Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics!

Bookish Beck recently created a post all about her stats. I only remember to check my stats sporadically, but her post was all I needed to go there. I was curious to see what posts attracted the most views. The hard part then became working out why one particular post attracted so much love and not another?

• My most popular post of all time is a readalong masterpost for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings that I hosted back in 2017, with a whopping 16200 views. I guess it just shows how popular this series of books (and movies) continues to be?
• Coming in second with 12300 views, is my master post for the 2015 AusReadingMonth.
• Followed by the 2014 AusReadingMonth master post with 6380 views. Why 2015 has garnered so many more views than any other AusReadingMonth post is beyond me. 
• Fourth place finally goes to a book review, with Tim Winton's Eyrie, a review I posted on the 11th Nov 2013. It now has 5690 views.
• I only give you my fifth most viewed post, because it also has the dubious honour of being one of my most heavily spammed posts, Musing of an Idle Reader from 3rd Jan 2019. It was my reflections on Don Quixote featuring my struggles with the poetry of Cervantes!

I was also curious to see how my pages were faring.

• Children's Picture Books is my most popular page with 2530 views. 
• Followed by my Classics Club List #1 with 2110.

Some of the amusing search enquiries that have landed people on my blog include:

• purple dragonfly
• double consciousness and sexuality
• vulgar tales
• in vitro fertilisation book
• Australian flag.

The majority of my viewers come from the US, followed by Australia, and curiously in third and fourth place are Russia and the Ukraine. Although maybe not so curious, since most of my spammers seem to write in Cyrillic. Lately I've been getting some soft porn spam, which is an interesting new development to say the least!

4300 searches also come from that strange, exotic place called Unknown Region!

Most people land on my blog thanks to a google search. But I was pleased to see that pinterest was also high on the list, as I now always add a copy of my review link (with the image of the book) on my pinterest board.

• This will be my 1537th post.
• I have 8697 published comments.
• My all-time number of views is 759615.
• My top posts this month are my latest Stories & Shout Outs 
• a 2018 post about Jane Austen on the screen (kind of understandable given that August has also traditionally been Austen in August.)
• my recent Humankind review 
• and the latest Classics Club Spin.
• Curiously my most visited page this month is the one with all the Nobel Laureates for Literature. People are obviously getting excited about the October announcement date!

I have now reached new heights (or an incredible low!) in review-avoidance strategies. Instead of devoting an hour or so to finish off one of the five drafts lingering behind the scenes, I have spent my time mulling over stats and revisiting old posts.

How have you spent your Sunday evening?

11th Blogaversary

I've done it again!

I've let the 5th July come and go, forgetting yet another blogaversary. 

I may have turned missing my blogaversary into an art form.

Thirteen days ago was the 11th anniversary of my very first blog post. That's,

• 11 years,
• 132 months,
• 573 weeks.
• 4015 days, and
• 96369 hours.

In that time I have written 1524 posts, viewed by over 752183 people (or bots!) leaving 8576 comments. 

My very first blog post was Gone by Michael Grant and reflected that Brona's Books started life as a blog designed with teachers and parents in mind. (This post also featured my very first comment...left by me!! Sad but true!)

The first two years saw me posting in fits and starts. I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like I was writing into a huge unknown void. The book blogging community was oblivious to me and I was oblivious to them. 

I had burnt out from teaching career and was now working in an independent children's bookshop. I was happy enough to read kids lit for work, by my heart was in adult fiction, classics in particular.

It was during my summer holidays in January 2012 that I had a revelation.
I had read several fantastic adult books over the break and I was brimming with things to say about them...and I suddenly realised... I could blog about adult books too!

I began to google and read stuff on how to be more interactive in the blogging world & how to get more comments and interested followers.

The brave new world of memes, blog hops and readalongs suddenly opened up before me!
I discovered The Classics Club and numerous Australian bloggers. I joined events, participated in memes & left hundreds of thoughtful comments in the blogosphere.

In fact, I found myself blogging about so many new and wonderful things, that I felt the need to start a second blog to cater for my photographic & travel writing urges!
In July 2012 Four Seasons was born.

Since then, I have learnt basic html, joined twitter and instagram and started a Brona's Books facebook page.

I've hosted events, like my annual AusReadingMonth, the now defunct Wharton Review and numerous readalongs. I've become an editor for the Australian Women Writers Challenge and a moderator for The Classics Club.

This blogging life is not without it's own challenges though. 

There are the slumps, the writer's blocks and the loss of enthusiasm. There is a busy life, changing priorities and pandemics. There are times when you wonder what on earth you are doing here, what is the purpose of it all and why bother.

In 11 years I have learnt that everyone's blogging journey is personal and just right for them. 

You have to work out what it is you want to do and then it will be right for you too. 

Be prepared to change and evolve. 

Make mistakes, learn from them and try again.

• If you love what you're doing, then you'll find a way to keep on doing it.
• If you want to be a writer, then write.
• Even when you don't want to or when it feels too hard.
• Especially when you don't want to and it feels too hard.
• Write something.
• Write what you would like to read.
• Edit.
• Write some more.

But blogging is not just about writing; it is just as much about the reading.

We write a book blog because we are readers of books. Usually we are readers of lots and lots of books.

Being a book blogger means we are also committing ourselves to reading the blogs of other book bloggers and engaging in a community of fellow bloggers and readers. People just like us, with time constraints, personal issues and good intentions that don't always come to fruition. 

Many years ago I read Daniel Pennac's The Rights of the Reader.

Pennac lists 10 reader's rights that tonight I will subvert for my own purposes.

1. The right not to read (or blog).
2. The right to skip (or skim read another's review).
3. The right not to finish a book (or review).
4. The right to read it again (& not to blog about it at all).
5. The right to read anything (or nothing or eight books at once).
6. The right to mistake a book for real life (or real life for your blog)!
7. The right to read anywhere (or check your latest blog comments from any device).
8. The right to dip in (& browse without leaving comments).
9. The right to read out loud (& curse your device when it eats another comment)!
10. The right to be quiet (or not like a post).

And since this is my 11th anniversary, I need one more.

11. The right to make it all up as you go along and to change your mind whenever you like!

However, the very best part of 11 years of blogging has been all of you.

Yes, you - my dear readers, followers & regular commenters. Especially all of you who persist even when your first comment is eaten by your device!

