It’s been awhile since I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday post and this particular Tuesday, the topic caught my eye. I started off 2016 with a bang, but since the year is progressing, I’ve lost some of my reading focus. A post like this will be a good motivator to pull it all together and target my important reads.
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Still Life Vase with Flowers (1881)
Paul Gauguin
source Wikiart |
I have a number of challenges and read-alongs going on, including my Shakespeare challenge, my Greek challenge, my Reading England challenge, Back to the Classics, etc., along with a group read of The Faerie Queene motivated by O at Behold the Stars, my read of The Lord of the Rings with Cirtnecce of Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses and Prejudices, and I know not what (that last phrase is good to use when your head is going to explode with the possibilities! 😉 ). Will my list be longer than 10 books? Let’s find out!
1.
The Faerie Queene: The whole complete unabridged poem (although I liked the above book cover best). I’m terrified and also kind of excited.
2.
The Pickwick Papers: For the
Behold the Stars read-along in publication order. A very unique and illuminating experience to read Dickens as his first readers would have read his works ….. spanning about a year and a half!
3.
The Histories by Herodotus: I’ve place it at the top of the list because I’m determined to get to it sometime this year, and I’d like to start it soon. Hopefully, the fact that I’ve been looking at it for the last month without reading it, isn’t a dire premonition!
4.
To Kill A Mockingbird: I’m reading this with one of my Goodreads groups. I haven’t read it since high school and it’s on my Classics Club list, so I’m looking forward to it.
5.
Sophocles: I should be finishing up the plays of Aeschylus soon and then I’ll begin on those by Sophocles. I’ve read his Theban Plays twice already and can’t wait to re-visit them, but I’m also looking forward to reading the rest of his works.
6.
Twelfth Night: This play is being performed at our local university, so I thought I should support locally, read a book for a challenge, and make another attempt at this play. I’ve read it twice already and wasn’t enthused, but perhaps the third time will be a charm.
7.
8.
Emil and the Detectives: Another book for Amanda’s event.
9.
The Cloud of Unknowing: I’m trying to get through this one. Very mystical, which normally I like, but this time I’m not connecting. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the anonymous author at the beginning of the book says it is not to be read by anyone but a contemplative. And I didn’t listen to the warning! :-Z
10.
Framley Parsonage: Oh my goodness, do I owe an enormous apology to Trollope! Do you know how many years ago I started to read through his
Barsetshire Chronicles? Two! Do you know how many books I’ve managed to read? Three! It’s pitiful, especially considering that I really have enjoyed each book. Sigh! I just don’t know why I have no desire to pick the next one up. In any case, I got this book for my latest
Classics Club Spin and
Cirtnecce has kindly offered to read-along with me. Do you think with a Spin hanging over my head and a blogging friend to hold my hand, that I can get it finished? We’ll see …….
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Trollope's original readers took four years to read the first three Barsetshire books. You are ahead, not behind.
I'm also reading Pickwick with the group! And planning on rereading To Kill a Mockingbird. xox
Happy spring, m'dear. I hope all is good.
Yay, Jillian, reading PP! (I forgot to add that to my spring TBR. I decided at my last minute to join and still waiting for my copy to arrive.)
Also, Cleo, did I already ask you if you were going to read through TWEM histories? B/C Histories by Herodotus is on there. : )
I'm excited & nervous about PP! I didn't add it to my spring list because I definitely won't finish it this spring. 🙂
LOL! Thanks for that encouragement! And your comment brings to mind that if I simply read a chapter a week, I'd at least feel like I was getting somewhere!
I'm really looking forward to the PP read-along (anything read slowly and easily is very appealing to me at the moment!).
Thanks for keeping me honest, Ruth, as I do tend to miss things. I did know that The Histories is on the WEM list, but I have no problem reading anything Greek multiple times! 🙂 And I might have run into a snag with the biographies because my library has almost none of the rest of them and I'm not buying books at the moment. I did place an ILL for the rest of the bios about two months ago but our library system is terrible so I have no idea when they'll come, and then if they'll come all at once and I'll have no time to read them all before they need to be returned. Rats!
I hope you're doing well too, Jillian! We've had windstorms, leaking roofs, and emergency dental visits, but all-in-all life is good! Take care!
Cleo ….you do realize that my top ten books will have about 3 common with you – PP, Farmley Parsonage and The Faerie Queene. I am now seriously contemplating joining you for The Histories by Herodotus and To Kill a Mockingbird which i can read again and again and again! Your blog is like a devil tempting me! But awesome top 10 as you can make out by my I want this and I want that feelings!
interesting and eclectic list! i've tried the cloud of unknowing and liked what i read of it, but i just poked about in it, really… my better half read the whole thing, though, and loved it. it still occupies a special place on her bookshelf.
I hope you do get to Framley Parsonage this time! That's where I'm at in my Barsetshire reading too, but somehow it always gets pushed to the bottom of the list…
Okay, get ready for another temptation …… I just saw that Hamlette is considering a Jane Eyre read-along for the end of May. Against my better judgement, I'm going to join as her read-alongs are usually very nicely paced (ie. longer and not too stressful).
