Reading Resolutions 2009

Inspired by the New Year and gaps in my reading, I took a look at The Quarterly Conversation. They are running a series called "Reading Resolutions 2009."

http://www.conversationalreading.com/reading_resolutions_2009/index.html

What are your Reading Resolutions for 2009?

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Having started the year with The Crying of Lot 49 and His Dark Materials, I'll take a dip into commercial schlock, revisiting Warhammer 40K and Tom Clancy, specifically Gaunt's Ghosts and Clancy's early stuff. Before he started phoning it in.

I want to start reading Roberto Bolano, although I'm not sure where to start. And also read more Anthony Burgess and fellow Englishers Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, and Henry James (English by default).

I also want to check out some German language literature: Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, and Arthur Schnitzler.

I want to start tackling Gore Vidal's "American Empire" series and Myra Breckinridge, along with his other work, The City and the Pillar, Williwaw, etc.

A few things are worth a reread, including the Dune Series by Frank Herbert, Crime and Punishment, and Paradise Lost.

On the poetry side, I want to tackle the larger, epic poems of William Blake, specifically Milton and Jerusalem.

On the criticism side, I have Northrop Frye and Harold Bloom to read.

In philosophy, I want to read more Nietzsche, Foucault, and Barthes.

In religion, I'd like to read City of God by St. Augustine, Christian mystics like St John of the Cross and St Theresa of Avila, and The Koran.

I also have some long-range reading projects I want to finish. Currently I'm reading The Cantos by Ezra Pound, about 1/2 way through. I also want to finish Rising Up and Rising Down by William Vollmann. Currently I'm on Volume 6 of 7. I'm on Vollmann hiatus until I finish those, then maybe it's time to start tackling Seven Dreams, The Atlas, and The Afghanistan Picture Show

As with all resolutions, I doubt I'll be able to finish these. But it is a good reappraisal of my reading trends and foolhardy ambitions.

I wanna read some of those big, fat classics I've had gathering dust. But with a time-consuming writing project just getting underway, this may be a pipe dream...

To read something by Evelyn Waugh. Never have, to my everlasting shame...

Not counting my plan to reread some sf classics and blog about it, I'd also like to continue working my way through my ever-growing book collection. So, more Durrell, more Burgess, more Monsarrat, more assorted sf writers. All five of L Timmel Duchamp's Marq'ssan Cycle. More of that Penguin 20 epics boxed set I bought ages ago. Maybe even a stab at In Search of Lost Time...

That's a diverse dozen you've got ahead of you. I can hear the rasp of your wit being sharpened as I tap these words...

To read less crap. I am however a firm believer in time and place for a good mindless romance or murder mystery, but they're often like fast food, tastes good at the time but leaves you feeling kind of bloated and blah.

My real resolutions: to read at least two or three more Graham Green books, having now finished The End of the Affair and finding it fricken awesome. To read some Faulkner. To fill in the gaps of my 20th Century American writers, the US being my other home land. To attempt one 19th Century British book - (I'm setting really low expectations here, so I might actually do it). To find some more undiscovered brilliant contemporary fiction.

To read the Leatherstocking Tales in biographical order.

To keep up with my two group reads commitments.

To read my history of the British in Afghanistan, Beyond the Khyber Pass, and The Great Game.

Now, let me think about February.

Reading resolutions 2009:
1. To keep up on reading nonfiction.
2. To read more major 20th C works that I missed or ignored, which includes Faulkner and Thomas Mann. (involves borrowing from my father)
3. To start posting reviews to Library Thing and generally try to write down thoughts about books more often.
4. Read some long poetry. Perhaps not Pound's Cantos, but maybe finally get through the Iliad... (my son and I were reading it aloud but we got bogged down where they go into introductions for each shipful of Greeks and then get into introducing their horses as well).

Do you have the Robert Fagles translation of THE ILIAD? That's my favorite, by far. Very readable--beautiful, in fact. Ditto his ODYSSEY...

No, I have Lattimore. For both. It's a fairly readable poetic translation. I have seen the prose translations and did not like them, too much info crammed into the sentences and the fact that the poetry had disappeared left it sounding like a news release.