A big thank you to all of you who have shared readalongs, readathons, photos, spins & other book events with me. 

I feel blessed to have met you all.
You have enriched my reading and blogging life no end.

You make this whole thing worthwhile.

Thank you all for sharing this 11 year journey with me. 

Housekeeping - Blogger

Photo by Mimi Garcia on Unsplash

Behind the scenes, Blogger has been slowly modernising and updating.

The changes have been gadually eked out over the past year.

I first noticed that the stats page was set up differently last year some time.
Then earlier this year, the comments moderation area was updated.
Now the posting template has been modernised.

I seriously hope this means they will also look at making commenting easier for non-Blogger users, and for those who prefer not to use a google browser, especially when trying to comment from a smart phone. A like button for visitors to register their visit/interest would be nice too. 

The commenting options within Blogger currently allows for a pop-up box which is unable to use thread commenting, or in-post commenting system that allows for threaded comments (which I prefer). Both options are prone to spammers, the only solution being to adopt stringent moderation procedures.

Sadly, I've noticed a pattern that whenever I leave a link on an InLinkz linky, I suddenly get inundated with spam comments (which is what has just happened after leaving my link on 20 Books of Summer). Some are anonymous and some come from accounts with 'proper' names. It's frustrating that so many spammers can leave comments on my blog with such ease, but the people I'd really like to hear from, cannot.

The new post tab on my home screen still take me to the old style template for writing up a post, with all the old familiar icons in the places I know where to find them.

To use the new posting template, I have to go to the dashboard area. 

It's a bigger, cleaner looking template, but different icons have been used and everything is placed in different locations. I don't mind it; in fact I think I will come to really like it, once I've used it more. It's just that I have 10 years with the other format.

A few tips and hints:

• To create a new post in the new template is now a + symbol in an orange circle down the bottom right hand side of the screen. 
• The preview icon is a rather scary 1984 eye symbol.
• To clear formatting, use quote format or to use strikethrough, click on the 3 vertical dots on the right hand side of the toolbar.
• A new 'insert video' icon is available. 
• A number of new paragraphing options are available.
• It appears that the old html option has been replaced by 'format as code', but I haven't needed to explore this yet. 
• Labels are found in the right hand column. Type in the ones you want (one at at time) and tick the box. Or scroll down to find the ones you want.
• You still have to check the 'allow comments' box in Options otherwise your page will be published with no commenting button.
• If you need to update a published post BE VERY CAREFUL to hit the UPDATE button and not the REVERT TO DRAFT icon. The icons are VERY similar. It's a mistake you'll only want to make once!

It would have been nice if Blogger had petitioned or surveyed it's users to ask for feedback, but so far the changes are fine. Blogger has felt like the forgotten child for too long, so signs of life behind the scenes are welcome and encouraging - someone in google is actually paying attention and values this platform after all!

Having used both wordpress and blogger, they both have their good points and flaws. Adding images and clearing formatting on wordpress is very hard to do properly. The number of times I've posted wordpress posts with weird line spacing and gaps around images that I cannot remove no matter how much I play with the html code frustrates me no end. I so often post without using any images at all to save me the hassle.

I had been thinking about moving platforms again recently and was almost ready to sacrifice 11 yrs worth of hyperlinks, when the most recent changes in Blogger appeared. So I will stick around for now to see what else gets modernised. I may even be tempted to refresh my heading template and layout.

In the current climate, a change is as good as a holiday right?

Where I'm At Right Now...

You know those phases when writing and blogging don't seem to gel? I've been in one of those funks all year. I'm reading like mad, choosing books I want to read, for pleasure. And if I'm not enjoying it, I stop and move onto something else. But the though of writing about them, makes me want to go 'meh'.

Writing, the thought of it and the doing, is driving me spare. I'm not inspired or feeling creative.

Every now and again, I have a nice little writing run, like when I wrote my recent response to The Death of Noah Glass. I enjoyed writing and researching it and I felt satisfied when done, but it has been quite a while since I've had that feeling.

So in an attempt to tidy up my thoughts and desk, I thought it was time for a list or two.

List #1 - What I'm Reading Right Now

My main read is How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, interspersed with chapters of  Accidental Feminists by Jane Caro. Loving both.


List #2 - Books I'm Struggling With - Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Don Quixote - This is my chapter-a-day readalong book but I'm just not finding it funny or even amusing. It's absurd, ridiculous and convoluted. I had heard that Part 2 was more interesting than Part 1, but so far the first few chapters of it are not inspiring me either.

Sad to say, but Becoming by Michelle Obama has now hit a wall. I loved hearing about her younger years growing up, going to school, family life, meeting Barack, but her work life dilemma's are not so interesting to me. I'm reluctant to pick it up now.

The Dark Interval: Letters for the Grieving Heart by Rainer Maria Rilke

Not as inspiring as I had hoped it would be. Too intellectual, not enough heart.

List #3 - New to the Pile

Writing the Country - Griffith Review 63
Memories of the Future by Siri Hustvedt
The Complete Stories by Anita Desai
This is not a Border - Reportage & Reflection from the Palestine Festival of Literature
Curiosities and Splendour - An Anthology of Classic Travel Literature (Lonely Planet)

List #4 - Books I've Finished But Haven't Reviewed

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.
I loved this quirky Japanese story and will try to respond more fully here, since it's my book club book for April, but for now all I want to say is how much I enjoyed it.

The Skylarks' War by Hilary McKay.
Fabulous historical fiction for kids and adults. I couldn't put it down last weekend. This will win more awards I'm sure.

The Novel of the Century by David Bellos.
A fascinating insight into all things Les Miserables - glad I saved it for the end days of last year's readalong though - lots of spoilers.

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor.

Interesting, somewhat angry discussion on the lingering history and after effects of English colonialism. A book that came about when Tharoor's 2015 Oxford Union speech about "Does Britain owe reparations to its former colonies?" went viral.

Narrow Road to the Interior by Basho.

This is the starting paragraph that has been sitting in draft since May last year:

Oku no Hosomichi is the title of Matsuo Basho's classic travel journal (奥の細道, originally おくのほそ道). In translation it can be either Narrow Road to the Interior or The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It's a genre called haibun, a Japanese literary form blending memoir, prose and haiku. According to wikipedia, Richard Flanagan's Man Booker prize winning book took it's title from Basho's work. 

