Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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Please Introduce Yourself
ALLEN wrote: "WERTHER isn't terribly long, either. A recent translation clocks in at 201 pages, but I wonder if they aren't using triple-spacing and extra-large fonts. The free .pdf clocks in at 42, with small f..."Thank goodness for English translations! I have such poor recall of my college German (many many years ago) that the only thing I remember is "ich weiss nicht" (I made a lot of use of that phrase - much to the dismay of the grad student who taught my section!)
You might enjoy keeping the free .pdf on hand just in case. The ability to compare expressions from one tongue to another is often miraculous. Also, Goethe did not go out of his way to make WERTHER difficult, allusive, or syntactically dense. Just sayin'.
I for one find "Pip" much easier to remember than "Philip Pirrip"! That isn't really a spoiler, is it?
ALLEN wrote: "You might enjoy keeping the free .pdf on hand just in case. The ability to compare expressions from one tongue to another is often miraculous. Also, Goethe did not go out of his way to make WERTHER..."I might try that. You never know, maybe some of that German lying dormant in the dusty recesses of my brain will come back to me! Thanks for the link
Katy wrote: "Welcome to the group, Cath. I hope you join us in reading Great Expectations"Thank you! I'm going to start Great Expectations tomorrow and look forward to the upcoming discussions
Hello!I'm Kelsey. I'm a senior at college majoring in social work. I mainly read classics. British and Russian are my favorite areas to read from, but I also enjoy some French and American lit as well. Thomas Hardy is my literary bae. Love his books. Haven't hated one yet.
I look forward to discussing books with you all!
Mod
Hi! I'm Evan from Indonesia, I'm an undergraduate student, majoring in management. I'm pretty new in reading classic literature, despite that I instantly captivated with its insight and depth. Last book that I read was Moby Dick, it's honestly painful for me to get through all the detailed things that Melville put in it, but it paid off when I finally finished it and learn the metaphors.Besides reading, I also enjoy long distance running, and still in my training before my second marathon. For me, reading pretty much like running, both challenging, reflective experience, I fall and get bored now and then, but in the end I always learn something new.
Looking forward to getting to know you all
Welcome Evan! You will really enjoy this group. There is so much room for a person to grow
BAM wrote: "Welcome Evan! You will really enjoy this group. There is so much room for a person to grow"Hi, Evan! I'm Al and I live in Chicago. If you can read all of MOBY DICK (which has defeated many Americans, myself included) then there's little in our literature that you can't tackle. I might suggest Melville's much shorter novellas "Billy Budd" and "Bartleby the Scrivener," which are widely read in the USA and may give you a better-rounded picture of the author.
Of course, anyone waking up to the joys of American literature is going to run into the two Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer TOM SAWYER and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You may have been there already.
Mod
Welcome Nine, Cath, Kelsey and Evan. I'm so glad to see new members joining all the time. I hope you all have fun in our group :)
Greetings. I read classics, almost exclusively, unless something contemporary grabs my attention intensely. Still, with so many classics to tackle, I am far from having to pick up a book written in the last 50 years unless I am somehow compelled. I always say, they're classics for a reason.
Mod
J wrote: "Greetings. I read classics, almost exclusively, unless something contemporary grabs my attention intensely. Still, with so many classics to tackle, I am far from having to pick up a book written in the last 50 years unless I am somehow compelled...."Hello, J, and welcome. I love classics, too, but I am cheered that your definition would not exclude such estimable works as RABBIT, RUN; A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES and even STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, all of which are now 50 years old or order.
Welcome J, I'm glad you've joined us :)
Hi!I am in Indian currently living in Indonesia and trying to get back to reading having been busy for a while with my toddler. Classics is what I began with as a child. Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Dickens and George Elliot being among my favorite ones. However, later on somehow I gravitated towards non-fiction and since last 10 years at least it became and still is my go-to genre. Though, I realize that I do miss out on the beauty of prose and beautiful stories all the time. In fiction, though I would like to read several books, Classics is what I would prefer to resume with.
Mod
Welcome to the newcomers, and hello to the oldgoers.
Pradnya wrote: "Hi!I am in Indian currently living in Indonesia and trying to get back to reading having been busy for a while with my toddler. Classics is what I began with as a child. Mark Twain, Jane Austen, ..."
Pradnya, what's your opinion of GR following and GR friendship?
Hello.I was seeing Allen (or ALLEN's) side of quite a few conversations in my feed, and decided to pop over.
I think it's awesome that you're reading Cold Comfort Farm and The Sorrows of Young Werther. Maybe I've avoided joining so as not to commit to three or four other discussions at this juncture.
AND, I see a few other familiar faces.
Anyway, Jane Austen is my favorite author. Second favorite Richard Stark. (who both have a lot in common)
Howdy, Christopher! Nice to see you here! Might as well join, it's not invitation-only and the folks are nice.
The best-read "Tory Pamphleteer" in the Triangle neglected to mention that Richard Stark, who died in Mexico on New Year's Eve, 2008, was one of Donald Westlake's many-many pen names. He wrote the screenplay for THE GRIFTERS and his short story, "Too Many Crooks," is legendary, but Chris would know more about that.
Chris, how you manage to read as much as you do while practically running that libe is beyond me. While you're up late and feeling footloose and fancy free, why don't you check out MCT (Mystery, Crime, Thriller), which I believe is also open-entry?
WERTHER sounds like your meat to me. It's short, and online reads should be easy to find -- especially *auf Deutsch*.
He's probably too reticent to tell you of his wonderful annotation of Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps, Volume 1, so I will: It's wonderful.