Looks like the Fagles version is a lot more recent. I will check it out.

Christopher Logue's snippet of the Iliad - War Music to be precise - is terrific. Not for the purists, no doubt, but let's all épater the purists.

Let's see. I have just bought all the Biography of Manuel books by James Branch Cabell that I never managed to find second hand, so I intend to return to Poictesme after more than twenty years. Never read more than Figures of Earth, The Silver Stallion, and Jurgen back then.

Then I really want to reread Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books. And I want to finish Zoran Živković's books. And because she is guest of honour at a convention I'm on the committee of later this year, I want to read as much by Liz Williams as possible.

One day I'll take on Marcel Proust and read Ulysses as well. Perhaps this year? We'll see. (And I should really reread At Swim-Two-Birds to see if it holds up after all these years. Ditto for Master and Margarita. But this last paragraph isn't specifically part of this year's resolution.

damn...i'll bet my sister has all of my dad's James Branch Cabell books; and having been in NOrleans/Algiers for 15+ yrs i wouldn't be surprised if his little collection of Cabell firsts was completed engulfed w/ mold. When our folks died i got our mom's and Janet got our dad's which was as fair a way of dividing up their books as any. But though her house came through Katrina OK, i'd imagine one would really have to take special care to keep books readable down there. In general Janet's tastes tended towards our father's and likewise mine more towards our mom's.

Side tracked...reading resolutions...try to check as many books out of libraries as possible and return them on time! Cut down on spending on new books~!

13: Spend less on books - that is another one of mine, too. Thanks for reminding me! A correllary - stay out of Powell's....

Hiya I'm new to this group ! In 2009 I plan on reading three Shakespeare plays , two Austen novels and buying/reading a classic poetry collection . If anyone knows of a great collection featuring various classic poets , please let me know ! I've been thinking about getting one that focuses on The Romantics .

Welcome friend and there's only one rule here:

Everyone picks on Ian Sales.

Seriously, pipe up, put your two cents' worth in and share our love for fine books. You'll have a great time.

Oh, and watch out for Gene.

As for Anna and Bob: spend less on new books? Not when sales for books in November, 2008 were down 13% from the November previously (according to one report I read on Mediasbistro). Cripes, you guys, how are us poor authors supposed to make ends meet?

Or you could pick on Cliff, although he might be too busy spluttering to reply.

I've lurked here enough to know that I'm not an proper snob. I often feel pulled, however, to respond to the occasional post, so I'll join and offer my thoughts when appropriate. Hello, everyone.

anna_in_pdx--The Illiad is on my list for this year. After some research, I also chose the Lattimore translation. Did you know there's a A Companion to the Illiad by Malcolm M. Willock, based on the Lattimore translation? A friend also recommended that I keep the Lombardo translation (also not for purists) handy to provide a stronger sense of the dramatic action, when necessary. Still going to have horse intros though...

Sometimes snobs can be very modest about their superiority. Not many of us but I'm told such people do exist.

Welcome.

Ignore Ian. He's a Hannah Montana fan. Has the rhinestone heart bracelet and everything.

No, I did not know about the companion to Lattimore's Iliad. Will check it out.

Sadly, the Christopher Logue version, which looks like a lot of fun, is not at my library. I will keep a watch out for it.

Welcome, fellow new people!

I'd like to tackle Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I'd also like to try a reading of a Shakespeare play OUTSIDE of school. I'm thinking Hamlet.

Oh, just a few things....

Read Gilbert and Guber's The Madwoman in the Attic simultaneously with reading (or re-reading) every book cited (in a major way) in it.

Read some 19th century French novels, particularly Balzac and Flaubert, in French. A lot of this is available for free from Feedbooks|Mobile for my Kindle.

Read Churchill's unabridged Marlborough: His Life and Times. (I read the abridged version edited by Henry Steele Commager years ago.)

Re-read David Jones' In Parenthesis. I read this back in the mid-70s in a graduated course on the Modern British Novel, but I didn't really get a whole lot out of it at the time and I think it's probably worth another try.

