Chatterbox's 2014 Challenge: Adventures in Essay Reading!
Talk 2014 Category Challenge
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1Chatterbox
I've been participating in these challenges since the 1010 Challenge, and while the format initially is fun, eventually it winds up feeling too constraining. So I've decided to undertake a bit of modification, and to focus on reading essays rather than full-length books. I'll still be reading the books, of course, but that reading will be reported on over in the 75-er group, where much of my book-related discussion seems to happen.
Now, off to unearth 14 separate categories into which I can squeeze the essays I'd like to read or re-read!
Now, off to unearth 14 separate categories into which I can squeeze the essays I'd like to read or re-read!
2Chatterbox
I. The Common Reader: Essays by Virginia Woolf
I've long had a project to read my way through Woolf's collected essays, now in their fifth volume. She's a great literary essayist, regardless of the topic.
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I've long had a project to read my way through Woolf's collected essays, now in their fifth volume. She's a great literary essayist, regardless of the topic.
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3Chatterbox
2. "Best American..."
Ever since 1988, I've been buying the annual "Best American Essays" collection, which have Robert Atwan as the series editor and a variety of guest editors. A great and eclectic compilation of stuff, but always too much to just sit down and read through from cover to cover. Time to go back and look at things I've missed or want to re-read.
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Ever since 1988, I've been buying the annual "Best American Essays" collection, which have Robert Atwan as the series editor and a variety of guest editors. A great and eclectic compilation of stuff, but always too much to just sit down and read through from cover to cover. Time to go back and look at things I've missed or want to re-read.
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4Chatterbox
3. From de Montaigne to Johnson's "Rambler"
The essay as we know it was probably created by Michel de Montaigne, and Samuel Johnson helped nail down its form a few hundred years later. This will focus on the "early classical" essays.
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The essay as we know it was probably created by Michel de Montaigne, and Samuel Johnson helped nail down its form a few hundred years later. This will focus on the "early classical" essays.
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5Chatterbox
4. Political Table-thumping
Over the years, essays have been a great forum for polemicists trying to win an audience for their opinions. Orwell, Camus, Hitchens -- and back in time, too.
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Over the years, essays have been a great forum for polemicists trying to win an audience for their opinions. Orwell, Camus, Hitchens -- and back in time, too.
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6Chatterbox
5. Literary essays
Literary criticism -- as anyone who reads the NYRB or LRB today can testify -- often morphs into long essays. Here's where I'll log my reading of some of these, past and present.
1. "Dead Souls" by Vladimir Nabokov, from Lectures on Russian Literature, READ JAN 2014
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Literary criticism -- as anyone who reads the NYRB or LRB today can testify -- often morphs into long essays. Here's where I'll log my reading of some of these, past and present.
1. "Dead Souls" by Vladimir Nabokov, from Lectures on Russian Literature, READ JAN 2014
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7Chatterbox
6. The Great 19th Century
Emerson, Thoreau, George Eliot, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt -- this was a golden age for essays.
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Emerson, Thoreau, George Eliot, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt -- this was a golden age for essays.
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8Chatterbox
7. Hazlitt the Great
If there's one writer who has convinced me the essay can be a great literary form, it's the late William Hazlitt, a rough contemporary of many of the Romantic poets but who lived into the 1830s. How can anyone not warm to someone who wrote an essay entitled, "On the Pleasures of Hating"?
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If there's one writer who has convinced me the essay can be a great literary form, it's the late William Hazlitt, a rough contemporary of many of the Romantic poets but who lived into the 1830s. How can anyone not warm to someone who wrote an essay entitled, "On the Pleasures of Hating"?
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9Chatterbox
8. Spirit of Place
Lots of essays are written about places the author is visiting and discovering. Several notches above travel journalism, usually combining a lot of history. Or food. Think MFK Fisher.
1. "Listening to the Sea" and "I am at home Everywhere", from Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo, READ JAN 2013, 3.7 stars
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Lots of essays are written about places the author is visiting and discovering. Several notches above travel journalism, usually combining a lot of history. Or food. Think MFK Fisher.
1. "Listening to the Sea" and "I am at home Everywhere", from Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo, READ JAN 2013, 3.7 stars
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10Chatterbox
9. The "personal" essay
The new journalism that made its appearance in the 1950s/60s was characterized by a lot of essays that revolved around the writer's own life and experiences. Joan Didion is a classic writer in this tradition; Ann Patchett's recently-published anthology is in the same spirit.
