Reading Challenges

[osprey_archer]

I was thinking of not doing another reading challenge for 2018, because many of the books I chose for the 2017 challenge were so lackluster - books that I'd been meaning to read and hadn't got around to and was happy to have finished largely because that meant I could knock them off my mental list.

Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity, Pam Munoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising, and - oh, how this pains me! - Isobelle Carmody's The Red Queen all fell in this category. Few series have disappointed me quite like Obernewtyn did in the end (probably because I have loved few series the way I loved Obernewtyn in the beginning) and it pains me.

But then I finished Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock, and I might never have read that book at all had I not have a challenge for "a book with an unreliable narrator or ambiguous ending" - and speaking of ambiguous endings! Good Lord! I am not sure if I'm frustrated or incredibly impressed or WHAT, exactly, I feel about it (in fact I may need to reread the book again before I decide; clearly another book to add to my list of books to buy) - but. In any case. It's certainly very ambiguous.

And it also seemed like a good enough reason to do another reading challenge, because surely the point of a reading challenge is to read books that you might not ever otherwise read? Perhaps I've simply taken the wrong approach by using the reading challenge for books that I meant to get around to someday...

But then the Sayers' books I read this summer clearly fall into that category, and they were excellent in every way. So maybe there is no overarching point - at least not about how to select books.

Anyway! In the end I decided to go with the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2018 Reading Challenge, because I've done the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge for the past two years and it's worked pretty well for me. Here's the list of challenges:

- a classic you've been meaning to read (perhaps I should finally read Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White)
- a book recommended by someone with great taste (evelyn_b, I may hit you up for this one. I am going to have to insist on something shorter than the six volume set of Proust, though.)
- a book in translation (Finally a push to read The Brothers Karamazov!)
- a book nominated for an award in 2018 (This category will, again, be filled by a Newbery nominee)
- a book of poetry, a play, or an essay collection (Charles Lamb perhaps?)
- a book you can read in a day
- a book that's more than 500 pages (unless this is the category for The Brothers Karamozov. Or The Woman in White, for that matter. Clearly these are books I've been putting off because they're so ungodly long.)
- a book by a favorite author
- a book recommended by a librarian or an indie bookseller
- a banned book (Maybe I should finally read some Kurt Vonnegut?)
- a memoir, biography, or book of creative nonfiction
- a book by an author of a different race, ethnicity, or religion than your own

Thoughts? Ideas? Book recommendations?

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

In any case. It's certainly very ambiguous.

It isn't half. I finally felt I'd got the hang of it on my ninth re-read, I think. And then read an essay about it and TS Eliot's The Waste Lands and realised there was yet more...

(And in relation to something I was saying before about Tom and POlly, one of the things in it (that it took me years to twig) was that Tom's gift is for everything he makes up to come true, but then come back and hit him: the very first thing that he and Polly make up is that he is a hero and Polly is his assistant who runs away to be with him. And so that has to be true in some sense, and nothing comes back to hit him so hard as POlly. I really am not sure whether the ending should be criticised or praised, but, God, I love the whole thing on so many levels. It sounds as if you found it worth reading too at least?)

Good luck with your next year's meme! It sounds like a good list. And I love The Woman in White - but I love Wilkie Collins generally, though, and clearly my adoration of dodgy 19th C novels should not be relied on, because it is excessive and refuses to bow to 21st ideals, my teenage heart having been bestowed there unwisely long ago.

Have you already read The Moonstone? It's less well-structured in such an obviously detective way, but it has quite a lot of similarities - like plenty of memorable characters writing in first person, as with The Moonstone. (Armadale and No Name are also good, but it's worth seeing how much patience you have for the more accessible of the two, too, especially Armadale which takes a while to get going, but then needs to win awards for the highest number of people who are all actually, openly, or secretly called by the same name, and its anti-hero and villainess.)

[ladyherenya]

the very first thing that he and Polly make up is that he is a hero and Polly is his assistant who runs away to be with him. And so that has to be true in some sense, and nothing comes back to hit him so hard as Polly

Oooh, I hadn't considered that one! I don't think I've gone through the book specifically looking at the things Tom makes up and how they're then twisted. I should do that.

I'm not actually sure if I reached a point where I became confident that I understood the ending or whether I just stopped worrying about trying to understand everything and decided to interpret it how I want to.

[thisbluespirit]

It took me a long time to realise that - I don't want to confess how long! I think the other things tend to be more obviously done, like the adventurous scenarios that play out weirdly in the real world.

I'm not actually sure if I reached a point where I became confident that I understood the ending or whether I just stopped worrying about trying to understand everything and decided to interpret it how I want to.

Seems fair enough to me!