TTFN - ALLEN
HiI’m Idit, from Australia via Israel
After reading trash for few years, trying to cleanse the palette in 2018.
I’ve decided earlier in the year (around March?) to start reading one book each year from 1900-2018. Trying to tackle the dusty shelves at home and classics I’ve always wanted to read, but have had some great unplanned finds as well.
So far it’s going well. Read many wonderful books this year (and few duds).
Your group seem to be going in similar direction - And id love to join. (I might need to ignore your pre-20 century plans for a while though)
Welcome to the group Pradnya, Christopher and Idit. Happy to have you here and look forward to getting to know you more :)
Pink, correct me if I am wrong, please, but CATCHING UP ON CLASSICS is not a closed or private group, and Christopher, Pradnya and Idit are free to join if they wish . . . ?
Hello, I'm Gayla from Fort Worth Texas. I have an hour-long commute each way so love to listen to audible books. I also love to read and work in as much "real" reading as I can. I look forward to re-reading Hamlet in September. :)
Hey all! I'm an anglo-Canadian currently living in Sweden (I move around a lot). I read a range of books from Chaucer to contemporary, with the 19th century being a favourite when it comes to classics. I look forward to discovering some new classics through this group and perhaps discussing with you from time to time!
Hello, Idit, Gayla, Heather, and all the other new members. What a diverse group. I hope you enjoy reading the classics in this group even if it's not all the reads each month. Hopefully I will see you all around.
Hi Chris 👋🏻 I recognise u from the Guardian Group. It’s great to see u here too, this group is a lot of fun!
Hello to all other new members too!
Hello to all other new members too!
ALLEN wrote: "Pink, correct me if I am wrong, please, but CATCHING UP ON CLASSICS is not a closed or private group, and Christopher, Pradnya and Idit are free to join if they wish . . . ?"Yes of course! This group is open to all, we love having new members from all around the world.
Hi All,I'm Angel, from the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Like Gayla, I have a long commute to the office, and audiobooks have made that my story time hour. I enjoy a good book, no matter the genre; however, my go-to books are fantasy, magical realism, nature non-fiction, memoirs, and southern lit. I feel woefully unread when it comes to classics, despite my best efforts to read a couple a year. A few GR members I follow and admire for their book reviews are in this group - I stalked their profiles and ended up here!
Welcome to Gayla and Heather Josephine :) I look forward to reading and discussing more classics with you!
I’m Dylan Oliver and from England. Reading forms as one of my main hobbies and I read a variety of genres ranging from Classics such as masterpieces from the brilliant Nabokov and Woolf to much more experimental field such as Anaiis Nin’s erotica and recently magical realism. Aside from reading, I enjoy writing (especially poems/novelistic stories) and art through painting and sketching. I certainly am a fan of Hemingway and my favourite book is the controversial Lolita.
Mod
Hello! My name is Sophia. I have just recently started reading the classics, and i am loving them!! I also like fantasy, mystery, philosophical, science fiction and lots more genres.I love reading :p, swimming, spending time with my family and making things out of scraps.
Mod
Welcome Angel, Dylan Oliver and Sophia, I hope you all enjoy our group and discover some more favourite classics with us :)
Pink wrote: "Welcome Angel, Dylan Oliver and Sophia, I hope you all enjoy our group and discover some more favourite classics with us :)"Wow, there's a population boom going on here! Very impressive!
Hello to all new members! I am fairly new myself.
Katy wrote: "Hi there. Thought it might be fun to get to know each other a bit more. Use this thread to introduce yourself. What books do you like to read, and what other hobbies/work take up your time.
Anyt..."
I'm Lawrence and was born in Cape Town, South Africa but now live in Southern California (since 1989).
Recently, I've turned back to some classic books after I purchased a very nice hardcover copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination--by Edgar Allan Poe and began to read it. I decided to read some classics again and was happy to find this group.
I'm also in to Sci-Fi and Fantasy reading.
Thanks for being here.
Lawrence.
Welcome Lawrence, I'm glad to hear you've turned back to some classic books and hope you'll join us for some classics discussions :)
Thanks for the Welcome. I intend to and intend as well to enjoy the discussions. :)
Mod
Hi, I'm Naomi and I'm from Northern California. I recently graduated from UC Davis studying Biological Psychology. I have always been a fan of classic novels and I am investing more time into reading now that I'm taking a break from academics. My favorite book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and I am currently making my way through all the Bronte and Austen novels. I am also hoping to get into Russian literature next so I welcome any suggestions on where to start!
Mod
You might try Dead Souls byNikolai Gogol. Not as long as some other Russian novels.
Naomi wrote: "Hi, I'm Naomi and I'm from Northern California. I recently graduated from UC Davis studying Biological Psychology. I have always been a fan of classic novels and I am investing more time into readi..."Welcome, Naomi! I'm excited that you have a budding interest in Russian literature. I never thought that I'd read the Russian classics, but after I read A Gentleman in Moscow last year (I loved that book!), it really got me started on reading them. And I've read ten Russian books and short stories in the last year!
Anyway... I'm planning to read Crime and Punishment soon if you're interested in reading together. I think it's sometimes helpful to have someone that you can comment to (or ask questions "what is going on here?!) when reading. Just let me know if you're interested, no pressure either way.
And enjoy this group! They're a very active and supportive group, and I've read so many more classics since joining here :)
Crime and punishment was amazing!Welcome to the group
Biopsych and Russian novels -- could Pavlov be far behind, Naomi (lol).
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Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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