floremolla is late to the chunkster party

Hi all, joining the party late but hoping to fit in a few chunksters by the end of 2017.

Chunksters read this year so far:

1. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
2. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
3. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
4. Underworld by Don DeLillo
5. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
6. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
7. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
8. The Crimson Petal and The White by Michel Faber
9. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
10. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

For most of these my preferred method was a combination of audio and paperback. An expensive option but some of these chunksters have been on my shelves for years and needed to be boosted forward. This works for me as I can listen when driving or busy around the house or garden and then pick up the book for relaxation. All have had excellent narrators - the most riveting was Underworld.

Hi Donna, I see you responded to Currerbell's call to join too!

Hi Connie! Yes, can never resist a request to help someone meet their goal! ;)

Hi Donna, how nice to see you joined us! I'm impressed you're tackling Quijote. I tried it last year and didn't get very far. Too many other books calling out to me...

Hi Birgit, nice to see you here too! I'm listening to the audiobook of DQ almost exclusively - the narrator is very good but sometimes my mind wanders! Even so, it's easy to follow. I've still a little bit to go so will reserve judgement till it's finished.

Hi floremolla! Glad you made it over.

When you have a chance, we post our books to this BIG FAT BOOKS CHALLENGE TOTAL thread and number them so as to keep a running track of the Group's total. As you can see, connie53 just posted numbers 71 and 72. No hurry or anything, but when you get a chance it would help if you could post and number your four to that thread.

>6 CurrerBell: ok, done!

Audiobooks during housework and gardening are the best! They make it so much easier.

Hi Donna, welcome to the group and enjoy the chunksters my dear.

Thank you, John, I certainly will - I become quite fond of my chunksters, they take so long they become like old friends.

Welcome Donna, some great reading so far this year, hope you are enjoying Don Quixote, one of my favourite all time novels.

>11 bryanoz: thank you! I'm enjoying DQ so far and hope to finish today.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton completed. A complex novel that's going to need a lot of flicking back and forth through the pages to check details if I'm to get it clear enough in my mind to write a review that makes sense...

Finished Barkskins by Annie Proulx and enjoyed it muchly - review is on my 2017 Reading Our Own Tomes thread.

I might bypass Tom Jones again this month and listen to The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber, which is a ROOT so kills two birds with stone.

"Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font.
The firefly wakens; waken thou with me...."
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Looking forward to what you will say about the Faber book, Donna. It's on the TBR pile somewhere.

Finished The Crimson Petal and The White by Michel Faber - really enjoyed it, great characters and a riveting story, though not for the faint hearted as it's fairly graphic in describing the seamy side of life - review is on my ROOTs thread >17 connie53:.

Next up is Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.

>18 floremolla: Good to know, Donna. I will check out your review.

Finished my ninth BFB - Tom Jones by Henry Fielding and enjoyed it far more than I thought I would - hard to believe it was written in the 1740s.

Finished my tenth and last BFB of 2017, David Copperfield - another audiobook and such an 'immersive' experience I miss the characters already.