1Settings
Bit early but thought I'd transplant this thread here.
My top level categories are:
1. Classics by Women
2. New Books
3. Moderate Reading
4. Literary Influences on Categories 1-3
5. Light Reading
6. Started Series
7. NF on Reading/Media and Critical Theory
8: Ancient Classics by Women
I've subdivided all of these categories. Idea is to read ~equal numbers of books in Categories 1-3, and read influences on each of them (Category 4) before I move on. I also want to read a nonfiction book related each book I pick for Category 1.
I'll read as many books in Categories 5-7 as I want, and expect to read way more books in Category 5 (Light Reading) and Category 6 (Started Series) than in any of the other categories. Category 8 is also as many as I want.
I'm thinking that this might be a bit too structured, but if it doesn't work out for me I can always rework the categories.
My top level categories are:
1. Classics by Women
2. New Books
3. Moderate Reading
4. Literary Influences on Categories 1-3
5. Light Reading
6. Started Series
7. NF on Reading/Media and Critical Theory
8: Ancient Classics by Women
I've subdivided all of these categories. Idea is to read ~equal numbers of books in Categories 1-3, and read influences on each of them (Category 4) before I move on. I also want to read a nonfiction book related each book I pick for Category 1.
I'll read as many books in Categories 5-7 as I want, and expect to read way more books in Category 5 (Light Reading) and Category 6 (Started Series) than in any of the other categories. Category 8 is also as many as I want.
I'm thinking that this might be a bit too structured, but if it doesn't work out for me I can always rework the categories.
2Settings
Category 1: Classics by Women
---Subcategory A: 18th c UK authors
Finished: Disobedience by Frances Jacson (B), its related NF Nation and Migration: The Making of British Atlantic Literature, 1765-1835 by Juliet Shields, and its influence The Story of Sapho by Madeleine de Scudery
Queued: The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister and Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride by Elizabeth Bonhote
---Subcategory B: Corvey Women Writers on the Web
Finished: Poems by Eliza Rennie
Queued: Plain Sense by Eugenia de Acton
---Subcategory C: Classic Gothic Fiction
Finished: The Fashionable Friend by Elizabeth Bonhote and its influence Cecilia by Fanny Burney
Queued: The Two Mentors by Clara Reeve
---Subcategory D: A Library of Medieval Women
Finished: Women Saints' Lives in Old English Prose and 'influence' The plays of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim, and The Letters of the Rozmberk Sisters
---Subcategory E: The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe
Queued: Florentine Drama for Convent and Festival by Antonia Pulci and Autobiography of an Aspiring Saint by Cecilia Ferrazzi
---Subcategory F: Books from a classics TBR list
Finished: The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon and Poems by Aemilia Lanyer
Queued: Lady Murasaki's Diary, and Sarashina Diary
Finished:
In 2024: Hortensia, or, The Distressed Wife by Elizabeth Bonhote (A), its related NF Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era by Hannah Doherty Hudson, and its influence The History of Lady Julia Mandeville by Frances Moore (A)
Unavailable: Hildegard of Bingen on Natural Philosophy and Medicine (D)
3Settings
Category 2: New Books
---Subcategory C: Graywolf Press
Queued: The Hormone by Tilsa Otta and Anima by Kapka Kassabova
---Subcategory A: Less Common Library of Congress Call Numbers
Queued:If Only by Vigdis Hjorth
---Subcategory B: Translation Database Books
Queued:
Finished: Ghostroots by 'Pemi Aguda (A, in 2024) and
2025:
B: Heating the Outdoors by Marie-Andree Gill and influence Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helen Tursten
DNF: The House of Edrisis by Ghazaleh Alizadeh
4Settings
Category 3: Moderate Reading
---Subcategory B: Books I Own
Queued: Segu by Maryse Conde
---Subcategory C: International Reading TBR #1
Queued: Frontier by Can Xue and Republic of Dreams by Nelida Pinon
---Subcategory D: International Reading TBR #2
Queued: An Algerian Childhood: A Collection of Autobiographical Narratives by Leila Sebbar and Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalade by Assia Djebar
---Subcategory E: Books that Got Put on Hold Earlier, Etc.
Queued: Poems by Emily Dickinson and The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
---Subcategory A: Authors I've Read Before and Liked
Queued: Origin and Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber
Finished: Arabian Jazz by Diana Abu-Jaber (A, in 2024)
DNF: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
5Settings
Category 4: Influences
---Subcategory A: Influences on Category 1 (Classics by Women)
Queued: Clelia by de Scudery
---Subcategory B: Influences on Category 2 (New Books)
Queued: Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (on Heating the Outdoors)
---Subcategory C: Influences on Category 3 (Moderate Reading)
Queued: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (on Arabian Jazz)
Finished:
(in 2024): The History of Lady Julia (Mandeville by Frances Brooke (A, on Hortensia), What it Means When A Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah (B, on Ghostroots)
6Settings
Category 5: Light Reading
---Subcategory D: Books I Own
Queued: Madam, will you Talk by Mary Stewart
---Subcategory A: Classic SFF
Queued: An Uncrowned King by Sydney C Grier and Huon of the Horn by Andre Norton
---Subcategory B: Authors I've Read Before and Liked
Queued: Choose by random number
---Subcategory C: Modern Gothic
Queued: The Lucky Lawrences by Kathleen Norris and Second-Hand Wife by Kathleen Norris
Finished: The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris (A, in 2024), and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier (B, in 2024), and Gabrielle by Kathleen Norris (C, in 2024)
7Settings
Category 6: Series I've started
---Science Fiction
Started Series: Solar System by Leigh Brackett (1), Witch World by Andre Norton (27), Federated Sentient Planets by Anne McCaffrey (47)
---Historical / General Fiction / Contemporary
Started Series: Plantagenet and Tudor by Philippa Gregory (2), Prairie Trilogy by Willa Cather (2), Tripych by Eva Baltasar (2), Alberta Trilogy by Cora Sandel (1), Olav Audunsson by Sigrid Undset (4), Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy (13)
---Horror / Paranormal Romance
Started Series: African Immortals by Tananarive Due (3), Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward (31)
---Fantasy
Started Series: Eternal Sky Universe by Elizabeth Bear (6), Deryni Novels by Katherine Kurtz (14)
---Mystery
Started Series: Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton (10), Inspector Gamache by Louise Penny (17)
---Books by CJ Cherryh (throwing in everything by this author in here)
Queue: Rusalka Trilogy ('89-'91), Tripoint ('94, Alliance-Union), Finisterre ('95-'96), Fortress ('95-'06), Lois & Clarke ('96), Finity's End ('97, Alliance-Union), Gene Wars ('01-'04), Regenesis ('09), Alliance Rising / Alliance Unbound ('19-'24), Foreigner ('94-'23)
Finished: Lover Unleashed by JR Ward (in 2024): Sword of Darkness, Knight of Darkness, and Daemon's Angel by Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Secret of Sinharat / The People of the Talisman by Leigh Brackett, The History of Charles Mandeville by Frances Brooke (in 2024), and
El Dorado by Emma Orczy (in 2024),
(in 2025): Envy and Lover Reborn by JR Ward
8Settings
Category 7: NF
---Subcategory A: NF on Reading / Media (Citations from 'Reading Bestsellers' by Danielle Fuller)
Queued: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua (next-up)
---Subcategory B: NF on Critical Theory (Citations from 'Critical Theory Today' by Lois Tyson)
Queued: Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory by Carolyn E Brown
---Subcategory C: NF on History (Book on the first one I get wrong via this game
Queued: Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles (Tolland Man)
Other NF so I don't lose it: The Epic World and Weavers, Scribes, and Kings
Finished: Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba (B, in 2024)
---Subcategory A: NF on Reading / Media (Citations from 'Reading Bestsellers' by Danielle Fuller)
Queued: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua (next-up)
---Subcategory B: NF on Critical Theory (Citations from 'Critical Theory Today' by Lois Tyson)
Queued: Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory by Carolyn E Brown
---Subcategory C: NF on History (Book on the first one I get wrong via this game
Queued: Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles (Tolland Man)
Other NF so I don't lose it: The Epic World and Weavers, Scribes, and Kings
Finished: Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba (B, in 2024)
9Settings
Category 8: Ancient Writing by Women
TBR:
Women of Assur and Kanesh: Texts from the Archives of Assyrian Merchants edited by Cecile Michel
Women Writers of Traditional China edited by Kang-i Sun Chang
Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome edited by IM Plant.
