(For anyone who wants to read along but doesn't necessarily want to do it
on Facebook.)
Going by the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (776 pages), we have all agreed to do our level best to read through the top of p. 38 by next Monday. (Last sentence = "Well, thought Pirate, guess I'll go back in the Army...") If you have a different edition, it's roughly 4.8% of the way in. Our consensus was to shoot for 5 pages per day/35 pages per week.
I'm not an ELA teacher but I've had the benefit of working with many many good ones, so I've suggested that while you read, look for 1-2 sentences/ passages/ parts/ whatever that either impress you (*), confuse you (?), or utterly blow your mind (!). On the Facebook group we are then posting/responding to our */?/!, so if you want to post yours in comments here, go for it. Or, hey, if that doesn't work for you & something else does, cool! Do that & tell us about it.
I've been told not to worry too much about trying to catch and understand every single reference in the book because you will literally spend your entire life chasing down references & background information. If you're planning to read along, I would just prepare yourself to sometimes go, "Hm, ok, don't know what that was about. {shrug}" and move on. This isn't a Pynchon PhD program we're doing, here!
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***Le Reading Schedule***
(Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition, 776 pages. It doesn't break up perfectly into 35-page chunks but each week's section is generally within 5-10 pages of 35.)
May 28-June 3: pp. 3-38 / 4.9% (“Well, thought Pirate, I guess I’ll go back in the Army…”)
June 4-10: pp. 39-74 / 9.5% (“No sleep tonight. Probably no chance even to catch a cup or cigarette on route. Why?”)
June 11-17: pp. 74-116 / 14.9% (“…her hair not bluntly Dutch at all, but secured in a modish upsweep with an old, tarnished silver crown…”)
June 18-24: pp. 116-147 / 18.9% (“The thought of him lost in the world of men, after the war, fills me with a deep dread I cannot extinguish…”)
June 25-July 1: pp. 147-180 / 23.2%(End of Section 1)
July 2-8: pp. 181-208 / 26.8% (“Gingerly he steps across the sill then, not sure if it’s door or high window, inter her deep room.”)
July 9-15: pp. 208-247 / 31.8% (“…and follows Slothrop’s cab out the winding dark road to Raoul’s party.”)
July 16-22: pp. 247-282 / 36.3% (End of Section 2)
July 23-July 29: pp. 283-319 / 41.1% (“Gearin’ up fer thim Rooskies, And Go-round Number Three….”)
July 30-Aug 5: pp. 319-365 / 47% (“But in the Zone, hidden inside the summer Zone, the Rocket is waiting. He will be drawn the same way again….”)
Aug 6-12: pp. 365-398 / 51.3% (“Make a note of that,” orders Tchitcherine. They both start cackling insanely there, under the tree.)
Aug 13-19: pp. 398-440 / 56.7% (“If she lived, the ring would be good for a few meals, or a blanket, or a night indoors, or a ride home….”)
Aug 20-26: pp. 440-464 / 59.8% (“But where is the electric voice now that will ever call for him?”)
Aug 27-Sept 2: pp. 464-500 / 64.4% (“…tears that will add nothing to the whipped white desolation that passes for the Oder Haff tonight….”
Sept 3-9: pp. 500-534 / 68.8% (“You just connected. Can we go after her, now?”)
Sept 10-16: pp. 534-567 / 73.1% (“…inclined over a Sterno fire tending a simmering pot, is that of Major Duane Marvy.”)
Sept 17-23: pp. 567-601 / 77.4% (“…with a dusty chintz drape she’d received from a cousin who had never understood her taste.”)
Sept 24-30: pp. 601-628 / 80.8% (End of section 3)
Oct 1-7: pp. 629-669 / 86.2% (“The colonel, with a last tilt of his head, exposes his jugular, clearly impatient with the—“)
Oct 8-14: pp. 669-714 / 92% (“…in which subscript R is for Rakete, and B for Blicero.”)
Oct 15-21: pp. 714-748 / 96.4% (“He feels he must go with them, but separate, a stranger, no more or less at the mercy of the Zone….”)
Oct 22-28: pp. 748-776 / 100% (End)
As you probably already know, I've been reading a classic a month for the last few years. It started as a one-year project in 2014, but I've enjoyed it enough to keep going with it & will probably continue until it starts to feel like a chore. You can find my past reviews by clicking on the "books" tag at the end of this post, or be my friend on Goodreads. (You can also just go to the site & hunt down my review feed without being my friend. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings.) ICYMI, the classics I selected to read in 2018 are here.
