Friday, November 30, 2018

December Reads

Little, Big by John Crowley - Personal Reading Challenge
The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester - Personal Reading Challenge
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain - Classic Club Spin #19
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Back to the Classics

...

This is ambitious. I don't know that I'll actually finish these books. Little, Big is on interlibrary loan for me, so normal renewal rules don't apply. I'll read it until I can't anymore, then I'll move on to the others. I think my plan Little Big until I return it, The Woman in White, The Hourglass Factory, then the Prince and the Pauper. I'd love to finish them all by December 31st. Wish me luck!

Monday, November 19, 2018

Classics Club Spin #19

The Spin Number for Spin 19 is NUMBER 1! To participate in this spin, I have to read The Prince and the Pauper by January 31st. That doesn't look too difficult, so I'm going to add number 2 to this list as well - The Woman In White. Between the two of those, I should be set.

Every couple of months, The Classics Club blog hosts a book spin as a way to motivate us to read the books on our lists. Basically, we pick 20 books off our Classics Club list, put them in a post. Then the Club will pick a random number out of a hat, and that's the book we'll read between now and a specified date... in this case January 31st.

According to the spin guidelines, clubbers are encouraged to pick five books from their Classics List that they've been putting off reading, five books they can't wait to read, five books they're neutral about reading, and five free choice books. I modified the instructions a bit considering my list is now at 26 books and most of them fit in one of the first three categories. My list is 6 books I've been putting off, 7 books I can't wait to read, and 7 books I'm neutral about. That leaves only six more books from my Classics Club List that didn't make the cut for the spin. 



  1. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
  2. The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
  3. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  5. Possession by A. S. Byatt
  6. A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
  7. The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  8. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
  9. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
  10. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  11. A Room With a View by E. M Forster
  12. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
  13. Daniel Deronda by George Elliot
  14. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  15. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  16. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  17. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
  18. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackary
  19. Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  20. Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Eight of these books are fairly chunky. With this being a monster long time to do the Spin, the hope is I get one of the chunky books. That being said... I'm hoping for numbers 2, 5, or 13. I'm dreading basically the 16 - 18 spread of red on my list. Happy Spinning! This post will be edited when the spin number is chosen.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas


Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Pages: 1472
Finished: November 17, 2018

First Sentence: On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.

Summary: Edmond Dantes comes home from his most recent voyage very triumphant. He's about to be made captain. He has a fantastic girlfriend who he decides to marry. He can provide for his ailing father. Unfortuantely, Edmond also has enemies - men who want that which he has. They hatch a plot to get Edmond out of their way, a plot that only moves forward when the cowardly procurer du roi decides it's for the best if Edmond is incarcerated in order to keep suspicions form the procurer du roi's own family. This is the story of how Edmond fell, and how he because the Count of Monte Cristo, hell bent on revenge for losing everything.

Thoughts: Oh my god! I finally finished it. I started this book in January and am finally done. Lesson to self: I read better by reading for longer stretches and then taking a break rather than reading a chapter a day.

One of the things that I found interesting about this book... when people found out I was reading this, they would fawn over the book. It's the best book they ever read. They LOVE the Count of Monte Cristo. It's so amazing...

I was underwhelmed.

AFTER HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!!!


First, let me say, this is the type of book you need to read with a pen and notebook. You need to note who's who. This is very important because if you don't, suddenly you get really angry at a 200 page diversion to Italy with a young man named Morcerf who doesn't mean anything to you... until you realize you totally missed the name 300 pages back when it was mentioned in passing by someone else. Seriously? I totally missed that Fernand and Mercedes became the Morcerfs. Had I caught that, I would have enjoyed the whole Italy bit so much more.

I found myself very... frustrated. I'm not one for revenge which is basically this entire tale. Yes the Count planned everything to the tiniest detail. Yes it was meticulous. No, that doesn't make me like the book. Even with the stuff that has happened in my life that I'm not going to go into on an anonymous blog... I've felt a lot of anger, and then I just wanted to heal and move on with my life.

