Sunday Coffee, Evening Edition
The Literary Blog Hop continues to be a wonderful weekly conversation. This week we talked about the oxymoron "contemporary classics." After reading the posts, I continued to think about the impossibility of trying to predict which contemporary novels might become classics. The novel, my favored form for reading, is a relatively new form. But it might be that the classics of our day may be something else altogether. Graphic novels and other visual forms of communication may eclipse the traditional novel. Or, the novels of India, China, and African countries may eclipse the novels of North America and Europe. As David Foster Wallace reminded us, we are like fish in water--wondering what water is....
This week I started reading Avi Steinberg's Running the Books. I am about halfway through this exceptionally gripping memoir about Steinberg's experiences as a prison librarian. I finished reading Trollope's The Prime Minister, and I suppose there is no point in putting off finishing the Palliser series before year's end--the last book, The Duke's Children, will be one of my December reads. As the year draws to a close, I'm starting to think about what books I will be reading in December, and what books I will be putting on my reading list for 2011.
What's on your reading list for the last month of 2010? What do you want to make sure you read in 2011?
14 comments:
I have a number of books I'd like to get to before the year ends. Some mid-grade, like THE HEALING SPELL and COUNTDOWN, some YA, like CAMO GIRL, EXPOSURE, and XVI, and some adult titles.
Next year I'm planning in participating in the Story Siren's Debut Author Challenge. I have a number of books on my shelf I'd also like to get to. Then there will be the sentimental re-reads, such as Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.
My TBR pile has become quite overwhelming...so I'm trying very hard not to let it overwhelm me :) It seems I find more books to add to it every time I read others' blog postings...I've added the Steinberg book just now, which I'll definitely save until 2011. I'm planning to read Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol over the holidays and am behind on some Louisa May Alcott selections so hopefully I'll get those done before the New Year with some fluffy stuff mixed in between just for fun :)
It's been a great question for the hop this week. So many different views - I learned something from each person who responded :)
As for my 2011 reading list. It's extensive, eclectic and a bit in disarray at the moment!
But I do have a 'Fat Classics Challenge' that I am adamant to start for next year. In fact, I've already dipped into with with Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children'.
I think I'm going to have to slow down. I'm way to eager!
Right now, my TBR pile consists of:
-Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by DFW
-How To Be Alone by J-Franz.
I'm caressing the idea to read "The Corrections" during Christmas break and I have two ARC's coming by the mail from New Pulp Press. Should keep me occupied until January.
I'm notorious for never following through on my own reading plans so I'm likely cursing myself by even writing these books down...but for 2011, I'd like to finish the Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope (I've read the firs two) and George Eliot's Middlemarch.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Running the Books!
I'm enjoying your thoughts on the Lit Blog Hop very much--and especially like to hear about it when bloggers think more about ideas over time.
My plan for the coming year is the whole point of my blog--and I'm actually spending more time right now thinking about what I'm going to read on top of my project, and how. Sounds like you'll have some wonderful reads ahead of you.
@Caroline Starr Rose--that sounds like a lot of reading for December!
@Peppermint PhD--I actually have more of a TBR bookshelf ;)Running the Books is great-I'll be posting a review soon...
@mywordlyobsessions--I love fat classics! Our Mutual Friend is another on my list...
@Ben--I've been reading How to Be Alone on my Nook. I have Freedom on the Nook too, but haven't had time for it yet.
@Colleen--The Eustace Diamonds is very entertaining. I loved Phineas Redux--much more fraught with conflict than Phineas Finn.
@IngridLola--my review of Running the Books will be soon--but I can tell you it will be positive!
@LifetimeReadingPlan--I'm looking forward to following your progress starting in January. I've toyed with the thought of coming up with a reading plan for life--or at least a year!--but haven't wrapped my brain around the enterprise yet.
I'm hoping to dedicate more time in 2011 to catching up on classics and books that have lingered on my shelf for far too long. Not that I don't love my incoming new books, review copies, etc, but I need to turn some of my attention (and time) back to those books I've always wanted to read and never got around to.
Also, I'm dying to read Running the Books, and can't wait to hear your thoughts on it.
I'm re-reading the Uglies trilogy (which became four books), I've been having the urge to re-read the first Harry Potter book, and I definitely want to read Catch-22 and a couple others.
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