Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Archives Retired Folder Threads
>
Please Introduce Yourself
Mod
Mod
Hello everyone! I am Ila from India. I love reading classics and historical fiction. Hope to read a variety of books in the coming year.
Mod
Mod
Hi, I wanted to introduce myself by talking about my experiences with reading classics. It’s an apt moment at the start of the new year to discuss and reaffirm my own objectives in my reading; which, hopefully, dovetail with the group’s own. I am in the fourth year of a project to read classics; giving myself a month to finish a book, leaving a book if I can’t finish it in that time frame. Thankfully the time limit hasn’t been a factor and I only had difficulty at the start of the process and only disliked a couple of my choices in the early days; “Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner and “Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. It might have been a product of becoming used to the demands of the prose of classics that it got a lot easier to read even more ... er ... esoteric works like Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch”. It felt like I worked the proper muscles for the demands of reading classics. I felt that I would be bringing a fair amount of life experience; I started the project around my 50th birthday, and I found that classics shared in a conversation; for instance “Jane Eyre” is full of philosophies of life or the asides of George Eliot where she gives her opinion about the events described, such as the attitudes of society towards scandal in “Mill On The Floss”.
Rather than following a set list, I’ve drifted wherever interest took me, so I have explored black American literature; James Baldwin, Ellison, Morrison; so the meaning of “classic” has shifted its shape as well; I can include Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridien”, which shares a feeling of overcoming giant walls of prose with “Crime and Punishment” and “Madame Bovary” even though it takes a horrific path of its own. I wouldn’t define classics by “how hard” they are to read or how well written. I think Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece is his last book “Jude the Obscure” for it’s tough themes but I love “Far From The Madding Crowd”, even though it is poorly written in comparison; Hardy seems to be trying to impress with how many Latin phrases he knows; yet the story, the two films, have endeared it to me; fate is a poorly trained sheepdog or a sheep stuffing itself on clover. W Somerset Maugham isn’t the writer either Woolf or Lawrence were in the same era but he undertook with “Of Human Bondage” to write about the meaning of life and its an extraordinary, fine book. It was the disdain he received from the highbrow (and a great radio play I heard) that drew me towards WSM- it doesn’t make me love “The Rainbow” or “Mrs Dalloway” any less.
Length has little to do with quality either; there’s that very sweet spot at about 190 pages that a brilliant book- “The End of the Affair” by Graham Greene strikes and shorter books have an allegorical air; George Eliot seems to write “Silas Marner” as a summary and extension of “Adam Bede”. Another cherished book is “A Single Man” by Christopher Isherwood about one day in a man’s life at 150 pages!
My target during the next year, now that I’m chin deep in classics, are some of the heavyweight tomes I’ve been somewhat avoiding- “Moby Dick”, “Don Quixote”, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Les Miserables”. Even though I started this as a “project” almost as if I had to force myself to read hard books it’s evolved into a more natural desire to read good books and the books that have earned the label of classics really are, to a greater or lesser extent simply GOOD!
PinkieBrown wrote: "Hi, I wanted to introduce myself by talking about my experiences with reading classics. It’s an apt moment at the start of the new year to discuss and reaffirm my own objectives in my reading; whic..."Welcome to the Catching Up with Classics board Pinkie Brown. Also Happy New Year!🎊 I hope you enjoyed the holidays and I look forward in you book reviews. 😀
Mod
Mod
PinkieBrown wrote: "Hi, I wanted to introduce myself by talking about my experiences with reading classics. It’s an apt moment at the start of the new year to discuss and reaffirm my own objectives in my reading; whic..."Wow! Bravo! I like your attitude and new joy for reading classics!
I'm a little older than you but am also trying to get more classics under my belt. I am always struck by how many of the old books include but stories about social struggles and conflict of the times. I have come to love Eliot, Hardy, Maugham. And others I can't say that I love, I have at least come to understand and appreciate.
I have read many of the ones you mentioned and am going to read Crime and Punishment this year!
Anyway, welcome to the group! They are very active and always willing and eager to discuss. And now enjoy your reading in 2019! :)
Hi My name is Christine, I haven't really read any classics since high school and I am 50 years old... I feel like I have missed out so I am really trying to get as many classics as I can into my A-Z list this year... of my 2018 challenge of 100 books, so far I have read Around the World in 80 days, Call of the WIld (love Jack London) must be the New England in me... and alice in wonderland and through the looking glass... Around the world was like a grudge match between me and it because there was just so much description of land and so little narrative that it bored me to tears... it was agony trying to get through it, I hope not all classics are like that...
Mod
Mod
Welcome, Christine. My, this is getting to be quite a big group!
Welcome Christine! I hope you enjoy our group :)
Hi Pinkie and Christine! Nice to meet you One of my New Years resolutions is to be more interactive on Goodreads so I look forward to getting to know you both and sharing our reading experiences!
