Paul Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 (edited) Thanks Julie and Athena. Very Happy New Years to you also from both of us!And P.S. I just squeaked in Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, for a check mark in the 1940 decade. An allegorical novel based on the Stalin Purges and Show Trials. What a flabbergasting book about the depravity that characterized that regime! Now only three decades to go: 1850, 1870, 1880. Edited December 29, 2013 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Just two more to go! Finished Washington Square by Henry James. An easy read with very exasperating characters who come to no good end, any of them. What a shame! Now it is on to Madame Bovary (currently in progress) and Daniel Deronda. And already I am wondering what to do next. The thought occurs to keep on appending decades on the front and working back into literary history one decade at a time. In among my other reading that should be doable, although a preliminary scan doesn't reveal an abundance of appealing titles. So the quest will end someday, somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Very good, Charlie I guess you could do as said and add some years in front and back . I'm sure you'll find something to read next ! You have more books in your house than our town library has Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) Hi Julie, I must admit the pickin's are gettin' pretty slim, especially trying to push back before 1800. But there are some that have always intrigued me, even though I have been putting them off for many years now Have to make a list of candidates and then choose, carefully. Edited January 6, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) In case anyone is interested in what was going on in the early 1800's, here's my highly selective view of it:. Candidate Reads 1800-18491808 - Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (part 1) *1811 - Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility1813 - Jane Austen - Pride and Prejdice1814 - Walter Scott - Waverley *1815 - Walter Scott - Guy Mannering1817 - Walter Scott - Rob Roy1819 - Water Scott - Ivanhoe1821 - Wolfgang von Goethe - Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years * James Fenimore Cooper - The Spy1826 - James Fenimore Cooper - The Last of the Mohicans1830 - Stendahl - The Red and the Black * Edward Bulwer - Paul Clifford. "It was a dark and stormy night. . ."1831 - Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame1832 - Washington Irving - Tales of the Alhambra Alexander Pushkin - Dubrovsky1834 - Honore de Balzac - Pere Goriot1836 - Charles Dickens - The Pickwick Papers1839 - Stendahl - The Charterhouse of Parma 1840 - Mikhail Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time * 1844 - Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers 1847 - Charlotte Bronté - Jane Eyre Emily Bronté -Wuthering Heights William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair My selections for my extended Decades Challenge list have been starred and now appear also on my Challenge List in the first post above. I think they sound interesting, or at least noteworthy. Edited January 8, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 We have some of them on the shelf, or they are free to download to kindle. So, that's a good thing. And, we just happen to have the Vladimir Nabokov translation of Mikhail Lermontov's - A Hero of Our Time . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Charlie I hope you enjoy your books. You are gonna surely have a wide variety after all the reading you're doing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) We have some of them on the shelf, or they are free to download to kindle. So, that's a good thing. And, we just happen to have the Vladimir Nabokov translation of Mikhail Lermontov's - A Hero of Our Time . Hi Kate! Oh boy! The added attraction of a Nabokov translation. I didn't know that. Now it is definitely on the to-read-next list! Charlie I hope you enjoy your books. You are gonna surely have a wide variety after all the reading you're doing ! Hi Julie! You hit the nail square on the head. That is one of my most general reading goals -- to try to read widely across all years, genres and authors. Impossible and visionary, of course . But there is always something interesting and different out there to be found. And well wishes to you also for your reading year. Edited January 9, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 (edited) Just slipped in another book, even though it is not necessary. The decade 1980 has already been checked off with Clarice Lispector, but Little, Big by John Crowley just crossed my mind and it would be a shame to lose the thought for another long time. So now it is on the list and whizzing through the Whispernet for my Kindle. Never again to be forgotten, it will get read someday. Perhaps in breaks from Daniel Deronda, which is going slow. Edited January 29, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Charlie I have been pondering the book Little,Big for several years now. Sounds weird ,doesn't it ? I love the cover and also the fact that it looks like a huge chunkster of a book . I guess I can't decide if it is sci-fi ,fantasy, or something else entirely . What would you classify it as ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 (edited) julie, on 29 Jan 2014 - 10:31 AM, said:julie, on 29 Jan 2014 - 10:31 AM, said:julie, on 29 Jan 2014 - 10:31 AM, said: Charlie I have been pondering the book Little,Big for several years now. Sounds weird ,doesn't it ? I love the cover and also the fact that it looks like a huge chunkster of a book . I guess I can't decide if it is sci-fi ,fantasy, or something else entirely . What would you classify it as ? Hi Julie, I'm not sure what people call it, except that many have said (over the past several years) that it is the best book they have ever read. In looking at a "read me" page on Amazon it looked like gentle fantasy to me. Not as thick and heavy as The Hobbit, which is quite fine by me. But so many people have raved that I decided to give it a try. (I tend to look at Amazon reviews both good and bad and go from there, reading between the lines and matching against my own tastes. I find that much more reliable than reading blurbs.). PS: I haven't the faintest idea, yet, what the title means. PPS: I think it is also supposed to have an existential twinge, to make one "think about life." We shall see. Edited January 29, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Sounds interesting . Maybe a little of everything thrown in. Kinda like the Vegetable Soup of Books ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) Well, Julie, reading Little Big is no place in sight yet. But quick glance looks like pure fantasy. However, I am making some progress on the oldest decades on my list:, reprinted here just to keep from having to back to my first post to update each time. But slow going still. 1800 Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (1800) Pt I, tr Yuan Shi. Completed 1810 Walter Scott - Waverly (1814) 1820 Wolfgang von Goethe - Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1821). In progress. 