Gone With The Wind Read Along 2012

Gone With The Wind is one of the “scariest” novels for me. No, of course it’s not a scary novel, but the total pages did make me think twice before buying it. Will I make it all the 1448 pages of it? However, being the Pulitzer winning price, Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone With The Wind is certainly a must-read book. Thanks to The Classics Club Project by Jillian, I found that Bzee (book blogger fellow from Indonesia—like me) also put Gone With The Wind in her list. So, I asked her whether we could read this book together. Then…I have a better idea. Why not hosting a read-along? I think there are many of you who haven’t had chance (or courage J) to read Gone With The Wind, yet so eager or curious to read it, or you have read it but want to re-read it. To read it together is going to be fun!

So, this is it..The Gone With The Wind Read-along 2012 , which will take place from September 1^st to November 7^th 2012. I will host it, with Bzee as a co-host. These are the details:

The book

The following data is taken from Pocket Books, June 2008 edition, which I will read, but you are free to choose any edition (paperback or e-book):

Total pages: 1448

Total chapters: 63

Total parts: 5

- Part 1: page 3 - 191

- Part 2: page 195 - 397

- Part 3: page 401 - 717

- Part 4: page 722 - 1180

- Part 5: page 1184 - 1448

The participants

This read-along is opened internationally, anyone is welcomed to join. Participant must sign up via comment box in the participant list page. If you want to post about this read-along in your blog, you can add your post URL in comment box of the participants list page. I will update the list periodically, you may join the read-along anytime (even in the middle of read-along schedule), as long as you can catch up to finish the book by November 7^th 2012.

It’s not a must, but I would appreciate if you’d grab and put the Gone With The Wind Read-along button in your post. Or if you don’t write any post, you can put it in your sidebar, linking here, to let your followers know about this read-along.

Oh… and for my dear Indonesian fellow bloggers—before you ask the question—yes, you may post in Bahasa Indonesia, but personally I recommend you to post in English, to make it easier for other participants to read your thoughts and have discussions.

The update posts

To read along together with friends is my main purpose of having this event, so I prefer to have some discussion after finishing each part. Therefore I plan to open an update posts page during the read-along where you can share URL of your own update posts. These posts are not mandatory, you can skip it if you don’t have anything to say.

If you only want to say something brief about certain part but do not feel like writing a post, or else you don’t have a blog, you can just make a comment on the “update posts”. With the “reply” button we can have a discussion there as well.

There will be four update posts, for part one to part four, while nearly at the end of read-along I will publish a “reviews page” (there won’t be update post for part 5, we can directly write a review for the whole book).

The giveaway

This is the best part! For you who post your updates in your blog or in comment box, will be able to join my giveaway! Each update post/comment would be counted as one entry, and at the end of read-along, I will pick one (or—hopefully—more) winner. To anyone who would like to host his/her giveaway during this read-along, please feel free to contact me, so I can post about your giveaway in this blog.

Reading schedule?

There won’t be any strict schedule to read certain pages in certain days, everyone can have their own pace. Just feel free to add your link after you finish certain part, anytime. This way participants can check how others are going, or have discussion about certain parts.

The reviews

Please add the URL of your review in the “reviews page” after finishing the novel. The review post is mandatory, but if you don’t have a blog, you can use comment box to write your opinion.

Starting end of last year, I have a habit to post my classics book reviews on the birthday of the authors. It will work also for Mrs. Mitchell, whose birthday is on November 8^th. That means we can finish our reading and write the review anytime, but we will publish it only on November 8^th as a ‘special gift’ for Mrs. Mitchell.

So…that’s it..let’s conquer those 1448 pages beginning on September 1^st 2012! The Participant List is already opened now, you can sign up from today. Welcome aboard Scarlett O’Hara...  J