Back to Contemporary Times

After getting through about 1400 pages of 19th century Gothic literature, I needed to read something more contemporary. Even though Nervous Conditions isn't from this century, it is at least from my lifetime, so it should be a good choice. According to the back of the book it is set in colonial Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in the 1960s. It has been a while since I read anything by an African author who was not from South Africa (like Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee), so I am looking forward to a fresh perspective.

The Albigenses

I am so glad to be done with book #927, The Albigenses by Charles Maturin. This is an epic tale of the Crusades and the romance between two knights and the women they love. While in theory this is a great story, I couldn't help but be very bored by it most of the time. The language was overwrought and excessive. One thing that really bothered me about this story was the footnotes - half of them were in French or Latin. My very limited ability in both languages did not make the footnotes at all helpful. I really wanted to like this book, but I didn't. Time to take a very short break for a fun book.

The Albigenses Vol IV

Volume 4 brings the story to a close, mostly with a large battle between the Crusaders and the Albigeois. We meet a mysterious sable knight and discover the identity of the sorceress, as well as discover Sir Paladour's and Sir Amirald's lineages. Even though the battle was boring, this was the easiest of the books to read.

Started Volume 4

OK, one more volume of the Albigenses to go. I started volume 4 and I am about 1/4 of the way through. I am so glad that it has less than 300 pages. It has started off with a recounting of the night of Sir Paladour's marriage to Isabelle and Genevieve being escorted to Toulouse by Sir Amirald. I am interested to see if this will have a happy ending, because it seems unlikely for some characters at this point. But what would a romance be without a happy ending? And the author describes this story as a romance, not a tragedy.

The Albigenses Vol III

Phew - I am finally done with volume 3! This volume begins with Genevieve's capture and Isabelle's escape. Sir Paladour comes to Isabelle's aid and she pledges to marry him. Sir Amirald confesses his love to Genevieve and assists her in helping Queen Ingelberg escape from Beaucaire. The last volume is less than 300 pages, so I am hoping to get through it before too long. I will be glad to finish this book!

New Incentive to Finish

So I requested a guilty pleasure book from the library (Heat Wave from the TV show Castle) and it is ready for me to pick up. I am not allowing myself to read this book until I am done with The Albigenses. Hopefully this will spur me on to finish. I have less than 200 pages left in volume 3and volume 4 is less than 300 pages. I think I can do it within the next few days.

Plodding Through

Once again I am finding myself avoiding reading The Albigenses. It stinks that I am having such a hard time getting through this book when I looked so long to find it. I guess this is why it hasn't been re-published lately.

Back to The Albigenses

Now that I have had a week-long break from The Albigenses, time to finish volumes 3 & 4. I am hoping that these will go quickly, but I don't know. The break will have either helped me with the time away, or made it harder now I won't be used to the archaic language anymore.

The Albigenses Vol III and Vol IV can be found here on Scribd.

White Teeth

Finally finished book #54, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was a really good book, but I just didn't seem to have much time to read this past week. Smith is a great author and I look forward to reading more by her. My favorite part dealt with the Chalfen family meeting Alsana's lesbian niece (whom she refers to as Niece-of-Shame) for the first time. The remark that Joyce Chalfen comes up with almost made me choke - "Do you use each others' breasts as pillows?" - and I had to explain to my 6-year-old that why I was laughing was not something I cared to share with him. Not that he would have understood, but I didn't even want to go through trying to explain.

Still Going...

As much as I am enjoying White Teeth, it is taking me a while to get through it. I am almost halfway finished, with 9-year-old Magid just being sent off to live with his grandparents in Bengal. I am interested to see what kind of fallout ensues from this event, as Magid's father Samad made the decision to send his son off without consultant his wife Alsana. I know that I would not take kindly to this situation, and Alsana is a pretty fiery character. Hopefully I will finish this book in the next few days.

