The Reading Rush 2020 - Day 1

The Reading Rush 2020

- Day 1 -

Hello flowery readers!

yesterday was the first day of The Reading Rush and I'm so excited to tell you how it went.

I started reading around 7 a.m. during breakfast and I chose "Tonio Kröger" by Thomas Mann as my first read, which counts for the prompt of "reading a book that matches the colour of your birthstone". I've had the strong desire to read it since studying it during German class, I've only read "Death in Venice" bu this author, but I fell in love with his writing style and in particular with his descriptions. So I had high hopes for this one.

My birthstone is Aquamarine, as i was born in March. As you see it's the perfect colour.

I had very little time to read, as I had to sell a school book and then go to the city center with one of my friends. Everything went smoothly and well. It was a very fun and enjoyable morning. My friend and I even went to the book shop, discovering new published Fantasy books on my part and criticizing books on her part, I then joined in as it was fun. We also decided to start a sort of book club or simply a buddy read for David Foster Wallace's novels, we are both very curious about this author.

I then came back home and I was completely exhausted, it was too hot outside and I had gone to the city center by bike. So I tried reading a little more, but my eyes didn't want to stay open and I finally fell asleep.

Afterwards I read again, but I wasn't that interested in the story, nothing really happened in the plot and there were many time-jumps. Anyhow I managed to finish the book in the afternoon, around 10 p.m. 

As you see I don't read all day long and I haven't started TRR at midnight, I simply need my 8 hours of sleep, so that I can read during the day. I also find it difficult to force myself to read if I don't want to or if the book isn't captivating, so I simply don't do it, I wait for the right time.

As for my first read, I was disappointed. I enjoyed the reflections on art, the artist, the contrast between emotions and reason, isolation, but I would have liked them better if they had been expressed through a dialogue and not through long monologues of the protagonist. In addition I hate time-jumps and in this story there are many, they can even cover years. Finally the plot is uninteresting, we see Tonio walking with a friend, dancing, falling in love, then talking to a friend, travelling, writing letters, coming back to his own town, but his actions are so banal and boring, mostly because of the way he perceives them, he analyzes them in detail, thinking about them and repeating himself. I wanted something more, but in this story I only found a man trying to figure out how to cope with his double nature, between sensations and respectability and doing nothing practical to find a solution. The descriptions are really wonderful, the ones of the sea and the wind are really touching, however I can't save this book from a negative judgement only because of those.

Pages read: 68

Books finished: 1

Challenges completed: 1

Tea counter: 3

So that's my first day. If you are participating how did your day go?

Do you think that reading 7 books in 7 days is something possible?