Re-readathon: Wednesday and Thursday, plus Re-readathon challenge

Wednesday
Reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Nana by Emile Zola
Pages read: 176
Total pages read: 479
Books finished: Persuasion by Jane Austen

11.00pm
Pages read so far: 149

Why is it days off always seem to be the busiest? I have no classes on Wednesdays, so I always think I'm going to have an easy time of it but it never quite works out that way. I had to get groceries this morning, then go to an essay writing workshop and then drive home so I can vote tomorrow, and I've been pretty much studying all night. So I've actually had less time to do my own thing than yesterday. I'm sort of up to date with my uni reading though now, which is great.


I finished Persuasion today- only a day after I was supposed to, hurray! It's an odd one. I can't quite figure out how I feel about it. I think it's probably second-last to Mansfield Park in my mental ranking of favourite Austens. but there's something about it I like. The fact that the heroine is considerably older than usual, and her relationship takes so much longer to figure out- it feels more realistic somehow.

Nana is... still Nana. I like it, but it's not easy going at all. It's in French, nineteenth-century French on top of that, and it's so long. The chapters are all like forty pages too, and since I'm reading it for uni I'm thinking about themes and imagery and metaphors and historical context and.... 

Bleh.

On the Actual Reading For Fun side, I was totally intending to start on How to Be a Woman last night but I ended up picking up The Woman in White instead. God, it's so good. I forgot how delightful it is. It's so Victorian and the characters are so vivid and Marion is just the best, isn't she?

Back to Nana now for a bit, then I'm getting into bed with Wilkie Collins.

... Not in that way.


Thursday
Reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, Nana by Emile Zola
Pages read: 161
Total pages read: 640

4.50pm
Pages read so far: 38

Another busy day off here. I went voting this morning and to the library to return a book- and for once I actually left the library without checking any books out! Seriously, that's a big thing for me. Then I got the bus back up to uni. Sometimes I can read on the bus, sometimes I can't, and today was a definite no. Which was a shame, because I really could have done with that time to read more of Nana...

Anyway. Read a bit of The Woman in White over breakfast, then made a tiny start on How to be a Woman. I'm really looking forward to reading more of it later on, when I get bored of all this uni work.

Re-readathon Challenge

Bex wants to know what book we read over and over. I'm going to be fantastically unoriginal here: mine is definitely the Harry Potter series!

I was planning on taking a picture of my full collection of HP books before I came back up to uni- but nope. So, settle for the only one I have with me, my old, well-read, slightly-battered copy of Philosopher's Stone.

Actually, it was originally my brother's- he got the first three (then the only ones released) for his tenth birthday. I was a book-hungry six year old and I read them straight after he did. I loved them, and have loved them ever since. I don't know how many times I've reread the series- but on average probably about once a year. I grew up with them- I was fourteen when Deathly Hallows was released and, not to sound clichéd, but they were my childhood. They still make me laugh and cry every time. I've definitely reached for them in bad times. I'm hopefully getting 'expecto patronum' tattooed on my arm in a few weeks, as a tribute to how books and positive thinking have got me past my own Dementors. Just... Harry Potter, forever.