[osprey_archer]

I feel that it is the sort of ending that must be praised by raising your fists to the sky and crying out in anguish and admiration, which is sort of praise and criticism at the same time? Certainly the ambiguity made me feel lots of things!

I have read The Moonstone! So it will have to be The Woman in White; I'm not sure that I'm invested enough in Wilkie Collins to add his less famous books to the stack. Besides, I've heard The Woman in White is a rip-roaring mystery-adventure and who am I to say no to that?

[thisbluespirit]

he sort of ending that must be praised by raising your fists to the sky and crying out in anguish and admiration

LOl, yes.

And I'm not sure I'd describe The Woman in White as a rip-roaring mystery adventure, but it is the classic of Victorian sensationalism with much false imprisonment in asylums and cads and mermerism and so forth and features Marian Halcombe who will go to any lengths to save her half-sister and a great villain, so hopefully you should have some fun regardless. (The other two are also a lot of fun, as far as I'm concerned, but I think dependent more on your feelings on TWiW than The Moonstone, which is the tightest of the four.)

[kore]

Woman in White is really neat and has a classic female character, Marian. I love her.

I feel that it is the sort of ending that must be praised by raising your fists to the sky and crying out in anguish and admiration, which is sort of praise and criticism at the same time? Certainly the ambiguity made me feel lots of things!

HA, YES

[littlerhymes]

I've read it twice and still don't understand Fire and Hemlock. *weeps*

I think you'll probably find The Woman in White as easy to read as Count of Monte Cristo - it's a real pageturner, to the point that I don't think of it as a long book! The Moonstone is a good one too. (Oh I see lost_spook has already covered this. I second all the Wilkie Collins opinions in that comment!)

[osprey_archer]

I liked Fire and Hemlock a lot, but I'm pretty sure I understood, like, a third of it. But I am now three for three on Tam Lin retellings I have read and loved, so probably I should seek out more of them?

I've already read The Moonstone, so it will have to be The Woman in White! Or I suppose some other Wilkie Collins novel, but I'm not sure I am invested enough in Wilkie Collins to read the ones that aren't terrifically famous.

[missroserose]

I recently read James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, which was fascinating, thought-provoking, and depressing by turns (that last especially when you realize he wrote most of the essays in the 1950s and see how little has really changed for African-Americans). It'd fit into either the fifth or last categories.

[osprey_archer]

I've heard wonderful things about James Baldwin, but at the same time the news is so miserably depressing that I'm not sure I have it in me to pile depressing books on top of that. (Which may knock The Brothers Karamazov out of the running too. Hmmm. The world has to get less depressing eventually, right?)

[missroserose]

There are times when I think the Russians have the right of it, in the whole "the world is depressing, so write depressing books about it, appreciate the few happier moments we're all afforded, and then drink heavily" set of coping mechanisms.

That said, I actually didn't find Notes as depressing as I might have - it inspired me to think about some issues in a different way, and also articulated a number of vague frustrations I had with our culture. So in that way I found it more empowering.

[evelyn_b]

The world has to get less depressing eventually, right?

*hollow laughter*

[kore]

Butting in (OMG sorry) -- I find Baldwin exhilarating, rather than depressing, although he's writing about terrible social problems, because his writing is so beautiful. And he's angry, but not hopeless.

Brothers K....whew. I did a special unit on that in grad school, and it was great, but it was....sort of a slog. It's very -- I want to say 'religious' or 'Christian' but that gives the wrong impression because Dostoevsky's religiosity is unique, and sort of reminds me of the gnostics or descriptions of early Christianity. Or prophets hanging out in deserts. It's not depressing, but it's super existential.

[osprey_archer]

My impression is that Dostoevsky is an extremely Russian writer, which is to say quite fatalistic. It will be interesting to see if his work matches that description.

[kore]

That's great, he is indeed very SUPER Russian.

[evelyn_b]

Seconding this; James Baldwin is always indicated. IMO he is too good a writer to be depressing, though you may find it otherwise.

[evelyn_b]

1. I'm glad you enjoyed Sayers and the GDR!

2. I would be happy to recommend a book to you (that is not Proust), though it will take a little while to get my head on straight.

3. I might join you in this challenge for 2018. This year I was overconfident and loaded up on challenges, and then forgot about them completely when RL fell apart. This one looks manageable.

[osprey_archer]

You've got until February for the book recommendation. I'm planning to do one challenge per month, going straight down the list.

I've done these Modern Mrs. Darcy challenges for the past two years and the fact that they are so manageable is one of the reasons I like them. A book a month for the challenge leaves plenty of time to read other things, while still giving some sense of purpose and direction to my reading.

[evelyn_b]

I might have one!

