Reading on a Theme
Clusters? Lists? Series? So many projects…
Mazo de la Roche’s Jalna series sat on my grandmother’s bookshelves for years, the first volume the most worn. As a girl, I would take them off the shelf and replace them in their proper order, but whenever I began to read them, I got lost in the descriptive passages about the family’s journey overseas. Now that I’ve finished reading the Jalna stories, I’ve embarked on another stack of books my grandmother loved. First up, Colleen McCullogh’s The Thorn Birds.
List of My Reading Projects, Past and Present. Whether reading lists or prizelists, recommendations or series: the smallest detail can spark a project.
Until recently, I’ve been much better at beginning series than finishing them. Since 2017, I’ve focused on Jane Smiley’s Hundred Years, Louise Erdrich’s interconnected novels, various manga series, Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots Quair and, most recently, Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Goldfields trilogy.
Having company while reading is sometimes lovely. Whether it’s reading in a group or with a single bookfriend.
Recent Bookchat
About Reading-project pages that I’ve been turning
(For recent bookchat across all categories, visit Home)
Here and Elsewhere Reading in 2022
On the day that I got my visitor’s card at the library here, I borrowed Marie-Louise Gay’s Mustafa (2018): a children’s story (Gay illustrates, writes, and translates) about a boy who searches
“Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving” (1978)
Oh my, so much time has passed since I began to reread Audre Lorde’s essays: those early musings on her birthday, followed by “Notes from a Trip to Russia”, “Poetry Is Not
Slavery: Past and Present #280898 Reasons (3.5 of 4)
Even though I’d originally planned to write four posts about slavery this year (here are the first, second, and third), I’ve found an abundance of reading selections, so I’m sneaking in a
Here and Elsewhere: Between Places (1 of 4)
It’s ironic, that while so many are longing to safely travel these days, others are longing to stay put and continue to safely reside in their homelands. On the page, throughout last
Slavery: Past and Present #280898 Reasons (1 of 4)
In the past few weeks, I’ve read a few books for this reading project; at this rate, I will easily read the 32 books I’m aiming for (representing the percentage of people in
Return Trips: Here and Elsewhere
Over the year, my #HereandElsewhere project took me to the following places in my reading: Copenhagen, London, Havana, Kyoto, Paris, San Francisco, Marrakech, Mexico City, Rome, Shanghai, Amsterdam and New York City. But even while an ordinary desk-top calendar
Margaret Atwood Reading Month: Launch, Week One #MARM
This year, for Margaret Atwood Reading Month #MARM, we’re playing BINGO. (If you’re printing your playing card, don’t forget to select “Shrink to Fit” in your printer’s options, so your card will
Here and Elsewhere: Kyoto #HereandElsewhere
Welcome to the fourth journey inspired by my desk calendar—first described en route to Copenhagen, then London and Havana. Just this random spark, my curiosity, and my library card: everything I
Ten at a time
My Stacks Are Messy and I have Big Ideas
When I was a girl, I had a complete set of Noddy books. I knew that a series could be complete. But at that stage, it was mostly about frustrated desire. Repeated visits to the library did not result in the proper Narnia book being on the shelf. Regular searching at the department store never yielded a Ladybird book in the same series. The Golden Books were numbered but not sequentially (or, not seemingly). My Paddington Bear box set looked to be complete, but the series spilled over onto the shelf alongside.
As an adult, with a wider world just keystrokes away, it seems possible to complete one’s plans now. Beloved titles can be identified and gathered, missing volumes can be sourced. But just as one’s plans might seem more achievable, there are so many more lists and temptations. It’s possible that I am not a completist simply because I am not very good at completion. But it’s also possible that I have decided that a different aim is more desirable. That I have decided to be a Reader-in-Progress instead.
“Here is the great difference between reading and writing. Reading is a vocation, a skill at which, with practice, you are bound to become more expert. What you accumulate as a writer is mostly uncertainties and anxieties.”
“Thoreau went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately in order to give a true account in his next excursion. I go to libraries because they are the ocean.”