Readathon: The End

Which hour was most daunting for you? That was definitely around 12th and 13th hour, when I arrived home 3 am-ish local time and not in the most soberest condition. However, I was very determined to read at least one chapter from Sharp Objects before passing out completely, which I did manage.

 

Smoothie speaks the truth. Or at least that's how I felt this morning.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? The only inconvenience I saw was the differences between time zones, but I think those cannot be helped. At least I got to start 3 pm and not 1 am, like some people :)

 

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I think organisational side of the event was exceptional, I got answers to all my questions from the web site. Twitter is of course ridiculously useful and entertaining helper when it comes to such things :)

 

How many books did you read? I read from two books, but finished none.

 

What were the names of the books you read? I read Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde) and Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn).

 

Which book did you enjoy most? As I suspected, Shades of Grey is maybe a bit heavy on detail for a spike readathon, so I think in that sense I enjoyed Sharp Objects more; however, in normal circumstances and without pressure the roles would be reversed.

 

The book house I hastily built this morning for Ellie's
Book Jenga mini challenge. The Lord of the Rings is
foundation of everything, apparently.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I do want to participate again as a reader and I sure hope next time will be more convenient for me time wise. This weekend I had maybe 6 hours to read because I was engaged with other things (it's most annoying how life gets in the way of our reading!).

 

Tl;dr - the readathon was awesome, organisers are superhumans, my modest page count was the fault of life. Better luck next time.

Readathon: Update

I have just woken up after arriving home 3 am or so last night. Now it's 10.19 am and so far my reading score is only 20smt pages of Shades of Grey and a chapter from Sharp Objects. But, there is 4+ hours of readathon left and I intend to spend those hours reading and checking out how other people are doing.

 

So, I better get a coffee (or 2, or 3 :p), try to ignore the throbbing head and get to it!

24-hour Readathon: Starting Post

Reading 24 hours in a row with no stop sounds insane, and it probably is, and even if I wanted to, I can't attempt it today because life gets in the way, but I try my best to read as much as possible from 3 pm today 'til 3 pm tomorrow.

 

As usual there are some questions for the participants, so that we can get to know each other better and socialise and all that jazz. Here goes:

 

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I am reading from Helsinki, Finland, Europe.

 

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Seriously, I don't have clear preference... Maybe Harry Potter, because I'm sure it'll be a fairly quick read? I'd also really like to finish Shades of Grey (about 1/3 through), but it's the kind of book that requires a lot of attention to catch all the awesome details so I don't know. I'm sure all these lovely books have their benefits.

 

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Oh dear, I haven't really given thought to snacking at all. I'm not a big snacker in general, but maybe I'll seek for something for tomorrow morning/lunchtime, because snacks kinda go in spirit with the readathon, as I have understood.

 

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! *fiddles with fingers* I'm a bookworm and a nerd in general, I have unexplainable obsession to wombats and alpacas. Me and my fiancé have two cats, who are the coolest little buggers in the world. I work in translating/media. My favourite authors are Ray Bradbury, Haruki Murakami, Robin Hobb, Jasper Fforde.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? It's my first readathon and I am looking forward to general reading craziness that's gonna take over Twitter and book blogging world. Oh and also I am looking forward to reading some awesome books.

The Moonstone Readalong in November

Ellie is organising a Wilkie Collins readalong - we will be reading The Moonstone in November. Who doesn't love Wilkie! I read The Woman in White earlier this year and was thoroughly impressed/entertained (click here to read my gushing review).

Here's Ellie's post containing all kinds of information and tidbits you need to know about the event. 'Cos seriously, what can be better than reading Wilkie Collins in November? Only if you can read with other like-minded enthusiasts and rave over the novel while reading, I'd say :)

Twitter hashtag is #readWilkie

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).

C_Club #9: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Austen in August reading event)

After having finished my second Jane Austen novel, I am willing to take back all the prejudices that I used to have towards her and feel confident to say that I will intend to read all her bigger works - at first I only added two books to my Classics Club (CC) list and now I have read them both and can safely say I've not yet had enough of Jane Austen. It's no "chick lit of the past times", as I mistakenly thought. She was clearly a clever and eloquent woman.

