The Bloomsday Readalong: Sign Ups

As Ulysses is on a lot of people's reading lists, and as it is Bloomsday at the end of spring, and as people were interested in this crazy endeavour, here it is: the official sign up page!

What is Bloomsday?

Bloomsday is on the 16th June (this year it falls on a Saturday) and it marks the day on which James Joyce's Ulysses is based. As a day of celebration, it began in 1954, the fifty year anniversary of the events in the novel, when John Ryan, Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (Joyce's cousin) and AJ Leventhal attempted a pilgrimage along the Ulysses route (I say "attempted" because their mission had to be aborted owing to a somewhat impressive intake of alcohol!). Since then in Dublin and all around the world, Bloomsday (the name taken from one of the main characters, Leopold Bloom) has been observed. 

The Plan

On Saturday, the 16th June 2012, I'm proposing we all celebrate Bloomsday by reading all, most, or a little bit of James Joyce's Ulysses. Ulysses is based around the events of a single day, 16th June 1914. The book is broken down thus:

• Part I - 8am
• Part II - 10am
• Part III - 11am
• Part IV - 8am
• Part V - 10am
• Part VI - 11am
• Part VII - 12pm
• Part VIII - 1pm
• Part IX - 2pm
• Part X - 3pm
• Part XI - 4pm
• Part XII - 5pm
• Part XIII - 8pm
• Part XIV - 10pm
• Part XV - 12am
• Part XVI - 1am
• Part XVII - 2am
• Part XVII - Monologue

Ulysses, my edition at least, is 933 pages, and I believe Allie's is 730 pages. I've seen readathons where people have read more than 1000 pages. This is possible.

Here are the options:

1. For the hardcore: Start at 8am, read the lot. See if it's possible to stick to the time scale (I don't know if it is, when I first read it I was unaware of the breakdown).
2. For those wanting to dabble: Start at 8am with the hardcore and see how far you wish to go. Stop whenever you want. And, if you like, when you've read the parts you wish to, write a post at the end of it and let us know how you got on (only if you want to).
3. For those who think this is insane, or are not ready for Ulysses: read anything by or about James Joyce. 
4. For the Joyce-esque rule breakers: aim to start or finish Ulysses on the 16th and take however long you want!

This does not have to be a 24 hour readathon / readalong. If you just want to go for the first part then write a post, that would be a great way of observing Bloomsday!

But, if you decide to be hardcore: you may wonder, what will you get out of it? Because it has to be said - reading Ulysses in a single day is a big ask, and I don't know that anyone would be able to understand and appreciate it reading it in this manner. However, I would say this: James Joyce is one tricky writer. He demands re-reads. Chances are, one read will never be enough. Reading it in this way, powering through it, will allow you to familiarise yourself with the novel. I've seen a lot of people say it is intimidating, and yes it is, but after this, no matter what level you pick, it will become less of a mystery. It will not be a stranger, and powering through it, you will take some things from it and you can be proud of that, and the others you will have to let go for now. This read is about working through it, letting it wash over you, not sitting with a pencil and a notepad trying to figure out what this bit meant, or this, or this. This may well be a great way to read it for the first time.

So, care to join me? If so, sign up, leave me a comment below and post on your own blog your intentions :)

Money by Martin Amis, and "the new unpleasantness"

Despite everything I am about to say, I did like Martin Amis's Money. In fact, I liked it very much. I read very little contemporary classics (which should be kept in mind if you read this), so in that respect it was an interesting experience.

It was, however, awful. I've no idea why I liked it as much as I did. The main character, John Self, can be added to a long list of unpleasant, grim, grotty sorts - an anti-hero, or a Byronic Hero - arrogant, self-destructive, cynical, and moody. I feel like I'm supposed to appreciate his honesty, as though he, John Self is, at the very least, displaying self-knowledge, which somehow he feels ought to be applauded. Showing no delusions, perhaps, but actually showing nothing more than absolute arrogance. "I want sympathy," he says, "even though I find it so very hard to behave sympathetically." He abuses women and he abuses himself, and leads a very ugly life because of it. I have no sympathy, but I feel like I ought to because, "hey, at least he's honest!" 

I've come to be wary of people who behave in this manner and are completely honest about it. Sounds hard of me, but I've known a few people like this, who solicit sympathy with grotesque monologues on what they have done to themselves. Honesty is good, but so is respect for your listener. Oddly, I don't want to hear of a man attempting to rape a woman. I see no merit in this kind of bravado.

But thank God it was well-written. It was good. It was like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a book supposed to reflect the post modern condition, but for me reflecting nothing but a car crash. And I couldn't look away. This is not my life, and these are not my experiences. This did not reflect my mental state, my attitudes, or any sub-conscious doubts in my mind. I sat reading it in the garden next to the fountain, with Trotwood babbling next to me, enjoying the early days of spring, and yes, I enjoyed it. It was intriguing. It is fascinating to read something that bears no resemblance whatsoever to any part of my life. But at the same time it was awful. 

