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
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
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
Gavin, Page 247
Jackie, Farm Lane Books
Sarah, what we have here is a failure to communicate
softdrink, Fizzy Thoughts
Susan, Pages Turned
Tuesday, tuesday in silhouette
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!
Just came over here from Emily's blog. I'm going to try to read along. I already have the first book "The Wreath" and will try to obtain the next two soon. Thinking of it as three seperate books instead of an omnibus makes me think I can do it...I hope :-)
ResponderBorrarYay, I just ordered my copy of the book. I'm excited - thanks for hosting this! :)
ResponderBorrarThank you, Richard, for doing this! It would be sad not to keep the ball rolling. So excited!! Valerie and Sarah.. happy to have you on board!! :D
ResponderBorrarI knew this sounded good, but your post here cinches the deal for me. I can't wait to start this! I especially like how it's considered a foundational work of Scandinavian literature. I review a lot of international literature, so reading this should actually be helpful.
ResponderBorrarSo exciting! But it occurs to me, Richard, that you are once again alone amidst the ladies. There must be another uber male blogger out there to participate? :)
ResponderBorrar"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."
ResponderBorrarI know; this is part of what intrigues me about Undset as well. Between her subject matter and her writing style, I would not expect the wide fan base that she apparently has. And mutual blog-crushing back at you! :-)
And Frances, Jason from Moored at Sea is thinking of joining, if he can convince himself to take a break from Finnegan's Wake.
*Valerie: Welcome to the readalong--I'm so glad you'll be joining us! I agree that mentally breaking the book down into three separate pieces makes it seem a lot less daunting. Cheers!
ResponderBorrar*Sarah: Yay for all of us that you'll be reading along with us this time! I regretted not having you around for the Bolaño readalong, but I guess there's only so many thousand-page books you can read in one year. Are you still planning on reading The Savage Detectives this year, too?
*Claire: Thank you and Steph for getting the ball rolling with 2666! I've either "met" or developed closer ties with so many great bloggers as a result of what you and Steph started. In a way, this readalong is a sort of homage to you!
*E.L. Fay: So glad you can join us! I'm not sure I mentioned this in either of my e-mails to you, but I was really hoping your blog's international literature focus would make taking on Kristin Lavransdatter a little more appealing to you. Glad to hear how excited you are about the project!
*Frances: So exciting, indeed! I don't mind being the only male here as long as nobody asks me to take out the trash (!), but the gender disparity in the U.S. book blogging world is even more pronounced than it is in humanities classes. Do any of you have any idea why that might be? Excited you were able to join us, Frances!
*Emily: Thanks for the kind words and thanks again for suggesting such an interesting change of pace from Bolaño (no knock against the guy--I'm ready for the year-long Bolaño readalong next)! I actually love medieval history/literature but am only lukewarm at best about most contempo fiction set in that era, so I'm very eager to see how Undset measures up. Also interested in her approach to gender relations, spirituality, and, oh yeah, narrative! And what our fine readalong group has to say about these things, of course!
Yikes, that is still on the list, isn't it?! Yes I'm planning to read 'The Savage Detectives' - maybe even next month. We'll see! So much exciting reading ahead. :)
ResponderBorrarHi Richard! I just stopped by Emily's blog, but I wanted to let you know as well that I'm going to look into this series of books to see if it might be something I'd like to be a part of. Even though 2666 has not worked out for me as well as it has for everyone else, I've still really enjoyed the collaborative aspect of it, and in many cases, I've enjoyed reading all of your thoughts more than the book itself!
ResponderBorrarSo, in this case, I want to take some time to research and see if this book looks like a good fit for me. If not, I know I'm still going to enjoy reading all of your thoughts along the way!
*Sarah: The Savage Detectives is a little long I guess, but it prob. won't feel that way since the first and last thirds of the book are told in diary format. What a great book to look forward to!
ResponderBorrar*Steph: Hi and thanks for swinging by! As I mentioned earlier, this readalong was very much inspired by the road you and Claire blazed previously--so it'd be great to have you join us if you have the time and interest. If not, I understand (and I hope that people's posts will at least provide a decent "virtual" reading experience for you). Cheers!
Hi, Richard — I emailed you, but I often get filtered as spam, so I just wanted to say thanks for the invite, but probably no. Although, it seems like I'm already reconsidering...
ResponderBorrar*Isabella: Sorry for the delay answering your e-mail, but I did get it and you're very welcome about the invite. No pressure either way, of course, but we'll be happy to have you join us for the readalong if you change your mind!
ResponderBorrarHi Richard - I bought the Penguin Classics edition you show in your post ... intending to read it as my neighborhood book group's summer read.
ResponderBorrarIt got shuffled around to the bottom of the pile, and I'm only about 200 pages in at this point (book group meets tonight!)