 

I had heard of Mansfield Park as being the most boring and "meh" out of Austen's six biggest novels, and that was partly why this was the book I added to my CC list. I deliberately did not add the more popular ones, knowing that if I did like what I read from the two more controversial ones, I would get to the more popular ones anyway.

 

My guess is that the reasons why people are not that into Mansfield Park lie in characters and the pacing of the story. It is a slow roller, that is true, the romance is not that "in your face", and there are parts that can bore some people (for example, the whole fussing around with the play, which took several chapters). I personally am not disturbed by slower stories, maybe even quite the contrary.

 

When it comes to characters, and specifically the character of the female heroine Fanny, I actually liked her a lot more than I think I will like girls from Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility or Emma. I liked Fanny's quiet ways; she was almost invisible most of the time, but she had her values that she did not trade for anything. I think the mistake that is easy to make here is taking quieter personality for spinelessness. Fanny has a spine, and I would actually tip my hat to her (if I was wearing one) for what I think is her great survivability instinct. Here's what I mean: in the age of a child, Fanny was sent away from home, to live with relatives. Even if it was better for her, no-one asked whether she liked it or even, what she thought of it. In the family there were the children, and then there was Fanny, often an object of oppression and basically free workforce. I guess what I am trying to say is that Fanny never had the home field advantage, and in such situation, I think it's wiser to lay low and see how it goes, rather than show a lot of personality.

 

 

Illustrations from
http://www.mollands.net/etexts/mansfieldpark/mpillus.html

One can probably claim that Fanny is a bit boring in the sense that she is not noticeably strong heroine, but I disagree; Fanny, like many others, is a character similar to those we meet in life, and not everyone of us is always vastly unique, original, witty, snarky, et cetera. Life is full of different characters, some more outstanding than others, and although I certainly can value a very strong female character (think Marian Halcombe from The Woman in White), I am a bit disturbed by the fact that it is the characters with lots of extravagance that get most attention. I am a quiet, modest person myself, although with a lot of spine and stubborness ;), and I guess a part of me would like to think that in skilled writer's hands, a character like me would also form a (half) decent story.

 

In short, I did enjoy Mansfield Park, but partly because of low expectations to begin with; I am glad I am getting over my prejudices towards Austen, even though I know that she will never be my favourite author.

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

Here are few other reviews on Mansfield Park that I have recently read and liked:

 

* Thoughts: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen by Adam from Roof Beam Reader

* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen by Eszter from Anneish Imaginary Adventures

* Mansfield Park by Mary from bibliographic manifestations

* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Review) by Ekaterina from In My Book
* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen by Brona from Brona's Books

 

 

Austen in August is hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader.

 

Austen in August Reading Event

It's Austen in August time! As the name suggests, this event is about reading Jane Austen (and texts related to Jane Austen) and it is hosted by Adam over at Roof Beam Reader (click here for master post).

 

I have "Mansfield Park" on my bookshelf, and I haven't read it, so why not? I read "Persuasion" earlier this year and totally didn't hate it (surprise!). I haven't read her other novels (yet? yet.)

 

I'll probably get to Austen in the second half of the month during my 3-week holiday from work.

18th Century English Literature Reading Event

It's June! And it's also 18th Century English Lit reading event, hosted by O from Délaissé. Click here to see the master post.

I picked "Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defore as my novel to read this month. For some reason I did not add "Robinson Crusoe" to my Classics Club list back when I was putting it together; I guess the prospect of being stuck on a deserted island didn't appeal to me at the time. So Moll it is.

 

In the back of my copy it says:

 

"Based on the first edition of 1722, this volume includes a chronology, notes on currenty and maps of London and Virginia in the late seventeenth century."

 

From "Moll Flanders".
Image from here.

