The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky – I’m reading this along with the Hardcore Literature Book Club (HLBC) over a two month period.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – I’m following the original serialisation schedule on this one.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens – This is From The Front Porch’s Conquer a Classic for 2023 and we are reading around five to seven chapters per month.
Richard III by William Shakespeare – Continuing the HLBC Shakespeare Project, I’ve a ticket to see this play towards the end of April.
Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare – Also part of the HLBC Shakespeare Project.
Sonnets – by William Shakespeare – Ditto!
Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada by Gabriel García Márquez – In order to brush up my Spanish, I’m reading this in its original and listening alongside. I also have the English translation to help.
Normal People by Sally Rooney – I enjoyed the TV series but felt lacking in information about the characters’ motivations, which I’m hoping will be illuminated in the novel.
The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello – I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler – I recently took out an annual subscription with The Beautiful Book Company and this is the first novel they’ve sent.
Humankind by Rutger Bregman – I’ve decided to have a non-fiction book permanently on the go and this is my first choice, which hopefully will restore my faith in the human race!
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield – I’ve had the audio on hold from Libby and it’s just come through.
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen – Play of the Season for the HLBC.
I’m definitely a polygamous reader now and I’m finding it works extremely well to have several books on the go at once as there’s always one that I feel like picking up.
My reading changed considerably in 2022 as it took on new directions: reading the classics, reading multiple books simultaneously, listening to audiobooks. With this in mind, here are my reading intentions for 2023.
Read fewer books
Although I slowed down my reading this year, the fact that I scheduled more time to read meant I got through more books. However, I’m often drawn to shorter novels and novellas, which obviously increases the quantity. I have started to pick up some longer works (Anna Karenina, Ulysses, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are amongst these) and this is something I plan to continue in 2023. Naturally, this means that the number of novels I read will decrease, but that really does not matter. Reading is not about quantity but about the quality of the experience.
Curate quarterly/monthly reading lists
With a view to becoming more intentional about the novels I pick up, I will create quarterly and monthly reading lists. I belong to the Hardcore Literature Book Club and we have a somewhat ambitious list of works that are scheduled for the year (it includes the complete works of Shakespeare as well as some weighty tomes such as War and Peace). I don’t want to feel pressurised in any way but instead relax and enjoy the experience so I will plan my reading with plenty of room for flexibility. However, these quarterly and monthly lists will just be a guide, acting as a memory aid, and can be changed or discarded as circumstances require.
Deep dive and journal
This year, I’ve been diving deeper into the work I’ve read, following up references, and journaling on ideas and quotations, and this is something I want to continue in 2023. I’d also like to undertake an overall summing up of each novel, perhaps with some general thoughts on what I liked and didn’t like in the form of a bullet point list, with examples to make it more meaningful.
Explore poetry
I’ve discovered some poetry podcasts and I would like to widen my appreciation of poetry. I’m not entirely sure how I will approach this and whether I’ll focus on particular poets or specific periods. This is something that will develop as the year progresses.
Read the books on my shelf
As far as possible, I want to go to my shelf before I go to the bookshop. I don’t expect only to pick books that I already have but I do want to reduce the number of unread books that I own.
Review these intentions quarterly
The problem with setting intentions at the beginning of the year is that our circumstances, interests and desires can change over the course of twelve months. With this in mind, I plan to review these intentions quarterly and maintain, adapt or discard them depending on how they suit my reading life.
I feel quite relaxed about these intentions as I’m not viewing them as a rigid set of goals to be ticked off but more as a reminder of the direction I would like my reading to take. Instead of being restrictive, they feel liberating, and I’m excited to see how my reading experience develops over the course of the forthcoming year.
