Take Two – The Book Thief

To all Mad Libers,

Perhaps a book as long and, well, for lack of a better word, demanding as Anna Karenina was not a good way to try out a blog-based book club.

Who's up for a second take at this?

The Book Thief has been recommended as our next literary tackle. Who's game?

For this book, I'm proposing a more book club style format. What do you say, those of you who are interested, read the book, and be ready to post thoughts, questions, and/or opinions beginning October 1st?

For those of you just joining us here's the name of the game – as you read you might have questions, observations, exclamations, disturbances or various other thoughts and feelings about our books. This is simply a venue for expression and impression. Write what you'd like but be prepared as people may challenge your comments – just like any book club.

If this sounds like something you might enjoy, by all means you're welcome to join us. You can come and go as you please. If you would like to read one book but the next one doesn't appeal to you, no problem, join us as you see fit.

Please invite anyone you think will be interested. If they'd like to participate by actually blogging, please send me their email addresses and I will set up permissions. If they or you would simply like to leave comments, it can done without any assistance.

Happy reading!

Parts One - Three: Random Thoughts

I love the opening paragraph of the novel: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Perhaps happy families are different, and we just don't care about them because -- no matter how different they are -- they are boring.

Certainly, there is no one who is boring in this novel. And so far, I'm not sure I've seen anyone happy either...at least no one seems happy with his/her current state. Maybe that's a better way to put it.

There aren't many likable characters at the beginning of this book. Oblonsky is a "womanizer" who is only remorseful because his wife is so angry with him. But he doesn't see why she might angry...sorry for this next bit, but he seems like such a typical male...sorry!

I like Anna when I first meet her...how can that be? She is just like her brother, and I didn't like him. And yet, Tolstoy seems to paint Anna with a sympathetic brush. She reminds me of so many female characters of this time period -- Edna in The Awakening, Nora in A Doll's House, Emma in Madame Bovary. And she's created by a man, which is even more amazing ...

She seems so locked into a life of misery with that husband of hers. did you notice how many times he's referred to as cold, cool, frigid, distant, aloof? Wow. That must have been a marriage of convenience rather than a love match...

My favorite character so far is probably Levin. And yet he's screwed up, too. He seems so awkward everywhere but on his farm. I wanted to cry when Kitty turned down his confession of love. (But I guess she got hers, didn't she?) And I loved the chapter describing his mowing of the acreage. He seemed so happy when doing that. But then he turned right around and became unhappy about the whole business of farming. Why?

Do you think that a muzhik is like a hired worker? I couldn't find any information in the end notes about them. And if they're hired help, then how does the one find a way to buy a farm and rent land from farmers to create his own farm?

And what's with the Russian aristocracy? I can see why they aren't around any longer. They seemed so "above" the "regular" world...even when they had a hard time making ends meet, they had valets and servants...interesting. I can also see that the whole of Russia was ripe for communism. People didn't know how to achieve equality any other way.

Enough random thoughts. I welcome discussion of any kind. I'm now almost finished with Part Five and have changed my mind (for the umpteenth time) about all of the characters...

As of June 22nd...

Where is everyone in the reading? I've talked to Debbie...and I know Emily is B-E-H-I-N-D. I'm finished with sections 1 and 2 and must say -- now that I'm this far in the novel -- the introduction is really good!!! ;o) I won't say any more ... but I'm intrigued and ready to talk if anyone else is...

Which Translation?

I don't know if anyone has considered this, but with this novel, I think the translation could be important. The version I have is the one Oprah selected for her book club a couple years ago -- also the one pictured on our "home page." Translators are Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. If we all have the same translations, then our page numbers will be the same and the wordies will as well.

What do we think? Is there another translation which may be better?

Mad Libers – Loosely Defined

Okay Mad Libers, here's how this will work.

As you read you might have questions, observations, exclamations, disturbances or various other thoughts and feelings about our books. This is simply a venue for expression and impression. Write what you'd like but be prepared as people may challenge your comments – just like any book club.

We will give a general schedule with each book, you may choose to follow it or you may not. Comments and conversations for most of us will follow the schedule. (Please be considerate of fellow Libers. If you notice you're way ahead of the posted schedule and would be giving away a major part of the book if you posted, please don't publish your post until the schedule catches up with you.)

If this sounds like something you might enjoy, by all means you're welcome to join us. You can come and go as you please. If you would like to read one book but the next one doesn't appeal to you, no problem, join us as you see fit.

Please invite anyone you think will be interested. If they'd like to participate by actually blogging, please send me their email addresses and I will set up permissions. If they'd simply like to leave comments, they can do that without any assistance.

Onward!

"Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

Our first book is the classic Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. While we love our classics, we also understand they might take a little longer to read. We'd like to begin our next book (title and author TBD) around August 15th.

Here's a rough outline with dates for those of you who might need a little guidance.*

Date: June 30th – Sections I-III
I pps. 1-115 31 chapters
II pps. 117-236 35 chapters
III pps. 237-352 32 chapters

Date: July 7th – Section IV
IV pps. 353-435 23 chapters

Date: July 14th – Section V
V pps. 437-549 33 chapters

Date: July 21th – Section VI
VI pps. 551-669 32 chapters

Date: July 28th – Section VII
VII pps. 671-768 31 chapters

Date: August 4th – Section VIII
VIII pps. 769-817 19 chapters

*In NO WAY is this set in stone. We encourage you to read at your own leisure. We hope you are taking part because you want to, not because you have to.

Comments and conversations for most of us will follow the above mentioned schedule.

Thank you for joining us!