Classical Poems by Arab Women edited by Abdullah Y al-Udhari
Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome edited by Bartolo Natoli
Women Poets of the World edied by Joanna Bankier
Greek Lyric: Volume IV, Baccylides, Corinna, and Others edited by David A Campbell
A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church edited by Patricia Wilson-Kastner
Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women edited by Charles Hallisey
Women Writing in India edited by Susie J Tharu
Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 edited by Roger S Bagnall
Finished:
Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece edited by Diane J Raynor (in 2024)
Classical Women Poets edited by Josephine Balmer (in 2024)
DNF'd or Rejected:
Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation edited by Mary Lefkowitz
The Woman and the Lyre edited by Jane McIntosh Snyder
Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia edited by Charles Halton
TBR:
Women of Assur and Kanesh: Texts from the Archives of Assyrian Merchants edited by Cecile Michel
Women Writers of Traditional China edited by Kang-i Sun Chang
Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome edited by IM Plant.
Classical Poems by Arab Women edited by Abdullah Y al-Udhari
Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome edited by Bartolo Natoli
Women Poets of the World edied by Joanna Bankier
Greek Lyric: Volume IV, Baccylides, Corinna, and Others edited by David A Campbell
A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church edited by Patricia Wilson-Kastner
Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women edited by Charles Hallisey
Women Writing in India edited by Susie J Tharu
Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 edited by Roger S Bagnall
Finished:
Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece edited by Diane J Raynor (in 2024)
Classical Women Poets edited by Josephine Balmer (in 2024)
DNF'd or Rejected:
Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation edited by Mary Lefkowitz
The Woman and the Lyre edited by Jane McIntosh Snyder
Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia edited by Charles Halton
10Settings
Currently Reading:
Bold are Started
Category 1: Classics by Women: Nation and Migration by Juliet Shields
Category 2: New Books: ---
Category 3: Moderate Reading: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Category 4: Influences: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Arabian Jazz), The Story of Sapho by de Scudery (Disobedience), and Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Heating the Outdoors)
Category 5: Light Reading: Madam, will you Talk by Mary Stewart
Category 6: Started Series: -
Category 7A: NF on Media/Reading: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua Green
Category 7B: NF on Critical Theory: Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory by Carolyn E Brown
Category 7C: NF on History: Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles
Category 8: Ancient Classics by Women: Women of Assur and Kanesh, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome, and Women Writers of Traditional China
Bold are Started
Category 1: Classics by Women: Nation and Migration by Juliet Shields
Category 2: New Books: ---
Category 3: Moderate Reading: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Category 4: Influences: Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates (Arabian Jazz), The Story of Sapho by de Scudery (Disobedience), and Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Heating the Outdoors)
Category 5: Light Reading: Madam, will you Talk by Mary Stewart
Category 6: Started Series: -
Category 7A: NF on Media/Reading: YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture by Jean Burgess and Joshua Green
Category 7B: NF on Critical Theory: Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory by Carolyn E Brown
Category 7C: NF on History: Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles
Category 8: Ancient Classics by Women: Women of Assur and Kanesh, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome, and Women Writers of Traditional China
11Settings
Reading Diary 1:
Dec 21st: Finished up Charles Mandeville (Cat 6: Series), the sequel to Julia Mandeville by Frances Brooke (Cat 4: Influences). Julia Mandeville is a romance melodrama but Charles Mandeville veered off into the utopian genre (and is very dated in how it went about it), which was unexpected. Bizarre novel.