I read this whilst travelling by train in Japan last year, in the northern region that Basho walked through. I've had all sorts of plans since then, about writing a post that used my photos and Basho's haiku, but it's time to release myself from this commitment.

Phew!

That feels better.

A load off my conscious...and my work desk.

Now back to the books :-)

Stories & Shout Outs #18

It has been a while since I sat down to write a housekeeping post, and certainly this is the first time this year that I've considered my reading plans for 2019. Up until now I've had a lovely time, free-reading as the time and mood takes me. Which is actually how I read most of the time, but I do also enjoy reading along with others and keeping up with some of the book award nominations.

I have a number of reading events fast approaching, so I decided it would helpful to have them all listed in one place. So bear with me, as this IS that post!

Paula @Book Jotter is hosting Dewithon throughout March, which is where we spend the entire month soaking up all things Welsh. Paula is hosting a readalong of The Autobiography of a Super-tramp by W.H. Davies, however I'm going to use this event to help me read 2 Welsh books on my TBR pile. My choices are How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin, The Mabinogion and Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas.

April is Fanda's Zoladdiction, when I plan to read the next book in the Rougon-Macquart series - Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris).

In May I have my next IMreadalong book with Liz, The Sea, The Sea. Followed by the final Murdoch on my TBR pile, The Book and the Brotherhood, in September.

July, of course, is Paris in July with Tamara, when I hope to read another Maigret and maybe a George Sand novel. November will be the time to catch up on my non-fiction reading with Katie, Sarah, Kim, Julie and Rennie.

I'm saving Oct/Nov/Dec for my foray into Shakespearean territory with Rachel & Erica's Year of Shakespeare. My plan is to read the tragi-comedy, The Tempest, then tackle Margaret Atwood's modern adaptation, The Hag-Seed.

Somewhere in there, I promised/planned to host a Moby Dick readalong. It now looks like August will be the best time to get this kick started. The plan will be to read a chapter of the book, then listen to that chapter on the Moby Dick Big Read before moving onto the next chapter. Although I do not plan to read it a chapter-a-day, I would give myself a healthy time frame (at least 2 months) to complete this leviathan task. Who's in?

Recently a blogger friend was surprised to discover that I had other blogs on the go. So I thought I would remind everyone about my other blogs.

I have a travel blog, Exploring the World that came about after our trip to Cuba two years ago. Mr Books and I both wrote a few posts about our time there...and we had lots of grand ideas about future travel and posts. But time, changing jobs and family life got in the way (for now) and it has evolved (for now) into a travel photography blog. Every Thursday we host a #ThursdayTravels photographic meme.

The rules are simple:

• Pick just ONE photo that shows something unique, unusual or quintessential about your travels.
• You can label it, write a story or do a travelogue piece about your photo if you so desire.
• These photos are about the place, the environment (man-made or natural), panoramas, macros – whatever captures your eye.
• All photos must be your own.
• NO selfies or family pics please.

I also have a blog that features my excursions to art galleries, museums and other cultural events. Mixed in with the photos are recipes (so I can join in sporadically with Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking) and my journey with a healthy lifestyle. The blog is called Four Seasons.

Earlier in the year, I also felt the need to start a new blog. A more personal journal that explores philosophical, ethical and lifestyle choices. I've called it (This) Authentic Life and have no idea how I'm going to find time to do it justice, but it felt like something I had to do.

Can you match me or join in with my crazy reading and blogging plans this year?

Another Year Over...

almost...and a new one just about to begin!

So it's high time I sat down to write my 2018 summary post.

2018 was an odd year for me, full of personal challenges. I juggled, I compromised, I got on with it, I fell apart, I tried again, I reassessed, I held on tight, I let go. Through it all I lived, and loved and learnt.

I'm sure we all have years where things don't necessarily go to plan. Those years where we spend most of our time coping with the fallout from change, death and stress. It's one of the reasons why I love celebrating NYE. The new year promises a psychological reset, a do-over. It's a chance to reflect on the old year, then start again.

I've lived through enough NY's now to know that resolutions are very rarely kept and that changes almost never happen miraculously. But I still find it a time of hope. A chance to look forward.

But before I can do that, I need to review my year in books!

Today I'm in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, sweltering away thanks to a breathless 30℃ day. The promise of a storm is on the horizon and I'm counting down to a quiet NYE beer on the balcony with Mr Books.

According to Goodreads I have read 107 books this year. I gave 6 books a 5-star rating, 2 books a 2-star rating with everything else falling in between (except for the 20-odd books that I haven't finalised reviews for!)

My favourite and most memorable books for the year were Normal People by Sally Rooney, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry and Shokoofeh Azar's The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree.

Azar's book also won my favourite cover of the year award!

My best feel-good, spark-joy book for 2018 goes to both A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Angela Thirkell's Northbridge Rectory.

I reviewed 85 books on my blog - 49 by female authors and 36 by men. Twenty-four of these books were written by Australian authors and twelve were books in translation. I read eighteen non-fiction titles. I lost count back in February of the number of picture books I read for work!

My longest book, at 1232 pages, was Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

After 365 days, I have come to the end of my Les Miserables chapter-a-day readalong with Nick @One Catholic Life. It was an adventure as well as an exercise in patience and perseverance. A full review will be penned sometime in the NY.

Hopefully I will also finish David Bellos' The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Miserables tonight as well. If I can achieve this I will have completed my Goodreads challenge of 110 books - although I also need to work out how to add multiple editions of books as being 'read'. I not only read the Norman Denny translation of Les Mis, I also referred to the Rose and Donoghue editions throughout the year. But right now I cannot make this happen on Goodreads. I have to assume that it's a weird time zone glitch. In Goodreads land it is still the 30th December, yet I marked my Denny edition as 'read' on the 31st Dec (which is what the date is here right now). My review notes exist in my time but not yet in Goodreads. I'm hoping that after 7pm (my time) I will be able to add the two other editions of Les Mis to my 'read' stats.

As a newbie to Les Mis, much of it was a fresh surprise. But I was amazed at how many ideas and half-truths I had formed about the story from simply being a member of the human race that interacts online, reads voraciously and loves a good meme/gif.

So I don't think I will spoil it for anyone else by jumping straight to the end.

I'm sure I will have a lot more to say about the tragedy and majesty of Jean Valjean's life in posts to come, but for now, I hope that when my time comes, that I can share Jean Valjean's simple epitaph - she lived. She loved.

