Starting Again

My self-imposed blogging vacation was only about a week old before I started thinking of starting up again. But I told myself I needed to enforce that blogging break, and therefore wouldn’t “allow” myself to blog again until September.  I instead spent time redesigning the site and pondering just what I want to be doing on this reading blog.

I’ve decided I’m going to start over again. My involvement will probably be far less than it was before and I reserve the right to just stop blogging or omit blogging for a week or two here or there if I’m too tired of it, if life is busy, or if I otherwise just feel like it. This is once again for me, and not for others, although I’ll try to be a part of something. Continue reading »

A Goodbye-for-now Haiku

It’s Haiku month with the In the Spring Is the Dawn Hello Japan mini-challenge! I am still waiting for my book of haiku to read (it’s on its way!) but I thought I’d write my own haiku to join in.

Happy memories,
pleasant friends, and blogs: good-bye
until I write next.

I’ve decided to stop blogging for a while. Continue reading »

Abandoned Book (for Now): Dante’s Inferno + My Books to Read Before 40 List

I wanted to join Richard’s Dante readalong this summer, I really did. I decided that, since I loved reading Homer’s The Iliad and was planning on reading Virgil soon, I could read Dante this summer without too much trouble. Why not? I love classic epics.

I read up on the whys behind each translation, I got four different translations from the library, and I compared them. I decided on the Hollander translation, and I began reading. To my surprise, I understood every single word. It was beautiful! To my further surprise, I was bored to death.  I had no idea what was going on. Let me rephrase that: due to the extensive notes, I know what is going on. I just cannot care less for it. I see no point.

I have read more than half of Inferno, and I’ve decided I am done for now. I suspect that this is one of those cases in which I’m reading at the wrong time in my life. I’ll try again in a few years. Continue reading »

My Victorian Summer: We Two by Gillian Gill and Armadale by Wilkie Collins + Reading Journal

I never intended that my first post for My Victorian Summer would come a full month after the inauguration of my project, but I’ve found that with summer weather, long books, and family in town, my blogging is becoming less of a priority than before. To my surprise, I’m okay with this. I may continue to leave things rather “hands off” for the next little while. Maybe I’ll get back into a blogging groove at some point, but for now, I’m living my life.

The two Victorian-esque books I have finished this month are completely different.

We Two: Victoria and Albert, Rulers, Partners, and Rivals by Gillian Gill is a non-fiction biography of the monarch and her husband. It was not, of course, written during the Victorian era, but I read it to get a sense of what made the Victorian Era a distinct era. I found the biography quite fascinating, even if the relationship between Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert was not quite as satisfyingly romantic as Hollywood made out in The Young Victoria.

Armadale by Wilkie Collins, on the other hand, was a fantastic sensation novel from the 1860s, complete with dual and mistaken identities, poison, attempted murder, and above all superstition. While the almost-700-page novel seemed a little slow to begin, the convoluted plots and depth of characters made it a satisfying and delicious book to devour.

I also share my current Reading Journal below.

Continue reading »

May and Milton in May in Review + Challenges Update and Reading Journal

It’s well into June and I haven’t done a “last month in review” post. Since I’m trying to simplify blogging, I’m going to do things a little differently from now on, I think. This is a review of my Milton in May project (which I finished last week). My next “project in review” post will be after my Victorian summer has ended.

I’ve finished my Milton project, although I’ll have to say I really started losing interest by the end. One month would have been plenty (I spent six weeks). There were even more Milton writings I wanted to read, like Samson Agonistes and Milton’s non-epic poetry.

My next project, my Victorian Summer, is well under way. Because I’m reading very long books (such as Armadale and Wives and Daughters) it may still be two weeks before I have a post for that. I’m also really enjoying the biography of Victoria and Albert. I think it was a great way to start the project.

Continue reading »

Introducing: My Victorian Summer

I am not finished with Milton, despite the fact that May is over. I will have another Paradise Lost post (probably tomorrow) and probably two to four more posts in the two weeks – posts on the biography I finished, the C.S. Lewis commentary I’m reading, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and possibly some other Milton poetry. I’ll combine posts as I find convenient, but I am still reading about Restoration England for two more weeks at least.

Nonetheless, I have been planning my summer reading, and I’m so excited I’ve already begun my reading for my project. This summer will be My Victorian Summer.

Between now and the end of August, I plan on immersing myself in as much Victorian fiction (and nonfiction about the era) as possible. I decided to do this because I’ve been slacking on my Our Mutual Read books and I really have been craving Victorian literature lately.

The idea is to enjoy Victorian literature, so I’m focusing on what is most loudly calling my name, which is early and middle Victorian novels. I’ll leave poetry for another time and I’m avoiding the later fiction, which just seems different in my mind. (I admit, I’m afraid of Hardy.)

That said, here are some things I want to read in the next three months. Continue reading »

Blogging the Bookshelves + Some Finds

I thought about doing a vlog of my bookshelves. But I don’t have a good way to do so. Plus, I’m feeling kind of in a rush to finish some books, so time is at a premium. Among others, I still need to finish my book club book (The Painted Veil) for next week, as well as one of my Classics Circuit books (Strong Poison) for Monday’s post, not to mention Milton, who is getting the shaft this week.

All that to say I am not sharing a vlog of my bookshelves. But surely a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

We got a surprising amount back with our tax return, so I convinced my husband to put a new bookshelf on the “what to do with it” list. I have not had a new bookshelf (for myself) since the year 2000 or so, when I bought two cardboard-backed fake-wood Target bookshelves for about $25 each to store my college collection of books . (We did buy a small bookshelf for our front room when we bought our house last year. It stores our pretty coffee table books in it.) I hope it’s needless to say that my books (of which I’ve been acquiring rapidly over the years) do not fit on those two four-shelf Target things. I had books crammed in them and even then I had some of my books in a box.

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Reading Journal (May 4) and April in Review

April was an unusual reading month because I spent the first two weeks reading very long, intense books. Once I finished those, I read some shorter works. It was a good reading month in retrospect, and I suspect I need to get in the habit of reading longer books more often! Crime and Punishment, in particular, was quite satisfying.

My May focus is on Milton, as is evidenced by yesterday’s post. I am enjoying Paradise Lost and I want to read and discuss some of his other works as well. In a sense, Milton in general is my project for the month. If I feel so inclined, I also, for my “project book,” may revisit a nonfiction book I read a decade ago that I loved. Jerusalem: The Eternal City by David Galbraith is a book about Jerusalem history and religious context. I read it in the months before my two months living there, and since this month marks the ten-year anniversary of my time there, I thought it might be appropriate to revisit it now.

Continue reading »

Bookworms Carnival: Poetry

I am delighted to welcome the Bookworms Carnival to my site for a special carnival of POETRY.

As you probably know, Savvy Verse and Wit has been sponsoring a month-long National Poetry blog tour! In addition to the poetry links below, make sure you check out that link for a detailed listing of all the ways that poetry has been honored this month around the blogosphere. Continue reading »

Call for Poetry Posts: Deadline Extended!

Early next week I hope to post a Bookworms Carnival highlighting poetry.

If you’ve recently reviewed a  poetry collection,  written about a favorite poet or poem, or discussed some nonfiction about poetry, send me a link.

If you haven’t yet written something recently (or ever!), you still could. Send me your links before Monday at noon (Central Daylight Time).

That’s all you need to do. I’ll collect the links and post on Tuesday.