John’s Comments (group member since Aug 23, 2012)

John’s comments from the Read a Classic Challenge group.

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, 1956, 201 pages, ereader/text to speech.

Half of this reminded me of the 1957 classic sci-fi/horror film adaptation. The other half was all about the main character's loss of manhood in the form of power, sex, strength, etc... Not exactly what I was expecting.

For those of you who enjoy audio books or ebooks, here is a blog link to 22 free professionally narrated classic audio books. Amazon is featuring their new Immersion Reading and Whispersync options for Audible books, as part of their next generation Kindle Fires. However, you don't need one to access the free books.

If you first purchase the free kindle ebook, you can then purchase the professionally narrated audio book for free. Just hit the back button after purchasing the ebook or click professional narration if you already own it to purchase them for free on Audible.com which also uses your Amazon ID (Caution: be sure to avoid signing up for the Audible free trial as that turns into a paid service).

I know that not everyone is interested in audio books or ebooks, but I figured it might be relevant to to the discussion of classics.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artatta...

Here is the direct link to Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1?r...

After just finishing The Last Man by Mary Shelley, I remembered that I had recently read The Scarlet Plague by Jack London. It paints a bleak picture of a segregated society, but at 57 pages it is far more interesting and accessible than The Last Man.

The Last Man, by Mary Shelley, 1826, 342 pages (missing quoted poems), e-reader/text to speech.

I have wanted to read The Last Man for a while and as part of this project, I persevered and finished it. The first half, a somewhat veiled biography of Percy Shelly and Lord Byron, was painfully tedious. It wasn't until a third of the way through that plague was even mentioned. The last half picked up and was definitely more interesting.

x-posted to facebook.

The Minority Report, Philip K. Dick, 1956, 112 pages, ereader.

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes, 1959, 324 pages, ereader/text to speech. Edited to add page numbers.

Feel free to recommend a classic book in this discussion for other group members.

"When you finish, please post the following information to the feed: Title, Author, Translator (if applicable), Year of (initial) Publication, Number of Pages, and Format (print, e-reader, audiobook, etc.). You may also post analysis, critique, or questions about the book if you wish."