tCC Group Check-In #8 :February: 2014
Stepping Back into the Folds of Time | tCC
To seek out the classics, but also, to soak into their worlds, their settings, and their language. To fully become aware of the essence of why the writers’ left behind these tomes of exploration for next generations to ponder and muse upon their worth. To float through centuries and dance through literary genres whilst engaged in the craft of writing as scribed by those who came before us. – Jorie’s reason for reading the Classics February 2014
I could not get my footing in the Classics during the month of January, as I had high hopes of participating in the Wuthering Heights (#WutheringHeights) readalong via my good friend Maggie’s RAL! The chapters were evenly distributed throughout January, but what I lacked was not interest but time! Time to truly absorb myself into the flow of the story and to settle my mind into the heart of the discussions! I was reading non-stop in January, as I had quite the stacked review schedule going for blog tours, but I missed being able to grab a book at my leisure! I’m thankfully current at the moment, which is where the serendipitous offer by @RiverheadBooks (info on their RAL) to join them in a Wuthering Heights discussion between mid-to-late February & early March felt like a second chance to discuss & read this wicked classic by Emily Brontë! I will be going between the schedule for Riverhead Books & dropping in on the conversations in-progress via Maggie’s blog! Here are the following schedules for both as outlined in my blog’s sidebar:
Wuthering Heights via Maggie’s RAL:
Week 1 (Jan5-11): Chapters I-IX
Week 2 (Jan12-18): Chapters X-XVII
Week 3 (Jan19-25): Chapters XVIII-XXVI
Week 4 (Jan26-Feb1): Chapters XXVII-XXXIV (End)
Wuthering Heights via Riverhead Books RAL:
Chat #1: 21Feb
Part I: Chapters I-X
Chat #2: 28FEB
Part 1: Chapters XI- Part II: Chapter 7
Chat #3: 8MAR
Part 2: Chapters 8-20
Likewise, whilst in engaged in the Wicked Valentine Readathon I decided to pull off a book from my library shelf (borrowed through my local library vs. my personal library!) which falls under my Back to the Classics reading list! I am referring to The Ladies Paradise by Emile Zola! I consider my efforts for both tCC & Back to the Classics to be of equal measure as they sort of walk hand-in-hand with each other!
In September, I had taken upon myself to participate in Septemb-Eyre which was a RAL for reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I only managed to complete the first check-in point for Chapters I-XI, with the full intention of re-visiting the story and resuming where I had left off before the hourglass closed on 2013. However, due to life’s way of distracting our reading adventures, I never once had the pleasure of picking up the story right where Rochester starts to play a more keen part in Jane’s life! When I had first learnt of Maggie’s RAL for Wuthering Heights I felt it would due me well to resume Jane Eyre at the same time! I might be a bit behind the eightball in reading classical literature, but I am striving towards reading the stories as time allows me to absorb them! I can foresee blogging about Eyre & Wuthering Heights in repetitious succession!
Whilst engaged in a #LitChat conversation about #WarandPeace I found myself proposing the idea of joining the War and Peace Book Club via LitChat! (as mentioned in my Wicked Valentine journal entry) What I had not remembered is that I truly had included War and Peace on my tCC list! I thought for sure I had omitted its inclusion as I always felt that it would be a rather daunting book to read!
One book (#WarandPeace) I felt was too daunting to tackle. Inspired due to the community of @LitChat! @Relz @shelfconfession #wwreadathon
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) February 13, 2014
It would have been placed on my very first tCC Spin List if reading these particular classics had not knitted together when they had! I would have listed it under “Intrigued but wavering of resolve!”
#ccspin I was going to create my first spin list; after seeing I’m reading #WarandPeace; #WutheringHeights, & #JaneEyre I decided to bow out
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) February 11, 2014
And, of course imagine my surprise when I saw a tweet from the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi talking about how War and Peace would not be able to be contained inside 140 characters on Twitter!
I am participating in a RAL (#readalong) of #WarandPeace via #LitChat (@LitChat) Wicked bit of trivia to pass on to them! :) @NBCOlympics
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) February 8, 2014
The reason I knew I could soak into War and Peace at this particular junction is due to the fact, we’re only reading approx. 200 pages per month, whilst checking in via topics broached through LitChat’s website! I was even able to check-out the exact! same translation Ms. Sachs is using for herself! I am also reading the 1,215 pages translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky! As this is what I declared to the lovely Mod for the RAL: (@DanaSachs)
You convinced me when you said “200 pages per month!”, yes I can handle that amount of reading!! I hadn’t realised you were going to break it down into something drinkable and lovely such as that! Wicked sweet! I’ll have to sort out how to make a proper blog post about this, and then, of course, I need to put myself on hold for the book! I must confess *this!* is the classic I was most akin at avoiding from reading until I was trapped inside during a raging blizzard! Mind you, I live in the perpetual sunshiny South and my days in Winter are yet to evolve into existence, but ooh! I think I always felt I needed much more ‘time’ and ‘space’ and of course, the proper ‘mind-set’ to begin War and Peace! Thank you for convincing me otherwise!! And, alas! I have not only a birthday to celebrate in June but the completion of a classic I dare not have thought possible to read by thirty-five!
I am ever so blessed to have found The Classics Club, which has led me to finding such a wonderful community of bookish souls threaded not only throughout the club but outside it; in literary circles I might not have crossed had I not the forethought and intention of reading through my classics TBR list via the Club itself! I am thankful too, that I am not the only one curious about the classics OR willing to engage in discussions about our impressions therein!
{SOURCE: Wildlife photography by Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story, badge edited & created in Fotoflexer by Jorie. Tweets were able to be embedded by the codes provided by Twitter.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.