All of which possesses a distinctly snobby vintage.

Good stuff!

you don't need a nosegay to look into DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS.

you hardly need your nosegay to look into DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS.

Well, I started the year reading War & Peace (only about 50 more pages to go) and I plan on finishing the D'Artagnan romances by Dumas. Maybe I'll read a Dickens at some point, but I do want to try to broaden my horizans from English 19th Century Lit... (I think the division is something like 38 English, 12 French and 1 Russian... Clearly I'm not biased at all) Maybe I'll actually finish Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho. The Scarlet Pimpernel looks interesting and I do want to read some Frances Burney. Errrr so much for trying to read less British authors...
Oh and spend less money on new books, as well as buy more from Canadians if I can help it.

>15 AquariusNat: Which Shakespeare and which Austen? For Austen P&P is brills and Persuasion is lovely as well.

Reading resolutions are even tougher when you're a writer and have a day job (that's not being a writer). Scheduling time to read, write, and have a meaningful social life is so tough.

I get more reading done in the Winter when Cabin Fever isn't driving me batty. (I live in Minnesota, closer to Iowa than to Canada, but it still feels like I'm 10 miles from the Arctic Circle.)

#21, If you want to read a Shakespeare outside of school, may I suggest Titus Andronicus? Not one of his classics, nor one of his best, one of the reasons it would be out of school, but certainly one that has a sort of blood drenched appeal.

Everyone reads Hamlet. Only the true Shakespeare fan reads Titus Andronicus.

Oooo, very good, Gene.

You're in one of your moods this morning, aren't you? Keep it coming, boy, I see you on a toffee-nosed tear today...

>28 geneg: - that's because all the other genteel readers are put off by the flood of extreme violence.

Yeah, that's what I like about it. It's the "Greek Chainsaw Massacre" in spades. Where did Tobe Hooper get his initial idea? Ummm, I wonder.

For all those that are not familiar with this play, it's another instance of Shakespeare getting there firstest with the mostest, yet again. Titus Andronicus makes "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" and "Sleepaway Camp" look like Sunday School picnics. Of course no one eats the victims in any of those movies, so the play is somewhat different.

i referred to Titus as Shakespeare's "slasher" play on another thread. I THINK it was a very early play - stage directions have the horrific acts taking place on stage, no?

The movie adaptation by Julie Taymor is also awesome. A good way to get teens to read Great Litterchoor ;) Plus Hamlet is overrated, I much prefer Strange Brew, which had the same plot, eh.

If the gore didn't take place on stage the whole play would last about ten minutes.

Have you seen the MAD TV parody of The Sopranos? It's "The Sopranos" on PAX TV -- a US cable channel, formerly the Hallmark Network. An entire 60 minute episode is boiled down to a 2-minute sketch. Check YouTube. It should be available.

And Taymor casting Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus is priceless. Especially if you know what happens at the end of the play.

Anyone for meat pie?

Why bother with The Taming of the Shrew when you have "10 Things I Hate About You"?

Why bother with The Bible when you can have a barely sentient charlatan and fraud lecture you on your morality? (Before getting deep into the meth and man-hookers.)

Hmm, blood and gore--sounds good! Thanks, geneg for the recommendation!

SilverTome if you give Titus Andronicus a go, let us know what you think!

SilverTome, if you read and like TA give Aeschylus's Agamemnon a try. It is the grandaddy of the slasher/cannibal genre. It's a better play, also.

I went back and read my resolutions, and wanted to add to #2 (read more modern fiction I missed) that I really intend to get to Joyce at some point this year. My father is a big fan (surprise! You are starting to see a theme here aren't you!) and as a linguistics major I should have read Finnegans Wake by now just on principle. But I think I should start with Ulysses. What do all you Joyceans think?

If you haven't read it, start with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It provides some social and psychological background for Steven that may be useful in understanding Ulysses.

Far, far from being a Joycean, I would still encourage you to someday read Dubliners. Though the last story, "The Dead" is wonderful (and better known), "The Boardinghouse" is my favorite. It's structure is amazing. Apparently characters from Dubliners flit in and out of Ulysses. Not that I would know. I haven't read it yet, and thereby establish my non-Joycean credentials.

