Results of one month of Reading Harder

I'm currently drowning in books again, but I think it's been a successful month. The greatest thing being that I finished Mr Whicher, started The Moonstone and Orhan Pamuk. I don't think I've ever read a Turkish novel, but I've finished The Black Book and I'm in the middle of The New Life. Very different. very deep with an almost dream-like quality. I'm not sure if it's to do with cultural aspects or the way that Turkish is translated. I think I would like to go back to The Black Book as I think it's the kind of novel you could read multiple times and interpret differently.

Whicher was good, but I didn't find it brilliant. It has encouraged me to read a bit more history, however, and I am still in a bit of a French phase, particularly reading a history of the infamous diamond necklace and I've foolishly started reading the Dumas novel. No idea how I'm going to get through that and The Moonstone, I'm already suffering from the racist overtones and irritating comedy servant in Wilkie's novel. Not that you read Wilkie Collins for subtlety.

By Jebulon - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11383484

 

 A pretty hideous necklace. 

Otherwise, I am reading The Sunne in Splendour but not getting very far yet, still trying to read War and Peace and hankering after A Suitable Boy. There's something about the summer months that makes me want to read massive tomes about India but I can't do this particular novel without some sort of way to record the characters or else I get a bit lost. I'm in a bit of spate of starting lots of books then not really getting into them and I have a couple of series on the go that I know I've been neglecting (in particular the Matthew Shardlake series and I've got a bit demotivated with the old Poldark around book 5. There's 12 of them. I'm hoping I'll go back to them in time but I haven't really started Heartstone or The Four Swans so I'm giving myself a bit of a break. Sometimes I inevitable feel like I read a few too many serious books. It's great, I love it, but I could probably do with getting into something a bit more frivolous right now.

Where to next?

Had a bit of a binge on the Victorian pastiche, and I've now finished The Quincunx, as well as The Unburied and Rustication (all Charles Palliser). Then I went onto Kept (D J Taylor) and I'm about the finish Derby Day. I think that the two authors differ in that Palliser's novels are more centred on the plot and read more similarly to Dickens or Wilkie Collins. They are both postmodern, but somehow I find Taylor's postmodernism more extreme. Palliser's novels take the Victorian elements such as the coincidences and links between characters and multiply them to the extreme. The mysteries seem genuine mysteries which, in the case of the Quincunx, are not necessarily satisfactorily solved by the reader due to the unreliable FPN. Taylor's novels don't exactly read as murder mysteries, much to the disgust of some of the Goodreads reviewers, the mystery is more like how and why the characters are linked, and Taylor meticulously recreates Victorian atmosphere with references and excerpts from novels of the period as well as from recreated newspaper reports and letters. So far I have enjoyed all of them, but I have to say The Quincunx has been my favourite and one I'd like to re-read at some point.

So, I have sort of reached the point where I am not sure whether to go on with Victorian mysteries or move onto something else. I think I'd like to read An Instance of the Fingerpost before I get out of the genre for a spell; I know it's not Victorian but I think it would round it off nicely.

Otherwise, I have finished The Black Moon (Poldark). I am still meandering through Balzac, a couple of the stories have been a bit forgettable, but I think I will probably continue, although I feel like I am cheating a little on my Goodreads count as if I have a quiet day I can get through one or two in a few hours. I suppose it makes up for the giant books I am trying to read though. Otherwise, not a huge amount of progress on the other books I'm reading as I've been reading a couple of library books in the meantime.

 

Less drowing in books

A brief update:

1. I finally finished  The Cornish Trilogy. Very good book and I'm looking forward to reading more Robertson Davies when I have less currently reading books on my list.

2. Finished The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game. Shadow was pretty good. Angel was a bit...well bonkers. 

3. Finished The Astors. Okay, but a bit forgettable. I am now on An Intimate History of Marie Antoinette off the old Kindle unlimited list. 

4. Working on finishing a couple more soon, altho I got a bit distracted by Havisham. This week I have mostly been reading American Tabloid, The Name of the Rose, a bit of War and Peace and a bit of my current Poldark. I read a bit of A Little Life today. The Quincunx needs a bit of work and I can't really stop for too long with War and Peace because I will lose my thread and get bored of the war bits! It's currently not a thrill ride, that's all I'm saying.

Drowning in Books!

Wondering whether it might be as a result of coming of my anti-anxiety meds, but at the moment I seem to be starting a lot of books all at the same time, particularly quite long books and series. I also know I haven't updated for a while, but I currently feel like I want to write more and not be so bothered about monitoring my online presence. To this aim I'm separating Tumblr from Facebook so I can post as much shit about books, fan fiction and feminism as I want.

