The 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge continues! (scroll down for more info)

I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year as part of a fundraiser for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network).

I’ve just finished the 5^th work, 25 Selected Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe…only 45 more books to go!

Next up is….The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)

Scroll down for more info on the 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. Most of us know Hawthorne from having to read The Scarlet Letter in school. Many of us also know Hawthorne from Twice-Told Tales, which I found in an abridged edition when I was in grade school. His first book was Fawnshawe, published anonymously. Hawthorne was part of the Romantic movement, which involved a focus on emotions (including the writer’s), a veneration of nature, and an acceptance of the supernatural, placing much stake in imagination. The Romantics were looking for an aesthetic experience, art true to their inner selves. They rejected Rationalism, Neoclassicism, industrialization, organized religion (Calvinism in particular), rigidity of any kind, and established social conventions and (to a lesser extent) niceties. Besides the works mentioned, Hawthorne is also known for his novel The Blithedale Romance. When he died, his mourners included friends such as Herman Melville (who dedicated Moby-Dick to him), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

The 50 in 52 Project is a fundraiser for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network). I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19). I’m asking folks to sponsor me by pledging a $ amount per book I read. Sponsors don’t have to pay anything until after the Challenge finishes (6/1/19). To sponsor me, click HERE. For more info and a list of the 50 books, go to the top posting on the official 50 in 52 Project Facebook page.

Click HERE for links to all of the 50 in 52 posts on this blog.

#50-in-52

#RAINN

The 50 in 52 Project Quote of the Day!

“How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unlovliness?—from the covenant of peace, a simile of sorrow?”
from “Berenice” by Edgar Allan Poe

What is the 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge?

I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19) to raise money for RAINN.org (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network).

I’m asking folks to sponsor me by pledging a $ amount per book I read. You choose the amount. You don’t have to pay until after 6/1/19. To sponsor me & make a pledge, click HERE.

For more info, see the post pinned to the top of the 50 in 52 Project Facebook page.

Click HERE for links to all the 50 in 52 posts on this blog.

Thank you!

#50-in-52

#RAINN

I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year as part of a fundraiser for www.RAINN.org.

I’ve just finished the 4^th book, Wuthering Heights…only 46 more to go!

Next up is….25 Selected Short Stories (1832-1849) by Edgar Allan Poe

The 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge continues! (scroll down for more info)

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809 and died in Baltimore in 1849, but Philadelphia (here comes a swell of hometown pride) is home to the Poe House. Poe sold his work to magazines, such as the Saturday Evening Post and Godey’s Lady’s Book. Poe only published one novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, although he did release a collection of poetry and one of short stories during his lifetime. As this is a list of fiction, I’ll be focusing on his short stories. To get the full flavor and range, I started to put together a list of “greatest hits,” per se, and Edward Pettit of the Rosenbach Museum helped me finish it. Often labeled the master of the macabre, he is so much more than that. One book, Papers on Poe: Essays in Honor of John Ward Ostrom, puts forth arguments for him as being either an existentialist or a transcendentalist (or even better, a psycho-transcendentalist). Poe’s influence on popular culture continues to be felt and even his name conjures images of the gothic. *You can find a list of the 25 stories are posted at the bottom of this post.

The 50 in 52 Project is a fundraiser for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network). I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19). I’m asking folks to sponsor me by pledging a $ amount per book I read. Sponsors don’t have to pay anything until after the Challenge finishes (6/1/19). To sponsor me, click HERE.

For more info and a list of the 50 books, go to the top posting on the on the 50 in 52 Facebook page.

Click HERE for links to every 50 in 52 post on this blog.

List of Poe stories (in chronological order):

“Metzengerstein”

“Ms. Found in a Bottle”

“Berenice”

“Morella”

“Ligeia”

“The Man that Was Used Up”

“The Fall of the House of Usher”

“William Wilson”

“The Man of the Crowd”

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

“A Descent into the Maelström”

“The Oval Portrait”

“The Masque of the Red Death”

“The Mystery of Marie Roget”

“The Pit and the Pendulum”

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

“The Gold-Bug”

“The Black Cat”

“The Premature Burial”

“The Purloined Letter”

“The Imp of the Perverse”

“The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”

“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”

“The Cask of Amontillado”

“Hop-Frog”

The 50 in 52 Project Quote of the Day

“Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend – if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own.”

