Readathon: Finished a book

Thomas4 Comments

   
Minutes read since last update
210 out of 300

Pages read since last update
202 of The Position by Meg Wolitzer

Books finished
The Position by Meg Wolitzer

Distractions

  • Dinner.
  • Thinking about doing push-ups.
  • Thinking about new windows.

Thoughts
I enjoyed the Wolitzer. I think I thought there would be more variety during my readathon. But I guess I did finish a 307-page book so I shouldn’t expect too much variety. But still have time to mix it up a bit tonight.

Next Steps

Not entirely sure. I probably still have a good three hours before I go to bed which, based on my peformance so far, means that I probably only have about 100 pages left for tonight. I guess I am a slower reader than I thought I was.
     

Readathon: In the swing of it

Thomas6 Comments

  
Minutes read since last update
150 out of 250

Pages read since last update
105 of The Postion by Meg Wolitzer

Distractions

  • Squirrels.
  • Thinking about the flue liners that need to be repaired.
  • A nap.

Thoughts
Well the Wolitzer is definitely moving a long at a faster pace. The weather is really nice so I enjoyed reading out on the porch. But then I started to get sleepy and transferred to the living room couch. Of course it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess what happened next. I took a nap. Although it took a chunk out of my reading time, I don’t regret it for a second. I love to nap in the afternoon–what could be more luxurious–and I feel quite refreshed and ready for lots more reading.

Next Steps
I may keep reading the Wolitzer until I finish, but I am just as likely to pick up something else. John has a work reception tonight (I know, on the weekend?! Damn you IMF.) so I will have plenty of uninterrupted time to myself.
  

Readathon: A slow start

Thomas6 Comments

  
Minutes read
107 out of 150

Pages read

57 of The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme
15 of Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood

Distractions

  • John.
  • Thinking about my fingernails.
  • Thinking about how to rearrange the living room.

Thoughts
Last night before I went to bed there were about six titles that I could have devoured all at once. I started reading a line or two from each and couldn’t wait to get started. This morning I couldn’t figure out which one to start. First up was the Atwood. Interesting but just didn’t feel right. Only read 15 pages. Then I got distracted by John….38 minutes later I decided to pick up the Carlyle book. Distracted at first but managed to get into the swing of it and read 57 pages.

Next Steps

  • Lunch
  • I am going to hit something much lighter for a while. I have enjoyed the reading so far, but need something to really whisk me away.

   

Readathon: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!

Thomas11 Comments

      

Random Readathon Thoughts

This is my first readathon.

I am very exicted.

Last night I wanted to (but didn’t) start reading from my readathon pile.

I doubt I will do any of the memes. I like them for the readathon but I get too disctracted. I would spend too much time on them.

I don’t start until 10:00 AM EDT.

Just going around and looking at blogs of folks participating has made it clear that if I check up on others progress during the readathon I will be hopelessly distracted and not get any reading done. So, I love you all but I may not be checking out your blogs again much until after this  is over. I am sure I will at some point, but if I make it a habit I won’t get anything read.

I posted my ground rules earlier.

I posted my reading list earlier.

I turned off my word verification so as not to confound the cheerleaders.

I only have seven minutes before I start. Must. Brush. Teeth.

I will probably post every hour or so.

Yay!

Readathon: More Pages Read = More Money for Charity

Thomas2 Comments

      

Ash over at English Major’s Junk Food had an absolutely fantastic idea. She is going to donate three cents for every page she reads. And she has chosen The Trevor Project as the recipient of her great idea. The Trevor Project helps at risk LGBT youth and seems like a perfect choice given the recent spate of gay teens committing suicide.

So readers, I will donate five cents for every page I read AND five cents for every page that Ash reads to The Trevor Project as well.

I think some others have also made their readathon a charitible event. Have you ever thought of doing it? Not too late.

Readathon: Where will I perch?

Thomas9 Comments

  
Here are the reading spots I will choose from for Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-Thon.

The Library.
This will be good in the early stages as it gets the morning sunshine
 

The Living Room.
Also, good in the morning and good for those moments when I want to actually doze off a bit.

 

The Bedroom.
Probably will be most used during the late evening on Saturday and early morning on Sunday.

The Office.
This is less of a reading space and more of a updating the blog space.
My Porch.
The weather is supposed to be gorgeous and these chairs are pretty comfy.

Book Review: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Thomas16 Comments

    

What happens when the page count includes a comma?
How does one begin to write a review of a novel of 1,358 pages? Better question: How does one begin to read a novel of 1,358 pages? I very much enjoy the act of reading. But as with most other facets of my life and personality I am always thinking about the end result. In reading that means I am always thinking about finishing a book, logging the finished title on my list of books read, and choosing the next book. In general I don’t feel bad about this.  I read things completely, but sometimes I don’t read things as closely as I should and thus I don’t always retain a whole lot of detail. In fact one of the reasons I decided to review every book that I finish was so that I could look back on my reading list and actually recall what happened in a particular book. But being results driven in reading has also aided me in reading a whole lot more. This isn’t a question of quantity over quality either in choice of material or in the way I read a book. What it does mean is that my slightly OCD-influenced drive to finish whatever I am reading with all due speed helps me spend time with something that I love–books.  If it weren’t for that, I would still love books, but I would probably spend way too much time in front of the TV while my paper friends sat neglected and dusty on the shelf.

