2012 reading challenge

[Charles Darnay]

There are some on your list that I haven't read and would love to get around to....Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest have been on my list for some time.

Winter's Tale was put out there....I add my recommendation for that one...a great book!

One title that I didn't notice (if you should be so adventurous) is "Clarissa" by Richardson. It is an 18th century novel written in the epistolary style, and for that reason it turns many away, but as far as getting into a story and getting to know a character - I place Clarissa Harlowe as second only to Leopold Bloom in my list of "characters who readers best get to know.

[TheFifthElement]

There are some on your list that I haven't read and would love to get around to....Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest have been on my list for some time.

Winter's Tale was put out there....I add my recommendation for that one...a great book!

One title that I didn't notice (if you should be so adventurous) is "Clarissa" by Richardson. It is an 18th century novel written in the epistolary style, and for that reason it turns many away, but as far as getting into a story and getting to know a character - I place Clarissa Harlowe as second only to Leopold Bloom in my list of "characters who readers best get to know.

Hi Charles I hope you get chance to join some of the readings next year. Clarissa scares me, I'm not sure I'm ready for that one but it was in the back of my mind. Certainly your recommendation has made me think twice if not quite turning me to it. Looked up Winter's Tale and it sounds fantastic! It's now on my wish list, thanks

Just one to add to my own list: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Books 1 & 2 arrived today. Very excited.

[TheFifthElement]

Another to add to the list (I think someone mentioned it) is Ulysses by James Joyce. I had a cycle down to the secondhand bookshop on Satruday and picked it up along with Middlemarch and The Old Curiosity Shop (and Old Goriot - it's too short for my challenge but it is a very sexy example of a book so I had to get it ).

My list so far (these are the ones I currently own):

The Tale of Genji - 1184 pages
Middlemarch - 838 pages
Mickelsson's Ghosts - 823 pages
Anna Karenina - 853 pages
War & Peace - 1215 pages
The Poisonwood Bible - 614 pages
The Corrections - 653 pages
The Women's Room - 636 pages
The Three Musketeers - 666 pages
Gravity's Rainbow - 902 pages
The Old Curiosity Shop - 674 pages
Ulysses - 742 pages

Actually I'm a bit scared to read Ulysses

[Charles Darnay]

Ulysses does take time, I find, and if you are only leaving yourself about a month for each - it will probably slow you down.

Your copy of Old Curiosity Shop is over 100 pages longer than mine....curious.

[TheFifthElement]

Maybe I'll leave Ulysses until last.

I'd imagine there is some variation in page numbering depending on font size and layout and those sorts of things, though 100 pages seems an awfully big margin of error...

[Rores28]

I'm in the process of reading anna karenina right now.. about 20 chapters in I think... its very good so far.

[Desolation]

This thread has inspired me to start reading my "Monsters."

I'm going to start with the new P&V translation of Doctor Zhivago, and then from there it's Gravity's Rainbow, Invisible Man, Light in August, Ulysses, and Proust.

I think that longer novels go down best in the winter. I'm not sure why.

[Varenne Rodin]

I just put Count of Monte Cristo on my kindle, so I'll be reading that.

[stuntpickle]

If you want to read "monsters" and are planning to read Dickens, the proper choice has to be Bleak House, which weighs in at over 1,000 pages.

And I'm surprised no one has mentioned that portly masterpiece Tom Jones, around 1,400 pages.

Edit: I just checked my editions of Bleak House and Tom Jones and they are only 800 and 900 pages, respectively. I guess they just felt a lot longer.

[TheFifthElement]

I'm really glad this thread has inspire some people to pick up a weightier (if only in kgs) novel. Desolation - I agree, winter feels like the right time for digging in to a nice thick book. Will you start a thread when you start reading? In Search of Lost Time, Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses are all on my radar.

Stuntpickle - thanks for the recommendation of Tom Jones - looks like an excellent read. I deliberately avoided Bleak House for my Dickens pick because I'm already familiar with the story and I wanted to read a Dickens I hadn't encountered already (the BBC has done a lot of Dickens adaptations). Did you enjoy Bleak House? I think I would still quite like to read it, all things considered.

[Desolation]

I'd love to read Gravity's Rainbow with you. That one's been taunting me from my shelf for two years now. I think that reading it with someone else would give me the boost I need to get through it.

How about whoever gets to it first lets the other one know?

[sickboy]

this thread is also inspiring me to finally take on the monster that is gravity's rainbow.
but i only hope i don't have to take the whole of next year to read it.

[Big Dante]

Ooooo, this looks like barrels of fun.

Count me in.

[Uberzensch]

Les Miserables!

[aliengirl]

I think that longer novels go down best in the winter. I'm not sure why.

Quite right. BTW, I recently read 'Doctor Zhivago' and would strongly recommend it.

I'd like to join this challenge as some of the books on your TBR list are same as mine. I've been planning to read The Tale of Genji, Ulysses, Les Miserables and Don Quixote for a long time but somehow could never bring it off. It would be fun to read these mammoths with others.

Right now I'm reading 'The Pickwick Papers'(801 pages) and am already half way through. Its really a great read! You may like to include it in your list if you wish to read sth by Dickens.