Desertorum´s Chunksters and Doubles Challenge 2016

[Desertorum]

I actually didn´t read any Shakespeare in school. Or at least I don´t remember it. Maybe some parts and translated in finnish...but not the whole book and not in english. Now I wanted to have some kind of authentic experience :D Maybe I should have gone with the finnish translation!
I still have King Lear for this year...

I read last year Romeo and Juliet and it was easier. I believe it was more like story version than a play. I´m not sure was it written like that at first or was it some kind of modified version?

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Maybe I'll start with" Romeo and Juliet" for my Shakespeare option since I think I know the story rather than one of his plays that don't know.

Perhaps on your reading of "Romeo and Juliet" you knew something of the plot, which helped?

[Desertorum]

Yes definitely helped but it was also written differently. Maybe the english was a bit moderned (?) modernized (?) :D It was almost a year ago so I don´t remember that well, just that the language was easier.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Maybe you are right that you read a modernized version.

I didn't realize that there were modernized version of Shakespeare.

[Darren]

I adore Shakespeare but have never been keen on reading text
live performances are best - off to see King Lear next week - can't wait!!
watching decent film versions is good too (like an illustrated audiobook!!)

[Kathleen]

I appreciate these tips! I did that with Much Ado about Nothing. Okay, I know it's light anyway, but I watched the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson movie and then read right through the play and loved it!

[Desertorum]

Finally something for this challenge as well. I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame but I´m sorry to say that I was disappointed. LesMis was so great and this was pretty slow going and...well, not that great.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

I feel the same. HBND was not as good as Les Mis.

I was disappointed.

[Jackie]

I can understand that you were disappointed in HBND, I'm having some trouble to motivate myself to read on (I'm about halfway through...). But I'm glad to hear that LesMis is better.

I've only just looked at your challenge; you've got awesome books there! I also intend to read Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities for my challenge, and more of your list on my TBR shelf.

Hope you can participate in our buddy read of The Woman in White. Aaaand happy reading :)

[Desertorum]

Yes, I'm currently reading Woman in White but I'm only about 25% in!

[Desertorum]

I finished The Woman in White, finally! It took me a lot of time and I must confess (regardless of the all great reviews it has got) I was not in love. I think the writing style was nice but the story was in places too slow for me. I was not in love with the many narrator thing and sometimes I had this feeling that the story overlapped and I don´t have patience for that. It was a three star read for me.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

I haven't read this book that you just finished, but I have read WCs "The Moonstone" with this group.

Your comments reflect how I felt about that book.

""The Moonstone" wasn't a bad read, but I wasn't left with a desire to read anything else he's written any time soon.

[Desertorum]

Yes exactly! Unfortunately I have the Moonstone also in this challenge and somebody said that it is even slower than the Woman in White :O

[Pink]

I found The Moonstone a slower and slightly less enjoyable read compared to The Woman in White.

[Desertorum]

Pink wrote: "I found The Moonstone a slower and slightly less enjoyable read compared to The Woman in White."

Now I´m not that eager to start it...maybe I read all the other books first :D

[Pink]

Haha, it was still good though!

[Desertorum]

My reading has slowed down really much. After starting in my new job and with my new training plan it´s been really busy. And even if I have had some time, I haven´t got the energy to read.
But now I ended up reading something easy and something that I knew I would like; One, Two, Buckle My Shoe from Agatha Christie.
And since I had this pair of books from Agatha Christie in this challenge. Other written as the alias of Mary Westmacott which was more like drama and now this Hercule Poirot mystery. I must say that I liked more the latter. But the Westmacott book was not bad either. I can see why she wanted to write them under different names, so you would read them "differently".

[Veronique]

Very interesting Desertorum. I often go to Christie too and I've been meaning to try her Westmacott novels. Just got Absent In The Spring.

Hope the new job 'calms' down for you :0)

[Desertorum]

Looking forward your thoughts on that!

[Desertorum]

I was really looking forward to reading the two major Jane Austen books that I haven´t read and first was Mansfield Park.
And....I was disappointed, this was my least favourite Austen book. I really liked S&S and P&P (but I must say that i have read them years ago so I might have changed a little also), Emma I read last 2014 and it was also good. But last year´s Persuasion was not my favourite (but better than Mansfield Park, maybe because it was shorter).
But to my reasons: (view spoiler)[

- too long, I like story building but with this one it was just soon slow and only last 100 was really some "action"
- Fanny was just too good, very annoying in my taste, it was made this kind of angel character, not human like at all and who would like to marry someone not your equal (not meaning money or status but being able to speak your mind and have some kind of backbone) (I liked May Crawford, she had some balls ;) )
- the tone was kind of preachy all in all
- Edmund´s behaviour about Henry Crawford and Fanny was little strange to me, I thought he would understand Fanny better like in everything else..but I guess his love was mixing him up or something
- I don´t see that even Fanny would have married him, he would have changed like it was stated. I think that is the thing women wants to think, that they can change someone, but usually it does not go that way.

But in the end I´m glad they got each other (Edmund and Fanny) since they did deserve one another.
Not want to seem to harsh so I add that I still like her writing, otherwise I would have not got through this. (hide spoiler)]

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Since I've started hanging out with the "Janites," some of them say that "Mansfield Park" is not popular with casual readers of JAs novels.

[Desertorum]

Andrea (Catsos Person) is a Compulsive eBook Hoarder wrote: "Since I've started hanging out with the "Janites," some of them say that "Mansfield Park" is not popular with casual readers of JAs novels."