1830 Stendahl - The Red and the Black (1830) 1840 Mikhail Lermontov - A Hero of Our Time (1840) - Nabokov translation, In progress. 1850Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (1857) - Completed Edited February 16, 2014 by Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I bought Little Big after reading some rave reviews on here. I haven't gotten around to it yet. If you read it first (and you probably will!), I'll be interested to read your thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 Kylie, on 16 Feb 2014 - 05:16 AM, said:I bought Little Big after reading some rave reviews on here. I haven't gotten around to it yet. If you read it first (and you probably will!), I'll be interested to read your thoughts. Hi Kylie, I wouldn't be so sure that I'll get to Little Big first. So far, in March I haven't completed one book. First time for that negative accomplishment in many a year. Dunno why. But I am going to push to finish If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, to make it one, anyway, for March. Am adding Taylor Caldwell's bio of Cicero, A Pillar of Iron, to my Challenge list and am seriously thinking of reading it next. Kate will be so happy. Might sample the first chapter of Little, Big, for a taste of it, but promise not to get caught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 That's sad, Paul. I hope you're enjoying If on a Winter's Night... a little more this time around. I absolutely loved it when I read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Paul Sorry to hear of your reading slump. It sounds as if you live in MY world right now. It's a struggle some months to complete a single book . I hate when that happens. It'll gradually pick up pace again and you'll be reading again at regular speed . Sometimes life gets in the way, or maybe your brain just takes a rest break for a bit . I'm not sure, but it sounds as if all readers have those spells from time to time . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 I think we all have a reading slump from time to time (low mojo), I think it's part of life though I can't explain why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CuriousGeorgette Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 (edited) I am always reading, but I agree that there are times when I read less than at other times. I keep looking at all these different reading challenges and thinking Wow that looks interesting, but I have to confess that I entirely lack the self-discipline. Not that I lack self-discipline entirely but when it comes to reading I am so much more driven by what I feel like reading rather than what I should read that I know I won't stick to it, least of all if it is a self-imposed reading list. One of the major reasons I have all my books on my reader at once is that when I'm done with a book, I like to 'browse' my books for what I feel like reading. And if nothing grabs my eye then I go a-hunting for something new. Ok sometimes I just go a-hunting anyway. I can't resist new books, or old books which are like old friends you suddenly bump into again and you remember why you loved them so much. So Paul, and all the others so bravely doing a challenge - congratulations. I'd love to join you, but I know I'd fail the moment the next book on the list didn't look appealing Edited March 28, 2014 by CuriousGeorgette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 That's sad, Paul. I hope you're enjoying If on a Winter's Night... a little more this time around. I absolutely loved it when I read it. Paul Sorry to hear of your reading slump. It sounds as if you live in MY world right now. It's a struggle some months to complete a single book . I hate when that happens. It'll gradually pick up pace again and you'll be reading again at regular speed . Sometimes life gets in the way, or maybe your brain just takes a rest break for a bit . I'm not sure, but it sounds as if all readers have those spells from time to time . I think we all have a reading slump from time to time (low mojo), I think it's part of life though I can't explain why. Kylie, Julie, Athena, Thank you all so much for having me in mind. You stiffen my resolve to reach the finish line, what with so many people now watching. :D I like to 'browse' my books for what I feel like reading. And if nothing grabs my eye then I go a-hunting for something new. Ok sometimes I just go a-hunting anyway. I can't resist new books, Curious Georgette, Your method sounds exactly like my magpie approach. If it looks interesting, I want it. But there comes a time when one has to either fish or cut bait, and my challenge was to finally tackle those books I have always heard about -- for maybe, oh, twenty years or more, maybe 30 or 40 -- but never got around to. So this is finally a grit-my-teeth-and-read-it list. On the other hand, if you look carefully -- which I'm not asking -- you'll see that I have gritted my teeth for about two books and read about 18 others for candy. But one day, hopefully this year, I shall indeed complete my challenge and finally get rid of some long-term nags. That goal is finally near enough to think about reaching. Very best to all, Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted June 9, 2014 Author Share Posted June 9, 2014 Finally finished Daniel Deronda by George Elliot. What a magnificent novel, her last. Glorious characters. Glorious plot. Glorious prose. It has it all. The now leaves only three decades for the next six months: 1810Walter Scott - Waverly (1814) 1820Wolfgang von Goethe - Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1821) 1830Stendahl - The Red and the Black (1830) We'll get this thing done yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 Looks like you're progressing well, congratulations ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 Athena, on 10 Jun 2014 - 02:42 AM, said:Looks like you're progressing well, congratulations ! Thanks Athena. Putt-putting along anyway. My reading of classics always needs some change of pace in between books, even though most of the classics I have read have motivated me to read more. So I oscillate back and forth, shifting my gears between slow and fast reading. However, George Eliot has definitely gone to the top of the list for reading more. Daniel Deronda is definitely the kind of writing we don't see anymore and is an immense pleasure. With a deep breath, it occurs to me now that I just might try Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables again. But just not yet. However, checking Wikipedia, I see it had an influence on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Well, well, well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Well done, Paul. I read Eliot's Silas Marner a few years ago and really enjoyed it, but I've yet to read any more of her work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Now I want to read Daniel Deronda! So, it stays in the current stack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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