Pip's 2016 Classics Bingo Challenge

[Pip]

Starting a bit late but I'm going to try and get all the squares :)

B1: Written by Nobel Laureate The Stranger by Albert Camus
B2: Sci-fi or Fantasy Classic
B3: Classic of Africa The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
B4: Children's Classic Watership Down by Richard Adams
B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud

I1: Published/Written Before 1600’s The Lais of Marie De France: With Two Further Lais in the Original Old French by Marie de France
I2: New-to-You Author Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
I3: Classic Play The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster
I4: Banned Book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
I5: Published in the 1700's

N1: Classic of the Americas Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
N2: Short Story Collection Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
N3: FREE SPACE Laura by Vera Caspary
N4: Poetry Collection
N5: Classic of Europe The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

G1: Published in the 1600's The White Devil by John Webster
G2: Book from Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar
G3: Classic Non-fiction The Secret History by Procopius
G4: Classic from School The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
G5: Published in the 1800's Clotel: or, The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown

O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region
O2: Gothic Classic
O3: Classic of Asia or Oceania
O4: Mystery or Crime Classic The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
O5: Prize-Winning Female Author The Color Purple by Alice Walker

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

I hope you enjoy it Pip!

[Laurie]

Good luck on your challenge.

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Welcome to the challenge, Pip. I hope you have fun with it.

[Pink]

Welcome to the challenge and congrats on completing your first book.

[Pip]

Thanks everyone :) Just finished reading The Secret History as my Classic Non Fiction - although I'm not completely convinced everything in it is true! It's pretty fascinating reading the late Roman equivalent of a scandalous political biography, I would definitely recommend it.

[Pink]

Oh interesting, at first I thought you meant Donna Tartt's novel, so I wondered why it would be true. I like some old or ancient history once in a while.

[Pip]

It's excellent, if you like ancient history you would definitely enjoy it :)

Just added The Meursault Investigation in the Foreign Literary Prize category - it's a recently published book, but I found it an interesting counterpoint after reading The Stranger. It received a few French book awards including the Prix des Cinq Continents and the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman.

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Pip wrote: "Thanks everyone :) Just finished reading The Secret History as my Classic Non Fiction - although I'm not completely convinced everything in it is true! It's pretty fascinating reading..."

Cool
That's one I didn't know about.

[Pip]

Crossed off another category (Classic of Africa this time) with The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. It starts off slow but then by the end of the book I was on the edge of my seat for the (view spoiler)[ tragically inevitable (hide spoiler)] conclusion.

I'm trying to use this challenge as an incentive to read more diverse books than normal - I realised how many of the books on my shelves are by white, English speaking writers and I want to read more of a range. If you have any recommendations please feel free to share!

[Kathleen]

I just read two you might like, Pip. Reading Lolita in Tehran provides lots of thoughts on classic books as well as what life was like in the Islamic Republic of Iran. And Kitchen is a lovely and unique novel about loneliness and more.

You have a great goal--enjoy!

[[deleted user]]

I thought this was pretty cool: http://bit.ly/WorldOfPenguinClassics.

[Pip]

Thanks Kathleen! I have read Kitchen before and I really enjoyed it - have you read The Lake by the same author? It's a bit darker in tone but still lovely.

Nargus wrote: "I thought this was pretty cool: http://bit.ly/WorldOfPenguinClassics."

Wow this is so cool, thanks! A lot more books to add to my 'to read' pile :)

[Kathleen]

Thanks for the recommendation, Pip! I like dark and think that will be my next book of hers.

Nargus, that link is so fun--so glad you shared it!

[Pip]

Updating with a book that was super quick to read - The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. I remember reading a children's adaptation in primary school - the real thing was definitely better!

Five down, twenty to go :)

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Pip wrote: "Updating with a book that was super quick to read - The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. I remember reading a children's adaptation in primary school - the..."

So nice to discover another wonderful book. I need to read that one.

[Pip]

Just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for the Classic of the Americas category :)

This book was great! The prose was so lovely.

[Pip]

Crossing off the Banned Book category with All Quiet on the Western Front, which was banned in Nazi Germany and burned as part of the Nazi book burnings.

I don't really have words to express how good this book was...I can't recommend it highly enough. The depiction of the horrors of war is incredibly moving.

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Pip wrote: "Crossing off the Banned Book category with All Quiet on the Western Front, which was banned in Nazi Germany and burned as part of the Nazi book burnings.

I don't really have words to..."

Definitely one of the very best books I have ever read.

[Pink]

Agreed, it's an excellent book.

[Desertorum]

I must agree. I read it in my teens and in that age it was very powerful experience.

[[deleted user]]

We have such a consensus here. Me too, I read it not long ago, and thought it was pretty great. It seemed real and human and relatable.
Though, I'm yet to fully appreciate the title of the book ... hmm, it eludes me still.

Anyway, I felt that it's also one of those books I'd like to re-read at some point if I can.

[Susie]

Pip wrote: "Just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for the Classic of the Americas category :)

This book was great! The prose was so lovely."

This is on my list for several challenges this year so I love seeing the great reviews!

[Pip]

Just finished Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini :) There's no 'Classic of Adventure' category so I've put it under New-to-you Author instead! This was pretty great, especially if you like reading about pirates (and who doesn't like reading about pirates? Not me at any rate...).

[Pip]

Read The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster for the Classic Play category :) this was excellent! I like dramatic revenge dramas, and this had some excellent scenes and is very quotable…

'Do you not weep?
Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out;
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards, and bedews the heavens.'

