Announcing the 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

This is the official sign-up post for the 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along. It’s hard to believe, but 2023 will be the sixth year of my hosting chapter-a-day read-alongs. To celebrate this sixth year, I am very excited to announce that we will be reading six major works by George Eliot.

Why George Eliot? Two main reasons: First, I have long wanted to read Eliot’s Middlemarch, the novel that Martin Amis and Julian Barnes call the greatest novel in the English language. Second, this past year I purchased a vintage set of the works of George Eliot from my local used bookstore, and it is just aching to be read. I’ll share more about the set in the future, but this post is all about how to participate in the read-a-long. For those new to the concept, the basic idea is that participants commit to reading a chapter a day of the selected books, following the schedule as much as they are able. If you can only join in for some or even only one of the books, that’s fine, too. As with all previous challenges, read what you can when you can. The beauty of a chapter-a-day read-along is that if you miss a few days it’s relatively easy to catch up. Each chapter should take only about 10-15 minutes to read each day.

We begin on January 1, 2023 with Adam Bede, and by December 31 we will have read almost every major work by George Eliot in the order in which they were originally published: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1863), Middlemarch (1871-72), and Daniel Deronda (1876). In order to keep the read-along contained in one year, we will not be reading Felix Holt, the Radical (1866). All of Eliot’s books are in the public domain and can be read or listened to online for free, and are also available as e-books.

How to Participate in the 2023 Chapter-a-Day Read-along

• Get a copy of each of the six books.
• If you have your own blog, write a welcome post explaining why you are joining the read-along and what you hope to gain from it. Leave a link to your post in the comments section at the end of this post. If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your information in the comments section below as well.
• Download the daily schedule: Nick’s 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Reading Schedule
• Commit to reading a chapter a day. If you get behind or race ahead, no worries. Life happens.
• It’s purely optional, but I encourage you to join me in posting a quote each day on Facebook or Twitter. I will be posting on both, using the hashtag #eliotreadalong. My Twitter and Facebook posts will stay on track with the reading schedule, and I only ask that you please respect the reading experience of those who may not know the full story. In other words, no spoilers!
• You will find official 2023 read-along graphic next to this list. Feel free to use it on your website if you wish.
• Subscribe to One Catholic Life so you don’t miss any read-along posts throughout the year. You can get updates via email by using the form in the right-hand sidebar.

Reading Schedule

As I mentioned above, we’ll be reading six of George Eliot’s major works. Here is a broad outline of the reading schedule, along with links to the Kindle editions, the online Gutenberg editions, and the Librivox audiobook editions (Kindle links are affiliate links):

• Adam Bede: January 1 to February 24 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox
• The Mill on the Floss: February 25 to April 23 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox
• Silas Marner: April 24 to May 14 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox
• Romola: May 15 to July 26 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox
• Middlemarch: July 27 to October 22 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox
• Daniel Deronda: October 23 to December 31 – Kindle – Gutenberg – Librivox

Conclusion

The goal of these chapter-a-day read-alongs is to encourage people to read books they might not otherwise read because of their length or age. I appreciate all those who have participated in the past and I look forward to reading George Eliot with you this year.  Reading a book in a chapter a day is great way to tackle an otherwise intimidating classic, but it is so much more fun to do it with others. Seeing the quotes you post on Twitter is motivational and inspirational, and I look forward to them each day. I can’t wait to read George Eliot’s books with you!

2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along Schedule

Here is the detailed read-along schedule, and you can also download it as a pdf here: Nick’s 2023 George Eliot Chapter a Day Reading Schedule