Cathy in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

What is the 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge?

I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19) to raise money for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network).

I’m asking folks to sponsor me by pledging a $ amount per book I read. You choose the amount. You don’t have to pay until after 6/1/19. To sponsor me & make a pledge, click HERE.

For more info, see the post pinned to the top of the 50 in 52 Project Facebook page.  or see the first 50 in 52 blog post. Click HERE for links to all the 50 in 52 blog posts.

Thank you!

PS The picture is a rendering of Emily Brontë.

#50-in-52
#RAINN

The 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge continues…
I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year as part of a fundraiser for www.RAINN.org.

I’ve finished the 3^rd book, Jane Eyre…only 47 more to go!

Next up is….Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847),

(Scroll to the bottom for more info on the fundraiser.)

Emily was born in 1818 in Northern England. Her sisters are the now-famous authors Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Anne (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). Emily is considered to be one of the giants of Victorian era literature, even though she only published one novel, Wuthering Heights, which came out a year before she died of tuberculosis. She was 30-years-old. Like her sisters, Emily used a pseudonym, Ellis Bell. The novel polarized critics at the time, as its depictions of class struggle, gender inequality, and religious sanctimony flew in the face of Victorian conventions and ideals. In the book, Emily questioned the very definition(s) of morality. The character, Heathcliff, always fascinated me. His transformation from a dark romantic figure into a vengeful ghost of a man is mesmerizing—and more complicated than it sounds. SIDE NOTE: Kate Bush’s wonderful 1^st single was “Wuthering Heights.” I’ve posted the video below the book cover photo.

The 50 in 52 Project is a fundraiser for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network). I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19). I’m asking folks to sponsor me by pledging a $ amount per book I read. Sponsors don’t have to pay anything until after the Challenge finishes (6/1/19). To sponsor me, click HERE. For more info and a list of the 50 books, go to the top posting on the official 50 in 52 Project Facebook page.

Click HERE for a complete list of 50 in 52 Project blog posts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs

To my 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge sponsors (and to those thinking about sponsoring me)…

I would like to make a substitution on my list of 50 books. When I decided to start this fundraiser for www.RAINN.org, I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 – 6/1/19). Making the list took forever. Eventually I had to make rules: just modern works of fiction, from the year 1800-present, and only books that were written in English. (I’d never be able to narrow down the list if I included translated literature! Maybe for the next Reading Challenge!)

I wanted my list to include various forms of fiction. Although most of the list is made up of novels & novellas, I also included uncollected short stories (Poe), a short story collection (Carver), 2 plays, and 1 graphic novel. But there was one form I ignored: screenplays. I tried to include one, but at the time it just didn’t seem to fit. Having written a screenplay, it bugged me that I didn’t have at least one on the list. So what I would like to do is take off Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and add Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. I’m sad to lose Ishiguro, but the list feels more complete with Shakespeare in Love.

If any of my sponsors object to my substitution, please let me know!

Michael-Patrick Harrington

To sponsor me, go HERE.

For more info, please visit the 50 in 52 Project Facebook page.

Click HERE for a list of links of to every 50 in 52 Project Reading Challenge blog posts.

#50-in-52
#RAINN

The 50 in 52 Project Quote of the Day

“If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind that blows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey us.”

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818)

I NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE!
I challenged myself to read 50 books in 1 year (6/1/18 to 6/1/19) as part of the 50 in 52 Project Reading challenge fundraiser to benefit RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network).

I’m asking folks to sponsor me & pledge a $ amount per book read (any amount). You’ll receive an invoice after 6/1/19 based on the number of books I read. To sponsor me, click HERE.

Please visit the 50 in 52 Facebook page (www.facebook.com/50.in.52.Project) and click LIKE.
The post pinned to to the top of the page has tons of info, as well as the list of my 50 books.

Click HERE for links to all of the 50 in 52 Project blog posts.

#50-in52-Project

#RAINN