One Hundred Years of Solitude Read-Along Sign-ups.

I am happy to announce that I will be hosting a read-along in July for Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. My readers selected this as their choice, so I hope you will consider this as a choice for your July reading.

If you are unsure if this is the book for you, here is a synopsis from BarnesandNoble.com:

"One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.

Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race."

If you are interested in joining up, all you need to do is comment here saying that you are signing up, and I will make a link back to your blog to show your participation! It would also be helpful and wonderful if you would make a post, or mention it somewhere on your blog. That way we can generate more interest in the read-along. Read-alongs work best when there are a number of people participating, so spread the word and link it back here!

My edition of the novel is about 450 pages long, but I think it is best to split it into two posts, about halfway through. I am reading from the Harper Perennial Classics edition, and I have a chapter break at page 218. That is where I am planning on cutting it in half, but if you are reading from a different edition with different page numbers, you can make your best guess!

There will be two post days and they will be the following:

• Post 1 on first half of book: July 17
• Post 2 on second half of book: July 31

On each day I will have a post with my thoughts. As you complete your own post, comment here and I will create links to all of the posts from different participants. Then we can share, discuss, and comment to our hearts' content!

Again, if you are interested, comment here and I will begin making links!