Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks: January 2019

Sunday, January 27, 2019

BW5: 52 Books Bingo - Something Flufferton

Woman Reading - Jacques-Emile Blanche

I think I'm in the mood for something flufferton which just happens to be a 52 Books Bingo Category. Come join me at Flufferton Abbey as we perambulate and promenade along footpaths and around the lake, enjoy a bit of tea and scones, perhaps a few finger sandwiches, then while away the afternoon reading in the library or the garden.

Flufferton is a term coined by Amy, one of our Well Trained Mind mom's, in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern. Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction set in the regency era can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to paranormal.

The Regency era from 1811 to 1820 fell within the period of Romanticism which latest approximately from 1790's to 1850's. Romanticism in English Literature began with the poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coolridge in 1790. By the 1820's Romanticism encompassed almost all of Europe and was influenced by The Bronte sisters, French authors Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas and as well as American, Italian, Russian and Polish writers.

According to Amy:

"Flufferton Abbey is not a genre so much as a writing style. A few genres lend themselves well to being Flufferton books such as cozy mysteries, comedy of manners, romance, and historical fiction. Everyone has their own specific thing they look for when they pick up a book and plan to spend time at Flufferton Abbey but there are a number of things that are expected:

A happy ending – If you are crying at the end of the book it does NOT qualify. A Flufferton book has the couple getting together, the mystery solved, the situation put right tidily. If anyone has died during the course of the book they had better have deserved it.
Setting – A lot of the charm in these books is being able to sneak away to someplace wonderful for a visit. It’s easy to imagine that the cuppa tea we’re having isn’t really in our living room but the morning room of our manor house. Gritty? Realistic? Downtown Detroit in the 1960’s? Nope. Not Flufferton appropriate.
Characters – We love these characters. They have charm. They make us smile. We wish we knew them in real life.
Humor – A mandatory ingredient. Some books have us laughing out loud in ways that make our family worry about our mental stability. Some books have just an occasional chuckle. All books have at least some.
Re-readability - Absolutely. These are the books that we've read so many times that there are sections we've memorized."

The queen of the modern regency romance is undoubtedly Georgette Heyer. Although Jane Austen lived and wrote her books during the 1800's, Heyer created the Regency England genre of romance novels. Back when I was a teen in the 70's, Harlequin romances and historical romances were my favorite reads and I actually still have a few in my shelves, all yellowed and well read.

Check out a few of these links and have fun following rabbit trails.

Time Traveling Regency Romances

NPR's 100 Swoon Worthy Romances

The Regency Inkwell's Contemporary Romance Writers of the Regency and Victorian Period

Goodreads Popular Regency Era Fiction

Silver Petticoat Review's regency romance

Regency Reader's Top Fifty Funny Regency Romances

***************************************

Link to your reviews

Every week I will put up Mister Linky's Magical Widget for you to link to your reviews. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, add your link to the current week's post. The linking widget will close at the end of each book week.

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

BW4: Sir Francis Bacon and Essays

Courtesy of Biography.com

This week we celebrate the advent of essays as well as the birthday of Sir Francis Bacon.

Bacon was born January 22, 1561 in London, England and passed away at the age of 67 on April 9, 1626. He was a lawyer and statesman, as well as a writer. Due to his interest and work in philosophy and science, he is credited with developing the scientific method. His literary works include Essays, The Advancement of Learning, Novan Organum, and the The New Atlantis as well as other philosophical, scientific and religious and juridical works. Find out more about Sir Francis Bacon with 10 Major Accomplishments of Sir Francis Bacon and a round up of essays and articles by and about Sir Francis Bacon.

50 Of Studies –

"Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar.

They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning[1] by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Some book also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores[2].

Nay there is no stond[3] or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins (kidneys) shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for head; and the like.

So if a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathemathics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores[4] If he be not apt to beat[5] over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers' cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt."

Sir Francis Bacon was responsible for the first works in English to be named Essays. The essay gained its name as a literary form in the renaissance period with Michel de Montaigne, a french writer who called his written conversations essai which means "an attempt" or "to try". Essayist Sir Richard Steele launched the first periodical dedicated to essays in "The Tatler" in the 1700's and later on "The Spectator" which he co-authored with Joseph Addison.

