The first day of "The Book Project" - The Great Gatsby

THE BOOK PROJECT:

The first day of my year of reading the classics.  Pulled a list of top 100 from the Guardian, then narrowed to 20 or so I wanted to read. Posted them on facebook to get some recommendations.

This morning I started the one I wanted to read the most, “The Great Gatsby.”  It’s a quiet Sunday a.m.  Everyone is asleep. I woke up, not to an alarm – but to my own body.  Priceless.

Notes on THE BOOK PROJECT

·         I should read in the morning. At night I’m too tired – and I can’t remember what I read.

·         Afterwards, get the Book Guide for discussion to read and reflect.  I shouldn’t just power through the stories.

·         Save some of my favorite pages, some of my favorite quotes.

THE GREAT GATSBY
F. Scott Fitzgerald

·         I have no idea what makes a great writer or a great book, but one chapter in and I’m enthralled to know what’s next.

·         Look up West Egg and East Egg

·         Main characters

o   Daisy & Tom

o   Gatsby

o   Nick

o  Jordan aker

·         Chapter 1:  Favorite quotes:

o   “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” my father told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

o   “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some hiehgtened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.”

o   “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.”