Beowulf on the Beach Reading Challenge and Giveaway!

[Carla]

I think I'll try Great Expectations

[Stephanie]

Amy wrote: "Hmmm...maybe Hamlet...or Bleak House...or To The Lighthouse...all on my shelves already. Choices, choices."

I read To the Lighthouse back in college as an English major. Hated it. Probably am not supposed to admit that, but I just COULD NOT get into that book.

Hamlet, however, is FANTASTIC! My favorite Shakespeare play...and I had to read a lot of them. When you finish reading it, watch Kenneth Branagh's version (word for word, so be prepared for a long sitting!) and relish in Kate Winslet's performance as Ophelia. She is incredible.

[[deleted user]]

What's the protocol on getting an actual discussion started?
Do we post a general comment about a book, respond to JM's points from his book, write something provocative... Do we just jump right in, or will Ann, Michael, and/or Jack moderate/guide discussions or, post Conversation Starters? Do we confine our posts to one forum, or cross-post across all three (blog, FB, Goodreads?)

[Laura]

I plan to reread Jane Eyre (it's been years) and read The Odyssey. I started the year by reading the Iliad, and The Aeneid is on my list for later.

[Gena]

Swann's Way! Finally!

[Dottie]

Gena check out The Proust Project group begun by BOTNS's own Suzanne as she tackles reading all of In Search of Lost Time/Remembrance of Things Past.

[Gena]

Dottie wrote: "Gena check out The Proust Project group begun by BOTNS's own Suzanne as she tackles reading all of In Search of Lost Time/Remembrance of Things Past."

Many thanks -- I will definitely do that.

[[deleted user]]

Gena wrote: "Dottie wrote: "Gena check out The Proust Project group begun by BOTNS's own Suzanne as she tackles reading all of In Search of Lost Time/Remembrance of Things Past."

Many thanks -- I will definit..."

Gena wrote: "Swann's Way! Finally!"

Thanks for the shout out! I'm working on volume 2 right now -- the more the merrier!

[Dottie]

Simply encouraging others to become as addicted to Proust as I have become! New people ferret out new and interesting websites to explore and I'm always learning more as a result.

[Becky]

I'm currently reading Middlemarch. But I'd love to get to Anna Karenina or War & Peace.

[[deleted user]]

I'm tentatively choosing the following four books for the BOTB Challenge: Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte), Pere Goriot (by Honore de Blalzac), Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) and, Madame Bovary (by Gustave Flaubert.) They are English and French selections and roughly in the same ballpark era-wise (notice how I neatly sidestepped away from Moby Dick and Bleak House! (Too chunky if I want to dig in and read other novels too.))I may also read Macbeth (by William Shakespeare)as I have the opportunity to see it performed both as a play and as an opera this summer.

[Shannan Lee]

Becky wrote: "I'm currently reading Middlemarch. But I'd love to get to Anna Karenina or War & Peace."

I am reading MiddleMarch too. I am only 11 chapters in. I reading it with a group. So the next milestone is chapter 22 or something like that.

[John]

Your book looks amazing -- I noticed the Nerve connection (your name seemed familiar), so I'm looking forward to reading your take on these titles.

We're in the process of typesetting a number of these books for the iPod/iPhone, so I've been looking over a lot of proofs the last 2 weeks.

Top of my reading list is Don Quixote and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: they were the first two I picked to typeset just because I wanted to read them so much.

[Kristin]

John, sounds like you have an interesting job!

[[deleted user]]

I've had Paradise Lost sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time, so I'll give it a go this summer. It's a nice, small-sized book that'll easily fit in my bag. :D Paradise Lost

[Shannan Lee]

Still enjoying MiddleMarch. I am in book two.

[Stephanie]

Nancy wrote: "I've had Paradise Lost sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time, so I'll give it a go this summer. It's a nice, small-sized book that'll easily fit in my bag. :D Paradise Lost"


I HEART Paradise Lost. I wrote a huge paper on the subordination of Eve back in my days as an English major. It was one of my best papers. Man, do I miss college English courses...

[[deleted user]]

Stephanie, me too! I'll be looking for the theme of subordination as I read... always glad to have a little direction. :D

[Chris K.]

Well, I had to switch from the paper Canterbury Tales to the audio. I just could not drum up any enthusiasm for reading it. The audio version is going much better.

[[deleted user]]

I've started reading "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte Bronte.) I read "Wuthering Heights" (by Emily Bronte) a couple months ago and I'm finding it near impossible not to compare the two novels! Between Joseph (in WH) and Mr. Brocklehurst (in JE) you have to wonder about the Bronte sisters' father!

[Melissa]

I read Paradise Lost in college and Beowulf on the Beach has inspired me to reread it. I am also rereading Titus Andronicus.

[[deleted user]]

I decided to read Paradise Lost on Kindle. I was having a hard time finding time to sit and read, with an 11 month old to chase around. Since I always have my iphone with me (I use the Kindle App), I can read whenever I have a spare moment! I picked the Oxford University edition, with notes by Philip Pullman.

[Judy]

Don Quixote! But I doubt I'll finish it before Christmas.

[Black Heart Magazine]

Man, I have been struggling with Anna Karenina since February. I think I am about halfway through it, but I've been reading it on my iPod Touch, and it's taking forever! Perhaps this challenge will help me to soldier on... after I'm done reading Jim Munroe's Everyone In Silico, which I needed to break up the monotony of 19th century Russia!

[Shannan Lee]

I am still struggling through MiddleMarch but I will read Beowulf on the Beach next month. I hope to get through another one but I don't think I will for awhile after MiddleMarch.

[[deleted user]]

I'm currently in the middle of Pere Goriot (by Honore de Balzac), coincidentally the third book in a row that has been translated from French! The other two novels were Madame Bovary (by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Anna Marx Avelin (?)) and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (by Dai Sijie, translated by ?). I wish my French were better as I sense I'm missing some of the nuances and sublety of French expression :-(

After this novel, I may read something light and modern before I tackle the last book in my challnge queue, Great Expectations (by Charles Dickens.)

[Dottie]

Have been reading You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr which I am enjoying very much - a book about literature and its importance and the importance of being yourself. But the Library called yesterday to say that the last Donald Westlake - Get Real - had come in and I have to admit I stopped and am half way through that. I love the Dortmunder books and since this is the last one ever, I feel like I should be doing something ceremonial while I am reading it.
Dottie M.