Pam’s Comments (group member since Jul 12, 2018)

Pam’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

Melanie wrote: "To distract myself from my health issues, I'm listening to albums on Apple Music. I found "French Canadian Folk Songs", sung by Alan Mills. I'm listening to it now, and they're delightful."

That sounds like a great idea Melanie! I've found that music is very healing and also distracting from life's worries. Are you familiar with the French-Canadian band Le Vent du Nord? I saw them a few years ago and thought they were fantastic!

Last night I went to a concert by a band who plays what they call Borderlands music. The music style is also called Norteño. They play rancheras, cumbias, corridos, boleros, and polkas. They have a 82-year-old accordion player who is terrific! I liked them so much that I plan to go to a stage show they are doing later this month. Last Sunday, I spent the whole day at the ABQ Folk Festival. It was great, like usual! Lots of festivals around town this weekend.

I plan to participate. I downloaded “Twenty-one Stories” from Hoopla.

I finished Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick. I thought it was pretty good. I haven’t read anything by him in a few years so it was good to revisit his weird mind. I’m struggling to decide what to read next! I downloaded a collection of short stories by Graham Greene. Maybe that’s where I start. I’ve yet to finish any of his works!

I read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead decades ago and enjoyed both of them. One of them I read twice, probably Atlas Shrugged. This was all pre-GR days. Good luck Book Nerd! I have another of her books, We the Living, that I keep planning on reading every year. Maybe next year?

Welcome to the group Mia! I also like Lois Lowry! Good luck with clearing your shelves. Hope you find some great reads! 😃

I will support Arabian Nights.

I support Klee Wyck! Sounds really interesting.

I would like to suggest/nominate The New York Stories of Edith Wharton.

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "Pam wrote: "I will nominate The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Stefan Zweig."

I'm interested to read this one, but its 700 pages, which I maybe able to do but ..."

Anisha - You certainly don't have to read all of the stories. I agree it is really long! Maybe if it gets in, we could select a handful of stories to focus on. I've only read Chess Story, a novella by Zweig, and thought it was great!

Thanks Lesle and Samantha! I will add it when I get back home.

Lesle - I also tried fried green tomatoes as a topping on a bratwurst, along with sauerkraut and mustard. That tasted good, too! It’s nice to be back home and eating red and green chile again!

I will nominate The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Stefan Zweig.

Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks Samantha! I had an author (Edith Wharton) in mind for the short story thread but she was suggested in a different thread so I guess it doesn’t make sense to suggest her.

We are back home after visiting my sister and her family in KY. It was a nice visit! I discovered that I like fried green tomatoes but not a KY hot brown so much, nor bourbon. We went on a bourbon distillery tour with a tasting. I’m really happy to get to know my 2 nephews, who are now adults. They were kids last time they came out to NM. One of them is reading The Hobbit and we are talking about doing a buddy read of Lord of the Rings, after he finishes it. I hope he’s serious! 😃

I suggest under Travel Literature: Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi.

How is everyone doing with their journaling?? I've really slacked off this year with the exception of one book that I suggested for our SF book club. It was a challenging book structurally so I took a lot of notes to make sense out of it. One technique I used was to write in 3 different colored pens since there were 3 different stories/books within the book. The author used a different font when he switched between them.

I really like Catherine's idea of daily journaling and capturing reading thoughts at that time. I might try that. Thank you, Catherine, for the idea!

Chanel wrote: "Hiya! My name is Chanel.

I’m a fifteen year old high school student in tenth grade from Australia with a passion for reading, specifically nineteenth/twentieth century English, Russian and French ..."

Wow, Chanel, that is an impressive reading history (and passion), especially for a 15-year-old! I'm glad you found our group and hope you enjoy reading with us. Welcome!

Sare wrote: "Hello everyone, I am Sare and I live in Turkey. I love reading classics and I also read new books in different genres. I especially like English and Russian literature, nice to meet you :)"

Welcome Sare! I am also a Russian lit fan. I've been reading War and Peace on and off for the last 8 months! My husband says it will take me longer to read it than Napoleon's campaign lasted. Do you have a favorite Russian author or book?

ERae ✰ ° ⋆ wrote: "Hi!!! I’m ERae (short for EmmaRae) I’m from Florida, USA and I just joined this group to get some good classics recommendations. I saw a friend had joined this group and was intrigued, I have been ..."

Welcome to the group ERae! I've never read Plath or Woolf but both are on my very long TBR. I hope you join in the discussions and find lots of good classics!

John wrote: "Smashing to be here! The title "Never too late..." attracted me immediately. The first fruits of my translation project are as follows:

Sioned: A New English Translation
[book:Sio..."

Welcome to the group John! That sounds like an interesting project you are working on. I'm not familiar with the song Boston West but I know of a traditional fiddle tune called (On the) Road to Boston.

Barbara wrote: "Hi, I'm Barbara from Poland. I used to read a lot and I want to get back to it and discover new and "new" books of different genres. I hope I'll find good company here in this group! :)"

Hi Barbara and welcome to the group! Be sure to check out the 2026 planning threads and join in the 2025 group reads and challenges, if you see something interesting. We have a year-long Jane Austen challenge going on!