Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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Welcome to the Group - Introductions
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Thanks for the welcome, everyone!Robin, I can sympathize with your struggles. Even native speakers find Russian very difficult. It was a real pain to study various rules in school. :)
I think I wouldn't be able to learn English if I didn't have to do it. English is international language. The key to the internet. It's somewhat suffocating not to know it. And I needed it for work.
For the last couple of years I've been trying to learn Japanese, but my only motivation is "Wouldn't it be nice to know it?" Needless to say, so far I haven't been very successful in this venture.
Eugene - That’s my motivation too. I mostly just do it for fun. 😊
Hi, my name is Joe (disregard the username), and I just joined goodreads a couple of months ago in order to better catalog the lists of books I’ve read throughout my life, which I’ve been keeping track of in a loose leaf binder since my teens. (I’m almost up to 1000 books read, at least those I wrote down or can remember having read, and I should reach that mark sometime next year.) I just discovered your group today and thought I would join, since I mostly read classics these days, although I have read quite a bit of popular and pulp genre fiction in the past. I’m looking forward to joining the conversation!
Oh, yes, I’m American, but have been living for nearly half my life now in Germany. I read mostly English and German, and a little French, Italian and Spanish, but rarely and only when I’m on vacation in one of those countries.
Can’t wait to see what you’ve been saying about the classics!
…countries. (First Post and I forget to complete a sentence! Egad!)
Great to meet you! I also joined (10 years ago) in order to catalog my books. I did a project back then to try to reconstruct all the books I had read so far in my life. Some I had on lists, others I just tried to remember. I also was aiming for 1000. You are in better shape since you've been keeping track. But after joining for the cataloging, I got involved in a couple groups, then some more! There are groups for everything here.
I was a French major in college and grad school, thinking of becoming a professor but the jobs were too scarce. But I remember when it was a big deal to get books in other languages, involving traveling somewhere or ordering and paying high prices plus shipping. We are now living in a golden age where you can get books from around the world in an instant, and classics in public domain are free! I can still read French so whenever a group chooses a book by Balzac, Zola, etc. I can get it in French. (I took 2 years of German in college but remember very little, unfortunately.)
Schmaehgol wrote: "Hi, my name is Joe (disregard the username), and I just joined goodreads a couple of months ago in order to better catalog the lists of books I’ve read throughout my life, which I’ve been keeping t..."I have sent you a "friend" request. You used to be able to add a note to the request so it would give a clue as to why you wanted to add the person. I noticed you liked a lot of the same books that I did, as different as Doomsday Book and A Confederacy of Dunces!
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Nice that you kept abreast of your reading over the years. I entered as many as I could remember when I joined and will sometimes still come across a book here and have an aha moment realizing I read it back when. Let us know when you reach the 1000 mark and we will celebrate.
Welcome to the group.
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Hi Joe, my husband and I are Americans living in Austria. Are there some German-language authors you'd recommend? We're starting out with middle-grade books from the thrift store and plan to move "up" from there. We're both more interested in reading books originally written in German than translations to German.
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Thank you for all the nice welcomes, everyone. Robin L, thanks for sharing your List: by going through it (partway!) I found a few more books I had read long ago but forgotten, so I’ve reached my 1000 already! On to 2000! It will be a long shot to reach your 3.5k, though…especially at the pace you’re reading!LiLi, for German I would recommend something modern, like tschick , because classics like the obvious Brothers Grimm fairy tales are written in an archaic dialect that is tough to understand if you’re just starting out. They do have the advantage of being short stories, though, so you can get through them one at a time, though it may be a struggle at first. Another advantage is that you already know the stories in English growing up as a kid, for the most part.
Also, since you’re in Austria, you’ll have the Austrian dialect to deal with. I often found plays easier when I first started out reading German, because the dialogue is obviously closer to the spoken language. “Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald” was one I read back then. Also the Bertold Brecht plays: Galileo, Mutter Courage, Dreigroschen Oper, etc.