ULYSSES is a tough place to start. I'd begin with THE DUBLINERS and I would also read a good bio of Joyce, like Richard Ellmann's, which will provide some context and help you have a better understanding of what Jimmy was up to.

Also, read (or re-read) Homer's THE ODYSSEY, since ULYSSES draws much inspiration from that source.

Can't I just re-watch O Brother Where Art Thou?

There's also Stephen Hero, an early version of "Portrait," Joyce's poems, and his play "Exiles." Anthony Burgess also wrote 2 books on Joyce: Re Joyce and Joysprick.

There's also Stephen Hero, an early version of "Portrait," Joyce's poems, and his play "Exiles." Anthony Burgess also wrote 2 books on Joyce: Re Joyce and Joysprick.

Joyce's works are to be heard. He was a writer for the EAR. It's not a test. Enjoy it.

I do have some audio readings from Joyce and they are very beautiful and mellifluous--perhaps reading the tough bits out loud is the way to go...

#26 - I'm a fan of his comedies so its gonna be The Merry Wives of Windsor , As You Like It and third will either be Twelfth Night or Love's Labor's Lost . As for Austen , its Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park .

Pfft. Sense and Sensibility, as any fule no.

#52 , read that last year . LOL !

Austen...(shudder)...

What, not an Austen lover, CliffBurns? I hope you give her more credit than Mark Twain did, at least.

AquariusNat, Twelfth Night is lovely and when you're done be sure to watch She's the Man, because clearly defacing Shakespeare is the way to go :D (I have a fondness of cheesy modern adaptations to classics. Hence Clueless, Shes the Man and Ten things I hate about you have a special place in my DVD collection)
P&P is wonderful, by far my favourite and most read Austen. Mansfield Park, simply for the fact that my last name Mansfield was an interesting read. Mostly because people would never fail to comment at elast three times a day 'So Mansfield... reading Mansfield Park eh?' Twats. Fanny Price failed to capture my love though.

Sorry, Silver, just not my type of writing, not the kind of world or stories I'm remotely interested in. I had one experience with Austen, reading EMMA in university, and that was enough for me.

Her writing doesn't speak to me and I know many people hold her as a paragon of literature, I just don't see it.

Totally willing to concede the fault may be entirely mine.

I'd always thought of Austen as primordial chick-lit, and so avoided it. Then I decided to give Northanger Abbey a go... As I commented at the time: "No one told me Austen was funny..." I went on to read the rest of her novels -- well, all of them except, strangely, Emma. There's a great deal more wit in them than in the vast majority of other fiction.

"I'd always thought of Austen as primordial chick-lit..."

Ah, Ian, I fear you have hit the nail squarely on the head with that one. No doubt a false perception on my part but it's there, no denying it.

Emma was by far my least favourite Austen. Perhaps Cliff you should give P&P a go? Really give Austen a chance before you give your ultimate decision.

Can't beat the endless games of whist and the landed gentry in the marriage-industrial complex.

Just add zombies to spice it up a bit ;)

I think Persuasion or Sense and Senisbility would lend it self better to Zombies than P&P. Captain Wentworth defending the community of Bath? Willoby running away while Colonel Brandon stands by Maryanne?

Brings new meaning to those "assemblies" they go to, anyway.

Cliff, I will agree with you one that one: Austen can be dull at times. I love watching her works on film, but reading them can be, well, difficult. Unfortunatley, so much of the dramatic moments in Austen's stories are just so understated. Apparently Emma is a tough one to get through, too.

Thanks for giving me an out. I don't deserve it. I'm just too dumb and set in my ways to "get" Austen.

I am new to this group, but I had to chime in when I saw the word resolutions. I have just one: to read the books I actually own. I have spent the past year on library books while, at the same time, acquiring an obscene amount of books of my own. Calling to me each time I walk by the shelves is the nice, new six-pack of Proust. That should keep me busy for a while.

And I am so there for an Austen zombie movie.

