The Idiot by Dostoevsky discussion

This topic is for planning our reading and discussion of The Idiot.

How about an official starting date of January 2nd but anyone can start posting before or after that date? So the discussion thread for chapter 1-2 can be about anything in those chapters, 3-4 about those chapters etc.

This discussion will be like the read-and-discuss-at-your-own-pace subgroup discussions on LitnLife --no specific facilitator for each week.

POSTED AROUND JAN 1
For those of you who haven't been part of a LitnLife subgroup (apart from the regular reading group), what we've usually done that I'd like to do here is have a SUGGESTED reading timeline so that we all can read and post at our own pace (while not referring to later chapters in each chapter-based discussion thread ). But we can aim to keep up with the suggested timeline so that we can dialogue actively with each other.

(Some of us learned in the past NOT TO READ TOO FAR AHEAD because then we lose the motivation to post about what we previously read - it is no longer alive for us.)

SO - I've created a tentative flexible schedule for 4 months. It involves reading approximately 48-62 pages a week (average 53 pages/week, based on a 650 page book with irregular chapter lengths), in 4 months with a brief break near the middle. We'd end around April 25th with time afterwards for reflection. But we would all be free to post ahead of or behind this schedule.

WEEK OF:
JANUARY 2, Book one, chapters 1-4
JANUARY 12, Book one, chapters 5-8
JANUARY 22, Book one, chapters 9-14

FEBRUARY 1, Book one, chapters 15-16
AND Book two, chapters 1-2
FEBRUARY 10 five-day break during Olympics
FEBRUARY 15, Book two, chapters 3-7
FEBRUARY 25, Book two, chapters 8-12

MARCH 7, Book three, chapters 1-4
MARCH 17, Book three, chapters 5-8
MARCH 27, Book three, chapters 9-10
AND Book four, chapters 1-3
APRIL 6, Book four, chapters 4-7
APRIL 16, Book four, chapters 8-11, end of book

Good

I've postponed reading and discussing the last two volumes of The Idiot until some unknown date in the future, but other people can post if they wish. In the meantime, I do hope to recruit more people who will be active participants - maybe in 2019.
Tracy