Sunday Salon: just READ it.

The Sunday Salon.comToday is the second in a three-week series of Sunday Salon posts in which I also reviewed my 2011 reading goals and will be shifting my reading focus a bit.

As I promised last week, today I’m unveiling a new project. Reading projects have been, by far, my most successful and enjoyable reading endeavors. They encourage me to explore books I may never have picked up without the project to encourage me. The Classics Reclamation Project has gotten me reading and enjoying classics alongside my other books, and Reading Buddies has allowed me to finally pick up some long-standing TBR books along with fellow readers. These two will, of course, continue, alongside a third. So what is this new project, you ask?

Introducing: just READ it.

just READ it badge

just READ it (JRI) is about tackling the “hard” books. “Hard” might mean long, or dense, or confusing, or intimidating, or far outside my comfort zone, or written by a “hard” author, or so universally beloved I’m afraid I’ll be the only person in the world who doesn’t see their brilliance. I have a bunch of these on my shelf, and without fail, my hand passes them by when I’m choosing my next book.

What are these “hard” books? For me, they include: The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel, A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, The Aeneid and The Inferno, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and anything by Orhan Pamuk, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison or Salman Rushdie. There are others, of course, and I’m working on a Goodreads shelf to keep track of them, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind. Some of these overlap with my classics project, and if I read them, I’ll count them toward both.

Why?

There are a couple of reasons I’m singling out these “hard” books. First, I want to make myself admit why I’ve been avoiding them and then face them. I don’t want there to be any book I’m afraid to try, and by pushing myself, I hope to reach that goal.

I also want to read these books because some of the “hard” authors I’ve read recently have become my favorites. Margaret Atwood, José Saramago, David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro all struck me as “hard” initially, but I’ve ended up loving their work. War and Peace is one of the scariest-looking books I’ve encountered, yet thanks to Jillian’s readalong, I’ve undertaken to read that tome this year and thoroughly enjoyed the half of it I’ve gotten through so far. So, I want to focus on these “hard” books because I do believe many of them will end up becoming life-long favorites.

The Technical Stuff

I’m not setting rules for this project the way I did initially with the Classics Reclamation Project. I don’t want to push myself too hard or stress myself out by setting deadlines or requirements. Instead, I’ll aim to read one of these books a month but will not feel guilty if I don’t. My posts about these books will be less formal reviews and more exploration, the way Classics Reclamation Project and Reading Buddies posts are. I’ll also try to say why each book intimidated me and whether my fear was justified!

These books will also show up on occasion in Reading Buddies book selection polls. If they are chosen as monthly reads, I know I’ll be glad to have the company!

Your Turn!

What books or authors scare you?

Reading Buddies: January’s Pick

It’s time to announce our first Reading Buddies book of 2012! For January, as chosen by poll, we’ll be reading A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. I’ve read several books by Forster and have enjoyed each one, so I’m looking forward to tackling this next one with all of you!

Reading Buddies badge and Room with a View by E.M. Forster (cover)

Written in 1908, A Room with a View is an “Edwardian social comedy [that] explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England” (from Goodreads). Head over to Goodreads to read more!

December’s book, as announced previously, is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (As Christina pointed out, classics seem to be a popular choice for Reading Buddies books — I love it!) My two posts for Hawthorne’s classic will go up on December 16th and 30th. I hope you’ll join in the discussion!

And finally, the poll for February is up in the sidebar. Be sure to vote for your preference!

Thoughts on “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson (Audiobook)

I listened to The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson for my book group.

About the Book:

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (audiobook cover)In 1893, Chicago hosted an extravagant World’s Fair, nicknamed the White City. A monumental undertaking, the grounds were constructed in under two years, utilizing countless laborers and going so far as to import entire families and even a whole village from other parts of the world. The man in charge of the entire project was Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham.

While the World’s Fair was under construction, a man who went by the alias H.H. Holmes had set up shop nearby. Underneath his unbelievably charming exterior, Holmes was a serial killer, going about his gruesome activities undetected for far too long.

Though the stories of Burnham and Homes have little in common beyond the time and place they occurred, The Devil in the White City tells the tales in parallel, interspersing chapters of each. Also told is the story of the lunatic who assassinated Chicago’s mayor, Carter Harrison, around the same time, and the entire package is bookended by the Titanic disaster nearly 20 years later.

My Thoughts:

The Devil in the White City is one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time. I’d heard enough good things to be excited about finally reading it. I already had enough print commitments for the month, so I chose to listen to Larson’s book. Unfortunately, I think this choice, ended up reducing my enjoyment of The Devil in the White City, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Larson really did pack a lot of interesting information into his book. He chronicles the building of the Fair, of course, and spends a little time with each of the Fair’s main players. He also introduces the reader to several of Holmes’s victims before revealing their fates. And then he threw in Harrison’s assassin and the Titanic disaster for good measure. Despite all the stories, I never felt like there was too much going on, and for the most part Larson does a nice job reminding the reader who’s who in the vast sea of historical figures. Larson also succeeds at conveying the scope of the undertaking.