All this to say ... I'd love to join your readalong, and hope to keep pace with the reading, posting, and conversation.
Thanks for hosting this!
*Dawn: Hello! I hope the online readalong thing will be able to match the fun of your real life book group experience, but I'm so glad you've decided to join us in either case. Anyway, welcome to the party!
ResponderBorrarHi, found this post through Emily and Claire and Frances' blogs a while ago - but (for some strange reason) thought you were reading it in the original language! Is it too late for me to join in? I was so sad that I missed out on 2666.
ResponderBorrar*Tuesday: Hi! The 2666 readalong will be missed by everybody once it's over next week, but I'm so glad to hear that you're interested in joining us for this one. Welcome! Almost everybody so far has been planning to read the trilogy in English, but I'm holding out hope that someone will choose to read or blog about the book in another language to help generate some different perspectives for us.
ResponderBorrarI WANT IN!
ResponderBorrarRichard, pretty please copy this and paste it at the OT blog...just maybe someone (as clueless as me) has missed it up until now.
I can't wait.
PS. has someone posted about it in the Book Blogs Ning? I could create a group over there- it would really help people find links and see who is in and stuff. I'd be willing to get that started if you say the word.
ResponderBorrarsaludos.
*Bethany: As I told you yesterday, so glad you could join us--especially since so many of us met each other through your Orbis Terrarum Challenge! I'll put something up on the OT blog this weekend, and Emily and I are fine with you mentioning this on the Book Blogs Ning if you still want to do that (we'll be keeping tracks of everybody's readalong posts on our two blogs each month, though). Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, too!
ResponderBorrarHi Richard,
ResponderBorrarCould you change the link to tuesdayreads [dot] wordpress [dot] com? That's where I'll be posting my thoughts on the readalong :)
Thanks!
*Tuesday: No problem--you got it! Just let me know if you'd like to change the blog title or leave it as is. Cheers!
ResponderBorrarHi Richard,
ResponderBorrarI saw your post but did not get to respond before tonight. In the meantime, I picked up a copy of Vol. 1 and am almost done. I would be delighted if I could join in your read along.
*Jill: Hello and welcome to the festivities! I'll add you to the list in a moment, but I'm so happy that you've chosen to read along with us. Should be a lot of fun!
ResponderBorrarMi inglés es mínimamente pasable, pero me encantaría acompañarlos en la lectura.
ResponderBorrarY, yup, existe una edición en castellano. Al menos en Chile, hay una de Ed. Andrés Bello con los tres libros dividos en dos volúmenes.
¡Hola Bea! ¡Mucho gusto conocerla y bienvenida al readalong! Estoy muy contento tenerla entre el equipo de lectores. Si tiene un blog, favor de mandarme el enlace para que yo pueda añadirlo a la lista. Mientras tanto, gracias por acompañarnos (¿podemos tutearnos la próxima vez?) y por la información sobre la edición de Kristin en castellano. ¡Un saludo cordial!
ResponderBorrarI have not done this before so I have some questions:
ResponderBorrarWhen should we post our postings?
How do we notify you (and/or others) that a posting is up?
How do we become notified of other postings?
Thank you!
Jill, thanks for the questions. You can feel free to post whenever you like, but it will be a little easier on Emily and me logistically if most of the group waits till the last week of each month to put up their posts. That's when Emily and I will ourselves be posting, at which time we'll also start visiting everybody else's blogs collecting the links to put up so everyone involved in the readalong can find them in two central places. You can notify us about any early posts before then if you like, but you can also wait till Emily or I post and then just leave us a message at that time.
ResponderBorrarThe idea is that participants will be notified of each others' write-ups via Emily's blog or my blog near the end of the month, but there's nothing to stop you from visiting other blogs before then to see if anyone was too excited or too busy to wait till the end of the month! We hope that waiting till the last week of the month will give as many people as possible a chance to finish the monthly reading--and that once they've posted, they will be more eager to visit everybody else's blogs to comment. However, the readalong is your friend--so feel free to do what works for you in terms of your own particular schedule (one "early bird" has already started posting as she goes in installments, and that's fine with us too). P.S. Please let me know if any of this is unclear--otherwise, happy reading to you!
Today I posted my part one review on my blog. Is this where we are to let you know?
ResponderBorrarJill
rhapsodyinbooks
http://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com
Jill, I'll add your link Friday or Saturday. Thanks for the update!
ResponderBorrarAdd me to that list :)
ResponderBorrarI'll be posting my thoughts either today or tomorrow. They need an edit pass before I can press that final publish button. :)
Hi Lena, you got it! Welcome to the readalong!
ResponderBorrarHi Richard,
ResponderBorrarToday I posted my review of Part II:
http://bit.ly/6xgCVV