Monday, October 11, 2010

NYRB Reading Week - November 7-13

Mrs B at The Literary Stew has come up with a great idea, the NYRB Reading Week. You can find all the details here. I try not to get involved in too many reading challenges as I find I have enough to do with my 19th century reading group & the occasional group read in my online reading group. I’ve also committed myself to Team Tolstoy at Dovegreyreader where we’re going to be reading War & Peace over the next year, & I enjoyed Persephone Reading Week very much. But, I’m a big fan of the NYRB imprint, & as I have three of their books on the tbr shelves, it won’t involve buying any more books. It's also relatively stress-free. Just read one or more NYRB books & review them on your blog. If you don't have a blog, you can send your review to Mrs B or Honey from Coffeespoons, who's co-hosting the challenge. You can see the three NYRB books I own above.

I think I’m going to read Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson. I’ve never read any of his books but I’ve always loved the title (it’s a quote from Through the Looking Glass) & it’s been sitting on my shelves for a few years now. I need an excuse to take it down & read it. There was also a TV series made of the book with Douglas Hodge, Elizabeth Spriggs & Dorothy Tutin that I vaguely remember. So, if I enjoy the book it may send me off to watch the series again as well. There’s a link to the NYRB website at The Literary Stew, so if you like what you see there or if you have unread NYRBs on your shelves, why not join us?

3 comments:

  1. I am excited that they are hosting this as well. I just counted this morning I have 9 unread NYRBs on my shelf. This will be a fun opportunity to tackle some of those.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, this sounds fun! I have six unread NYRBs plus one from the library, sadly untouched though I meant to finish it for Readathon. (A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr). I love NYRBs! Thanks for posting, I'm definitely in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen, A Month in the Country is one of my favourite books so I hope you get to it one day. There's also a lovely film version with Colin Firth & Kenneth Branagh, made in the 80s before they were famous. Another NYRB has come my way today. I'd ordered Jessica Mitford's Poison Penmanship for my library & today it turned up. I'd forgotten it was a NYRB edition but I may read this for the Week now instead.

    ReplyDelete