I have a few more of Martin Amis on my list, and I may add yet more. Classics aren't "nice", they're not bland, they don't tell lovely, heart-warming tales, and I feel like my rejection of Money is implying that they do. They can be grim, upsetting, and intensely irritating. Amis did not invent the Byronic Hero (the clue's in the name!). But Money? Money was a lot nastier. I would, however, read more.

Trotwood.

This is Trotwood, my birthday budgie! I took a few pictures of him this week, but today was the first opportunity to get him to sit still and take pictures with a decent camera!

Trot is about eight weeks old. We bought him on Monday in Scotland (for a price that I thought was scandalously low for a living creature). I'm used to having pets, but because parrots tend to be 'one owner birds', Little G and I never really bonded, so Big C bought me Trotwood so I could have my own pet. He is, frankly, nothing short of marvellous! He's already learned that "up" means "stand on my hand", and when I hold up his travel cage, he knows to fly from his house cage into that. And, as for flying, he is getting much better - for the first few days, when he was let out he was crash-landing a lot, but now more familiar in his new surroundings, he's a little bit more elegant when it comes to navigation. He's also begun to "chatter", so instead of his little "peeps", he's coming out with long streams of (albeit nonsensical) babble. 

At the moment, the goals are to get him used to being handled (which is easier after he's had some flight time) as well as getting him used to his cage (which I think he's fine with now - I think he's learning that he gets a good four or five hours at least out of his cage every day, same as Little G). He's been outside a few times in his travel cage (today he sat peacefully in the sun for an hour) and when the aviary is budgie-proof, he'll be out in that a great deal in the warmer weather. Finally, very soon when he's tamer we'll be getting him a 'Flight Suit' (don't laugh!) so he can fly about outside without any danger of him getting away.

I'm so pleased him with, he's remarkably tame for a new bird (taking into account how young he is and how new everything is for him - he's always been in a cage, so isn't used to being let out at all), and he's very good natured and sweet. He still flies like a bullet, but as I say, he's getting a lot better at navigation! 

[A few more pictures here]

Pre-birthday thoughts.

It's three minutes to eleven at night as I type this. In just over an hour, I'll be thirty years old. And I'm feeling... Yes, I'm feeling ok. Kind of victorious, in a small kind of way, and grateful in a big way.

My twenties were somewhat tumultuous, like many people's, though as with most traumas and dramas, worst things happen at sea. Even so, difficult times. I owe a good part of this victory to my mother, and to my friends Bev, Lesley, Cheryl, and Sandy, and of course, Big C. Being twenty-nine has been the most stable year of my life, and my happiest. I'm really lucky, you know? Really, this isn't my victory, it's other people's. But I'm so very happy, grateful, lucky, and Lord knows what else to say in, now fifty six minutes, I am thirty years old. It didn't have to be this way, not everyone gets to this point in their lives. But I did. Somehow, I made it.

And for once, I don't care about society, I don't care about the fashion magazines. I don't care that so many things are geared towards people in their early twenties, that beauty in this crazy world is represented by the so so young women in Vogue. Somehow, I don't know how, in fifty minutes, I can say - I made it. 

Maybe I gained a little wisdom somewhere along the way, but although I am aware of things I haven't achieved, I don't think for a second I won't achieve them at some point. I have achieved something very important (with a lot of help): stability, happiness, and love. That means so much, and I appreciate and am thankful for them with all my heart. All this, feeling loved, being in love, being happy and being settled, and making it this far makes me feel like I can do anything. It does give me more confidence than I've had in my whole life. 

So, thirty is good, it's a good age to be for me. I never thought I'd say that, when I bought into the values of the capitalist world. I thought it would be some trauma, a flag to stick into a mountain of failures. All the things I didn't do. But I did some stuff. And I can do other stuff. I won't wake up depressed tomorrow, and I'm not sad now. I'm sitting on my bed, Trotwood is sitting above me on the curtain pole, after this I'll go downstairs and have coffee with Big C, introduce Trot to his brand new cage, then come to bed later and read Money by Martin Amis (don't ask me why: in short, saw it for £2 today, remembered it was on my list, and started it in the car. Surprised I like it so far!). Then tomorrow, or, actually, in forty-two minutes, I'll say, "Yes, I made it".

It's exciting. I like thirty. It's just thirty-nine minutes away.

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

I never thought I would finish this. Indeed, it went back on my shelf more than once, but I am not one who gives up a challenge easily (stubborn, rather than determined or driven!). I reminded myself of the point of reading it: I had already read it once, in 2006 I think, and I read it fast. So fast it was a blur. One thousand four hundred and forty-four words in four days. Simply not advisable. So, the point was to read it again, slowly. Two chapters a day, which would have taken me until June. Even if you don't know the precise date, you'll know it's not June, so you know that didn't happen.

Firstly, I can't commit to reading something every single day. I don't recall a day where I haven't read at least something, but if the day has been long and busy, I'm more likely to want to curl up with something I enjoy, and I did not enjoy this at first. So, there were phases of playing 'catch up', during which I decided I didn't like it. Then, there was the period of neglect: end of January - early March. All the time, I knew I ought to be reading it, so I forgot the good intentions and it became a chore and nothing more. When I decided to finish it before the first day of spring, which I managed, it was the third and final chore-read along with Middlemarch (also didn't go well) and Bleak House (also not spectacular) on my winter reading list. I braced myself, and prepared for another miserable time, thinking at least that spring would start with a list of books I wasn't familiar with, or in the case of Les Misérables, The Bible, and Ted Hughes, books that I was already enjoying. Although my intentions were very positive, that is no way to enjoy a book.

