest Hemmingway
• How to be a Ugandan – Joachim Buwembo
• I didn’t do it for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation – Michela Wrong
• Petals of Blood – Ngugi wa Thiongo
• Rules of the Wild – Francesca Marciano 
• Sometimes When it Rains: Writings by South African Women – Ann Oosthuizen, ed.
• South of the Limpopo – Dervla Murphy
• Tears of Hope: A Collection of Stories by Rural Ugandan Women – Ayeta Wangusa, Violet Barungi ed.
• The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo - Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
• The Darling – Russell Banks
• The House of Doom – Wahome Mutahi
• The Long Silence of Mario Salviati: A Novel – Etienne van Heerden
• The Money Tree: Sketches of Life in Uganda at the Turn of the Millennium – Ingrid Pasteur
• The Poisonwood Bible – Barabara Kingslover
• The Poor Christ of Bomba – Mongo Beti
• Towards Asmara – Thomas Keneally
• Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe – Doreen Baingana
• What is the What – Dave Eggers
• Wizard of the Crow – Ngugi wa Thiongo
• Worst Idea – Ernest Bazanye