Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (7)

Woman Reading - anythinggauche.com

After two months of Victorian reading (June & July) I felt quite exhausted; so for August I have picked books that I really want to read, and most of them are not classics. However I still put two classics in my schedule. One of them is from Albanian’s author: Ismail Kadare. I haven’t read his works before, and this time I read the translated version (Bahasa Indonesia) of The Palace of Dreams. It’s a bit magical realism, and the main theme is the dictatorship of Ottoman Empire in 19^th century who controlled the dreams of its people. Although the theme is quite interesting, I did not find it very entertaining. Here’s my review.

Yesterday I started Germinal by Emile Zola. Zola is one of my favorite authors, and I found the first few pages were beautifully written, that I have a feeling I’ll enjoy this book. Next week will be a long holiday here in Indonesia (the moslem will celebrate Idul Fitri), so from 17^th to 22^nd I will stay at home, and hopefully I can read as much as I want to. Along with Germinal, I have planned to re-read ancient Indian epic: Mahabharata. I have the re-told version in graphic novels in my collection (two hardcover books), it’s in Bahasa Indonesia and illustrated in Indonesian folklore by a famous Indonesian comics illustrator. I have read this several times when I was a kid, and it will be nice to re-read it as an adult reader. I still remember that there are many good moral value in it, which I think worth to read for many times.

So…how about you? How is your classics reading for this week? And what is your plan for next week?