Ken’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Ken’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

On 29 January mine is due
It will soon be time to click "renew."

On 24 January I begin
It'll be three weeks before I "fin."



(Hallmark Poem of the Day)

A fellow Capricorn cuspy!

Spoken like a true bibliophile.

I use books as doorstops, weights, fans, face covers during naps, place holders, supports, and towers. When they're not doing time on my shelves as background music during Zoom sessions, I mean.

Darrin wrote: "I am realizing that the copy of Tenant I put on hold at our library is not due until February 4. It looks like I might just go ahead and buy a used copy now because I like to have a copy of all of ..."

Ah, a man who still has space on his home bookshelves! Jealousy, thy name is Ken.

Me, I'm holding off until Jan. 23rd for a start. I like books fresh as a loaf of sourdough bread out of the oven when I have to discuss them.

Which is a nice way of saying I don't trust what PBS would call "This Old Mind."

This means you do not have to have the entire book finished by Feb. 1st, you just have to have Chapters One through 19 finished.

In my paperback text, that's pp. 9-161.

The other two weeks amount to around 160 pp. of reading as well.

Anne Brontë made my job easy, dividing her book into three fairly equal "volumes." We will use that as our map while wending our way through her book.

My Oxford World Classic text uses Roman numerals for chapters, but it has chapter titles, too, so this schedule should work for all editions being used by our readers:

****************************************************************

FEB. 1-7: Discussion of Chapters I ("A Discovery") through XIX ("An Incident"). ENDS VOLUME ONE

FEB. 8-14: Discussion of Chapters XX ("Persistence") through XXXVII ("The Neighbor Again"). ENDS VOLUME TWO

FEB. 15-21: Discussion of Chapters XXXVIII ("The Injured Man") through LIII ("Conclusion") ENDS VOLUME THREE AND THE BOOK

Welcome, Stacey and Joseph. Always good to see new faces in the reading room.

And Happy New Year to all of you. I'm convinced 2021 will improve on 2020.

Yes, don't stress about copies. ROR (Regular Ole Readers) like us probably wouldn't even notice the differences.

-- Mr. Cräft,
Narrator of Tamerose Hall

Thanks, Yvonne. I made that the cover for our group BOOKSHELF. I think my link is to the same book only the cover is different because it's a tie-in with a TV version.

Still, it has the names of Smith and Rosengarten as editors / introduction writers, so I think I'm safe.

Maine's library system has multiple copies. I just got lucky with my choice.

Yvonne wrote: "So, am under some time pressure and don't really have time to study this but would like to get my copy. Apparently the Modern Library edition that I checked out of my public library is not the one ..."

Yvonne -- This is the copy I reserved through the Interlibrary Loan Program: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

It is currently "in transit," though I probably won't start it till the last week of Jan.

Jean -- Very cool info on the family Brontë. I'd like to add an umlaut to my name, too, just for the literary flair of it all:

Ken Cräft (like the "a" was crowned or something!).

*****

Cindy -- Glad you'll be part of the reading party! Happy New Year to you as well!

****

Barbara -- I found this link. The end of it provides names and publishers of Anne's "original" versions (called "Clarendon," I think):

"The Mutilated Texts of 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'"

Hi, Barbara. Glad you dropped by at the "Introduce yourself!" thread.

I have a sister-in-law in Englewood not far from you. My wife and I have it on our frozen-in-time travel schedule, post-pandemic (post Canterbury Tales, post-Decameron, etc.).

I read Jane Eyre long ago in a galaxy (called my 20s) far, far away.

I tried and failed to get into Wuthering Heights at about the same time. Maybe someday, in my so-called "mature" state (please, no Maine jokes), I'll try again.

Thanks for filling me in on Branwell. Seeing the name told me that yes, somewhere in the foggy past, I HAVE seen the name.

How did I know? I remembered thinking his name would make a good cereal, that's how.

The "Team" thing is a joke from popular culture (which I'm really not so well-versed in).

Speaking of not being well-versed, who is the FOURTH Brontë I'm missing? A writing Brontë more obscure than Anne?

I have added books that did not win the Feb. 2021 poll to the thread called "Nominated Books That Did Not Win Past Discussion Polls."

If you haven't already, feel free to add titles you like to your "To-Read" shelves. There's no rule against renominating for future discussions, either.

And although Feb. is reserved for classics written before 1899, there's also no rule against nominating a classic for June and October's discussions, where you are free to nominate any book you wish, be it a classic or a new release.

Here's a place to welcome Anne Brontë, most obscure of the three writing wonders in that family. We will be discussing her book, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall beginning February 1st of 2021.

Kathleen wrote: "This is like watching the ball drop in Times Square ... only more fun!"

Much more fun. I never saw the appeal of that, but then, if you're watching TV on New Year's Eve instead of ... reading, something's wrong anyway.


Don't mind me. I'm a little down, just seeing that Mary Ann died.

Sandra wrote: "Waiting with bated breath.... Thanks, Ken, for being a wonderful organizer and moderator!"

The Merchant of Venice!

And thanks, but it's only three times a year, and I have two co-moderators who I can rely on if we ever want to each "own" a month to host. ;-)




Darrin wrote: "I admit to a little excitement."

It is kind of fun.