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.

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.