Yay, I'm glad you might join me for TKAM & Herodotus. I'm going to be going very slowly with the latter, so don't worry about having to jam him in in a month. TKAM should be easily readable in a month. It's so nice to have a reading partner, as the reads tend to get done and are far more enjoyable, so yes, please, read along with me! 🙂
Well, that's inspiring to hear. Perhaps I just need to have time to focus more on it, and some quiet for a contemplative mind-set! I think you win the prize for actually having heard of it, although perhaps it's known more than I think.
Oh, you too?! I think you've hit on the problem ….. the books are enjoyable, but there are always books lurking around that preferable to Trollope's. I'm glad to hear you're at the same place as me. I'm determined to get through this one though, and add number 4 to the list!
Marvelous eclectic list. Looking forward to The Pickwick Papers read along.
Thanks, Joseph. I'm looking forward to the nice, easy pace of the PP read-along. I often wish I had more time to read more slowly than I do. You then have the time to mull over what you read, and hopefully get more out of it.
ok…in! Mail me the schedule details especially for Herodotus! I will skip Jane Eyre for now, simply because I may have to quit my job to read all this! Not that I mind, but how the hell will i pay the bills????
I'll pm you! 😉
Motivational posts 1 x per three months helps you focus.
It is a great way to just share your thoughts, plans with all its ups and downs. PP read-along will be fun but I'm not going anywhere near Faerie Queen, I'll let you do it first! I got a call from Ovid, he's in Tomis on the Black Sea. I keep telling him, to be patient. My review will take some time. What is it about 'epic' that he does not understand? Have a great reading week!
Focus is good until it helps me realize just how much I've overloaded myself!
Ovid breaks all the boundaries. And I think you get much of Ovid himself in his retelling of the myths. I hope that he metamorphoses for you soon!
Ah, great list! I LOVE Sophocles – not one play of his do I not love!
Let me know when you're ready for Herodotus – I'll join you 🙂
I can't wait to get to Sophocles. I'm really excited about getting to his lesser-known plays.
I'm going to try to start Herodotus in the next couple of weeks but very slowly. I'm going to try to clean up a few of my reads first. My focus in going to be on TFQ first and foremost.
Would you mind Herodotus advice? I have Herodotus advice.
Which is: Mostly Herodotus is narrative history and pretty zippy. Story-based & dramatic.
But the long second book, about Egypt, is something else. Herodotus did not just invent history, but cultural anthropology! If you find yourself dragging in the Egypt section, just skip ahead to Book III, where the narrative resumes.
Advice? Of course, any advice from you is welcome! I will certainly keep that in mind in Book II. I'm very curious about whether I'd find it boring now. I tended to love Hugo's digressions and Tolstoy's epilogue in War and Peace, but cultural anthropology might be a bit too much. Thanks for the tip!
Wonderful, inspiring list! And perhaps a bit ambitious, but yours always are. 🙂 I need to get more focused on my reading as well, as I've been a bit all over the place, but I feel like it's starting to come together.
I've read and enjoyed Twelfth Night, but I think it may have been easier as I'd seen it before I read it, and I find that always helps with enriching the reading experience (and vice versa for watching). Hopefully third time's the charm for you.
Love the cover of Emil and the Detectives – I don't think I've seen that one yet. It's perfect! Looking forward to April!
I like lists and I don't like lists. I do think they give focus, but I also hate looking back at them because it reminds me how little I stick to them. :-Z
I'm glad to hear that about Twelfth Night. I think I'll order a DVD performance from the library and read along with that.
Yes, I'm so looking forward to the Children's Lit Event, especially with all these heavy reads looming. 🙂
I should probably ready The Histories during the spring as well. I've yet to start on my Ancient Greek Reading Challenge. I've decided to include The Histories in it though I'm not sure it fits.
Oh, The Histories definitely fits the Greek challenge. If you want to join us as an incentive to read it, you'll be very welcome. I plan to start in a week or two and go pretty slowly, but I want to post per book, so you'll be able to tell where I'm at. O from Behold the Stars is reading it too, and perhaps any others who could be convinced. It will be a nice spring/summer read!
Yea, I'd like to join in. Is it a read-along group or just reading and posting per book on the blog?
I'm going to start in April and go slowly. I'll see if the others want to mock-up a schedule but we're all reading other books so we want to make it low stress. I'm planning to post per book, but I usually struggle with non-fiction reviews, so I'll see how that goes! Everyone usually just does what they feel comfortable with. I'm going to aim for at least a book per month (which might be the case in April-May) but I'd like to pick up the pace to a book every two weeks after those busy months. Are you on Goodreads? If so, I could friend you through there and then it's easy to keep track.
Ok. Sounds good. I like the low stress, I checked out the copy you featured above from the library. I read samples from a couple translations online and that one seemed easiest to digest. I don't know how I'll read it, but I'll post by book so it's easier to discuss and then I'll check in to see what everyone thought.
Yep, I'm on Goodreads. I'll try to add you now.
Oh yay! I'm glad to have another reading buddy! 🙂 I just accepted your friend request so we're ready to go. I tried to find you myself but, boy, are there lots of Zeezee's on GRs! :-Z
Haha! I didn't know.
I'm excited too! 😀