So, how then does the results-driven reader get through 1,358 pages? This was not without challenge for me. At first I kept looking at where my bookmark was. But 50 or even 100 pages into a book this thick doesn’t look much like progress. It soon became clear I needed a plan for getting through this one. I thought of following Dovegreyreader Scribbles read along which is reading 100 pages a month for a year. Some following that read along are going to read a chapter a day for a year. Both seemed like a good way to break this monster book down. But it didn’t seem right for me. The results-driven me kicked in and decided that  that was too much time to have something like this hanging over my head. So I plunged in, hell bent on reading this book in much less than a year.

The good news is that the book actually came to the rescue. Once I started getting into the rhythm of the writing and story lines it soon became clear to me. One shouldn’t approach War and Peace as a book. It is more like your favorite TV drama or mini-series, or, dare I say, soap opera. You enjoy the moment. The setting, the costumes, the characters interacting. You enjoy the arc of the mini story lines, and you don’t mind that it goes on and on and on, seemingly without end. It allowed me to enjoy the process and think less about the end.

A note about spoilers
Just as I have with my previously posted graphic summaries, I do list below what could be considered a spoiler or two. But the arc of this book is so sprawling, the characters so many, and the page count so high, that even if you know what happens, I think it would be hard to ruin it for someone who hasn’t read it. Plus my spoilers aren’t too spoily.

The story
If it took me this three paragraphs just to express my thoughts on how I read the book, how long do you think it would take me outline the story? You don’t want to know. And I don’t want to try. It would probably also take me longer to do that then it did to read the book. So you get a bulleted list:

  • Begins in Russia in July 1805
  • Ends in about 1820
  • The war bits relate to the campaigns in the Napoleonic Wars in which Russia was involved.
  • The peace bits tell the story of a circle of titled and not-so titled upper class Russians in Petersburg and Moscow.
  • There are plenty of peace bits (chapters, sections, etc.) with parties, marital intrigue, romance, etc., but to me it was all background. The impact of the wars on the characters and their families spills over into all of the peace bits.
  • Lots of inappropriate and typical upper class behavior: too young girls being paired off with too old men; marriage for dynastic and financial reasons; overspending, gambling debts; and other such luxuriously tragic goings on.
  • A relatively happy ending. Like an Austen you can kind of see the marriages coming down the pike, and they do come together in the end.
  • A few of the deaths are surprising, but given the vast scope of the novel they are sometimes, I think purposely, anticlimactic.

In the process one learns about:

  • Napoleon and his quest for world domination. At one point in my undergraduate days I knew the rough outline of Napoleon’s romp through Europe and Africa. War and Peace helped refresh some of that and, more importantly, prompted me to go back and skim the history of that time to reacquaint myself with the “facts”.
  • The nature of war which is so often about important people playing chess with human pawns. I think Tolstoy would have problems with the premise of this gross simplification but I think it still rings true and is very evident in his book.
  • Human life and death, triumph and sorrow, things that are earth-shattering at the moment, are blips on the map of human history. Just imagine if Tolstoy put it in the context of geological time.
  • Historians, on both the winning and losing sides, create heroes. Rarely–at least in this period, but one could argue even into our own day–are commanders and tacticians as brilliant as they are made out to be. Chance and dumb luck have much to do with success on the battle field.

What War and Peace isn’t
A paean to the art of war. There is certainly much description of military maneuvers and glory seeking commanders and soldiers. But the overall feeling I got from Tolstoy was that there wasn’t much glorious about it. In fact, there were times when I was caught up in the action, and like a 13-year old straight boy, was filled with the shoot ’em up thirst for a glorious victory. But I don’t think there was one instance where Tolstoy gives us a moment of pure militaristic climax. One of the more compelling scenes in the book is when Nikolay Rostov is proving his bravery and leading the charge against the enemy. Just as the reader reaches a peak of excitement over Rostov’s impending triumph, Rostov himself sees the face of his “enemy” and has an immediate crisis of confidence and conscience.

Final thoughts

  • I enjoyed reading this book.
  • It is no doubt a masterpiece, but it is also an enjoyable read.
  • I think there are probably at least 300 pages that could be chopped out.
  • When I had about 60 pages to go all I could think was “enough already, just end it”
  • I could have done without the non-fictional, philosophical disquisition that Tolstoy includes in the Epilogue. In a different mood I would find it very interesting, but as the final 30 pages out of 1,358, it seemed like punishing someone for doing a good deed.
  • I am very glad to have finally finished War and Peace. Probably the one title in all literature that reigns as most intimidating. Okay, I take it back, I think that distinction should belong to Ulysses.

And now I can pursue the read-a-thon without this one hanging over my head. Hoo. Ray.

