So, this is what I'm supposed to be posting about - William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, which I am reading for Allie's readalong. Unfortunately, due to I'm not quite sure what, possibly busyness, possibly just being in a weird, unsettled mood reading-wise, I've only got to chapter 3 of the 30+ I'm meant to have read by this point! I have read it before, and so far it is as easy to read and engrossing as I remembered, and Becky Sharpe is just as evil as I remember her being, although if I remember right, she gets quite a bit worse before the end! It's a mystery to me why some classics are so easy to read, and some are such a struggle. I guess it's the same as with any book, really - it all depends on what you like, and whether the storyline interests you. My first reading of Vanity Fair was when I was fourteen. I borrowed it from my mum, an avid reader of historical mysteries (Agatha Christie, Elizabeth & Ellis Peters, Susanna Gregory, Alexander McCall Smith are all loves I've inherited from her), because it looked to weird on the top of a pile of the aforementioned authors! I'm reliably informed that as a younger woman, my mum was quite the reader of Classics, and she does have quite a nice collection of Dickens, and I think that she'd been given Vanity Fair, as something she'd never read. Anyway, whatever the reason, it was there, and I grabbed it, and absolutely devoured it. It's weird that its so long, but at no point do I remember being bored by it. It'll be interesting to see if that's the case the second time around.
So far, that's pretty much all I've got to say about Vanity Fair. I'm hoping that the rest of the book proves as enjoyable as I remember!
In other news, my home internet is for some reason being totally crap lately. We have a really cheapy wireless pay monthly connection, which basically only works if you live close enough to a hotspot. Ours is really on and off, as the hotspot is quite close, but its' also down the bottom of a hill (we're at the top), on top of a cliff, overlooking the sea... It's usually temperamental whenever it's windy, rainy, snowing, hot, or too loud (we're a tourist destination, it's summer)... But in the last couple of days it seems to have given up completely. We're working on it, but until then, I'm not sure how regular my posts will be, which I hate! If I don't have home internet, I will literally only be able to post once a week, at the library on my day off :-(
Anyway! Moving on to more exciting things, before I become totally depressed! As I don't participate in In My Mailbox, but have got a few exciting things this week, I just thought I'd share my haul!
Johnny and the Dead & Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett (from Amazon) - I've recently managed to get my fiance (who used to read, in his vague distant childhood) back into reading again, via Terry Pratchett's children's books. Must also take this opportunity to give thanks to Neil Gaiman, as Odd and the Frost Giants was what got him excited in the first place, as I haven't read it, and he now has. He tells everybody...
And finally, following my recent Reading Lolita in Tehran obsession, I've been looking to get hold of more books about books and the reading process, and managed to pick up The History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, for the price of postage on Readitswapit! Very excited to start reading this!
Finally, earlier in the week, Hanna of Booking in Heels (who, by the way, is currently one of my absolute favourite bloggy people - go read her reviews, they're really succinct and very well written and often have a heavy dose of sarcasm, which is a good thing!) were talking about how there are no UK book bloggers, and how we should create a UK Book Blogger Army, and then Lyndsey from Amused, Bemused and Confused told me about the UK Book Blogger Directory. If you're in the UK, go sign up! It's a really easy way for us all to find each other, and hopefully we can use it to do more stuff that doesn't have the dreaded 'US only' requirement! Also, stand by for a UK Book Blogger Army - Your Country Needs You! button, it may be forthcoming!
That's all I've got for now, sorry about the rambling nature of the post, and all the links. I had a lot to get out of my system, in case I NEVER GET TO BLOG AGAIN!! (I hate my internet)
Hope you're all having great weeks so far! If anything exciting happens, I'll be on Twitter :-)
I NEED THAT BUTTON! Please make it immediately :)
ReplyDeleteLol we're working on it!
ReplyDeleteAww, that's so so nice! I think I glowed for about an hour after reading that lol. And I thought I'd managed to tone down the sarcasm!
ReplyDeleteI remember trying to read vanity fair years ago but not getting very far. I might give it a go again though now I'm older and more patient with my books.
I've heard good things about the history of reading though. Haha, I have a massive list of books to start requesting from readitswapit when I've sorted my books out out at the end of the month. I'll be adding loads so the theory goes that there's more chance of them being accepted if there's more on there :) the postmans going to hate me!
Mine already hates me :p as does the shop downstairs, through whom all my post is delivered. They brought it on themselves, though, by blocking up our letterbox!!
ReplyDeleteOdd and the Frost Giants was a sweet little book. I need to read Terry Pratchett at some point. The only work of his I've read is his collaboration with Gaiman, Good Omens.
ReplyDeleteI've never read that one...i've owned it for years but somehow not got to it yet, despite the fact that Pratchett and Gaiman are two of my favourite authors... This is why I must stop buying books and read the ones I already have!
ReplyDelete