When Becky, Elisabeth and I launched our #WarAndPeace2022 Readalong on 5 January we were full of excitement about taking on a wonderful project: reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace a chapter a day through the year. It would be a community read which allowed us to tackle a hitherto daunting book while sharing quotes and comments along the way. Of course we had no idea that Russia would escalate matters so dramatically and tragically in Ukraine. The devastating and heatbreaking attack by Russia on Ukraine has thrown a chilling new perspective on Tolstoy’s story of war across mid-Eurasia. In the ligh ..read more

2022 is the year of Leo Tolstoy. I am involved in a global community reading War and Peace, which began on January 5, 2022 and will end on the stroke… #WarAndPeace2022 January Update ..read more

Our #WarAndPeace2022 Readalong started on 5 January and here we are already at the end of Vol 1, Part 1. It’s been a flurry of initial excitement as we start to meet some of the main characters and their families. Tolstoy cleverly positions the early scenes in large gatherings so that we can eavesdrop on conversations about the concerns of the day. The key matter on everyone’s mind is the advance of Napoleon and the challenges of preparing for war, not least the impending departure of their sons to the front. But life back home also carries on apace and we learn about the ongoing priorities of ..read more

Today sees the start of a magnificent year-long reading journey: the #WarAndPeace2022 Readalong. His feelings were those of a man who has found the beginnings of a long-sought happiness. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Vol 1, Part 2, Ch 9, Trans A Briggs I have long wished to read this epic masterwork but it had always seemed too daunting. Having discovered in 2021 the delightful concept of reading great classics of literature a chapter a day, I know that this is the year when I will finally achieve my goal of reading what some describe as not only Tolstoy’s finest work, but one of the finest in ..read more

A very Happy New Year to everyone. And what fun to be able to kick off our 2022 Six Degrees adventure on the very first day of the year. Hosted by Kate, this is a monthly meme where participants all start with the same book and choose six more linked titles. It’s always fascinating to see how the different chains take shape. We start this time with a book which fittingly opens on New Year’s Eve: Amor Towels’ Rules of Civility. I haven’t read this yet, but have heard people absolutely raving about it, so will check it out some time. My first link is to another book which opens on New Year ..read more

Happy New Year everyone! I send you my warmest wishes for every happiness in 2022. For many, like me, one sure route to happiness is through reading. As I have discussed previously on this blog, I gained a huge amount of pleasure in 2021 from reading great works of literature a few pages a day, with the result that I was able to get through books that had seemed too formidable previously. This time last year, I was embarking on a daily read Dante’s The Divine Comedy. I went on to read Quo Vadis, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and David Copperfield in the same way. And of course I also hosted the ..read more

From July 27 to 30 October this year, I had the great pleasure of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Dostoyevsky by reading The Brothers Karamazov via the #KaramazovReadalong hosted jointly with Becky and Elisabeth. Joining in with us were many other friends who took the opportunity to read, or re-read, one of the great works of world literature. It was an amazing experience. I am quite sure that I would not have got through the book without such a marvellous community of readers to hold hands with. Not that it is difficult to read, far from it. But there is something abo ..read more