Also read some stories from What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). They were okay but they have that stale MFA-polished feel. And finished Arabian Jazz (Cat 3: Moderate Reading), which I've been reading for a while.
Dec 22nd: Finished What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). Wished I'd DNF'd it. DNF'd Space Oddity (Cat 6: Series), first few pages irritated me and it seems like an unnecessary sequel. Finished listening to El Dorado by Emma Orczy (Cat 6: Series) and made 5 granny squares. I want a blanket, so at the size that they are I'll need >200. This'll be awhile.
Dec 23: Started up High Sorcery by Andre Norton. Annoying that there's no audio version of this one and the next in the series, likely because they're short fiction. I think I'm going to pick up Camber of Culdi as my next audiobook even though I have that book in paper.
Dec 27: DNF'd The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt (Cat 5: Light Reading). Recently I've been trying to avoid child POVs. One of the reasons I hate them is that they're used to hide things from the reader, and that's how this one is trying to build suspense - there's some dramatic family history the adults aren't telling the child. So unspeakably boring. Shame because I like Holt's writing style. Replacing it in the queue with Gabrielle by Kathleen Norris.
Dec 28: Finished Gabrielle (Cat 5: Light Reading). Picking up The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (Cat 5: Light Reading) again, I'd paused it. Immediately DNF'ing The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Gabrielle isn't a masterpiece of writing but it makes The Girl Who Chased the Moon read like slop, the contrast is too grating. I have a tag for this category and I'm picking by random number - landed on Karen Miller but decided that I don't really want to read any more of their books, then landed on Catherynne Valente, who shouldn't be in that tag group because I DNF'd their last book. So 4th time's the charm. Decided on The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan.
Oh shoot, after all that switching I got my subcategories mixed up. The Brennan novel is subcategory B, not D, I need a book I own for D, which random numbers out to Madam, Will you Talk by Mary Stewart. Think I'll continue with The Waking of Angantyr for now tho, I can go find Madam, Will you Talk later.
Dec 29: The Waking of Angantyr (Cat 5: Light Reading) is incompetent, it reads like juvenilia where the authors has ideas about what characterization and plotting they're trying to achieve but it's not making it onto the page. Looked it up and it was written before the author's first publication, only to be dragged out and published now. Read like 60% and I'm dropping it. That brings me back to trying to find Madam, Will you Talk.
...And already breaking my plans. Gonna read the next round of Cat 1-3 before I'm finished with Bellefleur (Cat 4: Influences), Bellefleur's gonna take me weeks if not months and I don't want to wait on the others. -_- DNF'd The Creak on the Stairs, again with the child POV bugaboo, as hard as I'm trying to avoid them I'm not very good at it. I noticed that the flashback passage with the child isn't just a prologue, they continue throughout the book. Replacing it with Life After Kafka.
Dec 31: Added another category for Ancient Women's Writing. I'm not going to read influences or NF about this. Read 1/4 of Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia and it pains me because I'm not getting another one, but I can't tolerate the editorial commentary anymore. The groups of scholars studying this topic seem to give me particular trouble. I do seem to like the SBL ones, though.
Dec 21st: Finished up Charles Mandeville (Cat 6: Series), the sequel to Julia Mandeville by Frances Brooke (Cat 4: Influences). Julia Mandeville is a romance melodrama but Charles Mandeville veered off into the utopian genre (and is very dated in how it went about it), which was unexpected. Bizarre novel.
Also read some stories from What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). They were okay but they have that stale MFA-polished feel. And finished Arabian Jazz (Cat 3: Moderate Reading), which I've been reading for a while.