It happened of itself, in the calm way

That in the evening night-time follows day.

But that is not the end after all!

Because tomorrow is a brand new year and Nick is kicking off a brand new chapter-a-day readalong. We voted and decided that we couldn't manage another 365 chapter book in 2019 (my War and Peace reread will have to wait for another year!) so instead we will be reading four books that add up to 365 chapters (bravo Nick for doing the maths!) 

The 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-along looks a little like this:

• Don Quixote: January 1 to May 8 (126 chapters plus 2 prologues = 128 days)
• The Count of Monte Cristo: May 9 to September 2 (117 chapters = 117 days)
• Lilith: September 3 to October 19 (47 chapters = 47 days)
• The Old Curiosity Shop: October 20 to December 31 (73 chapters = 73 days)

I currently have Don Quixote and The Count of Monte Cristo on my TBR pile, so I will definitely join in for the first two books. The final two will depend on how my year is travelling and whether or not I have acquired a copy of the books in the meantime.

I'm rather nervous about Don Quixote as I have heard many mixed reports about it, but I hope that reading it with Nick & co will keep me going during any tough patches.

An hour after starting this post, Mr Books has finished water-blasting our sandstone pavers, the storm is still threatening to arrive and it is now beer o'clock on New Year's Eve in Australia.

Happy New Year one and all and let's do it all again in 2019!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a peaceful, joyous holiday season, however or wherever you celebrate this time. 

Thank you for all your visits, comments and fellowship throughout the year.

It has not been an easy year for me & my time in blogger land has helped me get through some trying days. Blogging & reading keep me sane even when they add to my to-do list! 

I look forward to your company in 2019, but until then,

Merry Christmas from beautiful, sunny Australia! 

C. J. Dennis ‘A Bush Christmas’

The sun burns hotly thro' the gums, 

The chirping of the locusts comes 

 Across the paddocks, parched and grey. 

 "Whew!" wheezes Father. "What a day!" 

 And sheds his vest. 

For coats no man had need. 

Then Rogan shoves his plate aside 

And sighs, as sated men have sighed, 

 At many boards in many climes 

 On many other Christmas times. 

 "By gum!" he says, "That was a slap-up feed!" 

2019 here we come - ready or not!

I mean really!
Where did 2018 go?

In some ways this has been a hard slog of a year. Personal challenges abounded, lots of change and compromise at every turn and a very hectic schedule. I'm pretty tired and run-down right now.

The thing that keeps me going though, through good times and bad, are my good friends, books. When all else fails, there's a book waiting to be discovered or an old friend waiting to be reread.

I'm starting to see posts about reading challenges for next year as well as the 2018 in review posts, but it was Fanda's recent post that got me motivated to write something myself. Next year, Fanda is embarking on a no plan reading year. I heartily support this!

I've been a no challenge blog for two years now and feel so much freer for it. As much as I loved the community chatter and discussion that surrounds the making of new year reading plans, I never, ever followed through all the way to the end of the year.

In the end they became another thing I HAD to do. They began to feel like a chore.

But I do love this book blogging community and I do love a readalong. And that is where my focus no lies. Because I have no reading challenges to get through by the end of the year I can join in or even create random readalongs at short notice. Just for fun!

Readalongs:

Fanda reminded me that I had proposed a Moby Dick readalong for 2019 and that is still in the works. It will probably be February before I get it up and running, but I would like to combine reading a chapter of the book with listening to a chapter of the Moby Dick Big Read podcast. At the moment my brain is only coming up with rude hashtags for the readalong, so I welcome your thoughts!

I still have two more Iris Murdoch books ready to go for Lizzy's #IMreadalong in 2019 (The Sea, The Sea and The Book and the Brotherhood) and I always look forward to Fanda's Zoladdiction in April.
Reading an Austen in August is now a lovely habit and something to look forward to rather than a challenge and I will always read three or four classics a year thanks to the Classics Club Spin.

The closest I will come to a reading challenge is this lovely Agatha Christie one that I spotted recently, hosted by Robin @Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. I have caught up on all my cosy crime series, so some Agatha Christie's will be my stop gap measure until Jacqueline Winspear and Sulari Gentill write their next books.

There may or may not be some kind of combined Classics Club and Rachel @Hibernator's Library Shakespeare readalong to look forward to in 2019 as well.

TBR:

My TBR pile is a constant, threatening to topple over and smother me in my sleep at any time! I don't/can't/won't keep track of how many of them I'm reading each month or over the year, but I love any prompt that helps me to read another one.

Readathons:

Well, yes. 

I love the Dewey 24 hr Readathon - I will attempt as many as they dare to host! The next one is due for 6th April 2019.

Special Events:

Thanks to my on-going editor's position at the Australian Women Writers Challenge (as well as my job in an Indie bookshop), I will always be lookin for a chance to read more Australian authors. If you're keen to read more Aussie books yourself, feel free to browse our database or join in the yearly challenge to be posted soon.

Paris in July and Non-Fiction November are the other two big book blogging events I look forward to every year as well. They do nothing to help my expanding TBR pile, but they're such a lovely social gathering I cannot resist.

I will also join in Shelia's annual First Book of the Year meme.

Currently Reading:

I'm in the middle of both the Michelle Obama memoir, Becoming and Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales. I'm loving both for their positive attitudes and hopefulness.

My summer holiday reading stack includes Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (my next book club book) and my CC Spin book, John Matteson's bio on Louisa May Alcott and her father, Bronson, Eden's Outcasts. My stand by book is Bridge of Clay by Marcus Zusak and the little light relief option is A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon.

Finally, a blogging curiosity.

Last week, the Google doodle was in honour of Nobel prize winning poet, Nelly Sachs. Two years ago I wrote a post about Nelly, including some of her poems in translation.

Last week my stats went wild.
My Nelly Sachs post suddenly appeared in my 'popular post' sidebar at #3 with a whopping 1298 views in just 24 hours. So thank you to Google and German/Finnish artist, Daniel Stolle for highlighting a little known, mostly forgotten award winning female poet.

Good luck with your 2019 reading plans, whichever way they work for you and please let me know below if you'd be interested in joining in a Moby Dick readalong early next year.

Stories & Shout Outs #16

I had forgotten all about my semi-regular Stories & Shout-Out meme, until a recent bout of blog-itis had me scrabbling for blog post ideas. The lovely, supportive NancyElin reminded me of this meme and a time when I used to have lazy, quiet Sunday evenings in which to write.