If there's something I love, it's the maps in the books (and I believe I am not the only one here). And indeed - there are three maps included in the end fo the book - "London in the late seventeenth century", "Smithfield market and vicinity" and "Chesapeake Bay (Virginia and Maryland in 1680)". Oh, look, the book just got a lot tastier :)

 

I am worried (but not overly) about the language. Browsing through the first few pages I already noticed excessive use of the capital letters, which concerns me. May it be noted that in general, English uses capital letter more often than my native tongue - for example, in Estonian (and Finnish), langages (and much more, like holidays) are not marked with capital letter, but instead "inglise/englanti", so this is why abundant use of capitalisation can confuse me.

 

I shall start with "Moll" after I finish my current classic, "Villette" (which is going very smoothly at the moment). I am positive I will be able to finish "Moll" this month and write the review by the end of the month (so not to repeat what happened to "Germinal" - I finished the book but it took me a long while to write about it).

 



Daniel Defoe.
Image from here.

Closing the lid of May

May - what an overall successful and pleasant month. So much happened. Spring finally arrived, my Finnish classes ended for this half-a-year, we were reading lots during Bout of Books 7.0, I made some important health-related decisions that should promise for better future. I am happy with you, May!

 

What I read in May 2013:

 

* M. Atwood "The Blind Assassin" (Classics Club big list)

* D.L. Bogdan "The Forgotten Queen" 

* B. Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" (Women's Prize shortlist)

* R. Bradbury "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (Classics Club big list)

* J. Fforde "The Eyre Affair"

* H. Wecker "The Golem and the Djinni"

* G.G. Marquez "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (Classics Club big list)
 



This is my boyfriend reading one of Martin's books. With
Robert. What lovely emotion on this photo.

Page count: 521 + 315 + 436 + 290 + 373 + 484 + 337 = 2756 pages

I think 7 books is the most I've done during blogging since the beginning of the year, so thanks a lot, Bout of Books!
 

In Classics Club May Meme post I set down the three classics I wanted to read in May. Well, I only read the Atwood book - I didn't really get into Conan Doyle and Dickens at all, so I didn't force them - the better time will come. However, I did read three CC books in May, which I am very happy with. And also enjoyed all of them, so that is a good thing too (I really have to catch up with the reviews, though...)
 

Okay, plans for June (and what a busy month this will be).
 

* Classics Spin #2 Summer Edition - I get to read "Villette" by Charlotte Brontë. I am excited! "Jane Eyre" is such a famous book, but it's also a story a bit overly chewn by the world by now, so I am so so curious to discover the later works of Charlotte. I started the book last night after I finished "One Hundred Years..." (very suitably on the last day of May) and read a few pages; I don't have opinions yet but it's definitely Charlotte's style there.
 

* O from Délaissé is hosting 18th Century English Literature Event for June - even though it will be a super busy month  for me, I wanted to take part because I am scared of the 18th century English lit and I am especially scared of Defoe and "Moll Flanders", which I picked to read. So hoping that reading with the rest of the classics-loving folk will make it easier!
 

* We are going to Prague this month for four days (this is like my dream destination for a city holiday ever). I am slightly obsessed with Prague and I want to read two books around the time of the trip - Magnus Flyte's "City of Dark Magic", which is set in Prague, and re-read Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", one of my favourite books from high-school reading programme (oh yes, we got to read some interesting books there :) ).




Robert got tired :)

It will be also the Midsummer's holidays this month, coinciding with my week-long vacation from work. We will likely be heading to boyfriend's parents' summer cottage in the middle of nowhere - which is actually the most perfect place for reading, ever (the forest, the lake, the nightless nights of Finland - this one day of the year when sun doesn't set).

 

Also, Women's Prize winner for this year will be announced on 5th of June, which is already next week - I really want to know which book wins.

It's over - Bout of Books 7.0 Wrap-up

Never would have thought I would enjoy a reading event as much as I enjoyed Bout of Books 7.0 readathon.

 

So to wrap it up, what happened during this week:

 

Total books read: 3

Total pages read: 949 (oww... so close!)

The books I finished: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Women'z Prize shortlist), Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (my Classics Club list), The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (simply an awesome book).

Number of challenges I participated: 3

 

How did I do regarding to the goals I set myself before the readathon?

