Reading the Chunksters discussion

Like many novels of the time, Vanity Fair was published as a serial before being sold in book form; it was printed in 20 monthly parts between January 1847 and July 1848. (As was standard practice, the last part was a "double number" containing parts 19 and 20.)

This is from Wikipedia and shows the original division of the serial book:

No. 1 – Jan 1847 Ch. 1 – 4
No. 2 – Feb 1847 Ch. 5 – 7
No. 3 – Mar 1847 Ch. 8 – 11
No. 4 – Apr 1847 Ch. 12 – 14
No. 5 – May 1847 Ch. 15 – 18
No. 6 – Jun 1847 Ch. 19 – 22
No. 7 – Jul 1847 Ch. 23 – 25
No. 8 – Aug 1847 Ch. 26 – 29
No. 9 – Sep 1847 Ch. 30 – 32
No. 10 – Oct 1847 Ch. 33 – 35
No. 11 – Nov 1847 Ch. 36 – 38
No. 12 – Dec 1847 Ch. 39 – 42
No. 13 – Jan 1848 Ch. 43 – 46
No. 14 – Feb 1848 Ch. 47 – 50
No. 15 – Mar 1848 Ch. 51 – 53
No. 16 – Apr 1848 Ch. 54 – 56
No. 17 – May 1848 Ch. 57 – 60
No. 18 – Jun 1848 Ch. 61 – 63
No. 19/20 – Jul 1848 Ch. 64 – 67

I was thinking that this might be a fun way to read it, since the Author divided it up like this. We could do 1 section per week, it would add 5 weeks to our 50 page per week reading schedule, but I thought it might be worth it. what does everyone think??

Our Schedule

Week 1 – March 20-26: Ch. 1–4
Week 2 – March 27- April 2: Ch. 5–7
Week 3 – April 3-9: Ch. 8–11
Week 4 – April 10-16: Ch. 12–14
Week 5 – April 17-23: Ch. 15–18
Week 6 – April 24-30: Ch. 19–22
Week 7 – May 1-7: Ch. 23–25
Week 8 – May 8-14: Ch. 26–29
Week 9 – May 15-21: Ch. 30–32
Week 10 – May 22-28 Ch. 33–35
Week 11 – May 29-June 4: Ch. 36–38
Week 12 – June 26-July 2: Ch. 39-42
Week 13 – July 3-9: Ch. 43–46
Week 14 – July 10-16 Ch. 47–50
Week 15 – June 17- July 23: Ch. 51–53
Week 16 – July 24-30: Ch. 54–56
Week 17 – July 31- August 6: Ch. 57–60
Week 18 – August 7-13: Ch. 61–63
Week 19 – August 14-20: Ch. 64–67

I think it's a great idea. Love the new icon Kristi.

I know...isn't it great! I thought that after we get done with the book we could watch the movie! Wouldn't that be awesome?!?

I have not seen the film. I have come to the conclusion that anything with Reese Witherspoon is worth watching. Can not wait for Water for Elephants.

Kristi wrote: "Like many novels of the time, Vanity Fair was published as a serial before being sold in book form; it was printed in 20 monthly parts between January 1847 and July 1848. (As was standard practice,..."

Sounds great to me. And would we be starting on March 20?

This looks good, I'm very excited to start!

I'm excited, too :)

Sounds good! Can't wait to start!

Everyman, yes we will start March 20th, I will re-write the schedule with the correct dates if everyone is ok with it, which it looks like everyone is! I'll re-write it either later today or sometime on Monday.

I think it sounds perfect, Kriti. It will give me a real authentic feeling, reading it in the same installments that the author published it. Thanks.

I think its a great way to read a big book! dont feel pressured to keep up (us slower readers) and like Lyn says gives a more authentic feeling.

Sounds great, Kristi! Well done for thinking of looking up the original publication format. It's a fantastic idea. I second the watching the film after idea too.

I saw a Water for Elephants film was coming out and was going to give it a read beforehand, but I didn't know Witherspoon was in it.

Good, I'll get it re-written and posted as "THE SCHEDULE" and we will start on March 20th!

I am actually glad that this was on the web, when I divide books into sections, I am always worried that I'm splitting them at a place where they are at the height of action or at a good scene. If the author divided the book like this, then I'm sure he knew what he was doing.

Amanda, I love all things Reese Witherspoon, but I may have to take a pass on Water for Elephants. I loved Sara Gruen's book Riding Lessons but I haven't gotten into her others. Maybe I'll give it a try...

