#ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge discussion
Buddy Reads
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Would anyone like to read War and Peace with me.
Yes! I’m in if we can get a few people. I’ve got a lot of reads going on, but if there it a good discussion it would be worth squeezing in!
Aww, fantastic! I've been looking into good ways of reading it and appreciating the book the most etc. the number one thing was to discuss and share ideas as you read, thought that a good discursive buddy read would be fantastic for this. what reads are you currently doing ?
I’m reading Count of Monte Cristo (very slow) and North and South (I’ll be done in a week or so) with this group. Also reading some church books with friends and some non fiction books on racism. Im also slowly plugging along on a biography on Washington. I want to read one from every US President. That will be a very long term goal. I love Russian lit, though! I started War and Peace while I was in college and gave up about half way through because I was so busy. I want to read it again! I’ve read Anna Karenina and Brothers Kramazov in the last few years. I read a few others in earlier years, but don’t remember many details.
What are you reading currently?
Are you enjoying North and South? This is one that I quite fancy. It sounds like you're currently reading a lot !! It is good that you've managed to make reading such a social exercise.
I am reading Stephen King's The Stand currently and enjoying it.
This year I have read at least one classic a month as part of a personal reading goal and found myself really enjoying them (I have only ever read classics on and off and only really read the more obvious ones). I find myself more drawn to 20th century texts as I really enjoy the descriptive writing.
I would love to join you! Although I have to buy the book first :)I am using this year to get back into reading more extensively, and classics are a go-to for me. I also haven't read any russian classics (or any russian literature really), so this would be a great way to get started on those!
Would you guys want to start in July? Can you get the book by then? Or start with a free ebook version if you have to wait? How fast would you want to read it?
I'm down! I read it forever ago but I've been meaning to reread it
I would like to do it, too, but I think I can go very slowly.I've started to read it twice, gave up last time halfway through the book, I'd really like to finish it now. Tolstoy's not really my cup of tea, but I like The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Anna Karenina, so I'd like to read this one, too.
Slowly.
July is fine with me.
I have ordered the book! But we don't have to wait for it to arrive, I can read an ebook version or get one from the library if it hasn't arrived when we start. July works for me, and as to the pace, I'm not particular. I can make it the only book or read another book (or two) on the side.
I would like to join as well :) these are the last books I have taken out of my school library before I graduate so I would like to read it with everyone
I also don't have a set return date because I know the librarian well and she told me just to return it when I've finished so I'm fine with any time :)
What is the staring date for War and Peace ?
Would this be a quarterly read? or a four-month, six-month read?
I’m not sure where Melissa is, so let’s all chime in for now and see when we’d like to start. My copy should be here tomorrow, so I can start next week. Or I can wait. What about each of you? As far as pace- Book 1 has 28 chapter, Book 2 has 21, Book 3 has 19, Book 4 has 16, Book 5 has 22, Book 6 has 26, Book 7 has 14, Book 8 has 22, Book 9 has 23, Book 10 has 39, Book 11 has 34, Book 12 has 16, Book 13 has 19, Book 14 has 19, Book 15 has 20. That’s 338 chapters in 1175 pages (my version as the example). The books are all varying lengths- Book 1 is 111 pages, Book 2 is 94, Book 3 is 97, Book 4 is 54, Book 5 is 74, Book 6 is 75, Book 7 is 51, Book 8 is 71, Book 9 is 83, Book 10 is 146, Book 11 is 116, Book 12 is 54, Book 13 is 46, Book 14 is 48, Book 15 is 55.
How slow do we want to go? 10 pages a day 5 days a week would be 50 pages a week, which is around half an average book or a full short book. That’s 6 months about. Double that for 100 pages a week and do around a book a week and it takes about 12 weeks or 3 months. Or we could do a happy medium and take just over 4 months to finish is we do 75 pages a week. What do you think?
Ashley wrote: "I’m not sure where Melissa is, so let’s all chime in for now and see when we’d like to start. My copy should be here tomorrow, so I can start next week. Or I can wait. What about each of you? As ..."
Three months is fine with me. I don't think I need to go any more slowly, if the others agree. If we do it in four or six months, it's easier to forget the beginning by the time we get to the end.
But I think I will be counting chapters, not pages. I mean I'd like to keep your pace, but when chapters are short, I can read more than one a day, to reach the set number of pages, and when they become longer, I can read as many pages as needed and then read less the next day.
I would love to join in too. But also don't want to read too much as I'm having other reads too. :) I think it is the best that we could worked out a schedule and form a discussion group.
