French kissing, yes....lotsa French language in a novel, NO!

I went into reading this chunkster absolutely blind.  Ok, maybe not completely, I did read a little bit of the intro but I never looked at chapter 1. I got to about page 50 of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace last night, and the one semester of French I took in college, oh so many moons ago, is not helping. <insert a giggle and a snort> It's also not helping that all of the French is footnoted and I am reading the book on the Nook. This book is not e-Reader friendly at all. There are footnotes every few lines in the first 20 or so pages -don't remember exactly-so it's not like I can easily flip to the back of the book to look them up. 

Sigh. What to do? 

I was considering purchasing the same volume in hardback, but when I went to look "inside the book" at Amazon, it directed me to the Modern Library version.  Okaaaay.  Actually, I like Modern Library books so I decided to read a little bit of it and guess what, no French! Yay! I can understand the translators wanting to keep the French intact but it really was a hindrance to me, so I think I will have to spring for this translation, otherwise I might never get through it. 

Happy New Year!

Well it's a new year.  I haven't made any resolutions except to read more.  Off to fire up the Nook and start reading the books for my readalongs.  For details click on them at the left.  Let's hope War and Peace doesn't scare me off. Eeep! Now that the readalong is finally here I am feeling a bit intimidated. I actually searched for some guides for it but then decided that they might be an option if I get really stuck.  Wish me luck!

it's all about me.

I've entered info in the About Me section, if anyone cares.

You know you wanna clicky!

reading goals for 2011

I look forward to the reading challenges that I've signed up for, however as much as I would love to join a bazillion of them I don't have the time and there's plenty of books that I want to read, especially from my massive TBR pile.  I think I will have to share pictures of my bookshelves at some point.

A few areas that I want to focus on next year are, in no particular order:

Creating a list of classics that I really want to sink my teeth into.  Somewhere between 10-20 books so I don't completely overwhelm myself.  I've never read Jane Eyre nor anything by Jane Austen (don't shoot!) and I would like to finally rectify that. 

The Wheel of Time series in it's entirety as well as Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books. If at all possible I would love to tackle the Pern novels as well as the Shannara series.  I might have read a book here or there but it's been so long, a restart is certainly in order.  Will have to see!

I'm a big fan of Charles de Lint but haven't read his books in a while. I would like to read his Newford books in order and I definitely would love to re-read Moonheart.  I have always wanted a set of Weirdin!

There are certainly other things I would like to read.  It's my goal to become more aware of politics and current events and I've been wanting to subscribe to magazines dealing with these things but may have to settle for websites since they are free and I might want to put money toward other things.  I also want to explore history in more depth though I am not sure what era I would like to focus my energies on.

Well that is it thus far.  Winter break begins next week and I plan on fleshing out my goals then.

Get Steampunked! reading challenge

http://bareadingchallenges.blogspot.com/p/get-steampunked.html

Going for the "Geared" challenge level (5 books) since I will be participating in other challenges next year.

1. The Anubis Gates Tim Powers
2. Boneshaker Cherie Priest
3. Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) Gail Carriger
4. Perdido Street Station China Mieville
5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Moore

I do enjoy steampunk but haven't read enough of it.  May add to the list as I go along :)

A challenge that is right up my alley.

As a fan of things Irish and Ireland, I will be participating in this challenge. Shooting for the Kiss the Blarney Stone level. 

For challenge info click here!

and so it begins

I've been reading a number of book blogs over the last year (see side bar for some of my favorites) and it got me thinking about keeping one of my own.  However, since I tend to put things off because "if it's not going to be well thought out and perfect, it will just be a piece of crap", I've waited until now to jump in. 

If I have one New Year's resolution for 2011 it is to just simply do and be and not think too much about perfection.  Just get my thoughts out there, come what may. That being said, I've just signed up for my very first read-along.  War and Peace.  Yikes a pretty bold choice for a first time read-alonger.  I think I am up to the challenge and  the gal hosting it is faboo.  Check out the challenge and her blog.  I find her quest to read 250 classics inspiring.  :)

War and Peace read-along...come commiserate with us ;)