Hello! How has your week been? I can’t believe that it’s already the second Sunday of March, though I’m sure that most of you are joyful that we’re swiftly moving toward warmer weather.
This week has been a heck of a good one for reading for me. I finished Frog Music by Emma Donoghue, Rainbow Rowell’s Landline, made progress on The Leopard, and am deep into The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing. This book is beautiful and absorbing and I can’t wait to write about it further when I finish, though I don’t really want it to end.
Yesterday I realized that my first Big Book Discussion meeting at the library is quickly approaching and I have only read about 10 pages of Bleak House. So, next week my reading really must focus on reading the first third of this tome. I’ve had a few people express interest in attending the discussion – I hope they do actually read and show up at the end of March.
On Thursday, I was excited to see the longlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction announced. Of the twenty titles I have read two – The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I have a dream of one day reading all the titles on the longlist, but this year won’t be the one. A few of the books aren’t even available in the US or won’t even be published here until after the winner is chosen. I was glad to see that most of the titles that are available here are checked out at my library and are being read. Do you pay attention to this award at all?
I wish you all a wonderful Sunday!
A Certain Fondness 
I have the dream of reading all of the long-list titles but know I probably never will! This year I’m aiming for about ten….
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I think I might when I’m old and retired – but probably not before then. 🙂
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I haven’t read any of the books on the Baileys longlist this year, but there are a few that I would like to read. What did you think of Frog Music? I read it recently too and enjoyed it.
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I really liked Frog Music – loved the main character and the setting. It was riveting!
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I’ve been thinking about how few new books I read these days – and when I do pick up a new one it’s usually either history or a mystery. (Like the Jill Lepore in the picture : ) I do look at the lists sometimes, but they don’t usually inspire me to read the books. I will take a look at this one, though, just in case!
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I’ve been reading lots of contemporary stuff since I changed jobs last fall, but I try to fit in classics, too. It is hard to balance sometimes!
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I don’t really pay attention to any awards. I hope your reading and discussion group of Bleak House goes well. I read it last year and enjoyed it.
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Thanks, Jessica, I hope it goes well, too! It should make for a good discussion.
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How wonderful that your discussion group is doing “Bleak House.” Speaking of long Victorian novels, my next reading goal is to read “Middlemarch.” Especially with the new book “My Life In Middlemarch” just having come out. I have heard good things about it and I may read it first before reading “Middlemarch.” Enjoy Dickens!
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I would love to read Middlemarch for this new discussion group at the library. It is another book that would be easier to read if broken into chunks. My Life in Middlemarch sounds really good – I’ll have to see if my library has it.
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I’ve still got Olivia Laing’s first book about rivers on my wishlist — I really need four day weekends to accomplish anything, I think!
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Wouldn’t that be fantastic? I could get so much more reading done.
Olivia Laing writes very well about landscape and geography – I’ll bet her river book is great.
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Love the Bailey’s award! (Though I haven’t quite adjusted away from calling it the Orange Prize. I’ll get it in a few years, just in time for them to change sponsorships and names again. :p)
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Oh, I know, Jenny! The Orange Prize will forever be stuck in our heads.
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I’ve had a vague plan to read the 2011 shortlist ever since it was announced – I’d never attempted to read a shortlist before and liked the sound of the books. So far I’ve only read one of them but I still plan to read all six at some point; my reading otherwise rarely correlates with any of the choices. Hope you enjoy Bleak House, as ironic as that sounds!
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I might attempt to read the shortlist this year, depending on if I can get access to the books or not. I hope that they’ll be available at the library.
I am enjoying Bleak House – so far not very bleak, but very funny!
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I’m pretty much oblivious to lists unless an author I really like wins a prize! Frog Music has intrigued me, not heard of it before but I’m interested.
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I like to know who on the lists, but I admit I rarely read the winners.
Frog Music was really pretty good, flawed but I liked it – great setting, strong main character and very suspenseful.
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