Teaser Tuesday (87)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, my teaser is from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Again. Have I mentioned it's 891 pages long?

This, gentlemen, is the genuine detail of my tragic story; consider, therefore, and judge whether or not, I have sufficient cause to heave more sighs than I have vented, utter more complaints than you have heard, and shed more tears than have flowed from mine eyes; and when you shall have deliberated upon the quality of my misfortune, you will perceive how vain all consolation must be; as the disease admits of no remedy. I only ask whether you can, and ought to grant, namely, that you would inform me where I can pass my life, without being harassed by the terror and fear of being found by those who are in search of me.

-p. 240


You know, at first the rambling sentences weren't a problem. I like extended sentences. But hundreds of pages later, under a constant torrent of awkward semi-colons and strange comma placement, not to mention the formal language, they begin to grate. Also, now I have the urge to talk and write in the same style. LOL.

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What are you reading? Or if you're not reading anything currently, what was the last book you finished?


-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (84)

Since the dawn of time, MizB at Should Be Reading has hosted Teaser Tuesday, a weekly, bookish meme. Okay, maybe not the dawn of time, but as far as I can tell it's gone on for years and that is a long time in the virtual world.

Rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, my teaser is from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Last year I read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy; the year before that I read Moby Dick by Herman Melville; and the year before that I read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I'm trying to read the major classics, basically. This summer I'm planning to read both Don Quixote and Anna Karenina, which may or may not be too much to chew; we'll just have to see.

In the first book of this history, we left the valiant Biscayan and the renowned Don Quixote with their gleaming swords brandished aloft, about to discharge two such furious strokes, as must (if they had hit their mark) have cleft them both asunder, from top to toe, like a couple of pomegranates; and in this dubious and critical juncture, the delicious history abruptly breaks off, without our being informed by the author, where or how that which is wanting may be found.
   I was not a little concerned at this disappointment; for, the pleasure I enjoyed in the little I had read, was changed into disgust, when I reflected on the small prospect I had of finding the greater part of this relishing story, which, in my opinion, was lost: and yet it seemed impossible, and contrary to every laudable custom, that such an excellent knight should be unprovided with some sage to undertake the history of his unheard-of exploits; a convenience which none of those knights-errant who went in quest of adventures ever wanted, each of them having been accommodated with one or two magicians, on purpose to record not only this deeds, but even his most hidden thoughts and amusements.

-p. 65


Short sentences are not to be found in Don Quixote. Though I do like the book so far (currently on page 107).

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So, what are you reading? Got a teaser to share from it?


Have you ever read Don Quixote? If so, what did you think? If not, what's your favorite "classic" book?


-----The Golden Eagle