Anyway, as far as my big book list is concerned, I haven't touched Proust for a while. I keep trying to get back into it but no luck so far. I'm hoping to at least finish the first volume by the end of the year. Same thing with the dreaded Clarissa. Although I finally managed to finish the first volume of A Dance to The Music of Time, as this was mostly completed in a fog of baby and I didn't really start the second volume in time to keep up with the plot I am starting again from scratch. The good news is that I've finished the Barchester Chronicles, the bad news is that although I've read the first couple of chapters of Can You Forgive Her? I have not really paid attention enough and will probably need to start again. Prompted by the BBC series I have started War and Peace. So far, I am finding it a tad hard-going. The Vintage translation preserves the original French so I am continually reading translation footnotes and then the actually footnotes explaining things. The naming conventions and family links are also quite confusing. I'm plowing on, however.

Current other books oldest first:

1.  The Grass Crown. This has been on there forever, but as I've read it a couple of times and keep up with the plot, this can stay.
2. The Cornish Trilogy. Somehow, although I was really enjoying this I sort of got out of the habit of reading it and it's just waiting to be finished.
3. Queen Lucia. Started this last Christmas, difficulties getting into it and I've lost the plot.
4. The Black Moon. I've been ploughing through the Poldark series for a while and I'm coming up to halfway through. As the plots are not that difficult to follow, I'm tending to pick them up and put them down at will.
5.  The Reformation. Really interesting topic, quite a dense non-fiction book that I haven't really kept up with.
6. American Tabloid. Another reproach from my reading list I'm probably going to have to start from the beginning.
7. North and South. The classic Civil War Trilogy, not Elizabeth Gaskill. Finished book one and although it's not hard going, it's a bit of a mammoth undertaking.
8. A Little Life. A library book I ended up getting a Kindle copy of. So far, it's pretty good, I just don't seem to be in the mood for it right now.
9. The Astors. Short history I've borrowed from Kindle Unlimited. Not bad.
10. The Second Footman. Historical M/M romance. Again, not really in the mood.
11. The Name of the Rose. Started reading this after reading a couple of books set in monasteries. I am making copious notes.
12. The Quincunx. If I hadn't limited myself, this would have made the list as I've been meaning to read it for AGES. What a book though. A pastiche of Victorian Gothic melodramas, with a juicy mystery and a cast of thousands.
13. Revelation. After loving Dominion I started reading Sansom's Shardlake mysteries. I am currently on the fourth.
14. Shadow of the Wind. I've just picked up the sequel from the local library and the third book is on order. I started this ages ago but didn't finish it, so I'm hoping to get further this time.
15. Letters of Two Brides. As my attention span seems to be a little limited at the moment, I've started reading Balzac's novellas. This is my third and I'm really enjoying their resemblance to fairy tales. 
16. Havisham. Started reading this randomly last night, not very deep into it.
17. A Question of Upbringing. Sudden craving to start this again.

So that's pretty much the Goodreads list aside from the three mentioned in the part about the big book list and a great big book of short stories that kind of stays on there. There are some pretty chunky books on there and series that carry on for a while. I'm not really worried but I think I probably need to start finishing some stuff and make decisions about whether I want to give some of these books another try or put them on the dreaded abandoned list.   

Update-Lost my mojo!

I have to say lately I haven't been reading so much and I am getting a little behind on this year's challenges. I've been busy, distracted and just not into reading the kind of books I am usually into, so I've given myself a bit of a break. I have managed to finish Wolf Hall, which I enjoyed but I felt like I didn't put as much attention into that I usually would. It's the kind of book that you could read several times without picking everything up, and I'm glad I've watched the TV series at the same time, that is hard enough to follow at times. Although Bring up the Bodies is not on the list, I would like to read it at some point too.

Took me ages, but I have also finished The Petticoat Men which took me a while to get into, but turned out to be a really interesting, well-researched books. Otherwise, I have not touched Clarissa for a while, have read a little of The Small House at Allington and have borrowed a shed-load of Kingsley Amis novels from the library. I usually steer clear of that kind of thing, but I thought I'd try it. So far One Fat Englishman is okay, I don't mind dislikeable protagonists, but the sharp, biting satire is lacking a little for my tastes. 

Anyway, I am going to try and finish some of my library books as I have all ten spaces filled, and not stress about not always feeling like reading at the moment.