1. "This is Danny Pearl's Last Story" by Asra Nomani (from "The Washingtonian"), READ JAN 27, 2014
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The new journalism that made its appearance in the 1950s/60s was characterized by a lot of essays that revolved around the writer's own life and experiences. Joan Didion is a classic writer in this tradition; Ann Patchett's recently-published anthology is in the same spirit.
1. "This is Danny Pearl's Last Story" by Asra Nomani (from "The Washingtonian"), READ JAN 27, 2014
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11Chatterbox
10. As Dorothy Parker Once Said...
From the New Yorker to the Atlantic and Rolling Stone, magazines remain home to a lot of great essay writing. Here's where I'll log some of those I read that will be published in 2014 (and thus won't have been anthologized anywhere yet..._
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From the New Yorker to the Atlantic and Rolling Stone, magazines remain home to a lot of great essay writing. Here's where I'll log some of those I read that will be published in 2014 (and thus won't have been anthologized anywhere yet..._
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12Chatterbox
11. The Kindle Single
The evolution of e-books has meant the proliferation of content aimed at web-only audiences. Here's a place to look at & evaluate some of these.
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The evolution of e-books has meant the proliferation of content aimed at web-only audiences. Here's a place to look at & evaluate some of these.
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13Chatterbox
12. Topical Essays
Here's a corner for essays with a special focus -- science, perhaps, or sports, or some other niche appeal.
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Here's a corner for essays with a special focus -- science, perhaps, or sports, or some other niche appeal.
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14Chatterbox
13. Funny, funny, funny...
Humor writing is tricky -- one person's wit is another's cliche. This is where I'll concentrate on trying to identify what makes me laugh.
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Humor writing is tricky -- one person's wit is another's cliche. This is where I'll concentrate on trying to identify what makes me laugh.
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15Chatterbox
14. Random Harvest
Pulled from anthologies I own or stumble across, perhaps by writers I don't know.
1. "How Much My Novel Cost Me" by Emily Gould (from MFA vs NYC, READ 2/25/14
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Pulled from anthologies I own or stumble across, perhaps by writers I don't know.
1. "How Much My Novel Cost Me" by Emily Gould (from MFA vs NYC, READ 2/25/14
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16thornton37814
Interesting approach to the challenge. I'll be looking to see which ones you really enjoy!
17cbl_tn
Interesting idea! I enjoy dipping into collections of essays when I think about it, but the ones in my personal library are sadly neglected. Maybe I should think about including an essay category in my 2015 challenge. Is it too early to be thinking that far ahead? :)
18rabbitprincess
Good idea! Will be looking forward to seeing the essays that pop up!
19DeltaQueen50
Suzanne, this is going to be very interesting and educational as I have very little experience with this genre. Of course, I am mostly interested in the books, so I will be a regular visitor to your 75 thread. :)
20lkernagh
Great way to approach the challenge. I am not much of an essay reader but I am looking forward to see which ones you read and what you think of them.
21lindapanzo
Sounds like a really interesting idea, Suz. I enjoy reading essays but seem to overlook these. I'll be interested in following along with you.
22kiwiflowa
I like reading essays, especially on the topic of literature/reading. Hazlitt is a name I've just recently come across this year. It'll be interesting to hear about his writing. Samuel Johnson I plan to read at some point. Have you heard of Arthur Quiller-Couch? You would have if you have read 84 Charing Cross Road, as 'Q', some of his stuff is now available as free e-books.
23Chatterbox
Absolutely, I know "Q"! First "met" him through 84 Charing Cross Road but then when I started spending a lot of time in Fowey, on the south coast of Cornwall, I realized that it was his home town as well as the adopted home of Daphne du Maurier. There's a wonderful walk around the estuary called the Hall Walk, and there is a monument to Q at the point where you get a panoramic view down the estuary with Fowey on one side and Polruan on the other. If this link works, here's what you see from there:
https://www.google.com/search?q=fowey+hall+walk+q&espv=210&es_sm=93&...
Wow, sorry, long link, but I couldn't transfer the image. Fowey still has its own class of boats named by or for Q -- the Troy class -- which race in the summers and practice every Wednesday evening -- they sail out of the harbor and into the ocean.
