Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
Archived Chit Chat & All That
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Loved it/Hated it/Afraid to read it/Conquered it
Michele - no need to be afraid of Crime and Punishment - it's not that huge and focuses mainly on one character and is surprisingly accessible/easy to read! :o)meanwhile... looking back at my message#151, I've read Woolf and Hemingway and loved them both! so onwards to House of Leaves...
oh, and Pink - our compare rating is up to 81% now! :oO
Oh that's creeping up, we must have had similar opinions about some of our recent reads!
1. Loved As I Lay Dying2. Hated Women in Love
3. Afraid of Atlas Shrugged
4. Conquered Finnegans Wake
It's hard to only pick one for each!
Michele wrote: "Emily wrote: "...3. Afraid of Atlas Shrugged..."Emily, why afraid of Atlas Shrugged?"
I guess a combination of the length, and not sure if it'll interest me. I loved Anthem but I remember trying to start The Fountainhead and finding it boring. So I'm not sure about Atlas Shrugged. I'll have to give it a try sometime but it'll be a while before I get around to it.
Michele wrote: "Emily wrote: "...3. Afraid of Atlas Shrugged..."Emily, why afraid of Atlas Shrugged?"
I guess a combination of the length, and not sure if it'll interest me. I loved Anthem but I remember trying to start The Fountainhead and finding it boring. So I'm not sure about Atlas Shrugged. I'll have to give it a try sometime but it'll be a while before I get around to it.
So here is mine!1. Loved it: Quite a few actually--Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Christo, Sherlock Holmes series....
2. Hated it: Divergent series especially the 2nd and 3rd book....they were such a drag!
3. Afraid to read it: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Les Miserables
4. Conquered it or shall I say still conquering it: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man...it has been a challenge from the start but I will conquer it!
Emily wrote: "I guess a combination of the length, and not sure if it'll interest me."Yeah, I can see that. It is quite the doorstop.
I forgot to add my "Afraid Of" category. To be honest, after getting through Les Misérables, I've lost my fear of any book (that I can think of right now) based solely on it's size. But, I'll put down The Decameron simply because I've wanted to read it it for a while, and haven't figured out when to start it.
Squire wrote: "I forgot to add my "Afraid Of" category. To be honest, after getting through Les Misérables, I've lost my fear of any book (that I can think of right now) based solely on it's size...."Squire, I think this time it's my turn to reassure you about a book :)
I read the Decameron years ago and I enjoyed it a lot. Some stories are better than others but on the whole it's a great book, with memorable characters and Boccaccio's humour that runs through the book.
If you are reading The Canterbury Tales this might be the best period to read it.
Pier Paolo Pasolini made a film out of the Decameron that is worth watching.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_D...
Thanks for the encouragement! I definitely want to read it at some point.I have seen Pasolini's Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, and Arabian Nights). In fact I own the Criterion Collection of these films. The Decammeron is quite charming in its lechery, The Canterbury Tales is abysmal in its depravity and Arabian Nights is delightful in its playfulness.
Tahera wrote: "So here is mine!1. Loved it: Quite a few actually--Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Christo, Sherlock Holmes series....
2. Hated it: Divergent series especially the 2nd and 3rd book....they..."
I think you should not be afraid either from Anna Karenina or from War and Peace. They are both interesting & intriguing stories. The writing is beautiful & there are many relatable characters. :)
siriusedward wrote: "Loved it : p&prejudice , persuasion , jane eyre, tenant of the wildfell hall, Hated it : gone with the wind, wuthering heights annnd yeah outlander , i agree with silver....
Afraid of : middlemar..."
So after reading more classics
Loved it : alongwith the Jane Austens (exc. Mansfield) Middlemarch, The Plague, The Name of the Rose, The Stranger, Steinbeck, Willa Cather,Anne of Green Gables( whole series ) , The Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre , The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Godfather , The Third Cadfael Omnibus and North and South, The Three Musketeers..well only these come to mind
Conquered it : The Silmarillion . It took time . To the Lighthouse.The Handmaid's Tale (flow was easy but the subject was tough)
Conquering it : Les Misérables (length and so much to google but the flow is good) and The Canterbury Tales
Afraid of : Ulysses, Ulysses , War and Peace
, The Grapes of Wrath (love Steinbeck , the 2 short stories I read.dont know how a full length novel will be to read though)Foucault's Pendulum (tried reading it amd had to stop as I could not get into it)
Hated it: Really, Wuthering Heights and Scarlett ,not Rhett (the writing is beautiful , if not for Scarlet I would have reread it).Little Women (not able get into it at all)
Melindam wrote: "Tahera wrote: "So here is mine!1. Loved it: Quite a few actually--Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Christo, Sherlock Holmes series....
2. Hated it: Divergent series especially the 2nd and 3..."
One of my closest friend's favourite book is Anna Karenina and she keeps telling me to read it but I feel daunted by it :/
You could try the 1st few chapters & see if you can go on or not. :)
Tahera wrote: "Melindam wrote: "Tahera wrote: "So here is mine!1. Loved it: Quite a few actually--Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Christo, Sherlock Holmes series....
