In a bit of a Muddle!

Pinched from my local library's Facebook page

Okay, so having finished Les Mis and decided to embark on Wuthering Heights I now discover that the Guardian’s next Reading Group project is Swann’s Way by Proust, one of the hefty tomes appearing on the BIHNR list. I am now quite muddled over what to read. I have a few options:

Abandon Wuthering for the time being, take it off Goodreads and dive straight into the Proustian behemoth with the intention of finishing the first book with the rest of the Guardian crowd then carrying on with the rest of it. Yes, I know I said I wanted something shorter and probably less French, but it would be nice to read it sort of with other people (although I am more of a reader of comments than maker of comments)

Stick to Wuthering, possibly attempting to finish it early (which is a bit of a cheat as there is so much written about it).

The ultimate challenge, which is going against the unofficial one book at a time rule and reading the two books at the same time, which will probably lead to me not finishing Swann’s Way by the end of the month and possibly turning the whole thing into a lot of frustration and toil. It’s not so much the reading that takes the time, it’s the analysis and the writing about the books so reading two will possibly slow me up so I am either writing about the books more than a couple of times of week or I have to spend a few weeks catching up with the writing afterwards. I really don’t want to turn this into a chore, that leads to abandoned books and feeling like this is more work than play!

If I am reading Swann’s Way, which format? I have the Moncrieff translation in paperback and ebook form (both were pretty cheap).  It’s lovely to be able to pencil in a book, but the same time, the two volumes are MASSIVE, bigger than even Les Mis. I doubt I will be able to take a copy to work. 

Anyway, I think on reflection I am going to leave rolling in brie for the moment and plunge into Proust. At least it will feel like a major achievement once I start crossing off books from an entire series and I am actually looking forward to it. The prose isn’t that difficult to read, it’s just extremely easy to get bogged-down with the length. I’m going to go ebook for the sake of my back and my sanity, but I can always refer to the physical book at home if I want to. 

I am also a little bit muddled with the amount of reviews and books to finish, so I am making a list of the things I aim to do shortly:

• Write a review for Mr. Selfridge
• Finish writing about the Bell Jar. I have most of the notes I wrote for the feminist part of it, but I wanted to have a look into the Freudian aspects of the book which is linked. Yes, I am rediscovering the old literary theory.
• Finish Castle Rackrent and write a short review 
• Finish My Cousin Rachel and review. 

 

It’s getting more difficult to keep up with the number of books I’m reading and reviewing, but as I am enjoying it at the moment I might as well continue.