The Little House on the Prairie Read-a-Long!

Wow, can you even imagine living in the wide open space like that? Look how far that sky goes on! What if you had no phone, and no tv, and no computer? And had to tie a rope to the barn to find it in the blizzard*?   Join me in a Little House on the Prairie read-a-long for all the fun details of what it was really like. Here's the plan:

Once a month I'll post an intro to the next book, and hopefully tie it in to actual facts with some fun internet research. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and when we get to the South Dakota books my family can take a little road trip and add some fun pictures to the event.

I've chosen to read eight of the original nine titles, leaving out Farmer Boy , as I never really felt it fit in with the rest. If you want to read Farmer Boy, go right ahead. If you want to skip some titles, feel free to do that as well.  I'm planning to do this very slowly, with one title a month, with the exception of the first book, Little House in the Big Woods, since it's so short.  I'm planning to post my introduction post and review the first Monday of each month, and allow discussion in the comments for the entire month before moving on to the next book. If you wish to race ahead, feel free to do so. (It was a tough decision on how long to allow for each book!)

This is the tentative schedule:

February 19th: Little House in the Big Woods- the discussion post is here!
March:Little House on the Prairie
April:On the Banks of Plum Creek
May:By the Shores of Silver Lake
June:The Long Winter
July:Little Town on the Prairie
August:These Happy Golden Years
September: The First Four Years

Sadly, they are not available in e-book format, but they are available as audio and most libraries carry several full sets. My thrift store usually has a couple copies of each title on the shelf as well, and I know many of you have your own childhood copies available.  I'll pop a link to this post over in the sidebar so you can find it as you need it.  There will be no official signup for this, and I'll remind you of it often. Feel free to post on previous titles if you join in late, or if you can't locate your copy before the start date.  You can follow the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #littlehouseRAL.

And I'm not naming names, but more than a few of you expressed an interest in this, so don't chicken out now! It's not like I'm asking you to read 8 full length adult novels, these are written for 8 year olds, you can handle it.

Any questions?

*In a fun turn of events, this scene from The Long Winter is repeated in a romance novel I just read. I'm choosing to believe it's a nod to Laura Ingalls Wilder, though probably it was just that common a practice.