2. Hated it: Divergent series especia..."
We have a buddy read for AK in May, so you could join and struggle along with the rest of us.
Anna Karenina is a beautiful book! I doubt that all you readers who are planning on reading this book in May will struggle, at all! :)
siriusedward wrote: "siriusedward wrote: "Loved it : p&prejudice , persuasion , jane eyre, tenant of the wildfell hall, Hated it : gone with the wind, wuthering heights annnd yeah outlander , i agree with silver....
..."
Interesting list of books siriusedward. :)
Here goes my list :) Loved it : Pride and Prejudice, Emma by Jane Austen, North and South by Gaskell, The Black Tulip by Dumas, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, Lorna Doone by Blackmoor
Hated it : I cannot say "hated" for I don't like to say that to a book. So it will be "did not like" :)
So here are them - The Awakening by Kate Chopin (I was deeply depressed with the ending) and The Scarlet Letter
Afraid of : Les Misérables by Victor Hugo for it's length and Lolita by Nabokov for it's contents.
Conquered it: Wuthering Heights. I was so afraid to reread this for its dark characters.
And there is "Conquring it" too; and that is The Mill on the Floss. Never liked Elliot books. *sigh*
Spoilt for choice!
1. David Copperfield, To kill a mockingbird, anything by [author:Guy de Maupassant|18791
2. Kurt Vonnegut's books. So dry and lifeless...also Hemingway.
3. Divine Comedy, Moby dick
4. Anna Karenina, Antichrist, why I am not a muslim
1. David Copperfield, To kill a mockingbird, anything by [author:Guy de Maupassant|18791
2. Kurt Vonnegut's books. So dry and lifeless...also Hemingway.
3. Divine Comedy, Moby dick
4. Anna Karenina, Antichrist, why I am not a muslim
1. Loved it2. Hated it
3. Afraid to read it
4. Conquered it
1. That could be many books. 5 star for me means ”must own and re-read”.
Flowers for Algernon
Dune
Ender's Game
Exercises in Style
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Chess Story
The Name of the Rose
Tales by Edgar Allan Poe. Want to read the complete tales in English some day (read everything that was translated into Danish many years ago).
2. I try hard to finish a book. This one was just too much wast of time:
Catch-22
3. I am not very good at starting on those monster books. I have a doorstopper shelf and try to read at least one every year. Don Quixote has been sitting there for a long time.
I gave up on Ulysses many years ago. I want some day to give it another try. I consider myself a better reader now.
4. War and Peace
Darren wrote: "...oh, and Pink - our compare rating is up to 81% now! :oO"I didn't know about compare rating. Here are Darren and me
Darren’s books: 858 (658 not in common)
Books in common: 200 (20.68% of your library and 23.31% of his library)
My books: 967 (767 not in common)
Your tastes are 81% similar for the books you both rated.
We do have some extreme opposite though:Flowers for Algernon Darren one star compared to my 5
The Stars My Destination Darren: 5 , me: 2
Roadside Picnic: Darren: 5, me 2
JBF - 81% is high - you and Pink are the 2 highest compatibilities with me that I'm aware of - obviously you have an aversion to decent sci-fi ;o)meanwhile, re-visiting this thread since 8 months ago:
1) Loved It: Mrs Dalloway (Woolf was on my "Afraid Of" list last time!!)
2) Hated It: No more 1-Stars or DNF's since then, but 2-Stars that were surprisingly disappointing included Gulliver's Travels, The Rainbow and Revolutionary Road.
3) Afraid Of: still haven't got to Proust or Joyce...
4) Conquered It: struggled with but eventually loved Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives
Darren wrote: "obviously you have an aversion to decent sci-fi ;o)";-)
Maybe try these:
The Forever War
Old Man's War
Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
1. Loved it - Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. A great book with so much depth, story and really got under the skin.2. Hated it - Any Shakespear. I know, I know he is loved by so many but I just cannot get into anything he did. Perhaps TOO old school for me
3. Afraid to read it - North and south Book 3 - John Jakes: After the amazing work in book 1 and so far in book 2, I'm a bit worried about the story losing it's thread through the final book of the trilogy.
4. Conquered it -North and South Book 1 - John Jakes: A mammoth read but really worth reading! Love, war, drama and even a bit of comedy with a whole heap of history thrown in for good measure!
