I've just completed book 1 of the classics that I promised to start reading : Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. This was to be my New Years promise to myself (how long it lasts it remains to be seen)
It surprised me, there was great difficulty to become interested in the storyline. It was full of intrigue and naughtiness, something which is right down my alley and yet I was quickly snoring each time I lifted the novel. Perhaps the fact that I oftentimes read two or three books at the same time had something to do with it, I'm just not sure. The husband kept asking me if I would get my stories confused, but this has never been a problem for me. I can pick up a book anywhere in the house and begin reading, place it down and start another one. I don't keep book-markers in them generally, just dog ear a page or try to remember the last paragraph and chapter I'd stopped reading.
I have a voracious appetite for novels, but most recently detective novels written by David Baldacci.
His easy prose lifts off the pages and I gobble them up, each story is so much fun to follow and he has a definite flair for description that it is quite easy to find yourself imagining the locations and characters.
Yesterday I took a trip back to the small library and headed straight back to the F's to snatch up something from Fitzgerald. I figure that F.Scott would be an interesting read for the next couple of weeks while I continue my devotion to David (this current novel is 548 pages). (I will be reading The Beautiful and Damned)
Right before I attempt to close my eyes and grab my few winks, I pull up my blanket & tuck a pillow snugly under my head while rolling over to make sure that I have adequate light to view the pages and then start my journey. Without this little ritual I don't think I could get any rest, it's the best way for me to unwind and get out of my own head for a few minutes. With a few chapters I can sleep like a rock, but never for more than a couple of hours and more often than not I wake up only to grab up the book again and dig in for more of the story.
Besides my dedication to reading as many classic novels as possible for 2011 I am going to attempt to put out 52 blogs for this year but I cannot promise you, my readers, that they will happen precisely week to week. If you happened to see my rather manic behavior over the last 2 years, you'll notice that December was a dry spell for me yet November was a flurry of activity.
Poke me privately via email for special requests and interesting suggestions, I might possibly say no or I could go into a spiel. There are no holds barred when I'm ready to start plugging away at the keys.
The typical New Years resolutions that you hear spilling out of other mouths are not going to happen here because it's all been heard before and then nothing becomes of it. Lazy, plain and simple.
It's far easier to just go with the flow rather than challenge ourselves to do more.
We need something to snap us out of that, snip snip snip - get our attention and remind us that we should take charge and never stop learning.
Therefore I am just going to undertake something that I enjoy doing but adjust the criteria and hopefully broaden my views, experiences and learning.
