Montag, 18. Februar 2013

Time flies

Yes, my blog has once again been on hiatus and I am terribly sorry, but the last few weeks were simply crazy. I thought I knew what being stressed meant, but this end of term has taught me better: before receiving my certificate last Friday I had to write so many tests, complete so many assignments and hand in so many papers that the idea of a full night's sleep became a ridiculous fantasy. Obviously being in the second last year means that they want to prepare us for our A-levels by giving us a stress-induced heart-attack...
Anyway, the reward for surviving this torture is one glorious week of semester break that has just begun.

Reading-wise I don't have many news since the only thing I had time to read was the assigned The Best Little Girl in the World, which is a young adult novel about a girl with anorexia and therefore not exactly what I usually read. Over the semester break though I have to finish both Jean Anouilh's The Lark (a play about Jeanne d'Arc) and Thomas Mann's Tristan, so I will have some literature to write about soon enough.
Oh, and on a side note: I have finally seen Les Misérables and now simultanously love and hate this movie as well as Victor Hugo. I definitely have to get around to reading the end of the book!

Unfortunately and contrary to my wishes the world does not stop turning simply because I am busy and neither does anyone stop blogging only because I have no time to read their posts. So, in addition to having to catch up with all your blogs I have missed the Classic Clubs awesome Classics Spin, which makes me really sad because it seems so much fun. But, thank God, the rules in the announcement post state clearly that we should "feel free to rebelliously break the rules at our leisure" and I am taking them at their word; so I  will just post a list of 20 titles now and use this random number generator to choose which book I will be reading. While I pretend to belong you will simply have to trust me not to cheat because that would be kind of pointless.

Five books I am a little bit afraid of:
1. Don Quixote, de Cervantes
2. Clarissa, Richardson
3. Moby Dick, Melville
4. The Faerie Queene, Spenser
5. Anna Karenina, Tolstoy

Five I can't wait to read:
6. Emma, Austen
7. Peter Pan, Barrie
8. The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood
9. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
10. Gone with the Wind, Michell

Five neutral titles:
11. Henry VIII, Shakespeare
12. Moll Flanders, Defoe
13. Beloved, Morrison
14. The House of the seven Gables, Hawthorne
15. Catch-22, Heller

Five books I have attempted to read before and never managed to finish:
16. Les Misérables, Hugo
17. Oliver Twist, Dickens
18. Mrs Dalloway, Woolf
19. The Divine Comedy, Alighieri
20. The Perks of being a Wallflower

That's the list, now fate will decide...God, I'm nervous!
And the randomly chosen number is: 
15
Which means the book I will have to finish until April 1st is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I know virtually nothing about it, so I am very curious. I hope it will turn out to be amazing and that everyone else is happy with their chosen book. Good luck!

8 Kommentare:

  1. You sound like you've been busy, enjoy this week off :)
    I wanted to do the classics club spin but I'm already reading two classics....next time I will definitely take part.

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    1. Ah, thank you :)
      I am already looking forward to the next time! Maybe then I will manage to officially take part..

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  2. You had to read "The Best Little Girl in the World"?? A shlocky 70s novel? They couldn't assign "Wintergirls" (a much better novel about the same thing)? Well that doesn't sound like much fun.

    Catch-22 is a neat book, though. Hope you like it. :)

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    1. It wasn't. I remember my health teacher saying it was one of her favourites when she was young and that's why she chose it. At least it was short :)

      I am very excited! Can't wait for my copy to arrive!

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  3. The Best little Girl in the world is such a dreadful book and personally I don't think it deals well with the issue of annorexia. It is amazing that schools are still using that awfull book.
    I see Peter Pan is on your classics list, I have a giveaway going for readers who read a children's classic in Feb/March if your interested.
    Enjoy the break!
    Arabella ( http://genteelarsenal.blogspot.com.au/ )





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    1. Thank you Arabella, I would love to take part! I just have to get around to actually reading Peter Pan before :)
      It's been on my list for so long and I love the movie so much, but somehow it has always evaded me. I'll try!

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  4. I have been busy as well (why is there never enough time in the day?), so I hope you thoroughly enjoy your week off -- and squeeze in some leisure reading.

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  5. Hiatus are completely understandable, especially when life is as insane as yours seems to be right now. Having said that, welcome back! I missed you.

    Enjoy Catch-22!

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