So apparently this is turning into a regularly occurring post – which is great, but who knows if it’ll last 😀 I’m making my way through Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I didn’t know if I would like it this much, but geez it is a LONG book. I’m just over half way through (pg. 604) and will have to take a break when I get to Part 5 (in about 40 pages) to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for my Books into Film book group next Monday.
So you know how I’ve been on a book ban for June – well it’s going decently well. I ‘accidentally’ (not really, but I’m sticking to that story) bought A Weekend with Mr. Darcy by Victoria Connelly for $2.99 for a fun light summer read later this summer (it reminded me a lot of What Would Jane Austen Do?). But the best part is, coming home from the gym Saturday morning (GO ME!) there were two boxes of free books at the end of the street and I of course went through them 😀 I picked up a copy of A.S. Byatt’s Still Life and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (this makes me nervous) for me and there was a copy of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha I picked up for Tom (and I’ll probably re-read).
I’m also struggling NOT to check books out from the library – I’ve got three on hold:
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Kindle)
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (Kindle)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer by David Leavitt.
The first book I’ve wanted to read for a while and just randomly threw it on my reserve list, the second has been a long drawn out process and I’ve been on the hold list since January because the library/Overdrive screwed up and the third has been on my to-be-read list for over two years and I figured what better year to read it than on his 100th birthday year (it’s later this month).
Not much else has happened since my last update. I’ve made a few changes to my blog, including upping the number of books for The Classics Club (round 100), adding a ‘Books Read‘ section based on year, cleaning up ‘My Reading List‘/to-be-read (removing all the books I physically have copies of and dropping the number to below 275) and numbering and updating my ‘On My Bookshelf‘ page (uh-oh it’s at 105 now) to make life easier if I do what I think I’m going to do next year.
Pale Fire is wonderful, and I love the way that it experiments with style. The story is told as an epic poem with commentary from an unreliable and delusional narrator. It’s one of my favorite books of all time.
So the commentary is part of the story? I thought it was just commentary on the poem and was like WHOA way too much commentary for a little poem. It’s definitely starting to sound more intriguing.
Yup, the commentary forms the bulk of the story, which I thought was a really neat way of doing it.
Definitely less daunting – I will keep it on my to-be-read list then 😀
Free books! Woot! For some reason, WP isn’t allowing me to “like” your post, but I do like it. Haha!
So strange – maybe it’s payback for my moody I don’t like you right now WordPress post last week! But you’re right, everyone loves free books! It’s been great I’ve added to my collection and not spent any money :-D!
Henrietta Lacks! That was the first book read in the short-lived book club I had with some family a couple years ago. It is a really great book; I hope you enjoy it! I would love to hear what you have to say about it.
I’m excited for it! I remember when Harvard Bookstore put a bunch downstairs as remainders and I kept kicking myself for not buying one. Thankfully MinuteMan Network had a digital copy.
Great! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
Looks like it’s been bumped up my list! Just got a notification that I could check it out from the library so hopefully I’ll read it soon while I’ve got it.
Yay!
Out of character for me, I couldn’t stand the character Anna Karenina. I know I totally love romance – gosh how many P&P variations do I own! But she drove me nuts. I read the book though and did enjoy the sections about the farmer. Strange.
I want to know how “A Weekend with Mr. Darcy” is when you finish!
I know what you mean – I have little patience for Anna or Vronsky. I’m much more intrigued by Levin and Kitty, I love it when it goes back to their stories.