2014: A Year in Books & Next Year's Books

I haven't done too badly this year, despite having a baby and a full time job (before I went off on maternity leave), I managed 61 books. Delights have included the Patrick Melrose novels, most of the Barchester chronicles (although I have completely slowed down on these lately and need to finish The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset) and Penny Vincenzi novels. As far as the BIHNR list is concerned, I managed the first book in A Dance to the Music of Time and Anna Karenina on top of the Trollope. I read a bit more chick-lit and woman's fiction, but that was fine. At the moment, I'm not putting too much pressure on what I'm reading and I'm not likely to next year either as I have to get used to working full time as well as being a mum. 

Next year's biggest resolution is going to be no more buying cheap e-books in 2015. I realise that this has become a bit of a habit I need to break as I am not even sure how much I am spending on e-books, I just go on Kindle when I need cheering up or something then somehow end up buying a couple which I then feel like I will never have time to read. Plus there is the ethical implications of supporting a giant tax avoiding conglomerate that will potentially destroy the publishing industry and independent bookshops. I've got plenty of books on the TBR shelf that I want to read, so I am going to look at seeing if I can get through some of those. I'm making it a rule that I can go to the library and add things to the TBR list, but not buy any, and I can complete challenges without buying any books.

I'd also like to read a few more books from authors from other cultures. I'm aware I get put off sometimes, which isn't great.

Other than that, finish some of the series I've started, particularly the Trollope and the current Churchminster series I've borrowed from the library and I'm close to finishing. I've also started the Mapp and Lucia series recently. I finally finished some of the books that had spent the longest on the reading list, but I still have The Cornish Trilogy and Pillars of the Earth lurking around there (they are quite heavy to read in bed with a book light both physically and metaphorically) and I've barely got anywhere with Tales of Angria. I know the Wolf Hall TV series is coming up too, and that's been on the TBR list for ages, it was one of the first e-books I paid for. So, lots of stuff to read. My challenge is 50 books and, although it seems like I am setting myself a lot of rules, I am just going enjoy it even if I end up reading mostly chick lit.

Update

No, I haven't been around a lot lately. And I've had to give up on the Proust due to unforseen circumstances. I changed my job then had a baby about 3 months ago. Somehow, I am still reading mad books, but I'm obviously less able to read and blog about books due to time constraints.

Anyway, checking my original list I have read the following:

• Finished Swann's Way before my life got a bit mad
• During pregnancy and since the baby I've managed the first four books in the Barchester Chronicles. Currently on the 4th. They seem to be getting progressively more difficult to finish, but I think that's a combination of length and being a bit distracted.
• Read the first book of A Dance to the Music of Time very close to and after the due date of my extremely late son. Impressed, but have yet to gain the momentum to return.

Otherwise, along the way I have meandered through the following:

• A short Goodreads trail of American fiction. Pick a book, read it then go for the first recommendation. This way I read a couple of Henry James and Edith Wharton novels before I got recommended Barchester, at which point I went off track to read the series. Hoping to get the momentum to read the Palliser novels if I ever finish the last two chronicles. 
• Anna Karenina was not on the original list, only War and Peace. Read it. Hated the modern adaptation, though considering how annoying Jude Law is, he didn't do too badly.
• Discovered Edward St.Aubyn since the baby, I though the Patrick Melrose novels were brilliant, I am on the final one. Somehow, I have discovered a liking for the kind of misanthropic characters I didn't used to like reading about that much previously.
• Back on the old chick-lit bandwagon along with funny mummy novels, bonk-busters, historical romances, Penny Vincenzi doorstops and basically any kind of light reading I can get my hands on.
• Speaking of doorstops, I'm also currently wading through The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet and The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies, with varying degrees of success depending on how many books I am currently reading. It's a bit easier to read things in bed by the light of the Kindle Fire rather than try to attach a book light to a massive book, so some stuff gets neglected. Books need to be easy to pick up and put down, hence the chick-lit. 
• I still buy and borrow far too many books. By the end of this year I should be able to get through about 60, which is not bad considering how busy it's been. 

So, I guess I will still attempt to blog when I can and one day I will return to my project of writing about the books I am reading. I think if I can get the occasional review in whilst being a full time mummy I'll consider that a bonus. 

Off the chick-lit wagon

Confession time. It's been rather a while since I updated on the Proust and even a while since I picked it up. I'm really going to have to start again, but I've recently started a new job which occupies a lot more time and brain power than the last one. I think to be honest, I'm not going to be able to keep up with the depth of analysis I've been trying to muster, not if I'm going to finish this damn book during my lifetime! So, the Proust posts will be resumed but in a more condensed length that doesn't require my re-reading the passages again and then writing lengthy posts. This is supposed to be fun and I'm not going to let it become a chore. As for further books, I'll just have to wait and see.