My Sunday evenings may no longer be quiet or conducive to writing and reflecting, but I'll give it a shot!

As many of you know, I enjoy checking out the longlists and shortlist of many literary awards. I know I will never read ALL these books, but I do like to see what is being rated by others, all around the world, as great contemporary literature.

One of the longlists I genuinely look forward to every year is the Canadian Giller Prize, partly for the pleasure of seeing some of my favourite bloggers reading and reviewing it as part of the Giller Prize Shadow jury.
I'm particularly keen to get my hands on a copy of Vi as I loved Thuy's previous two novels.

As for this year's Booker Prize...to say I'm feeling meh about it is an understatement.
I have The Overstory on my TBR pile, but I don't feel very inspired at all.

However, I have been inspired by Adam @Roof Beam Reader and his Sunday Salon.
With my life the way it is at the moment, I often don't actually read it until Thursday, but I really like his views on the world and his ability to source interesting articles across a broad spectrum of topics.

Mr Books & I started a travel blog a couple of years ago on the strength of our trip to Cuba.
We'd had lots of interest and questions about how best to travel around Cuba, so thought that we could document what we had learnt.
Like most of the stuff we dream up, it was a really great idea!
But finding the time to turn it into something we could be really proud of has been a struggle.
Life has thrown so much stuff at us in the past two years, I wonder how we're both still standing sometimes.
Part of our resilience though, comes from our many wonderful, happy travel memories.
Given that longer form travel posts are not in the foreseeable future, we decided to start a photography meme (called Thursday Travels) that could keep the site active as well as remind us of many of the amazing places we've experienced.
We hope you can drop by, share a pic of your own and spread the word to other bloggers who like to travel and take photos of the world around them.
#ThursdayTravels

Currently Reading:

Les Miserables - chapter a day
I'm back on track with this, just in time for Hugo to wax lyrical about young love - ugh!!

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
I loved Pure (in a love/hate kind of way) but I'm loving this one in a less complicated fashion.
It's fabulous historical fiction, not done justice by the cover or the title.

The cover is actually quite lovely up close, but it doesn't jump out, visually, on a bookshelf with lots of other bright, new releases. I'm 3/4 of the way through and have so far failed to see why this cover was chosen or why the title is relevant.

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
A mystery with a Diary of a Provincial Lady twist?

As a write this, I realise that I am seeing some connections between these two books:

• families with unusual ideas about life and love.
• the sea.
• a mystery that follows us (and the main character/s) all the way through the story.
• post traumatic war disorder.

Coming Up:

FrankenFest with Marg @Books in Bloom to combine with The Classics Club's Goth Month.

I'm contemplating joining in or instigating some kind of Moby Dick readalong next year.

August 2019 will be 200 yrs since the birth of Herman Melville

The book has 135 chapters plus epilogue.

There is also the Moby Dick Big Read podcast.
I wanted to somehow combine the two as I've heard this classic can be a difficult one to get through on one's own.

My Weekend:

One of the things keeping me busy at the moment is my garden in the mountains.

It's mostly an Australian native garden, created by the original owner.
I've spent the past few years, tidying it up and making it my own as time and weather permits.
This weekend I thoroughly weeded, pruned and replanted one small section of it.
Finishing it off with some lovely, new, sweet-smelling chipped mulch.

I'm not thinking about how many more weekends I will need to do the entire garden!

#JustSaying

There are times in life when everything feels like it's getting away from you. 

I'm in the middle of one of those times right now. 

(At least, I hope it's the middle and not just the start of something bigger!)

My head space is full of routine stuff, life stuff, work stuff, planning stuff, organising stuff and I'm finding it hard to find time for creative stuff, reflection and personal growth.

Every time I think about my blog, I experience stress. 

Reviews are piling up - I'm simply not in the right space to write them. 

But I want to write something. 

I need to write.

Could my inner creative side be in revolt? 

No more reviews; it's time to write something else? 

Except a huge part of me wants (CRAVES) this place that helps me keep track of my reading life. 

I like having this 8 year old record of my book journey. 

I'm reading much more mindfully than I ever have before and I'm loving it. 

But I'm making more time for reading, than I am for reviewing. 

What I need is to find a way to make this easier for myself.

I need to let go some of the stuff cluttering up my head space.

And I want to write something, anything; even if it's just another list!

Books Read But Not (Yet) Reviewed

Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho

My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan

The Annotated Persuasion by Jane Austen & David M, Shapard

Just Flesh and Blood by Jane Caro

Books I'm Halfway Through

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham (by next book club book)

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo x3  (readalong)

Last Stories by William Trevor

The Best Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings by Jane Austen

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne

Books I've Just Started

The Compete Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch (readalong)

Stalled

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John  Matteson

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor

12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson (perhaps I should uninstall this one!)

Basho The Complete Haiku

Mirror Sydney by Vanessa Berry

Bookish Things I'm Looking Forward To

Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P XIII)

Seasonally speaking, this particular event always feels a little wrong to me. 

In Sydney, spring is desperately trying to make itself known.
The days are lengthening, I'm being woken by bird song every morning and the bulbs & blossoms are suddenly popping open.
There's a sense of waking up, emerging, and a sense of all things fresh and new.

Reading gloomy, dark, spooky stories feels like a good wintry thing to do; not a good sunny days, bursting with the joy of new life thing.

I'm sure we will have another bout of cold weather before true spring arrives; another grey, gloomy weekend when reading a gothic thriller will be just what the doctor ordered AND if that happens, then I will gladly, willing tackle Peril the Third and read one book for this 2 month challenge. 

#Victober

I discovered this on Goodreads and thought it might be a nice way to read another book from my CC List #2. The Victorian era goes from 1837-1901. I have 3 possibilities. 

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)     (this could also help me with R.I.P. XIII)

Little Doritt by Charles Dickens (1855 - 57)

Basil by Wilkie Collins (1852)

The 1944 Club

I've never been organised enough to join in this challenge before, but I have 2 books on my TBR pile first published in 1944.

The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell

The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves

FrankenFest

A chance to read Frankenstein in October (another R.I.P. XIII possibility)?

A copy has just made it's way onto my TBR pile, so maybe....

