Saturday, January 1, 2022

Bout of Books 2022

I'm planning to participate in the Bout of Books January 3-9, 2022. Great way to kick off a new year of reading!

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Classics Club Spin #24

Classics Club Spin List 1 Seth, Vikram A Suitable Boy 2 Faulkner, William Absalom! Absalom! 3 Eliot, George Adam Bede 4 Stendhal Charterhouse of Parma 5 Dostoevsky, Fyodor Demons 7 Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote 8 Stoker, Bram Dracula 9 Scott, Walter Heart of Midlothian 10 Shalamov, Varlam Kolyma Tales 11 Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary 12 Cather, Willa O Pioneers! 13 Mahfouz, Naguib Palace Walk 14 Tolkien, J. R. R. Return of the King 15 Dostoevsky, Fyodor The Adolescent 16 Boswell, James The Life of Samuel Johnson 17 Thackeray, William The Luck of Barry Lyndon 18 Musil, Robert The Man without Qualities 19 Roth, Joseph The Radetzky March 20 Babel, Isaac The Red Cavalry

Friday, July 19, 2019

24 in 48 July 2019 edition

I'm taking another plunge into the 24 in 48 read-a-thon this weekend.  I participated in the last one in January, and while I didn't hit 24 hours, I did read for about 15.  This time, I won't be at home; instead, I'll be traveling one of the days, and in a hotel all three nights.  I'm interested to see what effect that has--if any.  I'll be participating in a conference for some of Sunday, but not all. 

I'd like to finish a couple of books I've started:
Richard Price, The Whites
Sharyn McCrumb, The Ballad of Frankie Silver

I'd be pleased finish those two.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Michael David Lukas's The Last Watchman of Old Cairo


Lukas's novel tells the story of a synagogue, its documents, and the people who protect and want to preserve them, across three distinct time periods that span several hundred years.  In doing so, Lukas shows the strong links across many generations, while playing out relations between the synagogue's Jewish leaders and the family of Muslim watchmen.  Lukas develops his characters and their motivations effectively.  The novel is a delight to read, and offers a hopeful vision of humans interacting with one another as humans and not categories.

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Final results: Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon

Books completed:  1
Hadrian the Seventh

Books read:  2
Hadrian the Seventh
A Man Without Breath, Phil Kerr

Total pages read: 416

Total reading time:  12 hours, 20 minutes

Success!  

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Readathon update--9 hours down

I've completed nine hours of the readathon, and have stayed with one book, which I started today:  Hadrian the Seventh.  So far, I've avoided mainly distractions and have read 224 pages over six hours and fifty total minutes reading.  Onward!

Dewey's 24-hour Readathon

I'm jumping in again.  I've done a better job of clearing my schedule today, and the family knows that I'll be occupied with with reading all day!  I'm going to start with a new book, one on my TBR list:  Hadrian the Seventh, a novel by Fr. Rolfe.  Updates to follow!