5) Northanger Abbey 6) The Importance of Being Earnest

5) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen



Surprisingly, given how much I love Jane Austen, I had never read this before, apart from an extract for Uni in first year. I really enjoyed this book, finding it even comic than Austen's other novels, especially the character of Isabella, who is always saying the opposite of what she intends, and whom the author rather enjoys mocking:

"So pure and uncoquettish were her feelings, that, though they overtook and passed the two offending young men in Milsom Street, she was so far from seeking to attract their notice, that she looked back at them only three times."

The contrast between the dramatic Gothic novels that the protagonist Catherine so enjoys reading the ordinariness of her life are also presented up to the reader for comic effect:

"He looked as handsome and as lively as ever, and was talking with interest to a fashionable and pleasing-looking young woman, who leant on his arm, and who Catherine immediately guessed to be his sister, thus unthinkingly throwing away a fair opportunity of considering him lost to her forever, by being married already."

"Thinking his sister/ cousin is his girlfriend" is a popular device used in films today, examples being the Vicar of Dibley and Letters to Juliette. I wonder what Austen would have to say about that...

6) The Importance of bening Earnest



I downloaded this onto my kindle after being recommended it by a friend and I have to say at it's the funniest play I've ever read. The ridiculousness of Algernon's character;

Algernon: The amount of women in London who flirt with their husbands is perfectly scandalous. it looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean laundry in public.

Lady Bracknell's withering remarks;

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

 and Cecily's unexpectedness;

Cecily: This is the box where I keep all your dear letters.

Algernon: My letters! But, my own sweet Cecily, I have never written you any letters.

Cecily: You need hardly remind me of that, Ernest. I remember only too well that I was forced to write these letters for you. I wrote always three times a week, and sometimes oftener.

all contribute to help make this play fantastically comic and unexpected. I thoroughly recommend reading it and intend to go and see it at the theatre as soon as possible.

3) nothing 4) Stupeur et tremblements

3) nothing by Janne Teller


This book is brilliantly disturbing. What starts as a childish challenge to prove a classmate wrong becomes something much darker and makes you wonder what it is that you would have to give up to "the pile of meaning". Brilliantly translated from the original danish work,  this book mediates on nothing, and how to disprove it.

4) Stupeur et tremblements by Amélie Nothomb


Recounting the Belgian's author's experiences working for a Japanese company, this whimsical book beautifully captures the difference between the two cultures, and Amélie's awkward blunders are rather endearing to the reader, if not to her superiors. Also available in English under the slightly less inspiring title "Fear and Trembling", I thoroughly recommend this book for a fun, light read.

1) Little Women 2) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1) Little Women (including Good Wives) by Louisa May Alcott


 
 I was originally read this by my mum, and have  read it a couple of times since, but I'm now re-reading it as it's on my reading list for next year's course "The Girl in the Book" (TGITB) at my uni. I have to say that even though I know the story well, I still find it very touching and I love the old-fashioned simplicity of the girls' lives, although I find their mother rather extreme in her wish to keep them from thinking romantic thoughts while they're teenagers. The idea that it's "one's duty" to happily give up one's sons or husband to the war is also hard for me to swallow, but then I'm lucky enough to live in the UK at a time of peace, so I can't really empathise. 


I was a little miffed, thinking that I had finished it, to find out that the version on the reading list includes "Good Wives" (the second book of the series) as part two, but I ended up enjoying re-reading this second part of the story, in which we get to see a different, more mature side to the girls, as they marry and move out of their childhood home. I feel like some of Mrs March's advice for her daughters is still very much relevant today, such as not neglecting your husband for you children and taking care to preserve tenderness in a marriage after the initial honey-moon period. Good advice, even if it may be hard to follow.


2) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol

 
This was another book that I've re-read due to it being on my reading list for TGITB. I've always found Alice to be a very comic character, and her naivete is really quite charming in its ridiculousness; "It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do THAT in a hurry. 'No, I'll look first,' she said, 'and see whether it's marked "poison" or not' ". 

The whole book is rather fun, with its smorgasbord of zany characters; indeed it gets "curiouser and curiouser" as it goes on, as Alice changes size, meets anthropomorphised animals and playing cards, and tries to play croquet with a flamingo for a mallet and a hedgehog for a ball. I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it, and recommend it, for those who never read it as a  child it's still very enjoyable as an adult, and will only take an hour or two, as it's very short.

A book a week...?

I love reading. I pretty much always have; looking back at my parents' comments in my school reading log it seems I struggled at first, but at the age of six something clicked and I was suddenly taking out twelve books from the library a week. Sadly my reading has slowed down somewhat over the years. I genuinely couldn't tell you how many books I read per year nowadays (some books like "The Fault in Our Stars" I'll read in one sitting, while others are spread over several weeks) but I do feel like I don't spend enough time reading.

 I heard about the "50 books in a year challenge" a while ago and thought it was a great idea but didn't end up doing anything about it. After recently finishing "100 happy days" in which I had to take a picture every day of something that had made me happy, and I was left feeling a bit bereft. Talking to my friend about her personal book log that she does to keep track of her reading gave me fresh enthusiasm and I decided to give it a go.

This blog will (hopefully!) document the 50 books that I will read this year, starting today, and will include both books for leisure and ones that I'm studying for my degree (and yes, I am studying English literature...and French...the French books tend to take longer to read for some reason...) I have decided, although this may change, to only post about books when I finish them, as I sometimes start reading something, then get lost in another book, and come back to it at a much later period (this is especially true of books I read on my kindle).