I have some original editions of Q's books on both reading & writing, one of which I found in Fowey's lovely second-hand/antiquarian bookstore, Bookends of Fowey, and the other in Hay-on-Wye. PaulCranswick & I joke semi-seriously about relocating to Fowey, buying the bookstore, and opening a pub to be known as The Debauched Sloth, after a comment in one of Patrick O'Brian's nautical adventure tales.
https://www.google.com/search?q=fowey+hall+walk+q&espv=210&es_sm=93&...
Wow, sorry, long link, but I couldn't transfer the image. Fowey still has its own class of boats named by or for Q -- the Troy class -- which race in the summers and practice every Wednesday evening -- they sail out of the harbor and into the ocean.
I have some original editions of Q's books on both reading & writing, one of which I found in Fowey's lovely second-hand/antiquarian bookstore, Bookends of Fowey, and the other in Hay-on-Wye. PaulCranswick & I joke semi-seriously about relocating to Fowey, buying the bookstore, and opening a pub to be known as The Debauched Sloth, after a comment in one of Patrick O'Brian's nautical adventure tales.
24DeltaQueen50
>23 Chatterbox: - ...And if you guys ever do this, I am bound and determined to buy a book in one and raise a pint in the other!
25mamzel
You've nudged me to read Breakfast on Mars which I recently obtained for my library to entice the teens to try this genre. Thanks for that! I'll be interested to follow your essay reading.
26-Eva-
I enjoy reading essays too, but I rarely get around to it since the guilt-trip that is Mt. TBR often beckons louder - looking forward to seeing what you'll read.
27Nickelini
Eva (post 26) took the words right out of my mouth. I look forward to following your adventures in essay reading!
28PawsforThought
This is an area I have very little experience reading so I'm really looking forward to seeing what essays you pick and what you think of them. Very interesting theme!
29Chatterbox
I know exactly what you mean -- especially since essays tend to come in anthologies, it's easier to pick up a novel or non-fiction tome than to contemplate reading an entire collection of unrelated essays. Bite-sized is better! It also may prove to be a good way to offset those periodic bouts of underwhelming reading, or help jolt me back into serious reading after too much fluff, or just give me a break in the format. And I'm hoping the categories won't end up feeling too prescriptive!
30rosalita
Suzanne, I swear that as I scrolled down to each one of your categories I thought "Oh yes, I love reading essays like that!" So I will be back next year to see how you're doing!
32Cobscook
Great categories Suz! I am greatly anticipating following along with your reading in this format. I just purchased the Best American Essays 2013 for my Kindle and I am still working on the Hitchens so I am still reading essays.
33Chatterbox
Thanks for the treats, Robert!
Here is my first essays report of the year...
E1. "Listening to the Sea" and "I am at home Everywhere", from Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo.
Izzo's style is sometimes abrupt, almost staccato, replete with incomplete sentences. "...the Mediterranean has two shores. Not just ours. Today, Europe talks of only one and France is all too ready to fall in line. Making this sea, for the first time, a border between East and West, North and South. Separating us from Africa and Asia Minor." In these two essays, part of a short collection of often very short essays, Izzo lays out his own vision for Marseilles and the Mediterranean, one in which the city serves its traditional role as melting pot and meeting point. He's the right person to do so -- son of Italian and a Spaniard, yet born French in Marseilles, yet insistent on noting what distinguishes the city not only from what he sees as the bland conventionality of Paris but also the Provencal playgrounds of the elite only a few miles distant. The collection as a whole becomes a bit repetitive, and is best read intermittently, but these two essays are among the best at laying out Izzo's ideas and ideals. 3.7 stars.
Here is my first essays report of the year...
E1. "Listening to the Sea" and "I am at home Everywhere", from Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil by Jean-Claude Izzo.
Izzo's style is sometimes abrupt, almost staccato, replete with incomplete sentences. "...the Mediterranean has two shores. Not just ours. Today, Europe talks of only one and France is all too ready to fall in line. Making this sea, for the first time, a border between East and West, North and South. Separating us from Africa and Asia Minor." In these two essays, part of a short collection of often very short essays, Izzo lays out his own vision for Marseilles and the Mediterranean, one in which the city serves its traditional role as melting pot and meeting point. He's the right person to do so -- son of Italian and a Spaniard, yet born French in Marseilles, yet insistent on noting what distinguishes the city not only from what he sees as the bland conventionality of Paris but also the Provencal playgrounds of the elite only a few miles distant. The collection as a whole becomes a bit repetitive, and is best read intermittently, but these two essays are among the best at laying out Izzo's ideas and ideals. 3.7 stars.
