Don Quixote Read-A-Long March 2017 discussion

Share your thoughts on Book One.

I will be reading 30 pages a day, but feel free to read at your own pace and share your thoughts once you've completed this section.

Good morning everyone! We have just one day left before the read-a-long starts and I am so excited! I am so really looking forward to reading this with you all and discussing it in the group.

I have added the different topics for the four sections in book one, and will add the rest in a little while. I will be reading 30 pages a day starting tomorrow, but you can read at your own pace and join us for the discussions when you are ready.

I will be tweeting using the hashtag #readquixote on Twitter (@saraitalksbooks). I will be tweeting as I read so if you'd like to do the same use the hashtag so we can find each other. :)

Talk to you all soon!

What does everyone think of the first eight chapters so far?

I'm enjoying the writing, I find it easy to read for such an old classic, and I'm loving the character of Don Quixote. He reminds me a bit of Michael Scott from The Office in that he seems to live in his own little world with his own view of reality. It makes for some really amusing antics.



Sancho Panza is also a great addition to the story, because I feel he resembles us as the reader and has actual sense. The scene with the windmills (or "giants") was a great example of this--Sancho is clearly seeing that they are windmills and trying to warn Don Quixote of what will happen if he's not careful, but of course Don Quixote doesn't listen (or care?) and he ends up losing to the giants because of some ~sorcerer~ named Friston.

These scenes make me smile, because Don Quixote is such a clueless character and that makes for some crazy interactions with people and... things. I'm looking forward to Part Two.

I'm reading/listening to it. I need to catch up a bit but I have a test on Tuesday I'm studying for. So I'll get caught up after that. So far I like it. It's not intimidating like I was kind of anticipating it to be.

There is something about Don Quixote that is just so charming and makes me just want to love him and I'm only on chapter three.

Can't wait to get caught up with everyone!! Happy Reading

Same here, reading and listening. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza characters will never go out of style, it's easy to forget this novel was written in the 1600s. The windmills scene is a classic, an antithesis between dreams and reality, always modern.

I decided to just have two topics, Book One and Book Two and we can update them as we go, to make it a little easier.

I am almost done with Part 3 of Book One, and I'm having a blast, particularly in these last two parts. The conversations between Don Quixote and Sancho make me snort and laugh out loud often, and it's making for a very fun reading experience.

When Cardenio and Don Quixote disagree about the knights and Cardenio beats them up, even Sancho who is just an innocent bystander made me smile. And when Sancho finally realizes who Dulcinea is and basically describes a loud, crass woman with zero grace and class and he tells Don Quixote this made laugh. Having Don Quixote explain that it's all about perception pretty much sums up the entire book for me.

Oh! And the scene where Don Quixote wanted Sancho to watch him strip down and do some crazy stuff so that Sancho could talk about it had me dying. I love how Sancho just turns around and nopes out of there LOL.

There are so many gems in this book in terms of characters, conversations, and "adventures". Even if the rest of the 700 pages I read are just more of the same it would still make for some good reading! I can't say that about every book I read.

Definitely a lot funnier than I thought it would be, I'm really enjoying it!

I agree about Dolotea's story. I also thought Cardenio's was really tragic, especially because he doesn't find out until much later what truly happened after he left.

Reading about all of the common phrases of the day and popular literary works published around that time makes me wish I could have read this soon after it was published so I could truly understand all of the double meanings and inside jokes. I think having that point of reference would make the book even better, and a lot funnier I imagine.

I'm happy with the footnotes in my edition, they help a lot, but they also show how much I'm "missing", if that makes any sense!

How is everyone liking the short novels within the story?

I'm enjoying them for the most part, I think they switch things up a bit and give us a new fresh "adventure" although I have to smile at how they all end with convenient happy endings lol.

I'm also loving how Cervantes keeps introducing a more beautiful woman every time, almost like a parody of stories where every woman is beautiful so in Don Quixote he wants to elevate that to the point where you can't help but roll your eyes.