One of my first new projects for 2023 is to read the weighty tome, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. To help me to accomplish this in twelve weeks with ease and to alleviate pressure so that I can thoroughly enjoy the journey, my strategy is to split it into sections as follows:
Week 1 – Volume 1 – Part 1 (approx 100 pages)
Week 2 – Volume 1 – Part 2 (approx 100 pages)
Week 3 – Volume 1 – Part 3 (approx 100 pages)
Week 4 – Volume 2 – Parts 1 and 2 (approx 130 pages)
Week 5 – Volume 2 – Parts 3 and 4 (approx 130 pages)
Week 6 – Volume 2 – Part 5; Volume 3 – Part 1 (approx 170 pages)
Week 7 – Volume 3 – Part 2 (approx 125 pages)
Week 8 – Volume 3 – Part 3 (approx 125 pages)
Week 9 – Volume 4 – Parts 1 and 2 (approx 100 pages)
Week 10 – Volume 4 – Parts 3 and 4 (approx 110 pages)
Week 11 – Epilogue – Parts 1 and 2 (approx 100 pages)
This leaves one week for flexibility. Some weeks I may read more, some less, but for me this feels achievable, and if it transpires that it takes longer, it really doesn’t matter. I anticipate reading it first thing in the morning when my concentration levels are at their highest and my mind at its most fresh.
When I read Anna Karenina last year, I began with an allocation of two chapters a day but I became so engrossed in this work (to the point of even taking it on holiday with me!) that I found myself reading more until I felt I must ration myself to four chapters a day as I didn’t want it to end. I’ve also just listened to The Death of Ivan Ilych, which was also a 5-star read for me, so in some way I am ‘in simpatico’ with Tolstoy’s work. As a result, reading War and Peace is not as daunting as it might otherwise have been.
During the first three months of the year, I will also be enjoying contemporary fiction, Shakespeare, and poetry. I find being a ‘polygamous’ reader means I alway have a book on to go that suits my mood, time of day, level of tiredness, amount of effort, and so on. I used to read one novel at a time but if I didn’t feel like picking it up, then I didn’t read at all and sometimes my reading stalled for weeks or months when I was struggling with a book for whatever reason.
To sum up, I’m optimistic about not only reading War and Peace but also enjoying the experience as much as I enjoyed my dive into Tolstoy last year.
What do you think? Do you do something similar? Would this work for you?
My current contemporary read is The Cockroach by Ian McEwan.
I’ve also begun working on my Ulysses project, guided by The Hardcore Literature Book Club, which is presented by Benjamin McEvoy. I have read the first chapter of Ulyssesby James Joyce, alongside the appropriate section of The New Bloomsday Book, Harry Blamires‘ guide to reading the novel. As an accompaniment, I am also reading Emily Wilson‘s translation of The Odyssey by Homer, have have completed the introduction and ‘Book 1: The Boy and the Goddess’.
Recently Completed
This week I finished reading and listening to A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe.
This early novel explores the cavernous landscapes and labyrinthine passages of Sicily’s castles and convents to reveal the shameful secrets of its all-powerful aristocracy. Julia and Emilia Mazzini live secluded in an ancient mansion near the Straits of Messina. After their father’s return to the island a neglected part of the house is haunted by a series of mysterious sights and sounds. The origin of these hauntings is only discovered after a series of breathless pursuits through dreamlike pastoral landscapes. When revelation finally comes, it forces the heroines to challenge the united forces of religious and patriarchal authority.
I read this as part of Jane Austen July, the prompt being to read a novel by a contemporary of Jane Austen. Having read The Mysteries of Udolpho many years ago, I knew what to expect, and this novel has to be admired as a textbook example of the gothic genre and makes a perfect accompaniment to Northanger Abbey, in which Austen parodies this type of novel. It is a fast-paced, plot-driven work, which doesn’t sit comfortably with me as I prefer slow, character-driven novels. For me, it has no depth or philosophy and doesn’t require any thought; it’s ridiculous, light-hearted and undemanding escapism, containing a ridiculous amount of implausible coincidences. If you are considering reading Northanger Abbey, it is well worth reading A Sicilian Romance beforehand, in order to appreciate what Austen is doing. Although she specifically refers to The Mysteries of Udolpho, this novel has the same elements and is much shorter.
