Josh's Old and New Classic Challenge

[Josh]

I joined the group a month or so ago, but I just found this challenge thread. I am hoping it is suitable for me to join still.

I am just beginning to familiarize myself with classic works, so please share any knowledge you have so my 2017 challenge can be much better. I don't mind setting my challenge for 12 books despite having half a year left. Hopefully I won't regret this later...

Also, if anyone has suggestions for acquiring some classic works for free in a legitimate and quality way, please share. I know Amazon has some of these for free already.

Josh's 12 + 2 Classic Challenge

1899 and earlier
1. The Tell-Tale Heart
2. The Odyssey
3. War and Peace

1900-1999
4. Brave New World
5. Fahrenheit 451
6. The Hobbit

My Wild Card Six
7. A Short History of Nearly Everything
8. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
9. Snow Crash
10. War of Worlds
11. The Source
12. The Complete Robot


Alternate
1. War
2. The Giver

[Veronique]

It's never too late :0) Good selection.

[Darren]

for out-of-copyright stuff, where Amazon may still charge a small amount, Project Gutenberg quite often has for free

[Josh]

Darren wrote: "for out-of-copyright stuff, where Amazon may still charge a small amount, Project Gutenberg quite often has for free"

I've heard of this website. Do you use a third party to transfer the ebooks to your Kindle / ereader?

[Josh]

Veronique wrote: "It's never too late :0) Good selection."

Thanks for the encouragement. The two thousand-pagers intimidate me a little. Lol.

[Andrea AKA Catsos Person]

Josh, for Project Gutenberg, I use "Dropbox" to transfer eBooks to my device.

[Darren]

there are Kindle-compatible downloads that go straight to my Kindle account with no probs (no cover-art though)

[Josh]

Darren wrote: "there are Kindle-compatible downloads that go straight to my Kindle account with no probs (no cover-art though)"

I may be too obsessive but I need the cover art. Lol. I feel the book to be incomplete without it. I think there is third party software to add cover art and other details before transferring.

Andrea wrote: "Josh, for Project Gutenberg, I use "Dropbox" to transfer eBooks to my device." Thanks for sharing Andrea. :)

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Josh just wanted to let you know that at this point in the year you don't have to attempt eating the whole pie. You can go with 7 books June-December and two alternates.

Rule:
For New Members joining in 2016, in addition to the above rules, feel free to adjust your challenge according to the number of months left in the year. Example: If you join in March 2016 and wish to participate, list 9 books and 2 alternates. If your joined after June 2016 list the appropriate number of books according to the number of months left, but only pick one alternate.

Nice list by the way, good luck!

[Josh]

Thanks, Bob. I'm up for the challenge. I planned on reading a handful of these books anyway. Hopefully I am able to complete this list.

[Pink]

Your list looks great Josh, I'm glad you've decided to join in.

I hope you'll join our buddy read discussion of War and Peace in September and I'd love to discuss The Odyssey with you too. I'm hoping it might win the August poll, but failing that I'll probably read it then anyway if you'd like to compare thoughts :)

[Bat-Cat]

Josh, I have found that one of the easiest ways to send books (Project Gutenberg books as well as many other free ebook websites) is through the Calibre program
http://calibre-ebook.com/
that you would download to your computer. From there you can go to Get Books, download them to Calibre and then email them to whatever Kindle device you want to. The program can do a ton of things but I pretty much just use it for getting ebooks, changing their format and sending them wherever I want to read them. I hope this helps. ;-)

[Laurie]

I use Calibre too, but I didn't know that you can use it to email books to your Kindle account. I download the books and add them to Calibre. You can change the cover from the one it downloaded with. Then I attach my Kindle to my computer and it shows up in the Calibre program. And I add the book to my Kindle from there. It's really easy. This is how I add books to my Kindle reader. I download them directly to my Fire if I want to read on there.

[Bat-Cat]

Well, you can highlight the book you want to send from the list, go to Connect/Share, then Email to... and send to the email address associated with your Kindle or whatever address you want to put in. It's pretty simple. Their help page has lots of info about how to do things - most of which I have no idea about. ;-)

[Josh]

Thanks for the information Laurie and Bat. I just remembered I used Calibre before but I couldn't remember the program name. You can add covers and a lot of other stuff to the book. It's a great program.

Thanks again for the information.

[Josh]

Anyone know the best version of The Odyssey to read?

I'm thinking of reading ISBN-10: 0140268863.

Also have the same question for War and Peace.

[Jon]

Josh wrote: "Anyone know the best version of The Odyssey to read?

I'm thinking of reading ISBN-10: 0140268863.

