Date: 2006-11-07 17:49 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: busy Music: "Der Mond kommt still gegangen," Clara Schumann Tags: challenges, from the stacks, literature, reading challenges

*rips out hair*   Technology hates me this week.   And I hate technology.   This is the second time I'm writing this post, because it didn't go through the first time and when I came back, it did not restore today's saved draft--it brought up yesterday's unposted rant!   Which was not exactly what I needed to see while dealing with another computer problem.   Especially since I'm now running late with re-typing.   Ahem.

The From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge--originally found via delectations--involves reading five books, from your own shelves (no new purchases, no library visits, etc.), between November 1st and January 30th.   It sounds like the perfect bookish thing for the long winter ahead, and it should be easy to work five books into my schedule over three months, so naturally, I'm in!   Like my recently re-ordered library, here's my list in alphabetical order by author's last name.   :P

Bronte, Anne; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
de Pizan; The Book of the City of Ladies
Defoe, Daniel; Moll Flanders
Eliot, George; The Mill on the Floss
Wollenstonecraft, Mary; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

I once reviewed the Bronte and Eliot in a late rush to get in an article for the Gibson Gazette, by reading scholarly-ish reviews, Amazon reviews, and flipping through the books themselves, but despite becoming truly interested in them, I never carved out the time before to actually read them.   As for Moll Flanders, I've heard its name a lot lately, from Virginia Woolf's diary to my current source for a research paper, The Female Pen (by B.G. MacCarthy; provides some interesting reading).   

And the other two early feminist works are books I don't know how I've managed not to read before, but are definitely something I needed to get around to.   Rather like The Second Sex--which is what I would have included in this challenge had I actually owned it already.   It was somewhat surprising I couldn't find it on my shelves last night, because I have this habit of picking all the books I've ever heard of when I'm at sales and stores, regardless of whether I've already enjoyed them or think I even will enjoy them in the future.   Some books just need to be read.