Another book I finished for Jane Austen July was What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan.
What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage? What do the characters call each other, and why? And which important Austen characters never speak? In twenty short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen’s novels, John Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of Austen’s fiction.
This is a very thorough but easily accessible insight into particular recurring elements in Jane Austen’s novels and certainly causes you to consider areas that you might not otherwise have thought about. There are detailed examples from her major works to illustrate the points and an in-depth analysis of the significance of, for example, blushing, which proves to be very interesting (women blush, men go red or white). However, I have read only three of her novels recently and so a dive into the other works was not as meaningful; consequently, I think this would be a book better dipped into alongside a reading of a specific novel rather than sat down and read from cover to cover. I ended up skimming over paragraphs concerning Emma, which I have never read. At times, the general points were lost amongst the detailed analyses and, for this reason, a chapter summary would have been a useful addition. One thing that I found particularly pleasing about the book was that you can take the topics, for example ‘what do the characters call each other and why?’ and apply them to works by other writers both past and present; as a result, Mullan’s work extends beyond the narrow focus of Austen.
Another prompt for Jane Austen July was to read a work by Austen that is not one of her six main novels and for this I chose Lady Susan.
The scheming and unscrupulous Lady Susan is unlike any Austen heroine you’ve met in this fascinating early novella.
The novella comprises 41 letters between a small cast of characters in Lady Susan’s life, through which the story of her scandalous, shameless and manipulative behaviour is told. The epistolary form is very effective at revealing her duplicity and the thoughts and feelings of her friends and relatives, and it is a joy to witness the story unfold. It is light-hearted and fast-paced and although it is hard to like Lady Susan, it is definitely entertaining to observe her planning and scheming. If you would like to experience Jane Austen but are wary of diving into a longer piece of her fiction, this would be an excellent introduction to her world.
Finally, I returned to the 21st century to read Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney.
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
I read Conversations with Friends when it was first published and enjoyed the TV adaption of Normal People, which I haven’t yet read. The latter I only struggled with in terms of not understanding the characters: I felt I didn’t know them well and couldn’t understand their motivations – when I do get round to reading the novel, I’m hoping there will be a greater depth to the characters. Consequently, I was wary of reading Beautiful World, Where Are You and had one false start on it. However, I came back to it a few weeks later and loved it. I found myself having so much sympathy with the characters; I cared for them and felt their suffering as they struggled with the complexities of their lives and the wider world. The questions they grappled with were thought-provoking and have no easy answers, especially the search for meaning in life, the crises facing human existence, and, on a slightly less-challenging scale, on writing. The novel spoke to me on an intellectual level and if I had not been lent to me by a friend, I would have covered the pages with underlining and notes.
Reading Next
My next read is going to be It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, who was the most popular author around the pool on my recent holiday so I’m intrigued to find out what the draw is and whether I agree.
My quotation this week comes from Beautiful World, Where Are You, and expresses how I feel about previous decades of my life when I say that past times seem to have taken place in ‘another life’:
To think of childhood gave her a funny queasy feeling, because it had been real life once and now it was something else.
At the beginning of June, I joined the Hardcore Literature Book Club, Benjamin McEvoy’s guided reading and lecture series on Patreon, primarily so I could watch his lectures on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which I was reading for my trip to Bath. However, I enjoyed them so much, I decided to stay. The next ‘big read’ is Ulysses by James Joyce, which will take place over July, August and September, and this is the first book I will read along with in real time.
To keep the motivation going, I’ve decided to approach it as a project and will simultaneously read Emily Watson’s translation of The Odyssey, which I have never read before. To help me with Ulysses, I have purchased the highly recommended accompaniment,The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires. Then I will also watch the videos that McEvoy releases to help me dive even deeper into the text. I’ve got both The Odyssey and Ulysses on audio as well as text form to help make things easier.
