As I Lay Dying | 
pickI feel like I could read this epic every year and never tire of it. I always learn something new. I love the way he writes, I love the way he writes, I love it! This was a reread, and I had forgot how rich it is, but I didn‘t forget how much soul it has…. It‘s challenging in all the right ways…you have to go back and unpack it, many sections, but it‘s worth it.
pickI can‘t capture this. It's just doing a whole lot of stuff, from many different approaches, and it all works. Sometimes it‘s really funny. But mostly I was absorbed. I was reading at a crawl, slowly wading through words that were demanding to me that I slow down and wade through them, and experience them, think of their sound. It‘s just…something. In some non-emotional but deep way I find myself very attached to this. Quite a book.
Whoa! Just getting going on this
That‘s what they mean by the womb of time: the agony and the despair of spreading bones, the hard girdle in which lie the outraged entrails of events
pickI actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I liked the idea for the plot, but it wasn't executed well. There was a focus on the ramblings and repetitions of the characters that didn't work to move the story forward. Overall it kept me interested and wishing that it made a bit more sense, but I'm glad I read it.
#pop23 #readyourtbr
pickFunnier than when I read it in college. What a classic.
Vardaman: My mother is a fish.
panidk if you could actually say i read this book bc i mostly just read spark notes. SO confusing, like if this is faulkners easiest book i never want to read him again. ending is kinda silly tho
panI was bored, didn‘t really follow what was happening, and didn‘t like the writing style. There was a lot of repetition of dialogue. I learned more about some of the things that happened in the story from the reading guide after I‘d finished than I figured out while actually reading the book (when I get bored, I skim and take in very little). Classics are hit or miss for me. This was my first Faulkner; I wont read more by him.
so-soA bizarre and heavy book. The story is told by different members of the Bundren family plus a few of their neighbors and each personality vastly different from the other. It took some reading between the lines and deeper thought to understand what was going on most of the time but by the end it came together.
Pray for me I‘m about to read Faulkner.
so-soI found this a tough read, both from the point of view of the dark subject matter and actually understanding the book! It‘s written from 15 different POVs, with many being an unintelligible stream of consciousness, and also including lots of slang and Southern vernacular.
I‘m hoping that the course I‘m doing that includes this book will explain it a little more to me!
Today‘s #bookmail…. This is serious stuff! I‘ve signed up for a short course entitled ‘The Modern American Novel: An Introduction‘.
As well as these 3 we‘ll be reading the tagged book, which hasn‘t arrived yet, plus The Great Gatsby, which is the only one I own and have read (several times) before.
I‘m hoping to read these for ‘pleasure‘ before the course starts at the end of September when I‘ll have to analyse them to death!
I had an impromptu visit to Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner! It was beautiful and I love this tree! The inside was closed, but will reopen soon. The link below tells the story ❤️📚📖
https://www.rowanoak.com/about/history/
One of my favorites! I think I've read this at least 5 times over the years.
panIt‘s good that this was not the first Faulkner that I read. I hated it as much as I loved “Absalom, Absalom”. Hate is a strong word. I guess I was so disappointed. Lots did not work for me. It was so dark on different levels: the theme, the environment of the story, the characters. I did not like the repetitive sentences, probably a meaning I don‘t understand. I kept waiting for the point of it all. I certainly must have missed something.
I seldom read the same author in a row but I was having such a major book hangover after “Absalom,Absalom”. We‘ll see how it goes.
pickWhen it rains too much in the south, roads disappear and bridges are swept away. How funny to read this novel right after the most rain my county has ever had in one day, because that's the background of the story too - the wife/mother dies and her family struggles to take her body to her family's resting place, to honor her wishes. First they have to get the body down a mountain, over a swollen rushing river, and through the "town."⤵️
It's like it ain't so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.
People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
Son builds #coffin outside window while mom lays dying. She dies and they need to take her to cemetary 2? days away. But a storm washes out the bridge and this becomes a journey of many days with a stinking rotting body in the back of a wooden wagon. A classic by William Faulkner. Haha
Is #Scarathlon photo challenge open to everyone?
#chillingphotochallenge
@Clwojick @TheReadingMermaid @NataliePatalie
Alrighty??
so-soPrepare yourself: the further in you get to As I Lay Dying, the more Faulkner‘s writing sounds like drunk texting. That‘s my tl;dr summary: Faulkner drunk texts about the death and burial of a Southern woman and her crazy family. There are fifteen different narrators, so make sure you pick up an edition that uses the narrator's name as the chapter heading! Full review here: http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/as-i-lay-dying-william-faulkner/
@ferskner William Faulkner‘s gravesite is located in Oxford Memorial/St. Peters Cemetery just off the square. It‘s a very nondescript site (so you didn‘t miss much). In fact, I just discovered it a few years ago myself when my kids and I took our own Faulkner tour (25+ years after I married and moved away from MS). I always find it interesting to see the final resting places of authors I‘ve enjoyed.
