In August I continued my recent trend of not managing to read at all for the first week or so. 😒 Looking back on the month, I enjoyed a lot of these. Will have to give more thought to decide on the favorite.
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Light In August | 
In August I continued my recent trend of not managing to read at all for the first week or so. 😒 Looking back on the month, I enjoyed a lot of these. Will have to give more thought to decide on the favorite.
so-soI found my enjoyment of this mixed. I loved Lena, the pregnant teenager. And Joanna, and Gail Hightower. But Faulkner got carried away with mixed race Joe Christmas, and he is most of the book. I‘m ok dealing with a racist Mississippi of 1932, as that‘s the thing it was. But it‘s uncomfortable to see no criticism of that in the text. Hence my rating of a major classic. (The pasted on cartoon cover came with the book)
My cover of Light in August, one of some 200 books a downsizing neighbor (and published poet) gave me almost 20 years ago. It‘s a very beat up Modern Library edition without a date, but with a 1950 copyright on the introduction. I‘m finally about to start.
August was a pretty decent month of reading. I thought I would get a bit more read this past month, but I think that the trip to Alberta and the tiredness from radiation treatments played a huge factor in not getting as much read as July. #august
pickI just read Light in August for the second time. The first time was in college. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Joe Christmas. He was very unlikeable but somehow Faulkner mad me sympathetic to all he‘d been through. Light in August is written in a dark southern tradition. Patience to all those who don‘t get along with literary fiction. Brilliant writing and a plethora of interesting characters major and minor. It‘s a must read.
Gonna start this tonight, it will be my 3rd time but I know I‘m gonna love it. 😊😍
pickThis is my fifth Faulkner ever, also of this year. I found this one to be pretty readable and I liked the focus on fewer characters. For me it ended 50-75 pages before the end and it was excruciating to keep reading after that point. ⤵️
This is part of my #audiobook project which is my attempt to listen to at least 12 of the audiobooks that I have collected since 2014. I'm almost complete with all the books from that first year. Just one left.
Faulkner is long winded and even after almost 8 hours into the audiobook, I'm not sure that his writing style is suited for audiobooks.
#currentlyreading #currentlylistening
So good already
"It is because so much happens. Too much happens. That's it. Man performs, engenders, so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything. That's it. That's what is so terrible. That he can bear anything, anything."
Light in August, Faulkner
Light in August is not an easy read. Faulkner tells the tragic story of the racially ambiguous Joe Christmas. Faulkner is especially interested in the destructive force of religious dogmatism.
panJoe Christmas lived a life of brutality and betrayal and died the same way. Brutality and inevitability seem to be the themes. I didn‘t enjoy this one. It took forever to finish.
Taiwan has the most generous and lovely people on the planet. A beautiful place. I would suggest not reading this book while you are there. It is a slog. Not his best.
I buy so many books at library sales. These were all #librarybooks once. #riotgrams
Good grief.....
My next random classic. At least the print is bigger in this one. I think my eyes were temporarily stuck on crossed after tiny print of Don Quijote.
Another personal milestone reached in my #MtTBRchallenge. "Light in August" was my 14th out of 18 book list, which means my challenge is 75% complete! It also satisfied the $Oprahbookclub prompt for #Readharder2018, but I don't think anything left on my list can also be used for that challenge. Luckily, I'm far enough ahead that I can read other books without feeling guilty any longer for cheating on my #TBR. Not that it stopped me. ??
pickThis book is not for the faint of heart. It's a real commitment and a challenging endeavor to read this particular Faulkner novel. Not everything worth reading is enjoyable. It will affect you. It's worth the pain, especially in a time in which racism is rampant and validated by the current administration in this country.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review by Denise: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2251399036
#MtTBRchallenge #Readharder2018 #OprahBookClub
This passage is written from the perspective of the townspeople, not the 3rd person narrator. The man described is an elderly man who is filthy and a raving lunatic. I found it interesting that the white people of this town would believe that black people would think God was a a crazy white guy they couldn't understand.
Faulkner's depiction of bigotry/racism is really biting commentary, and makes the reader wonder how much has really changed.
Half way through this difficult read, and this passage struck me ... it seems as if the character, a Yankee abolitionist who moves to the South during the Reconstruction, is combining the concept of "white guilt" with the Christian doctrine of "Original Sin." Originally published in 1932, it is passages like this that make Faulkner so controversial to this day.
May Update
4 books read this month, 3 fiction, all print, one steampunk, one classic sci fi, one famous autobiography, all #MtTBRchallenge
A Moveable Feast #readharder #posthumous
The Sirens of Titan #readharder #classicofgenre #GAR
Glaciers #RtC
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume Two #steampunk
In Progress: Light in August #readharder #OprahBookClub #MtTBRchallenge
"... scared into telling the truth ... tortured into telling a lie ..."
Faulkner can be hard to read, but his uncanny insight into the human condition makes the effort worthwhile.
"when anything gets to be a habit, it also manages to get a right good distance away from truth and fact."
Reading this book now, when every day we are reminded that the current administration in the US has normalized bigotry and validated the blatant racism of supporters, when a major chain shuts down all-its stores for "sensitivity training" after two men were harassed for sitting while black, when an actress calls a black woman an ape and sees nothing wrong with it, is going to be difficult. I literally cringed at this passage of casual dialogue.
Butterbeer latte and Faulkner. Why not?
I own a lot of Faulkner‘s novels, including #Light in August, but I‘ve only read Go Down, Moses for one of my classes in college. #noteworthynovember
I have not been doing such s great job with photo challenges of late but how could I not pull out some #black books in honor of one of my favorite bands. I referred to Eddie Vedder as my future husband for pretty much all of high school and college and this song brings back a lot of memories. #rocktober
A few #red books from my hardback collection. #octoberlibrary17 @librarylooter @anniekslibrary
He thought that it was loneliness which he was trying to escape and not himself. But the street ran on: catlike,one place was the same as another to him. But in none of them could he be quiet. But the street ran on in its moods and phases,always empty: he might have seen himself as in numberless avatars,in silence,doomed with motion,driven by the courage of flagged and spurred despair;by the despair of courage whose opportunities had to be flagged
August!
13 books read:
2 for ToB summer challenge
3 nonfiction
1 YA
2 poetry
3 1001 list
10 women authors
4 in translation
2749 pages
Cutting it a bit close this time but here it is!
Thanks all for your wonderful #jubilantjuly posts and hope to see you for #anditsaugust
It reminds me of summer because I read it every August. I love its characters so much I miss them through the rest of the year. It's functional, not fancy. #sweetsummerstack
The result of several recent book hauls! I had to get another shelf! Sorry, not sorry. 💗📚
So full disclosure...this is not MY #shelfie, but one I took at Faulkner House Books in New Orleans of a bunch of 1st edition, rare and signed Faulkner books. So it's my dream #Shelfie....
#riotgrams
