I am very sad that I am unable to participate in the inaugural Classics Club read-a-thon! Unfortunately, my job is kicking my ass right now, so I will be spending most of my waking hours this weekend working instead of reading. Sometimes life gets in the way of literary fun! It will be fun to spend some of my relaxing time keeping up with the reading that other people are doing!
I have two significant semi-long term classics projects going right now: the Moby-Dick Big Read and my Daily Dickens Project.
I started this project on January 1, and have listened to – now – four chapters! I wasn’t able to start the Big Read in September, but all of the chapter are still available on iTunes. There are a few fellow-readers in one of my GR groups who are listening along with me. I am hoping that this will be a great way to get this classic under my belt and I am actually planning on picking up a print copy of the book as well. There have been a number of moments so far that I want to annotate, and listening doesn’t give me any place to jot down my thoughts.
My Daily Dickens book is David Copperfield. I initially intended to read all of the Dickens in order of publication, but I abandoned this after deciding that I really didn’t want to read Oliver Twist right now. I am on Chapter XIV of David Copperfield and am enjoying it much more than The Pickwick Papers. I liked the Pickwick Papers, but it was really more of a series of vignettes, and I prefer my narratives to be plot-based.
I also feel very guilty, because I have been neglecting Les Miserables, but I’m just not feeling the Victor Hugo mood right now. Soon.
I also have a few new books heading my way from Amazon that will get me started on my “neglected women writers” reading resolution. Monica Dickens, Dorothy Whipple, Muriel Spark and Angela Thirkell are all new writers to me. I can’t wait!
I love your Daily Dickens idea.
I’m sorry your job is so hard right now, I hope things improve soon!
I am currently in the same boat as you…I wanted to accomplish this read-a-thon, but work and the holiday festivities have become barriers that I had to succumb to instead…boohooo =(
Ohhh Daily Dickens – you could start your own meme! I’d join up
Memes scare me! But I think I will do a bi-weekly Daily Dickens update post. I need to figure out how to create an image that I can use. I am not very good at all that bloggy coolness.