I haven’t been blog reading or writing much lately. I just can’t seem to find the time. Last night, while sitting in my website development course, I browsed the most recent entries from the blogs on my feeds page.
Reading blogs about books inevitably leaves me wishing that I had more time to read or planning a trip to the bookstore or both. Last night was no different. Danielle at A Work in Progress posted her list of books for Ex Libris's Russian Reading Challenge. I have only attempted a couple of challenges in the past, and I don’t believe that I successfully completed either of them. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see that for this challenge only four books in a one year are required. I might be a slow reader, but even I read more than four books in a year. So I think that I will participate in this challenge.
Here is my tentative list of Russian reads and some comments:
War and Peace - Do I dare take on such a lengthy book?
Fathers and Sons – I have wanted to read this book for since one of my former AP students did a research paper on it.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – I read Gulag Archipelago as a teenager. I don’t remember much about it except that if was a long book.
Something by Nabokov – probably not Lolita, perhaps Pale Fire – for a while, every where I looked, people were talking about him.
Some Chekhov plays/stories
The Brothers Karamazov - I loved Crime and Punishment and feel like I should read more Dostoevsky.
Something by a female Russian novelist?
Russka by Edward Rutherford – I bought this book at Half-Priced Books a while back. It might be a good review of Russian history.
Surely I can find the time to read at least four of these in 2008. I will be finished with grad school in May and should have lots of free time next summer.
