Friday, December 19, 2008

The Wuthering Expectations Year in Prospect

I'm not going to plan a year of books. I'm not, I'm not.

Still, I can make some predictions for Wuthering Expectations 2009.

The novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the novels of Herman Melville, almost all new to me. More Dickens, always more Dickens, including, following up on my Carlyle reading, Hard Times. And Elizabeth Gaskell, who I have not read. And more George Eliot.

A single comment by The Little Professor - nay, a single word - inspired a keen desire to read John Galt (who?)*, so I see a Galt roundup in the future.

Lots more mid-century Germans: Heinrich Heine, Eduard Mörike, Jeremias Gotthelf, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, maybe even more Adalbert Stifter.

I can imagine a reader saying "The Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick? More Stifter? So wadda ya got for 2010? A root canal?"

For some variety, I want to spend some time with 19th century Yiddish writers, something like this project of obooki's. Maybe this will be along the lines of what I did for Senegal.

There are some clever book challenges out there in bookblog world, but I don't need any help organizing my reading. I need help disorganzing it.

Next week: Christmas.

* I will never get tired of this joke.

9 comments:

  1. Have fun disorganizing your reading in 2009, AR!

    I'm very interested in reading what you write about Yiddish writers... if you get to them next year!

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  2. Keep up your great work...It's always fun and informative to read your blog! Have a great 2009!!!

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  3. Thanks for the good wishes.

    One thing that will be interesting about the Yiddish writers is their complicated relationship with Russia, and with Russian literature. Some of them are Russian and not-Russian, or Polish and not-Polish.

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  4. I've got Melville on my list for this year too; it will be interesting to compare notes.

    And I'm amassing a little stack of Dickens...

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  5. Oh, question for you and deine Frau. What should my next Dickens be? I just missed the Chimes. Loved A Tale of Two Cities, liked Our Mutual Friend, disliked Great Expectations.

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  6. Dickens recommendations: Bleak House is the current consensus critical favorite, and also my favorite, but long. Hard Times is relevant to current events, and short. But somehow ma femme and I concluded that you should try Nicholas Nickleby next.

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  7. Thanks! I had been leaning towards Bleak House, but if you and deine Frau suggest otherwise, I'll not argue. At the moment I have this pile of books about women and their gardens to read, however, so it will be a while.

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  8. Hah! Love the John Galt joke. It actually made me laugh out loud.

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  9. I like that joke so much that I have sworn to use it just once more.

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