Literary The MobileRead Literary Book Club July 2011 Vote

[fantasyfan]

To date, my favourite Dickens novel has been Great Expectations. But I have heard that Bleak House is a masterpiece. I look forward to reading it.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by issybird

Anyway, Paola and I have to get cracking on Magic Mountain, our beach read.

If I had legal access to this as an ebook I would have nominated it or been happy to participate in a buddy read with you and others. I've only read one novella from Thomas Mann and that was Death in Venice and I absolutely loved it.

[paola]

Originally Posted by caleb72

If I had legal access to this as an ebook I would have nominated it or been happy to participate in a buddy read with you and others. I've only read one novella from Thomas Mann and that was Death in Venice and I absolutely loved it.

you know, the strange thing is that its EPUB is available to buy in Italian - and I am not entirely sure whether the copy I found is legal in Canada, it could be, but I havent' yet found a reliable way of checking

I agree we had a great selection, though Bleak House is the one I least wanted to read, but what the heck, it's nicer in company

[purple_fishy]

Bleak House has been on my to-read list forever. This book club may be the push I needed to get it done!

[Hamlet53]

Well I would have much preferred Paradise Lost, among the two that in the end had a chance. It would have put the pressure on me to finally not just start, but also finish it. Now I will clear Bleak House off of my unread Dickens list though, so it's all good.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I spent an entire semester on Paradise Lost in a class at university. I cannot imagine trying to digest it in a month, though I think its an epic work of English poetry. Same for Tale of Genji.

I would have to say that Paradise Lost is only epic in that it is an epic fail.

[fantasyfan]

I'm going to try something different in my reading of Bleak House. Dickens originally wrote this novel for publication in monthly installments, over 19 months. What I'll try to do is read each monthly "issue" in one day. that is usually 3-4 chapters until the final installment which was a double issue of 8 chapters. To finish by the 17th, of course, I'll have to get a couple units at least twice. Naturally, if the book grabs me, I may well do a few months in a day.

The point of this is that Dickens frequently organised plot developments in the installment sequence to keep readers interested and to create various critical moments. Sometimes he even changed the plot if he felt that the sales weren't going well enough {Martin Chuzzlewit is an example} So, in this way one will get into the flow of the book much as the original readers did.

Now, this is purely a personal experiment on my part. If anyone else feels like trying it, here are the installment sections:
Inst 1: ch 1-4
Inst 2-8 three chapters each up to and including ch. 25
Inst 9 ch 26-29
Inst 10-12 chs 30-38 {3 each}
Inst 13-14 chs 39-46 {4 each}
Inst 15 chs 47-49
Inst 16 chs 50-53
Inst17 chs 54-56
Inst 18 chs 57-58
Inst 19 {A double Issue} cha 60-67

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

Now, this is purely a personal experiment on my part. If anyone else feels like trying it, here are the installment sections:
Inst 1: ch 1-4
Inst 2-8 three chapters each up to and including ch. 25
Inst 9 ch 26-29
Inst 10-12 chs 30-38 {3 each}
Inst 13-14 chs 39-46 {3 each}
Inst 15 chs 47-49
Inst 16 chs 50-53
Inst17 chs 54-56
Inst 18 chs 57-58
Inst 19 {A double Issue} cha 60-67

Thank you for shearing this with us! Sounds like a good challenge.
I don't know if I'd be able to pull it off while reading the book I'm in now and the "regular" MR book club selection, but its worth a shot.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would have to say that Paradise Lost is only epic in that it is an epic fail.

I actually rather liked it. My thesis advisor taught my Milton class and I enjoyed the entire semester. I am rather a fan of very old, very dusty things in terms of literature though. Not for everyone, but still a remarkable piece of work.

[taosaur]

I probably picked the wrong month to join in, as I'll be on the road with friends and fam for half of it, and I still have 500ish pages of Cryptonomicon to go, but I have the MR copy of Bleak House loaded up on my Nook Color, so we'll see how far I get come 7/17.

[sun surfer]

Thanks for the info, fantasyfan! I like the idea, and even if I read it with different daily stopping points, I'll still refer to your list to notice the plot movements as the different monthly instalments begin and end.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I'm going to try something different in my reading of Bleak House.

...

Now, this is purely a personal experiment on my part. If anyone else feels like trying it, here are the installment sections:
Inst 1: ch 1-4
Inst 2-8 three chapters each up to and including ch. 25
Inst 9 ch 26-29
Inst 10-12 chs 30-38 {3 each}
Inst 13-14 chs 39-46 {4 each}
Inst 15 chs 47-49
Inst 16 chs 50-53
Inst17 chs 54-56
Inst 18 chs 57-58
Inst 19 {A double Issue} cha 60-67

Love the idea. I might even try that if I go ahead with the read.

[jgaiser]

Sigh... Got the MR copy and will *try* to read this month, but there's a lot going on in my life and I don't know how it will go. I've had to drop out of the 100 in 2011 because of other commitments and this may be just one more. I've never completed a Dickens book, though I've started many.

[purple_fishy]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I'm going to try something different in my reading of Bleak House. Dickens originally wrote this novel for publication in monthly installments, over 19 months. What I'll try to do is read each monthly "issue" in one day. that is usually 3-4 chapters until the final installment which was a double issue of 8 chapters. To finish by the 17th, of course, I'll have to get a couple units at least twice. Naturally, if the book grabs me, I may well do a few months in a day.

The point of this is that Dickens frequently organised plot developments in the installment sequence to keep readers interested and to create various critical moments. Sometimes he even changed the plot if he felt that the sales weren't going well enough {Martin Chuzzlewit is an example} So, in this way one will get into the flow of the book much as the original readers did.

Now, this is purely a personal experiment on my part. If anyone else feels like trying it, here are the installment sections:
Inst 1: ch 1-4
Inst 2-8 three chapters each up to and including ch. 25
Inst 9 ch 26-29
Inst 10-12 chs 30-38 {3 each}
Inst 13-14 chs 39-46 {4 each}
Inst 15 chs 47-49
Inst 16 chs 50-53
Inst17 chs 54-56
Inst 18 chs 57-58
Inst 19 {A double Issue} cha 60-67

That is so a cool idea! I knew that Dickens published his novels in installments but had not thought of reading them that way. I think I am going to give it a go.

[sun surfer]

Would anyone like to volunteer to lead the discussion on Bleak House which will start in two days?