So, it was down to Tolstoy, purely and simply, that I ended up mildly liking War and Peace. With more effort and a better frame of mind, perhaps I would have loved it. I do believe that sometimes you can read a book wrong, and I ran that risk with this, but somehow, somewhere along the line, the greatness shone through like the odd beam of light on a cold, winter's day. My watery conclusion: War and Peace was fine. 

One thing that surprised me - how easy it was to read. War and Peace has the reputation of being difficult, many people who like reading (though perhaps aren't so dedicated to the classics) think of it as "one of those books". Too long, too complicated. And it was long, but it needed to be. I never held it's length against it. Complicated, too: so many characters, and even more names. But it was readable, completely readable. It was engaging, and time went by fast as I read it. It didn't take forever, and I thought 'reading it properly' would. There were some beautiful passages, for example,

A spiritual wound caused by laceration of the spirit is like a physical wound and, strange as it may seem, slowly closes over. And after the deep wound - physical or spiritual - has cicatrized, and the torn edges have come together, it only heals completely as the result of a vital force thrusting from within.

So healed Natasha's wound. She believed her life was over. But suddenly her love for her mother showed her that the essence of life - love - was still active. Love awoke, and life awoke.

It was worth reading, and I'm glad I enjoyed it. I'm surprised, too. Did it make me want to read more Tolstoy? Not particularly, but on the other hand I wouldn't be opposed to it. What it did make me want to do is revisit the books I read in university: I studied, and was fascinated by, early sociological theory and methodology, and focused on religion. When I read Napoléon's comment, "Incidentally, a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the backwardness of a people," it reminded me first of the French philosopher Auguste Comte who believed that society went through three phases of belief: superstition, religion, and science, the latter being the high point of an evolved society. Reason is the peak, and any less would, as Napoléon remarked, be regarded as backward. The impact this had on anthropology, the study of religion and of ancient religions, and sociology was immense, and it does make me want to re-read some old classics of the anthropological / sociological kind!

Vernal Equinox.

Finally. The first day of spring! And it's even more exciting because we have a new edition to the household: I now have a Budgie, who I've named Trotwood (David Copperfield), or Trot for short. I'm so happy to have my own pet - Little G is more Big C's pet, parrots tend to bond with one person, and G's been here a lot longer than I have. So Trot is my own bird! He's only been here a day, less than 24 hours, and so far it's going fine. Last night was remarkably easy, he even fell asleep for about two hours on my shoulder, but today he's a little, well, flighty! Right now he's in his cage, and we need to get him used to that, as well as various rooms in the house. As with Little G, Trot will be out his cage more often than not, so he needs to get used to being handled as well. It could be a long process, but he's only about six weeks old, so it shouldn't be too difficult! He is very pretty, and I fully intend on taking some decent pictures in the next few days. For now, there's one here, and you'll see he landed next to Deborah Devonshire's Home to Roost! Here's another one of him checking out Bill Bryson, and finally one of him sitting on my hand. So, if you care to share some of your own happy budgie stories then do, because he is my first bird and I'm learning!

And what of books...? Well, I am delighted to say I have finished War and Peace, and was surprised that it was much better the second time around. I didn't love it, but it wasn't the chore I had set it up to be (I'll post about it properly in the next few days). So now, my 'currently reading' pile is The Bible (which I'm happy to take my time with) and Les Misérables.

I've wrote before about 'seasonal reading' (the most obvious example is reading Gothic Literature in October), and I said I liked the idea of reading French Literature in the spring, as well as Jane Austen. I'm also very keen on catching up with Ted Hughes, and a few more Penguin Greats. I don't particularly feel a spring-vibe from Dickens, however I will stick with that challenge and not neglect it! With this in mind, the plans for spring are:

• Complete Les Misérables, which I am very much enjoying (this is the first thing I'd like to do before I look at the rest).
• Complete my Ted Hughes challenge.
• Read three Dickens: right now I have my eyes on Our Mutual Friend, Domeby and Son, and Nicholas Nickleby, however I do have seven books left to read on my list, so I may change my mind: one thing I learned about winter was not to be too militant with my plans, and also strictly one chunkster at a time! I do think Our Mutual Friend will be the next Dickens, though.
• Get into some French Literature! On my list are: Dumas's The Three Muskateers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Zola's Germinal, Proust's Swann's Way, and Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil. I also have about six books by Collette, which I'd like to look at, de Balzac's Cousin Bette, and Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuichet, and Sentimental Education. So many to choose from! It would be good to read three or four, a few of them there are pretty long. 
• I have a strong desire to read Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, mainly to see if Eliot and I will ever get along!
• I also want to read Mansfield Park and Emma, the two of the six major works of Austen that I haven't read.
• I want to read something by Wharton (I haven't read a single book by her), and possibly something by Henry James (I do get a summer vibe from him, though).
• Finally, as always, I don't want to neglect my 100 Greatest Reads Challenge, or any other challenge for that matter. By Summer Solstice, I hope I'll be up to about 75.