Tags

I was recently tagged on Twitter to name 3 books that made me stay up reading long into the night (thanks Kate).

Last night I read until 1:30am because I finally got to the exciting part in The Secrets She Keeps.

Last week it was The Annotated Persuasion.

But then I would have to think long and hard to remember a third....

On Instagram Fanda challenged me with this list:

Favourite Fantasy:
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy

Favourite Sci-fi:
anything by John Wyndham

Favourite Contemporary:
Liane Moriarty

Favourite Romance:
The Ladies of Missalonghi

Favourite book from 10 years ago:
is this favourite book that I READ in 2008 or favourite book first PUBLISHED in 2008?
2008 is pre-blogging days and I simply cannot remember everything I read back then.
I remember rereading Jane Eyre for my book club and I started Max Gallo's Napoleon series.
I also read Geraldine Brooks People of the Book (I went to a local book event and got a signed copy).
Published in 2008 but read and loved later, were The Hunger Games and Olive Kitteridge.

Favourite book from the last 100 days:
Too hard to pick just one, so here's five favourites.
Taboo
Lenny's Book of Everything
Northbridge Rectory
Sugar Money
Pachinko

The thought of hunting down these books to take a pic of them was too much to bear!

Feel free to consider yourself tagged.

Phew!
That's not in my brain any more.

Maybe there will be some space for creativity, reflection and personal growth today?

#justsaying

One of those days....

I'm having one of those days, when I WANT to write, but have done everything possible to make it NOT happen.

I started two posts (another JA on the screen post & another CBCA post) early this morning but neither were working so I cleaned the kitchen instead - top to bottom - the silver is gleaming, the splashbacks are sparkling and all that crappy stuff (a broken magnet from the fridge, dead batteries, dust gathering mini-candle holders (used once) & some kind of screw/hook thingy) that were cluttering up the edges - GONE! With bonus points for emptying the food & rubbish bins as well.

Which made me realise I needed to do a grocery shop that included a tour down the cleaning aisle, via a stop at my favourite cafe on the way. A load of washing, a few chapters of my book over lunch, followed by cleaning out the kettle and sorting out the wine & shoe cupboard (a new delivery (of wine not shoes) arrived yesterday).

I sat down to write again, but got distracted by emails and online banking before deciding to clean up the apps on my phone. The whole time, with one ear tuned to the radio to hear if anything else was happening with the leadership challenge (groan) happening in Canberra.

Enough was enough, so I swept the front porch and watered the garden and pot plants.

And guess what?

I still WANT to write, but what to write?

Isn't it awful to have the desire, but not the creative flow.
To be willing and able, but not inspired.

What to do?

Publish this.
Shut down the keyboard once again.
Hit the pavement.
Get some fresh air.
Smell the roses (or the new spring blossoms at least).
Get moving.
Try again later.

What do you do when you want to write but the muse goes missing?
#justsaying

CCList #1 Done & Dusted

Life continues it's crazy shenanigans, so much so that I've only just realised that I forgot to celebrate two major blogging milestones.

Two weeks ago was my 9th blogging anniversary!

I shouldn't forget this anniversary every year as it shares the date with B21's birthday. But, somehow, this year, 21 took precedence over 9! I'm still not sure how or why I chose to start my blog the night of his 12th birthday. Except that back then, by 8:30pm he and his younger brother would have been in bed which then gave Mr Books & I several lovely, quiet hours to potter around doing our own thing every evening. These days we're lucky to be done with dinner by 8:30pm!

My second HUGE milestone was finally completing my first Classics Club list.

It was 8 months overdue, with the final book being read and reviewed just before our trip to Japan...which is why I forgot all about it.

That's 65 classics in 5 and half years.
I loved revisiting some favourites, like my Jane Austen's and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the highlights included the 'new' discoveries like Willa Cather, Emile Zola, Vera Brittain, Wallace Stegner, Elizabeth Gaskell and Barbara Pym.

Many of these books were read thanks to a CC Spin, Austen in August, Sync Reading, AusReadingMonth or other readalong. That's why I've always loved The Classics Club, despite it's natural ebbs and flows, it has always been there quietly promoting the reading and enjoyment of classics.

So, what's next?

CC List #2 of course!

Another 65 books in 5 years. I actually started reading books off this list last year, so for about 6 months my two lists overlapped.

I've aimed for a greater degree of diversity in CC List #2. It features a number of biographies about classic authors, a number of annotated Austen's, a smattering of non-fiction classics with a mix of Japanese, Australian and books in translation as well.

To streamline my classics reading, I also separated out my Children's Classics and my Classics REreads. It's nice to have them sitting there waiting for when I need a comfort read.

Also waiting patiently are the TBR classics lurking and multiplying here - forming the basis for CC List #3!

I haven't had much time for reading lately, let alone reviewing or blogging. But my yucky winter cold is finally gone, our new business has now settled into a smooth manageable rhythm and I'm about to embrace a new challenge....but more of that later.

Merry Christmas

To all my wonderful readers, 

thank you for your kind, thoughtful comments over the year.

This blog has evolved into a way for me to keep track of my reading journey.

I'm delighted that I can share the journey with so many like-minded bookish folk.

I hope this holiday finds you with loved ones, in good health.

I'm celebrating Christmas in Mornington, Victoria.

We're missing two of our brightest stars this year, but they would not want us to be glum, so we will make the most of our time together and honour their memories.

We have plans for walking along the beach and lazing by the pool.

A big, extended family lunch will be followed by a quieter slide night at home, with old family photos.

Where are you be spending the Christmas period this year?

Whatever you do today, however you celebrate or spend this time, I hope it finds you with the ones you love or remembering the ones you have loved.

Seasons Greetings from sunny, warm Australia.

So, November...

has turned out nothing like I had planned.

Life's like that sometimes.

But I'm determined to get back on track, refocus my energies and finish a few reviews!

Thank you all for your patience, and a BIG thank you to Nancy for reviewing her little heart out and maintaining her #AusReadingMonth enthusiasm despite my intermittent attention.

Not all of my recent preoccupations have been sad ones though.

I also had the excitement of preparing for my very first photographic exhibition.

Earlier in the year, I was approached by our local library to share my Cuba photos for public display.

They had spotted my holiday photos on Instagram and thought they would make an interesting exhibition.

I had never done anything like that before, so I nervously said yes.

Back in January, when I took my 1000+ Cuba photos, my only intention had been to document our holiday.