@Tuya- is 100 pages (give or take, based on chapter length) too quick for you? I do read a lot of other things, so that’s a more challenging pace for me, but it would be good to force me to read. The Count of Monte Cristo buddy read is good for me to squeeze in at only 5 short chapters a week, but it also is easy to put off and not finish and to forget what I read, so i would be good with a quicker pace (3 month read).
Here is a tentative three month schedule, we just need to agree on a start date:WEEK 1 (6-12 July)
Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 3-111
WEEK 2 (13-19 July)
Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 112-200
WEEK 3 (20-26 July)
Vol. 1, Part 3, pp. 201-296
WEEK 4 (27 July-2 August)
Vol. 2, Parts 1-2, pp. 297-417
WEEK 5 (3-9 August)
Vol. 2, Parts 3-4, pp. 418-534
WEEK 6 (10-16 August)
Vol. 2, Part 5, pp. 535-602
WEEK 7 (17-23 August)
Vol. 3, Part 1, pp. 602-681
WEEK 8 (24-30 August)
Vol. 3, Part 2, pp. 682-820
WEEK 9 (31 Aug-6 September)
Vol. 3, Part 3, pp. 821-934
WEEK 10 (7-13 September)
Vol. 4, Parts 1-2, pp. 935-1030
WEEK 11 (14-20 September)
Vol. 4, Parts 3-4, pp. 1031-1128
WEEK 12 (21-27 September)
Epilogue, pp. 1129-1216
Li wrote: "Here is a tentative three month schedule, we just need to agree on a start date:WEEK 1 (6-12 July)
Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 3-111
WEEK 2 (13-19 July)
Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 112-200
WEEK 3 (20-26 July)..."
This schedule looks practical to me. I think we can do it.
I too agree on the schedule - around 100 pages per week is probably a max for me because of other reads.
Hello!! For anyone wanting to join, I have made a Facebook group hosting a "War and Peace" readlong event:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/55087...
The readalong starts tomorrow and has a schedule which amounts to about 15 pages a day :-).
It would be great to see some of you there and chat :-)
Thank you Li He! Love the schedule. I plan to discuss here, but I checked out the FB group and may pipe in there. Is everyone else still wanting to discuss here?
Also, so that we are on the same page. The Kindle version I have is separated into books, as you can see from my outline. Some are separated into volumes and parts, so Volume 2 Part 1 is Book 4 in some translations. Easy enough to figure out, just wanted to point it out!
Ashley wrote: "Thank you Li He! Love the schedule. I plan to discuss here, but I checked out the FB group and may pipe in there. Is everyone else still wanting to discuss here?"I am. :)
I just started today. I found that, what goes into 4 chapters in Anthony Briggs' translation is divided into 5 chapters in Louise and Aylmer Maude's translation (on project gutenberg).So when I finish the first 4 chapters as per my copy of Anthony Briggs' translation, those of you who read the Maude translation will need to finish 5 chapters and then we will be on the same page.
I will definitely discuss here since I don't have a Facebook account. Just downloaded the book from Gutenberg, since my actual books haven't arrived yet, and I am good to go! :)
I think I'll read it later I'm waiting for the lovely new cloth bound version to come out first
I am reading the Maude translation. I tried some Kindle samples and preferred that one. Interesting about the first few chapters!
How about this:After finishing a chapter, each of us writes a one sentence summary of the chapter and share it here.
I think that would help us to easily recall what happened earlier when we are further into the book.
how are people finding everything so far ?
Just finished Chaper 6 (Anthony Briggs) in which (view spoiler) (It's not much of a spoiler, it's actually my one sentence summary of this chapter.)
I’m trying to get ahead of my other 2 group reads so that I can start this this weekend. I am going to have to start using my computer more often since the app on my phone doesn’t allow me to open the spoiler tags. It’s just says “spoiler removed” and I can’t see all photos or links people update. I’ve got my character map all done and am still taking notes on background for now. Susan Wise Bauer would approve if the idea of one sentence for each chapter. I may try it for this book to see if it’s helpful. I’m always up for new ways to read and study!
Has everyone read Tolstoy before? Is this your first book? I read AK a few years ago. I guess I read half of W&P in college, but because it was a fun read, I ended up giving up because I was too busy with classes. I read Brothers K after AK and decided I much prefer Tolstoy’s writing to Dostoyevsky’s. Tolstoy is a genius. I will try Dostoyevsky again another time. Maybe it’s just that BK is a strange book 🤷♀️
Ashley wrote: "I’m trying to get ahead of my other 2 group reads so that I can start this this weekend. I am going to have to start using my computer more often since the app on my phone doesn’t allow me to open ..."I only read a short novella of his, The Prisoner of the Caucasus, when I was a teenage boy and I read it in my native Chinese before I learned English. But I'm just about to finish Anna Karenina (just 60 pages left). I may also start on The Lord of the Rings for the quarterly group read when I finish Anna Karenina this weekend.
this is my first Tolstoy? are people going to be reading w and p alongside their other books or exclusively?
loving the one sentence idea x
have you found any interesting background stuff, Ashley?