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Looks like you should be able to "Black-out" your Bingo card this year. You are moving right along with this challenge. And so glad that you are enjoying your reads.

[Pip]

Read a second John Webster play, The White Devil for the Published in the 1600s category (first published in 1612). I liked this one even more than the Duchess of Malfi!

I'm not sure if it was easier to read or if I have just gotten used to the style, but it felt easier to get into the flow and I enjoyed the characters/story more :)

[Susie]

I've started to enjoy reading plays and these 2 sound good...definitely will check them out at some point. Thanks for the ideas!

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Susie wrote: "I've started to enjoy reading plays and these 2 sound good...definitely will check them out at some point. Thanks for the ideas!"

Yea! It is good to realize that a new genre can be great reading.

[Pip]

Just finished The Trail of the Serpent by Mary Elizabeth Braddon for the Mystery or Crime Classic category. This was great, I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before! It's one of the first - if not the first - English detective novels, featuring an amazing mute detective who conducts his investigations through sign language, and who is probably the best depiction of a character with a disability that I have read in a Victorian novel, as well as an incredibly evil villain who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

If you are interested in a Victorian era novel with a faster pace, more humour and a lot more murder than you are used to I would definitely recommend this :)

[[deleted user]]

Sounds interesting, thanks for the rec. Adding it to my TBR list!

[Sara, New School Classics]

I've added it to my TBR as well. Thanks for the tip, Pip.

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Pip that does sound great! I have never heard of it either. I'm with Nargus & Sara -- another book for the TBR list.

[Pip]

I hope you like it! I definitely did :) it's the first book she wrote and you can see how she was influenced by Dickens, it's quite different to Lady Audley's Secret which is the only other book I've read by her - I'm definitely going to seek out more of her work now.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I enjoyed Lady Audley and from what you say this might even be better. Excited to read it.

[Pip]

Finally made my way to the end of Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, a massive (more than a thousand pages!) anthology of classic horror and ghost stories.

I really enjoyed this as I love creepy old ghost tales, and it introduced me to some great authors that I'll need to read more of, like Oliver Onions and John Collier.

[Sara, New School Classics]

Lovely when you can discover new writers in a genre that you love. Congrats on making your way through so much ghostliness.

[Katy, Old School Classics]

Pip you have found some great sounding books. And more to add to my TBR list.

[Pip]

Just finished Clotel: or, The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown, in the Published in the 1800s category.

This book is very angry and very good.

[Pip]

I watched the 1944 movie Laura and was inspired to read the original novel Laura by Vera Caspary. Because this doesn't quite fit in any of my other remaining categories, I've put it into my Free Space :)

This book was really great - a crime/noir classic about a woman who is murdered, and the hard-boiled cop who gradually starts to fall in love with the victim as he investigates her case. I like novels (in the tradition of The Woman in White) that feature different narrators - each with their own personality and not always to be trusted - and I think it worked well in this book!

[Veronique]

Pip wrote: "I watched the 1944 movie Laura and was inspired to read the original novel Laura by Vera Caspary. Because this doesn't quite fit in any of my other remaining categories..."

Oh good! I've got Laura on my list to read for the Women's Century challenge. Well actually I bought it quite a while ago... :0) Caspary and some others, like Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, were mentioned in an article on 1940s and 1950s women crime writers that should be more well-known (article link)

[Pip]

Thanks for the article recommendation! I actually have the women crime writers collection discussed in the article - it's sitting in my to-read pile at the moment :)

Just finished The Day of the Owl (keeping on the crime theme). This was for the Classic of Europe category; it's a short Italian classic detective story about murder and the mafia in Sicily.

I would definitely recommend this one! It's a very quick read, is funny (though not lighthearted) and I really liked the character of the police captain.

[Kathleen]

Yes, thanks! Great article. I loved the Laura movie and it was interesting about the differences and that she said the director couldn't help but be misogynistic but it was still a great movie. :-) Another book I must read now ...

[Veronique]

Pip wrote: "Thanks for the article recommendation! I actually have the women crime writers collection discussed in the article - it's sitting in my to-read pile at the moment :) ..."

You lucky you!

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Pip, "The Day of the Owl" looks like a good read.

I've added it to a list of books I'm compiling for bingo 2017.

Thank you for mentioning it.

[Nente]

Oh Pip, now what are you doing? Finished 1 (one) book, went in to add it to my thread, looked into yours and ended up with 4 (four) more in the to-reads! 0.o

(now seriously, thanks for the great selections from all of us who are picking up inspirations)

[Pip]

Finally finished another book on the classics list! It's been a while but it's good to be back :) The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar was really good, I found it quite similar to some of Umberto Eco's books.

It is an incredible picture of the life of an intellectual (doctor, philosopher, alchemist) in Early Modern Europe and the people he interacts with, both the rich and powerful and the poor and downtrodden.

[[deleted user]]

Pip wrote: "Finally finished another book on the classics list! It's been a while but it's good to be back :) The Abyss by Marguerite Yourcenar was really good, I found it quite sim..."

The Abyss sounds like a great story! I've added it to my list.

[Sara, New School Classics]

I added it as well, Pip. I was hooked as soon as you compared it to Eco.

[Pip]

I hope you guys enjoy it!

I just finished The Color Purple by Alice Walker for the Prize-Winning Female Author category (she won the Pulitzer fiction prize for this book!). It was of course very good - I read it all in one sitting because I needed to find out what happened next.

Only nine more books to go! I'm on the downhill run now :)