Dec 22nd: Finished What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (Cat 4: Influences). Wished I'd DNF'd it. DNF'd Space Oddity (Cat 6: Series), first few pages irritated me and it seems like an unnecessary sequel. Finished listening to El Dorado by Emma Orczy (Cat 6: Series) and made 5 granny squares. I want a blanket, so at the size that they are I'll need >200. This'll be awhile.
Dec 23: Started up High Sorcery by Andre Norton. Annoying that there's no audio version of this one and the next in the series, likely because they're short fiction. I think I'm going to pick up Camber of Culdi as my next audiobook even though I have that book in paper.
Dec 27: DNF'd The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt (Cat 5: Light Reading). Recently I've been trying to avoid child POVs. One of the reasons I hate them is that they're used to hide things from the reader, and that's how this one is trying to build suspense - there's some dramatic family history the adults aren't telling the child. So unspeakably boring. Shame because I like Holt's writing style. Replacing it in the queue with Gabrielle by Kathleen Norris.
Dec 28: Finished Gabrielle (Cat 5: Light Reading). Picking up The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (Cat 5: Light Reading) again, I'd paused it. Immediately DNF'ing The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Gabrielle isn't a masterpiece of writing but it makes The Girl Who Chased the Moon read like slop, the contrast is too grating. I have a tag for this category and I'm picking by random number - landed on Karen Miller but decided that I don't really want to read any more of their books, then landed on Catherynne Valente, who shouldn't be in that tag group because I DNF'd their last book. So 4th time's the charm. Decided on The Waking of Angantyr by Marie Brennan.
Oh shoot, after all that switching I got my subcategories mixed up. The Brennan novel is subcategory B, not D, I need a book I own for D, which random numbers out to Madam, Will you Talk by Mary Stewart. Think I'll continue with The Waking of Angantyr for now tho, I can go find Madam, Will you Talk later.
Dec 29: The Waking of Angantyr (Cat 5: Light Reading) is incompetent, it reads like juvenilia where the authors has ideas about what characterization and plotting they're trying to achieve but it's not making it onto the page. Looked it up and it was written before the author's first publication, only to be dragged out and published now. Read like 60% and I'm dropping it. That brings me back to trying to find Madam, Will you Talk.
...And already breaking my plans. Gonna read the next round of Cat 1-3 before I'm finished with Bellefleur (Cat 4: Influences), Bellefleur's gonna take me weeks if not months and I don't want to wait on the others. -_- DNF'd The Creak on the Stairs, again with the child POV bugaboo, as hard as I'm trying to avoid them I'm not very good at it. I noticed that the flashback passage with the child isn't just a prologue, they continue throughout the book. Replacing it with Life After Kafka.
Dec 31: Added another category for Ancient Women's Writing. I'm not going to read influences or NF about this. Read 1/4 of Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia and it pains me because I'm not getting another one, but I can't tolerate the editorial commentary anymore. The groups of scholars studying this topic seem to give me particular trouble. I do seem to like the SBL ones, though.
12lowelibrary
Wow. You are very organized in your reading plans.
13Ruskoley
" Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory" by Carolyn E Brown
Interested in this. Hope you indeed get to reading it and it has worthy insights.
Interested in this. Hope you indeed get to reading it and it has worthy insights.
14Settings
>12 lowelibrary: The plans are fun to make, I've never actually stuck to them. ...But maybe this time? Lol
15Settings
Reading Diary 2
Dec 31: Not quite Jan 1st but close enough. Reading Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory, it's only 170p and there's nothing really objectionable in it, so I'm reading it anyway, but this is a waste of my time. It's simplified to all get out yet I still don't follow, and most of the content is a series of one to a few paragraph summaries of an author's Shakespeare's interpretation, with very little overarching connections between them that I can pull out. By the time I've reached the end of each paragraph I've already forgotten what the beginning was saying. Maybe this would be more valuable to someone with a stronger background in this, but then I don't expect they'd need the extreme simplification. It'd probably have use to someone who just wants a source for an assigned paper and isn't trying to read it cover to cover.
