Announcing my first date...with Anna Karenina

-
Let me tell you about the hot date I had last night. With Mr. Nomadreader out of town this week (he's home in a few hours--hooray!), I opted for a Friday night date night of epic proportions (literally, she's an epic.) It may have only been our first date, but I think we'll be together until the new year. We won't be monogamous, of course, as many other readers are courting Anna too and I have so many other books to read, but I promise to take her out weekly and spend Friday mornings telling you about our dates. Who is this bewitching lady I'm courting?
Have you met the lovely Anna Karenina? She's lovely. I'll save my thoughts on her for next Friday, but here are some things you might find interesting about her. Although we think of her as one of the most famous Russian novels, she was originally published in serial installments (from 1873-1877), so our weekly dates are almost how Tolstoy intended. She is long. Epically long. Approximately 872 pages. I'll be reading her on my beloved Kindle so I can sip my wine and turn the pages at the same time.

I didn't dream up this idea on my own, of course. I usually need a little push to actually read the big old books I've been meaning to read for years. I place full blame on Wallace from Unputdownables for hosting a read-a-long and providing me with such a reasonable schedule. 63 pages a week? Sold! If all goes according to plan, I'll finish on December 30.

Rather than read a 9 pages a day, I'm aiming to read each week's section in its entirety. It will supplant my short fiction reading somewhat, as I find myself turning to short stories when in between books. Each Friday I'll post my thoughts on that week's readings (with spoiler warnings if needed.) 

Want to join the fun? It's not too late to sign up and all readers are welcome!

As an affiliate, I receive a very, very small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

  1. ZibileeOctober 8, 2011 at 11:24 AM

    I so need to read this book! I feel like such a slacker having not read it yet, but this project seems like it makes it easier to tackle such a long book with relative ease. I am going to have to think about unofficially joining you on this quest. I can't wait to hear what you think of it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. FleurFisherOctober 8, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    Anna Karenina has been living in my attic for some time. I'm tempted to fetch her down, but I'm not sure I have the time or the concentration right now. But even if I don't read I shall be watching woth interest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 8, 2011 at 7:56 PM

    I have been meaning to read this one for years but the size always scares me off!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AudraOctober 11, 2011 at 11:31 AM

    I love this book! I have the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation (I vastly prefer more contemporary, casual translations than the formal ones from the '50s) -- I read it over a summer and was captivated. Can't wait to read your thoughts!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the fir
Read more