1. Loved it - The Complete Sherlock Holmes2. Hated it - The Great Gatsby
3. Afraid to read it Les Misérables
4. Conquered it -- The Count of Monte Cristo
1. Hamlet. It was fun to read.2. Gogol's short stories
3. Iliad and Odyssey
4. Don Quixote
1. Loved it -Villette -Charlotte Brontë2. Hated it - Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
3. Afraid to read it - The Story of the Stone (unabridged) - Cao Xueqin
4. Conquered it - Beloved - Toni Morrison
Loved it: DuneHated it: Les Enfants terribles by Jean Cocteau
Afraid to read it: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Conquered it: Auto-da-Fé by Elias Canetti
Loved it: UlyssesHated it: Strandentwining Cable
Afraid to read it: The Magic Mountain
Conquered it: The White Goddess
Loved it: The GoldfinchHated it: Ulysses
Afraid to Read it: Don Quixote? (I don't know, I don't get scared by books)
Conquered it: Moby Dick (also loved this)
loved the hunchback of Notre dame. hated fricking Dune I couldn't get into it and I really tried.
scary Lolita I haven't finished it. its a disturbing story with a jarring backstory. I was laughing too much. I need to finish it.
conquered... I don't know I've read a lot of great books. Three Musketeers was epic but so was count of monte cristo.
I am about to finish The Hunchback of Notre Dame! I like the story fine but boy, is it buried deep in description and other junk! I think I'm going to watch the animated movie after this ;)
Terris, I thought the same thing. There was a long chapter that was like a travelogue of Paris that really slowed the book down. The French title is Notre Dame de Paris so I think that the church itself was a character in the book.
I loved most of Austen, particularly PersuasionDisliked The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Afraid to Read Dracula by Bram Stoker
Conquered it War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Thanks Catching Up!)
Cynda, I felt that way about Dracula for years and was surprised at how much I liked it. It is more of a mystery, told from a perspective of different characters and not what I expected at all.
Hi Rosemarie. In movies Dracula is sinister and even evil. Is it that way in the novel?
He is sinister and evil, but the book is mostly about the characters who are trying to catch him and put an end to him. Most of it is set in England. There are some creepy bits with one of Dracula's henchman, but not scary.
I'm going to try to stIck with books that I've completed within the last year.Loved it: Siddhartha, The Violent Bear It Away
Hated it: Frankenstein, White Nights
Conquered it: Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest
Afraid of: Ulysses
Don't be afraid of the length of Don Quixote. It is a series of adventures and is often funny. It can be read an adventure at a time over a longer period of time.
Mod
Loved it: Siddhartha, The Violent Bear It Away
Hated it: Frankenstein, [book..."
Tammy I have to agree with you on Frankenstein. I had to read it in a College Lit class and really disliked it.
1. Loved it: Keepers of the House2. Hated it: A Catcher in the Rye
3. Afraid of it: the works of Faulkner, hope to remedy this
4. Conquered it: Anna Karenina
Helen wrote: "Tammy wrote: "I'm going to try to stIck with books that I've completed within the last year.Loved it: Siddhartha, The Violent Bear It Away
Hated it: [book:Frankenstein|35..."
wahey! I thought I was a lone voice in the wilderness in 1-Starring Frankenstein - I just thought is was really badly written - at least we are not alone!
Brina wrote: "1. Loved it: Keepers of the House2. Hated it: A Catcher in the Rye
3. Afraid of it: the works of Faulkner, hope to remedy this
4. Conquered it: Anna Karenina"
I vehemently agree with your number two, Brina.
I am glad you liked Keepers of the House, Brina, since I that book is on my to-read list.
I never liked Catcher in the Rye and yet school's keep using it over and over. That and A Separate Peace. They were and remain my two least favorite, with Mockingbird being passed down to my kids. Keepers of the House is a contemporary of Mockingbird. It hasn't enjoyed the same fanfare over the years but I found it captivating. I hope you like this one Rosemarie.
Out of my 2018 reads and attempts so far:Loved it:
The Women of Brewster Place
This book was SO good. It just surprised me I guess. Can't wait to re-read it.
Hated it:
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
I really wanted to like this, but just could not get into it. Didn't finish. May try again some day.
Conquered it:
I'd have to say Hotel Iris
Had to read it with one eye closed, and was so happy when it was over.
Afraid of it:
Oh, no contest. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
I'm committed to reading it this year. Hope I don't leave it for New Years Eve!
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Tom Sawyer's Companion (other topics)Mother London (other topics)
The Count of Monte Cristo (other topics)
Atlas Shrugged (other topics)
Moby Dick; or, The Whale (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Alan Moore (other topics)Georgette Heyer (other topics)
Elizabeth Taylor (other topics)
Anthony Trollope (other topics)
Eileen Chang (other topics)
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Hated it: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hate is a pretty strong word for what I feel towards this book, it's more like indiffernce. When I see it on my bookshelf, I just shake my head and move on. The Catcher in the Rye. This one borders on hate. But it's more like I hate myself for reading it. I've never read a more whiney load of human waste in my life. I read it in high school and didn't like it; I tried it again last year (because I've found that a lot of my literary taste in those years was solely in my mouth) and reaffirmed it's worthlessness (and what does that say about people who based their life on it).
Conquered it: War and Peace, Don Quixote, Les Misérables. And, finally, Pride and Prejudice. Again, something I'm pretty indifferent towards; but I read it just to move on.