Embarrassment, Rationale, Resolution

It took me several hours to log into this blog. I forgot which email address I used, and I tend to accumulate email addresses the way some people accumulate embarrassing childhood nicknames.

But I made it in. 'Tis a sign. I am here, and I intend to speak.

So. September. Hey.

Allow me to explain my derailment from a project on which, admittedly, I set no deadline (and therefore shouldn't be feeling too much guilt) but which I still intend to finish within a reasonable amount of time. And in this post, I will stipulate exactly what that reasonable amount of time is going to be. But before that --- an explanation.

My parting words from the last post read thus: "I won't be starting 'Invitation to a Beheading' for several days (too many other books, as usual!!), so I expect to have the next post up within a week and a half or so, containing my first impressions of that novel." The fact that there was no post is a pretty accurate depiction of my first impressions of the novel. I just couldn't get into it. I was in a headspace too free-flowing and fantastical to focus on the miniscule Kafka-esque happenings of Cincinnatus C's prison cell. (For good measure, I checked the notes I keep on my reading material, and around the same time that I started 'Invitation,' I was reading Philip Roth's 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Case in point. Though 'fantastical' may be the wrong adjective...)

Add to that the constant sleeve-tugging of an entire world of unread books, and my fixation on a single author, albeit a wonderful one, was indefinitely suspended. On the one hand, I feel slight guilt at this unannounced hiatus, but on the other hand I feel overjoyed, because ...

I met some pretty incredible books this summer. Honourable mention to the three that touched me the most - The Glass Bead Game (Hermann Hesse), American Gods (Neil Gaiman), and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte). As the summer ends, it is these three that I will remember as the defining books of my past four months.

Now, to business. A new school year approaches, carrying with it several impressive readings lists. However, I believe very strongly in the importance of finding time for recreational reading, even amongst the pages and pages of assigned readings. Thus, the Nabokov project will elbow its way in between Shakespeare and Canadian literature, asserting itself as a valid part of what I'm sure will be a tremendous learning experience this year.

So, timeline - one novel per month. Much more achievable. And I'll be beginning this month with Pnin, simply because I think it fitting to read a novel about academia as I slowly integrate myself back into that world. And I like the title.

So, if you're still around, thanks for reading. Consider the switch back on.