Six Degrees of Separation: From Eats, Shoots and Leaves to The Golden Thread

Published on by Liz22 Comments

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme hosted by Kate over at BooksAreMyFavouriteAndBest. She sets the starting point and participants add six more titles linked in any way they choose.

This month we start with Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a great book about English grammar by Lynne Truss. I remember reading and enjoying it when it was first published. But then I am a total grammar nerd (split infinitive, anyone?), so I was definitely its target audience.

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Announcing The Brothers Karamazov Readalong #Karamazovreadalong

Published on by Liz48 Comments

“Love is such a priceless treasure that you can purchase the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people’s sins too. Go now, and have no fear.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Karamazov Brothers* (tr Avsey)

In these days of soundbites and short social media posts, the thought of reading a weighty classic novel can feel somewhat daunting. How on earth does one find the time to get through a book which is 2inches thick and nearly 1000 pages long? This year I have realised that there are two motivations that help me with this problem: the arrival of an author’s significant anniversary; and reading little and often.

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My Thoughts On Reading Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz #quovadisreadalong

Published on by Liz16 Comments

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have been participating in Nick Senger’s 2021 chapter a day readalong project. The second book in the series has been Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz and I have been reading the translation by W S Kuniczak.

From the blurb:

An epic saga of love, courage and devotion in Nero’s time, Quo Vadis portrays the degenerate days leading to the fall of the Roman empire and the glory and the agony of early Christianity. Set at a turning point in history (AD54-68), as Christianity replaces the era of corruption and gluttony that marked Nero’s Rome, Quo Vadis brims with life.

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Reflections on Reading Dante’s Divine Comedy via Tea, Toast and Trivia

Published on by Liz15 Comments

I recently wrote about my reading of Dante’s The Divine Comedy as part of Nick Senger’s readalong. My dear friend Becky very kindly invited me to talk further about this adventure on her marvellous podcast Tea, Toast and Trivia.

It is always a huge pleasure to be part of Becky’s brilliant podcast conversations and I really enjoyed this opportunity to look back on my experience of reading one of the world’s great masterpieces of literature.

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