Lotte's 2019 Old and New Challenge

[Lotte]

Old School (1899 and earlier)
✔︎Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoj ✩✩✩
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
✔︎The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous ✩✩✩

New School (1900-1999)
Beloved by Toni Morrison
✔︎Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ✩✩✩
✔︎Old People and the Things That Pass by Louis Couperus ✩✩✩✩

Wild Cards (French, Spanish, Dutch)
✔︎Les Misérables by Victor Hugo ✩✩✩
(Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert -DNF)
✔︎Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo ✩✩✩
✔︎The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa ✩✩✩✩
Zwerm: geschiedenis van de wereld by Peter Verhelst
Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli

Alternates (books on my shelves)
✔︎Anthologie de la litterature francaise ✩✩✩
Fabliaux Du Moyen Age

I still have a fair amount of reading to do in order to finish my 2018 Old and New Challenge, but making lists is so fun, so here goes.

I'm not really looking forward to all of these, to be honest, but this is a good challenge to tackle some serious reads. And I want to complete the World Library List one day, so I'll have to get through Sentimental Education.

[Kathleen]

Such an interesting list! Anna Karenina, Don Quixote and Beloved are all favorites of mine. Enjoy this intriguing, challenging challenge, Lotte. :-)

[Candi]

Very nice list, Lotte! Les Misérables is outstanding. I'm also a fan of Beloved and Anna Karenina. Enjoy and good luck!

[Brina]

I have never heard of the Coffee Auctions book. I will keep my eye out for your review.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Lotte, Candi wrote my post, Happy Reading!!

[LiLi]

At least _L'education sentimentale_ is short! I remember it being highly emotional.

I also had not heard of the coffee-trading book. It sounds interesting. I wish I already were advanced enough to read a grown-up book like _Zwerm_, but I'm not there yet. Maybe someday. :)

[Lotte]

Thank you all for your comments, and please forgive my late reply - life caught up with me.

It gives me hope that some of the hefty books on the list are your favourites.

Brina and Elizabeth: Max Havelaar (the Coffee Auctions book) has played a major role in changing the Dutch colonial politics - in such a way that Max Havelaar has also become a well-known fair trade label.

[Brina]

Wow. If I have time I’m going to read it or save it for old school for my challenge for next year. I will be reading the Feast of the Goat in May so maybe we can buddy read.

[Sue]

Looks like a great list Lotte. Don Quixote is a favorite of mine. I'm hoping to get to Anna Karenina Next year too but it's not on my challenges so who knows?

[Lotte]

Brina - I'd love to, but I'm afraid May will be a month with a lot of changes, so I guess I might not have that much time to read. And I'll be reading it in Spanish, so it will take a lot of time. I planned it for October/November, so I'll gladly compare notes at that point. Thank you for the suggestion!

Sue - I wanted to start reading Anna Karenina in January, let me know if you'd like to join or exchange thoughts about the novel later on :)

[Susie]

Also intrigued by the Max Havelaar book and a few others as well.
Enjoy the Challenge, whatever form it takes!

[April]

L'Education Sentimentale does go on a bit. I struggled more with the history than the story itself and didn't really understand the context when I read it.

[Lotte]

Thank you Susie! Thanks for the heads up on L'éducation sentimentale, April, I will think about reading up on the context before starting it.

[Lotte]

Well, so in the end I decided to abandon Sentimal Education. The story wasn't for me, and I felt that I've already read too many books about climbing up the social ladder of Paris saloons.

I finished less than I thought I had - gasp. Quick wrap-up:

Anna Karenina
Tolstoy is still too moralistic for me.

Things Fall Apart
Devastating colonisation story set in nowadays Nigeria. I struggled to accept the patrichiarchy.

Old People and the Things That Pass
Old-fashioned novel about a family with a colonial past in the Dutch East Indies (nowadays Indonesia) and with an ever darker past that drives them into loneliness.

Pedro Páramo
Puzzling novel about a Mexican ghost town in the grip of a landowner.

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Pedro Paramo has been knocking around the groups nominations and polls for years. I hope you liked it. So far I'm not a big fan of Gustave Flaubert, but I need to try at least one more of his before I set him aside forever.

[Lotte]

Bob wrote: "Pedro Paramo has been knocking around the groups nominations and polls for years. I hope you liked it. So far I'm not a big fan of Gustave Flaubert, but I need to try at least one more of his befor..."

Yikes, sorry for my very late answer. It was the group polls that brought Pedro Paramo to my attention indeed. I'm afraid I didn't like it that much. It was a bit hard to keep up, but that might also have been due to my poor Spanish.

I've not been very active on this group because of a busy year. I made sure to make some time to read. I managed to read 8 out of 12, with The Feast of the Goat being my favourite.

And I'd just like to say: thanks for organising this challenge. It gives me the nudge to read challenging books.