Critical Monkey - update the fourth! One-third done!

Wow, has it been a third of a year already? Four months of challenging yourselves to be the best your can be? Well, cowboy up, buttercup, because you gots eight months to go! You think this is a challenge for sissies? You gotta have serious literary cojones to compete here!

Sorry, that came off a little harsh. I'm fighting something as I write this, something internal. No, not swine flu; good guess, but this feels different, more watery. Call it fish rabies.

Anyways, to the stats:

Acceptance (seven reviews)

Depression (six reviews)

Anger (five reviews)

Guilt (four reviews)

Bargaining (three reviews)

Corey Redekop

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• The Justice Riders by Chuck Norris
• Jake and the Kid by W.O. Mitchell
  

Lori L

• Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Roses of Glory by Mary Pershall
• Spock's World by Diane Duane
  

Steve Zipp

• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  

Denial (two reviews)

gypsysmom

• Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
  

Jeanne

• Empire of Lies by Andrew Klaven
• A Merry Heart by Wanda E. Brunsetter
  

Shock (one review)

Betty

• Generation Dead/Generation Dead: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters

We've got some real movement here on some fronts, and some stagnation on others. I know its not easy, people, but its of vital importance that you see this through. Remember, you don't necessarily have to choose a novel you think you'll hate, just one that you feel you've ignored. I never would have read W.O. Mitchell otherwise, and I'm sure Lori L though she'd never read a Star Trek novel.

But, since it isn't easy, here's the first giveaway I promised to all contestants, a copy of Douglas Coupland's Generation A, which, by means of a random number selector, is hereby is awarded to:

Betty!

Congratulations, Betty. Write to me with your postal info at shelf.monkey@hotmail.com, and Coupland's latest (and a secret second novel) will be winging off to you as fast as Canada Post can fly it over (general delivery).

And as a reminder, at the halfway point I will be drawing one name to win a signed copy of Canadian author Mark Rayner's absurdist epic The Amadeus Net. For this one, I think a little more participation is in order (let's gird those loins, people!), and only those contestants who publish a new review between now and January 2, 2010 will be eligible for this particular prize. And this goes for anyone new to the game; there's still plenty of time for newcomers, and the more is definitely the merrier in this case.

So tell your friends!

For me, I am loading up on carbs and vitamins to properly tackle my next choice. This one will be a personal Everest for me; one of only two novels I can remember not finishing because it was so damned terrible. (The other novel? The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader.) I fear this is going to be a bad one, my friends, the Hurricane Katrina of crap. The one that's going to taunt me mercilessly all the way with its unmitigated awfulness.

I refer, of course, to the Kirk Cameron-approved, fundamentalist dogma-infused, rapture-tastic epic Left Behind.

Wish me luck. I already feel nauseous. But that could be the rabies.