2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Miguel de Cervante's book, Don Quixote.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants:
Alissa, Angelique, Cassandra, Theresa, Marina

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're going. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 127 pages
Week 2: 123 pages
Week 3: 122 pages
Week 4: 122 pages
Week 5: 122 pages
Week 6: 122 pages
Week 7: 122 pages
Week 8: 122 pages

Great, I can't wait to start this book! It's been lying on my bookshelf for ages, I just didn't have motivation enough to start reading it. Also, it's my first buddy read, so bear with me :-)

I had only read a few chapters at school.... I think is time to discover why is consider one of the most well know books in the world

Can you add me to this read

Zara I forgot to add myself ... Can you please add me?

I probably won't start this one for a week or so. I'm reading The Three Musketeers for my September TBR Twin Read, and I just got The Girl in the Spider's Web from my library. I really need to read that so others in line can get a chance, too.

I do have both the Kindle and audiobook versions of Don Quixote, with the latter read by George Guidall. I look forward to it!

Wow this is insanely funny so far.. George is awesome narrating the story.

I bet this is good as an audiobook!

I started reading it today - I have it as a paperback given to me by a friend years ago. I'm just really at the beginning, but I can already say the sonnets at the very beginning of the book look funny... I don't know if you have them in your editions, the translator says many translators decided not to translate them at all, since they were so difficult anyway.

I own the Edith Grossman translation in both the Kindle book and the Audiobook read by George Guidall. I haven't started listening, so I don't know if the sonnets are read, but they are in the Kindle version.

There are some sonnets in the beginning in a very unusual form.

There are alot of books mentioned that deal with knights. Are these books real or just made up?

Scott wrote: "There are alot of books mentioned that deal with knights. Are these books real or just made up?"

No, they are real. I have a very good Italian translation, and the translator gives a footnote for each of the books mentioned, saying when they were published and sometimes a bit about their or their author's story.

I have to say I do feel for poor Don Quixote! He's really lost his mind and the strangest adventures happen to him, poor chap!

Also, (view spoiler)[ the burning of the books is quite creepy if one thinks what happened in Germany in the early days of the Nazi regime... Heine used to say that, when they burn books, they end up burning people... (hide spoiler)]

On a lighter note, I read somewhere that at the time of Don Quixote's publication the various chapters were read to children as if they were single short stories, before bedtime. I found this info so interesting that I started reading it before bedtime as well!

Don Quijote is a masterpiece of literature in Latin America we have to read it in high school. in my case just a few chapters, that is why I want to read it all now after many years far away of the pressure of the "have to" but also I really like it the animated version of it for kids watched many time when I was growing up....

Whoops, thought I signed up for this. I'd love to join in, pls. I've wanted to get into it for ages so I'm glad for the motivation!

I'm a little behind with the reading, but I am enjoying it very much.

I would like to discuss with you: do you think reading too much can be bad for one's (mental) health? Of course I'm not saying it is possible to go entirely mad as Don Quixote has, but do you think it can be "damaging" in one way or another? As for me, I certainly don't think so :-)

I'm keen to join in with this one as by coincidence I started reading it yesterday. Looks like I have some catching up to do though!

I have about one hour to go on The Girl in the Spider's Web, so I'll be starting Don Quixote tonight.

I will start with it next week, nevertheless I already read some parts of it... but I do not think that in general to read too much can be something bad. If it creates a problem usually is when the person have problems before and they can't separate reality from what they read, but this is nver as a consequence of reading, what happen to Don Quijote is more as a consequence of something that he already has (at least for me)

I agree with you, Caro, I think Don Quixote already had some problems with the perception of reality and things like that, although this is obviously not mentioned in the story as it is previous to it all. But I was curious to know what you think of the question, also because we recently had a very interesting discussion on the question of "reading too much" on GoodReads Italia.

I listened to the Prologue and the first couple of chapters, but I'm tired and about to call it a night.

(view spoiler)[I did have to go to my Kindle version when the sonnets were read. I first wondered if I had a bad recording when so many words were cut short! The footnote explained, "In this form of humorous poetic composition, called versos de cabo rato ('lines with unfinished endings'), the syllbles following the last stressed syllable in the final word of each line are dropped." (hide spoiler)]

Anyone else start to feel uncomfortable when the books were being sorted for burning? Not cool...

