The Sunday Salon: Classics Club

Okay, I've tried very hard to not sign-up for any new challenges until May and when I have a few completed (which reminds me I need to see where I'm at with my challenges).  BUT this isn't a year long challenge; this is a  five year challenge to read 50+ classics.  Of course we have the her bookishness Jillian to thank for this inspiring idea and pulling it all together.  I've picked 100 books to complete in the next five years (01 March 2012 - 01 March 2017).  You may notice that there are more than 100 books (technically) listed.  All of the novels composing The Forsyte Saga (9) and Kristen Lavransdatter (3) are not individually listed.  This will give me some wiggle room in case there are books I don't care to finish.  I have "shorter works" on my list, but I've chosen to read the entire short story collection to make it count.  I do have one play, Richard III, that is the shortest work on the list. 

I also set a few rules for myself:  1) all the books had to be published prior to 1950 and 2) I can reread, but only if I've read the book once or it has been over 5 years since I read the book).  So, alas, I cannot reread Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights over over over and over again. But the good news is that I will hopefully increase my list of classics I adore.

On to the list!  Turquoise books are rereads and Greens are Viragos!

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (completed 04/17/12)
2. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green
3. The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
4. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu (completed 07/29/12)
6. The Warden by Anthony Trollope
7. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
8. Doctor Thorne by  Anthony Trollope
9. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
10. Small House at Allington by  Anthony Trollope
11. Last Chronicle of Barset by  Anthony Trollope
12. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
13. Kristen Lavransdatter (all three books) by Sigrid Undset
14. Hunger by Knut Hamsen
15. No Name by Wilkie Collins
16. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
17. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
18. Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
19. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
20. Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall
21. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
22. The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen (completed 07/01/12)
23. Howard's End by E. M. Forster 
24. The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
25. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
26. Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens 
27. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 
28. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens 
29. Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens 
30. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens 
31. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens 
32. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens 
33. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 
34. Bleak House by Charles Dickens 
35. Hard Times by Charles Dickens 
36. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 
37. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 
38. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 
39. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 
40. Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 
41. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
42. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
43. Richard III by William Shakespeare
44. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
45. Middlemarch by George Eliot
46. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
47. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
48. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
49. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
50. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
51. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
52. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
53. The Forsyte Saga (all 9 books plus the "interludes")
54. The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
55. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
56. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
57. Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
58. No Signposts in the Sea by Vita Sackville-West
59. The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
60. Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis
61. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
62. The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
63. Lorna Doone by Richard Blackmore
64. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
65. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
66. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
67. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
68. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
69. East Lynne by Ellen Wood
70. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen
71. The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
72. The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
73. The Rising Tide by Molly Keane
74. Without my Cloak by Kate O'Brien
75. Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
76. Persuasion by Jane Austen
77. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
78. Trilby by George Du Maurier
79. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
80. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
81. Passage to India by E M Forster
82. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
83. The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Tales by H P Lovecraft
84. The Call of Cthlulu and Other Weird Tales by H P Lovecraft
85. The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
86. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
87. The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
88. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
89. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
90. War and Peace by Leo Tolstory
91. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
92. A House and Its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett
93. The Collected Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf
94. Summer will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
95. The Judge by Rebecca West
96. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (completed 12/31/12)
97. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
98. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West
99. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
100. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I've thought long and hard about my list.  Over three quarters of the novels are books I own.  I'm also incorporating my desire to read all of Dickens's novels in order, complete a Trollope series, and read a stack of Viragos.  My approach is that challenge success is based on making challenges work together.

Okay -- mini-rewards.  For every 5 books off of this list I read I will purchase one classic novel NOT ON THIS LIST in a nice copy.  By nice copy I mean that it isn't a ratty paperback in a thrift store bin -- it could be a vintage something in good condition, a Penguin clothbound, a newish edition with a lovely introduction.  See, I'm already prepping for 2017 onward!  At the end of my 100 books read I will have 20 new-to-me classic novels that are lovely, pristine, and will beautify my shelves, my mind, and my imagination.

I hope you'll join us in the Classics Club!  I think this will be an amazing experience.

The Sunday Salon: The Hello, Reality Post

I haven't been blogging or reading much of late.  I'm too busy holding Atticus and snuggling away the day.  Actually, I've had quite an eye opening week.  Two things happened that made we ditch everything and just hold the baby.  1).  Atticus is allergic to formula (and possibly dairy).  Poor thing has been gassy and crying since Tuesday.  It will take a couple of weeks for him to get everything out of his system and so I'm abstaining from dairy just in case that is the cause and we will never use formula again.  NEVER.  I'm back to nursing him 100% of the time and I'm happy with that.  The other thing that happened is that I found some cute clothes for him and realized that they weren't in his size.  My five-week old baby is out of newborn clothes, barely fits 0-3 month sizes, and is sporting slightly too large 3-6 month sizes.

