Category: Books and Reading

My Favorite Reads of 2023

When 2023 began, I did not expect that two books I read would become two of my favorite books of all time. But that is exactly what happened. I also did not expect to read so many books, since my resolution last year was to slow down and savor books more deeply. But sixteen of the books I read were plays by Shakespeare as I began an attempt to read all of his plays in the order in which they were written. I was not as pleased as...

George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along Wrap-Up

Today marks the end of our year-long reading of nearly all of George Eliot’s novels. By reading a chapter a day, we finished Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. Looking back over the past year, I have to admit that this year’s challenge was more difficult for me than past years. Eliot is a more challenging writer than I expected, and some of the chapters were a bit too long for a daily reading. Still, now that I have read...

Preparing for the 2024 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: The Chronicles of Narnia

The 2024 Fantasy Classics Chapter-a-Day Read-along begins in just a couple of days and it’s time to get ready to enter our first fantastical world, the enchanted land of Narnia. I hope you’ve been able to track down a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia either in the single volume edition or as a box set of individual books. Our journey to Narnia begins with The Magician’s Nephew, a prelude to the series that unveils the origins of Narnia and sets the stage for the rest of the...

Announcing the 2024 Fantasy Classics Chapter-a-Day Read-Along

Welcome to the official sign-up post for a very special 2024 Chapter-a-Day Read-along! This year we we will be reading some of the most beloved modern classics in all of literature: The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and the entire Harry Potter series. All three series are in the top ten of the PBS list of America’s 100 most-loved books, and are adored by readers the world over. And, since 2024 is a leap year, we get an extra day to read! Long-time participants will notice...

Middlemarch: Preparing for the 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along

The George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along continues this week with a book that some call the greatest novel in the English language, Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life. I have wanted to read Middlemarch for many years, having started it several times, but I was never able to make it very far. A book like Middlemarch is exactly the reason I began the chapter-a-day read-alongs, and I look forward to finally engaging with Eliot’s masterpiece. If you’ve been following this year’s reading schedule, then you know that tomorrow you...

My Favorite Reads of 2022 and Contemplating New Year’s Resolutions

With the new year beginning today it’s time for my annual list of favorite reads from the previous year. As I look back on 2022, I see that I definitely did not stick to my plan to read books from my greatest books list. Nonetheless, I still had a fruitful year of reading. My intention was to begin with a re-read of the Iliad and the Odyssey and then move on to other epics like the Aeneid and Paradise Lost, but my reading philosophy began to change in...

Musketeer Chapter-a-Day Read-along Wrap-up

It’s been over fourteen months since we first began our journey with D’Artagnan and the rest of his musketeer friends, and today we reach the end of their story. Even though I finished my first reading of the series just three years ago, I still enjoyed reading it again, especially getting to revisit such interesting and noble characters. One of the things I appreciate most about the them is how they stayed true to their friendship even when they were on opposite sides politically. Looking back over my...

Preparing for the 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along: Adam Bede

The 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-Day Read-along begins in just two days with Eliot’s first novel, Adam Bede. Mary Ann Evans wrote Adam Bede when she was close to 40 years old. She had already been fairly successful as a non-fiction writer, translator, and editor up to that time, but she had resolved to become a novelist. Her first published fiction in book form was a set of three short stories collected in Scenes of Clerical Life. This was also the first time Evans used George Eliot as a...

The Mystery of the Vintage Works of George Eliot

As the new year approaches, I’m getting more and more excited to begin the 2023 George Eliot Chapter-a-day Read-along. Not only am I looking forward to spending an entire year immersed in the fiction of Mary Ann Evans (aka George Eliot), but I’m also excited to read the the vintage set of her works that I found at a used bookstore this past year. Just as George Eliot has stories to tell through her novels, so this antique set of her works has stories to tell. While I’m...

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...

My Favorite Reads of 2021

As 2022 is about to dawn, it’s hard to know what it will hold for our world, given the unpredictable nature of the ongoing pandemic. Or is it now shifting to an endemic, as we attempt to try and live with COVID-19? That’s more than I can say, but as I look back over 2021 one thing I can say without question is that reading has helped me make it through. Not only were the books themselves an antidote to all the craziness and stress, but the reading...

2021 Chapter-a-Day Read-along Wrap Up

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Chapter-a-Day Read-along, whether you read all five books or limited yourself to just a few of them. In this post I’ll share a few of my reflections on the year, and I would love to know your thoughts about the experience. I invite you to leave a comment on this post to share what reading a chapter a day was like for you. The Divine Comedy – From my wrap-up post: There is so much depth to Dante’s poetry...