READING ROUND UP: JANUARY 2019 | Jazz Blackwell
HEART OF DARKNESS by JOSEPH CONRAD
I'm not gonna play you - I didn't particularly enjoy Heart of Darkness. I know that's something of a hot take, given how classic and influential a piece of literature it is. Look, I get it, I do. The central message (i.e. there's not really any difference between native 'savages' and white colonisers) is something that's pretty obvious to the modern reader but was pretty revolutionary at the time. I like that Conrad went against the grain and actively attempted to humanise the people Marlow encounters in the Congo and I really find Conrad as a person/historical figure pretty interesting. But there's just something about Heart of Darkness in particular that I struggle to get on board with. It feels tedious and boring to me and it may be the sleep deprivation, but I found it kind of hard to follow at times. That said, I don't especially hate the novella. It's just not my favourite; overall I'd give it a 5/10.
MRS DALLOWAY by VIRGINIA WOOLF
Mrs Dalloway was a refreshing follow up in my required uni reading after Heart of Darkness, though that was hardly a surprise. I'm yet to meet a Virginia Woolf text that I don't like, and as this one is generally regarded as her most influential, I fully expected to enjoy it as well. I wasn't disappointed - I like the multi-faceted narrative here - the fact that we see the day from several different perspectives is refreshing and allows the story to stay interesting. It also feels incredibly real - I fully believe that any of these characters could've been a real-life person knocking about early-20th century London, which allows for the narrative to feel a lot more firmly grounded in realism. Definitely a good read, and one I'll probably read again in future; overall I'd give it a 9/10.
JUDE THE OBSCURE by THOMAS HARDY
This is the only book I read this month that a) was not a part of my required reading for my course and b) I had already read before. Truth be told, Jude is one of my all-time favourite classic novels, and Hardy is up there amongst my favourite authors of all time. I chose this to read after the previous two because I've been feeling under the weather for the past few weeks (hence why I've been so shitty at posting - apologies for that!), so I wanted to read something that I found easy and enjoyable to read. As with any Hardy book, Jude errs on the side of morose with some scenes being downright upsetting - so if that's not your thing you probably won't like this as much as I do. However, I would, as always, give Jude a 10/10.
PERCENTAGE OF YEARLY GOAL ACHIEVED: 6%
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