Yes, I suspected that a little, since it´s not that much talked about. I think it lacked the playfulness of her other novels. Sometime I need to find time to read S&S and P&P again, so I can see if mind have changed about them.

[Pink]

The first half of Mansfield Park was some of my favourite of Austen's work, but I'd lost a lot of love by the end of it.

[Melanti]

It think that's a pretty fair assessment.

Mansfield Park was on my challenge list too, and I had some of the same quibbles with it as well.

I didn't really buy Fanny's relationship either but I assume that the relationship was beside the point and the real purpose to talk about not marrying just for money.

[Desertorum]

Melanti wrote: "It think that's a pretty fair assessment.

Mansfield Park was on my challenge list too, and I had some of the same quibbles with it as well.

I didn't really buy Fanny's relationship either but I a..."

Yes I think so too, actually after the last chapter (and even before that) I felt that most of the things were in this book to give some kind of lesson and that was little annoying. I think you can learn a lesson without rubbing it in your face ;)

[Melanti]

Austen's moral of the story is a lot more overt in this book than it is in her others that I've read.

[Desertorum]

Finished my other Shakespeare for this challenge; King Lear. I read it in old english (same Penguin books as Macbeth). I must admit that I did some skimming and and had some problems to keep the characters straight. I think this was easier read than Macbeth (language wise) but Romeo and Juliet have been the easiest (maybe the story is more straightforward and more familiar to me?). I didn´t know that most of Shakespeare´s plays are based on some old tales (like this one is based on british King Leir).

[Pink]

Desertorum wrote: "Finished my other Shakespeare for this challenge; King Lear. I read it in old english (same Penguin books as Macbeth). I must admit that I did some skimming and and had some problems t..."

Congrats on finishing another one. I'm about to start Romeo and Juliet, which I think I'll find an easy read, as like you say, it's more straight forward and well known. I've been reading The Shakespeare Book along with each play, to get a bit of background information and check that I've understood everything. I think most of his plays were based on something that came before, only a few such as A Midsummer night's dream were original, though I can't remember the others.

[Melanti]

I hate to break it to you, but Shakespeare is considered Early Modern English, not Old English. It's not completely contemporary usage, but it's a lot closer than, say, Beowulf

Congrats on finishing it though! I read that one for school but don't remember it very well. I really ought to re-read it one of these days.

Pink wrote: "I think most of his plays were based on something that came before, only a few such as A Midsummer night's dream were original, though I can't remember the others. ..."

The Tempest is original. There's only a couple more... Um, Loves Labours Lost, I think? I don't remember the fourth one. But, yeah, nearly everything he wrote was a retelling a previous myth/tale/play or about a historical figure.

[Desertorum]

Thanks Melanti for clearing that. My terms are probably not very accurate, I just tried to tell that it was not modern language, at least today's modern language. But anyway since english is not my mother tongue, it was pretty slow going.

[Melanti]

He's slow going even for native speakers, so that's perfectly normal.

[Desertorum]

I finally finished Tess of the D'Urbervilles even though it was a bit slow going. It was hard to choose between 3 and 4 four stars. But even I did see the mastery in the writing and also constructing the plot (and even writing an important, and not easy, subject) I was not in love. So my sense would have said 4 stars my feelings said 3 and since I usually go with the feeling (when it comes to books) I rated it 3 stars. I think the final third was where I was sucked in the story, so maybe it just took too long. But still a solid read.

[Desertorum]

Well, I must admit that this challenge made me probably avoid these books more than making me read them...I would have got time, I just end up reading everything else, hah!
I don´t think I will read any of these books this year, but there is always next year!

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Desertorum wrote: "Well, I must admit that this challenge made me probably avoid these books more than making me read them...I would have got time, I just end up reading everything else, hah!
I don´t think I will re..."

LOL -- true for me too.

[Desertorum]

Kathy wrote: "Desertorum wrote: "Well, I must admit that this challenge made me probably avoid these books more than making me read them...I would have got time, I just end up reading everything else, hah!
I do..."

So glad I´m not the only one :)

[Melanti]

I always count it as a success if I read about half of my list.

The books I pick in January are rarely the books I want to read in November/December.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Melanti wrote: "I always count it as a success if I read about half of my list.

The books I pick in January are rarely the books I want to read in November/December."

So true. Good luck Desertorum -- if nothing else your list is super fun to read and dream about.

[Desertorum]

Melanti wrote: "I always count it as a success if I read about half of my list.

The books I pick in January are rarely the books I want to read in November/December."

Thanks, that is so very true. I keep changing my mind all the time. But this is the first challenge I could not make. So very annoying but on the other hand, if it keeps me reading something, it hardly matters ;) Maybe I should do it other way around, these are the books I should not read next year...I probably would read them all!

[Amanda]

Haha! That sounds like me. I like doing challenges but if I don't finish it, so be it. I keep going off the beaten track. I've read half of my list but keep getting distracted by other classics and challenges :))))

[Terris]

Melanti wrote: "I always count it as a success if I read about half of my list.

The books I pick in January are rarely the books I want to read in November/December."

I totally agree! I will probably get into heavier classics in January, but by the time I get to November/December I'm not in the mood for those heavy ones! Just a weird state of mind, huh?!

[Pink]

I think that's probably the best way to tackle them. Unfortunately I always end my year with huge books that I've been delaying reading for the past 12 months!