Hi there. My name is Danial and I’m from Iran.since English is my second language, Reading classics have always been challenging for me. Hope I can get the help I need in this group. Cheers.
Mod
Mod
Hello, Danial! Don't be a stranger!
Hello! I'm not entirely sure how to best utilize these groups because I'm new to Goodreads since just October 2018. I realized I had run out of all the media that was interesting in my subscriptions... Netflix, Hulu, etc... I thought, HEY, I could READ!
It was a genuine return to something I loved as a child, and lost interest in through school assigned books a bit. I did read some lovely books through my education though but realized I had missed a LOT of classics (either because I bluffed my way through them or skipped them all together).
You may laugh but Rory Gilmore is a reading inspiration to me and why many folks are fans of the show. It included numerous references to classics so my main list is hers. It's a great place to start.
I plan to read 4 books per month:
- 1 classic (mostly from Rory's list - this month is Mrs Dalloway)
- 1 current book (like Gone Girl this Jan)
- 1 classic sci fi (Martian Chronicles)
- 1-2 audiobooks (to fill in the gaps of time - driving, walking)
I started this plan in Oct 2018 and I finished 13 books by end of 2018! That's after reading, like, nothing for 10 years prior.
Thank you Goodreads and this lovely community that reminds us all to take a gander at that pile of paper on a shelf and turn off the glowing boxes of internet and television and enjoy a GOOD STORY.
Thank you all. :)
Welcome, Megg! That's an ambitious schedule, but I can see you've scoped out what some of the various groups have to offer, and you should be right at home in them. Hope you enjoy it here, and elsewhere at GR.
Mod
Welcome Christine. My two favorites that I read last year were The Remains of the Day and All Quiet on the Western Front. Also there are many others on the shelf to choose from. A comedy we read last year was Cold Comfort Farm. These are all narrative heavy and as a bonus they each have a movie you could watch at the end. Happy reading. I am sure you will find many books that you enjoy.
Mod
I realized I had run out of all the media that was interesting in my subscripti..."
Welcome, you found a group of like-minded people. You will find there are a lot of people here who are into lists. I keep a list of all the books mentioned in the Gilmore Girls. I have read 47/339 off of the list so far. My most recent read found on that list was Walden. Also, Howl is up as a possible book to be voted on in this month's poll. There are a lot of books from Rory's list that are also on our bookshelf.
https://www.listchallenges.com/rory-g...
Mod
Mod
Our Group Books
Lynn wrote: "Megg wrote: "Hello! I'm not entirely sure how to best utilize these groups because I'm new to Goodreads since just October 2018. I realized I had run out of all the media that was interesting in ..."
Lol, I'm also at 47. This is a varied list!
Hello everyone! My name is Ben and I am brand new to Goodreads.
I have always loved reading the classics, but the last 7 years, I've had a hard time finding other people who still read them.
When I found this group it was great because I finally have people to talk to about what I've been reading!
Anyways, as I still discover how Goodreads works, I'm deciding whether to do the "Classics Old and New" challenge or the Classics Bingo challenge.
Looking forward to learning and reading with you all!
Also, I just re-read Macbeth and was beyond ecstatic when I saw "Much Ado About Nothing" on February's list! Can't wait!
Mod
Welcome, Ben, there's lots to do here!
Mod
Welcome Ben, I hope you enjoy our group :)
Hello everybody! I have joined this group as I plan to read more classics from now. I have always like them and I want to combine Reading classics and modern novels. My name is Miriam, 33 years-old from Spain, with partner and without kids. I work as music teacher in Conservatory. I love Reading, specially fiction. Other of my interests are hiking, nature, adventure, travelling, watching independent films and series, sports &healthy life, spend time with Friends or learn languages. I hope to have a lot of fun in this group!!
Mod
Welcome, Miriam, I hope you like it here!
Hi, everyone! I have a book addiction among several others and I love classics. Hoping to read some with you guys and make some friends here :)
Hi everyone,my name is Jessica and I'm pretty new to Goodreads (signed up in August last year), but I only just discovered this challenge. Because of my studies (English and French) I have come into contact with lots of classics. Some of them I really liked and others were just odd. But I have always loved reading classics on the whole.
While skimming through the other messages above, I saw a link to the group's bookshelf. Just for fun I had a look at how many of the books I had read: 42/247, that's 17% and I want to read 101 other classics on the list. I think that's some challenge...
Looking forward to taking part in some of the challenges here.
Mod
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Cranford (other topics)The White Tiger (other topics)
Pather Panchali: Song of the Road (other topics)
The Home and the World (other topics)
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Tess Uriza Holthe (other topics)Truman Capote (other topics)
Arthur Conan Doyle (other topics)
Harper Lee (other topics)
Trish Nicholson (other topics)
More...
I've been on Goodreads for several years but just starting joining groups and participating more earlier this year. I tend to read contemporary literature but have been trying to sprinkle some Classics in when I can so I'm glad to find this group for some added inspiration.