Jan* 1: Struggling trying to find something for Category 2B. I went through the entire list I'd copied from Publisher's Weekly and either I don't have access, I can't stand the writing, it has a plot element I avoid, or it's actually nonfiction, which wasn't my intent for this category. I'm aware that modern lit fic and me don't seem to get along but I should be able to find something to read if I keep looking. It also seems like the database hasn't been updated fully for 2024 (?). I'm going to expand my search to 2023. Eventually ended up with Heating the Outdoors by Marie-Andree Gill. Picked Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as he Cat 4 influence - Simpson is cited in Gill's thesis.
Jan 2: Finished High Sorcery by Andre Norton and Envy by JR Ward (both Cat 6: Started series) and started Lover Reborn by JR Ward. Envy is in the Fallen Angel subseries of the Black Dagger Brotherhood while Lover Reborn is in the main series. I like the Fallen Angels ones way better. The Fallen Angels series has a structure and a task for the characters to accomplish that makes them seem like they're doing something of worth. So I want them to succeed. Meanwhile I'm still reading them in the sense of watching a train wreck, but I'd be pleased if Ward killed off most of the main Brotherhood characters and got new ones.
Jan 8: Finished Lover Reborn by JR Ward and started Rapture (Cat 6: Started series). Continuing with Disobedience by Frances Jacson. Clelia, by Madeleine de Scudery, was mentioned in text so I can used that as its Cat 4 influence. DNF'd Hotel Silence. Finished Disobedience, which morphed into propaganda for American immigration in the last volume. Not the romance drama I thought I was reading and in general extremely unpleasant. The history is what it the history is but that was a lot of extremely vile content. Decided on The Story of Sapho by Madeleine de Scudery as an influence. I also need a related NF, was thinking Nation and Migration: The Making of British Atlantic Literature, 1766-1835 by Juliet Shields. Honestly, if I'm going to continue to be interested in UK women's writing from this time period, I should really slot in a general UK history book.
Jan 10: Started An Uncrowned King even though it's out of order. My currently reading are piling up so going to play a random number game. The NF chapters are all significantly higher time investments than the fiction, so this is designed to get me to actually read some NF.
1. Nation and Migration (1 chapter (Rounds: 2, Current Page: 40/146)
2. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (1 chapter)
3. Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory (1 chapter)
4. Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles (1 chapter) (Rounds: 1, Current Page: 52/273)
5. The Story of Sapho (20 pages) (Rounds: 3, Current Page: 106/189)
6. Women of Assur and Kanesh (30 pages)
7. Women Writers of Traditional China (10 pages)
8. Bellefleur (1 chapter)
9. Noopiming (40 pages)
10. Permafrost by Eva Baltasar (10%)
11. The Uncrowned King (40 pages)
12. Spell of the Witch World (1 story) (Rounds: 2, Current Page: 104/164)
13. Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome (30p)
... And I got 12, Spell of the Witch World.
Jan 12: Finished Rapture yesterday and Lover at Last today. Finished "Dragon Scale Silver" Spell of the Witch World, which was extremely dull until the end, when it rapidly became extremely interesting. Got 12 again in my random number game, means "Dream Smith" in the same anthology is next. Up after that is 5, The Story of Sapho, now 4, Bog Bodies, now 1, Nation and Migration, with another round queued, now 2 The Story of Sapho rounds.
Jan 13: Jeez Nation and Migration is boring. Now got 11, The Uncrowned King.
Dec 31: Not quite Jan 1st but close enough. Reading Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory, it's only 170p and there's nothing really objectionable in it, so I'm reading it anyway, but this is a waste of my time. It's simplified to all get out yet I still don't follow, and most of the content is a series of one to a few paragraph summaries of an author's Shakespeare's interpretation, with very little overarching connections between them that I can pull out. By the time I've reached the end of each paragraph I've already forgotten what the beginning was saying. Maybe this would be more valuable to someone with a stronger background in this, but then I don't expect they'd need the extreme simplification. It'd probably have use to someone who just wants a source for an assigned paper and isn't trying to read it cover to cover.