Another big thing this spring will be the Bloomsday Readalong - this week, I'll organise a sign up page for people to express their intentions!

That's a lot to be getting on with - Budgie training, French Literature, and a pile of other books besides! But I'm so happy it's spring, I've been waiting so long!

Tagged!

I do so love being tagged! The very lovely Cassandra tagged me for the The Magical 11 meme. These are the rules:

1. Post rules.
2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself.
3. Answer questions from the person who tagged you.
4. Make up 11 questions for people you tag.
5. Tag 11 people.
6. Let them know they've been tagged.

The 11 fun facts:

1. I LOVE American television programmes. Law and Order: SVU is my favourite, and I really like Law and Order, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I also went through a Gossip Girl phase, and I have seen every single episode of the Golden Girls.
2. I haven't cut my hair in three years, partly out of laziness, so I have very long hair.
3. I would be unable to exercise in any way if it wasn't for my mp3 player. 
4. I have been blogging since 2005, though I did break for a year or two. I've always loved blogging, but I got very uncomfortable with the feeling that I ought to blog about things that were important to my readers. It became a chore. Now I don't feel any such obligation, and this is my most favourite blog and I will stick with it.
5. I was born in a garrison, however my family has no connection with the Army, it just happened to be the closest hospital. 
6. I have a vast back catalogue of UK Vogue, but I keep forgetting to read them.
7. I'm a night owl - I sleep really late, and stay up til 3 or 4am. I really shouldn't.
8. Despite this, I LOVE sunlight. It doesn't have to be warm, but I love light and I love taking pictures of light.
9. I saw the Northern Lights last week!
10. I love Kate Bush. Especially her early stuff.
11. I get very excited when I can see the change in seasons. 

The questions:

If you could live in any age (present-day included) you wanted to, which would you choose? 
I think either just before the First World War, or between the First World War and Second World War (which is partly down to P.G. Wodehouse and E. M. Delafield).

Is there a literary character you identify with? 
Honestly? No. That's disappointing, isn't it? You would think there would be, given the amount I read. I wish I could say there was, but honestly I can't think of a single one.

The world is divided into two different kinds of people: those who plan their own funerals and those who don't. To which do you belong? 
I'm not going to be there, so I can safely say I don't! I used to, but I'm glad I don't any more.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be? 
Aside from here, I'd say Kassiopi in Corfu. I went there last September with Big C and I absolutely adored it. I want to go back!

How do you manage the balance between reading and going out? 
My funds manage that balance, I'm afraid!

What is your favourite quote?

“She was beautifully adapted for life in another planet. But the natural genius she had for conducting affairs there was of no real use to her here.” Virginia Woolf, The Years.

The eternal question: Which is better, Oxford or Cambridge? 
Cambridge!

Is there a song which has a special meaning to you? What is your favourite quote? 
Oh, lots! Lots and lots! Aside from reading, I love listening to music. Music has helped me a lot when I've been down, and here are four examples...

"He thought he was gonna die / But he didn't / And she thought she just couldn't cope / But she did / And we thought it would be so hard but it wasn't / It wasn't easy though" - Kate Bush, The Sensual World."

No such thing as no pay back" - Pop Will Eat Itself, Everything's Cool.

"Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out / Till my legs give out, can't shut my mouth. / Till the smoke clears out and my high burn out / I'ma rip this shit / till my bone collapse." Eminem - Til I Collapse.

"Happiness, more or less" The Verve, Lucky Man

Romantic comedy or thriller? 
On the whole, thriller.

Why do you read? 
It has kept me sane. Seriously.

Now, the tagging... Everyone seems to have done this, so assume if you've not done it and you're reading it, you're tagged! My 11 questions:

1. Do you remember what the first book you read was? If so, what?
2. Do you like Tolstoy? (I seem to be the only person in the world who isn't so keen!)
3. Oasis or Blur? :)
4. Is there a book you wished you had never read?
5. Do you have any superstitions?
6. How long have you been blogging?
7. Who is the most underrated novelist you can think of or which is the most underrated novel you can think of?
8. Do you have any pets? (Prove it with a picture!)
9. Is the novelist you started out hating and ended up loving, or started out loving and ended up hating?
10. Are you an early bird or a night owl?
11. What's your worst bad habit?

Bleak House, by Charles Dickens (and Teapots)

Bleak House is a masterpiece, there's no doubt about that. There are some stunning passages, one of which I've already shared, the rest? Honestly, grab your copy, open at a random page and pick one. His descriptions are so vivid, so beautiful, and so well constructed. I love that many parts of it are written in the present tense, rather than being told how it was, we're being told how it is, and how it is was exactly 160 years ago (the first part of Bleak House was published in March 1852). That is mind-blowing. It was, on the whole, an absolute wonder to read. It was like being in the presence of greatness.

But.

