Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Pre-reading questions

1. Please give a shout out if you will be reading this book.

2. What edition will you be reading? Reading book or audio?

3. What are you looking forward to with this book? What are you dreading?

Let the reading begin! Any other thoughts our comments are welcomed.

I do intend to. It will be the first annual read I've participated in. I am going to 'ask for it' for Christmas! I expect (since I am going to tell Scott exactly what to buy) to read the Tyler translation. :)

The length alone is daunting. It also seems that it may be slow moving, meandering and somewhat plot-less. Rather than expecting that to be off putting, I am hoping that it will work to my advantage over the course of a loooooong read.

I haven't watched this whole 'lecture', but I have enjoyed his POV for other books and am interested in his approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9X02...

Diane wrote: "Pre-reading questions

1. Please give a shout out if you will be reading this book.

2. What edition will you be reading? Reading book or audio?

3. What are you looking forward to with this book? ..."

I might participate. I've wanted to read it for a long time but it's very long and not translated into my language so I get a bit stressed out thinking about it. I've had it as an e-book for some years now. When I saw this comment I immediately thought that this could be a good incentive for me to start reading it.

I will read this book definitely. Same reasons as Nike's , I could never even begin it.

I have ordered the Norton Critical Edition, and I will likely start with that. If (let's face it... WHEN) I fall behind I will supplement with the audiobook. I did this with Clarissa in 2023 and it worked well for me.

Nidhi wrote: "I will read this book definitely. Same reasons as Nike's , I could never even begin it."

We can support each other then Nidhi. If we tend to give up along the way we can encourage one another to continue. Would be great to have a GR friend with me on this one!

I've calculated the reading pace to 20 pages per week, that would be surmountable.

I like your idea of weekly distribution of pages Nike, I will follow that.

I read the Tyler translation of this book in print in 2019 with a Litsy readalong, and although it was sometimes difficult, I ended up really appreciating it. If you're on Litsy, I would encourage you to look up the chapter hashtags as you read, just #Genji followed by each chapter number. There is interesting discussion as well as lots of art and cultural information that was shared as we read. I hope to revisit it again with this annual read by listening to the Washburn translation.

I found a pretty two volume set in a slipcase almost seven years ago, and bought it just because it was pretty, affordable (second hand), and I recognised the title. I don't think I actually know anything about it other than that it's a thousand years old and written by a woman.

Thank you Daisey, I am on Litsy and I will definitely look up the discussion! That sounds great. And now I need to check which translation I have. Normally I do my research before I buy a book, but with this one it really was a case of "ooh, shiny!" lol

Daisey wrote: "I read the Tyler translation of this book in print in 2019 with a Litsy readalong, and although it was sometimes difficult, I ended up really appreciating it. If you're on Litsy, I would encourage ..."
I will look up the discussion on Litsy. I am listening to a translation and reading along. I have the Washburn translation.

Nike wrote: "I've calculated the reading pace to 20 pages per week, that would be surmountable."

Thank you for the calculation of pages to read weekly.

My main dread is getting behind but having the audible will make it easier to stay on track.

My translation is by Seidensticker, and after reading up on the different translations I am not unhappy about that. It looks like Tyler translated the poetry better, and is the most faithful to the original but is for that reason also more difficult to follow. Washburn apparently put things that other translators place in footnotes into the text itself, which might help the flow for some but seem really bloated to others.

My set doesn't look that big. It's two paperbacks of the small mass-market size, and I would guess 350-400 pages each. I was getting worried that it might be abridged. But no. They actually add up to almost 1100 thin, thin pages of tiny print. I might have to finally go to the optician and enquire about reading glasses!

I started today and I 've read the first chapter which is also the first twenty pages.
I want to point out that the version I'm reading has 1039 pages, hence the 20 pages per week for a year. I noticed there's a version with more than 4000 pages, I guess that one has got a lot of illustrations.

4000 pages!? Maybe each poem is getting its own page as well as the illustrations? My edition is just shy of 1100 pages and it has a bunch of illustrations. Copies of wood prints from the 1600s. They're small though. I could wish they each had a full page!

Leni wrote: "4000 pages!? Maybe each poem is getting its own page as well as the illustrations? My edition is just shy of 1100 pages and it has a bunch of illustrations. Copies of wood prints from the 1600s. Th..."

This one apparently has 4000 pages! Lol! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I am reading the Penguin Classics edition translated by Royall Tyler. I am quite enjoying the extra material available from this edition, especially the footnotes which quite often help keeping track of all the characters.

I've been looking forward to reading this book, as I have loved pretty much all the Asian classics that we have read so far.

Diane wrote: "Pre-reading questions

1. Please give a shout out if you will be reading this book.

2. What edition will you be reading? Reading book or audio?

3. What are you looking forward to with this book? ..."

Diane, what is the point structure for this year's annual read? I also note that you have divided the book in three parts only. The first one equates to about half of the book, the other two sharing the remaining two quarters.

Patrick wrote: "Diane wrote: "Pre-reading questions

Hi Patrick here is the point structure that Kristel set up for annual reads.
Annual: - 14 points per quarter, for reading and discussing/answering the quarterly questions
- 7 points per quarter if you read and post a final review but don’t discuss
- 3 points per quarter if you read only, but don't post a final review and don't discuss
- 7 points per quarter if you have previously read the book, but you participate in the discussion
- 4 points for posting a final review
So, full participation will reward you with a total of 4 X 14 + 4 = 60 points.

I am not reading the book. I got my information from a computer search. If my separation is no good I am open to suggestions. Let me know how I can change it to make it better or feel free and change as you see fit. Thanks

The first quarter would very neatly line up with the end of Ch. 14 (p. 299 in the Washburn). The others don't line up as neatly, but the 2nd quarter could end with ch. 33 (p. 565) and the 3rd quarter could end with ch. 46 (p. 869).

This is all assuming I've done math correctly, and that's not guaranteed.

This matches up pretty well for my edition (chapters 13, 30 and 43) which is the knopf with seidensticker's translation in the large golden cover format.

Jenna wrote: "This matches up pretty well for my edition (chapters 13, 30 and 43) which is the knopf with seidensticker's translation in the large golden cover format."

I have the two volume edition of the Seidensticker translation, and volume one has 32 chapters. In page numbers the halfway point would be the middle of chapter 13.

I'm happy to read to the end of chapter 14, but the thought of reading all of volume one plus the first chapter of volume two by the end of the month is stressing me out. lol

Leni wrote: I'm happy to read to the end of chapter 14, but the thought of reading all of volume one plus the first chapter of volume two by the end of the month is stressing me out. lol

Hello Leni and everyone - looks to me like the consensus is for quarters and the two translations are pretty similar, so Leni and I could read up to the Washburn chapters in order to keep up with the discussions. I already gave myself points for the first quarter for getting through chapter 14 and discussing, so I think everyone else should too :)

This sounds good to me!

Works for me also.