However, I’ve always had a fascination with the art of photography. 

When I got my first iPhone in 2011, the first app I downloaded was Instagram. 

I quickly discovered @fatmumslim and her daily photo challenge. 

She inspired my eye and my photo choice.

Her word prompts are usually adjectives or nouns, but occasionally she throws in a photographic technique.

Over the years I discovered the joys of macro photography, the rule of three, playing with light and shadow, depth of field and many more. 

My love of photography is a hobby, not a profession.

Any skills I have gained are from practice, practice, practice.

One of my favourite photographic techniques is leading lines. 

I love angles and diagonals and I knew that Cuban architecture would give me plenty of opportunity to play around with this.

Santiago de Cuba

I’m also attracted to colour.

Another big plus when travelling in Cuba!

Havana

We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived in Cuba. 

It’s certainly the flavour of the month in travel destinations right now. 

We had a strong sense of wanting to see Cuba and experience it, before the rest of the world arrived. From the minute we announced our travel plans, we were inundated with questions and curiosity. 

We had our own expectations and assumptions. 

Cuba met and confounded them all!

Trinidad

My Instagram photos of our time in Cuba have attracted worldwide attention and comment all year. 

People want to know what it’s like there now, after 60 years of socialism. 

They want to know about the old cars, the colourful buildings, the music and the people. 

My photos capture the light and shadow, the vibrancy and decay, the new and the old. 

Each scene stands on its own; an image captured in time. 

Together they tell my story of travelling through Cuba.

You can see more of my Cuba photos on my other (photographic) blog, Four Seasons.

But for now, here is me, looking slightly stunned and bemused on Thursday evening, as everyone gathered around to see my Cuba photos officially launched!

This Blogging Life

I don't normally share personal family stuff on my book blog, but I want to explain my recent absence from this blogging life.

On the weekend, out of the blue, my wonderful, loving father-in-law died. He was a dynamic, fun loving, warm-hearted man. He loved life and everyone in it. We will miss him so much.

Mr Books with his father, an ultra-light pilot at 81.

This week is about family time - being together, supporting and loving each other as we prepare to farewell a man who so thoroughly lived every minute of his life right to the very end.

He flew his plane early on Saturday morning, called us briefly between meetings at his beloved ultralight club, before suffering a massive heart attack later in the day. His fellow pilots performed CPR which allowed all of us who were far away, time to get to Melbourne to see him one last time before he passed away on Sunday afternoon.

He was doing what he loved right to the last. An inspiration to us all.

Which is why I will post my AusReading challenge for this week. He wouldn't want our grief at losing him to stop us from doing what we love to do.

This week will be a nice simple photo challenge. Post a photo (or ten) to show us where in the world you are reading your Australian books. Post on Insta, Litsy, twitter or your blog. Link back to the masterpost here.

I may not be around much this next week, but I look forward to seeing your photos and reading your posts when I come back on board.

My Classic Club Questions

Lately, I've been wracked by doubts about what I actually do here at Brona's Books.
Is it reviewing or journaling?
And what about all the memes I like to join in?
Does it even matter what we call it or what we do as long as we're having fun with books and maybe learning something interesting/amusing/OMG-ish along the way?

With a little bit of reflection, I've come to realise that Brona's Books is all about my personal response to what I read. 

Sometimes I add a little bit of researching & philosophising to round out my reading experience.
I also love making lists and joining in readalongs.
However, the main thing I love is engaging with like-minded bookish folk.

Source unknown

I started blogging 8 years ago very much in teacher mode.
I wanted to inform and help other teachers and parents in finding suitable books for the children in their lives, but I got bored with that format rather quickly.

My early posts make me cringe now.
They're completely and utterly soulless and lacking in any personality.
But I keep them all here, as I view Brona's Books as a journey.

It has evolved, stagnated and changed course several times.

I have experimented, explored and ditched things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

And I keep it all here to remind me of my progress.
The good, the bad and the ugly!

One of the things I have always enjoyed is filling out surveys and compiling lists.
The Classics Club has been marvellous in feeding both these habits over the years.

I have been looking for a way to mark the spectacular non-completion of my hugely ambitious CC five year list & this seemed like the perfect response!

Classics Club Questions

Share a link to your club list. When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club? 

I joined up in August 2012.

This is my overly-ambitious 95 classics in five years list.
I've only read 53 of these titles so far.

The list went up and down in size a few times, until I solved my dilemma of new books and a desire to reread by creating CC Take 2.
I've read 10 of these books to date which makes a grand total of 63 classics in five years.

What are you currently reading?

I'm currently rereading The Return of the King by J R R Tolkien.
Or to be precise, I've finished the trilogy and just have the dreaded Appendix to go.
The observant among you will note that this is NOT one of the classics on CC#1.
This has been part of my problem!

Masterpost

I'm also reading several shortlisted, contemporary novels & non-fiction titles at the same time.
This has also been part of my problem!

Best book you’ve read so far with the club, and why?

I think it might have to be Germinal by Zola. 

The mining scenes which I thought would be boring or too technical, were so realistically written.
I felt so claustrophobic and the mine was almost a character in and of itself.
I was impressed with the richness of detail and the incredible storytelling, and I vowed to read the entire Rougon-Macquart series on the strength of this book alone.

Book you most anticipate (or, anticipated) on your club list?

Indiana by George Sand.

I read one of her books in my pre-blogging days - Mauprat.

I've been trying to source her backlist ever since.

Indiana is the only other book I've ever found still in print.

I'm also a little nervous about reading it as I have such high expectations for it.

Book on your club list you’ve been avoiding, if any? Why?

Ulysses by James Joyce for all the obvious reasons.

First classic you ever read?

My mum encouraged me to spend my 12th birthday money on a classic book (and not just another Trixie Beldon!)

On a trip to Sydney for my sister's annual orthodontic appointment, we scheduled a visit to David Jones' book department, where after much indecision, I purchased the Penguin classic of Jane Eyre.
My love affair with classics began.

Chinese Skirt (1933) Agnes Noyes Goodsir

Toughest classic you ever read?

This is a tough question.
Tough in what way?
Some of the Ancient Greek classics I read for my HSC were tough going because I had never read anything like that before, but I grew to love them.
I struggled to read David Copperfield because it was my first Dickens, but I adored it by the end.
The content of If This is a Man by Primo Levi is some of the toughest around, but I was compelled to read every single word.
However, for pure endurance, perseverance and determination to finish, the honour of toughest read goes to Homer's The Odyssey.

