Reading War & Peace

I'm plumb in the middle of it: wow. Reading War & Peace has long been on my "bucket list" and it is such a delight to find that it more than deserves its reputation-- and it looks like, yes, I will get to the end of it before December 31st. Right now I'm on page 722, just after the old prince (Andrei's father) has expired of a stroke and the French are about to swarm over his estate. Talk about tension!

Blogging-wise, though, I'm catching up, only on about page 192.

The latest: the part where Rostov falls in battle.

I'm keeping a log (blog) not to summarize the novel (many others have done that), but as an aid to help me read it as a writer: always asking, what do I admire and why? What bores me or confuses me and why? Above all, what can I learn from this for my own writing?

--> Read the Reading War & Peace blog here.

Lift Off! War and Peace

So, I started War and Peace. Again. Dagnabbit, 2011 is the year! I'll be posting the first blog about that later this evening at the Reading Tolstoy's War & Peace blog.

For those of you who follow the Maximilian ~ Carlota blog, the Tuesday update is on-line.

No, I don't blog every day. Just Mondays here, some Tuesdays at Maximilian ~ Carlota (that's to share my research on the Second Empire /French Intervention of the 1860s) and, from now through December 31, the Reading Tolstoy's War and Peace blog. I aim to finish by December 31.

So what happened to the Wednesday guest-blogs? Well, never say never. But reading War & Peace and preparing the translation of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911, are keeping me more than busy.

I Really Am Going to Read War and Peace

Read all about it over at the Reading Tolstoy's War & Peace blog. 2011 is the year.