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Hi! My name is Catherine and I’m a college student. I love reading in my free time! I tend to read a lot of young adult and mystery books, but I have recently begun to read classics more as well. I have always enjoyed reading the classics we have read in school so since I’m a science major and am no longer taking English classes, I decided reading classics for fun would be a great way to expand my horizons!
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Hi There,My Name is Mostafa.
I live in Edmonton and I love reading. I am just about to finish selected short stories Tolstoy which included Death of Ivan Ilyich and some of his other works. Looking forward to reading some French and Russian classics in the upcoming period.
Nice to meet you all !
Hi Mostafa! Welcome to the group! I’ve read a few more Russian and I’ve really enjoyed them. I’m currently reading War and Peace.
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Hi everybody! I am Mandy. I like to read since elementary school, (I am 14 right now) but recently also discovered my love for classics. Some of the classics, I have already read are pride and prejudice, the great gatsby, Anne of green gables, and hamlet. PS: Another reason why I read classics, is that I am originally from Germany and I want to improve my English. ( I read the books in English) So please let me know if I made a grammar mistake or something. :)
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Hello Mandy welcome. Your writing is impeccable. We are so glad you decided to read with us. There are three books chosen each month and one short story. We also read a longer work on a three month cycle. Join any discussion you like.
Hi Mandy! That’s an impressive amount of classics you’ve already read. That’s awesome! 😊 Welcome to the group!
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Welcome Mostafa and Mandy! Impressed by a 14-year old reading Classics in English. My native language is also German, but I wasn´t so good in English at this age.
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Hi, yaw'll. I am an avid reader about 6 months from retiring. I have a guilty pleasure of enjoying post-apocalyptic fiction. I especially enjoy the way authors contrive for folks to survive after TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it...). I also like to read classics and enjoy the work of a diverse group of authors whose entire catalogs wait on my shelves to be discovered. Years back I started collecting books for my retirement years after reading a quote by Jorge Luis Borges, "I have always imagined Paradise to be a kind of Library." I have thousands of well-loved books waiting to be re-read and unread books waiting to be discovered. My interests vary from sci-fi to current literature to horror plus I make a point of reading all the award winners. I look forward to participating in the group reads here! I am currently culling my collection in preparation for our move to Providence RI from our current home in the San Francisco Bay Area after we retire and sell our rental property (we live on the second floor and have 3 rental units downstairs.) I expect my books to take up a large portion of the space in our moving van. Oh yeah, I am also a 4-time cancer survivor and have battled the beast over the past 23 years. I currently have No Evidence Of Disease. My health restrictions give me lots of time available to read. This reminds me of my favorite Twilight Zone episode Time Enough At Last Full Episode is here: https://youtu.be/ICrXA9E3vLg Perfect for book lovers... Enjoy!
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Congrats on retirement Debra and beating cancer. ❤️ Good luck with the big move and welcome to the group! We’re excited to discuss books with you!
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Debra wrote: "Hi, yaw'll. I am an avid reader about 6 months from retiring. I have a guilty pleasure of enjoying post-apocalyptic fiction. I especially enjoy the way authors contrive for folks to survive after T..."That is my all-time favorite Twilight Zone episode!
Robin P wrote: "Debra wrote: "Hi, yaw'll. I am an avid reader about 6 months from retiring. I have a guilty pleasure of enjoying post-apocalyptic fiction. I especially enjoy the way authors contrive for folks to s..."I am a bibliophile from way back and that episode really resonated with me as well...
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Welcome Sharon! I’ve discovered so many new (to me) books in this group. It’s a great group of people to read with. 😊
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Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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Madelyn, I'm always thrilled to find young people who want to read older books. Here are a few ideas of classics that are easier to read:
A Christmas Carol (You must know the story already!
Great Expectations is the first long Dickens I read, I was only about 12. It has mystery, romance, and more.
The Three Musketeers
To Kill a Mockingbird is a modern classic that is now sometimes considered YA although it was written for adults.
The Grapes of Wrath since you liked Of Mice and Men - this is longer but beautifully written and unfortunately just as true today
Eugene, I'm so impressed with your mastery of English. I studied Russian for 2 years in college and have intermittently tried to keep it up but haven't done well at that.