So, I succumbed to peer pressure (and all the good reviews) and ordered a copy of this. I figure with 3 weeks between now and then, I have time to "clear the decks" so to speak, and considering that I'm reading 4 (!!!) chunksters currently and enjoying it/not falling behind, I figure I'll be able to maintain that number and not go crazy. :) So I'm glad we'll be starting this in late March, as I'll be finishing up C&P at the same time.

I did not even have to join in on the peer pressure to ask you to participate. You must have felt the vibes, Loretta!! Glad you are joining the craziness. When Vanity Fair starts we will be finishing Crime and Punishment, continuing LOTR, I will be starting Crimson Petal and the White while reading other books as well.... It makes all of us look like over achievers!!

Although I didn't mean to pressure you, I am glad you have decided to join us, Loretta. I really miss discussing books with you.

Yippie!! I'm so glad that you are joining us Loretta. I've missed you so much :)

LOL, you guys are making me blush.

I hope I'll manage to add to the discussion.

Now I must continue to work on the Count of Monte Cristo, so that I'm DONE with it by the time VF starts. It's great, but I can't be finishing off a ~1450 page book at that point. I'm 800 pages in now, though, and going fast still.

Loretta - that is one of my favorite books of all time. I love it. It is a HUGE brick of a book, but a good one.

I'm thinking of getting in on this one too. I read it in college, and love the idea of re-reading and discussing it again....:)

Come on, come on, you know you can't miss reading another with us.......hahaha

lol...I'm loving all the Vanity Fair Recruitment going on here. Loretta Whoot! Jillian...you know you want tooooo....

I have edited the schedule so that we can all see when we are finishing. It looks like we will be done by the end of July!

Is week 2 correct?

should be March 27-April 2...sorry, typo

Np, I just wanted to be sure:)

Good catch, Jaime. I slid right past that when I looked at it. Amazing that we will not be finished until July. WOW. Should be fun though.

Lyn M wrote: " Amazing that we will not be finished until July. WOW. Should be fun though."

Even at that, we'll be reading it a lot faster than the original readers did!

True, and when you look at the size of the schedule, it doesn't look that long, but when you say, "July" it just sounds like such a long time.

When I looked at the schedule I was thinking I'll be reading vanity fair at the beach...hahaha

Andrea wrote: "When I looked at the schedule I was thinking I'll be reading vanity fair at the beach...hahaha"

Love it! Lol

We should all do that and post pictures :)

Andrea wrote: "When I looked at the schedule I was thinking I'll be reading vanity fair at the beach...hahaha"

If so, the first few chapters will need to be read, at least here, lying on the beach in a snow suit in front of a roaring driftwood fire!

I'm hoping that, by the time we start on 3/20, we'll at least be at the "heavy rain" part of the cold season, and done with the "blizzard" part. I need to start seeing leaves sprouting soon.

We are having the heavy rain part, Loretta, if that makes you feel any better, lol.

Andrea wrote: "When I looked at the schedule I was thinking I'll be reading vanity fair at the beach...hahaha"

I so can't wait to be reading Vanity Fair at the beach!! This has been an especially miserable NY winter!

I'm glad I made everyone see that at some point we will move past the snow. Right now I'm freezing, but this too shall pass. So I'm going to get my beach sticker in a couple of weeks and pack my bag with Vanity Fair....lol

I'll be taking Vanity Fair on my Kindle to my upcoming cruise in March and my Disney World vacation in June!

And I'm totally with you Denise, this winter has been awful, even in MO!

i'm pretty pumped about starting this challenge and look forward to it! :D
and, thanks michelle for making me a pretty reading list for my refrigerator! :D

reading list for your refrigerator?? Where's mine??

I made it...is there a way to upload documents to Goodreads? I could share it with everyone!

I don't think so. if you made it into a jpg you could put it on flickr or photobucket and link to it..

Ok, I put it on google docs as a pdf. I had the LotR reading schedule in the same file, so you can use that one too if you want!

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&am...

That is a great document Michelle. Thanks for sharing. It will now be on my refrigerator, too.

Love it! Thanks for letting us use it too!

No problem! If you guys like them, I can make them for all the books we read! :)

That would be awesome! Thanks!

They are really cool I love the idea.

Great idea Michelle..wish I had a printer :(

hoorah for michelle!!! :)

Love it! Thanks for it!!

I am really excited to start this one!