In the early 1800's, many periodicals began demanding essays to fill their pages. Soon authors began producing essays such a Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, followed by American essayists Matthew Arnold, Thomas Henry Huxley, John Cardinal Newman and Robert Louis Stevenson to name a few. Among the British essayists were G.K. Chesterton, Aldous Huxley and Virginia Woolf.

Susan Wise Bauer in The Well Educated Mind suggests reading Michel de Montaigne Essays and in the Science section added in the 2016 revised versions, Sir Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.

Join me in reading Bacon, Montaigne, or the essayist of your choice during this year.

[1] Proyning = pruning

[2] Abeunt studia in mores⁼studies develop into manners

[3] Stond = hindrance

[4] cymini sectores = hair splitters

[5] Beat = get to the bottom of

***************************************************

How to link to your reviews

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

BW3: 52 Books Bingo - Something Old

Courtesy of Melusineh

Old books smell of dust and the literary smoke of history,

of writer soul and the ink of eternity. ~Terri Guillemets

I have something old on my mind, but what may be old to me, may be different for you, depending on your age. It's hilarious when I read of young characters who think their parents or friends as ancient in a story and they are in their fifties and sixties

One of our 52 Books Bingo categories is Something Old and there are a variety of ways to go with this. If you look at synonyms and words related to old, you will find - aged, ancient, vintage, old fashioned, traditional, antique, ramshackled, enduring, maternal or paternal, lasting, gothic or dusty to name a few.

So your mission is to read a book with something old which could be, but are not limited too:

Takes place prior to or is written prior to the 10th century.
Takes place in the olden days (a period of time you feel some affection for).
Takes place in the Old West.
Takes place in Old Hollywood.
Takes place in the old future.
In which the character is an old fogie or old maid.
In which the character is searching for something old.
In which a character has old fashioned ideas.
A book with a word that rhymes with old in the title.
A book with old in the title
A book with something old on the cover
A book published by Knopf Doubleday Vintage Books or Penguin's Vintage, Poetry, Classics or collections
Spell out old by reading three books that have a word on the cover that starts with O,L,D.
A dusty, antique, or vintage book which has been on your shelves for quite a while.
Pick a synonym and read a book with that word in the title.

Have fun, be creative, follow rabbit trails and see where they lead you.

************************************

How to link to your reviews

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

BW2: Whodunit Bookology - Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot located in Village of Ellezelles

Our Whodunit Bookology detective of the month is Hercule Poirot, created by Dame Agatha Christie. He was introduced to the world in 1920 in The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible, I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.

Arthur Hastings, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Poirot appears in 33 novels and numerous short stories spanning from 1920 to 1975 with his death in Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. The Village of Ellezelles is officially registered as Poirot's place of birth on April 1, 1850. The famous detective was the only fictional character to have an obituary in the New York Times. The detective traveled all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. The character appeared in many movie, television and play adaptations and has been portrayed onscreen by over 35 actors from David Suchet to Peter Ustinov to Kenneth Branagh.

There are a number of ways to complete the bookology challenge, including but not limited, to the suggestions below:

Read one book per letter in the character's first or last name.
Read one book per letter in the author's first or last name.
If you're feeling really ambitious, one book per letter in the character's first and last name.
Follow in a character's footsteps and read a book set in the country or time period of the character.
Follow in the author's footsteps and read a book set in their place or time of birth.
Read a book with the first or last name of the character or author in the title
Read the first book in the series.

You may even want to consider comparing the books to the movies. I'm looking forward to watching the most recent film adaptation with Kenneth Branagh. Currently in my stacks are: Murder on the Orient Express, The Man in the Brown Suit, and Sparkling Cyanide.

Have fun following in the footsteps of Hercule Poirot!

**********************************************************
How to link to your reviews

If you'd like to share your book reviews, you may link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have any internet or social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. Please do not add links of 52 Books or nonexistent pages. They will be deleted. If your link disappears, please email me if you need to change or update your links.

Every week I will put up Mister Linky's Magical Widget for you to link to your reviews. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, add your link to the current week's post. The linking widget will close at the end of each book week.

