The much awaited vacation for which I went GA-GA for entire December is over!! Like all good things, this too came to an end and I go back to work tomorrow! (Sob! Sob! Noooooo) Well I sneaked in today as an extended leave and I really should not complain. I mean without a Monday hanging over the vacation, it’s not all that bad to start your work week again from a Tuesday! Anyway, my vacation was very very peaceful – I did exactly what I wanted to do – cooking, catching up with friends, going out for dinners and naturally reading and reading and some more reading! Therefore December turned out to be a brilliant reading month and flowing from that, has set high standards for January.
The reading plan for January is well electric to say the least! I am plodding through my Anthony Trollope’s The Palliser novels; his books are like a fine wine –dry, subtle and to be taken in measured doses. I am simply loving it and prolonging the reading as much as possible!! Also left over from my December reading list is Sarah Water’s “Affinity”. I just started it and I am still deciding about it! I have also gotten hold of “The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. I have heard some brilliant things about this book and I am really looking forward to reading it. Also in the reading plans are my two event reads – Goodread’s Women’s Classic Literature Enthusiasts is hosting the January read along and the book is “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen. This Austen rates kind of lower in my Austenlistoranking (Yes! I made that word up!) But it’s still Austen, so I will participate for the sheer joy of reading Austenion humor! Also as part of Reading England, I kick starting the event with “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro. (I had initially listed a Du Maurier as part of this event, but since Jamaica Inn, I have sworn to stay away from all her works! At least for some time to come!)
Finally in a conscious effort to read more Non Fiction and other writing, I am reading “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms” by Gerard Russell. The book reviews the history and the current problems faced by the lesser known religions of Middle East including Mandaeans, Ezidis and the Copts. I have always been fascinated by this region and my Master’s thesis was on Middle Easters Religion based Politics. This book seemed like a good place to pick up something I left behind. As a companion reader to this or rather Heirs is the companion reader, I have finally dug up the tome written by John Norwich called “The Short History of Byzantium” – this book is anything but short and is extremely well researched and detailed. I will need some months to finish it, but this month seemed like a good place to start the event!
That is my reading plan for January; I am sure there will be additions and deletions on this list, especially after I read reviews of some book or the other posted by my bloggy mentors (I am directly hinting at at you two – Jane and Stefanie! 😉 ). But until then, this is the original premises!
Happy Reading!
Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses & Prejudices... 
I was hoping to get more reading done in December but dental issues and then just feeling under the weather impeded my process. I think I’m starting January well, but really, it’s too soon to tell.
I’ve heard The Light We Cannot See is excellent but it’s a modern book so I approach it with care, circle it, circle it in the reverse direction, eye it suspiciously, and then just sit and wait. 😀 I do hope I find time to read it some time.
Your non-fiction choices sound like fun. Happy January reading!
Hhahhahhahhhheee…Cleo..I Love your approach to modern books! Even I have a similar approach except, I circle it and then sniff it and then if I like the smell, i plunge in! I will let you know how The Light We Cannot See does and then you can either plunge or sit and wait! 😉 I am really looking forward to going back to my academic roots…let’s see how that shapes up!
Great plans! How tricksy of you to take Monday off! I went back to work and had to wait for the bus in -20C weather! Vacation over! Northanger Abbey is fun. It got me to read Mysteries of Udolfo which was fun too since it prompted me to read Burke’s On the Sublime. One book leads to another!
hahahhahhhhaaa…tricksy is the word!! But if it’s any consolation Stefanie, going back on Tuesday was like being back on Monday….everything changes and nothing ever does kind of thing!! -20’C OMG!!! You are brave. I like Northanger Abbey and that’s exactly how I read Udolfo…now I will read Burke’s On The Sublime. One blogger leads another 🙂
I couldn’t find our comments on Wuthering Heights, so I thought I’d put this here. It’s some comments I found about WH, and I thought you might find them amusing:
“I have never been able to abide / endure / tolerate / believe / suspend disbelief for any of Wuthering Heights because it is a load of old cobblers. I cannot believe in any of the characters, except possibly Nelly, because they storm! they shriek! they glower! they are not PEOPLE they are monsters of an imprecise and gushingly hyperbolic imagination that had no idea where the OFF button lived. I can’t be bothered reading about lurid and dramatic happenings. That is the stuff of melodrama, and the trotting out of archetypes to re-enact mythic tropes in which all the characters are symbolic and don’t leave anything for my imagination to work on. I also don’t believe in passionate doomed love affairs that last as long as rocks. Balderdash. ‘Do not leave me in this abyss’: get up and groom a horse, for goodness’ sake! She’s dead, get over it. Self-centred protagonists bore me. I have to believe in the reality of that character, of him (for it is a he we are discussing) being able to walk into a room and out through a door like a normal homo sapiens. Heathcliff is not like that, he is a glower and a rage personified, without any sense of being a man of his time, and so as a character he does nothing for me.”
LOL!
Cleo….ROFL!! Thank You…I absolutely love it…It’s soooooo my feelings about that dammed book and all of it to T. “Balderdash” is THE word!! God!! That is book is enough to put anyone off romance for ever!!