At the moment, I’m listening to/reading the introduction to The Odyssey. Next week, when I have finished Jane Austen July, I will start reading Ulysses. I plan on reading the relevant section of Blamires’ textbook before I read the appropriate chapter of Ulysses. Once I’ve seen how that goes, I will create a weekly plan. I don’t want it to be an arduous project: it’s supposed to be a rewarding and enriching experience, and if I find it’s going to take me longer, then so be it. My intention isn’t simply to read it but to enjoy it so I don’t want to create any unnecessary pressure that detracts from this aim.
I feel that approaching in this way what now looks like a monumental task will give me a better chance of getting through it – after all, they’re not going to be the lightest of summer reads!
Now that we’re approaching the midway point of 2022, I thought I’d ask myself a few questions about my reading experience so far. I got this idea from Thornfield Books on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d0RTHS2JEQ) but have adapted the questions slightly as some of them don’t apply to me. To date, I’ve managed to read 54 books.
What’s the best book you’ve read so far?
I’ve had five five-star reads but the best was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It was enchantingly unique and I didn’t want it to end.
What book was the biggest disappointment?
This would have to be The Doll by Ismail Kadare, who is a previously unknown-to-me, highly-acclaimed Albanian writer. Consequently, my expectations were high and the book didn’t live up to them.
What book was the biggest surprise?
This is another of my five-star reads, which I only bought because I found it in a charity shop: At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop. I truly didn’t expect to like it, not wanting to read about the horrors of the Great War, but it was a beautifully poetical exploration of horrific subject matter.
Who is your favourite new author?
For this category, I’m going to choose Sarah Moss, a writer who is new to me. I love the way she inhabits the minds of her characters, be they male or female, young or old, giving each their own identifiable voice.
What books are you looking forward to reading during the second half of 2022?
There are three novels I’m particularly looking forward to: Pachinko by Lee Min-Jin, Nervous Conditions byTsitsi Dangarembga, and Bunny by Mona Awad.
What fun reading-related experiences have you had so far this year?
I’ve joined the Hardcore Literature Book Club, which is a subscribed reading programme and series of lectures organised and delivered by Benjamin McEvoy.
I’ve been participating in the Online Silent Book Club, which is a great way to sit and focus for an hour’s reading and then chat with others about your experience.
I went to see Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.
I visited the Jane Austen Centre in Bath and learnt more about her life and work.
The first half of 2022 has been great in terms of reading and I’m looking forward to an equally enjoyable second half.
As I’ve said before, I managed to study for a degree in literature whilst avoiding, for the most part, works written prior to 1900 – and I have steered clear of them ever since. Last month, I decided I should remedy this shameful situation by always having a classic on the go. So far I’ve read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R L Stevenson, and am about to finish Persuasion, also by Jane Austen of course. I’m enjoying the latter so much that I’m rationing myself to one chapter a day because I don’t want it to end – but only have two chapters left! (I can’t actually believe I’ve just written that last sentence!)
Although I’ve embraced this challenge, I am aware that I still have an aversion or wariness when it comes to the literary canon so it therefore makes perfect sense (does it really?) to subscribe to Benjamin McEvoy’s Hardcore Literature Book Club on Patreon. I’ve been working my way through his back catalogue of lectures on Persuasion, which has certainly enhanced my enjoyment of not only this novel but the other novels I’m reading as well.
During July, August and September, we will be working our way through Ulysses by James Joyce (a novel that I did dip into at university but didn’t read in its entirety). I feel confident that I will be able to get through it with the support of the book club and lecture series and, dare I say, I’m looking forward to it.
I’d like to think it doesn’t get much more ‘hardcore’ than Ulysses but I have a feeling it might!
Despite starting late, I managed to complete the challenge, although I did inadvertently select two authors from Japan when I really should have ensured that each author was from a different country – a slightly annoying oversight!
Here are the prompts and my choices.