All this to say -- I only have a short while with baby Atticus.  Newborn Atticus has given way to baby Atticus and by this time next year he will be toddler Atticus.  Dickens and Trollope and all the others will be on my shelves for years.  Right now I need to focus on Atticus, Hope, Sam, and the holiday season.

I'm still reading a bit, but I've modified my reading goals.  My goal for December is to finish my reread of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and to finish Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South.  My reading goal this year was to read 75 books OR 20,000 pages.  Right now I've read only 46 books, but I've read just over 16,000 pages.  Considering this year has been quite the year for events (married, moved to a new home, and a new baby) I say this is not too shabby.

In addition to my current reading goals, I am looking towards 2011.  I believe book bloggers all over the world get excited about the upcoming reading year come December!  I've already decided to keep the same yearly goal (75 books OR 20,000 pages), but I'm going to structure my reading a bit differently.

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed by all the reading I want to do.  There are challenges and readalongs, GoodReads reading groups, LibraryThing early review copies, and then I must contend with my home bookshelves and the masses of wonderful library books I run across.  To help quell this bookish anxiety, I'm - surprise - making up some book lists.  I have a bunch of different categories (books on my shelves or authors I want to try, for example) and then I'm listing some books I really want to read to help me narrow my choices and not be overwhelmed.

I'm also applying this more structured approach to reading challenges.  Typically, I join challenges and never really pursue them in a methodical way.  For example, a may join a short story challenge, but I don't really think about it; I just count a book if I happen to read it.  I've done this because I'm loathe to commit myself to a list of books for a challenge.  However, if I view the list as a starting point I may be more inclined to consciously think about the challenge at hand.

Having said that, my plan is to work on these book lists.  I may have trouble concentrating with reading, but I can jot down titles and surf the web via my Blackberry to discover new titles while I'm holding Mr. Crankypants.  If all is well (i.e. if Atticus proves amenable) I might start posting some of these lists before the end of the year.

Before I sign off and feed Atticus, I wanted to apologize for my lack of commenting on other blogs.  I've been reading everyone's blogs RELIGIOUSLY.  Once again, via my Blackberry, I've been keeping up.  I just haven't mastered the art and science of typing comments with one hand!

Happy Reading!

Weekend Update and a Tardy Sunday Salon

Roommate was away on vacation this weekend and, as much as I love her to pieces, it was rather nice to enjoy some quiet alone time. Friday I spent in the throes of productivity. I bought groceries and stayed under budget, re-caulked the bathroom, baked Blueberry bread, and read a ton.

Saturday was spent cleaning and washing clothes only to find out that all the dryers at my apartment complex were broken (all two of them). Then I had to get creative and drape wet towels all over the apartment to dry. Following the laundry drama, I went on a lovely drive with my dad and Hope to get some pizza.

That afternoon my fellow nerd, Erin, picked me up. We spent 6 hours at Inman Perk and after a mocha and two medium cups of coffee each we were both crazy-caffienated. What followed was a bizarre ADD-infused shopping trip to Target. When I got home I discovered a pile of furniture next to the apartment complex and nabbed a small bookcase.

What a wonderful weekend.

Now for that tardy Sunday Salon:

• I read pages 270-274 of Clarissa. (I know, not very impressive, but Innocent Traitor is begging to be finished.) These pages include a ridiculus letter from Clarissa's seducer, Lovelace, in which wild exclaimations of love are proclaimed and every sentence ends with an exclaimation point. I really should be reading Clarissa right now as I made it my lunch break read, but I have a headache and cannot muster reading Clarissa's martyrish reply to Lovelace.
• I read about 50 pages of Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir. It is fabulous. In this portion of the novel, a ten-year-old Jane is sent to live with former Queen Katherine Parr and her new husband, Admiral Thomas Seymour and the Lady Elizabeth (as in future queen Elizabeth). While she is there Katherine and Thomas conive to marry Jane to King Edward and Thomas has an inappropriate dalliance with Lady Elizabeth. Then Elizabeth is sent away and Katherine discovers she is pregnant. Katherine dies in childbirth, Jane is sent back to her parent's home, and Thomas has his head lopped off for attempting to kidnap the King. Talk about exciting!

Well, I'm off to do more workish things right now since my lunch break is nearly over. Then I get to work on moving out of my cubbie and into my new OFFICE!!!

