October was a fantastic reading month. Other than The Selected Letters of John Keats, which is a massive book that will be ongoing for awhile, I have no “leftovers.” Wow, does that ever feel good. And now here we are in November. I can hardly believe the year is winding down. It seems like it was February just last week. With the garden put to bed and an “arctic outbreak” heading into Minnesota with forecast temperatures at or below freezing starting this weekend and into next week (we are a cold place but this is about 15 degrees below the normal average for this time of year), I am heading into to prime reading season. I’ve already got the quilt out in my reading “nest” (as Bookman calls it) and the cats hover around me waiting for me to sit down so they can pile on top.
The month looks like it will be crammed with bookish goodness. A long time ago I had this idea that I would read Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. I made it through the first two volumes, loved them, began the third and got stuck not quite halfway through. Guermantes Way sat around with my bookmark in it for — dare I say? —two years — before I finally decided that if I were to ever pick the book up again I would have to start over. Well, the time has come and I have begun again on page one thanks to Arti and Dolce Belezza who are also reading it. If it weren’t for them, well, I’d still be promising myself to read it “some day.” We don’t have any set dates, but we hope to be through the first part of the book by the end of the month.
Another novel I will be starting soon, perhaps this weekend, is A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. Whispering Gums is reading it this month for her book group so I thought I would read it too. Maybe I will make a surprise appearance at the book group. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia. At the very least I look forward to having someone to compare notes with.
Just received in the mail for review for Library Journal is a book called The Temporary Future: The Fiction of David Mitchell. I’ve not read all of Mitchell’s books and it appears that there is a chapter focusing on each one of them including his newest, The Bone Clocks. I suspect plots will be “spoiled” but I don’t think that really matters with Mitchell.
On the poetry front, I am reading An Invitation for Me to Think by Alexander Vvedensky. He was arrested in 1941 for “counterrevolutionary literary activities” and died of pleurisy on a prison train not long after. He was only 37. Just published in 2013, this is his first collection of poetry to appear in English. I have only read one longish poem so far. It’s good, but a thinker. I will have to read it a few more times. I get the feeling much of this book might be like that. An invitation to think indeed!
I am also in the midst of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. I am not sure what to think of this yet. It starts off at a college for magic and nothing much has really happened. On the go as well is Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz. I am over halfway and enjoying the book very much.
I requested the next Scott Pilgrim book from the library, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And checking my library account I have a few holds that will shortly be making their way to me. Unspeakable Things: Sex Lies and Revolution by Laurie Penny is about gender and power in the twenty-first century. This will be ready for me to pick up in the next day or two.
I am the next one in line for The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. Thanks to a wonderful review at Whispering Gums, I got myself in the queue before it won the Booker Prize. I am also next in line for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. This has been getting such good buzz in book blog world that I am very much looking forward to reading it.
Wow, that’s a lot of books for November. It’s a good thing I get a four-day weekend at the end of the month for Thanksgiving. I’m going to need it!
I don’t know how you do this. So many books, all at one time, books that take many people a lifetime to read, dense books, lengthy books. If you can keep track of them simultaneously, you are certainly on of the gifted. I’d bet a fortune you’ll never finish all of those you set before yourself this month.
LikeLike
Richard, English major undergrad and grad school in literature teaches one very quickly how to read more than one book at a time and to keep them all straight. But then even in high school I’d have more than one book going between reading for English class and reading for fun on my own, it just wasn’t as intense as it is now. I think it is a skill one can develop. Whether or not it is a good skill, well I suppose that can be debated! I’m sure I won’t finish everything I start this month, but it will be fun to try 🙂
LikeLike
Wow, two mentions in one post! I’m on a roll! If you read and review “Girl” before 25 November I’ll make sure that you make a cyber appearance at least at my reading group.
As for the Flanagan, my group is patting itself on the back that we read it only weeks before it won the Booker. You did well to reserve it so promptly. Hope you like it when you get to it.
LikeLike
whisperinggums, you’ve hit the big time! 😉 Bookman got excited about a potential trip to Australia but I don’t think either of us will be able to get the time off from work at such short notice so virtual it will have to be.I will aim to be done before the 25th then! Your group did very good with the Flanagan, I owe you for that and your enticing posts on it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a shame!! I’ll have to send you next year’s schedule so you can plan!
LikeLike
I hope to read Being Wrong very soon. It sounds like something I’d both love and find useful. Also, enjoy Station Eleven when you get to it!
LikeLike
Proust and Scott Pilgrim not to mention all the rest! What a fantastic range of reading and I hope you enjoy all of it.
I have been on a bit of a crime reading binge with a very good anthology of short stories, Best American Mysteries 2009 which was a collection with scarcely one dud. Also historical crime with Alan Massie’s Murder In Bordeaux and Black Summer In Bordeaux – humane and atmospheric novels set in Vichy era France. Also Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Julia Annas which is very interesting.
LikeLike
Ian, Proust and Scott Pilgrim pretty much run to either end of the reading spectrum, don’t they? Hopefully they balance each other out and don’t make my brain explode. Ooh, a crime spree for you. What fun! How do you like the Very Short Introduction book? I read one a year or two ago on quantum physics and liked it quite a bit. If Ancient Philosophy is good I might have to check that one out.
