Tag: Classics

Books

Book 909: The Professor – Charlotte Brontë

Geoff W

I’m actually making an effort to clear my TBR shelves whether it’s my physical bookshelf or my Kindle, so there are going to be some random books showing up over the next few months.

This is the penultimate complete work of the Brontë sisters that remained on my TBR list. The final book remaining is Charlotte’s Shirley which I’ll probably cross off at some point this year too. I do have a book of poetry by Emily that I want to read too, but I have a hard time finding the motivation to read poetry in general.

Continue reading “Book 909: The Professor – Charlotte Brontë” →

Books

Book 900: Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

Geoff W

What a difference eight-ish years makes between reads. I last read this in November 2013 and had some interesting comparisons to Pride and Prejudice and observations about my own love life.

I’m not planning to reflect on that this time, for a couple of reasons, mainly that this read I really felt that perhaps the better Austen comparison is Fanny Price in Austen’s Mansfield Park rather than Darcy. I mean the whole nature versus nurture argument and how responsible are they for what happens and how much of an impact does their upbringing have? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS (and thoughts).

Continue reading “Book 900: Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë” →

Books

Book 885: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

Geoff W

Ugh—I should’ve given up while I was ahead, or used the same app I used to slog my way through Ulysses. This was the longest 215 pages of my life.

I actually broke down for the last chapter and found an audiobook version from my local library to listen to at 1.25x speed while sorting data and stuff at work. So, at the very least I can say I enjoyed the Irish accents for that portion of it and the Whaley last name shout out about 75% of the way through 😀

Continue reading “Book 885: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce” →

Books

Book 810: Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Geoff W

This is the third time I’ve read this. I read it first in high school in my teens and HATED it. #obvi

I then read it in my early twenties in an intro to LGBT Literature course and tolerated it. The discussion was the most fascinating part and had a lot more to do with Woolf and her life than the novel itself, although there are plenty of scribbles I have in my copy about the story.

And now in my mid-30s, I won’t say I love it, but I definitely have a new appreciation for Woolf’s mastery of the craft as I re-read it. Some of the notes I scribbled reading it in undergrad definitely helped draw my attention to things and I picked up on a few more that I missed. And this is noting that my timing to read it was 100% wrong. This is NOT a pool book, I definitely fell asleep and got a slight sunburn because it’s a slow-paced dense book.

Continue reading “Book 810: Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf” →

Books

Book 790: The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

Geoff W

OMG ya’ll, clearly, I should be judging the next Booker Prize. First Wolf Hall and now this, I get why they choose these beautiful books as winners. I’m only partially serious. I still think so many of the books are boring old stuffy books that are specifically chosen because of the inability of large swaths of the population to comprehend or appreciate them. So, boo on that.

All kidding aside, this was an incredibly beautifully written DEBUT novel. I was floored when I found that out. The way she wrote and the way time flowed eerily (and seamlessly) backward and forward in this novel it truly felt like a master class in novels. No wonder she won the prize—I’m definitely going to have to read her only other fictional work, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, at some point because everything else she’s written is nonfiction (what?!).

Continue reading “Book 790: The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy” →