Not yet there

Not yet there

Paul wrote: "Anyone else start to feel uncomfortable when the books were being sorted for burning? Not cool..."

I got though parts I and II today. I do agree with you, Paul on the book burning. As they started pulling some books back, I'd hoped they'd save them all, but that was not to be.

This book is much more comical than I expected!

Paul wrote: "Anyone else start to feel uncomfortable when the books were being sorted for burning? Not cool..."

I did, as I wrote above. It did remind me of the Nazi book burnings.

But I agree with Theresa, the book surely IS comical!

i wasn't really bothered by the book burning because that part was so funny

I was listening to Chapter 21 on the way to work and laughed so much I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I never expected this book to be so funny!

I've read 24 chapters (first part of the audiobook), but I'm going to take a break from this one. I have a couple of (much shorter) library books that I need to read. Work will be heavy through Wednesday, then I'm going to a knitters' convention, Stitches Texas, Thursday through Sunday. I'll get back to Don Quixote the week of the 21st.

I just started reading. I am glad that is not just this month that we will read it. It takes some time for me because the book is in old Spanish (found a pretty cool edition) and that is not so easy. Many words appear look strange to me. How is either the English edition? Is old or modern English?

Caro, both Scott and I are listening to the Edith Grossman translation, narrated by George Guidall. I'm totally enjoying both the story and the narration.

I suggest you read this article from the New York Times praising the Edith Grossman translation. I could not write it up better than they did!

Caro, I think you wrote you are Latin American, right? However, I know what you mean, it would be the same to me if I were to read The Divine Comedy in Italian. Of course, it is my mother tongue, but the language is archaic and difficult to understand. So I know how you're feeling.
I am reading an Italian translation by Vittorio Bodini and it is in modern Italian, which of course makes it much easier to read.

Marina wrote: "Caro, I think you wrote you are Latin American, right? However, I know what you mean, it would be the same to me if I were to read The Divine Comedy in Italian. Of course, it is my moth..."
That is exactly what I am talking about! Yes I am from Latin America. I am from Colombia and decide to read a classic version of El Quijote so to do it "right" I read a few chapters in the school and now decide to read it so I can really say I read it.
I had never read The Divine Comedy but I am pretty sure that it should be even more complicated than this book. Is way more philosphical and have more to be study. I think that if I ever read that book I will try to have a proper class about it. I know it will be worth it.

Finished book one. about 15 chapters into book two. I'll finish in October.

That's great, Scott! I'm still reading book 1. I'm really enjoying it but I'm also reading other books in the meantime, so I'm a little bit behind...

I was reading some other books also. Will return to the book on the 1st. Hopefully I will finish next month

Scott, you're way ahead of me, I think, since I'm at Part IV of the first book. I've just been terribly busy at work, plus my friend and I went to an awesome knitters' convention a couple of weeks ago.

I'll get back to Don Quixote soon, but I may run into November before it's done.

I might backtrack and re listen to a large portion again. So I might run into november as well.

Finished finally. Great ending.

Scott wrote: "Finished finally. Great ending."

Congratulations Scott

I hadn't seen your post, Scott, I'm glad you finished it and you liked it so much.
I'm at the beginning of volume two and I hope to be able to finish the book in November.

Scott, I'm glad you finished and liked it! I'm halfway through, so I'll finish it in November or December

I think I'll finish the book today or tomorrow. I really, really enjoyed reading it, although it was a bit repetitive and excessively long. I still have 70 pages to go, and if nothing changes, it's going to be a solid 4 stars.

I just finished reading it and I'm really happy! I'm so glad I finally managed to squeeze it into my reads, also it was good taking three months to read it, I think it's the perfect timing.

As I said before, I really enjoyed reading this book, and also found the Italian translation I was reading was really good -- of course I can't really judge, since I only know very little Spanish, but still, it was very readable and sounded very good.

I gave it 4 stars, and not 5, just because it is repetitive as I said, and could have been just as good had it been half as long. But I never felt bored reading it, despite its repetitiveness. Very, very good book.

Congrats on your finish, Marina. I have about 14 hours to go on mine. I expect to give it 4 stars as well, agreeing with you that it does get repetitive and is quite long! I may finish by th 20th, bot definitely within a week.

Finished Don Quixote this morning and will give it 4 Stars.

Glad you liked it, Theresa!