Welcome aboard. I share your exasperation--why the hell am I getting library books (or any new books period) when I'd have to live to be five hundred bleedin' years old and read five books a week just to go through the ones I already own?

Nuts, nuts...bibliophilia is a sickness, of that I have not the slightest doubt.

books are to dip into. you can't dip into em if you don't have em.

Read the books I actually own? Now that's a funny one. Glad to have more people with a sound sense of humour in the group! Welcome!

Finished Love! Valour! Compassion! last night. Got it from the liberry ;)

70: How did you like it?

It was pretty good. If I saw it live or the movie version, I might be able to make heads or tails of it. Interesting in how different it is from Angels in America, another Pulitzer Prize-winning play based on gay themes.

Talking of primordial
chick-lit -> what about 'Madame Bovary'?

i'll recommend a graphic novel, recommended by LolaWalser that i enjoyed immensely: Gemma Bovery. Boredom/love/adultery/France/death set in the present time...also..humor added.

I'm waiting for someone to adapt the work of Antonin Artaud into a Young Adult urban fantasy novel. Ya know ... for the kids ;)

They've adapted Marcel Proust, so why not?

So long as they can summarize it in 15 seconds ;)

Emma was probably one of the more boring books I've ever read. Which made my love of Pride and Prejudice such a welcome surprise.

I'm trying to get 52 books read, ~1 per week. I'm at 8 now, and I have a pretty sizeable stack sitting on my windowsill. Also, trying to read more nonfiction - though the enormous Caesar: Life of a Colossus seems to be battling me on that.

I read about 220 books last year, and I've all ready read 20 this year. This year I've decided to broaden my reading - even though I've got plenty of books on the TBR pile - and read more classics and literary fiction. I also want to reread a few trilogies / series I've not read for many years.

It's more important to read deeply than widely, I think. I read slowly. My "inner ear" working double time. And I wouldn't pretend to tell others how they should read. Oh well, as Balzac would say: "There goes another novel."

I am WILDLY jealous when I read about how much other people read. I have to read a lot for research purposes, stare at words on a computer screen all bloody day, so by the time I'm done, reading for pleasure just doesn't seem like a good idea to me burning orbs.

I used to read a helluva lot more and I really feel like I'm neglecting my overflowing shelves, all those terrific books I've accumulated.

Sales, I could KILL you...

#80 I like to think I read deeply all ready, but since leaving the Middle East I've been reading less mainstream fiction. Admittedly, I didn't have much choice there - the subscription library I belonged to had only a small sf section, and the book shops were rubbish.

Ian, I stand in awe of your reading output. I read about 50 to 60 books a year and I used to think that was a lot until I joined LT. I do, however, read many newspapers, magazines and journal articles on a regular basis (she says, hoping to make herself not sound so lame). There's another guy on LT who says he read 300+ last year. My best to you both. Wish I had that ability.

Last year was high even for me - but about 30% of the books I read were graphic novels. Normally I manage about 150 books a year.

Oh, and shouldn't it be input?

Ha! Good point.

Do graphic novels count? Seriously, do they?

I also read really, really slowly. Granted, I can tear through a Warhammer book faster than Molloy, but that goes without saying. I've been reading "Rising Up and Rising Down" by William Vollmann, on and off, for the last 3 years. And when I get a chance, a canto or two from Ezra Pound.

I read slow, have a day job, and a decent Netflix cue. So that drives down the numbers a bit.

82: I've no doubt you read deeply. I admire your reading energy.

I read many books, (I've never even thought about counting how many books I read in a given year, but I would say 3-4 a week) mostly because I am the opposite of Karl - I am a speed-reader. This is a problem. I often read a book so fast I can barely remember the plot. I read many mysteries and other things like that and don't remember I've read them. Lately I have been reading more serious books and reading them slower, also doing a lot more nonfiction reading, which helps me to slow down.

Depending in the book and depending on the circumstances, I may read faster or slower. But something like Proust or Henry James, I'll read it slower to savor it. Strangely, I tried to do the same thing for Handful of Dust by Waugh and finished it off in 2 days.

