Hernani

Today, I read more of Hernani by Victor Hugo. I think I'll just need to spend another hour with it, and then I'll move onto Chatteron.

Update

I've read two books this week and started on a third one. Glad to have started but did not get enough done. Will get more done this coming week.

For reference, the books I read were Ourika and René, both from the 19th century.

Break

As the two people who read this blog have surely noticed, I have not updated in a long, long while. This is because reading for my comps has taken a second seat to other projects I must finish before the end of the semester, namely a compte-rendu and a paper about Caribbean Slavery vs. the Shoah. Once those are done, I'll be preparing for comps again, and that should be in about 2 weeks. So until then, this will be the last update. But, watch this space, because I *will* be back!

Bonheur d'occasion=finished

I forgot to mention it in the last post, but I finished Bonheur d'occasion by Gabrielle Roy. It ended up being a pretty god book. It takes place during WWII in Montréal and the novel is actually quite interesting as their are many different plots going on that all mix together and involve the same people. Some topics discussed include pauvrété as well as love, flirtation, anger because of WWII and more. I think that it is my favorite book in this category, other than Les Belles Sœurs, of course!

Caribbean Literature

Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle by Simone Schwarz-Bart is another one of the books on my list, under the Caribbean Literature category. I am currently preparing a presentation about it for Thursday's class session and really enjoying the book. The best part is that this book is on my list!

The rest of the Carribean Litterature category is as follows. Since I'm taking a Caribbean Lit class this semester, I've already read some of them, and some of the other ones that I've not yet read will be read before the end of the semester as a part of the class.

1. Camara Laye, L'enfant noir
2. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, L'aventure ambiguë
3. Aminata Sow Fall, La grève des Battú
4. Simone SchwarzBart, Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle
5. Ahmadou Kourouma, Les soleils des Indépendances
6. Aimé Césaire, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal
7. Léopold Sédar Senghor, Poèmes, Seuil: Points (Selections) "Nuits de Sine,"
8. "Femme noire," "Le Message," "Prière aux masques," "Assassinats"
9. Léon Damas, Pigments (Selections from Kesteloot's Anthologie): "La Complainte du nègre," "Pareille à ma légende," "Trêve," "Savoir vivre," "Bientôt," "En file indienne," "Ils sont venus ce soir," "Solde"

Not bad, eh? I'll only have to read four more books from this category by myself, and with the background from this class, it shouldn't be too difficult!

Ça fait longtemps!

Well, I wasn't very motivated to read since last time, thus no blog updates. However, this is all about to change. I've been having bouts of insomnia and have decided to use those to my advantage from now on. So, from now until the comps, I will be a reading machine. I am ready to dedicate myself fully to reading and finishing this list now, and thus this blog will be updated more frequently in the coming months.

Wish me luck (all 2 of you who read this...) :)

Update

So, I didn't finish Bonheur d'occasion as planned. My new goal is to finish it by the end of the week. Tomorrow, I have a midterm exam, but after that, I should have some time to dedicate to working toward this goal. Wish me luck!

A question (for the two or three people who actually read this): how do you keep yourselves motivated when you have a big task at hand? Leave your thoughts and comments about this, or any other feedback you may have that could be useful to me.

Thanks!