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Reading Challenges
Oct. 29th, 2012 07:36 pmSo, my nineteenth-century reading next year – I seek your advice. A number of schemes suggest themselves to me.
1, Nineteenth-century sf&f writing by women. I have enjoyed looking at the pretty obscure books in this category this year. There are some interesting ones I have seen referenced and would like to read next year – especially Mary Fox's *Account of an Expedition to the Interior of New Holland* (1837) because it is about Australia. The problem is that most of these books are not in print and I hate reading novel length works on screen. I would prefer to limit the number of out of print works to no more than two or three per year and I’ve already read most of the nineteenth-century female authors who are readily available in print even when I stretch the genre to include utopias.
2, Nineteenth-century SF&F in general. As well as the journey to the centre of New Holland, I could read some classics of the genre which I have not previously read. It would be a lot easier to find things in print if I went with books by men.
3, Nineteenth-century novels in general. Have I read *Crime and Punishment*? No, I have not. There’s an awful lot of literature out there that I have never read and want to get to.
4, A novel a decade. I thought of reading one novel written in each decade, what a neat system. But of course there are so many more options after the 1850s when the novel is established as the literary form par excellence. It’s a bit tricky before that.
4, Eighteenth-century literature. I always think of the eighteenth century as the lost century, because my university offered medieval and early modern literature and history (to 1700) and modern literature and history (1800 onwards) but nothing in that bit in between.
Advice?
1, Nineteenth-century sf&f writing by women. I have enjoyed looking at the pretty obscure books in this category this year. There are some interesting ones I have seen referenced and would like to read next year – especially Mary Fox's *Account of an Expedition to the Interior of New Holland* (1837) because it is about Australia. The problem is that most of these books are not in print and I hate reading novel length works on screen. I would prefer to limit the number of out of print works to no more than two or three per year and I’ve already read most of the nineteenth-century female authors who are readily available in print even when I stretch the genre to include utopias.
2, Nineteenth-century SF&F in general. As well as the journey to the centre of New Holland, I could read some classics of the genre which I have not previously read. It would be a lot easier to find things in print if I went with books by men.
3, Nineteenth-century novels in general. Have I read *Crime and Punishment*? No, I have not. There’s an awful lot of literature out there that I have never read and want to get to.
4, A novel a decade. I thought of reading one novel written in each decade, what a neat system. But of course there are so many more options after the 1850s when the novel is established as the literary form par excellence. It’s a bit tricky before that.
4, Eighteenth-century literature. I always think of the eighteenth century as the lost century, because my university offered medieval and early modern literature and history (to 1700) and modern literature and history (1800 onwards) but nothing in that bit in between.
Advice?