Otherwise, I am keeping up the reading, although I have been reading a few more 'comfort' books, mostly chick-lit which I read in a few days, along with the usual mixture of other books. I am currently attempting to finish Don DeLillo's Americana which I enjoyed the beginning of, but found part 2 a bit difficult to get into. I will attempt to post a review when I finish it and get the chance.

I suppose I might have come across as a bit snobby towards chick-lit previously, I think that there is some good, well written chick-lit out there but some generic things as well. I like reading out of my comfort zone and chick-lit can be a bit too comfortable at times, although it is proving ideal at the moment when I get home in the evening and find the thought of reading anything more complicated is a complete turn-off. Still, I don't intend to exclusively comfort-read, I still have a TBR list with 341 books on it and the mad plan to read 100 books this year. Only another 56 to go!

Update and all that

So, blogger is telling me that it’s been a whole three weeks since I’ve last written a post, which isn’t very good, as I certainly haven’t stopped reading. I could get bogged-down with writing reviews of books I read a while ago, but I think for the sake of my sanity and to give me time to get onto books I should be reading I’m going to keep it brief. Glad I reviewed the Go-Between when I did though. Spoiler warning for some of the books reviewed. Anyway, here’s where I am up to as of today on my Goodreads shelf:

I am extremely behind on the Proust, having hoped to have finished Swann’s Way by now. Some of this has been due to a bad cold and being busy, some of this has been due to not really fancying reading it and getting a bit too bogged down with Swann’s obsession with Odette. Proust is great and all that but sometimes I just want him to stop circling around and get to the plot. Anyway, I am aiming to finish by the time I go back to work if I can, although I have to say that there are other books I’ve never read calling to me, particularly Hilary Mantel. ARLTP suddenly seems like even more of a big commitment than I was expecting, so I’d better get down to it.

I have finished the Imogen Robertson books, although I am aware that there is another one out that I haven’t found in the library yet. Overall, an entertaining series of novels with some good characters and historical detail. 

Anne of Green Gables. Haven’t read them since I was a teenager and they are pure comfort reading, reminding me of blissful summers swapping them when I was around twelve. Probably the first love stories I read. I still love them, although I did find Paul a bit annoying in Anne of Avonlea. Surprised of how little there was of Gilbert too, she’s always talking about how they were old school chums, but he doesn’t pop up that much until book three. 

I’m currently reading A Storm of Swords having finally finished A Clash of Kings which took a while to get going. Number three is moving along at a cracking pace in comparison, with more action, less politics and more of the characters I’m interested in. I’m already around 40% in. I can see why fans are on at George though, that guy spends far too much time farting around blogging. Get on with the next book, already!

Seeds of Greatness was pretty funny and one of my favourite books so far this year.

I had mixed feelings about The Black Dahlia. I don’t always enjoy books that are gruesome, although the LA Quartet has been on my ‘to read’ list for a while, and I think it’s a good challenge. I haven’t got that far into The Big Nowhere yet and it’s not even made the ‘currently reading’ list, although I am intending to try and read it. I think that although I admire it for its noir qualities, period details and it is an excellent example of its genre, it’s not really a genre I will ever get into. I prefer historical mysteries and gothic mansions hiding secrets to thuggish detectives investigating tortured women. 

Shadow of Night took ages and didn’t thrill me as much as A Discovery of Witches. Far too much time describing her integrating into Elizabethan society and getting married. It started to remind me too much of Twilight for middle-aged university graduates, with the amazing ability to suddenly become pregnant and the no sex before marriage thing. The whole reason I liked the first one was that the heroine and hero seemed different; here she left her hard-one equality behind and let him take her blood to discover all her secrets because he didn’t trust her. Shades of Eddie Cullen. I don’t mind people messing about with established vampire-lore, but it does get my goat when the writer makes the heroine ‘special’ so they can circumnavigate the difficult aspects of their other half being a vampire like the lack of procreation in a conventional way. There should be a downside to it, in my humble opinion. Hopefully we can get back on track to the mysterious manuscript bit next book, and being back in modern times will allow her to tell Mr. Controlly where to go.

The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch came and went. Alas, I was unable to concentrate on it when I read it. It was okay, but a bit too deep for reading half of it, leaving it a few weeks then finishing it in a rush to return to the library. Beautiful style though.

The Pirates! in an Adventure with Romantics delivered what it promised and I liked what he did with the Romantics.  I’ve read and enjoyed all the Pirates! novels and they are wonderfully silly and enjoyable to read.

