Vanity Fair Readalong: Ten Reasons Why You Should Do It!

Monday, January 28, 2013


Get excited people! Trish of Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity and I are going to start reading Vanity Fair in the middle of February. So Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. Here are the top ten reasons you should read it with us!

1) Charlotte Bronte dedicated the second edition of Jane Eyre to William Makepeace Thackeray, seriously

2) It's on the list of 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list 

3) Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a film version of it in the 1970s. Weird. 

4) The BBC's Big Read poll listed it as one of the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" in 2003. 

5) Trish is awesome and she's co-hosting with me! 

6) It has a magazine named after it. 

7) It was published in 1847 so it qualifies for any Victorian or 19th Century reading challenges you may have committed to. 

8) The hashtag is #YoureSoVain 

9) The author's middle name is Makepeace, which is a pretty sweet name. As in, make peace with the fact that you're going to do this readalong!

10) You know you want to do it and it will be super laid back (no weekly check-ins).

We will be starting February 15th, checking in once in the middle on March 1st and posting our final thoughts on March 15th. That's about as easy and simple as it gets! 

I hope you join in the fun! We'll have an official Linky post up on February 15th when we start. 

13 comments:

Riv said...

Good luck! I read Vanity Fair last year. Actually, finished... Started waaaay back but somehow I didn't manage to get sucked in. But with some more focus it is a wonderful piece of character study, and quite different from much else that I have read.

Bybee said...

11. As you read, you'll be able to see how Margaret Mitchell read this and internalized it and came up with Scarlett O'Hara.

The ending had me scratching my head and wondering for days...

Carey said...

Great book! Thackeray had a knack for writing that was humerous yet conveyed desperation and sadness at the same time. Enjoy, girls!

Kristi said...

Ah! I for some reason thought it was in March. I was hoping to do this and The Shining and with the overlap we'll have to see. I really, really want to do it though.

And yes, I can't imagine what a Stanley Kubrick version of this would be like. Truly weird.

Mabel said...

I really need to read the last third of this novel! I love it! (So I'm savoring it -- ha!) Have fun!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

This is AWESOME!! I especially love "make peace with the fact that you're actually going to do this readalong" :)

Will you also be doing audio? I'm wondering which narrator to go with.

Can't wait to FINALLY get to this one. Thanks so much for suggesting we readalong.

Laura said...

I read Vanity Fair last summer so I'm not going to be taking part in this but I WILL be cheering you guys on because OMG I loves this book. So good choosing here guuuys :)

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Riv - That's good to know. I'm glad you enjoyed it in the end!

Bybee - No way! I will definitely be thinking about GWTW as I read it.

Carey - Thanks, I know we'll enjoy it.

Kristi - Do it! Trish and I are both doing The Shining readalong too. You should pick one to do on audio, that's what I'm doing. I hope you join in (peer pressure).

Mabel - You should savoy it in February so you can join in the fun!

Trish - I will be doing it on audio, referencing the print copy as I go. The narrator of my unabridged copy is Wanda McCaddon. I haven't started it yet, so I don't know if it's good yet. I'm so glad you're co-hosting with me!

Laura - Yay! I'm so glad you loved it. I hope you'll stop back by to see the sum up posts and tell us what you think.

Suey said...

You KNOW I'm in. Thanks for doing this. Awesome. So excited.

Amy said...

Oh, I want to! And those are all such good reasons, but I have so much I want to read in the next month. I want to do a readalong someday soon though.

Care said...

Maybe... I think I'm overcommitted. In fact, I KNOW I am overcommitted. I'm supposed to be taking a math exam in the middle of this time frame and really need to study.

JoAnn said...

You've convinced me - how can I resist the #YoureSoVain?? I'll probably do a read/listen combo, so I'm off to investigate audio versions.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Suey - Woo hoo! I'm so glad you're joining in the fun.

Amy - Well you can always go back and look at peoples' final comments on the book if you read it later this year!

Care - I know, I made the mistake of joining The Shining readalong and a Dickens Event all during February. I know that's way too much, but they all sound so fun! What in the world are your math exams for?

JoAnn - Yay! I'm doing an audio version and I have a kindle version as well that I can go back and forth with. I think it will work well.