Depending on how you keep score, I'm 2/3 done with His Dark Materials, a trilogy. And it's going relatively fast. As opposed to Beckett's Trilogy, which took a while, even though there was less of a page-count.

I found Tom Clancy a bit slow-going, mainly because I was reading Clear and Present Danger and know the movie quite well. Lots of information not in the movie, including pages and pages about a Coast Guard rescue boat. Almost Homeric in its long-winded detail. Then again, I've never served, so the information was revealing, especially about mountain infantry training.

89: I have read several of those kinds of books that are either military or just maritime and spend pages and pages of detail about the equipment/sails/whatever. I really do read it, I don't just flip past the page, but it does not register very well because I don't have enough base knowledge to really understand it. As I said, I consider speed-reading to be a problem. The one benefit is that I gain a lot from re-readings.

I'm quite the opposite. I rarely re-read anything. I re-read the Annotated Lolita and that's about it. Since I'm reading His Dark Materials, I do want to reread Paradise Lost, since I read it in high school and don't remember anything. The same thing for the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, which I also read in high school. Those I need to revisit to appreciate them.

iansales, what sort of graphic novels did you read? I've only read a few and would like to know of some good ones on the market.

An excellent place to start would be Watchmen, if you've not already read it. Also very good are Scarlet Traces and Scarlet Traces: The Great Game by Ian Edginton & D'Israeli - they're sort of sequels to Wells' The War of the Worlds. I also like The Authority by Warren Ellis and others, and Alan Moore's Tom Strong. Here's something I wrote about graphic novels on my blog - here and here.

"Watchmen" and V for Vendetta are both great. Alan Moore at his most approachable. Dark Knight Returns is a dark interpretation of Batman.

If you're not into capes and tights, check out Maus and Palestine by Joe Sacco. If you can find them, back issues of RAW offer a wonderful sampling of global comix artists and punk comix artists. The New Comix Anthology has a good collection, including Spiegelman, Clowes, Chris Ware, etc.

I'm not a big fan of Frank Miller. And Alan Moore has a tendency to do the same post-modern thing in everything, and some are better than others. Warren Ellis is worth trying - he'll try anything, and he usually writes good stuff.

I am not that into graphic novels, but my kids are. We found Pride of Baghdad to be powerful and the artwork is beautiful. We also have V for Vendetta and both volumes of Maus. I thought all of these were very well-done.

I also liked reading both volumes of Persepolis.

If you're a glutton for punishment, check out Dave Sim and his Cerebus series. The first several volumes are pretty good, until he converted to his personal misogynist desert monotheism and couldn't shut up about it.

Whiteout by Greg Rucka - v. well done (and informative, in re actual info one's not likely to know) detective series set in the scientific stations of Antartica. Queen and Country series are good modern spy graphic stories. Rucka is FAR superior in his graphic books than in his tradition novels. I think the requirement to keep words to a minimum helps him a great deal.

Unlike many here, I like Gaiman's sandman series an awful lot. Gaiman thinks visually and his strength is clearly graphic novel over his attempts in more traditional forms (though I did like neverwhere a good deal.) But then Neverwhere, itself initially a TV series, has recently been turned into a v. good graphic novel

V for Vendetta is EASILY my favorite Moore.

Cairo by G Willow Wilson is a mix of fantasy and current events in the middle east; pleasantly optimistic, which is sometimes a relief.

Shooting War - brilliant, if rather depressing, take on media, war coverage and the economics of reporting "truth."

Fabletown series by Willingham - the characters from Grimms (and other classic fairy stories) are forced into the "real world" where they live a semi-hidden existence in NYC., all the while trying to get back to their homeland. Rather sweet and very enjoyable.

Alice in Sunderland - part revisionist history of Alice and Lewis Carroll, part Brian Talbot autobiography and part history of the city of Sunderland. A bit too long, but fascinating.

The Rabbi's Cat v.1 & 2. Wonderful stories of an Algerian rabbi's family, community (and, of course, cat) between the first and second world wars.

A History of Violence - Crime noir, brutal and rather disturbing. The movie changed a lot of the details and particulars, but the story was basically left alone.

