R.I.P. VIII reading event

 

 

It's almost autumn! My favourite season. And I feel it's time for some season-appropriate reading. I read about R.I.P VIII event in Ekaterina's blog and instantly felt that I want to join in!

 

The event is hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings; visit this post to learn more about the event (and possibly join in). The event takes place during September and October. We read from the following genres:

 

Mystery.

Suspense.

Thriller.

Dark Fantasy.

Gothic.

Horror.

Supernatural.

Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above.

 

My list of things I plan to read:

 

1. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - 126 p; also for Classics Club

2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - 508 p

3. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson - 703 p

4. Dracula by Bram Stoker - 402 p; also for Classics Club

5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - 174 p; also for Classics Club

6. The Shadow Over Innsmouth from Great Tales of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft - 52 p (a novella)

 

There are several categories of participation available; I guess my goal and list put me in Peril the First box (read four books).

Bout of Books: Tuesday

Second day survived - woohoo. It was a decent day, although I was being tired and a bit moody and whatnot. Staying away from Twitter definitely increased my page count!
 

The books I read on Monday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver; The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Total pages read today: 102 (whee, progress!)

Total books finished: 0

What do my cats think about the books at hand: Robert warmed up to "Flight Behavior" a bit in the end of the day, insisting to purr on my lap while I was reading. He seemed to think the book makes a sufficient kind of "rubbing-against" material, but that I should definitely finish it already and get to some hardcovers.

Flavour of the day: again my boyfriend stayed in the kitchen in the evening and made drool-worthy wraps with mozzarella, rucola and parma ham... Nom.

Robert seems a bit unsure what to think of this one... (To an extent I agree with him)
 

Okay, it's definitely time to finish at least one book and since I have less than 100 pages of Kingsolver left, I am determined to finish it today. After that it's going to take a lot of self-discipline to steer away from The Eyre Affair and move on with my initial TBR pile. Happy reading day to everyone!

 

 

Bout of Books goals (and general ramblings)

So when I was picking the books for Bout of Books today (and in my mind earlier this week), I faced this problem again - I don't really have any slim books... Most of the books I own are either classics or fantasy/sci-fi, and they do tend to come in rather voluminous sizes. Even my Women's Prize selections are all around 450 pages! *grumble* And here I was, thinking, for the reading event as such I'd try to pick slimmer volumes.

 

But anyway, one has to do with what one has at hand, and I've put together *drum roll* the Bookpile for the Readathon. It's not my goal to read all those books, but rather it's the books to choose from, and even if I feel reading/starting a different book every day, it's perfectly fine! (No pressure.)

* Ray Bradbury "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - is from my Classics Club list and one of the shorter books I could find from my shelves.

* Robin Hobb "Ship of Magic" - I came to realisation that if I visited for my blog for the first time right now, there would be no way of saying I actually love fantasy literature... And I miss reading it. So I am not hoping to finish this one (unless it is highly addictive), but at least to make a good start into it.

* Gabriel García Márquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (in Estonian - obviously) - I just tossed it in for a good measure to basically be reminded of those Classics Club books I should read more of, plus since I was kind of disappointed with the latest Murakami, I am craving for some magical realism. (It's a re-read.)

* Arthur Conan Doyle "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - this actually counts as a slim volume, since I am not reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes at once, and have been quite up to date with my Baskervilles-readalong so far. I think I will finish it off during the next week.

* Barbara Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" - I started this one yesterday, after yet another failed attempt to get into "A Tale of Two Cities" (I think I'll give up on this one for now and try it again later - I really want to enjoy it and not just force myself to plow through for the sake of it...). I am beginning to see a pattern here - all the slumps can be remedied by Women's Prize books... Not sure I like that trend that much to be honest, but whatever keeps me reading (as long as it's not Dan Brown or 50 Shades :) *)

 

So this is 3 classics, one fantasy and one Women's Prize book, which seems about the kind of balance that I was looking for. (For now, let's not try to think of the books I ordered that will arrive some time in the beginning of the next week...)

 

Other goals for the readathon (slightly modified from this post):

 

* Finish at least two books - with the selection of the books I have, and if I count "The Hound of the Baskervilles" as a separate book, this is perfectly doable. I expect to also finish Bradbury and Kingsolver.

* Read at least two hours a day - like, one hour before bed, and then throughout the day. I have things coming up like seeing a friend, my weekly Finnish class, THE JOB, but if I manage to be dedicated, I predict to get a lot of reading done.

* Visit at least five blogs of the other participants a day - and by that I mean not the blogs of the girls I visit regularly anyway (like Sam, Ellie and Sarah), but new ones. Bookmark those that I would like to examine more thoroughly after the readathon.

* Regular daily updates - boring tidbits like page count, how many books read, did my cats like the books I am currently reading (they measure the likeness by the cover - is it good to rub against or not :p), etc. + an occasional tweet or two (@Rivorniel).

 

Less than a day left now!

