October Reading

Anarchy in the U.K., 1859-1860

(La dama de blanco)

Argentina, 1997

(Money to Burn)

Spain, 1626

(The Swindler)

Norway, 1920-1922

Note: It's not too late to join the Kristin Lavransdatter Readalong that Emily from Evening All Afternoon and I will be hosting from now through December.  Any and all who want to read a big fat 20th-century Scandinavian classic in the company of other readers are welcome to read along with us.  For details, see Emily's post here or mine here.  Emily and I will be linking to all participants' posts on our two blogs sometime near the end of each month during the readalong, but Bethany from Dreadlock Girl Reads has been kind enough to set up a third space, a book group dedicated to the shared read at the Book Blogs Ning over here, that may be a great way to discuss the trilogy prior to our collection of all your links.  Thanks a bunch to all of you who have already expressed enthusiasm for the readalong in the comments and on your own blogs.  Should be fun!

Kristin Lavransdatter Readalong

Kristin Lavransdatter Readalong Invitation Below!

¡Invitación al Readalong de Kristin Lavransdatter abajo!

The 2666 readalong that Claire and Steph put together has been so rewarding for so many of us that a number of the participants, including yours truly, have started openly bemoaning the impending end of Roberto Bolaño's 1100-page masterpiece. To help make up for that loss, Emily from Evening All Afternoon and I thought it might make sense to try to fill the void with yet another 1100-page doorstopper: Sigrid Undset's 1920-1922 Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, which we'll be reading at a one book a month pace from October through December. You, the bloghopping connoisseur of contemporary fiction, are personally invited to read along with us. Might you be interested?

To help you decide, here are a few things you might want to consider. First, Undset's trilogy is both Nobel Prize-certified and absolutely wildly acclaimed on a certain online book dealer's customer review database. I don't put any particular stock in either of those things myself, but I'm very intrigued by the mix of this Norwegian author's fan base. Second, Kristin Lavransdatter has the reputation of an early 20th century classic that had fallen out of prestige for a while before starting to make its recent comeback. Also interesting. Perhaps even more importantly for me, Undset's trilogy is considered a foundational work in contemporary Scandinavian literature--a slice of the world literature pie often overlooked by comp lit fans and definitely hardly ever sampled by me. Tiina Nunnally's award-winning English translation is also supposed to be quite the big deal, but there's no shortage of versions of the work available to suit all tastes and pocketbooks.

Emily has a great entry about the trilogy, with more details on its specific literary claims to fame, over at her readalong post here. I won't bother to repeat those details, but suffice it to say that the main reason Emily and I wanted to propose another shared read was the great group of friends we met through the Bolaño readalong: friendly, insightful readers who made the readalong experience so much richer than it would have been otherwise. Plus, we thought that Claire and Steph deserved a break after all their organizational toils. Thankfully many of those same enthusiastic bloggers are continuing on with us here, and you--regardless of whether you maintain a blog or not, regardless of how casual your interest in literature is--are welcome to join in on the fun. I hope some of you will consider participating!

Logistics

October read, Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath

November read, Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife

December read, Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross

(All posts, whether reviews or mere impressions, should be shared around the end of each month, so that the other readers in the group can visit your blog and make comments. If you're running a little ahead or behind or just want to read along without posting anything, that's fine, too. Please note that Emily and I will be keeping a running list of participants on each of our blogs, so just let one or the other of us know if you'd like to join the readalong. P.S. I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a huge crush on Emily's blog, so please check that out and those of the others in the group regardless of your interest in the readalong as a whole! )

The Readalong Group

Emily (co-host) of Evening All Afternoon
3M, 1morechapter
Amy, New Century Reading
Bea
Bethany, Dreadlock Girl Reads & Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Claire, Kiss a Cloud
Dana, Scraptherapy
Dawn, She Is Too Fond of Books
Don (no blog)
The Duck Thief, Great White North

E.L. Fay, This Book and I Could Be Friends

Frances, Nonsuch Book & Lost in Translation Reading Challenge

Gavin, Page 247

Jackie, Farm Lane Books

Jason, Moored at Sea
Jill, Rhapsody in Books
Katrina, Katrina's Reads
Lena, Save Ophelia

Lu, Regular Rumination

Sarah, what we have here is a failure to communicate
softdrink, Fizzy Thoughts
Susan, Pages Turned
Tuesday, tuesday in silhouette

Valerie, Life Is a Patchwork Quilt

*Explanación de esta entrada*

¡Hola a todos mis amigos hispanoblantes! Voy a leer Kristin Lavransdatter, una trilogía noruega escrita por Sigrid Undset (ganadora del Premio Nobel) en los años 1920-1922, con un grupo de bloggers de habla inglesa mayormente compuesto de mis amigas del readalong de 2666 de Roberto Bolaño. Si algunos de ustedes quisieran leer Kristin Lavransdatter con nosotros, favor de decirme y ¡bienvenidos a la fiesta! Se supone que haya una traducción en castellano disponible. Si ustedes no quieren participar en el readalong pero les gustaría ver mis cursis entradas bilingües sobre las distintas partes del libro, favor de decirme eso también. En cuanto al horario, el plan es que vamos a leer un libro de Kristin Lavransdatter cada mes, empezando en octubre y terminando en diciembre y publicando nuestros posts a finales del mes correspondiente. Mientras tanto, ¡saludos a todos!