Today is April 1st. Day One of my <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/me-under-the-yoke/">Under the Yoke challenge and book club</a> in celebration of the April Uprising in Bulgaria (if <em>celebration</em> is actually the right word).

Based on my last post, <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/me-under-the-yoke/">Me &amp; Under the Yoke</a>, the current members seem to be me, my MoM, <cite></cite>Andreytcho and Martin.  We're going to have a blast.

It's not too late to join in or to simply read along with us in anonymity. I'm not the boss of you, you can pick. But, I do believe that reading is good for you.  It's like coffee or dinner--both are more fun when you have someone to talk to and share the experience with. .

What do you need? Well, the ability to read, a copy of the book and a little determination. A glass of wine and some snacks wouldn't hurt either and seeing as this is a virtual book-club you wont have to share these with anyone, unless you want to.

This said, I understand that this isn't for everyone.  Hell, living in Bulgaria isn't for everyone and neither is rakiya but I am still giving it a try. So I think that you should too but that's me.  My little sister took one look at the book and thought: it's too long and the names are too hard to remember. She's apparently not going to join us. I mean unless I can guilt her into it but she's pretty stubborn.

Anyhow, you should know you've got options.  It's in the public domain. You can download it and read it in English on your <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/underyokeromance00vazorich">computer, kindle or even PDF.</a> You don't have to leave the comfort of your own home in order to read this book.  Yeah it doesn't really get much better than that.  I can only assume based on Andreytcho's comment that you can also get a copy in Bulgarian as well.  I just can't help you with that you'll have to look for this on your own.

So now what?<!--more-->

We've got 317 pages to read according to my copy of text.  My guess is that we will be reading copies that do not match up when it comes to page numbers so I'll do my best to go by chapters rather than by pages. The book is broken down into three parts (part one, part two and part three) and lots and lots of chapters.  We've also got 30 days in the months of April.  This breaks down to slightly more than 10 pages a day but if we only read 10 pages a day we'll never get into the book.  More over April has four weeks and four weeks seems like the perfect amount of time to read the novel.

Each week, you should plan on reading about 80 pages of the book. Next Sunday, April 11th I'll post our first round of questions for book club and you all can in turn post comments/discussion additional questions/reflections/thoughts. Then we'll do the same Sunday, April 18, 25th and on Sunday May 2nd we'll finish up the novel.

By my count, this means we need to read to ChapterXVII--The Performance (pg 79) by April 11th.  Here are a couple of questions to think about as you start reading: What impact does the setting have on the story?   The role of culture seems hugely important how do you see Bulgarian, European and Turkish culture overlapping, clashing and influencing the characters, language and plot? Which scenes standout to you when you're reading? And finally, what themes and ides are developed in the first chapters of the novel?

So, now's the time to get excited! We're reading <em>Under the Yoke</em> by Ivan Vazov! Oh and if you think that you can skate by reading the spark notes summary of the novel--I should probably let you know now, there's not one.

You are going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Old school, if you will. <em></em>

<em>Read it</em>.