I finally got a copy! 25 leva later I am the proud owner of Ivan Vasov's novel. And don't worry, I am going to blog about reading it.  If you<a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/under-the-yoke/"> remember</a>, I thought I'd start reading it for the March 3rd holiday in Bulgaria but that date came and went without me being able to track down a copy.

Luckily, one of my Bulgarian friends told me I should read it during the month of April as homage to the 1876 April Uprising in Bulgaria. That sounded good to me.  So, I am going to be reading the novel over the month April.  Okay, I've already read the first two chapters but I don't have as much time as I'd like to read or I might have read the whole thing already.  I <em>love</em> reading.

Then I thought: why should I read this alone?

So I made my MoM buy a copy on Amazon.com.  She's a good sport like that. I also told her that she'd be left out if she didn't because I am going to be leading an "Under the Yoke" book club during the month of April.  No word on whether or not she's received her copy yet.  Oh and for the record, she's reading it in English--as am I.

Here's the thing: two people a book club does not make (especially if three's a collection).  <!--more-->I think that a good book club requires at least five members.  I'd also say that book club requires serious snacks and wine but seeing as this is going to be a blog book club you're going to have to be responsible for your own snacks and wine--oh and for reading (or re-reading) the novel.

What I am thinking is this. I'll look through the novel divide our reading up into weeks. Then each week I'll post what I hope is a thoughtful post about the reading. Then we can discuss the reading in the comments section of the blog.  If I am really motivated, I'll even try to discuss historical references in the text but seeing as I've never read the novel and my knowledge of Bulgarian history is pretty questionable, I may or may not be able to do this.

So what's in it for you? Well you get to read (or re-read) a novel, you get to feel like you're doing something productive with your time and maybe just maybe you'll get to learn something new. And really, what's better than this?

My American followers, you should still be able to buy a copy of the novel on Amazon.com.  Expats in Sofia, you may have a harder time getting your hands on a copy of the novel in English--I got mine after trips to three different book stores and it was the only copy on the shelf and when I had a Bulgarian colleague look online for me the English language copies were all sold out. And to my Bulgarian followers, I am sure that you can dig up a copy.  I also have a hunch that you might be tempted to not re-read the novel--but that would be just silly.

So, get ready, get ready. This is going to be great fun.  Oh, and don't feel like you have to join in on the book club my MoM and I will still have rocking good time.  At least I hope so.

MoM: you'd better keep up on the reading or I'll have to consider giving reading quizzes...