Book Challenge 9/12
I let the 2016 Book Challenge slide for quite a while, but I'm back on the case with the "book that was banned at some point":
"Candide" by Voltaire
So, I've now let the challenge slide to the point that I have four books to read in 2 1/2 months --- 2 1/2 months that also contain Yuletide and other Other Things To Do no less --- so I decided it would be prudent to streamline some of my selections.
Approaching this item on the list, I know "banned books" is often talking about school and library challenges/removals, which I'm against, mind, but I wanted to be a bit more hardcore and read something that had been outright illegal, so I consulted Wikipedia's list of Books Banned by Governments. My initial pick was "The Well of Loneliness" by Radcliffe Hall (which, if I ever do get to it, I expect to be a kind of lesbian Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the sense of a thing that was written with earnest good intentions but we've moved on so far since then that it's now deeply offensive unless you contextualize the #&*% out of it) --- but the above-mentioned decision to streamline sent me back to the list, and I knew Candide was a short, breezy book.
I actually had other reasons to pick it, too. If you look at the Project Gutenberg e-book of it, which is what I read, in some notations toward the top you will see the name "Fox in the Stars" and yes, it is the very same. One of the things I dabbled in in the aughts was scanning books for Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. For some reason I'd actually looked for "Candide" on PG, found that they didn't have it, and bought a public-domain-aged copy on purpose to scan. I must have seen snatches while scanning it, but IIRC, I didn't actually read it --- except that this was also while I was dabbling at Librivox, so while I was at it I organized a reading (::checks the date there:: wow, has it been ten years), and I performed the last five chapters myself.
Which was enough to give me the gist, to be honest. It's nice now to have finally read the whole thing, but I don't have a whole lot to say about it, except that if the phrase "Eighteenth century satirical crackfic" appeals to you, you might give it a whirl. (The "satirical crackfic" aspect even reminded me of Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship" a little, although it's been a long time since I read that, and I'm not sure I read the whole thing there, either.)
Challenge progress:
-A book published this year (2016)
-A book you can finish in a day
-A book you've been meaning to read
-A book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
-A book you should have read in school
-A book chosen for you by [a loved one]
-A book published before you were born
-A book that was banned at some point
-A book you previously abandoned
-A book you own but have never read
-A book that intimidates you
-A book you've already read at least once
Planned up next: the "book you should have read in school."
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡
"Candide" by Voltaire
So, I've now let the challenge slide to the point that I have four books to read in 2 1/2 months --- 2 1/2 months that also contain Yuletide and other Other Things To Do no less --- so I decided it would be prudent to streamline some of my selections.
Approaching this item on the list, I know "banned books" is often talking about school and library challenges/removals, which I'm against, mind, but I wanted to be a bit more hardcore and read something that had been outright illegal, so I consulted Wikipedia's list of Books Banned by Governments. My initial pick was "The Well of Loneliness" by Radcliffe Hall (which, if I ever do get to it, I expect to be a kind of lesbian Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the sense of a thing that was written with earnest good intentions but we've moved on so far since then that it's now deeply offensive unless you contextualize the #&*% out of it) --- but the above-mentioned decision to streamline sent me back to the list, and I knew Candide was a short, breezy book.
I actually had other reasons to pick it, too. If you look at the Project Gutenberg e-book of it, which is what I read, in some notations toward the top you will see the name "Fox in the Stars" and yes, it is the very same. One of the things I dabbled in in the aughts was scanning books for Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. For some reason I'd actually looked for "Candide" on PG, found that they didn't have it, and bought a public-domain-aged copy on purpose to scan. I must have seen snatches while scanning it, but IIRC, I didn't actually read it --- except that this was also while I was dabbling at Librivox, so while I was at it I organized a reading (::checks the date there:: wow, has it been ten years), and I performed the last five chapters myself.
Which was enough to give me the gist, to be honest. It's nice now to have finally read the whole thing, but I don't have a whole lot to say about it, except that if the phrase "Eighteenth century satirical crackfic" appeals to you, you might give it a whirl. (The "satirical crackfic" aspect even reminded me of Jane Austen's "Love and Freindship" a little, although it's been a long time since I read that, and I'm not sure I read the whole thing there, either.)
Challenge progress:
-A book published this year (2016)
-A book you can finish in a day
-A book you've been meaning to read
-A book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
-A book you should have read in school
-A book chosen for you by [a loved one]
-A book published before you were born
-A book that was banned at some point
-A book you previously abandoned
-A book you own but have never read
-A book that intimidates you
-A book you've already read at least once
Planned up next: the "book you should have read in school."
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