Have you read The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris? A Protestant poet tries out the Catholic monastic tradition and writes honest, meditative, thought-provoking, occasionally infuriating short essays about it.

It's probably a sign in its favor that me (the surliest atheist in Surlsville) and my trad Catholic sister got almost exactly the same inspiring -infuriating ratio from reading it, though there was no significant overlap in the things that made us angry.

Let me know if you've already read it (because if you have, I want to talk about it) and/or if you want me to pick something else.

[osprey_archer]

I have not read it! And it looks right up my alley: I love books about religion. I shall put it on the calendar, then!

[minutia_r]

I adore The Brothers Karamozov, and actually didn't find it that depressing, although that may have to do with the facts that a) I read it in college when I was even more of an angstmuffin than I am now and b) it's probably one of Dostoevsky's less depressing works? The only one that I can think of offhand that's less depressing is ... The House of the Dead. On the other hand, if you want a shorter Dostoevsky which I really really enjoyed (but is super depressing), there's The Idiot.

I don't remember if you've even mentioned George Eliot, but if you haven't read her works you should. Middlemarch is definitely her masterpiece, but also very very long, and if you'd like something shorter that's among my favorites, you can read Adam Bede, and then after you read The Woman in White you can join me in shipping Marian Halcombe and Seth Bede, despite the fifty-or-so-year age difference if you pay close attention to the internal chronology of both books. IDK, maybe Seth Bede became a HYDRA supersoldier and spent a lot of the interval frozen or something.

Alternatively, if you want George Eliot's take on the "crusty old misanthrope accidentally acquires adorable moppet, becomes reconnected to his community and feelings" plot, there's Silas Marner, which is very short.

And speaking of 19th-century novels, you might like Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, which shares the milieu although it was actually written a few years back. Actually the thing I would most recommend by Zen Cho is The House of Aunts but that's not a book so it won't check off any squares for you. It is however, Twilight set in Malaysia if it was told from Edward's point of view and also Edward was a Malaysian girl and the Cullens were her aunties, and also if Twilight was funny.

[osprey_archer]

The only Dostoevsky I've read is Notes form Underground which is an astonishingly soul-killing book given that, IIRC, no one dies or even suffers any great external tragedy. The narrator is just such a sad miserable person that it wafts a bitter miasma over the earth just reading about him.

I have actually read quite a lot of George Eliot, despite never really clicking with any of her books except for some reason with Dinah in Adam Bede. Why did the Methodist preacher girl speak to me so? Who knows. In any case I remember Seth being too much of a milquetoast for a budding detective like Marian Halcombe, although admittedly I haven't met Miss Halcombe yet so perhaps she's into that sort of thing.

I still haven't read The Mill on the Floss, though. (Or Romola or Daniel Deronda, although my impression is that those books are not considered as good.) Maybe I should read that one? I've already been spoiled for the ending and it makes me sad but it might be worth reading the book anyway.

[minutia_r]

Excuse you, Seth Bede is great. The fact that he accepts that the woman he likes isn't into him, stays friends with her, and is genuinely happy for her when she finds someone that she is into is not a character flaw; quite the reverse! But, um, anyway. I actually ship him and Marian largely because they are both characters who don't conform to the strict gender expectations of their Victorian novel milieu, and as such are relegated to having their happy ending be to be the doting aunt/uncle to their more gender-conforming sibling's children, because as much as their author may personally like and admire them, no one actually wants to hit that, am I right? (No, Wilkie Collins and George Eliot, you are not right.)

I mean I also like Dinah very much and she deserves to be with the ripped manly carpenter dude that she desires, BUT.

I actually didn't like The Mill on the Floss, though; I just got sick of Maggie Tulliver constantly and consistently torpedoing any chance she had for any kind of happiness. I mean, I'm not saying it's unrealistic or anything, but, I mean, it's not like someone in her situation really had as few choices as the book makes out. I mean, George Eliot herself had other choices and made other choices.

Daniel Deronda I did actually like, and it's the reason that there's a George Eliot Street in Tel Aviv. But then again, you may just not like Eliot, that's a thing that happens.

[kore]

Woman in White! Such a great book. MARIAN.

[landofnowhere]

I don't know Seth Bede, but I agree that Marian Halcombe should get with someone from another Victorian novel -- no one else in Woman in white is good enough for her.

Actually I'd set her up with Marian Yule from New Grub Street by George Gissing -- there's an age gap the other way, but they can form the Underappreciated Marians Society.

[brigdh]

It's been years now since I read it, but I remember actually having lots of fun with The Brothers Karamozov! Though, like many books, the first half or so was better than the conclusion.

[osprey_archer]

I have had very good luck with Russian authors generally; even when the books are uneven, there's usually quite a bit in there to enjoy.