I wasn’t so keen on Death Comes to Pemberley, although I did try to like it. The Austen-y bit of it was okay, the style was fine and the use of characters was fine. I don’t think it really worked as a murder mystery though. Mr. D did a little bit of surface investigation, there was a great chunk of stuff about the legal system at the time then it was all revealed at the trial. The bit between the murder and the trial was hard going. Still, she was experimenting. If you can’t write what you want when you are an immensely successful 90 something novelist when can you? She didn’t force anyone at gunpoint to read it either. 

So, that’s the books I’ve been reading. Overall, with the Goodreads reading challenge I was 15 books ahead and have changed the challenge to 100 books in a year. Ambitious, but I didn’t really realise that joining Goodreads would change my attitude to books. I’m reading more and it keeps me focussed. There are less books going unfinished, I am trying new things and trying to read good quality books, even ones with a ‘hard’ reputation (although I also try not to be too ‘snobby’ about books too). Really should be getting on with the Proust.

Swann's Way in a month: an ambitious undertaking

Too good not to use! (link)

So, I missed the deadline, hardly wrote about it at all this month and generally read other things or didn't read at all. Real life got in the way of fiction, as it should be. I suppose I could've finished it, but it would have involved more time and less notes and analysis. I'm not allowing myself to become disheartened, however. I've come to the conclusion that this isn't going to be a series I can rush, I don't want to rush about writing about it either so in some ways I am glad that it's not a book I can take with me to places. Let's face it, this might be the one and only time I read this so I might as well savour it, never mind if it takes me six months or a year or longer. Maybe I will even break the unofficial one-at-a-time rule, I'm just going to see how I feel and enjoy it.

Update on this Year’s Book Marathon

Pinched from Free Digital Read's FB Page

I haven’t updated for a while so here’s what I need to do to get ‘up to date’ with everything:

• Finally finish writing about The Bell Jar. I haven’t even looked at it since before last week’s half term holiday and I’d just like to get it done at the moment. 

• Write a review of State of Wonder which I finished about a week ago and loved.

• Write a review of Instruments of Darkness. I am currently in the middle of a small historical murder mystery binge having discovered Imogen Robertson’s books in the library, along with The Black Dahlia, which I have yet to start. I have started Robertson’s second book in the series and have one other to read (the fourth book is being published in April, but I am not in that much of a rush to read it, although I am quite enjoying the series so far). The plan with the Ellroy is to read The Black Dahlia then move on to the next three books in the quartet. Ambitious, particularly with the number of library books I have out at the moment, but the L.A. Quartet has been on the ‘to read’ list since around 2003. Not sure if it was going to go on BIHNR2: The Next List, but never mind. 

•  Finish and write about Swann’s Way.  I’m still hoping to finish this by the end of February, although I think I’m going to miss the Year of Reading Proust’s Goodreads group deadline of 25^th February. I don’t think I want to spend the entire year reading it anyway; it would be good to have a schedule of finishing one book per month so that I can finish by July. Whether this is possible or not is another matter.

•  As well as library books I am still ploughing on with A Clash of Kings,  Death Comes to Pemberley and Shadow of Night, which will all need to be finished and reviewed. Yes, I am juggling a crazy amount of books at the moment and obviously considering more, including a mini Richard III book festival, but that will have to wait for the moment. I’m already confusing myself and finding it a little bit difficult to keep up with everything, so no more new books until I have finished some.

I’m not sure where to start to be honest, I think I am going to try and start with Instruments of Darkness then finish The Bell Jar up before it drives me crazy.  On the plus side, the fifty books in a year is going really well, I’m currently nine books ahead of schedule and have read fifteen books this year, but haven’t finished so many recently (yes, I am counting Sherlock and Castle Rackrent, I have some short books to make up for the reading time wasted reading trashy fanfic, which is my guilty pleasure rewarding me for persevering with the Proust!). Honestly, I am slightly bogged down with Shadow of Night and finding it quite difficult to get into Anatomy of Murder. Both are good but SoN seems to have got a bit lost plot-wise at the moment turning Diana into a wife (I am also frankly baffled with one element of the story, but as it is a BIG spoiler I will save that for a review once I’ve finished it) and Anatomy of Murder is taking a bit of time to get off the ground. I don’t know, it could be a post half-term slump or something; at least it hasn’t affected Swann’s Way, which is still rather relaxing and pleasurable to read, although sometimes I think it would be nice to abandon writing notes about it and just float along like I am in a little Proust-steered boat or even wallow in the warm bath of his prose. I think it is affecting more that I thought it was!