Thursday, January 25, 2018

New Ideas for Future Zoladdiction

Hullo everyone! This coming April, Zoladdiction will be turning five, yay! I have started this event of reading (and promoting) my favorite writer Émile Zola back in 2013 (with o). Since then, I host it every April, except in 2016 due to my tight schedule. Now, welcoming Zoladdiction’s fifth anniversary, I am thinking of rejuvenating it a bit. My goal from the first is to promote Zola’s genius and beautiful writing. By picking “Zoladdiction” for the yearly event’s name, it assumes that once you get into Zola’s, you will find yourself being addicted to his works. This is true! Almost everyone I knew who has ever discovered Zola, confessed of falling in love with him or at least wanting to read more of him. And don’t worry, Zola has a lot of works you can plunge into without ever getting bored!

About the rejuvenation: Starting this year, Zoladdiction will come with different themed reading challenges. The purpose is to highlight Zola’s works as well as his life, to let more people know about him and admire his genius, while we are still having fun in reading Zola’s and explore more of his works.  I have come up with four ideas for four consecutive years:

Zoladdiction Themed Reading Challenges

2018: The Style – highlighting Zola’s unique and beautiful writing styles by sharing quotes etc.
2019: The Shortie – reading his short stories (which are sometimes more poignant than his novels)
2020: The History – reading biographies, essays or other writings about Zola, or his J’Accuse!
2021: The First Crush – reminiscing how we fell in love with Zola by rereading our first Zola

Now I need your opinion. What do you think of this? If you have better idea, let me know! Or if you would like to co-host or any other kind of contribution, just let me know, so we can discuss it.


6 comments:

  1. This makes Zoladdiction extra interesting. I like it, Fanda!

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  2. Oooh, I may join you this time! I've only read The Ladies' Paradise but am interested in more Zola.

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    1. Great, Marian! Would love to see you onboard on coming April! My suggestion is Germinal, it's Zola's masterpiece, and my personal favorite.

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  3. I like the ideas of themes to add even more interest to our Zoladdiction month.
    We've been tweeting quotes and images for our #LesMisreadalong this year and it has been a LOT of fun - enlightening as well as creating a sense of community. Comparing translations has also been intriguing.
    Which makes me think that I would like to explore the various translations of Zola a little further - my starting point is here - https://readingzola.wordpress.com/translations/

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    1. Comparing translation is a good idea! I might considering it for this year. Let's see ;)

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What do you think?