Have you ever looked at a painting, so clever, so technical, perhaps (if this is your cup of tea) so realistic, you've wondered, "How on earth have they done that?" but at the same time, you whilst you're glad to have seen it up close, you don't particularly want it hanging in your living room? That was what reading Bleak House was like.

Katherine Mansfield said of E. M. Forster, 

E.M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He’s a rare fine hand at that. Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain’t going to be no tea.

It felt like, with Bleak House, as much as it was a marvel, there simply wasn't any tea. It's a novel, it is a great novel. The descriptions are thrilling, the technical detail is sharp, Bleak House looks like what it's supposed to look like, a masterpiece. But there was no tea. I was too excited by the descriptions, and too taken by the technical detail to engage with any of the characters (that said, Lady Dedlock will stay with me for the rest of my life, and Esther too, but more because I found her far too sweet and sentimental). When I spoke to a friend about it over the weekend, I was more interested in talking about how I engaged with the present tense, and I say again - some of the descriptions are absolute genius. To be honest, I could have done without the characters and the plot, they got in the way of my enjoyment. The essential component was missing. Bleak House does look like what it supposed to look like, but it isn't what it's supposed to be.

In short, there was just something missing.

Bloomsday Reading

** Sign-up here! **

Allie and I have been chatting about an idea for a way to celebrate Bloomsday: Bloomsday, in case you weren't aware, is on the 16th June (this year it falls on a Saturday) and it marks the day on which James Joyce's Ulysses is based. As a day of celebration, it began in 1954, the fifty year anniversary of the events in the novel, when John Ryan, Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (Joyce's cousin) and AJ Leventhal attempted a pilgrimage along the Ulysses route (I say "attempted" because their mission had to be aborted owing to a somewhat impressive intake of alcohol!). Since then in Dublin and all around the world, Bloomsday (the name taken from one of the main characters, Leopold Bloom) has been observed.

Now, as I say, this year, the 16th June falls on a Saturday, and aren't Saturdays a perfect day for a readathon...? What we thought was this: how about this year, some of us have a readathon / readalong of Ulysses?

Sounds too intimidating? Hear me out:

As I've said, Ulysses is based around the events of a single day, 16th June 1914. It is broken down thus:

• Part I - 8am
• Part II - 10am
• Part III - 11am
• Part IV - 8am
• Part V - 10am
• Part VI - 11am
• Part VII - 12pm
• Part VIII - 1pm
• Part IX - 2pm
• Part X - 3pm
• Part XI - 4pm
• Part XII - 5pm
• Part XIII - 8pm
• Part XIV - 10pm
• Part XV - 12am
• Part XVI - 1am
• Part XVII - 2am
• Part XVII - Monologue

Ulysses, my edition at least, is 933 pages, and I believe Allie's is 730 pages. I've seen readathons where people have read more than 1000 pages. This is possible.

Here are the options we propose:

1. For the hardcore: Start at 8am, read the lot. See if it's possible to stick to the time scale (I don't know if it is, when I first read it I was unaware of the breakdown).
2. For those wanting to dabble: Start at 8am with the hardcore and see how far you wish to go. Stop whenever you want. And, if you like, when you've read the parts you wish to, write a post at the end of it and let us know how you got on (only if you want to).
3. For those who think this is insane, or are not read for Ulysses, read anything by or about James Joyce.

This does not have to be a 24 hour readathon / readalong. If you just want to go for the first part then write a post, that would be a great way of observing Bloomsday!

But, if you decide to be hardcore: you may wonder, what will you get out of it? Because it has to be said - reading Ulysses in a single day is a big ask, and I don't know that anyone would be able to understand and appreciate it reading it in this manner. However, I would say this: James Joyce is one tricky writer. He demands re-reads. Chances are, one read will never be enough. Reading it in this way, powering through it, will allow you to familiarise yourself with the novel. I've seen a lot of people say it is intimidating, and yes it is, but after this, no matter what level you pick, it will become less of a mystery. It will not be a stranger, and poweing through it, you will take some things from it and you can be proud of that, and the others you will have to let go for now. This read is about working through it, letting it wash over you, not sitting with a pencil and a notepad trying to figure out what this bit meant, or this, or this. This may well be a great way to read it for the first time.

So what do you think? Like to join me and Allie for the Bloomsday readalong? If there's enough interest, I'll organise an official sign up page and work this out a little more. I hope at least some of you are as excited as we are! No matter what level you sign up for, I think this will be a great way to enjoy Bloomsday!

** Sign-up here! **

The Classics Club.

So much for doing my announcement post in "the coming weeks" as I said in the last post! This one is far too exciting: Jillian's Classics Club. It's perfect. All the details are here, but in short: you choose no less than fifty classics, list them on your blog, decide on the date for your deadline, then get reading and blogging about each title! I'm going to combine a few projects to compile my list. I'm not, however, simply going to put all my challenges into one page: I will use some titles from other challenges, others I may not, so you will see a few repeats from my existing lists, particularly my "ought to have been read" pile challenge.

