Reflections on the puddle of life
A year of mammoth reading
by , 10-16-2011 at 09:55 AM (1476 Views)
I got about 2/3rds of the way through another blog and accidentally deleted it, so this is a different blog to the one I intended. It's probably better for it.
As we roll down into autumn, and the nights become longer and the days shorter and the leaves crisp and turn and fall I find myself thinking, already, about next year and my reading aims for the year. Reading aims are always loose, but it's good to have them. So, for example, this year I resolved to read more fiction written by women and I have done and in the process I've discovered some great authors, which I'll probably write more about closer to year end. Next year is different again. The village train station opened a couple of weeks ago and I find myself with more reading time, partly because the journey time is a little longer and partly because I have no one to chat to now on the way home, which is kind of sad. But I've also found this year that I've got the capacity to read longer novels so that's my aim for next year - the year of reading mammoth novels.
I've figured a plan to resolve both my problem with picking a book to take camping with me and my apparent inability to get through Don Quixote despite it being an enjoyable read which is to have Don as my set camping book. So whenever I go camping I'll read Don Quixote and perhaps I might finish it by the end of the year, who knows. I already have War & Peace which I planned to read this year and never quite got around to, and in about a week Haruki Murakami's latest novel 1Q84 is released and I'm looking forward to reading that (I might actually read it this year), and I have The Tale of Gengi which is what I'm going to start with, and I have Proust and Anna Karenina, and some other stuff I can't remember off the cuff. My aim is to try and read at least 12 novels over 600 pages long (which makes them mammoth) - any suggestions would be appreciated (but not Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead - I'm not struck on Ayn Rand).
Currently I'm reading Tess of the D-Urbervilles. It's my first Thomas Hardy novel and I'm enjoying it a great deal. I like his descriptiveness and the earthiness of Tess's character. In a way it's a feminist novel, and I like that about it too.
Aside from reading, I'm kind of poorly and kind of busy. I'm spending two days in London a week, which is not fun. I'm full of a cold. My daughter's eczema got infected and she looks like a red faced mini-shrek which is not fun for her.
On the upside, my son may be accepted for a fencing academy which will give him dedicated training to bring him to the best standard he can attain. I'm learning to play the ocarina and doing some sewing and reading and trying to get lots of sleep. My husband has been poorly, but he is getting better now. It's getting dark early, winter is almost upon us. Life prevails, and in general life is good.
Hope things are well with you all.
Go to Profile
Mark as Read
