Nerd Alert!

Well if you didn’t already know that I am a member of the Nerd Community after reading this post from July, you will be thoroughly convinced after today's post.  If you even keep reading.


I feel the need to update my current reading status.  No one may care, but since it’s my blog – I can write whatever I want!  So here goes.


I am nearly half-way through David Copperfield.  It’s riveting.  You laugh – but…like I said, I am a nerd.  So I find DC absolutely riveting.  How riveting, do you ask?  Well, I bought a copy of The Help, and read the first chapter, and I LOVE IT.  However…I have set it aside, in order to finish DC first.  Because I just can’t wait to find out if David will ever win over little Em’ly…or if Steerforth will win her away from her betrothed, Ham?  Will David ever see Steerforth for the fraud that he is?  What will he choose for his profession?  What will come of Doctor Strong and his pretty, young, mysterious wife?  And what of Agnes?  Will David ever see her for the treasure that she is and go back for her?  Will her father sink into his alcoholism and will Uriah Heep take advantage of him? 


I need to know these things.  So I keep reading DC and have set the more modern, more popular, more socially acceptable The Help aside.  (For now.)

Nerd!!! 

Do you ever think of your mind as being divided into sections?  I do.  I have the “literary” section (of which I’ve just given an un-asked-for update)…the crafty section, which includes my numerous scrapbook/stamping and cross-stitch projects (for which I have little time, but still are fun to think about)…the mommy section, which is the most-used and most-exhausted section…the Bible-study section…the bloggy section…the wife section…the house-work section (which overlaps with the mommy and wife sections)…etc…

Maybe this is why I can’t remember anything?  Is this part of Multiple-Personality Disorder?  Or maybe schizophrenia?  Maybe this is why I have so many Mental Breakdown Days (MBD). 

I have to stop thinking about this now…my brain is getting tired. 

I think I’ll go read some more of David Copperfield. 

what the Dickens?

Today's post will prove my nerdiness in ways no other post has before.  But it's been on my mind and so  here goes:

For the past year, I've been on a what I've been calling a "Dickens kick" -- in other words, I've been reading nothing but the novels of Charles Dickens.  Well, pretty much nothing else.  A few weeks ago, a fellow Janeite friend loaned me a sequel to P&P (Pride & Prejudice) -- one of the many that we are addicted to -- that I managed to devour in about 4 days' time -- A Match for Mary Bennet.  This is a good, fast read -- not deep, but entertaining, and if you ever wondered about what happens in P&P after Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy, then this is one book that you would probably find fun to read.  There are so many P&P sequels out there, some better than others.  I'll have to compile a list sometime of my favorites.

But I am "meandering" (as David Copperfield says) -- back to Dickens.

On Sunday I finished my third Dickens novel, Great Expectations.  I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would.  I have a hard time finishing a novel that I am not interested in, so I thought that being from a male point of view, and without a central love story (of course I'm a romantic), I might not be able to "get into" the plot -- but I really did.  I loved seeing Pip's character develop throughout the story.  I will not talk much about it, so as not to spoil it for those who haven't read it -- truly, I knew nothing of the plot before I read it.  I hadn't even see one of the movie adaptations.  So I really enjoyed reading it and discovering everything fresh and new by myself.  I read the Penguin edition, and must say that after reading it, I didn't agree much with the author of the Introduction...but that is just me.

A year ago I started reading Little Dorrit.  This was my first Dickens novel.  I became interested in it because I saw the new BBC Masterpiece movie on PBS, starring Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen. And initially I was interested in the movie only because of Matthew Macfadyen -- of course I recognized him from the 2005 P&P movie as the proud Mr. Darcy.  I thought, "hey, it's that guy!" (because I am terrible at remembering names).  So I watched the whole series of Little Dorrit, and learned that it was actually a novel by Dickens, so then of course I had to read it.  (How did I earn a minor in English Literature and never know this?)  I loved this book!!  It took me until about Christmas to finish it (because it's loooooong and also because I don't have tons of time to sit and read) -- and even after 5 months, I was sad it was over.

In the meantime, I discovered the 2009 version of Bleak House on Netflix.  (starring Anna Maxwell Martin and Gillian Anderson)  of course realized this was yet ANOTHER Dickens novel!  So I ordered it on Amazon and had to start that right after finishing Little Dorrit.  (This is the edition I read.)  I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more than the movie (which I think is excellent).  I liked it so much that I ended up buying a book that is just essays on the different themes of the novel.  I could think about that book forever.  I just love Esther, and the tragic Lady Dedlock (I found myself thinking of ways to have improved her life for her), and really hated the horrid Tulkinghorn.  (and how genius of Dickens to come up with a horrid name for a horrid man!)  I finished up BH in May...and now we are up to speed on my Dickens craze.

Here are my finished novels:

Here are the ones I hope to read (you can see my bookmark at the beginning of Copperfield):

I just started David Copperfield and am only about three chapters in.  It is about 3 inches thick, like LD and BH, so it will take me a good 4-6 months to get through it.  The fun thing about this book is that unlike LD and BH, I have not seen any movie adaptation -- so like GE, it is all new and fresh!  I just hope that I can keep all the characters straight, because I know I would have had a much harder time with the other ones if I hadn't seen the movies first.

And so ends my saga of my Dickens journey for the past year.  Yes I am a nerd.  And I'm quite proud of it.