I'm going to aim for one hundred and fifty classics in three years, starting from today, the 10th March 2012 and finishing on 10th March 2015. I'll put this exact post as a page on the top of my blog and keep track there. Here is my list:

1. Adam, Richard - Watership Down
2. Amis, Kingsley - Lucky Jim
3. Amis, Martin - London Fields
4. Amis, Martin -   Dead Babies
5. Anderson, Hans Christian - Fairy Tales
6. Aksakov, Sergei - A Russian Gentleman
7. Arnim, Elizabeth von - The Enchanted April
8. Arnim, Elizabeth von - Elizabeth and her German Garden
9. Augustine, St. - On Christian Teaching
10. Austen, Jane - Emma
11. Austen, Jane - Mansfield Park
12. Bates, H. E. - The Pop Larkin Chronicles
13. Baudelaire, Charles - The Flowers of Evil 
14. The Bible
15. Blackmore , R. D. - Lorna Doone
16. Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
17. Brontë, Charlotte - Shirley
18. Brontë, Charlotte - Villette
19. Bunyan, John - Pilgrim's Progress 
20. Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch
21. Burton, Richard Francis - Tales from the Arabian Nights 
22. Butler, Samuel - The Way of All Flesh
23. Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Cantubury Tales 
24. Chekhov, Anton - Plays
25. Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
26. Cleland, John - Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
27. Colliins, Wilkie - The Moonstone 
28. Collodi, Carlo - The Adventures of Pinocchio 
29. Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
30. de Balzac, Honoré - Cousin Bette 
31. de Cervates, Miguel - Don Quixote
32. Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
33. Defoe, Daniel - Moll Flanders
34. Defoe, Daniel - Roxana
35. Dickens, Charles - Bleak House
36. Dickens, Charles - Nicholas Nickleby
37. Dickens, Charles - Our Mutual Friend 
38. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - The Brothers Karamazov 
39. Dostoevsky, Fyodor - The Devils
40. Dostoevsky, Fyodor -   The Eternal Husband
41. Dostoevsky, Fyodor - The Idiot
42. Doyle, Arthur Conan - The Hound of the Baskervilles
43. Dosteovsky, Fyodor - Netochka Nezvanova  
44. Du Maurier, Daphne - Frenchman's Creek
45. Du Maurier, Daphne - Jamaican Inn
46. Dumas, Alexandre - Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
48. Elliot, George - Adam Bede
49. Elliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
50. Eliot, George -  Silas Marner
51. Faulks, Sebastian - Birdsong
52. Flaubert, Gustav - Bouvard and Pecuichet
53. Flaubert, Gustav - Sentimental Education
54. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Tender is the Night
55. Forster, E. M. - A Passage to India
56. Forster, E. M. - Howard's End
57. Fowles, John - The French Lieutenant's Woman
58. Fowles, John - The Magus
59. Gaskell, Elizabeth - The Cranford Chronicles
60. Gaskell, Elizabeth - The Life of Charlotte Bronte 
61. Gaskell, Elizabeth - North and South
62. Gogol, Nikolai - Dead Souls
63. Gogol, Nikolai - Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
64. Goncharov, Ivan - Oblomov
65. Graves, Robert - I, Claudius
66. Greene, Graham - Brighton Rock
67. Haggard, H. Rider - She 
68. Hardy, Thomas - Far From The Madding Crowd
69. Hardy, Thomas - The Mayor of Casterbridge
70. Hardy, Thomas -  The Return of the Native
71. Hardy, Thomas - Satire of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reviews with Miscellaneous Pieces
72. Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the D’Urbervilles
73. Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
74. Heaney, Seamus - Beowulf
75. Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
76. Homer - The Odyssey
77. Hughes, Ted - Ted Hughes Collected Poems
78. Hugo, Victor - Hunchback of Notre Dame
79. Hugo, Victor - Les Misérables 
80. Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World 
81. James, Henry - The Europeans
82. James, Henry - What Maise Knew
83. James, Henry - The Wings of the Dove
84. James, Henry - Portrait of a Lady
85. Kipling, Rudyard - The Jungle Book
86. Kundera, Milan - The Unbearable Lightness of Being 
87. Lawrence, D. H. - The Rainbow
88. Lawrence, D.H. - Sons and Lovers
89. Lawrence, D. H. - Women in Love
90. Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
91. Leroux, Gaston - The Phantom of the Opera 
92. Lewis, Matthew - The Monk
93. London, Jack - The Call of the Wild & White Fang
94. Machavelli, Niccolo - The Prince  
95. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Love in the Time of Cholera
96. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - One Hundred Years of Solitude
97. Maugham, W. Somerset - Of Human Bondage
98. Maugham, W. Somerset -The Magician
99. McEwan, Ian - Atonement
100. Meridith, George - The Egoist 
101. Milton, John - Paradise Lost
102. Montgomery, L. M. - Anne of Green Gables & Anne of Avonlea  
103. Nesbit, E. - The Railway Children  
104. Nietzche, Friedrich - Beyond Good and Evil
105. Orwell, George - Down and Out in Paris and London  
106. Orwell, George - The Road to Wigan Pier
107. Parker, Dorothy - The Collected Dorothy Parker
108. Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago 
109. Poe, Edgar Allan - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
110. Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
111. Proust, Marcel - Within a Budding Grove
112. Proust, Marcel - The Guermantes Way
113. Proust, Marcel - Cities of the Plain
114. Proust, Marcel - The Captive
115. Proust, Marcel - The Fugitive
116. Proust, Marcel - Time Regained
117. Qur'an 
118. Radcliffe, Ann - The Italian
119. Radcliffe, Ann - The Mysteries of Udolpho 
120. Richardson, Samuel - Pamela
121. Rushdie, Salman - Midnight's Children
122. Rushdie, Salman - The Satanic Verses 
123. Sacher-Masoch, Leopold von - Venus in Furs
124. Sackville-West, Vita - The Edwardians
125. Saki - The Best of Saki  
126. Sartre, Jean Paul - Nausea
127. Scott, Walter - Ivanhoe  
128. Sewell, Anna - Black Beauty
129. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - August 1914
130. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 
131. Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath 
132. Stevenson, Robert Louis - Kidnapped 
133. Sterne, Lawrence - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
134. Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin 
135. Swift, Jonathon - Gulliver's Travels  
136. Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
137. Tolkein, J. R. R. - The Lord of the Rings
138. Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
139. Trollope, Anthony - Barchester Towers
140. Trollope, Anthony - Is He Popenjoy?
141. Trollope, Anthony - The Warden
142. Tugenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
143. Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
144. Upanishads
145. Waugh, Evelyn - Scoop
146. Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
147. Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence    
148. Wilde, Oscar - The Importance of Being Earnest
149. Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Grey
150. Zola, Émile - Germinal