1. A book written by an Asian author: Things We Left Unsaid by Zoya Pirzad (Iran/Armenia)
2. A book featuring an Asian female/older woman: Dear Friend, From My Life, I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li (China)
3. A book by an Asian author that has a universe you would want to experience OR that is totally different to yours: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (Palestine)
4. A book by an Asian author that has a cover worthy of googly eyes: The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura (Japan)
5. A book by an Asian author that has a high rating or was highly recommended by someone: How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino (Japan)
I did start to listen to The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnam) but found it hard to concentrate on. I’ve since picked up the paperback in a charity shop so will come back to it for a listen and readalong.
I enjoyed finding books to match the prompts and having this focus for the month. As I often read Japanese and Middle Eastern literature, it wasn’t too much of a diversion from my usual selections.
A small section of my TBR which is becoming two books deep
I really enjoy doing reading challenges or reading around a theme; here are the ones I’m currently taking part in.
20 Books of Summer
I have got around seventy-five books on my TBR shelf so I thought it would be a good idea to participate in this challenge, which is all about reading twenty books from your TBR in order to decrease the size of the pile. Find out more about it here: https://746books.com/2022/05/04/announcing-20-books-of-summer-22/
Women’s Prize 2022 Shortlist
There are six novels on the above shortlist and I’m currently working my way through them. So far I’ve listened to The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak and read Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. If these two novels are representative of the remainder of the list, it’s going to be an excellent thing to do. Read about the shortlist here: https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/features/features/announcing-the-2022-womens-prize-shortlist
Storygraph Reads the World
I found this challenge on Storygraph. The aim is to read one book set in each of the following countries by an author from that country: Brazil, Haiti, India, New Zealand, Palestine, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. So far I’ve read Amnesty by Aravind Adiga (India), Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (Palestine), and have listened to The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Turkey). Strictly speaking, I’m not adhering to the rules but am reading an author from the country even if the novels are set somewhere else.
This is my own personally devised challenge that I’ve just started. Despite having a degree in literature, I managed to complete it without reading a great deal of pre-20th century literature. There are also many 20th century classics that I haven’t read. To remedy this embarrassing void, I have resolved to always have one classic novel on the go. I’ve only just started and have so far read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. I’ve just started Persuasion by Jane Austen. After this, I’m planning on reading Vilette by Charlotte Bronte. I think literature lessons in school put me off (we read Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre) as I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve read so far. To make this challenge more interesting, I’m going to try and find the novels in charity shops rather than buy them new. Today I ‘borrowed’ Vilette from Caffe Nero!
Storygraph’s Onboarding Reading Challenge 2022
This comprises six prompts, which allow users to explore different areas of the app and as I’m new to it, I thought ‘why not?’!
Although doing so many challenges may seem a bit daunting, there will be books that can be used for multiple prompts. It just adds a bit of fun and focus to my reading.
Always up for a different experience, I was intrigued when I came across the Online Silent Book Club and had to give it a go.
The session started with a brief introduction by the host, followed by introductions by the attendees who gave information about what they would be reading during the session. It was an eclectic mix: from Jane Austen to a non-fiction on start-ups, from Emily Henry’s latest novel to a biography on Roosevelt, from a book on the Beatles to a Neil Gaiman novel.
We then read for an hour before reconvening to feedback on our reading experience. It was very interesting to hear people talking about their books and what they’d managed to do in the sixty minutes.
This is a ridiculously simple idea and, let’s face it, anyone can block an hour off in their diary and sit and read if they want to. You don’t need to go online and do it with others. However, it can be so easy to get distracted by other demands and I found that setting aside the time in this way meant I focussed for the hour and managed to read the first 50 pages of Things We Left Unsaid by Zoya Pirzad. Knowing I was going to be speaking about it to the group meant I thought about what I’d read in more depth. It was also a great way to get into a novel and I think that an extended session when starting a new book is a very helpful way to quickly feel more comfortable with it.
All-in-all, this was a positive and fun experience.
Find out more about the Online Silent Book Club here.
MARgINAlia 