karen.giangreco is currently reading Middlemarch.
I’m 24 years old, female, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since June 09, 2008. My reading interests include Classics, Science Fiction, Fiction, and Religion.
Books
- Middlemarch 53% complete
- Hell-Heaven finished
- The Man Who Was Thursday, a nightmare finished
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finished
-
DailyLit Holiday Reads finished
- Wikipedia Tour: The Presidents of the United States finished
- Wikipedia Tour: Fun with Physics (Really!) finished
-
Little Brother finished
- Jabberwocky finished
-
Agnes Grey finished
- Andersen's Fairy Tales finished
- Eastern Standard Tribe finished
-
Pride and Prejudice finished
- The Age of Innocence suspended
- The Canterbury Tales suspended
Posts
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #46: Childhood Favorites
Pookie! My Mom read to me from Pookie books that had been hers when she was young. My grandma also read old-school favorites like the Old Mother West Wind short stories, and Uncle Wiggly.
Another book that I was crazy for, mostly for the illustrations, was The Little Peacock's Gift. :)
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #11: Your Questions
though then again my suggestion might give rise to a bunch of spoilers...
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #11: Your Questions
What ending would you rewrite - how, why?
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #10: Dinner with Dickens?
It'd be intriguing to meet with any shy writer - Salinger's a great example, and also Emily Dickinson. On the flip side though, a couple playwrights sprang to my mind for their social bravado - witty Oscar Wilde and brusque William Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan). I'm a quiet type, so I'm happy to sit and listen to a quick thinker or showman expound on his views. Of course, to meet either would be to risk lampooning in the next popular stage satire if I made a bad impression. :)
DailyLit Holiday Reads - Very affecting
Please don't content yourself with watching the many movies of A Christmas Carol - you don't know what you're missing if you skip the actual book!
Little Brother - Couldn't read just one
You might agree or disagree with the premise and message, but this energetic and inventive story is a painless way to think through the all-too-real issues it raises, and thinking through something again never hurt anyone. The hero's spunk and ingenuity are irresistible. Every installment left me dying to know what happened next, and clicking for more.
Agnes Grey - Realistic
Agnes Grey suits her name - she's your everyday kinda girl. It's a mellow, simple read compared with the other Bronte sisters' work. Agnes doesn't brave fantastic situations or contend with unusually brilliant, eccentric, or otherwise exaggerated characters. She doesn't face any gargantuan crises. She quietly weathers life's typical ups and downs until she finds the right place for herself. It wasn't, you know, "gripping" - and quiet, passive Agnes took a little warming up to - but I was certainly rooting for her by the end. I liked how all the characters, "good" and "bad," felt like real people you might find anywhere.
Madame Bovary - Typos?
Hi Reader!
Great catch; thanks! You can also e-mail typos to support@dailylit.com
I'll fix this one up. :)
Book Requests - Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Great suggestion! As Atlas Shrugged published in 1957, it is still in copyright, but we will look into the possibility of adding it to DailyLit.
Help - Is it possible to stay authentication to www.dailylit.com
Great suggestion! We now have this feature in place. On the login screen, under the password box, you'll see a box to check if you'd like to stay logged in to DailyLit.
http://www.dailylit.com/login
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #3: Which books scare you?
I'm not the type to pick out a scary book, myself, but I was suitably chilled by a compilation of Poe short stories I had as a gift back in middle school - "The Telltale Heart" of course leaving the most lasting impression.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #1: Who would you be?
After racking my brain for the right answer, I see it's taken - I'd gladly be Anne of Green Gables as well. Would retain my love of books and tendency to daydream, but gain a good measure of spunk.
From an acting point of view, surely the part of Kate in Taming of the Shrew can't be rivalled for sheer fun.
Book Requests - More P.G. Wodehouse
Thanks for the suggestion! We had a look, and while there are several Wodehouse titles in the public domain, those you suggest are still under copyright.
However, Project Gutenberg has an impressive list of Wodehouse titles that ARE public domain. Please have a look and let us know which might be of interest:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/w#a783
Thanks!
Cory Doctorow - How about Little Brother?
Thanks for the suggestion! Little Brother is now available on the site:
http://www.dailylit.com/books/little-brother
I think I'll be reading this one myself, too!
Classics Books - The Yellow Wallpaper
Thanks for the suggestion! The Yellow Wallpaper is now available on the site. Right here:
http://www.dailylit.com/books/yellow-wallpaper
Eastern Standard Tribe - Just getting started
Hmmm - good point. I guess in large part it really is our current technology, only the jargon has changed. That is, a cellphone/gps/web surfing thing is now just a "comm." And it can be strapped to the users leg to make it easier to type with both hands.
The "counselbot" that advises Art on the legality of the documents from Junta actually seems to work - we haven't gotten quite that far in real life yet.
But you're right; it's not actually all that futuristic. And that's kind of scary. Ha, I can hardly believe we have some of the things we have now.
Eastern Standard Tribe - Just getting started
I couldn't resist the opening of this book - especially the reference to the dissection of literature in high school English classes. Five installments later I'm still having the occasional moment where I need to read something twice to make sense of the futuristic lingo, but I'm really enjoying it nonetheless.
The futuristic technology is woven into the story in a matter-of-fact way - it feels natural because the characters just assume it's there. There's none of that heavy-handed "since this is the FUTURE, we now have THIS REALLY COOL THING that does THIS..." explanatory writing that kills science fiction by constantly reminding you that it IS science fiction.
Crime and Punishment - Who translated this version
Great question - glad you enjoyed it!
There are actually two translators for this version - Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky (also spelled Volohonsky). Hope this helps!
Pride and Prejudice - The Wedding Planner
That's a good point - haha, she did reject him at first. I'd gotten caught up in the happy ending. In fact (and this speaks to the first post as well) - it's amazing how readers can get caught up in Elizabeth and Darcy's romance, and miss the lessons Austen has woven into the other marriages and relationships in the novel.
For that matter, I think she actually presents more negative marriages (and potential pairings) than positive. Only Elizabeth/Darcy, Jane/Bingley, and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner are satisfactory.
Collins/Charlotte, Wickham/Lydia, and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are all discomfiting, as would have been the pairings of Caroline/Darcy, Lady Catherine's daughter/Darcy, Collins/Elizabeth, or Wickham/Georgiana.
This backdrop of poor matches heightens the triumph of Darcy and Elizabeth. I suppose today's readers can't really appreciate how alarmingly likely unromantic marriage was for readers of Austen's time.
Pride and Prejudice - The Wedding Planner
I'm a big Pride and Prejudice fan! But, I do confess that it rattled me in high school when my English teacher pointed this out:
(STOP READING IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE ENDING OF THE BOOK)
Elizabeth condemns Charlotte when she marries Mr. Collins, because Charlotte only wants financial security, and doesn't really esteem Mr. Collins.
Elizabeth does esteem Mr. Darcy, but - lucky her! - he happens to also be the wealthiest guy in the district. So, it's all very well for her to preach that women should hold out for "the right one" - but she is never actually confronted with the decision Charlotte faced. What's Charlotte supposed to do? Continue to wait for true love (which becomes less and less likely to happen), or act quickly to evade financial hardship (which becomes more and more likely to happen)?