Saturday, August 29, 2009

Now I've Read My ABCs

now finished: Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

I'll tell you what's now finished: my A-to-Z literary blog project! I am sort of in awe as I think about it. For so long, the thought of my next letter has been ever-present in the back of my mind if not the front, even though I have read other things while making my way from 'A' author to 'Z' author. I mean hello - I was in law school, plus there was a little thing called Infinite Jest, so no wonder my project took two and a half years instead of the initially planned one.

Once I started Emile Zola, it hit me that I was at the end. For that reason, I'm glad Therese Raquin was not terribly long. It's a quick read, and I liked it at times, although I was so disappointed in how stupid and messed up the protagonists were. I liked Francois the cat a lot -- and I loathed the stupid, whiny, adulterous Therese and Laurent.

Now that I have finished, it is time to make some decisions! First of all, this, even more than finishing law school, has truly freed me up to be able to read whatever I want next. But I always have projects in mind, and have had my ongoing read-all-the-Pulitzer winners and read-a-bio-of-every-president projects for a while that got kind of pushed aside during law school and A-to-Z.

Secondly, this blog ... almost no one reads it, and so here I am at another pivotal point where I get to ask myself why I even write it (other than for the delight of posterity when they uncover it). I started it for War and Peace and then really didn't know what to do with the blog when I finished The Book; among other things, I had to change the name from "My War and Peace blog" to "My Literary Supplement." The A-to-Z blog project gave it a new focus, and persuaded me to keep it around, because who couldn't use another place to babble about things she's reading?

Third, and perhaps most exciting: which of these authors will I read again after this little discovery process? Who was my best find? Who sucked? (Oh yes, there was one who sucked greatly.) These questions and more will be addressed next entry. So stay tuned!

4 comments:

Lauren said...

Tuned I am staying...

Paul said...

Love Zola, though I haven't read anything of his since Germinal in college. I'd like to check this one out... esp. since it has a cat...

Kim Diaz said...

I read your blog! Stick with it. You inspired me to start my own which I have not kept up with, of course. The project was going to be the evolution of literature from Homer through Cervantes, but after I read Homer I wanted to read all the literature by other authors around the Iliad and the Odyssey, and I sort of got bogged down in Fagles' introduction to the Oresteia, which is longer than the actual trilogy itself. Besides I'm still reading all my thesis crap - Anyway - I digress - I'm staying tuned!

linda said...

But a warning, Paul I'm very mad at Zola about the cat. In fact, his treatment of the cat made me think about giving the book two stars instead of three. Things end poorly for everyone in Therese Raquin - including the cat.