I love making lists, so also wishlists. I usually plan out a lot (what I want to buy and read) and because I've already planned out what I want to by 'till July, I want to show that list with you guys.

So these are the ones I really want to buy and read. I'm someone who can really stick to what she wants to buy and read, so I'm hoping this as well. "Till July I don't plane to buy any other books, but maybe I'll add one, who knows. That depends how much I can read in the upcoming months. There are also some Penguin Little Black classics coming out that I really want, to we shall see. 

What is on your to-be-buy list?

I'm reading Les Mis, I've been doing it for years now (as my record says I started back in 2012).

It's obviously an enormous book, some might call it monstrous. I don't always want to read in it, but when I do, it's actually quite nice. OK, you need to love long descriptions that don't matter, like the first seventy-something pages. They are about a Bishop, and in the musical he gets about two lines. "Would you leave the best behind?"

Gosh, that was frustrating, because it took me a week to read it.

But now, I think it's time for a little celebration! I had been warned about the -some might say - boring part about the Battle of Waterloo (1815). And it wasn't really interesting nor did it seem to be of any use for the rest of the story until the last chapter when

But, I've now finished the Waterloo part! So, I hope the story will continue now, and we will go and get Courgette (no, that wasn't her name: Claudette? Cassette? I can't remember =) )

I used to turn my nose up at the thought of reading an abridged version of any book.  Why on earth would you want to shorten an author's work and perhaps cut out important parts of the story?

Judge not, lest ye find yourself stuck 700 pages into a beast like Les Miserables with no end in sight.  Oh Les Miserables, how you mock me, sitting there on my nightstand with my favorite bookmark trapped on page 718.  Victor Hugo never met a word he didn't like.  I started reading Les Miserables in January and steamrolled through the first 640 pages by the end of the month, and then I got stuck in the midst of Marius and the June Rebellion and set it aside for a little while.  Pretty soon I got distracted by other pretty, shiny things at the library and haven't really put much effort into it since.  The story of Jean Valjean is fantastic, but muddling through the hundreds of pages of non-plot related descriptions of the buildings and battles and whatnot to get to the heart of the story is like pulling teeth (hardee har har).

I have a confession to make...I watched the most recent Les Miserables movie this weekend and it was pretty darn fantastic.  Anne Hathaway was amazing.  I had promised myself that I wouldn't watch the movie until I finished reading the book, but this weekend I caved in and watched it, and now that I know how the story ends, I feel even less motivated to finish reading it.  Sigh.

So what's a gal to do?  Should I keep on keeping on and finish it, or throw in the towel and move on?

I haven't actually read this book.  I may one day or I may not. Today I'm talking about the musical.  Izzy has been begging to see it ever since she heard about it.  I was able to avoid taking her to the movie last year, but this year we had a friend staring in a local production - making it much harder to resist.  I warned her that it is long and confusing for a kid, but she insisted and I gave in with out much fuss.  Who doesn't want a night out at the theatre?

Besides wanting to crawl up my own arsehole during the Lovely Ladies bit (Seriously, who takes a 4th grader to a musical with a catchy number about prostitutes??? Oh yeah, that'd be me!), it went remarkably well.  It was really a good local production - minus the truly horrific wigs. C'mon Zach Scott, I know you can do better! Izzy loved it and has been singing and/or humming most of the numbers ever since.  She's even teaching herself to play some of the tunes on her violin. 

I knew from our experience with West Side Story that she has a penchant for zeroing in on the most inappropriate song *and* its most inappropriate lyrics and singing them over and over and over.  In that case it was Gee, Officer Krupke and the lines 'My parents treat me rough. With all their marijuana, they won’t give me a puff'. So, of course, for the past two weeks I've been treated to Lovely Ladies all day, every day. And, really, you haven't lived until you've heard your nine year old earnestly belt out the lines (with perfect crescendo I might add), 'Don't they know they're making love to one already dead!'

That song aside, Javert is her absolute favorite character and she has declared she will be him for Halloween next year.  After watching West Side Story it was Bernardo - whom she still loves with deep intensity and I really can't blame her.  This year she was Odile (the black swan from Swan Lake).  I'm not going to overthink why she always identifies with the antagonist...

Here I find myself, at the dawn of my - well earned - holidays. With my last exam tackled I should be able to start reading a bit more again (as I'm already nine books behind my schedule for this year) and just enjoy the summer. 

I'm currently reading - I'm a bit ashamed to say - 4 books:

.

An Evening of Long Goodbyes - Paul Murray - Ireland

Les Misérables - Victor Hugo - France 

The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke - UK

Whispers Under Ground - Ben Aaronovitch - UK

Due to some circumstances (forgot a book at home, etc) ; there are now four books I'm reading. It is absolutely my intention to finish these four and more this summer...