Jan* 1: Struggling trying to find something for Category 2B. I went through the entire list I'd copied from Publisher's Weekly and either I don't have access, I can't stand the writing, it has a plot element I avoid, or it's actually nonfiction, which wasn't my intent for this category. I'm aware that modern lit fic and me don't seem to get along but I should be able to find something to read if I keep looking. It also seems like the database hasn't been updated fully for 2024 (?). I'm going to expand my search to 2023. Eventually ended up with Heating the Outdoors by Marie-Andree Gill. Picked Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson as he Cat 4 influence - Simpson is cited in Gill's thesis.
Jan 2: Finished High Sorcery by Andre Norton and Envy by JR Ward (both Cat 6: Started series) and started Lover Reborn by JR Ward. Envy is in the Fallen Angel subseries of the Black Dagger Brotherhood while Lover Reborn is in the main series. I like the Fallen Angels ones way better. The Fallen Angels series has a structure and a task for the characters to accomplish that makes them seem like they're doing something of worth. So I want them to succeed. Meanwhile I'm still reading them in the sense of watching a train wreck, but I'd be pleased if Ward killed off most of the main Brotherhood characters and got new ones.
Jan 8: Finished Lover Reborn by JR Ward and started Rapture (Cat 6: Started series). Continuing with Disobedience by Frances Jacson. Clelia, by Madeleine de Scudery, was mentioned in text so I can used that as its Cat 4 influence. DNF'd Hotel Silence. Finished Disobedience, which morphed into propaganda for American immigration in the last volume. Not the romance drama I thought I was reading and in general extremely unpleasant. The history is what it the history is but that was a lot of extremely vile content. Decided on The Story of Sapho by Madeleine de Scudery as an influence. I also need a related NF, was thinking Nation and Migration: The Making of British Atlantic Literature, 1766-1835 by Juliet Shields. Honestly, if I'm going to continue to be interested in UK women's writing from this time period, I should really slot in a general UK history book.
Jan 10: Started An Uncrowned King even though it's out of order. My currently reading are piling up so going to play a random number game. The NF chapters are all significantly higher time investments than the fiction, so this is designed to get me to actually read some NF.
1. Nation and Migration (1 chapter (Rounds: 2, Current Page: 40/146)
2. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (1 chapter)
3. Shakespeare and Psychoanalytic Theory (1 chapter)
4. Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles (1 chapter) (Rounds: 1, Current Page: 52/273)
5. The Story of Sapho (20 pages) (Rounds: 3, Current Page: 106/189)
6. Women of Assur and Kanesh (30 pages)
7. Women Writers of Traditional China (10 pages)
8. Bellefleur (1 chapter)
9. Noopiming (40 pages)
10. Permafrost by Eva Baltasar (10%)
11. The Uncrowned King (40 pages)
12. Spell of the Witch World (1 story) (Rounds: 2, Current Page: 104/164)
13. Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome (30p)
... And I got 12, Spell of the Witch World.
Jan 12: Finished Rapture yesterday and Lover at Last today. Finished "Dragon Scale Silver" Spell of the Witch World, which was extremely dull until the end, when it rapidly became extremely interesting. Got 12 again in my random number game, means "Dream Smith" in the same anthology is next. Up after that is 5, The Story of Sapho, now 4, Bog Bodies, now 1, Nation and Migration, with another round queued, now 2 The Story of Sapho rounds.
Jan 13: Jeez Nation and Migration is boring. Now got 11, The Uncrowned King.
16lowelibrary
Happy New Year and good luck with your reading.
17thornton37814
Enjoy your 2025 reading! Happy New Year!