Classic that inspired you? or scared you? made you cry? made you angry?

Inspired? To Kill A Mockingbird
Scared? The Lord of the Rings - my first read was long before the movies.
The fate of Frodo, Sam et al had my heart in my mouth for the entire journey.
Cry? I very rarely cry in books, but Little Women and Anne of Green Gables still make me tear up.
Angry? Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Longest classic you’ve read? Longest classic left on your club list?

War and Peace, but I read this BBB (before Brona's Books).
I have several chunksters left on CC#1, but I think that Don Quixote wins the chunkiest award.

Oldest classic you’ve read? Oldest classic left on your club list?

I think that Homer's The Odyssey gets the nod for this, which means that the oldest one left on my list is The Iliad.

Favourite biography about a classic author you’ve read — or, the biography on a classic author you most want to read, if any?

I'm not sure I have a favourite, although my current read, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne may just change that.

Which classic do you think EVERYONE should read? Why?

It's probably the typical response here, but To Kill A Mockingbird has so much to say about justice, mercy, compassion, empathy and plain old fashioned goodness, that it really is the book everyone should read, even if the only thing they get out of it is the famous Atticus quote about walking in someone else's shoes to understand them.

Favourite edition of a classic you own, if any?

The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield is one of the beautifully designed books in the Virago Modern Classics Designer range.
Pretty isn't it?

Favourite movie adaption of a classic?

Nearly everybody else has said this already I'm sure, but To Kill A Mockingbird is really hard to beat, as a book or as a movie.
Gregory Peck will always and forever be Atticus Finch.

Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility has to come in a pretty close second.

As far as TV movie adaptations go, Northanger Abbey (1986) is one of the best Austen versions around.

Classic which hasn’t been adapted yet (that you know of) which you very much wish would be adapted to film.

The Tragedy of the Korosko by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Although it has quite an Imperialistic tone to the modern reader, it also has a lot to say about fear of the other and the unknown, especially in relation to Islam.
It would be interesting and relevant to explore these themes in the context of our current political climate.

Least favourite classic? Why?

Catch 22
I started off enjoying the joke and appreciating the cleverness, but then it just kept on going on and on and on!
It never seemed to get anywhere, especially to the point!

Name five authors you haven’t read yet whom you cannot wait to read.

Elizabeth Taylor, Frances Burney, Mikhail Bulgakov, Victor Hugo and Samuel Richardson.

Reading B G Gujjarappa

Which title by one of the five you’ve listed above most excites you and why?

Camilla by Burney as it was one of Jane Austen's favourites.

Have you read a classic you disliked on first read that you tried again and respected, appreciated, or even ended up loving?

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen went from being my least favourite Austen to (almost) top of the list with this reread.

Which classic character can’t you get out of your head?

Janey from Their Eyes Were Watching God.
A reread is definitely on the cards.

Which classic character most reminds you of yourself?

I'm a mixture of Anne Elliot and Elinor Dashwood.

Reading in Autumn Mountain Shen Zhou

Which classic character do you most wish you could be like?

Jo March.
I love her spunkiness and her goodness.
She is so enthusiastic and in touch with her creative side.
I envy that.

Which classic character reminds you of your best friend?

There is no character that comes close to my BFF.
She does however have the loyalty of Melanie Hamilton, the tenderness of Diana Barry and the humour of no book character I've ever met!

Whereas the wonderful Mr Books, BMF extraordinaire, is a lovely mix of Mr Knightley and Captain Wentworth. 
Lucky me :-)

If a sudden announcement was made that 500 more pages had been discovered after the original “THE END” on a classic title you read and loved, which title would you most want to keep reading? Or, would you avoid the augmented manuscript in favour of the original? Why?

Pride and Prejudice because everything about this book is so much more than a 'happily ever after' story.
I want to know how Darcy and Elizabeth navigated their married life.
I want those final paragraphs that Jane tempts us with, to be fleshed out into a proper full length story.

Woman Reading Books (Guy Cambier)  

Classic title(s) that didn’t make it to your club list that you wish you’d included?

All the ones that ended up on CC#2!

If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore?

I've started doing this with Virginia Woolf.
 So far, I've only read her first book, The Voyage Out, but the plan is to make my way through her oeuvre in chronological order.
Given her changing style and how difficult so many people find her later books, I'm hoping this approach will make her work more accessible to me as I evolve right along with her.

I'm also planning on reading the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order, one day.

Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving?

Germinal by Emile Zola.

It wasn't so much that I expected to dislike it, I just thought it might be difficult/tedious with a heavy emphasis on the poor, depressing mining stuff.
It had all of that, but it wasn't difficult and it certainly wasn't tedious.

Classic you are DEFINITELY GOING TO MAKE HAPPEN next year?

More Zola definitely.
 I think its also time to tackle War of the Worlds and begin my Sherlock Holmes journey.

Source unknown

Favourite thing about being a member of the Classics Club? 

The community that gets together to say 'hi' and support each other as soon as a CC Spin is announced, or a check-in post goes up or a what are you reading now.

Love the fellowship.

If you’ve ever participated in a readalong on a classic, tell about the experience? If you’ve participated in more than one, what’s the very best experience? the best title you’ve completed? a fond memory? a good friend made?

I joined in the Their Eyes Were Watching God readalong a few years ago.

I had never heard of this book before, but it sounded intriguing, so I found a copy and jumped on board.
It was an amazing reading experience - the book, the chats and all the reviews.

I also participated in a very enjoyable readalong for North and South.
The only problem I experience is the time difference factor for things like twitter chats.
I would love to do more readalongs though.

If you could appeal for a readalong with others for any classic title, which title would you name? Why?

A Don Quixote readalong is probably what I need to get me into this chunkster.
I think The Master and Margarita would also be best explored in a group.

Question you wish was on this questionnaire? (Ask and answer it!)

What is your favourite non-Western classic?

My favourite Indian classic is The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore (discovered thanks to another fabulous readalong event).

My favourite Japanese classic poet is Matsuo Basho.

Thanks for travelling all the way though this rather lengthy Sunday afternoon ramble.

You deserve a medal!

Or a gin and tonic.

Whichever you prefer :-D