Loved visiting Faulkner House Books on my recent trip to New Orleans. Such an adorable bookstore located in William Faulkner‘s former house. #bookstorelove #travels
There are days where I really love my job, yesterday was one of those days. I got to spend 25 hours in New Orleans and I made the most of my time, going on a self guided literary tour. My first stop was Faulkner House Books. A bookstore in William Faulkner‘s former residence. So many wonderful books, many from local NOLA authors, and I bought a new copy of the mentioned book. #bookstorelove #travels
pickThere is so much to say about this southern gothic novel.. and yet I can‘t find the words. I truly felt like I was on this family‘s journey the whole way rather than an observer. The dark humor won me over right away, the dictation challenged me in the best ways and the scenery descriptions didn‘t leave out any of the 5 senses.. I feel like a more well rounded reader after finishing this story. ⚠️Remainder of the review is in the comments⚠️
🤪📚❤️🤘🏻
Currently switching back and forth between reading William Faulkner‘s As I Lay Dying and The very last book in The Hunger Games! What are y‘all reading? #asilaydying #willaimfaulkner #thehungergames #mockingjay #teampeeta #katniss #lit #weekendreading #literary #bookmeme #meme #memes
This classic #southern #gothic was written in 1930. William #Faulkner wrote it in 6 weeks while working the night shift at a power plant! I‘m super excited for this read because #WillamFaulkner wrote my all time favorite short story. “A Rose for Emily” that specific story inspired me to write some stuff of my own so I‘ll always hold it near and dear to my heart.
#Chickens were mentioned right off the bat so I had to feature them in this picture.
pickThis is only the second Faulkner I‘ve read, and it was quite a journey. The stream of consciousness writing is so difficult at times, plus the southern vernacular can get tricky. I can‘t say I loved it, but what a tale he tells. It‘s been on my TBR shelf for far too long.
Two down, and three others are within “striking distance”. Loving The Hand That First Held Mine and The Wonder. #24b4Monday
Look at my shiny new Kindle case. Purple 🥰😍 and now to read some Faulkner while taking a break from writing.
As I Lay Dying is one of Faulkner's funniest novels, though It's pretty dark humor (think Coen brothers). There are a dozen different narrators creating a cacophony of voices. As I Lay Dying explores themes of madness, agency, family, and the failure of language.
so-soStream of consciousness. That's what they call this kind of writing. River of bullshit is what I got. A highly influential work from one of the best writers of the twentieth century. That's what they say. I found the incoherent babbling of illiterate country folk very dull, but I did hate them all by the end so I suppose that's something.
pickAmazing book. Very disturbing. If you haven't read it yet: it is not very long, so it's worth trying even if you don't like it or find it difficult.
I've realised recently how much I love it when a comic moment breaks up an otherwise serious book.
Above: original Penguin cover - the best one I could find by far.
Next step: watch movie directed by James Franco.
#lifetimereadingplan
pickI can‘t explain why I chose this for summer reading. I‘d never tried Faulkner before - the writing is beautiful and harsh. The words reminded me of my Virginia grandmother - I can hear her saying “I‘ll be durned.” Not a feel-good book by any means but I‘m glad I experienced it.
panIt was a mild, rainy day in my neck of Texas—so what better to do than read? People say so many great things about this book—and it is interesting and engaging—but I finished it hating nearly every character in it. Especially Anse, the patriarch of the family. To me, the story was just a long way of saying “sin begets sin”. Maybe, in twenty years, I‘ll reread it and find a deeper appreciation for it. Until then: 🤬
Day four of #10booksthatchangedme
A whole lot of Faulkner in my life...
panFirst book club choice - tough going, lots written in dialect and difficult to work out what was actually happening in the story.
pickThe unfolding of these characters through the eyes of others. The perspective changes really make this book unforgettable.
A grim hard travel, as the corpse decomposes the family rots with it.
I like that no one is relatable or really good morally, everyone in this book is twisted and that makes it so much more interesting.
8.5/10
So having just found out about the #litsyAtoZ challenge yesterday I tried to write down my books so far this year and was actually shocked to see how evenly distributed across the alphabet I‘ve been so far! Just need to think of something for V, X and Y but I honestly can‘t think of anything, hmu if you have any recommendations!
Taking a chance on my dad‘s favorite today #faulkner
Like our rivers, our land: opaque, slow, violent: shaping the life of man in its implacable and brooding image.
Excited for my first post on here! Making the most of my vacation to America by trying to read some great American novels. I‘m loving Faulkner, and loving this wonderfully battered old university library copy. Like ten different people have written in it and underlined things, it makes me feel like I‘m constantly having a conversation with all of them.
pickTried to read this in High School, and though I finished the book I did not at all enjoy it. Like so many others I‘ve been revisiting, I loved it now. It‘s a poignant and darkly funny drama, almost heartbreaking. Some of the characters I loved to hate. Others feel so vividly real that I couldn‘t put the book down. Beautiful! I highly recommend this. Go back to the classics you couldn‘t enjoy before- slow down and see their beauty.