* Edit: Just to put it out there - I have no other problems with Dan Brown and E.L. James other than they are just not for me. I read mainly for the pleasure of the beauty of the word, and in that department I find them both lacking, for my taste. (I always thought Dan Brown would probably make a lot better movie industry person than an author :) )  

Classics Club May Meme

The Classics Club question of the month:
 

Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).
 

My classics plans for May are
 

• Margaret Atwood "The Blind Assassin" - this is a totally different Atwood-experience for me, since I have so far read only her dystopias ("The Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx and Crake"). It is not a fast read and requires a lot of attention. There is very little dialogue in the novel. I am about half way through and taking my time with it, reading now and then. I love it that the story is set in Canada, such a different setting for me personally.
• Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities" - I started it, but then something else distracted me I think (damn you, Women's Prize!). But it's not your regular Dickens-brick, so there is no reason why I shouldn't pull myself together and finish it off in May. Also, Dickens' books have illustrations (insert a childish squeeek)!
• Arthur Conan Doyle "The Hound of Baskervilles" - I joined a readalong for that, which will last for the whole month.

 

What will maybe distract me from the goal of classics are other books (I blame Sarah and Christine :D).

 

What will hopefully help me to reach my goal is a week-long readathon.
 

Closing the lid of April

Where are they?

Yay, May! It was already 10 degrees outside yesterday, and we took a nice walk. Felt good to wear a spring jacket for a change.

 

Reading wise, it was an odd month. I struggled with some slumps, which usually doesn't happen. As a result, I have several books now that I have started but have put aside for time being - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens and "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. I have been struggling with classics, I only read one Classics Club book in April and that is not good. My main steam has all gone on books from Women's Prize longlist - three of those last month.

 

What I read in April 2013:

 

* E. Zola "Germinal" (for Zoladdiction event and the Classics Club)

* K. Atkinson "Life After Life" (Women's Prize shortlist)

* K. Garcia and M. Stohl "Beautiful Creatures"

* G. Willow Wilson "Alif the Unseen" (Women's Prize longlist)

* F. Segal "The Innocents" (Women's Prize longlist)

 

524 + 473 + 563 + 426 + 436 = 2522 pages (why can't I sometimes pick, like, really short books?)

 

Plans for May:

 

• I want to read more classics. Currently I am half-way through Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin", which I added to my CC list, and I would also like to proceed with "A Tale of Two Cities".
• I decided to take part in my first readalong - we will be reading "The Hound of Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (hosted by Unputdownables). It won't enable me to tick off a CC book, as I have added the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories there, but it will be progress.
• I am also fairly sure I will try to take part in the week long readathon Bout of Books 7.0. It's going to be interesting choosing books for that week.

Brain Food, III

Okay, here come some bricks books I have hunted down during the past ten days or so. I have to admit that I am beginning to get slightly intimidated by all those chunksters that seem to find their way to my home... But what can you do. I love chunksters!

 

Let's go from top to bottom, then.

 

* Stephen King, "Bag of Bones" - because you need a good bite of King when feeling like taking a break from all these wonderful (but sometimes a bit exhausting) classics.

* William Shakespeare, "Hamlet" - I purchased this Penguin version for my Classics Club Challenge. Looking forward to being reacquinted with the Scandinavian Prince again. And look what a tiny little book it is (compared to the rest of the pile)!

* Charlotte Brontë "Jane Eyre" - ditto to the last one. I made the mistake of "I'll just take a little peek into this book...", which resulted in not enough sleep last night. I better just finish it off and be done with that :)

* Arthur Conan Doyle "The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes" - oh boy. How did I end up with this book, and for 5 (!!!) euros only? Because we have awesome second-hand bookshop here in Helsinki, basically in our back yard... ("Jane Eyre" and "Bag of Bones" were 2 euros both. Why was I ever buying new books?) Anyway... Mr Holmes weighs a ton, has 1200 pages and very small font. I predict this one's gonna take some time. Good thing is that you can read a novel or a story now and then and not feel disconnected from the characters or the overall atmosphere.

* Roger Zelazny "The Great Book of Amber" - and the inevitable dose of fantasy. While Sherlock was a brick, this one's a bloody foundation panel... It is the collection of all the 10 books in Zelazny's "Amber Chronicles" series. I read them, or at least most of them, being young, and in Estonian. Lately I really started missing some good soap-opera-fantasy, an easy read but not the like to dull your mind. This series is all about the characters, and the characters are ... hilarious. Imagine members of a royal family/kin, who smoke, drink, swear and constantly attempt to stab each other in the back? Yep. That's Amber.

 

So, out of these, I am already halfway through "Jane Eyre", I started "A Study in Scarlet" and also couldn't resist taking a peek into the scheming in Amber (25/120 pages of the first novel read - yes, they are that short!).

Book Beginnings: Complete Sherlock Holmes

 

 

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. To participate, share the opening sentence of your current read. Include the title and the author. Share thoughts, impressions, or anything else inspiration-worthy.

"(Every story ever written about fiction's most famous detective in) The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle:

 

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army.

 

So begins A Study in Scarlet, the first novel in this enormous, 1100-page-small-font brick of a book.