Starting White Teeth

I was pretty busy over the weekend, but I did manage to start book #54, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. So far it is pretty good - and a nice break from The Albigenses. It is about two families, men with wives 25+ years younger and their children. It can be quite funny at times, as evidenced by the following quote:

"Do you hear that, mister? We're not licensed for suicides around here. This place halal. Kosher, understand? If you're going to die round here, my friend, I'm afraid you've got to be bled thoroughly first." Page 6.

The Albigenses Vol II

I finally finished the 2nd volume of The Albigenses. This part of the story was mostly about a battle between the Crusaders and the Albigeois. The Albigeois ended up with a much larger fighting force and routed the Crusaders. There is also a burgeoning romance between Albigeois girl Genevieve and Sir Amirald. Lady Isabelle is captured by bandits and Sir Paladour sets out to rescue her. The next volume should show what fate befalls both leading female characters.

Ugh

I am finding myself avoiding reading The Albigenses, and not just because I have to read it on my computer. It is sloooooooowwwww and overly wordy. I only have 80 pages left of volume 2 and I am bored. I think I will reading something else before I continue with volumes 3 and 4.

Project Gutenberg

Even though I posted yesterday about how I was not enjoying reading The Albigenses online, I still think free online book services can be a great resource for some of the older books on the list. Project Gutenberg has a large number of the books for free, some are even available for Kindle or other mobile devices. Here is a list of a few that I have found:

1001. Aesop's Fables by Aesopus
1000. Metamorphoses by Ovid
997. The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
995. Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
993. The Unfortunate Traveller by Thomas Nashe
991. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
990. The Princess of Cleves by Comtesse de La Fayette
988. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
987. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
982. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

There are many others, check out Project Gutenberg and search by title or author to find more.

Not Enjoying Reading PDFs

I started Volume II of The Albigenses that I found on Scribd and I am having a hard time reading it. I really wish I had a hard copy, but I hate to waste all the paper and ink to print the last 3 volumes, especially since I cannot see myself reading the books more than once. Fortunately the volumes get shorter as they go.

The Albigenses Volume I

I finished the first volume of The Albigenses. At its core, it is a romance between Sir Paladour and Lady Isabelle. The year is 1216 and Sir Paladour is a knight without lineage fighting the crusades against the heretics, the Albigeois. The young knight encounters Lady Isabelle when visiting her uncle, the Lord of Courtenaye. There is also a suspicious female character who is some sort of sorceress, and volume 1 ends with an encounter between her and several of the knights and other men. It will be interesting to see how the story plays out. The biggest complaint I have is the burdensome language. The story was written in 1824 and the author seemed to want a very authentic feel regarding the language of the 13th century.

Finding The Albigeneses

The Albigenses by Charles Robert Maturin (book #927) is one of the hardest on the list to find - at least in print form. So I was excited when I found what I thought was all four volumes at my local library system. What came was the first volume only, and the librarian said there is no record of the other three.
Enter Scribd - you can find all four volumes of The Albigenses on here, thanks to member marcDh. Having to read a pdf copy of three of the four volumes of the book is less than ideal, but it is better than nothing. You can find volumes 1 and 2 here.

Rating My Last 10 Books

I am going to list the last 10 books I read in order of my preference. This is no reflection on author ability, just my enjoyment of the books themselves.

1. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston
3. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
4. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
5. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
6. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
7. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke
8. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
9. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
10. Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee

Taking Another Break

After reading so many depressing, death-related books, I need another short break. However, I did make it to 16%, which means I read 10 books on the list last month. I am waiting for The Albigenses by Charles Maturin to come in from the library, so I am going to read an Anne McCaffrey book while I wait.

Elizabeth Costello

I am done with book #21, Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee, and I am glad. Elizabeth is an aging writer from Australia and the story progresses through eight speeches that are made by her and others. There was quite a bit of contemplating about death and I got very tired of it. All I can say about this book is good riddance.