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Reminder: May is “2666″ (Part One!) Read-Along Month

14th May
2009
written by Steph

To those of you who missed the announcement a few weeks ago, Claire & I are hosting a read-along of Roberto Bolaño’s mammoth masterpiece, 2666.  Don’t fret if you haven’t started yet – we’re only reading the first part, “The Part About The Critics”, this month.  It’s only 160 pages, so you still have plenty of time to join us if you would like.  Personally, I haven’t even started yet, but probably will in the next few days!

So far, here are the people joining us:

So come on and join us!  You want to be one of the cool kids, right? ;)

In other news, sorry for the dearth of updates recently.  I was away at an academic conference (where we discovered the answer to “how many vision scientists with iPhones does it take to select a restaurant for dinner?” is in fact “3″) and enjoying some serious beach time in Naples, Florida.  But I’m back in drizzly Nashville once more, and will attempt to get my reading (and updating) back on track.  I lugged along A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth for my trip – all 1400 pages of it! – but have yet to break 500 pages.  I know many of you out there have read this beast before – would you say the latter half of the book moves more swiftly than the first half?  I enjoy the parts that deal with the interpersonal relationships between the characters, specifically the bollywood-style scandals and romantic intrigues, but I must confess I’m totally bored when I wind up in sections dealing with civil uprisings, shoemaking, and Hindu/Muslim conflicts.  I generally don’t tackle books that are so long, so my interest is beginning to wane; is it worth sticking with this one?

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Books

14 Comments

  1. Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
    05/14/2009

    That’s an impressive list of participants!

    I’m currently trying to read the orange shortlist before the winner is announced on 3rd June, and I have one review book I promised to read, and a book for a book club, so although I’ll try to read them as quickly as possible I don’t think I’ll get to 2666 until the first week in June. You never know though! I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you as soon as I can.

  2. Christina
    05/14/2009

    Can’t help you with A Suitable Boy as I haven’t read.

    I’m getting a little worried about 2666. I haven’t started yet because the library copy hasn’t been returned yet and every time I visit the bookstore, they don’t have the version that split by section. I really don’t want to buy the hardback version because it weighs a TON.

  3. claire
    05/14/2009

    Steph.. I definitely think it is, but then again, we’ve both had misses between us (which is interesting, because we also have a lot of hits!), so I’m not sure if you’d enjoy the rest of the book as much as I did. How he ties everything together near the end is impressive. Don’t press yourself to finish, though, if you feel like it’s dragging you.

    Then again, why would you choose that hunk of a book for your beach read??? Lol!!

    We’re moving by the end of the month, too, so I’m also really stressed with all my reading commitments. Methinks I will have to return most of my loot to the library. Which is okay, because I’m going back to Mississauga where they have interlibrary loan and they have pretty much everything, yay!

    Btw, have you thought of any meme questions for our wrap-up yet? I’m blacked out, have no ideas. Should we think of the questions after we’ve read it or before?

    Christina.. Don’t worry about the time.. 5 months is a long time. I hope it’s available at your library before then. :D

  4. Emily A.
    05/15/2009

    Hello!

    Okay, the semester ended yesterday so I’m just getting going on 2666 :)

    Not sure if I have much useful input on A Suitable Boy – I’ve read it twice and LOVE it, but it’s been a few years since the last time and to be honest, I can’t if the pace picks up toward the end or not . . . now you’ve got me wanting to read it again!

  5. Rebecca Reid
    05/15/2009

    I’m actually a no at this point….I’m not a cool kid.

  6. Steph
    05/15/2009

    @ Jackie & Christina: No worries about when you get the first part actually read! Some people may be already finished, while some people may not have even started yet (ahem, me!). We’ll be glad to hear your thoughts whenever you post them!
     
    @ Claire: I thought I was being smart taking a long book on my not-really-a-vacation vacation! That way I didn’t have to pack a whole bunch of different books! But you may be right that such a monster may not be the best choice for poolside reading… I think I will abandon it for now, but with the possibility of trying it again in the future…
    Also, good luck with the move! I hate moving, but if it’s getting you closer to a better library, then that’s always a good thing! ;)
    Once I finish reading Part One, I’ll email you with some questions for the recap post. I figure it would be easier to write appropriate questions after having read the darn thing!
     
    @ Emily A: See, I feel so bad because most people have the reaction that you do to A Suitable Boy – they looooove it! And parts of it have amused and tickled me, but then there are large parts where I’m kind of skimming because I could not care less about the plot. Maybe now is just not the right time for me to read this one?
     
    @ Rebecca: We will miss your input, but I understand how things get busy. I think you can still be considered a cool kid without participating.

  7. nat @ book, line, and sinker
    05/15/2009

    nice trip!!! my parents have a house about an hour north of naples…we love it down there. much better than icky nj winters.

    as for the seth novel, i’ve been hearing some buzz about it but can’t wrap my head around a 1,400 page book. it must be a workout toting the book around!

  8. Steph
    05/15/2009

    Naples was really nice! I enjoyed frolicking in the ocean and lazing by the pool (though I should have been more scrupulous in my application of sunscreen…). Unfortunately, my book didn’t really capture me, so I didn’t get as much reading done as I had hoped! I had even thought I’d done the right thing by starting the book a few days before my trip so that I could make sure it would be something I wanted to stick with, and for the first 150 pages or so it was great! And then it started to drag and less interesting (to me) storylines were introduced, and I felt duped. Normally I shy away from such huge books; I’ve read comparisons to Dickens with this book, and that might be why it’s not doing it for me, as I’ve never really been able to get into him either… Or maybe it was just too big to bring to the beach!

  9. Lu
    05/16/2009

    I’d love to join this one if it’s still open!!

  10. Steph
    05/16/2009

    Lu, it’s definitely still open – I just started reading today. Glad to have you aboard!

  11. Lu
    05/16/2009

    Just ordered it from Amazon! Yeah!

  12. Steph
    05/17/2009

    Huzzah! I started reading last night, and while I was worried I would hate it, so far it’s pretty good!

  13. zibilee
    05/20/2009

    Steph,
    I read A Suitable Boy a couple of years ago, and have to confess that I skipped most of the political parts from about the middle on. The book doesn’t suffer much without those parts, so if you are too bogged down and still want to finish it, maybe you could skip them. The book was otherwise very good.

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