 

Let's see...

 

1. Finish at least two books - check!

2. Read at least two hours a day - I am not even sure why I set this goal as it is basically impossible for me to keep track on reading time. But I'm positive that at least half the days I did read around two hours.

3. Visit at least 5 Bout of Books blogs a day - check. I visited, I commented.

4. Regular daily updates - CHECK. This is what I am really proud of, as doing something regularly can be very challenging for me. However, during the readathon I posted every single morning. (That is almost achievement enough to buy a book as a reward...)

 

It was nice to read the blogs of other participants and see how everyone was doing. It was nice to find comments in my own blog - thank you, people!

 

The next Bout of Books readathon will take place in August and I very much would want to get involved again.

 

As for now, let the normal reading, reviewing and posting schedule to commence - I miss my routine :D

Bout of Books: Sunday

Wheeee! The last day of readathon is done (it's almost midnight here [even though I'll likely draft this post and publish on Monday morning] so I am officially calling it quits). Not that I am happy about it ending, but, well, I am a bit, because as awesome as it was, I feel drained and the thought of focusing on other things too, now (like going to the movies! and being more social outside the Internetz) feels nice.

 

So, the last day was very successful for me, as I basically just read the whole day. Quite deliberately, as I was determined to finish off The Eyre Affair along with the readathon.

The books I read on Sunday: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Total pages read: 249 (! wow).

Total books finished: 3 (!!!)

What do my cats think: So my other cat, Mammu, made an appearance and snuggled down with The Eyre Affair today (or maybe she was just snuggling down with me, because I happened to be reading on the carpet on the floor...). Also Robert decided that my copy was not that clean anymore and tried to wash the cover (the way cats wash things and themselves - was funny :p).

Flavour of the day: Banana-blueberry-honey-yoghurt-milk smoothie.

 

I said she's smart :))

Book makes a good pillow for an intelligent cat.
 

 

I'm ready to wrap things in a wrap-up post tomorrow. It has been such fun!

Bout of Books: Saturday

NOT the best day. We went to see the hockey match, from where I left some time half way when I started falling asleep on my feet. I was generally feeling meeeeeeeeh about everything and didn't read as much as I would have liked.


The books I read on Saturday: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Total pages read: 94 (only).
Total books finished: 2
What do my cats think: Again, nothing. Robert sniffed The Eyre Affair for a moment and turned away. It seems that he has no attraction whatsoever to this one.
Flavour of the day: Hmmmmm... The very strong flavour of spring outside, probably.

I am enjoying The Eyre Affair, and taking my time with it, enjoying the cleverness and the book-nerdness. Today is the last day of readathon, and even though it has been a-we-some, I feel like I don't mind it ending and knowing I can resume to normal reading/posting schedule :)

Bout of Books: Friday

Friday was an a-okey day, except for this totally random and accidental nap me and the boyfriend took in the eveningish and which lasted for two hours, and during which I had this awesome dream with Ray Bradbury, who was such a nice guy to talk to (and I am sure he was that nice or even nicer of a person in life). Compared to my regular semi-nightmarish dreams (side effect of quitting a certain medicine, as I learned) this was like a breath of fresh air. And maaaan, bookish dreams! Yes. Also I had very nice chat with Ellie in Twitter in the evening, which totally deserves a mention of its own.

The books I read on Friday: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Total pages read: 127, which is fewer than on Thursday, but matters not, because...
Total books finished: 2 (!!)
What do my cats think: Robert agreed to pose with my Shiny New Book Pile the Ultimate Temptress:



Hard to tell by his impression, but I'd say he is intrigued (as am I!). Or maybe he's thinking "oh, woman, when does this week end already so I don't have to do this anymore..."

Flavour of the day: Lots of makis from the best sushi place in Helsinki.

So I did dig into The Eyre Affair and it seems like exactly the kind of light-ish, entertaining read that I expected. Also I love the design of this series (first emotion when I was about to take the book out of the parcel - why the hell did they send me a used copy :D) and I would very much like to see all the Thursday Next books gracing my bookshelves!

So, Saturday - today I will try to get some reading outside done, if the thunderstorm doesn't kick in. Later there is a Very Important Ice Hockey Match between Finland and Sweden (like the arch rivalry or something), and the boyfriend wants to go out to see it. We shall see what happens. I doubt I will be able to read in a pub full of yelling and cursing Finns.

Bout of Books: Thursday

Thursday was bit of an odd, I was feeling a bit out-of-everything and had headache and so I did read, but not as much as I could have. However, I am positive I will finish off "Something Wicked..." today, which means I can dig into the Shiny New Book Pile today or tomorrow, if I like! (Sorry Robin Hobb... but Bradbury kinda counts as fantastic, too.)

The books I read on Thursday: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
Total pages read: 143
Total books finished: still the 1
What do my cats think: No cat update since they both lacked any connection with any books yesterday.
Flavour of the day: Ice Cold Beer.

I also got distracted by the Internetz and participated another challenge, as well as started the Spine Speak. So, in total I made a whopping three posts in my blog in one day, which hasn't happened ever before? probably. I kind of miss writing reviews and filling the blog with some more content, so in that sense I am waiting for the next week.

Happy reading day to all the readathon-ers! It's Friday!

Bout of Books: Wednesday

The third day of readathon was very successful for me - I actually finished a book! Yes, I am done with Barbara Kingsolver (now that may sound a bit wrong, but I don't mean it in any bad way :) ). There are many, many thoughts I have about Flight Behavior, but no idea when I get to write about it, since I have pretty much cancelled all reviews during this week in favour of reading. Anyway, even though this wasn't a life-changing experience for me, this is not the last meeting between me and that particular author, that is for sure.

I am also extremely proud of staying away from "the new shiny book pile" and continuing with my initial readathon books - small step for mankind it may be, but for someone with considerable self-disciplining issues, that is a gigantic leap.

The books I read on Wednesday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
Total pages read: 138 (getting better daily, it seems!)
Total books finished: 1 (!!!!!) (yes, it deserves to be in red and bold)
What do my cats think about the books at hand: Robert finally warmed up to Kingsolver and just after I finished it and put it down next to me on bed, he graced Flight Behavior with his presence and took a nap on it, or well, half the upper body on it. However, Robert was very excited about the Bradbury book, and approved it wholeheartedly:

"I like this book!" I agree with you, little buddy.

Flavour of the day: It was the flavour of the first day reading outside with my boyfriend today, definitely.

I do expect my page count to skyrocket, as Something Wicked This Way Comes is a pocket-size book with big font (gotta love those :p). I also made a deal with myself that if I manage to finish this one also before the weekend, I am allowed to take a sneak peek in The Eyre Affair (positive motivating yay!).

Happy reading day to all the readathon-ers!
 

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: Monday

The first day of Bout of Books readathon was a great success, even though I did not finish anything - but I enjoyed it greatly - checking out how others are doing, participating in the Spine Poetry challenge, chatting on Twitter.

 

The books I read on Monday: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Total pages read today: 96

Total books finished: 0

What do my cats think about the books at hand: Nothing. It is a softcover with a VERY soft cover, which makes it a bad "rub-my-face-against-while-looking-stupid" book.

Flavour of the day: absolutely delicious dinner made by my lovely (and understanding, thehe) boyfriend.

 

 

 

 

In other news, I received a pack of books - the Lonely Planet Prague travel guide (yess! - not sure it would count as a reading material, though...), The Eyre Affair, City of Dark Magic and Outlander. And I want to read them all. right. now. I am soooo doomed...

Bout of Books Challenge #1: Spine Poetry

Cait over at Escape Through the Pages is hosting the Bout of Books challenge: Spine Poem Challenge.

Here are the rules (and check out the site for more information, participation conditions, prizes, etc):

It’s easy – using books you have on hand, line up their spines to create a poem out of the titles. There is no theme and no set number of books to use, just do what pops into your head. You CAN use extra words outside of the books titles, BUT, you can only use as many extra words as you have books.