Melissa wrote: "are people going to be reading w and p alongside their other books or exclusively? There are several other group reads that are happening during the same time period and it is very tempting to also read one or two of these. For me, that includes The Lord of the Rings and Brideshead Revisited.
I am reading Brideshead and East of Eden with this group. I’m also reading Count of Monte Cristo with another group. I will start Underground Railroad and Fahrenheit 451 next week for another group. I may have confused which ones were which groups. I have 3 GR groups I’m joining in. I am also reading The New Jim Crow with a friend and listening to a Christian book. I need to read Eight Cousins in the next week or so for a FB group. I started a book of essays by Wendell Berry last month, but have been too busy to get far! I may not finish that this month. Oh yeah and I’m reading Phantom Toll booth with my 6 and 8 year old and then Sean Lake with just my 6 yo (she and I read while the 8 yo reads with dad). I tend to do a lot at once!
Oops! I know I would confuse them. Li He is also in the group reading Brideshead so I thought I was in that group at the moment. This group is where I’m read The Count... The rest are other groups. Some day I’ll get it straight!
I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as well, and I'm going slowly, because I'm reading it in French, and my French is nowhere near my English. So I haven't started War and Peace yet, but I will on Monday. (Not in Russian. :)) I think I'll be able to cope with both, even though I also read some other books at the same time outside this challenge, too. I admire those who can read more than three at the same time. What I'm doing now is hard enough.
Timár_Krisztina wrote: "I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as well, and I'm going slowly, because I'm reading it in French, "Is English your first language?
I'm also reading War and Peace in my weaker language. In my case, this is English. I'm trying to improve my English to a level that is comparable to that of a well-read native speaker, if possible.
Li wrote: "Is English your first language?I'm also reading War and Peace in my weaker language. In my case, this is English. I'm trying to improve my English to a level that is comparable to that of a well-read native speaker, if possible."
No, it's Hungarian.
I can read in English and (much more slowly) in French, but I only read in these languages when I want to read something originally written in them. Or when there is no Hungarian translation of something I'd like to read, but there is an English or French one. It rarely happens, especially with the classics. Most of them have been translated into my mother tongue really well, thank God.
I'm glad you took me for a native speaker (or rather "writer"), thank you. :)
Timár_Krisztina wrote: "I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as well, and I'm going slowly, because I'm reading it in French, and my French is nowhere near my English. So I haven't started War and Peace yet, but I will..."Super impresed by you reading it in French! I really need to read more in french and not be so hesitant about that :)
So, I've started reading "our little project", and I'm a bit confused about how far to read to keep up with our schedule. I'm reading the Maude-translation, and from what I've understood from Li, four of his chapters equal five of mine. But how many chapters are in the different "parts" in our schedule?The translation I am reading is divided into "books" and there are fifteen.
Any help?
Never mind! I think I got it - every "part" is a "book" in Maude's translation. Everything is clear to me now :)
Neele wrote: "Super impresed by you reading it in French! I really need to read more in french and not be so hesitant about that :)So, I've started reading "our little project", and I'm a bit confused about how far to read to keep up with our schedule. I'm reading the Maude-translation, and from what I've understood from Li, four of his chapters equal five of mine. But how many chapters are in the different "parts" in our schedule?The translation I am reading is divided into "books" and there are fifteen."
Thank you. :)
I'm glad you found out. They are "books" in the Hungarian translation, too, by the way.
wow, sounds like people are really stretching themselves with the challenge (especially reading in different languages to their native one ). on my schedule, its finishing the first section by the 9th.
do people normally read so many books at one time ? I'm normally a one at a time reader but reading my normal things alongside this x
Melissa wrote: "do people normally read so many books at one time ? I'm normally a one at a time reader but reading my normal things alongside this x"
I do, especially when there are some books which I only read just one portion of per day. Or when I'm also reading some nonfiction books needed for my job. Then I simply need parallel readings for fun, too.
- Create a readalong schedule.
- Discuss what we think of it.
- Share what we think things mean.
- Just play by ear and see how it goes!!
Would anyone like to join?
I haven't ever read a Russian classic and thought that I would jump feet first into the deep end