34flissp
Hi Suzanne! What a great idea! I may just take a leaf out of your book for this one (if I manage to keep on top of my LT-ing this year, which is doubtful, I admit...) - possibly adapt it to include shorts (like your Kindle singles)...
Have you come across any of G. K. Chesterton's essays? Ages back I read a selection (I comment on it here) and they're a mixed bag and possibly not for everyone (he was a VERY opinionated man), but always absorbing to read, even when you disagree with what he's saying with every fibre of your being. He's particularly animated when writing literary criticism - in particular about Dickens (the reason I read the book in the first place - my Dad lent it to me after we'd been discussing both authors).
Have you come across any of G. K. Chesterton's essays? Ages back I read a selection (I comment on it here) and they're a mixed bag and possibly not for everyone (he was a VERY opinionated man), but always absorbing to read, even when you disagree with what he's saying with every fibre of your being. He's particularly animated when writing literary criticism - in particular about Dickens (the reason I read the book in the first place - my Dad lent it to me after we'd been discussing both authors).
35Chatterbox
Chesterton is a great idea! I haven't read any of his essays (or even his "Father Brown" mysteries, although my grandfather like them quite a bit, along with HRF Keating and Simeon) so it would be fun to read one of two for this challenge, and not feel that I had to tackle an entire book of 'em...
36christina_reads
Oh, I love Chesterton! Hope you enjoy him, Chatterbox!
37Cobscook
Just to let you know Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin is a Kindle Daily Deal today for $2.99. I have not read this author but the topics sound excellent so I picked it up.
38LauraBrook
What an excellent idea for this challenge. Like others have mentioned here, essay collections are often skipped in favor of louder-yellers from the TBR pile, or from the library. I'll have to keep this in mind for next year, most definitely!
Looking forward to what you read, as always!
Looking forward to what you read, as always!
39Chatterbox
E2. "Dead Souls" by Vladimir Nabokov, from Lectures on Russian Literature was an excellent deep dive into this iconic Russian novel. Except that to Nabokov, the setting was immaterial -- it could have been anywhere, and the characters are of no time and place, with Chichikov being a kind of traveling salesman for the Devil himself. That's interesting in light of Gogol's later religious 'awakening', and it's the prelude to a fun analysis of the myriad character who people Gogol's "fundamentally unreal world", a novel full of "Gogolian gusto and wealth of weird detail". Recommended, although it's long and dense.
E3. "This is Danny Pearl's Final Story" by Asra Nomani, for the Washingtonian. (http://www.washingtonian.com/projects/KSM/index.html). The author is a former colleague; Danny was a friend and colleague for a decade until his kidnapping and murder. This exhaustive analysis of the crime (based on a long-lived reporting project) as well as Asra's attempts to come to grips with her own variant of post-traumatic shock are distressing but compelling reading. It actually proved a little bit cathartic to read, for me, at least.
E4. "How Much My Novel Cost Me" by Emily Gould, appeared both online and in a just-published book, MFA vs NYC, about fiction writing. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes dismaying, always thoughtful personal essay about the high cost of self delusion. And the ugly economics of a life spent writing. Recommended. https://medium.com/debt-ridden/35d7c8aec846
E3. "This is Danny Pearl's Final Story" by Asra Nomani, for the Washingtonian. (http://www.washingtonian.com/projects/KSM/index.html). The author is a former colleague; Danny was a friend and colleague for a decade until his kidnapping and murder. This exhaustive analysis of the crime (based on a long-lived reporting project) as well as Asra's attempts to come to grips with her own variant of post-traumatic shock are distressing but compelling reading. It actually proved a little bit cathartic to read, for me, at least.
E4. "How Much My Novel Cost Me" by Emily Gould, appeared both online and in a just-published book, MFA vs NYC, about fiction writing. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes dismaying, always thoughtful personal essay about the high cost of self delusion. And the ugly economics of a life spent writing. Recommended. https://medium.com/debt-ridden/35d7c8aec846
40avatiakh
Suzanne, I've only just stumbled on to this thread and love your idea for the year. I need to retthink my category challenge as I've gone very bland this time round.
41Chatterbox
Kerry, the idea was to make it more manageable, even if I fell behind. (Which clearly, I have already managed to do!!)