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019 Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Welcome to the 2019

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Also home to the Well Educated Mind, Agatha Christie,
Mind Voyages, Brit Trip perpetual challenges as well as
52 Books Bingo and assorted mini challenges

The rules are very simple

The challenge will run from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019.
Our book weeks will begin on Sunday
Week one will begin on Tuesday, January 1st.
Participants may join at any time.
All books are acceptable except children books.**
All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc.
Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2019
Books may overlap other challenges.
If you have an blog, create an entry post linking to this blog.
Sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" in the sidebar
You don't have a blog to participate. Post your weekly book in the comments section of each weekly post.
Mr. Linky will be added to the bottom of the each weekly post for you to link to reviews of your reads.

The goal is to read 52 books. How you get there is up to you. All the mini challenges are optional. Mix it up anyway you like.

**in reference to children books. If it is a child whose reading it and involved in the challenge, then that's okay. If an adult is doing read aloud with kids, the book should be geared for the 9 - 12 age group and above and over 100 pages. If adult reading for own enjoyment, then a good rule of thumb to go by "is there some complexity to the story or is it too simple?" If it's too simple, then doesn't count.

2019 Rambling Roads Reading Adventure

Lady Enchanted by Josephine Wall

Happy New Year and welcome to another round of Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. Our reading quest began ten years ago and during that period of time, our armchair travels have taken us all over the world and back again. This year we are going to ramble and rove around the globe, follow multiple rabbit trails. Whether you are a fan of fiction or nonfiction, like to juggle multiple books at once, love to reread favorite authors over and over, explore different genres, new to you authors, or stick to the tried and true, this is the place for you.

I know what you're thinking. The goal is to read 52 books so you'll aim to read at least one book a week. However, there are books that take longer than a week to read. And there are some books that can be read in two or three hours. I don't want anyone to sacrifice quality for quantity by reading a short book just to make the goal for the week. Read what you want, explore and dive into those longer books, engage your mind and soul and don't worry. Do your best, challenge yourself and see what happens.

To aid us in our reading adventures, we have several optional challenges to entice you. Follow in the footsteps of bookish detectives, sleuths, and private eyes with our spelling and reading challenge,  Whodunit Bookology. Traverse different times, places, or spaces with another round of 52 Books Bingo. Delve into the world of music and silence with The Sound of Silence.

We have a few perpetual challenges including our Brit Trip Adventure along the Roman roads of England. Snoop along with  Agatha Christie or dig into great books with Susan Wise Bauer's Well Educated Mind or the Nobel Prize Winners. Explore the world of science fiction and fantasy with Mind Voyages or Feed Your Muse with poetry, essays and short stories. Read alphabetically with Alphabet Soup, or answer the call of those Dusty and Chunky books sitting on your shelves.

Plus I'll introduce various mini challenges throughout the year to tickle your reading taste buds. As always, you may choose to travel along with me or follow your own path.

Are you ready to go? Grab your backpacks and a new pair of walking shoes, a map to all the bookstores and libraries around the world and get ready to ramble as we wander through the centuries and continents and across the seas and outer space.

I'm headed to the other side of the world to the far eastern shores of the continent of Asia where traditionally we start out the year with Haruki Murakami, a fan favorite of many 52 Book a Week readers. I have Kafka on the Shore and Killing Commendatore as well as a dusty and chunky book - James Michener's The Source  -  which has been calling my name for quite a while.

“I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can't really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, 'If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we'll talk.' All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don't want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.” ― Ray Bradbury

My shelves are overflowing with dusty books. They kept having babies, because I like to keep my books rather than use the library. I amused myself last year reading way too many ebooks. So my plan this year is I can only read one ebook for every two physical books. Plus I'm extending my book buying ban which includes those tantalizing freebie virtual books, through June. New releases from your 'I can't stand it, they published a new book in the series, what am I going to do, he or she is my favorite author' are certainly allowed. *grin* Join me in clearing your tbr shelves and see how long you can go without buying a new book.

~Cheers to a wonderful new reading year~

***************************************************************

For the first week, link to your I'm participating post, reading plans or to your most current review. Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mister Linky's Magical Widget for you to link to your reviews. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, add your link to the current week's post. The linking widget will close at the end of each book week.

Pages

Sunday, January 27, 2019

BW5: 52 Books Bingo - Something Flufferton

Sunday, January 20, 2019

BW4: Sir Francis Bacon and Essays

Sunday, January 13, 2019

BW3: 52 Books Bingo - Something Old

Sunday, January 6, 2019

BW2: Whodunit Bookology - Hercule Poirot

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019 Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

Welcome to the 2019

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

2019 Rambling Roads Reading Adventure