Rex Mundi - alternative history series set in a pre-WW2 Europe. Magic works, the Catholic Church rules and rocks, France remains a feudal monarchy w/ power struggles between the king and dukes still vitally important. Each issue contains front page news from a (fictional!) French newspaper of the era which might be my favorite bits. Quite bleak.

the girl genius steampunk series featuring Agatha Heterodyne. Light hearted and sweet.

Scott Pilgrim - neither Patty nor I are esp. wild about these - but our 25 yr old son loves them. Scott has to fight off all the previous amours of his one true love if they are ever to find happiness amidst all the attempts to find success as in an indie band in Canada.

Gemma Bovery - probably not one kids would like. The frustrated marriage, adultery, remorse, tragedy moved into present day/present time. There IS a good bit of humor built into the revisionist version, however.

Oh yeah..Persepolis is terrific.

I've only read Watchmen (amazing), V for Vendetta (wonderful) and the Sandman Series (by far, my favorite). Good recommendations from you all--I'll have to check them out!

My reading resolution for '09 is two-fold:

1. Read slowly and more deliberately. Sometimes I've breezed through books and don't quite enjoy them the way I used to in college. This might be a reflection of the material itself so my second rule is to...

2. Read just the classics. I've spent too much $$$ on what was supposed to be this year's "tour de force" (or some such nonsense)...I'm sticking to the "Canon", and so far it hasn't failed.

Agreed, bookinmybag. The Classics very rarely disappoint. Sticking with them is never a bad policy.

Spoken like true snobs.

Well done...

I dont quite understand the emphasis on reading in large volume. Targets of a 100 books in a year, particularly of fiction, seem insane to me. I mean, in many cases the author may have spent a year or two writing it and some readers dispose of it in three days? Something's out of whack. It would seem a subtle artist would not be appreciated by the volume reader.

Is the ultimate book snob the one who would rather re-read Lolita or The Recognitions or Suttree for a second or third time in 2009?

Or read those books slowly the first time. Classics are like hard alcohol, word-wise. You shouldn't chug them. They're not shots. Somewhere else I compared Proust to VSOP congnac ... which I've never had, but if I do, I'm not chugging it in 3 seconds and blacking out. In the words of someone else, "If you're drinking to get laid, you're doing both wrong." Same goes for lit. The 100 Book Challenge or whatever, seems to shallow bragging rights. Something to tell your fellow drones at the water-cooler.

Just started Heart of the Matter and I'm reading at a slow pace. But part of that is because the language is so enjoyable. (Orwell may disagree on the plot's plausibility. He wrote a pretty damning review of the book.)

If you read slow then, yes, the style can be savored. but even if you read slow you miss the payoff from the re-read---the foreshadowing, the structure, the little phrases that didnt make sense the first time but have great meaning the second time.

>104 kswolff: - I think of the classics as being the Pineapple Express of the book world.

There's a Woody Allen movie where Woody Allen plays a writer and literature professor:

"Tolstoy is a full meal. Turgenev, I would say, is a fabulous dessert...Dostoyevsky is a full meal with vitamin pill and wheat germ."

I'm a slow to medium reader . I tried the 50 book challenge last year and only hit 40 books . I think the numbered challenges are a good way of encourging yourself to make time in our daily lives for reading . Too many people seem to think reading is just an excuse to avoid family/friends . But spending some time alone with a good book can help a person relax and give them a topic to discuss with others later .

I'm nominally doing the 50 book challenge, but I don't actually care if I get 50 books or not. Graphic novel wise I recommend Exit Wounds or, as mentioned above, the work of Chris Ware. Watchmen is amazing, but is steeped in comic book lore in a way that the Acme Novelty Series and Modan aren't. I also love Persepolis but in true snob style, searched for a long time to find one not emblazoned with artwork from the film when I gave a copy as a present recently.

My resolutions are to make an assault on some novel cycles - A Dance to The Music of Time, The Barsetshire Chronicles or Pilgrimage for example, and to read some more dickens

bencritchley, what interests you about Powell and Trollope?

