101 List - Progress Check November 1st 2011

Hmmm... how am I doing? Not that great... but I may be on a roll soon (especially as I have a week off soon so will actually have some free time - yippee!!!)

So, I thought I'd start nice and gently with my classic books, oh my God - really!!! Did I really think that was going to be a 'nice, gentle start'?

Here is the list I gave myself:

1.                Wuthering Heights                                     Emily Bronte
2.                Northanger Abbey                                     Jane Austen
3.                The Picture of Dorian Gray                       Oscar Wilde
4.                Crime & Punishment                                  Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5.                The Great Gatsby                                       F Scott Fitzgerald
6.                Jane Eyre                                                   Charlotte Bronte
7.                Great Expectations                                     Charles Dickens
8.                Lady Chatterley's Lover                             DH Lawrence
9.                Tess of the D'Urbervilles                            Thomas Hardy
10.                Far from the Madding Crowd                     Thomas Hardy

Now I don't know about anyone else, but I have never read any of the classics, they didn't come up in the syllabus at my school, and although I read a lot outside of school, it was generally more modern stuff. Unfortunately this means that I had no idea what I was going to be facing...

Being the good girl that I am I decided to start from the top of my list, so Emily Bronte was first up. For someone who loves reading it was quite an experience - the first 2 nights I fell asleep within a few pages as I just couldn't get into it and it involved turning my brain on (a huge bonus for Ben who hates me reading at night as he can't sleep when the light is on - which I think is just weird!!!).

Thankfully, when I was reading on the train on Monday morning I managed to get the hang of it - although trying to understand what Joseph is saying when he goes into his rants is quite beyond me at times. All those random vowels strung together, or just consonants - not sure what was going on for some of those bits at all. 

So now Wuthering Heights is now over (to be fair it was quite good, although not quite the love story that I assumed it would be - I've never seen any screen adaptations so had no real idea other than that it evolved around Heathcliff & Cathy, thanks Kate Bush) and I now Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd is currently the book of choice on my Kindle.

Now this one has been much easier to get into (Gabriel Oak - hello!!!), in fact I have already read 29% of it according to the Kindle (I really must give it a name - I can't keep calling it "the Kindle"  - I sound like such a pretentious muppet!!!    

Off now to eat some of these chocolates that we've got leftover from Halloween, whilst reading some more of the lovely shepherd ;o)

LJx