LikeLike
It is very interesting and gave me a sort of map of Greek philosophy which was very much not just a series of great names but an exploration of what made this way of thinking so central to us. I did not know that Plato’s Republic seen as a key work of political theory is very much a 19th century construct or that Aristotle’s exploration of natural history was quite so distorted by commentators. As always with the Very Short Introductions there is a problem in that they lack the conciseness of a Wikipedia entry while not being quite a full book! But they are really useful and , face it, the only way I would read books on quantum physics and ancient philosophy!
LikeLike
Ooh, I’ll have to borrow a copy from the library sometime. I think it might go along well with the Greek plays I’ve been working my way through. I think they manage to nice balance with the Very Short Introductions, enough to grasp a subject but not so much that it is overwhelming.
LikeLike
Ana, Being Wrong is really good and the author makes lots of literary references which makes it extra fun. Plus, she has made me extra aware about wanting to be right about everything and I catch myself at it sometimes and try to back off and relax. It’s a weird feeling, but a good one I think. I am very much looking forward to Station Eleven and fully expecting to love it.
LikeLike
Stef, I can only do two books at a time – one a book-book and one an audio book (for the commute to work), so hats off to you who can keep so many juggled at once. I wish I could. At present I am reading My Cousin Rachel (book-book) and The Good Earth (audio book). I’m loving the Pearl Buck so much that I’ve been sitting in my car once I hit my destination…just sitting there listening. This morning a co-worker tapped on my window and wondered, “Are you okay?” “Oh…sorry. Forgot where I was.” (Puzzled look passes over co-worker’s face as he slowly backs away from car window. Debating whether to call for back-up. Probably thinking she’s finally gone over the edge.) Am waiting for The Bone Clocks to come up in the queue at the library.
LikeLike
Grad, Bookman loves audiobooks too and I have caught him many times sitting in the car in the front of the house after he gets home from work listening to a good part. So you know you are not alone! I think I am going to wait for Bone Clock to come out in paperback and just buy a copy. The queue at my library is so long for it I will still probably get the paperback before my turn comes up!
LikeLike
Looking forward to reading your final thoughts on The Magicians, a book (series, actually) that’s in my TBR tome after recently having read The Codex. I highly recommend that one (because, you know, you just don’t have enough to read).
LikeLike
Emily, I am not sure what to make of the Magicians just yet. I heard such good things about the final book in the series that I expected to be immediately wowed by the first book but wow has not happened yet. The Codex, huh? I’ll look that one up 🙂
LikeLike
To begin with all the best for the “artic outreak”….hope you stay all cozy and warm with the blanket, books, big mug of coffee and cats!! Books are of course the part of the natural order of things!! How are you finding Keats? I know its a BIG book, but i really enjoyed, especially because I meandered slowly through it…Proust and Pilgrim???!!! Woooohooooo Stefanie….you always inspire me to really go for as different works as possible…never change that!!! 🙂
LikeLike
cirtnecce, it was a good weekend for reading and now we are getting snowed on! I am liking Keats very much. I have not gotten all that far but he is a good letter writer, puts my own missives to shame. Proust and Pilgrim, something from each end of the book continuum 🙂
LikeLike
That looks like a lot of good reading ahead! I think I’ve hit a bit of a slump actually, so I’m looking for inspiration wherever I can find it. Tell me if I should read Station Eleven.
LikeLike
Isabella, I’ve heard such good things about Station Eleven, I am very excited about it. I hope it lives up the hype! And I hope you find a way out of your reading slump soon!
LikeLike
You can do it! Think of that vacation time coming your way. And if not, there is still December–a little scary, but the idea of cold and snow is even scarier–and since it is going to be cold here next week, I am sorry, but I bet it is going to be even colder up there! You need all those books to keep you occupied now that you won’t be able to work in your garden. How cool that you are getting back to Proust. Some day I will read him…. And what a lovely thought to not have any books to carry over from last month. You Need to pick up some new ones to take their places! 😉
LikeLike
Danielle, I know, can you believe the end of the year is fast approaching? We are getting snowed on as I type and might end up with as much as 15 inches by the time it is all done. Yikes! Fall is over and winter is here. I’m having better luck with Guermantes Way on this second attempt I just have to keep the momentum going to the end, that’s the hard part.
LikeLike
I have A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing out from the library right now and hope to read it soon. However, given my track record for actually reading the books I check out, I’d say the odds are about 30% 🙂 I also have Station Eleven on my holds list, but there are a few folks in front of me so it’ll be a while.
LikeLike
Teresa, I started Girl over the weekend and I am loving it. So good. Don’t let it go back to the library without reading it!
LikeLike
Let’s hope I can keep to my commitment… so many distractions. You have a wonderful reading list here Stefanie, and Richard Flanagan’s sounds like another movie coming. 😉
LikeLike
Arti, well, I’m reading Proust but I am only on about page 50. As you know it’s slow going. So if we all end up not making it through part one, well, no big deal. We’ll just keep reading and get there eventually, right?
LikeLike
Lots of awesome books on your horizon! I hope you like Station Eleven. I saw the first few bloggers the other day in the inevitable wave of readers who got too much hype for Station Eleven and were disappointed and did not think it was that great and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Soooo EXPECT NOTHING from Station Eleven. And then you can’t be disappointed; you can only be pleasantly surprised. :p
LikeLike
Jenny, I started reading Station Eleven the other day and so far so good. I’m trying not to expect too much other than planning to enjoy a good story.
LikeLike