 

Let me tell you, it definitlely ain't as easy as it looks like! I picked six books, so I was allowed to add six words to the book titles.

 

So here are my books and here is my first ever attempt on spine poetry:

 

 

 

The Woman in White

thought

"Tender is the Night,

Life After Life;

Are we just

The Dust in Sunlight?

The Well-Educated Mind?

Burning at

451⁰ Fahrenheit?

 

(The last book is in Estonian and thus the title fits better into my poem than the English version; I am not sure if I am cheating here or not, but there were no language restrictions included so I am going with this one right now :) )

 

That was fun!

 

 



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 :) )  

C_Club #6 - "Germinal" by Emilé Zola

I read "Germinal" what now feels like eons ago (in April). And it is probably the most difficult book to write down thoughts about since I started blogging in the beginning of this year.

 

When I think about "Germinal", I get this huge back-flow of emotions and feels that I went through while reading. Yet, those few times I have attempted to write about it, it's like having a blogger's block (there is such a thing, right?). So I began wondering if it is one of the books I find difficult to talk about because there was too much in it. And if I am afraid that talking about it and transforming the thoughts into words is going to somehow diminish the impact.

 

Generally, I am inclined towards depressive and difficult, and this book is The One. It's The Book, if you are searching for all the pains and sufferings and misery that human beings can be tossed into and have to struggle through.

 

The mining industry has always generated a lot of spook in me. Earth is our home, but it can also be treacherous for those who challenge it. Somehow, the thought of sending people down to hundreds and hundres of metres, into the belly of the earth, feels so unnatural. One wrong move, and one can end life there. In this book, mines are characters - in Zola's world, they are breathing and they are alive.

 

More miners arrived, fresh groups of stonemen, and one by one they were swallowed up by the pit. It was the three o'clock shift, another meal for the mine, as the teams went down to take over the concessions that the hewers had been working on, at the far end of the tunnels. The mine never slept; night and day these human insects burrowed into the rock, 600 metres below the beetfields. /p. 65/

 

Illustration from here.

More than once Zola portrays mines as creatures with huge bellies who "swallow" the miners. It is spooky. Although most of the activities take place up on the solid ground, there are a few occasions where reader is taken down, to go into the mine with characters, to take a peek at their cruel labour, just as the reader is taken down with the miners who get trapped below. There is nowhere else to look - and even if I wanted, I could not; Zola is just so convincing.

 

I don't want to write about narrative; I feel that in books like that, it is secondary. I feel like the narrative (and I'm not saying it's not good!) is there to serve another purpose, a greater one - to show corners and nooks deep inside people, to show how animals inside us come out when certain circumstances are triggered. The characters are put into the positions where they do not have many choices, or they have choice between the bad and the worse. And that is how Zola strips the human nature - from all the clothes, bells and whistles, to the naked, puny things that we are - some with good heart, some with bad heart, but everyone with the same instincts - to prevail, to survive, to reproduce. They survive the hunger and the cold, and they bring countless amount of new souls to this hunger and cold, all for what?

 

"The worst of it, I think, is when you realize that nothing can change... When you're young you think that you're going to be happy later on, there are things you look forward to; and then you keep finding you're as hard up as ever, you stay bogged down in poverty... I don't blame anyone for it, but there are times when I feel sick at the injustice of it all." /p. 166/

 

Photo from here.

And even though at time there seems to be no obvious ending for this viscious circle (all the households simply wait for children to get old enough to go to the pits so that they can help out with money...), Zola ends the novel in a more hopeful note - the hope that there will be better days.

 

I think it is such books that we all need to read, from time to time, to look back at our #FirstWorldProblems, and to get better perspective on ... life in general. (My #FirstWorldProblem at hand - there seems to be no decent cover image for the copy of the novel I read in the webbed world. It seemed tragic for a moment, but then I thought about the Maheudes and ... yeah, seriously. Get a grip, girl.)

 

 I want more Zola in my life.

 

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524 pages

 

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I read this novel during the Zoladdiction month organised by o and Fanda. Thank you so much for organising this event, girls!