2016 Classics for Beginners Challenge

[Squire]

Well, I wasn't in a "classics" kinda mood in 1980; I was more about rebellion, so I might never have given it a chance.

I do find it significant that I have never been able to sit through the whole movie before (and I love movies). But I'll give it a whirl.

[Nina]

Squire wrote: "I think I'll add The Grapes of Wrath to my classics list this year. I didn't care for it when I read it for my "Decades of the 30's" class in high school. It probably deserves a revisit..."

We read it last year in spring as a group read and I really enjoyed it. As Emily says: to me so much of it applies also to our times. Check out the thread if you like, if I remember we had some interesting discussions on this. If I remember well, it was in May.

[Kirsten]

That is so true, Nina. I read it in high school and was bored silly. But that was in the 1980s. Read it again, in 2008, so much more meaningful!

If you'd like a companion to it, read Sanora Babb's book Whose Names Are Unknown. She let Steinbeck look at her notes - she was a journalist at the time - and he got his book to his publisher first. So, she didn't get hers published for decades later. Sad, but she never blamed Steinbeck.

It's a moving book and she actually met some of those that suffered.

[Squire]

I'm thinking a Charles Dickens book will be on my list again this year. I'm leaning towards The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

[Ken]

I just set up this challenge. My 2016 reading goal is 36 books, so I set up my classics goal as 24.

[Squire]

I just completed a 2-week voyage on the Pequod. I enjoyed Moby Dick more the fourth time around than I did the previous three times combined. I'm a lot grimmer, grayer, and more grizzled than when I started, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

And I think I'll keep the beard for a bit!

;>D

[Nina]

I'm glad to hear that, Squire. I've always wanted to pay the Pequod a visit but everyone seems to not enjoy it at all. But maybe it just takes 4 trials, so I might start the first voyage soon :-p

[Squire]

It doesn't take 4 times through to enjoy Moby Dick. I've just enjoyed it differently each time because I was looking at through different eyes each time (20, 34, 41, and now 50 years old). I've enjoyed it each time--enough to keep it on my favorites list for 30 years. I just REALLY enjoyed it this time through.

Do read it. In fact, I'll leave you with the secret to enjoying the book:

"But in a matter like this, subtlety appeals to subtlety, and without imagination no man can follow another into these halls."

[Nina]

Even better to hear this! I will read it for sure, thanks for encouraging me! And thank you also for the quote, it is very true for many literary wonders.

[Squire]

Currently eading From the Earth to the Moon.

[Annerlee]

I've read The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice by Wilkie Collins so far ... not very impressed (I gave it 2 stars), so not a brilliant start for me.

I'll maybe read a Jules Verne as my next Classics novel. I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in December and quite enjoyed it.

Does anyone have a favourite Jules Verne book?

[Squire]

20,000 leagues! But I've got Around the World in 80 Says on my tbr. I also have an old copy of Master of the World on my paperback shelf that I keep meaning to crack.

From the Earth to the Moon is wild and hysterical satire. I'm loving it!

[Squire]

Moving on to The Grapes of Wrath.

[Squire]

Beau Geste by Percival Christopher Wren just made the cut for this year's classics challenge.

[Annerlee]

Squire wrote: "20,000 leagues! But I've got Around the World in 80 Says on my tbr. I also have an old copy of Master of the World on my paperback shelf that I keep meaning to crack..."

I'm going to clear my 'currently reading list', then go for Journey to the Center of the Earth. I've seen the film, so it'll be interesting to see how similar / different the book is

[Squire]

That's one of my least favorite Verne books (I I still gave it 3 stars), though I admit I can count the Verne books I've read on one hand. I started that one in high school land made it to chapter 30 before I quit. It bugged me for 30 years that I never finished it until I finally got it read in 2013.

[Annerlee]

Squire wrote: "That's one of my least favorite Verne books (I I still gave it 3 stars), though I admit I can count the Verne books I've read on one hand ..."

Ohh.. Well I've started it now ; )

The story hasn't really got going yet - we've not quite made it to Iceland - but I quite like the interaction between the Professor ad his nephew. It feels very different to 20, 000 leagues so far - I was pleasantly surprised that there's so much humour!

[Dj]

I plan to read 15 classics this year including a re-read of 'To kill a mockingbird'.

[Squire]

I think I will finally get Catch-22 off my TBR this year. I need one more classic to round out my challenge. One will eventually come along that "seems" right...

[Squire]

Finished The Three Musketeers. Another book I can't believe I waited so long to read. Now am onto The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

[Squire]

Finished up with Drood and Catch-22. I need one more classic for my challenge. I'll take some time to think about it--there are so many deserving titles...

[Arlene]

Hi, I have The Mystery of Edwin Drood (but have not read it yet) did you enjoy it?

[Nina]

Squire wrote: "Finished up with Drood and Catch-22. I need one more classic for my challenge. I'll take some time to think about it--there are so many deserving titles..."