The Sunday Salon

Sir Francis Drake: The Queens Pirate by Harry Kelsey
I finished this biography today about my first ever historical crush. When I was ten I read a highly romanticized account of the life of Sir Francis Drake. This biography is certainly less flattering. Kelsey gives mad props to Drake’s achievements and his kick-assness as a pirate. On the flipside Kelsey illuminates Drake’s many character flaws which include beheading his BFF over a joke taken the wrong way, knocking up a black slave and then abandoning her on an island, not doing what Queen Liz says to loot, taking more credit for the defeat against the Spanish Armada than he deserved, manipulating and abusing his crew, and general thievery, deceit and being a bad-ass. Was Drake a prick? Yes. Do I still have the hots for him? Hell yes. Do I most likely need therapy because of this? Certainly.

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Oh geez Clarissa – you’re making me crazy. There are really good parts to this novel, but they are buried in letter after letter of the same-old-thing. Today I read letters 56 and 57 and like most of the letters previous it goes something like this:

• Clarissa to BFF Anna – oh my god, my parents totally are gonna make me marry this creep. Here I am in my room being all emo and weepy and no one cares. My sister’s being a bitch and my brother is a dickhead. My mom loves me but won’t have my back and my dad is screaming. Geez… that Lovelace dude they hate is starting to seem way better.
• Anna to Clarissa – fuck them, man. What a bunch of douchebags your family is. I would totally tell them to kiss your ass and go to Lovelace – at least he is hot and rich and popular. Not a lame, cheap-ass like Solmes.
• Clarissa to Anna – omg, Anna. You whore. How dare you talk about my family! Yeah, it is kinda messed up, but they’re my fam! And Lovelace tired to kill my brother and, dick that my brother is, that is so not cool. You’re my BFF Anna, but I can’t just take my money my grandpa left me and ditch the fam’ – I’m a goody goody!

Of course this isn’t an exact transcript. But basically that is what happens again, and again, and again.

Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
I read the first two parts of this third volume of the Fables series. The first story mirrors some American myths that involve Mountain Jack, the devil, death, and a tarty southern belle. The second issue is the first part of a two-parter and concerns the Fables community being mistaken for vampires! I just love this series to pieces and cannot recommend it enough!

Sunday Salon*

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
This weekend I finally made it to the 200th page of Clarissa, the book is good (as in it holds my interest) but I find Clarissa absolutely annoying, her best friend Miss Howe grating, and her entire family dumber than dumb. In fact, I am having serious issues with myself because I find Lovelace -- Clarissa's seducer and future rapist -- the most intelligent and sensible of characters. Thus in the novel Clarissa has been told that she is to marry the vile Mr. Solmes. As a result Clarissa cries and pleads and her family acts like total douchebags. And this goes on and on and on. I'm looking forward to Clarissa's future death because she will shut the hell up and after all, this is one chic that totally digs dying for that purity.

The Persistence of Objects by Richard Garcia
Richard Garcia kicks ass. I really don't know what else to say. When he came to my University to read, he discussed how lucid dreams are where he writes most of his poetry. He says that you can train your mind to stay in a lucid dream state longer and not wake up and then viola, better poetry. He attributes this to eating ice cream before bed; perhaps I should give that a go? Anyhoo, his poems are quite lyrical and dreaming, yet he doesn't fall prey to that writer faux-pas of employing "fancy words" and "cleverness." He is still very much an imagist and leaves me feeling like I'm in a state of poetic zen.

The Best New Poets 2006 edited by Eric Pankey and Jeb Livingood
Geez...talk about making me feel like a poop on the bottom of a sneaker. This anthology of the best new poets of 2006 are just that ...damn... good. Check out their site here.

Sir Francis Drake: the Queen's Pirate by Harry Kelsey
Any of my friends will tell you that since childhood I have had a fascination with Sir Francis Drake. In fact, he was my first crush. I remember being about 10-years-old and reading a Drake biography for children. I thought him dashing and that bad boy vibe was appealing to me even at that young age. Now, I'm reading a grown-up biography of Drake. Although I think that I would totally be trying to hook-up with the privateer if I was a wench back in the day, I now realize that Drake was really kind of a scary dude. He is randomly beheading people, manipulating folks, abandoning knocked up slaves on islands, and lying his ass off to his crew, but still, there is something hot about that general bad boy-ness and the fact that he gets away with it.

* yes, I know it is technically Monday, but not even a half-hour into Monday!

Sunday Salon

Well, this will be my first Sunday Salon. Actually, I didn't know about this until earlier today when I was perusing The Books of My Numberless Dreams. Most Sundays I work from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., but I am going to read tonight -- we closed early -- and I will wake up on Sunday mornings to participate. Expect an update in a bit. I'm grabbing The Bell Jar, Clarissa, and some poetry.