Term's over, grades are good; time to celebrate!Again a huge Thank you to all participants, I hope you'll have a great weekend and I'm eager to read your updates during the Readathon (I am afraid I'll spend a little too much time reading them instead of my books).
I have pondered the question what I would read this weekend for two weeks and have not been able to come up with a decided list, so when I say I am going to read the following books it is just a rough outline and perhaps I'll end up reading something totally different.
Les Misérables
I really want to read the first 200 pages of this, because I should already have read them according to my Readalong timetable. January was such a busy month...
Little Women and Peter Pan
I know, both of them are children's books but I haven't read them yet and I feel like that's a huge gap in education.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht
This is a play I have to read for my German literature class (yeah, holidays and I still work for school) and in fact I find the idea of reading something German for a change quite nice.
???
This is where my planning ends, but possible candidates are King Oedipus by Sophocles, The Metamorphosis by Kafka, The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera or Oliver Twist by my beloved Dickens.
We'll see what I choose in the end! I will report my progress in updates at the end of this post. For now, have fun and off to Les Misérables!
1.30 pm
Whoa. As promised I've read the first 200 pages of Les Misérables and on the whole I liked it a lot. The start was a little slow (the first 70 pages are only devoted to describing a bishop's everyday life...), although I surprisingly enjoy Hugo's wordy writing style and a lot of his picturesque metaphors are astonishingly beautiful. I am really interested how all of the loose threads in this looong novel will fit together in the end, but for now I'd like to read something shorter, with less references to French history. Oh, before I forget it, during the chapter "The Year 1817" I came close to throwing my copy against a wall. There are at least two names of people who were famous in France two hundred years ago and whom nobody knows anymore today in every single sentence, for 6 pages. I am not joking. That was excruciating.
4.45pm
Finished The Caucasian Chalk Circle and didn't expect it to be so thrilling. It was also really clever, Bertolt Brecht is an author I'll have to investigate in further. More about this later, for now I'm going to watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother with my little bro to have a short break from reading.
9.30pm
Okay, this "short" break became somewhat extended because my grandmother came over for luch surprisingly and stayed for what seemed an eternity (her TV's broken).
Nonetheless I've just started reading Little Women and although I haven't found a character to identify with yet I am really enjoying the setting and the atmosphere.
I am going to delve into this one for the next few hours and see how far I come.
I hope everyone is progressing well!
Day Two: 9am
The second day of my lovely Readathon and I'm already sad because it will be over soon!
Last night I read Little Women until my mama took it away from me, complaining that I was staying up too late. I still can't identify with any of the girls which is unusual I think, but I am really eager to see how they will develop into grown-up women.
Since I am a very slow reader Little Women will probably keep me occupied the whole day, so bye bye my beautiful plans of reading so much more.
12.30pm
The morning spun away reading, I can hardly believe it's already noon.
Of course I am the thousandth girl to say this, but I have to do so nonetheless: Little Women is an absolutely wonderful book! I didn't imagine it to be so amazing, everyone seems to love it, yes, but in general I tend to dislike books which are so popular. I have read half of it and can't wait to finish it, especially since I am feeling that the second half is getting a little more serious. Unfortunately I have to give it a little break now to prepare lunch, and after just reading about Jo's disastrous attempt to cook dinner it's only fair to admit that I'm a little nervous. Be strong, my heart!
10.30pm
I am still reading Little Women (told you I was reading at a tortoise's pace) and don't have anything to report, except that I just cried out of relief that Beth doesn't die.
What is it just with this book that it is so moving?
0.30am
I have finished Louisa M. Alcott's masterpiece just in time, for, sad as it is, the Readathon is over now! The whole next week I will be busy writing more detailed posts about the absolutely wonderful books I read, but for now a quick overview:
Books read:
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (first 200 pages)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
Estimated number of pages read: 540
The only thing to add for now is that I hope you've enjoyed my little Readathon as much as I have! Again, thank you for taking part and celebrating my holidays with me (which I shall spend asleep after totally neglecting sleep this weekend)!
I can't wait for your thoughts on Little Women!. And I'm reading Les Misérables this year too, slowly. I'm only 50 pages in so far. :D
AntwortenLöschenI'm supposed to read it slowly too and honestly I think that's the best way to read such an ahem...wordy author :D Otherwise I would probably get annoyed rather quickly, the 200 pages in one day were quite challenging.
LöschenI'll probably start Little Women tonight, I am eager to read the book everyone seems to love so much!
That redundant passage you described sounds so very painful! I *adore* the Victorians (obviously), but I must say they had a horrible tendency to stray from the topic for several pages at a time. I suppose even they had faults. :)
LöschenIt sounds like you're off to a good start! With so many people reading Les Miserables this year, I keep thinking that maybe I should as well, but after watching the 1923 movie version (silent) of The Hunchback of Notre Dame last night, I'm thinking I might read that first. Good luck with the rest of your plans! Little Women is a favorites of mine, although I haven't read it in forever.
AntwortenLöschenThank you, I am doing my best although I haven't been able to finish as much as I had wanted.
LöschenI have always wanted to read The Hunchback, plus it's shorter than the really, really loooong Les Misérables, so perhaps that's a good idea :)
Looking forward to your thoughts on Little Women. I always felt like a Jo (but then, I think most readers do).
AntwortenLöschenI've only read the first quarter or so yet, but I am a little disappointed. Not because the book is bad, which it isn't at all, but because I expected to find one of the girls who is a lot like me.
LöschenI obviously share Jo's bookish interest, but I've never been a tomboy, and I'm a little socially awkward like Beth and love music, but of course I am not as good as she is :)
We'll see if that changes!
I've been reading Les Miserables for the readathon as well (sounds like we've been working on the same chapters!) and it has taken more determination to keep at it than I would like. I've also been reading Little Dorrit.
AntwortenLöschenYou're doing fabulous! I preferred the second half of Little Women to the first. I can't say that I personally identified with any of the girls in Little Women either. Personally I enjoyed the sequel, Little Men, more, but then I was the only girl in a houseful of boys at the time, so I could definitely relate! :)
I hope your cooking efforts went better than Jo's? ;)
AntwortenLöschen