Great job, Squire. Also finished my challenge yesterday, yet there are still so many more classics I want to read this year..

[Squire]

Arlene wrote: "Hi, I have The Mystery of Edwin Drood (but have not read it yet) did you enjoy it?"

I did, but not as much as his other titles. Drood is Dickens without the charm of his earlier works (but all the wit). The book is more about the development of the criminal mind than it's story.

[Arlene]

Thank you Squire have a great day!

[Squire]

The Faerie Queene (The Faerie Queene, Vol. I, The Faerie Queene, Vol. II, The Faerie Queene, Vol. III) will be my final classic for this year's challenge.

[Susie]

I hit my goal early...20 Classics read this year...Whoo hoo!

I will admit there were a couple of short plays and a short story but still all classics! ;)

I enjoyed all of them but my favorite that I would highly recommend is Middlemarch. It is loonng, but so worth it...great story and great writing!

[Nina]

Congrats, Susie, good job!! And your enthusiasm motivates me to give Middlemarch a try. I've been meaning to read it for a long time but kinda always hesitated because it's so so long...

[Annerlee]

This was my first ever classics challenge and I chose to aim for just 4 (out of the 76 books I challenged myself to for the year). I haven't read any classics for years, so this was pushing myself to read more. I recently finished my 4 and am nearing the end of my 5th. This will seem a small number to you 'Classics fiends', but I'm actually quite proud of myself.

My 'encore' is Moby Dick.. Wow... a LONG, rambling but wry book! And Comprehensive! At 20% I thought I'd never finish, but
I'm actually going to miss old Ishmael / Herman.

I listened to an audio book courtesy of Librivox.com, which is really well done. So, I've been 'reading' on the bus, walking to work, doing the washing up, shopping etc etc. Moby Dick has been the soundtrack of my life since mid July!

So... thanks for the classics challenge folks. My 2016 has definitely been enriched by it! And I know sooo much more about whales and whaling as a result. A bonus!

[Susie]

It was helpful that I read Middlemarch during a group read that was set for a 3 month read, but it wasn't difficult to stick with. It starts out slow but picks up as you move through it...
Even folks who struggled through parts of it were happy they stayed with it to the end...I finished in a little over a month.

I had read very few classics (ever) until a couple of years ago I committed to start reading a few...so happy I did! It has enriched my life and broaden my horizons in so many ways!

As I say to folks, the best part about it is, having read so few of them, I have an abundance to choose from! ;)

I think this group is a great, no pressure place to dip our toes in!

[Arlene]

Annerlee, great job! I finished my challenge last month. I only read 12 (last year was over 20) I have a new job and can not read at work like I did the former job. But since it is just September I'm hoping to read at least 2 more. Right now Im reading Emma.

[Kirsten]

My goal is 30 books, so far I have read 13:

Martin Eden by Jack London (1909)
Penguin Island by Anatole France (1908)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer (1936)
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (1962)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. (1938)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)
A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement by Anthony Powell (1951)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (1958)
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (1954)

[Susie]

Way to go! You have several on your list that are new to me that I will have to check out...yay

[Annerlee]

Susie wrote: "Way to go! You have several on your list that are new to me that I will have to check out...yay"

I'm with you there, Susie. They're mostly new to me too... whole new worlds to discover.

[Kirsten]

Thanks guys

[Squire]

Well, The Faerie Queene isn't going to fit into my schedule this year. (Things always seem to get hectic around Nov/Dec.) So my final classic will be a book I've read, but need to give a second try--I didn't like it in 1982 at the age of 16; we'll see what I think 34 years later at 50: The Catcher in the Rye.

[☯Emily , moderator]

Squire wrote: "Well, The Faerie Queene isn't going to fit into my schedule this year. (Things always seem to get hectic around Nov/Dec.) So my final classic will be a book I've read, but need to give a second try..."

Wish you happiness reading The Catcher in the Rye. I read it a few years ago and hated it.

[Squire]

Thanks, Emily...I guess.

I already don't have fond memories of it, so it can't get any worse. I have jury duty on Dec 5th; I have some time off around then, so I'm planning on starting it around that date.

[Heather L]

Met my goal of 10 last week with completion of The Stranger.

[☯Emily , moderator]

Heather L wrote: "Met my goal of 10 last week with completion of The Stranger."

Congratulations!

[Arlene]

Congratulations Heather!

[Lauri]

Congratulations Heather.

[Heather L]

Thanks! We'll see if I can manage to sneak in one more, as I'd like to read this month's book.

[Nina]

Congrats, Heather! Squire, how is the book coming along?

[Squire]

Finished. The Catcher in the Rye is officially my least favorite classic. Rereading it reminded me of why I didn't care for it in high school. I now know why some people abandon books. This one has soured me on reading for a while.

But it will be only momentary. 2017 shows too much promise and I've now gotten the classics that I'd read before and didn't like out of the way. For good. Never again will I read nor recommend The Catcher in the Rye or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.