I agree, you can pick up more on the reread. I want to read Paradise Lost again, since I'm about done with The Amber Spyglass. I also want to read "Milton" by William Blake, since that also influenced Pullman.

I just shake my head in resignation when I hear about people rereading Wheel of Time on an annual basis. "I really like Lord of the Rings, but I wanted something more derivative and long-winded." Some people are beyond help.

111: I bought the Pullman edited version of Paradise Lost and keep meaning to get into it. One day....

103: Weird, I just mentioned Suttree in another thread...

On reading fast, re-reading, setting goals: The idea of setting a goal of X number of books to read a year is a bit weird to me, as I have never had a problem finding time to read - on the contrary, most would say I should use more of my time to do other things. Those types of goals are not for people who are already book addicts. for those who are just getting into the habit of reading they may be useful.

111: I always pick up more on the re-read, as I think I've brought up before. Unfortunately I read too fast, so I miss stuff. I agree that with really good literature, speed-reading just does not cut it.

112: I agree...I don't quite get this notion of setting quantitative goals for reading. I guess it does help if you want/need to put aside time for reading. With so many distractions, it does take effort to read so maybe it's a way to keep people on track? (Much the same as planning to go to the gym three times a week or such.) It would be funny if there was a web site where people discussed TV goals like watching 300 TV shows or 100 movies per year...who knows, there probably is. But media consumption by effort and output differs by medium...

The only thing that keeps me reading is reading good works. If I read a few great novels over the next few months, or even just one that inspires me in someway...well I think I've accomplished my goal.

While I know I'll never reach my Reading Resolutions ... at least, not in a year, it helps as a guide. I'm usually goggling about clueless when I finish a book. If I have a thematic or Canon-oriented thrust to my next few reading choices, it helps. Not a full-blown reading queue, which I find restricting, just a compass to help me find my next book. Since I have 1000s of books, this helps a great deal. Finding the book, between the bookcases and banker's boxes full of books, is another problem ;)

I just want to read more books. I see one that looks interesting, so I want to read it. I'd happily spend all my time reading, if I could. Unfortunately, my employer gets upset if I do.

Preach on, brother. I could read more books, but I like to go outside occasionally ;)

Too many books, too little time.

Outside? What's that?

I could read more books, but I like to go outside occasionally ;)
...And read out there, right? That's where you'll find me & what I'll be doing on warm days.

#110 - it's the scale of the thing, that these are series that took and covered years and years. I'm hoping for a literary equivalent of a tv serial almost, something epic but in manageable chunks. I'm not going to persevere if I don't like them, I'm not that bloodymindedly attached to the idea of having read them for bragging rights, but the very attempt requires something of a run-up.

and #111: strewth, I couldn't even stick LOTR

I tried one of the quantity challenges two years ago. It wasn't really about meeting the challenge. I had never quantified my reading habits so I thought that it might be cool to count how many books I read in a year. However, I soon discovered a major problem with the challenges when I became obsessed with pursuing a certain number of books. I had no interest of reading a longer novel because it might set me back against my goal. Likewise, I no longer wanted to read shorter novellas like The Old Man and the Sea because I didn't feel like it should count as a full book. Needless to say, I gave up on the challenge when I realized that it was taking the fun out of reading.

As for my resolutions for 2009, I plan on reading some more Russian literature this year. I read The Idiot last summer, and I loved it. Since most of the Russian novels are fairly long, I will probably put this resolution off until summer. Since I am a teacher, I have plenty of time for reading during the summer.

I can't decide on just one resolution--I'd echo plenty of other ones listed here--but I do want to make sure to read several books published in 2009, along with all the older classics I must finally read.

fuzzy_patters, Yeah, I think quantity challenges lead you not to bask in the warmth of the book you have just read but to get started on the next one to meet the challenge.

My resolution for 2009 is to reflect more on the books I do read. My scheme to make me do that is to write a review of each book after Im done. It should help to remember it better, too.

I'm with the quality not quantity crowd.

Resolve to read better novels and don't pump up the sales figures of trash writers.