Friday, January 21, 2011

A Selection

This man of great dignity and honors, the man I should have been, Raymond thought, watching Harvard again, poleaxed by love and this old guttesnipe Sidney. His eloquent white hair flattened out and dripping, eyes stupid. Like a bum with a ruined wig.

(Yonder Stands Your Orphan, Barry Hannah, p. 48)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

2011 Reading - Chunkster Reading Challenge

As per Laura Miller's suggestion, I'm taking on the Chunkster Reading Challenge this new year. In his book Create Your Own Economy, Tyler Cowen talks about the satisfaction that comes with finishing a book. He enjoys this feeling so much that he admits to tearing up omnibus collections of novels into individual coverless books.

I can relate to this feeling. And it is this enjoyment with completing books and moving onto the next one that, I think, sometimes leads me to avoid undertaking longer books. The Victorians and the Russians feel like gaping holes in my reading life, and I think this has, at least partially, to do with the average girth of their work.

I'm hoping, this year, to at least partially address this lack in my reading life.

My list:
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • Villete by Charlotte Bronte
  • Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  • Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
  • The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
  • Mortals by Norman Rush
  • The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  • Underworld by Don Delillo (maybe)
We'll see how it goes.