Also have the same question for War and Peace."

I like the Vintage classics version , translated by Robert Fitzgerald. It's a verse translation but reads as easily as prose. Nicely designed book too. (Also, FWIW my sister who is a classicist recommended this version to me originally.)

There was a group read of War and Peace at some point which I think had some discussion about pros and cons of various translations as well.

[Josh]

Jon wrote: "Josh wrote: "Anyone know the best version of The Odyssey to read?

I'm thinking of reading ISBN-10: 0140268863.

Also have the same question for War and Peace."

I like the Vintage classics versio..."

Thanks Jon. I'll go with that version if the translation is the best. Do you think I'll lack insight from other versions that have introductions and detailed footnotes?

[Josh]

Couple edits: realized I want to read Issac Asimov's books in chronological order, so I switched out Foundation with the Complete Robot series, which also lead me to switching out I, Robot as a substitute (I, Robot is included in The Complete Robot).

[Josh]

Update: I finished Fahrenheit 451 last night. Loved the book. My review can be found here.

On to Brave New World!

[Laurie]

What a great review, Josh. I reread this book last year and I agree that it still so relevant. Hope you enjoy Brave New World. I plan on rereading that one later this year.

[Josh]

Laurie wrote: "What a great review, Josh. I reread this book last year and I agree that it still so relevant. Hope you enjoy Brave New World. I plan on rereading that one later this year."

Thanks, Laurie! Fahrenheit brought things into perspective quickly. I'm looking forward to Brave New World. I hope it's good!

[Josh]

Update: I finished Brave New World. I really enjoyed the book. My review of it book can be found here. It had a lot of parallels with Fahrenheit 451.

Also started on The Hobbit.

[Josh]

Update: I finished The Hobbit! What a wonderful story. I only wish I read it sooner. My review can be found here.

I'm taking a short break from the list to read 1984.

[Renee]

Josh wrote: "Update: I finished The Hobbit! What a wonderful story. I only wish I read it sooner. My review can be found here.

I'm taking a short break from the list to read 1984."

Love your review Josh! I loved The Hobbit when I first read it a few years ago. I'm currently in the middle of The Return of the King and really enjoying it. This has been my first time reading The Lord of the Rings series despite seeing the movies many times. I love how descriptive Tolkien is and it just pulls me into the story.

That's a great list of books you have for your challenge. I hope you enjoy 1984. That's another one I haven't read yet. So many books, so little time!

[Josh]

Thanks Renee! The Hobbit was great! I'm looking forward to LOTR. I'll probably tackle it with the buddy read in September. There are so many books but time is plentiful when used efficiently. Let us read, and read what we enjoy! :)

[Josh]

Finished The War of the Worlds. Enjoyed the book (especially the latter half), although the beginning was kind of strange and confusing. I'm going to re-watch the movie this weekend for fun.

Reading A Short History of Nearly Everything soon. I have some heavy lifting to do with only three months left. I'm going to be ensconced on my bed or couch reading 24/7 to hopefully hit my goal. The summer in Chicago took away some reading time...but had to make the best of the weather.

[Pink]

I had the same problem this summer, lots of nice hot days to be outside, plus I was watching the Olympics that cut into my reading time. So lots of big books left for Autumn and Winter!

I'm glad you enjoyed The War of the Worlds, it's my favourite book by Wells, although I'm not a huge fan of his other work.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I'm stuck with two of Wells' books being favorites, The War of the Worlds is better written, but I love the idea of time travel so I'm also partial to The Time Machine.

A quick one to check off your list is The Tell Tale Heart, one of Poe's best.

[Josh]

Pink, thanks for your comments. I saw that in your review of the book. This was my first Book by Wells. I have a few more to try out once I get through some other books.

The olympics distracted me a bit too! Lol. Well good all this is over. Back to being an inveterate reader!

[Josh]

Bob, Time Machine is on my list. So I'll let you know what I think when I get around to it. I thought The War of the Worlds was eloquently written as well.

For Tell-Tale Heart: I was confused when I tried to find a version of the book. Some are 30 pages some are 90 pages. Could you link me to an appropriate version?

[Pink]

I think I'd probably prefer his other books now that I have a better grasp of his writing style. Maybe I read them the wrong way around for me. In retrospect I liked all of his stories, but in practice I didn't always enjoy reading them.

Btw, the Tell-tale heart should be very short, so I suspect the longer editions include other stories or lots of notes. I think I googled and read a free online version.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

I did the same thing, I googled it and several PDF versions came up. I read two to see if they varied from one version to another and they did not. It is really just a few pages and it's amazing how much story is packed into such a short read.