And maybe that's where this is falling flat for me. I felt so sorry for Edmond when he was sent to jail. I felt so sorry for Edmond when he got out of jail and discovered what happened. But then, he was rich and he had the world at his fingertips. I felt sorry for him that he never healed. It wasn't until Madame Villefort and her son died that he finally felt he'd taken things too far.

I was also really frustrated that he and Mercedes never got together. I mean, I get it, but it felt like such a rip off to me, that he went through all this effort only to not get with the girl. I suppose he gets with A girl... but it's not the one I was rooting for.

Most of all, the book is just LONG. I don't mind long books when I find them interesting. But I just didn't find this one interesting. None of the characters were all that likable. There were a lot of chapters that just didn't make sense until they did... but it was such a long time for them to make sense that I just felt an overall feeling of annoyance. By the end, I did want to see how everything would play out, but I didn't really enjoy it. Probably the story I was most engrossed in was Eugenie Debray and her music instructor/possible lover. The Romeo and Juliet story of Morrell and Valentine was insipid. The mystery of the poisoner was... really dull actually. The audience knew who it was from 600 pages ago, but watching everyone else bumble around didn't do anything for me.

I'm glad I read it. I have a better idea of certain allusions etc. But in general, this is not my favorite book.

Read for Back to the Classics: A Book That Scares You AND The Classics Club.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

November/December Plans

Yesterday, I came across this blog post written by Joel at I'd Rather Be Reading. It was rather apropos, as I had a similar reaction to the fact that it's now November, and I have so many books left to read. (I also have so many life goals that aren't going to happen and don't need to be discussed in this blog. I made good headway with most of them, but there are a couple niggling ones that just aren't going to happen, and I'm a bit disappointed with myself.)

Anyway, without further ado, here's what I had planned to read in November, the status of each of those goals, and my future plans.

What Were My Reading Goals

1) Read 70 Books - I am at 55 books read as of today. Looking at Goodreads, I'm apparently 6 behind schedule which means to get to 70, I need to read 15 books between now and December 31st. I originally chose this goal because I easily hit it last year. Not so much this year. To be fair, this year also tried to kick the snot out of me... I'm okay with not hitting this goal.

2) Read 12 Classics for the Back to the Classics Challenge - According to the list I made last year, I am three books away from finishing this. However, my parents and I also do a book club that's classics focused. With the books we've read for that, combined with the books I've read for the challenge, I've made it. With that being said, I'd like to try and finish my original list if at all possible.

3) Read All Seven of David Mitchell's books in order - According to David Mitchell, his books are all part of one uber-novel. I'd read a couple of his books before, but decided to read them all again in order. I finished this challenge in July. It was an interesting experiment, but I found I didn't enjoy all his books the way I enjoyed the two I'd read before.

4) Read Five Books Off My Very Incomplete To Be Read List - I'm 3 for 5 on this one... and it's really 2 for 5. I stopped reading the third one because it was so bad. That being said, I'm not going to pick up another one. I'm happy with this list and happy with how it's going.

5) Doing Dewey Challenge: Read One Book from Every Dewey Century - Hahahaha. I added this because I was doing so well with my reading. I was actually running out of stuff to read, not that that was hard remedy. I work in a library. But I thought it'd be a great way to add more nonfiction in my life. As of right now, I've read 3 out of 10. I don't foresee myself making it any further than that.

All in all, I feel good about these goals. I feel like goals 1 through 4 were very realistic, and Goal 5 was added as an afterthought anyway. It makes sense that I won't finish it.

