Serial reading recommendations?

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So:

As I've mentioned, I spent the last three months reading Dante's Commedia, one canto per day. I am three cantos away from finishing.

It has been really ideal for what I wanted -- something to read as I'm waking up in the morning, something broken into sections that take maybe 10 minutes, at most, to read.

But now that it's wrapping up, I'm wondering what I should read next. Any suggestions?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 17 July 2006 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Possibilities include:

Pound's Cantos (which seems a bit much)
The Decameron (but those stories are all very different lengths)
1001 [Arabian] Nights (although that would take 3 years...)

There are probably some old novels that would work well in that format -- maybe Don Quixote or Gargantua and Pantagruel -- I suppose Dickens would work too but I'm unsurprisingly totally uninterested in that.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 17 July 2006 18:54 (twenty years ago)

I've heard the recent Haddawy translation of Arabian Nights is fantastic. Been meaning to start it up myself.

― wmlynch (wlynch), Monday, 17 July 2006 18:58 (twenty years ago)

Hm, one volume of that (part 2) is on remainder sale at Powells. I am kind of curious about the Burton translation, though, for its curious approach to translating.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 17 July 2006 19:14 (twenty years ago)

pick a sonnet sequence

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 17 July 2006 19:18 (twenty years ago)

I've been tempted by the Haddawy. Although the Decameron's stories are variable, I don't remember any of them being crazy long. Pound's Cantos might be an apt follow-on from Dante's.

― More Tongue Feldman (noodle vague), Monday, 17 July 2006 21:18 (twenty years ago)

dashiell hammett novels, all of.

― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Tale of Genji, except for the inconsistent length of the stories/chapters. And, the boringness. Don Quixote is great fun!

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 17:38 (twenty years ago)

choose your own adveture

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 22:01 (twenty years ago)

A sonnet sequence might be a good idea! Although sonnets might be a little too short. I've never read the Shskp cover to cover. I don't really want to read, say, Berryman. Berrigan I've read a few times and is probably better in larger doses.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 22:20 (twenty years ago)

Do you want something classic? Otherwise I would recommand Bill Bryson's Notes from a big country. Each note is about three pages and I thought they were an excellent read before I went to sleep.

― Ionica (Ionica), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 06:21 (twenty years ago)

Stephen Jay Gould's natural history essays to thread!

Also, Peter Ackroyd's Canterbury Tales - it's a novel but it's broken up into semi-stand-alone chunks of about the right length, in the style of the original.

― Earwig oh! (Mark C), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 09:16 (twenty years ago)

I remember I did the same reading as Casuistry's once but with the Odyssey. I used to read a canto before going to sleep every night. So this is my suggestion...from that period, I remember I had the most vivid dreams

― misshajim (strand), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 12:08 (twenty years ago)

I tend to save Bryson for train rides.

Hey, I bet Life A User's Manual would work for this, too.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

William March's Company K, which tells about the experiences of a US Army company during the first world war. It is told in a series of small first-person sketches from each of the soldiers, including those already dead.

― SRH (Skrik), Thursday, 20 July 2006 09:09 (twenty years ago)

253?

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 20 July 2006 12:41 (twenty years ago)

I did this for Rimbaud's Illuminations. 40-odd prose poems, varying from 1 to 3 pages in length. I read one a day, it was a good way to digest them.

― Revivalist (Revivalist), Thursday, 20 July 2006 13:00 (twenty years ago)

I finished Dante today. But then I remembered that I might be doing some traveling for a few weeks in September, so it might be best to wait until I return before I start the new serial reading project. Hm, hm.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 20 July 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

Barbara Kingsolver's books of essays - High Tide in Tucson and Small Wonder - might work in a one-per-day sequence.

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 20 July 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Joan Didion?

― Damn, Atreyu! (x Jeremy), Friday, 21 July 2006 02:18 (twenty years ago)

Try some Trollope. They were mostly written in installments for magazines and so the chapter lengths are reasonably consistent.

― andyjack (andyjack), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 12:22 (twenty years ago)

the manuscript found in saragossa?

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 21:47 (twenty years ago)

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