2013 is the Year of the War & Peace Readalong!

I read Anna Karenina this year for the first time and I loved it! I had been really super intimidated to read it before because it's such a lengthy classic and I didn't know if I could get through it. But it's really rather accessible and wonderful. And I started thinking as I was reading that maybe I could also tackle the REALLY BIG ONE.

By the really big one, I mean War and Peace of course!

I kind of mentioned it to Iris and she agreed to read along with me as long as we took it at a slow pace and here we are!

We really really hope you'll join in. We've organized it so that we'll be reading the book over the whole year. That way if you need to do review books and whatnot you still can with no problem, it's only about 100 pages a month. I also think once we're done we'll all be really bonded and close friends and be able to share war stories etc, so obviously you want to join in! We really want you to join in! As many people as possible, it doesn't matter if you have a blog or whatever, don't be shy! Join in!

Here's the schedule Iris came up with, though we'll tweak if needed during the year.

Book I
part 1 by 31 Jan
part 2 by 28 Feb
part 3 by 31 Mar

Book II
part 1 & part 2 by 30 Apr
part 3 & 4 by 31 May
part 5 by 30 Jun

Book III
part 1 by 31 Jul
part 2 by 31 Aug
part 3 by 30 Sep

Book IV
part 1 & 2 by 31 Oct
part 3 & 4 by 30 Nov

Epilogue
part 1 & 2 by 31 Dec

See? Totally manageable!

Now. Once again, I am seeking translation advice. If you are knowledgeable on this topic, I'd really love to hear from you. What translation should I read? I'll be spending a year with this book, so I really want to like the translation I pick! Please leave all your advice in comments.

Lastly I want to tell you a little story. I never really EVER thought about reading this book before a few years ago when I watched Cheers on a dare (from a fellow book blogger!). I ended up really enjoying Cheers--if you're ever bored and you've never seen you could do worse (it's on Netflix)

But anyway there's this part at the end of the season where Sam reads the book in five days without sleeping, etc. in order to appear intellectual. And it was the first time I thought maybe I should challenge myself to read it!

Anyway please comment if you think you'll be joining in and you have any translation advice, etc! Also, if anyone wants to put their artistic vision to good use, we could use a button for the readalong. And a song come to think of it. Jill. Or anyone! :)