What do you think? How many have you read?! And do let me know if you're participating so I can check in with you :)

Collective nouns for birds (a post with almost nothing to do with books!)

Desert Larks

I know this is a little random for a book blogger, but I had to share this: a few days ago, my friend and I were talking about collective nouns for birds (she was putting together a pub quiz) and I found some brilliant ones I really wanted to share with you.

The loveliest one, I have to say, is "an exaltation of larks". It's a beautiful in it's precision. I also love "a charm of Goldfinches", "a congregation of Plovers", "a tiding of Magpies", and the one everyone knows: "a parliament of Owls".

But, not all evoke such wonderful images! There is, too, "a murder of Crows", "a siege of Herons", "a pandemonium of Parrots", "a deceit of Lapwings", and, the strangest one of them all, "an unkindness of Ravens"!

And, of course, there are many others, and I'm finding these lists quite fascinating!

As for book news, well: Bleak House is taking forever. It seems that there is no option for fast reading. Often with a book, when I make up my mind to finish it, I can read through it rather quickly whilst still retaining my "presence". But not with Bleak House. It's a slow read, and makes me question whether or not I can finish it by the 20th. Perhaps, and only perhaps, I might switch to War and Peace in order to at least feel that I am closer to my goal. After a night of hard reading, I was a little disappointed to discover on Goodreads that I have not yet hit the 50% mark after a week of reading. This is very unusual for me! I am enjoying Bleak House, however... well, I'll wait until I've finished it before I share my thoughts. There is a major "however", though!

Other news: Jillian has a group project - The Classics Club. I'm planning on combining my list with my "ought to have read pile" challenge, then add more from there. This I will do in the coming weeks - I am always planning something new, and have a million lists running through my brain, however I need to finish Bleak House and War and Peace. Really: I need to do this. Why, I do not know, but for me to finish these two titles before the first day of spring is a very big deal to me! Of course, there won't be tears if I don't, but if I did... Oh, if I did, I'd be very excited!

Middlemarch, and a distinct lack of presence.

“When I want to be busy with book, I am often playing truant among my thoughts.”
~ Dorothea, in George Eliot's Middlemarch.

Appropriate, that, from a book in which I was barely present for the majority of it. It has to be said, reading it was an utter disaster. Did I hate it, was I bored? No. I read it wrong.

I think, sometimes, a book can simply be read badly. Sometimes, the writer fails to engage you, sometimes the characters fail to interest you, sometimes the plots fail to grab you, but sometimes, sometimes, you fail the book. Everything is there waiting for you, and you just mess it up. And that is what I did with George Eliot's Middlemarch.

I don't like hating someone's favourite book, but on the occasions that I do, I will write about it. It is my reading journal after all. But this post? I nearly didn't write it. I finished Middlemarch a few days ago, and I was prepared to gloss over it. But no. I will tell you honestly what went wrong, or rather how I went wrong.

I can't read slowly, for a start. I like to lose myself in a book. I like to live it. For me, that does not involve putting it down much! Reading it as I intended: reading it as published, at the rate of one book a month, was too slow. Between reading the first part in early January, then picking it up with the intention of finishing it at my own pace, I have read over thirty other books. I simply could not remember what happened, and as I wasn't terribly fond of it to begin with, and given that I very rarely re-read, I was unwilling to start it again. I should have. It was like beginning a book two hundred pages in and going on from there.