Readathon: My 24-Hour Readathon Book Pile

Thomas20 Comments

      

The big challenge for me is trying to figure out what I should read during Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. The organizers suggest variety, levity, and in some cases brevity when choosing books. I think that is basically good advice. My problem is that I don’t want to read anything that I am really looking forward to (like a few Dorothy Whipples) because I worry that reading them in a compressed period of time may make me rush too much through them. I don’t want to take a savor-worthy read and cram into a few hours.

I needed to find books that will be exicting and engaging but not so precious to me that I will feel like I am giving them short shrift. And to avoid that feeling of having to read a particular book (turning the read-a-thon into a chore) the key is to have many options. I have a pretty long list from which I will choose.

Kingsley Amis – Lucky Jim
I have heard good things about this academic novel. And its on the short side.

Margaret Atwood – Bodily Harm
I read this one years ago and I have been meaning to go back and re-read all of Atwood’s fiction.

Frank Baker – Miss Hargreaves
I know that Simon T will think that this is one that I should savor, but it has been sitting on my TBR for as long as I have been reading his blog and it seems to be one that will draw me in pretty quickly. I may need that. And if it turns out to be savor-worthy I can always re-read.

Heinrich Boll – End of a Mission
Anything by Boll would make for good contrast with most of my other selections. I will pick this one up when I feel the need for something a little more masculine.

Charles Burkhart – The Pleasure of Miss Pym
The only non-fiction on my list, this is a thin volume about the work of one of my favorite authors.

Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
I enjoyed The Eyre Affair, but not enough to become a bona fide Fforde groupy.

MFK Fisher – The Boss Dog
A very short book of vignettes that take place in the south of France. I have tried starting this one before and haven’t gotten past the first page. Just wasn’t in the mood. I figure this way I can power through until I start to like it (I hope).

Thea Holme – The Carlyles at Home
Molly Hughes – A London Child of the 1870s
Two of my shorter Persephones. (How convenient that they fall next to each other in this alpabetical list.)

Shirley Jackson – The Haunting of Hill House
A scarey thriller by a very good writer. Perfect for October.

Dezso Kosztolanyi – Skylark
Don’t know too much about this short Hungarian novel except that it is a NYRB edition. And I have had wonderful luck with those.

Bernhard Schlink – Homecoming
If it is half as compelling as The Reader it should easily hold my attention.

Nevil Shute – Requiem for a Wren
I love Shute, and you might think I would  consider his work to be savor-worthy. But the bottom line is, whenever I read his novels I can never put them down. He writes gripping, fascinating, page turners. Can’t wait.

Matthew Stadler – Allan Stein
Don’t know anything about his one, but I needed a little gay on the list.

Meg Wolitzer – The Position
I loved Wolitzer’s The Wife and liked Surrender, Dorothy. In this novel four children in the 1970s have to cope with the surprising and run away popularlity of a sex manual written by their parents.

Oscar Wilde – The Happy Prince and Other Stories
Wilde tells a great fairy story. (No pun intended.)

Readathon: Christopher Columbus to the rescue.

Thomas5 Comments
Columbus Before the Queen
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
Brooklyn Museum

This coming Saturday I am going to participate in my first 24-hour read-a-thon. I have observed them before and always felt a little left out . So this time around I was happy to see that it worked out with my schedule. In fact, it works out perfectly because Monday is Columbus Day and I don’t have to go to work. So even devoting one whole day to the read-a-thon I will still have two more days of weekend.

This particular read-a-thon is dedicated to the memory of Dewey, a book blogger beloved by many who passed away late in 2008. I first came across Dewey’s blog very soon after she passed away. I was just beginning to discover the world of book blogs and was saddened to come across her blog only to find out that she was no longer with us.

I would by lying if I didn’t admit that I have qualms about participating in the read-a-thon. I am notoriously bad at challenges. I tend to love the idea of them and the build-up but when it comes to the actual challenge I tend to fail spectacularly. I am easily annoyed by expectations even when they are my own.

In order to feel like I have had a successful read-a-thon I have implemented the following ground rules for myself:

1. I am going to read from 10:00 AM Saturday to 10:00 AM Sunday. I plan, however, to get a regular night’s sleep. I absolutely hate the “I stayed up all night” feeling and don’t want to ruin my Sunday. So the plan is to go to bed midnight-ish on Saturday and then get up 6-ish on Sunday to get in a final four hours of reading.

2. Even though part of the fun of the read-a-thon is seeing what other bloggers are up to, I am going to refrain from browsing all of your blogs until after the read-a-thon is over. I know once I start checking up on my blogroll I will get way too distracted and then won’t get any reading done.

3. I tend to read in short spurts. Even when I am enjoying a book I tend to need breaks pretty fequently. So I am going to institute a 45 minutes on, 15 minutes off reading schedule. Even that is subject to change. I love spending time with John so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if he proves to be a distraction.

4. I don’t think I am going to build in any book completion expectations. I think that would make it seem too much like work.

Coming Soon: The pile of books I am going to choose from.