There were moments when I did feel the story dragged. Most often those parts had to do with the Fair’s construction, which was a bit heavy on drier facts and forever progressing a bit only to run into some setback, always with the deadline looming closer. Had I read the book, my group members pointed out, I could have skimmed the slower parts instead of listening to them in full, and I think that would have helped. It also would have allowed me to flip back and remind myself how different people and situations were connected.

My favorite part of The Devil in the White City was seeing the impact the Chicago World’s Fair had on the course of history. Did you know Shredded Wheat was first introduced at the Fair? Or that Walt Disney’s father attended, as did Helen Keller and Theodore Dreiser? Or how about that Mark Twain traveled to Chicago but fell ill and left before he actually saw the Fair? Buffalo Bill Cody, denied a spot in the Fair itself, set up his tent outside and drew at least as many visitors as the Fair itself. The Fair also helped shape the direction of American architecture, among many other things.

My biggest issue with The Devil in the White City on audio was the narrator. The version I listened to was read by Scott Brick. It was my first experience with Brick’s narration, and though I know many people love his audiobooks, I can’t say I’ll be running out to pick another up any time soon. He read so lethargically that it almost sounded like he was falling asleep, and I found myself constantly losing the thread of the story. I finally began listening to the recording at double speed, something I’ve only done once before but which succeeded in bringing the narration up to something like normal speed. A fellow book group member listened to an abridged production by Tony Goldwyn and was much happier!

Those are my thoughts. Check out The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson on Goodreads or LibraryThing, read a plethora of other bloggers’ reviews, or listen to an Audible sample!

Sunday Salon: 2011 Goals In Review

The Sunday Salon.comToday begins a three-week series of Sunday Salon posts in which I’ll be reviewing my 2011 reading goals, launching a new project, and finally shifting my reading focus a bit. I’m excited to learn from this past year’s reading experiments and craft some new ones for 2012!

As the end of the year approaches, I always find myself looking ahead. Last year, for the first time, I considered what lay ahead for my reading. I’d begun my Classics Reclamation Project, near and dear to my heart, and planned to continue. My one experience participating in challenges had failed, and I knew I didn’t want to force myself to enjoy them. Instead, I chose a few I would have joined and created reading goals for myself based on them.

How did my experiment with year-long reading goals go? Well, I’d say. I realize the year isn’t quite over yet, but I feel comfortable making my final goal report a bit early. Here’s a summary:

Looking Back: 2011 Goal Review

Goal #1: Read More Classics

I did this, thanks to my Classics Reclamation Project. I read 22 classics in 2011, many more than I would have had I not made reading them a priority. My favorites were Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

Goal #2: Read from My Own Shelves

I somewhat accomplished this goal. I did well with each of the sub-goals below, but only about half the books that fulfilled them came from my own shelves.

Mini-Goal 2.1: Read books by Indian authors and authors of Indian descent as well as books set in India

I read 8 books that qualified for this goal, of which 2 came from my own shelves. My favorites included Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh and E.M. Forster’s The Hill of Devi.

Mini-Goal 2.2: Tackle authors I’ve been meaning to read

I read 13 books by authors I’ve been meaning to read, 9 of which were books I’d already owned. Highlights included Scott Westerfeld, David Mitchell, Jeffrey Eugenides, Kazuo Ishiguro, Abraham Verghese, Naomi Novik, and Mary Roach — as you can see, most of the authors I read for this category I ended up loving!

Mini-Goal 2.3: Read second novels by authors I’ve only read once but enjoyed

I read 8 second novels by authors whose initial acquaintance I’d enjoyed. 5 of these were books I owned, and my favorites included Flight by Sherman Alexie, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Mini-Goal 2.4: Read more memoirs

“More” didn’t mean much, I now realize, as I did not set a goal number, but I ended up reading 8 memoirs, 4 of which were from my own collection. My favorite was probably Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost.

Goal #3: Expand My Literary Horizons and Fill in the Gaps

I didn’t do as well as I could have on this goal. It was the one that stretched my usual reading the most, and I could have made more of an effort to read more books in these categories.

Mini-Goal 3.1: Read some GLBTQ lit

I ended up reading 2 GLBTQ books, which is a start! They were Angels in America by Tony Kushner and Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, and I loved both.

Mini-Goal 3.2: Explore Dystopian lit

I turned to YA to fulfill this goal, just because those were the qualifying books that came my way. I ended up reading 6 and I most enjoyed Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy and When She Woke by Hillary Jordan.

Mini-Goal 3.3: Read to fill in the gaps (both generally and on my Books page)

I did okay on the first half of this mini-goal, reading 4 books I felt were holes in my reading experience that weren’t covered by the goals above. However, I did not intentionally read anything to fill in the gaps on my Books page. Oops! I think I had much less motivation and interest in reading just to make the page look nice than I did in my other goals, which, I suppose, is a good thing.

Looking Forward: Reading in 2012

In 2012, I’ve decided to go goal-free. My most successful reading endeavors have been the projects, namely the Classics Reclamation Project and Reading Buddies. So, for 2012, I’ve decided to launch a third project, in spite of my more limited reading time. I’ll be unveiling it next Sunday, so stop back in a week to hear all about it. I, for one, am excited!