I have began a book disliking it, then grown to love it. The best example right now is Les Misérables. I read the first chapter and did not care for it in the slightest. But, somehow, it got better. I have loved reading it, and I can't wait for spring where I intend to just read. No plans of attack, just sit down and read it at my own pace, take it in, and love it. Reading a chunkster slowly doesn't work for me. Even with Tom Jones, which I, on the whole loved, I had the feeling of, "Oh, you again" when I picked it up. This is perhaps my failing as a reader: my lack of patience.

So I picked up Middlemarch and was at a loss, but I kept going. My eyes saw every word, but my mind didn't. I found myself thinking of other books, or mundane, day to day things like what time I was going to make the tea? Are there shirts to iron? What time are we going out? And I would look at the page number and see I'd gone through ten pages.

And this is not the fault of George Eliot: this one, I have to say, was on my head. And it's a shame. I may re-read it in the future, perhaps, and I am eager not to make the same mistakes with The Mill on the Floss, which I am planning on reading within the next month.

So, sometimes, not often, but sometimes, it's not the book that fails me: sometimes I fail the book.

The last leg of winter.

The 'currently reading' pile.

1st day of March! And, even better, Vernal Equinox, or the first official day of spring, is just 20 days away! I am so ready for spring, and already the days are noticeably getting longer, the bulbs are coming through, and there have been days where it has been a touch warmer. It is, as I've said, more exciting and more inspiring than New Year. Just twenty days away!

As for now, well it's a case of wanting to wrap up winter and start spring with new challenges and goals. Right now, I have a few books still on the go from my "currently reading" pile, and I've mentioned before I felt the pile was way too high. My problem has been I took on too many chunksters, which is a problem because I'm the kind of person who needs to feel a little progression. When I'm reading the same books week after week, as I have been, I feel a little in limbo. I've learned, for me, it's perhaps better to have just the one chunkster on the go with a few smaller books at the same time (a few - I need to remember that!) to keep the variety going. A few days ago, aside from Middlemarch, Bleak House, The Bible, War and Peace, and Les Misérables, I also had The Woman in White, Tom Jones, and The Old Curiosity Shop on the go as well. I won't berate myself for my enthusiasm, however I think you probably could all agree that was a bit much!

So, the "last leg of winter" goals; things I'd like to achieve by 20th March:

• Complete Middlemarch (52% through)
• Complete Bleak House (9% through)
• Complete War and Peace (24% through)

My goal is also to focus on one at a time. It's only for three weeks, less even, and it would feel so good to finish these and start spring with a new (smaller) pile. I have many ideas for goals and challenges, and I think I need to finish these three before launching into anything new.

As for Les Misérables and The Bible: I do need to catch up on both. I want to have finished 2 Chronicles by the end of this week (currently half way through 1 Kings), and I think I'm about two chapters behind on Les Mis. When spring starts, I am more than happy to continue The Bible at the pace I'm currently running at (given that I've read most of the New Testament and assuming we, my friend and I, were to stick roughly to one book per week and that I catch up this week and get to 2 Chronicles, I would finish reading it in the first week of August. Unintentionally, that would be a year after I began this challenge). And Les Mis, well, I'm thinking I want to pick up the pace and make that my focus for the first month of spring. It isn't that I want it "over with", not at all, it's because I love it so much I think I would enjoy it more reading it at my own pace. It is a very worthy book! I'm excited about focusing on French Literature in the spring, as well as perhaps reading Emma and Mansfield Park to finish Jane Austen's major works, as well as read a lot more Jeeves books, however I do think I need to finish Middlemarch, Bleak House, and War and Peace before I begin with these new plans.

So there is the goal for the last leg of winter: complete the "currently reading" pile, make it my focus, and not be distracted (not even by another book on said pile!). I'm pretty confident - I've been reading a lot these past few days, and read The Woman in White in almost one sitting (I read about 80 pages, then put it down, then the remaining five hundred or so in one go!). Even so, because of all the pauses, I don't at this moment fully appreciate my progress with each of these books, so it still seems like a heck of a challenge.

As I said, challenges didn't go entirely to plan in February, but for the records, here's a basic run down:

• Read six books from my challenges list. The challenge books I read were Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. So that's seven, so yes, I did this!
• Read The Old Curiosity Shop, Dombey and Son, and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I only read The Old Curiosity Shop.
• Finish He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope. Finished!
• Read Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. Finished!
• Finish War and Peace. Barely made any head way....
• Lose 10lbs. 9.6lbs lost :)
• Start the spring clean. It's under way...
• Finish figures for Big C. Done.

As for the entire month of March, well, I've explained the reading situation (though forgot to mention Ted Hughes: I'm in no rush with reading his collected poems, although a worthy goal would be to have read up to twelve by the end of the month). I also need to get some more spring cleaning done (it's going reasonably well), and am aiming to lose another six pounds. I don't want to aim for another 10lbs because it's generally agreed doing that every month isn't wholly sensible, and I am trying to be sensible (and it's going well, me being sensible, by the way, so keep doing that). I'm not going to aim to read x amount of books from my challenge list because it's more important to me right now to complete what I've got going. That said, if I were to complete these books, all three are challenge books, so I'll say I aim to complete at least three!

So there you go: the last leg of winter goals, which can be summed up in one - prepare for spring!