Radcliffe is slow but spectacular reading

I'm loving The Romance of the Forest but I'm taking soooo long to read it. I'm so far behind in reading these 1123 books that I don't think I'll ever be able to catch up. Not even in the 30 years I already expected this to take.

I had planned for five days per book. I'm now something like five weeks into the exercise and I'm only on book three. Yikes.

But, on the other hand, this Ann Radcliffe has been a revelation. These books are fun. And exciting.

And they are an interesting look, melodramatic as they are, into the 18th century. The plight of Adeline in this book is just crazy by modern standards. She's smart, beautiful, virtuous, apparently hard-working. And yet, because of society's rigid approach to gender roles and gender opportunities, she is completely incapable of addressing the challenges that face her without help from others.

From men.

As Radcliffe so powerfully presents, Adeline must obtain protection from either her abusive father, the spineless LaMott or any young man to whom she might agree to become wed. And her virtue won't allow her to marry in haste, or for improper motives.

Other than that, no hope at all. She can't just go out a find a job. She can't move in with a group of women for mutual support. She can't set up her own business.

Oh yes, she can always return to the convent and live out her life there.

But it's a pretty dismal set of options, don't you think? Her entire future is entirely dependent on the whims of the men she encounters.

I'm halfway through and, though I know how it will eventually end (with Adeline happily married to her chosen young man), I'm fascinated to experience all the barriers she will have to overcome to get there.

Just what I need... more books

I'm really loving book three in my quest. Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest is fabulous. I'm only part-way through and the plot is just starting to get revved up but still... it's really great.

A suitcase full of books

That being said, I'm starting to wonder about how much my wife actually loves me. She is well aware of my recent decision to commit myself to reading every book in our house. She's well aware that it will take me well into my 70s to finish the books we already own.

So what does she do? She brings home a suitcase of books. More books. Difficult books that she found at a sale at the local university library. And she tell me she has more to bring home...

Just look at that picture. That's a lot of books. Why would she do that to me? As one friend said, she obviously doesn't want to have to spend too much time with me for the rest of our lives.

Ugh.

In the Forest with Radcliffe...

On to better things. My third book in my quest is my second book by 18th Century gothic romance novelist Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest.

So far, I'm on page 24 and, once again, I'm loving Radcliffe's writing. And what a great premise. Right now, our characters are making camp at a deserted abbey in the middle of nowhere (well, France but its remotest parts).

It's nice to be reading something that makes me want to pick up the book again every time I"m forced to put it down.

Wonderful stuff./

Oh happy day! A farewell to the Italian

To quote Paulo, "O! giorno felice!"

I have finished reading Ann Radcliffe's gothic romance, The Italian.

One down, 1122 to go. And it only took me two weeks to read. Ouch.

Great book, however. I very much enjoyed it. Once I got the hang of the genre and the strategies it entails, I really got caught up in the story, the characters and especially Radcliffe's vivid descriptions of the settings. Wonderfully written, with plenty of Shakespearean tropes thrown in.

After despairing that I was only reading about four pages per day of this extremely dense, 400-page book (it is, in fact, a collection of the three books in the original trilogy), I decided I had to batten down the hatches and get reading.

And I have to say, Racliffe reads much better when you take a couple of hours per sitting to sink deeply into her world. I would highly recommend this book to anyone out there. It's a neat introduction to 18th Century writing, to gothic romances and to reading in general.

Next up for me, book number 2: Yvonne Fern's Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation. This one should be a breeze after Radcliffe.

Still reading Radcliffe and already behind...

This isn't going so well. If I want to finish all 1123 books before I die, I have to average no more than five days per book. So far, book number one has taken me 10 days. And I'm not even half-way through.

If I take 10 days per book, that means I won't finish for at least 35 years. I'm not sure I have that long left to live.

Worse, this first book, Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, is great. I'm loving it. It's dense, difficult reading with small print, tiny margins and more than four hundred pages. Very little dialogue and a lot of long descriptions.

But fantastic reading. You have to accept that Radcliffe's goal is to wring every ounce of tension from every situation but, once you have, it's just great.

And it's interesting to read something that is written about the 18th Century. I don't think the descriptions of Italy, its geography or the Catholic Church are very accurate but I'm not sure that matters either. It's a vivid, exciting novel.

I think, however, that I'll have to find something lighter for my second book before moving on to the second Radcliffe novel in our collection. Maybe a book about Gene Roddenberry?

Not at this rate...

It doesn't look like I'm going to get all my reading done before I die. Not at this rate, anyway.

I am just over one-quarter of the way through Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, an 18th Century gothic romance that has really got me hooked. I'm enjoying it too much to want to tear through it just to get it done.

But I've been reading it now for five days and that means it will take me almost three weeks to complete. That scares me a little... especially since I'm planning to go to a yard sale on Saturday that promises to have lots and lots of great novels to purchase.

So I guess I have to make my choice now: read as fast as I can in order to put up big numbers or accept that I'm not going to finish reading all 1123 books in my life time and take the time to enjoy each one that I do read.

With Vivaldi trapped in a chamber in the ruins of an old castle and his beloved Elenna spirited away to an isolated, mountain convent by a group of rogues in monks' habits, I think I'll choose to take my time and enjoy the adventure!

My humble reading beginnings

Have you ever counted the books in your home?

I have. Between my partner and me, we have 1399 books (not including cookbooks, academic journals and how-to books). And that's after we went through a big purge a while ago.

I find that amazing. We've got them all over the house, crammed in book cases in the dining room, the guest bedroom, the offices and even in a storage room. We've got every book Dick Francis ever wrote (though not the ones his son, Felix, has been writing using his name); we've got everything John Locke ever wrote as well.

We've got books on feminist critical theory and moral philosophy, books on sports and entertainment. We've got mysteries and histories, sci fi and serious lit. We've got graphic novels and fantasy novels and really bad novels too.

I once dated a woman who owned two books. That was it. Just two books. And she gave one away while we were going out. That's even crazier.

And there are people out there who have more than we have. Some people have more books on their e-reader than we have in our house (which, by the way, is Kobo-free).

After I counted all these books, I sat back and rather smugly assumed that I had read most of them. At least half of them.

But then I wondered. So I went back and counted all the books I had actually read from cover to cover. What a surprise that was: of the 1399 books we have in our house, I've read exactly 276 of them.

Shameful.

So I made myself the following promise: before I die (an event which is still not likely to occur for at least two decades or so), I will read every book in this house that I have not already read.

I will read them in the order in which the find themselves on our bookshelves, starting with the office we call "The Green Room" and working my way out from there. That means there may even be a rough structure to the subject matter since we're pretty organised when it comes to our book collection.

Further, I committed myself to write a blog about the experience. And about the the books. And my own insanity in deciding to do this.

I start with Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, apparently a gothic romance from the 18th Century. Sounds exciting. Stay tuned!