What My November/December Reading Plans Are:
  • Finish The Count of Monte Cristo I've been working on this book since January. I thought I had a great plan for finishing it. I didn't. I'm about 250 pages from the end, so I should get it done by December 31st. (Finished 11/17/18)
  • Read the last two books for my personal Reading Challenge. Both of these are sitting on my nightstand, and I plan on bringing both on our trip to Denver next week. I am positive that I'll finish both by New Year's Eve
  • Read the last two books for Back to the Classics My last two books are The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of these is on hold for me at work; the other is on my nightstand. The plan is to read both of these, but if I'm pressed for time, I will eschew Solitude in favor of Woman in White
  • Complete the last Classics Club Spin for the year (if there is one) I really enjoy this challenge every time it comes up. I enjoy it so much that I even have my list ready! There is usually one for November/December. Both of the above titles are on my spin list as well as 18 other books from my Classics Club. Hopefully, I'll get either one of these titles, or another slim novel. Unfortunately, I have some chunkters on there as well. If I end up with one of my other books I'm avoiding, likely neither of my Back to the Classics will show up this year.

With Count, the two books for my reading challenge, and at least one more classics, that brings me to 59 books for the year which is definitely respectable. I also should add, this doesn't count all the audiobooks I've listened to. Adding those brings me closer to the 70 range considering how many of the Rebecca Caudill Books I worked my way through this year.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking


Title: The Little Book of Hygge
Author: Meik Wiking
Pages: 221
Finished: November 13, 2018

First Sentence: No recipe for hygge is complete without candles. 

Summary: This non-fiction book is a love letter to the Danish concept of Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga). Describing it is difficult because the idea is coziness and comfort, but also togetherness and well-being, and other things. Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen explains what makes something hygge and how you can acheive hygge in your own life.

Thoughts: This book was on a display in my library. I saw it from my desk while helping patrons find books. I walked past it on my way to lead storytime. I picked it up and thumbed through it... and felt instantly at home. The way Wiking describes hygge is the way I describe what my favorite time of year is and why I like it. Also, I apparently innately practice hygge.. or acheive hygge... or make things hygge... I don't know the right way to say it... I apparently am hygge in the mid to late fall through to Christmas.

That being said, by the end of the book, the constant talk about hygge was annoying. And I thought back to a quote he said at the beginning of the book:

What might also be unique for Denmark when it comes to hygge is how much we talk about it, focus on it, and consider it as a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA. In other words, what freedom is to Americans, thoroughness to Germans, and the stiff upper lip to the British, hygge is to Danes.

And boy is it an identity. I really felt for people who have to listen to my countrymen talk about Freedom all the freaking time. It was a little annoying.

But I love the idea of hygge, and I think I'll be adding a candle or two to our house this winter.  

The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle by Janet Fox


Title: The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle
Author: Janet Fox
Pages: 388
Finished: November 13, 2018

First Sentence: It is 1863

Summary: Kat and her siblings evacuate London during World War II. They end up at Rookskill Castle in Scotland, a castle of a family member and currently a school. Kat herself is very sensible. Everything has a logical explanation. So when they hear weird sounds and see weird things, the most she can come up with is that there's a Nazi spy. But as the days continue, things get weirder and weirder, and even Kat can't come up with an explanation.

Thoughts: I liked it. I feel I have to say this right out because after I read it, I found a ton of reviews about how awful it was. Whether or not it was good or bad, it was fun. To me. The book is part historical novel, part horror story, part mystery. Historical fiction isn't my favorite genre, but WWII evacuation type stories generally make their way past my wall.

The horror was... not all that scary, but I was okay with that. It was more of a mystery along with callbacks to an even earlier history. I thought the villain was decently creepy. The protagonist was annoying, but that was what she was supposed to be. I thought the hint at romance was subtle enough to keep this firmly middle grade rather than YA. I could definitely write fanfic off of it if I desired, but one could easily miss it entirely.

The book was compelling enough for me to continue reading it. I ended up reading 90% of it in one day thanks to the fact that my kid was sick and wanted to sleep on me.

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells


Title: The Time Machine: An Invention
Author: H. G. Wells
Pages: 125
Finished: November 7, 2018

First Sentence: The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.

Summary: The Time Traveler tells a story to his dinner guests about his journey to the far future. We learn of the decent of Man into the Eloi and the Morlocks and how the Time Traveler learned of them.

Thoughts: Warning: Spoilers abound. The only thing I knew of this story was a Wishbone episode and the 2002 movie. Though I'd seen the 2002 movie more recently, the Wishbone episode is what sticks in my mind the most. I distinctly remember Weena, a torch, and the well.

Anyway, I had no idea just how in depth this book was. I had this image of the Morlocks being very clear "bad guys" and the Eloi being very clear "good guys." In fact, it's a deep look into how life adapts to its environment. We often think of evolution as becoming the best of a species, but that's not it. Life adapts to live in its environment. I just repeated myself.

Anyway, I felt sorry for the Morlocks. From what I was reading, they weren't actually harming him. In fact, they seemed merely curious. But he immediately decides they are bad and must be fought. Of course, it turns out they're the "intelligent" species left on Earth and they basically breed and care for the Eloi as though they are cattle. But they didn't act "evil" until the Time Traveler started attacking them. I don't know. Reading it with a 21st century eye, it just seemed really obnoxious that 18th century white man comes to a world and decides he needs to save people and explain everything and... yeah.

I don't read a ton of Science Fiction, but I was impressed at how different this was from what Science Fiction seems to be now. For a 125 page book, it moved at a fairly gentle pace. We meet the Morlocks about half way through. And the climax with them isn't nearly as hear-poundingly action filled as many current scifi books I've read are.

I'm glad I read it. I don't know how much I want to read more Wells after this, but I appreciated reading this one. Read for Back to the Classics: A Book about Travel. Also part of my Classics Club list.

Monday, November 5, 2018

The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Folk Tales



Title: The Cow-Tail Switch: And Other West African Stories
Author: Harold Courlander, Madye Lee Chastain, and George Herzog
Pages: 160
Finished: November 3, 2018

Summary: A collection of folktales from West Africa ranging from the thoughtful to the ridiculous.

Thoughts: A couple months ago, I read the book Redemption in Indigo which is based off a Senegalese folk-tale. Of course, the book didn't say which tale it was based on, so I had to do some hunting. Which led me to a tale called Ansige Karoumba The Glutton that was in this book. 

Turns out, Ansige Karoumba is only the first quarter of Redemption in Indigo. But I did read the rest of the stories. And wow.

First of all, stories like this are interesting to read. West African has a lovely oral story tradition usually accompanied with music. So to write the stories down immediately changes them. (It's also why most Grimm tales might feel stilted. They're essentially edited transcriptions of oral tales.) Of course you had the trickster tales with characters such as Anansi. There were tales explaining the reaosn why things are the way they are. And there were the tales to make you think abou tthings. At times, I felt there was a culture gap. Some of them just seemed downright ridiculous, but I don't know how much of that was due to a culture gap or due to the fact that it was an oral story stuck on a page.

Overall, I'm glad I was able to add some new stories to my repertoire. 

November Reads

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - Back to the Classics and Family Book Discussion
The Cow Tail Switch and Other West African Folktales
The Little Book of Hygge
Little Big by John Crowley - Personal Reading Challenge
The Children of Rookskill Castle
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
(The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester - Personal Reading Challenge)
(The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Back to the Classics)
(One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Back to the Classics)

The first three books are fairly short, so I think I'll get through them rather quickly. For sure, I want to get through Time Machine before Thanksgiving as we're reading it before my brother's wedding. I picked up The Cow-Tail Switch because it has the folktale that Redemption In Indigo is based off of. I'd like to learn more about West African folklore. The Little Book of Hygge caught my eye on a display at work. I read a couple pages and immediately felt a connection with said book. It's quick, so I think I'll manage it. Little Big is another book recommended as similar to Jonathan Strange. It has a ton of very tiny print, so I'm hoping it goes well.