Off the Shelf 2011 Reading Challenge

This challenge is all about reading the books that you've bought but just haven't gotten around to reading yet. My husband will be so happy to hear that I'm challenging myself to read these books since he hates my habit of buying books when he knows I haven't read all of them that I have! I just can't resist the lure of a shiny new cover, the smell of an unopened book, or a great recommendation from a friend!

The 2011 Off the Shelf Challenge will help me re-focus on the books I have so that I can save my money from buying more books (or maybe not...) and relish in the delights already on my bookshelf!

I will be entering at the Trying level, which committs me to read 15 unread books on my shelf.  Not only will that get almost all of my unread books read, but also means I'm committed to reading another 15 books this year!

Chunkster Reading Challenge

I recently discovered the vast community of book blogs and the challenges that people set for themselves. I think this looks like great fun and I am hastily joining the Chunkster Reading Challenge!

I LOVE large books, or tomes as I prefer to refer to them! I love getting lost in a story that continues for so long that you feel as if you are part of that world and the characters are your best friend. I'm always sad when I finish a long, good book and realize that my new friends are going back to the bookshelf.

The Chunkster Reading Challenge is perfect for me! The challenge is to read adult literature (fiction or nonfiction) books of 450 pages or more.

You can choose any level you want for your goal for 2011. I will be choosing the highest level- Mor-book-ly Obese, because I love a good book challenge! This level means that I will have to read at least 8 books of 450 pages or more in 2011, 3 of which have to be over 750 page! Woohoo!

Finally, I don't have to feel guilty about reading so few books (a 750 page book does take some time to get through), just because I enjoy a nice tome now and then.

This challenge started on February 1, 2011. Therefore, a few of my books already count towards my goal:

Gone with the Wind: 1037 pages

Atlas Shrugged: 1088 pages

The Swan Thieves: 592 pages

Unfortunately, I read Pamela by Samuel Richardson in January so that will not count (and that was also over 750 pages!).

Therefore, to complete this 2011 challenge, I have to read 5 more books over 450 pages and one of them must be over 750 pages.

Please comment on your favorite tomes. I have a few in mind but I'd like to hear suggestions!

Book Review: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell



Synopsis:

A monumental classic considered by many to be not only the greatest love story ever written, but also the greatest Civil War saga.

My Review:

First, I must kick myself- how could I have never read this book before?!

Gone with the Wind is a sensational novel, an ever-lasting sensational novel. This 1000+ page novel played with my emotions far more than the vast majority of books I've ever read. I loved and hated; I felt joy, sorrow, torment, anguish, giddiness, contempt, delight, and anger through this saga of the South during the Civil War. I feel this way because the book is not about the events or a simple love story, it is an in-depth survey of humans during good and bad times. It's hard to find any author that can portray humans with such keen analysis to make them utterly real and believable.

Scarlett O'Hara is an absolutely selfish and vain person, but she is also determined and willing to survive.  She is the American woman, in every form of meaning. She is passionate and self-willed; at times I wanted to slap her silly and other times I wanted to applaud her actions which I felt incapable of myself. And who could forget these famous lines: "Hunger gnaed at her empty stomach again and she said aloud: 'As God is my witness, as God is my witness, the Yankees aren't going to lick me. I'm going to live through this, and when it's over, I'm never going to be hungry again. No, nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill- as God is my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again'" (Mitchell 428). Scarlett's passion for survival saved her and her family. She may be extremely selfish and bullheaded, but she was going to survive. And we all must applaud her determination to live.

Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes - the two men Scarlett ever loved.  And her love only ends in tragedy. Yet, Scarlett will survive. These two men are extremely interesting in their own ways.  Rhett is just as stubborn and determined as Scarlett while Ashley, as Rhett puts it, is "He's only a gentleman caught in a world he doesn't belong in, trying to make a poor best of it by the rules of the world that's gone" (Mitchell 1028).  The portrait of these two men is display Mitchell's characterization superbly, second only to Scartlett's character.

I could go on, but really just encourage you to read it for yourself.  The novel moves quickly for being so long, I was never once bored or started skimming to read quicker. I highly recommend Gone with the Wind.

My Rating: 5 out 5 stars

Book Blogger Hop

This week's question comes from Mia who blogs at Girl About Books:

 "Who's your all-time favorite book villain?"

My answer: Could I argue that Raskolnikov is a villain in Crime and Punishment? His theory and violent acts are definitely villainous, but there is so much depth to his character that even though he commits heinous acts of violence, one begins to forgive him by the end after seeing his suffering and slow redemption, both internally and externally in his exile to Siberia. Does this make him a villain? Not to mention, Crime and Punishment is my favorite book.

Book Review: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life-solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope. (Image and synopsis from bn.com)

My Review:

This book tells a great story of a psychiatrist being drawn into one of his patient's world by trying to find out why the patient won't talk and what he knows. The Swan Thieves is a delightful mystery that entertains and enthralls the reader while their reading.

I loved the different points of view from the characters, as the psychiatrist, Andrew Marlow, goes about piecing together Robert Oliver's (the patient) past and knowledge of the distant past and how the narration changes from the present to past and back again.  It developed a richness in the story since it spanned many characters and time periods.

However, while I found the book entertaining, I feel that it is kind of forgettable once you put it down. I loved the idea and the narration, but ultimately I felt that I didn't quite care enough for the characters from the past to have the ending be truly gripping and exciting. I wanted more from Robert Oliver and Andrew Marlow in the present in the ending because I cared more about them.

Overall, I think this is a beautiful story and wonderfully written, I just wish there was more in the end to make it a memorable piece.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars