Once Upon A Time IV

Finally Carl V's Once Upon A Time Challenge is here. I have been waiting patiently, or maybe not so patiently, ever since Jeff Vandermeer's Finch came out and I bought Finch and its predecessor Shriek but held off reading them until this challenge. For anyone that does not know, Once Upon a Time is all about reading fantasy, folklore, fairy tales or mythology and runs from March 21, 2010 to June 20, 2010. For details go here, for the review site go here.

I am going to sign up for the Journey because I appreciate the flexibility and lack of stress which means that I will read at least one book but I might read more. And I hope to do a few short story weekends.

I am definitely going to read Shriek by Jeff Vandermeer and I haven't decided whether I should save Finch for later or just dive right in.

My pool of possible other books include:

The Castle, Franz Kafka
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
The City and the City, China Mieville
The Other City, Michal Ajvaz
Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey
White Apples, Jonathan Carroll
Alchemy of Stone, Ekaterina Sedia
Something by Italo Calvino (inspired by Bellezza) possibly Invisible Cities
Something by Jose Saramago possibly the Stone Raft

I would also be curious to read something by Angela Carter or Terri Windling so if anyone has any suggestions on where to start I would appreciate it.

And if I run out of inspiration, Jeff Vandermeer always provides lots of ideas such as in his Best of 2009 at Locus, Best of the Decade on Omnivoracious and of course his wonderful Essential Fantasy Reading List.

I look forward to reading everyones posts and adding to my wish list!